The rear of Asagi High School’s gym was, before anything else, desolate. You could get a little rough without anyone, even a teacher, ever noticing. It was to the point where nobody would hear you scream.
Even though it was spring, the wind carried a chill, making it that much harder to ignore the stillness hanging in the air.
Really, even I wouldn’t come around here if I didn’t have a reason.
Reina stared down coldly from a window on the gym’s indoor balcony.
The object of her gaze was Matsuda. He stood boldly by the foot of the staircase that led to the balcony where Reina was lying low. His hands were crammed in his pockets and a slight sneer was plastered on his face as he awaited his guest.
Of course, that guest was none other than Kai. Her best friend’s lover, as much as she refused to accept him. He couldn’t hide his nerves—he showed up behind the gym with the gait of a terrified rodent.
“Well if it ain’t Mr. Otacreep. I’m impressed you came alone instead of runnin’ for mama.”
Matsuda scoffed at him as a greeting. Reina had to agree on that point. She felt Kai was finally showing some guts.
Matsuda’s sneer continued to contort into something far more sinister. “That’s the only compliment you’ll get from me. Here, we gotcha a present.”
For a moment, Kai looked like he didn’t understand what Matsuda meant. Unfortunately, he figured out soon enough.
The “present” was a deluge of water being dumped on his head.
Now that he was soaked head to toe, Kai’s expression was the dictionary definition of dumbstruck. But it didn’t stop there...
“Gaaaaaaaahahahahaha!”
“Bro, look at that face!”
“Yo, nerd boy, I think you gotta wait a few weeks before the pools open up!”
“What a loser! Looooooooooser!” They made sure to drench him in ridicule, too.
Matsuda didn’t come alone. Takeda, Umeda, and Fukuda popped out from the staircase leading to the balcony. The three peered over from the landing on the half-turn flight of stairs, making them just below where Reina stood. They had filled a bucket up with water and lay in wait until Kai was right under them. It was a truly crass, childish prank.
“Whatcha think of our welcome package, otacreep?”
“We know ya love it!”
“C’mon buddy, we’re classmates, ain’t we?”
“Yeah, and hey, we’re otacreeps, too! We’re all about that loli, rape, ’n eroge shit... NOT! Gahahahaha!”
Their malicious taunting revealed how uncultured they really were, filling Reina with violent disgust. But she held no illusions about their nature, so she just had to see this through.
“Aight, Nakamura... for an otacreep, you haven’t been stayin’ in your lane lately, y’know?” Matsuda spoke as though Kai had this coming.
“... Okay, I’ve heard enough of that word, you need to be more specific. Are you saying I’m creepy? Or are you saying otaku as a whole are creepy? If you’re badmouthing otaku, then you ought to correct yourself.” Kai might have been soaked, but he argued back in a hushed voice. Surprisingly, he hadn’t broken yet.
“See, this is what I mean by not stayin’ in your lane! It’s frickin’ creepy!”
“...So, you meant I’m creepy because I don’t stay in my lane. And that bothers you?”
“Sure does. Like, you’re an otacreep goin’ out with Jun? And what was up with today? You had to go flirtin’ with Momoko and Mizuno too, just to show off?!”
“Mizuno” was Nocchi’s real name.
“Somethin’ ain’t right here! What’s a shut-in like you gettin’ talked up for when they won’t even give us the time of day? Are you blackmailing ’em like it’s one of your porn games? Huh?!”
Ridiculous. How stupid are these people?
“...How stupid are you people?”
Reina was irritated that she had to share a thought with Kai. She furiously attributed this irritation to just how sickening Matsuda’s behavior was.
Matsuda, however, was far more irritated than her. He let it show as he bellowed, “You’re an eyesore, ya otacreep!”
“...So, what do you want me to do? You don’t expect me to drop out, do you?”
“I mean, hey, I won’t stop you.” People with poor imagination and planning skills have the ability to casually say the cruelest things. Matsuda proved this with the ultimatum he gave Kai:
“But you know what I want. Break up with Jun.”
He gave his order with a fearsome, wide-eyed glare. Reina didn’t know who died and made him king, but his tone almost implied that this was his way of showing mercy. To Kai, this was likely something he couldn’t bear to hear. But to Reina? This was what she was waiting to hear.
“Jun and I aren’t even dating!”
So, Kai’s choice was to bark back.
“I don’t care. I’m tellin’ you to keep your distance from now on. From Jun, from everyone in Reina’s group. Be a good little otacreep and stay in your lane!”
“I refuse!”
Kai firmly rejected him. You could say he even showed some backbone. Unfortunately, Matsuda took that moment to plant his fist deep into Kai’s gut.
“Guh... Haiiee...”
The contents of Kai’s lungs were wrung out in the form of a pathetic whelp. Matsuda was a pro at punching people. Kai probably tried to dodge and failed. His body keeled over at a rather amusing angle. He fell to the ground on all fours and squirmed, as though the impact left him unable to stand or even control his body. He seemed to have trouble breathing, too. He was even wheezing in pain.
“Startin’ to figure out where your lane is?” Matsuda scoffed at him from above.
“Whooooo, that looked like it huuuuurt!”
“Yo, Matsuda, think you could take down an elephant with that punch?”
“Hey, otacreep, you good? Still kickin’? Just kiddin’. We’ll see ya at the funeral!” Matsuda’s cronies cackled and jeered from the staircase. Even against this hail of heckling, Reina watched as Kai could do nothing but writhe in pain.
What a pathetic man. Reina mentally kicked him while he was down. Still, she had to admit it was typical. Brute force is hard to oppose.
If Kai weren’t going out with her best friend, Reina wouldn’t bother begrudging him so directly. In fact, she’d never notice him to begin with. But a man needs to be more than typical to be worthy of Jun. Reina stared at Kai coldly, callously, and cruelly.
Reina found out that Kai had been called out behind the gym after school let out. She figured that Matsuda’s gang threatened him not to tell a soul, but Kishimoto and Satou worked up the courage to come to her for advice.
“Well, I think you’re right to ask me instead of a teacher.”
Reina wholeheartedly commended them for making the right choice. When you want an actual solution to problems of bullying, threatening, and violence, teachers rarely provide one. They force students to go through with their nonsensical resolutions if they don’t look the other way to begin with. Nothing is solved, the perpetrators get angrier, they take it out on the victims even more, etc., etc. You didn’t need to watch the nightly news to get the idea. Any student knows in their bones that teachers just want to cover their own asses.
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Problems between students require solutions between students. And these boys’ assumption that the queen of the school’s food chain would be their best bet was absolutely correct.
But apologies in advance... I happen to have a personal grudge against Nakamura. Were it anyone else, Reina could have intervened and put a stop to Matsuda’s violence easily. But instead, she observed.
“I’ll take care of this,” she lied to Kai’s friends. She put them at ease so she could watch Kai suffer. She had plans to go shopping with the rest of the girls, but she told them that something urgent came up and canceled. After watching them leave for town, Reina quietly holed up in this spot where nothing would be hidden from her view.
It couldn’t be going any better. Reina hoped she could tell Kai to never show his face around Jun with Matsuda’s beating fresh in his mind. That should drive enough fear into Kai that he’d cut Jun off all on his own. So far, this was perfect.
“Poor Nakamura. You don’t want him getting any rougher now, do you?” Reina monologued to herself like a coldhearted queen.
Come, submit to Matsuda. Say you’ll break up with her. If so, I’ll grant you mercy and call for help.
And then, eventually...
Kai put force into the limbs he supported himself with. He rose with a rattled body but a resolute heart. And he glared at Matsuda right in the eyes. His gaze may have been stained with tears, but it was fierce!
“I think you get the point now,” sneered Matsuda. “Don’t come near Jun again, got it?”
To that, Kai had one response. “I refuse!!” he shouted firmly.
Reina, the coldhearted queen, could only stare at Kai in wonder.
She could have sworn that this pathetic cur wasn’t getting up again. She could have sworn he’d submit to force and suck up to Matsuda as much as he could. This was entirely unexpected.
“Quit actin’ tough, otacreep!”
Matsuda gave Kai another blow and dropped him to the ground again.
“I refuse!” But Kai stood up one more time. And this time, he glared at point blank range.
“You don’t get a choice, nerd!”
“I refuse!”
Kai got punched. He fell. But he stood back up. And he glared.
“If you got a death wish, then be my frickin’ guest!”
“I refush!”
Kai got punched. He fell. But he stood back up. And he glared.
“Nobodies like you got no right to breathe the same air as Jun!”
“I refyuje...”
Kai got punched. He fell. But he stood back up. And he glared.
“Q-Quit it already! You’re givin’ me the creeps!”
“I... re... fyuge...”
Kai got punched. He fell. But he stood back up. And he glared.
Kai kept standing back up. Reina couldn’t imagine why he’d go so far, or how he could go so far. And even though he clearly had the guts to return those blows, he never did.
Why? Reina stood by the balcony window with her eyes transfixed on Kai.
“The hell’s your deal?” said Matsuda.
Her incredulity seemed to be shared by Matsuda. But this time, she didn’t find that sickening. Reina couldn’t take her eyes off Kai. Her normally cold hands were breaking out in sweat.
“We otaku are pacifists! We don’t have one-track minds like you trash! We know what happens when you hit people, so we don’t do it!” Kai bellowed at the top of his lungs. The force was enough to make Matsuda flinch.
“I’m the one with Jun!” he continued. “And I wanna stay there! That’s not your choice to make; it’s mine!” Kai screamed as loud as his voice would allow. Reina stumbled as though those words hit her directly.