Sasuke was ready with a fruit basket and a ceremonial bokken on the day of the proposal. "I have dealt with Kodachi-sama, young master," he beamed. "She is diverted by my ingeniously-crafted scavenger hunt that rewards her each step of the way with photographs of her 'Ranma-sama'. The very last clue takes her out of Nerima entirely."

"I cannot in good conscience strand her."

"Besides a final photograph of… vaguely inappropriate content, it also includes a bouquet and a train ticket back. The trail will end happily and safely for her."

"Sasuke, I must deign to thank you personally," Kuno said. "Treasure this moment. I cannot promise it will happen again."

"You honor this unworthy one with joy they do not deserve."

Kuno extended his hand between them. With wonder, Sasuke tentatively clasped it, then wrapped his other hand around Kuno's to brace it warmly. "Tatewaki-sama," Sasuke murmured.

"I shall return to you an affianced man," Kuno said. "While I would prefer to marry her promptly, her girlish sensibilities must be indulged. We shall go through with the wedding as planned."

"As is only right, sir."

"You are relieved of your duties for the day. Soon you shall be tasked with helping to rear my progeny; you must take every opportunity you have to prepare yourself for the next generation."

"You are scrupulously kind, young master." Sasuke was blinking rapidly. He hiked an elbow up over his eyes to dry them without letting go of Kuno's hand. "May the wind be at your back today! I wish the best of good fortunes to you and your lovely new bride."

"Tatewaki Kuno has no need of fortune," Kuno dismissed. "I am an incomparable specimen – the only gentleman of quality and of stature at Furinkan High and the most eligible bachelor in Nerima. But I shall take the gesture in the spirit with which is it was intended."

"You did no such thing." Sasuke was still beaming. "Rescue your maiden from her tower and bring her back to our castle, young master. I have no doubt she will swoon in the face of such chivalry and verve! If only this unworthy servant could get but a glimpse of his lord's resounding success."

"I shall see about purchasing the surveillance footage for your unworthy eyes." Kuno mounted his marriage horse, which drowsily turned her head to examine him amidst an explosive wreath of daffodils. He hoped it had already defecated that morning so that the police on bicycles wouldn't interrupt his procession with feces-encrusted tires and screams that he take responsibility for them.

Looking down at Sasuke still patiently holding the horse steady for him, Kuno was reminded of their previous conversation. He waited until Sasuke blinked expectant eyes up at him. "You told me once that there was one whom you loved," Kuno said. "What became of them?"

"As I said, they loved another. It was not to be."

"You did not pursue them, then."

"The love was not reciprocated."

"What does that have to do with the nature of pursuit?" Kuno frowned. "Love that is fair enough to be desired is valuable enough to do battle for. You dishonored them by giving in so unmanfully."

"Ah but young master, that is love," Sasuke said. "They were happy. Should that not be enough?"

"Martyrdom is for politicians. I do not owe another man my intended, nor do I owe others my happiness for their good fortune."

"I don't mean that true love necessitates you be happy for your beloved's betrothal to another," Sasuke said. "Just that love that can't endure sacrifice is no love at all. Love is sacrifice, young master. If their destiny is to be happier with another, true love demands that I accept it."

"I am sacrificing my position as Nerima's most eligible bachelor. I have sacrificed funds, energy, and time to plan this wedding. What other sacrifices would you demand of me on the day of my betrothal?"

Sasuke opened his mouth and closed it. He sighed, "None at all, Tatewaki-sama."

Pleased, Kuno clucked at the mare. She lifted her examination up from the hedge and flicked a fly off her haunch with a swish of her tail. "Do not spend your day of rest too frivolously."

"Of course not, Tatewaki-sama."

"You may still do chores if you please."

"I had assumed as much, sir."

"I am off to be affianced, then."

Sasuke dug quickly around for a handkerchief. He waved it vigorously.

Kuno nudged a knee into the horse's side to direct her trajectory, clucked and flicked the reins, and rode triumphantly up the street to Furinkan High to take the math exam he'd been dreading since last week.

.

The sun was coming in through the eastern windows at an angle and he was distracted with marital concerns, which was how he supposed the surprise attack actually broke through and scored a line across his bicep before he registered he was in danger. "So you have chosen death by embarrassment," he sighed, reaching for his bokken and standing.

Daisuke Hisou from 2-A took an unsteady step back, hands bloodless on his own bokken. "You don't frighten me," he said tightly. "If it means g-getting Akane, I'll m-make sure every strike counts. I'll hit from the heart."

"You hit an unarmed opponent in his blind spot when his guard was down. The coward who strikes his foe in such a way dare not deserve to even lay claim to a spine, let alone a heart."

"You're always armed, don't give me that! Now fight me so I can win Akane's hand!"

"Daisuke, you don't even go here," Natsume Ishiki said from behind Kuno, straining to see around the blockade. "It's the middle of math, I already don't get this crap and you two aren't helping. Arada-sensei!"

"Kuno-kun, if you're planning to have another duel to the death, I'm going to have to request that it either wait or be relocated," Arada-sensei said, taking a curt look over his shoulder as he finished the line of equations. The chalk clacked as he bracketed the exponents. "We're behind schedule as it is. Hisou-kun, what are you doing? You don't think your own grades are bad enough?"

"I would like to reassure you and the rest of this boorish crowd that I plan to dispatch this miscreant with due haste." Kuno grabbed a fistful of Daisuke Hisou's collar and propelled him yelping towards the door. "I only ask that you do not go much further in the lesson. Two problems perhaps, three if absolutely necessary."

"Hurry up," Arada-sensei said.

Kuno was still in an excellent mood, so instead of defenestrating Daisuke Hisou on the second floor, he kindly dragged him down squalling and screaming to the first floor and defenestrated him from a floor that wouldn't break bones. "Now what is this about Akane Tendo," he said intently, carving the tip of the bokken home next to Daisuke Hisou's ear and prompting another scream of terror. "Where did you hear such things?"

"It s-said so on the flyer!"

"What flyer."

"Th-the one that got passed around! Holy shit, don't hurt me, I had no idea you weren't in on it, I was just trying to score a date or something with her!"

Kuno's wrist made a flick that sent every button on Daisuke Hisou's shirt scattering across the courtyard. He set a foot down in his belly and pushed down hard enough that tears came to Daisuke Hisou's eyes as he gagged for air. "And what else did this 'flyer' say?" Kuno pressed politely.

"It said not to say it said not to talk about it if we wanted the best chance with Akane get off get off—"

"What else did this flyer say."

"That beating you was the fastest way to a date with Akane ow! Ow!"

"You were misinformed," Kuno decided, removing his foot. He was perturbed but the disquiet had some focus now. "I am to be affianced to Akane Tendo today; evening at the latest, weather and horse faeces notwithstanding. I shall forgive your cowardly transgression on the grounds that you assume my classroom duties for the next two weeks."

"Two weeks?"

"Ah, you prefer four then, I see. In that case—"

"Fine! Fine fine fine fine!"

"Should your compatriots decide to try their good fortune on me, have them bring evidence of their claims." Kuno planted a toe in his shoulder and flipped him over, listening to Daisuke Hisou's miserable little fish gasps into the dirt for educational purposes. Bruised ribs but not broken. His control was impeccable. "Attempt this boorish, unsporting conduct again and I will be forced to retract my mercy," Kuno told him. "Pray also ensure the message reaches whomever's ears it concerns."

He had some unrelated expectations and somewhat related suspicions, but as it turned out no, Nabiki Tendo was still not in class when he returned.

He was assaulted twice more, once during lunch and the other on his way to the bathroom. He lost his temper by the third surprise attack and did in fact defenestrate Tadayuki Honda from the second floor, though he was cognizant enough of consequences to aim him towards the pool in the center of a class of shrieking girls swimming laps. "You are coming with me," Kuno said, dragging the soggy, flailing boy back towards the building with one hand, bokken propped up on his other shoulder. "You are going to either produce this 'flyer' of interest or you will quote it by memory, sentence by sentence, unless you would prefer I beat it out of you syllable by syllable."

"It just said to that you'd be marrying Akane and—"

Kuno slammed him up against A-4's window and again made several girls on the other side of the glass scream. "Where," he decided, bokken tip resting against the hollow of Daisuke Honda's throat, "is Nabiki Tendo."

"She said not to tell you or we'd lose out on the—" Daisuke Honda made a gagging noise of horror as the bokken's tip pressed in another centimeter. "Sh-she said she was going to d-d-ditch! Because of the challenge! Sh-she said she'd be in the park after school!"

"What challenge." No, she could answer him herself. "Which park."

The boy's rapid headshake unfortunately only dug his throat further into the bokken, so Kuno didn't need any more persuasion other than time and gravity. "The one by the nature preserve!" Daisuke Honda choked. "After school! After school!"

Only his pride in his so-far flawless attendance record kept him in class. The instant the dismissal bell rang he was out the window. His proposal horse was still tethered under the shade of the tree by the bike racks, an elegant pile of droppings near her and a half-eaten miniature bale of hay presumably brought by Sasuke mid-afternoon parked on the bench. "I am fearful to bring you," Kuno admitted to her. She tolerated his pats with the condescending patience of a very busy monarch. "I know not what these machinations entail, but should anything foul be afoot, I cannot risk you killing my assailants. They will invariably blame me for your violence, incarcerate me, and euthanize you. I must forge ahead without your magnificence, but with no disrespect to you, I do not think it will affect the success of my proposal overmuch."

Her whuffing nose in his hair gently assured him that she would indeed kill every assailant in the vicinity and probably several innocents if brought along. Kuno spared a thought to wonder if there would be any female in his life, human or horse, who would ever not be prone to violently killing things that displeased them. "Home," Kuno said, untethering her and coiling the rope up on her saddle. He unburdened her of saddlebags containing his scrolls of poetry and the receipts for his upcoming floral orders and sent her off with a brisk tap to her rump. She swished her tail towards his face but obeyed with no fuss. She was probably already as tired of this day as he was.

Kuno shouldered the bags, kept his bokken in easy reach, and took off for Nakamura Park. Haste compelled him to travel there directly but some other instinct in him led him to be more circumspect. He doubled back often, at some points traveling by rooftop, approaching the park from the opposite direction in order to secure a better element of surprise. Bright sunlight prickled the back of his neck, nearly a sweat; he took care not to muss his clothes as he slid past gutters and the occasionally poorly-maintained brick chimney, fishing out his handkerchief to mop up perspiration before it could hit his collar. Nerima was still sleepy with pre-rush hour foot traffic but picking up steadily as he traveled, eventually spilling students out onto the adult commuter traffic as the elementary schools let out for the day.

Eventually the fight to maintain homeostasis became too much and he surrendered, dropping down to a discreet alcove to quickly change out of his proposal attire. It had been his intention to wear it that day in order to catch Akane Tendo's eye, but both she and Ranma Saotome had been as strangely absent as Nabiki Tendo. He had been allowed to flout their school's uniform policy for so long there was a chance no one had batted an eye at the unusual finery, but he had hoped to perhaps titillate her specifically. Once school was out, she would perhaps daydream on the way home, wishing she had had a chance to speak with him. Yearning to speak with him. Perhaps quite jealous others had spoken with him. Only for him to show up at her home on her heels, making her dearest desires come true.

Instead he had been attacked by the lunchroom and by the bathroom and something about the clothes' inherent magic had died along with his good mood. He did take care to fold them very carefully, but he could admit to being relieved to change back into his kendo attire. Unburdened by them, Kuno made a much easier leap back onto the rooftop, bags slung securely over his shoulder, completing the trip with no more deviations.

Based on historical data alone, Kuno had honestly half-expected to have been either led astray by diversionary animals or duped directly by Nabiki Tendo's own groundlaying. It was almost shocking to find her standing there plain as day by the fountain, school bag slung carelessly over the see-saw, purse tucked tight to her ribs with an elbow as she read through a ledger. She was out of uniform, a stylishly puffy navy jacket fluffed out over skintight pants and boots that came up to her knees.

Kuno landed in front of her with flat feet. Nabiki Tendo possessed far too much poise to actually jump more than a fraction but her gaze narrowed a bit on her data. "Well, look who's here," she said.

He observed her expertly. "You did not expect me."

"Didn't know what to expect honestly. Sometimes you surprise and sometimes you stay the course. Who'd you beat it out of? Because whatever squeaky wheel it was just lost his deposit."

"No one specifically." He'd had other things to broach first, but seeing her under the Neriman sun, all contrasting colors and wind-chapped cheeks and scribbling pencil, unlocked something different in him. "Why were you not at school."

"You had a day like the one you just had and that's the first thing you ask me?"

"You missed the math exam. You were looking forward to scoring well."

"I came in before school to take it. The teacher set it up for me because I said I was going to be absent. You know I could basically teach that class, right? Like I already knew I was going to do well and so did he. It really was never a big deal. I fussed over it because I knew you were going to bomb it."

"I was attacked," Kuno said. "Many times today. They mentioned you and a 'flyer' as the culprit behind these attacks."

"Did they now," Nabiki Tendo said. "Well, doesn't look like you were hurt. You hold your own?"

"Do not evade the question."

"… there wasn't a question."

"There was an implicit question."

"One man's implicit question is another man's petty accusation," Nabiki Tendo said. "Kuno, I don't have time for this. If you think I had something to do with something, spit it out. I'm too busy to dance with you today."

Kuno watched her a moment. There was nothing overtly different in her demeanor at first glance, but a closer look and listen revealed edges sharper and cooler than usual. The phone conversation sat between them like barbed wire and he wanted to ask are you sorry for what you said, but just like Nabiki Tendo had already observed, the implicit question had already been asked and her attitude had already answered it for him.

There was something tightening in his chest. He resisted the urge to rub it. The gesture would communicate weakness that she would exploit not only inevitably but also probably immediately. "You had me attacked for malicious purposes."

"Oh, don't be stupid."

"Then what."

"Who said I had anything to do with them at all? Why are you always blaming me?"

"Because you are always to blame!"

Nabiki Tendo snapped her ledger shut. "First of all, Akane and Ranma are responsible for way more wholesale damage than I am," she said. "I'm just the local miser trying to pinch a yen or six to feed my family. Villainize me for that if it helps you burn calories. Second of all, you've got zero proof of what you're accusing me of and that's laziness I refuse to endorse. Third of all, tell me exactly what profit there is in hiring thugs to attack you at school? Like any of them had a chance of taking you down? Get real. If I wanted you dead I'd just hire your family. And chances are I wouldn't even have to hire them because they'd probably just do it for free."

Kuno ignored literally all the rest, especially the most concerning bits, to fixate on one all-important point. "So this 'flyer' they mentioned did not belong to you."

"Don't know of any flyer."

"And the attacks, they were not something you ordered?"

"Nope."

Kuno stayed silent a moment, recalibrating, hand on the straps of his satchels. "Listen, not that it's not always a treasure to have you up my grill, but like I already said, I sort of have a schedule to keep," Nabiki Tendo said. "If you're still mad about what I said, you can have a voucher for a free drink at the café we go to. I won it from a street raffle today. But seriously, thirst or no thirst slaked, bug off. You're in my light."

"We have much more to discuss."

"Sure, but not now. Weren't you going to propose to Akane today or whatever? Just swing by if you're still in a snit. Kasumi'll make you a pancake or something."

Kuno didn't go to get a pancake. Nabiki Tendo was subconsciously rearing up on her tiptoes to see past him and correcting the impulse manually each time, affecting boredom. The acting was remarkably bad for her and again Kuno found himself watching the spectacle of it. She was clearly waiting for something and whatever it was she was waiting for was stressful enough to her to make her fidget. "Since when do you not want pancakes," Nabiki Tendo said.

"A true man's heart is not dissuaded by the puling of his stomach."

"A true man's face is about to be dissuaded by my fist."

He was debating following through or breaking to get pancakes and floral arrangements when a young man's voice suddenly rose above the birdsong. "There she is."

Kuno tore his gaze from her and tracked the sound. "Hey, Tendo!" The young man's voice lifted again from the throng of approaching Furinkan students. He was walking with brisk, purposeful strides, ignoring the paved pathways in favor of a crow's flight across the grass. He didn't look amused. "Got a few bones to pick with you."

"Great," Nabiki Tendo muttered under her breath. "Kuno, for god's sake, and you please just take a hint for once in your life and go away? I don't have time for this right now."

"Who are those miscreants?" Kuno asked, low, eyeing the boy's rapid trajectory. "What 'bone' hath he to pick with you?"

"Just some expats from the local maid café, and don't try to sneak 'hath' in with me like I'm just going to let that go," Nabiki Tendo said. "Actually, you know what, I will let it go. I hath better things to do. Go away."

"Why are you so ill at ease?"

"I'm not ill at ease, I'm annoyed. I don't have time to teach you the difference. Koji." She spun and blossomed into a shy maidenly smile as the boy finished closing the distance. "Oh, Koji, darling, thank goodness you're here. I was praying you'd come by."

Kuno watched the boy stumble to an awkward halt. His eyes swept between the two of them warily. "Though I had hoped it would be you and only you." Nabiki Tendo looked down shyly, cat's paw curled under her chin. "Did you really have to bring your friends to a… private meeting? It's kind of cramping our style, isn't it?"

"I wasn't," the boy sputtered, and stopped. He opened his mouth stupidly to speak, glanced at Kuno again, and straightened again with an expression that hardened. "Don't try any of your crap, Tendo. You know why I'm here."

Curious, Kuno rested his bokken against his shoulder and watched the approaching group. Six other young men, four of whom were clearly from Furinkan High and two with uniforms he didn't recognize. Nabiki Tendo tilted her head a bit to the side. "I'm not sure I know what you mean," she said haltingly. "If not to confess, why are you here? And why would you need six other strong men with you for little me? I'm sure you would've been more than man enough to say and do… whatever you wanted to do to me in this park."

Kuno spared an assessing eye to watch the civil war between hormones and rage play out in primary colors. "Cut it out." To his credit the boy didn't take the bait. "I'm not here for that. You're going to give me back my money or we're going to have a problem."

"A nice problem or a nice, hard problem?"

"A money problem."

"Oh, that's real unfortunate," Nabiki Tendo said, and Kuno glanced over her at her as her coquettish demeanor collapsed into an assassin's focus. "Because I was the idiot I guess thinking you were visiting me for something defensible in court, Yoshida Koji, class F-4, Has Trouble Finishing Laps In Swim Class And Likes To Peep At Girls In Bath Towels. Sure we want to get too judgmental here?"

"Don't try that shit with me," Yoshida Koji snarled, but his flush was as horrified as it was angry and Kuno saw that the others had formed into a loose circle as they'd talked. Despite her focus, Kuno saw Nabiki Tendo's dark eyes flicker a little to monitor their position before settling back on target. "Your challenge was bogus. We wasted our money."

"Explain to me where that's my problem."

"You cheated us!"

"You should've read the fine print. I can assure you everything on there, truthful and less-than-truthful, was disclaimered at the bottom for those who learned how to read their kanji in primary school."

"This isn't fine print, it's a smear," Yoshida Koji hissed, rattling the flyer dangerously close to her eyes. "It's upside down on the bottom in letters too fucking small to read without a magnifying glass."

"Personally, I examine all my legal and financial documents with a magnifying glass before I commit my signature to them." Nabiki Tendo ignored it with the ease of someone who grew up with a younger sibling. "I don't know why you're blaming the printing company for doing a great job conserving space. Consider it a free lesson in the world of commerce. Actually, never mind, that's not free. Fifty yen."

"You're out of your mind, I'm not paying that!"

"Then accept it as a free gift for the cost of admission and leave so you can keep some dignity intact in front of your mute gargoyle bodyguards."

"Give me that," Kuno said.

Yoshida Koji looked over with raw malice, flyer fisted in his hand, gaze a little wild. "Give it here," Kuno said.

"Stay out of this, man. I got no beef with you."

"I want to see it. You will give it to me now or you will lose it by force."

"Kuno, for god's sake, would you just stay out of this and go home?" For the first time in the entire encounter Nabiki Tendo's tone grew sharp. "Koji, listen, I hate to break home truths to you without a helmet, but I'm here to conduct legitimate business and you're gumming up the works. Whether you were too lazy to read it or not, the disclaimer was there. You signed up for the tournament and paid the entry fee. No refunds. You want to take it up with someone, take it up with Collections."

"I'm taking it up with you, you scheming bitch." Yoshida Koji's face was so scarlet it'd rounded the bend towards purple. "Give us our money and we go away. It's that easy. My buddy wanted to rough you up to teach you a lesson but I talked him out of it as long as he got paid."

"Well now that just sounds like extortion," Nabiki Tendo said. "Bold of you to assume I'm not out here without some sort of surveillance and protection. My advice? Tuck your tail underneath your other tail and be happy they're both attached. Take this as a life lesson. Next time maybe don't be so quick to sign your daddy's allowance away for a roll in the sack with a girl who doesn't even know you exist."

Yoshida Koji's step towards her was full of unmistakable intention.

Kuno's mind was on other things. He stepped between them and dispatched the boy with a harai that slung him against the base of the plum tree. Ignoring the curses and threats of his entourage, he plucked the flyer out of the air as it fluttered near him. "Listen, man, she used you too." One of Yoshida Koji's entourage – a boy with dyed red hair – said for the first time. He was terse, kneeling by his friend to steady him by his shoulder as he sat up. "She said that if one of us beat you in a fight, you agreed to let the winner take your place at the wedding. It was a thousand yen each to enter. It said that if we entered as a group and beat you, we'd win as a group and then duke it out in another tournament between us who got Akane. It's all right there on the flyer."

"So you can talk," Nabiki Tendo said. She appeared completely unmoved by the violence in a way only someone with her home life could be. "I was starting to think you were just a new art installation. Kuno, that flyer is straight-up slander. I had a different legitimate one printed up. Some copycat must have made similar posters to confuse people. Maybe weed out the competition. I can't help that they got scammed."

"Holy shit, how do you sleep at night," the friend exploded. "You handed these out! Right at the front fucking gate, you lying asshole!"

"All you're going to find in this purse is chewing gum and mace. If you want the grenade in the false panel, all you have to do is ask a little more nicely. Kuno, give that to me. I don't want those lies to hurt your feelings. I care about your mental health."

'Wedding is a fictitious construct in Tatewaki Kuno's head and restrictions can and will apply. Akane Tendo is free to choose her suitor of choice whether that be all comers or none. Defeating Tatewaki Kuno in combat does not guarantee marriage vows will be exchanged by any party. Any subsequent wedding plans are to be paid in full by the suitor, with an event organizer's fee of ten thousand yen to be paid weekly to Nabiki Tendo.' Kuno flipped the flyer back over. The front was emblazoned with a hand-drawn likeness of him set in the back like a watermark, overtop it which lay a slew of instructions as well as the entry fee. "Kuno, who are you going to believe," Nabiki Tendo said. "There are always people coming after me for this. If this was really what he was after, why would he need a whole group? It's clear they're here to attack me and do unspeakable things to me, all because I run a legitimate business they don't like."

He distantly felt her at his shoulder as she tried to pry the flyer from him. He thrust his bokken out at her and she stumbled back to avoid it, a look of honest surprise on her face. "'May enter as a group'." Kuno scarcely felt his lips move as he read it aloud. "'Groups limited to 20 applicants. Ownership of Akane Tendo's hand to be decided subsequently with a secondary tournament conducted by event organizer'."

"I told you, man. We just want our money back. This was bogus from the start. She's been doing this all year and everybody's sick of it. She'll keep scamming people if we keep letting her get away with it."

"Kuno, look, I know how this looks," Nabiki Tendo said. "But just think about it. When have you known me to do actual demonstrable, quantifiable harm to you? All right, maybe I had something to do with this, in an oblique and executorial sense. But even if I did, I knew you could handle this. And I'd planned to split the profits with you 30/70. Maybe 20/80. It depended on how many idiots threw themselves against your brick wall. But either way I was prepared to negotiate."

"You set me up to be attacked." Kuno could barely feel the paper between his fingers. "By 'up to twenty applicants'."

"A crowd just the teensiest bit bigger than the one you defeat every morning without breaking a sweat. I've made sure to chart your acumen over the years to avoid endangering you and I've had extra eyes on you this week to track your condition at home. Those days Kodachi went too far, did anyone attack you then? That's right, zero people. I was on top of it the whole time. Just think of me as your manager. You may even call it an impromptu training exercise like they do at those kung fu camps. Maybe I should've taken a bigger cut of the profits, come to think of it. A lot of work goes into keeping your mug unbruised."

Twenty. He was dazed. Twenty. "This was why you were occupied with my eating and sleeping habits."

"And who says I'm not occupied anyway as a friend or whatever? Quit believing this propaganda. You're dumb but not this dumb. I've always looked out for you. Or is it someone else waiting by your bed in the clinic whenever you get your teeth handed to you?"

"I had assumed…" He felt quite honestly nauseated. He wished he had something besides his bokken to hold onto. "I had thought you were concerned for me and were hiding it poorly, but it was merely to keep me in shape for your tournament. Your concern was monetary."

"Prove it."

Kuno held the flyer out to her.

The circle of high school boys had fallen silent to watch the exchange. Yoshida Koji had since gotten to his feet, bleeding from a slice on his chin but otherwise no worse for wear. Nabiki Tendo began to speak and stopped. She pressed her lips together slowly and watched his eyes with a resentment that would have surprised him if he had the capacity to be surprised any further. "You never once believed in the wedding," Kuno said. "You have consistently made a mockery of it and my feelings, yet exploited those feelings for your own financial gain. At no point did you ever support my earnest intentions."

"Just where exactly have you been, Kuno," Nabiki Tendo hissed between her teeth. "Why should I have to dress this up? You know who I am. Why are you acting all wounded about this as though it's the first time I ever leveraged you and your stupid, stupid wealth and your stupid, stupid head? Years later and you have the balls to be surprised now? This was your tipping point?"

He could barely swallow. He wasn't sure if what he felt was even anger anymore. He saw himself from a birds-eye view discard the flyer in the garbage, then pick up his bags and slid them over his shoulder.

"Kuno."

He still had floral arrangements to pick up and would need to rehearse his proposal along the way to ensure the delivery was ready for the stage. There would no doubt be witnesses there and he'd prefer the occasion to be memorable for all involved. "Looks like you're out of tricks," Yoshida Koji said to her behind him. "You really have a can of mace in that bag, or am I about to see a nice fat wad of our cash in there when I take it?"

"Koji-kun." Nabiki Tendo's voice was small and wobbling again. "I… I really thought you were coming out here to confess to me. I'd really hoped that was the case. I dressed up and everything. Wasn't there any hope you could… maybe love someone unworthy like me?"

"Nice try. Umeda," Yoshida Koji said. "Sato, c'mon. Goro, go up to the front and check if anyone's coming in."

Kuno kept walking. Path gravel scritched under his feet. "What are you going to do," Nabiki Tendo whispered.

"Goro, hurry up."

His head was full of wayward sparrows.

"Ouch, fuck! She just fucking – get her arms. Give me the fucking purse, Tendo!"

A scuffle. Gravel skittered. Something thudded to the ground, and for the first time in memory Nabiki Tendo let out an honest cry of pain.

The bokken hit the first boy's wrist with a crack that echoed throughout the park. The boy shrieked and let go of Nabiki Tendo's hair, sending her plunging back onto her hands and knees. Kuno used a quick spare hand to relocate his bags up the nearest tree and then launched himself off the trunk, twisting and descending from a katsugi waza to take out the second boy's shoulder. It made a crunching noise as it dislocated and again the park lit up with shrieks. Then the element of surprise wore off and three were on him: distracted with his footing, he suffered a blow to his chin from a flailing elbow and to his complete surprise was nailed with a kick to the chest. He crashed directly into a park bench and felt something rip as he tumbled over it clumsily. The boys pressed their advantage as a group, closing him off, and a hand found his bokken to still it and for a moment he wasn't quite sure where he—

Someone took a swing at him, and his brain switched back on again with more lights on deck. He wrenched himself into the moment and dispatched the closest one with another harai, twisting to avoid a sniping shot from the second, and suffered a score against his ribs from the third who'd elected to pick up a recycling receptacle and use it as a bludgeon. Kuno slapped into a tree and felt the bark again open a few things that didn't need to be opened.

Irritation usurped pain. He surged forward with less restraint and clocked the third boy clean out of his head with a twisting thrust, and by the time Yoshida Koji was on him he meant business. He bit off a clumsy attack in its infancy by slamming the bokken tip against the nerve in Yoshida Koji's shoulder before fracturing his collarbone with a follow-up strike. Yoshida Koji dropped with a horrified shriek.

Kuno stood by, bokken ready, as the boys staggered and scrambled to make distance from him. He braced his weight as they shouted to each other, but they'd dissolved into panicked shouting, shoving each other to be first in line to flee, shooting frantic looks over their shoulders to see if he was following them. Dots of blood had sprawled across the pavement in front of the plum tree and over the bench.

He stood in position until birds began to return to the overhead branches. When he was sure they had left for good, he put his bokken back in its restraints and retrieved his bags from the tree. His body throbbed on the way down. The scrolls were no worse for wear and the bouquets he'd intended to give to the absent Akane Tendo, while bruised and offended by a day spent without water, would still be largely salvageable. He just needed to supplement them with his standing order at the floral shop.

Nabiki Tendo still knelt on the ground, purse clutched to her chest.

Kuno slid his bags onto his uninjured shoulder and walked. Nabiki Tendo said nothing to him at all and didn't call him back as he left. It may as well have been if neither of them had ever been there at all, honestly. He wished he had his horse.