Chapter Text
Ryoba was currently facing her seventh rival, and she believed the only way to get rid of her was by expelling her. She didn’t know how she would even be able to gather the necessary things to get her expelled. However, Ryoba had heard rumors about a boy who attended akademi and had close ties with the Japanese yakuza. She vowed to track him down so she could get everything she needed, and she planned to do it by tonight. Ryoba walked down the hallway after putting condoms into Teiko’s bag, heading toward the counselor’s office.
"How could I figure out what boys have connections with the yakuza and what if it’s just a rumor, and I’m wasting my time..." she thought to herself as she opened the door. Her attitude changed as Ms. Kunahito looked up at her.
"Hello there, how can I help you?" she spoke sternly.
"Hello, I just want to report that I saw... a student doing things with another student that were very inappropriate. I saw her stuffing condoms into her bag, and I thought that broke the rules," she lied, pretending to be concerned.
"I just don’t want her to make a mistake she’ll regret. It would be a shame if she ended up pregnant." The counselor frowned.
"So there’s inappropriate behavior going on in the classrooms? I see. Who is this 'girl' you’re referring to?" she asked, as Ryoba frowned. "Teiko Nabatasai," Ryoba stated. Ryoba knew condoms wouldn’t be enough to expel her, but she’d deal with that later.
"I see... condoms on school grounds are definitely not allowed. I’ll speak to her about this if I find any," she said, looking back at her pen and paper.
"Stay out of trouble," she added as Ryoba walked out. At least I got that for today. If I don’t get this yakuza connection by tonight, I might have to get creative, she thought as she approached the delinquents. She sat on a nearby bench by the incinerator, studying them, trying to decipher them.
"Hola, Ryoba!" she heard a voice say. She jumped slightly, hiding her notepad. It was Joze, Joze Shiuba.
"You startled me, Joze..." she giggled. What is he doing here? I can’t focus if I’m trying to understand what he’s saying.
"I apologize, Ryoba. I don’t usually see you out here. What are you up to?" he asked, fluttering his eyelashes. He’s tall, tan, has curly hair, green eyes, and is very handsome. He’s from Brazil, an exchange student at akademi, and a student council member. She’d never spoken to him outside a project they worked on together. This is weird, but maybe I can get some information about the delinquents through him, Ryoba thought.
"Oh, me? I’m just getting a breath of fresh air. I had a stressful morning today," she said with a smile, looking up at him. She knew she had to look pretty for him, so she couldn’t let him see what she really wanted. Joze choked a bit, noticing Ryoba’s innocent glare, a slight blush appearing on his tan cheeks.
"Desculpe por isso, Ryoba..." he said, rubbing his neck. His sudden language switch caught the delinquents’ attention, which Ryoba noticed through their body language in her peripheral vision. Without breaking character, she tilted her head, confused. She was actually confused about what he said.
"Sorry, what did you say?" she giggled again. "Ah... sorry, Ryoba. My English is still pretty rough, especially quando eu estou flustered," he said, rubbing his neck with his other hand in his pocket.
"You’re flustered...?" Ryoba asked. She knew he got flustered when he mixed Japanese and Portuguese, and now she had him under her influence, at least until the bell rang.
"Yeah, a little... me pegou desprevenido," he said.
"Caught me off guard"—he corrected himself. Ryoba started to notice a change in the delinquents’ behavior, as if they were watching her. Why? she wondered. Still in character, she tilted her head, feigning confusion.
"Come sit with me for a second. We can chat a little, and maybe I’ll learn some Portuguese," she said with a smile, making eye contact with one of them, a brown-eyed boy.
"Okay!" Joze smiled and sat beside her. She broke eye contact, thinking about how to discreetly hint to the delinquents.
"How are you enjoying the student council?" she asked, slipping her notepad into her breast pocket.
"Well—I like being outdoors, and I prefer branco on me more than the brown and red," he stammered.
"Sorry, I mean white." He rubbed his neck again. Her confused expression faded as he clarified.
"I don’t like how white looks on me," she looked at her skirt. She actually loved white on her, but she wanted to steer the conversation elsewhere for now.
"I’ve never seen you outside of school," he said. "And I’ve never seen you in anything other than the uniform,"—his thick accent filled Ryoba’s ears.
"Yeah, I guess," she replied, shifting her focus to the delinquents.
"Is it hard being around them so much?" she manipulated the conversation to include them. Joze took a deep breath, then spoke about them.
"Bem, eles são intimidantes," he said, glancing over. Ryoba only understood ‘intimidating,’ getting impatient with his speech, giving him another confused look. She spoke softly.
"They seem like a gang..." Joze’s eyes widened slightly; he was worried about talking about them right in their territory. He felt conflicted between wanting to talk to Ryoba and respecting them.
"Bem, that’s what they are," he said, lowering his voice. He was careful about what to say in their presence, even if he was armed, not wanting to cause a scene in front of Ryoba. "Aren’t some of them... in actual gangs?" she faked concern, pressing her thumb into her palm.
"Atatsuma... sua família é—" he cut himself off, noticing Atatsuma turn his head slightly. "Maybe I shouldn’t say too much," he chuckled. Ryoba observed all the movement in her peripheral vision. She assumed the boy whose head tilted when she mentioned 'Atatsuma' was listening. Joze hesitated on this topic, which probably meant it was something dangerous, like the yakuza. She quickly pieced it together mentally.
"I understand. I wouldn’t want to get caught saying this about them—I’d get spooked!" she laughed. Joze laughed along.
"Hey, border hopper, shouldn’t you be supervising the rest of this shithole?" said one of the delinquents.
"Yeah, quit spying on us—we feel your glares!" they added. Ryoba’s eyes shifted to Joze, who looked pretty upset.
"You better fuck off, or I’ll send you all straight to the counselor!" another voice shouted from afar. It was Daisaku, the enforcer of the student council. He used to be a delinquent but reformed himself. Ryoba watched what was happening. Joze was bad with Japanese curse words; he mostly froze, so Daisaku usually kept the delinquents in line around him, which made Joze look weak and gave them more to tease him. Due to Daisaku’s past friendship with the delinquents, they felt almost sick whenever he scolded them.
"Knock it off," Daisaku said, walking toward Ryoba and Joze, glaring at the delinquents. "Joze, it’s Monday. The student council meeting is in five minutes. Let’s go," he added, avoiding eye contact with Ryoba.
"Sorry, I forgot!" Joze said, eyes widening as he rubbed his neck. Ryoba noticed this reaction whenever he was embarrassed or flustered. "Come on, let’s go," Daisaku urged.
"Alright, goodbye, Ryoba," he said as he left with Daisaku. Ryoba watched them walk away, then saw Joze turn around and blush—probably because he realized he couldn’t help but look again.
"Do you like her?" Daisaku asked him, biting into an apple. Joze, new to the student council, was close to Daisaku, who often did things with him.
"Maybe," Joze replied, fiddling with his thumbs. Daisaku looked back at Ryoba, who was writing in her notebook.
"She’s kinda funny. She’s always running around, acting crazy," he said, not understanding his slang.
"Bem, ela é linda, mas eu não a conheço bem," he added, walking up the stairs. Girls stopped and stared. Since he joined the council, every girl he looked at drooled over him—treatment he wasn’t used to.
"Yeah, maybe try getting to know her better. She could be crazy," Daisaku chuckled. Joze chuckled back, not quite understanding. Meanwhile, Ryoba plotted what to say to Atatsuma, although she didn’t know his full name. She could probably put him in her debt. Eventually, Ryoba decided to wing it and ask if he needed help with anything. He looked hesitant to approach them, but she wasn’t afraid. I hope Atatsuma is the one with brown eyes because that’s who I’m going to. I could just ask for an Atatsuma, and hopefully they don’t say anything. Ryoba approached the delinquents. They wore uniforms two sizes too big, with big pompadours and loud music. They quickly noticed her coming their way. "You aren’t welcome here," one of them said. Ryoba ignored him and stepped forward. "Atatsuma?" she asked clearly, without fear in her voice. Togo’s eyes shot directly to her, sizing her up.
"What?" Togo replied, furrowing his eyebrows. "May I speak to you privately?" she asked, looking up at him. The delinquents sneered, and he hesitantly agreed. They moved to where Joze and Ryoba were talking.
"What do you want?" he asked, peering down at her.
"I want to know if I can help you with anything," she said, her hands at her sides, a slight smile still on her lips. Togo was caught off guard for a second—why was this girl asking if he needed help? His brows furrowed again. "Seriously? The less debts a man owes, the better," he said, fixing his belt. She looked down at his pants. What’s the point of a belt if he’s going to sag his pants?
"It won’t be a debt or anything," she assured him. Togo hesitated; he didn’t want to seem weak in front of a girl, but he did have a problem.
"Look, I’m not the kind of guy you want to mess with," he said, his voice still deep and harsh.
"I’ve pissed off some pretty nasty guys, and every day they come to the school gate to beat me senseless." Ryoba listened quietly.
"If they see us together, they’ll think you’re my girl. And if they think you’re important to me, they’ll probably try to rough you up or worse," he said, pulling his collar as he spoke.
"A gang?" Ryoba asked, confused. She knows she’s strong, but she doesn’t want to overestimate herself and embarrass him in front of the gang, even though she won’t spread rumors.
"Yep, what’s wrong? Not confident now?" he chuckled mockingly. Her eyes narrowed, a smile still on her lips.
"When should I meet you?" she asked confidently. Togo’s eyes widened in surprise. Why does she want to do me a favor so badly? I know she runs around the school asking everyone for help, but me? It has to be something.
"Your funeral. Meet me at the gate at 3:30," Togo scoffed. Ryoba nodded. "I’ll be there." Togo turned to walk back, and Ryoba did the same. He looked back at her walking away, glaring as she left. Why was she not scared of him? he wondered, then rejoined his friends.
"What the hell was that about, Togo?" Saburo asked. Togo always felt weird talking smack to Saburo because his brother had the same name, so it felt wrong to curse at him.
"Nothing, just some bitch," Togo said, spitting on the ground as he walked on. He usually stayed shy about women, but in front of his friends, acting “nice” to a girl made him seem soft—just like Daisaku.
"Well, you guys were talking pretty comfortably," Taichi chuckled, blowing smoke at him and puckering his lips before coughing. "She definitely wants to hit that," Seishiro added, and they all laughed, except Togo.
"Yo, it ain’t like that, so knock it off," he snapped, knowing they wouldn’t take him seriously anyway. He thought about her for a moment—what was she going to help him with? Flashing her panties or making everything go away?
"Woah, woah, why you getting defensive?" Taichi teased, and they all giggled.
"Because you guys are ANNOYING about it," Togo grunted, shooting them a glare.
"Relax, he doesn’t wanna get cockblocked—that’s why he’s avoiding the question," Shichiro said. Seishiro laughed and smacked Shichiro on the back. The bell suddenly rang, but the delinquents stayed put, ignoring it. The tension at the end of the day was mounting—not because of Ryoba, but because of that gang.