What’s Mine Cannot Be Sullied

Akio bit his thumb as he approached the gates of Shiomizu High after a far too eventful start of a weekend, fully expecting his new ‘girlfriend’ to appear. By some fortune, he had been spared some tranquility to heal. The stitches on his back itched like hell, a constant reminder of his new relationship with her.

As he walked silently down the street among his fellow students, he couldn’t help but look left and right for any sign of her. She wouldn’t be hard to spot. There were only so many people of her height, and far less with a black mane as wild as hers. Not to mention, pedestrians would likely give wide berth to avoid drawing her ire.

In contrast, he waded between the crowds, elbows knocking occasionally and people shrugging him off like a fly on the shoulder. Perhaps, he was jealous of her presence, compared to how others batted away his own. He caused trouble, but so did she. Yet, how they were treated couldn’t be any more different.

The thought of what he would do when he saw her gnawed at his senses. He stumbled to find the right words, as his tongue was known to be the spark to set off TNT. What he was most afraid of was finding out that Misaki was simply messing with him, stringing him along until he said something stupid, only to be the butt of more jokes. Trauma made him think the very worst in people.

He started measuring the steps along the sideway, the clank of shoes drumming a hidden countdown. Eventually, he slipped through the gates and let out a deep sigh, now revising his expectations of Misaki.

She had yet to cling onto him like he anticipated, an initial worry that he had prepared himself for. Neither had she stampeded through the crowds to create unneeded attention. But then, where was she?

With how forceful her personality was, he had expected a hurricane to blow through to get to him.

Akio continued to blend with the crowd, changing his shoes before being filtered into his own classroom. It felt strange to start the day like any other after the end of last week, but he bit down any qualms that threatened to surface. Rather, another feeling rose up as he stared at his desk.

‘Wada wanker!’ was scribbled all over it.

He looked up to see a bunch of guys in the corner, making lewd strokes over their torsos to mock him. A few others saw and giggled. Obviously, they had labeled yet another false accusation of him. At this point, this was just another Monday.

What words would even help him? Denial would only fall on deaf ears, or even, reinforce the perception that he was some sexual freak that hid on the toilet, thinking unsavory things about his classmates. His lips would just betray him more.

With a heavy slide of the chair, he plopped down, grabbed an eraser and tried to scrub away the idiocy. Homeroom passed by in a flash as he poured his effort into making his slate clean, but he knew that it would only be temporary.

The snickering and jeers came to a halt with the sliding door opened for the homeroom teacher. What couldn’t be seen in action was simply ignored, regardless of the aftermath. It was the standard ‘don’t see, didn’t happen’ excuse that people used to ignore drama right in front of them. To pass off responsibility to someone more willing to handle it.

All he could think about during class was how Misaki was the only one so far to treat him like a normal human being. It was kind of pathetic.

v

“Sugai? Is Sugai here today?”

Akio’s ears perked up as the question pulled him out of his daydreams. He had stayed put to keep himself in check, only to drift into La La Land after wolfing down his konbini lunch. He took full advantage of the rare day when the next teacher hung around, barring the others from going too far with mischief.

“Ninomiya-sensei. He was around this morning, but I haven’t seen him since lunch.”

The teacher scratched her head. She was rather unremarkable, a tired look across her brow like she couldn’t bother to care much about her students aside from a mark on the attendance sheet.

Gossip between students happened regardless, labeling her as a miserly woman past the marriable age that continued her job due to unsuccessful matchmaking. Harsh of a rumor it was, it fully explained why she cared so little about others over herself.

“I don’t see Tanaka or Inoue around either. How strange.” Another two tallies of absence were marked, just as the bell chimed. She threw the clipboard aside and moved to begin the lesson.

“They went to the cafeteria together. That’s all I remember.”

There were shrugs all around the room, but the coincidence bugged Akio. Those were the names of the assholes who happened to be joking around in the corner, the main culprits that had drawn all over his desk. It was only for that reason that he cared even a speck, a momentary hope that they had fallen into the toilet together. After all, he hadn’t forgiven them for the cold bath last week. He soon scrubbed that thought as formulas and theorems were far more important for his brain cells.

Unexpectedly, he bumped right into them after school. It was on the main path as the student body dispersed for after school activities. Were they going to lynch him publicly?

“Sorry, Wada! We didn’t mean anything by it!”

Sugai prostrated himself before Akio, head on the pavement in a full kowtow. Tanaka and Inoue were right behind him, heads on the ground as well.

“What the hell is this? A new way to make me look bad in front of the school?” Akio looked around as the students had stopped into a spectator’s circle. He was on full guard as to how his bullies would try to spin the situation in their favor somehow.

“No, no! We are just apologizing! We were being mean to you for no reason! Really!”

Akio took a step back. Them, apologizing? It was like he had fallen into an alternate universe where opposites happened. He mentally entertained himself being a millionaire if that were the case. Checking his pockets, he only found disappointment.

Sugai finally looked up, and it was then that Akio noticed a look of terror clouding his face. It felt oddly familiar, like-

“Haibara!”

His exasperated whisper was low enough to be drowned in the murmurs surrounding them, the trio being the only ones reacting with a shudder. Akio was sure that she was responsible now, as they edged away from him slowly. They were especially tuned into his every word, his every movement, so when he moved forward to question them further, a dust trail was all he walked into. All three had fled the scene like they were about to lose something precious.

What the hell did she do to them?

The memory of her terrible aura against the biker thugs pricked at the back of his mind. It couldn’t have been anything good, but the only way to find out was to ask her directly.

Akio knew that she was a second year, but which class she was in, he had no idea. He hailed a guy from the first class, who cringed at him before he said, “which class is Misaki Haibara in?”

In an instant, that disgust became a pained expression like a nail had been driven through his hand. That overreaction only cemented what he knew of Misaki.

“W-W-Why do you want to know?”

“Just spit it out. Less dealing with me, more talking.”

“Class 2-D!”

With a slam of the sliding door, he retreated before more trouble could happen. Being used to being ignored, Akio simply sauntered over to 2-D and slid the door open. Misaki was sitting in the far back corner of the room alone, her legs propped on top like she was chilling at the end of the day. Her desk was conspicuously an extra three desk-widths farther than the nearest one. But she didn’t seem to mind. She ruled that corner of the room.

Akio eyed her long legs, clearly uncaring of any stares that were drawn to them. He stopped right before her dangling feet, clearing his throat at her.

“You did something to them, didn’t you?”

Misaki simply smiled and shrugged.

“I don’t know what you mean.”

He took another step forward, now clearly within range of her doing something to him. It was strange. He was afraid of her, of what she could do. His legs shook from that fact. Regardless, the words spilled out from him.

“Tell me. What did you do?”

Misaki brought her legs down, standing up to look down at him. She beamed an innocent smile and drew him into a hug before whispering, “just a little lesson about bullying.”

She gently slid her arms around his back, making sure not to touch his wound. Akio couldn’t help but find a measure of relief that she was still on his side, despite being frozen about what to do next.

While he was thinking, she pulled away before taking her bag and casually strolled past him to the classroom door.

“I’ll do anything for my boyfriend. Leave everything to me.”

That statement was as sharp as the blade hidden under her skirt.

With the door closing behind her, Akio was left alone, only just noticing that everyone else had long bailed. The realization dropped on him like a lead weight.

Anybody would be scared of Misaki, and now, he could freely hide behind her. His days of bullying would dry up. Those that dared to, they would face her wrath, just like today. She had drawn first blood, staking her claim to the school. What was hers shouldn’t be touched. Doing so would mean intruding on her territory.

In a way, he was free. He was given a second chance at life here. Shouldn’t he be happy about that?

“Hell no.”