Judging by Appearances

After the fight with Watanabe, other than the occasional skirmishes on campus, nothing else had really happened. I fell into a routine of going to school, hanging out with Sawada's group after school and then going home.

I was finally getting the hang of things at Shirokin Gakuen. Of course there were moments when I was caught off guard, like when the guys would randomly decide to be shirtless and I'd crash into them in the hallways. I'd also seen more adult magazines in the few weeks that I'd been at Shirokin than I had ever seen in my life. At least at home, the guys were discreet enough to hide them. In fact, if I didn't live in the environment I did at home, I probably would be scarred for life from being at Shirokin.

And ever since Sawada had rescued me from the awkward welcome parties, they had stopped. I still got the occasional letters in my shoe box, but those soon dwindled as the "ideal schoolgirl" image that they were so desperately hoping to see from me faded away.

3-D seemed to accept me and no longer made stupid passes at me for being a girl. After all, I was now "part" of Sawada's group, which seemed to control the works in Class 3-D. Instead, I was slowly becoming the class consultant on what they should do to attract more girls. They had yet to realize that I really didn't know myself.

The more I spent time with 3-D, the more I realized why they hated their teachers so much. Sawatari couldn't figure out why I hadn't already come to him begging to be taken out of 3-D so he tried to take matters into his own hands. He first forced me to sit in on different classes in my year, to see if I liked them any better. The only thing I discovered through that experience was that all of the teachers treated 3-D differently. While there was a lot of student-teacher interaction in the classes I sat in on, the teachers would literally just write down the lesson on the board for 3-D and try not to look at the class. When they were forced to answer questions, which happened rarely because most of our class could care less about learning, the teachers would only look at me.

When I told Sawatari that even after sitting in on classes 3-A, 3-B and 3-C that I preferred to say in 3-D, he asked me if they were blackmailing me with any information. I responded that I was pretty sure I had more material to blackmail them with than they had for me. Sawatari then asked me if I would more or less be willing to be his spy and tell him that kind of information. I flat out refused and walked out of the teacher's lounge. Since then, he left me alone.

The only teacher that was different was Yankumi. And yes, I had given in and starting calling her by her nickname. Even though I had said it almost unconsciously one day, I couldn't forget the way that she beamed afterwards. She alone would try to interact with us regularly, almost to a point where she was becoming extremely nosy.

For example, Yankumi had recently handed out a form for us to fill out what we wanted to do in the future.

"You haven't turned that in?" Minami asked me as I stared down at the blank form.

"I don't know what to write," I admitted.

"Just write whatever and turn it in!" Kuma said. "It's not like we actually get a grade on it or that she even really cares. I just wrote I want to eat forever. "

"What did you write?" I asked Uchi after we all stopped laughing.

"Huh? Oh…uhhh something random," he said absentmindedly.

"Oh…okay," I said, a little confused. He didn't seem like he was himself much. But if the other guys weren't going to bring it up, I wouldn't either.

"Hey, you hear about this?" Shun asked me one day when I was getting ready to go to school. He had the TV on, and I leaned closer to look. There was a local news flash about a young masked man that kept targeting women, catching them in dark alleyways at night and stealing their purses. The suspect was believed to be a young male student. The news reporter warned viewers to be careful at night.

"Be careful, Kana," Shun said to me, but in a teasing manner.

"Do you see me carrying a purse?" I shot back. He threw a random pillow at me.

"Have a good day at school, kid."

"Ohayou," the class greeted me when I walked in.

"Yo," I answered, opening my locker and putting my bag inside. "Hey, Uchi…"

He walked away from me without a word. I glanced at Noda and Kuma, and they shrugged. Their attention was quickly stolen by the arrival of Sawada, who never came to school this early.

Uchi came back when homeroom was just about to begin. I watched as some classmates rigged the door so that when Yankumi opened it, a handful of chalk dust would get dumped on her head.

When she walked in, half of her hair turned white and her glasses fogged up.

"Baka! Baka!" the class chanted and laughed at her.

"ALL OF YOU, I'LL TAKE ALL OF YOU ON OUTSIDE RIGHT NOW!" Yankumi shouted, whipping off her glasses.

I grinned. Yankumi would sometimes drop the teacher act and say some pretty violent things.

When Yankumi finally cooled down, she told us that some local policemen had dropped by to tell us about the recent muggings that have been going on.

"Are they accusing us?" Noda demanded.

"No, they're just going around to all the local schools telling students to be careful…"

"They are so accusing us," Minami said angrily. "The friendly lady at the drug store near my house now watches what I do in her store like a hawk."

"Ando (the history teacher) even goes out of his way to avoid me in hallways," Kuma said between mouthfuls of his breakfast.

"We should boycott his class, right Uchi?" Noda said.

"Huh? Oh…yeah," Uchi mumbled.

Throughout the day, Uchi was like this. He would usually tease me over something at least once per class period, but even when I called him "Uchi-chan", he barely responded.

Even when the guys were getting riled up over a picture of some skanky girl on Noda's PC during lunch, he hardly made a sound.

"What's up?" Sawada asked Uchi, who looked at him in surprise.

"Nothing," he answered and decided to leave early. "Hey guys, I'm skipping the rest of the afternoon," he said.

After he walked out of the room, we all turned and faced each other.

"There's something weird going on with him," Minami said. So they had noticed.

I decided to go after him. The way he was acting worried me. I caught him at the school gate.

"You sure you don't want to hang out after school today?" I asked. He looked as he was struggling for an answer.

"I...I'm busy today," he said. "Sorry." With that, he took off.

"Uchi had things to do," I reported blankly to the rest when I returned to the classroom.

"I saw him at the arcade last night. He lost a game and got pissed, so he got up to leave. He crashed into an arcade worker and snapped at him to be careful," Sawada said.

I sighed. This was not the Uchi we all knew.

Minami suddenly put his arm around me. I glared at him.

"What are you doing?" I asked. He shrugged.

"I'm acting like Uchi," he said casually. "Don't tell me you don't think we haven't noticed you two. Are you going out?"

I shoved Minami's arm off, much to the amusement of the others. "No," I said to him. "And don't get any ideas."

Uchi didn't answer any of my texts all day. I decided to respect his space but I couldn't help but feel uneasy.

The next morning, I was furious to see a bunch of WANTED signs posted everywhere. Apparently, the local burglar had struck again last night and the victim had managed to pull the mask off, revealing a man with a mass of blond hair. The picture next to the description, to my horror, looked exactly like Uchi.

To make matters worse, Uchi didn't show up to school. It didn't help that rumors started circulating that Uchi was not that financially well off at the moment.

"HE DIDN'T DO IT!" I shouted at a group of gossiping guys in the hallway. Minami and Noda had to hold me back before I pounced on them to beat them up. The other guys ran away.

"Hey, calm down," Sawada said to me. I exhaled an angry breath.

"Maybe he feels uncomfortable about coming to school where everyone will talk about him," Minami said. We all considered this as I pushed Minami and Noda's arms away.

"After all, these posters are put up almost everywhere," Noda pointed out. "Who wouldn't?"

"How about going out and finding the culprit ourselves?" Kuma said excitedly but got hit on the head by Minami.

"How would we even do that?" Minami asked.

"Well…I dunno…what about trying to nab the guy while he's in action?"

"Baka," Noda said. "That would never work, right Shin?"

Sawada looked up. "It would be good way to cure boredom," he said.

"Eh? Shin's actually into it?" Minami said, jumping off his desk.

"But how would we find the culprit?" I asked. It wasn't going to be easy. That was for sure.

"The culprit always strikes in dark alleyways around the business district around the same time every night. If we stake the area and nab him before the police do and turn him in, it'll look pretty good for us."

"Whoa," the guys said impressed. I had to admit I was as well.

"That's a brilliant plan," a voice said.

We all nodded, then turned to see Yankumi standing there.

"Yankumi!" Minami said loudly.

"How come you're standing there like that?" Noda demanded.

"You guys are extremely impressive. You will do anything for Uchi, wouldn't you? That is a great sign of friendship. We will catch the culprit and clear Uchi's name together!" Yankumi said dramatically. "You guys are awesome, just like I thought. That leaves me no choice but to help you guys. Let's find the new culprit, OH~!" she said, pumping a fist in the air. She whirled around and looked at us excitedly while we stared at her.

"You guys do it with me. OH!" she said.

"Oh..." Minami, Noda, and Kuma said unenthusiastically.

"That's weak! Again! OH!" she repeated.

"OH!" Minami, Noda, and Kuma said, whooping loudly.

"Come on, Sawada, Kana. OH~!"

"Are you stupid?" Sawada said, and walked away. I rolled my eyes as Noda "collapsed" onto Minami at the lack of enthusiasm from Sawada. To me, finding the culprit wasn't some game to me. I wanted to clear Uchi's name. Things were going to get interesting...

"Where are you going?" Shun asked me that night.

"Culprit hunting," I responded as I pulled on a jacket.

"…You're not going to mess around, are you?"

"I promise to come back in one piece," I muttered, before going out. Seriously, he was so overprotective sometimes.

I met the guys at a park near the business district. It was pretty weird to see the guys wearing casual clothing as opposed to their uniforms for once.

"Kana, can't you dress a little bit more cutely?" Noda asked me.

"I am not here to look cute," I shot back.

He held up his arms in defense.

Yankumi ran up to us. "Where's Sawada?" she asked.

"Over there," Kuma pointed to where Sawada sat on a bench.

"Hey, are we really doing this?" Minami asked Yankumi.

"Of course we are! Are you going to sit around while Uchi is being accused of a crime?" Yankumi said enthusiastically.

"Just don't get in the way," was all Sawada said to Yankumi, who began to retort angrily.

"Come on," I said to the others, walking after Sawada.

Yankumi showed us the map where the incidents had occurred.

"They were all in between bars and residential areas," Sawada pointed out. "Let's split up, yeah?"

We split into three groups. I was paired with Noda, Minami with Yankumi, and Kuma with Sawada.

Just as we were about to depart, we heard a commotion across the street. A very drunk Sawatari stumbled out of a bar and startled babbling nonsense to the pretty lady he was with. He rolled around the floor like a baby, giggling.

Can we seriously wash our eyes with soap right now?

"Let's pretend we didn't see that," Yankumi said slowly. "That would be the honorable thing to do."

But we all filed it away as a bit of blackmail at the back of our minds.

Noda and I jogged around our area twice, but we didn't see anyone or anything suspicious.

When we all met up again in an hour, no one had any leads.

"Well, I guess we'd better stop for now. There's always tomorrow," Yankumi said.

"Eh? Tomorrow?" Kuma asked.

"Of course! You guys came up with this plan!"

Minami groaned. "We never meant this to be so serious…"

"You mean, clearing Uchi's name is not serious?" I snapped and they shut up, staring at the ground.

"Uchi…" Sawada suddenly said. We looked up and saw him staring at us.

"Hey, guess what Uchi? We're all trying to clear your name!" Yankumi said. "We all believe you, so don't worry about showing up to school."

"What are you talking about? I don't care a bit about that. I'm not going to school because I don't want to, that's all. Don't do things that I didn't even ask for," he muttered, walking past us.

"Don't you know that your mom is worried about you?" Yankumi demanded.

"She has nothing to do with this," Uchi hissed and walked away.

I ran and caught up to him, forcing him to look at me.

"What's going on?" I demanded.

"It has nothing to do with you either," he said, wrenching his arm away from me.

"Yeah? Then it's a waste worrying about you, isn't it?" I said angrily.

"…Kana…" he said hesitantly.

Suddenly, we saw movement and looked up. Sawada stood on the top of the stairs near us.

"It's true that we're just messing at first…but some people are serious about this," he said.

"So what?" Uchi said. I stared at him. Did he not know how to consider other people's feelings?

"Fine," I said. "I'll leave you alone. Deal with your problems yourself."

I walked away, disappointed. I thought that I had finally found some friends I could trust. But they were the all too typical group of guys, immature and irresponsible.

"Hey, you shouldn't walk home alone," Sawada said, running up to me.

"I'll be fine. I'm so angry I could take that anyone that tries to touch me."

"I'm sure you could," he smirked. "Still…"

"I'm fine," I said firmly.

After a moment, he relented. "Take this then," he said, handing me a tiny pocketknife. "Don't cut yourself though." With that, he left.

When I got home, Shun could see I was in a bad mood.

"Who does he think we're doing this for?" I fumed.

"How do you know he didn't do it?' Shun asked me. "You've only known him for a little while."

"…He may be hotheaded and impulsive, but he wouldn't do anything maliciously towards anyone," I answered.

Then why did I feel so disappointed by him?

Author's Note:

Thank you for reading and commenting!
I really enjoy reading your ideas & predictions! ^^