The Ito gang

-“Oi Baku, the fuck you’re listening to now?”
-“This is Street Shin, boss. He’s a big deal online lately.” The young man with the pauper’s pompadour responds with a smile he always has when new underground music is the topic. He offers Ito the headphones, who gives it a listen for a good thirty seconds.
-“I can’t understand what the hell he’s saying. This guy's stupid or something?”
-“He’s singing in Korean” Baku responds, but Ito still looks at him annoyed.
“...because he’s Korean” he adds, predicting Ito’s next question, knowing the ‘boss’ wouldn't immediately infer it.
Baku half-chuckles, and after a moment of looking at him, Ito’s gaze returns to where it was moments ago.
-“Huh, I see.” Ito nods.
“It ain’t half-bad but… Oi… OI! Atsu! The hell are you doing there!?”
Ito turns his head as he speaks, and stands up out of sheer shock from what he is seeing.

Nearby, with his modified red jacket and his rolled-waist uniform, Atsu finishes giving directions to a pair of kids who couldn’t be older than middle school, and turns back to face Ito as they leave.
-“Dude, what was that?” Ito demands to know.
-“Just tellin’ them where the station is.” Atsu responds in good spirits.
-“Delinquents don’t tell kids where their station is. They’re gonna think we’re pansies.”
-“So... we care what middle-schoolers think now?”
Ito takes a moment to look at Atsu, his brain going through a minor logic bottleneck.
-“Hell naw!”
-“Yeah, we’re cooler than that!” Atsu closes his fist in high spirits, and Ito does the same, inspired.
-“Yeah!”
-“Ito gang!” Atsu’s diversion found purchase, and puts all of himself to hype his ‘leader’.
-“Fuck yeah!” Ito says, now pleased with his friend’s spirit.
The two cheer for a non-existent victory, shaking hands with strength, and then return to the other two with renewed vigor.

-“Aw fudgesticks”
The last and least thuggish-looking member of the gang finally speaks up, having been too occupied with his phone, and Ito squats beside him.
-”What is it, Chou?”
Still dressed in his school’s P.E uniform after the idea of skipping class caught him by surprise, Chou had been on the lookout for anyone that would notice they weren’t at school, and only started checking his phone once he felt safe enough, only to be let down by the news he saw.
-“The Dotonbori Ghost Chasers messaged me back.”
-“Who the fuck is that?”
-“It’s the ghost chasers I told the fake story about Mitsuki-s-- Mitsuki.” Ito squints at Chou almost appending an honorific to his sworn enemy.
-“Right, that thing. You come up with the funniest shit, Chou. What’d they say?” Ito says, slapping his friend’s shoulder, causing the nerd to shake.
Chou re-reads the message to make sure he got it right.
-“They, uh… told me to go to hell.” He frowns.  “I guess they didn’t believe the story…?”
-“Of course they didn't, you nerd. It was crazy.” Ito says, giving Chou’s hair a condescending ruffle as he remembers why he went through with it.
-“But you said it was a good idea.”
-“Because I thought it’d work.” Ito says, with a tone that implies that it should be obvious, without self-awareness.

-“How’d you come up with that, Chou?” Atsu asks.
-“No idea. I just thought it made sense to say she was haunted. Don’t you guys feel like… that there’s something uncanny about Mitsuki?”
-“She talks a lot of shit, that ain’t normal.” says Ito, the best shit-talker of the group.
-“No, no, it’s like there’s this… energy around her. As if she were really haunted by some sort of spirit. Would certainly explain why she’s so gloomy, but she ain’t unapproachable. Like there’s a great weight around her but you don’t know where it’s from.” Chou tries his best to explain, but he lacks the words to elaborate on his impressions coherently.

-“Dude, that’s talking like you see something in her… don’t tell me you’re into Mitsuki?” Baku says, teasing Chou, chuckling.
-“Oi, you better not be into Mitsuki!” Ito roars, squinting at his friend.
-“Of course not! I like women that are elegant,” Chou says, slapping his chest and standing his ground, defending his honor.
“And she’s not elegant at all! She looks like she’s homeless!” he adds, punctuating his impression with a strong nod
-“Well, she is poor and shit–saw she’s only been eating plain rice for lunch. Even saw her trying really hard to find coins on the ground.”
-“Damn, that’s some next level penny pincher stuff” Baku says, almost impressed. He then seems to reconsider what he is hearing. “... Is she homeless for real?”
Atsu immediately dispels that impression, waving both hands.
-“Nah, nah, I was doin’ deliveries the other day, and I saw her going to an apartment building ‘round Morishoji. She lives in this real small place... must be the size of Baku’s kitchen.”
Chou calculates the size mentally.
-“That should be about 8 tatami then?”
Baku is fairly surprised by this.
-“For real? And she lives with her parents there?”
-“Nah, she lives alone, heard it from the principal the other day after the prank with the marbles” Ito mentions.
-“Damn…” Atsu comments, then scratches his head, considering what he knows. “If she’s livin’ alone it must be for a reason… she ain’t got no siblings or nothin’ either, does she?”
-“I don’t think so, no” Chou responds.
The group stops to think for a moment, thinking for the first time who exactly is his friend’s nemesis.
-“Dudes… should we really do this, she doesn’t even have friends or anything” Baku speaks up, leaving Atsu and Chou thinking for a moment, with Ito looking at the three as if scanning them to see what they think.

The sudden bout of empathy visibly annoys the leader of the gang.
-“Tch… Now she’s got my boys feeling sorry for her!”
He simmers on that thought as if Shizune had actually done anything here.
“That damn Mitsuki!” Atsu, Baku and Chou know that tone by now. They know exactly how Ito grits his teeth and closes his fists in anger, squatting even more aggressively, somehow.
Ito’s still-fresh memories of being publicly humiliated by Shizune surge like a volcano, and are so transparent to his friends that they just know what every gesture and growl indicates.

-------------------------------------------------

Weeks ago…

It was an unremarkable morning for Ito Daichi, on his way to another "school" day of carefree slacking. He sauntered towards the entrance while all other students and even teachers cleared his path. He felt like a king, or in his own words, Number One.
Nantoka High started as a school that would welcome any students from low income families and other young people that were left behind by society. This school was envisioned as a place where the students could learn useful skills, and gain the necessary tools to thrive as adults, irrespective of their lot in life. But as the years passed, it became a den of underachievers, troublemakers, and failures of society– but this was the place Ito felt the most comfortable in. He had no aspirations for the future, no expectations put upon him by anyone that knew him, and was driven mainly by the desire of enjoying life and being respected by everyone.

Being naturally strong and stubborn enough to always make that count, he never avoided trouble. It didn’t matter if it was delinquents his age, or shady adults that populated the city, Ito never turned down a fight and always won, making sure his opponents always ended up five times worse than him, even if he got beaten up himself.
After two years of attending this high school, there was not a single male student he hadn’t punched or threatened to punch, and as far as girls were concerned, he ignored the ones he considered too small, too flat, or too fat for his tastes, ogling all the rest without shame.

This morning, he only noticed there was someone new because he overheard people talk about it. With how Nantoka High was, a new student often meant a new potential troublemaker, which Ito always ended up clashing with. This time, it was a girl that was neither short nor tall, wore shoes that had seen better days, and had an oversized jacket with some english words embroidered on its back.
Alongside her unremarkable and slightly mysterious attitude, everyone was at least a bit curious about this girl with reddish framed glasses and hair that looked unreasonably good, while also being ostensibly only styled by her pillow.

Ito had no opinion of her when classes started, and thanks to her tired posture and stuffy jacket, she might have not even registered as a girl from the distance, if not for her skirt and black tights. Even if she ended up in the same classroom as Ito, he forgot her name one second after reading it on the chalkboard, and started not caring about such a boring-looking female right that instant. He then returned to his routine of making sure the teacher knows he’s not paying attention to anything.
Ito only remembered that this transfer student existed once they bumped into each other in the main hallway, after the end of classes, while the rest of the student body was likewise leaving their classrooms.

-“Oi, watch it, transfer student.” Ito stops in front of her to make sure she listens, and she stands in front of him, utterly unimpressed.
-“Why don’t you watch it…?” Shizune snaps back, in a tone Ito usually only heard from people looking to start a fight.
-“Oi oi oi, I don’t watch it because I’m Ito Daichi, Number One here!”
-“Who decided that?” To Shizune, this was a necessary question, as she was now invested in rebuking this blustering fool in front of her.
-“Me, because I’m Number One!” Ito slammed his chest with such confidence that most people wouldn’t even dare contest it, but Shizune remained unimpressed, squinting at him with a questioning look.
-“... Tautology much?”
-“The fuck did you just say to me?!”
The lack of lexicon in the brutish student in front of Shizune didn’t surprise her, but it naturally twisted her gesture into one of disgust.
-“Are you usually this loud?” Another necessary question for her as she was firmly set in just making fun of this student, incensing Ito further.
- “I’m as loud as I want, because no one tells me to shut up!” Ito opened his arms and looked around, seeing an intimidated crowd of students that never dared talk back to him. The room was full of people, but also silent.

“Everyone here knows they don’t mess with me, and you better learn that quickly, glasses girl. That’s what being number one means,” he finishes, pointing at himself with his thumb and snarling at Shizune, invading her personal space. Nobody in the crowd dared to contest what Ito said, and they were expecting the new girl to simply acquiesce and step back.
-“Number one in the scoreboard of annoying morons, maybe. Can you do me a favor and go be a loud idiot somewhere else? I don’t have time for dimwits.”
Shizune pushes Ito slightly, and he is the one that ends up stepping back.
There’s an audible gasp in the crowd.

Ito looks around, and sees that he’s being challenged in front of at least half the school. There’s even teachers in the hallways that stand powerless but expectant to see what happens.
The young man resorted to one last threat once he felt that his social standing was on the line.
-“Just so you know, I’m not afraid of hitting a girl.” Ito’s tone was threatening, and it was clear for everyone that reaching this point was already unheard of, but they fully expected him to carry through what he has threatening with. 
-“Hoh, you’re proud of that?” Shizune taunted Ito with a tone that almost felt like baby talk, making sure to sound even more patronizing than him, then unpocketed her right arm. Even such a simple movement carried a powerful view for everyone around, and her next words produced a surprised reaction from more than one student watching
“Try me.”
The nonchalant attitude of this transfer student, alongside the judging eyes of his peers, brings Ito’s blood to a boil.
-“This’ll teach you some manners!”

Ito’s fist launched with unerring precision towards Shizune’s face, glasses and all. But it only connected with Shizune’s open palm, which immediately grabbed the young man’s fist, holding it like a vise and locking it a mere inch away from her face.
The movement of Shizune’s hand was impossible to see, and the force with which Ito struck regularly knocked down grown men, but couldn’t make Shizune’s hand budge even a millimeter.
-“Bitch! Now you got me angry!”
Ito moves back his left leg readying a kick, but before his foot is in position, Shizune twists his wrist with enough force to dislocate it outright. Ito’s body automatically recoils to avoid the damage by pure instinct.

-“What the hell?!”
The unnatural strength Shizune was displaying was exactly that– unnatural, a magical enhancement. But to anyone looking, the toughest guy in the school was losing to a random girl nobody knew. And to make matters worse, she taunted him with a markedly deadpan tone.
-“Oh no, so strong. I’m so scared. Do you give in?”
At that moment, people in the crowd started whispering to each other loudly enough to be overheard, with Ito keenly feeling each judging stare.
-“Fucking never!”

Ito sent his other fist on its way to Shizune’s face, but her hand applies even more force to twist Ito’s. Once again his assault stops, as his attacking hand goes to grab the hurting wrist almost against his will.
-“Do you give in now, Number One?”
Once the title was said out loud with such a dismissive tone, some gasps erupted from the crowd. They were seeing the one person that got anything he wanted being utterly helpless in a way nobody thought possible.
-“Shit, shit!”

Ito realized she was basically forcing him to take a knee, and his pride wouldn’t allow that. But as Shizune pressed further, he felt some bones were about to snap. It wouldn’t be the first time it happened to him in a fight, but if it happened like this it’d be even more humiliating. Even if he didn’t know of the magical advantage Shizune was using, he knew he’d been overpowered. He was aware he could at least leave this fight without being sent to the hospital, and as much as that thought pained him, the actual physical pain was a priority.
-“Okay I give, I give, fuck!”

Shizune released him and then put her leg on his chest, gently pushing him back– but said gentle push was also enhanced with magic, which threw him several meters backward instead. He slammed his back against the wall, and his head banged against the fire extinguisher mounted there, making Ito grab his head in pain, shutting down his aggression.

After that, Shizune immediately left. Unknown to Ito, it was because she felt self-conscious about being the center of attention, but leaving right at that moment without saying a word only made Shizune appear that much cooler and mysterious to the crowd that witnessed it, leaving Ito looking like all bark and no bite.

-------------------------------------------------

Ito has not forgotten even a single detail of that day.
-“That Mitsuki...” Every time Ito dwelled on what happened that day—how he was "thrown into the trash" and "got his reputation ruined"— the veins in his forehead bulge to the point of bursting.
Despite the fact he’s still the strongest and most feared student in the whole district, the atmosphere at Nantoka High did change after that day, and the moment Ito heard someone saying that they’d call ‘Mitsuki-senpai’ to deal with him, all bets were off. It was now his life’s mission to regain respect, which meant beating Shizune somehow.
Even if they know he probably deserved a beating, Ito’s friends are sympathetic to him. After all, a random nobody couldn’t just disrespect their friend and get away with it. These three delinquents are content with helping their leader execute every inane idea he brought forward, and they found Shizune to be enough of a stuck-up to never question the mission of annoying her in any way possible until today. Even now that they could perhaps understand her attitude, they still don’t like it.
Baku wraps his arm around Ito’s shoulder.
-“Oi, boss, you know what’ll cheer you up? Ice cream.”
“My treat, for the boys.”
That simple gesture made Ito smile, and then chuckle with a bit of pride.
-“It ain’t easy being angry with you around, Baku.”