Sukeban

Rina hummed a soft tune to herself as she stuck her hands under the cold water running from the faucet, her eyes gazing intently at the clear droplets that landed on the pale skin of her hands. Her eyes slowly moved up her now exposed arms as her long sleeves were rolled up to her elbows. Rina always made sure to wear the winter uniform, the summer one revealed too much. Her eyes looked over every scar that littered her arms, the nasty markings standing out on her once flawless skin. It had been a few months since it happened and the wounds had healed nicely thanks to Yukako’s skills with medicine. But even the daughter of two esteemed doctors couldn’t make the scars magically disappear. They’d be there for years, taunting her with the memories.

She let out a soft sigh as she pulled her hands back, pushing the faucet handle down. She pushed herself away from the sink, grabbing a few paper towels from the dispenser as her mind wandered. This was why Rina hated being alone. Whenever she was alone, her mind wandered. It wandered to dark places, places she never wanted to go. When she was with someone, she was able to smile. She was able to be happy because she wanted to see other people happy. If she was sad, other people would be sad. And she didn’t want that. Rina was the type of person that would smile even when she wanted to cry. She was the type of person who wanted to always make people happy, it was her only want for the world. She didn’t ask for much, all she asked for was to keep her friends in her life and to be able to stay happy.

As Rina heard the bathroom door creak open, she turned her back to it, finishing drying her hands and pulling her sleeves down again before throwing away the paper towels. Rina walked over to the wall where she had laid her bag, bending down to grab it. She was becoming a bit confused. She knew she had heard the door open, but she didn’t hear any footsteps follow it. Whoever had come in wasn’t moving, she’d been able to realize that but what she didn’t realize was why. Rina wrapped a hand around the handle of her bag, gripping it tightly as she pushed herself into a standing position again, slowly turning to face whoever stood behind her.

“Hi, Rina.” The young brunette jumped back, pressing her back against the white tiled wall. Her eyes widened as she stared at the three students standing behind her, the one in the middle with a devilish smirk on her face. “It’s been a while since we could be alone together.”

“W-what are you doing here?” Rina murmured, her body beginning to shake. The student in the middle chuckled softly, running a hand through her long black hair. The girl’s name was Hana, and Rina knew her all too well. The scars on Rina’s arm began to burn as she recounted the memories she had of the senior. Standing to Hana’s left was one of her friends. She stood, leaned against the wall, her black hair tied up into a tight ponytail as she stared intensely at Rina. On Hana’s right stood her other friend, her arms crossed over her chest with a playful smile on her face. The girl’s bright orange hair fell straight, cascading over her shoulders, her long bangs being swept to the side.

“I just want to talk.” Rina shook her head. That was a lie. Hana didn’t want to talk to Rina, Hana wanted to “play”. Just like last time. Rina tried to back farther away but only managed to slam harder into the wall she was trapped by.

“Haruna wouldn’t like that,” Rina said, trying her best to sound confident but failing at it miserably. Hana could hurt her, but Haruna would protect her. She’d get revenge and make her pay for it. The black haired senior had to find that one out the hard way before; Haruna had sent the older girl to the hospital the last time she came near Rina.

“I don’t care what that wench would like,” Hana sneered, stepping closer to Rina. The youngest brunette side-stepped to the left, trying her best to stay as far away from the threatening girl as she could. “Haruna and I need to have a little talk anyway, and what better way to do that than going through you? She’ll listen if I send the message through you.”

“Leave me alone.” Rina fought back the tears that glistened in her eyes. She hated herself during moments like this. She never fought back. Sure, she could try to fight back, but she’d never win. She knew that. She had learned that the hard way. The only thing fighting back would result in was Rina getting further hurt because she always lost her fights; it was easier to just take it if no one else was there to protect her. So Rina never fought back anymore. She either tried to take it or she cowered behind someone else for protection.

“But that’s not my choice, that’s Haruna’s choice. If she doesn’t want you getting punished for her bad deeds, then she shouldn’t be doing them. Should she?”

Instead of facing Haruna or anyone else, she went after Rina. She went after the one she knew wouldn’t fight her. Rina being so close to Haruna was just an extra perk. Hana knew that it tore up Haruna inside whenever Rina got hurt on her watch. Seeing the inner agony it caused her was all part of the fun. She’d blame herself for this as well, and that’s something Hana really wanted to see. All she really wanted was to see Haruna break. She knew the rest of the gang would fall apart when their leader broke. They couldn’t function without someone telling them what to do and she knew none of the others were capable of taking over.

“Haruna hasn’t done anything to you.”

“No, she hasn’t, has she? Not recently at least I suppose. But she’s done things to others. People who have asked me to get back at her for it. She’s hurt my friends, and she has to pay for that. But I also never paid her back for last time either.” Rina whimpered softly, backing further into the corner of the bathroom. She was trapping herself, but what else was she supposed to do? She was already trapped like a rat in a maze. She couldn’t get out. Rina slowly bent down, her bag being pushed behind her back and her eyes never leaving the smirking senior.

“Haruna will make you pay for this.”

“I’m sure she’ll want to, but she won’t when she finds out what I know about you and her.” Rina slowly moved one of her hands behind her bag, dipping it into her schoolbag as Hana spoke. “It’d be a shame if the entire school found out your little secret.”

“You don’t know anything…” Rina’s sentence trailed off as she looked helplessly at Hana. She wanted to believe that Hana was lying, she couldn’t possibly know that. They’d all worked so hard to keep it a secret. How could she even find out? The only way she’d have found out is if someone told, but none of them would ever dare say that to anyone, especially not the likes of Hana.

“Oh but I do, Rina. I know all about your parents and Haruna. Or, should I say your lack of parents?” Rina shuddered at the tone of Hana’s voice. She wasn’t lying. Every word she spoke was the truth. “You don’t get it, Rina. You’re her weakness; Haruna would do anything to protect you. The best way to get to her is through you. You’ll always drag Haruna down; she gets hurt because of you.”

“That’s not true…” As much as Rina wanted to deny it, she couldn’t. Not truthfully. Any denial of it would be nothing but lies. Rina felt her hand touch the cold metal of her phone, her fingers wrapping around it tightly as she pulled it out, careful to camouflage her movements so Hana couldn’t see.

“Oh, Rina. Poor, simple, pathetic Rina. You’re so naïve. Haruna is going to get hurt and when she does, it’ll be all your fault. If only you were stronger.” Hana shrugged her shoulders, a soft chuckle leaving her lips. Hana’s taunts were cut short when the creak of the door sounded throughout the school bathroom again, startling everyone inside. The two students who stood near it jumped up, preparing their guard. They weren’t planning to hurt anyone, just scare anyone who tried to intervene. Rina’s eyes widened when she saw Tomomi walk into the bathroom.

The junior brunette stopped dead in her tracks, her eyes wildly looking around the room as her breath hitched into her throat as she surveyed the scene around her. What exactly had she just walked in on? She had just wanted to get out of class for a while and this is what she walks in on. Her luck was really rotten these days. Her gaze soon fell on Rina. Tomomi opened her mouth to say something, but she quickly shut it, too scared to say anything. The brunette found her body frozen in place, unable to think or move.

“Tomomi, run! Go get Mami!” Rina shouted instinctively. Hana growled lowly, marching over to Rina and smacking her across the face. Tomomi let out a soft gasp, her hands covering her mouth. Rina’s words were ringing in Tomomi’s head. How exactly was she supposed to find Mami? She didn’t even know her schedule! She had no idea where Mami or anyone else was at right now.

“Shut up,” Hana growled to the younger brunette, “Don’t make me angry.”

“Go! Now!” Rina continued to shout, ignoring Hana’s threat. Tomomi backed up, her back pressing against the door. Her mind was frazzled, she had no idea what was going on or what she had walked in on. She couldn’t even think straight.

How did she keep finding herself in these spots? Nothing like this ever happened to her before.

Rina’s breathing was heavy as she stared at the brunette. Why wasn’t Tomomi listening to her? She needed help. She needed Mami. She couldn’t involve Haruna, not when Hana was involved. Things could only get worse that way.

“Don’t just stand there, you idiots. Grab her!” Hana shouted. Before Tomomi could react, she felt two small hands grab her arm before her body was thrown into the wall, slumping down onto the cold tile floor. Hana turned away from Rina, walking over to where Tomomi was slumped uselessly against the wall.

“Do you think she’s one of them?” the orange haired girl asked, standing close to Tomomi, ready to grab her if she tried to move. They couldn’t take any chances after all. Tomomi groaned softly, grasping her arm tightly as the pain began to sear in her now injured arms. Through squinted eyes, she looked up at Hana, who now stood in front of her, her head bent to the side as she looked at Tomomi curiously.

“Must be or else Rina’s just stooped to the level of asking random people for help.” As soon as she finished her sentence, Hana let out a dark laugh, placing her hands on her hips as she smirked at Tomomi. “Haruna must be real desperate these days to be employing the nerds. Now she’s got two weaklings on her side, she’s making this a bit too easy for me. So what did Haruna say to get someone like you to join her?”

“I-I-I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Tomomi stuttered out. Hana groaned, shaking her head. Typical. Just typical. No one could ever do things the easy way.

“Why does everyone have to be difficult? I only asked a simple question, you should just answer.” Hana turned on her heels again, turning her attention back to Rina. When her eyes laid on Rina, the anger flew through her body. That little rat was just begging to be hurt. The black haired senior marched angrily over to the cowering brunette, ripping the phone from her petite hands and throwing it across the room. Rina let out an audible whimper, cowering further back into the corner she had backed herself into. Using her phone in such an obvious manner was probably a very stupid thing for her to have done, but she was desperate and had been hoping that by some miracle, Hana wouldn’t have seen it.

Hana growled lowly, grabbing Rina’s wrist and pulling her out from the corner. The senior used her other hand to grab Rina’s neck, slamming the brunette’s body into the wall. Hana’s hands closed tightly around Rina’s throat as the tears slipped down her cheeks.

“You know, I was going to be nice. I was only going to rough you up a bit to warn Haruna but now… Now I think you don’t deserve my kindness,” Hana growled as Rina choked, gasping for air, her nails clawing uselessly at the tiled wall.

“Let her go!” Tomomi shouted, pushing herself off the ground. As she made her first to get closer to Hana, two sets of hands grabbed her arms again, throwing her back into the wall. Not giving her even a second to recover, the hands grabbed her again, slamming her down onto the floor as she was held down, an arm twisted behind her back.

“Wait your turn, I’ll get to you,” Hana said harshly to the brunette, “you’ll be next.” Hana let her hand leave Rina’s throat as the brunette slipped to the ground, gasping for air. Her arms shook as she tried to push herself off the ground. The young brunette let out a small shriek when she felt Hana grab her hair roughly, pulling her head back.

“You can’t do this! The teachers will notice if we don’t come back soon!” Tomomi shouted, beginning to struggle beneath the orange haired girl that held her down. The student with the ponytail rolled her eyes, walking over and giving Tomomi a swift kick in the ribs to silence her. Tomomi was getting really annoying; she was making things too complicated.

“And you think they’d care? You’re so naïve. The teachers won’t care; they won’t get involved. No one is coming to save you.” Rina’s hands had migrated to grip Hana’s wrist tightly. Hana scoffed, using her free hand to smack Rina in the face. “Let go of me.” Rina whimpered softly, letting her hands fall back onto the floor.

“Please stop,” she whispered. Hana laughed cruelly, bending down so she was at Rina’s level now. The young girl had her eyes shut tightly, the tears continuing to slip out as her body shook. She didn’t want to even look at Hana.

“You know, it’s not very becoming of someone like you to cry. You’re so pathetic. I wonder what Haruna ever saw in a wimp like you.” Rina could hear the snickering from across the room. She let her eyes flutter open, looking over at her pinned friend. She was so weak that she’d somehow even managed to get Tomomi involved in this mess.

“I’m sorry, Tomomi. This is all my fault.”

“Of course it is, this wouldn’t be happening to either of you if you had just listened,” Hana said. The senior let out another cruel laugh before slamming Rina’s head into the wall. The young brunette cried out, crumpling to the floor again as she covered her face with her hands. “Oh, I’m sorry. Did that hurt?” Tomomi winced from the tone of Hana’s voice. She felt so useless. Rina was in trouble and as usual, Tomomi was too useless to do anything about it.

“Why are you doing this?” Tomomi asked. She’d given up struggling; she knew it was no use. She’d never escape the oddly strong orange haired student that held her down. Hana turned her body, looking at Tomomi with a blank stare. Oh how she hated dealing with newbies, they always asked such stupid questions like that one.

“For a few reasons. This all started to send a message to dear old Haruna but then this little one had to go and call for help. None of this would be happening if she just took it instead of trying to hide behind her friends again. Things could have been much simpler.”

“Hey, Hana, who did Rina message anyway?” The ponytail student asked suddenly. Hana furrowed her brows, looking down at the still crying Rina. That was a good point; she hadn’t bothered to look at who Rina was asking for help from before she tossed the phone away. The thought hadn’t even occurred to her until her friend mentioned it.

“Good question.” Hana bent down next to Rina, pulling her head back again, forcing her to look up at her. The senior smirked when she saw the blood running from Rina’s nose. Work well done. “Who did you message? Give me an answer and I’ll cut you some slack.”

“N-no one,” Rina whispered softly. Hana sighed, shaking her head. This was Rina’s fault; she was just making it harder on herself. All she had to do was answer a simple question, but she couldn’t even do that right.

“Could have been easy, you know,” she said. The senior drew her fist back before bringing it down onto Rina’s face. A smile appeared on Hana’s face when she saw the new cut her ring had made on Rina’s face. She let the girl’s hair go again, letting her victim’s body fall to the floor. Hana bent down to her knees again, brushing Rina’s hair behind her ear and leaning in close. “Give this message to your leader. Haruna will start doing things my way or else things will get worse for her precious Rina.”

“Is that all?” the ponytail student asked. Tomomi couldn’t help but feel disgusted by the disappointment in her tone; it was as if she was enjoying watching Rina get hurt. Hana laughed loudly, pushing herself into a standing position again.

“Of course not, that was just the message. Now this is payback for what Haruna did to me. I’ve been dying to do this since I came back.” Rina let out another shriek when she felt Hana wrap her hands around her arms, forcing the brunette to her feet. Rina’s legs trembled beneath her as she used all her strength to tug her arm, desperately trying to break free of Hana’s grasp.

As Hana raised her hand back again, her actions were stopped when the bathroom door was thrown open. Within seconds, the student who had come through grabbed the ponytail student by the neck, punching her in the face before throwing her body roughly to the side as if she was a mere rag doll, crashing into the tan stalls. Turning her attention behind her, the student rushed over to where Tomomi was still held against the floor, ripping the orange haired student off of her. Hana growled lowly as she saw her second friend be slammed into the wall.

“Mami,” she growled out. So that’s who the little rat had called. Of course, she should have seen that one coming. She let Rina go suddenly, causing the injured girl to topple down onto the floor. Rina whimpered, scurrying away from Hana and cowering against the wall. “I should have known she called you.”

“Why don’t you pick on someone your own size, Hana?” Mami asked, her arms folded across her chest. Tomomi pushed herself off the floor, backing away from Mami. She didn’t really want to be around any of them right now. “You’re really stupid to do this on school grounds you know.”

“And why is that? Scared of getting in trouble?”

“Of course not, but I know you have that perfect little record of yours to maintain. I thought you didn’t want to lose it.” Hana laughed bitterly at Mami’s comment. As if that brute knew anything about her school life.

“And when they find out what happened, who are they going to believe? The troublemaker or the perfect student?” Hana smirked as she saw Mami’s eyes narrow into a glare. Hana had no problem doing this on school grounds. After all, she was a prized student, one of the school’s best. They would always believe her. She could easily fake hurt to get a pass, but these rats wouldn’t be able to do the same. No one trusted them like they trusted Hana.

“You know, I feel sorry for the janitors.” Hana furrowed her eyebrows at the seemingly random comment of Mami’s. The blonde saw the confused expression, laughing softly before she walked closer to Hana. “They’re going to have a lot of blood to clean up when I get through with you.” As soon as the words had left her mouth, Mami had reached out, grabbing Hana and pulling the senior closer to her. Her fist reached back, slamming down into Hana’s face. As the senior cried out, gripping her nose, Mami took the opportunity to throw the girl into the wall before slamming her face down onto the sink.

From the corner she stood in, Tomomi visibly winced when she heard the sickening crack that sounded throughout the bathroom as Hana’s face made contact with the sink. She was sure Mami had broken something. Tomomi could see the splatter of blood on the white sink as the senior crumpled to the floor. But Mami wasn’t about to take mercy on her. She didn’t deserve any. She picked up Hana’s body, slamming her face first against the wall as she twisted an arm behind Hana’s back forcing a groan to leave the senior’s lips.

“Does it hurt, Hana? I sure hope so,” Mami growled. “How does it feel to play in the big leagues? You’re pathetic, Hana. You can’t fight, so you target innocent people like Rina. You target people too nice to fight you. But guess what? I’m not a nice person. I have no problem breaking you.”

“Let. Me. Go,” Hana groaned, enunciating each of her words. Mami laughed softly, pushing her harder against the wall. Tomomi’s hands flew up to cover her mouth as the tears slowly began to fall from her eyes. She could see the blood dripping from Hana’s nose and mouth, smearing onto the white wall Mami held her against. She could see the anger in Mami’s eyes; it was as if the blonde had been taken over by her own anger. This wasn’t the Mami she had come to know.

“I don’t think you’re in any position to be making demands, Hana. Be careful what you say to me or else I might just break your arm.” To prove her point, Mami twisted Hana’s arm a bit more, making the senior cry out from the pain. “Actually, I think I should break your arm for what you did to Rina. You deserve it.” Mami twisted her arm more, the girl pinned beneath her crying out as she did so.

“Mami….Please…” Mami’s actions stopped as she looked over at the crying brunette in the corner. Truthfully, she felt a bit sorry for Tomomi. She was still too new to see something like this, but this would help her get used to the things she’d see in the future. Tomomi had to get used to this if she was going to stick around. The sooner she got used to it, the sooner she would stop getting so scared like this.

“Don’t pity her, Tomomi. She doesn’t deserve it.”

“Please stop. You’ve done enough,” Tomomi whimpered, sniffling softly as her body shook from the fear. Mami sighed softly, turning her head to look at Rina, the youngest girl pressed tightly against the wall, her face covered by her hands. The blonde could see the blood leaking from behind Rina’s hands, splashing onto the tile below. Seeing the blood only made more anger flow through her.

“Fine,” Mami said roughly. As much as she wanted to retaliate more after seeing Rina, she knew it was better not to. She let Hana’s arm go, stepping away from the senior as her body crumpled to the ground, her breathing heavy. “Ugh, you got blood on my uniform.” Mami scrunched up her nose when she noticed the black smears on her navy uniform.

She’d like to pay Hana back for that as well, but she thought Tomomi was scarred enough by what she’d already seen. So she simply turned on her heels, spending no more time with Hana and instantly walking to Rina’s side. She bent down in front of the girl, gently pulling her hands away from her face. The blonde bit her lip as she examined the damage done to Rina’s face. She could only imagine the pain Rina must be in right now.

“I’m so sorry, Rina. I should have gotten here sooner.” Mami wrapped her arms around the shaking girl, giving her a tight hug. Still in the corner, Tomomi slid to the ground, wiping away the tears in her eyes. Her body and mind were overwhelmed. Her thoughts were clouded, she couldn’t think of anything.

Why did she keep finding herself in these spots?