Author's Notes: Aaaaaand I'm back on track baby! Super pissed off with my current employment, but never mind that, let's get back to the sweet sweet stalking! Remember kids, when you're in a job you absolutely despise, fear not - you're stuck there so you might as well get used to it!

Yukari followed a few seconds after Akihiko left for the gym; luckily Minato gave them the evening off so she didn't have to worry about getting back before the Dark Hour. He called out for her to be careful, but she waved the comment off. Since the girl with the pony-tail intercepted her, she was really looking for an excuse to get her into a corner and warn her to keep away from her senpai.

A tiny part of her was jealous, knowing that these other girls were pining for his attention, but she knew that was foolish because he didn't pay them any mind.

She followed some paces behind, making it look like she was out for an evening stroll, stopping occasionally to look in a shop window or smell a basket of flowers. When he boarded the train to Iwotodai station, she got on the same cart but hid well in the back, next to a rather rotund family who served as an excellent cover. When he exited she nearly lost him in the crowd, but she noticed a small, familiar group of girls (one in particular who wore her hair in a lazily swept up pony-tail) in Iwotodai squeal then point and exclaim as they saw him, and start to trail behind, Akihiko obviously not even noticing them.

Were women not even on his radar? How did he notice if he was about to be attacked, but not notice that he was being stalked?!

Shaking her head, Yukari followed the girls following her senpai, and kept a good distance so they wouldn't notice, a plan formulating in her head.

The girl with the pony-tail was the leader; if she took her out the rest would back off, she was sure of it. That's how gangs worked, at least that's what she saw in a movie once. Either way, through the apprehension, Yukari felt eager to teach that girl a lesson.

They weaved into a less crowded area down a narrow urban street into an area she didn't recognize she could see the deep red of Akihiko's sweater way down the road, the girls behind him giggling and chatting amiably as if it was the most normal thing in the world to be stalking a guy on his normal routine. There were five girls, the one with the pony-tail was the tallest, and vaguely she remembered Minato showing her how to trip someone by kicking them in the back or the side of the knee; she could totally do that while they all had their backs turned.

Turning between two apartment buildings and down around the back of a hotel, Yukari just about caught sight of that girl's ponytail as she rounded another corner. The archer sped up, but as she turned the same corner, she couldn't see hide nor hair of the stalkers or of her senpai at all; choosing the alleyway to the right, her heart slowly started to work it's way into her throat when there was no sign of them there either... and it was starting to get dark.

Crap...

Yukari headed back the way she came... or the way she thought she came - and ended up even further in the maze of alleys than she initially thought. If she could just find the sign for that hotel she would know where she was...

She was totally lost in a place she didn't recognize, and it was getting dark out.

Stuck in a smelly deserted alleyway, Yukari put her hands on her knees to try and slow her breathing; she was starting to panic, and thinking that she just lost possibly the safest person to be with only made it worse.

Stupid, I'm stupid, she thought as she contemplated how stalking her senpai got her lost. She could tell herself her reasoning was to meet those girls and teach them a lesson, but when faced with her opponent, she found she faltered and became nervous. She bet Akihiko didn't get like that – he minced through his enemies like they were made of tissue. Yukari wished she were strong like that, wished she had that kind of resolve – to be able to take someone down-

Trekking on after she caught her breath, the healer told herself she's have to get out of the maze onto a street eventually and turned another corner to the back of a restaurant, stinking of old food and grease.

Up on the rampart ahead a small group of boys she vaguely recognised from school were smoking cigarettes and laughing at something the taller one said. Ugh: she really couldn't stand bad habits and under-age smoking was definitely one of them. Sometimes it was a little hard to believe she shared a school with some of them, though she supposed not everyone could be as squeaky clean as she was.

As she neared, the taller one caught her eye and quickly threw his smoke onto the ground, crushing it with his shoe like he didn't want her to see; but it wasn't like she was going to go running to the school board over some idiots she didn't even know.

"H-hey!" He waved, smoothing a hand over his face and making his way down the short ramp to her, "You're Yukari Takeba, right? What are you doing all the way down here?"

How... did he know her name?

She was sure she'd never met this boy before.

Author's Notes: There was always that one stoner kid in every school... or the stoner school with one regular kid. Did you know possession of marijuana in Japan can get you up to five years in prison?! It's SUPER frowned upon. The more you know.