It was the boy who flew.
I then noticed that he had changed his shirt and was now wearing an orange parka, with straps, and hooks at the end.
"The Royal Clubs, right?" the team leader approached; the others followed. Tatsuya nodded with a sneer.
"Kogarosomeru." King had said with a hint of welcome and threat at the same time. "I guess you know us already."
"It's 'Kogarasumaru.' The leader said. "Yeah, well, I've done a couple of research…" He blushed and rubbed the back of his head. "OW!" he yelled and looked at the boy with the dark-blue hair who had kicked his rear. He glared at him and turned to us, "I'm just joking, this little troll right here did all the research." He muttered dully. I feel like I was supposed to do something...
"Don't call me a motherfucking troll, you shitty Crow!" The boy growled at him and my eyes widened, wow…a potty-mouth. I did not expect such…colorful profanities come out from his cool blasé attitude.
The leader ignored him and continued to speak. "The name's Ikki. This is Agito" he said as he pointed at the boy, "Buccha" he pointed at a large man, "Kazu" an appealing blonde, "and lastly, Onigiri," he then pointed at a male with a perverted look on his face; he was literally drooling.
"Kyaaa!" Queen shrieked. "He's looking at my legs! That little pervert!" She then attempted to cover her legs with her arms frantically, but it was useless since she was wearing short denim shorts; this only caused the perverted pig to widen his grin. I was wearing pants and plus, I have the sex appeal of a potato so yeah. It was all-good for me.
"Tatsuya, Kao, Saeki, Mao, and Yuki." King announced and pointed at each one of us. I think he thought that it's also good for them to know our names, not just our nicknames. Ikki nodded and smiled happily.
"So, how should we do this?" Ikki asked. "Flip a coin?"
"How about you just pick one from your group to go against one of the members in my team then?" King suggested.
"That sounds fair…" he said slowly. "Okay then, you against me, yeah?"
"Of course." King said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Queen." He said with a grave look and looked at the leader. She turned to him with a confused look on her face.
"Buccha." Ikki's face became serious as well, never breaking the contact with Tatsuya.
"What is it, Ikki?" Buccha asked when he heard his name.
"You're playing with Queen." Buccha nodded, he seemed like a pretty nice guy. Woah look at his muscles. I wish I had muscles. I then noticed from the corner of my eye, Onigiri was sulking.
"Joker." King said.
"Kazu." Ikki retorted confidently.
King smirked, "Ace." I gulped and made a retarded face as I was starting to feel something bad; the ones that are only ones that are left are the perverted pig and the boy with the dark-blue hair that somehow scared me in a way. I looked down, avoiding his scary gaze. Oh my, what nice concrete. The man who made this street should receive a gold medal or something because it is simply amazi-
"Agito." My stomach dropped and I wanted to cry on the inside. I would have much rather preferred the pervert.
After a fight that seemed to last for hours, three had gone; King, Queen, and Jack. We won two, and currently losing one since Saeki can't get past through Onigiri, who covered the whole alleyway and was very distracting. Plus, Saeki was totally beat since he put the most effort in today's practice. I can pretty much conclude that we lost this one and Onigiri was a really good rider too. The thing that amazed me the most was the leader. Even though he lost, (believe me, it was a neck-in-neck battle between him and King) he was still very cheerful and I have never seen King enjoy a match, nor have I ever seen a rider that even came close to beating him. King only lost two matches in his whole life (well, in his 4 years of experience) and came very close to his third tonight. That boy has something in him.
"I don't feel so good about this…" I muttered to Yuki, who was sitting beside me. I was beginning to feel nauseous.
"Why?" He asked.
"Because I don't want to lose, Yuki. I-I saw that boy—the one with the eye patch. He... could fly. He's better and faster than me." My voice quivered, nothing pisses King off more than a loss and tardiness second.
"Just try your best, but don't push yourself too hard." He smiled. He was referring to my poor stamina.
"I…I think I'm gonna lose." I sighed.
"Mao. You'll be fine." He patted my head and gave me a reassuring smile.
"Yuki, I—"
"Yuki! It's your turn!" Tatsuya yelled.
"Okay, coming in a minute!" Yuki yelled back. He turned to me, "listen, I gotta go, Mao. You'll be fine, trust me." He smiled once more and disappeared, appearing next to King a couple of seconds later. I sighed and looked away. My stomach was churning and twisting wildly, and it was not because of the burrito and the two chalupas I ate earlier.
I got up and stood right next to Agito. My stomach was churning violently again. I slapped myself lightly with both of my hands at either cheek. I knew it, Saeki lost. I never knew that blonde—Kazu?— had it in him. 'Left, right, left, right' I said in my head while walking; I didn't want to trip myself.
"Ready, Set, …GO!" The referee lady blew the whistle and we flew.
I jumped from one platform to another to save time, but nearly slipped a couple of times, I told you I had a horrible balance. I looked back quickly, he was nowhere in sight. I smiled slightly; maybe I stood a chance against him! I leapt high and the next second, I found myself thrown on the ground, I gasped for air involuntarily. The boy appeared out of nowhere and had a devilish smirk on his pale face, looking down at me. I then noticed a few of my clothes were tattered, probably from the hooks from his jacket. Who the hell would even wear hooks with jackets? Is he some sort of a fisherman? He accelerated and I struggled to get up, my back was aching due to the impact. After half a minute of our chase, I was right next to him.
He spun, causing the hooks to spin as well, I dodged them, but one caught my right arm. He turned to the right, causing me to follow him due to the hook that was stuck on my arm. I struggled to get it off me, but it only caused the hook to deepen, the boy's eyes held mine for what seemed like forever, his eyes screamed with bloodlust, sending shiver throughout my body. He spun once again, now causing several hooks to latch onto my body. He was now dragging my body that was stuck and wrapped around the straps with the hooks deepening by the second. I then suddenly realized something—he was going the wrong way. He was turning in several places, far away from the goal, going back and forth into small, dodgy alleys, instead of going straight to the finish line.
"Give up yet, Ace?" He spat. We were in this dark alley, where neither of our team members could see us, and he just stayed around the area, circling and pacing around. I struggled to break free from the hooks and I glared at him, the most deadly one I could give. "Is this the best you can do?" He provoked.
I didn't leave my glare; and so did he. "I don't need to explain to you."
He finally stopped and stood in front of me. I struggled again, my arms and my body were trapped in the straps. "It's no use, you can't escape me." He sneered. "Just say that you give up" he said, "but then… I have no problem in hurting you." His smirk came again and he shifted, causing me to flinch at the pain.
"I'm already losing so why would I say I give up?" I puffed.
"Eh, it's more fun that way." He replied in a sickeningly sweet tone. It felt my arms were going to fall off any soon, but I held back the forming tears. The hooks were probably an inch deep and I could feel my blood pour out violently everywhere. What a waste of blood! I could have donated them. I noticed some of my blood was on his cheek; probably splattered during our violent feud and when he spun a couple of times. He probably noticed that I was staring at his cheek because he wiped it off with the back of his hand, smirked again, and licked it, staring at me as he did so. HOLY SHIT. I was certain he was a sadist. ...Or maybe a vampire. A sadistic vampire? Yes, that sounds just right.
My eyebrows furrowed and my face twisted in disgust. Of all the things I could say to him, I said something utterly retarded: "Let me go." He chuckled. "Dude, you're fucking disgusting."
"You do know that you're gonna lose, right?"
"Well, the last time I checked, I'm covered in my pool of blood and I can barely feel my legs and arms, so umm...yea. I'm definitely going to win." My hobbies include being a sarcastic bitch.
He smirked back and suddenly flew again, causing him to drag me. I could feel my eyes burning and tearing up at the pure agony, it felt like my arms were being ripped apart. The hooks were stuck very deep now and the straps were wrapped tightly so many times caused me to realize something. I knew the fact that escape was the impossible. He finally came up on the roof of the platform and I could see our members hollering at us, he spun once more, but this time, the opposite direction, causing me to fling up in the air, released the hooks, and I landed hard on the pavement, breathing heavily and clutching my ripped up arms. How graceful. He stood, looking down at me with a smug, and I suddenly felt very uncomfortable; like he could see right through me. I looked away uncomfortably. He probably noticed this, and then I suddenly felt…courage, and I looked up at him, only regretting it a second later as his golden eye penetrated mine like a layer of paper. His gaze was so intense I felt like I couldn't breathe, like I was drowning in an abyss— paralyzed.
He bent down and stared at me, "you lost." He walked slowly to the goal that was only roughly forty meters away. I struggled to get up as I hobbled towards my group. Every part of my body was exploding with pain and screaming for help.
Still, I couldn't help it. "I want a rematch!" I yelled, though I don't know if he heard it.
SMACK! I felt a sharp sting on my cheek and I felt blood trickle down slowly, it was probably a shallow wound from one of the hooks that re-opened. I stayed in that position for a while; I couldn't look at Tatsuya in the eye. I didn't want to. I couldn't. I closed my eyes and waited. From the corner of my eye, I could see him turn and walk away as if nothing happened, this was worse. Ignorance is worse than pain. And he knew that. Tatsuya always ignores someone whom he loathes with pure passion. I saw him talking to Ikki. In the end, we won three and lost two.
Yuki then gave me his jacket and wrapped it around me, "come on, you have to get cleaned." He muttered as he stroked a cut; I flinched. I realized that my pants and my shirt were all tattered, exposing a large amount of flesh and luckily they were lower areas. I smiled; Yuki was always the gentleman. There was a time in seventh grade where I thought he was too gentleman-y so I thought he was gay. Maybe he is. If he were, I bet you he'd go for Saeki. I bet a hundred yen on that.
"I can walk, Yuki." I said because I saw him walk in front of me, he squatted, and motioned for me to get on his back. I stood my ground. He groaned and forcefully grabbed me so that he was giving me a piggyback ride; I absentmindedly then made a sound that seemed a lot like a boar's howl, and Yuki chuckled. He walked over to Ikki's group and my grip on his shoulders instantly tightened.
He probably noticed this, so he decided to lighten the mood. "Have you gained weight? A looott of weight?" He joked and I punched his shoulder hard.
"So we won. Now, get lost, Kogarasumaru." Tatsuya snapped. Wow, at least he got it right this time.
"Oh, well…it was worth a try!" Ikki chuckled. How could he still be so happy even though he just lost?
"But I have to admit…" Tatsuya's voice softened slightly, "you were pretty damn good." He smirked. "Never had three wins and two losses in quite some time, actually." It was true. "Good job" he said and offered Ikki a hand. Ikki took it and showed a goofy grin. Why was Tatsuya…happy? Was it because of the good, intense fight? Probably…it's weird how Tatsuya can go from mad as hell and then nice and calm the second after. He's probably bipolar or something.
"You too, it was a great battle!" Ikki exclaimed and they all turned and slowly rode their ATs.
"This Sunday!" I yelled at their direction. One of them stopped. The boy with dark-blue hair turned, looked at me, smirked, and vanished into thin air the second later.
I could have sworn he gave the tiniest nod before vanishing.
A/N: If you guys want to go straight to the Agito/Akito-Mao relationship thing, please skip chapters 3-6 and read chapter 7+. Thank you for reading and please comment if it needs suggestions!