Chapter Summary: It’s not Akira’s day – she ends up late for school, arguing with Ryo and witnesses Ichigo get bullied but is powerless to help him. Then something unexpected happens…
Disclaimer: I do not own Tekken but I do own my OCs and plot. If you steal, be prepared to
suffer.
Chapter Warnings: None really this time. Rating will go up after a few chapters or so.
Notes: Gah, finally finished my exams, so here I am! I also recently watched
Blood Vengeance and I loved it! Alisa was so adorable and Jin was so sweet to Xiao! Oh yeah, I did use the bit where Xiao meets Shin but edited it for my own purpose!
Extra Notes: I’m so happy Jin had been confirmed for
Street Fighter X Tekken! I’ve decided I will be writing a
Street Fighter and
Tekken crossover called
Street Fighter X Tekken: Pandora’s Box, but it won’t be until I get my hands on the game and read up on Street Fighter enough!
Chapter 10 - Attacked will up soon!
A Tekken Story: Through the Years
Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others
Jonathan Swift
Chapter 9 – Visions
Argh, things had not gone my way this morning. I think I must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed. Well, fell out more like.
I groaned as soon as the screeching of my ringing alarm clock blared and sliced through my eardrums, so I blocked it out by covering my head with my pillow.
Eventually the sound stopped – only because I managed to fall asleep again. I glanced at my alarm clock again what seemed five minutes later only to find I had five minutes to get to school.
Crap. I leaped out my bed at thunderbolt-speed, stumbling as my feet were tangled in my bed sheets, causing me to stand on a plug with my bare foot and then fling my arms out to catch my fall, only to shut my fingers in my wardrobe door and scrape my nose on the floor.
OW! I urgently dashed around my room, pulling on clothes, shoving bits of paper into my school bag, rifling around for yesterday’s completed homework (which took my longer than I previously thought, hence why I had stayed up half the night and had only about four hours sleep) when I stopped.
What was the point of rushing around; when I knew I wouldn’t make it into school in time? Wouldn’t it be easier for me to slow down seeing as I was going to be late?
I scaled down the stairs ordinarily, without a care in the world, as if I was early, expecting Mom to rant and rave at me for letting my grades slip,
again (she loves that excuse) – but she wasn’t there.
In fact, no-one was.
Dad was back in London and Hana didn’t start Kindergarten until later, but the kitchen looked like they had had breakfast, Mom had tidied everything up afterwards and they had left.
The house was empty. “Grr, please don’t tell me that my alarm clock is one hour behind!” I growled to no-one in particular as I approached the fridge.
Huh? Why was there a note on the fridge? I tore it off.
Hana has the Parents Picnic today, so won’t be home when you get back. Mom xx Dammit! This is the reason why I’m late today! If Mom had been home instead of helping out at imouto’s stupid outing day or whatever, she would have kicked my butt out of my bed at the right time so I wouldn’t be late!
“Uh, I don’t have time for having a tantrum like a five-year-old,” I grabbed my bottle of orange juice and led myself out the house, my stomach grumbling in protest.
“Jerk!” I screamed just as I reached the school gates when a car raced past, spraying me with last night’s settled rain.
Yep, today is definitely not my day. I mastered up a sigh from my toes and released it cripplingly, defeated.
I was too busy hanging my head and feeling sorry for myself as I strolled towards the main building that I didn’t notice something fall from above and hit me on the head.
“Ouch!” I cried as the object made contact with my skull, rubbing the sore spot.
I shot my chin skywards to locate where the object fell from and saw Shin Kamiya, grinning and waving like a madman. I couldn’t help but smile and wave back.
I ripped my eyes away from him to look down at the ground so I could find what had fallen onto my head. When I did, I prepared to seethe with anger and rage at Shin.
He had dropped his shoe on my head. However, when I gazed back up, Shin was still smiling at me but motioning me to come up to the roof, where he was.
I grabbed his shoe and directed towards the staircase leading straight up to the rooftop.
“Yo,” Shin hailed when I stepped out from the door, “Are you alright?”
“I’ve had better days,” I replied in a flat-tone. I remembered his shoe and handed it back to him,” Here,”
“Ah, sorry about that,” he laughed sheepishly but leaned against the railing to place his shoe back on and tie up the laces,” It was the only way I could get your attention,”
I tipped up my head and placed my curled fist on my hip,” What?”
“I’ve been waiting for you to get to school for ages now!” he said casually, not missing a beat,” I’m guessing you weren’t on time today?”
I blew a raspberry,” Like I said, I’ve had better days,” I shrugged and turned away from him, seizing the railing and slotting my foot inbetween the bars so I was observing the landscape to ignore Shin watching me carefully.
“I just wanted to see how you were doing, after…,” he trailed off as he stepped nearer to me. I could feel his eyes glued to my back.
I flinched at the silence, because I knew what he was talking about. He was talking about beginning of week, when I when all weird and didn’t see any of friends, couldn’t do any work but I made a new friend and let someone know my darkest, most private secrets.
“Are you alright, now?” Shin asked when I didn’t speak.
I wasn’t lying when I said that I did. After I spoken to Jin (and my annoyance with Heihachi Mishima dissolved), I felt much better. I felt like a knot had unwound itself in my chest. I felt like a smile would appear more spontaneously on my face. I felt there was now a spring in my step that hadn’t been there for years. I was right – telling someone had made me feel better. Not totally better, but better enough.
I swung around to face Shin so he could see my fake-free smile,” Yeah,” I nodded,” I told someone about my problems, and even though they couldn’t help me, I felt like…some weight had been taken off my shoulders, you know?”
Shin’s smile was almost equal to mine,” Good, I’m glad,”
“I should thank you as well. Because of you, I told someone,”
Shin laughed,” It’s alright, I’m just glad you’re…happier now,”
A small part of me was slightly curious as to why Shin was acting this way. True, he was my friend, but we hadn’t really gotten to know eachother much, so why was he saying things like he had been someone involved in my entire life?
“Um…do you mind if I ask you…what exactly was bothering you that day?” he fiddled with the palm of his hand as he spoke, his eyes casted down to the ground.
I didn’t hesitate much – after all, he had been kind to me from the beginning, so why shouldn’t I let him know? So I did.
“Wow, rough ride,” Shin said sorrowfully as he propped his chin on his crossed arms over the railing after I had finished,” But, I guess I can understand where you’re coming from,”
“What do you mean?” I asked as I copied his previous movements, my elbow within contact with his.
“I was adopted when I was a kid. I have no contact with any of my living relatives either…but, sometimes I just wonder about them. What were they like? Were they happy they had me? Who do I resemble most – my mom or my dad?” His eyes found mine and gripped them tightly, not loosening their grasp by inches,” I know what it’s like to want to find someone you don’t remember,”
I shook my head a little, my eyebrows slanted in understanding sympathy,” I’m sorry, Shin, I didn’t know,”
“It’s not really something really like to talk about, right?” he extended his arm so he was swaying on heels and his grip steady on the metal bar, his eyes still attached to mine.
I nodded,” Yeah. I know it took me a long time to open up to Jin, but I don’t think I’ll tell the others…I don’t think they would really understand it, not like Jin did, anyway…,” I’m pretty sure my teeth were now showing through my smile,” I’m glad I have friends like you two, who understand,”
“I’m glad, too,”
Shin stepped closer to me; his chest almost pressed to mine, and trailed his index finger along my lips, nudging them into a smile. He then curled his fingers under my chin to tilt it up, making me look straight into his caramel-brown eyes.
“Just remember to keep smiling,”
I could tell that Ryo was hacked off at me at lunch-time, because he stomped his way towards me, stared at me for what seemed like a lengthy five minutes, before placing himself in the seat opposite me and banging his tray onto the table.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, (sounding vaguely) distracted but concerned as I tapped away on my mobile phone.
“You know what’s wrong,” he angrily almost-hissed, his eyes never leaving my face.
“No, I don’t,” I reply back almost instantly, thankful for Satomi causing me to transfer all my focus onto my phone and letting her know about lessons she missed while she was away on a gymnastics tournament.
My phone was then snatched from my hands.
“Hey!” I protested but unable to look him in the eye.
“What the hell is going on, Akira?” he demanded, fury burning in his eyes like harsh fire.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,”
Sheesh! I had never,
ever, seen Ryo get angry at
anything, not even when his favourite baseball doesn’t make the finals or whatever (I’m a girl; I’m not supposed to know about these things!)
“God dammit, Akira! Do you want me to spell it out for you?!” His voice had amplified by several (maybe more) decibels which had caught the other students’ attention.
“Well, you’re going to have to, aren’t you?!” I wanted to roar back in his face, but I held my tongue and said, simply and calmly,” Ryo, I don’t understand what I’ve done to upset you, so perhaps you should tell me rather than make a scene,”
Ryo leaned forward, his mouth pulled back into a snarl as he spoke,” I’m talking about you…and
Kamiya,”
Fuck, he was talking about Shin.
“What the hell has Shin got to do with anything?” I asked, my eyebrows rumpled in misunderstanding.
“You tell me!”
“There’s nothing
to tell,”
“Is there really?”
“Really,”
“Then explain what happened this morning to me, then,”
Double fuck, he was talking about when me and Shin arrived late at registration,
together.
“What about it?” I asked, biting the corner of my lip.
He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose with his forefinger and thumb,” Akira…,” he warned in a low voice,” Stop playing games with me,”
“I’m not playing games with you!” I retorted loudly, banging my constricted fist down on the table, making my tray shudder with my strength.
“Then explain to me why you were looking
particularly friendly with some guy you never used to hang out with before,” he clasped his hands together to, I guess, stop himself lashing out further.
I sighed but started to explain,” I-,”
I was interrupted by a jostling cheer from the other end of the hall but noisy enough for it to reach our ears. Me and Ryo brought our argument to a standstill to see what all the commotion was about.
Not far from the entrance door I could see Mabuchi Muto and Leiko Nara along with Mabuchi’s usual gang of thugs scrunched together, probably circled around some poor student. A young, vulnerable student. Those were Mabuchi’s usual targets.
“Hey, what’s the matter?” Mabuchi sneered, looking for the approval of his friends, Leiko throwing her head back with cruel laughter,” Ain’t ya gonna stand up for yourself, loser?”
I can feel a flicker of resentment flare inside me, making my muscles tense and my veins flood with adrenaline. Someone was being hassled, but someone still had the power to stop it. Ryo must have read my mind because he glanced over at me, his eyes climbing up and down on me in concern. My teeth grinded together as people watched on.
The unpleasant glee continued as the knot of Mabuchi’s ‘gang’ trap the victimised student securely,” C’mon, Miyagi, stand up for yourself!” I saw Mabuchi’s arm shove the shoulder of the student, but they just blunder dumbly and don’t react like a soulless puppet.
Miyagi? As in Ichigo? “Ichigo!” I called over, leaping upright on my feet, my arms pinned by my sides as I hurried over to him.
“Oshimaki…,” Mabuchi snickered, his face twisted in an ugly smug grin, his eyes screwed into small slits.
I skidded infront of Ichigo, my arms spread wide so no-one could reach him, my eyes narrowed towards Mabuchi and Leiko, my stance ready,” Back off!”
“This has nothing to do with you, bitch,” Leiko spat at me, her pedicured nails poised like a clawed hand.
I paced closer to Ichigo, shielding him from the others,” I said, back off!”
“Why don’t you back off, you little freak!” Mabuchi seized both my shoulders and pushed me back, Ichigo catching me by my waist before I met the ground.
That’s it, you asked for it! I squeezed every ounce of ki I had residing in the tissue of my body, summoning it to the palm of my hand. I thrusted the heel of my palm upwards, shoving it squarely in the centre of his chest, causing him to fly backwards into the wall. Leiko lunged for me next, growling in wrath, but I ducked under her, slipping through the space between her legs, flicking my heel to make contact with the back of her head for good measure as I rose up. I twirled on the balls of my feet, blocking one of Mabuchi’s thugs’ forthcoming punches with my forearm. I stomped on his foot and watched him cry out and double over so I threw my bent elbow into his face, making him crash to the ground. Another one of Mabuchi’s friends came for me, but before his knuckles smashed my cheek, I sprang forward and rocked my leg over my head, the front of my foot striking his face.
They were all on the ground, groaning in pain and holding their injured limbs. At that point, I decided to grab Ichigo and make a run for it.
Of course, this wasn’t the first time this had happened to Ichigo.
Two days ago… I was late after having an ‘emergency meeting’ with Mrs. Hayashi about the incident from our previous lesson to my next class – Maths with Mr. Sugiyama. I erupted out of Literature block, spurred through the courtyard and clattered through the Languages Department in order to get to Maths block. As I approached the small set of stairs that would steered en route to Maths block, a shower of felt tin pens, biros and sketch pencils scattered by my feet, rolling in different directions as they landed. I craned my neck up to the top of the stairs just in time to see a History of Aboriginal Art text (which consisted of at least 250 A4-sized pages) fall in the path of my head. I managed to dodge out of the way before the textbook landed with a huge thud. Wait, I thought as I peered at the cover of the textbook, Ichigo was carrying the same book in first lesson this morning. Alarm filled up my throat like a heavy stone so I clasped he wooden handrail and hauled myself up the flight of stairs, hasting myself faster to stop something from happening to Ichigo. On the second-floor landing, Ichigo was sloping against the metal lockers along the wall, looking on as Mabuchi and a few of his friends are gathered together, Mabuchi dangling Ichigo’s bag at arm’s length, taunting him, while his friends riffled through Ichigo’s sketchbook, cackling heartlessly. “What the hell is going on?” I demanded as I got closer, both hands on my hips. “Hm, Oshimaki…,” Mabuchi tutted at me, his sickening grin unfaltering,” We’re just having a bit of fun, aren’t we, Miyagi?” Ichigo sighed but refused to look at me, refusing to move,” Yeah. Just leave it, Akira,” “Yeah, this is a real joke,” I snapped irritably,” Just get lost, Mabuchi,” Mabuchi shrugged and held his hands up defensively, backing away step by step,” Alright, have it your way, Oshimaki,” he looked at his two friends sharply and nodded,” C’mon,” Just as his two friends started to follow after him, Mabuchi tossed Ichigo’s bag at one of them and dropped it on the other side of the stairwell while the other reached out and tugged one of Ichigo’s plaits. “See ya later, Miyagi!” they laughed as they left. I stared at Ichigo, who was inactive, frozen, his leg bent so his foot was placed on the lockers, both his hands buried in his pockets, his eyes averted out the window beside him. “Ichigo?” “Don’t,” Ichigo advised me, his voice deep but emotionless,” Just leave it, OK?” “But, Ichigo, they-,” I started to protest. “I said leave it!” Ichigo shouted at me crossly, pushing himself off the lockers and striding past me, his shoulder brushing against mine,” This is my problem, not yours,” I didn’t watch after him. I didn’t argue that I was only trying to help him. I just carried on to my lesson, as if nothing ever happened. “Ichigo, you have to do something about this!” I hissed at him once we reached a spot under girls’ locker room in Gym block.
Ichigo was standing out of my reach, in the depths of the shadows, but I could see his black-nail-polished hand rake through his hair shakly (he’d been wearing nail polish since beginning of term, along with eyeliner and, occasionally, eye shadow), his breathing slightly hard and heavy.
“Ichigo, you must someone!” I said after he didn’t speak, throwing my arms out in desperation,” Tell Mrs. Maeda, Mrs. Kimura, your parents, anybody!”
Ichigo shoved past me like the last time,” We’re done here,”
“Like hell we are!” I latched my hand onto his wrist and pulled him back to me, the lights killing the shadows that covered his face.
Now I know why he was hiding in the shadows.
His left eye was swollen and closed; a bold purple bruise blossomed around it.
I gasped as his wrist slowly slid from my fingers grasp,” Ichigo, what happened?”
He shook his head, his eyes pasted to his shoes,” I don’t what to talk about it,”
My fingertips touched his left cheek, revolving his head towards me to get a better look,” Did Mabuchi do this to you?”
“I said, I don’t want to talk about it,” Ichigo flinched from my touch as if he had been burned,” I have to get going,” he turned and left without another word.
And I let him.
“I’m very concerned about Ichigo,” I told Ryo, Jin and Sakura as we huddled together during our shared Gym class, all of us looking over to the other side of hall where Ichigo was sat on a bench, his arms crossed over his pulled-up knees, his eyes darting the engaged students,” Mabuchi’s been giving him a really hard time for a while now, but he won’t tell anyone,”
“Not even the teachers?” Jin asked.
I shook my head and sighed.
“This is bad,” said Ryo with heightened apprehension,” You don’t suppose Mabuchi gave him that black eye?”
“I don’t think so – I mean, at lunchtime, I was able to prevent them from touching him, so I doubt it was from then,”
Sakura raised an eyebrow at me but smirked,” With your fists?”
I smirked in return,” Maybe,”
“Is he willing to talk to any teachers?”
“I highly doubt it, Jin. He probably won’t talk to your grandfather, either,” I added as an afterthought.
“But what can we do to help him if he doesn’t want to talk about it?” Sakura asked, musing over the possible options, but came up with nothing.
None of us did.
“How come Ichigo never does Gym lesson, anyway?” I said out of the blue.
“He always brings in a note written by his mother to excuse himself from the lesson. He has done, since-,”
I swirled my full attention to Ryo,” Since when, Ryo?”
“Since that time when Ichigo got injured during a Hockey game in Middle School,”
Jin had promised me yesterday that he would come over to help me revise the upcoming Chemistry test, but I had completely forgotten that I had promised Ichigo that I would stay behind after school with him to work on his coursework on the same day (like I said, it wasn’t my day that day). Jin, being the pleasant, helpful person he was, agreed he would stay behind with me and come over to my house to help with revision. I couldn’t thank him enough.
We wait for Ichigo for about ten minutes, but there was no sign of him. I understood that possibly Ichigo had forgotten, especially after a day like today. Maybe it slipped his mind? Maybe he got a rare after-school detention for the make-up?
Or maybe Mabuchi was giving him trouble again?
We agreed to head out, despite the possibility that Ichigo had remembered and was going to end up a bit late and decided to go back, passing the staff meeting with Heihachi as Jin left a message with Ms. Nakagawa, Mr. Mishima’s personal assistant, that Jin was studying with me and my house, meaning that no student would be in after-school detention.
I was worryingly pondering about Ichigo as Jin (tried) to discuss relative isotopic mass of chemicals with me when we heard a loud crash as we crossed the car park. We both look at eachother with a knowing look. We know something is going on, so we decide to check it.
I wish we hadn’t.
Over by the bins near the school kitchen, Mabuchi, Leiko and their gang have surrounded something that is dark and crumpled to the ground, whimpering.
Then I realise that the thing crumpled to the ground is a person.
But not just any person – someone with plaits, nail polish and eyeliner.
“ICHIGO!”
Me and Jin dash towards him together, my heel contacting the shoulder of Mabuchi’s friend closest to me as Jin swept another’s legs from under him, making Mabuchi and Leiko scurry off in altered directions.
Ichigo was curled in on himself, his hands casing his face, his body shuddering. I touched his shoulder gently as Jin barks at Mabuchi’s ever-loyal minions to get lost and the response I get was a small wail like a dying animal.
“Ichigo, it’s me, Akira. Jin is with me too. Are you OK?”
“Go away! Just leave me alone!” Ichigo shrunk away.
“Ichigo…,”
“Ichigo, please…,” I took hold of his hands and dragged them, one by one, from his face.
I could smell a waft of something sweet but sickly. Smoky, sparkly green eye shadow had been dusted on Ichigo’s eyelids up to his eyebrows and outlined with smudgy black eyeliner. Two bright red spots of blusher had been brushed across his cheeks. His lips had been smeared with blood-red lipstick. Someone had dunked his plaits into crusty paint and dripped it along his scalp.
I was appalled.
“Oh, Ichigo…,” my eyes blurred with tears as I reached into my bag for some tissues.
“Ichigo…you must tell someone…,”
“No!” Ichigo snatched the tissues from hands as I started dabbing the forced make-up away,” Please, both of you, leave me alone. I need to deal with this, myself, on my own,”
With much reluctance, we decided to walk back home, just as the rain began to pour.
Me and Jin were walking down the path that stretched beside the row of my neighbouring houses, a piercing screeching noise rung in my ears, causing me to screw my eyes shut and clamp my hands over my ears. The sound grew in frequency and volume, making me grit my teeth and cry out in agony. White flashes consumed my mind. My body felt lighter than air as my vision grew murky, a grey haze swarm that worked from the edges in and then I fell.
In a dōjō, a man with his back to the dōjō door was practising his martial art skills on a punching bag, falling into a solid routine of blocks, kicks and punches. Even though he was beginning to tire, he continued mercilessly, failing to notice the darkness shrouding the empty space of dōjō morph into coiling shadows, slowly creeping towards him. He seemed to have sensed something, because he turned around at the last minute, just as the shadows lunged and slithered across his body, taking hold of his body. It pinned his arms to his sides and when he tried to yell out, the shadows circled around his necklace like a misty rope, choking his mouth. He struggled, attempting to break through the shadow’s grapple, but it was in vain. Two, glaring red eyes appeared. “Die, Oshimaki!” a gloomy, wicked voice laughed in delight. “Akira!” “Dad!” I screamed on a choking breath.
“Akira, are you alright?!” Jin asked in a panicked-stricken voice, my head placed in his lap, his hands clenched on my shoulders.
I lifted my head up and examined my surroundings that were grey with rain, my hair damp and sticking to the sides of my face. My umbrella had landed in the adjacent garden. My skin felt dewy and icy-cold.
What the hell had I just seen?
“Yeah, I’m fine,”
