Chapter 2

The first day of school had arrived and when the two "sisters" were checking their class placement. As their eyes scrolled down the lists, Eri saw that Minako really didn't have a last name. The space was left as a blank. She decided to let it be and continued skimming down the list when she saw her name. More than that delighted her. She saw a few more familiar names, Shinra Kishitani and Shizuo Heiwajima. A big grin lit up her face and she started bouncing excitedly.

"This year's gonna be so fun!"

"Hmm? What is it?"

She threw an arm over Minako's shoulder and pointed to two names written on the paper.

"Do you know these people?"

"You really don't know who Shizuo Heiwajima is?! He's the strongest guy around Ikebukuro. And yeah I know that lame Shinra guy since we went to middle school together but that's beside the point."

"Um... I don't really understand why you're so excited about it." Minako murmured. Eri let out an annoyed outbreath.

"God, don't you see? This school's riddled with delinquents, and delinquents got their pride too ya know. Every reject is going to go out of their way to try and kick Shizuo's ass, funny thing is that all of them who try end up getting their asses kicked. It's really entertaining, I used catch some fights when I went home after school. Ya shoulda seen him! He just ripped a fucking stop sign out of the ground and swung it! A guy with a pipe was sent flying! Whoooosh, homerun!"

Minako cut her short. "You're kinda have sadistic view point you know." she commented. Eri shrugged her shoulders.

"So what if I do? Makes fights livelier. And look who's talking; the girl who didn't know when she's lost. What the heck does M in 'Minako' stand for anyways; masochist?"

"Of course not; it didn't hurt that bad anyways. You could've hit me harder." she argued impassively.

"Ha! You really are a masochist; I know I'll start calling you Maso."

"Please don't."

"Yeah yeah, well let's get going Maso-chan."

"Okay." she said quietly without any further protest, following Eri to their classroom once the school's bell chimed along.

All the students piled into their classrooms. Even though Eri begged Minako to sit next to her, she sat on the far left near the window (mostly because she wanted to stare out of it). The class went silent for a second and from the corner of her eye she saw the students steering clear out of someone's way. There was a guy who looked too mature to be a freshman boy, he was tall and his hair was bleached blonde. She glanced for a second and then went back to dazing. A pencil was thrown at her. She snapped out of it and searched for the offender. It was none other than Eri. While everyone looked petrified, she looked happier than ever. She was pointing, mouthing silently "that's the guy, that's the guy!" Minako paid no more attention and rested her cheek on the heel of her hand.

Introductions went underway. It was normal. The teacher called out the names on his roster and the students stood up and gave their formal intros. Shinra gave his and then Shizuo gave his while everyone stared blankly at him, as if expecting something to happen. Then as the list went down alphabetically in surname order, it finally got to Eri.

"Nagatani... Eri Nagatani are you here?" the teacher asked. Eri's head rested lazily on her hand and she wore an expression of annoyance. She waved her hand slowly.

"Yeah." she grunted. The teacher seemed to be a little put off by her attitude.

"Would you like to introduce yourself?" he asked calmly. With a roll of her eyes she boldly flipped him off, making the teacher, and the entire class gasp and taken back. She slammed her hands onto the desk, stood up and sent a heated glare towards the frightened instructor.

"You said my full name, right? Why the hell do I gotta introduce myself? Ah well, since I'm up; the name's Eri Nagatani. Now let's move on with this—Minako!"

Minako stood still, still but aware. The teacher looked at his roster again.

"Minako? You don't seem to have your last name here; there must've been an error in the office. Please go ahead anyways and state your last name so we can now it."

Slowly she rose with a stern expression and dull eyes. "I really don't have a last name. My name is Minako and... I guess from this point on I am hypothetically Eri-san's little sister." she began in a hushed and serious tone, giving Eri a quick glance. "My name is Minako Nagatani. It's nice to meet you." She introduced formally, and then sat back down.

"O-okay, Minako-san, thank you for that. Let's continue."

Time flew by quickly and lunch time came around. The two girls' sat in the corner of the room and ate. Nobody came to make friends with them. Everyone left them alone. As Eri munched on simple convenience store junk food, she spotted Shizuo hurrying out the door for seclusion. She tugged on Minako's arm.

"Let's move, let's move!" she said excitedly. "He's on the move we gotta go before we lose 'em!"

"Do we have to?" she asked.

"Yes!" Eri retorted, yanking her by the shirt and dragging her along the hallways, following Shizuo at a safe distance so he wouldn't notice them. They followed him all the way to the front courtyard and they decided to hide behind the walls outside. They squatted down, keeping quiet as they watched Shizuo sit alone outside.

"I'm going back inside." Minako said.

"No wait, just wait! Wherever there's big fights it's usually Shizuo who gets in them. Just wait a few more minutes."

Minako sighed and sat back down. "How do you even know someone will even try to fight with him?"

"We didn't go to the same junior high, but every day on my way home he was always getting into fights with people. I ended up watching him fight everyday instead of going straight home. When I think about, he's kinda the reason why I'm a delinquent."

"Your explanations are long." Minako whispered to herself.

"Ooh, ooh! Here it comes." Eri said excitedly. The two girls craned their necks from their hiding spot and saw about four regular school boy thugs brandishing metal pipes. She could see Eri bouncing agitatedly. There was a blur of insults and curses and directed at Shizuo before there was a loud metallic smack sound. One of the boys was reckless enough to hastily strike him in the head with the pipe.

"Oh shiiiit..." Eri slurred out, covering her quivering lips and laughing as quietly as possible. "That dumbass is gonna get it now."

Minako still had no interest, but she kept checking on the scene a bit.

"You jackasses wanna fight so badly?" Shizuo grumbled. "Fine! Then I'll give you what you want!"

Shizuo snatched away the pipe from the one who hit him and like a bat, smacked it right into his stomach sending him several yards away. The two other students, although scared, rushed in and swung punches. Easily, Shizuo dodged them. He veered on his toes, turned and punched one of them so powerfully that he flew and slammed right into the wall, leaving a mark on the concrete. Eri lost control and started cackling more.

"Oh my god..." she said through her laughter.

"If you laugh any louder we'll get caught." Minako warned. Eri wiped the traces of happy tears from her eyes.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." She apologized hysterically.

"You should probably get going before you have us caught."

"Stay here and tell me what happens when the fight is over?"

"Okay." Minako reluctantly agreed.

"You're the best."