Year: 7

Season: Fall

Ib: Age 15

Garry got home a quarter to nine, tired from his long day at work. He checked the calendar, and reaffirmed that it was Tuesday, meaning that he didn't have to go in to work tomorrow. With a big sigh of relief, he walked into his kitchen, pulled out a soda from his fridge, and collapsed on his couch in his living room. Taking a few sips, he closed his eyes, intending to rest, perhaps fall asleep where he was…

Until his cellphone dinged; a text message.

He groaned, pulling it out of his pants pocket and looked at who had texted him. Seeing Ib's name confused him, because she generally didn't contact him very much in the middle of the week. Wondering what it was about, he unlocked his phone to read the message.

Ib: Are you home?

He tilted his head, unsure of why she would ask that. Regardless, he reached out with his other hand and typed out a message:

Garry: Yes, why do you ask?

Ib: Can I come over?

Garry: Why?

Ib: I need to talk to you about something.

Garry noticed her grammar, and wanted to comment on it, but held it in. From what he could guess, from the time of the week it was, and from what Ib was sending him, she must be distressed.

Garry: Can't you talk to your parents about it?

Ib: I don't want them to overreact.

Garry: Overreact about what?

Ib: Can I come over?

Garry: It's late, I have work off tomorrow, can we meet then?

Ib: I don't know…

Garry: Where are you at the moment?

He heard a knocking on his door, and rolled his eyes.

Garry: You're giving me a lot of choices here, Ib.

He stood, groaning as he set down his phone next to his soda, and he walked over to his door and opened it. There Ib stood, who at least having the decency to look a little embarrassed, but the most noticeable thing was that there were obvious tear stains below her eyes.

"What's wrong?" He asked out of concern, momentarily forgetting his annoyance.

"Can we go inside and talk?"

He moved aside finally, allowing the poor girl to enter his house, and walked alongside her, "Do you want something to drink?"

"Do you have tea?" She asked.

"Sure," He said, "I need to heat up some water though, is green tea good?"

She nodded, and went to sit at his couch, waiting for him to return. Garry started to boil water in the pot, setting it down on his stove. After that was finished, he returned to his couch, and took his seat where he was previously, only now Ib was sitting beside him.

"It'll take a minute; I didn't have the water boiling. I just got home myself in fact." He explained, taking a drink from his soda.

"It's alright," she muttered, "I came without any warning, really."

He sighed, "Yeah, a little more warning than none at all would be a welcomed change."

She chuckled at that, causing him to smile as well.

"So what brings you here?"

She sighed, "I was out with the painting club today."

He thought for a bit then said, "Right, the high school version of the art club."

She nodded, "Kind of, since I go to a school specializing in art, the clubs are divided between different kinds of art, and I went to the painting club."

"Ah, I recall you telling me this before."

"Yeah, so we were out today for a club activity, we had to pick a spot in the city we wanted to paint, and just sit there and do it."

"Sounds like standard stuff you'd do, so why were you crying?"

She sighed, "Earlier today in school, some guy asked me out, and I turned him down. He got mad at me for doing that, and yelled at me, but I just ignored him, if he was going to act like that, I don't see why anyone would want to be with him."

"Well, before he started his outburst," Garry interrupted, "Why'd you turn him down?"

She rolled her eyes, "We're not here to talk about that. You said I had to wait, and I'm keeping you to your word."

He nearly choked on the soda he was drinking, but perhaps in retrospect, he should've expected that to be her answer, she wasn't exactly subtle when it came to how much she adored him.

"So ok, you turned down this guy, and he yelled at you. How does this relate to your club?"

"It turns out that the guy I turned down was some really popular guy named Takashi," She huffed, blowing some stray strands of hair out of her face, "And by turning him down I 'ruined' his image, according to people."

"I'm not following." Garry said honestly.

"He apparently always goes out with who he wants, and he claims it's some sort of record." She laughed bitterly, "I bet all the girls he dated before absolutely loved that, being used as a tool by him so he can reach some stupid imaginary goal."

"The goal being to get a date every time?"

"Exactly," She groaned, "it was so stupid, but because I ruined his image - according to him - a lot of girls started to give me a dirty look during school today, and a long string of bad 'coincidences' started to happen." She spat out the word, looking more and more upset.

"Calm down." He said, patting her on the back, "I'll go get the tea ready, it should be done soon."

She let out a breath, and nodded, "Thank you."

"Don't mention it." He said, going into the kitchen and pouring the hot water into a cup. He then opened his cabinet, and grabbed a box of tea bags, hoping she didn't mind the rather low quality tea he had. He dipped the bag into the hot water, and got a spoon to stir the water for a bit. Seeing that it was as good as it was going to get, he brought it out to Ib, who nodded in appreciation.

Sitting back beside her, he picked up his soda, took another drink, and set it back down, "So, you were saying that things started to happen to you today?"

"For instance," She said, "When I opened my desk to get my books for class, they were all missing, so I couldn't follow along in class. Another one that happened was that this group of girls just 'happened' to bump into me in the hallways sending everything I was holding onto the floor, and then another was that there were thumbtacks at the bottom of my shoes in my shoe locker – fortunately I was able to see those before I put them on."

"They're bullying you," He sighed, feeling a pang of anger welling up inside of him, "Did you tell a teacher about it?"

She shook her head, "No, if I tell a teacher, they might get even angrier at me, and do something worse. I figured I could just ride the storm out, so to speak. They can't stay mad at me forever, that's what I thought, anyway."

Garry nodded, getting a bad feeling, "So what happened next?"

"Every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday the club I'm in goes out for an activity, despite what happened earlier, I still decided to go."

"And did the bullying continue there too?" Garry asked.

"Yes." She sighed, "When I got to the classroom we meet at, I couldn't find my art supplies, so I had to borrow some from Rin, who thankfully wasn't being mean to me."

"Ah, right. Rin got into your school."

"Yeah, and she said we could share supplies if I wanted, but I told her to not get involved with me for the day, I didn't want her to be a target too. She agreed, but only after I assured her that I would be all right, but she said that she would be watching me from a distance."

"I'm glad you had someone there who could back you up." He smiled slightly, "Rin knows when something is wrong."

"I'm very thankful for it now," She agreed.

Garry brows furrowed upon hearing that, "So what happened?"

"Like I said earlier, we went into town to and for a while it wasn't that bad," She admitted, "No one was bothering me, and I was able to get into just my painting. Everything bad that happened just seemed to go away for a while. Then it was about eight o clock or so, and I was packing up, ready to head home for the day, when I heard a voice behind me."

"It was the guy you turned down?" Garry asked.

"Takashi, yeah, it was him." She sighed, "He called out to me to hold on, and instead of running, I stood my ground and looked back at him. He had two of his friends following him, we were in the middle of the sidewalk, and I didn't think he would try anything bad, so I didn't feel threatened."

She sighed, shaking slightly remembering the memory, taking a quick sip of her tea to calm down.

"He came up, and immediately wrapped his arm around my shoulder like we were longtime friends, and asked me how my day was. I knew immediately by how hard he was holding me that something was wrong, and I tried to get free. He asked me if I could look at something for a minute, and dragged me into a nearby alleyway."

"What?" Garry gasped, "He didn't…"

"He then pinned me to the wall, where his two friends held me so I couldn't escape, I could see him looking at me in the eye as if I was some piece of meat for him to eat up, and I started to struggle and cry for help."

Garry's grip on his soda can caused it to cave in on itself, even with some liquid still in there, he really didn't care, "Did someone come?" His voice was quiet, but Ib could hear the fury in it.

"He unbuttoned my blouse, and he kept looking at me like such a monster, and he reached forward to try and do something even worse when there was suddenly someone shouting from the way we came in. Takashi heard it and ran away with his two friends. I was crying, unable to even really understand what was going on then, and I felt someone touch my shoulder."

She took another shaking sip of her tea and set it down, tears were brimming the edge of her eyes again. Garry reached over and held her hand, "You're fine now, Ib."

Ib let out a shaky sigh, and gripped his hand tighter, "It turned out it was Rin, she saw me getting dragged into the alley, and she screamed bloody murder from the entrance, trying to get people to notice what happened. When she came in, she helped me get my shirt back on, and picked up the art supplies I had dropped. I was shaking so badly, and I couldn't really think."

"Then what happened?" He asked gently, trying to keep his anger at bay.

"Rin took me and tried to get me to tell the police, but I just wanted to come here." She cried, "I told her to take me to you, so she brought me here, and left before you opened the door, she was saying that she didn't want to get in the way."

"She could've come in," Garry said, "But I agree with her, you need to tell the police."

"But I wanted to handle this on my own; I thought I was mature enough to do it…" She cried.

"Maturity has nothing to do with this. While acting on your own so others don't get involved is noble, it's stupid if you let yourself fall into a situation like that. You should've run when you had the chance, not try to be strong and stand on your own against three guys who are bigger than you."

"I- I know…" She said, tears freely falling, "I'm an idiot."

"No, you're not an idiot." He sighed, bringing her close, and giving the trembling girl a hug, "You were doing what you thought was best, you just underestimated how horrible of a person he was."

She sniffled, "G- Garry?" She looked up to his face as he held her close.

"Just this once," He whispered, holding her tight against himself.

That was all it took, before Ib completely broke down, the thoughts of what had occurred to her just an hour ago truly hitting home. She gripped him tightly as she cried into his chest, fearing that he would go away if she didn't do so. Garry, in the meantime, just wrapped an arm around her, and rubbed the back of her head, comforting her in the only way he really knew how.

They sat like that for nearly a half hour, until Ib had cried it all out, just sniffling occasionally here and there.

"Feeling better?" Garry finally asked.

"Y- yeah…" She sniffled, still holding him tightly, "What are you going to do?" She asked him.

He chuckled, "I should be the one asking you that." He then glared a hole into the wall, "Well, the first thing I'm going to do is find this Takashi kid, and kick his ass. Then I'll find his two friends, and kick their ass. Once I'm done with that, I'm going to go to your school, and drag their corpses into the principal's office, and tell him what a horrible job his staff is doing running the school. I'll then get their families to send you a formal apology, and then after that we can get the school to hire you some bodyguards, perhaps a food checker as well, but we'll make sure you don't get hurt again."

Ib laughed at what he was saying, "I didn't want to tell mom and dad because I was afraid of what they would do, but maybe telling them would have been better than telling you."

Garry smiled, rubbing the back of her head, "Seriously though, I want to kill the brats, but…" He let out a long sigh, "I guess that would be the wrong way to go about it."

"Probably." Ib said, her mood improving a little.

"With that option out, I suggest talking to the police and getting them expelled. Then you need to tell your parents as well, and then you need to let the head of your school know too."

"I didn't want this to get that big though," She whimpered.

"It's not your fault," He assured her, "But the moment they tried to do that to you, they escalated things far beyond what could be written off as a prank."

"But I don't have proof…" Ib muttered.

"You have Rin and the other people as witnesses to what he was doing with you in the alley, and I'm sure there is plenty of eyewitness proof of you turning the bastard down. Hell, I'm sure some people have already reported it to the police station, so you turning up would really speed things along."

Ib finally relented, "I guess I have to."

With that, it was decided. Garry allowed Ib a little bit longer to rest on his couch while he texted Rin to see if she could show up at the police station to give a report of what she saw. After a small bit, he went to the police station, with Ib, and as they were walking, Garry turned to Ib.

"Have you called your parents yet?"

She shuddered at the thought, "No, I don't know what to say."

"Would you like me to talk with them?" He asked.

"But they've never met you," She said, "I don't know if this is the best way to introduce you…"

"Don't worry about it," He assured her, "I'll just tell them that you're in good hands."

She reluctantly pulled out her cellphone, and handed it to Garry, who called her parents, and waited a bit.

"Uh, hello, is this Ib's mother?"

Ib heard someone talking on the other end.

"I know it's almost ten now," he said into it, "And yes, she's safe and sound. I just wanted to call to let you know we'll be at the police station, so if you want, you can come pick her up there."

Ib suddenly heard a lot of yelling coming from the other end.

Garry covered the phone for a bit and look to Ib, "Do you want to tell them what happened, or should I do it now?"

Ib shook her head, "I don't want to…"

He nodded, patting her shoulder and going back to the phone, "Please don't be alarmed by what I'm about to tell you, and I assure you that Ib is safe now, but… um, your daughter was just going about here day and -" He whispered the last bit into the phone, so Ib wouldn't hear it.

However, Ib could clearly hear the loud and furious roar of, "WHAT!" from the other end of the phone. Garry recoil away from the cellphone, nearly dropping it in the process.

"Don't worry, she is right beside me. Yes, we know who did it. Rin is the one who saved her. It's kind of a long story; I'll fill you in at the station, alright?"

Garry hung up the phone after a little bit longer, and handed it back to her. He smiled at her, trying to reassure her, and walked with her the rest of the way to the police station. True to what Garry said, several people had already reported it, and Rin was there waiting for them. When she saw Ib, she gave her a hug, and she walked over to Garry.

"She wanted to see you, you know." Rin said.

"Yeah, she told me." Garry responded.

"If it was anyone else, I would've said no and brought her straight here."

"Thank you for trusting me." Garry smiled gently, "But now I fear that if I ever get my hands on this kid, he will wish that he was dead."

Rin smiled, "You'll have to wait until I'm through with him first."

Shortly after, Ib's parents arrived, and the two ran to their child and began to coo and hug her as tightly as they could, not wanting to believe their little girl could've gone through what she had. Ib's mother stayed with her as Ib was giving the report, while her father went over to Rin and Garry.

"I wanted to say thank you," He nodded to Rin, "I heard that you were the one that saved Ib."

Rin bowed politely, "It was my duty as her friend."

"No need to be so formal," He said, "I owe you for saving her, whatever you want."

Rin shook her head, "I don't need anything sir."

The man sighed, "You're too modest. Very well, just know that if you ever need help with anything, just give us a call."

"I will, sir." Rin said, bowing politely again, much to the man's chagrin.

"And you are…?" He turned to Garry.

"I'm Garry, it's a pleasure to finally meet you." He said, bowing politely towards him.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Garry; you can just call my Kohta."

"Very well, Kohta." Garry said, testing the word out.

"However, what's a young man such as you doing with my daughter?" He asked, eyeing Garry up and down.

"Ah," Garry muttered, "We've been friends for a while now."

"Friends, hm." He mumbled, "Garry sounds very familiar…" Kohta tapped his chin while deep in thought, "Ah, I hear my daughter occasionally say it in her room when I go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Are you calling her around one in the morning?" He eyed Garry dangerously.

Rin blushed upon hearing what information probably should been kept secret from her, and stuttered, "Ah, I'm sure that's not it, sir!" She then turned around; "I'm going to go see how Ib's doing."

Garry also felt very uneasy, realizing that he really didn't want to know what a teenage girl does in her room at night, "Um, no Kohta, I swear to you upon my honor that I don't call your daughter at one in the morning."

Kohta shrugged, "I must be hearing things then. I do, however, want to know what your relation with her is."

"She's just my friend, Kohta, nothing more. That I promise."

"Are you this mysterious 'friend' I keep hearing about, then?" Kohta then asked.

Garry suppressed a sigh, "What has she said about it?"

"Almost every Sunday, she says that she is going to go out to meet a friend, and then leaves. We never know which friend she referred to, and it always worried us, but no harm ever came of it, so we never pried into her life." He then eyed Garry again, "But if she has been hanging out with a man at least a decade her senior, then perhaps we should have."

"I won't lie that I've been seeing Ib on Sunday's, but it's just usually to have some tea and hang out for a while, it's nothing bad." He promised, "I would never do anything to your daughter."

Kohta nodded slowly, "My first instinct is to punch you out and forbid Ib from never seeing you again." He said honestly. Garry blinked in surprise at his bluntness. "Though, thinking back on it, Ib seems to have improved greatly because of you," He paused, "She started excelling in school back when she got out of the art museum. She started truly paying attention to her mother's cooking lessons back then too, saying she wanted to cook for people – or perhaps she meant someone. She also joined a club for the first time in her life, despite my wife and I telling her for years to do so, I suppose that is due to you."

"Um, I don't want to take the credit for it, sir-"

"Kohta."

"Right, Kohta, but I do remember talking to her about some of those things."

"And lastly," Kohta began, holding up another finger, "She came to you instead of us, or even the police when this happened." He sighed, "I'm not a stupid man, Garry, I know she is infatuated with you."

"Um…" Garry scratched his nose in embarrassment.

"I don't know if I like it either," He admitted, "But if I restricted Ib from seeing you, I doubt it will do me any good, for I know she would just find another way to see you again, that's how young love works."

"I don't return her affection," Garry said, "I swear, she's just a friend."

"Oh?" The man said, "That's good to hear. She's a budding beauty though," He looked back at his daughter as she was giving her report, "Even I can see that, she'll be absolutely stunning when she's older. What will you do when that happens – when she is a woman, will you return her affection?"

"We made a promise that we would hold off on thinking, or doing anything like that until she is of age." Garry said.

"Knowing Ib, I'm surprised she'd agree to that." Kohta muttered.

"I know what you mean," Garry muttered, "She has tried to get around it several times."

"And now my urge to kill you is rising again," Kohta noted.

"Eh?!" Garry hopped aside.

Kohta sighed, "Just…" He looked aside, "Take good care of her."

"I will, I swear upon my life on that."

"May I ask you something that may sound odd, then?" Kohta asked, looking him straight in the eyes.

"When you first met Ib, it was about seven years ago, in the museum, right?"

"What, how'd you know?" Garry asked in surprise.

"It makes sense," Kohta muttered, "When we got home from that trip, she was never really the same. It seemed as if she had lost something – she was a child no longer." He nodded thoughtfully, "But from losing that, she had gained so much. She seemed more focused, more determined, and more affectionate."

"You want to know what happened?"

"Yes, I recall her trying to explain to us, about how she and a man went into this other place, and how she had to burn a painting or something to get out. You were that man, then?"

Garry nodded, "The other world… I met Ib in there, and we had to run and evade a lot of horrible things. You daughter saved my life in there, you know. It's pretty much why we've been seeing each other for so long, we've saved each other's lives, and have seen things that no one else could imagine, that we kind of just formed a bond solely based on that, but now I guess we trust each other a lot. I think I would trust Ib with about anything, and I'm sure she thinks the same in regards to me."

Kohta nodded, "I can't say I believe you, but…" He thinned his lip in thought, and Garry finally realized where Ib had gotten that habit from, "I know she changed from that trip…"

"I'm sorry if it just seems like rambling." Garry said.

"I can tell that at least you're sincere, and I believe Ib is right about you being a good man," He finally said, "so I guess I'll have to live with that."

"Sir – eh, Kohta." Garry corrected himself, "You're fine with your daughter still seeing me?"

"Fine?" Kohta laughed, "No father is ever fine with their daughter seeing a man, especially one so much older than her, but I know that at this point in her life she needs to make her own decisions, and she has made wise decisions in the past. I can trust her."

"Um…"

"If you ever do go out with my daughter though, you'll have to go through me first." Kohta crossed his arms and looked imposing.

"Al- Alright!" Garry bowed.

The two men finally walked over to Ib, Rin, and Ib's mother, to see how she was doing. After a small bit, the police asked Garry for a report, and after that, they were beginning to leave when Ib ran over to Garry and gave him a hug.

"Thank you for talking with me."

"It was mostly just you talking." He reminded her, but patted her on the back anyway.

"I'll see you Sunday?" She asked, pulling away.

"Yeah, then you need to tell me how that brat got expelled, and all the horrible things that are surely to happen to him because of this." Garry said, smiling at the mere thought.

Ib laughed, "I wasn't sure how I was going to handle going through what happened, but I'm glad you were here to calm me down. I feel like I can do things just as I normally do."

"Do you want me to walk you to school tomorrow morning?" He asked, "It's about a twenty minute trip from your house, right?"

She nodded, and looked at him reluctantly, "W- Would you really do that?"

"Yeah, I'll protect you."

She then smiled, "I'd really like that."

Rin, watched, having a vague idea of what they were talking about, while Kohta tried to catch Garry's eye so he could give him 'the look', while Ib's mother just looked horribly confused, wanting to know what relation the man had with her daughter. Ib, not caring that her family was watching reached up and gave Garry a quick peck on the cheek, and ran back to her stunned mother and father who's eye was twitching.

"Good bye, Garry!" She called.

Garry, fearing the wrath of her family, meekly called out, "G- Goodbye."

He didn't know what would happen now that Ib's parents were aware of who he was, but he had a feeling that Ib would be able to explain it well enough. Shrugging his shoulders, Garry walked home to get some sleep, and remembered to set his alarm clock early the next morning so he could meet Ib on her way to school.