Naru left the train at the next stop. Ever since he had given the girl's his business card to give Mai they both watched him with solemn and apologetic eyes, unable to stop whispering to one another. It had made him uneasy. And he had refused to be made so continuously uncomfortable, especially by two teenage girls. So, Naru still had a ways to walk in order to get to Ayako's workplace.

He observed the area he had decided to walk through. It wasn't necessarily a bad area, but it wasn't one he'd go into if he could help it. It was a seedy sort of place that sukeban and yanki liked to hang out in.

-x-

Mai left the shop with about 28,000 yen* in all. It should be just enough for her to buy a used scooter with. She was out quite a few pair of underwear, but she could buy new ones relatively cheap.

Makoto was in a jovial mood, even more excited than Mai was herself. Makoto hung an arm around Mai's shoulders, leaning heavily on the younger girl.

"Mai, I can tell, you're gonna become a real leader in the group. No one gets a scooter this early on except the chicks who end up on top."

"No, Makoto, it's thanks to you. I wouldn't have been able to do what I did last month without you!" Mai said, leaning back into Makoto.

They were walking down the alley when they heard a mocking voice from behind them.

"Hey, senpais!" It was a couple of girls that had been in the bususera shop with Makoto and Mai, they had been browsing through the racks of underwear and pawning off a few pair of their own. They were wearing school uniforms.

"Who're you?" Makoto stepped quickly away from Mai, going in front of her almost protectively.

"Just some girls from Majisuka**," Their leader stepped forward pulling her hand from behind her back, showing a bat held loosely in her hand, "We wanna talk about you using our bususera shop."

Majisuka was a purely yanki school. It was for girls with the lowest grades who couldn't get into other schools or for girls whose criminal records were so bad other school wouldn't even look at their applications. Mai had had to walk by it a few times and once she even had to follow an older member in as back up in a meeting, that one time was enough to make her be sure to not get caught by cops and to keep her grades at a respectable level.

"Huh?" Makoto swung a hip out and put a hand on it, "Your shop? Yeah, right. As if Majisuka could control an area this far out."

"We can and do. Just swear you won't use this shop anymore and we'll let you go with minimal injuries."

"Fuck off." Makoto said. Mai was shocked, Makoto really only began cursing when she thought that it was necessary to intimidate people. It wasn't often she had too. Once people found out they were in the Red Tails, more often than not they would leave the girls to do as they wished.

-x-

Naru cursed himself for making the decision to walk through this neighborhood, much less turn down an alley for a shortcut.

He seemed to have stumbled into some sort of yanki street brawl.

It was 2 girls wearing the same school uniform as Mai's school and 4 other girls wearing navy blue sailor suit uniforms. The 2 girls were putting up a good fight, almost holding their own against the others even though they were outnumbered. He considered just turning back the way he'd come and forgetting he'd seen the whole thing; he certainly didn't need to get pulled into some sort of turf war, but one of the girl's was the yanki he'd encountered earlier that morning. She certainly got around.

Ah, she'd caught sight of him.

-x-

The opposing girls quickly advanced on Mai and Makoto. What cowards, bringing four girls to fight against two wasn't honorable. Real yanki fights were one-on-one with no weapons.

It was Mai who swung the first punch. She clocked a short girl with a bad haircut, feeling her jaw crack beneath her fist. She slumped to the ground clutching her face. God, Mai would never get used to breaking other people's bones and skin. The other girl quickly came forward feigning a punch and then narrowly missing Mai. Damn it, that was close. She countered with a punch to the girl's stomach, grabbing her by her collar and rapidly hitting her multiple times.

Mai'd lost sight of Makoto, but there was no time to check on her senior, right now Mai had her hands full. The other girl was getting up, angrier than ever. Mai couldn't really blame her; she'd be pretty pissed off as well if someone broke her jaw.

Behind the girl with the broken jaw, someone had turned into the alley. Who would be so stu- shit, shit, shit, shit, shit. It was Naru. Naru who always seemed to find her when she was in trouble where no one else could help. But, in this case, he did the exact opposite. Seeing his face made Mai falter and hesitate, pausing for too long.

The world seemed to slow down as she froze. The girl with the broken jaw grabbed at Mai's cropped hair, holding her head in place finding Mai more than malleable. The girl with a bat came up behind her, slamming the wooden bat into her skull causing everything to go dark.

-x-

The bat made an unearthly cracking sound against the yanki's skull and then again onto her back, sending Naru into a run at the girls tackling into one sending her skidding onto the ground and grabbing the quickly crumpling girl into his arms doing his best to slow her fall.

He glared at the other girl with a bat, "I'll call the police if you don't leave."

"I'm not afraid of the cops."

"They're not the ones you should be afraid of."

The girl was put off by his cool demeanor in the face of a yanki with a bat, "What're you? Some big yanki boss…? If she's your girl, I didn't mean disrespect, she's just intruding. It's her own fault."

"She's not my girl." What a stupid question

"Listen guy; just give us some straight answers."

"Just leave her alone, got it." Naru gathered her into his arms. By now the other girls had stopped fighting, watching the new situation with wary eyes.

Naru began leaving the alley, the girl in his arms, his bag slung over a shoulder. One of the girl's from the alley rushed forward to follow closely behind him, "Hey, where the hell're you taking Mairu!?"

*About $280 USD

**A fictional yanki school from a J-drama

So they've finally met! Somewhat! Next chapter will be a proper meeting, I promise. Review!