The Ripple Effect | Volume I

Chapter 4: Blackmail


(Nansei Junior High – Roof)

The roof atop the school had a flat surface that sat mainly towards the back of the school with a tall chain-link fence bordering every side of the surface.

Most people would compare it to a balcony, but the surface itself didn't extend over school walls, so no stilts are needed to be built. There are many air vents that come up and stick out at different angles. Some are fenced off and others have fans that are covered by metal grids to prevent injury. There are also some benches placed around for kids to relax on.

The protruding door opens, which sat all the way at the back of the roof revealing Cheri and Kitsutsuki. They step out onto the roof as Drawsah follows close behind.

Cheri spreads her arms out beholding the sight, "Here we are!" Drawsah, who now had his backpack on, had his hands in his pockets and looked at Cheri's back confusingly.

He looked around and looked unimpressed. The standard they had held the roof to didn't meet his expectations at all. "Hm…Okay~y…?"

"Hu~uh?!" Kitsutsuki looked agitated enough, "What do you mean 'okay'? What's wrong with it?!" Drawsah gave her a weary sideways glance.

"Err…N-Nothing…" Drawsah put on a sheepish smile.

"Sure, it's not as big and lavish as your dad's mansion, but this is the only place where we can relax and hang out! So, if that's not good enough for you, get outta here!" Kitsutsuki yelled and pointed at him.

Drawsah kept face and put his hands up to surrender and defend his case, "Look, I didn't mean anything by it, so please forgive my thoughtless comment."

"Hmph!" Kitsutsuki crosses her arms and turns around. She sits down on top of one of the vents about half her size. Drawsah sighs and rubs the back of his head at the sight, losing his face. I really need to think before I speak…

"So, Drawsah." Drawsah looks to his left and finds Cheri addressing him.

"Hm?"

"How come you haven't been hanging out with people of your…social status?" Cheri put her hands on her hips and looked at him quizzically. Kitsutsuki perked up from her empty stare and looked at Drawsah for an answer.

Drawsah tilted his head up and looked at the clouds, "That question, huh?"

"Tch. He's probably too good for them," Kitsutsuki asserted. Her brows furrowed, seeing as Drawsah wasn't quick to answer. What was there for him to think about? He must've been dodging the question, he should already know the answer.

"Tori~i…" Cheri glanced at her friend and shook her head disapprovingly.

"It's alright," he crossed his arms and closed his eyes in thought. "I don't associate with those people because they're only friends with you for your money," He opened his eyes and looked back at Cheri. "I dislike fake people."

His father taught him about how people in this world operate. Some people and their relationships aren't truly genuine. Especially for people like themselves.

Since they were always known for being rich, which in turn made them famous, everyone was always trying to be 'friends' or close associates with them. He advised that they don't entertain people like that because as soon as their guard was down or became vulnerable, they wouldn't hesitate to do ill-intended acts to lift themselves up.

It was always easy telling between fake people and genuine people. One knew exactly who and what you were and the other doesn't tell you until you tell them. That's pretty simple, right? Well, that's what Drawsah believes.

"Fake people, huh?" Kitsutsuki hopped down off the vent, fixated on Drawsah.

Drawsah lightly smiles, "I'm glad I ran into people like you. I didn't come to school with any high hopes because I was afraid my status would rule me."

Cheri and Kitsutsuki made puzzled faces. Drawsah notices and loses the smile.

"What do you mean?" Cheri tilted her head.

"Well…I expected that once I showed up, people would treat me differently because of who my family was," Drawsah slowly responded.

They both looked slightly incredulous and Kitsutsuki even face palmed.

"…Y'know…I didn't know you were apart of the Brief family until you told us," Cheri looked at Drawsah humorously.

What…

"I thought you were just some rich kid," Kitsutsuki added flatly.

Well, that was a little unexpected. He didn't think that staying away from the spotlight actually worked. I guess the public is aware that Bulma has a brother, but they have no clue what his name is and what he looks like.

"I—I see…" he rubbed his head, slightly embarrassed. "I guess avoiding the internet world did wonders…"

"We only know about Bulma because she's one of the biggest influencers on Swiftgram," Cheri commented. "She has like fifty million followers on there."

"It's annoying that she goes here now," Kitsutsuki gave Drawsah a dark, sideways glare. "No thanks to you." Drawsah looks wearily annoyed at her.

"Hmph," he looked fairly unimpressed actually. She's targeting me. "Stop shaming me for my name," Drawsah said. "Take it up with Bulma if you have an issue with her, Tori."

"Hu~uh?! First of all, that's 'Kitsutsuki Fujiwara' to you! You can't call me that!" Kitsutsuki stomped up to Drawsah, "Secondly, acting all tough won't get you anywhere!"

Drawsah remained stern and stoic. He didn't want to give off the impression that he cared about Kitsutsuki's little attitude.

"I'm not acting tough. You are…" Drawsah said as he turned his head away to avoid her breath. Jeez, she's irritating… The façade he put up quickly fell apart though as his face grew weary again.

"I said no fighting!" Cheri shouted. She looked around and sighed, almost looking as weary as Drawsah did. Thank the lord nobody's up here. This is so embarrassing…

"Watch it…!" Kitsutsuki came face to face with the boy and put her fists on her hips, "You don't know a thing about me!"

Drawsah hummed a long note, "Well I know that you're a bully…" He said this offhandedly as he started to care less and less about what she'd do. She seemed like the nagging type and not the physical fighting type.

Kitsutsuki sneered at his nasty comment, "You wanna go?!" She brought up her fist to Drawsah's face so that he could see it easily.

Never mind…she's definitely looking like that type now… Drawsah found himself in thought and brainstormed ideas to get this girl off his case.

"Look, you just gotta lighten up a little bit man! Stop talking all tense. Keep doing that and nobody'll ever talk to you. So, loosen up and get comfortable!"

Taiyo's face popped up in his head and decided that he'd follow in his footsteps. Drawsah displayed a bright smile and brought his hand out of his pocket. He lightly pats Kitsutsuki's shoulder, pausing everything in her psyche.

"How about you lighten up a little? Just ta—" …!?

Kitsutsuki quickly grabbed his arm, turned around, and judo threw him over her back, slamming him hard into the concrete ground. "NGH—!" His face pained.

Cheri's heart sank to her stomach as she heard a loud cracking sound once he impacted the ground. She gasped audibly, "Ouch…"

Drawsah gingerly sat up and held the back of his head. That hurt a lot more than it should've. He glanced at his limiters and saw that they were at a normal level. Ninety-two percent. He then turned around slightly to see where his head had landed and saw a minor crack in the concrete.

"Karma's a bitch, huh?" Kitsutsuki stood over Drawsah and looked down on him. He looked up at her stoically and looked a little irritable.

"You might've been able to dance around those older kids but you're not doing that with me, got it?" She crouched down to Drawsah's level, "Hey! What happened to all that bravado you had before?"

'Bravado.'

Drawsah didn't give her the reaction she wanted. He didn't give her a reaction at all. He just stared up at her stoically and rubbed the back of his head to soothe the throbbing knot that was probably going to rise pretty soon.

He was starting to get sick and tired of dealing with people like this. He never cared about appeasing other people and only did so if that meant less conflict for himself. But if appeasing other people had failed and conflict became avoidable, he'd remove himself from the equation as soon as possible.

But this girl went out of her way to make the day miserable for him. He wanted to know why at first but seeing as he might not get an answer, he didn't care anymore. He just wanted to get out of this situation right now and never have to talk to her again.

"Get off of me."

"Or what?" She exclaimed. She reached for his collar and grabbed it, "You gonna do something about it?" Drawsah immediately grabs her wrist firmly.

"Let…Me…Go." Drawsah demanded in a calm but dark tone. They've never heard a tone like that from him before.

Uh oh. Cheri clapped to draw their attention. "Hey, hey, shows over! Stop fighting already! You both look stupid!"

The two-minute bell rings on the small speaker that sat atop the door that led back downstairs inside the building.

"Perfect! Just the thing we need to get you two to lay off each other…" Cheri announced and put her hands on her wrists. She stood there and watched as they simultaneously stood up and violently let go of each other.

Drawsah turned around and started towards the door, fixing his messed-up collar, and dusting off whatever dirt was left. He took off his bookbag to make sure it was dusted clean and that all the contents inside the bag were in one piece.

Cheri watched Drawsah as he opened the door and left without a word to be said. His face didn't look particularly angry but the dark tone in his voice he had wasn't a good thing either. "Why do you keep patronizing Drawsah?"

"So, we can avoid whatever happened last year," Kitsutsuki responded quickly. "I don't want to ever see that happen again."

… Cheri looked down at the crack in the concrete. "You could've killed him," she pointed at the ground as Kitsutsuki followed her finger.

"But he's fine—…" she did a double take on what Cheri was pointing at and notices the crack in the concrete.

A crack in the concrete…?!

Kitsutsuki's face grows pale at the realization, "—At least…he looked fine to me…" she stated despondently. She started to feel a little bit anxious. "We gotta go check on him…! H—He could be internally bleeding…!"

"What?!" Cheri looked alarmed. "What are you talking about…?!"

"Er—…" she shakes her head to sort out her thoughts. She then runs towards the door and Cheri was quick to follow, "C'mon…!"


(4th Period – Math Class)

Another average class that sat an average number of kids. The only difference in this classroom was that they didn't seat kids at individual desks but at tables that could seat two each. There were two columns and three rows of tables. Drawsah sat on the left edge of the classroom in one of the middle rows, distancing himself from the middle.

Drawsah sat by the window and looked outside at the moving cars and people walking about in the city. Besides him though, a much larger and hardy boy sat and took up most of the table. This body had messy black hair and punk-style clothing. Holes were spontaneous in his jeans, and he wore a dark-colored shirt with a ripped denim jacket.

The smaller boy seemed content with the space given though and seemed to be daydreaming.

That girl has some serious power-trip issues. Her temper's even worse than Bulma's… How am I supposed to deal with that? I hope I never have to.

Drawsah sighed and glanced at the boy next to him. What…am I looking at…?

The rugged-looking boy noticed Drawsah's sideways glance and turned to him. "What you staring at? You got a problem? Keep starin' and I'll wring that little neck of yours," the boy stated.

Drawsah slowly turned back to the front of the room without giving much of a reaction. "That's what I thought," the brute commented. He put his head down in his crossed arms which lay on the desk.

That's annoying. Everything's starting to get annoying.

"You're not getting outta this without a good ole' fashioned ass beatin'," "You might've been able to dance around those older kids but you're not doing that with me, got it?"

Everyone seems to be filled with aggression. I wonder why. He took a glimpse at his hand which he brought up to his view. He rested his face on the other. Maybe I shouldn't worry about it right now. At least not until it becomes a bigger problem.

"Good morning everyone!" The teacher stood at the front of the classroom and gave off a high-pitched voice that would've caught anyone off guard. She was a tall and slender woman with curly red hair with butterflies and math symbols clipped in. She wore the average uniform that a teacher would be allowed to wear but wore hot pink high heels.

The room was silent for the most part, but she did receive a few good morning's and hello's from some of the students.

"C'mon guys, you're still asleep? It's fourth period! Lunch is right after!" She tapped her index finger in thought. "How about this? Converse with your neighbor and introduce yourselves. After five minutes, I'll call on each one of you and when I do, you'll tell me your neighbor's name and an interesting fact about them," she proposed.

Most of everyone seemed to dislike this idea of forced conversation. They didn't want to talk to their neighbor about anything unless they wanted to and most kids just simply didn't want to. But it would be better if they participated because if they didn't, they'd end up embarrassing themselves.

She clapped her hands twice, "Get to chattin'!"

Drawsah turned his head back to the right to make quick conversation with the agitated brute from before, but he's only met with dull eyes that peered into his soul. "Hello…?" Drawsah had uttered.

"Why are you staring at me again? Didn't ya' get the message?" the guy looked at Drawsah scornfully. The kid looked annoying to talk to.

Regardless, Drawsah continued, "She told us to talk to each—"

"—I don't wanna talk. Especially not with a punk like you," the thuggish kid spat.

Drawsah sighed, "Whatever then." He leant back in his chair and put his hands behind his head. If she asks, I won't be able to give her an answer. "Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?" he questioned nonchalantly.

He'd rather not embarrass himself due to this idiot's lack of compliance, so he'd at least try to initiate conversation somehow. Everyone seems to get agitated easily by his presence so it shouldn't take too much effort at all.

"What was that?" the black-haired kid spat. He finally gave Drawsah his full, undivided attention.

"Nothing really. You just seem really upset," Drawsah quickly replied. He glanced over at him.

"That's none of your business! I ain't in the mood for talkin', shrimp!" the boy shouted at him. Drawsah immediately realized that having a normal conversation was impossible.

He sighed, "You're a brick wall…" Drawsah faced forwards and tilted his head back in a relaxed manner.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" The rugged guy yelled and sat up almost straight and took over Drawsah's personal space. But not long after, the boy is beamed right in the back of the head with an eraser.

The boy grabbed the back of his head and hissed, slowly turning around to find the culprit. "Who…in the hell—?!" The math teacher scowled at him from the front of the class and after seeing that, the boy immediately clammed up.

She coldly pointed at him, "Takeda. No fighting in my class."

"Y—Yes ma'am…!" the guy stood up straight out of his chair and swiftly bowed in respect.

"I don't feel like telling you off again, so I'll just move you instead." The teacher glanced around the classroom who had her full attention. It looks like Takeda was a lot louder than he realized and that put a stop to everything, drawing a lot of attention to Drawsah's area.

Looks like that idea backfired.

She points at a girl on the opposite side of the classroom, "Takeda, switch with Nakamura over there."

Drawsah casually watches as Takeda walks over to the other side of the room sulking with his hands in his pockets. He looked embarrassed and Drawsah thought the guy couldn't have been capable of having emotions like that. Idiot.

The girl brought her small and lightweight bag over her shoulder and walked over to the spot that Takeda had left and sat down, she looked completely bored.

"Now continue where you left off! You've got…" she pauses and looks at her wristwatch. She looked surprised. "—Three minutes left of class! We can talk about what you've learned about your neighbor tomorrow. And just to make sure you kids don't forget, I'll make the seats you're sitting in now your assigned seats for the rest of the semester."

The rest of the class continues where they left off and Drawsah glances at the new girl he sat by. The girl had short dark purple hair that ended at her ears and dull brown eyes. She wore a black graphic tee that was about a size too big and straight regular blue jeans.

Drawsah continued to lean on his arm, "I'm Drawsah." He gave her a slight fake smile.

"Hiromi Nakamura." The girl quickly replied. But that was short lived because her face jolted from a bored expression to a skeptical one, "—Wait a minute…"

"What?" Drawsah was blank.

"You said you were 'Drawsah'?" she asked, looking at Drawsah intently.

"…Yeah?" he answered with a raised eyebrow. He acted like he couldn't catch onto what she was talking about. 'I didn't know you were apart of the Brief family until you told us', she said. Well, that was a lie.

"No way! You're 'The Drawsah Brief'! You're related to Ms. Bulma!" Hiromi looked elated to be sitting next to somebody that apparently was clouted to the max.

Drawsah's face grew more and more perplexed. 'Ms. Bulma'? There's no way she called her that.

"Yeah…!" Her eyes turned into dull stars. "You're her little brother, aren't you?!"

"Wha~at?" The dumbfounded expression remains, "Little brother?"

Her tone dropped and so did her excited expression, "Stop acting clueless…Take some pride that you're related to her! She's the most popular girl in the school, even the world, y'know!" She pointed her finger at Drawsah's weary face, "There's tons of people who wanna be in your shoes!"

Drawsah takes a glimpse outside the window, "Tons of people, huh?"

Hiromi scrutinized him closely and an idea erupts in her head. She gives him a sly grin as she looks him up and down. She giggled to herself. Drawsah gave her a sideways glance and his eyebrow curled in confusion.

"You know…you're pretty cute yourself…" Drawsah's brows furrow and frowns, creating creases in his face we've never seen before. What's this girl's deal? Everyone in this school is actually crazy…!

The creepy girl wore a shit-eating grin, "Imagine what would happen if a regular girl like me started dating a celebrity family member! Think about how popular I'd become!"

Drawsah had shivers travel down his spine and back up before he readjusted back to normal. He faced her stoically, "I'm not going to date you."

"Oh, c'mon!" Hiromi asserted. She looked pouty before she hummed in thought and then giggled to herself again. Drawsah started to look annoyed.

Hiromi reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone, happily humming to herself. "Either date me or~r—," she started. She then shoved her phone screen into Drawsah's face that instantly lost its color, "—I'll expose this photo to the entire school!"

"Wh—What?!" Drawsah looked alarmed as his chair fell forwards on all four legs. "How did you get that?!" he asked her aggressively.

She promptly reeled back and put her phone back in her pocket to avoid any damage from coming onto the device. "I've got my methods," she replied delightfully with a mischievous grin written on her face.

The bell rang throughout the school, signaling the end of fourth period and the start of the lunch period. Everyone got up from their seats, either packing up their things or readily walking towards the door.

"Remember your partner's names!" the teacher exclaimed as she watched her students walk out of her classroom.

Hiromi stood from her seat and left in a better mood than when she had arrived, "I'll be looking for you at lunch. You better make the right decision~n!"

Drawsah silently watched as she devilishly waved at him and left with a sly grin. He grit his teeth as sweat dropped from his forehead.

I can't let that photo get out. It'll be the end of me…!

After a short while, he closes his mouth as he recollects his thoughts and ideas together. Staying here would be a lot easier than leaving and attending another school in another city so… She's going to have to disappear…


End of Chapter Four.

AN:

Here we go!

A much longer chapter like I promised! Wanted to get this chapter out yesterday but seeing as I still have some work to do this week, I had to push it into the deep night.

Chapter five should be posted this weekend around Sunday. (at least that's what I hope) As always, I hope you've enjoyed the chapter and I hope that you'll be back to read the next one!