School Girls' Stories

Chapter 42 – The Hero

SNAP! The girls barely saw the next movement, everything moved too fast, but now they heard the breaking of bone. Shinwa and Kago were so entangled it was almost hard to decipher one from the other, blood dripping from both of them.

Fuji and Kyoei had stepped in front of Shai and Yuki in the beginning, protecting the pregnant girl and the one they suspected Kago was after. Fuji watched Kago, fearing for her friends more than for herself. Kyoei feared for all of the girls and trying his hardest to push Fuji back as well. Fuji would not budge. She would make sure none of her friends were in the midst of that fight.

Kago swung the blade at Shinwa, trying to attack him, but Shinwa was smooth and fast, almost like he had had this type of fight before. Shinwa was barely batting an eye as Kago’s blind rage was after the man, more than the rest of them.

Shai gripped the back of Kyoei’s shirt out of fear, and needing something to steady herself. Kyoei damned himself for letting his heart skip a tiny beat at her small touch, and tried to push her and Yuki further back.

“If you are upset she dumped you,” Shinwa said, avoiding another slash that ripped the edges of his leather jacket, and he was grateful he was wearing so many clothes, “trying to kill her won’t get her back.”

“I’m not trying to kill her,” Kago snarled. The knife came up and just barely nicked Shinwa’s chin, a small droplet of blood dripping onto the ground. “I’m trying to kill you.”

“Kago stop!” Fuji was screaming, her fear overcoming her while Yuki cried from behind her. Yuki was watching the man she had once loved, and the man she was hoping to start a new life with, fight one another. And Kago definitely had the advantage.

“Are you going to kill me?” Shinwa asked. This time he stopped his defense and turned on Kago. His fist was faster than a bullet. His fist slammed into Kago’s face, twirling the man backwards. Shinwa backed up, forcing the group behind him to move back. “Are you going to kill me in front of so many witnesses?”

Kago turned back to Shinwa with a glare of rage in his eyes. He threw the knife down to the ground. “You’re right, I won’t kill you,” he said, then without warning his fist came up and right into Shinwa’s stomach, and even with Shinwa’s stealth-like speed he could not avoid the punch.

That was where things became confused. Kago and Shinwa were entangled with one another, bloodying each other up and intensifying the whole hatred of their auras. Yuki had pushed past her guards and went towards the fight, hoping to pull them apart. Any woman should learn from television and books that interfering never turns out well. The girl is trying to break up a fight between two men determined to tear one another apart, and it usually results in the girl being hurt as well.

Yuki was no exception. Someone’s fist came towards her, caught her right in the jaw, and had her flat on her back in a matter of seconds. Fuji kneeled down to check on her friend. Yuki blinked at her and coughed, blood coming up and tainting her mouth. “Ouch,” she said lamely, but she sat up, though the tears in her eyes were heavy and trailing down her face.

That was when the snap was heard, when everyone was preoccupied with Yuki and her safety. The sound echoed off the streets, people looked out of their windows, and it was just in time for the police to come pulling up, guns drawn, and ready to shoot the first person to move. It took four police officers to pull Shinwa and Kago apart. Kago was the worst for wear. His arm was broken, his lip split, his face bloody, not to mention what was under it all. Shinwa did not look much better, but at least his arm had not snapped.

The police towed Kago and Shinwa away in separate ambulances while they took the statements of the remainder of the group. Mrs. Chenbaro, Mr. Tennison, and Mr. Taiikuka all ran out of the house to check on the children, Mr. Tennison taking extra care to worry over Shai, which did not go unnoticed by anyone. Kyoei was doing his best to position himself between Shai and the teacher, which was giving Shai more courage to just hide behind him and give excuses of needing to talk to the police.

Yuki had been taken care of before the ambulance had driven away. She was fine besides a large swelling that was beginning to take place, but the police were insisting on taking her home, while she was begging them not to tell her parents.

Mrs. Chenbaro, for the first time, stepped in and took hold of the situation for the girls. “I can make sure she gets back home,” she insisted. “There is no need to alarm the girls’ parents any more than they have to be. If the girls tell them of their own free will, the parents will be more inclined not to worry, if the police go trooping in with their daughter in tow, the parents will tend to become a bit tighter around the collars of the children.”

Fuji blinked up at her mother. It was not possible that this was the same woman who had raised Fuji for nearly sixteen years, sixteen years in one week. This woman actually seemed… concerned, like a real human being.

“Are you ready to go?” Kyoei finally asked of Fuji, and suddenly she wasn’t. She wanted her mother all over again. It had been so frightening to see Shinwa attacked so blatantly with a knife, and to know that Yuki had been in danger as well.

“I think I’m going to meet with you guys later,” Fuji admitted, shifting uncomfortably. “I’m going to say goodbye to my mom first.”

Mr. Taiikuka smiled and nodded. “Do you want us to come pick you back up?” he asked softly.

Fuji shook her head. “No, if I leave early enough it won’t be too cold yet, I can just walk over.”

“I want to go to the hospital and see if Shinwa is all right,” Yuki told Shai and Kyoei. “I can go see if I can catch a cab up town.”

Kyoei shook his head. “No way,” he told her. “Come on, we’ll drop Fuji’s stuff off and then we will drive you. Give him time to be checked out first before you go busting in there like some lovesick puppy.”

“But I am a lovesick puppy,” Yuki whined, slinking into Kyoei’s car.

Fuji watched them drive away, feeling Mrs. Chenbaro and Mr. Tennison at her back. She wondered how her friend stayed so light hearted, even in the worst of situations.