"Well, Usui," Hao hissed. "What do you think you're doing?"
Horohoro panicked. He thoug fiercely for an excuse. Fortunately, his mind was quick, and he managed to blurt out, "Some supervisor dude saw us take his stuff and yelled at me to give it back."
Hao raised an eyebrow suspiciously. Horohoro's breath caught in his throat and the panic slowly began swelling again as Hao glared and said, "I don't believe you."
Before Horohoro could do anything, Hao had shoved right past him and was marching straight towards the shower stall that contained the once again, unsuspecting Ren.
Without even bothering to pick the lock, or use any form of stealth, he forcefully kicked down the door. The Ainu's eyes widened in horror as Hao disappeared inside and Ren's terrified yelp was heard above the ruckus of other chitchatting students.
Seconds later, Hao threw the smaller, only half-dressed Chinese boy viciously outside into the cold. He landed on his side at Horohoro's feet, eyes squeezed shut and arms raised in a feeble attempt to shield himself.
Another split second later, Hao was upon him, aggresively beating him. "What makes you think you deserve to wear these?" he hissed, tearing a swatch from Ren's pants and throwing them disgustedly aside. Seizing Ren by the hair, he jerked him to his feet. "Answer me, brat."
Ren didn't say anything, and he didn't move. Tears of pain and humiliation slid down his cheeks as Hao threw him back to the floor, kicking him in the stomach.
Silent fury slowly began bubbling in Horohoro's stomach. He watched as Hao grabbed Ren by the throat, pinning him to the floor with his knees.
"Hao..." Horohoro growled. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
By now, all the bystanders had stopped to watch, a horrible silence lingering in the chilly air.
"What does it look like?" Hao snapped irritably. "Since you're refusing to knock some smarts into him, then I'm doing it for you." He then proceeded to clench his hands tightly around the young Chinese boy's throat, causing him to choke and struggle for breath.
The anger began flaring, and Horohoro tried to hold it in.
And Hao squeezed tighter.
Ren's eyes grew wide, he struggled, and he choked.
Tighter.
At last, the rage exploded somewhere in Horohoro's thoughts. Unable to contain his emotion any longer, he screamed, "HAO! LET HIM GO!"
"No," Hao said smoothly, merely adding strength to his grip. Ren's face was slowly losing its shade and turning a deathly blue, he was desperately wriggling about underneath Hao with no avail.
"LET HIM GO!" Horohoro screamed again. "YOU'RE CHOKING HIM! HE CAN'T BREATHE!"
"That's the point, Ainu."
And at that point, he lost it.
Horohoro launched himself at Hao, roughly tackling him and thus shoving him off Ren. Caught by surprise, Hao relinquished his grip on Ren's throat as Horohoro slammed his fist into the fire shaman's face.
Ren coughed, gasping for air, relieved to have oxgen back in his lungs. He watched in shock as the feeling seemed to pour out of the enraged Ainu.
"All this time," Horohoro hissed, "I've always beat up Ren. I never realized how wrong I was...because the only one that deserves it is you!" Furious, he blindly struck at Hao.
Yoh, appearing suddenly, grabbed Horohoro by the shoulders and seperated the two. "Hey, what's going on?" he demanded. "All of a sudden, you guys are fighting in the middle of nowhere."
Horohoro scowled fiercely at Hao. "You all make me sick," he growled. He got up, dusting the filth off his pants and crossing the area to Ren. Reaching down, he grabbed the boy roughly by the shoulders.
"No...please..." Ren whimpered in a barely audible whisper. But instead of hurting him, like he expected, Horohoro simply lifted Ren up, carrying his fragile form back towards the cabins.
When they arrived in, Horohoro slammed the door, locking it behind him so that Hao and the others couldn't get in. He glanced at Ren, who was looking at him with a confused expression on his face.
Horohoro marched across the room. Ren instinctively shrunk back, but again, Horohoro didn't hurt him. He merely took a towel from a rack and began wiping the water and dirt on him off, in addition to rubbing his hair dry. He then threw Ren one of his spare shirts.
"It might be a little big," he said, "But it doesn't matter."
Ren gingerly picked up the shirt, hesitating, unsure of the situation. "C-can I really wear this?" he stammered.
"What do you think?"
"No...?"
Horohoro glared at Ren, snatching the shirt away and jerking it over the boy's head himself, shoving his arms through the sleeves. Ren let out a small cry of surprise and slight pain, causing the Ainu to quickly withdraw his touch.
"Look," he snapped. "I'm sorry for everything that's happened before. You might be scared of me, and I may have hated you before...but don't get me wrong. This might sound really stupid to you, but somehow, I've changed. And I'm not going to hurt you anymore, and I won't let the others do anything to you, either."
He patted Ren's head, toussling the purple-black locks. "And it's my responsibility now to take care of you since I hurt you so bad before," he concluded.