CrowsXGokusen FF – 2,868 words (about)

Everything happens for a reason

Part 8: Juggling Act

To say Kumiko was a little apprehensive about going to school the next day would be the understatement of the century. Her stomach was writhing as though dozens of tiny snakes had taken up residence there. Already Wakamastu had asked her three times if she was feeling okay. Tetsu and Minoru had almost signed their own death certificates by calling her "Clammy-Kumi", and were only still in one place because Kumiko was sure that if she chased them she would vomit.

The walk with Kyo to their usual departure point was a silent one. She could feel his eyes on her the whole time, questioning her. But she had no answers for him even if he had asked, which he didn't. Perhaps he knew already, but if he didn't, she wasn't about to be the bearer of shitty news.

As the schoolyard came into view, her anxiety intensified. Would he approach her in front of everyone? She wasn't worried about that so much; she could be friends with whoever she wanted to. If they've got a problem with it, they can go screw themselves. But how would he address her? Yamaguchi? Kumiko-chan? She stumbled as her mind went into panic mode. I can't be expelled, not again!

Unfortunately, Yamaguchi Kumiko was probably the one student in the history of Suzuran who had a legitimate reason for being kicked out of a school that notoriously accepted anyone. Kids had been arrested, joined gangs, vandalized school property, cut class, and even attacked teachers before with little to no consequences. But to be a girl in an all boys school…

"Yo!"Kumiko nearly jumped out of her skin as Pon appeared beside her and slung his arm around her shoulder. Feeling her flinch, he chuckled. "It's a rare day when I startle you," he mocked. "Daydreaming already? You haven't even had the opportunity to be bored with class yet!"

"Just distracted today," she replied, forcing herself to calm down and put on a pleasant expression.

"Bad day for it," Pon remarked. "We're challenging 2C, remember?"

That's right, I had forgotten, Kumiko mused. Just one more thing I have to deal with. She gave an exaggerated shrug as a response and her friend grinned widely.

"Can we count on that super strength again today?" he asked, half serious. Kumiko sighed.

"What, you think I lost it overnight? Don't worry man. I've got your back." Lifting her fist up towards him in a gesture of assurance, she smiled as he knocked his own fist against it.

"Yosh!" Pon shouted, raising his hand into the air and jogging the last few steps up to the building. "Let's kick some ass!"

Sitting in class for a few hours gave Kumiko the chance to talk herself down off her nerves a bit and focus more on the brewing fight that was scheduled to happen during lunch period. If she was honest with herself, she didn't truly feel like battling any class today. In her mind, there were more pressing matters at hand, and despite what she had told herself the previous evening about just letting things happen, the situation looked a lot more dangerous in the daylight.

Before she knew it, she was walking down the concrete steps of the school alongside Hiromi and the others, heading from their classroom to the grounds. She saw her friend and class leader glancing at her with a calculating expression and tried harder to focus.

"Yamaguchi," he murmured under his breath, "you okay? You don't look completely with us…" He trailed off as she shook her head in contradiction.

"I'm fine Hiromi," she tried to assure him, though he didn't look convinced. Pon and Mako materialized on either side of them and Kumiko gave them the thumbs up. "Let's get this started, shall we?" They turned and looked across the dirty schoolyard at their opponents who were assembling about fifty yards away.

As the two classes marched to meet in the middle, Kumiko found herself zoning out again, even while Kirishima and the 2C leader exchanged remarks. Suddenly, it seemed, a confronting flurry of fists snapped her back to reality. We started already? she wondered, startled. A muscled arm appeared from her right, blocking a punch that was aimed for her head. Looking around in confusion, still trying to get her bearings, she saw Mako frowning at her.

"Focus, Yamaguchi," he said gruffly in an undertone. She nodded her thanks while mentally kicking herself for letting her guard down in the first place. If it wasn't for the whole Rindaman situation… She was on the defensive, dodging occasionally but mostly relying on latent reflexes to block her attackers. No, it's Hayashida, she told herself firmly, retreating and running up against something solid. Glancing over her shoulder, she found that she was fighting back to back with Mako.

For the first time, she took a moment to really look at their opponents. The 2C boys were spread out everywhere, picking off her classmates by double teaming them at every opportunity. As Kumiko hesitated, she and Mako were being surrounded by about six guys. From their stances alone, Kumiko could tell they weren't the usual low-skill fighters the school offered: these guys meant business. Shoving all thoughts of Hayashida Megumi from her mind, she and Mako began clearing a path towards Kirishima and Honjou who were fighting nearby.

As she threw herself fully into the fight, Kumiko was able to relax a bit. Slowly, the four of them depleted the rival class's numbers until they were on even ground once again. A booted foot aimed at her side was easily avoided and countered with a well-placed kick of her own; two fists, one from each direction, were expertly dodged so that the attackers' momentum carried them into each other. Hopping over them towards another fighter, Kumiko was now on the offensive, clipping one guy in the jaw, hitting another in the gut, and generally just tearing up the place.

This is why I love it here, she reminded herself as she felt the adrenaline rush through her body. This is what it feels like to be alive. Really throwing her full power into every hit now, some of the 2C fighters one by one began to halt and do a double take. As one boy rushed her, Kumiko sprung into the air with a flying kick that landed perfectly on his chest and sent him flying backwards more than twenty. Now it wasn't only 2C that had stopped to watch, but her own class for the most part as well. Pretty soon, only Hiromi, Pon, Mako, the leader of 2C, and a few of his more skilled men were left fighting. The rest of the students stood in scattered clumps, some of them looking as though they had just frozen mid-punch.

Hiromi, his attention locked on his two, much larger attackers, couldn't spare a glance to see what the rest of the class was doing, much less Yamaguchi. It was taking all of his concentration just to avoid letting either guy get his hands on him, which he knew very well would be the end of the fight. Hiromi might be a good technical fighter, but there was no way he would be able to stand against such superior weight.

Blocking a lunge for his left side and stumbling backwards in the process, he felt his stomach plummet as one of the guys managed to get a hold of his right forearm. It took only a second before it was twisted cruelly and wrenched up behind his back. Hiromi cursed loudly, trying to cover any sounds of pain he might make, when suddenly his other opponent kicked his feet out from under him and he dropped to his knees.

Several yards away, Kumiko eliminated her final attacker. As the boy staggered from a sharp jab to his side, she braced herself with one hand on the ground and shot a booted heel up to meet his already injured ribs, launching him into the air with a snap and a piercing scream that left an unnatural silence in its wake. In the space of time it took for him to hit the ground with a sickening thud, she was already back on her feet and looking around for more fighters.

It was then that she spotted Hiromi's predicament. On his knees with an arm twisted beneath his shoulder blades, he had little chance to defend himself from the heavy-handed punches that snapped his head from one side to the other. Remembering his heartfelt promise to back her up in her fight against Fukagi the previous day, Kumiko was instantly furious at the underhanded two-on-one beating Kirishima was taking. In a flash, she had rushed to his side, just in time to meet the offending fighter's punch with an open fist. The unorthodox contact of palm to knuckles at full force made a resounding slap that startled the boy. Insulted by the diminutive size of an opponent who had been able to stop his punch dead on, he applied pressure hoping the boy's hand would give out, but it didn't.

Behind her from where she stood between Kirishima and his main attacker, Kumiko heard him grunt in discomfort and a cracking sound as his arm was twisted tighter. Without letting go of the one man's fist, she swung her left leg up beside her, pivoted on her right foot, and sent a forceful kick just over Hiromi's head into his restrainer's face. With a crunch, his nose bleeding, the brutish boy slumped to his side, unconscious.

Straightening herself once more so that she was directly facing the remaining attacker, she smirked as she saw fear in his eyes. He quickly retracted his fist from her grasp and started backing away, tripping over one of his fallen comrades in the process. Analyzing that he was no longer a threat, Kumiko turned to Hiromi and gruffly pulled him to his feet by his good arm. He looked horrible, his face bleeding and swollen, his right arm hanging limp and at an awkward angle, but his miserable smile reassured her that he would recover in time.

Now that she had a moment to breathe, Kumiko finally looked around and noticed that the fighting had all but stopped and that all eyes were on her. In fact, the only people not staring at her with outright apprehension were Hiromi, who could barely see anything through the swelling around his eyes, and last remaining fighters.

Not more than twenty feet from where she and their leader stood, Pon, Mako, and the 2C leader were laying into each other with all their energy and strength. Together, her friends were just barely able to hold off the attacks of the 2C leader, which said a lot about how strong of a fighter he was. Kumiko knew there was no way the two of them would be able to beat him. Feeling the adrenaline rush once more, she flexed her hands and rolled he neck to loosen up as she waited for their fight to end and hers to begin. The onlookers flicked their eyes nervously between the fighting trio and Yamaguchi, waiting to see what she would do.

It finally happened that Pon stumbled after parrying a kick, and in just that brief moment he was knocked to the side by a speeding blow to the ribcage, leaving him heaving on the pavement. That was all the time Mako needed to be distracted and without backup, before he too was overwhelmed by his opponent's superior strength and speed. Seconds later, he also fell. Suddenly, the school yard seemed unearthly quiet, as even classes who were not involved in the conflict has stopped what they were doing and gathered around to watch. In the building, students leaned out of windows to see what would happen next. Though she didn't notice it, Hayashida was watching Kumiko closely the window of his private bathroom.

The 2C leader finally straightened up and looked around, finally stopping when he spotted the battered Kirishima standing next to a small boy he didn't recognize. Taking in the rival leader's appearance, he grinned, confident in his victory.

"It appears this battle has come down to a fight between just the two of us!" he shouted to Hiromi. "Unfortunately, it looks as though my men have already beaten you for me!" He causally brushed some dirt from his uniform, as though to emphasize the fact that he was for the most part unharmed. Still, Kumiko noticed a slight stiffness in his gait as he walked towards the pair of them, suggesting he was not completely unscathed. Before he had come half the distance, she stepped forward, separating him from Kirishima, and took up her fighting stance.

"Actually," she pointed out sarcastically, "I'm still here so, unfortunately for you, there will be no battle between you and Kirishima today. Not unless you can defeat me, which I doubt." The smirk slid off the boy's face as he realized she was serious, and then suddenly he roared with laughter. The sound was eerie in the uncomfortable silence that persisted in the wake of what the rest of the students had seen and the 2C leader had not. Finally, after some time, his laugh became a chuckle and he gave Yamaguchi a scathing once-over before sneering.

"So you think a scrawny thing like you is going to take me out?" He leisurely walked closer, leering all the while. "You're nothing but a piece of crow-bait!" He paused a moment to laugh at his own joke, but stopped when no one laughed with him. Glaring around him at his class, he placed one hand heavily on Kumiko's shoulder and leaned down to whisper in her ear. "Bring it, you little shit!"

As the grip on her shoulder tightened, Kumiko dropped slightly and swung beneath his outstretched arm to the outside so that his right-handed punch missed completely and he went sprawling forward. Circling around to the back, she nudged the inside of his kneecap with a booted foot and took his accompanying wince as proof that he was injured.

"Perhaps you're the one who's crow-bait," she taunted as he struggled back to his feet. Finally righted, he stood with his back to her and she waited for him to turn, but he didn't. Suddenly, she saw the core of his body shift just enough that she knew what was about to happen just before it did, but not soon enough to stop it. In a split second, the 2C leader lunged for Hiromi who was still standing nearby, and within moments had him incapacitated once more, this time by a forearm crushing against his windpipe. Kumiko didn't move, but watched in disgust as the boy pulled a switchblade from his pocket and held it at the base of her friend's throat.

She quickly calculated how much time she would need to get to Hiromi and whether or not it would be possible to do so before the 2C leader could seriously injure him. She frowned, not liking the odds. As she focused on creating some sort of plan to free Kirishima that would not end in his death, her concentration blinded her to the wave of students that were parting as someone approached from behind her opponent and his captive.

Suddenly, a huge hand reached down from above the struggling pair and knocked the blade from the offender's hand. Another sweep of his fist bashed the despicable leader aside while his other hand supported Hiromi slightly so that he was not swayed by the impact. Looking up at her helper, Kumiko was unsurprised to see that it was Megumi, and she couldn't help but grin at him. Releasing the remaining leader once he was sure he could stand on his own, the giant known as Rindaman took a step forward and handed a ball of cloth out to Yamaguchi.

"You forgot this yesterday," he explained softly. Nodding her understanding, Kumiko took her rolled up sweatshirt from him with an enthusiastic "thank you" and held up her fist in solidarity. Getting the gesture, Hayashida bumped his fist lightly against hers and the turned without another word. The sea of students parted for him once more, giving him plenty of room to pass, and it seemed as though not a one dared even breathe. Sighing as he reentered the building and her classmates stares returned to her, Kumiko wondered how exactly she was going to explain her interaction with Hayashida-san to them. She was grateful at his intervention, but worried about the impact on everyone else. Even Hiromi was looking at her in shock, though that might have been in part due to the fact he had just been held at knife-point.

Tucking the sweatshirt under one arm, she raised he shoulders slightly in a shrug and walked over to Kirishima, throwing an arm around him in support. Trying to hide her apprehension, she grinned at all the boys standing around her.

"So…," she began awkwardly, "will you be joining us then?"