Chapter 2: Child's Play

Ever since Reo had been getting closer to Kondou, bad things were happening to her. Like how there were holes on shoji doors and burnt food served when she's on kitchen duty. And as usual Hijikata and Kondou gave away a thorough new lectures about food to her, though she didn't denied that none of those were really made by her. All she wants to know right now is who is setting her up. Around the same time she was being lectured someone was watching her from behind a tree. So that's him, huh? She didn't really know who exactly it was. As soon as Hijikata and Kondou were done with her, she heard footsteps running away; she decided to confront the prankster.

"Wait up."

She finally caught up with him, but it seems like he stopped to meet her on purpose. "What do you want?"

"Are you the one doing those things?" she asked while panting.

"You'd better be more specific with that," he smirked.

"…"

"I'll kill you."

"I'll kill you too."

That was the only thing they had in common; a killing intent for each other even though Hijikata was so strict for kids not to think that way. Both of them admire Kondou and they don't intend to get along because of that, his attention must be on just one of them.

It was her on kitchen duty today, so she woke up early and the fact that she should be swinging her wooden sword right now instead of cooking for people she doesn't care about, excluding Kondou really ticks her off.

"You want something?" she asked Souji who just went in the kitchen; he took the knife off her hand and took her space, or most likely pushed her away.

"I'll be on duty with you from now on. So why give me the frowny face?" Souji noticed the unpleased look on her, "You hate me?"

"Not really, it's just that being on kitchen duty is a pain with you around and putting up with that couldn't be any worse."

"Same here…"

Reo handled the side dishes while Souji did the rice and drinks, they divided the work properly without any communications, which is good for teamwork, but unfortunately they dislike being with each other.

They run out of ingredients for the dish probably because of the guys in duty earlier who didn't bother to tell them. Since Reo was the irritated one, she gave Souji the glare that says 'Don't burn the food and blame it on me while I'm gone'. She grabbed a basket on her way to the nearest store.

"Carrots… carrots and? I forgot," she started to brain storm about the missing ingredient and then the thought about getting back at Souji struck her mind, "I remember now, it's just carrots…" People staring at her bright blonde hair and sky blue eyes, and were starting to speculate that she must be a foreigner but the truth is only her father is a Westerner while her mother is purely Japanese.

Reo found a good stall of vegetable, "Hey kid, take this." The man gave her the oddest looking carrot laid on her eyes; he probably thinks that a foreigner like her might be clueless about the family of vegetables. She then ignored the offer of the man and insisted that she'll take whatever's on her hands.

The sky looked like it's going to rain hardly, so she hurried home. And on her way home she encountered a puppy in a dark alley on the street, she went to see it and didn't mind if the rain is starting; she didn't had an umbrella after all. The puppy was abandoned just like when she was, everyone will be taken away from her in the end, leaving her alone, but the one in front of her in this downpour maybe her companion for life. She took the puppy, "You may not understand how I talk, but I know how you feel…" the puppy squirmed on her embrace even more, "I love you too."

They were on the gates of the dojo when Hijikata was already there with furrow brows as usual, "And where have you been?" he noticed that she was drenched, "Go back inside! No wonder breakfast took long. Pets aren't allowed here."

"I know, just let me keep him… I'll take care of him with my life."

"You always take your life for granted, here. Dry off," Hijikata gave her a towel, "I don't want to repeat our talk about the value of life, Reo."

"I understand, but please let me keep him," he sensed that she was determined to keep the dog so he didn't say anything further.

Since Hijikata warned her about the dog, she was forced to hide it under the patio and had it leashed, and only feeds it at night where everyone's asleep. She could only feel comfortable if she's just with her puppy she named him 'Haru'. She could only smile and laugh when she's with Haru, so she made sure no student from the dojo sees him or else they might do something bad to him.

The next morning she found Haru by the backyard, his leash was missing, "Arf! Arf!" he runs towards her with glee. Her morning was already nice if she sees someone happy just to see her.

She chuckles silently, "What are you doing here, boy? They'll kill you! Come on I'll feed you in my room," she gave her puppy a smile which was secretly seen by the older students, ever since they confirmed she was a girl, their so called 'interest' on her had gotten to a new level, and to the point they stalk on her.

"She's so cute isn't she?"

"Yeah, especially when she smiles, but she never smiles at us," and the reason for that is because Reo thinks they're good-for-nothing.

"Hey guys, I bet she looks cuter when she cries," said their leader, "especially when grieving over that stupid dog."

"What do you have in mind?"

"Yeah, what's the plan?"

xXx

"Haru? Haru?" everyone was already sleeping so it's time for dinner for the puppy, but he didn't come out of the patio when she called on his name. She looked under the patio and she saw the dog breathing heavily and filled with bruises, "I'll kill anyone who did this…" she decided to go to Hijikata or Kondou for help.

Meanwhile, the culprits were watching behind a tree, "Dude! She didn't even cry! She'll kill us if she finds out it was us!"

"Yeah, she'll kill us for sure, didn't you see her face? It was darn scary!"

"Shut up you idiots, it's not like I don't have another plan…"

They were planning on blaming the whole thing on Souji; the 2nd on their list of people that pisses them off. They laughed evilly as the night deepens, there is no way that she'll deny the fact that Souji did it, and the two don't get along after all.

After their training class the culprits cornered Reo, "Hey, you wanna know who did that to your dog?" he asked slyly.

"It's you guys," he twitched from the response, she was pretty sharp, but he can't lose his composure. He's dealing with someone who's ready to kill them anytime.

"O-Of course not! It was Souji! Geez, are you an idiot?"

"Oh really? How come you know all of this?" she hit the mark.

"We saw the whole thing!" she gave out a smirk saying, 'Got you', there is clearly no way that Souji would be that low to beat up a sweet-looking puppy just for fun, if anything Souji would go directly to her in a fight.

"I'll kill you," the idiots ran away, even though Reo was just walking while she chases after them, it was like even if they ran she would surely catch them. But they remembered that she's completely outnumbered, three against one would definitely mean her loss, that's what they thought. They stopped running and faced her; the other guy quickly threw a kick on her face, but was knocked out for some reason.

"I'm the only one who gets to kick this girl on the face," Souji stood there with a bloody wooden sword in hand. Then the twerps have finally been enlightened that if the two worked together it would be hell.

"We'll remember this!" they ran off.

"What happened back there? You looked like you were losing to those freaks," he smirked.

"…"

"Not gonna speak huh? I'll be your opponent for now…"

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Thank you for reading.