Disclaimer: I do not own Maid Sama! or any of its characters. I do own my OCs
"Ji-Chi?" Tsuikiko called out to the empty, wet landscape in front of her. "Shit."
The rest of Group D walked along the slick and muddied trail, cautious of their step. Rainfall pattered against the students expensive rain jackets and some had their hair dampened by the unexpected weather.
Many of the students had been up at their allotted time, all but Group D. The crazy naturalist in charge of taking them through the seemingly 'beautiful' tropical forrest, was completely haywire. He would stroke certain trees they would walk pass and whisper things into his hat. He smelled of chili too.
"Hurry along, my trained bugs, I got a call from the chaperones back at the beach. The forrest is too risky to be in."
An over confident boy rose his voice, "Do you even know where you're going, Mr. Juba?"
The guide stopped walking and turned with his lazy eye twitching. "I like this forrest more than I like my parents."
Mr. Juba walked back down the path with the rest of the group following him.
Tsuikiko wasn't told to bring a jacket before leaving and was only focused on finishing her toast before being hurled out of the dining hall. Mistake one.
Her following to what seemed to be the sound of the group, it turned out to be a large rabbit crunching onto the fallen branches. Mistake two.
The rain pouring down on her harder and harder, she sprinted over to the largest tree she could find… only to have her feet slip off of its treacherous roots and down to the flooded ditch below. Mistake three.
A stream of cuss words poured out of her mouth. Her ankle wasn't exactly twisted, but it sure as hell hurt. Tsuikiko formed a plan in her head to get out of this 12 ft drop.
The thin roots were lanky and pliable, but held on to her weight. Mirroring the actions of a rock climber, she tried scaling the wall without success. The high wall that fell victim to the landslide had no tract against her shoes.
She was more pissed off than any other emotion. This wasn't a situation for her to fret about to much. Her body temperature lowered with nature's tears and she sat down with a squish. Resting her chin in her hand, she wondered who would be the lucky person to find a 16 year old sitting in a gross ditch mumbling about a stupid trip.
Ji-Chi had a realization. Panic bubbled in his stomach. He stopped in his tracks and turned around.
"Tsui- where the hell is she?! Tsuikiko!"
Group D was confused by his sudden shouting. Multiple students couldn't piece together what he was saying. "What are you yelling for?"
He shook his head in disbelief, looking up at the rain, pouring harder. "The weather is even colder than her," he said under his breath. "The underclassman is gone. I'm going to go and get that dumbass."
Group E was now getting on the same trail that Group D has finished. The members groaned at the chill of the air and shielded their eyes from the drops. A few unlucky ones forgot their hoodies in their rooms and shook with a cold.
Tora followed the main pod of the group at a distance with Maki by his side. "How long is this forrest thing?"
Maki was annoyed by this weather as well. "It's supposed to be an hour, but with these conditions it may take us an extra forty-five minutes," he eyed Tora's reaction.
Tora growled and stomped into ground.
"But that's only my prediction," he spoke, trying to ease him.
Tora tried staying as far away as his group as possible. He could see their head bobbing up and down in the distance with the level changes of the ground. The most aggravating part of the trip was not being in the same group as Tsuikiko, but being stuck in a group with her admirer.
The very thought of Raito talking to her, as well as dancing, was stabbing his brain like a spear. He was lost in thought about the weakling and noticed he was now alone. His confidence told him that he would find the way and sighed. Walking straight, he heard the yells and calls. The speakers kept saying the same word over and over. It didn't concern him and he brushed it off. A louder voice spoke above the others, but being so far away, he couldn't decipher the words. He began to think he was hearing Tsuikiko's name being repeated.
Tora kept on his path and heard leaves and other vegetation being pushed aside. Fight mode on. The stranger wasn't just making their way through the forrest. They were running through it. Straight for him.
The tall boy rotated his vision around the small clearing he was in. Surrounded by the rain and the damped leaves, his eyes were unable to detect anything.
A gigantic leaf was pushed back, entering the clearing and Tora stood his ground. He held his fists to his face. The space between his brows wrinkled and he stood normally again. Raito was before him trying to run through, but nearly yelped when he saw another person.
Raito was stunned, "Tora?"
Annoyance clouded Tora's rationality. "What?" He spat.
Raito visibly tensed up and then relaxed completely, "Thank god I found someone."
"Sucks that you found me."
He was still panting out of breath and brushed the sweat and rain mixture off of his forehead. "Tsui-," catching himself before angering Tora. "I mean, Mizushima-chan is stuck."
The mention of her name forced Tora to focus on what he was saying. "What the hell do you mean stuck?"
"She's fine and everything, we were talking to her, but there was a landslide and she slid down into a ditch."
Tora got scared for a second. He ran his mind through all the possible injuries she could have and possibly have already. Being quiet for more than a minute, thinking, Raito snapped his fingers.
"Igarashi-san?"
The anger taking over his body was uncontrollable. His eyes turned brighter and livid. "Then why the fuck are you here? How come you're running and not helping her?"
Raito sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck.
"Are you going to speak?"
The smaller boy shrunk at Tora's expression. He had never seen Tora so angry before. His perfect personality crumbled to pieces when it came to Tsuikiko. "I tried. The ground leading up to the drop is still unstable. I didn't want to risk another landslide."
Tora rolled his eyes and marched towards Raito. He was frozen to the spot in fear. He walked straight past him and ignored the gawking boy.
"Where are you going?" Raito asked, not understanding.
He didn't look back and weighed on ignoring the question. "On my way to do something someone so weak should have been able to do," his voice dripping in acid. "Go find a medic or something. I'm getting her myself."
Tsuikiko was bored. She played with the leaves on the ground, tearing them into tiny pieces and piling them. She snickered at the attempts of Raito trying to enter the ditch from all directions. Group E was speechless at how fast he was moving and instructing them. In the end, it would be a bigger issue if the whole of Group E fell into the ditch as well. So, she was alone now. The rest of them finally left her alone to find her some water.
The familiar sound of wet mud made her crane her head. "Raito?"
A head popped out over the ledge and looked down at her. She was sitting with her legs crossed, calm as can be. That irritated him to his limits. "It's me, idiot."
She scowled and stood up. She wanted to appear as if this was easiest situation she's been in. "And?" She bitterly said.
He gripped the edges of the land. "You ungrateful piece of shit."
Tsuikiko rolled her eyes and was going to sit down again when she heard Tora grunting. Lifting her head, she was greeted to the site of him shimmying down a large root and jumping onto the protruding rocks. "What are you doing?" She said flatly.
He kept his concentration on holding on to ridges and small boulders. "Descending."
"Descending closer to your home," she snorted. "A.k.a. Hell."
His foot stepped on the last possible boulder and he leaped down from it. He smiled cockily at his swift skill and gave Tsuikiko a boyish grin. "So?" He teased. "Look at this little mess you got yourself into."
Of course, Tsuikiko was relieved that someone had managed to help her. Not so relieved it turned out to be this jerk. "Shut it, Igarashi."
"Oh-ho?"
She walked towards the ninety degree angle of pure rock and dirt that towered above her. Her thin fingers ran along the wall and Tora eyed her light touch. His eyes grew darker with the small action. "Your expectations of me relying on you are too obvious, Igarashi."
He snorted at her words. Her ears hadn't picked up on his words under his breath something along the lines of 'you should.' He so… pissed? No. Seething? Yeah. That's right. A seething Tora stomped over to her and roughly grabbed her waist, forcing her against his body.
"I will bury you in this ditch, buy out this entire rain forrest, and build a strip mall on top of your body," he warned.
She glared, but seeing his expression and the serious tone in his voice, she shut up.
His arms let go and he bent down in front of her. His back was facing her so Tsuikiko couldn't see the color start to appear on his face. He immediately regretted saying 'strip' and 'your body' in the same sentence.
"What are you doing?"
Hanging his head in defeat he made an exaggerated sigh, "Either you get on or I will sling you over my shoulder."
Tsuikiko weighed her options and decided that having her ass right next to his jaw wasn't the best. Plus, she didn't have to see his face.
She climbed on and he stood with ease. Her arms met the skin of Tora's warm neck and and he hooked his hands around her thighs. He could feel her chest against him and swallowed. The piggy back ride couldn't be that bad. She breathed her hot breath onto the nape of his neck and he started the trip upwards.
Somehow along the process of getting out of the ditch, Tsuikiko laid limply against him. He looked at the wrists dangling in front of him and they were slack. The click of his tongue echoed and the rain began to lighten up. Dark skies were coming in and it must have been past six. The shore beckoned to him and he saw the silhouettes of students milling around inside of their shelter. Tora's legs ached with the amount of walking he had done that day and wished to put this thing down and go to bed.
"T-To…," the soft voice purred. He widened his eyes and could feel himself being affected by just her sleepy voice.
He cleared his throat, "I didn't tell you you could speak."
There wasn't a response from her. A confused Tora twisted his neck awkwardly to look at her and frowned that she was still sleeping.
She started to wiggle and shift so Tora leaned further forward to balance her. Her whispers of sleep talking went on and on in his ear as he carried her down the beach. His grip on her thighs tightened while trying to control himself. And with his gripping palms, came a moan from Tsuikiko. She rolled her head a little and her lips grazed a sensitive spot behind his earlobe.
Tsuikiko was woken up by her backside slamming against the wet sand. Her eyes worriedly opened and she took in her surroundings.
Tora was holding the spot she hadn't known she just kissed unconsciously. She didn't know if it was the lack of light or something else that made his eyes darker, but you can bet they were.
"How'd I end up on the ground, stupid?" She hissed.
He snarled and trudged off to the hotel.
Her hand went to her tailbone, rubbing it tenderly. Conversations were running through her head. "How did Igarashi find me? Why did he climb down and get me? Why had he let me sleep on his back? And why did that son of a bitch drop me?"
A.N.
This chapter was longer than usual, but, hey! At least you got a Toriko moment. Tsuikiko doesn't like the fact that she now owes Tora something so more to come. Btw, I'm just going to address where Ji-Chi went cause I don't feel like wasting time on it to actually write a chapter for it. Ji-Chi ran into the guide of Group E and was ushered back to the hotel with them. BUT WHERE DID RAITO GO?! idk man ;) Keep reading
~Luna Restings