Reset and Restart

"What. the. Hell."

It was Sunday, several days after the incident. I had slept for most of the weekend, and spent the rest in bed, icing bruises and trying not to strain my body. Sho finally had the day off and had come home, so Shun decided to finally tell Sho what had happened.

As to be expected, Sho was not happy. But I'd seen Sho angry before but not like this. He stood in front of me, Shun and Massan where we all sat at the dining room table, and the tension in the room was so thick I found myself holding my breath.

"You're telling me that this Nishida was after us, and you kept it a secret from me?" Sho's low voice cut through the silence.

"I'm sorry. I really shouldn't have kept it a secret from you," Shun said, clearly apologetic.

"Damn straight," Sho retorted. I stiffened, remembering when I had seen Sho and Shun's fight in the storage room. "And you! You went after them alone?!"

I flinched when Sho's angry gaze turned to me. I couldn't handle it and lowered my eyes to my lap.

"Look Sho, I know you're mad, but things turned out alright so try to calm down," Massan said, jumping in to try to help.

"Alright?! Do you see the injuries Kana and some of the other guys have?!" Sho exploded.

Massan fell silent. It was true. Some of the guys ended up with really bad sprains, or worse, broken fingers and ribs, that would take a while to heal. Miraculously my injuries hadn't been as bad aside from the internal bleeding, so I still had to move slowly but was gradually recovering.

"I'm sorry," I whispered. It was my fault everyone had gotten hurt.

I heard Sho blow out a frustrated breath before I heard him come near me. He crouched by my chair so our eyes would meet.

"I'm not asking you to apologize, Kana. I just never want this to happen again."

The intensity in his eyes made me tear up, and I nodded. He put his hand on my head before turning to look at Shun.

"I trust you to protect us. I still do. But you can't do it alone. I never want to be left in the dark again."

"Noted," Shun said. "It's really on me this time. I'm sorry for putting us in this situation."

We all fell silent. I hadn't told anyone about how Shun had been planning to leave, but didn't think it was necessary to bring up, now that he seemed determined to stay.

"Can we agree on no secrets from now on then?" Massan said lightly.

"Ah," I said softly, suddenly remembering. All three of them turned to look at me. "...Wataru-san."

"Oh, he's doing better," Massan said. "He's recovered from most of his injuries."

"But why did you know about Wataru-san, Kana?" Shun asked, brows furrowed.

"...I asked him to train me again," I admitted. "I've been going to his gym before school. Nishida came during one of our sessions." I saw Sho clench his fist and hurriedly added, "Nothing happened to me then…just Wataru-san."

"Thank god," Sho growled.

Shun stood up. "I'll go apologize to him then."

I insisted on going as well, and all four of us ended up going to Wataru-san's gym to see him. Shun apologized for not anticipating that Nishida would go after Wataru-san, and in turn, Wataru-san also apologized to Shun for not telling him earlier the extent that Nishida had been harassing him about giving up the plot of land with the gym.

I also got permission to keep training with Wataru-san, but only once I was completely recovered. I knew that since I hadn't been able to protect myself as well as I had hoped, the training would be even more intense, although I could tell everyone hoped I would never be put to the test in real life again. I thought Wataru-san would be really angry that I had told Shun about what happened with him and Nishida, but he seemed relieved that nothing worse had happened in the end, and Nishida was gone for good.

On the way back to the house, Shun and Massan decided to go visit some of the businesses in our neighborhood that we kept an eye on. I was relieved to find out that Nishida didn't get around to bothering Nomura-san or his bookstore this time. If anything had happened to Nomura-san, I shuddered to think of what some of the guys would've done to Nishida.

When I got back to my room, I checked my phone and saw texts from Natsumi and Sawada.

Natsumi had been texting me ever since the day we went to pick up Sawada from jail. She was worried about how I'd been feeling that day, since I went home "sick", and also wanted to spend time together in the near future. I replied to her telling her I'd be up for it when I was feeling better and I'd let her know. I wondered how Sawada would feel about me hanging out with his sister.

Sawada texted [Are you okay?] to which I replied [Yeah, doing a lot better.] In most cases, he would've left it at that, but today, he sent another.

[Did something happen?]

I stared at the text. Was this him texting knowing that something had happened?

[What do you mean?]

I regretted it immediately. I should've replied with [Nothing.] instead.

[I feel like something has been off about you since that day.]

[Sorry, I was really sick and took time to recover. Sorry to make you all worry.]

[I see.]

And that was that. I hoped that he wouldn't probe into it but I would be lying if I said I hadn't felt his gaze during school at times.

I did call Noda though to thank him for coming to tell Shun that one night about how I was staying at Uchi's.

"You really didn't have to, so thanks."

"Honestly I was a bit panicked about the whole thing so I didn't even have time to think about what those guys could do to me," Noda laughed. "Some of them looked like they could kill me."

"Sorry," I said, thinking about how angry Chiba had been about the whole thing and grimacing. Come to think of it, I hadn't seen him since that night.

"...are you really okay?" Noda asked hesitantly.

"I am now," I said, trying to sound confident to assure him. "I know the whole "gang fighting" thing sounds really bad, but that's not what we normally do…and Noda? I'm sorry for making you keep secrets from the other guys."

"When you're ready to tell them one day, which I think you should, I'll be there to back you up," Noda said in his usual cheerful voice.

"Thanks," I said, incredibly touched. "See you tomorrow."

"See ya!"

I hung up, wondering how much longer I would need to keep things a secret from my friends. Or if at this point, it wasn't that I needed to…but that I was still afraid.

"Hey Shun, I'm going to school now. See you later," I called out as I got ready to leave the next morning.

Shun came up to the doorway, surprising me. "Yeah…hey, Kana? …take care on the way."

I turned around really fast. "What?"

Shun looked sort of nervous, sort of embarrassed as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Come home safe."

I stared at him in silence. This was awfully sentimental of him. What was going on?

Shun seemed to take my silence the wrong way. "I didn't mean it like…I'm not…you know…going to disappear or anything. It's just…yeah. Stay safe."

"Uh…thanks, I guess," I said awkwardly before turning and walking out the door.

I thought about what Shun said, and his response to my surprised reaction. He had thought I was suspecting him of trying to leave again…I shook my head, clearing those thoughts. I didn't want to think about it.

But really, I wonder what prompted him to say it like that to me. He'd said things like that casually before, but this morning it seemed intentional. What did he mean then?

I didn't even realize that I was standing in front of the 3-D classroom until Uchi tapped me from behind.

"Hey Kana, is everything okay?"

"Yeah, what's up? Where's everyone?" I asked.

"You got here later then usual, so I came out to check. Shin's telling scary stories inside! Come on, let's go in!" he said, guiding me inside.

The classroom was completely dark save for the glow of the candles around the room. Someone had pulled a curtain over the windows so that no sunlight could get in.

"Hey Kana!" Minami called and scooted over to make room for us. I looked around as I sat down, wondering what had caused this to happen.

I looked over at Sawada sitting in the middle. He gave me a small nod and I nodded back.

"Alright, everyone's here now," Noda reported. "We've got like ten minutes before homeroom so we've got to make the last one kinda quick."

Sawada continued. "Of the seven strange happenings at Shirokin High, this is the third," he began, and I settled in my seat, leaning against Uchi a little bit.

"Are you scared?" he whispered to me.

"As if," I retorted a little too loudly and my classmates shushed me. Uchi grinned and I smacked his arm before Sawada continued.

"A little over ten years ago, a student committed suicide in the second story bathroom. They say that his ghost still haunts the bathroom. An upperclassman heard this story and believing it to be just a rumor, laughed it off. But one day, as he was washing his hands in that bathroom, he happened to look in the mirror…and there he saw…"

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Yankumi screamed beside Sawada, causing all of us to jump. Some of the guys began to scream as well.

"Shut up," Sawada commanded, and she stopped. We all stared at her as she fought to compose herself.

"You guys!" she scolded shrilly. "Turn on the light! Take off these curtains!"

"We were just getting to the best part!" Noda shouted at her.

"Yeah, don't ruin it!" Kuma agreed.

"I leave you alone for a little bit, and look what happens. Telling ghost stories during homeroom, how ridiculous," she said in a rush, heading for the door. I smirked, hearing the fear in her voice. So maybe even Yankumi wasn't invincible…

"Get ready for class," she instructed, and quickly left the room.

The guys groaned as we tried to put the room back to the mess it was before.

Sawada blew out the candles as Minami pulled off the curtains and stuffed them in a corner. I found my way to my seat and began to think about Shun once more. It was really bothering me for some reason.

"Hey, you look a lot better," Sawada said suddenly, sliding into his seat.

"Yeah," I said, casually covering a part of my cheek under my eye where I knew a scar was left. Today was the first day I came without a mask, as I figured out how to hide the worst of things with concealer. But you could still see it if you looked carefully.

"…are you really okay? I've seen the bruises on your arms…"

"It's fine. I'm okay," I insisted, pulling out a textbook from my bag. "I also texted Natsumi to tell her I'm okay and not to worry."

It was unfair, but I had a feeling if I brought up Natsumi, he wouldn't ask any more questions. I knew that he was looking at me with concern, though the rest of his face wouldn't show anything. I turned instead to the other side and saw Uchi looking at me. He gave me a questioning look. I smiled and shook my head.

"Haha. Ghosts in the bathroom? So not true," Minami was laughing. I leaned forward.

"You never know," I said casually. They looked at me.

"You believe in ghosts?" Noda asked incredulously.

"No," I answered, and we all laughed. Ghosts? Of course not. Besides, there were scarier things in the world.

During a break between morning classes, I dropped by Kawashima's because in return for her not reporting me for my injuries, she made me promise to come see her every day at least once so she could check my healing progress. She seemed satisfied that I wasn't hiding behind a mask anymore.

"It's a waste to hide that cute face behind a mask," she said in her usual cheerful voice. "You didn't tell Yamaguchi-sensei what happened?"

I shook my head and she looked at me thoughtfully.

"I know she had her hands full with what was going on with Sawada-kun last week, but you know you could tell her anything, even if you simply got injured by boxing."

I nodded, ignoring the feeling that she might know it wasn't simply by boxing.

"Okay, so I have to go to an overnight conference from today and won't be back until near the end of the day, so you can come see me the day after that," she informed me.

"Um…can I ask you something?" I said.

She looked at me, clearly surprised. "Of course."

"...When someone says "Come home safe" when they usually never say it…what does that mean?"

Kawashima looked thoughtful and tapped her fan against her chin for a while. "Maybe until now, they haven't expressed it, but they want you to know you're cared for. Usually family members say it to each other often, so it starts to become a routine thing you just say, but maybe it surprised you because it was new?"

"Family…"

I suddenly felt a little embarrassed having asked, and also imagining Shun declaring himself as family. Sure there were times I felt like we were all a pseudo-family, but it was another to say it aloud.

"Don't take those people for granted," Kawashima said, and I thought I saw a flash of sadness on her face but it was gone in an instant and she ushered me out of the nurse's office when the warning bell for the next class rang.

During our last period, a short cute kid suddenly ran into our classroom and hid behind Kuma. We all shot each other bewildered looks before we heard Saruwatari's loud voice coming near. It was an unspoken agreement to act completely normal and oblivious whenever he came. Basically we just ignored him since he never came unless he had some gripe to bring up with us.

"Where'd the kid go?" Saruwatari demanded the moment he stormed inside.

"Huh? Kid?" Noda said.

"He's not here," Sawada said in a bored tone.

"Maybe you saw a ghost," Minami suggested, and I jabbed a finger at him, trying not to laugh.

"I know what I saw," Saruwatari grumbled and began to scan among our desks. He stopped in front of Kuma and quickly looked around him. He leaned forward and snatched the kid from his hiding place and we all watched confused out of our minds as the kid yelled and struggled against Saruwatari's firm hold.

Yankumi, Fujiyama and Kawashima ran into the room at that moment. The kid looked up and a smile broke across his face.

"Mama!" he shouted, breaking free from Saruwatari and running toward the three women. We all stared, since we believed all of them to be single and of course childless.

The kid launched himself into Kawashima's arms, and she looked down at him in surprise.

"Yuta!" she exclaimed, hugging him.

"Kawashima-sensei, you're a…" Yankumi started.

"MOM?!" most of 3-D yelled in shock.

I found myself yet again stunned at the turn of events. Days at Shirokin sure refused to be boring.

Author's note: Hello! I know it's been years. Thank you for those that left comments during my long break. I won't make promises I clearly can't keep but I really really hope to post at a reasonable pace this year, and I hope some of you are still interested in reading it!