I'm who now?

by Clemerl

Being dropped into the killing game is always a dangerous place to be as a student of Hope's Peak, not knowing what will happen or who will kill whom. But what happens when the one in charge has a change of heart? Or rather, has the mind of someone else entirely who will stop at nothing to save everyone they can. Even if it dives them to Despair.

29. Run run Despair

"Well, shitake. That didn't work."

I grumbled to myself as I turned off the Monokuma with a harrumph, my arms tightly crossed as I grumbled upset; and no, I was not pouting damnit! I was just really disappointed and frustrated, that's all. It was just infuriating that plans B and C had already been ruined by the two dum-dum brothers already.

What do I mean by that, you ask? Well, it all went like this.

Plan A was, and still was, relying on Taka to put together a squad to act as nightguards. I had already worked out the important details, I told him about a location, how it would work better than any other spot, and gave him tips on staying up late since he clearly never had in his life. I pointed him to a few people that I was positive that he could convince to work with him with minimum effort. I gave him a schedule to follow so that he could manage it all with little hassle, instructed him on what their duties would be in case of emergency, and gave him ample time to get it all set up and in place. I had accounted for every avenue I could.

What I didn't account for was his stupid morality getting in the way! I had explained to him, in excruciating detail by the way, that to make sure that it worked, he was to barricade the doors of everyone who was in their rooms so that there would be no chance of anything happening in the slightest. I let it slip that I had conveniently, found a bunch of boards in the far back of the storage room along with several boxes of nails. I had tried so hard to get him to understand that there would not be any punishments if he just listened to me and blocked off the doors until morning. Then all he'd need to do was take off the boards first thing in the morning, and no one would ever have to know.

But no, no he just couldn't find it in his heart to do that. He couldn't put up with the nonexistent risk of Monokuma's punishment fetish getting him killed for breaking a rule that technically wouldn't have been broken, just bent. He wouldn't put his pride to the side for just a few hours to barricade the doors to prevent a killing. He just couldn't lock them away for one stinking night, even with how unlikely it would be that they would even find out about it as long as he was fast.

No, he just figured that the guard shift would be enough on its own, and that they wouldn't need to board up the doors. Well, he also figured that Mondo would be helping him, and look how that turned out!

Mondo and his freaking "promise between men" shlock made it so that his Bro-buddy would be left high and try that night and putting both of them into a fit of depression that they would hide because, of course, men don't like to talk about their feelings bull-larky and-ARGH! So stupid!

If he hadn't managed to convince Sakura and, to my complete surprise, Hina into helping him out, I would have given up on him completely. They weren't what I was hoping he would recruit, but I could work with that.

But that still took away the plan to keep Chihiro safe by literally keeping his killer to occupied to do anything. So, that brought me to attempt plan C, get Mondo to leave the locker rooms before Chihiro showed up.

Again, simple plan. All I had to do was piss off the biker so much that he would forget all about his meeting and chase after me. And by me, I obviously meant Monokuma. No point in doing it in person unless I wanted to ruin everything.

After that, all I'd have to do is lure him over to where Taka was setting up his guard station and slip through the man's legs. With Mondo blinded by rage, he would then collide with his bro, and once they reoriented themselves, he would then join in the guard out of guilt. Then, he would be gone, and I could join Chihiro for another exercise session while comforting him for not being able to get his buff friend to join in to show him how to be "manly".

However, it seems that went out the window since, against all odds, he actually managed to wrench himself back from his rage just long enough to remember that he couldn't just up and leave. A notable and almost praise worthy move, if it didn't completely screw over my plan!

God, the one time I wanted him to blow his top, he decides to put a lid on it. If that wasn't enough, I didn't even need to head over to the cam room to tell that Chihiro is already on his way to meet up with him.

Seriously! How hard is it to keep one freaking kid from dying! It should not be this difficult!

I had to resist the urge to sigh, as it was, I had hoped that I would have prevented this with my actions thus far. The primary reason I had confronted the little crossdresser was, aside from wanting to be his friend, was to keep him away from the biker at all costs. I had dared to hope that I could spare him of his fate if I gave him a chance to grow stronger like he had wanted to, without the risk of his partner clubbing him with a training weight. My plan A had been to take away his fear, to give him someone who he could trust, to give him a form of hope that things would be better because he had someone who could understand and support him when times took a turn.

But no, I just had to be concerned with Mondo and Taka's lives, I just had to let my curiosity get the better of me when I heard them bonding, I just had to let Chihiro get close enough to hear it and become enamored by the biker's machismo and his "Promise between men" malarkey. I had felt guilty for knocking them out at first, but now I would do it again if it kept this from happening.

I wanted to kick myself for this. I should have realized that, no matter what I changed or added to the motive that, it would still happen according to how it went in the games. Even giving them an out wouldn't work because these were stupid teenagers that hadn't learned just how important it was to work together yet. What happened last time with Sayaka was more than enough proof of that, so I clearly didn't learn something important! I must be insane since I clearly did the exact same thing and expected a different result.

…Well, no. Actually, I had realized that this was a possibility, I had just hoped that it wouldn't happen. This time, this time I had a plan D.

It was risky, it was dangerous, and there was a real possibility that someone could die from it, but the chance was significantly smaller then if I just left well enough alone. I was going to be taking a huge gamble here, especially since there had been changes I hadn't accounted for, but I could work around them.

I stood up and turned away from the Monokuma controls as I headed to the bundle of supplies I had laid out beforehand in anticipation of this. I didn't want to do this, but if I was to stop the death of my friend, I needed too.

As I slipped on the outfit and climbed into the vents, I had only one goal. If I can't get Mondo to go where I wanted him to go, I would just need to get someone else.

---

"Okay, I'm ready."

Chihiro mumbled to himself as he picked up his duffle bag containing everything he felt he would need. Mentally he went over his list once more, just to be sure that he had everything. He had his blue track jacket and pants that he'd been using for the past few days, cleaned from this morning so that it didn't reek of sweat and grime. He had three bottles of water for him and his friends and a few packets of protein powder so that they could mix them into the water if they desired, and three towels colored blue, black, and white for them to wipe down after their workout. Finally, he had his E-handbook put into the bag so that it could be left at the door entrance when they inevitably headed into the girl's locker room.

He heaved a deep sigh as he tried to calm his nerves. Despite what he said, he couldn't stop his hands from trembling, and it wasn't hard for him to know why. He was worried, scared even, because this would be the first time that he'd told anyone his secret; intentionally anyway. It was arguably worst then when he was found out by Junko because, at the time he had assumed that she had it all figured out and that he was just going to have to beg that she wouldn't tell anyone. At the time he hadn't known that she had already figured him out long ago so when he had confronted her he had been focused on the fear alone till she went out of her way to show him just how unwilling to expose him for what he was.

However, this time he would be going up to someone who didn't know his secret, at least he was pretty sure of it this time, and would be exposing himself for the sole sliver of a chance that he could find someone of his own gender who he could talk to.

Well, that wasn't entirely true. He did try to admit his secret earlier that day, but it hadn't gone as he had planned. Shortly before the spontaneous tea party that Hina and Sakura had hosted, he had been having a meeting with Makoto, trying to build up the nerve necessary to tell the luckster his secret. Out of all of the boys, Makoto had seemed the most understanding and relatable to him and so he had decided that he would be the best person to start with. He wasn't quite sure he could do it though and his nerves got the better of him, so he tried to start off by asking the Luckster about himself first. Test the waters as it were.

Unfortunately, things started going downhill fairly quickly. It was clear that Makoto wasn't really the type to talk about himself all that much, and the little Chihiro managed to pry from him was the fact that most of his hobbies were all pretty much revolving around being lazy. That wasn't all that bad in of itself, he certainly couldn't complain since his own hobbies revolved around sitting in front of a computer for hours on end, but he had been hoping that there would have been a bit more.

But then the programmer mentioned sports and things only got worst. Turned out, Makoto didn't play anything like that, in fact the luckster apparently only really did anything like that during the mandatory gym classes everyone went to. So, that was a bit disappointing, not all that bad, just not what he had been expecting. In hindsight it made sense that the slightly taller boy wouldn't be all that interested in sports since he didn't really look the part, but then again, neither had Leon and he was an All-star baseball player.

However, things truly took a turn to the depressing when he made the mistake of stating his own observation about the luckster, sighting him as strong. Makoto had denied it in the only way that could have hurt Chihiro, stating that he was pretty much the bottom tier of masculinity.

That…stung. Makoto, who just had to be at least a bit stronger then Chihiro was, called himself the lowest level of manly you could get. The bottom rung, the weakest male, weakest of the weak. If that was true, then where did that leave him? He was even weaker than the luckster was, tinier, and prone to fits of crying when upset, nothing like Makoto who, while emotional at times and occasionally naïve, was far more stable and in control of himself then Chihiro ever was. And he still considered himself the lowest tier?

There was only so much self-deprecation he could take.

Regrettably, he never did manage to build up the nerve after that unintentional kick to his already meager pride. He knew that it wasn't Makoto's intention to do that, the boy was far too nice for that, but that didn't do much for the stings on his heart from the lucky student's thoughtless words. So, he didn't tell the boy what was bothering him.

It was depressing, but he couldn't go back. So instead, he had tried to turn the conversation back to Makoto's life in the hope to salvage the conversation.

What happened instead was something he hadn't anticipated.

---

"What about Mondo?"

"Huh?" Chihiro asked, caught by surprise by the luckster's question and completely derailed of his train of thought.

"Well, when I think of strong people in the school, the first ones that come to mind are, Sakura, Byakuya, and Mondo." Makoto admitted with a thoughtful look on his face. "I kind of guessed that you wouldn't want Byakuya since, well, what happened in the library. And while Sakura would be the first person I could think of as physically strongest, I remember that you didn't seem comfortable when Hina invited you to join them in their exercises. So, yeah, how about Mondo?"

The programmer briefly stopped to ponder the slightly taller boy's words. He had to admit, he was surprised that Makoto had been paying that much attention to them all, especially when it was such a long time ago. Even though it had been a few days ago, Makoto had even remembered how he had acted around Hina's offer and made the right assumption about how he had felt about it. Anyone could have figured out his feelings about Byakuya though.

Still, the thought of possibly turning to Mondo seemed to stick in his mind. Mondo, the loudest, gruffest, most delinquent teen he'd ever met in the entirety of his time in a school. The biker gang leader lived up to his name in many ways, from the way he was dressed, to the way he looked, and even to the way he acted left no doubts about it. He earned his title through blood, grit, and sheer pigheaded determination and said damn it all to whomever told him he was wrong.

Yet, at the same time, he did have good traits that counterbalanced the bad by a fair margin. He was loyal to those he trusted, he was kind when he wasn't pressured, and he generally tried to help keep people safe. He might not be the brightest person, but he was able to see when he'd messed up and tried to change for the better wherever he could. He was abrasive, sure, but he had a genuine soft side deep down that he likely kept hidden to protect himself; or so Chihiro guessed.

In fact, now that he was thinking about it, Mondo would be the best guy he could ask for when it came to be becoming stronger. That wasn't to say that there weren't there options, but he seemed the best choice.

Makoto had already cut himself from the running, and they all knew there was no way he'd go to Byakuya, so that left the other guys. Taka was a possibility, he was kind of a leader type, and if what he'd seen as a result from the endurance competition was any indication, he clearly worked out a lot as well. Yet, he didn't really know if he could trust something like his wearing a female uniform to be something the very much rule obsessed boy would tolerate if it got out. Leon would be a possibility as he was an all-star, but with how much he insisted on giving up on his very much exercise heavy focused career for one more about music really didn't paint a reliable painting. Plus, he seemed like the kind of guy that would be more likely to pick on the programmer then help him. It was just the fact that he acted just like the bullies Chihiro had in middle school that made it feel that way.

After them, there was the ones he thought of as unlikely to be any help in any form of training, Hifumi, Byakuya, and Yasuhiro. Byakuya was obviously a no, the teenaged billionaire had made his opinion quite clear, and even if he hadn't, Junko certainly did. Hifumi was also an obvious no since, despite the seemingly overwhelming amount of knowledge on combat and special skills the portly boy proclaimed to know, it was clear from his body type that he clearly wasn't all that acquainted with a gym.

And Hiro was…No…Just no.

No, Mondo might be the only real choice here as far as guys went. He just knew it. He had to be the one to help him grow stronger. The Ultimate biker would be the one to show him how to be a real man.

---

Well, that was what he'd thought at the time. But as he slung his bag over his shoulder in preparation to leave, he knew that there was much more to it now. Much more.

"Still," he muttered to himself as he turned to the open locker of the bath house with a small smile. "Who would have guessed that Hifumi would be so…smart."

Now, that wasn't meant to be a slight against the portly boy. What he meant was that he hadn't expected Hifumi to be able to take on his own doubts and turn them on their head like he did, forcing the programmer to look at his problem at a new angle he never considered before. Who would have guessed that the manga fan writer would be the one who would make him realize that he'd been looking at it all wrong from the beginning? Not him, that's for sure.

And to think, he might never have had the chance to discover this other, far more intellectual side of the fanfic writer had he not stayed behind to help clean the dishes. He would have to thank Hina again for inviting him at some point.

But for now, he had an appointment to finish preparing for.

Taking ahold of the door to the only open locker, he smiled as he looked at the laptop sitting inside, its screen lighting his face with a soft green glow. Reaching in, he quickly typed in a small message.

"Alright, I'm heading out now. See you tomorrow."

There was a brief pause as the program inside registered the words he'd typed in, and then as expected, a soft voice emitted from the built-in speakers, saying, "Okay Master. Are you going to meet with Owada now?

"Yes, I am." He typed in reply, happy that the data he'd input was working well enough that it could recognize what he was planning from what he'd told it before, and that it could respond accordingly. "Wish me good luck."

It paused for a second once more, but replied, "Good luck master!"

He smiled even as the screen showing off his creation darkened as his program put the laptop into sleep mode to preserve power. Not that it really needed to since his modifications to the battery more than quintupled its power supply's lifespan, to the point that he was mostly positive that it would take at least a week running at full power to come even remotely close to empty. Still, it was good to see that his program knew to take it easy either way.

Giddy would be a good way to describe how he felt as he looked at the locker containing his man-made friend, but could anyone blame him? In only two days he had made so much progress on his A.I. that even he could hardly believe it. Gone was the bland, stereotypical robot voice that had no real personality to really speak of, and in its place was a soft, kindly sounding voice, just like his own; albeit, slightly garbled by the out of date speakers and the fact that he had no way to properly record his voice. Still a massive improvement though. But the thing he loved the best about it was the fact that, thanks in part to the built-in camera and the rest in his own ability, his baby now had a face.

Well, it was his face that it was emulating, but he had named it Alter-Ego for a reason after all.

Mostly though, it was that finally, after being just a meek, sad little boy in a skirt for so long, he was finally contributing to the group in helping to solve the mysteries of this school, finally doing something instead of sitting around, waiting for someone else to do something. Once his program managed to decipher all of the decrypted data in this laptop, he was certain that it would lead them all on the right path.

It still amazed him though just how powerful these encryptions were. Even for someone like him who had been around computers for so long that he practically knew how to code before he learned to walk, this surprisingly had left him stumped when he had tried his hand at it himself. It was clear that, whomever it was that had chained up these files not only knew what they were doing but were really freaking determined to keep everyone but the most advanced programmers from ever having a remote chance of opening them. Worst still, it seemed like the entire thing was…evolving for lack of better term. It was constantly changing, adapting around him attempts to hack through it and never letting him have more than an inch of progress before sweeping it all away in an instant. Far and above what even he could manage alone.

To put it bluntly, with his human needs preventing him from devoting all of his time to cracking the code, there was no way he was going to be able to get past it all in a reasonable amount of time. So, instead of banging his head on a wall trying to blunt force his way through, he decided to bring in some help of his own. That was why he had designed Alter Ego into the computer, it would be able to do what he could not as it didn't need to eat, sleep, or even exercise. Plus, as an added bonus, he had designed it to adapt and grow just like the decrypted files were but at an accelerated rate, so while his creation wouldn't be surpassing it just yet, it would eventually and be all the better for it.

With that happy thought though came one of dreaded realization. If the mastermind were to get their hands on this laptop, they could do something to his creation and potentially destroy it, or maybe even turn it against them. The sheer strength of their encryptions more than proved that they had incredible programming skills, or if not them then that they had someone on their side with that expertise, so it was far from the realm of impossibility.

However, it was with that fear in mind that he had brought the laptop here in the first place. Shortly after he had gotten what he felt were most of the kinks in his program taken care of, he decided he needed a safe place to store his creation where Monokuma couldn't find it. It didn't take long before it clicked in his mind, but the safest place was here in the bathhouse, as it was the only place that the mastermind was blind. No camera could possibly be allowed here after all as, not only would the steam fog up the lenses, but it would also be a huge invasion of privacy, something that Monokuma had made very clear on his opinion of.

Plus, this was the only place with a locker that he could simply take. They were made for public use after all, so it would be stupid for them to be without. As long as he had the key, the laptop and Alter Ego would be safe from the mastermind's clutches.

With that in mind, he nodded to himself with a determined frown. It was time to do this.

*Ding Dong Bing Bong* went the night time announcement just as he finished that thought and hearing the very reason for his paranoia suddenly start speaking caused his heart to leap into his throat for a second. He internally chastised himself for being startled like that, but just as quickly shrugged it off. He had things to do.

Adjusting his bag once more and seeking solace in its weight, the tiny boy made his way out and into the halls, eager to make it to his meeting.

---

"And there, that should do it!"

Kiyotaka grinned as he looked at their little guard post with a sense of pride, his hand on his hip as he wiped his brow with a sense of accomplishment. It had taken a little while, mostly because he had second guessed himself a few times, but now it was complete!

It was really simplistic as far as guard posts were concerned, but as far as he could say, it was perfect. As he had explained, they had dragged out one of the round tables and three chairs and had placed them dead in the center of the large opening of the hall way, perfectly measured so that it would allow all of them to see the entire area and every entrance around. There were several snacks laid out on the table as well along with some small napkins, all of which were high in protein and energy, things like granola, some small fruit, and a large canister of protein coffee along with some freshly cleaned cups to serve them in. He had originally been against the coffee, but the two exercise enthusiasts insisted that it would help so he relented. There was also a simple egg-timer he'd found in the warehouse to make sure that each and every one of them have a fair time between their brief rounds. Finally, there was a small waste basket just under the table to store their wrappers and trash.

It didn't really inspire much as far as appearances went, it was rather bare for what they were planning, but it was enough. If they were to put much more in, they wouldn't be able to move around quickly should an emergency happen.

"Looking good." Hina stated as she and Sakura looked at their hard work, though it wasn't without a hint of trepidation from the swimming pro athlete. She didn't know why per say. She just felt like something was going to go wrong here.

However, she did her best to shake it off as just the jitters. There was no reason to doubt that this would work. Taka had planned it all out, they shouldn't even need to worry.

Right?

Regardless, even she had to admit that it looked good to her. Now, she wasn't one to focus on things like appearances or esthetics, but that didn't stop her from appreciating how the area looked.

She was pulled from her thoughts when she felt a hand placed upon her shoulder and she turned to see a reassuring smile on her friend Sakura's face, no doubt having noticed the swimmer's reservations. And in that smile, she could feel the unspoken words of her friend telling her that it would be alright.

She smiled back in turn, happy to know that she had her friend backing her up.

Off to the side, Taka held onto a grin of his own at the sight. Nothing quite warmed his heart like seeing people interacting, being close to one another as they bond as comrades. Having each other's backs as they reassure the other that everything would be fine. Yes sir, there wasn't much like it.

However, it did cause his grin to falter slightly when he recalled his own close friend and bro. He had really been hoping that the biker gang leader would have had his back on this, hoping that the gruff teen would have stayed to help him in his quest to protect the other's from giving into their captor's manipulations. He thought that this of all things would be a task that Mondo would have leapt at the chance to help him with.

He shook his head to clear it of the feeling of disappointment and fixed his smile. No, he couldn't be upset with his bro. He had to remember that Mondo had been ecstatic when he'd first proposed the idea to him and that he had been all for it for a moment. The biker had been all smiles when he had been told that he could go full hog on any strange acting individuals that crossed their paths and had practically cried out in excitement when Taka had told him that he trusted him the most with the task out of everyone here.

He also had to remember the fact that when it had all been laid out, Mondo drooped in self-loathing when he realized that he couldn't help because he had already promised someone his time that night. Taka had to keep in mind the fact that the biker had looked so agonized that he couldn't help, completely distraught that his own philosophy was preventing him from helping out his bro in this time of potential crisis. And most of all, Kiyotaka had to keep in mind that it was he himself who told the biker that he could go, reminding him that whatever it was that the gang leader was dealing with, he could still come and help out after he took care of whatever it was the biker had to do.

He had to reassure Mondo that it was okay a few times, but he stood by what he said. He would have liked Mondo's help, but he understood the man's beliefs and would never do anything to force the biker to give them up. Not ever.

So, in his mind he had no right to be sad and did he level best to cast it aside. He would still do what he'd set out to do, and he would trust in his bro as well.

With this thought in mind and removing the grin from his face in exchange for one of stern leadership, he turned to the girls and spoke. "Now then, first things first. We need to decide on our time schedule for our guard route."

The two athletes turned to him with looks of understanding and glares of resolve of their own. "Right, so who's going first?"

Taka took a brief moment to consider the swimmer's question before making his decision. "I believe I will take the first run. After all, it was my request that you take time out of your important sleep schedules, so it is only right that I take responsibility for it."

Sakura and Hina both nodded with the former stating, "Agreed, then I shall take the second shift."

"Are you sure?" Hina asked as she turned to her friend. "I could take it if you want."

"Nay," the larger in size women denied with a kind smile, "After all, I feel it would be best if I hast someone to watch my back should anything happen."

Hina and Taka both paused to consider her thoughts on the matter, but it wasn't long before they both nodded in understanding. That was the entire reason they were doing this as a group after all, to keep everyone safe without risking themselves in the process.

"Then it's settled." Taka proclaimed. "And once Bro is done with whatever it is that is preoccupying his attention, he and I will perform a quick check of the school and gather up any stragglers. After that, he'll go right after Hina in the shift. Agreed?"

There were no signs of disagreement from the other two, both nodding in agreement with the plan. Hina even gave him a grin to help show her support of the idea. After all, if the corncob pompadoured teen was going to be late, then it was only fair that he be the last one in line.

*Ding, dong. Bing, bong*

As if timed for this moment, the tell-tell song of the night time announcement rang throughout the school and Monokuma's voice could be heard echoing out from the various monitors in most every room. Knowing that now was the time for business, they broke off to their roles. Taka started making for the hall of the dorm rooms while both Hina and Sakura took one of the seats around the table and kept an eye on the studious teen as he paced by each of the doors. Slowly he walked, taking in every detail that he could, making sure that he wouldn't miss a single thing as he went along.

With the girls, there was a tense feeling among them. Not so much for the company but more for the situation at hand. Hina especially was tense, not a big fan of sitting around and waiting for things to happen, resulting in her starting to fidget in her chair as she tried to contain both her energy and her anxiety. In stark contrast, Sakura was as still as a grave, silently listening for any sort of issue that could be heard as she watched Taka to make completely sure of his safety. But both of them shared in one thing and that was that they knew just how serious this all was and were doing their best to focus.

And so, time passed slowly. Taka continued his trek while the two girls sat in wait. Eventually, the moral reached the end of the hall and turned to continue on his way, disappearing around the corner from the girl's sights.

"Hmm?" Sakura murmured when she heard the sounds of someone walking by and turned to look at the source of the sound. To her surprise, she saw the sight of a certain programmer heading out of the bath house with a bag hanging off of her shoulder. The sight was probably as unexpected for her as it was for the petite girl as Chihiro startled at the sight of her and Hina both at the table that she knew hadn't been there when she had first gone in the room.

Catching both the questioning gaze of both her best friend as well as the surprised gasp behind her, Hina turned look at what had found Sakura's curiosity, only to gasp in shock of her own. However, it was quickly overwritten by excitement as she called out to her other friend with a kindly smile. "Hey, Chihiro! Sup!"

Chihiro on the other hand didn't share in the excitement as she adjusted the strap on her shoulder to hide the bag behind her as she nervously replied, "Hina. Sakura. W-What are you doing here?"

"Well, we're on guard duty." Hina stated with a determined grin on her face, not noticing the nervous stutter in the slightest.

"O-oh, is that so?" the diminutive female questioned as she started to grip the strap tighter, eyes locked on the swimmer without blinking as her legs slowly started to creep to the exit.

Hina smiled disarmingly at her as she explained, "Yeah, it was Taka's idea. We're waiting for him to make his round before we do our own trip. What brings you here?"

The tiny girl tensed up, and slowly started to inch her way to the doorway just a tiny bit faster. "O-oh, nothing. Just…just going for a…a bit of a stroll. Just…wanted to clear my head a bit."

Hina nodded in understanding, barely even needing to stop to think on the reason why. "Yeah, I totally get it. Me and Sakura had a swim for the same reason. Take your time!"

"Okay...thank…thank you." Chihiro nervously replied as her eyes darted to the exit. She paused for a moment, then quickly turned and sprinted down the hall with a shouted, "Bye!"

Hina blinked at the suddenness of the programmer's departure, and turned to her friend with a question of, "What was that about?"

As for Sakura, she stared at where the programmer had disappeared with a look of worry and concern, but she could not offer any explanations to her friend. She was just as lost to the actions of the little programmer and what they could mean, but she had noticed the bag that had been hanging off of the girl's shoulder and could only wonder what it could mean. She recognized it well enough since she had seen them every time she'd gone to get some of the protein powder in the storehouse and judging by the way it sagged it had to have been filled with something. But what that could be or what the reason that she had it, Sakura didn't have a clue.

Her eyes narrowed as she considered something. Taka had said that Mondo had something to do that required being out late but hadn't elaborated on what exactly it was. Now Chihiro was wondering around with a bag while acting even more jittery and unnerved then usual. It didn't require a detective to put those pieces together in the slightest, it was as clear as day that they must be doing something together.

However, it was also clear that, while she did have part of the puzzle figured out, she also didn't have all of the pieces needed to finish it. She didn't quite see what reason it was that Chihiro of all people would be involved with that required Mondo to help with anything.

Could it be that…?

"Is everything alright?" She heard the voice of Kiyotaka ask as he approached them from behind, concern evident in his tone. Turning to look at him, Sakura decided to express her concern.

"Possibly. We just had an encounter with Chihiro, and she seemed to be acting rather peculiar." Taka raised a brow but was unable to add anything more as Hina intruded with, "Yeah, it was really weird. She was all jittery and it was like she was scared of us of something."

"Really?" Taka questioned as he pondered, crossing his arms inquisitively as he pressed one of his fists into his chin. "Yes, that is rather peculiar…did she say what she was doing perchance?"

"Aye." Sakura stated doubtfully, "She stated that she was going for a brief walk, but she was carrying a duffle bag for some reason, so I have doubts that was the only thing she was doing."

"Hmm…" Taka's eyes closed as he contemplated the information, trying to come up with any reasons that the petite girl could have that would involve a duffle bag. Granted, he knew that it was a rather extensive list, but there had to be some reason.

"Oh, I know!" Hina suddenly interrupted excitedly, her fist clapping against her palm in her 'Ah Ha!' moment. "Maybe she's going to go exercise!"

Exercise? Yes, that could be one reason. A bag of workout clothes and clean casual wear for afterward would be the simplest idea. However, "Then why would she be acting like that? I would think that there wouldn't be a need to be so secretive if all you were doing was simple exercise."

"You don't get a girl's heart at all." Hina blew some air in exasperation, to the moral committee member's surprise. "Obviously she's self-conscious about her body and doesn't want people to know about it."

Taka's eyebrow rose incredulously at that bit, but he wasn't able to comment before Sakura gave her own thoughts, "That is a possibility, yes. I have met many a person who were not comfortable with their selves and sought to improve alone for fear of ridicule. It is not as farfetched as you might believe."

"Examples?" Taka questioned, still not quite convinced. Which quickly turned by the fighter's next word.

"Me."

"…Ah, my apologies." Well, that certainly wasn't intended. Now he felt quite mortified with himself for asking, possibly more so then when he had mistaken her for a boy. It was a complete mistake on his part and he knew it. it certainly didn't help that Hina was now glaring at him like he was the lowest scum on the earth right now, nor that Sakura wasn't even looking at him anymore.

So, in an attempt to move away from the awkwardness of the conversation, he gave a quick cough into his hand and straightened up to give his report on his findings.

"Hmm?" only to cut himself off when he noticed something out of the corner of his eye that immediately drew on his full attention.

There, walking just beyond the three and about ten feet behind the two girls was someone, but it wasn't anyone he recognized. They were rather tall, roughly about some hundred-seventy centimeters tall, but it was hard to tell since they were standing rather hunched over at the moment and moving in a slow, almost awkward way with their arms moving in sync with the corresponding leg instead of the usual way of most people do with the opposite. There were also their clothes that made them look suspicious, since they were adorned in a large white coat that looked like it came from a lab of some sort, black pants, a black turtleneck, and black boots of some sort that were mostly cover by the pant legs. However, the thing that held the most of his attention was the completely covering black mask they wore on their head that was adorned with large eyes, a massive grin that wouldn't be out of place in a horror show, and a red mark on the forehead that looked eerily familiar.

For a brief second, he stared in confusion. Where on earth did they come from? They weren't there when he arrived, and he was sure that the girls would have said something if they had seen anyone else, so they had to have shown up just now. But that didn't make sense since, if he was judging this right from where he saw them heading, they would have had to have come from the dining hall.

But, that couldn't be it, right? After all, the doors had been locked for night time, they shouldn't have been able to get in there. Yet, that was the only thing that would make sense since the only other way they could be coming from that direction would be that they had snuck by all three of them without being seen in the large area, and he highly doubted that to be the case.

The Ultimate Moral's eyes narrowed as he moved to intercept, intentionally brushing his hand against Sakura's shoulder to catch the girl's attentions as he called out the stranger.

"You there!" He spoke clearly and concisely, making it so that there was no way that they couldn't have heard him. However, it would seem that they couldn't hear him through the mask, or they were possibly ignoring him as they made no move to acknowledge him, seemingly content to continue their weird walk. Frowning at being ignored, he quickly stepped up to reprimand them and grabbed the stranger's shoulder to make it so that they had no chance of snubbing him. "You there! I don't what you think you are doing, but it…"

And then they moved a bit and he caught a glimpse of something that made his heart leap into his throat and silenced him promptly. For in their left hand was a large kitchen knife, the stainless-steel glinting in the artificial lights as they turned to him. Before he could get a word out, their right hand reached up to the hand he'd grabbed them with, and quickly pried it loose with their thumb biting into his palm. Then, they straightened their wrist out which had the added effect of twisting his arm uncomfortably and leaving him open for their next move.

Quickly he tried to step back before they could strike, hoping that he would be able to stop whatever they planned, but he wasn't quick enough as they widened their stance and caught his leg with their own, and proceeded to bury their left elbow into his stomach before following up with the back of their hand shooting right up to meet his nose as he recoiled from the blow and causing him to see spots. Dazed and winded, he could do nothing as they quickly turned on their heel with his still trapped arm firmly in their grasp. They had him defenseless as they finished moving only now they were to his back with his arm hyper extended behind his head, and just before he could get his barring straight, they proceeded to drop down and using the leverage of it to physically throw him over their shoulder and onto the floor where he collapsed in a heap before the startled girls.

That wasn't to say that they had been idle. The moment that Taka had taken on his stern visage, they had quickly gotten out of their seats to get a good look at this strange newcomer for themselves. However, the sudden escalation of events caught them off guard.

However, unlike Asahina who froze up at the sight of such violence, Sakura instinctually stopped to analyze the style before her as it was happening. And what she saw was rather intriguing and concerning.

Coughing, Taka was barely able to focus on what was happening around him as he tried to get the air back into his lungs after they were forced out for a second time in as short span of three seconds, but he did manage to catch sight of the masked individual, but that was no relief since they were in mid twist to throw the very knife they'd been holding. With his diaphragm currently pounding as his lungs fought to draw breath and his arm limp and hurt, all he could do was watch breathlessly as the kitchenware flew over his head at the two behind him.

Like the world was moving in slow motion, he watched helplessly as the blade soared through the air in a gleaming ark, the sharp steel practically glided toward its target with murderous intent. For a fraction of a second, he could see his own self reflected in the clean surface of the knife, his eyes wide with fear, horror, and hopelessness to the situation at hand. He followed the projectile as best he could, forcing himself to turn so that it didn't leave his sight even with the pain in his arm, but there was nothing he could do. And once his eyes flicked over to where the carving tool was headed, he wanted to scream.

Hina…It was aimed at Hina! The masked man had thrown the knife at the stunned girl. They were trying to hurt her, and he could do nothing but watch as she stood there like a dear in the headlights as the blade arched right at her head. He wanted to scream, to tell her to get away

And then…something moved.

Then, there was a shout, a scream, a clatter of steel, and…fury.

"Bastard!"

---

This was it.

Chihiro gulped as he stood before the doors to the pool, those words rattling around in his mind as he stood there with his bag of supplies for his meeting with Mondo, the Ultimate Biker Gang Leader, and all around badass. This was his chance to change things, to become more then what he was, be more than the wimpy little crossdressing freak that he knew he was and start truly making his stride to be a real man.

He felt all sorts of emotions as he tried to sort through them all, as well trying to calm down his racing heart. His hands felt clammy as they shook from his nerves, and he felt like he was about to pass out. Breathing had become rather difficult as his heart seemed to have gotten into a fight with his lungs over who got to have more room in his chest. He felt excited, this would be the first male friend he had who would know of the secret that haunted him every waking day of his life, but he also felt nervous and scared for that same reason. He felt determined to see this through, and yet he couldn't seem to get his legs to move forward, nor could he get his hands to stop wringing the bag strap.

A part of him felt guilty though, like he was betraying the trust of one of his friends by doing this. He knew that Junko didn't have a very high opinion on the biker king and even more he knew that he was going behind her back by doing this. She had shown him more support than anyone before, and that was both before and after she had found out his secret. These nightly exercises with her had already been amazing, and he truly was starting to feel comfortable with it, even if it meant they were bending the rules a bit to do them.

However, as he forced a determined expression onto his face and approached the door leading to the lockers of the pool, he steeled himself. It wasn't like that, not at all. If anything, it was his way of showing her that her training was working, and that he was growing stronger. He was about to tell someone his darkest secret, knowing full well that he was leaving open a chance to be judged very harshly. He was going to put her words into practice and be confident in himself.

Just as soon as he opened the door, and a whole new avenue in his life would begin. Whether or not this turned out to work, he would at the very least be able to say that he tried. And if the biker decided that he wouldn't help him out, then at least he would know instead of hoping and assuming. He could get this monkey off of his back and be able to move on.

Right as soon as he…opened the door…and crossed the room to where the boy's locker room was and where Mondo was waiting for him. Then all he'd to do was swipe his handbook…that would be all that he'd need to do to get the ball rolling. Yeah, he could do that…sure…just had to open this door first.

"...Maybe I should go back and check in with the girls?" he pondered softly in what was certainly not an excuse to leave this tension behind, no sir, not at all. After all, he had left them in a very suspicious manner, and it really wouldn't do to let them believe he was up to something. He had just let the fear of getting caught mess with his head a bit and so he'd tried to make a swift but polite exit, only to stumble in the act. Plus, they might end up stumbling upon him and Mondo exercising together and that would be its own little catastrophe in the making. Yes, it might be best to go back and clear things up with them first, then Mondo.

He nodded to himself and made to turn and took two steps…but then immediately stopped himself.

"No," he stated firmly with conviction in his heart. "If I run away now, I'll never stop running. I need to do this, for my sake, and to prove that she was right. I'm strong."

He turned back to the purplish pink doors with a glare, as if daring them to tell him otherwise. He took a small step forward, chanting to himself those same two words as if in a trance.

"I'm strong… I'm strong… I'm strong…" over and over he chanted this mantra aloud, and with each repeat, he forced himself forward. Progress was slow, and it felt like he was moving through sludge from the amount of effort it was taking him. His heart pounding like drums in his ears and drowning out all other sounds aside from his chant, and his legs quivered as if they were about to take of at any minute.

However, he pushed through all of it, pushed aside the fears, pushed aside the loathing, pushed through his hesitations and with one last burst of effort, grabbed the door and…!

*Thwack* Was immediately knocked on his but by the door roughly swinging open and hitting him in the face.

"Ow…" He murmured from where he lay, one hand rubbing at his poor face while the other went to his abused posterior. That was far from how he wanted this to go, and he felt mortified that he had been so focused that he couldn't even realize that the door was opening until after it had hit him. Now he held none of the motivation that had been pushing him forward, only the desire to go back and curl up into a little ball of shame remained.

However, that would have to wait apparently as just as he was about to get up, he heard the shocked and confused shout of the very person he'd come to speak too as they said, "You!?"

Whelp, it was too late to leave now. He already had Mondo standing before him, so he might as well commit to his goal. So, gathering up his courage as best he could, he said, "H-Hi?"

Smooth.

---

"You…! How dare you?"

Sakura growled out as she glared at the masked figure before her with contempt in her heart and fury in her soul. Her teeth were grit tight as she strained to contain the molten fury in her soul at what this fool had tried to do and her powerful muscles turned an almost hellish red from the blood boiling beneath the surface of her skin. If she were to start sweating, she wouldn't have been surprised if steam were to start wafting off of her form. But that was all an afterthought compared to the steely focus she had laid on the absolute bastard before her with the massive grin practically taunting her.

How dare he. How dare he throw a weapon at her best friend, and so brazenly in front of her as well! Did they really think that she wouldn't realize, that she would just stand there and watch while a knife was flying at the sweet donut lover without reacting? Or were they just that cocky that they thought they could use Taka as a distraction to guarantee a kill off of the ponytailed girl behind her?

She didn't know, and quite frankly it mattered not to her. For all she cared about right now was stopping this clearly mad individual from continuing.

"S-Sakura!" her friend cried from behind her and she felt her friend grab her arm in distress. "You're bleeding!"

"It's fine." She dismissed with her calmest voice that she could manage, but she couldn't deny that her friend was right. Gouged lightly into her right bicep was a small cut from when she had thrown herself in the way of the hurled blade and gotten nicked. To be fair, had she had been the target she had no doubt that she could have stopped it with little worry, but because their target had been on the other side of their little table, she had to make do with what she could.

"But you're hurt!" Hina shouted in distress as she pushed one of the napkins into the cut to stem the blood flow. Sakura wanted to tell her that she had been through worse but didn't get an opportunity as her friend turned to glare at the masked figure with an angry shout, "Hey! What's your problem!?"

Unfortunately, her question would go unanswered as, in a shocking turn of events, the figure raised their hand, finger pointed to the sky as if to make a bold proclamation… then turned on their heel and booked it down the hall at top speed before any of them could do anything about it.

"H-Hey! Wait!" Taka shouted as he struggled to get back up and give chase, his right arm still tingling and his chest throbbing. "Come back here!"

"After them!" Sakura shouted as she took off as well with Hina right behind her, the swimmer stopping only momentarily to help the moral to his feet before both chased after. However, that was all an afterthought to the head of the Ogami clan. Her main focus was on the fluttering cloak of the masked figure's coat as it dashed into the classroom closest to the entrance.

She paused momentarily and narrowed her eyes at that. Surely, they had to realize that they had just run into was a dead end, right? There was no way that it could be this easy. However, she had no other ideas, so she decided to bite the bullet and entered, fully prepared and anticipating an attack on her person.

Only for there to be nothing.

Sakura blinked in confusion, but that act of doing so did nothing to remove any illusion that might have been in place. The room was empty, only the standard desks for student and the chalkboard were there as per the norm. Her gaze wondered about as well, but aside from the horrible taste in wallpaper on the walls, there was nothing worth note.

Her eyes narrowed, and she took a few slow, cautious steps into the room, her every sense straining as she tried to figure out where her target had gone. Her gaze sharp as she analyzed every corner of the room with excruciating detail and she stilled her breath so that she wouldn't miss out on any sounds. Her instincts that had been honed by numerous battles and through grueling training were working overtime in anticipation of a possible surprise attack.

However, it was rewarded with nothing. There was no ambush, no attack, just an empty room.

"Sakura!" she heard her friend cry out as both she and Taka arrived at the door with trepidation in the swimmer's gaze. "Are you o…"

Her friend cut herself off as she and the moral looked around to learn what she had already discovered. "They're gone."

"How?" Taka questioned breathlessly, in part from his still recovering lungs and the rest from his complete disbelief. "That shouldn't be possible. Where did they go!?"

"I don't know." Was all the fighter could offer the near hysterical moral as he stumbled around the desks trying to find where the mysterious figure had disappeared to. While he was doing that though, Hina had moved to Sakura's side with the handful of napkins to again stave off the blood.

Offering her friend, a smile and a nod of thanks, the fighter returned to her thoughts. Taka was right of course, there shouldn't be any way that they could have disappeared like that. The room was just that, a room, barren of more than a singular entrance. There should be only one way in or out, only one way they could have gone.

So where did they go?

"Ah!" Sakura was dragged from her thoughts when she heard her friend startle and both she and the moral committee leader turned to her in concern, only to find themselves shocked and confused when they locked their eyes on just what had stunned her.

There, standing right in the doorway with their hand grasping the knob in an overly exaggerated fashion, their body stretched out comically, almost like a child after being told that the floor in the room was lava, was the masked figure. Though they couldn't see their face, the unknown person seemed to be looking at them with a look like deer in the headlights as they had frozen up by the sound of Hina's gasp of shock. For a brief second, they were all silent, no one moved for fear that it would set something off. Their gazes locked on the disturbing masked figure's face while theirs was on the three of them in intimidation.

Then, Taka moved ever so slightly forward.

*SLAM* went the door as the masked person yanked the door shut in response.

As if they had been freed from a spell, the sound restarted their minds and allowed them to move once more, all three of them rushing the door with the moral taking point this time as they rushed out into the hall in the hopes of catching the phantom figure. They spilled out fast, sparing no more than a moment to glance around before Taka caught sight of their quandary as they turned the corner leading to the rest of the school.

"There!" Taka pointed to let the other two know where he was headed before giving chase, Sakura and Hina not far behind. As they turned the corner, they all saw the corner of the coat as it flapped behind the mystery person before disappearing into the A/V room with the door slamming behind them. Quickly they rushed the door, and the moral grabbed the door knob before turning back to the girls with a firm nod of his head. They returned the nod with ones of their own, both just as eager to get some answers as he was and stop whatever this person was planning, and they all quickly rushed in.

"Huh…?" questioned Hina after a second, but she was far from alone in her confusion as both Sakura and Taka glanced about in disbelief and bewilderment. Once again, the room that they knew they saw someone rush into, that they knew for a fact should have someone in, was barren of any life. Not a soul beyond their own stood there and it left them completely befuddled.

"That…that can't be right." Taka stumbled as he took steps forward as he glanced about, trying and failing to understand the trick here. "We saw them go in here, right? It wasn't just me, right!?"

"Nay, we all beheld the same sight." Sakura reassured the equally confused teen as she gazed about herself, trying to see where they could be hiding with narrowed gaze. That was now twice that this person had managed the impossible. Rushing into a room with no way to escape, only to seemingly ghost their way out before they could catch them. If they head out right now, would the same happen again? She didn't know, but as they spent time looking around, she kept the door in her peripheral vision just in case.

---

"So…you, uh. You feel better?"

"Mmhmm." The small girl nodded from where she sat down in the area leading to the locker rooms without looking up to the biker sitting next to her. However, she still didn't raise her head from where she'd laid it on her knees, just as it hadn't since he'd knocked her down not too long ago.

Mondo rubbed at the back of his head in shame, trying to suppress the guilt he felt for accidentally clocking the tiny girl Chihiro with the door. It wasn't like it was intentional or anything. He had just felt frustrated that whoever it was that called him out here had decided to waste his time.

It was an honest mistake, really. He hadn't wanted to make her mad. Cause she had to be mad, right? That's why she wasn't talking to him and refused to raise her head to look him in the eyes. At least, that was how it always went down with the littler girls he'd met until this school, so that had to be it.

Right?

He slumped against the wall in exasperation, barely resisting the urge to sigh in dismay. He hated this, this inability to keep his cool around girls, constantly scaring them off and causing them to resent him. It was all he seemed to be good at whenever it didn't involve punching out punks, or motorcycles. Everything else just seemed to fold the wrong way and left him feeling like the lowest scum on the earth.

Against his will, his thoughts turned back to what Byakuya had said about him, specifically the part about him being an equivalent to plankton. While his disagreed with most every other part in that blond pain-in-the-neck's insult, in fact just remembering it was making him mad, he couldn't deny that he certainly felt like that sea junk; maybe even lower. And when he turned his head to glance at the little girl, he only felt even lower.

This would be so much less difficult if it had been one of the guys he'd run into. With them he at least understood where he stood with them, so they could just apologize, maybe punch it out if they took it that way, and then they could move on. Girls were just really too difficult for him to understand.

He finally gave up on holding back his sigh. Only thing he could do now was the only tactic he had for dealing with women. Accept the blame and apologize, no matter whose fault it was.

"I'm sorry." So, it was very disorienting when the very words he was about to say came from the chick he was about to say them to.

Sputtering for a second from having the wind pulled from his sails, he turned to look at her incredulously. "The he- I'm the one who hit you with the door. Why are you apologizing?"

It made no sense to the burly biker. It was like punching someone in the face only for them to apologize for being in the way of your fist. There was no logic behind that kind of thinking. If Chihiro hadn't shook her head in denial of his claim, he would have seriously started to wonder if he had caused something to come loose in the chick's brain.

"No, not that. I know you didn't mean it. It was an accident." She claimed, though without realizing that she was making him feel all the guiltier for it. "No, I wanted to apologize for wasting your time like this."

Wasting his…? What was she talking about? Mondo tried to ponder what she could mean by that. "Hey, come on. You aren't a waste of time. I'm the one that hit you with a door, if anything, I'm the one wasting your time."

However, the programmer wouldn't hear it, finally lifting her little head and turning to him with a look so sad that she might as well have slugged him in the gut for how it robbed him of his breath. "No, I wouldn't have gotten hit with it in the first place if I had just gone in on time like I was supposed to. But I held you up for so long that you decided to leave. That wouldn't have happened if I wasn't such a coward."

And then she buried her face into her hands again and, to his heart's chagrin, started to sob right then. Oh, how he hated himself right now, just about at the point where he was tempted to walk right up to the door of the girl's locker room and try to get the Gatling gun to pump him full of lead. If there was one thing his mother had all but drilled into his and his brother's head, it was that a man should never make a girl cry; the very thing that he just caused to happen.

Yet…hang on. Something about that didn't seem right. "Wait, you didn't hold me up. I'm only here because some clown thought it'd be funny to lead me on with some fake note."

The little girl beside him flinched for some reason he couldn't understand, but then she looked up at him with those large, soulful eyes that reminded him of his little puppy's. He in turn flinched at that, not having expected that nostalgic kick in the gut, but he wasn't able to say anything because he was too busy being lost in the small girl's eyes. Her puffy and tearful gaze had him transfixed, mesmerized to the point that words failed him. When she finally looked away and began to stand up, he finally allowed himself to breathe.

She started to walk away from the wall with her head drooped down and her fingers fiddling in front of her as he watched on, wondering what she was doing. For a moment all was silent between the two of them, an air of awkwardness filling the room as one didn't know if they should say what they wanted while the other knew not what they wanted to say. It was starting to look like a standoff where the first to speak would be the loser in this competition of silence, and the longer it went on the more nervous Mondo felt.

Eventually, the petite programmer stopped, just before her bag that she'd left in the middle of the room and kneeled down to rifle through it. Mondo was silent as he watched on, wondering where she was going with this, but remained politely quiet so as not to upset the diminutive female again. Eventually, she stood up, clutching something in her hand that he couldn't quite see from his spot, and then muttered something that he had to really strain his ears to hear.

"Actually, I'm the one who wrote that note."

---

"Get…huff...back here!"

The sound echoed through the halls of the school as three students chased after the masked figure for what had to have been the twentieth time by this point, but as with every time prior, the masked figure ducked into a room, slamming the door shut, and just as usual, by the time they caught up and yanked open the door…

"Empty…again." Taka groaned as he slammed the door to the school store closed with a mighty bang, not willing to even bother searching it again after how many other rooms resulted in the same. His groan was echoed by Hina as she put her face into her hands, more exasperated and frustrated then tired at this point.

"This is so stupid!" she whined angerly, completely sick of having to deal with this nonsense. "How the heck do they keep disappearing like that!?"

"I do not know." Sakura stated with her own frustrations finally manifesting in her own voice. "It is like trying to catch a phantom."

"At this point, I'm tempted to agree." Taka stated as well, even in spite of having been tossed by the individual in question. "Whatever the case is, phantom or not, it's clear that this isn't working."

"Yeah, I know." The swimming pro agreed even as she used her sleeve to wipe off some of the sweat on her forehead. This might not have been enough of a chase to exhaust her, but even she couldn't deny that it was starting to wear on her. Well, her nerves if nothing else.

"Whomever they are, it is clear that we won't be able to best them in terms of endurance alone." Sakura stated, though even she was starting to feel the strain of this game of cats and mouse. And it certainly wasn't helping that the loss of blood was starting to get to her. Even now she was feeling the strain on her body from pushing it this far despite her injury as the pounding of her blood in her ears slowly draining out to try to compensate for the amount that had already dribbled out along her arm. Though she wasn't going to be in danger just yet, experience had taught her quite well in this, she knew that she couldn't afford to continue like this.

"She's right." Taka agreed as he glanced her way, concern evident even without him saying it directly. Hina's gaze was even more telling and she made no effort to hide her concern. They were both worried for her sake and were nervous that if this wasn't stopped soon, the fighter might be in danger. Napkins could only do so much after all, and even less when they were constantly being pulled away to focus on a chase. It didn't even matter that most of the flow had stopped by this point, it still needed to be properly treated and wrapped.

"But what can we do?" The swimmer pondered as she walked over to her friend and started to apply pressure to the wound, a task that she was given a nod of thanks for. "We've already tried corralling them and that didn't work, and we've been chasing them all over the place. What else can we do?"

Taka couldn't even say, because he had nothing either. They had tried so hard already to outwit this fellow, trying all kinds of formations and strategies to catch them off guard. But with the need to stay together to prevent being picked off, there just wasn't enough mobility for them to successfully sneak up on the masked person. There just wasn't anything he could think of.

Bait would be an idea, but that would require one of them to be willingly be put into harm's way, and there was no guarantee that it would catch the scientist luchador that was making them run about like a buch of mice and playing them for fools all the while. No, that was just too dangerous.

"…I have an idea."

The two smaller teens turned to look at the Ogami as she raised her head from her thoughts, both giving her their full attention. At this point, they were willing to try just about anything if it meant stopping this fiend in their tracks. But the next words out of her mouth left them both in a state of shock.

"I will be the bait."

---

"Huh?"

Mondo could barely hear his own voice over the sound of something in his head grinding to a halt. He was just so confused right now, absolutely befuddled by what he'd just heard, and he almost stuck his finger into his ear to see if there wasn't something in there messing with his hearing. He shook his head once, just to be sure that he still had all his marbles, and when he didn't hear a rattle he decided that it would be better to actually ask instead.

"Run that by me again?" he requested, just to be sure. "Because I could have sworn you just said that you wrote this note."

In an effort to make sure that he wasn't going crazy, he pulled the letter out of his pocket and did his best to smooth out the wrinkles to read its contents once again. After a moment, he arrived at the conclusion that, no, he did not misremember. It said exactly what he thought it had, and that it told him to go to the boy's locker room and wait.

To make it even more confusing, the small girl nodded even though she couldn't see it with her back to him. "Y-Yes, that's right. I wrote that letter so that you would meet with me. I'm sorry for any confusion, but I had to meet with you before morning."

"What?" That couldn't be right, because, "But, then why did you ask me to meet you in the boy's locker room? Ain't it impossible for you to get in there."

The chick was silent for a moment, but then, to his further confusion, her response to his question was to raise her head, with a soft statement of, "I just…need to show you something. Something…important." and start walking towards…

"Hey, what are you…? Hey!" Mondo scrambled to stand up when he saw her stop right before the door to the men's locker room and lifted up what he could now see was actually her student handbook…and was about to put it against the scanner by the door.

What the heck did she think she was doing!? He might have only gotten his information from a second account, but even he knew damn well what would happen to her if he let her go through with this. Was this what she wanted him there for, to be a witness to her death!? Idly his eyes briefly moved up to gaze at the massive war gun hanging from the ceiling, aimed right at the apparently suicidal girl and gleaming in what might have been murderous anticipation if guns could feel. He narrowed his eyes at that and pushed off with all of his strength with the floor making a loud bang from his feet slamming down on it.

Not again. He refused to just sit there and watch as someone died right in front of him. He refused to stand by and let someone kick the bucket on his watch. He'd already failed once when that Junko chick was nearly impaled by that psychotic bear and he just froze up like a coward, forcing others to take control to stop her from being murdered. He wasn't about to let something like that happen again.

However, he wasn't quite fast enough. By the time he managed to cross the room, she had already pressed the little tablet to the scanner. He gnashed his teeth when he heard something click, but it was tossed aside as irrelevant. Might have been the gun for all he knew, but it didn't matter. He wasn't about to let her die like this! So, with all the grace of a rhino ramming into a wall, he slammed into the little girl and quickly covered her with a shout of, "Look out, stupid!"

She cried out when he collided with her, and again when they hit the floor, but he wasn't focused on that. All he was focused on was bracing for the inevitable feeling of sharp lead slamming into his back, piercing through his jacket without remorse and rendering his flesh asunder. He waited for the horrifying sound of gunfire as gunpowder exploded in the chamber to launch the tiny metal round at high speeds as the shell clicked to the ground to signal the end of its job as the burning smell of sulfur lingered in the air. He waited with baited breath for the brutal sensation of his life being ripped from his body, slowly and agonizingly as ammunition rendered him nothing more than a smoldering corpse.

…So, what the hell was taking so long?

Slowly, hesitantly even, he started to uncurl, almost afraid that this was some kind of trap to let his guard down. When nothing happened, he gave the now open doorway that he'd crashed through a momentary glance, and when he didn't die a horrible death via the rotating barrel of a hanging death, he turned back to look at the stunned chick below him with a scowl.

"What the hell where you fucking thinking!?" He growled down at the diminutive teen in indignation, with his pomp pressed against her forehead as he expressed his fury. "I don't know what the fuck kinda dirt that god damned bear has on you, but that's no excuse to try to off yourself! Do you have any idea what the others would do if you died!?"

He didn't know why but looking at her completely lost expression only seemed to piss him off more. It was like he was speaking a foreign language here or something. And it didn't help that Chihiro didn't respond with anything more then, "I'm sorry, but I wouldn't have died. Not from that anyway."

He wouldn't have…! For a moment Mondo contemplated just how much force he could put into a punch that it would still feel like a punch, but not be technically a punch so that he could knock that stupid line of logic out of her head without breaking his rule against hitting girls. There was no freaking way that she wouldn't have died if she had scanned the wrong door.

But, then why didn't the gun go off? It was supposed to go off, she had scanned it on the boy's locker room door after all. Yet, it didn't go off. It should have but didn't. But the only way that it wouldn't go off was if a guy had scanned it. But, she wasn't a girl…right?

He could feel the gears in his head had started grinding as he tried to work out this logical fallacy, trying to understand what was causing it. What could be the reason that a girl could get into the boy's locker ro-

"No fucking way." He whispered as he pulled back, his eyes widening in shock as something finally clicked, something that he'd dismissed as impossible out of hand and caused his jaw to drop. It couldn't be, right? There was just no way, it wasn't possible, it didn't make sense. Yet, it would explain everything, it fit with everything that he'd come to know. And it fit with what he'd learned from his letter.

But he would never be able to know for sure unless he asked, would he? No, he knew that he couldn't find out without hearing it from the source. But it was extremely awkward to ask about such a thing, and if it was true it would destroy the very foundation of his beliefs.

However, he had to know for sure. So, after swallowing his nerves, he asked the dreaded question.

"Are you…a dude?"

---

The silence that greeted him was very telling.

"Alright Sakura, this'll sting a bit."

The Ultimate Martial Artist nodded to the Ultimate swimming pro in understanding as she held up a cloth coated in antiseptic. Hina returned the nod with one of her own and placed the cleanser against the nearly closed knife wound. Sakura hissed as the chemicals went to work in decontaminating the cut but gave no further noise of discomfort. She couldn't afford too.

Normally, she would have loved to be spending this quality time with her friend, the two of them hanging out and relaxing in the infirmary after a rigorous spar or something of the like and recuperating to the comforting sounds of silence. She would have appreciated the time to wind down after their running around with a nice cup of protein coffee and some time spent with her companion.

But sadly, that was not to be. Instead of a comforting silence between two friends, there was a feeling of tenseness and dread that hung in the air and left them feeling stressed and uncomfortable. Where there should be two friends bonding in their friendship was instead two people waiting in anticipation for the arrival of a third unwanted party to come and spring their self-made trap while their third party waited in the corner out of sight. And most of all, there was no feeling of the rush that came from a successful work-out routine, rather a feeling of wariness that engulfed any feeling of a good mood.

Oh, how they both wished to stop this feeling of tension, to simply talk about it and get it all out in the open, to confront their feelings and release their fears out into the air. However, they couldn't afford to just yet. With how silent they'd quickly learned their quarry was, they knew that any sound they made could lead to them missing the masked individual's movements. A dangerous mistake if there ever was one, as there was no telling what might happen should they mess this up.

So, they stayed silent, despite how much Hina was trembling as she grabbed the medical wrapping, even with the way she bit her lip from her nerves, and in spite of the fact that she wanted to simply rush to her dorm room with her best friend and hide them both away till the dawn broke, she kept her voice locked tightly in her mouth. She was afraid, terrified of what could happen should this plan fail. She was scared for herself yes, but even more she feared that this could spell the end of one of her friends lives if she messed this up. Her nerves all felt like they had become hypersensitive and the stimulation was becoming too much for her to handle.

Yet, still she kept quiet. Silent as a mouse as she walked back over to her friend and started wrapping her wound.

However, just as she made the first loop in wrapping her friend's injury, she was startled when she felt a hand on her shoulder. For a brief second, she feared the worst, flinching heavily in fear, but when she followed the arm the hand was attached to, she found herself gazing right into the warm, caring eyes of her best friend. In that moment, just from looking into Sakura's eyes, she could see a message within those pale-blue eyes, silently stating that, "Everything will be fine. No matter what happens, I will protect you Hina, my friend."

Instantly, Hina could feel herself calming down, not completely, but more than enough to calm her racing heart and bring her trembles to a standstill. She even managed to give a small grin of her own which was reciprocated in kind. Feeling better now, she resumed her task with gusto, determined to make sure that her best friends words would be made true.

Sadly, this little interaction was missed by Kiyotaka, a fact that he would have lamented had he not been busy with his own duties. He stood still as he gazed around the corner, waiting just beyond the doors to the entrance hall in anticipation, prepared to rush out the moment he spotted his target.

Normally, he would have been opposed to such sneaky tactics in the first place, preferring to straight out confront the fiend himself. However, desperate times called for a change in strategy. There was one thing that he'd realized after about the thirteenth or so time, and that was the way that their mysterious figure reacted to them. Specifically, what it was that seemed to get them running the quickest.

Maybe it was the mask hindering their field of view of something, but the white coat wearing figure never seemed to notice them, and consequently start running, until one of them shouted. The seventeenth time had been the closest, with him nearly getting his hand on them before Hina had called out and got their attention.

Didn't mean that they had to sock him in the nose though, the offended part of his face even felt a twinge at the memory.

The biggest problem they'd faced is that none of them were quite quiet enough for sneaking up on the stranger as a group. They'd found that out quickly too, along with the fact that they always tended to check the last room they'd disappeared into unless they were waiting around it, so the plan now was to use that to their advantage. He was waiting here in the entrance hall, the only area closest to the infirmary that still had a line of sight of the school store. As it was the last room they'd vanished in, they were sure to go there first. When they realized that he and the athletic girls weren't there, they were sure to move on.

While they were in the store though, that would be when he would start the operation. While their back was turned, he would quickly move behind one of the pillars that broke up the hallway and keep an eye on them. Once there, he would wait for them to move and depending on where they went, he would react accordingly, waiting for them to get close enough to his position so that he could quickly subdue them, or at least hold them up long enough to get the girls attention.

Fortunately, that would be the easiest part. As the head of the disciplinary committee, he had had to deal with more than a few rapscallions in his time, and occasionally he would have to subdue them by force. He didn't ever engage in the acts of violence himself, thank you very much, he more preferred a nonviolent verbal discipline and a lecture, but that didn't mean he didn't know how to end a fight if it came to that. They had been lucky that he hadn't expected the sudden aggression when he'd confronted them earlier because he would have likely taken them down like the other punks he'd had to deal with in his time.

With any luck, he would be able to do so hear too.

As for Sakura being bait though, that was to guarantee the plan's success. For some unknown reason, this criminal seemed to have targeted her ever since they'd tagged her with that knife, so it would stand to reason that, if their theory was right and they were trying to kill Sakura, then they would most likely go after her once she seems to be alone in a room. Naturally, they had to dress her wound first, it simply wouldn't do to have this whole plan only for her to pass out from blood loss.

Once they finished that, Sakura would pretend to go to sleep, and Hina would hide behind the wall on the side the door opened from. This would both keep her in the clear, but still allow her to move in quickly once he shouted for them. Then Sakura would follow after her, and their combined strength should be more than enough to capture the masked person.

So now, all there was to do was wait.

Fortunately, it didn't seem like he had to wait long, as just around the corner where the A/V room was, he spotted the criminal slinking around. He slowed he breathing as he observed so as to prevent them from hearing him and watched as, just as expected, they silently creeped over to the door to the school store, their moves almost resembling that of a cartoon character with their arms held up by their heads and their legs being lifted far higher than necessary, and quietly opened the door to peek inside.

Taking his chance, he moved over to the stone pillar as quickly and silently as he could, then peaked out to see if he'd caught their attention. Fortune seemed to be smiling on him, as they turned away from the store only just then but made no indication of having heard him. However, as expected, since they didn't see the three of them, they started looking around a bit paranoid.

Fortune continued to shine on him as well since, when they started to move, they started in the direction of the infirmary, just as planned. Carefully moving to keep them just in his line of sight, Taka stayed tense, waiting for his opportunity to strike. He watched, tense as he'd even been, as they slowly started making their way down the hallway, and once they were almost by the door he moved from behind the pillar to around the corner of the hall, just to make sure he was close enough that they couldn't react in time.

As he did though, he saw their head raise up and started darting around, like a meerkat listening for danger, and he nearly cursed. They had nearly spotted him with the sudden move and he hadn't been anticipating it. If they caught him now, then the whole plan would be up in smoke. He held his breath though, pressed against the wall as flat as he could, and leaned over to the edge to see where they were.

They were still there, listening for him, but they were slowly creeping along as they did. He resisted the urge to sigh in relief. Good, they hadn't heard him. Now all they had to do was get just a little bit closer to the infirmary and then he could-

And they were tiptoeing right past it without even giving it a second glance.

'What!' Taka screamed in his head once he saw that, completely confused as to what this could mean. What the heck were they doing!? Why were they all the sudden ignoring Sakura when they seemed like they had been aiming for her till now? What was going on? And then he saw them continue walking and knew that he had to follow them.

His eyes wandered over to the door, wondering if he should alert the others. He shook his head. No, if he made any noise now then he'd alert them it'd completely ruin any chance of salvaging this. He would have to continue on his own for now, corner them, and hope that he could take this person without them.

Nodding to his own plan, he started after them, slowly so as not to make too much noise. He followed as they did their ridiculous sneak walk all the way down the hall, past the bathrooms and the way to the gymnasium, and all the way to the stairs. He did have to stop and duck into the men's room for a second when they suddenly paused right at the base of the steps and started looking around, as he was still too far away to make any sudden leaps to nab them, but after a moment, they seemed to decide that they were fine and started up the stairs.

That was where things all went out the window. The second they reached the bend between the set of stairs, they paused. Thinking that it was okay, he moved to the bottom of the stairs and hid to see if things went anything like he thought they would. But then they turned the bend and started running up the remaining steps, completely throwing away any pretense of stealth for speed.

Caught off guard, Taka panicked. This was their only shot at stopping them before it was too late, he couldn't let them get away now! He wasn't sure what it was that made them suddenly decide that they needed to rush, but he would have to think on it later. Right now, the only thing that mattered was apprehending the masked man now!

Forgoing his usual hatred for breaking the rule about not running in the halls, he leaped up the stairs three steps at a time, not slowing even to grab the railing as he made his turn to the second half of the steps. As he did, he felt a sense of Deja vu as he caught a tail end glimpse of their coat tail as it disappeared around the bend. Internally swearing, as it wouldn't do to vocalize such foul words like his bro was so oft to do, he tried his best to double his pace.

Upon reaching the top, he only had to glance about for a second before he caught the white cloth disappearing into the purple double doors that designated the pool area just before the door shut closed. A scowl formed on his face at being forced to play this game again, but he knew he didn't have a choice. Besides, maybe this time it would work. There couldn't be that many secret hatches or passageways of the second floor after all, right?

So, he rushed in, hoping that he could catch them quickly. Sadly, just as per the norm, the room was vacant of the lab coat wearing luchador, however, he was momentarily distracted when he heard the sounds of someone talking; or rather, one was talking while the other was shouting.

He couldn't make out the voices words, but one of them definitely sounded just like his Bro. And boy did he sound angry; furious even. He must have come across the masked person and tried to confront them, but now they were fighting back and making the biker bring out his bad side to fight them. Yeah, that had to be it! While it didn't explain exactly why Mondo was here, it was ultimately pushed to the side since whatever the case may be, his Bro needed back up, and he needed it now!

Quickly he rushed for the door, thought he did pause for a brief second when he saw one other thing out of the norm as well, being that the door to the men's locker room was open, held that way by a bag haphazardly crammed between it and the door. While that did answer for certain why he could hear the fight in the first place, he brushed it off as unimportant as he threw open the door, letting it bang against the walk as he rushed in with a loud shout of, "Don't worry Bro! I'm here to-"

And then he got a good look at something that he never thought he'd see, a sight that he never believed for a second could happen. His eyes went wide from the shock, and his jaw slowly went slack. His face went pale as the blood fled from it and he choked on his own saliva trying to form words. And to make things even more concerning, Mondo looked to him with a look full of shock, shame, and embarrassment as he said only one thing.

"Uh, I can explain."