Chapter Two

Pop Quizzes

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The pair of Ryoko and Hitomi were out of breath as they sprinted through Daimon High's main courtyard. Hitomi was breathing much harder than her friend, and her chocolate brown hair spread everywhere, stuck in thick strands from the sweat beading down her flushed face and hair. Ryoko seemed much more natural hammering breaths in and out, and her thick red hair seemed to flow behind her, ribbon catching most of the sweat, and her bangs collecting the salted water and tossing it from her face.

"We must look a wreck, huh, Hitomi?" Ryoko asked, between breaths and pounding strides, grinning brightly.

"At least you'll avoid a morning K-Fight!" Hitomi exclaimed between gasps.

At that moment, a yell filled the empty courtyard. Both girls skidded to a stop and looked around.

"Hiyaaah!"

Ryoko's eyes narrowed and she grabbed Hitomi around the waist, jumping back. Right where they had been, a booted foot slammed hard into the concrete.

"You stupid monkey!" Ryoko shouted, fists clenched. "What the hell do you think you're doing!"

Shizuma Kusanagi stood up straight, arms crossed. He towered up, out of uniform as always, trying to be intimidating. Just as he was about to smugly explain his glorious sneak attack, he stopped short, staring at Ryoko – right into her eyes.

"The hell!" he shouted in surprise, jumping back. Ryoko's boots gave her the extra couple of inches to be the exact same six and a half feet as Shizuma. "Damn! You really are a mountain woman!"

Ryoko raised a fist, body trembling. "Why you . . ."

Hitomi who had been standing dazed behind her friend, reached forward and grabbed Ryoko's arm. "Don't, Ryoko!"

The three stood frozen in time for a few seconds. Finally, Ryoko sighed and powered her fist. "You're lucky – I would of punched your lights out."

"If Hitomi hadn't stopped ya, I would've kicked your ass, samurai-wannabe! You deserve no less for mutilating my poor face."

Ryoko laughed. "Mutilating your face? You almost look decent now."

Shizuma crossed his arms, face screwed up in an angry pout. "I will get my revenge!"

"Dream on, monkey boy!"

"Say your prayers, mountain woman!"

Both lunged at the other, grabbing the other's face and simultaneously, trying to scratch, pull, and pinch the other's skin.

"Idiot!"

"Tomboy!"

"Neanderthal!"

"Sasquatch!"

"Freak!"

"Uh . . . tomboy!"

"GUYS!" Hitomi's yell broke through the impromptu insult fest, usually timid voice reverberating on the stones of the courtyard. She stood behind them, fists clenched and at her side, eyes shut tight behind her round glasses. Both stopped shouting, turning their heads, still grappled by the other, to look at her in surprise.

"We're late for class already, and both of you are just making things worse! Now stop it!"

The rivals glanced towards each other uneasily, then took a deep breath and let go. They harrumphed and turned away from each other, arms crossing.

Hitomi sighed as she opened her eyes, watching them move apart. A smile crossed her face as she saw them basically mirror the other's movements. Neither would admit it, but they were both very similar, cut from the same mold. Watching them battle was interesting, but Hitomi much rather liked watching them sulk and act the exact same. It was far more amusing.

She slung her school bag over one shoulder and walked between the two fierce warriors. She took a hand of each, smiling up at them, and without warning began to march off to class, dragging them along. "Let's go!" she exclaimed in a sing-song voice, as if there was nothing wrong in the entire world.

"Like we have a choice now," Shizuma muttered under his breath, looking at Hitomi with a soft glare. When had she gained so much confidence? It was refreshing to see her stand up for herself, and not to just help Ryoko – but why did she have to interrupt their battle?

"Look, we can set up some sort of K-Fight later if it bothers you that much, monkey," Ryoko snapped, folding one arm across her chest. She refused to look at him, realizing that if they were not fighting, she might find her stupid girly hormones multiplying and make her blush. Shizuma had grown quite handsome over the summer, especially with two proper eyebrows and his hair cut back down to a reasonable length.

Ack! Ryoko felt like slapping herself – why was she noticing these things about the damn monkey? She knew she had to move on from Tatsuya, but she would not sink down to Shizuma! She would sooner date her little stalker Daisaku than her brash, insensitive rival!

. . . right?

Brooding thoughts kept the two tall warriors silent all the way to the first period they shared. The two did not care how late they were, but Hitomi grew more and more concerned as they came closer and closer to the classroom. Watanbe-sensei was not the most lenient teacher. In fact, aside from Satome-sensei who had resigned last year, he had the cruelest of reputations among students.

Hitomi gulped as they neared the door. Watanbe had assigned a good deal of summer homework – which, knowing Ryoko and Shizuma, had probably say on desks at the two brawlers' homes collect dust all summer while the two ran about town becoming stronger. Hitomi was not worried about herself in the least – she worried for them, because they were not about to do the same for themselves.

The door loomed right in front of them. Without taking a moment to think about the consequences, Shizuma threw open the door, eager to get away from Hitomi and Ryoko.

He didn't get very far.

"So, look who's decided to finally grace us with their presences." The gruff voice caused Hitomi to yelp, Ryoko to freeze, and Shizuma to curse simultaneously.

Watanbe towered over them. For a professor of literature, he was a frightening hulk of a man – and probably hated his job. He would seem much more natural bashing street punks than standing behind a podium lecturing on the simple beauty of The Tale of Genji. Unfortunately for the late trio, he seemed much more apt to act on the first description immediately after being interrupted conducting the second.

Shizuma broke the uneasy silence that followed, staring pointedly at Watanbe. "Dude," he said simply, as if commenting on a game to a friend, "did you get fatter over break?"

Ryoko groaned and slapped her forehead, while Hitomi's eyes widened and she hid behind the samurai girl. Watanbe's face turned a bright red, the color spreading across his bald head, while a pale vein pulsed furiously across his forehead. Shizuma just stood where he was, shoving his now free hand into his pocket.

"Uh . . . Watanbe-sensei . . . er . . . you see . . ."

"Sit down, Yuki-san," Watanbe snapped, causing Hitomi to whimper and dash to her seat, any confidence she had developed earlier deteriorating in an instant.

Watanbe turned his attention back towards Ryoko and Shizuma, eyes narrowed. Every since the instigation of the K-Fights, Watanbe felt like education became less and less important to the children. There was a handful of "good ones," though he worried for those like Hitomi, with fight-aholic friends. The ones that fought always had stronger personalities, and in a school like this, where no one cared as students brawled, the fighters always corrupted the scholars.

If only Satome had not failed last year. The idiot could not defeat some street punk like Shizuma, and just lowered the short bar of respect for the teachers. Watanbe glared at Shizuma as these thoughts buzzed through his mind. The room was silent, and every student uneasily still. No one wanted to set off anything.

Finally, Watanbe stepped towards the delinquents, pushing through the thick tension.

"What makes you think you can just waltz in here late?" he asked slowly, voice grating on the air. "Not only are you disrespecting me, you are disrupting your fellow students, making it harder for them to learn."

"Well, actually," Ryoko piped in, heedless of the fact that she had interrupted the teacher, "I think that if you hadn't said anything, and we just walked in quietly like we were trying to, we would have 'disrupted' them much less." She mimed quotation marks at the word "disrupted," drawing giggles from the entire class, even Hitomi, while earning herself a harder glare from Watanbe.

"Not only that," Watanbe growled through his clenched teeth, trying to act as though he could not be bothered to acknowledge Ryoko's interruption, "but I bet that you haven't even opened your textbooks. Am I right?"

Ryoko's face fell as little and she shifted from foot to foot, embarrassed blush across her face answering for her. Shizuma just shrugged and shook his head no. He had better things to do with his time than read a soap opera about some spoiled prince, but he did not have time to voice his opinion.

"So I don't even have to bother drilling you with questions. I can just give you a failing grade now."

Ryoko started. "But that's not fair! We weren't scheduled for any grades today!" she protested vehemently, eyes wide. She had never had the best scores, but she never failed anything. And she didn't want to start on the first day of her senior year.

"What's not fair is the fact that you think you can just walk in late without consequence," Watanbe retorted, eyes narrowing. "I'm entitled to issue pop quizzes whenever I feel the need to test my students, and I feel that need right now."

"Dude! Not cool, Watanbe!" Shizuma yelled, comical frown spread across his face. "Challenge us to a K-Fight or something, but don't diss us for something so stupid!"

"Consider this a K-Fight, Kusanagi," Watanbe snapped back. "K-Fights do not need to be simple street brawls. Looks like you'll be losing the first K-Fight of the year." A cruel grin spread across Watanbe's face. This was where Satome had failed – he stooped down to their level. The teachers had to stay up in their ivory towers and send down punishment in order to keep the caste at status quo.

He was finally on his way to instilling order, starting at the very top.

Shizuma's jaw dropped and Ryoko's eyes widened more. Could they both lose their first K-Fights? The first K-Fights of the school year? Could they be forced into humiliation for so slight a transgression?

Ryoko's mind raced while Shizuma went slack-jaw on her. Watanbe had not actually challenged them yet, had he? No. If she challenged him first, she could manipulate the situation. Watanbe would not agree to a brawl, so he was likely to turn down her challenge unless she clarified that she would make it an academic challenge. But what sort of academic anything could she hope to win against a teacher? She swallowed hard as she prepared herself to step up to the plate and ad lib from some half-hearted starting point.

"I challenge you to a non-physical K-Fight, Watanbe-sensei."

Ryoko started mouth slightly open as she found her words sapped right out of her mouth. She looked around for the soft voice.

Hitomi stood up shakily.

"If I win, you let this incident slide. If you win, you can give all three of us failing grades, and give me a failing grade for the semester."