A Menace To Society

May, 2003

It’s not like Ryūguji Ken was ashamed of the ‘seedy’ work he was brought up around - not even in the slightest - but if those morons had to be loud and cause a scene, could they not do it outside of the ‘massage parlour’ that he lived in. He had told them half a dozen times not to loiter there due to a report to the police about minors hanging around the water-trade establishment; the last thing he needed was having the people who took him in and raise him lose their jobs due to his buddies cackling at crude jokes and making sexual gestures which scared off any potential customers. Hell, those five just waiting in line at a fast-food joint was enough to scare most people away, let alone a few lonely men trying to get their jollies in the middle of the afternoon without their wives finding out.

Coming from the foyer of the establishment with its windows blacked out with unobtrusive pastels and a pretty font stating the business name and contact details, Ryūguji scowled at his friends waiting for him. “I thought I told you lot to stop screwing around out here?”

“If you didn’t dilly, they wouldn’t have had the time to start up,” the boy with lilac hair sat on a low wall beside a set of lewd vending machines told without looking up from the fashion magazine in his grasp.

“My bad, one of the girls forgot her wallet and has asked me to pick it up but I didn’t have the keys.”

“Maybe you should have given her some money.”

The tallest boy scoffed with a scowl. “Yeah, because I’m a money tree.”

The stout boy looking at the lewd flier in their leader’s grasp asked without looking up, “I thought there was cash on that guy who tried to start a fight with you this morning?”

“There was - I spent it getting our lunch, you punk. Spending what I earned on a bunch of guys - lame.” Running his hand over the side of his head, Ryūguji made a mental note of needing a haircut.

“But you didn’t really earn it, did’ya?”

“Punching costs calories, asshole.”

Peering up from looking at the erotic poster the size of an A5 piece of paper, Hanemiya cooed as he wriggled his fingers. “Every time you come out of there, you’re always wound a little more tightly. Maybe you should take those Onee Chan’s up on their offer for a tug.”

Snapping his head around, Ryūguji gnashed at the air as he advanced for the boy with clipped sides and a perm nestled atop of his crown with his fists balled up. Hissing at the aggression, the slim boy dashed behind Hayashida and Sano looking through the R18 ads in the back of a pinched motor magazine. Waving his hands, Hanemiya laughed from his gut while he used his heavier friends as a bridge between him and the tallest threatening something that would definitely leave a mark.

A commotion from around the next street over halted the offset of play fighting. Women yelped and a man could be heard yelling, “get that damn thing on a leash!”

A maniacal cackle the tallest was way more than familiar with was followed by a curt, “piss off! My dog is just fine.”

“Oh, no.” Ryūguji’s eyes went wide as he gathered the members closest to him in his wide wing-span and began ushering the group in the opposite direction of the incoming threat. Glancing to the boy sat on the wall, he jut his head, “Mitsu, it’s time to go-”

“Why are you going this way, Ken-Chin? I thought we were going over there,” Mikey pointed in the direction of where the disturbance was growing louder from.

Large back to the T-junction of side-streets, Ryūguji clenched his jaw and scrunched his eyes at the failing attempt to escape. Unfortunately for him, a giant black hound bound around the corner, its tongue hanging from the side of its mouth and large bat-ears flopping in its sprint. And no sooner had it, it had set its sight on the group of six.

Ryūguji’s stance lowered, as if he was about to make a dash for his life. “Shit.”

“Hoooiiii~” skidding around the corner doing mind-boggling speeds on a janky peddle bike, a buxom girl pointed an out-held arm, “Baldie, stop him!”

“Hergh?” Brow perking up - unsure of whether it was the order or the nickname - the corner of his lip hitched and Ryūguji snarled, “I’m not going to touch that beast.”

Jumping out into the middle of the red-district alleyway, the boy with black hair just short of his shoulders posed in a star shape. Clicking his tongue off his teeth, the teen waved what appeared to be a small stick he’d manifested from thin air. “Come,” clicking his fingers, he beckoned the monstrous animal like he was a little girl finding a unicorn.

The dog ran like it wasn’t going to stop. No. It really wasn’t going to stop but still, the boy didn’t budge all the way up until the long-haired German Shepherd jumped at him with its front legs and knocked him onto his back with little effort. Face attacked by an open-muzzle and arms pinned under the muscular upper torso, the fire-starter yelped and laughed at the long snout jabbing him in its search for what had been held up in temptation.

Hanemiya watched the scene, ready to beat the animal with whatever he could grasp - which just so happened to be a snatched magazine. “Holy shit, Baji’s being eaten by a bear!” Arms up and eyes wide, he lurched - the tallest ragging him back by his collar before he could get to saving his best friend - or be mauled for real.

“I’m pretty sure that’s a dog, Kazutora,” Sano told with his usual lack of vigour for anything which wasn’t food.

Not even stopping before jumping off the bicycle with its front wheel loose, the girl ran over to the assault. “Halt.” Clipping the leash onto the harness ring between muscular shoulders, she gave a small tug and the dog reversed, sat down at the side of her feet and looked up at her as if butter wouldn’t melt. Strings of saliva still connecting it to the floored boy, the long-haired German Shepherd blinked at its owner with the epitome of puppy-dog eyes.

“What are you eating?” She asked and the dog turned its head, its caramel eyes still on hers slyly as it refrained from chewing, dribble slopping onto the navy school uniform pants. “I know you have somethin-”

“-It’s a dog chew,” the victim eased up onto his elbows, wiping dog-slobber from his face with both sleeves. “Ah, where’s my hair tie?” his eyes went wide at the lack of the item which had been on his fingers. Oh, shit, did the dog eat it along with the treat?

“Did you just feed my child a piece of elastic?”

“W-what? N-n…” The floored boy looked beside either hip in a panicked search for the item. Deflating, he looked up to the female towering over him, an unreadable expression on the features which clearly weren’t entirely Japanese. “Not on purpose, I swear! I think it swallowed it…”

Giving up on trying to make a run for it, Ryūguji stood in front of the girl, shading the sun peeking past the buildings from getting into her eyes. “One of these days, the police are going to confiscate him and have him put down if you keep letting him run around like that. 'Damn thing probably weighs more than I do and he’s as tall as you when he jumps up.”

The dog whimpered as if it understood what the tall boy was saying. Long painted nails constricted around the heavy-duty leash and the pooch put a paw the size of an adult man’s palm down on its nose with a whinge. The pet owner clenched her jaw, her knee raised and rubbing behind the ear of her pet in order to comfort the ‘wild beast’ gone back to licking the boy who had stopped him. “That’ll be the day I’m taken away by the police shortly after.”

“I think you’re gonna be lugged off by the cops long before that.”

“What the fuck’s that supposed to mean?”

“You have no self-control and you’re always starting fights.”

“That’s brilliant coming from you!”

“I have self-control, and I don’t start fights; I just finish them.”

“Tch, fuck off, Ken. Tryin’ to be a smartass in front of your friends.”

Those of the group who didn’t know the female watched the interaction between her and their VP. It was quite something to behold to watch the tallest get dragged into petty snips and the occasional mocking head-wobble with anyone, let alone a girl. It was on the more uncommon side to watch any of their members interact with girls at all - even their female relatives were rarely around at the same time as their friends.

Glancing down to the floor between her and the boy she knew, the half-Japanese inspected the tackled victim of her dog. Unlike she expected, he was not a trembling, traumatized mess as all those before him had been: he was sitting up, his legs out like a toddle as he smushed the ‘vicious beast’s’ jowls while making baby-coos in the face of jaws that could - and would, given the order - snap his bones and tear his face off.

Glancing back to the one she knew, the girl quirked her brow, “is he mentally challenged, or what?”

The tallest groaned at the boy on the floor between them before looking to the menace. “In more than one sense of the fact.”

Finally catching her line of sight, Sano’s expression brightened, his tone a little higher than usual. “Long time no see, Shiki-Ane,” holding his hand up in greeting when he recognized the girl past yet another change to her hairstyle, the leader of the group zeroed in on the bag she was holding. He could smell the food from a good twelve feet away.

“Ossu, Mikey Chan. How’s it going?”

Frustration bubbling over at being ignored in lieu of small talk, Ryūguji waved his hand in front of the girl’s face only for her pet’s nose to wrinkle and jowls vibrate with a warning snarl. Stepping onto his back-foot with a grimace, the tallest tried to return his line of sight to the girl he had known for longer than he’d like to admit, his eyes flittering back to the dog every few seconds in concern. “Okay, you. Calm down.” Nodding upwards at the female who hardly ever seemed to have free time, Ryūguji grumbled at the appearance. “What are you doing here?”

Holding out the article which she had been asked to bring, ‘Shiki-Ane’ jutted her head towards the establishment. “Sumi-Nee asked me to grab something from her apartment. I was on my way to drop off some leftover gyoza I made last night, so I said I’d bring it on my way back from taking him out.”

“Why do you have a spare key to one of those women’s apartments?”

“Spare key?” She tilted her head as if he just insulted her entire bloodline, “she always forgets to lock the veranda doors - I jumped over.”

“W-what?”

“I got called because you didn’t pick up your phone. She asked me to grab it on my way so I just nipped over.”

“You’re both on the fourth floor and at least five feet apart!” He snapped and she gave him the ‘obviously’ look, completely missing why he was becoming irate. “What if you would have fallen? You would have died!”

Holding her hands out by her sides at ninety degrees, her bags and the leash dangling, her fingers angled down taut. Raising her right knee, the girl made a discombobulated martial arts pose now only seen in vintage movies while wearing a stark-blank expression, “but I’m a crane.”

Balling his fist, Ruguji grit his teeth, “you’re an idiot, is what you are.”

Gathering into one group by their friend still sat on the floor and the Vice President looking as though he was on the verge of throttling the girl who was filled out and on the taller side, Hayashida inclined his head to whisper to their leader. “Do you know her, Mikey?”

“Hm, she’s Shiki-Ane,” the leader told, his eyes fixated on what could be in the bag she was holding.

Really, Hayashida should have known better than to get a normal, informative answer out of the cuckoolander. Having no trouble bypassing any kind of social standards, Hanemiya stepped forward to inspect the girl in a long Yankee skirt and strained seifuku shirt who seemed to be close with their VP. “Who are you?”

Choking noise stuck in the back of his throat, Ryūguji looked down at the boy with an awful perm, “oi, she’s a year our senior. Show a little respect.”

“You don’t,” Hanemiya hit back before the authoritarian could even take a breath.

“We-That’s because-I-we’re…neighbours. And our family work together.”

Scratching the underneath of her hair becoming damp due to the heat and burst of exercise, the girl glanced to the VP with a quirked brow. “Why are you getting flustered? I wouldn’t give you a rub down even if you paid me.”

It took a moment, but once the words had made their way into the group’s brains, sniggering broke the humid air. Even that damn dog seemed like it was laughing at the tallest. Almost rolling on his knees, Hayashida choked on his breath, “he wouldn’t be able to afford it even if he wanted it.”

Stifling his chuckle behind his wrist, Mitsuya caught sight of his Vice President’s expression and thought better about pushing the issue. “Like you can talk, Pah. When was the last time you won anything besides the number of punches to the head a human being can take without dying?”

Attention caught by the article hanging from the corner of the lilac-haired boy’s school bag, the girl’s expression went from condescending to gold-digger in front of a Tiffany’s window in 0.3 seconds. Citrine eyes heavily surrounded by black zoomed in and plump glossed lips puckered with a feminine squeal that was choked out just as quickly as it made its emergence.

Glancing at the cause of the noise, the group eyed the girl it did not match one bit. “What the hell was that?” Ryūguji scoffed. Like, that fucker actually coughed up air in surprise at her feminine reaction.

Line of sight up to the crystal-clear sky, the girl tweaked her finger pads and answered with her voice low, “it’s really cute.”

Brow quirked, the corners of Ryūguji’s lips pinched. “W-what? Since when did you like cute things?”

Face automatically scrunching up, she jabbed her nail towards her overly developed chest. “Just because I look like this, doesn’t mean I don’t like pretty things sometimes.”

“What are you even talking about?” Ryūguji and the others looked around for what could be so enthralling. “All that’s around here are ‘trade vendors and sex shops.”

Pulling a face, she rolled her eyes, “perhaps I like my handcuffs to be sparkly.”

Coughing and spluttering, the boys avoided eye contact after such words. Gnashing the scenery, the tallest instinctively rose his foot to kick her on the side of the leg until her pet gave him the evil-eye. “You’re fifteen, what could you want handcuffs for?!”

Tutting, the girl pointed a long black nail with a silver-glittered tip to the school bag of the boy with lilac hair. “That. I was talking about that, you moron,” she gestured to a perfectly stitched fluffy lilac bunny rabbit wearing a Tokyo Majin jacket and earring matching its owner. “It’s sick; I want one.”

Taken aback by the forward compliment, Mitsuya placed his hand over the item he’d made from scratch. “I can make you one.”

“Don’t indulge her, Mitsuya.” Ryūguji sucked his teeth, wafting to his left at the leader of their Elite Guard. “Give her an inch and she’ll run a mile.”

“Hehh~ Gimme seven and I’ll show you a good time.” She advanced for Mitsuya to get a closer look at the fuzzy plushie.

“Jesus Christ, stop it!” Ryūguji bit at the air between them, his friends frazzling at the bold words.

Ignoring the warning from her long-time friend, the girl stepped toe to toe with the slightly shorter boy, her lips apart with her eyes alight with joy. “Would you really make me one? I’d pay for it,” she told as she prodded the dangling keychain, her head levelling with his crotch as she took a closer look at the biker bunny plushie the length of a middle finger.

Instantly catching the expressions on his friends' faces from the easily misconstrued angle, Ryūguji yanked the girl up by the back of her top, his ring getting caught inside the back-strap of her bra when he used too much force.

“Ouwah, leggo-”

More than the discomfort he was causing her, or the pinch around his finger, Ryūguji was wary of her pet getting up from his lying position on the floor. “-it’s stuck; stop squirming-he’s going to bite me-”

Ping.

Freed from the pinching stab of metal and the elastic of her already tight support, a metal lighter fell between the knees of the boy still lost in his own world from petting her dog.

“...Ehh…” The tallest’s eyes went blank in realization at what had just happened.

Straightening up, the girl’s face was no longer one of adoring the cute thing which had caught her attention. Eyes and forehead overshadowed by wind-blasted hair from the deranged driving and being ragged like a bent-over puppet on a string, she turned to her neighbour with twitching lips.

Ryūguji held up shaking hands, his irises trembling, not even caring if he looked like a wimp for the cowering in front of his friends when she clenched her jaw for the accident. “I didn’t mean that. I didn’t, I swear!”

“I know you didn’t - even with such long fingers, you wouldn’t have the skill to undo a girl’s bra with one hand.” Holding her own hand out to the boy at her feet expectantly, she wagged her fingers twice. “My lighter, please.”

‘My God, was he saved?’

Picking up the item, the floored boy fondled it for a second or two. “It’s really hot…” Holding it in his palm, Baji caught the inscription on the back; there was a symbol he thought he was familiar with along with a name and a date. However, before he could process the writing, the girl clicked her fingers and his body handed it over prior to his mind catching up.

Accepting the item, the girl clasped it in her right palm. “That’s because it’s been between my tits since lunchtime.”

“Oh, yeah. Well, metal does heat up...” The long-haired brunet told as he dragged his eyes from his now-empty hand and up to the face of the girl. Mitsuya and Hayashida covered their faces in varying degrees of dismay while Ryūguji had gone back to looking for his best escape route.

“Oi, Baldie, I don’t have all day. Take these in for me,” she held out the two bags which had been hanging off her wrist.

“Why should I do it?”

‘Tch’ing’ the girl rested her weight on one foot, a pure expression of being done on her face. “I dunno, ‘cause I asked? Besides, you live there; and I can’t go in with Satsu if customers are in there - do you wanna watch him?”

“Do I hell,” taking the bags from the girl, Ryūguji eyed the dog which had traumatized him since the first day they met six months ago.

Baji ran his fingers through the thick fluff, now in a crouching position, his face still close to the dog who had apparently disliked just about everyone but his owner up until that point. “Satsu? Is that his name?”

“Yeah,” Ryūguji spat as he eyed the pet with caution as he turned around but not fully. “It’s short for Satsujin, and rightfully so. I'm sure the damn thing's plotting to eat me.”

Hayashida and Hanemiya leaned over the Captain of the Attack Unit, a little more confident that the animal wasn’t going to wolf them down whole when it gave the paw it was asked for and took commands precisely. “So badass.”

Taking the top layer of the throwaway take-out tubs from the bag, the girl urged her neighbour with the flap of her hand. “Don’t take too long, or else I might replace you as VP~”

Ryūguji paused before opening the door of the rub’n’tug, a scowl crinkling his features with his teeth bared. “Like you could.”

Sano gave a lax shrug, his eyes still focused only on the food in their situation. “I dunno…She cooks well and could be useful in infiltration missions. You’d look horrendous dressed as a woman, Ken-Chin…” The small blonde cooed when a tray of gyoza was wafted under his nose by the girl.

Ripping open the glass door to the establishment he’d barely left, Ryūguji snarled and stomped inside, “screw you all; I hate all of you.”

Grinning at the riling which was always too easy, the girl handed the tray to the boy with lilac hair, “you guys can have those if you want the-” She wasn’t even able to finish her sentence before a scrap broke out for the dumplings. “I’m not sure whether it’s insensitive to ask if you get to eat enough, or if all teenaged boys are willing to brawl over a bit of food.” Arms behind her back, she fixed the clasp of her bra under her uniform shirt as she watched the rough-and-tumble jostle for the batch of twenty gyoza. “You don’t have to argue over it; I can make enough food for all of you.”

Pausing the tussle, Sano struck his hand out, his palm shoving Hayashida’s face away as his heel kept Hanemiya at bay from the batch snatched from Mitsuya. “Shiki-Ane, will you really?” Balanced in his spectacular position of being five feet off the ground in a horizontal spread, the shortest almost unscrewed his head when he looked to the girl making the offer.

“Anything I can do to keep you little shit-heads off the streets.” She held her hand up as she walked over to the low wall opposite the place of her mother’s work. Sitting down, she sparked the crinkled cigarette which had been tucked behind her ear. Sniffling on her seasonal allergies coming in with mid-spring, she inhaled a long breath of the fumes just as a pair of police officers were about to turn down the side road they were occupying. “Mikey, pull your guys in.” Clicking her fingers, the dog got up out of the empty side-road and led down out of the way by the girl’s feet.

She did not trust authority figures in the slightest. It wasn’t just because of the ‘snitches get left in ditches’ culture she was raised in. They only interfered when it suited them. They were practically busy-bodies with badges. She’d been on the wrong side of the law and made guilty by association way too many times. ‘Might did not make right’, in her mind, and that was what the ‘law’ in her situation lorded over people like her.

Stopping a few yards from the corner, the officers shouted to the group, “you lot shouldn’t be hanging around here; do you know where you are?”

Standing up, the girl rubbed the side of her head with closed eyes and a dumbard giggle. “Hehh~ Isn’t this the way to town?”

“I think you should come with us, miss.”

“I’m good, thank you. I’m waiting for my brother.”

“Be careful around boys like that.”

“Nehhh~” bowing her head, the girl threw up her middle finger from her folded position as soon as they started to turn away. “I think it’s these boys who should be the ones who have to be careful around me.”

“E-eh?” One of the officers did a double-take, sure they’d been flipped off. However, when he looked back all he saw was the polite bow from the female, a demure smile on her face as she used her manner hand to keep the gap of her top from spilling the rack which did not fit with the teen face.

Shutting the glass door behind him carefully, Ryūguji stood behind the girl. Utterly terrifying to anyone else, the semi-shaved boy with a head tattoo gave the policemen a dejected look. “She’s all too right - please save us.” He went to step around her, his hand out in pleading. “No, please - I’m being serious. You don’t know what she’s like-” Brought to his knees by the smack of solid leather to the back of his lower right thigh, Ryūguji flopped forward and held his hands out just in time to save his face from the cracked asphalt.

Holding his free hand out, the tallest sucked his pain inwards. “Those asshole cops never believe me when I say I’m in trouble.”

Puffing on a cigarette to relight the embers, the girl croaked, “that’s because you’re almost fourteen with a skin-shave and a head-tatt, and you’re six foot tall.” Flicking the ash from her vice, she shrugged her left shoulder. “Plus, you have that face.”

“What face,” he asked as he was pulled up off the floor by the girl who had put him down there.

“The face of somebody who would kill anyone who intervened with their business if they were actually serious.” The group quieted to the point that even traffic from two roads over was audible. Swallowing the excess spit stuck on the back of her tongue refusing to be swallowed, the girl knocked her knuckles against the back of her neighbour’s head. It wasn’t too hard, but the victim yelped all the same.

“Yoawch!” Hunching, Ryūguji held the back of his skull, his usual reaction for an assault nowhere to be found bar a complaint. All of his physical rebukes were non-existent when he stepped toe-to-toe with the girl, his imposing figure and fire-breath grumbling taken with a chuckle by the shorter party who had let go of the leash in order to wind her friend up with long-nailed prods to the body while he grew ever irritated.

With each poke, the girl laughed in mockery, “Big-boy Kenny, beater-of-little-bitches, number two of Touman~”

Pushing the jesting fingers away with one hand, the other rubbed his head. “Out of everything, your backhands hurt the most; stop whacking me like that!” Dodging out of her way as best he could without smacking her back, Ryūguji hissed through his teeth as 90% of the petty jabs stung past his school uniform shirt. “I have a good head shape - I want to keep it that way so stop coming at me with your little Stegosaurus knuckles.”

Mitsuya frowned, “the what, now?”

“Shut up-”

Fingers squished in the large grasp which had caught her, she leaned her head back with a laugh to answer the questioner, “I used to read him dinos-”

“-Shut the fuck up, before I tell them your given name-”

She pulled her sweaty hand straight down, out of his. Arm striking past the leader, the heel of the girl’s palm came down with so much force that the boy it attacked took out the two bodies behind it. “-That’s enough from you. Have a nap.” Eyes blank, the girl flopped her hand back over her own shoulder when she turned around, “somebody should probably pick him up.”

Watching the girl walk over to the bicycle which was battered even before it got into a fight with the low wall half an hour ago, the crew were unable to say or do anything besides what the girl had recommended. “Mikey knows the way back to my place; I’ll meet you there and make you some dinner.” Kicking the transport with a broken front wheel, the girl huffed. “Piece of shit.”

Still holding the leash which had been dropped, Baji stopped behind the girl. “You can’t ride your bike when it’s in that state.”

“It’s not mine anyway; I acquired it earlier.” Glancing back at the boy struggling to get closer, she shrugged, “how about you bring me?”

In that instant, Baji felt his veins squeeze tight. A lump was stuck at the back of his throat and it was suddenly very warm. “W-what about your dog?”

“He’s the third wheel.”

“Your dog can ride on a motorbike?!”

Laughing at the reaction, the girl patted the space behind the boy. “He can, if you’re scared of having a girl at your back.” She clicked her tongue, “up.” The dog got up on the seat right behind the boy he had tackled.

Processing that the animal had sat behind him, Baji gawped. “I’m not sure who I should be more in awe of; the dog, or you for making it so clever.”

Standing beside the motorbike, the girl finished her cigarette and stubbed it out in the designated tray above a public bin. “That felt like a punch and a stroke at the same time: are you trying to say I’m like an animal, or that I’m smart?”

“I’m just concerned about how the three of us can get to your place.”

Calling her pet down to the pavement, she ruched her skirt up to her mid-thighs and kicked her leg over the motorbike. Sitting as far back as she could, the high backrest comfortable enough to fall asleep on, the girl shifted and took hold of the ledges above the back wheel covers. “I’m not a stranger to riding on a bike. Besides, we’re going around the corner and down the street. It’s that building there but you can’t get in from this side,” she said, pointing up at the block which was one row behind the building they were in front of. Stretching her leg out, the edge of her boot nudged where his right hand gripped the handlebars. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Satsu beats all of us back at this rate.”

“Heh?”

“What?”

“Move down and hold on.”

“Why?”

Baji revved the engine running hot. “I’ll beat them.”

“Oh, yeah?” She slid down the seat, her pelvis hitting his rear and her breasts pressed against the solid back. “Don’t tell me things you can’t live up to.” Inner thighs pressed against the outside of his, she held the top of his shoulders with a whisper. “I hate people who overestimate themselves.”

Heating up at the breath tickling the back of his ear, the plush body flush with his, his mind over-clocked and his tongue could barely listen to the orders his brain was trying to give. He’d never been this close to a girl before. Her chest was soft and her scent made it difficult for his eyes not to flutter. “J-just hold on tight - I don’t want you to fall off. I w-won’t stop if you do.”

“I wouldn’t ask you to.”

Revving the engine, Baji quickly came up on the back of his gang riding at a leisurely pace down the main road, the dog running on the path beside.

Sano glanced back to the boy gaining speed, almost catching up on Ryūguji. “I thought he was walking Shiki-Ane back?”

“He’s going down the side…what’s he doing?”

Speeding past the last four drivers, Baji waved at the leader while the girl on the back of his bike threw a taunting gesture to her neighbour.

Grinding his teeth, his head pounding with an ache, the tallest growled to the boy on the seat behind him. “I told them not to indulge her.”

Able to enjoy the cruise on the back of his VP’s bike, Sano kept his hands behind his head, his jaw going as he munched on one of the gyoza he’d stolen. “Maybe we should kill him for it?”

Swerving, Ryūguji hacked, “what?”

Lackadaisical tone almost a sing-song, the leader swallowed down the last of the snack. “If you’re not that angry, let it go.”

 

Pulling up to the apartment block dowsed in rust and grime, the girl’s pet was waiting by the detached brick building facing the apartments. Ryūguji unlocked one of the shutter doors and hung his head while walking his bike into the personal garage space, everyone but the missing pair lining up their own. “We shouldn’t use the elevator. There’s always junkies and prostitutes in it.” He said but it was likely ignored for the splay of erotic posters, toolboxes and boxing gear.

“Is she a dyke?” Hanemiya asked as he ogled a poster of a swimsuit model posed on her back.

“It’s her brothers’ work and hang-out space.”

“She has brothers?”

“Two older, one younger half; and an older sister.” Pulling down the shutter halfway, Ryūguji waited for the last boy to bring the girl back.

Standing beside the boy with a perm, Hayashida’s eyes shot to the tallest. “Are we gonna get harassed?”

“They’re all dead or gone,” Sano said without so much as a blink.

“Mikey, stop.” Jesus Christ, he really had a way of bringing down the mood without even realizing it.

Speeding around the corner, Baji came to an abrupt halt in front of the shutters, the pair jerking slightly. This was likely on purpose as when the girl pressed into his back from the lurch, the brunet’s nostrils flared and it was so damn obvious that he was refraining a grin. It was as plain as it was day that it was his intention to have a pair of breasts pressed into his back and every single person there noticed it apart from the girl herself.

“You drive like a damn lunatic,” she said, smacking the top of his shoulder, although her exhilarated grin told that she wasn’t mad about the fact. Her other hand flattened the hair which had got into a mishap with the wind which had whipped past her, her line of sight travelling to the group who had been waiting. “You were taking too long so he took me for a spin around the block while we waited.”

“Is that what he was doing?” Ryūguji asked; he may have well have had his hand on his hip and be tapping his foot like an irritated mother with the expression he was wearing and the tone he was using.

Wafting her hand dismissively, the girl noticed the glum expressions on the faces of the three boys she had just met. “Eh~ ‘bet you were telling them some kind of horrible back-story, weren’t ya?” The girl got off the vehicle with a huff, her tone light despite the look she shot to the interior of the garage. “So, what, you lot want food, or are you going to start a circle-jerk while crying for me?”

Updated: 2nd October 2021 - 15:49