"Where are you going, Outoto?"

Rin called after me as I headed down the stairs in our house. It was 4:45 PM, about two hours after our school day had ended. I had long since been out of my uniform and instead wore a simple white shirt and my favorite pair of shorts, with a thin jacket tied around my waist just in case it got cold later on. Since dad was at work, I thought that I wouldn't have any problems getting out of the house, but Rin persisted to be a problem. She's normally asleep the minute we get home from school, so I had hoped that I would be free for the next few hours until she woke up.

"I have to go meet a girl from schoo-" I frowned, froze, and stopped myself. "I mean, not a girl! Just-"

I was too late. Rin had already started screaming.

The loudest, squeakiest, most obnoxious noise I had ever heard in my life filled my ears instantly. Rin's voice rattled and tore through the air, loud enough for everyone in a 50 meter radius to hear. Probably. Before I could try to run, Rin tackled me down the stairs. I shouted in surprise and collided with the hardwood floor. My head thudded against the ground and I groaned in pain, cradling the back of my head as it throbbed and a bruise started to form.

"Rin, what the hell is wrong with you?!" I hissed through clenched teeth, both of my eyes shut tightly.

"After all of these years thinking you were gay, my little brother finally has a girlfriend! EEEEE-"

"No! I don't have a girlfriend! Ow, ow, ow! Get off of me, you're heavy!"

"Then who's this girl you're meeting, huh? Don't lie to me, Outoto! I can tell when you lie!"

"I'm. Not. Lying!" I pried Rin's arms off of my neck with all of my strength and shoved her away from me. I'm not weak, it's just that Rin is unnaturally strong. It doesn't even make sense how she's got enough muscle to lift up a 120 lb. weight when she's too lazy to work out at all. I think that it's got something to do with that bow on her head; I'm pretty sure I've seen it move on its own before.

"Look, you know the blonde girl that we saw on the bus today? That's who I'm going to see. She only asked me to go help her with something after school."

"You mean the the sort've short one with a temper?" I nodded. "Hmm… it seems like you're telling the truth, but what's her name?"

"Akita Neru. She's in our grade, too."

"What class?"

"I don't know, she didn't tell me."

"And you two are going to meet… at her house?! How indecent! I'm telling dad!"

"No, we're not! I'm just taking the bus to school, and I'm going to miss the next one if you keep asking me these questions."

"Alright, alright, last one! So you say that this girl asked you to help her with something…"

"Yeah, and…?"

"And you agreed to it? That sounds awfully outgoing of you, Outoto."

"Well, I was sort've threatened, so-"

"Details, details! I can see it in your eyes little brother, you want to help Neru-chan! I mean, she was kinda cute, wasn't she? I bet you're just going along with this because you wanna… you know." Rin paused and made a series of incomprehensible hand gestures. One second she was doing the itsy-bitsy-spider and the next some sort of phrase in sign language. I sighed.

"Rin, I really don't have time for this."

"Oh fine, go. Just remember - if things don't work out with Neru-chan, I'll be glad to take her off your hands!

"Wh-"

"Bye-bye!"

...

It was 6:46 by the time I got where I needed to be. I was directed to go outside health room where a supposed tree awaited, but no one had actually told me exactly how to get there. I was stuck running around the unnecessarily large campus for an extra 16 minutes until I found it. Neru and "Miku" were already there when had I arrived, standing away from each other at a considerable distance. Even if it was only the two of them around, I wasn't so confident about showing up abruptly like this and saying, "Hey! What'd I miss?"

Thankfully (unfortunately), Miku saw me the minute I was noticeable and beckoned for me to come over. A feeling of nervousness and apprehensiveness formed in my gut - the air around them radiated tension and suspense, like both of them were waiting for the other to pull something. Something that would be really inconvenient for me to get between.

"Len-kun! You came for me!" Miku squealed girlishly and ran straight towards me with her arms spread. I had already been attacked by one girl today and I wasn't about to get trampled a second time. I held my hands up defensively and stepped to the right to avoid her right as she tried to give me a hug.

"Um, I'm actually here for…" I scratched the back of my head and pointed towards Neru with my thumb. Being too close to Miku made feel kind of unsafe, like she was a ticking time bomb, so I went closer to Neru. (And I thought that I might've seen Miku's eye twitch.) It bothered me how Miku knew who I was when she wasn't around to hear me say it.

"Did she ask you for my name?" I whispered to Neru behind my palm, and as I suspected, whispering wasn't something that she was capable of. She instead answered in her usual volume, which is always louder than a regular speaking voice.

"What? No. And even if she did, I don't remember it."

"Okay, that's great, but how did she-"

"Just who," I was interrupted mid-sentence by the girl in question. She was only now recovering from her failed hug attempt, her mouth contorting into a distasteful and downright creepy smile. "Do you think you are, Len-kun?"

"Uhh…"

"I'll have a nice, long chat with you about this later, sweetie. But Neru-chan and I were in the middle of something just a moment ago, weren't we?"

"That's right," Neru responded in a low voice, blowing her messy bangs out of her face. "You were about to hand over my phone before I knock you out!"

"Hmm... are you sure? Because I distinctly remember something completely different." Miku started to walk around the two of us in a circle, keeping the same distance apart from Neru and I. She tilted her head to the side and poked her own cheek poutingly. "I'm disappointed. Have you already forgotten something so important...?"

"No, I didn't forget. Don't treat me like an idiot." Her words were brimmed with hostility and resentment. "And I'm not doing it. Fuck off."

As for me, I was utterly, completely lost. I had expected this to be a quick exchange that only required me to be an audience and nothing more, but this, whatever "this" was, felt as though it had a lot of context to it that I wasn't aware of, like I'd been thrown into a story that had begun long before I was involved. These two girls, Neru and Miku, they clearly hadn't just met today, and this meeting had more meaning to it than just retrieving Neru's phone.

And I had really, really, really screwed up in agreeing to come here.

"Tut, tut, tut, Neru-chan. You're really going to regret that decision in minute. I did give you several opportunities to do as I said, and yet…" She sighed. "Oh, well. It can't be helped with you, can it? Boys? Bring our guest of honor out!" Miku clapped and whistled as some sort of signal for her… boys? I didn't like the implications something like that had. Neru, on the other hand, seemed more concerned about this "guest of honor" she was referring to.

This is the part where you're probably going to start doubting the truthfulness of my testimony, so let me just reiterate that everything I'm telling you is 100% fact. Kagamine Len does not lie, I swear.

So then… a bunch of grown men in glaring pink bikinis of questionable sizes emerged from the health room.

"Tadaaa! What do you think? It's my new swimsuit clothing line for men! I'm thinking of selling the idea to a fashion department! In times like these, sometimes you just have to take the initiative in the business world, you know?"

"You… didn't…" I looked at Neru. Her eyes were wide and her body was frozen in place. A guy from the back shuffled forward through the group of men, gripping a tall girl with long white hair and reddish eyes by her arms. Immediately, I recognized who she was.

"Haku!" Neru suddenly sprinted forward as she shouted the girl's name. Haku looked up and smiled hopefully at first, but then her expression turned more fearful.

"Neru-san, look! B… behind you!"

"What?" Just as Neru was turning her head, Miku's fist slammed into her right cheek and knocked her off her feet. Her body flew to the side as she skidded across the grass before coming to a stop. She had gone so fast and swiftly that I hadn't even seen her move.

"Hey!" I shouted after them. I knew better than to blindly run into this like Neru, but I also couldn't just watch and let this go on. Haku was struggling and crying and yelling her friend's name while Neru could barely keep up with Miku; she was like some sort of fighting ballerina.

"Ah, how could I forget about you, Len-kun? Would one of you guys take care of him for me? I think I want to keep him around for a little longer." She chimed as she easily avoided Neru's punch. A few of the men nodded and three advanced towards me in their hot pink bikinis. I took a step back, holding up my hands flat in a standard aikido position. In my four years of aikido training I've never actually needed to use it to defend myself, and I wasn't all that eager to try it out, either.

The first one rushed towards me with his fist extended and headed for my face. I waited until he was close enough to grab hold of his wrist, then pulled him forward and jabbed him in the stomach. As he coughed and doubled over, another caught my forearm from behind. I elbowed him as hard as I could in what felt like his lower rib cage. He roared in pain, clutching his ribs with one of his arms and falling to his knees. A third appeared next to me, unmoving and attentive. I narrowed my eyes; he wanted me to make the first move, but I knew better. He was the one that got tired of waiting and finally went for my face in a mad barrage of punches, one ceaselessly after the other. I blocked most of them by shielding my face with my arms, wincing as they left marks on my skin. I've only ever practiced against kids around my own age and height, which made fighting these taller, older, and stronger men more difficult. (And the bikinis we're enough of a distraction to mess up my footing, too.) I could hear Neru still going at it with Miku, but didn't exactly have time to spare looking at her.

In the midst of all of this, one of the men in a swimsuit peeked his head out from behind a corner and called out. "Hatsune-sama, do you know this girl?" I was too preoccupied to even glance at the guy or the girl he supposedly had with him.

"Ugh, what girl? Can't you see that I'm a little - whoopsie!" She exclaimed and nearly fell over trying to dodge a punch from Neru. "Can't you see that I'm a little busy here?"

"Oh…" The oaf looked down, dejected. "Alright, get out a' here, missy." He shoved the girl forward, a brief shriek emitting from her as she landed on the grass roughly.

It took me only a second to recognize her voice.

"Rin?!" I slammed my shoe down on my opponent's bare foot and pushed him onto the ground with newfound adrenaline. She lifted her face from the grass and looked up at me, tear lines dirtied with earth glistening in the afternoon light on her cheeks. "Len…" She sniffed.

"Idiot! Why did you follow me h-" I was cut off by a fist plowing into my the side of my face, so distracted by my own sister's appearance in this mess that I'd forgotten all about the guys who were still after me. Rin screamed and cried out my name as I powerlessly thumped to the ground. The three men that had attacked me were all up and moving again, two of them lifting me up by my arms and pulling them behind me. The third took advantage of my position and punched me in the stomach once, twice, before looking to Miku for further instruction. I coughed and inhaled sharply on impact, gasping for air desperately. It felt like a vacuum had sucked all of the oxygen out of my lungs instantly and left me completely helpless to breathe. I had finally realized what it really meant to have the wind knocked out of you.

"All finished, boys?" Miku rose from the ground, swiping her hands across each other as if wiping off something dirty. Neru laid unmoving, sprawled out across the grass like a discarded marionette. My vision was blurry, but I could still see her chest rising and falling; hopefully, she was just unconscious. Haku was sobbing from behind, muttering Neru's name quietly and desperately.

"Alrighty, then! Let's get going. Bring Haku-chan, and… what did you say her name was, Len-kun? Rin-chan! Bring her along with us, too."

"No!" I forced myself shout at her, my voice strained from the pain in my stomach. "Just what is this all about? What do you want my sister for?"

She laughed. "Isn't that a funny question? I don't really feel like explaining all of it right now, though. Maybe Neru-chan can help you out! That is, when she decides to wake up." Miku frowned and took a moment to nudge Neru's body cautiously with her shoe. She didn't move. "Maybe I overdid it a little…"

A long black car drove up near Miku with dark windows seconds later. The two men holding my arms back nodded at each other and didn't spare any gentleness when they decided to toss me a few feet backwards onto the concrete. The bruise on the back of my head from Rin's attack earlier hadn't gone down, and it especially didn't when it slammed hard against the ground with the rest of me. I didn't pass out, which was a miracle with the intense aches and pains all over my body. My arms were cut and scraped, my vision was spotty and blurred, and I could barely make out anything I looked at, but I heard Haku crying and Rin shouting after me. There was the sound of car doors closing, an engine revving, wheels moving over gravel and muffled protests and pleads in the air.

And I couldn't do anything about it.

The last thing I heard was Miku's voice shouting as it grew farther and farther away. "See you soon, Len-kun! Neru-chan will explain everything when she wakes up!" It momentarily disappeared until abruptly returning, barely audible. "Almost forgot! Don't try to tell anyone about this! If you do, you'll never see Rin-chan again! Byeeeeee!"

AN: Aaaand, there it ends! I actually had quite a bit of difficulty writing this chapter. Writing fight scenes is so tiring, omg. I hope you guys enjoyed it, though! It's not as long as the last one, but I didn't want to be too overwhelming. Till next time, later! (Don't be afraid to leave a review, too!)