An unexpected proposal (1)

“Crap, I’m late!” a seventeen-year-old, Makoto Onitsuka’s, voice rang out all over the house.

It was a good thing that the young teen was home alone quite often, otherwise, he would get smacked across the head for acting so loud first thing in the morning. At moments like these, he couldn’t help but appreciate the fact that his parents had jobs on movie sets that required them to travel a lot.

“Shit, Sakamoto-sensei will serve my head on a plate if I am late one more time!” the teenager shouted, this time lowering his voice a bit as he was running around trying to put on his school uniform and pack his school bag at the same time.

Once he felt that he was looking presentable, Makoto stood straight in front of the mirror in his room, checking quickly if his outfit was all intact.

“Looks about right,” he nodded and with one last look, he mindlessly ruffled his already tousled long red hair.

Makoto quickly grabbed his bag, not even zipping it which caused some items inside of it to fall out and land right onto his bedroom floor. The time right now was so crucial for the boy that he didn’t give a damn about the mess he had made in a rush and sped out of his room.

Not even walking but jumping down the stairs, he continued his way towards the entrance door of his house. Today’s lack of breakfast will surely kick in at school but the wrath of the homeroom teacher was way more terrifying of a thought than having an empty stomach.

Only when he felt the cold metal of the doorknob in his hand, did he realize that he had his slippers on. “Damn it, I gotta change them quick.”

If you asked him if he locked his house, Onitsuka wouldn’t be able to answer you with confidence. But he surely was able to convince himself that he must have done that just like he does every other day when he is not in a hurry.

Going the usual route to the school was a no-go. Instead of walking by the main street, Makoto turned around into the small dark side alley. At the end of it, there was a high metal fence but such an easy obstacle was nothing to him.

With ease, he used the metal container standing nearby to have the higher ground and jumped up reaching the upper part of the fence, with all the strength he had in his arms, he pulled all of his weight up so he could land on the other side.

“Hah, easy. I think I need to find more challenging routes.”

But it was no time to think of such things. He needed to focus on his main goal. Getting to school on time!

However as he was ready to turn around towards the correct path, he heard unknown voices behind him.

“Hey, hey, isn’t it Red Oni?”

“Has to be! Only one red-hair dude is going to Kinishiro High, or at least that’s what they say.”

Makoto turned around to take a look at who the voices belonged to. There were two of the guys around his age standing in front of him. One a bit shorter, tanned skin, and with terribly bleached hair that covered his left eye. He looked deadly serious compared to his buddy. The other one was freakishly tall and lanky, his dark hair was quite long and on his face, there was a smirk that gave off a feeling as if it never went away, no matter what circumstances.

Both of them wore different uniforms than Makoto, so it was clear the boys came from another school. Compared to the metal fence, they deemed it a harder obstacle to cross.

“Look guys, I am all honored that you know me but-” While trying to take them off guard by starting a conversation, Makoto rushed forward and quickly pushed them to the sides once he was passing them. “I am in a real hurry so if you wanna fight me or whatever, find me after my classes. See ya!”

He yelled out those last sentences, not even caring to turn around to see what damage he had made to them while forcefully pushing them out of his way.

There were a few shouts that sounded like: “Hey, wait!”, but he paid them no mind.

Red Oni.

The nickname that was known only between the groups of delinquents. The title that Makoto Onitsuka has obtained after winning many fights, impressing everyone around with his brute strength that one could compare to the power of a mythological Japanese ogre. A pure unstoppable brute demonic force hidden in the body of a young teenager was something many feared on the streets in the middle of the night.

That’s right, Makoto was a delinquent. Not any random one at that. He was the leader of the Yokai Gang. A silly yet very fitting name for a group led by someone with such a title.

They weren’t like any other gang, Makoto made sure of it. There was no loitering allowed, no fighting women unless they proposed the fight themselves. No bullying innocent. Acts of vandalism were strictly prohibited as well.

The Yokai Gang was more of a club for those who were passionate about parkour and street fights. Makoto wasn’t even trying to create a gang at first, it just happened naturally. One fight after the other, he kept impressing and charming people to such an extent that before he realized it, he had a group of loyal friends created around him.

The two guys who just tried to stop him had to be from some other gang. It left a bad taste in Makoto’s mouth to leave them hanging just like that. When someone wanted to duel him, he never backed away. It was no time to worry about them right now though. He won’t be alive by the end of the day to face them at all if he’s going to be decapitated for his lateness.

Running on auto-mod with all those random thoughts going through his head, somehow Makoto managed to pass the school gates right before they were fully closed. Using his superspeed skills in shoe changing by the lockers, he wasted no time to go back on track onto the corridor that led to his classroom.

It was the perfect synchronization of the door sliding and the bell ringing as Makoto announced his entrance to the room filled with familiar faces.

“Guess who’s not late!” he yelled out proudly as all of the boys and girls chuckled at how proud he sounded for achieving such a simple task while the others cheered “Way to go boss!”

But before the red-haired boy could walk towards his desk, a voice from behind his back sent a shiver down his spine.

“Congratulations, Onitsuka.”

The harsh voice belonged to none other than Sakamoto-sensei. Turning around, Makoto was met with a female silhouette facing him with a deadly glare in which only when looking hard enough, you would be able to find some actual pride deeply hidden.

Their homeroom teacher was a young woman with short dark brown hair, around her thirties. Sure, she may have looked scary most of the time but it was no surprise for someone from Kinishiro High to be different from most of your usual teachers.

You see, the High School that Makoto attended was not your usual place even though from the outside it wasn’t any different from any other school building. It has been created by ex-delinquents for delinquents. All of the adults working here walked a similar path to their students. They knew how much some teenagers need to have some outlet that let them feel some freedom, and be wild. But they also knew how important it is for them to still be on time and study for their exams. That’s why Kinishiro High was created, to make sure that all those rebellious teenagers won’t lose a chance of having a good future.

“Just so you know, boy, just because you managed not to be late the third day in a row, it doesn’t mean you can once again be late. Are we clear?”

“Yes, ma’am!” Makoto saluted and to not test his teacher’s patience, briskly moved to sit on his chair.

“Congrats, Mako-chan~ You managed to escape death.”

“Shush, I was in enough trouble already. I don’t want to get scolded for talking during classes.”

“Okay, mister picture perfect student~” a guy with hair dyed blue sitting next to Makoto smirked but didn’t try to bother him anymore during the class.