Sukeban

“Who is your friend, Mao?” Tomomi heard Hana ask in a sweet voice. By this point, Tomomi was practically hiding behind Mao. She was standing behind her friend, doing her best to hide herself from the group of five girls in front of her. Hana was acting like she didn’t know Tomomi, and that was probably what scared Tomomi the most right now. The brunette knew she should be thankful that Hana wasn’t blowing her secret but at the same time, after what Tomomi had seen Hana do, she didn’t really trust the girl. There had to be a reason Hana was acting like that and that possible reason is what scared Tomomi.

“This is Tomomi,” Mao answered. She stepped aside, grabbing Tomomi’s forearm and giving her a pull forward. Tomomi stumbled, only staying on her feet because Mao still held her arm tightly. Tomomi slowly lifted her vision from the ground and up to Hana, the senior girl with her head tilted to the side and a kind smile on her face.

“It’s so nice to meet you, Tomomi,” Hana told her. Tomomi gulped, her hands clenching and unclenching as she struggled to find words to speak to Hana. She didn’t know what to say to Hana but she knew she had to say something. If she kept acting like this and Hana really didn’t remember her, this behavior could cause the senior girl to remember.

“I-it’s nice to meet you too,” Tomomi stuttered out finally. She saw Hana give her a satisfied smile before the senior girl turned to the familiar orange haired one beside her. The girl smirked at Tomomi before breaking attention with her, turning to Hana as well.

“Yoko, why don’t you and Mao go and get us a room, we’ll wait here for you,” Hana suggested. The orange haired girl nodded her head, pushing herself off the metal bench that she had formerly shared with Hana.

“Let’s go, Mao,” she said and linked her arm with Mao’s. Mao dropped her grip from Tomomi and instantly, the brunette wished that she hadn’t. She felt so alone and scared without Mao’s grip on her. It was just a reminder that Mao was planning to leave Tomomi alone with someone who may or may not really remember her and want to hurt her.

“I’ll be right back, Timo,” Mao told her friend before Yoko dragged her away. Tomomi gulped, bringing her bag in front of her and gripping the handle tightly with both hands. She let her head bow, her hair falling into her face.

She knew this had to be the universe’s way of punishing her for being disloyal to Haruna and the others. Or maybe this was the universe’s way of punishing her for ever having gotten involved with them in the first place.

“Tomomi, please come sit with me for a moment,” Hana offered her. Tomomi could hear the demand hidden beneath that sweet tone Hana continued to use, but Tomomi refused to move regardless. The fear that seeing Hana again had struck in Tomomi kept her body paralyzed.

“I’m fine over here,” Tomomi squeaked out.

“That wasn’t an offer, Tomomi. That was an order, now get over here.” In just a few seconds, Hana’s tone had completely changed. Tomomi looked up cautiously, noticing the senior girl was glaring at her. She knew it. Hana did remember her; she was just acting like she didn’t in front of Mao. But now that Mao was absent for who knew how long… Things were about to go back to normal.

“O-okay…” Tomomi murmured her response, her feet carrying her over to where Hana was seated with slow and ridged movements. She sat down next to Hana on the bench, deliberately sitting as far away from the senior girl as she could get. Her bag dropped to the floor beside her, her hands beginning to pick at each other as they sat on her lap.

“Mao doesn’t know, does she?” Hana started with her first question. Tomomi’s movements came to an abrupt stop, her body stiffening. No. She didn’t want to go here; she didn’t want Hana ratting her out to Mao. She couldn’t face that, not right now.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Tomomi’s voice was barely above a whisper, but each of the girls standing close to her could hear it with ease. Tomomi could hear the low growl come out of the senior girl sitting next to her before she felt Hana’s cold fingertips grip her chin, forcing her to look over at the black haired teenager beside her.

“Don’t play dumb with me, Ogawa. Make this easy on yourself and be honest with me. Mao doesn’t know you’re one of Haruna’s now, does she?” Tomomi began to shake as the tears welled in her eyes.

She was completely alone in this now, no one was going to come and save her like last time. No one was around to.

“No, she doesn’t,” Tomomi admitted. She had no idea what else to do; she was going on a whim here. She thought that maybe if she was honest with Hana then the senior would take it easier on her.

Hana laughed, shaking her head and letting Tomomi go. Tomomi’s head fell back into its previous down turned spot, the brunette sniffling back the tears that were now welling in her eyes. This wasn’t fair. She’d always been a good girl all her life and now one risk she had taken was leading to all of this.

“You know, Tomomi, I’ve got to admit that you’re a lot more deceptive than you look. You’re hiding this from everyone including your best friend, that’s quite a feat to accomplish.”

Tomomi didn’t respond to Hana right away. She only sniffled more, her hands balling into fists and her fingernails digging into her soft palms. Was that supposed to be some sort of a compliment? Tomomi didn’t feel very complimented, she only felt insulted. She felt disgusting to be called deceptive by someone like Hana.

“You won’t tell her, will you?” Tomomi choked out. She was doing her best not to cry but with how terrified she felt, that was becoming harder and harder as the seconds ticked by.

“Whether or not I tell Mao about your little secret life is completely up to you,” Hana answered her. Tomomi slowly lifted her head, the confusion etched on her face. The teenager beside her smirked when she could see the tears shining in Tomomi’s eyes. Tomomi would be even easier to manipulate than her stupid friend was.

“What do you want from me?” Tomomi could hear Hana laugh softly at her question, the teenager shaking her head and leaning back against the wall. She tilted her head to the side, her smirk growing.

Hana still didn’t fully see what Haruna saw in Tomomi but the more she thought about it, the more it made sense to her. Haruna didn’t see anything in Tomomi, which was just the thing, so it had to be someone else. For Haruna to keep such a weak and spineless person around, someone close to Haruna had to have taken a shine to Tomomi. She was one of their weaknesses and she intended to figure out whose.

What better way to do it than to trick it out of Tomomi herself? It would take time, but Hana could fully enjoy playing with Tomomi until then.

“You will figure out in due time. For now, I have two conditions for you,” Hana began. Tomomi quickly turned her head away from Hana, shutting her eyes tightly. She knew she wasn’t going to enjoy this. “Condition one is that you don’t tell Mao the truth about what happened between Rina and I. That would complicate things ever so much, you know.”

“I won’t tell her,” Tomomi responded nearly instantly. Hana nodded her head in satisfaction, continuing her threats.

“The second thing I want from you is obedience. You will do whatever I ask you to and you will tell me anything I want to know.”

Tomomi’s body stiffened again, her fingernails digging deeper into her palms. That was some condition for Tomomi to accept. She would need to betray the group of people she’d just barely made friends with and convinced to trust her. She would have to betray the group she had grown so close to. But if she didn’t comply with Hana… Mao would figure out about it and Tomomi had no idea how her friend would respond to that.

The brunette let out a whimper as she felt Hana’s fingers close around her chin again, forcefully yanking her head to the side so she was looking at Hana again.

“Let me put it to you this way, Tomomi… It would be a real shame if Mao were to find out about you being one of Haruna’s wouldn’t it? Just imagine how heartbroken the poor dear will be that not only is her best friend lying to her face, but is also siding with someone so dangerous like Haruna. I certainly wouldn’t want Mao to be so heartbroken like that and I know you wouldn’t either.”

Tomomi could feel the first tears escape her eyes. She didn’t want to cry – she didn’t want to show so much weakness to Hana – but she couldn’t control her tears anymore. She was terrified not just for herself but also for Mao. Mao had somehow gotten herself involved with someone who was even more dangerous than Haruna.

“What use would I be to you?” Tomomi said, harshly blinking back the tears. Hana laughed lowly, letting Tomomi’s head go again. The brunette instantly brought her hands up to cover her face.

“Oh, Tomomi sweetheart, you’re so simple. You’re part of Haruna’s gang now; you’re a direct link to her. That is what use you can be to me, you can get to where none of my girls can.”

Tomomi never thought she’d say it, but she was regretting backing out of Haruna’s job. If she had just stayed loyal to Haruna and went today like she had promised, she wouldn’t be sitting here with Hana. She wouldn’t be being threatened like this.

“Please don’t make me do this,” Tomomi whispered out, her words coming out at a lower tone because of the hands that still covered her face She could hear a dark chuckling beside her and she knew that Hana had heard her begging.

“You’re so pathetic,” Hana murmured to her. Tomomi sniffled softly, her hands falling away from her face before she wiped the tears away from her eyes. She was so stupid. She should have just gone with the girls today; she should never have followed Mao here. But she had never imagined that this was what was waiting for her.

“We’re back!” Tomomi heard the cheerful call of her friend before Hana could make any more berating insults against her. She looked up through the hair that still hung in her face, sniffling back the last of her tears. “Tomomi… Is something wrong?”

The question had caught Tomomi off guard but she couldn’t say she was surprised; Mao was awfully good at spotting when something was wrong with her.

“I’m fine; I’m just feeling a bit sick. I think I should head home,” Tomomi lied. She hated lying but right now, she would do anything to get away from Hana. She would do anything to get away from this situation.

“Timo, please don’t go… You haven’t eaten all day, have you? You’re just hungry probably, please stay for a bit longer,” Mao pleaded with her. Tomomi wanted to shake her head and give Mao ‘no’ for an answer but as she prepared to do that, one thought occurred to her. If she left now, she’d be leaving Mao alone with Hana and the others, could she really do that?

“I’ll give it a bit longer,” Tomomi reluctantly agreed, forcing a smile onto her face. Mao clapped her hands happily, grabbing Tomomi’s hand and pulling her off of the bench. When Tomomi was on her feet, she linked her arm with hers.

“Thank you, Timo,” she cooed to her friend. Tomomi didn’t respond to her, she didn’t know how to.

“Come on then, let’s go,” Hana said as she pushed herself off the bench. She grabbed the key from Yoko before starting off towards the back, the others reacting quickly to follow her. Mao pulled Tomomi along after the others, still believing Tomomi was simply feeling sick.

The group didn’t have to travel far in the building before they found the room that Yoko and Mao had gotten. Inside, Tomomi sat down, trying her best to stay as far from the group of five and as close to Mao as she possibly could. She didn’t know how long they intended to be here for, but she hoped it wouldn’t be very long.

Tomomi’s comfort didn’t last long as Mao made her way over to Hana who had called her over. Tomomi watched silently as the two girls flipped through a song book, both of them looking so happy. The brunette couldn’t help but begin to think about why she was doing this, about why she would go to such measures just to prevent Mao from finding out.

This was her best friend, someone she had known since she was a small child. The two of them had grown up together and had been through so much together, but they always stuck by one another. They never left each other’s side no matter what the other one did, why should this be any different? Maybe Mao would be mad at first, but there was no real reason why they couldn’t get through this just like everything else. Tomomi knew she was just being unnecessarily scared about this, just as she was about everything.

But there was always that possibility of Mao never wanting to speak to her again and that was the one thing holding Tomomi back.

The sudden ringtone that sounded throughout the room startled Tomomi away from the war that waged in her mind. She saw Mao jump up, rushing over to where her bag was laid.

“I’m sorry, it’s my mom. I’ll be right back,” Mao said hurriedly. Without another word, the young girl left the room, once again leaving Tomomi alone with the rest of the group.

The brunette’s eyes had traveled over to Hana when Mao had left the room and that’s where her eyes stayed locked. The senior girl looked up and smiled when she saw Tomomi looking at her. This girl was far too easy to control; Hana knew she was going to enjoy having Tomomi under her control.

“Is there something I can do for you, Tomomi?” Hana asked in the sickly sweet tone she had used earlier. The thoughts from earlier passed through Tomomi’s mind. This was her chance to decline Hana’s agreement and stand up for herself; she could easily tell Hana right now that she didn’t care if Mao found out. But the war in her mind raged on, the thought of losing Mao pulling her back from speaking the words. Instead, Tomomi spoke different ones. Standing up to Hana was much easier said than done.

“Why do you want Mao anyone? What use is she to you?” Hana raised an eyebrow at the question Tomomi had asked, it was one she certainly wasn’t expecting out of Tomomi, but it was one she would answer all the same. Who knows, she could have a lot of fun letting Tomomi in on this little secret.

“I like Mao, she’s a sweet girl. But she’s also got a very special talent… She’s very good at finding things out,” Hana told the brunette. Hana smirked when she saw the confused expression on Tomomi’s face; this really would be so much fun. “Think about it.”

Tomomi let her eyes drift off of Hana finally, her head hanging itself and her eyes diverting down to the ground. The brunette wracked her mind, going over everything that she could think of but nothing came to her. She had no idea whatsoever as to what Hana could have meant by her words.

“Do I have to spell everything out for you?” Hana snapped harshly.

Before Tomomi could react, Hana had made her way over to Tomomi, sitting next to the brunette. She grabbed the back of Tomomi’s head roughly, grabbing a handful of hair and yanking her head back so Tomomi was forced to look at her. Hana’s smirk grew as she saw the fear make its way back into Tomomi’s features.

“Do you know Rina’s secrets? Because I do, and guess who told me.” The senior girl enjoyed the way Tomomi’s eyes widened; the realization hitting the younger girl instantly after Hana had spoken her words.

With a laugh, she let Tomomi go again, leaning back into the cushioned seats that surrounded the small table in the room. She crossed her arms over her chest, smiling knowingly at Tomomi.

“You’re a liar… Mao would never do that. I know she wouldn’t and I’m not going to ever do anything for you, Hana.” Tomomi hadn’t even thought about her words before she had said them, they were just impulsive. She wished she had thought about them though when she felt Hana give her a rough smack across the face, her head snapping to the side from the force.

“You are in no position to speak so disrespectfully to me, Tomomi. Remember everything you have to lose right now. All it will take is one simple phone call and I can make your life fall apart. Not just Mao will know about you, everyone will know,” Hana threatened lowly. Tomomi squeezed her eyes shut, she hadn’t even thought about the possibility of Hana telling other people as well.

“Hana, be careful hitting her. You don’t want to leave any marks on her and have people question them,” Yoko spoke up from where she sat across the room. Hana looked over at her for a brief second before nodding her head.

“You are right, Yoko dear. I shouldn’t get so impatient and ahead of myself.” Hana said and turned back to Tomomi. “Would you like proof of Mao’s deeds?”

“What proof is there?” Tomomi whispered. She could hear the chuckle from Hana before she snapped her fingers. One of the girls picked up on her silent order, sliding a cellphone across the table to her. The senior girl grabbed it, flipping it open and quickly navigating her way through the phone.

When she found what she had been looking for, Tomomi could see the smirk on her face be replaced with a more devilish one. She turned the phone out, extending it out towards Tomomi. The brunette stayed quiet as she searched the picture she was being shown, her eyes finally making it to the number of the message. There really was no denying it; the number had come from Mao’s phone.

“Mao sent me this picture; she also let me know about Rina’s parents. I know all of Rina’s secrets and it’s all thanks to your little friend, none of it could have been possible without her.”

Tomomi shook her head hard at Hana’s words. That wasn’t possible, she had to be lying. There was no way that Mao could have really done that, she was too soft spoken to ever get involved in anything like this. Then again, most people would also probably have said the same thing about Tomomi…

“Whether you believe me or not is up to you,” Hana began, cutting off Tomomi’s thoughts. “But there’s no way to deny that picture came from Mao’s phone, is there? I don’t know where she got it from but I do know that she told me and that is what is important here.”

“Why would she get involved?” Tomomi whispered. It wasn’t a serious question, it was more of a rhetorical one that Tomomi’s mind asked in order to try and make sense of this all.

“I don’t know but what’s done is done. Now, if you want to refuse my last offer then that’s fine, I’ve got no problem telling Mao exactly who you really are. But this… This is an entirely different matter, isn’t it? I’ll make you a new deal.”

“What deal?” Tomomi could feel it in her gut; she knew she would live to regret that question.

“If you don’t comply with me, I will tell Haruna about Mao. I’ll tell all of them. Would you want that for her? Think about it, Tomomi. We both know how angry Haruna will be with her for spilling Rina’s secrets and we know Mao wouldn’t stand a chance. She’s weak and frail; Haruna’s group would break her in seconds. You’re just as weak and frail; you wouldn’t be able to protect her if those girls go after her. All you have to do to protect Mao from that fate is to simply do as I say; it’s really not a difficult task.”

Tomomi wanted to protest Hana’s words. She wanted to keep insisting Hana was lying and refuse to accept the words that she was hearing. But Tomomi was finding it hard to do that. Even if Hana was lying about Mao’s involvement, Tomomi knew she’d tell Haruna it was Mao regardless just to get back at Tomomi for rejecting her. And she also knew that Hana’s threats were correct. Haruna would send the others after Mao and there was no way that Mao would stand a chance against them.

The only way to protect Mao was to keep giving into Hana. Even if Tomomi agreed to let Hana tell Mao about her involvement with Haruna, there was now the matter of knowing Mao had told Hana the secrets. That created an all new level of terror that held Tomomi back.

“Was that not convincing enough, Tomomi?” As soon as she heard the sentence finish, Tomomi could feel Hana grab her hair again, yanking her head back, a pained yelp escaping the brunette. “Let me put it to you this way then… If you refuse, things will get bad for you. You’re a very pretty girl, Tomomi. It would be such a shame if you were to have an accident to mess that up for you. Do you understand me?”

This time, Tomomi didn’t answer. She couldn’t answer and she didn’t want to. The tears pricked the back of her eyes, her hands clenched into tight fists. The breath in her throat felt like cement, weighing down and refusing to come out. Her words were paralyzed, her entire body was paralyzed.

She heard Hana scoff before the senior girl let Tomomi’s head go, throwing her head forward. The impact made Tomomi’s body lurch forward some, but not enough to cause her to fall from her seat.

“Tell ya what, Tomomi. I’ll give you some time to think about it, but I expect an answer the next I or one of my girls comes and asks you. Have I made myself perfectly clear to you?”

Tomomi wasn’t given a chance to answer before she heard the door open; she knew right away that it was Mao returning to the room. This time though, Tomomi wouldn’t be staying. She couldn’t stay, not after the new conversation she had just had with Hana. She pushed herself up in a rush, turning to Mao.

“I’m sorry, Mao, but I’m really not feeling good. I need to go home.” After Tomomi had said her words, she grabbed her bag, walking forward to where Mao stood at the front of the room.

“Oh… Don’t worry, Timo. I understand, I hope you feel better soon,” the oblivious girl responded cheerfully. Tomomi nodded, giving her a faked smile and a quick hug. “Do you want me to walk you home?”

“No, it’s fine. I’ll be okay on my own, you should stay here,” Tomomi said. She really just wanted to leave. She couldn’t hold back the tears for much longer and she didn’t want Mao to see her crying. She gave her friend a small wave before quickly dashing out of the room.

One the door was shut, Tomomi could feel the tears beginning to slip from her eyes. She furiously wiped them away as she walked quickly down the hallway, eager to leave this building. As she neared the exit, she could hear her phone chime from within her bag. Tomomi stopped momentarily, fishing out her phone and flipping it open. The tears only picked up when she saw the message was from Mami.

I feel like I should warn you that Haruna is very angry with you. You should pray that Rina can calm her down before you see her next.

Tomomi found herself typing before her mind could process what she was typing. She didn’t read her words, none of them registering in her mind. She simply typed out what her heart felt, the tears rolling down her cheeks, a few dropping down onto the screen of her phone.

I’m so sorry, Mami. I should have just gone with you all today.