Chapter 2

Yuuji payed no attention to his surroundings as he walked. Ignoring the vibrating feeling pocket at first, it was after the third ring that Yuuji realised there was a phone call.

"Damn that girl," he muttered when he looked at the caller details, "why can't she just leave me alone!?"

With a sigh, he gave in to the obnoxious repetition of ringing and picked up the call.

"…" Silence.

"Hello?" Yuuji snapped tiredly. "Shouko, is this you? Answer me already, will you?"

"…" Again, there was no reply.

"Argh! What the hell is the girl doing?" He impatiently cried, but was stopped from hanging up by faint voices from the other end.

"…won't .. save you…" the words he heard barely made sense, but he had listened enough to make an educated guess.

Immediately, his legs moved. Yuuji ran as fast as he could muster, ignoring the heavy books in his bag and the weariness from a day at school. Nothing in the world mattered at the moment except for the safety of his best friend. At school, it would have been perfectly alright to leave Shouko to deal with her own problems, but outside class, who knew what was going to happen to weak, vulnerable girls in the hands of filthy, rough gangsters?!

Damn it, Yuuji, you're the stupidest person on Earth! How the hell didn't he realise that Shouko was in as much danger as he was?! Why didn't he tell her the threatening notes he found in his shoe locker and warn her of the possible danger?

He knew the answer to all those questions. It was his damn pride.

His legs were numb from the sprinting, as he reached the meeting place the threatening letter had said, but Shouko was no longer there. Instead, it was easy to spot her pink school bag and her phone dropped on the ground at the side of the road that led into the park.

Damn it. Where is she? Leaving his backpack with hers, he put her phone in his pocket and kept running down the road. He had a vague idea where the gangsters had their home base, but going there would be a risk in itself. He knew full well murder was not beneath these boys.

The next time he stopped was in front of the worn down gymnasium at the edge of town. He hesitated as he considered his chances.

He was all by himself, and he was utterly useless against all the hoodlums. For all he knew, they could very well have guns and other such weapons. He shivered, but once having caught his breath, he barged in without a care for the world.

Or at least, that's how he had wished it to happen. As soon as he reached the door of the abandoned gym, he felt someone grab his shoulder. He was pulled back abruptly and he felt a kick to the stomach knock out his wind. He groaned as he flew backwards to land on his back as three strong brutes entered his blurry vision.

He gasped for breath as he attempted to crawl onto his belly, but a dirty shoe blocked his turning. He heard laughter as he felt three pairs of feet connect with his body.

Damn it! I don't even have to do this, he thought, It's her own fault she got caught! I'm just playing right into the thugs' hands.

But Yuji didn't runaway. He grabbed hold of one of the thugs' legs and pulled; the thug's legs didn't budge, but his pants did. A coarse rally of curses could be heard as the thug scrambled to pull his pants back up. Yuji was answered with an extra strong kick to the waist. Yuji swung his legs up and down, and managed to knock down a thug when he hit their knee, but as he tried to get up, the third pulled him back.

Yuji cried in pain as the third one maintained his grip on the fifth grader, his bruises shooting lightning bolts of pain throughout his body. He struggled, but slowly, his strength weakened. Eventually, it was all he could do to stay conscious, and that was only for a while, before everything went blank.

Damn it…
Shouko…
I want to reach you!