Mizuki scowled as she thought about how stupid she was. She knew Asano's reputation. He was a master of manipulation, and she knew his life goal was to put his own father on a leash. How could she not have seen that he was just using her?

Before the week ended, she had gotten the notice that she would be kicked down to Class 3E starting next school semester. It took all her willpower the rest of the year to not strangle the lying little son of a-

"Onee-chan! How did you get up there?"

The voice snapped her out of her bitter thoughts. Glancing down, she saw her sister and brother standing at the base of her tree staring up at her in awe.

Their adorable faces made some of the hurt, betrayal, and vengefulness she felt from reliving the memory of Gashu- no, Traitor's betrayal go away. Standing on her branch, she dusted her pants and flipped onto the ground with a grand flourish that caused her easily impressed siblings to applaud her.

"Want to try?" She asked trusting in her ability to save them from falling. A chorus of yeses came from the two troublemakers.

"Okay, I'll help you, but when we get back you have to immediately start your English workbook, deal?"

"Nooooooo!" They wailed.

"Yes. You need to start early guys." Mizuki told them in what they called her "older sister voice"

Her sister glanced at the tree and seemed to ponder her options before exclaiming, "Deal!"

Mizuki turned a questioning gaze to her younger brother. "Well? What do you say Reo?"

Reo glanced over at his twin sister. Ren's eyes were wide with excitement; for some odd reason, she was just like her older sister in athletics and absolutely loved freerunning and parkour. Reo was also like his older sister, but in his case, he loved to read. Despite being five years old, he's read books that most middle schoolers and first year high schoolers struggle to read. Unfortunately, he hated physical activity, but his distaste for physical activity was outweighed by his love for his twin.

"Fiiiine" he said.

"Ok! Come here Ren." she said, holding her arms out to her younger sister. Ren ran into her open arms and giggled as Mizuki lifted her up. Her short child arms gripped the branch tightly before pulling herself up. She sat on her branch and looked down, grinning widely at her siblings.

Hesitantly, she stood on the branch—one foot in front of the other—and reached for the branch above her, pulling herself up like she did with the previous branch. She quickly got the hang of it and started climbing up and around the branches like a monkey on a playground.

Reo stared up at his giggling sister who was so much more athletically gifted than he was and gulped at the prospect of being so high up. Mizuki smiled with a soft sigh. She bent down and put her hand on his shoulder.

"You don't have to go up there if you don't want to you know?"

"But- Ren-chan would be sad if I don't go up there with her," he said in his quiet voice, still staring up at the tree.

"I'm sure she wouldn't want you to do something that terrifies you, but if it helps I'll be right here to catch you."

Finally tearing his eyes from the tree, he looked into her eyes and asked, "really?"

"Of course, I would never let anything happen to either of you. Ever." she told him with a rare closed eye smile that she reserved only for her siblings.

She saw the contemplation in his eyes before the determination set in. He lifted his arms like his sister had, silently asking Mizuki to lift him up. Grabbing him, she boosted him onto the first branch. She could see a different hesitation in her book loving brother that her athletic sister didn't have. For her sister, it was more of a getting used to a new task, but her brother appeared to have a fearful hesitation that tended to limit a person. Better make sure I'm ready to catch him just in case, she thought.

As if on cue, her brother's foot slipped as he hoisted himself onto the second branch. The sudden weight on his arms caused him to lose his grip; despite already being in motion to catch him, his terrified scream as he fell still made her heart lurch in fear. Jumping up and sideways to soften the catch, she caught him in her arms bridal style and safely landed in a crouch on the ground.

"Everything okay?" she asked, worried, as she set him down gently.

"Ha-hai," he replied breathlessly, eyes blown wide in fear.

She heard a soft thud next to her and saw Ren crouching by her brothers side, the concern in her eyes clear as day.

"Ne, ne, are you okay Reo-chan?" she asked, her voice an octave higher than usual.

"Hai. I'm okay now Ren-chan. Luckily Nee-chan was there to catch me," he replied in a steadier voice than before.

Ren breathed a sigh of relief and wrapped her arms around her twin. Giggling, Reo reached up and pulled the twigs sticking out of Ren's pigtails.

"Oh no! I have leaves in my hair?!" Ren exclaimed before shaking her head like a dog to rid herself of the branches and leaves. Unfortunately, that only caused her light orange hair to fall out of its usual style.

"Alright you two. No more tree climbing today," Mizuki said reaching over to fix her imouto's hair. "Let's go home and start on those pages you promised me."

She could see the pout on Ren's face, but one glance at her still shaking brother and all argument left her. Instead, she turned to her older sister and cheerfully exclaimed, "Hai!"

After ensuring Reo was okay, she grabbed their hands and started guiding them home. As they left the park, she caught of glimpse of red head on the path ahead of them. Tensing, she tried to get a better look at the face of the boy who was walking towards them with a box of strawberry milk in his hand, face partially covered by his red hair. She relaxed as soon as she realized the red hair wasn't a trick of the light making her think that orange was red and the boy was not the traitor she thought he was.

Glancing down, she realized she had lost track of her siblings, who were no longer holding her hands, in her fear of having to see Asano again. Crap. Where'd they go? She thought, frustrated, as she looked around. Hearing a laugh, she saw her siblings behind her running around the corner into an alleyway probably in an attempt to delay their inevitable walk home to their homework.

She sighed and turned around, following her silly siblings into the alleyway. The sun was setting, and they really needed to get home lest the monster in the other room noticed their absence and punished them again. As she rounded the corner, she realized there were voices. Deep voices that belonged to delinquents. Crap. She froze at the sight she saw. Her siblings were being hung from their ankles by two large teenage boys as their leader mocked them.

"What kind of brats are you, wandering around by yourselves?" The leader sneered.

"Hahahaha, what are we going to do with them boss?" One of the teens in the back asked with a smirk on his hideous face.

"We're going to teach these brats a lesson about wandering around in random alleyways by themselves."

"I would put them down if I were you."

All the teens, she counted about 5 or 6, looked up at her. Her voice betrayed none of the fear that was hidden behind her false bravado. She had no idea what she was going to do. She only knew basic self defense through videos she had watched in case worse came to worse with the monster they lived with; there was no way she could take six teens who were all definitely in high school and much larger than her.

"AHAHAHAHAHA" all the delinquents laughed.

"Look at that. A little mouse wants to play hero!" The teen holding her sister mocked. "Why don't you run off and let us teach these brats a lesson."

"Can't let you do that." She said with a small smirk. If she knew anything about manipulation, it was that she couldn't tell them that they were her siblings because they would use that against her and she needed to pretend she knew what she was doing in order to sow doubt into their minds.

"And how are you going to stop us, little mouse?" The leader smirked.

"Just you watch." She said as she dashed towards the two holding her siblings. Her size gave her the advantage of speed allowing her to quickly jab them in the pressure points in their elbows, forcing them to let go of her siblings' ankles. Not wanting them to hit their head on the concrete floor, she dove under them and used her body as a shield between them and the floor.

Not even wincing as their bodies landed on her, she quickly got up and pulled them back just as one of the delinquents that had been standing in the back grabbed her by her braided hair and yanked her backwards. Her back slammed against the floor painfully, but years of dealing with pain allowed her to swallow her reaction and face them with a smirk, "That all you've got?"

With a yell of frustration, three of them rushed at her, fists raised. She knew that she wouldn't be able to dodge them all, but she could try to at least dodge taking a full blow. Noting that the one on her left was slightly smaller than the other two, she leaped towards her left, dodging the other two fists while the third one clipped her shoulder. The force caused her to slam into the wall. One of the teens who had been holding her siblings rushed towards her before she could recover and pinned her to the wall by her neck, choking her. He easily lifted her off the ground, leaving her kicking and pulling at his hand.

The leader stalked towards her with a smirk on his face. "Was that supposed to stop us mouse?"

Growling, she choked out, "No, but that was never the goal." At least Ren and Reo had enough sense to run. I hope they're safe.

"Hmpf. Those brats may have gotten away, but that just means you'll have to suffer twice the beating." He said, his slight disappointment only visible in his eyes. "Besides," he added, looking her up and down, "you're a better target for us anyway."

The four others behind him cracked their knuckles with evil grins on their faces, leering at her. She could feel her fear intensify tenfold as she understood his implication. Shutting her eyes, she waited for the inevitable that never came. Suddenly, she was dropped to the ground as the crushing force around her neck disappeared. Her eyes flew open as she saw a flash of red smash into the face of one of the delinquents. Not one to miss an opportunity, she scrambled back to a safe distance and watched the fight.

The red haired boy from before was holding off all six of them at once. He was like a dancer, moving with grace and fluidity that completely enraptured her attention. Ducking under a punch, he swept his foot under his attacker's leg knocking him down. Two others charged at him from behind jumping up to pin him to the ground.

"Look out!" She yelled.

Twisting around, the boy caught the two by their collars and used their momentum to throw them onto the ground behind him. The leader of the group shouted angrily at his men to get the boy. The two who hadn't yet engaged rushed at him as the three on the ground shakily stood up. His odds didn't look too good. With no time to contemplate her stupidity, she ran towards the guy in the middle (of the group of three) and tackled him from behind. Wrapping her forearm around his neck and her legs around his waist for leverage, she held on as he tried to throw her off. His hands immediately flew to his neck in an attempt to dislodge her arm from his neck. Knowing she wouldn't be able to hold on forever, she raised her unoccupied arm to punch her captive on the pressure point on the side of his head. She aimed her knuckle at the pressure point and thrust her arm at his temple. A shout of pain later and found herself being dragged down to the ground with an unconscious body. Quickly untangling herself, she pushed the unconscious teen away and landed on the cold concrete with a roll.

Clap. Clap. Clap.

Whipping her head up, she saw the red haired boy standing in front of a pile of unconscious bodies applauding her.

Bewildered, she stuttered, "Wait. Wha-What happened to the rest?"

"Ehh? Isn't it obvious? I beat them up." He said, tilting his head to the side causing his bright red hair to hang towards the right. His golden eyes seemed to glow in the shadows as his fanged sadistic smile grew wider.

"All of them? All at once?" She asked, shocked. Then she realized this kid probably saved her life. "Never mind. Arigato gozaimashita. You saved my life."

"No. I didn't do it for you. I was just looking for a fight." He said with a smirk. "If anything I should be thanking you. I've been pretty bored since I've been suspended from school."

"Uhhh, sure. Anyway, your motivation doesn't matter. You saved my life, so thank you." She said with a grateful smile. Spotting the strawberry milk he had been drinking spilt on the floor, she felt bad and offered to buy him a new one as thanks.

"Hmm? Sure, why not?"

"Wait, should we leave them here or should we report this?"

His carefree face darkened, "I've learnt from experience that authority doesn't always side with those in the right. We can't trust they wouldn't arrest us instead."

"A-Alright." She sweatdropped. This guy seemed to have far too much experience in beating people up, but he did save her and her siblings. OMG HER SIBLINGS.

Forgetting the boy, she sprinted out of the alleyway without warning. "REO! REN!" She yelled frantically.

Light footsteps approached her from her left. Turning, she saw her siblings, tears streaming down their cheeks. "ONEE-CHAN" they cried.

Catching them in her arms, she hugged them close. They're okay. They're safe.

Holding them at arm's length, she looked them over for injuries. With the exception of a few scrapes, they looked fine, but just to be sure, she asked them anyway.

"Hai! We're okay Nee-chan. You saved us." They reassured her.

She gave them another tight hug as a few tears leaked out of her eyes in relief. Remembering how they ended up in that situation, she lightly whacked them on the back of their heads yelling, "Why did you run off by yourself like that! That was so dangerous!"

Ashamed, they glanced down at their feet and apologized, "Gomenasai Nee-chan."

"It's okay guys, but please think before you act next time." She said with a sigh.

Standing up, she grabbed their hands and walked towards the alleyway where she had left the red haired boy waiting. She was shocked to see he had disappeared. Glancing around, she looked for the tell-tale bright red, but she couldn't find him anywhere. With her siblings with her, there was no way for her to go looking for him. She hadn't even gotten his name. *Sigh* I'll find him one day and pay him back, but, for now, I need to get these two home. She vowed in her head as she lead her siblings back home under the dusk lit sky.