[ ? ]
"-speaking of which," water poured in soft gurgles as the girl turned the faucet, "did you guys hear? The rumor going around about Ichijou?"
On the other side of the door, said girl stopped mid-motion. She'd been fixing her skirt as the girls had walked in. Outside, she heard the light splash of water. She'd been tuning them out, but the mention of her name caught her attention.
"...You think it's true?"
The sound of running water drowned out whatever click-clack Ichijou made as she did the buttons on her waistband. Leisurely un-creasing her shirt, she strained her ears.
"That she's been-"
"Sleeping around with the boys from the volleyball club?" another girl finished.
...What.
Ichijou had the knee-jerk reaction to kick open the door and loudly phrase that very question to their faces, but reined it in.
"S-such a rumor? It couldn't possibly be..."
The girl who'd brought up the rumor, girl A let's say, and the girl who'd verbalized said rumor, let's say, girl B, both looked over at girl C, who looked about as taken aback as Ichijou herself.
A faucet squealed closed to a delicate swivel of the wrist, trickling to a stop.
"Apparently,", girl A said, leaning in conspiratorially, "she's often sneaking off to the infirmary with Captain-kun in tow."
"Sure she didn't just break his nose?" Girl D quipped, causing the other girls to chuckle. All save girl B.
"I never got why the guys fawn over her so much," she muttered as she wiped her hands. "Just cause she's a little pretty, she thinks she's so much better than us?"
"It does rub you off the wrong way, doesn't it?" Girl D remarked casually, fixing her hair in the mirror. "The way she's always getting looks, but tries to act all indifferent and shit."
"Personally, I've never liked how she'd always tell us off during PE," girl A said, scowling. "Telling us we're not putting in enough effort. Like she'd know a thing about putting effort..."
"I bet she thinks wearing make-up and dressing up's such a pain." Girl B muttered again, tucking away her handkerchief. "Bet she'd show up to a date in a Track-Suit," she said, eliciting a laugh from the other girls. "Fricking Amazonian..."
"Runnin's good for your complexion though, y'know?"
The room froze over in a blink of an eye. In the background, a single faucet continued to chug in indifference to the sudden drop in room temperature.
One by one, all four sets of eyes turned to the source of the voice.
Slender, yet toned arms lazily draped over the door frame, her head poked out from over the stall. Flowing auburn hair framed a beautiful chiseled face, the only imperfection the light bruise on her lips. Ichijou Kanata surveyed the winter-struck quartet with a detached look in her eyes.
"Sounds like some really juicy rumor's floating around?" She cocked her head.
"Wanna let me in on the conversation?"
[ Back to the Present ]
Homura-sensei was a woman with many good qualities. She went out of her way to try and make her classes as fun and engaging as she could, and generally looked out for the well-being of her students.
She was also an airhead.
Rifuta walked just a tad more briskly as she thought back to a few minutes ago.
"-san, I really loved the way you made comparisons from history to make your argument! Especially that part with the-"
Yadda. Yadda. Yadda.
Rifuta had walked into class to find her teacher had begun handing over their notebooks. Rifuta had silently deposited her own pile next to the woman's and returned to her seat. It was as she was settling into her chair that-
"-Huh? ..Eh?"
Rifuta looked up to find the woman looking frantically through her binders. "Eh? Eh?!" She seemed to be looking for something in particular.
She searched around for a couple more seconds, before looking over to the class. "Ahh...," she said, scratching her neck, a sheepish expression on her face, "Class.. I seem to have forgotten to grab the grammar worksheets I prepared for you..."
"That's fine, sensei," someone replied from the back. "Why don't you give it to us after the break?" he said, eliciting a few chuckles from the rest of the class.
"Sorry," the woman shook her head, "but no can do." That elicited a few groans. "Just give me a second, I'll quickly go fetch-"
"I'll go," Rifuta offered before anyone else could. "Ah, you don't have to, Rifuta-san. I'll go myself." Rifuta shook her head. Everyone was raring to leave already. It'd just keep them here longer. It was also kind of her fault for not keeping an eye on the woman when she had been chatting away in the staff room.
Kokomi-senpai would have probably volunteered in her shoes. "Please just finish going through those." She indicated the pile of notebooks on the desk.
"Ah..." The woman slowly nodded in understanding.
"Was it the pile next to the staplers?"
"Eh? Oh, y-yeah, it should be there, I think. Worksheet Number 7, it should say," Though feeling rather embarrassed, Homura-sensei mustered a grateful smile. "Thank you so much Rifuta-san!"
Rifuta smiled back. "No problem!"
'-Stupid glasses!'
Mind preoccupied, Rifuta trudged on, completely tuning out the boy apologizing for bumping into her. Or rather her bumping into him. She had weightier concerns occupying her.
'First that stupid green-glasses. Stupid Senpai falling for that stupid loser! Then stupid round-glasses forgetting her stupid papers!'
If she noticed the next batch of boys waving at her as she passed, she didn't show it. 'Are you all blind? Are the glasses just for show? Geez! Geez!'
Lightly fuming, she idly glanced at the pile in her hand. 'And stupid vacation homework!'
Using her thumb to straighten out a small wrinkle on the corner of the top-most page, she grumpily scanned over the questions.
The first few seemed easy. That other one, and this one, they all seemed doable enough. That other one was pretty easy too. Easy. Peasy.
Oh, that one, she kept getting wrong. She'd have to look it up in the dictionary.
"Saiki, you fine now?"
Her head snapped up so fast, you'd think she'd glitched.
"Nendou, you shouldn't have been peeking over stalls though, man. How did you know Saiki was there anyway?"
"I dunno, man. Just had a feeling."
"I thought you'd left school though, Saiki. What happened?"
"I guess he needed to use the washroom."
"See, what'd I tell you? Ya gotta make sure to take a dump before-"
"Saiki, is your stomach still hurting? You're making that kind of a face."
...Saiki Kusuo did not look happy. I mean, he didn't in general. But he looked particularly not happy right now.
"I've got stomach medicine if you want, Saiki."
Rifuta watched the boys pass her by, jaw growing slack. When they finally disappeared round the corner, Rifuta needed a few moments to process what she'd seen.
'What... What on Earth?'
Kokomi's figure delicately swirled through the crowd.
A little known fact - although it was impossible to completely suppress it without full tactical getup, she could somewhat rein in her aura when she wasn't keen on attracting attention. Despite it, behind her trailed a cascade of curious Offu's already threatening to catch up to her. Like the tail of a comet, one might say.
Up ahead, the crowd grew thicker, clotting around two openings on either side of a certain classroom, peering in through the doorway.
'Isn't that 1-2?'
Kokomi wasn't quite sure what she was walking into. A bunch of guys getting into a brawl over something, usually something stupid, was hardly a unusual event at PK. Though it generally transpired in less public settings.
For all of PK's share of delinquents, in all honesty, Kokomi just found them to be more idiotic than dangerous. Not harmless, exactly - they sure could make themselves trouble trying to sponge money off some poor kid - but the types that, for all their bravado, would soil themselves if a girl called them a creep. Even if things escalated to broken bones and hospitalizations, such fights weren't exactly what she'd call a tense situation. Not when you had idiots in the crowd egging them on, or calling bets on who won.
That wasn't the atmosphere Kokomi had walked into.
The air felt stifling and heavy. Quiet save for a few faint whispers floating among the spectators.
The calm before the storm... wasn't how she'd put it. It was the bloody aftermath. It was that sort of a mood. The crowd parted as it noticed her, easily letting her through, Offus continuing to cascade behind her. Kokomi took a second to offer a grateful smile, before coming to a stop before the door peering into the front of the classroom...
The evening light filtering in dyed the room in deep crimson. Desks lay in disarray like petals about a flower bulb. Probably trying to distance themselves from the conflict, bystanders clumped along the walls, soaked in various hues of discomposure.
Peering further in, her eyes traced the wake of the storm…
A teacher, with her arm holding onto a certain girl's wrist. Said wrist dangling limp about an auburn-haired girl, her eyes blank. And then another girl. To the far end of the room, on the floor. Legs tucked into herself, eyes tucked behind hair a hue of burnt Carmine. With hunched shoulders. And what looked like sobbing breaths. Punctuated by intermittent hiccups.
Adjacent, hovered a girl, snow-haired, looking somewhere between onlooker and casualty, a conflicted expression on her face.
As Kokomi was trying to make sense of what she was seeing, a murmur broke out in the crowd onlooking the other end of the room. She looked up to see none other than one Matsuzaki-sensei, brows furrowed, jaws set, as he broke through the crowd, his expression radiating his intense displeasure.
He paused at the entrance, surveying the scene for a second, his scowl falling, replaced by a look of confusion. A sort of hesitation laced his stride as he walked up to the center of the room, his eyes surveying the mess. No broken glass at least, it seemed. The woman holding onto the auburnette looked up, a clouded look in her eyes.
"Matsuzaki-sensei..."
The man pinched the bridge of his nose, all of his previous zeal completely sapped.
"Aoki-sensei," he looked the woman over, "what's going on...?"
His booming, authoritative voice, that made his usual intervening toolkit, was uncharacteristically restrained. Though experienced in mediating fights between boys, Matsuzaki looked completely out of his depth here.
"I.. I don't know." The woman's eyes flickered as she tried to recall, gaze dropping to the floor. "One moment, there was some commotion about a cheat-sheet or something, and then they started arguing. I wasn't really following it... and then t-they just started going at each other."
Matsuzaki scowled, though it softened when he noticed the light tremor in the woman's hand as she held onto the girl next to her.
Shifting his gaze, he looked over to the girl who's wrist Aoki'd been holding. Matsuzaki's brows furrowed in recognition, his scowl deepening. The girl avoided his gaze, looking to the floor. Her fists, he noted, looked relatively unbruised, but the look on her face he could place rather aptly.
Regret.
Looking over to the two girls on the other side of the room, he drew over to them. The carminette on the floor, a crumpled figure by the wall, her sniffles periodically filling the room, seemed oblivious to his presence.
The girl next to her flinched as she met his eyes.
Right... His face. He had to rein in his face. He wasn't dealing with his usual rowdy customers over here. Girl looked like a cornered rabbit, all flustered like that.
Hair clear as snow. Pale, arctic blue irises. With an airy, delicate sort of poise. Looking fragile like a china-doll. Despite the slightly roughed up condition of her attire, she didn't give Matsuzaki the impression of someone directly involved in the fight. In all likelihood, she'd probably been trying to intervene on behalf of one or the other of the two other girls.
Turning over to the carminette on the floor, squatting, he tentatively reached out a hand.
"You... you alright?"
Internally, he grimaced. Her hair and clothing looked disheveled, and part of her skirt was soaked. Probably from tears. He could spot one bruised lip, and a few more bruises on her elbows. She seemed to wince each time she took a breath. Of course she wasn't alright…
Matsuzaki noted the trembling in her shoulders slowly let up, taking it as her acknowledgement of him. With a little effort, she steadied her breathing, collecting herself, her involuntary sniffles subsiding. Encouraged, Matsuzaki felt a little more confident prodding her.
"Hey..."
Only for her to swat his hand away. With one final resolute sniff, her eyes still misty, nose scrunched, she looked up.
And glared.
[ Earlier ]
The woman made quick work of collecting the answer sheets and in a moment the students were dismissed.
Chairs groaned as students took the cue to leave, milling over to the door, chatting idly.
Shoulders stiff, Ichijou took a moment to limber up, before slinging her bag over her shoulder in one giant sweeping motion as she got to her feet. Her height gave her a lanky sort of impression that belied her physique. Ambling over to the front, her shoulder-length pony-tail leisurely trailing behind her, she looked the occupant of the desk over, before sighing dramatically.
Said occupant had a thoughtful look on her face, but smiled as she looked up, un-steepling her fingers.
Sigh morphing into a smile of her own, "How'd it go?" Ichijou said as she took a seat on the desk, grabbing some water from her bag. "A Hundred out of a hundred?"
Responding with a pout, the shorter girl rummaged through her desk. In a second she had things packed. Compared to her taller friend, she moved much more leisurely and deliberately as she put on her bag. (Over both shoulders, like a normal, sensible human being.)
"I'd be more concerned for yourself."
Downing her fill of water, "It was... okay" Ichijou muttered, stowing away her bottle. She took a moment to roll her shoulders.
Momoko's chair let out a small creak as she tucked it in. Her silhouette against the setting sun made a lithe, delicate figure, the pale white of her hair dyed in a warm orange halo, a light expression settling on her face.
The two quickly settled into idle talk as they made to leave. It was as they came up to the front desk that they noted a certain buzz sweeping through the hallway. At first, it was just one or two students scurrying about, trying to catch a glimpse of something in the courtyard.
"It's T-Teruhashi-senpai!" someone clarified, and in a moment, half the class was rushing over to catch a look. The male half in particular.
"Did you hear that?" One of the boys cried excitedly, as his friends barrelled through the room.
Looking over her shoulder, Ichijou happened to turn just in time to catch one of them bump into a girl. She'd been in the middle of packing her things, and it caused the girl to drop items to the floor. The boy was apparently too high on adrenaline to notice.
Sidestepping the boy, Momoko jogged over to lend her a hand. As the guy passed Ichijou, "Oi," her hand sprung like a snake to grab him by the collar.
"Huh?" he spun around indignantly, only to freeze at the girl's glare. "W-What? What'd I do?"
Holding her glare for a second, Ichijou rolled her eyes. She gestured over to where Momoko was helping the other girl pick things off the floor.
"Be more considerate of people around you." She shook her head as she let go.
"...My bad."
Looking sheepish for a second, he took off, more slowly this time. Ichijou looked over to the two girls picking up items from the floor. Walking over, Ichijou picked up a mechanical pencil that had rolled over. The other girl reluctantly accepted the things Momoko had picked up for her, before quickly making to leave.
"...Your taste's bad as ever, I see," Ichijou said, twirling the pencil in her hand. A palette of bright colorful stickers dotted the pencil's body. One might call it cute. One might call it excessive.
The Carminette looked up at Ichijou's words, glaring. Marching over to her, the girl brusquely snatched the pencil off her, making to leave, only for Ichijou to grab her by the sleeve.
"How about a thank you?" she said, half-jokingly, only to see the girl violently try to reel her wrist back. Ichijou kept a firm grip, though, and her curiosity piqued, her hold only became more stubborn.
One Aizawa Ayaka glared back at the auburnette, who returned a smirk, challenge in her eyes.
"Kana-chan!-" Momoko moved to intervene, just as Aizawa dug her heels to forcefully rip her sleeves free. They ripped free alright.
Ichijou watched the expression on Aizawa's face turn as the button tore off her sleeve, tumbling to the floor.
It made a sort of Clink as it met the floor, scraping along as it rolled to a stop by Ichijou's feet. What caught the girl's attention, however, was not the button, but what came after it. Scrunched, but legible, a single folded piece of paper tumbled over to the floor.
Looking over at Aizawa's wrist, its sleeve end gaping open, Ichijou quickly put two and two together. The Carminette dove after the piece of paper, but Ichijou was faster.
"Oh, ho?" She eyed it over as she stood back up, an amused smirk on her face. Aizawa made another lunge for it, but the taller girl managed to keep it out of reach with the minimal footwork. "What's this? What's this?" she said in a sing-song voice. Making an exaggerated gesture of reading it, "y equals the square root of H divided by 2g?" she sang. "How interesting, how interesting. What was that for again?"
The other girl continued to glare daggers, making another lunge, but the height difference gave Ichijou too much of an advantage. Casually side-stepping it, Ichijou swooped up the button off the floor in the same motion.
Gesturing over her shoulder, "Maybe I should let sensei know you tore open your sleeve?" she teased. Behind her, at the front of the classroom, Aoki-sensei appeared occupied organizing the sheets she'd collected. "She might let you grab a sewing kit off the Home-Econ classroom."
Aizawa returned Ichijou's smirk with a glare. Amber irises burned with a sort of vicious seething emotion. It looked quite out of place against the light-heartedness in Ichijou's expression.
When Aizawa's glare failed to let up, Momoko looking increasingly uncomfortable as she looked anxiously from one girl over to the next, Ichijou finally relented.
She sighed. With a delicate roll of the wrist, she offered the offending piece of paper.
"I wouldn't actually do something so tasteless," she said, rolling her eyes. Aizawa's eyes flickered from Ichijou's hand to the facsimile of nonchalance on her face. She hesitated for a second.
Then slapped her hand away. "Wha-" Before Ichijou could react, the Carminette rammed straight into her, shoving her into one of the desks. It was enough to topple it, but Ichijou dazedly stumbled into the floor trying to regain her balance.
Momoko jumped in surprise, looking over to Aizawa in shock. For a second, it looked as if the girl herself couldn't believe what she'd just done, but once it dawned on her, "T-Teach!", it started as a bawl, "I-Ichijou brought in a cheat!", but transitioned into a sort of a shriek.
That instantly got the woman's attention, as it did the other students'. Teach, known more colloquially as Aoki-sensei, dropped the papers she'd been arranging and quickly strode up to the trio, taking in their expression.
Aizawa had the fraught look of someone ready to jump off a cliff. Yamashita looked utterly lost. Ichijou had a confused grimace on her face, like she couldn't process what had just transpired.
Her brows furrowing, Ichijou picked herself off, as sensei helped her up. Adeptly, the woman slipped the scrunched note off her hands as she did. It took the girl a second to notice, but she couldn't care less.
"Aizawa," Ichijou said, eyes scrunched, "what're you on about?"
Fists clenching and unclenching, the girl's glare let up for a moment.
"How was the exam, Jou?" she said, a sneering smile plastered on her face, "Sucks that you need to put actual effort into learning things for once, eh?"
Ichijou's expression went blank for a second, before growing cold.
"I wasn't the one trying to pull a fast one here, bud," she said with a frosty smile, tossing the sleeve-button over to Aizawa. The girl casually tossed it to the side.
"Must be nice." Aizawa replied, wearing a snarling sort of expression. "Getting carried by sport scholarships, you muscle-head."
"You know I already quit volleyball." Ichijou said, sighing through her nose, gaze traveling over to the window. Her answer seemed to only add fuel to the fire though, as Aizawa bared teeth. "You..." She growled in a low voice.
Aoki-sensei, who was just about done scanning through the contents of the cheat-sheet, quickly slipped it into her pocket, before stepping in between the two.
"Timeout," she said, trying to pull the two apart. "I don't know what's up with you two, but I'm not having it."
So she said, but neither girl seemed intent on backing down. Narrowing her eyes, Ichijou moved her gaze over to Aoki with minimal facial movement. Aizawa on the other hand looked intent on staring right through the woman.
"Kana-chan..." Momoko called, concern on her face.
Ichijou gave a side-glance, running her thumb over her finger-tips, a sort of indecisive furrow on her brows as she looked back over to Aoki-sensei.
'Well?' the woman's look seemed to convey.
Exhaling, Ichijou relaxed her posture. "Aizawa," she then said, cracking her knuckles. "What's it gonna be?" She put on her smirk as she slid off her back-pack. "We can always pick this up later at the park, you know?"
Aoki-sensei grimaced. She really wasn't getting through these two, was she? She looked over her shoulder, to see Aizawa continuing to glare right through her. Feeling the woman's gaze on her, she briefly looked up, a trace of hesitation in her eyes. But it flickered out as the exchange wore on, replaced by a new look.
Aoki recognized that expression. Resignation. The worst sort. I'm getting in trouble either way, aren't I?
"-ad it." The girl appeared to mutter something under her breath.
"What was that?" Ichijou taunted.
"I've had it!" The girl suddenly screamed, causing the woman to jump. "I've bloody had it!"
Swooosh!
The girl blitzed right through the woman the very next moment. Ichijou caught her fist with her palm, and then her other fist with her other palm when the girl followed up. Aizawa grit her teeth.
"I could knee you pretty easily right now, you know?" The auburnette said, voice completely casual. Aizawa glared back.
Snapping out of her shock, Aoki-sensei rushed to pull her away, but nearly got elbowed in the gut. Aizawa spared one contemptful side-glare before rushing the auburnette once more. Ichijou side-stepped her lunge, and the subsequent swipe of the arm, forcing her off with a mild kick to the abdomen.
"You got slow." Ichijou said flatly. "Did you put on some weight?"
Aizawa responded by chucking the nearest thing she could find, which happened to be a book, tackling the girl as she tried to dodge. In the few moments she managed to pin down the taller girl, she managed to get one clean swipe at her.
"A-Aizawa-san! Please!" Momoko jumped in before sensei could, prying Aizawa off by her collar, only to be violently shoved into a desk. "Piss. Off." the girl barked.
Ichijou took the opportunity to bludgeon the Carminette with her fore-head. Now, she was mad. Quickly pushing the girl off her, she kicked Aizawa into the next aisle, desk and all.
She got up to see Momoko clutching her side, looking clearly in pain. She looked over at Aoki-sensei next. The woman looked completely out of her depth, and not a little frightened. However, she had the mind to grab Momoko and step away.
Growling, Ichijou turned back to Aizawa groaning on the floor. It seemed like she'd hit herself pretty hard in the ribs.
"Matsuzaki's gonna have my hide." The auburnette muttered, grimacing. Dusting herself off, "You wanna keep going?" she said in a way that suggested she really hoped the other girl didn't.
Aizawa lunged.
Rifuta pushed through the crowd like a girl on a mission.
"Rifuta-chan! What brings you-"
"Out of my way, you bozo!"
"Eek!"
Shoving the boy away, she plowed onward. A part of her reprimanded her for being so rough, but she had more pressing matters. A certain person to find.
She got on her toes, trying to look over the crowd. The person in question should have been easy enough to spot from the International Space Station-
There!
She was still some ways off, but that supernatural aura was unmistakable. A sort of natural force-field surrounded her, no one guy wanting to get his ass handed to him by every other guy in the vicinity over getting too close. The girl herself was giving them no thought, however. Teruhashi Kokomi looked on from the doorway, a look of indecision on her face.
"K-Kokomi-senpai!"
She looked back in surprise. "Imu-chan? What's wrong? You're all out of breath-"
"What- what are you doing here!" the girl half-shouted, half-whispered between gasps. "S-Saiki!" That got the girl's attention. "Up-upstairs! I got Chiyo-senpai to stall! But not sure how-" she gasped for breath, "how long she'll manage. You have to go!"
Rfiuta tugged at her sleeve insistently as she watched the gears turning in the older girl's head.
Surprise. Disbelief. Hope. Flickering through her face in the brief second it took to school her expression.
"I-I'm not sure when he got back," Rifuta continued, grimacing, "but I wouldn't count on him sticking around."
There was absolutely no reason for Rifuta to lie to Kokomi. She'd even gone out of her way to fetch her.
Saiki had come back. Why?
Kokomi wasn't expecting to run into Saiki this soon again. What was she meant to do? She'd left her bag with the note on the way. Then there was the situation in the next room. She looked back, notcing the grim expressions on Matsuzaki and Aoki-sensei's face as they discussed among themselves.
Even in the most lenient case, the two would girls would get suspended for quite some time, that much she could be sure of. Kokomi's internal database on the first-years wasn't as comprehensive as it was for the second and third years, but she was somewhat familiar with both of the girls. Ichijou Kanata, the girl that Aoki-sensei had been holding onto, was rather well known among the first-years, but got… mixed reviews, so to speak.
She was easily one of the prettiest girls of her year, but her unsociable demeanor made it hard for most people to talk to her. Nevertheless, the boys generally had a high opinion of her. The girls on the other hand generally steered clear of her. All save for her closest friend, Yamashita Momoko. Compared to her gruff friend, the snow-haired girl was known for being timid, but generally got along with most of her classmates. If Kokomi remembered correctly, the girl also had a fairly strong academic record.
As for the third girl. Aizawa... Ayaka, the name was, if she remembered correctly. Kokomi tried to remember any notes she might have made on the girl, but she was drawing a blank. Compared to the other two, she stood out far less, and generally hung around a couple of different girl groups. Average academically. Average height. Average looks. Kokomi couldn't really recall anything that particularly made an impression on her.
Kokomi's gaze wandered over to the crowd around her. She took a second to soak in their expressions as they looked into the room. A palpable sense of discomfort filled the air. Uncomfortable grimaces as they peered in. Hushed whispers between them.
"What happened to the cheat-sheet? You think her exam might get voided?"
"Nevermind that! They might both get expelled for all we know."
"I knew Ichijou could be scary, but man.."
"Wasn't it Aizawa-san that started it though?"
"I saw it! Ichijou provoked her, but she was the one that snapped!"
"Ayaka-chan, what ever were you thinking?!"
Kokomi had the same question. What were those two girls thinking? She couldn't make out any particularly gruesome injuries on either of them, but they had little hope of getting off easy. At least two weeks of suspension, she wagered, but it could be worse. Suspension by itself wasn't what concerned Kokomi though.
"Ichijou didn't have to hurt her like that though.."
"What are you talking about? She was totally playing around, until Aizawa hurt Yamashita-san."
"I can't believe she'd do that to poor Momo-chan . I say Ichijou was right beating her ass."
"Oi!"
This was just Kokomi's intuition speaking, but she had the distinct feeling about how things would play out once the two girls got back to school after suspension. Ichijou-san would probably be just fine. She didn't interact with others much to begin with, and although Yamashita-san might suffer some awkward questions from the rest of the class, it was Aizawa-san that had probably shot herself in the foot.
The circumstances and motivations behind the fight… It really did seem like a case of bad timing and a bad place to Kokomi. It might have originally just been the exam stress aggravating the other cracks in her psyche. But meeting with Ichijou, who she might have had unresolved beef with, might have just pushed her over the edge.
"Hey, didn't Aizawa use to hang out with you guys? Did something happen? To make her go off like that?"
"I- I don't know! She seemed just fine yesterday. A bit worried about today's exam, but I didn't think she'd blow up like that!"
"Does she and Ichijou have some history? I never saw those two interact before."
"Looked like one hell of a grudge match. You guys really have no idea?"
"..."
Aizawa seemed to have, what Kokomi would say in her professional opinion, causal friends. Girls she could hang around with at lunch. Girls she could go to Karaoke with. Girls she could tag along on the way home. But people in groups like that tended to have a wall between each other. They weren't the sort of crowd with whom you would talk about your deepest secrets, or your childhood trauma for example.
And considering the impression the class seemed to have of her now, of someone volatile and dangerous, that could lash out at the slightest provocation... Even if the girls tried to talk to Aizawa again, there would be this… awkwardness, that in all likelihood would only fester and grow over time. Aizawa had apparently also been the one to inadvertently injure Yamashita-san, which would probably catch her some flack with a lot of people.
Guys could beat literally the shit out of each other, and somehow still get closer as friends, but it did not work like that with girls, did it?
Why didn't she talk to us about it? Does she not trust us? Does she secretly resent us too? You wouldn't be able to help but wonder such things. Just because you attend class with someone, or occasionally hang out together, doesn't mean you actually know anything about them...
In the end, people only know as much as other people let on. There's really not much you can do about it, except just try your best to observe them, and come to your own conclusions.
Saiki Kusuo... was odd in that regard, wasn't he? Despite his usual aloofness, he had been the only one to notice when Kokomi had been overworking herself that one time back in second-year. She'd accidentally complimented a boy when he'd changed his shampoo, and it had just escalated out of control, with every boy in the school trying to get her to mention whatever little detail about them they'd wanted her to notice. It'd been Saiki that had picked up on her overworking herself, catching her when she'd passed out in the hallway.
Saiki-kun... The boy really was way attentive than he let on, wasn't he?
Kokomi looked back over to Rifuta. The girl was holding onto Kokomi's sleeve, a questioning look on her face. 'Was I being too nosy?' her look seemed to suggest. Of course not, Kokomi wanted to say. However, before she could verbalize the sentiment, she noticed Rifuta's eyes shift. Following her gaze, she looked past the crowd.
And froze.
On the lower flight of the stairs, Chiyo-chan and Kuboyashu-kun bickered. Just ahead of them, Kaidou-kun tried to calm them down. Behind all three, walked Nendou-kun, an entertained look on his face, one arm draped around a Saiki-kun, stopped dead in his tracks.
He froze the moment their eyes had locked. Like a deer caught in the headlights. For once, he didn't look so nonchalant. She watched him school his features, hide his surprise behind that usual mask of indifference…
Saiki-kun…
Her heart throbbed despite herself, all sorts of emotions flooding through her. Frustration. A need for answers. Competitiveness. A pinch of envy towards Aiura-san. Drowned out by an overbearing frustration.
Ne. What's up with you, Saiki-kun?
The words she'd heard over at the washroom echoed in her mind, filling her up with an emotion she couldn't quite put a finger on.
Running away like that. You're gonna hurt my feelings, you know?
A part of her wanted nothing more than to stomp up to him, grab him by the collar, and demand to know if he was deliberately avoiding her. Demand if he wouldn't come join her for Christmas.
But even with all your games. Even with all your *tsun-tsun*. Even when you're being so difficult, so awfully difficult, you're watching over me, aren't you, Saiki-kun?
A soft smile came over her face.
Teruhashi Kokomi was… many things. Imu-chan's adored senpai. Chiyo-chan's accomplice in love. Teruhashi Makoto's reluctant younger sister. A close acquaintance, or dare she, a friend, to Kuboyashu-kun, Nendou-kun and Kaidou-kun. She was an idol to the girls of PK, and an unattainable flower to the boys. She was grace embodied, a real life fairy.
She was also a girl with a crush. A silly, irrational crush on the most troublesome guy on this side of the planet.
And equally, she was also PK's resident angel. PK's perfect pretty girl.
Her gaze flickered over back to the scene of chaos. The strained expression on the face of Matsuzaki and Aoki-sensei. Ichijou-san's eyes glued to the floor. Yamashita-san, with her knees looking like they could give out any moment. The broken figure of Aizawa-san.
For all intents and purposes, it was an unsalvageable situation. And certainly not something to engage with half-heartedly. One mis-step and it would break like fine-china.
But it really would be worse for her not to act, wouldn't it? To regret not doing anything.
A saving throw, so to speak.
Roll to save the world.
Nodding to herself, Kokomi glanced back over to Saiki. Her expression lit with a certain clarity. Saiki's feet made footfall on the wooden hallway floor. His eyes had never left her. In the back of her mind, Kokomi registered the rest of the group, stopping whatever they were doing and looking back over to her as well. In the back of her mind, anyway.
Kusuo. Watch me.
Her aura flared up like a supernova. It was almost palpable. The crowd buzzed around her, a new wave of Offu's rippling outward.
A sort of bubbly feeling filled her as she caught the tiniest hint of confusion on Saiki Kusuo's face. Her heart felt light. Like it could soar the skies.
Her smile changed. Almost a smirk. Almost a challenge.
It was an expression she rarely showed others. Yet she couldn't help herself.
She took a deep breath. And then stepped over the threshold.
Kokomi would do what she did best. She'd show off a little.