Outsiders

As it turned out, there was more than a simple fight going on. It was an all-out brawl, one consisting of mostly children.

A ring had been cleared in the crowd, and in it was a confusion of bodies, all of them rolling about in a flurry of blows and holds. There seemed to be around seven kids involved, three of which were wearing the grey Children's Home uniforms. Rumia identified Noba, Tomohiro, and Shinji, who were among the eldest of the children. The other four, who looked to be nearly almost men, were probably from one of the nearby villages. In the thick of it was Miss Haruhi, who was desperately trying to get them to separate while she yelled for help to no avail.

All around them several things seemed to be happening all at once. In the innermost ring of onlookers the rest of the other orphans were gathered. Chubby Keiichi was sitting with Yoshi and Hiro standing on either side, a dazed look on his face and his nose a bloody mess. Haruko, Hayate, and Eiko were frantically running about screaming at everyone to stop, while Kazuchika was holding little Akito in his arms, anxiously trying to comfort the wailing child. As for the two remaining boys, Dai and Yuuki, they weren't anywhere to be seen.

And around them were the market-goers. It took Rumia less than a second to gauge that none of them were going to be any help. Some of them looked distressed, and many of them were calling out for everyone to stop fighting. But most were hanging back, unwilling to get involved, while still others were laughing, a few even shouting encouragement.

Rumia felt her cheeks grow hot. So many grown-ups around, and the only one actually doing anything was Miss Haruhi.

Well, at least they had brought Mister Joshua and Miss Mokou, who were also on the very short list of useful grown-ups. If anyone could stop this, they could.

Then several things happened in very quick succession.

First of all, despite the brawling orphans being outnumbered, three more local kids, all of them older and bigger than even Noba, pushed their way through the crowd and ran into the fray.

The second was Miss Haruhi hastily trying to put herself between the newcomers and the fighters. She held her hands out as she begged them to not join the fight.

The third was one of the newcomers contemptuously smacking her across the cheek and sending her reeling. He then grabbed Shinji by the hair, hauled him up, and punched him squarely in the face.

The fourth was caused by the third. Watching someone as nice as Miss Haruhi get roughed up like that killed any inhibitions that the rest of the orphans might have had, and the dam broke.

Haruko, Hayate, and Eiko were the closest, so they set upon the new roughnecks with reckless abandon, punching and clawing at them despite being totally outmatched. Rumia even saw Eiko trying to bite the one that had hit Miss Haruhi in the arm.

Yoshi and Hiro were next. Despite only being eight and ten years old respectively, they left Keiichi and ran in as well, kicking shins and punching groins, or attempting to at least, which got Yoshi an elbow to the nose for his effort.

Then wonder of wonders, Keiichi himself got up and tried to join the fight. He didn't make a very impressing showing of it. In fact, it mainly consisting of him getting up, waddling over to the boy still tangled up with Tomohiro, and pounding ineffectively on the boy's back with his fists. In the end, Kazuchika was the only one not joining in, and that was because he had his hands full with Akito.

Unfortunately, there was nothing stopping the rest of the locals from jumping in as well.

Rumia saw several young men make toward the fray with purposeful strides and dark looks. A few were stopped by their neighbors, but not all. It wouldn't be long before the other orphans were outnumbered.

Well, screw that!

Without waiting for any kind of context as to what had kicked the whole thing off, Rumia bolted forward. She pushed her way through the crowd, zeroing in on the first combatant she could find not wearing a grey uniform. She didn't need to look to see if her friends were with her; she didn't need to. They simply were.

She managed to break through the crowd into the fight circle. Then she sprinted toward a boy a few years older than herself who was wearing a green outfit and fist fighting with Shinji. She leapt right onto his back and snarled while raining down blows onto his neck.

He lurched back in surprise, allowing Shinji to catch him with a solid jab into his stomach. A moment later Kohta appeared, tackling his knee from behind and driving him down.

It was a nicely coordinated attack, but unfortunately their numbers advantage did not last, as several other bodies converged on them. A hand grabbed Rumia by the hair and pulled hard. She felt herself being hauled into the air, but before she was, she lunged forward one last time and snapped her teeth. Her mouth filled with the green-clad boy's ear, and he cried out in pain.

A moment later Rumia was facedown in the dust while some asshole kicked her in the ribs. She gasped in pain, and tried to turned away from the blows.

"Get away from her!" she heard Kohta yell. This was followed by the meaty sound of a punch connecting with flesh. Rumia hoped that it was his hand doing the punching.

Unfortunately, the opposite proved true, and a moment later Kohta was lying next to her. The two locked eyes for just a second, and then they grabbed one another and tried to keep each other's heads shielded as the kicking resumed in earnest.

It occurred to Rumia then that she might actually die, and not at the hands of any youkai or other kind of monster, but beaten to death by her fellow Humans. And the worst of it all was that she didn't even know why things had broken down like they did. She had just seen her family in danger, and had run to help, and now it might cost her and Kohta their lives.

That sucked.

But before they had taken more than three blows, there came another sound of knuckles slamming into flesh. Then there was a loud crack, and an unfamiliar male voice cried out in pain.

A moment later the one that had done most of the kicking was simply gone, though Rumia could here someone warbling in fear as…was he flying away? Or had he been thrown?

Despite having picked up several new bruises, Rumia found herself grinning. She had figured out what had happened. Oh, those assholes were in trouble now!

She eased herself onto her back, expecting to find Miss Mokou standing over them like a spirit of vengeance.

She…wasn't.

But Keine was.

Keine was there, all two-thirds of a meter of her, spindly little legs splayed, tiny little fists clenched and trembling. Though she was seething with rage, she also looked a little shocked at what she had done.

But she wasn't backing down.

Rumia was quite impressed, but she was also sort of dismayed. There was something deeply gratifying about watching her scrawny little friend sending all of their assailants running, but Keine was also blowing the big secret that the three of them had worked so hard to hide, not only from those outside the orphanage, but within as well.

And judging by how Keine's face was quickly changing from angry pink to horrified white, she had also figured out the danger she was in.

Fortunately, that was when Miss Mokou finally joined the fray.

If anyone had noticed that the tiny little girl was hitting harder than she ought to, it was immediately forgotten when the strange woman wearing strange clothes suddenly touched down in the middle of the violence. The three boys teaming up on Noba found themselves swept aside when a leg swung around into each of their faces. The four girls that were kicking Haruko, Eiko, and Hayate into submission were abruptly launched into the air in four different directions. Two men that had apparently decided to grab onto Yoshi and Hiro found themselves the ones grabbed onto as a hand suddenly seized each of them by the hair and slammed their skulls together.

This all takes time to explain, but the fact of the matter is that within mere seconds the entire circle was cleared of anyone not from the Children's Home, leaving nothing but the orphans, a dazed Miss Haruhi, and an absolutely enraged Miss Mokou.

All expect for one.

One of the boys that had been fighting Noba at the beginning had found himself with a hand wrapped around his throat, a hand with fingers more unrelenting than steel shackles attached to an arm harder than an oak beam, an arm that was hoisting him into the air with his legs dangling and forcing him to stare terrified down at a pair of eyes that seemed to be made of raging hellfire.

Several of the young men that had been hurled from the fight had collected themselves and were now readying themselves to come to their friend's defense. Apparently sensing this, Miss Mokou's head snapped around to turn her death glare at them, stopping them in their tracks.

"Try it," she growled. "See what happens."

Mokou was a tall woman, sure, but she wasn't that much taller than any of them, and she didn't seem to be particularly muscular. At a glance, one that did not know better might assume that with the benefit of surprise gone, it would be an easy task to overwhelm her and beat her down.

Rumia absolutely knew better. And she really, really wanted to see what happens.

Unfortunately, the young men probably sensed what a colossal error that would be, and took a few steps back.

Damn.

That done, Miss Mokou returned her attention to her hostage. "So, you're the one that started this, right?" she said. "Aren't you?"

"Let him go, you animal!" some lady yelled. She was ignored.

"Please!" the boy cried. "I'm sorry! Don't hurt me!"

"Sorry? Sorry for what? What did you do?"

"I didn't mean it! I was just playing!"

"What. Did. You. Do?"

"Mokou, stop!"

Miss Mokou paused, but she didn't let the boy go. The crowd parted, and Miss Satoko appeared, accompanied by the previously absent Dai and Yuuki, who apparently had gone to find her when the fighting had started.

Miss Satoko looked more frantic and distraught than any time Rumia had seen her. Her face was pink, her mouth gaping open, her hat was gone, and she was grabbing at her own hair with both hands.

"What…what are you doing?" she sputtered as she took in the scene. "How…what…what happened here?"

"What happened?" said some guy that Rumia didn't recognize. "I'll tell you what happened! Your little devils assaulted our boys, that's what happened!"

"That's not true!" Tomohiro shouted. He looked pretty roughed up, with both of his eyes blackened, his uniform torn and dirty, a darkening purple bruise on his cheek, and scratches all over his neck. However, of the original group of brawlers, he had come off better than Shinji or Noba. "They're the ones who started it!"

"Shut your mouth, you little savage!" said some woman, who looked like she was the mother of one of the local boys, if the way she was cradling her arms around him was any indication. "We all know this was your doing!"

"It was not!"

"Lies! We all know what your kind is like!"

Tomohiro stared at her in complete befuddlement. "What do you mean, my kind? We're all Human!"

"Are you? Are you really?"

"You know, we can clear this up right now," Miss Mokou said. She gave the boy she was still holding aloft a slight shake. "So, how about it, buddy? How'd this all get started?"

The boy still looked terrified of her, and who could blame him? But seeing that one woman speak up on his behalf seemed to have given him enough courage to hold his tongue, which was really stupid as far as Rumia was concerned. If Miss Mokou decided to snap his neck, then she could probably do it long before anyone got close enough to save him.

Since he wasn't talking and Noba still looked completely out of it, Shinji spoke up. "We were just talking, then they all got right into our faces and wouldn't leave," he said, slurring his words slightly through swollen lips. "They said…they said…"

"Nothing!" Miss Mokou's captive suddenly shouted. "We didn't say anything to them!"

"You did! You asked if Noba cried when his mom and dad got eaten! You said that you bet that he helped them eat them, that he's probably half youkai already! You said that we're only here to see who's the fattest to eat later!"

"I was just joking!" wailed the culprit.

"Thought you said that you didn't say anything," Miss Mokou pointed out.

"Then when we tried to walk away, they just grabbed us and pulled us back!" Shinji continued. "They said that they're not gonna let us take anyone, that we shoulda gotten eaten with our families!"

"Oh?" Miss Mokou said. "Then that's when you punched them?"

"No! We just pushed them away, and they pushed us back!"

"You liar!" the boy yelled!

"He did!" Haruko broke in. "We heard them! Then when they saw us, they said…" She shivered. "They said that we should go with them, that they wanted to see how wild the youkai had made us!"

Miss Satoko looked like she was going to be ill.

"Oh, is that right?" Miss Mokou said, her gaze traveling up to her squirming captive with deadly purpose.

"Mokou, don't," Miss Satoko whispered.

Then someone called out from the crowd, "Yeah, let him go!"

"He didn't mean any harm! What, can't you youkai lovers take a joke?"

Miss Mokou's gaze slipped from her captive to the crowd. "A joke."

"A joke?" Mister Joshua sputtered. "You call something like that a joke?"

"Hell yeah! Boys will be boys, you know. That's no reason to punch anyone!"

Rumia suddenly found herself wishing that she really was youkai-cursed or at the very least half-youkai like Keine. Then she might have been able to make . Then she might be able to wipe a few smirks off the faces she saw.

"Boys will be boys?!" Mister Joshua repeated, aghast. "Listen to yourself, man! That's horrific! What kind of boys are you raising?"

"You're the ones with one of ours by the throat!" came the reply.

"You wanna replace him?" Miss Mokou said.

The guy in question, a middle-aged man with a big chest, big arms, and an even bigger beard shoved his way to the front of the crowd. "Try me, bitch."

"Mokou, please," Miss Satoko begged. "Don't."

Miss Mokou didn't so much as glance at her. "Okay," she said. She opened her hand, and the boy dropped. He looked around in bewilderment, and then fled as fast as his feet could take him.

"All right, asshole," Miss Mokou said as she strode toward the big man as Miss Satoko ineffectively grabbed at her arm. She didn't even slow Miss Mokou down. "Your wish is my command. I'll try you right-"

"ENOUGH OF THIS MADNESS!"

The new voice was loud, but kind of squeaky and cracked a bit in the middle. Still, it brought everything to an abrupt stop.

Four tough looking men were shoving their way through the crowd, making a path as they went. And between them was some short, fat guy with a big hat. "What is the meaning of this?" he demanded.

Rumia frowned. "Who's that?" she said.

"Seriously?" Kohta whispered back. "That's Master Sonozika, the Human Leader!"

"Oh."

Keine winced. "Crap," she muttered.

Master Sonozika hadn't had to have walked far to reach the center of the commotion, but judging by the way he was heaving and gasping one might have thought he had just ran a marathon. "Satoko Yume, this is an outrage! Is this how you mean to convince me to allow your little monsters into the Human Village? They can't go five minutes without attacking somebody!"

Rumia bristled, and she wasn't the only one. "What did he call us?" she hissed.

"Steady," Keine said.

"Master Sonozika, I know thing got out of hand, but the orphans didn't start it," Miss Satoko protested.

"That's right," said Miss Haruhi, speaking for the first time. She still looked kind of rocked by the blow she had taken, but she was up and talking at least. "A group of boys deliberately picked a fight with us! They insulted their dead families, and made sexual passes at some of the girls!"

"And for that you attack us!" Master Sonozika screeched.

"They were provoked!"

"They're just words! Get over it!"

"Words, huh?" Miss Mokou said. "Disparaging children's dead parents is just words now, are they? Threatening to rape little girls are just words? So hey, if I were to say that you look like what you get if a syphilis-ridden toad fucked a wad of pig fat, would that just be words?"

Now that Miss Mokou mentioned it, the resemblance was kind of uncanny. Rumia giggled a bit in spite of herself. So did Haruko. The two glanced at each other, instinctively resistant to sharing any kind of comradery, but then they both remembered that for now at least they were on the same side, so they both laughed again.

Master Sonozika, however, did not find it quite so humorous. "How…how dare you, you disrespectful harlot! Don't you know who I am?"

"Mokou, do not," Miss Satoko said.

Again she was ignored. "Sure, Sonozika. That snout is unmistakable. Runs in the family." Miss Mokou glanced down at Master Sonozika's jiggling belly. "Among…other things."

"What are you talking about?"

"Eh, who cares?" Miss Mokou said with a shrug. "I mean, they're just words, right?"

Mister Joshua tugged on her sleeve. "Mokou, this isn't helping. You should stop." Again, he was ignored.

Master Sonozika gnashed his teeth. "Hold your tongue, woman. Or I'll have it cut out."

"That I would like to see. Hey, you know what?" Miss Mokou walked right up to him. He went pale and retreated a few step, while his guard immediately stepped between him and Miss Mokou, their hands on the hilts of their swords.

However, Miss Mokou wasn't going to attack him. Quite the opposite, really. "If you want to, I'll give you one free shot," she said, leaning over and turning her head to offer her cheek. "Come on, Piggy. You know you want it."

"Mokou, what are you doing?" Miss Haruhi screamed.

"Don't do this!" Mister Joshua agreed.

Master Sonozika was practically steaming with fury and embarrassment, but didn't take the bait, but then, he didn't have to. He merely shot a glare at one of his guards, who stepped forward to do it for him.

"No!" Miss Satoko yelled.

The guard was of the same height as Miss Mokou, and considerably more heavily muscled. Plus, he was wearing leather armor over his arms and the back of his hands that was studded with iron balls. He slammed the back of his hand right across her face with enough force to shatter bone.

Rumia winced. Kohta gasped. Keine covered her eyes.

But Miss Mokou didn't fall under the blow. In fact, she didn't give at all. The hand hit her cheek…and just stopped, the iron balls digging into her skin but not breaking it. She didn't even have to shift her balance.

Instead, she just remained crouched as her dark maroon eyes rolled around up to lock gazes with the stupefied guard. She smiled. "Okay," she said as she straightened up. "I guess that clears up a thing or-"

"That will be quite enough."

This time, the new voice wasn't nearly as loud or as frantic as Master Sonozika's had been, but it cut through the crowd just the same. The locals started murmuring to one another, and many quickly moved out of the way of the newcomer of their own accord as he strode into the din.

It was Mister Joshua's not-friend, the tall weird guy dressed in brown. He was walking forward with less speed but considerably more confidence than Master Sonozika had, both hands wrapped around that t-shaped thing on his necklace.

"Friends, friends, what is this?" he said. "Why are we fighting like children? Come on, you're better than this."

Then he glanced at Miss Mokou, and his brow furrowed behind his stupid dark glasses. "Well, some of us anyway."

"Okay, yeah, I do not care for you," Miss Mokou said.

"Feeling's mutual." Then he looked over to Master Sonozika, who looked quite realized at his arrival. "Gendou, Gendou, Gendou, what is all this? I knew things outside of the Human Village were…rough, but not an hour after our arrival and things devolve into a brawl!"

Master Sonozika sighed. "Well, Skinner, that's the thing. It seems that some of the local children were set upon by these!" He motioned toward the orphans and their caretakers, all of which were still in the circle and surrounded on by all sides.

"We did not!" Tomohiro shouted as he came forward. "They're the ones who-"

The man identified as "Skinner" suddenly thrust a glove-covered palm into Tomohiro's face. "Do not interrupt your elders, son," he chided.

Tomohiro stumbled back. "I'm not your son! And your hand stinks!"

Skinner's head jerked back as if he had been physically struck. He looked down at his hand, as if he were contemplating taking a swing of his own at Tomohiro's face.

Noticing this, Miss Mokou sidled up between him and Tomohiro. "Yeah, don't," she said flatly.

Skinner's hand flexed into a fist, uncurled, and flexed again. Despite his earlier calmness, he looked like he was about to fly into a rage of his own and kick up the brawl all over again. To be honest, now that Miss Mokou was here, Rumia kind of hoped that he would.

But then he relaxed, and reached up to clasp both hands over his necklace again. "Brother Joshua, I am again disappointed," he said as he stepped around Miss Mokou to turn toward Mister Joshua. "I knew that your time spent with this type had been bad for you, but I didn't know how bad. Violent youths, disrespectful women, and-"

Suddenly he stopped. And he stared. Not as Mister Joshua, but past him.

To where Rumia, Kohta, and Keine were standing.

"I could say the same," Mister Joshua said. "I can already see what great things you're teaching the people here, the good news you're spreading. Fear, superstition, and lies. Very Christlike indeed."

Skinner didn't answer. He just kept staring in a way that made Rumia's skin crawl.

So she spread her hands, glowered back, and mouthed, What?

Skinner tilted his head, but it didn't seem to be in response to Rumia.

It was then that Rumia realized that he wasn't looking at her. Close to, but not quite. Rather, he was looking at Keine.

Rumia felt cold ice sweep down her spine. He knew. She didn't know how he knew, but he did.

Gritting her teeth behind her grimace, Rumia held her defiant stance, refusing to back down.

"Nathaniel?" Mister Joshua said.

Skinner didn't move.

Mister Joshua glanced over his shoulder at the trio, scowled, and positioned himself right in front of Skinner. It wasn't an impressive sight, as the top of his head only came up to the taller man's chest, but he was doing what he could. "Nathaniel! Stop looking at them and look at me."

"Better do what he says, Skinny," Miss Mokou said. She laid a firm hand on Skinner's shoulder.

Skinner reacted immediately to the touch, wrenching his shoulder away and seizing her by the wrist.

"Don't you dare touch me," he seethed. "Don't you dare…"

He tried to hurl her to one side, but when he yanked on her arm, she merely clenched up her muscles and stayed where he was.

Frowning, Skinner tried again. Miss Mokou's arm barely moved.

"You finished?" she drawled.

"Hmmm." Skinner released her wrist. "You are…surprisingly strong."

"I work out."

"So I see." Then he brushed himself off and backed away from her. "Regardless, this little spat is pointless. The main source of conflict is the riot."

"Fight," Miss Mokou corrected. "It was a fight." She tilted her head toward the original group that had been brawling with Noba, Shinji, and Tomohiro. "Those boys over there tried to provoke some of ours, and it worked. Things escalated."

"Thanks to you, I presume."

"Nah. I got here just in time to see a whole bunch of grown-ass men surrounding a bunch of boys beating up on a bunch of orphans and doing nothing to break it up. They didn't even try to stop the young girls that were trying to stop it from getting hit. It wasn't until the rest of our kids ran in to help their friends that anyone decided to do something." She swept her eyes past Skinner and over the crowd. "Mainly by rushing in to beat up a bunch of kids. So I put a stop to it."

Rumia suddenly found herself very glad that she and her friends had dishes duty for the rest of the week, because as far as she was concerned, Miss Mokou was now officially the coolest person in the world and she wanted to hang out with her as much as possible.

In fact, her words of shame were having an effect. As Rumia looked around, she saw more than one previously angry face now start to wilt, a few even looking away. Ha! Take that!

"Really?" Skinner said. "All by yourself?"

"Pretty much, yeah. So, you gonna continue this little interrogation, or can we move on? Because obviously you're the one in charge here."

"Ah, h-h-hold on a moment!" Master Sonozika suddenly sputtered. "Now, Nathaniel Skinner is a dear friend and a highly valuable advisor, but let's not presume!"

"Then why is he doing all the talking then?" Miss Mokou turned to the rest of the crowd. "What about you guys, huh? Does the turd-coat here speak for all of you too?"

There was a pause, and then a woman called, "He's with the Leader!"

"So?" someone else countered. "I've never seen him before."

"Yeah, who is he, anyway?"

"Shut your mouth, you backwaters!" called a well-dressed man that obviously came from the Village. "That's Brother Nathaniel Skinner, a man of very high reputation!"

"Reputation for what? Dressing like a pile of horse shit?"

Everyone laughed at that. The spell Skinner had had over the crowd was fading.

Skinner noticed, but he kept his cool. Rather than retort, he merely cleared his throat and walked over to Master Sonozika. Leaning over, he whispered into the stout man's ear.

Master Sonozika seemed surprised. He whispered something back, and Skinner responded. Master Sonozika nodded.

"All right, I think we've heard enough," Master Sonozika said. "Regardless of whoever started it, things clearly have gotten out of hand. But even so, children will fight. So, let us all put this business behind us and go on with our lives. Mistress Yume, I trust you will discipline the children you claim to care for and try to rein in their wild impulses?"

Miss Satoko went white with indignation. "Wait, they were the ones who-"

"Good! For now, you should take them home. We wouldn't want another, ahem, incident now, would we?"

Miss Satoko looked like she was going to argue the point further, but then Miss Mokou tapped her on the shoulder. Miss Satoko looked at her in confusion. In response, Miss Mokou just shook her head.

Taking the message, Miss Satoko said, "All right. Children, two lines please. Mokou, could you please help Noba? Haruhi, keep close to me. Joshua, bring up the rear."

The family slowly and in some cases painfully gathered together. Those who needed help walking got it, and the youngest and those who were hurt worse were brought to the middle while the rest formed a shell around them.

The crowd opened up, and they filed walked out of the market. Rumia realized that her right leg was limping a little, but she refused to give in to it and walked as straight and steady as she could. As she did, she made sure to glower at each and every face she passed. In some cases the glower was returned, but in most people refused to meet her eyes. Good. They ought to be ashamed.

Then she glanced the other way, toward her family. Haruko, Eiko, and Hayate were walking close to her. She caught Haruko's eye for just a moment.

A beat passed, and then Haruko gave her the slightest of nods and glanced away. The message was clear. They were still enemies, but in this specific case, they were enemies on the same side, and Rumia would be glad to fight side-by-side with a stupid cow like Haruko any day if it meant standing up to all those assholes.

Finally they passed over a hill and were fully out of sight of the market. When that happened, everyone relaxed just a little. Straightened shoulders slumped, heads that were held up high dropped, and those in pain allowed themselves to show it. Still, nobody said anything, though some of the younger ones were crying a little, as was Miss Haruhi.

Rumia couldn't blame them. She was hurting. It wasn't that bad, and she had been hurt worse in the past through various accidents and mishaps, but there was a difference between falling out of a tree or getting into a fistfight with Shinji because she had caught him cheating at Mahjong and being outright assaulted like that!

…okay, fine, she had technically been the one doing the assaulting, but that was just because her family had been assaulted first, or at least she was pretty sure they had been. Regardless, getting thrown to the ground and kicked at by complete strangers was something that she was still struggling to process.

Kohta had taken worse. One eye was swollen up, and he was limping even worse than she was. Keine was between them, providing support with both of their arms thrown across her shoulders. Under normal circumstances, Rumia's pride would have dissuaded her from accepting that much help, but today she just took it without complaining. Or at least, she had waited until they were out of sight of the market before accepting it. Her pride was still there, but she was now a bit more specific about who she was allowing herself to appear weak in front of. And after everything they had endured together, the rest of her family got a one-day pass.

The rest of the kids were in various stages of beaten up. Noba had taken the worse; in fact he was barely conscious. Miss Mokou had his arm over her shoulder while she held onto his waist. Rumia was fairly certain that she could have thrown him over her shoulder if she wanted, but he would have been mortified to have been carried away like that, and Miss Mokou was the sort to know that. Shinji and Tomohiro were pretty bad off as well. They were walking under their own power, but Shinji's face was still a bloody, swollen mess, while Tomohiro had two black eyes and was cradling his left arm. And Keichii had to stop every few steps to spit out blood.

Yoshi and Hiro had taken a few hits, with Yoshi having a very prominent purple lump on his forehead. Still, they seemed okay overall, and judging by the way they were swaggering, they were probably proud of the hits they had taken and given, the little savages. Rumia had to smile. They had earned that right as far as she was concerned.

As for the others, specifically Melissa, Kana, Kazuchika, Akito, Dai, and Yuuki, they hadn't been hurt on account of having not joined in for various reasons, but that didn't mean they were all right. Melissa looked absolutely mortified. Since she hadn't been born in Gensokyo like the others, there was a lot she was still getting used to, and while she found most of it to be wonderful, the darker parts tended to scare her, and Rumia was willing to bet that she had never expected the worse to come from other Humans. Hell, Rumia herself hadn't expected that. Maybe her family hadn't been killed by youkai after all. Maybe it had been a bunch of assholes like the ones back there, and they had just blamed it on youkai.

Kazuchika seemed to be in a daze. He was holding onto Akito while leading Dai and Yuuki along. As the older kid who most often looked after the younger ones, he was probably really messed up over Yoshi and Hiro getting hurt. And as for Kana…

Kana looked…weird. Well, okay, she always looked weird, but unlike the others she didn't look scared, sad, betrayed, angry, or even proud. Instead, she was thoughtfully staring at the sky with a sort of seriousness she usually reserved for staring at dust motes, and she was fingering with something in her pocket, probably a trinket she had picked up in the chaos. Hopefully it wasn't something someone would coming looking for. That was the last thing they needed.

All in all, they were a sorry bunch, but they had survived. And Rumia was glad that they had fought back instead of running away. She smirked, though doing so upset one of her bruises. Life had done them no favors, but it sure had made them tough.

They continued on, Miss Satoko in the lead, Mister Joshua in the back, beginning what promised to be a long and painful walk home.

But then they heard someone call out to them. "Hey! Satoko Yume! Wait a moment!"

Everyone immediately tensed up in anticipation of another attack, but it wasn't an angry mob coming after them, it was only three men flying their way. Rumia quickly scanned them. She didn't remember seeing them in the fight, but that could swiftly change.

The one that had called to them was the oldest and biggest, a big man with a barrel-shaped chest, large arms, a wide face, and a thin beard. He touched and the other two touched down in front of the group.

"Watanabe?" Miss Satoko said.

Watanabe nodded. "Look. I don't know what happened back there or why, but…" He sighed. "I'm sorry I didn't try to help. We were heading home we heard the shouting, and when we got back everything was so confusing and-"

"Watanabe, it's fine," Miss Satoko said. "And it's somewhat heartening to hear that not everyone approved of what happened back there."

Watanabe scowled. "It's that man Skinner. Ever since he and his kind showed up, people in the big village have just been getting strange. And it's spreading."

Rumia glanced over her shoulder at Mister Joshua, who sort of fell in the category of "his kind." For his part, Mister Joshua didn't react in one way or the other.

"Well, he certainly helped, but the rest of them are still responsible for their actions," Miss Satoko said.

"Yes, I don't know what's happening. But let me help make it up to you." Watanabe pointed. "My farm's not far. Please, rest a while, see to your injuries, get something to eat."

Miss Satoko hesitated. "Watanabe, I don't-"

"Your children are hurt, and people I count among my friends are to blame. Let me do this much for you."

"Well…" Miss Satoko looked back toward the group. Most of the kids were too tired to really make much of a response, but nobody objected.

"All right," she sighed. "That would be very much appreciated. Thank you."

Honestly Rumia really just wanted to go home, but making the trip on her aching leg did not sound fun, and there were others worse off than she was. And if Miss Satoko trusted this guy, then fine.

The group changed direction, moving off the path and across the field. As they went, Rumia was struck by a sudden thought, something that had gone amiss through the whole brawl, something that nobody else had pointed out.

With everything that had been going on, what had happened to their guards?