DISCLAIMER: I don't own Digimon or any video games, books, films, TV shows or pieces of music referenced in this story. Original characters owned by me are stated in my profile.
Chapter Three: The Grate Brittish Educaiton Sysstum
Monday 6th September - 8:37am
Redcliff Mount High School
OhmygodohmygodohmygodI'mlateI'mlateI'mlateI'mlateI'mlate! Takato thought as he sprinted down the ugly modern corridor leading from Main Reception to his form room, P12. I can't believe I'm late on the first day again! I hope Miss Byron is in a good mood…
"SorryI''tkillme!" Takato babbled incoherently as he stumbled into the classroom. P12 was a science room in the more modern area of the school, meaning that it had a cold, sterile aesthetic and an odd chemical smell. The two-person fake marble desks were arranged into three rows of five, all facing the whiteboard at the front of the room.
"Ah, Takato - just in time for the seating plan!" a small, plump woman of about forty with short brown hair and too much lipstick sighed and glared at the boy. "I hope that we aren't starting as we mean to go on - I don't think I could take another year of that…"
"Ah, yes miss! I mean, no miss! I mean…I mean…"
"Just go stand at the back with everyone else."
"Yes, miss."
Takato sauntered slowly to the back of the room, standing next to Henry. The brown-haired Tamer grinned sheepishly at his friend, who merely rolled his eyes and grinned back.
"I'll never understand how you manage to be late so often when you only live a couple hundred metres down the road. So, what was it this time?" Henry whispered as Miss Byron began assigning students to desks. He was trying not to laugh at Takato's dishevelled appearance. His black trousers were crumpled, his yellow-striped blue tie was tied in a knot and his Navy blue jumper was on the wrong way round.
"Accidentally unplugged the alarm clock in the night…" he replied while fighting a losing battle with his tie.
"How did you manage that?"
"Uh…I have skillz? With a 'z'?"
Henry chuckled at the obscure video game quote and shook his head, then pointed subtly to the far side of the room. "You seen the new girl yet?"
"New girl?" Takato asked as he finally undid his tie and began re-tying it. He looked in the direction Henry indicated, and his curiosity turned to an odd mix of excitement and dread as he recognized the figure. "That's her!"
"That's who?"
"The Tamer from the Airdramon fight!"
"Are you sure?"
"Of course I'm sure! She came into the bakery last week and kept insulting me when I tried to thank her for saving our butts!"
"Something the matter, Mr Matsuki?" Miss Byron asked, irritation clear in her voice.
"Ah, no miss!"
"Good. Now, if you wouldn't mind taking your seat?" she growled and Takato nearly fell over his own feet as he scrambled to the third desk in the third row, putting him at the back of the class but still right in front of the teacher's desk. As he sat down, the Tamer took a quick look around the classroom, his heart sinking as he did so.
Awww, man…she's doing it alphabetically again! I'm gonna end up stuck next to Reece Oaken again…
"Rika Nonaka, sit next to Takato!"
YES! Wait, I don't remember there being a Rika in this class before. But…that means…
Takato tried not to gulp in fear as the redheaded Tamer sat next to fixed him with a glare that wouldn't have looked out of place on the face of a serial killer. With a "humph!" the girl sat next to the petrified boy, moving her stool as far away from him as possible.
This is gonna be an interesting year…
Rika looked at her timetable, then glanced quickly at Takato's. What she saw nearly made her scream in rage and frustration. Due to an awkward twist of fate, the girl discovered that she was stuck in the same class as Takato for most of her lessons, including all four of their lessons that day - second period ICT, third period English, fourth period Science and fifth period Maths. The only lesson she would have normally had away from him was first period 'Citizenship' class, but that was cancelled due to the extended form period. Thanks to the evil invention that is the English alphabet, she would probably be sat next to him in every single one of those lessons.
If I have to put up with his stupidity every day for a year, I am going to KILL SOMEBODY!
"Now, class, as I'm sure you've all noticed we have a new student with us. Rika, if you'd like to stand up please?" Miss Byron said in the high-pitched, patronising voice characteristic of bad teachers everywhere.
As Rika reluctantly stood up, someone on the other side of the room wolf-whistled loudly. Rika glared at the offender - a tall, fat, brutish boy who looked like his face had been sculpted by Picasso. The boy returned the glare for a few seconds before shifting uncomfortably and looking away.
"This is Rika Nonaka, who has just moved here from Tokyo. I hope that you'll all try and help her to settle in nicely. You may sit down again Rika."
Rika sat down again, this time glaring at the teacher. The woman pretended not to notice as she waffled on about "setting a good example for the new Year 7 students".
"You just made a powerful enemy," Takato whispered in perfect Japanese. Rika gave him a surprised look - she hadn't expected him to be able to speak Japanese, otherwise she wouldn't have signed her name as "The Digimon Queen" in the note she left carved into a tree trunk.
"What do you mean?" she asked, trying to make it look like she was paying attention to the insane teacher's rant.
"That guy you stared down is Luke Aaron. He's the biggest psychopath in our year, plus his older brother's the leader of a massive gang of chavs in Year 11."
"What the hell is a 'chav'?"
"It's like, a person who wears tracksuits, smokes, drinks, swears a lot and spits on the ground all the time. A lot of them smoke weed too. This school's infested with them."
Rika snorted and shook her head. "They don't sound too scary…"
"They go around in gangs and pick on anyone who's different to them. If you talk back they beat the crap out of you. Most of the older ones carry knives outside of school, and if you fight back they aren't scared to hunt you down and use them."
"Takato, if I have to tell you about talking one more time-" Miss Byron began menacingly.
"Actually, that was my fault," Rika interrupted, drawing a filthy look from the power-mad teacher. Ignoring the glare, she kept talking. "I was asking him how to get to my next lesson from here."
"He must have been giving you some very complicated directions for you to be talking for that long…"
The girl shot a venomous glance at Takato before continuing. "His directions were a little…mixed up. I had to keep asking him to re-explain something."
With a "humph" the teacher went back to her patronising little rant. Ten minutes later, the end-of-lesson bell rang and a relieved Rika shuffled slowly towards the door, waiting for the all-out mêlée in the corridor to subside slightly before stepping out.
As the girl looked out at the sea of people, she realized something looked odd. Everyone was so…tall! Rika was considered to be average height for a girl her age in Japan, but in England she was a little way below average at about four feet and seven inches. Takato, meanwhile, was about average at four foot nine, making him quite tall for a Japanese boy.
"Rika!" Takato's voice called out as he ran for a few metres to catch up with her, Henry walking at a more sedate pace a couple of steps behind him. "How come you said that stuff to Lord Biro?"
"As soon as she'd finished screeching at you, she'd have moved on to me. And I tend to react badly when power-mad teachers start ranting at me," she replied coldly, still walking.
"Oh, right. Plus the look on her face was priceless!" Takato replied, chuckling to himself. "Okay, what room am I in first…G14? Where the hell is that?"
"Oh, that's one of the computer rooms - I think I'm in there too. It's just up these stairs," Henry said, indicating an unnecessarily wide staircase that obstructed a large chunk of the corridor ahead, creating another mêlée of stampeding students. This crowd was, ironically enough, blocking the corridor so much that it prevented access to the stairs.
"Great, I'm stuck with both of you for another hour…" Rika muttered darkly before pushing her way skilfully through the crowd and reaching the staircase in a matter of seconds.
"How did she…do that?" Takato wondered aloud as Henry smirked and shook his head in amazement.
"I guess you don't grow up in Tokyo without learning a few things."
Rika's theory was proven correct four times over - she was forced to sit next to Takato in all four of their lessons. Through sheer bad luck, she was also stuck with Henry for ICT, Science and Maths. The only break she managed to get from the duo was during lunch, when she headed to the roof of the old science block to read and meet with Renamon. Technically, she wasn't actually meant to be up there - all students were supposed to spend their lunchtimes in the main Dining Hall, with the library being opened for use at lunchtime from the second week onwards. If I have to spend one more minute with those two morons than I have to…
To be fair, Henry wasn't anywhere near as stupid or annoying as Gogglehead - in fact, he was quite possibly the smartest person Rika had ever met. This intelligence was what caused Rika to christen him with his nickname in last period Maths.
2:15pm
"But I don't get it! How can minus a minus not be a minus but a minus of a plus is a minus and a plus of a minus is a minus and a plus of a plus is still a plus?" Takato babbled, unable to get his head around the concept of negative numbers. They were half an hour into the lesson and Henry had spent the whole time trying to explain the basic principles to his friend.
How the hell did he manage to get into the genius class for maths? They must have REALLY low standards of intelligence here… Rika thought bitterly as she tried to ignore the gibbering idiot sat next to her. After his fifth rant at Henry, the redhead's meagre supply of patience finally ran dry.
"For God's sake Gogglehead would you TAKE A FREAKING BREATH?" she yelled in his face, startling him into silence. "Maybe if you'd just shut up and actually listen to Brainiac over there, you'd be able to do this stuff! Look, it's really simple - same sign means you add, different sign means you take away. Now shut the hell up before I rip out your voice box!"
"Yes, ma'am!" the poor boy squeaked and began writing away furiously. It seemed to Henry that Rika's rant had paid off - he was actually getting the answers right! He glanced over at Rika's workbook, frowning as he tried to decipher her spidery handwriting.
"You know, you can't really call me Brainiac when you've already finished the work…" the blue-haired Tamer said, grinning.
Rika glared, cracking her knuckles menacingly. "I'm sorry, were you just telling me what to do?"
"Uh…no?"
"That's what I thought."
When Rika got home, she was subjected to an interrogation the Spanish Inquisition would have been proud of. Her mother was firing off questions like a MegaGargomon fires missiles. The questions were the typical "Did you have a good day?", "Did you have any trouble from the other students" and "Are there any cute boys in your classes?", to which Rika's answers were "Yes", "No", and "MUM!" respectively. The redhead began to resent the older woman for taking extra time off work as she felt a minor migraine stampede its way into her brain.
"Oh, by the way, I heard there's a history trip to France at the end of the month…" Rumiko called as her daughter headed for her room.
Rika stopped walking and sighed mentally. She had been hoping her mother wouldn't hear about that. The trip had been offered to the top two History classes, and she knew for a fact that Gogglehead was going.
"Yeah, so?"
"Well, the head of the school's History department called and said there was still a space free if you wanted it, so I signed you up!"
"Mum! Why couldn't you have asked me about it first?" the redhead groaned in exasperation. This wasn't the first time her mother had pulled something like this.
"Well, why wouldn't you want to go? It's a trip to beautiful France - the capital of fashion and culture!" Rumiko sighed happily, a dreamy look spreading across her face.
Must…resist…urge…to…KILL…
"Whatever…" the girl muttered in a defeated tone and started walking again. She knew there was no arguing with her mother when she went into daydream mode.
"You're welcome…" the woman mumbled, daydreaming about Parisian cafés and glasses of fine Bordeaux wine.
Tuesday, 7th September
Redcliff Mount High School
Takato was, surprisingly, on time to his first lesson - Citizenship Studies with Mrs Rurappen. The frail old Indian woman was completely incapable of controlling a class and didn't even bother making a seating plan, meaning that Takato spent the majority of the lesson talking to Henry and his two non-Tamer friends Cameron Ridings and Stephanie Rare. Cam was a tall boy straddling the oddly-thin line between fat and muscled, with a mop of black hair and a devil of a sense of humour. Steph, on the other hand, was quite shy, average height with long, straight blonde hair and blue-framed square glasses. Until he had befriended Henry over the Summer Holidays, these two had been Takato's only friends at Redcliff, his other friends from his previous school having gone to high schools that were slightly less terrifying.
Second period was history with Mr Alistair, and the four friends were delighted to learn that they were in the same class for this otherwise-boring lesson. Takato felt his spirits sink, however, as he walked along the corridor to see everybody's favourite sociopathic redhead stood outside the door. His worst fear was realized five minutes later when Mr Alistair implemented yet another alphabetical-order seating plan, placing Takato on a two person desk with the girl of his nightmares.
"Uh, hey Rika!" he said nervously as the furious girl sat down on his right. "What are the odds we'd be sat together again?"
"Humph!"
Oh, great - she's pissed off already. How am I gonna survive this year?
As Mr Alistair started a twenty-minute long rant about the construction of a Motte-and-Bailey castle, Takato felt his mind beginning to wander. He began doodling random Digimon-related drawings in his notebook, most of them involving Guilmon or Terriermon. As the elderly teacher reached the end of his rant, he wrote some questions on the board and walked out of the classroom without explanation.
"Ummm…does he always do that?" Takato heard Steph ask, her voice as soft as it always was.
The boy turned around to see that Steph was sat next to Cam at the desk behind him. Taking a quick look around the room, the brown-haired Tamer saw that Henry was sat at the desk to their right, next to a chavvy-looking girl that he didn't recognize. The girl kept glancing out of the door every ten seconds or so, keeping watch for their returning teacher.
"Yeah, pretty much," Cam's voice rang out as he leaned his chair back on two legs. "I had him last year as well. Practically every lesson he'd just wander out and come back five or ten minutes later. Gives you the perfect chance to mess with him. Like this one time, we decided to tinker around with his swivel-chair so it was about a foot shorter. He nearly had a fit!" the black-haired boy chuckled, then looked at Takato and grinned devilishly. "So, Takato…who's your girlfriend?"
The Tamer flinched as he saw the fury in Rika's eyes. The redhead slowly turned around and fixed Cam with a glare that chilled the black-haired boy to his very soul.
"I. Am NOT. His girlfriend."
Cam merely grinned even wider and masked his fear with another joke. "Oooh, thou doth protest too strongly, methinks!"
"Cam, I'd stop now if I were you…" Takato began, noticing Rika's clenched fists.
"Why? I'm not scared of her!" he lied, standing up and placing a hand on Rika and Takato's shoulders. "I think you two make a perfect cou-YEOWW!"
As soon as Cam's hand touched her shoulder, Rika grabbed it by the wrist and twisted it into a painful arm lock. The boy yelped as she twisted his arm further and further, forcing him to his knees in an attempt to relieve the pain.
"You should be," Takato smirked, shaking his head and making no attempt to help his friend.
"Ow, okay I get it you're not his girlfriend! You can let go now…pretty please?" he begged as Rika showed no sign of releasing him, writing in her notebook while she maintained the painful lock one-handed. "A little help here? Takato? Henry?"
"You reap what you sow, Cam!" Henry laughed and carried on writing.
"He's coming!" the chavvy girl hissed, and Rika released the boy's aching arm suddenly, causing him to fall clumsily to the floor. Cam scrambled to his feet, sitting down at his desk just as Mr Alistair opened the door. The elderly teacher glared at him, having seen the boy's mad dash to his desk through the glass window on the door.
"Cameron, why were you out of your seat?" he droned in what he thought was a threatening tone of voice.
"I, uh…had to borrow Takato's pen?"
The old man sighed, too tired to bother cross-examining his least-favourite student from the previous year. "Very well, just try not to look so suspicious about it."
The "arm lock incident" was, unfortunately, the high point of Rika's day. While inflicting so much pain on that brainless moron Cam had been enjoyable, the Tamer could easily imagine the rumours that would be travelling around school by the end of the week. At least they'll probably die out over the weekend…
The girl sighed as she stared at the clock, willing the minute hand to move the last three little notches to 12:10. She was stuck in third period maths, meaning she had been cooped up with Takato and Henry for almost an hour. Fortunately, Gogglehead appeared to have gotten the hang of both sums with negative numbers and keeping his mouth shut, which improved the redhead's mood slightly.
"Now, class, I have an announcement from the headmaster!" their Maths teacher, Mr Ash declared in his usual arrogant tone. The man was about thirty-five, with short, over-gelled black hair and a sneer that made Rika want to rip his head off. "It has come to our attention that a certain student has been spending her lunchtimes on the roof of the science block, instead of in the Dining and Social Area with all the other students. This poses an unacceptable health and safety risk so beginning today, the door to the roof will be locked at all times. We know who you are and expect to see you in the Dining Hall today with everyone else."
"Buso!" Rika snarled telepathically, not allowing any emotion onto her face. "They found out about my spot on the roof. I can't think of anywhere else we can meet, and they say they know it was me and expect to see me in the Dining Hall today."
"Is it possible they are bluffing?" Renamon replied evenly.
"I'm not sure. The announcement said it was definitely a girl, but it didn't actually name me. That could have been to avoid embarrassment or something, or they might just have gotten a vague description. Either way they'll be watching the roof for a while, so we can't meet today."
"Very well. Good luck…"
As Rika walked into the Dining Hall, she was met by a wall of noise. Over five hundred Year 8 and 9 students were packed into the too-small room and courtyard outside. Eyeing the ridiculously long queue for the food counter, the redhead was suddenly glad for the packed lunch her grandmother had insisted on making for her. Dodging through the crowds with the practiced ease of a city kid, Rika found an empty table in a relatively quiet corner and sat down, taking out her lunch and book.
"Uh oh…" Takato mumbled as he spotted the table Rika was sitting at.
"What?" Henry replied while counting out money from his wallet.
"Rika just sat down at Luke Aaron's table!"
"Damn it! The last person stupid enough to do that got put in hospital! We'd better warn her…"
"Too late!" Takato moaned as he spotted Luke Aaron and three of his cronies moving in on the unsuspecting girl.
"Hey, ginger!" a thuggish voice called out, and Rika took a second to realize it was talking to her. Putting down her book, she looked up to see who it was that had a death wish.
"What?" she replied, undaunted by the sight of four boys looming over her, all of them at least four inches taller than her. Three of them looked practically identical - lean but muscled with short dark hair and identical sneers. Their only distinctive features were the tallest one's look of complete vacancy, the shortest one's incredible ugliness, and the middle one's lack of any distinctive features whatsoever. The fourth member of the group, however - the one who seemed to be the leader - was quite a lot fatter than the others and had blonde hair instead of black.
"You're in our seat," the leader growled. Rika recognized him as the boy Takato had pointed out to her yesterday - Luke Arnold or Andrews or something like that.
"Wow, you plan on sharing this one seat? What're you gonna do - sit on each other's laps?" she said with a smirk, returning to her book.
"What you tryin' to fuckin' say?" Luke yelled and smacked Rika's book out of her hands, grabbing her by the shirt and lifting her off of the seat.
The redhead reacted purely on instinct. She lashed out with her right foot, catching her obese attacker in the groin. As he dropped her and doubled over in agony, she grabbed his head and smashed it into the table. Hard. The sickening crack and screech of pain told Rika that Luke wouldn't be getting up any time soon.
His three henchmen, however, were another matter. The stupid-looking one leapt at Rika, roaring obscenities and drawing back his right arm for an obvious right hook. Rika ducked to the right and threw out her left elbow, catching Stupid in the solar plexus and winding him, then flicked out her left foot and sent him crashing to the ground. The girl took a quick look around, noticing the cheering crowd that had gathered around the brawl, some of them filming the action on their mobile phones. The redhead's attention was quickly brought back to the fight as Ugly rushed forward and punched at her with his left arm. She dodged right again and knocked his arm aside with an open-handed shuto block. The boy yelped in agony as his fist slammed into the wall, breaking at least two of his fingers. A pair of kicks to the knees and stomach made sure he was out of action.
Rika glanced at the bland boy, expecting him to rush at her as well. She wasn't disappointed, but as the boy ran towards her, he grabbed an abandoned bottle of water from a nearby table and threw the contents at Rika's face. Momentarily blinded, Rika blocked the boy's first punch through pure luck, but took a kick to the shins and a solid punch to her stomach a second later. With a gasp, she staggered back a step and blocked a third punch aimed at her face, lashing out with her right fist and catching Bland on the chin. The boy was knocked backed a step and Rika prepared to follow up with another punch, only to feel a pair of strong arms encircle her in a powerful bear hug.
"Fuckin'…get 'er!" her captor yelled in a wheezing voice, which the redhead recognized as belonging to Stupid.
Rika struggled in the boy's grip as Bland stormed towards her, murder in his eyes. He drew back his arm and delivered a thundering left hook to the girl's face, stunning her for a second. Rika tasted blood as Bland grabbed her by the hair, forcing her to look at him as he drew back his fist for another punch…
…Only to be knocked to the ground by a high-speed shoulder-barge from Takato. The Tamer landed on top of his target, but was quickly thrown clear by a punch to the face. Bland stood and drew back his foot to kick his attacker in the ribs, but shrieked and fell to the ground as Henry appeared behind him and delivered a crippling kidney punch. This turn of events kept Stupid distracted long enough for Rika to escape from his grip and knee him in the groin. As the boy fell to the ground, squealing like a soprano, the girl felt her adrenaline rush beginning to wear off. Pain from the hits she took to her shin, stomach and face washed over her like a tidal wave. Rika slumped against the wall behind her, wiping a trickle of blood away from the corner of her mouth as she did so.
A group of five teachers finally managed to break through the roaring crowd, only to stop short as they tried to process the sight that lay before them. A short, redheaded Japanese girl stood over the prone, weeping forms of three of the Year group's most hard-bitten sociopaths, with the fourth member of the prestigious and infamous gang of chavs in the same condition next to Takato Matsuki and Henry Wong - two of the so-called "Good Kids".
With obvious reluctance, one of the teachers rounded up the winners of the fight and led them away. The three Tamers left without struggling as the other teachers began either breaking up the crowd or performing basic first aid on the battered chavs.
The three victorious brawlers were led up to the staff room, where they were quizzed separately on the details of the fight, then left alone to wait for their parents to arrive. Henry was the only one of them who wasn't hurt in some way - Takato's left eye was swollen shut and Rika's cheek was badly bruised, a smear of blood decorating her chin. The girl had limped the whole way from the Dining Hall, refusing multiple offers of help from Takato, Henry and the teacher. They had been sat there motionless for about fifteen minutes before the uncomfortable silence was broken.
"Rika Nonaka I can NOT believe you!" came a furious shriek as Rumiko Nonaka stomped towards her daughter, Seiko trying desperately to calm her down. "It wasn't enough for you to get kicked out of one school, you had to try and make it happen again! Is this like some badge of honour to you? IS IT?" The blonde-haired woman finally noticed Henry and Takato and glared at them for a second before resuming her rant. "Are these the boys you attacked? Looks like you came off worse than they did for once!"
It was at this point that Takato decided to butt in. "Actually…Rika didn't 'attack' anybody-"
"YOU ATTACKED MY DAUGHTER?" she roared and would have leapt at the boys were it not for Seiko's restraining hand.
"No! We were on her side! A bunch of guys ganged up on her, but she beat the living hell out of half of them! Me and Henry only joined in when she started losing!"
This seemed to calm Rumiko down a bit, and the woman turned to her daughter, wincing as she saw the hurt, angry look in her eyes. Oh, God…I just accused her of being as bad as those girls who made her life a misery back in Japan…no wonder she's mad…
"Rika, I…I'm sorry…why didn't you say anything?" she stammered, her preconceptions derailed by the new information.
"Because you wouldn't believe me. You obviously think I'm some kind of monster anyway…" the redhead muttered angrily, turning away from her mother's shocked look.
"Ms Nonaka?" a man's voice called, breaking the uncomfortable silence. Rumiko and Seiko turned to see Mr Arnold - a grey-haired man wearing a pinstripe suit - stood at the door. The two women gave Rika a last, sad look before following the headmaster from the room.
A few more minutes of uncomfortable silence followed, before it was broken once again - this time by Rika.
"Why?" she asked, looking at Takato.
"Heh, my mum's ranted at me more times than I can count, and it's bad enough when I deserve it…"
"That's not what I meant and you know it, Gogglehead."
"I know…but why aren't you asking Henry? He helped too!"
"You joined in first. Brainiac only stepped in when you got floored. And stop avoiding the question."
Henry didn't bother denying the girl's words. Rika was right - he had only joined in to help Takato. The blue-haired boy loathed fighting with a passion, and there were few things that could provoke him to violence.
"Damn it…look this is gonna sound stupid…" Takato muttered awkwardly
"Don't worry - after two days stuck with you in Maths I'm pretty much used to your stupidity."
"Hey! Anyway, I thought that no matter how much you seem to hate me, we're all Tamers here. We gotta stick together - you know, look out for each other and stuff! Plus, I kinda thought that if I tried to help you out you'd…well…not rip my head off for annoying you…"
Rika blinked and smirked, wincing as the action pulled at her bruised cheek. "Wow…you were right Gogglehead - that was stupid even by your standards!"
A few minutes later, Rumiko and Seiko returned, the younger of the two women leaving with Rika almost immediately. Seiko stayed behind, waiting until the two were out of earshot, then turned to Takato.
"I recognize you…you're Takato Matsuki, aren't you? Your parents own the bakery, yes? And your name was Henry?" she said softly, continuing when both boys mumbled a "yes, ma'am". "I'd like to thank you for defending my granddaughter during the fight. Though she will probably never say it, she is grateful for what you did for her."
"Uh, you're welcome?" Takato said tentatively as the older woman smiled and walked towards the door.
"TAKATO MATSUKI WHAT HAVE YOU DONE NOW?" a voice shrieked from the corridor as Takato's parents walked into the room.
"You should be very proud of your son, Mr and Mrs Matsuki," Seiko said with a small smile as she intercepted the angry Japanese woman. "He only entered that fight to protect my granddaughter from a group of bullies. I owe him a great debt."
As Takato's parents stood there stunned, Seiko walked out of the door calmly. As she left, Mei gave her son a look of surprise tinged with a little guilt, while Takehiro…
"So…wounded defending a damsel in distress?" the man chuckled and winked at his son.
This…is going to be painful…