When You Meet Your Match
Chapter Four
It took Mayumi a week to get used to hanging around with a bunch of bandits. Strangely enough, they treated her freely, almost as if one of the guys, but Mayumi has learned from the first day she got there never to take anything that looks suspicious from them. She had already learned, after they drugged her into sillinessthat made her wake up dizzy and disoriented.
Most of them were treating her like they would treat each other. At the beginning, many of them were hitting on her, and Mayumi thought that they've been deprived of the female attention for a very long time, so she tolerated it. Ignored it mostly, but in a tolerable way. But there came a time when one of them actually started feeling up her leg, and quick as a flash, she produced her knife and pointed its end on the guy's neck.
"Do that ever again, and I'll stick this up your throat."
After that, no one even dared to hit on her ever again.
"What about Kouji?" she heard one of the guys mumble to one another, while glaring slightly at them. "She never stops him."
True, Kouji did tease her to no end, practically every hour ofeveryday. It had beendeveloping as one of Kouji favorite habits as of late.But they both knew that their relationship was completely platonic. Kouji reminded Mayumi a lot of her brother, always teasing her, and annoying her to no end. He even messes up her hair in the same way. It was bittersweet, she missed her brother terribly the most and having Kouji around her made her heart ache for her brother.
She was sitting by her tent, alone, playing with her necklace, feeling the familiar letters, when -
"Missing him?"
Mayumi looked up and there stood Kouji in front of him, a soft grin in his face looking at her necklace.
"Yeah, I miss my brother."
"I wasn't talking about your brother," said Kouji, raising an eyebrow at her.
"Who were you talking about then?" she asked rather curiously.
"Tasuki, of course!"
Mayumi scoffed and raised an eyebrow at Kouji, looking quite incredulous. "You're kidding right?"
Kouji shrugged.
Mayumi shook her head. For the past few days all Mayumi and Tasuki have been doing was shouting at each other. Their fights have been well documented by the entire group and many stay to sit and watch. Somehow, they find the shouting of their group leader to a young girl and vice versa was quite the entertainment.
"If you think that I miss fighting with Tasuki, then you've got another thing coming." said Mayumi. "Where is he anyway?"
Kouji smiled. "So you do miss him."
"I do not miss him," dismissed Mayumi, "is it so wrong to ask where he got his big old body to?"
"Tasuki likes doing solo jobs. Mostly to think about stuff without having anyone interrupt him," Kouji grinned slyly. "Maybe he's even thinking about you."
Mayumi bowed down to hide her face, because it was starting to warm up. "I hardly think that's possible."
"Yet you like the idea." answered Kouji slyly, sitting beside her and nudging her in her shoulder.
Mayumi glared at Kouji who was grinning knowingly. "Shut up!" she cried and hit him in the head.
"Hey, that hurt!" said Kouji rubbing his head fiercely. "I just thought that you like the fact that Tasuki might actually start liking a girl for once."
"What do I care that he doesn't like girls?" said Mayumi,as shelooked coyly at Kouji, "For all we know he might actually have something in it for you Kouji." She raised her eyebrows.
Kouji pulled a disgusted face. "I happen to know that he's straight." he said firmly. "He just doesn't care for women as most men."
Mayumi shrugged and looked at the necklace again. "In any case I really don't care anyway," she said.
"But it would be better if he starts liking you,"
Mayumi looked at him. He was obviously hoping that he would see her trip up in their conversation, but she was smarter than that. "I told you, I don't care. At least he tolerates me, and that's more than enough."
Kouji shrugged, giving up andlooked at the necklace. "Who's Akira?"
At this, Mayumi's face formed a fond expression and her smile became immensely soft and her eyes were sparkling. Kouji tried to hide the expression in his face as he thought about how she managed to form such a beautiful face in a second. "Akira's my brother," she said, "he's the best big brother in the whole wide world."
Kouji smiled, and thought that Mayumi sounded like such an innocent child. "He's the best guy you could ask for. Helpful, loving, he protects me and took care of me when my parents weren't around. I tell him everything and he tells me everything too. We don't have secrets from each other."
"Sounds like a great guy," said Kouji, "so where is he?"
At this, Mayumi looked saddened and looked and played with the necklace again. "He died a long time ago."
"Oh, I'm sorry." he did look rather sorry.
Mayumi shook her head and smiled at him. "Don't worry about it," she said, "It happened a long time ago and he was smiling when he died."
"How-"
"Murder." said Mayumi simply, and said nothing on the matter. A minute later she turned to Kouji and smiled at him. "He looks quite a lot like you actually, only he's got light brown hair. And he acts a lot like you too., funny and teasing." she smiled. "And rather annoying too."
Kouji smiled. "I'm sure that he's happy you're okay."
Mayumi nodded. "But I do miss terribly." she said, hugging the necklace to her heart. "I dream about him all the time, and he keeps telling me we can't see each other yet, and it'll be a long time til we see each other again. And I keep waking up crying, he says he's happy and he says I will be soon too and-"
Mayumi blushed. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be telling you this," she said, "it's just that you look so much like my brother, and I tell him everything -"
Kouji waved it off. "It's okay, you can tell me, I won't tell anybody, it's interesting actually, and all you say will be our little secret." He smiled. "I promise. From now on, I can be your new big brother."
Mayumi looked at him, and then smiled. "Thanks Kouji," she said.
Kouji smiled and looked at her, but his attention was cut short when over her shoulder he saw Tasuki glaring at him.