Half a Step Forward

.

Another week passed by and things have relatively been quiet. Time went by peacefully as Maron concentrated more on improving herself after declaring that she was going to have a rematch with Kazuya. If there was anything, a small confrontation happened in the previous week when Kazuya chose to change locations during break times.

*scribble scribble scribble* Kurumi continued writing on her small notebook as she observed Kazuya while hiding behind a tree in the school courtyard.

*sigh* "I really don't know what you're doing but do you really think I haven't noticed you've been observing and following me?" Kazuya turned towards the tree and could see the blond hair sticking out. He could feel Kurumi's gaze and presence and ignored it but this girl had been doing it ever since he told her that he thought that they weren't meant to be friends.

"!!" Kurumi was immediately startled and stood up immediately examined herself and saw her hair sticking out the tree's trunk from behind her. She reflected upon herself and walked nonchalantly towards the gymnasium where Maron was training herself.

"That girl…" Kazuya couldn't help but shake his head. Tomoyo already changed and wouldn't be the same person he hated but Kurumi was slowly turning into that weird girl that showed up around him. The only difference now was, she still sucked at it and didn't approach him at all. Kazuya didn't believe he would experience the same trouble in his previous life because of how different he was now compared to before.

Though Kurumi tried again when she got the chance, Kazuya would throw pieces of paper towards her direction that contained a [I still see you] note to make her go away. He believed that this girl would eventually get tired of spying on him once she learns that she wouldn't be able to hide from him.

Regardless of what the Stockton girls were up to, he really didn't care much anymore because he had already held up his end of the bargain to Kurumi's father. It just so happened that it didn't go according to what the person expected because of his daughter.

What Kazuya didn't know however, was that Takaya and the two girls weren't the only members of S class who had recently started going to school more. He didn't notice it because he had not seen them nor were they observing him, but Suzaku and Ringo had hidden themselves and were looking at Kurumi instead.

"That kid wasn't lying. He doesn't seem to have anything to do with the Stockton girls" Ringo spoke as Kurumi had once again walked away from Kazuya's direction looking disappointed.

"More like he's already done with them after using them against my family" Suzaku scoffed. "How are things going on your parents' end?" he turned to Ringo and asked.

"I told them about Kouzuki Kazuya's message from Ono. It looks like it's an empty threat. His mother hasn't shown any signs of movement and their corporation seems to have already stopped their advances towards our market. She even granted that assistant of hers a long vacation" Ringo reported the information that she had gotten from her parents.

"Nothing but a kid that's all talk it looks like" Suzaku grinned. He was confident that Kazuya had only bluffed so that they wouldn't intentionally look for trouble with him. It looks like it had the opposite effect instead.

"Don't be like your cousin. He underestimated Kouzuki Kazuya too much and look where he ended up" Ringo reminded. "That kid seems normal on the surface but he's been slowly revealing his cards after what happened to Hashiyama Lee"

"So you mean his intellect?" Suzaku scoffed. "So what if he's good at exams? That doesn't amount to anything especially in our world"

Kazuya appeared quite normal when he first attended the academy but after the very first exam results were posted after his arrival, all those who paid attention to the ever-changing fight for exam ranking found out that the only rank they would be fighting for was the place below the name Kouzuki Kazuya.

This fact had not changed along with his Kendo championship title. Ringo didn't want to underestimate Kazuya too much but because of her pride, she still looked down on him especially since her family was the one responsible for stopping an established family such as themselves from entering the field that they controlled.

"Don't let your emotions take over. I know you bear a grudge against him but you and I both met Hashiyama Lee. He was like his adoptive mother. Both of them and Nagisa-san were better than us when it came to hiding themselves" Ringo reminded Suzaku of the shocking plot that was included in the video that prevented anyone from believing that they had no hand in Lee's plans.

"I get it…" Suzaku frowned. He usually didn't get agitated this quickly but losing to the Kouzukis even with their overwhelming advantage was a hit to every Kurogane's pride even if they did have the help of the Stockton family.

"Did you finish finding more about him from your cousin?" What they lacked was information about the boy. They believed that Hashiyama Lee's demise was because he had greatly underestimated Kazuya because of his proximity to him.

Lee was sentenced to a stay inside a school that was for minors who could not be tried as adults. Suzaku had some strings pulled so he could visit his cousin and talk about the case. Ringo asked Suzaku to pay him a visit as Lee's 'cousin' and get everybit of information they could use under the guise of getting back at Kazuya for him and the damaged Kurogane family.

"I did but…" Suzaku hesitated.

"But what? He didn't cooperate?" Ringo frowned.

"He laughed the moment I said that we were planning to get back at the kid. He still gave the information we wanted. From what he said, Kouzuki Kazuya had himself beaten without fighting back on purpose. He even claimed that it was the kid himself that pulled the trigger" Suzaku shook his head thinking that it was a guilty person's ramblings.

"Hmm…" Ringo crossed her arms to think.

"Don't tell me you believe him? That guy is just willing to tell his story to anyone who will listen at this point. He even told me that Kouzuki Kazuya told him before pulling the trigger that he would kill him if he ever showed his face again" Suzaku laughed at his former cousin's claims. He didn't believe them in the least.

"Most of it is most likely false but does not mean that everything is. Think about it, he had the capability of knocking out the leader of those thugs so why did he let himself get taken to the room where Lee was?" Ringo's words made Suzaku freeze.

She was right. Both of them assumed at first that Kazuya's initial threat against them was violence. This was because of his fame as a student that was talented enough in Kendo to be able to compete in advanced divisions. Though he was six at the time, he was able to knock out an adult in one hit did he purposely get captured just to set a trap for Lee?

"I don't believe it. This isn't the movies. Do you want me to believe that he also somehow knew that Stockton Kurumi would show up in front of him?"

"No but… if Stockton Kurumi hadn't been there, the only thing that would have changed would be the involvement of Stockton International" Ringo didn't want to believe it herself but they were afraid to think about the consequences if ever it were true.

"How about we test it out?" Suzaku didn't want to show fear towards Kazuya or any of the members of the Kouzuki family so he thought of something after talking to his cousin.

"What do you propose? Our first attempt to use that incompetent teacher only let him know that we ignored his threats" Ringo frowned. Using Ono was suggested by Suzaku and they got nothing for it.

"Lee said he had one conspirator that got off scot free after all this. He may be scum but that cousin of mine never attempted to implicate the family even after he was discarded. This conspirator was careful enough not to get caught by the police or the Kouzukis" Suzaku explained to Ringo about what Lee shared with him about the only one who was careful enough to get away even after introducing him to the men that were hired that day.

"I see… So it's the high school department's Kuuga-senpai" a grin grew on Ringo's face.

-

In the end, Kazuya had opted to join the Tennis club. He chose it because he thought that it would be a good way to train his sight, body and concentration. It was a much more physically demanding sport that involved some sort of weapon and hitting an object that was moving at speeds that depended on his opponent so he was quite satisfied with this sport.

"Let's go" Kazuya saw Tomoyo who was hurrying towards him after she came from the Kendo club. The Tennis courts were closer to where Jirou picked them up everyday so he waited for her before they headed home.

"I was against you going for another sport but you sure picked a suitable one kid" Jirou commented after they got on his car. It had been a while since he came to personally pick them up. Things have pretty much calmed down after his partnership with Ayame's grandfather so he started going back to his old routine.

"I'm glad you think so too grandpa Jirou" Kazuya was in a good mood since Jirou being here meant everything had went well and he was successful in getting more people to fend off the incoming dangers.

"Let me ask you a question kid" Jirou already counted on one of the instructors to drive so he sat with them. "Do you have any memories of Old Kou? Errr… I mean your grandfather"

"No" Kazuya replied almost immediately.

"I see…" Jirou was a little disappointed but he understood. He already expected as much because he didn't have the slightest memory of his own mother when he woke up in the hospital.

From Kazuya's perspective, his grandfather didn't exist. He didn't know anything about the person because he wasn't present in his previous life and his current one. The only thing he knew about Kouzuki Kou was that he disappeared along with a few of his friends even before he got into an accident with Kyouko. This was according to Mei when he asked her about his own relatives out of curiosity.

"Why do you ask?" He didn't even hear anything about the guy or if he was still alive at the time so to Kazuya, Kouzuki Kou was someone who didn't exist.

"I was just a little curious since I don't think we've talked about him even once"

"(Wait a minute…)" Kazuya just remembered something. He was currently nine years old and from what Mei informed him in his previous life. The last time the old man showed up was when he was nine years old.

This thought made him take a look at Jirou once more. This old man has made it clear throughout the years that he's close friends with his grandfather and the Kouzuki family and the Shirogane family had close ties with each other. Jirou even tried to secretly support the Kouzuki Corporation when they went against the Kuroganes. So then why was he not around to help in his previous life?

"[Your grandfather's name was Kouzuki Kou and he had not shown himself since you were nine years old. He returned and called a few of his close friends to explore a ruin that had been discovered. The man and his friends had never been heard from again ever since]" were the exact words Mei used in her previous life.

This made a few things clear, Jirou must have been one of the friends that his infamous grandfather took with him. Following this line of thinking, he finally had come up with a reason why the robot girl liked to beat him up so much. The Kouzukis, or specifically his grandfather caused her to lose another loved one.

"(Did something happen perhaps?)" Kazuya somewhat regretted not caring too much about what happened. Even if he was the last living relative of Kouzuki Kou, surely the other known families sent people to find out what happened to those who went along with him.

Kazuya found it weird that both his mother and big sis have neglected to mention anything about his grandfather even though they once tried asking everything about his lost memories. He immediately assumed that they would rather not have anything to do with such a guy so Kazuya put him in the same category as the father he hasn't met yet. Kou could have saved him from losing everything he had to Lee if he came back right?

His conversation with Jirou ended as he felt that Kazuya had started to think about things after he mentioned his old friend. He conversed with his granddaughter instead since he had been very busy lately and he was quite worried about her because he thought that she might have troubles adjusting to Kazuya's club activity change.

Jirou wanted to talk about his old friend more so that before he arrived, the boy who doesn't remember him wouldn't be too cold and indifferent as the boy usually was around strangers. He considered it a step further if he got the boy to think about his grandfather since even Kyouko avoided talking about her troublesome father.

"(I've done what I could for you old friend. I'm sure your going to be happy as well as frustrated after meeting this grandson of yours)"

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