Disclaimer: All standard disclaimers apply. I don't own KOF, Fatal Fury or related characters. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.
Sore ga Ai, Deshou?
Chapter Twelve: Growing Pains
The first day of the new semester opened on a bright sunny morning, the humidity was at an all time low for the season and the tips of the first autumn leaves had just begun to turn red and gold. Overall, it was a beautiful day… and Andy and Mai were stuck in school for almost all of it.
Andy sat in his homeroom class patiently waiting for the teacher to arrive. It seemed to have become a new trend for teachers to arrive to class only after all their students were present. There were still a few moments before the bell rang, so he supposed this was okay, but that didn't stop it from being any less annoying. He had a feeling Hanzo-sensei would disapprove.
"Dude, did you see that underclassmen?" One of the boys to Andy's right was saying, talking to his friends in non-to hushed tones.
"There are lots of underclassmen, what about this one?" His friend replied.
"She's, like, super hot!"
And with that single explanation Andy knew that they must be talking about Mai because no other person in their age group would be classified as such. 'Cute', sure. 'Pretty' maybe. But 'hot', no. 'Hot' was reserved for movie stars and pop-icons. He didn't socialize with his peers very often but he had over heard enough conversations to at least know that.
"'Hot'? Wait, you mean that one with the ponytail and shirt that's two sizes to small. She's younger than us!?" The friend exclaimed in dumbfounded shock.
"By a year, yeah." The first confirmed. "Shiranui Mai from class 2-B. I'm gonna ask her out!"
Andy nearly fell out of his chair when he heard that announcement. He steadied himself right away but the damage had been done, the two students talking on his right had noticed him.
"Daijobu desu ka, Bogard-kun?" One of them asked. But before Andy could answer with the expected 'I'm fine.' his friend had a sudden epiphany.
"Bogard-kun! You live at the Shiranui dojo, right? You live with Shiranui-san!"
The two scooted their desks closer to his and the bent their next down to speak conspiratorially with one another. The two bombarded Andy with questions.
"So, what kind of music does she like?"
"What's her favorite movie?"
"Does she like ice cream?"
"What's her favorite color?"
"Are they real?"
"Have you ever seen them?"
"Have you touched them!?"
"What do they feel like?"
"Tell us."
"Yes, tell us!"
"C'mon, speak up."
Andy had absolutely no idea what to do. This was more attention than he had received in practically his whole life and they were asking the most mundane things that he had never even considered the answers to let alone actually knew them. He knew she liked Metal but according to her ramblings there were like a million different variations of the Metal music genre and wasn't sure which on she liked.
He never really paid much attention when either she or the rest of the family watched movies, opting instead to meditate or practice his forms. But the few times he had passed by the family room when she was watching a movie it appeared to be an American fantasy flick about a girl running through some sort of maze, but he had no idea what it actually was called.
She probably did like ice cream, but that was probably more due to the fact that he found it difficult to conceive of anyone not likening ice cream, it was one of his favorite foods and guilty pleasures. She did always seem ready and willing to walk with him to get some whenever he did.
Her favorite color he assumed was red because that was the color of her fighting outfit, but she also had ones in pink, blue, black and green so he wasn't sure. The one she seemed to wear most often was the red but that could just be because it complemented her natural coloring so well.
As for the rest of their questions… he didn't really want to think about them let alone comment.
Andy was just about to ramble off some excuse to get himself of out this awkward situation, something about how he was just a student of the Shiranui school and didn't spend much time with Mai when he was saved by the teacher finally arriving on the scene.
"Alright everyone, settle down."
"We'll talk latter." They hissed as the bell rang signaling the beginning of class.
Everyone stood and bowed to the teacher before taking their seats and dutifully taking out notebooks and pens, the perfect image of eager students ready to learn.
"As you all know you will be taking your high school entrance exams in just another two short years." The teacher began once the clicking of ballpoint pens and shuffling of paper had died down. "It is my job to prepare you for that ordeal. The high school exams are no picnic and your scores on them will decide what high schools you'll be able to be accepted to. So if you don't want to screw yourself over, I suggest you apply yourself!"
The whole class sat in shock for a moment or two. Did the teacher really just say 'screw'? Was he even aloud to say that? Oh snaps!
"I will expect you to do your best and apply yourself as best you can." He continued. "If you have commitments outside of school that's fine, but that is no reason to neglect your education. I expect nothing but the best from all of you and I will accept nothing but your very best!"
After that he launched into an in-depth and detailed outline of how he intended to run the class for the next school year. Every one scribbled furiously to get it all down, Andy didn't though. He was used to rolling with the punches and didn't see how anticipating the next subject of study would help him when he was still working on the one before it. There is no easier way to trip and fall than keeping your focus away, ahead in the future. A person needed to focus on the present and where he was, what he was doing.
One thing he did take note of though, not note in his notebook but just a personal notice, was that the teacher had said almost verbatim what Hanzo-sensei had said to him when first arrived in Japan. "I expect nothing but the best from you and you will give me your very best."
Andy intended to do just that, give his very best in all aspects of his life, both his ninjitus and his studies. After all, if he was going to kill Geese Howard one day he would have to be the best! Second place just wouldn't cut it.
…
When the lunch bell rang and the students were released from their toils the two boys held Andy back.
"Come and sit with us." They said, each taking one of the hapless blonde's arms and pulling him out of the room and out to the courtyard where the crowds were fewer.
"You brought your lunch, right?" One of them asked. "Or do we need to go back inside and wait in the line?"
"Well, I-"
"He can share ours." The other said. "After all we're friends now, right Bogard-kun."
"Uh…"
"Yeah, friends." The first agreed. "And at a sign of friendship you're gonna help us curry favor with Shiranui-san."
"I-"
"Sit, please." The two pushed him down onto a bench. "Oh, I'm Umino Mamoru by the way and this is Sagara Souske. We've been in the same class with you for the past two years but you never talk to anyone so I didn't know if you knew or not."
He knew. Just because he wasn't very talkative didn't mean he wasn't observant.
The day was warm and the courtyard full of cheerful sunlight but Andy couldn't help but feel a small stone of foreboding sink into his stomach. He didn't care much for romantic entanglements and considering the fact that Mai was already engaged and the extended Shiranui family was so elitist and conservative he didn't see how either of his classmates stood a chance; not to mention that the very idea of one of these shallow plebeians dating Mai made his hackles rise for some unknown reason.
"So," Umino-kun began, "does Shiranui-san have a boyfriend?"
"Well, no…" Andy tried to answer honestly. A fiancé wasn't exactly a boyfriend and it wasn't like there was any sort of emotional connection on either side. But Koinosuke was still her fiancé, she was still engaged, she was off limits. "..but she-"
"So she's available!" Umino was practically beside himself with glee.
"Well, no…"
"Eh? Why not?"
"Oh, does her dad have one of those silly rules about her not being aloud to date?" Sagara-kun suggested.
"No. Its because she's-" Andy was about to break the unfortunate news that Mai was already spoken for when none other than Shiranui Mai herself came up and brought their conversation to a screeching and crashing halt. 'Speak of the devil and she shall appear.' As the saying went.
"Andy, you didn't show up at our table for lunch." She pouted in a way that he suddenly noticed was rather cute, her bottom lip sticking out only slightly, one hand resting on her hip that was beginning to develop a more… mature feminine curve and her generous cleavage thrust forward just enough to draw attention but not enough to be overtly lewd. And what made the action all the more attractive was that she had absolutely no idea that she was doing it!
"I, uh…" He was suddenly finding it hard… no difficult, he was suddenly finding it difficult to think.
"We're working on a project." Sagara-kun cut in before the blond could make a 'dumb-blond' of himself.
"Yeah." Umino-kun chimed in. "Our homeroom teacher has outlined one Hell of a year for us and we're just trying to get a head start on some of the work. Right, Bogard-kun?" He elbowed Andy in the ribs.
"Uh, yeah. Getting ready for the entrance exams and all that." The blond ninja-in-training nodded along. He was fairly certain that Mai wouldn't appreciate these two trying to manipulate their way into her favor and while he had been pulled in against his will, he was sure that her ire might also fall on him if she learned of the sinister plot that might possibly have developed had she not interrupted.
"Well, okay." She went fishing into her school bag and pulled out a bento box wrapped in a white and red handkerchief patterned with flames and handed it to Andy. "Here's your lunch."
And with that, she left.
Umino-kun and Sagara-kun stared at him for long moments after that. Andy suddenly felt like he was being put on trial the way they were scrutinizing him.
"She made your lunch." Sagara observed.
"You live in the same house." Umino remembered.
"She… she's like my sister." Andy insisted.
"She called you 'Andy' not 'Niisan'." Sagara reminded him.
"She called you 'Andy' with no honorific either." Umino added.
"Its not what you think." He insisted knowing full well where their mutual train of thought was heading. "We just live in the same house, that's all. Her grandfather is teaching me martial arts, she's like a sister to me, a sister!" Andy felt his face grow hot and he knew he must be flushed. Curse his alabaster skin! White people's cheeks colored to easily for their own damn good!
"You're blushing!" Umino exclaimed.
"No I'm not!"
"You and Shiranui-san are dating!" Sagara deducted.
"But we're not!" Andy insisted.
"You rat bastard! You never talk to anyone. You do nothing but take up space and now you've stolen the hottest girl in our school! How in the world did you manage something like that!?"
"No! It's not like that!" Andy wondered if they were going to attack him in their anger. Not that that would really be much of a problem for him but he was so much stronger than all of his classmates that if her were to accidentally hurt one of them… at the very least Hanzo-sensei would be disappointed in him if he did and at that very worst he'd be expelled from school and Hanzo-sensei might send him back to America with his training only partially complete because he was a 'problem child'.
Before he had the chance to find out the bell rang signaling the end of lunch. He was gone, across the courtyard and halfway through the school building's door before the bell had finished ringing.
Perhaps it was cowardly of him to just run from a situation like that; after all, neither of them posed any sort of physical threat to him. But he had gotten this far without getting himself involved in the mundane melodrama of school yard gossip but now it seemed he had been pulled in against his will simply by know the wrong person. He wondered what Mai would have to say about this new turn of events…
…
"So what were you really doing during lunch today?" Mai asked while walking home.
"Quite literally nothing." Andy responded. Even though their mutual 150 Centimeters rule had long since been dissolved he was keeping a good distance from her as they walked.
The American ninja-in-training couldn't have helped but notice the dirty looks he'd received from his classmates when Mai had come bouncing into his class room as he was putting his books away and asking if they were going to walk home together or if had joined any clubs this year. (He hadn't, he never joined any after school clubs. For as long as he'd been in Japan he was a loyal member of the "Go Home After School Club".)
It had only taken the time between when the lunch bell rang to when the day's classes finally ended for everyone in his year to know that Andy Bogard was supposedly dating Shiranui Mai. He wondered how long it would take for the rumor to reach Mai's year. Probably not long at all.
"If it was really nothing then why'd you all seem so conspiratory?"
"Because."
"Because why…?
"Because of… because of the reason!"
She sighed and shrugged her shoulders, the action causing her sumptuous breast to bounce in a very pleasing way. "Fine, don't tell me. I'll probably find out sooner or latter."
Andy had no doubt in his mid that she would.
"Kanna-chan asked me something weird today." Mai said, promptly changing the subject. Chidori Kanname was one of the girls in Mai's class and one of the regulars at her lunch table. Andy had spoken with her briefly only a few times since coming to live in Mino. "She asked me if you had a girlfriend. I told her I didn't know. I think she likes you."
Andy felt the beginnings of a headache coming on. Why was it that everyone was suddenly so concerned with dating and romance? They were thirteen for cripes sake! Well, he was thirteen. Mai and her friends were still only twelve. Romance wasn't something he had planned on having to deal with until he was twenty and had already avenged his father. Why was everyone else in such a hurry to pair off? Was there something in the water?
"Well?" Mai pressed.
"Well what?"
"What do you want me to tell Kanna-chan? She likes you –I can't imagine why- and wants to know if you might be interested in dating her. What do you want me to tell her?"
He paused a moment. "Tell her that if she hasn't got the balls to approach me herself then she hasn't got the brass to be anything but one of your friends to me."
"That's kinda harsh." She crossed her arms over her chest, pushing her breasts together in a way that made Andy's mouth water for no logical reason. "I'll just tell her you prefer aggressive women."
"Do as you please."
…
Acrobatics training became all the more intense now that Mai was back. Hanzo-sensei was anxious that they both excel at the Shiranui's style of ninjitsu and he promised that once the both of them had mastered the difficult and complicated acrobatics of the style that he would begin teaching them to harness and mater their ki, something that took patience and discipline of mind as much as it did strength of body.
Andy was more than ready to begin that stage of his training. With the use of ki based attacks he could take out his enemies from long distances without having to fear for his own safety. They were the easiest way to kill a man, if not the least bit subtle. But that wouldn't be how he would kill Geese Howard when he finally returned to South Town. No, the man who murdered his father he wanted to kill face to face, up close and personally. He wanted Geese to know exactly why he was going to die. He wanted to see the look in the man's eyes as he realized that his life saw about to end…
Unfortunately for the blond ninja-in-training, his practice and study of the Shiranui-ryu and koppouken was being greatly interfered with. He and Mai had been training partners for a long time and it had never bothered him before, but now that she… now that they were getting older, were growing up, Andy was finding it more and more difficult to focus on his training. Mai's costume revealed almost every inch of skin that the young American fighter desired to see and he found it a most unwelcome distraction while in the heat of a match. He would have been more than happy to ogle her off of the practice field but, lamentably, she remained decently clothed whenever not fighting.
It was frustrating in so many ways and on so many levels.
Add that to the stress of his classes and the social pressure of his peers and you had the perfect recipe for the exact type of teen angst that prime-time melodramas were made of. Dawson's Creek… Andy's Dojo, The OC… The NA (Ninja Academy), or similar such titles might apply.
But all joking aside, the blond fighter was more than surprised that even after a considerable amount of time had passed that Mai hadn't confronted him about the rumor that he had inadvertently started about them. He had thought that it was at least worth mentioning during one of their walks to or from school, if not a punch in the gut. But if Mai had heard anything of their presumed relationship from her friends Andy heard none of it. He vaguely wondered what had happened with that friend of her's that had had a crush on him.
After that first day with Sagara-kun and Umino-kun, Andy had taken to eating lunch alone and away for everyone else, usually on the roof of one of the buildings. Each building had a roof access stair and the doors to the roofs were never locked (probably because the faculty had no need to fear suicides with the two and a half meter high fencing they have bordering all the building's roofs. Recently, however, Mai had started to join him on the roof for lunch.
She offered no comment or explanation for the change in her routine and he didn't ask for one. They would sit and eat, politely ignoring each other.
…
"So, are you going to the Homecoming Dance with anyone?" Mai asked in between bites of rice. He tone was casual as if they talked like this every day but this had been the first thing she'd said since she had started joining him for lunch and they both knew it. She refused to meet his eyes when she spoke. Instead keeping here attention focused ahead on the view of campus through the chain link fence.
"I'm not going." Andy replied just as mildly also not looking at her. "Its silly and time consuming. I'd be much better off training at the dojo."
"Apparently, Koinosuke got permission from the school to attend even thought he's not a student here. He's planning to be my date." Here she looked him squarely in the face. "I told him I already had a date."
The blond continued to eat his rice unperturbed, completely ignoring her implication. "So what do you plan to do when you get caught in the lie?"
"Oh come on, Andy!" She set her bento box down and focused all her attention on giving him the most alarming glair she could manage. "Its just one night out of ten years worth of training! You can't stand to take one night off? Beside," she crossed her arm over her chest and changed her gaze to look at him sideways, "everyone already thinks we're dating. We might as well make it official."
"What everyone else thinks and what the reality is are two different things." He reminded her. "Besides, what would the rest of the family say when they hear you're dating a poor hakujin fit only as a pet project to keep Hanzo-sensei busy while the rest of the family schemes behind his back."
"Fine." She gave in, hopelessly crestfallen.
"But, I can give you a list of guys in my class who'd be willing to gnaw they own arms off if it meant going out with the 'hottest girl in school'." He added, not wanting to see her look so defeated.
"Yeah, okay." She muttered. "I guess that'll do."
"Don't thank me all at once."
…