Tokyo was known for the high levels of AT riders and other types of locomotives with wheels less than 5" in diameter. Empty alleys littered the city, ideal for teenagers riding their ATs and Skateboards as they could keep out of the gaze of the police.
Agito and Kazu were skating down such a pass. It was starting to get darker; dusk would be upon them in a few minutes. Smiling fondly down at the unconscious girl in his arms, Kazu held Oki close to him. Agito had been quietly followed his friend's steps but as soon as they were a good distance away from the roads, he suddenly sped up.
The next second, Agito backed Kazu against one of the walls of the alleys, Oki almost slipping out of his grasp. The Shark barred his arm across the older boy's neck to prevent him from escaping, and the girl was trapped between the two of them.
"She's not fucking normal." Agito deadpanned. "You somehow know her. What the fuck is up with her?"
Kazu frowned and shifted the girl in his arms so she wouldn't be woken up. As he held her tighter, Kazu scowled at him, "I don't need to tell you anything Agito."
Agito shifted his gaze to her face, framed by strands sky-blue bangs not held back by her tight ponytail. His eyes softened slightly- not noticeable by others but Kazu's keen eyes didn't miss it- as he observed her, "She's stronger than any girl. Fuck."
The older boy stared at the Shark contemplatively. The boy was still observing Oki and was surprisingly not violent, nor was he being anti-social as usual. After a moment of silence, save for the city noises, Kazu smiled at a memory, staring fondly at the girl.
"Mmm…" hummed Kazu, "trust me, she's probably as strong as Ikki. She just doesn't use her full potential. I know for a fact that she's capable of more feats than what she showed you in your battle."
"She was holding back…" Agito frowned, annoyed that the girl could have easily beaten him, that too without her regalia. I'm getting weaker... Akito…
"If she didn't control herself like that she would have either killed you, or crushed the prides of every guy alive."
Agito smiled wryly, releasing his hold on Kazu, "Too late for that, fuck! My pride's already in a deep pit."
Kazu chuckled softly, and Agito continued his questioning, he was curious about the Mist Queen and her 'troublesome' past.
"Oki told us a little about her family, but she was lying. Tell me the truth about her family," the Shark ordered, glaring menacingly at the protective older boy.
Kazu remained quiet for a while, pondering his options. When he had decided, Kazu looked at Agito and glared at his sole eye, causing the Shark to step back a few steps. "Don't tell anyone else about this," and only when Agito nodded, Kazu continued, "She doesn't know her parents. Oki was conceived and modified in a test tube as an experiment. As far as I know, an organization was apparently creating special children for a big project. The only 'parents' she had were the scientist couple who monitored her growth. My parents were also a part of this organization, but they couldn't bear to see some of the horrors going on, so they left the organization and went abroad. They still remained as good friends with Oki's 'parents'.
"Anyway, when I met Oki's 'father', he was emotionless; he used to treat her like a lab experiment, not even a person. He apparently ran countless numbers of painful tests on her to "improve" her, like she was an animal, all without even sedating her. Oki's 'mother' on the other hand was much kinder; she used to treat Oki as her own child. She realized that Oki was a living human being and saved her- when she could, at least- from all the things her 'father' did. Oki's mother brought the Oki, who was really shy at that time, to our house often to help her grow up like a normal little girl.
Kazu smiled fondly, "Oki and I used to play all sorts of games, mostly things that involved racing. But then, one day, the family just disappeared."
"Did you know where to?" Agito asked curiously.
"Uh-uh," Kazu shook his head, inwardly smiling at the younger boy's expression, "When Oki said that her mother died, it means her 'father' now has complete control of her life now. Boy, I don't want to imagine what would have happened to her if she didn't run away." Kazu let his eyelids droop and hide his greyish-blue irises for a second, clutching the girl closer to him before opening his eyes again.
Suddenly, the unconscious girl started stir. The smiling girl was now frowning. When she started thrashing, two boys tried to wake the screaming girl from her nightmare.
They succeeded when she opened her eyes, whispered eerily, "He's going to get me." The frightened girl threw her arms around Kazu's neck and started sobbing.
The two boys looked at each other helplessly, and back at the terrified girl.
"He's going to get me…Kazu-nii" Oki repeated, getting more and more distressed.
Kazu carefully let her feet touch the ground, and hugged her. Stroking her hair to calm her down, Kazu repeatedly muttered to the bewildered girl, "Oki-chan, it'll be alright. I won't let anyone harm you, never again."
Oki whimpered, "He's coming to get me. I shouldn't have run away Kazu-nii; he's going to kill me."
Kazu froze stunned at the amount of fear the girl was showing.
At the same time, the blue haired boy swapped his eye patch and Akito pulled out a bottle of water from somewhere in his jacket. He handed the bottle to Oki, who didn't move a muscle. He just opened the bottle and put it near her mouth, tempting her to drink some.
"Come on Oki-chan~! Have some, it will make you feel better." Akito explained, innocently.
Oki slowly took the water bottle out of Akito's hands and gulped almost half of its contents. She slowly started to calm down, but was still quite afraid. Oki returned her fearful gaze towards her old friend, "Kazu-nii, I don't wanna die."
He merely wrapped his arms around her, and reassured her that nothing was going to happen to her. Akito stayed quiet; he understood it was a personal matter. Even so he felt compelled to promise her the same.
"Don't worry Oki-chan~ Agito and I will also protect you no matter what." He vowed, smiling at the girl and laughing inwardly as Agito's mental form spluttered.
Fuck! You little- Don't go making promises on my behalf!
Oki gave a weak half-smile, before she fainted again, this time going into a dreamless slumber.
Kazu and Akito continued on their walk to Kazu's house, but remained silent. Then Akito suddenly swapped the eye patch, and Agito had come out, emanating a murderous, yet arrogant aura. "I'm leaving; I have some… business to take care of. Tell Crow not to wait up for me." He added as an after thought, "Fuck."
A crowd gathered in the game center, including Kogarasumaru excluding the girls. Ikki, stared at the sabotaged punching machine. It was obviously destroyed due to the power of the punch. Bothered by the destruction, he glanced at the score-999. What the hell?
Kazu pulled a guy from the mass and questioned him. "Did someone trash the machine?" He demanded.
The dazed boy just responded quickly to avoid further damage, "Huh, yeah. Didn't you see? It was nuts! This guy was like a monster or something. I haven't seen him around here before. At first he was just walking around the arcade but then I guess he thought he'd try the punching machine. He asked if it was that was the highest score. Actually, the highest score before was pretty awesome too. It's just this guy was on a totally different level! I've never seen anyone with a punch like that! It was like he hit the machine with a jack hammer." He finished.
Buccha caught on, "Was that Ikki's score?"
"Yeah," Kazu confirmed his assumptions, "and he's pissed."
Ikki was still inside the arcade trying to conquer the high score set. He never got anything above a 498.
"Dammit!" He whined like a little child, "I wanna break a machine!"
His pleas were drowned out by those of the manager trying to console and convince the teen not to destroy any more of his equipment.
"Hey Ikki, you might wanna check this out! Some team called Behemoth is challenging us to a parts war." Kazu called, ignoring Ringo who awkwardly stood next to him.
"What? I haven't got time! I need to destroy this machine!"
"Guys, get over here!" Onigiri called from outside, "I've found something that's very awesome!"
The two teenage boys headed out. The perverted pig and Buccha were hovering over an ancient looking motor-bike. It looked like home-made objects attached to a motor-bike to make it look like some sort of elephant.
"What's that shit?" Kazu laughed. "It looks as if it came from the dumpster."
A stranger with grayish-silver hair and large grey pupils came out of the shadows. "You got a problem with my ride?" he asked.
"Aww… this is your ride? Well, I was planning on stealing it, but I guess I can't. It's such a fine baby…" Onigiri remarked, stroking the red seat.
The stranger slapped away the pig's hand off his bike and punched him in the face, leaving it dented in.
"So it was you." Ikki concluded, "I'm surprised a skinny guy like you could beat my high score… Not bad."
His ATs spun out of control, and Ikki intended to destroy his opponent like he had the punching machine.
"No!" cried Ringo, stepping in between both the boys, trying to prevent the scene to get worse. She was too late.
Ikki's punch almost landed, but it seemed to have stopped, not by Ringo, but the strange beetle-eyed teen's arm. The Crow's face was then pummeled in a flurry of strong, swift, blows from the boy. The last punch was so powerful that it even knocked down Buccha who weighed more than 400 pounds. Ikki was knocked out cold, his face bruised to diabolical proportions.
"I was right." Ringo stated, "You're one of Behemoth's Holy Five*. Mitsuru Bando, the Cyclops Hammer."
"And you guys are Kogarasumaru, huh?" Mitsuru confirmed, "Too bad."
Agito was sitting in his room when light filled in as Ringo opened the door. You could see the customized interior of the serrated-AT-wheels hanging from the ceiling and jaws of a shark suspended on the walls. The room gave a very ominous feeling and the Noyamano girls stayed away from it as much as possible.
"Agito, what are you planning?!" A very pissed Ringo demanded, "Didn't you hear a word I said!? Don't get Ikki's team involved in your battles!"
He just smirked arrogantly and teasingly retorted, "What you said? Don't you mean what Swimsuit-Mask said?"
Ringo spluttered refusals, to keep her, already blown cover a secret. Mikan popped out of nowhere to criticize the actions of the Shark.
"You guys are only F-Class and you goaded Behemoth to fight you? What were you thinking? You're gonna get murdered. To a huge team like that you brats are nothing but flies buzzing around their shit."
"Yeah, you're right," started Agito, "To them we probably look like the crappiest team in the Parts War. But that's exactly why I think we can beat them."
Ringo gasped, while Mikan just muttered an "Oh?"
"Would you care to explain this clever little plan of yours?" demanded Ume.
Agito let out a chuckle and continued with his explanation, "Akira Udou and the Five Holy beasts are the strongest riders in D-Class. But riders with their skills are good enough to be A-class. They just abuse the system to keep themselves from advancing. As long as they make sure they don't win three battles in a row, they stay in D-Class and dominate the low-level teams. It'd be suicide even for me to challenge them on their home turf. That's why I baited them with all of our stickers."
"Now that you mention it, they were the ones who initiated the battle," Ringo noticed.
Ever the voice of reason, Ume rebutted, "But no matter what area you decided to battle in, you still have the disadvantage."
"Think of Kogarasumaru's début battle," refuted Agito, "The way I see it, it should work out quite nicely. Our team looks weak, but we have four riders who's speed completely transcends F-Class: The wuss, the freak in the mask," at this Ringo growled, "that annoying bitch, (Oki) and of course, me. The strongest D-Class versus strongest F. And since the dash is a contest of speed, this battle ought to be a real kick in the pants."
"You can count me out," Ikki stated, appearing out of no where. Bruises spotted his face and were slightly concealed by bandages. His cheek had swollen up and the combination of the two made him appear like a monster.
Ringo jumped, obviously startled by the Crow's sudden appearance "Ikki?"
Ikki mulled in his thoughts, "I've never seen that kind of power before. There's no way… You can't expect me to race against a monster like that!"
"The only monster here is that swollen face of yours, you pussy," snapped Mikan, "You wanna have a pity party, do it alone."
"Hey, shut up!" He yelled.
Agito turned his face away from the idiot called the supposed 'Sky King', "We don't need you. I already picked out the riders and you aren't one of them."
At his harsh comment, Ikki left the threshold to walk to his room.
Encouraged, Agito followed him out and continued to boast, "Hah, not only do you suck at riding, you can't fight for shit! Go cry yourself to sleep, you sack of crap."Mikan nodded her head in agreement, further boosting Agito's ego.
Ringo had left to go and console Ikki, while Ume and Mikan just went their ways to their shared bedroom. Agito was still leaning against his door frame, and when he looked at the closed door opposite his room, he noticed the shadows near the base door.
"Come on out, you little Bitch. Fuck, can't even hide properly." He muttered, agitated that the girl was listening in.
Embarrassed that she got caught, the blue-haired girl slowly opened door separating the two of them. She mumbled a sheepish "Hi".
"What the fuck is it?" He demanded, trying not to show that he cared. He didn't, he told himself; it was that if he didn't ask she would keep bothering him with that "in-thought" look later and space out on him. Walking into his room, he beckoned her to follow, so he could sit down again instead of talking while he was still standing.
Oki followed him into his room without giving a second thought, she trusted the Shark enough to know that he wouldn't hurt her due to his lighter half. "You set up a battle with Behemoth?" She asked quietly yet there was something in her tone that made him rethink her seemingly innocent question.
The girl flooded him with questions, each one followed by another, "The night you've found me, you were hunting teams to bait them weren't you? You're willing to go to such extents and hurt your friends just to get this battle? What's your ulterior motive?"
"Fuck," Agito uttered out of confusion; he didn't miss the odd intonation of her words, "you're too perceptive. You know that, bitch? Curb that or you might get killed in this world. To answer your questions… yes, I did find you when I was taking over territories and crushing weaklings. Yes, I am willing to hurt my friends…after all they all eventually end up stabbing you in the back." the Shark looked down forlornly at his ATs, which didn't go unnoticed by the girl. He quickly snapped out of it and snarled at her, "And you, little Bitch, don't need to know my reasons. Just know we will reach new heights."
Before Agito knew what hit him, Oki's fist was thrust into his gut and the air was knocked out of his lungs. As he recoiled and tried to catch his breath, the blue haired girl leaned forward and enveloped him in her arms. Her small strong hand was gently stroking his hair.
The blue haired boy quickly tried to get out of her hold to no avail, "What the fuck are you doing you Bitch?!"
The girl pulled back, but did not relinquish her grasp. She shouted, "For shit's sake, stop calling me a fucking bitch! So what!? I beat you in a fucking battle. I won it fair and square. I'm sorry for wounding your pride but get over it!"
Agito raised an eyebrow at the sudden vulgar language of the girl. He was also a little scared deep down in the depths of his heart, her eyes were starting to darken, like they had in their battle.
She just glared at him and continued, "I swear, there's nothing more irritating than listening to you insult me. I have a fucking name, you know, so use it, dammit!"
"Fine… bit- I mean, Oki." Agito complied grudgingly.
She gave him her sweet smile and muttered a quick "Thanks!" before returning to stroking his hair.
What the hell? Agito thought, a furious blush spreading across his face. But for some reason, he felt like he was safe, like he was cherished and most important of all, like his existence was worth something.
However, he missed the grateful yet wry smile the girl was exhibiting. Thank you for setting this battle up Agito…I'm sorry I'm so selfish… and I'm sorry for whatever spurring you to take on this suicide mission. I don't want you to ever look so lonely again…
The entirety of Kogarasumaru, excluding their two blue haired members, was grinning, eager for its battle against the strong and gigantic team.
Agito's eye was twitching, My plan was perfect. But there was one thing I overlooked, one thing factor I failed to calculate… He's a dumbass. And there's no accounting for dumbass…ness.
The provoked Cyclops hammer started yelling threats towards Ikki. The said boy and Kazu joked around, teasing the beetle-eyed teen.
On the other hand, Oki narrowed her eyes into glare that drew a person deep into her bottomless, ocean-like eyes that could drown them in their thoughts. Her blue eyes were focused on the other, younger girl present. Long light-brown locks framed her face and emerald-green eyes distinguished her from the rest. Hanako… I can't wait to battle you. You took her away from me… you won't get away with it bitch!
*I know that it's actually the Holy Four, but how could I leave out Oki? She also gets to battle so I'm just adding one more person to the top riders of Behemoth.