School Rumble!

The streets trembled early Saturday morning. A wave of gang members paraded through the streets, all with the same destination in mind – Shiomizu High School.

A challenge had been thrown down, none other than by the boyfriend of Misaki Haibara, the former queen of Yokohama’s streets. With word of her involvement in check, everyone now set their sights on Akio Wada.

It was said that no matter what was done to him, there would be a lack of any retaliation. That was their chance to fuck over someone that had beaten them all into submission not long ago. All those aspiring to be great used that excuse to go wild and reclaim their own territories.

The streets belonged to those that rode them, not some punk ass teenager still attending school like a proper cog of society.

However, those that stormed the school’s front gates were soon met with opposition.

“There they are! Let them have it!”

A loud cheer erupted upon the premises, surprising the street thugs who had expected a few at best to come out in support of Wada.

But instead, bats, clubs, and kendo swords were raised. A line of students with a variety of sports uniforms marched forward, their favorite instrument in hand. They met the apparent invasion with a fervor that could only be felt by those gearing up for a national tournament.

“Get your asses off our school, cowards!”

In that instant, the tides turned. It was Shiomizu High’s sports teams against the street gangs of Yokohama.

Akio watched the action from a safe distance, his jaw dropping at how effective Kitsune’s plan was. The fox-like reporter silently grinned in victory.

“Lucky for us, they decided to invade at the most critical time of the year. We have quite a few teams gunning for the national level, and if competition decides to engage in some foul play to roughen up our players… Well, we can all agree that there’s some solidarity when it comes to school spirit.”

“Solidarity? They’re more like troops heading to the battlefield. I can’t believe spreading rumors could rile up so many.”

Akio watched as Shiomizu’s sports players were kicking some serious ass. There was something to be said when it came to being in one’s comfort zone. People that swung their weapons of choice for the purpose of being the best of the best were tougher than the street-level thug trying to gain a sense of manliness. When the weapons came down with conviction, they sent a shockwave of fear through the ranks, many thugs deciding that it was no longer worth fighting for.

If their motivation hadn’t taken a hit by the sheer intensity of school pride on a mission, then the bodies that were piling up due to foolish challenges certainly were.

“Oh look, commander. We have a few stragglers that broke the lines of engagement. Looks like we have to tag you in.”

A few of the smarter ones that avoided the trap had snuck through. They had no real beef with the school, just Akio. As such, keeping their distance from the sports teams was the right choice. Fortunately, that left only a trickle instead of a deluge of combatants.

It didn’t take long before Akio was spotted, several making their way to him. He rolled his joints and got into a fighting stance, ready to receive them.

Akio wasn’t going to let the sports teams do all the fighting. That wasn’t the purpose. He just needed a chance to tip the scales in his favor. He would gladly take the chunks meant for him to grasp victory.

He rushed in with a chopping right, breaking through the panicked guard of a street thug with half his attention behind him still. It made a satisfying thud that soon broke any resistance, slamming the guy into the ground.

A kick came into his vision, which he backpedaled, catching the foot with ease. It was far less sharp, far less dangerous than one of Misaki’s knife strikes. He gave the leg a twist, knocking his attacker off balance and tipping him over uncontrollably.

With a foot of his own launched out, Akio struck the head like a soccer ball toward an imaginary goal. Force repelled gravity, twisting the man’s body in a grotesque way before landing in a heap.

“Eat this, WADA!”

A bat struck him in the back. A surprise attack while he was busy. He gritted his teeth, knowing that he wasn’t going to get out of it with just a few scrapes. The number that spilled through the initial barrier was growing. He could tell at a glance that he was going to get swamped soon.

He turned around and ducked the second swing. Grabbing the next guy by knee, he jabbed his fist right into the back of it. A weak joint can even stall Misaki. For a normal person, it made him fall on his ass. Akio put a hand on the bat and wrestled for it, slamming a knee into the groin and feeling the weapon fly into his hands.

Now disarmed, his attacker decided that running was a better option – but not before Akio thrust the bat right up his ass and floored him regardless.

He eyed another attack, some thin-arm wannabe that felt bigger with a pipe that looked unwieldly. It only took Akio a growl to get him to back off. But then, three others pushed him aside.

“Pain-in-the-ass pussies wielding hard shit aren’t going to get the best of me!”

Akio swung and slammed his bat into the side of one of them, knocking the wind out. But at the same time, two hard hits pelted him in response – one against his left arm and another striking his left hip.

He backed off and shook it off, still feeling the ringing in his bones from those hits. More people could be seen streaming from behind those two, making Akio sigh at the tide turning.

The weaker foes had been weeded out. The barrier from the sports teams was starting to disperse. They could hardly afford to accrue any injuries that would take them out of their games, so it was natural that they’d start to back off. Still, Akio couldn’t ask for any more help from them. He had dragged them all into it with false rumors.

He swung swiftly at the nearest guy, being the faster one. A solid hit to the side of the head took him out of the running, while Akio clenched in anticipation of revenge by the other.

It never came.

Akio looked to his left when the solid clang of bats blasted his ear. His eyes widened to see someone blocking the blow meant for him.

“Eh, what the hell, Tanimura?!”

Surprise dotted Akio’s brow as he stared at his former bully locked in battle next to him. Tanimura huffed and kicked forward with a cleat, the spikes stabbing into the stomach of his opponent. It was forceful enough to make the guy check for stab wounds. A bat to the side knocked him clean off his feet, making that irrelevant.

“Wada. Should have known this shit had something to do with you. Trouble seems to love being around you.”

“Are you going to give me flak for it? I didn’t somehow botch another relationship of yours, did I?”

Tanimura swung and slammed another thug in the stomach, sending him rolling comically away.

“Nah, that’d be you on the ground if it were that.”

Akio jabbed three times in sequence, decking his opponent in the face. Seeing them stunned, he followed up with a one-two combo with the bat to finish the job. The practice over the past week seemed to pay off.

“While I appreciate the sentiment, do I have to remind you who got their ass handed last time?”

“Bitch, you wanna throw hands?”

“Heh, maybe after we get through this.”

Akio and Tanimura had their backs against each other, somehow clicking despite their differences. While their opponents lunged at them, they broke off and smashed their bats forward.

Turning, ducking, weaving – Akio could see Tanimura waving his bat around far more confidently than the fist fight they had before. He was in his zone, smacking away foes like they were balls pitched at him.

Not that Akio himself was a slouch either. The bat felt strangely right as he got into the groove as well, tossing caution into the wind as he trusted his back was in good hands.

Even though most of their enemies were the common rabble that caved from a few quick strikes, it didn’t seem like the number was going down at all. Strikes snuck between their blows. A single whack here and there was shrugged off by the rush of their own stand, but hit upon hit piled on the damage.

Akio felt himself begin to slow. He ate another pipe to the chest that he failed to deflect, causing him to take several steps back. Another hard strike slammed into his side, pinballing him once again.

He collided with Tanimura, who was currently in the same boat. A line of blood trickled down his face, and his breathing was ragged.

“You can still slip away and let me take the fall, you know,” Akio joked.

Tanimura gritted his teeth and swung hard, overwhelming an incoming strike – attacker with it as well.

“Please, I have practices more brutal than this. Koshien all the way, baby!”

Akio sighed. He wondered why everyone around him was so damn crazy. But then, he chuckled. He dropped low and brought the bat to his hip like he was drawing a sword.

“Fuck yeah, I guess I’ll lose my mind along with all of y’all!”

He dove forward, low and into a crowd. The slice of his bat as he drew it and swung was interrupted by a strong bounce. Not letting up, he braced the end of the bat with his other hand and continued to dash forward, feeling the push back with every foe he met.

Blows rained down from above. His vision was getting blurry from all the glancing strikes that clipped the top of his head.

“ORYAHHHHH!!!”

Tanimura suddenly popped up at his side, shooting past him and flailing two bats now in front of him. He was like a madman given fireworks running into the night.

Seeing this, Akio couldn’t help but step even harder on the gas. He dug deep and chanted the one thing that would give him the extra boost he needed.

“THIGHS! THIGHS! THIGHS! BIG THICCC OL’ THIGHS!”

All of a sudden, Akio felt the resistance become slack. Whether it was because of people fleeing from his cringe self or the ridiculousness of his outburst, he would take it. The bat in his hand slammed into the temporarily thinned crowd until he finally broke free from the mob that had him pinned.

Feeling that moment of respite, he raised his bat high to signal to his next opponent that he meant business. He would not be messed with.

“Hold on there, lover boy.”

Akio was suddenly in the air, his feet flailing due to the missing ground he couldn’t find. Before he knew it, he was in the arms of someone familiar. Akio’s face flushed at the embarrassing princess carry, given that he was now in the arms of a girl shorter than him.

“Y-Yuunagi?”

“Trouble, trouble, and more trouble with you. I thought it was strangely calm this past week, given Haibara-san hasn’t been around. But if I had to guess, that has something to do with you, doesn’t it?”

“I can fill you in later. But first, what happened to Tanimura?”

Yuunagi motioned with her face to the side, where the guy in question was flat on his back on a stretcher and being whisked away from the battlefield. It was likely the disciplinary committee flunkies under Yuunagi, given the armbands they wore.

Tanimura turned to look at Akio for a moment, pointing the bat in his hand at him before dropping it like a mic. Strangely, he put on some shades as he exited the field.

“Wada-kun, you’re not light,” Yuunagi groaned.

With a light toss, Akio landed on his feet. He looked around to see that the sports teams were now gone, but in their place, street thugs littered the entire front area around the gate. More disciplinary members were moving about, dragging the limp bodies out to the curb and off the school grounds.

He turned back to Yuunagi, who looked like she had barely broken a sweat so far.

“Stand down, Wada-kun. It’s not your job to protect this place. I have no mercy for those who break the school rules.”

Seeing that, Akio merely lifted his hand up and brought it down on her outstretched palm to tag her in.