Chapter 3

Seeing no reason to squat uncomfortably in hiding, she left herself in plain sight, sitting on a bench reading a plain little pocket book she smuggled before Eri forced her away. She glanced every now and then to keep her promise to Eri. More and more delinquents showed up to try and help the other out but it was to no avail. They were like flies compared to Shizuo, who just smashed them out of the way like the pathetic insects they were.

Finally, after a few more minutes, the one-sided skirmish was over. Several half conscience bodies were scattered about the ground. With just a few scratches that marked his sweaty skin, Shizuo wiped his brow, shoved his hands back in his pockets and walked off. As he walked past Minako, she caught a glimpse of that unrivaled man. His back was turned, but it was as if her brief gaze was palpable to him. He turned his head. She stopped looking and shoved her nose back into the book. She felt his stare burn against her back.

"Hey." he called in a tired deep voice. She shuddered a bit, but didn't look up.

"Yes?"

"If anybody asks, I was never here." he told. She gave a simple nod in reply. From the corner of her eye she saw that he was gone. So that's the famous Shizuo Heiwajima... Minako repeated in her mind.

She closed up her book and went back to the classroom.

When class was over, the two girls walked home and Eri began bugging Minako to tell her all the gruesome details of the fight for her amusement.

"So who won?" Eri enquired enthusiastically.

"Heiwajima-san of course." Minako retorted.

"How'd it go down?"

"He beated them to a bloody pulp."

"That I know; I've seen him beat people till their half dead. I'm asking for specific stuff! The good stuff!"

"I kinda don't want to."

"Why not?" she whined.

"I'm scared you're gonna get off while I'm telling you."

Eri's face flushed bright red with embarrassment and shock.

"I am not!" she denied.

"It was a joke, Eri-san." Minako assured with a flat tone. Eri scratched her head all around until her hair was all frizzy and covering her face.

"Ugh! And what's with adding -san to my name? It's too formal, why can't you call me Onee-san or something like that?"

Minako stared blankly and stood still with a pause of silence.

"I'm sorry." she said simply.

Eri continued complaining.

"Dear god even your apologies are annoying." She mumbled, frustrated. Minako continued to say nothing. She just continued gazing with a blank look that was unreadable. Eri froze, startled by her unwavering odd look.

"Um, hey look I'm sorry if you were offended by any of that." She lamented uncomfortably. "Just lost my cool, you understand right?" she said with a playful punch to the shoulder. Again there was no kind or sad look, it was just dull.

"Yeah." she murmured with a nod.

"Alright, then let's get going, Maso-chan."

"Please don't call me by that name." she protested meekly.

A few days later into the new school year, Minako ended up (or rather forced) to share the same hobby of stalking Shizuo. So far, he had been in about seven fights in just four days of school. Whenever she bothered to take notice of him in class he was always cranky and frowning and Minako could understand why he was always like that. However, Minako didn't understand why she was so giddy whenever she saw Shizuo. She assumed that Eri had some weird bad boy fetish, but when she brought it up her older sister would smack her upside the head and deny it.

One day when school was already over, Eri made Minako stay with her after school to watch Shizuo again. He was getting into another fight. This time it was like a small was sent after him. They discovered Shizuo and his acquaintance, Shinra, in the soccer field. The gang of second years immediately started lashing out at him.

Shizuo gritted his teeth and then ripped the soccer goal from the ground, and hurled it right at them, sending them flying across the yard. Minako wasn't especially impressed. She'd watch him plenty of times enough to understand no one could beat Shizuo, not even thirty second year students were enough. As they continued to watch from a classroom on the second floor, they saw someone else come onto the makeshift battle field that was littered with bodies. A freshman boy, with black hair and wearing a gakuran with a red shirt underneath, was sitting there with Shinra, wearing a satisfied smirk on his face.

Eri leaned in closer to the glass and beckoned to the girl who was in the corner with no interest.

"Maso-chan, Maso-chan, come here take a look. There's another guy out there."

She huffed and looked out the window. The boy with the gakuran and Shizuo began talking and the latter didn't seem too happy. Eri leaned in even closer until her cheeks were pressed against the glass.

"Dammit I wish we were closer so we can hear what they're saying; oh, but if we leave now we might miss the whole fight." She whined.

Then something extraordinary happened.

Shizuo charged at him with a punch, smashing the metal bench he sat on, and the boy dodged it. Minako seemed to take a little more notice. Surprised that he had missed, Shizuo turned around, only to be slashed in the chest by a pocket knife. Shizuo stepped back, holding his bleeding chest and torn shirt while the gakuran cladded delinquent smiled.

"Whoa!" Eri shouted. "I can't believe that guy was able to actually do some damage against that monster!"

Then suddenly, Eri grabbed her friend by the wrist and forced her out the door.

"Shizuo's chasing that guy into central Ikebukuro, c'mon, c'mon!"

Eri rushed off carelessly first, leaving Minako to carry both their textbook stuffed bags as she tried to keep up with Eri at a slow pace. They sprinted off the school grounds, chasing after the two boys. They followed them a few blocks away and down an alley and into an opening that led into the streets. Shizuo continued dashing after him until he had soon lost sight of his prey. He paused and looked around, but he didn't notice he was in the middle of the road and was hit by an unbeknownst truck.

Eri skidded to a stop, compelling Minako to stop as well. Her jaw dropped when she saw the scene. Shizuo lied double up on the floor, grunting in pain. The driver quickly sprung out of his truck in a panicked state. The entire passerby stopped to gawk at the fallen boy. Eri broke into a big grin.

"Ooooohhh my..." She gasped, covering her open maw with her hands. "Holy shit! Did you see that?" she shouted, bursting into laughs. "Fuck, that guy he was chasing sure is good."

Minako held their bags with an unamused expression on her face. What was there to be amused about? She wondered, looking at her friend.

"I-I didn't see him!" The trucker cried. Aloofly the gakuran cladded boy pulled out his wallet that had a chain attached to the belt loop of his jeans.

"It's okay, he's quite feral."

"A-are you sure we shouldn't send him to the hospital?"

"No, that'll be all." he replied, handing him quite a handful of bills.

Satisfied with the end of the fight, Minako and Eri went there separate ways. The latter was skipping merrily; giggling uncontrollably and the other... simply went on unaffected, as if nothing happened.