Chapter Text
Haruka wishes there were more days like these. He’s ambling down the streets of Makochi while on patrol. The shop owners recognize and greet him, some hand him gifts, but he continues on his way and enjoys the day.
For all that Haruka acts unsociable and grumpy, he really loves the days where the weather is clear and bright, allowing the sun to shine and warm his skin.
He could fall asleep just like this, Haruka thinks as he closes his eyes and tilts his head towards the sky.
It’s somewhat nostalgic, these quiet and peaceful walks through the town. It reminds him of his childhood, just a little. With his eyes closed, Haruka focuses on the noise around him and picks up the tinkling sounds of children’s laughter. It sends him back to a memory, one cherished and hidden in the deep recesses of his heart.
Haruka is running down the streets of Shibuya, trying to catch up to a teen with black hair slicked up into a lame-looking pompadour. The older boy’s legs are much longer than Haruka’s, though, so it’s difficult to reach him. The crowd of people around him don’t make it any easier as they push and shove against the child.
“Haru! Hurry up, don’t get left behind!” A small hand grabs his own and begins tugging at him, causing Haruka to stumble in surprise. He looks up and sees pale blonde hair and dark eyes above him, a teasing grin playing on the boy’s face.
“Mikey, don’t just grab me!” Haruka scowls as he sticks his tongue out in retaliation. “And you’re just as slow, dummy!”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Mikey blandly drones. “Come on, Shinichiro might leave us behind!”
As the two boys turn and ready themselves to sprint through the streets, another small hand reaches out to grasp Haruka’s shirt sleeve. He jerks Mikey’s arm back in surprise while he turns to look at whoever had caught him from behind.
His eyes meet a little girl who is hunched over and gasping for breath. Her golden hair is tied into a ponytail on top of her head and is a little unkempt from her run, a few strands of her hair are falling out of the hair tie as she heaves in exhaustion.
“You jerks,” she exclaims. “You guys ran off without me!”
Hurriedly, Haruka lets go of Mikey to bring his hands to Emma’s shoulders. He tries to support her slouching body as she catches her breath. “Jeez, Emma, breathe! I thought Mikey was with you?”
He turns accusing, heterochromatic eyes towards their older brother and sees Mikey looking bashfully to the side with a hand rubbing the back of his head. He probably forgot that Emma was considerably slower than the both of them while he ran off in his excitement to reach Shinichiro.
“Mikey,” Haruka scolds as he flicks his brother’s cheek. The older boy flinches at the slight twinge of pain and pouts at Haruka as he rubs at the bright red mark on his face. “You were supposed to keep Emma with you!”
“Okay, okay, I get it,” Mikey exclaims. He snatches Haruka’s hand back and gestures for Emma to take the other. “Come on, Shinichiro probably hasn’t realized we’re so far behind yet, we gotta go!”
As they turn to run towards their eldest brother, Mikey cries out in distress as he runs into a pair of long, boney legs. “Hey, brat, why the heck wouldn’t I notice my younger siblings missing?”
“Shinichiro!”
The teen grins playfully at them as he ruffles Mikey’s hair, causing the blonde boy to glower at him and swat at his hand. “I’ll always notice when you guys aren’t behind me, duh! You’re my younger siblings, after all.”
The three children glance at each other before eyeing Shinichiro. “So cheesy,” they all mock, bursting into laughter at their elder brother’s scandalized gasp. It’s the kids’ delighted giggles and their brother’s sputtering that filled the air of the Shibuya streets and brightened the days of strangers passing by.
A sudden ringing shatters Haruka’s stupor. He’s so startled by the sound that he drops the bags of gifts the townspeople had given him earlier. His hands begin fluttering in panic as he oscillates between picking up his fallen belongings and locating his loudly ringing phone.
After noticing the odd glances of the people around him, Haruka gives up on trying to grab the bags surrounding him and rifles through his pockets for his phone. He rips it out from his uniform pocket and aggressively jabs at the accept button.
“Who is this?” He yells, flustered. “And why are you calling me?!”
“Sakura!” Anzai’s voice comes through, hurried and rushed. “I’m so sorry, I know you were planning on patrolling a route alone today, but we ran into some trouble over here!”
“What,” Haruka yelps. “Just spit it out, Anzai! What’s going on and where the heck are you guys? I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“It’s Nirei…” And Haruka’s eyes widened in horror.
***
Once Anzai hangs up the call with Sakura, he turns and sprints back to where he left Suo and Nirei. There’s not much he can do to help, with them being outnumbered eight to one, but Anzai can’t let these guys keep hurting his class’s blonde vice captain.
He manages to make it back to the park and surveys the situation. No one has noticed him yet but he sees Suo attempting to fight sixteen people on his own as the eight who were originally against him redirected their attention to Suo with Anzai’s disappearance. Normally, Suo would be able to deal with a group like this easily, but the three of them had been ambushed with bats earlier.
While Suo was able to clock in on their presence and dodge the swing aimed for him, he had no choice but to take the hit heading for Nirei as he blocked it with his forearm. Anzai isn’t completely certain but he has a feeling that the force of the bat had caused a fracture in the vice captain’s arm from the way Suo had cradled it with a rare grimace of pain.
Even with the injury, Suo was able to stave off their attackers while keeping Nirei protected but the amount of people simply overwhelmed him as punches began slipping past his defenses. Nirei, seeing their attackers manage to inflict harm on his friend, had charged towards them with reckless abandon.
Suo had called for Nirei to stay back, but the vice captain ignored his warning and began throwing punches at anybody that he was able to reach. While he landed a few hits, it took no time at all for someone to grab Nirei’s hair and send him to the floor where others began stomping and kicking at him.
That was when Anzai ran to call for Sakura.
The situation had not improved since he left. If anything, the scene he returned to was exponentially worse. A few bodies laid on the floor around Suo, speaking to his skill as he was able to take down some fighters even with his injured arm; however, the vice captain appears considerably more injured and exhausted now.
As Suo deftly redirects a fist heading for his nose to the side, sending it towards an attacker to his right, he manages to catch Anzai’s eyes. “Anzai,” Suo urgently calls, “go help Nirei–” His words are cut short as he blocks a side kick aimed for his gut with an open palm. He grabs it with his uninjured hand and sharply twists the leg downwards, sending his opponent to the ground with a harsh thud.
Frantically, Anzai’s head jerks towards Nirei’s direction and feels his heart stop in his chest. Nirei had been dragged away from the middle of the park over to one of the chain-linked fences. One of the guys is behind him, hands propping his vice captain up to allow the others to send a barrage of punches to his face and abdomen. From where he stands, it looks like Nirei’s been knocked unconscious but Anzai can’t even tell if Nirei can breathe from the amount of blood dripping out of his nose and mouth.
Instinct has Anzai sprinting towards Nirei in a desperate attempt to help his blonde friend. Anzai isn’t quick by any means but perhaps it was his adrenaline and panic that had him reaching the group within seconds, fists already being thrown towards those beating an unconscious Nirei.
“Get off of him,” Anzai cries as he grips one man’s shoulder to turn their face towards his incoming punch. The man falls to the floor and doesn’t get back up, blood pouring out of his broken nose. From that point on, Anzai’s memories are a blur of fists and kicks being thrown as he does his best to dodge and lead the group away from Nirei’s bloodied form.
In the middle of his fight, Anzai tries to chance a quick glance towards the vice captain to gauge his condition. Unfortunately, his lack of attention gives one of his opponents a golden opportunity to collapse Anzai’s legs with a quick swipe at the backs of his knees. Anzai can only let out a choked gasp before he’s met with endless kicks towards his head, which he feebly attempts to protect with his arms and hands.
He wonders if this helplessness is what Nirei felt when he was brought to the floor. It’s humiliating, he realizes. It’s a horrible feeling, being confronted with your weakness and vulnerability with no way to fight back. And it’s painful.
It’s so goddamn painful.
As Anzai catches blow after blow of forceful kicks, he remains stuck in his head and tries to distance himself from this situation. His ribs are aching, his arms feel broken, and his back is stinging fiercely. But the strikes do not stop.
He wonders if he’ll survive this brawl. It’s not like the battle against Keel where Anzai had the support of his upperclassmen and all his friends. He’s alone in this struggle because he wanted to save Nirei. Nirei, blonde and peppy and so so excited to befriend all of them. Nirei, who will hopefully bounce back from this. All Anzai has to do is keep their attackers’ focus away from him until Sakura arrives, he can do that much.
Silently, Anzai hopes that Sakura will save him as well.
Suddenly, the bodies surrounding him fall to the floor, some tripping on his prone figure though he does not feel it. Anzai tightly clenches his eyes shut and stiffens his muscles to brace against more hits but nothing comes. Instead, he feels the legs around and on him scramble to move away, as if frightened by something.
Hesitantly, Anzai opens his eyes and looks around, minimizing his movements to avoid drawing attention to himself. The first thing he sees is a body sprawled right next to him. The unconscious person has blood spilled all over their clothing, dying it a garish red and, as Anzai’s eyes focus, looks exactly like the person that was holding Nirei up to be a punching bag.
Snapping his gaze back to where Nirei had been, Anzai feels the blood leave his face for an entirely different reason than blood loss. It’s Sakura standing there, huffing with clenched fists at his sides. His face is lowered, leaving only a shadow where his eyes would be. But the moment he looks up, Anzai can immediately tell this is a Sakura that he does not know.
When Sakura fights, his eyes tend to glow in excitement. From what Anzai’s observed, Sakura enjoys the thrill and adrenaline that a good brawl brings. It’s like fighting brings his grade captain back to life or makes him feel alive somehow.
But, this Sakura holds no excitement as he stares down the men cowering away from him. As Anzai observes him, he notices that Nirei has been propped against the park fence but still unconscious behind Sakura’s legs.
That’s a good sign. If Sakura is still present enough to ensure Nirei’s safety and comfort, then Anzai can shake off the terrifying feeling that his captain’s presence gives off. He can disregard the chill of his darkened gaze.
“Oi,” the teen calls, “this is all a little lame, isn’t it?”
Though Sakura’s voice is quiet, the strength of it manages to catch the attention of even Suo’s adversaries. They back away from the vice captain to acknowledge the new player on the field. Suo does not advance on his opponents, opting to clutch at his injured arm as he strains to catch his breath. It is this action and the sweat shining on his vice captain’s forehead that calls to the taller teen’s exhaustion.
“Hey, now! Who’s this kid calling lame,” one of the men calls. The group around Suo begin advancing towards Sakura’s place in front of Nirei. Class 2-1’s Grade Captain merely bares his teeth in a distorted facsimile of a grin and begins to take long strides towards the challengers.
Anzai can only watch in horror as the eight who were preoccupied with Nirei and himself join the charge. It’s now twenty people against his second year captain. But Sakura doesn’t look cowed, at all. If anything, Anzai notes the excited sharpening of his grin as he hastens his pace to a run, facing the crowd head-on.
The next few moments are filled with chaos. Anzai quickly loses track of Sakura in the clash and carefully sits up in an effort to reinstate his view. It’s a useless endeavor as the crowd of fighters seem to have converged into a circle, with Sakura right in the middle.
The lack of Sakura in his view makes Anzai nervous. While the Grade Captain has experience in fighting against large groups of people, it’s never been in such close quarters and without support from his friends or classmates.
Glancing to the side, Anzai can tell that Suo feels the same as his eye anxiously searches for any glimpse of their friend among the circle. He can see Suo bracing himself and straightening his stance. Anzai is momentarily confused before he sees his remaining vice captain taking a step towards the fight, as if he would join to help.
A sharp cry has Anzai swinging his attention back towards the crowd at such a speed that he nearly gets vertigo. He’s just quick enough to see Sakura slam a roundhouse kick to the temple of an opponent in front of him.
As the man falls, unconscious, Sakura takes the opportunity to use him as a springboard. He quickly puts one foot on the guy’s shoulder and jumps, flipping into the air. He executes a beautiful axe kick with the heel of his foot landing right on the nose of another fighter who made the mistake of looking up and leaving his face exposed.
Anzai isn’t close enough to hear anything above the yells and cries of the panicking crowd, but he does wince in sympathy as the man’s nose practically snaps from the force of the Grade Captain’s kick and a gush of blood rushes out. He can only imagine the sickening crunch the cartilage would have made.
From there, Sakura makes quick work of the remaining groups. As Anzai watches, he can’t help but compare Sakura’s fighting style to a work of art, a dance. The Grade Captain is a blur of spinning back fists into temples, precise jabs into jaws, and a flurry of flying tornado kicks and side kicks into abdomens and skulls.
One by one, the bodies begin to litter the floor. All the while, Sakura avoids any and all hits through blocks and redirects. In one memorable moment, Anzai had held back an awed gasp when Sakura evaded a spinning tiger kick to the head by going low and swiping the man’s feet from under him during his rotation. It led to the other person falling during his momentum, which Sakura used to his advantage as he rolled the man over his shoulder and into oncoming adversaries.
While Anzai is extremely grateful for this outcome, he can’t help but be confused. He’s seen Sakura fight before, of course he has. But the street style fighting with exquisite kicks pales in comparison to the movements being displayed right now. He’s foregoing his usual punches and uppercuts for aerial motions that make it easy for him to evade and attack his opponents.
It’s just interesting that Sakura is actively avoiding getting hit, Anzai ponders. Usually, Sakura takes hits and continues the fight as if nothing had happened. The majority of Furin assume that it actually fires Sakura up more. Having someone be able to land a blow, to Sakura, is an indication of a good fighter and the possibility of a great fight, but he also won’t shy away from taking a blow if it gets his own punches through.
Regardless, the evasive maneuvering is somewhat reminiscent of Suo’s own preferences for combat. From what Anzai has gleaned from the mischievous vice captain, the ability to avoid getting hit during a fight is not only a display of strength but a mind game that leads to an opponent’s crumbling self-confidence and will to fight.
From Sakura’s answering grin at the increasingly sloppy attempts at retaliation from his adversaries, Anzai thinks he may also enjoy dealing this particular brand of torture.
As Anzai’s phone chimes to a reminder he placed for the end of patrol, Sakura is nearly finished in defeating the group that had ambushed his three classmates. There’s only one man still standing, outclassing Sakura in both height and weight. However, upon seeing his buddies fallen forms on the ground around the unscathed teen, the guy turns and attempts to make a run for it.
He makes it to the street lamp just outside of the park before he feels the hairs on the back of his neck stand upright. Anzai sees the man quickly jump to the side to avoid Sakura’s punch, which ends up connecting to the metal casing of the lamp’s pole. Undeterred, the teen swiftly turns and sends an open palm strike to the coward’s sternum which sends the man to his knees, clutching at his chest as he hacks in pain.
Fearfully, the guy lifts his teary gaze to meet glowing dark blue and gold. Sakura’s gaze is wide and trained on the person below him, eyes dilated and observing him with frightening intensity.
Slowly, Sakura crouches to his opponent’s eye level and reaches up to tug the man’s head towards him. With a manic grin, the teen calmly asks, “Did you know that no matter how much bigger or taller someone is, a strike to the sternum will always bring them down?”
The smile widens, light glinting off Sakura’s bared canines in a threatening manner. “After all, it’s so close to the heart that even the slightest miscalculation in pressure can be life threatening.” Letting loose a cheerful laugh, the captain lets go of the guy’s head and stands back up to his full height. He silently watches as the man curls up around his chest, as if terrified that Sakura would finish off the job.
Instead, Sakura leaves the coward to his fright and makes his way back to his friends. As he reaches Suo, who was closest to him, he wraps a tentative arm around his vice captain’s shoulders and supports him as they walk towards Anzai.
Anzai is looking past the two, slightly wide-eyed in disbelief. In response, he notices Suo turn back to see what caught his classmate’s surprise so strongly and is met with the image of a dented street lamp’s pole. The same one Sakura had punched earlier. After a quick glance at Sakura to gauge whether the Captain had caught their gawking, they see he’s too preoccupied with the three’s injuries to catch on.
So, Anzai meets Suo’s gaze and tries to convey the need to talk about today’s events alone. From Suo's determined nod, Anzai can only hope that his vice captain had interpreted his request correctly.
“Anzai!” a barked call of his name has Anzai’s gaze breaking away from Suo’s to meet Sakura’s emblazoned eyes, finally back to life and normalcy. “Can you get up and walk or do you need help, too?”
Sheepishly, Anzai responds, “Ah, no, I should be good! It’s mostly my arms and back that hurt!” And it’s true; his arms and back had taken the brunt of the damage when he curled into himself for protection. For the most part, his legs are functional and can hold his weight as he walks.
Gingerly, Anzai stands and reaches for his phone. It’s thankfully not cracked and he offers the device to Sakura, who looks at him as if he suddenly grew three heads. “Ah, sorry, Sakura!” he splutters. “It’s just–Can you input Kaji-san’s number? I can call him and request for help in cleaning up while you attend to Suo and Nirei! You guys pretty much protected me the entire time, so it’s the least I can do!”
Silently, Sakura observes him and scans his body for any major injuries that could make it difficult to leave Anzai by himself as he lists off Kaji's phone number. Sighing deeply, Sakura nods in acceptance. “That’s fine, but I’m not entirely okay with leaving you here alone, especially after an ambush…”
“Sakura-kun,” a soft voice chimes. “You can leave me with Anzai-kun until Kaji-kun and the others arrive. Nirei needs to be seen by a clinic immediately.”
Meeting Suo’s earnest gaze, Sakura holds his stare. “Are you sure,” he asks, gruffly. “Your arm needs to be checked out too.” Suo gives a firm nod that has their grade captain hesitantly retracting his arm from his vice’s shoulders and moving towards Nirei.
He gently picks the unconscious boy up and turns towards the other two. “Call me if anything happens,” he snaps, “and I mean anything. I’ll come right back.” Then, he turns back and makes his way towards a clinic to have Nirei seen to.
***
Watching Sakura walk away with Nirei in his arms, Suo and Anzai stand next to each other in silence. The two wait until the Grade Captain turns a corner, disappearing from view, before they dare meet each other's eyes.
“Anzai-kun, you were able to see almost everything that happened, yes?” Suo quietly asks.
Anzai looks to the side, already dreading the direction of this conversation. “Yes…”
“Could you tell me everything you noticed the moment Sakura-kun arrived?”
“Of course…”
Doing his best to recall the encounter, Anzai describes everything: his initial phone call to their captain, Sakura’s arrival, the look on his face when he taunted and defeated their ambushers, as well as the chilling words he gave to his last opponent. After recounting it, Anzai quietly contemplates how off Sakura was in this entire battle.
Sure, Sakura is hot headed and somewhat impulsive when it comes to conflict, but he’s straightforward and kind, as well. He’s not the type to drag a fight out, especially against weaker adversaries, nor is he the type to maliciously taunt or threaten them. It’s then that Anzai realizes something.
Ah, Anzai thinks, so that’s what Sakura’s vengeance looks like.
It may have been the only incident where both his vice captains and a classmate of Sakura’s had been injured and in an ambush, as well. While Anzai hadn’t expected it, he remembered past events where one of them had been injured by an enemy. Back then, Sakura had always been on edge and quick to throw a punch at the slightest provocation. So, it was unsurprising that he tended to lose his temper when he saw a close friend harmed.
But, with the help of the former third years and Kaji, Sakura found ways to control those violent impulses and lean towards rationality. However, seeing Nirei beaten so badly and Suo actually injured must have shattered some part of Sakura’s self-control.
“Anzai-kun.” Suo’s call jolts Anzai out of his pondering. “Can you call Kaji-kun and ask him to meet us here with Umemiya-san and Hiragi-san?”
Oh, jeez . Even as he calls out a confirmation, Anzai knew this entire situation is going to have to be discussed in a meeting with the third year leaders but having Umemiya-san and Hiragi-san called in means it’s serious on a different level. Regardless, whatever the issue is will be resolved by his captains and vice captains, no need for Anzai to be involved any more than he already is.
After notifying the third-year grade captain, Anzai gave Suo a confirmation that Kaji would be here to meet them in a few minutes. Suo thanks him and begins to walk back towards the knocked out ambushers.
“While they’re unconscious,” Suo says airily, “we should search them for any identifying marks or insignias.”
Anzai hurries to catch up to him. “Search them, Suo?” he questions nervously.
“Yes, this attack feels a bit odd, doesn’t it? I don’t recognize any of these men from Makochi, so they’re most likely outsiders,” Suo reaches one prone form and crouches to observe their clothing. “And instead of attacking the stores or vendors for money and goods, they chose three isolated students. It doesn’t paint a very good picture in any scenario.”
Anzai looks around and scans the faces he is able to see. He gasps in realization, “You’re right! But Makochi doesn’t get many outsiders. The last one was Sakura, before him, no one had moved here in years…”
”Exactly my point, Anzai-kun! While Kaji-kun is on his way, let’s focus on any visible tattoos or similar alterations on their clothing. If we don’t find anything, we’ll leave them for the upperclassmen to deal with.”
”Got it!”
***
As Nirei gradually regains his senses, the first thing that he notices is that his head really fricking hurts. Scratch that, his entire body feels as if it’s undergone never ending training sessions with Suo.
Even with the swirling in his head and the aches throughout his body, Nirei knows that there’s something he needs to do. He can’t remember what happened. Why is he hurting? Why is his head in pain and his ears ringing? Where are Sakura and Suo?
Suo-san.
That’s right, Nirei needs to help Suo. He was hurt and Nirei couldn’t stand by while Suo fought while injured to protect him. So, he ran in to take a few down and hopefully help out.
So, why is he here? What happened?
Slowly, Nirei opens his eyes. They feel heavy and as if they were stuck with molasses, but he’s able to see. Well, the first thing he takes in is a bright white light that kind of makes him wish he didn’t bother peeling his eyes open because, wow, did that make his headache worse.
He snaps his eyes shut and decides to relax wherever he is. He’s already in pain, no need to exacerbate the issue unnecessarily. If someone needs him, he’s sure they’ll be kind enough to turn off whatever light that is.
Plus, he knows he’s safe wherever he is, which is most likely the hospital if the rhythmic beeping of a heart monitor tells him anything. Suo and his class would never leave him somewhere dangerous.
He falls asleep again. Whether it be from exhaustion or the pain of his body and head, he’s not sure, but he easily slips back into unconsciousness.
Perhaps some hours later, Nirei is jolted awake from a slam of his hospital room’s door. He just manages to keep his eyes closed in case the overhead light was still on but the jump of his heart rate gave him away.
“I know you’re awake,” a gruff voice says. “We need to talk. I’ll turn off the lights so you can open your eyes.”
Nirei recognizes that voice. “Sakura-san?” he rasps out.
“Hush up until I turn the lights off.” A click echoes throughout the room. “There, you can open your eyes now.”
Hesitantly, Nirei does as he’s told. He’s met with a darkened hospital room with the slightest glow of light escaping the closed blinds of his window. Scanning the rest of the area, he finally finds Sakura’s figure sitting in the chair next to his hospital bed with his arms crossed.
Nirei flinches flighty from the chill that emanates from Sakura’s heterochromatic eyes. Of course, he’s seen his friend indifferent and unimpressed many times before, but it’s never been aimed towards him since Sakura had saved him back on the day they first met. It’s intimidating, seeing this side of Sakura again.
“You,” the Grade Captain softly says, “do you understand how stupid you were?”
Nirei blinks in shock. “Excuse m–,” his words are broken off as he breaks into hacking coughs. Sakura quickly gets up and rushes to grab a paper cup before hurrying to the sink to fill it with water. He makes his way back to Nirei, insistently pushing the cup into his hands for him to drink and re-hydrate his extremely parched throat.
Taking the water, Nirei manages to down the entire thing in a few gulps and heaves a little to regain his breath. Leaning back into the headboard of his bed, Nirei narrows his eyes at Sakura’s disheveled form for a few minutes before attempting to speak again.
“What are you talking about, Sakura-san?” he manages to say roughly.
Sakura takes a moment to analyze Nirei’s defiant gaze before roughly running a hand through his hair. “I’m talking about you running into a goddamn fight without thinking!” he hisses. “You’re nowhere near ready to fight people on your own, let alone against an entire group! If Anzai didn’t call me when he did or if I didn’t come in time, it would have been a lot worse than a broken nose and arm, multiple bruised bones, and a moderate concussion! Do you understand that?!”
The utter vitriol that colors Sakura’s words causes Nirei to recoil in fear. “Did—did you expect me to leave Suo-san to fight them alone or some—“
”Yes!” Sakura interrupts Nirei’s stuttered attempt to justify his actions. “Suo was fending them off just fine, even with his fractured arm, Nirei! He didn’t need you to sacrifice yourself in some half-baked plan that didn’t do anything but give him and Anzai more trouble! If you wanted to be useful to him, then instead of getting yourself beaten to hell and back for nothing , you could have watched Suo’s back and warned him of any people getting into his blind spot!”
“That’s not fair, Sakura-san!” Nirei yells hoarsely, tears beginning to prick at his eyes.
“Shit,” Sakura spits. “Why the fuck are you going on about things being fair. Nothing about this damn ambush was fair. Most fucking fights aren’t fair! Get it through your head that rushing in, fists raised, with no plan or skills to back up your damned audacity is a sure fire way of getting yourself killed!”
Sakura’s shoulders heave as he fights to regain his breath from his tirade. From what Nirei observed through his tears, his captain is so worked up that he didn’t even bother to take air in. Suddenly, Sakura drops his head onto his hands and hunches over in his seat.
“Dammit! Why-why don’t you fucking understand your limits! We all have our strengths, we’re all trying to look out for each other and do right by each other. But you…It’s like you have some kind of death wish, insisting on going with us to fights that you can’t measure up in or throwing yourself into situations where you get so hurt…
”Why? Why do you always do this?” Sakura whispers into his palms. For some reason, Nirei feels like his friend’s voice is becoming more and more distant. It’s like he’s not even speaking to Nirei anymore. “Fuck, Takemitchy…Haven’t we been through enough heartache for you to stop acting like this?”
“Eh?” Nirei questions. “Uhm, Sakura-san, who were you talking to?”
Jolting upwards in his seat, Sakura looks at Nirei with wide eyes. After a few moments of awkward silence pass, the Grade Captain slouches in exhaustion. “Sorry,” he mutters. “It’s just… Sometimes, you’re such a mirror image of him that I forget who I’m speaking to.”
His words are said so softly that Nirei strains to hear them, even in the quiet of his hospital room. Unsure of how to respond, Nirei hesitantly opens his mouth to probe a little more; however, the door to his room suddenly swings open with Suo and Kaji stepping inside. They pause slightly after observing Sakura’s defeated posture in the seat but move further into the room, taking the space behind the Second Year Grade Captain. Umemiya and Hiragi also enter the room, moving to stand at the foot of Nirei’s hospital bed.
Blinking in shock at the new presences, Nirei smiles nervously and can hear his heart rate increase with the beeps of his monitor. “Uhm, I’m glad that everyone is taking the time to come visit me, but why are Umemiya-san and Hiragi-san also here?”
Sighing lightly, Suo reaches out to ruffle Nirei’s hair. “We just arrived here a few minutes ago and came to collect Sakura-kun for a meeting about the ambush. We heard you two talking, though, and decided to give you guys a few minutes before coming in. Since you’re awake, we may as well debrief here.”
Sakura grunts and crosses his arms. “Did you and Anzai find anything on the bodies?” he questions Suo.
Suo’s eye widens a little in astonishment. He hadn’t told Sakura the real reason he wanted to stay behind with their classmate while his captain ran off with Nirei to the hospital and the other teen isn’t exactly known for his strategies, so Suo is somewhat amazed at Sakura’s perceptiveness.
Clearing his throat, Umemiya decides to step in and cover for Suo’s lapse of silence. “That’s what we came here to discuss,” Umemiya says solemnly. “This group definitely isn’t one of the regular gangs or thugs from Makochi. They definitely came here with a purpose against Furin.”
“And how do we know that,” Sakura narrows his eyes at Umemiya. While he’s not usually so antagonistic towards his former upperclassman, it’s a heavy accusation to make.
“We found these sewn inside all the jackets those guys wore,” Hiragi responds. He hands over a handful of narrow, rectangular patches to Sakura.
Slowly, Sakura takes the crumpled mess off from Hiragi’s hands. He picks one up to examine it and feels the blood drain from his face.
Distantly, he hears a harsh crunch emanating from Kaji before his senior roughly takes the lollipop out of his mouth. His headphones are already around his neck, silent. “It looks like some kind of group or gang emblem, but it’s weird that they were hidden from view. Usually, gangs want others to know who they are.”
“I took some time to study the badges,” Suo continues from Kaji’s input. “From the red background and the white moon above a dark landscape, it looks like the Susuki ni Tsuki (''Moon rising at the sunset”) hanafuda card. I don’t personally know any groups with this symbol, so I wanted to ask Nirei if he recognized it or knows anyone who may.”
“I don’t think I’ve seen that badge before, but I can do some digging,” Nirei responds with determination. He’s eager to help his friends and upperclassmen in an area of his expertise.
Unnoticed by them all, Haruka stares at the patches in his hand in wide-eyed terror because he knows this symbol intimately. It may have been years and he may have only seen it a few times but he remembers the hanafuda earrings his brother once wore when he was alive. Sometimes, in his dreams, he can still heard the slight clinking sound they made whenever the older teen tilted his head.
And as the conversation continues to flow around him, Haruka's mind could only block it out. He’s no longer focused on the people surrounding him as his world narrows to the badges laying in his hand.
Izana, is all that goes through Haruka’s mind.