Ryuji

Yoruhi sat alone outside the front steps of the estate, with his palms outstretched and a concentrated look on his face. He was attempting to detect the magicules in the air in the same way he had earlier, but he had been at it for an hour now.

Just how many more magicules were in the room than compared to out here? he wondered, I wish I had asked when I had the chance. It would’ve given me a good idea of how much harder I need to try.

He gave one last push of concentration, but when that led to nothing, he decided to give up. He figured it might be better to wait until tomorrow and to give the magicules in the air another good feel.

Suddenly, the doors behind him swung open and the sounds of the dojo bellowed out from inside, causing Yoruhi to flinch. Class was in session, and he had decided to escape out of the house to avoid the noise inside, but since he didn’t know the layout of the city, he chose to not stray too far either.

He turned around to see who had surprised him only to see Tatsuko with a smug grin on her face. Her twisted ankle had been healed through what he assumed to be Nene’s magic, and she was carrying a small cage with a strange-looking owl in it.

“Hehe, scared you didn’t I?” she taunted playfully.

“I would prefer it if you didn't sneak up on me like that,” he replied.

She let out a small huff as if to say ‘you’re no fun’, before sitting down next to him.

“With you so concentrated like that, anything would’ve scared you.”

She had a point there, but Yoruhi didn’t want to admit it.

“So… what’s that bird you got there?” he asked, trying to shift the subject away.

“Oh! This is Fukuro, my pet owl,” she explained as she opened the cage, “I’m taking him out to play right now.”

Yoruhi didn’t know the family had a pet owl, but he supposed that there were a lot of things that he didn’t know yet.

“Fukuro…” he repeated the name, “you named your pet owl, ‘owl’?”

“Yup!” she said proudly, watching as the bird jumped out of the cage.

The owl extended its dark iridescent wings out as if preparing for flight, but it would only gain a few seconds of air time before it quickly tumbled down onto Tatsuko’s lap.

“What’s wrong with it?” Yoruhi asked.

“His wing got injured badly somehow. We found him when he crashed into my window,” she explained.

And you don’t think that crashing into your window is what would’ve caused its wings to be injured? He wanted to ask, but he didn’t want to come off as a sarcastic person, especially when her opinion of him was already that of an idiot.

Just then, the sound of rough fighting caused the two of them to look up from their positions.

They noticed a group of older boys beating up someone who they couldn’t see.

“What are they doing?” Tatsuko asked, trying to see what was going on.

“I think they’re… beating someone up?” Yoruhi said.

She gasped in shock as if what was happening wasn’t obvious.

“Then what are we waiting for!?” she shouted as she quickly stood up, “We can’t just let this happen! We have to do something!”

She remembered her father’s words from last night, and how it was their duty to uphold the balance in the city.

Watching his ‘older’ sister run off ahead of him, Yoruhi decided that he couldn’t just let her go off on her own to confront a group of angry kids much older than them, and so he followed right after her.

“Hu hu hmm~!” Tatsuko loudly declared upon getting close, catching the attention of the mini-mob, “you guys are bold causing a ruckus right outside the doors of the dojo!”

What’s up with this performative act she’s putting up? Yoruhi wondered after catching up.

“And who are you supposed to be, you little brat?” one of the kids asked.

“Yeah get lost!” another one said.

“Wait!” one of them suddenly shouted, “That crest on her shirt…!”

“Hu hu hmm!” she boldly said again, “That’s right! I have the authority here!”

“W-wait we’re sorry! We didn’t know that you’re a part of the Sakura Noble Family!” another one of them begged.

Wow, she’s handling this a lot better than I thought she would, Yoruhi thought, maybe I was worried for nothing.

“That’s right! And for your crimes against me and that poor boy over there on the ground, I sentence you to all be beheaded!”

“WHAT?!” they all screamed in horror.

WHAT?! Yoruhi screamed on the inside.

“Woah, woah, woah, let’s not go that far,” he said, cutting into the conversation, “shouldn’t we have the punishment fit the crime?”

They all turned to him.

“Oho! And what do you think that should be my dear little brother!” she said, still keeping up the performative act.

He looked closely at the situation around him.

There was a boy who was badly bruised on the ground who wore a dark-green haori that looked old and ragged. He didn’t have any shoes on, and his black hair was dirtied by the snow. He couldn’t have been much older than either one of them, and it made Yoruhi wonder what exactly the poor child did to deserve the beating.

“I suppose… all of them should let that boy have one free hit on each of them!” he declared.

All of them flinched.

“You hear that!?” Tatsuko said, her voice sounding intimidating despite the childlike innocence it carried, “let the boy get a hit, or be beheaded!”

What is up with her and her obsession of beheading? Yoruhi wondered. Is this entire act based on something she watched?

It in fact was, for Tatsuko’s parents had taken her to see one too many dramatic plays when she was little.

“Okay! Okay! We’ll let him get a hit!” one of the boys said.

The little boy on the ground who had remained silent the entire interaction, finally stood up and brushed the snow off his torn haori. Even as he was standing, the boy was noticeably smaller than the group of kids, so Yoruhi figured that he had probably understated the punishment, for a single hit on each of them would not do much.

The boy however, was determined to make every hit count. You see, there was a good reason why the group of attackers flinched upon hearing that they were sentenced to one punch each.

A flash of rage burned in the boy's eyes as he threw the first punch, landing a clean hit on one of the older boys. The punch hit the child in the face with such force that they were knocked back a good distance, and when they landed on the floor, there was a visible nasty bruise on where they had been hit.

Trembling, the rest of the kids reluctantly lined up to be punched by the former victim, and as each blow landed, sending each kid crippling in pain, Yoruhi began to wonder if the little boy was really the victim here. Tatsuko, on the other hand, was delighted to see the action play out in front of her.

Once the last kid was punched, the group of kids scattered off, leaving behind the three of them.

“That was awesome!” Tatsuko shouted, giving the boy a rough smack on the back.

She was impressed by the strength of the boy and enjoyed how the punches resembled the dramatic ones she saw in the plays.

“What happened?” Yoruhi asked. “Why were they attacking you?”

“Well…” the boy murmured, “to be fair, I did attack them first.”

The two of them gave him a confused look. Had they backed up the wrong person?

“B-but I saw them steal something from the candy store!” he blurted out, “a-and no one stopped them, s-so I decided to confront them myself…! All I asked was for them to return what they stole, but they got mad when I didn’t let it go…”

Really kid? You got yourself beaten up over some candy? Yoruhi thought, he’s got a lot more audacity than me, though that’s probably because his punches can actually back up some of it.

“A-anyway, thanks for helping me out,” the boy thanked them, “my name is Ryuji. Who are you guys? Y-you seemed to have scared them off so easily…”

“My name is Tatsuko Sakura,” she introduced herself, “and this is my little brother Yoruhi.”

“S-Sakura?” Ryuji asked in surprise, “as in the big family?”

“Yeah? You didn’t know?” she asked him before pointing to the family crest on her haori, “look, look! That’s our crest.”

“Oh…” he said, “I don’t remember what that looks like. I’m not very good at remembering things.”

Yoruhi noticed that this boy before him was surprisingly timid. He didn’t expect that from someone who was willing to take on a group of people much older than him, nor from someone who could throw a punch like that. And especially not from someone who could hold so much fury in his eyes as he did so.

“I-I wish I was as strong as you guys,” Ryuji said, “your family are the ones who teach the sword fighting right?”

Tatsuko nodded her head proudly.

“Yup! Yup! Why don’t you join our dojo if you want to get stronger?”

The boy looked down on the ground in shame.

“I-I want to… b-but my mommy and daddy says that they can’t afford it…” he explained.

Ah so he’s in that kind of situation, Yoruhi thought, taking note of the boy’s poor fit. He didn’t even have any shoes on.

Yoruhi couldn’t help but feel a sense of pity for the boy. He knew how it felt to constantly not get the things he wanted because of money.

“Oh c’mon!” Tatsuko suddenly said, “I’m sure my daddy would let you join if you just ask! Let’s go!”

She grabbed the boy by the arms and dragged him back towards the estate.

Not wanting to be left alone on the street, Yoruhi quickly followed behind them.