Mayumi Matsui, 16, a Sukeban - a girl in a gang or a delinquent. She's the star of this story, and she's looking down at herself! Problem is, that's because she's dead.
Chapter 1: Goodbye, Material World!
Mayumi stares down at the body before her. It looks like her, but that's not possible.
"There's no way that's me."
Her voice echoes out, her expression oddly unamused. She walks over and crouches down next to the corpse. The body lays upright on the steel wall of the warehouse, the wind blowing through the open doors and holes in the roof being the only noise filling her ears. She looks at the body highlighted by the soft sunset light carefully.
The light brown fluffy hair falling down to her shoulders is definitely hers. She moves her head below and looks up to see the empty eyes that are covered by the hair, and they're light brown just like hers. The longer, light red school uniform skirt that's going down to her feet is definitely hers. Wait...
"Oh shit, it really is me! D-Damn!"
She jolts up, stumbling backwards. She suddenly feels how fast she's breathing. She's staring down at her own body.
"How the hell!? What's happening!?" She yells out as she begins patting all over herself to check if this is real. She takes a deep breath in and out. She taps her forehead.
"Calm down. Think about this. I woke up at dad's today…"
11 hours ago…
The morning light slams through the window straight into Mayumi's face. She's been dealing with it for the past five minutes but she just doesn't want to get up and close the curtains.
"Damn it…"
She groans loudly and sits up. She quickly gets out of bed and sighs, grabbing her Meiou Academy school uniform off a hanger and quickly putting it on. It's been modified a bit by her, the skirt going down much longer than the normal uniform, all the way down to her ankles. The uniform was a bright red, with the skirt being a slightly darker red. The uniforms ornaments were all pale yellow.
She grabs a pack of cigarettes from her desk covered in study material and reaches under her skirt to the side, stuffing the pack into a hidden compartment she cut out, stuffing her lighter in there too. Her hand carefully wraps around the doorknob to her bedroom door and nudges it open. The familiar sight of her passed out drunken dad on the chair in the living room fills her vision, and she squints.
"Lazy bastard."
Mayumi closes her door again as quietly as possible and moves over to her window, grabbing her school bag by it. She pulls up the window, quickly using one hand to balance herself as she jumps out of it and lands below. The spot her feet hit has browned grass as if it's been stomped on constantly for years. She flings the school bag over her shoulder and begins walking to school.
The scribbling of pencils can be heard all around the classroom. Mayumi just sits there, balancing her head on her hand as her arm keeps it up. One by one the other students slowly turn in their tests, and all of them look nervous. Mayumi was the first one to turn hers in, and looks disillusioned with the entire thing.
After an eternity the bell rings, and she quickly gets up and walks out of the classroom, ignoring everybody. The hallways are like an echo chamber of students talking about testing, the semester is ending and everyone is taking their finals. As Mayumi walks by them, the students almost instinctively part and turn quiet.
"I hear she's the only one who actually does anything in that gang she's in…"
"I bet she just scribbles whatever down and turns it in."
"She got into another fight last week, did you hear?"
Mayumi just continues walking to her next class not giving a care in the world to any of it. Each class flies by like clockwork, the same result every time, being her turning in the test first and laying around until the class is over.
Lunch comes, and she quickly gets behind the school and goes to the side of the small shack holding the outside gym equipment and pulls out her cigarettes and lighter, lighting a cigarette. She sits down in the grass and pulls her knees up to her chin as she drags the smoke and stares at the wall in front of her, trying to kill time.
She suddenly hears footsteps coming and looks over to where they're coming from.
"Who the hell-"
As soon as she sees the figure turn a small millimeter around the corner of the building she freaks out and lifts up, hurling her cigarette right where she was now trying to sit back down and cover.
"MPPPH!"
The combination of Mayumi both burning herself and simultaneously trying to keep the smoke in her lungs sends the person turning the corner into a panic, making them run to her side.
"Did you burn yourself!?"
Mayumi repeatedly shakes her head to try and say no, but her face turns completely red and she begins coughing like a maniac as the smoke shoots out of her lungs. The other girl quickly gets on her knees and reaches to pat her back and help, but stops right before she pats, inching her hand away.
She shifts positions to sit on the grass next to Mayumi and pulls her knees up to her face too, burying her face into them and leaving only her eyes visible. They have a deeply sad and disapproving look in them as she shoots an extremely judgmental look at Mayumi.
Mayumi stops coughing and looks back at her, staring into her eyes too. After a few moments of staring, she feels herself starting to sweat a bit.
Kumiko Fujiwara. She's a childhood friend. Her naturally brunette hair is cascading down her back like a waterfall, complimenting her whiskey brown eyes. Her face has a warm softness to it, like an innocent puppy.
And Mayumi feels like she just kicked that puppy and is being judged for it. She begins to talk in a tone much rougher than she wants.
"Stop looking at me like that, Kumiko."
Mayumi quickly looks away from her, and Kumiko keeps staring. She starts talking in a soft, muffled voice since she's got her mouth covered.
"You told me you'd stop smoking. You keep lying to me."
The words hit Mayumi like a gunshot. She knows she's right, but she can't help but get defensive even if she doesn't want to.
"Yeah, well, quitting isn't easy. You're always on my ass about it, it's not something you need to worry about so much. I'll stop soon-"
She's cut off when she looks back and sees Kumiko's watery eyes.
An instant wave of guilt slams into Mayumi's heart, and before she can apologize for being so rude, Kumiko stands up and has a few tears spilling over. She begins shouting.
"You just go die then! I can't keep watching you slowly kill yourself every time I see you!"
She quickly stands and turns, briskly walking away and turning the corner again. Mayumi shoots up and reaches out.
"W-Wait! I'll actually stop this time!"
But Kumiko's already gone.
"God DAMN it! Stupid..."
She continues to insult and berate herself for a few moments before the bell rings, begrudgingly walking back to class.
She feels a searing hatred for herself. How she treats Kumiko. How she acts. How she can't control what she says or the actions she makes on a daily basis. She's felt like her worlds been coming apart lately, and that it's all her fault. Maybe everyone would be better off without her around anymore.
As the hours fly by, she can't focus on the tests anymore, she just quickly puts down what sounds right, sloppily finishing each one and not caring about the results. Once the final bell rings Mayumi stands up again and quickly gets out of the classroom. She gets to her locker quickly and grabs her bag, lapping around the entire school trying to find Kumiko and apologize, wanting to walk home with her, but she can't find her.
She walks out of the school with a pissed off expression, but she's just mad at herself. She walks to the school gate and the Principal is there, watching the students leave. She tries to get by him by weaving around students but his hand clamps on her shoulder and she flicks her gaze at him.
His face has a stern look, and his portly build gives him a sort of authority in his look. He talks in a voice that has a lower pitch.
"What did you do to Fujiwara today, Matsui? You know she's class officer, why do you keep making things hard on her, especially during finals? She looked terrible after break."
Mayumi grits her teeth and begins to talk, barely even getting a word out before she's cut off by the principal.
"Don't even get me started on your little gang, you told me you'd keep their grades in line-"
Mayumi flings her shoulder forward to get his hand off her.
"Stay out of my business, Taka! What I do isn't your problem! And don't talk about them like that, let alone me!"
This entire thing just made her mood even worse. She walks off as the Principal yells out to her.
"It's MR. Taka! Keep talking to me like I'm someone on the street and you and your gang aren't allowed to wear your uniforms you stitched together!"
Mayumi holds back every single little fiber of her being that's screaming out to curse everyone out or beat them up, and walks off towards an old abandoned lot near the school. The walk is tiring and agonizing. Everything from the day is wearing her down, and she feels like she's gonna snap any minute. She just wants to see what her gang is up to, and see if they can help her at all.
She turns the corner past the fences and sees a group of 6 other girls, all wearing the same modified school outfit she's got. They're all sitting around in a circle.
The lot has been abandoned to time, grass and nature is mostly taking it over again. There's random stuff strewn about, stuff each member just drags in from dumps or garbage for the day. Everyone always hangs out in the back corner. Mayumi walks over with an unamused expression. She wants to greet them but the words won't come out, so she just ends up stopping and staring at a specific person's back as she stands behind her.
Mayumi looks at what everyone's doing and they're playing cards, with a stack of yen coins thrown about in the middle of the circle. The member Mayumi is staring at lifts her head up to look forward and drags her cigarette. She then looks behind her and up at Mayumi, blowing the smoke up at her.
"Hell's your problem?"
The girl is clearly pissed off because she's been losing her money to the game. Her face is somewhat beaten up and bandaged. She has long, uncared for orangish hair, clearly from her trying and failing to bleach and dye it blonde. Her eyes are a grayish color, and her voice is rough.
"Nice to see you too, Youko. Did you even go to school today?"
Youko immediately bursts out laughing.
"No, why the hell would I?"
"Probably because I work my ass off so we can all wear these uniforms! The only reason the Principal lets us is because I told him we'd get good grades!" Mayumi points down at her. "You're making me look bad, you dumbass!"
Youko throws her cards down and they clap across the cement. She stands up and gets face to face with Mayumi, never losing eye contact and leaving almost no room between them.
"You got a problem? You're the only one here who even cares about all that stuff, no one else does. All you do is bitch bitch bitch when you're here. You barely even count as one of us anymore."
Hearing that, Mayumi reels back and right hooks Youko in the face, causing her to stumble to the side. As she does, Youko quickly retaliates and slams her first into Mayumi's left rib cage, causing her to stumble too.
Everyone in the group quickly throws their cards down and runs over, grabbing both of them and holding them back while Youko still shouts.
"Get the hell out of here! Don't come crying to us if you got problems!"
The other members quickly try to tell Mayumi she doesn't mean anything she's saying but Mayumi just pushes off of everyone and storms off. She kicks one of the fence posts and her foot goes straight through it.
"Stupid piece of shit!"
Without even thinking she ends up mindlessly walking towards the path she and Kumiko often walk home together on. As she's walking and muttering curses to herself under her breath, she pulls her cigarettes out again. She opens the box and reaches to pull one out, but stops.
She squeezes the box as hard as she can and slams it into the ground, and kicks it as hard as she can into some random alley near her. The sun is beginning to set at this point. She slowly follows the path they often walk, calming down a little.
"...Guess I'll just call her when I'm home and apologize. Geez..."
The walk is a gentle reminder of all the time they shared. She thinks of the times in kindergarten, all the way to now. They've been friends since she can remember. Kumiko has been there for her every single time she's needed her without fail, and here Mayumi is, feeling like all she does is drag her down and leave her with nothing.
She perks up as her zoning out is interrupted by crying around the corner. Mayumi keeps her hands in her pockets and peeks around the corner, seeing two familiar faces. A girl with pigtails, and a girl with a ponytail. Both Meiou Academy students. They're Kumiko's friends.
Mayumi's eyes widen and she runs over without thinking,
"The hell happened!?"
The girl with the ponytail is on the ground crying, and the girl with the pigtails responds,
"S-Some guys from Nagoya took Kumiko! She accidentally bumped into one of them and it spiraled out of control!"
Mayumi grabs the girl with the pigtails by the shoulders and shakes her rapidly.
"Where the hell did they take her!?"
The girl with the pigtails begins sobbing even harder.
"T-There's this warehouse near their school they hang out at!"
The girl with the ponytail stammers.
"You've had to have heard the rumors!"
"I don't give a shit about rumors, just go home and I'll get her!"
Mayumi throws her bag down near them and before she can think she's moving. She doesn't feel anything. All that runs through her mind are what they said. What did they mean about the rumors!? She doesn't even know where this warehouse is, yet something guides her. A feeling she never felt. She feels like she can almost feel where Kumiko is, like someone or something is guiding her.
A large, gray, rundown warehouse comes into view. This has to be it. She runs to the giant open doors and stands there at the entrance. Her body silhouetted against the sunset. She sees a group of guys around a lightly beaten up Kumiko, who is on the floor. They all stop as they hear Mayumi's footsteps.
Mayumi can't think anymore. Just the sight of Kumiko beaten up in the slightest sends her into some kind of feeling she's never felt. It's like a culmination of fear from her being hurt and the need to just let out all the anger from the day fills her, and her mind blanks.
Her footsteps against the hard floor clack. As one of the guys tries telling her to back off, he already has a fist slamming straight into his face. Every guy in the group runs at Mayumi, and Mayumi didn't bother counting how many there were. More than 10 is what she guessed.
She can't even think about the fight, everything's blank. She knows her fists are moving, and she can feel light impacts from where she's definitely being hit, but she keeps going.
In a split second Mayumi snaps out of it, and she yells something at Kumiko. She doesn't know exactly what she said, but she knows it was something like her screaming for her to get the hell out of this place and go get her gang.
Kumiko quickly stands up and stumbles and begins to run, looking back quickly with a terrified expression, clearly worried for Mayumi. Mayumi sees one of the guys try to run at Kumiko and she quickly shoves everyone she's fighting off of her and runs like her life depends on it, slamming her fist into the back of the guys head. His body crumbles down onto the floor, his face smashing into the hard flooring. She can hear the steps of every other member running at her from behind and she turns shakily, unable to move much at this point.
She can't feel it but her body is giving out. Her body is running on fumes.
Her entire life outside of a few things has been fighting.
She fights for her gang.
She fights for herself.
She fights to make something of herself.
Fights against every single thing this world tries to throw at her or take from her. It's almost all she knows. But the one person who she doesn't have to be like that around, is Kumiko. And there's no way in hell she's going to let anything happen to the one person she can feel anything around.
As she thinks this, she hears steps behind her. She turns, reeling her hand back, and as soon as she does, she feels something.
Something in her gut.
A weird, warm feeling fills her, a wave of deafening silence spreads around the room. Her vision becomes blurry, and she snaps out of her blind anger.
She looks down.
The handle of a knife, connected to the guy she knocked down earlier, straight in her stomach. She shakily reaches down at it, but he pulls it out. Red spills out, catching her clothes. It drips and pools as it runs off her skirt, the red uniform being stained darker by her own red blood. She stumbles back and catches a glimpse of the guys face.
He looks terrified, like he stabbed her on a whim. Like he couldn't believe he really did it. Mayumi stumbles backwards, and hits the back wall. She slides down it as she holds her gut, her hand covered in red. She sits there limply.
She can see the legs of the Nagoya students' uniform pants stand a bit away from her. She doesn't have the strength to look up anymore.
We're they gawking at her? Laughing? Yelling? Staring? She couldn't tell anymore. Her hand trembles on the wound. A hole in the decaying ceiling lets the orange sunset light shine down on her. It lets her see all the blood on her hand and the trail that she left.
The students are gone. She's all alone now, stuck with her thoughts, even them fading slowly.
"Is this it? I never got to make anything of myself. I'm worthless. This dumb... stupid act that I used to cover my feelings. Youko's gang... getting into fights… making everyone's lives so hard. And this is what happens to me."
"I'm so... so sorry Kumiko... that you're going to see me like this. And I'm sorry... even to you, Youko. But it's too late to tell anyone that in person, I guess."
She thinks all of this in just a few seconds. Time slows as she sits there.
A small tear forms in her eye and trickles down her cheek. She can't move anymore. "Kumiko, I never... got to tell you sorry. I'm so... so sorry... I really did go and die..." Are her final thoughts as everything goes blank.
Notes: I've rewritten the first 3 chapters to be much more in like with what's after, so hopefully they're easier to read! They're still written a little differently but at least they're no longer giant paragraphs occasionally spaced! Thank you for reading!