Chapter 7
Eri stood tall and strong like the intimidating person she truly was. After a few more laughs that slowly mellowed down to mere chuckles, she let her hair loose and nonchalantly walked past the clutter of pained bodies.
Everyone's eyes followed Eri as she started to walk away. As soon as the fight was done Minako had returned to her seat while everyone still stood. Shinra saw her lack of interest.
"Huh? Minako-san...?" he began.
"The fight's over now isn't it?" she retorted with a deadpan expression. Shinra chuckled and sat back down too.
"Yeah, I guess you're right."
She staggered up the stairs, the passerby who watched her moving out of her way, leaving her a clear aisle to walk through. Her smile still never wavered. Eri returned to her homeroom, the door opening with a bang.
"Maso-chan! Shinra!" she demanded in a yell. The two who were requested came to her side and helped her to the infirmary.
"I thought they didn't land a single punch on you." said Shinra as he searched through the cabinets for hydrogen peroxide. The regular nurse, who had treated Minako for bruises the day before, refused to care for Eri. She was deathly afraid, especially after the stunt she pulled off. Eri sighed.
"Yeah, but I guess I punched way too hard. I aimed for a guy's face and all of the sudden my knuckles hurt and started bleeding a little." she said, showing off her scrapes.
"Ah I see. You need to be careful when you punch." he scolded.
"Well you sure kicked ass today. You're almost good as Shizuo." Shinra complimented as he gently applied the stinging liquid to her knuckles.
"No way, in my condition Shizuo would kill me! Anyways—ah, ow!"
She flinched and whimpered. She then glared at him.
"Hey! I'm not a masochist ya know don't make it hurt!" she growled.
"B-but, Eri-san, I can't control whether or not—"
She grabbed him by the collar, held up her fist and pretended to get ready to slug him.
"Sadistic pervert! Don't try anything, especially on Maso-chan!"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" He apologized frantically. Eri paused when she noticed Minako just sitting there.
"Hey, Minako." she began seriously, capturing her attention. "Why are you so down? Aren't you happy that I won?"
She simply nod. Eri let out a whine through her lips.
"Sheesh, I don't get you."
She blinked and in a second Minako had already disappeared.
"Eh?! Maso-chan, where'd you go?!"
Meanwhile, while it was still lunch time, the group of boys who were defeated by the delinquent girl, were all together and approached their gakuran cladded, black haired boss.
"Izaya-san, we couldn't get to the guy you wanted." the leader admitted. He sat on a bench, a leg folded over the other.
"Oh and why is that?"
"Some girl went and beat us." another confessed, shamefaced. A small smirk curled on Izaya's face.
"Really? You know her? Let me guess, she couldn't be that Nagatani that I've been hearing about in Raijin lately, was she?"
"I think so; don't ask us, you're the one who's going to that damn school." another growled. Izaya chuckled.
"Hey, are you mad?" he enquired with a hint of wickedness.
"Of course we are! We let a girl—a freshman girl beat us!" the leader roared. Izaya got up with his hands in his pockets and then pulled out a picture.
"Well, it's obvious that you can't beat that Nagatani sister, but there's another you can vent your anger on." He said, showing them the tiny square photo of a girl with black loose curls who didn't know someone was taking a picture of her.
"This girl is her younger sister. She usually takes a beating from her precious big sister almost every day, so she's pretty weak." he tossed the picture to the leader.
"This girl, huh... she doesn't look like much." the leader said, and then crushed it in his fist. "Alright, we'll target this one next and get our revenge on that Nagatani girl."
The gang stormed off in a huff and Izaya sat there feeling quite content. He let out a laugh.
"Targeting a person who can't fight back? What bunch of cowards; why did I ever even hire them to attack Shizu-chan?"