Chapter 51: Phase Two - The Dragon's Weakness

"She is going after your father!"

I am yelling. I am in the dojo, it is 6 AM the next day, and I am yelling. I just told Ayako everything. About the rooftop, about Sakura, about the pocky, about her plan.

Ayako is not yelling. She is listening. She is standing in the center of the mat, her eyes closed, her face a mask of pure, cold analysis.

"Sakura Hanazawa," she says, her voice a whisper. "She sacrificed twenty men. Not to win. But to test."

"She was testing me," Ayako says. "And she was testing you."

"Me?" I say. "She just smiled at me!"

"She knew you were there," Ayako says, her eyes snapping open. They are black. "She knew you would be. She is profiling us. She is using you to get to me," Ayako hisses.

"But now she is going after my father!"

"We have to warn him!" I yell.

"No," Ayako says, her voice like ice.

"What? No? Ayako, she is S-Rank! She is a killer!"

"My father is the Kaichou," Ayako says, her voice full of a cold pride. "He is not a weakness. He is the dragon. She cannot touch him. He is in the compound. He is invincible."

"She is arrogant," Ayako states. "She thinks she can just walk in. She will fail. And when she fails, my father's men will handle her."

This is cold. This is yakuza logic.

"So what?" I say. "We do nothing? We just let her try to kill your dad?"

"We do what we always do," Ayako says. "We train. We prepare. And we go to school."

"School?!"

"She is in our classroom," Ayako says. "She is a pest in my garden. I will handle her. But I will do it my way."

The school day is surreal. I am sitting at my desk. Sakura, the assassin, is sitting right behind me.

"Good morning, Shoujo-kun!" she chirps.

"...Hi, Sakura-san," I mutter.

I look at Ayako. She is reading her book. She is the "Ice Goddess." This is insane. The killer is behind me. The target is beside me. And I am stuck in the middle.

The day just drags. Every second is agony. I am waiting for something. A scream. A gunshot. A phone call. Nothing.

Lunch. The roof. Ayako is there. I am there. We are eating. We are waiting.

"She is making her move today," Ayako whispers, her eyes on the skyline. "I can feel it. She is too arrogant to wait."

My phone buzzes. My heart stops. I look. It is Taka. I let out a breath. "It is just Taka," I whisper.

Ayako's phone buzzes. She freezes. She looks at it. It is Kenichi. Her face goes white.

She answers. "Kenichi."

She listens. Her hand goes to her mouth. "What...?" she whispers.

"...Where?"

She listens.

"...How bad?"

...

"I am on my way."

She hangs up. She is shaking.

"Ayako...?" I whisper, my blood turning to ice.

"She did it," Ayako whispers, her voice broken. "He is at the hospital."

"Sakura... she did not attack the compound." Ayako looks at me, her eyes wide with horror and realization.

"He was visiting my mother's grave. It is the one day he is vulnerable."

"She knew. She knew!"

"A car bomb."

"He is alive. But he is in surgery."

Ayako is crying.

"This is my fault," she whispers. "I was too arrogant. I underestimated her!"

"Shoujo..." she says, grabbing my arm. Her grip is like a steel trap. "She found his weakness."