Sukeban

Mao’s fingers nervously fiddled with the pencil that she held in her hands, going back and forth between twirling it in-between her fingers and tapping it lightly on the wooden desk she sat at. Her mind was busy with thousands of thoughts and worries running through it. Even hearing the soft and happy chatter of her best friend sitting beside her wasn’t enough to calm her down. There was no way Mao would be able to calm down; nothing would achieve that for after this class, she was going to do the unthinkable. She was going to do what she never thought she’d be able to do in a million years. She was going to try to take a stand against Haruna’s gang in the only way she knew how to, by turning to the school’s other “gang”.

It was laughable really. She had urged Tomomi to stay as far away from Haruna’s gang as she possibly could but here she was, thinking of outing probably one of the gang’s biggest secrets. She would be getting closer to them than Tomomi had. She was being hypocritical at best. But she had to; all of this had turned personal. For the entire time she had been going to this school, she had just sat back and watched Haruna’s gang control the school. They had never personally impacted her until that day Haruna had hurt Tomomi. That’s when all of this had become personal, that’s when Mao knew she had to do something. She’d sat back in fear for too long, they all had.

It had been a total accident too; she didn’t mean to overhear all of it. She didn’t mean to hear those secrets. But if she could put this knowledge to good use - if she could help make Haruna pay for all she’d done over the years – then she wouldn’t regret hearing it. But that didn’t diminish the fear she felt in her heart. It didn’t take away the worry she felt when she thought about what would happen to her if Haruna’s gang ever found out that she was the one who told. Her mind shuddered at the thought of even trying to think about it. She was sure they would try to kill her for this if they found out it was her. Haruna’s gang hadn’t killed yet, those delinquents were still above that, but Mao didn’t believe much was stopping them if provoked enough.

She didn’t even know why she was thinking of doing this. Sure, they had hurt Tomomi and Mao was still angry about it, but Tomomi was a quiet girl. It’s not like she was going to make a habit of getting in trouble and pissing off Haruna’s gang. At least, Mao could only hope the nerdy brunette wasn’t thinking of doing that. The last thing she needed was for Tomomi to decide she was going to go rogue. The two of them could easily walk away from what had happened, forgetting all about it. But Mao didn’t want to forget, she didn’t want to forgive them. Forgiving them would be excusing their actions. Not just what they did to Tomomi, but what they did to everyone. Excusing it would justify their actions and make them seem okay. And Mao couldn’t do that. Not anymore. She’d learned her lesson about ignoring it.

So she’d made her decision. Maybe it wasn’t the best or maybe it wasn’t the smartest, but it was one she had decided upon. She had made her plan to find Hana and talk to her. Hana and her friends weren’t necessarily a gang. Sure, some people called them a gang, but they didn’t do bad things. If they did, it was always to people who deserved them; it was always to help someone who deserved to be help. They weren’t like Haruna’s gang, people who hurt others just because they could. Mao had heard the rumors of Hana and her friends doing bad things, of them robbing and hurting innocent people, but Mao didn’t believe it. They couldn’t be true. Hana and her friends weren’t a gang, they were all perfect, straight A students. They never did anything wrong, they only helped people. Mao refused to believe those awful rumors people spread about them.

Too deep in her thoughts, Mao didn’t realize she’d let out a very audible sigh, alerting the brunette who sat beside her. Tomomi looked up from the book she had taken to reading as she talked, raising an eyebrow at the thoughtful look on Mao’s face.

“Whatcha thinking about?” Tomomi asked, placing a pencil into the book as a makeshift bookmarker. Tomomi heard Mao yelp softly, her body jumping to attention. Clearly, she’d been too stuck in her daydreams to notice Tomomi and the brunette had caught her off guard. The brunette couldn’t help but wonder when Mao had stopped listening to her. Mao always yelled at her for spacing out. Well, who was the one spacing out now? She’d have to make sure to pay Mao back for that later.

“Ah nothing in particular!” Mao said quickly, giving a nervous laugh and waving her hands in front of her in a just as nervous gesture. Tomomi rolled her eyes, shaking her head and murmuring something under her breath before going back to her book. “So what were you saying?”

“I don’t know, you tell me. You weren’t spacing out, were you, Mao?” Tomomi glanced over at her friend, smirking when she saw the red tint coming to her short haired friend’s face. She always loved giving Mao a hard time, her reactions were always funny.

“O-of course not!” Mao defended, only making Tomomi laugh.

“Is that right? What was the last thing I said?” Mao opened her mouth to counter Tomomi’s sassy comment, but instantly closed it, having nothing more to say. She’d been caught; there was nothing she could say to defend herself.

“Fine, you win,” Mao huffed. Tomomi giggled softly, giving her friend a playful kick from across the row of school desks. This is why she enjoyed being around Mao so much. Even if she could get annoying, Mao still made her feel comfortable. She was still confident that she could be herself without repercussion. She felt safe.

Tomomi’s conversation had stopped; she hadn’t seen a point in continuing it when Mao had absolutely no idea what she was talking about, it would probably be like talking to a brick wall at this point. And from the way she was spacing out, Tomomi had gotten the hint that she wasn’t in much of a talking mood right now. From the seat next to her, Mao was spacing out again, her gaze fixated on the blue sky that loomed outside of the school window.

With every minute that passed, her plan was inching closer. And with every inch it grew closer, the fear in her body grew that much more. She didn’t know if she’d be able to really do this.

***

“Where are you going?” Tomomi asked, surprised by the knowledge that her friend had plans after school. Mao never had plans after school, and neither did Tomomi before she got involved with them. She knew she didn’t have any reason to complain – and she really wasn’t – since she always left after school to be with them. She was just honestly surprised; it was a change of pace for the meek black haired girl.

“I just need to talk to a teacher about a grade,” Mao said. She felt a bit bad for lying to Tomomi, but she knew Tomomi would never let her go if she knew the truth.

“Make sure you keep those grades up,” Tomomi joked.

“I’m doing better than you,” Mao countered with a smile. Tomomi laughed softly, giving her friend a quick hug.

“Well, I’ll see you tomorrow!” Tomomi said, waving before rushing off down the hallway. Mao stared off after her friend, the nervousness and fear rushing back into her body. Now there wasn’t any turning back, now there wasn’t anything to stop her. She no longer had any real excuses to avoid this. She couldn’t even say she didn’t know where to find Hana because she knew exactly where Hana would be. She and her friends were always in the same place after school.

With a heavy sigh, Mao clutched her schoolbag tightly, holding it against her body as she turned on her heels, making her way down the hallway. She gently snaked in and out of the rows of students, many of them staying a little after school to just chat and hang out with their friends. She kept her head down, her short locks falling into her face. She didn’t want to talk to anyone, not that anyone would actually speak to her. She might as well be invisible in this school; Tomomi was about the only one who noticed her.

Her small feet carried her as quick as they would, rounding the different corners of the hallways until she found herself in the Arts portion of the school. She knew this is where she’d find Hana and her friends; they always spent some time after school in the sculpture room. She didn’t know why – she wasn’t sure anyone did – but as long as she could find Hana then it didn’t matter. Mao slowed her pace as she walked towards the familiar room, her mind beginning to race again. She slowly reached out her hand, turning the small door handle and gently pushing the door open.

She poked her head in, noticing the attention of the five girls in the room snap to her. Maybe this was a mistake. No. It couldn’t be; she had to do this. Mao shook her head, pushing those thoughts into the back of the head as she slowly walked into the room. She wanted to say something, but she found her throat so dry she was unable to speak. She looked across the room, noticing Hana was sitting on the teacher’s desk that sat in the room. Her navy uniform clung to her figure as her long black hair rolled over her shoulders, her parted bangs laying gently against her forehead. Hana’s legs were crossed one over the other as they fell down the desk, her fingertips drumming softly on the table beneath her.

“What can we do for you?” Hana asked softly, giving her a sweet smile. This is why Mao never believed the rumors she heard about Hana, the girl seemed way too sweet to be a delinquent like those rats. Mao cleared her throat, wringing her now clammy hands together.

“Can we-can we talk please? Just for a minute?” Mao said, a stutter clinging to a few of her words. The four girls standing in front of Hana turned to look at her, clearly waiting for her to answer.

“I don’t know,” Hana replied in a bit of a sing-song tone, “we’re planning to leave soon. Family business and whatnot, I’m sure you know how it is.” Mao laughed nervously, shifting on her feet. She didn’t want to move too much and she didn’t want to say something overly stupid. She needed them to take her seriously. But she had to figure out a way to make them stay and listen to her, she just didn’t know what that way was quite yet.

“This is important. Just a few minutes, please?”

“Well… The teachers will be coming through soon…” Hana let her sentence trail, off leaning back on the teacher’s desk she sat on, extending her arms behind her to keep her body held up. She knew that if this underclassman wanted to talk with her badly enough, she’d get right to the point. She didn’t want to waste her time with something unimportant.

“It’s about Haruna and Rina!” Mao blurted out quickly. She was stalling and she couldn’t stall. If she didn’t come out and say it then she never would. Mao noticed how Hana’s attention seemed to perk up. She pushed her body up right again, smirking in Mao’s direction. Well that had her attention.

“Come in and close the door behind you.” Mao nodded, following what Hana had ordered her to do. “The teachers really will be coming through in a few minutes to clear any straggling students, so you better talk fast.”

“Ignore Hana’s attitude, she gets like that sometimes,” one of her friends said with a giggle when Hana glared at her. Mao laughed nervously again, feeling more than just uncomfortable with the situation. She gulped audibly, her hands beginning to tangle with one another as she held them behind her back.

“No, ignore her. Please continue, what is it that you want to tell us?” Mao squeezed her eyes shut before letting them flutter open again seconds later, exhaling a shaky breath. This was her last chance to back out if she wanted to… Mao’s head shook violently at the thought. She wasn’t going to be scared anymore, she wasn’t going to back out.

“I-I was in the park yesterday and I saw Rina and Haruna there. I didn’t mean to but I… I overheard what they were talking about.” Hana stopped Mao’s talking with a soft tsking noise made by the clicking of her tongue. She thought the girl had gotten the hint not to stall and waste her time, but clearly she hadn’t. Hana really did want to yell at this girl to hurry up, but she knew better. Doing so could ruin her perfect image, and she couldn’t let that happen.

“You don’t need to be scared of us; we’re not going to hurt you. We’re not like them.” Mao knew that. She never thought that they’d hurt her, she was more scared of Haruna ever finding out about this. “I do want to ask though before you continue… Will this information be of any use to us?”

“I think it will,” Mao said, trying to find confidence in her voice. But as she did so, Mao could only find herself failing to have any confidence whatsoever. She was the farthest thing from that at the moment.

“Very well, carry on then.” Mao began to rock back and forth on her heels, her eyes darting around the room as she desperately searched to find something comforting to stare at her. But her search proved to be in vain as her eyes settled on Hana again. She’d just have to deal with this.

“Maybe instead of telling you, I should show you,” Mao said with a small smile. She set her bag down on the floor, rummaging through it to find her cellphone. As she pulled it out, Hana nodded her head towards one of her girls, silently telling them to go fetch the phone from Mao. Mao pushed herself back up into a standing position, quickly searching through her photos. When she found the desired one, she gladly handed the phone to Hana’s friend, allowing her to take it over.

Hana reached out, gently grabbing the phone that her friend had handed her. She brought it in front of her, her eyes widening and a smile crossing her face as she looked at the picture. This explained everything. This explained why Haruna was so much more protective over Rina than the others. The others were just Haruna’s friend but Rina… Rina must be more. The picture Hana stared at was one of Haruna and Rina, nestled behind a large building, probably thinking they were out of sight from everyone. It looked like the girl had taken it from around the corner of the building, hiding out of sight from them. She was surprised this tiny and seemingly easily terrified girl could be so smart about that.

In the picture, the girls were held in each other’s arms, Rina looking pressed tightly against Haruna’s body. But the absolute best part of the photo was the kiss the two were locked in. That spelled out everything very clearly, and this could definitely be used against them. Hana knew Rina and Haruna were close, everyone knew that in fact, but what Hana didn’t know was exactly how close they were.

“This is very good. But not as much as I had hoped for,” Hana mused aloud. She was only being honest. While the photo would certainly help her control Haruna into doing some of her bidding, she wanted something more. Something bigger. “It won’t help as much as I had wanted. Although, do you mind if I send it to myself? Just for safekeeping.”

“Go ahead,” Mao said. Hana gave her another sweet smile, punching in her own number into Mao’s phone. “I have something else.” Hana raised an eyebrow at how dark the girl’s tone had turned. Mao’s eyes were looked down at the floor now, her ridged body stuck still in the spot she’d been standing in. Her hands were curled into fists at her side.

Mao was going to feel bad for this one. This was bigger than the photo, bigger than anything else she’d had to say during Hana the entire time she was here. If this got out, it could ruin Rina’s life… Or what was left of it at least. It could put her in a lot of trouble. But even if Mao felt a little bad for it, she expelled that feeling by reminding herself of how horrible Rina was. Rina may look innocent and sweet, but she was the farthest thing from it. She was one of them. She was bad just by association. Even if she never did anything, she had helped enable it. That made her just as bad in Mao’s eyes. She deserved to be punished for helping them. She deserved everything it would bring if her secret was exposed. Besides, it’s not as if Mao was planning to expose it. She was just telling Hana, it would be Hana’s fault if it got out. That’s right. It wasn’t her fault, none of this would be. Why should she feel guilty over it? It was a pointless thing to feel.

“I am very interested to hear this,” Hana said, leaning forward and looking at Mao expectantly. Mao drew in a large breath, exhaling it slowly as she looked back up, smirking at Hana. She wasn’t going to feel sorry for a criminal like Rina. If she didn’t want things like this happening, she wouldn’t have anything to do with them. This was her own fault and she would deserve everything she had coming to her.

And with that, Mao opened her mouth, letting the secrets spill out.