Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.
— Friedrich Nietzsche
I cannot believe I just did that, Maru thought as she wandered aimlessly down the corridor, unsure of what to do now. What was I thinking? On the bright side, it means that my lungs might actually clear up and I won't have to eat shit for breakfast and dinner every day.
Suddenly, she felt her shoe hit something and she looked down to see a fallen manga on the floor. Curious, she picked it up, not recognizing the cover. Which was weird, because she was pretty well versed in all mainstream manga and anime and more.
"Let's see, Don't Touch Me...? This already sounds suspicious," Maru muttered, sweatdropping. She adjusted her grip on her lizard tank with one arm so that the tank was nestled in the crook of her elbow. Using her other hand, she flipped through the book. "Eh, it's not that ba—oh my god, my eyes!" Flustered, Maru dropped her book, the image burned into her mind.
She chuckled to herself, "Oh, of course it had to be hardcore yaoi rape smut... of course it did!" What has been seen can never be unseen. "What the heck, though? Isn't it against the rules to bring x-rated manga to school?" I should probably leave it alone...
But wait! What if a teacher found it? And they... they scanned it for fingerprints?! She'd be doomed! Hastily, she picked up the manga and shoved it down her her shirt so that it nestled between her breasts, her bra stopping it from falling. Oh my god, this feels so, so wrong! It probably looks like I have a triangular onigiri hidden in my bra!
Maru was going to continue her aimless wandering when a voice called out to her, "Hey, you!"
Maru turned back stiffly, forcing herself to look cool and composed. "Yes?"
The girl who had called out to her seemed to have a perpetual scowl on her face. Her hair was styled in a bob cut with messily cut bangs and an ahoge sticking out from the crown of her head. "Have you by any chance seen any... naughty manga around?"
I knew it! I'm doomed! I'll be charged for possessing adult material! "No, why?" Maru stared at her.
When she asked why, the girl immediately clenched her fists and gritted her teeth. "Oohhh, I'll tell you why! Because my jerkass friend thinks it's okay to keep abusing her position as a Student Representative and bring adult doujinshi to class! Did you know she swapped my world history textbook with her own doujinshi? She is absolutely unbelievable and—"
Slowly, Maru started to shuffle away. This girl was obviously akin to a burnt out entertainer and it was probably best to avoid her as much as possible.
"—now she's littering the halls with her yaoi shit! Do you know what would happen if she got caught? She could get arrested, or even worse, expelled!"
Maru left the girl in the hallway to rant, entering a bathroom and hoping for the best that she wouldn't be followed. She closed the bathroom door behind her quietly and turned.
"W-what? Urinals?!" Fucking fuck, I'm in the boys' bathroom!
She was about to leave when the door opened, causing her to freeze in horror. No, I can't let this happen! Grunting, she pushed back against the door with all her might.
"What the hell?!" the boy on the other side of the door yelled, knocking. "Let me in, you bastard!"
"Hah!" Maru barked a laugh, sounding masculine enough to pass for a teenage boy. Bastard, huh? If only they knew...
The boy started to insult her non-existent masculinity and Maru heaved a sigh. ... Only this would happen to me. You don't see this happening to anyone else, now do you? An angry vein popped on her cheek. There are ANIME and MANGA characters out there that live through less ridiculous situations! So why does this happen to me, HUH?!
Soon, the boy stopped trying to fight against her and Maru breathed another sigh, this time in relief. Still... I should be more careful. What if he's waiting for me to come out? Her eyes flitted to a window above on of the urinals. Hmm...
Outside the bathroom, Tanaka Ryuunosuke was stalking back and forth in front of the door, wondering if the bastard inside would ever come out. Probably not, he concluded. He'd just have to kick the door open and take on the punk himself.
"Hmm? Tanaka, you're still here?" Tsukishima and Yamaguchi approached him, the both of them carrying water bottles in their hands.
"There's some dickhead blocking the door inside!" Tanaka growled, jabbing a thumb at the closed door. "I've been trying to get in but they're pretty strong..."
"Let's try together then," Yamaguchi suggested, and the three of them pushed against the door at once. It opened easily, much to their surprise.
Tsukishima smirked. "I think you're getting soft in your old age, Tanaka—" He cut himself off when all three of them beheld the oddest sight. A girl—they didn't know who as her back was facing them—was attempting to escape via the high window, a tank with a cloth draped over it sitting on the window. She was lean enough that she would be able to fit in the tiny space without knocking the tank over.
But the most awkward fact was that, in her climb, her skirt was hiked up way past her thighs, displaying in clear sight the lizard-printed panties she was wearing. Having heard them barging in, the girl stiffly turned her head, her face a mask of shameful horror.
"What," Tsukishima deadpanned, trying to ignore the fact that his face was reddening just as fast as Yamaguchi's and Tanaka's.
"I-I," she stammered, her humongous glasses nearly slipping off her nose. Alarmed by their presence, she scrambled up the wall, but not before something—a book?—dropped out of her shirt and into one of the urinals. She swore loudly but didn't seem to regret its fall as she climbed through the window, collected her tank, and jumped out the other side. "Oof!"
"Wait, we're on the second floor!" Tanaka suddenly remembered. "Did she just—?!" They all hurried to the window, and Tsukishima found that this was one of the rare times where he had to stand on his toes to peer over something.
"She's gone," Tsukishima reported, sounding a little dumbfounded himself. She jumped out of a two storey window. What the actual fuck?
Yamaguchi was visibly relieved. "At least she's okay... What was she doing in here though?"
"That's what I want to know," said Tanaka, Tsukishima nodding slightly in agreement. "And how did she hold up the door against me?" He looked down at the book in the urinal and picked it up.
"That's disgusting," Tsukishima said snidely.
But Tanaka waved off his comment. "Oi, shut up, it'll be fine. Five second rule."
"Isn't that only for food?" Yamaguchi pointed out. Then again, it's not like we're going to be eating the book... To him, it looked to be some sort of light novel. It wasn't surprising—nowadays, light novels were mostly targeted at the adolescent female demographic.
"Don't Touch Me," Tanaka read aloud, looking a bit alarmed.
"Trust me, I have no plans to do anything of the sort," Tsukishima said, a small smirk on his face.
Tanaka made one of his faces at the blonde before flipping through the book and considerably paling. Then he snapped it shut and tossed it in the air for Tsukishima to catch, feeling a bit disgusted at himself for doing so. That book had been in a urinal for crying out loud!
"Read at your own risk," Tanaka merely said before making himself scarce and leaving the two second years to their own devices. He looked like he had just been through a nuclear war or something.
"Here." Tsukishima passed it to Yamaguchi. "Tell me if it's that bad."
Yamaguchi blushed. "If this is about the one time that you caught me doing—"
Tsukishima rolled his eyes. "Just open it. I'm sure Tanaka was just overreacting."
Hesitantly, Yamaguchi opened the book and skimmed through it, understanding passing through his eyes. "Ah. Now I get why Tanaka-senpai was so... uh..."
Traumatized? Tsukishima thought to himself. Great, now I want to know what it is. From what he could tell, it was a manga. His brother had been an avid manga collector back in his middle school days and had owned seemingly every single shonen manga back in his time. It doesn't look like the sort that he would read though. Then again, it had fallen out of a girl's shirt (god, that thought made him want to wash his hands of it right away), so that was probably why. "Give it here." He took back the manga booklet from Yamaguchi, ignoring his protests and warnings.
"I'm telling you, Tsukki, it's really not something we should be looking at... I'm only comfortable with it because my sister is a fujoshi."
"Rotten girl?" Tsukishima raised an eyebrow at him before opening the book to take a peek. "And you wonder why she complains about you."
"Ack! Tsukki, no—"
It was too late.
Looking a bit sickly, Tsukishima closed the book and threw it back in the urinal, where he felt it belonged. "We're leaving."
When they disappeared, one of the stalls in the bathroom creaked opened, revealing a girl sitting on the toilet (for those who were more modest about doing their business or perhaps doing a number two).
She smirked. "Excellent... more material!" She quickly sketched something in her notebook before getting off the toilet and collecting the doujinshi that she had created. "Ah, my poor doujinshi... the blonde one would definitely be the dominant one in the relationship. But baldy was pretty loud too. Oh! A polyamorous relationship, yep, yep..."
The girl paused in her nonsensical doodling. "Who was that girl though? I've never seen her before..."
Kawashima Nagisa chuckled darkly to herself before exiting the boy's bathroom. Inspiration has struck for this self-published artist/author! I bet I'll make it big in the next comic con! Maybe I can even get it sold at Madjaster!
Sumire set the ball up high for Hinata in a first tempo attack. Aha! Finally, a perfect set...! Tobio, are you watching this? Because—
And Hinata flubbed the attack, nearly crashing into the net from his momentum.
The ball rolled away and Sumire hung her head.
Of course when the ball would actually go her way for once, Hinata would completely stuff up the spike and she would be unable to bask in his reflected glory.
"Sorry, Sumire!" Hinata apologized, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. "I wasn't paying much attention..."
"Ah, it's fine," she waved him off, "just be glad Tobio wasn't watching or he would have kicked your ass for that." That had been the last spiking drill of the day. Some of the team were already packing up and the net was going to be taken down soon.
Hinata chuckled. "Yeah..."
Soon, the net was taken down and the team started to head down to Sakanoshita for some meat buns. But when they passed the school gate, Hinata stopped there.
"Eh?" Ennoshita, the captain, turned back. "Hinata, aren't you coming?"
"Yeah, come on, you love meat buns!" Nishinoya added.
"I have to do something for someone, sorry," Hinata said amiably, leaning against the wall.
Does this have anything to do with Miku not showing up at practice today? Sumire wondered as they all left the orange-haired boy behind. She said as much to Kageyama.
"They were supposed to meeting during clean up," Kageyama informed her. "I'm not sure if they ever got to, though."
"Huh, that's weird..."
Hinata waited for three minutes before one Saito Maru finally showed her face, looking a bit stricken. But she relaxed when she saw him there, as if he could magically solve all of her problems.
"Ah, good, you're here," Maru said approvingly, grinning. Strange, she'd never been this expressive with him when they weren't alone. "I hope you're ready."
"Yes ma'am!" Hinata said, enthusiastic despite everything.
"First things first, we're going shopping so you can cook me dinner," Maru ordered. "I know a cheap twenty four hour mart not far from here, so let's go."
"Right!"
"Chicken... katsu... curry?" Hinata echoed as they entered the twenty four hour mart.
"Can you cook it or not?" Maru demanded as they wandered through the aisles, the girl taking time to sift through the snacks. "Hmm... potato flavored potato chips... Does that mean it's unseasoned? I thought all chips were made from potato. That's like saying that a tomato is tomato flavored."
"Ehm..." Hinata sweatdropped. She has a point thought.
"Ah, whatever." Maru waved a hand at him. "Go get some chicken katsu. I'll find the curry sauce." Huehuehue... extra spicy! I hope you can stand your spice, Hinata Shouyo, because you're going to be the taste tester!
They didn't spend long in the shop and exited fairly quickly. It was then Maru heard a noise coming from the side and forced Hinata to take her lizard tank plus all the plastic bags which were filled with snacks as well as ingredients. "Wait here. Don't move. Your master commands you."
"Master?" Hinata glared at her. "O-oi, I'm not your dog okay?"
"You might as well be. Down, boy."
Hinata spluttered and Maru smiled. "Don't be like that," she told him, "I'll be back soon. I think I hear some small time gangsters calling my name though."
"Hah?! Gangsters?! Are you some kind of delinquent?! And I wasn't talking about that! I'm not your dog, Saito-san!" Hinata huffed and puffed out his cheeks indignantly.
... Cute, Maru thought with a small blush. He would make a cute puppy. She pouted. Much cuter than Levi and Bean! Then she shook her head. Ahhh, who am I kidding, Levi and Bean are cuter! Eek!
Maru glanced around the alleyway to see five men ganging up on two girls. One looked terrified and was clutching what seemed to be a notebook to her chest while the other remained composed. The scared looking one was wearing the same uniform as Maru while the black-haired composed one was wearing an Aobajosai uniform (at least that was what Maru thought it was).
"I'll ask you one more time," the black-haired girl said coolly. "Leave us."
"We will as soon as you give us your money!" sneered one of the men. Now that Maru got a better look at them, she could see that they were in their early twenties. High school dropouts, most likely. She resolved to never end up like them, even if she ran out of money to fund her otaku habits.
"Oya?" Maru called out. "What's going on over here?" She swaggered up to the men and sidled next to the black-haired girl so that she was seemingly cornered as well. "Hello, gangsters."
"We're not gangsters!" one of the men protested. "Look, all we want is your money, okay? We'll leave you alone if you just give us your damn money!"
The black-haired girl gave her a sideways glance. "You do realize you just endangered yourself, right?"
"I can handle myself," Maru said, looking her up and down. She wasn't very impressive looking, being short and rather on the skinny side. Maru towered over her by a good five inches. But... "I think you can too. Kenpo?"
The shorter girl nodded, her interested piqued. "And you?"
Maru smirked, feeling her blood boil at the prospect of a challenge. "Muay Thai, mostly. And a little bit of some other styles."
The other girl who was still clutching her notebook peered around them nervously. "I don't mean to cut you two off, but could you hurry up and beat them up? I don't have any money but what if they steal my precious doujinshi?!"
Scoffing, the black-haired girl shifted into a stance, Maru simply standing with her hands in her blazer pockets.
Two of the men went for the shorter girl but she quickly evaded them so that they ended up beating each other. She then proceeded to kick one in the gut and recovered quickly enough to sucker-punch the other.
The remaining three men charged at Maru. Yawning, she grabbed the lid of a trash can and slammed it into his face hard enough to knock a tooth out. The man swore and fell to the floor. Maru made quick work of the other men, kicking them both in the stone wall of the opposite building.
"Sheesh," Maru said, "I wonder which one of you is the lucky one."
"L-lucky?" coughed one of them.
"I don't like your voice," Maru told him, looking bored. Then she drove her heel into his crotch, relishing in his screams of pain. Ho hum, I've forgotten how good it feels to make an opponent scream...
She continued to torture him but kicking him repeatedly in that sensitive area, smiling widely as she did so.
"Hey, stop that!" the black-haired girl shouted at her, frowning in disapproval. She had made quick work of the other two men, having knocked them unconscious. Her method of disposing of them was quick, clean, and efficient. "You've won already. What's the point of beating up an opponent weaker than you?"
Maru nearly sneered. Ah, so she was one of those more traditional, honor types. "Don't be ridiculous." She picked up man she had hurt by the shirt collar and drew her fist back, ready to pound his head into the wall. "The point... is because it's fun."
"Eep!" The girl with the notebook cringed and closed her eyes.
Maru's fist stopped just an inch from the man's face. Scowling, she whipped her head to the side to see that Naoko had grabbed her wrist in a vice grip. Frick... she's stronger than I expected.
"I told you to fucking stop," the black-haired girl snarled, "Just leave it."
"Fuck off," Maru sneered, shoving her back. "Don't make me fight you."
She raised an eyebrow. "At this point, it seems inevitable."
Taking her words a challenge, Maru let go of the man, letting him slump against the wall, moaning in agony. "A fight it is then. But first, I would like to know your name."
"Hey, uh, can we please not fight?" said the girl with the notebook, twisting her ponytail nervously. "That'd be... pretty bad."
"Makoshima Naoko," the raven-haired girl gladly gave it to her, "and you are?"
"Just call me Saito Maru."
"Hey, Saito-san, what are you doing?"
Both girls snapped to attention at the new voice. Maru blinked when she saw Hinata holding her lizard tank and the groceries. "Hin... Hinata."
"Were you about to get into a street fight?" Hinata fretted, noticing the bodies. "Crap, I'm too late..."
"Wait!" Maru turned her back on Naoko, giving her a glance before walking to Hinata. "It's okay, Hinata, let's just go home."
"H-huh? But you were about to—"
"Home, Hinata."
Naoko watched them silently as they disappeared into the sunset, frowning. Saito Maru... I won't forget you. We're enemies now. "Hey, sorry about that," she apologized impassively to a shaky Kawashima Nagisa. "Those men didn't do anything to you before I got here, did they?"
"A-aha, no, thanks..."
"Good. Go home then."
Then she was gone too, leaving Nagisa with only the company of her trusty notebook. The girl proceeded to burst out in squealing laughter. "Oh my gosh, more material! This edition's category: yuri gang love and turf war!"
A/N: And so two protagonists meet...
PhantomSeekerz255: Don't like Miku? Welp, she's a recurring character, soo... xP But is she a villain? :o
I honestly made a bunch of references here again... there was even an Animal Jam reference in there.