Sukeban

“Rina, can we talk for a few seconds?” Tomomi asked the younger girl in a small voice. From where she sat reading a book with Sumire, Rina lifted her head, cocking it to the side at Tomomi’s question. The older brunette stood in front of the duo, her hands clasped behind her back, her head looking at the ground, and her body rocking back and forth gently on her heels.

“Of course. Is it okay if Sumire stays or…?” Rina deliberately let her sentence trail off, waiting for Tomomi to answer her question.

“It’s fine if she stays,” Tomomi answered. She didn’t mind Sumire being here to hear these questions, Sumire was about as gentle as Rina was, she hadn’t learned the things that other girls knew just yet. For now, Tomomi knew both of the girls would be able to keep this quiet if she asked them to.

Tomomi didn’t even know why she was doing this. Once again, her emotions were controlling her and leading her in a direction that may very well end badly for her. The logical part of her told her to stay away from this, to just forget what she ever saw yesterday and pretend like it never happened. She knew that she’d find trouble for herself if she let herself get too involved into Mami’s problems.

But the emotional part of her and the part that cared for Mami urged her forward. She wanted to find a way to help Mami. She couldn’t be completely useless, there had to be something that Tomomi could do in order to help Mami. She thought that maybe Rina could give her some insight on how to do that exactly.

“Come sit down with us,” Sumire said, motioning towards the open spot next to Rina. Tomomi nodded in response, taking small steps closer to the duo. She lowered herself to the floor, sitting next to Rina and pressing her back up against the chain-link fence the duo were also leaned against. Tomomi brought her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms tightly around her legs.

“What’s wrong, Tomo?” Rina asked her softly. Tomomi looked over to see the Sumire had pulled the book aside, bending the edge of one of the pages as a makeshift bookmark. Both girls were now looking at Tomomi who wasn’t doing the best of jobs hiding the fact that something was wrong with her.

The brunette gulped softly, redirecting her sight down to the ground. Even if her emotions pushed her forward, the logical part of her still fought back. If word got to Mami that Tomomi had spied on her, how would Mami react to it? The thought of Mami being mad and losing the friendship she had created with the girl was what scared Tomomi most about this. But she couldn’t just ignore it, not when she knew Mami was being treated like that.

“Please tell us,” Sumire urged her in the same soft tone that Rina had used. Taking a deep breath, Tomomi decided it was time to speak.

“Do either of you know what Mami’s home is like?” Tomomi began. If the two girls didn’t know what was going on in Mami’s home then she couldn’t really tell them, it wasn’t her place to do something like that. She couldn’t interfere that much.

When Tomomi’s question was met with silence, her turned her head to look back at the two girls. Both of the girls had looked away from Tomomi but the brunette could see it clearly on their faces that they knew just as well as she did what was happening to Mami.

“So you do know,” Tomomi continued. Both of the girls nodded in unison, neither one still not saying a word. Tomomi sighed softly, dropping her head. This was one of the worst subjects Tomomi could ever think to bring up.

“How do you know though? Did Mami tell you?” she heard Rina ask.

“Not exactly. I had to take some assignments to her yesterday and when I was leaving, I kind of just saw it happen through the window,” Tomomi admitted. She could hear some shuffling beside her. She looked over and noticed that Rina had scooted closer to her, the younger girl staring right at her now.

“Mami won’t be happy about that,” she informed Tomomi. The older brunette could only sigh. She already knew that, which is why she didn’t want Mami finding out about her unintentional spying. She didn’t want to do anything that could make Mami mad at her.

“I know,” Tomomi whispered. The brunette could hear a soft sniffling come from beside her, but she didn’t know which one it was coming from.

“It’s best you just forget what you know.” Tomomi’s eyes widened at Rina’s words. How could she say such a thing? Tomomi couldn’t just forget about what Mami’s mother was doing to her and she didn’t understand how Rina could do it. Weren’t any of them concerned for Mami’s safety?

Tomomi looked pleadingly at Sumire, but the youngest girl refused to even look at her. Her arms lay wrapped around her torso and her eyes refused to leave the ground. Tomomi could tell that Sumire thought the same way as Rina did.

“I can’t forget that. Mami could get really hurt--”

“You don’t think we don’t know that?” Rina said suddenly, cutting off Tomomi’s words. Tomomi was a bit surprised by the desperate tone that Rina had spoken in; it was so uncharacteristic for the young girl. She could see the tears shining in the younger girl’s eyes as she spoke. “We worry about what Mami’s mother could do to her every day, but there’s nothing we can do about it.”

“Of course there’s something we can do. We can tell someone.”

“Do you even know who Mami’s mother is?” This time, it was Sumire who had ended Tomomi’s words abruptly. Tomomi peered around Rina at the young brunette who was still staring intently at the ground.

“No, I don’t,” Tomomi answered. She could see Sumire’s eyes flick up to look at her, the tears shining in her eyes as well. Maybe it wasn’t the right choice to bring this up with them, but she thought any of the other girls would surely tell Mami if she had tried to bring it up with them. She could have just kept it to herself of course, but Tomomi knew it would drive her insane if she kept quiet about it.

“Her mother works for a high end company in Tokyo,” Sumire answered her back. “She’s well respected and well loved. She’s a powerful person.”

“Wait… What? That doesn’t… That doesn’t make any sense though.” It was the first thing Tomomi could think of to say when she had heard Sumire’s words. With the way Mami had always described her family and her home life, her mother working at such a place was the last thing she ever expected to hear. Then again, Tomomi also never thought she’d witness Mami being abused by her own mother. Anything was possible.

“It’s surprising, isn’t it? What with the way Mami talks and all, but it’s true,” Rina spoke up now. Tomomi could see Rina wipe a tear from her eye and the guilt began to grow in Tomomi’s body. It really was the wrong choice to bring this up; she hadn’t meant to hurt anyone.

“I know you may not believe it but think of it this way, would Rina and I have any reason to lie to you?” Sumire finished for Rina. Tomomi was beginning to get the hint that Sumire and Rina were taking turns talking probably because this wasn’t the easiest thing to talk about. “Mami doesn’t talk very highly of her own family and I think you can understand why. People are easily misled into thinking her mother works at a low end job or something. That’s what you thought, isn’t it?”

“Yeah…” Tomomi admitted, her head hanging. Tomomi had bought into Mami’s lies just as everyone else had.

“Tomomi, I know you want to help Mami but… There’s really nothing we can do. Her mother is so powerful; no one would ever believe us,” Rina brought up.

“They might if we try.” Tomomi was grasping at straws here, desperately trying to think of something she could do for Mami. But with every word that Rina said, she got less and less hopeful. Deep down, she knew Rina was right. Who would believe a bunch of school-aged teenagers on something like this anyway?

“It’s no use. We’re just stupid kids, Tomomi. It would be our word against hers, and no one would believe our word.”

“But the cuts and bruises…” Tomomi sniffled softly as she let her sentence trail off. She was becoming very hopeless about this entire thing.

“Mami has a record of violence at school; her mother could easily use that to explain the markings on her. Trust us, Tomomi, we’ve thought about all of this before. The only thing we can do is be there for Mami when she needs it.” Rina let her voice go quiet with those last words, her head hanging much in the same fashion as Tomomi. This is why Rina had hoped Tomomi would never find out about Mami’s home life.

Rina knew that Tomomi would respond in the same way she had. When she first found out, she too tried desperately to stop it. It took a lot of convincing from the other girls for Rina to come to accept the reality of the situation. As much as she wanted to help Mami, she just wasn’t capable of it. None of them were.

“I just don’t get why all of this is happening to her,” Tomomi murmured. She pulled her legs underneath her, pulling her knees against her chest and wrapping her arms around them tightly. She let her head drop down onto her chin, her eyes trained on the ground.

“Neither do we, Tomomi. Neither do we,” Rina whispered out. The silence overtook the three girls, none of them particularly wanting to continue this conversation .Tomomi was really regretting bringing this up now. She had hoped that Rina and Sumire could give her an idea on how to help Mami but they’d given her the exact opposite.

Tomomi almost wanted to be mad at the two girls for telling her to just forget it and accept what was happening to Mami, but there was a stronger part that told her to understand why they felt how they did. Rina and Sumire were both gentle people, they probably felt as useless as Tomomi did in this situation. All three of them were weak and still learning, there was about nothing any of them could do in this situation.

“Whoa, did someone die or something?” Tomomi’s head snapped up when she heard the familiar voice. She looked in the direction she had heard the voice, seeing Mami and Yukako walking over to them. The sarcastic comment had come from Mami; Tomomi would recognize her voice anywhere.

“Very funny, Mami,” Rina replied back. The blonde laughed at her comeback, walking over to stand in front of Rina. She eyed the younger brunette suspiciously, crossing her arms over her chest.

“But seriously, what’s up with you three? You all look so sad,” Mami noted. Tomomi’s body stiffened, the worry flowing through her. She could only hope that Sumire and Rina would cover for her and not tell Mami of the conversation the three of them had just had.

“I think you’re losing it, Mami. None of us are sad,” Sumire piped up, Rina giggling at her comment. Mami scoffed, reaching out and flicking Sumire in the head. The younger girl whined, slapping at Mami’s hands. “You’re so mean.”

“And you’re a smartass, so we’re even,” Mami cracked off with a smirk. Mami was about to make another comeback when she found herself cut off by another familiar voice.

“Stop picking on the children, Mami,” the boss scolded her. Tomomi’s attention snapped to Haruna who was coming to join the group of them, Hinako and Aina following after her.

“I am not that young!” Sumire defended herself, jumping up off the ground. Mami stifled a laugh as the youngest member gave her a glare. Rina joined in on Mami’s laughter before she pushed herself off of the ground, bouncing over to Haruna.

Rina wrapped her arms around Haruna’s waist, planting a kiss on the shorter girl’s cheek. Haruna in turn wrapped her arms around Rina, hugging the younger girl close. Seeing them like that was still rather awkward for Tomomi. She had never pegged Haruna as the romantic type; she never really thought any man or woman could see Haruna in a romantic way like Rina did. She was still getting used to the two of them being so loving with each other.

Tomomi had her attention stolen again when she saw Mami lean against the fence next to her. She did her best not to look directly at Mami, simply glancing at her from the corner of her eye. But she wasn’t very successful with that for too long before she felt Mami place a hand on her head, grabbing a bit of her hair and pulling her head back so she had no choice but to look up at Mami.

“You sure you’re okay? You look like someone kicked your pet,” Mami pointed out. Tomomi huffed at Mami’s comparison, she always did have such a lovely way with words. She never could ask a question in a normal way.

“I’m fine,” Tomomi responded simply. Mami smiled, finally letting Tomomi’s hair go and letting her head fall back down into its previous position. Tomomi squirmed a bit in her spot, her arms wrapping themselves tighter around her knees. “But are you okay?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Mami asked her, a hint of amusement in her voice. Tomomi looked up at Mami and her attention was instantly drawn to the cut on her face. The swelling and redness of the cut had gone down a lot since Tomomi had first seen it; it was a lot less noticeable now. But Tomomi still noticed it. Mami raised an eyebrow as she saw Tomomi bit down on her lip, dropping her head again.

“That didn’t answer my question,” Tomomi grumbled. Mami chuckled softly, letting herself slide down against the fence and down to the floor. She slung an arm over Tomomi’s shoulders, pulling the girl close to her again. Tomomi could feel her cheeks heating up and her mind began screaming at her. Why was she letting her feelings get out of control like that? Mami saw her as a friend; Tomomi just had to remind herself of that.

“You’re so weird,” Mami sighed out. Tomomi shot a glare at Mami who only grinned back in response to the glare. “I’m fine, Tomo,” she said to reassure the brunette.

Tomomi nodded in satisfaction, letting her sight drift away from Mami again. The brunette was feeling an overwhelming urge to lean into Mami’s body and get even closer to her, but she used everything in her to prevent herself from doing that. There was absolutely no way Tomomi would ever let Mami find out the feelings, she could only imagine the comments Mami could make if that knowledge were to ever reach her.

“By the way, Tomomi…” The brunette’s attention was captured when the boss spoke to her directly. The boss was still wrapped around Rina, the only difference being that her sight was now on Tomomi. “I have a job for you and Hinako tomorrow, so you had better be here, got it?”

Tomomi gulped and she could feel Mami pat her shoulder reassuringly. The brunette nodded her head slowly, watching as Haruna smiled in satisfaction, turning her attention back to the young girl in her arms. Tomomi bit down on her lip, her mind beginning to run wild again. Just what did Haruna have planned for her and Hinako?