#76 Argument

Thanks to Ayanokoji, my task became much easier now that I knew what they wanted to do. However...I have time until the closing hours. I thought and looked up at the sun which was still high in the sky.

*sigh* It's going to take some time, even if I assume that everyone would want to leave a few hours before the closing hours. What to do in the meantime?

I looked around me and saw students happily eating hotdogs, playing in the pool or simply relaxing on the loungers. Ugh, there is not much to do... I am not hungry, I can definitely go swimming but I don't want to swim for a few hours straight.

"Walker-kun! You look slightly lost, are you perhaps not used to being at the pool?" I knew that voice very well so when I turned around I saw Ichinose looking at me with a slightly worried expression while holding a ball for a beach volleyball right under her breasts as if she was supporting them with that ball.

Well, you are not entirely wrong.

"Hehe, Is it so plain to see? As I have told you before, I was living in the mountains with my master, therefore, I have a very small experience with these places." I lightly chuckled while scratching back of my head.

"I see..." She muttered with a downcast expression while looking at the ground.

"Oh! How about you play a game with us? We are missing one player." She abruptly raised her head as if a great idea struck her and asked me with an inviting smile while directing my attention to the ball by showing it right before my nose.

Hmm...I am not really in the mood for playing beach volleyball. I would rather just have a small talk with Sae-chan...and I might as well do it, that is if she is still here.

"Look Ichinose-san, I really appreciate-" I stopped talking because I spotted one particular group of students that caught my attention.

It was Ryuen together with a few of his lackeys and Kei together with other 2 girls from our class, Shinohara, and Matsushita. It looked like they were arguing, judging from their not so happy expressions.

What an odd combination...I get Shinohara being around Kei but even Matsushita is together with them and the relationship between Matsushita and Kei wasn't the best one back on Deserted Island during the survival exam.

"Hm?" Ichinose also noticed that I wasn't paying attention to her so she looked at what caught my attention.

"I appreciate the offer but it seems that I should go there and stop my classmates from creating any pointless conflicts." I said with a helpless smile.

"I doubt that they would be the ones creating it with Ryuen's presence. Do you want me to go there with you?" Ichinose offered her help with a smile, however, I had different plans, I wanted to talk to Kei after solving this problem and Ichinose's presence would only be troublesome. Also, she would ask me again to go play with them since I haven't said that I am not in the mood to play but only used this excuse.

"You don't have to, I will simply take them away from Ryuen and everything will be alright. By the way, if you are looking for the last player then let me recommend Ayanokoji-kun. He is currently hiding in the opposite side of the pool in the secluded spot, you can't miss that." I answered with a friendly smile, however underneath that was my evil smile for using Ayanokoji to replace me in their game.

"Oh? I see...I was looking for him earlier but I couldn't find him anywhere, thank you very much and good luck to you, Walker-kun!" She easily believed in my words to quickly solve the problem with Ryuen so she said her thanks and run off to look for Ayanokoji.

Heh, sorry, buddy. You will have to take the shot for me. Well, I doubt that she would insist if I simply said that I don't want to play, I guess I am only malicious and want to cause some problems for him. I shrugged my shoulders and went towards Ryuen's and Kei's group.

...

"Why are you even wearing a t-shirt when we are at the pool? Do you see yourself as ugly or perhaps you only show your skin to your lover, hehe. Now that I mentioned it...where is he?" Ryuen was talking to Kei with folded arms and a provocative smile on his face.

When I heard his words, I decided to stop for a while and hide behind the backs of other people to see how Kei will react.

---

'Does he know anything about my scar?! It's possible that those girls told him, however, Felix said that I shouldn't bother myself with this. As for lover...there are already rumors of me breaking up with Hirata so why did he say that...especially in such a sarcastic tone. How should I react to this? What would Felix do in my place?' Karuizawa thought when she saw the worried faces of her friends, however, after a small moment of thinking...

---

Hm? She actually smiled? What's going on inside her mind?

"You sure have a very vulgar mouth, Ryuen. Why should I show off my skin to the perverts like you? So you could be ogling my body? Dream on!" She said with the same insulting smile.

"? Pfff, well said Kei-chan!"

"Yeah, I wouldn't be able to come up with a better reply!"

Although Matsushita and Shinohara were at first worried, they quickly gained confidence after seeing Kei being so aggressive and confident.

However, after Ryuen saw how they were insulting him, he actually took a big step forward, arriving right in front of Kei who was by almost the entire head shorter. He was generating invisible pressure on Kei who was doing her best not to shake and maintain eye contact with him.

"Do you really believe that I won't do anything to you just because you are a girl? As for your body, what a jok-"

" Did bullying little girls become your hobby, Ryuen?" I interrupted Ryuen who was just about to insult Kei's body, not because I didn't want him to insult her but because I was already satisfied by her reaction.

"Hoho, it seems that your lover has arrived to rescue you from this tight spot." Ryuen said to Kei without even looking at who was speaking. It seems that he remembers my voice very well.

"Lo-"

"-ver?"

Matsushita and Shinohara looked at each other with dumbfounded expressions when they saw me but they just thought of Ryuen's words as a joke, nevertheless, both of them still sighed in relief, perhaps because they remembered that I practiced the Kendo so they felt safe with me around

When Ryuen decided to finally turn his head to face me, his expression changed to the serious one.

---

'Why does he seem to be so different from the last time I saw him? What has happened to him during these holidays? Plus what's up with that look in his eyes and his expression? Is he looking down on me?!' Ryuen thought while gritting his teeth in frustration but he didn't let it be seen on his expression.

---

"What's up with this lover bullshit? *sigh* You really like playing around, Ryuen, don't you?" I released a tired sigh after seeing his attitude.

"...Hehe, you know me pretty well but I also know a few things about you that others don't." He said with a confident smile, revealing his white teeth while giving a side glance at Kei.

"Oh? Do tell me what you know if not...Girls, Hirata-kun is looking for you." I completely disregarded what he just said and looked at Kei, Matsushita, and Shinohara who were observing our entire exchange with a nervous expression on their faces.

"Ah! Yes...let's go together with Walker-kun back to our classmates" Matsushita was the first one to agree while giving Kei a particular smile. 3 of them quickly started dragging me away from Ryuen's group.

Huh? I just wanted them to lose interest in you and then talk to Kei...Why do I have to go back with them? Whatever, I don't have anything to do except for looking if Sae-chan is still here.

"Aren't you ashamed of yourself, Walker? Running away while being watched by 3 girls?" Ryuen tried to provoke me but I hardly put any attention to his words.

"Although I have a lot of spare time, I hardly want to spend it on arguing with someone like you." I said while being dragged away by the girls.

"And 3 of you stop dragging me already, I know how to walk by myself." I told them and gently shook off from their grasp.

"Sorry..." Kei and Matsushita looked downwards with a guilty expression on their faces, however, Shinohara looked more embarrassed than guilty.

"Thanks. Well, see you later, Ryuen. Although I would rather not see you at all." I turned around so I could finally leave on my own feet and not being dragged like some toy by some crazy girls. I didn't forget to "politely" say goodbye to Ryuen with my back to him and raised hand.

I found slightly intriguing that he wasn't saying anything else so I took a quick peek at what he was doing. There, I found him with a surprised expression, however, that very quickly changed into the arrogant one.

---

'As I thought...He really is someone strong, judging just from those scars, he must have been in many fights. Hehe, crushing someone like him will be very entertaining. Just thinking about how proud he must be...he probably thinks that he is a great fighter with those scars. Haha, this will definitely be a lot of fun, destroying someone's self-esteem is always the first-class enjoyment!' Ryuen thought while having an arrogant smile on his face.

---

Heh, what's up with that expression? He appears to me as someone crazy for fighting however he is also extremely confident. For most people, more muscles mean stronger, however for experts, size doesn't matter. It might give you advantages and disadvantages but that's a small portion that mostly doesn't affect your winning chance. Ryuen looks like someone experienced so I take it that he thinks that once 2 strong experts meet each other, the size is what matters and Ryuen definitely win over me when it comes to the size of the muscles, however, he doesn't realize that I look like this just because I want to have much better flexibility and of course I imagine that he would have never thought that I am much stronger than my body actually looks like. However, I am confident in winning against him in a fight even without my supernatural strength, of course, I would have much smaller strength than him, therefore, I wouldn't be able to casually exchange moves with him and I would be forced to play dirty and target his weak points like throat, spine, diaphragm...meaning that I might not be able to win without actually killing him or causing him very serious up to life-changing injury. Of course, this is also me taking into account that he is an extremely experienced fighter on the level of some veteran soldiers from the army which is very unlikeable but better safe than sorry.

I took the girls back to Hirata and explained the situation to him and advised him to keep an eye out on Ryuen.

"Thank you for the help, Walker-kun..." Shinohara thanked me with slightly awkward expression, I guess she never thought that there would come a time where she would thank me for something after what happened between us during the survival exam.

She lightly bowed to express her gratitude and run off after Hirata and others.

"Don't think of her badly please, Walker-kun. She just... isn't used to showing her gratitude to the boys. Thank you for getting us out of that unpleasant situation." Matsushita thanked me, however, she didn't leave us alone, she looked like she had more to say.

"It's alright, I don't really care about her attitude. Well...do you have anything else you want to say to me?" I asked her with a slightly confused expression. I still had something to talk about with Kei but I didn't want to discuss anything with someone else listening to our conversation.

"Well, if you put it like that...there is indeed something... Would you like to go for a swim with me?" She asked me with a smile while scratching her slightly red cheek with her finger.

Well, I could, after I talk to Kei that is...but on the other hand. I thought and glanced at Kei who was wearing her t-shirt for the entire time. Although she looked slightly surprised by Matsushita's proposal, she didn't seem to mind it that much or maybe she just didn't let it be seen in her expression?

When was the last time she went swimming? I looked around the pool area, seeing all the girls smiling and laughing in their bikinis, showing off their skin to the boys.

...*sigh*

"I appreciate the offer Matsushita-san, however, currently I am not in the mood for swimming. Please don't take it personally" I apologized to her and she took it pretty well. And Kei, on the other hand, seemed much more surprised by my response than Matsushita herself.

"Oh...I see, there is definitely no need to apologize. See you later!" Although at first, she looked a bit confused, she quickly recovered and said her goodbye with a smile, leaving me alone with Kei.

"Why did you refuse her offer?" Kei asked me with a confused expression.

"When was the last time you went actually swimming?" I disregarded her question and instead of answering her, I asked her my own question.

"Huh? Do you mean in the bikini and just for fun? ...I don't think I can remember it, if it ever happened that is. Why?" She was confused by my question but she still chose to honestly answer me.

"Think of some excuse to remain here when everyone else leaves. We will meet up here right before the closing hours." I told her and began to slowly walk towards the second section.

"What? Wait! Won't you explain anything to me?" She shouted at me from behind me while pouting her lips.

"Whatever!" She stamped her foot and left with a dissatisfied expression, however, there was a small smile across her face.

Now...let's look if Sae-chan is still here so I can pass the time by talking to her and I can also acquire more information about the tournaments.

"Hey! What the fu*k was that, Ayanokoji-kun?!" I heard someone angrily shout at Ayanokoji so I turned my head to the side to look at what was going on.

"It was a bad angle, sorry" He answered with a helpless expression.

"Fu*k the angle! At least get the ball in the air so we can receive it for you!" Sudo didn't stop with his shouting.

It seems that he is still playing a low-key. Now I actually feel sorry for dragging him into this...Pfff, who am I kidding?

Ayanokoji also noticed me looking at them however he didn't even have enough energy to look hatefully at me, instead, he just had a tired expression.

Hey, what's up with that tired look? You are making friends, friends! Cheer up buddy, haha. I laughed inwardly after seeing this sight before me.

I showed him a thumb up with the brightest smile I could form, revealing all my white teeth. This was my way of showing him that I am cheering for him.

Maybe I really am an evil person, hehe.