9th Chapter
"You sure you're okay Fuu?"
"I sure am!" she replied with a beaming smile pasted on her face.
Two days had gone by after what happened to Fuu. All she did within those days is to lie dead on the bed at her 'room' in the club, resting her body and at the same time to be protected from the eyes of the media. Apparently, the media haven't decided to leave her alone because of the one who has the intent to kill her has not told the police on why he has attacked her. It frustrated Jin in the inside. It was told to Fuu that they are even looking for Mugen, the one who cut his whole arm but failed to locate the rogue.
The manager pouted. "I still think that this is a bad idea."
"Don't worry! I can take care of myself. If Jin got angry with you because of this, I'll take care of it." she reassured her.
"Hey," she nudged her elbow, "how does it feel when two young men with dashing looks are fighting over you?"
Fuu's eyes widened. "Uh What? Fighting over me?"
Is she referring to both Jin and Mugen? She asked to herself. Impossible.
For her, it doesn't matter who's who, what the manager has told her seemed and sounded impossible. There's no way that would happen. Jin treats her like she's his younger sister and Mugen is... Mugen. That kind of thing is outside the bounds of reality.
Fuu imagined that even if she did achieve a drop-dead-gorgeous body, Mugen never go after her, because in the end, he knows how childish she is. That was already established during their first encounter.
She looked at herself at the mirror. She's skinny, has no glow, has no desirable behind and the most important of all, she's nowhere near having a B for a cup size. It's actually embarrassing that she still wears a baby bra instead of wearing an actual one. It has its perks though such as never spending so much money and that running around is not that hard for her since she carrying nothing on her front, though she can't decide if it's really a good thing or it was something insulting for her.
"Manager, I think you're imagining things." Fuu said as she sneered at herself.
The manager frowned and shook, "No, I'm not imagining things. It actually happened last night and the memories are still fresh in my mind." she cleared her throat and started to tell her story.
It was past twelve in the midnight when she decided to take a break from her work. Although her fever was gone already, she can't help but to worry about Fuu. The manager haven't checked on her since she gave the rogue's dinner to him and she doesn't really know if the guy with the black hair already left. The manager let one of the workers to take over for her to check on her.
Even from a distance, she could feel the mixture of hot and cold atmosphere radiating from Fuu's room. The manager guessed that the policeman who hasn't told his name to her had not left yet and she could guess that the idiot vagrant has done something to annoy him but chose to be silent and ignore the rogue. She wasn't wrong when she peeked through the door that was slightly ajar.
Standing near from the black-haired man, Mugen has his hand on the hilt of his sword and gritting his teeth. The policeman on the other hand, just looked at him as cool and calmly as possible.
"What did yah say Fish-face? I ain't afraid to hack yah into a minced meat right now."
The black-haired guy fixed his glasses, "I said that you're such a loose cannon and an idiot." he sighed. "Honestly, who goes slashing someone's arm off?"
"Hey!" Mugen stomped his foot, not caring if Fuu wakes up from his stomping. "The hell yah want me to do?! Let that man smash that broad to death?!"
"You could have subdued him or restrained yourself from almost killing and just knocked him out cold." He complained.
"At least I do a better job at protecting Flatty than you do." Mugen then smirked, indicating that he suddenly got an idea, "Hey, why don't I just take over your job as her guardian. At least I can keep an eye on her and at the same time I can turn her from a nagging flat chick into a desirable woman."
What an asshole. The manager thought to herself.
As she continued to eavesdrop on them, the manager let out an internal gasp when she heard swords clashing. Her eyes widened at the spectacle going on inside Fuu's room. Out of nowhere, the policeman pulled out a short sword and charged at Mugen. Both of them are fast, the policeman being fast at charging at the rouge and Mugen being fast at blocking an incoming attack to him.
They kept quiet for a while as both men struggle to block each other.
"What? Can't admit that maybe I can do your job better?" Mugen mocked him.
The black-haired man distanced himself from the rogue. "That's bullshit."
"Then why are yah so triggered, yah queer."
"I dislike it when people badmouthing Fuu or making dirty images of her in their mind."
Mugen dropped his hands to his side to look at him for a few seconds then grinned maliciously. "Yah in love with her or something?"
The policeman followed his suit and sheathed his sword. "No."
"Then it's okay to get under her skirt." the rogue said while he scratch his chin.
"I thought you didn't like girls with no sex appeal."
He grinned, "I don't, but flatty is still developing. With my help, I can boost it up."
"Whatever reason you give me, I won't hand over her to you in any way."
"Why the hell are you so damn protective of her? I thought that you're not in love with her or something."
The black-haired guy returned to his seat. "No. It's not love, that is because of something called 'paternal instinct'."
Fuu couldn't believe what she heard from the manager. Apparently, apart from the unnamed manager, one of the employees that just arrived that night got intrigued as well when she saw the manager peeping at the room and when she heard unfamiliar voices and recorded everything. With the manager's and the audio recording, the girl couldn't help but to believe them.
Aren't those two worried in a bit that I might overhear them talking about anything like that? She thought to herself.
That was the bad thing for her. The girl wasn't able to hear what the Jin and Mugen were bickering about because she slept like a log. Not even a scream next to her or the lightning striking the rough ground can wake her up from her much wanted sleep.
The girl stared at the window while she process everything in her mind. Those two are idiots. Because of Mugen's presence, his idiocy is rubbing off Jin, saying things that are out of character. Although Fuu admitted that what he said at the end really made sense. Taking care of her for years, enduring all the pain and annoyance of the blunders she gets into, that wasn't an easy task for him and it may be the sole reason why his 'father instincts' strengthen.
"Ms. Nagayama! Quit spacing out during my class will you?!"
Fuu was looking outside the window when her History teacher once again scolded her. She blinked and looked up at him, glaring down at her. All she could do was to apologize with a weak voice.
He sighed, "I'll see you after class hours."
The moment he turned back, Fuu said 'jerk' in a hushed tone and stuck out her tongue then went back to writing her notes.
Fuu wasn't in the mood to entertain her teacher today. When the dismissal bell rang, she quickly made her way to the door but stopped by a man with an eyepatch the moment she slide the door.
He looked down on her with a stern look and they've locked eyes for a few seconds. For some reason, fear suddenly ignited in her heart. Fuu was scared of him but she managed to hide it from the man in front of her.
A minute has passed and the man didn't take off his eyes away from her. He blinked a couple of times but continued to stare at her. Fuu's fear was soon replaced with a weird feeling under the man's gaze. Thankfully, he stopped when her History teacher called his name.
"Ah... Mr. Umanosuke. How may I help you?"
The man with an eyepatch looked at him. "There's someone looking for you. It's a woman."
He fixed his glasses. "Really? Please tell her that I'll see her in a few moments. I'm just going to sort things out."
"If you say so."
Before completely turning his back, he looked at Fuu over his shoulder again. She was a little bit startled by his gaze. The feeling of fear returned to her again. He narrowed his eyes, as if he's studying her. She tried not to flinch under his preyhng gaze. The man didn't say anything and started to walk away but not without snorting.
Fuu let out the air that the girl been holding in since the mysterious man arrived. A hand patted her shoulder, causing her to jump a little.
"Ms. Nagayama. I understand that you already excel in my subject but can you please at least make it look like that you're listening to me?"
She turned around to face him, "I am always listening to you. You've seen my notes, right?" She lied. She never did.
"I did, however." her teacher frowned. "Whenever your classmates see you just looking outside the window, they lose their interest too."
So now it's my problem. She hissed internally.
"The guidance counselor told me that you didn't go to detention the other day." He sighed. "I'll that slide, today too. But in exchange-"
"Yah yah." she interrupted, disdain evident in her voice. "I get it. Can I go now?"
He fixed his glasses. "Thank you and sorry for taking your time. You can go now."
With a small huff, she turned her heels and started to walk away from her History teacher. Just before she could exit the room, she stopped from her tracks. "I can't promise you though." Fuu said and left, unsure if her teacher heard her or not and if he did, she doesn't want to know what was his reaction on what she just said.
"Hey."
"Shinsuke..."
With a helmet in his hands, he was leaning his back on a wall. Apparently, her friend has been waiting for her to exit the school. She just raised an eyebrow for his uncharacteristic gesture.
This is the second time Shinsuke to behave like a gentleman. Fuu is starting to think that he's way more affected by Mugen's presence than her. It's not like that the girl dislikes the idea of a guy being such a gentleman to her despite of her 'undesirable' appearance.
Nobody really treated her the way Shinsuke is doing right now. Unconsciously, Fuu's been wishing this kind of treatment instead of the ones she deals with in a regular basis.
Men are such an animal sexist yet they want to fuck women until their nut sack is completely emptied out in one night. Fucking hypocrites.
"Gonna take you to your job. Hop on." he said patting the seat of his motorcycle.
"I don't have a shift today."
Shinsuke blinked, "Really?" then smiled. "Then I'll give you a ride home."
"You really going to let me ride on your precious wheels?" she hesitated but humored to him at the same time.
He grinned at her. "Yah. Didn't I promise to you before that one day I'm gonna let you ride this?" Fuu just sneered and wore the helmet Shinsuke's been holding for her.
She really loves riding motorcycles and scooters, in fact she owns one but it got broken and she sent it to her mechanic. Note to self: Check my scooter tomorrow.
As the both of them go to a ride, wind grazed the girl's flushed cheeks and it relaxed her. The turmoil she felt from the man with an eye patch dissipated. There were something the way he looked at her and she'd seen that kind of look before.
Shinsuke stopped in front of her house. Because of that fiasco, it felt like forever for her since she's gone home. Upon removing Fuu's helmet, she saw her friend looking at her with a worried expression.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
The girl arched an eyebrow, "Huh? There's nothing wrong."
"You can't lie to me Fuu. I felt how you tighten your hold on my clothes. C'mon. What you're thinking about?"
She looked at Shinsuke. He was always there whenever she's sad or when she have problems where it reached to the point that she trusts him so much than Jin. She decided to confide to him and invited him inside to talk.
Fuu closed the door behind her and she let out an exasperated sigh. "So much happened these past days. You've heard the news about the man whose arm was cut off right?"
"Yeah. I heard he attacked a girl and was going to kill her with a bat if wasn't for an unnamed man slashing his arm off first. It was all over the television. I mean, it's not every day that a man's arm had been cut off clean with a katana, especially at this kind of era." Shinsuke said as he took a seat on the couch.
"Well, the thing is..." she brushed her bangs off her eyes, "I was the girl that that man almost bludgeoned to death."
"What? Why would he want to kill you?"
Fuu shook her head, "I don't know, it was still unclear to me. It was either because he wants to rob me, which is impossible with the way of how determined he is to kill me or someone paid him to do it."
Shinsuke knitted his eyebrow, "Why someone would want you dead? You've done nothing wrong as far as I'm concerned."
"It really mystifies me." Fuu took a seat beside him, "He was really serious about killing me that he injected some drug that numbed my whole body when I ran away from him." she sighed. "I don't really understand why I always get caught in a string of unfortunate events. Aside from that, there's this man from our school that scares me."
"Never knew that you were scared at our History class teacher." he humored that made Fuu giggle.
"No, it was someone that wears an eyepatch. The way he looked was so creepy and scares me."
Shinsuke grabbed her shoulders. "You seriously went to detention?! Didn't I tell you not to?!"
She widened her eyes and shook her head furiously, "No, I didn't! I bumped into him earlier when I was going to sneak away from our History teacher's chastising."
He breathed out a sigh and let go of Fuu's shoulders, "I thought you went there. Never ever go there okay?"
"So he was the infamous Guidance Counselor, huh? Now I see why there are such rumors circulating around him. The guy was a total creep."
"Some girls say that it felt like they were being stripped naked with the way he look at them. He even sexually harassed a female student." Shinsuke combed his hair with his hand.
Fuu was surprised with how the tone of his voice has changed. His tone was a mixture of disgust and fury. She never heard him talk like that. Usually, he's tone is like of a laid-back person even when his angry. The girl that was sexually harassed must be someone really important for him to have a personal vendetta towards the man that scares Fuu.
"Was she your girlfriend Shinsuke?"
He gazed at her and showed her a forlorn smile. "No matter how many times the teacher told her to go to the Detention Room, she never went there not until she was warned that she might never graduate and enter a decent university because of her conduct. She had no choice but to abide, it was her dream to graduate from a university. But now," He looked at ground, "she won't be able to fulfill that. She was broken. He broke her and yet he got away from it."
"Shinsuke..." the girl took a hold of his hand to console him.
"That's why." he looked at her and held her hand too. "I don't want you to go there nor be near with that man. If the same fate happens to you, I'm not the only one who's going to be affected by it, even mom will be."
Fuu gave him a reassuring smile, "I promise. I won't go near him and won't let that happen to me."
"I'm glad." He smiled and stretched his arms. "Well, I'll go now. See you tomorrow at class."
Just as she opened the door, someone unexpected was waiting outside the gate.
What the shit...
Thanks for Rumelka for following this fanfic~
Date of Revision: 11/14/2022
