They came at her in groups of 2 and 3s.

The first guy came at her in a pretty direct manner – with a fist raised. She dodged inwards towards his chest, grabbed his arm, spun and threw him over her shoulders. The second guy slammed hard onto the floor with a well set-up wrist lock. A third ended up kissing the floor when she disarmed him with an Ude Gatame. As a precaution, she drove her knee into the back of his head, effectively knocking him out.

Thank you, mum! She had never been so grateful for her mother's insistence to learn Judo and Aikido as she was now. Most of her attackers were really bigger than her. Some were at least three times her size.

The remaining attackers surrounded her warily, each hesitant to be the one to confront her. She glanced from side to side, senses alert for any movement. Already, she was panting. Thanks to the restrictive man vest, she was only able to take in small amount of air each time she inhaled. This fight has to be finished soon if she has any hope to get through it. Yet judging by the numbers that remained, that won't be happening anytime at all.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a blonde head weave in and out of the crowd, leaving injured students in its wake. Izaki's alive then. Good, she won't have to help him… What was she thinking? She had better take care of her own attackers first before thinking about helping him.

"Come on, then!" She called out sharply. The sooner the fight starts (again), the sooner she can get it over with.

One brave soul gave a strangled yell and charged at her, steel pole waving in his hand. Almost as if encouraged by his actions, the rest followed, with varying degrees of aggressive battle cries. She lost track of time as she disarmed, punched, kicked, threw and dodged. For every student she knocked down, others would take his place. It had soon become clear to Sora that she wasn't at all that good at striking. All that she knew came from (a) action movies, (b) observing how the guys in Suzuran fight, and (c) throwing a few punches and kicks (very few) herself during Kata training.

And if she could detect this, so could her opponents. Add to that were her rapidly waning strength and stamina, compounded by her god damned vest. The odds against her are not good. And it's not like she can run, either. Students are blocking the few exits and she can't possibly abandon Izaki in the middle of a fight, even if it's to run to get help.

"Go to hell!" A giant of a guy – big enough to be a sumo – charged at her. She blanched when she saw him charging towards her like a battling ram. As his fist came towards her, she dodged to the side, grabbed his hand, placed one leg against his ankle just as the other hand grabbed his shoulder and twisted her upper body. There was the sudden sound of cloth tearing and a release of the restriction around her chest and diaphragm. She groaned inwardly. Mr. Sumo twisted in midair like a screw and landed hard on his back, knocking the wind out of him. He wasn't going to get up anytime soon.

"You OK?" Something hard thumped against her back. She started before realizing it was Izaki. He was back to back with her. She hadn't realized when he had managed to fight his way over to her.

"Y… Yeah!" She panted out after a few tries at speaking, clutching her stomach, acting as if she got kicked in the stomach. In truth, she was trying to gauge the extent of the damage to the vest. From the amount of freedom she suddenly has, she reckoned the whole vest tore at the seams.

Just as well… I can hardly fight with it on...

She only hoped that no one will be able to find out. The sports bra she wore underneath her vest and hoodie might conceal her chest but she can't use her judo techniques anymore. There would be far too much close contact and then it would be impossible to hide.

Izaki snorted. "Are you sure?"

He was skeptical, as Sora appeared sickly pale. She had a bruise at the corner of her mouth and at her jaw bone and her body was shaking badly. He suspected it was from exhaustion. They have been fighting for a while now and with their full strength against this many opponents. Even he would admit that the intensity of the fight is staggering.

"Worry about yourself!" She snapped as she recovered and knocked an opponent off with a leg sweep. Izaki wasn't in a better condition than her apparently. His movements are jerky and he was visibly slower.

Something silver flashed by at the corner of her vision, aiming straight for her companion.

"Look out!" She yelled to Izaki, who was busy punching the lights out of a student. He didn't see the metal pole coming down on him.

Cursing, she dove at him, twisted her body in mid air and slammed her shoulder into Izaki's back, effectively knocking him away. She held her arms up in front of her in a cross stance. The steel pole descended and smashed straight into her arms. Pain rang down her arms in cutting waves. She winced, tears prickling her eyes.

"SORA!" Izaki roared, shoving aside the student he had punched.

Sora was far too distracted with the mind numbing pain to notice the fist heading towards the side of her forehead. Her vision exploded into multitudes of bright stars and she stumbled backwards, to be caught by Izaki.

"Sora! Sora!" the usually cool Izaki shook her almost frantically. "Are you all right?"

Do I look all right to you? And if you keep shaking me like a dog, I won't be all right. That was what Sora wanted to retort but she merely nodded in reply. It was a miracle she was still standing but since she was, she should be all right.

"What the hell?" There was a sudden lull in the fight. "Look at his eyes!"

Huh? She reached a shaky hand up to her eyes, not exactly surprised to find her glasses gone from the hit in the head. It had dropped onto the floor when she touched it, broken and dirtied with dust and blood.

"I don't fucking care if she's an alien!" Tokaji Yuuji snarled as he removed himself from his position by the wall. "Do them both in already!"

As one his gang members surged forward like a tsunami wave. Sora grabbed the wrist of one student, smacked her hand on the side of his head and spun on her heels to throw him into the direction of his fellow mates.

"Take that! Heh! You guys look like you've never seen a half Asian before…"

Abruptly, she jerked back, pain in her throat overriding all other feelings and sensations. Bright spots exploded in her vision and there was a sudden dullness in her hearing. She recognized the symptoms from her judo training, when she had to let fellow judokas practice chokeholds on her. Someone is choking her and has effectively cut off the blood flow to her brain. As she struggled to breathe, she clawed frantically at her throat.

Someone is choking me with my own scarf… The irony of that…

As her vision blurred, she clawed even more recklessly, inching fingers into the space between her scarf and her throat. Whoever was choking her tightened the scarf, trapping her fingers. As a last resort, she kicked backwards, successfully making contact with someone's flesh. There was a loud grunt and she was released.

But she wasn't given the time to recover as Tokaji's goons surrounded her and rained blows on her body. She curled up in pain, biting her lips to stop herself from whimpering. She's not that weak to cry, for God's sake! She's not!

A feet smashed into her side and pain exploded in her ribs with her breath forcefully expelled thanks to the power of the blow. Her vision went white for a moment as she felt her body curl with pain. She dimly felt the rest of the blows, as if she's floating off into another dimension.

She had no idea how much time has passed. She must have fainted because, one moment, she could feel Tokaji's gang beating her up. But the next moment, she was being strung up by her wrists. Next to her, she could see Izaki being strung up by his legs, covered in blood. She guessed she didn't look any better.

She closed her eyes and inhaled soft, tiny mouthful of air. It hurt just to breathe.

Her last thought before drifting into unconsciousness was how, in this current state, she was going to hide her gender from everyone…

Fingers touched her and she furrowed her brows slightly, blinking her eyes lightly. She doesn't like being touched. She opened her eyes blearily to see Genji laying her down.

"Slowly, easy there...!" She heard someone say.

It sounded like an amplifier right next to her ear and she winced, and then coughed harshly – a sharp, hacking noise. Someone had the sense to roll her to her side and she coughed out blood.

Meanwhile, Genji and the others interrogated Izaki, who was lying next to her. She had the strong sense that she was forgetting something very important.

What was it that she was forgetting? She curled her body, however painful It was to do so, and tried to sit up. Hands rushed to push her back down, she smacked them away with her remaining strength.

"Don't touch me!" She wanted to say, but all that came out was a croak.

"What is it?" Genji was hovering next to her now. "No, don't speak!"

Oh yeah, now she remember what happened. She got ambushed by Tokaji Yuuji, had the crap beaten out of her, her vest tore and she is currently in the potential danger of being exposed as a girl.

Nearby, one of their gang members was calling the emergency medical services for ambulances.

Shit…

She can't have the medics seeing her like this. It'll be as good as announcing to the world that a cross dressing girl is in Suzuran. Wouldn't that make the headlines?

That thought gave her the strength to sit up despite the excruciating pain in her body and her head.

She has to find a way back home. Nishimura-san can get the concierge doctor. At least, they understood the meaning of confidentiality and will keep her cross dressing identity. She narrowed her eyes as she saw Chuuta, Genji and Makkie arguing a distance away. The whole gang was busy watching them and Izaki was out for the count. If she wanted to run, now would be her only chance.

With the last of her strength, she got off the makeshift bed and quietly stumbled off.

Word of how Izaki and Sora got beaten up by Tokaji Yuuji spread like wildfire through the whole school by the next day. And given their position in the school hierarchy, it was no surprise that it reached the Ebizuka Trio quickly.

"What the fuck did you just say?" Kirishima yelled, brown eyes wild with shock. Next to him, Pon was equally shell-shocked, judging by the strewn novel lying on the floor that he had not bothered to pick up. Mako's expression was, as usual, unreadable but he was stiffer than usual and his fists were clenched.

The first year who told the news to the trio quailed under Kirishima's fury.

"Word has it that Izaki Shun of 3E and Sora from our year got done in by Tokaji Yuuji." The first year repeated. "Tokaji Yuuji was boasting about it just now in the canteen. Apparently, Izaki Shun is in hospital right now. And Tokaji said, GPS won't have a chance of winning the Serizawa Faction and he warned out loud to everyone not to join them or they'll end up like Izaki and Sora…"

"Wait. Hold on." Mako interrupted. "Izaki Shun is in hospital right now."

The First year nodded affirmatively.

"What about Sora?"

Kirishima's head swiveled back to them. He had been staring into space a while ago, contemplating the news he had just heard. The first year hesitated, but when Kirishima turned sharply to eye him like a hawk, he added on hurriedly, "nobody knows. Apparently, he vanished before the ambulance arrived. They followed the blood trail - "

Pon and Kirishima paled slightly.

" – But it suddenly stops outside Suzuran. None of the GPS can contact him either. His cell phone is off."

The three of them exchanged a long look. "Right, thanks for the information. You can go." Mako informed the first year who high tailed it out of there gratefully.

Pon sank back into his chair and ran a hand through his hair. "Where could he have gone in that state? And what was Takiya Genji doing, letting his gang members get their ass kicked."

"That bastard…" Kirishima growled. Pon couldn't be sure if he was referring to Tokaji or to Genji. Kirishima's dislike of Takiya Genji was known in their group. He respected Izaki Shun for his fearlessness and cunning. The fact that Izaki Shun chose to follow Takiya Genji didn't sit well with him. He simply couldn't, for the life of him, figure out what's so good about Genji. The fact that Sora chose to follow Genji and not be with them, made it worse.

"He can't be contacted." Mako confirmed the first year's words, fiddling with his cell phone. "His phone is switched off."

Pon looked at Kirishima, who had a haunted and worried expression on his face. "What do we do?" He asked.

Despite knowing him for only a few weeks, Sora had become their friend, and Kirishima cared more for their friend than he would ever admit. Would this attack be the catalyst that made Kirishima put aside his dislike for Genji and join his alliance? Or would he want mobilize the first years to attack Serizawa Faction?

If they did join hands with GPS to defeat Serizawa Faction and in the event that they did defeat Serizawa Faction, by de facto, that would make Genji the first person in Suzuran to unite the whole school… Somehow, that goes against the pluralistic traditions and beliefs of the school. Mobilising the first years alone to attack the third years is suicide.

No way, what was he thinking? Kirishima is not that irrational. No! No! Pon shook his head rapidly. What would be Kirishima's next move?

Kirishima leant forward in his own chair, curling his fingers together and leaning his face on them. "We have to find Sora."

Mako and Pon exchanged a look. "And how are you planning to do that?" Mako finally asked. "His cell phone is switched off. He's currently MIA. How to you plan on finding him."

"We'll start with his home." Kirishima said, eyes narrowing as he looked at Pon and Mako. "We can find his home address from the school records at the administration office."

A/N: There… Not so late this time round. =X How was this chapter? I didn't mean to insert Sora into this fight but it really was necessary.

Regarding the Ebizuka Trio, there's a reason they're secondary characters in this movie. It's because they are among the major characters in Crows manga that occurs after Genji and gang graduated.

How's the fight scene above?