a diamond through the rough

Takiko wandered the slums of Akihabara aimlessly one Sunday afternoon with a piece of paper in hand and a stack of papers in the other trying to find a certain Madog's house

"Why did the president have to assign this duty to me?" she cursed her luck as she was met with another dead end

Why did the president ever want to send her to the house of that pathetic excuse of a person to deliver paperwork?

The slums bothered her a lot, people the buildings looked dirty and roughed while the people were rude and rougher

She passed withered buildings that she was sure were once pristine and walked by groups of individual's that may or may not be gangs

The stares also unnerved her, people openly stared at her with lecherous eyes the only thing that kept them from actually trying anything was her sword

"another dead end…" she said dejectedly faced by another abandoned building

Bang!!!

She ducked involuntarily as a gunshot sounded from a nearby alley, followed by more gunshots and sounds of fighting

She knew she shouldn't but regardless of what her senses told her she followed the sound and peered down the alley

She screamed

It was a bloodbath.

Several bodies lined the alley as three men continued to pile more on top of the others their hands bloodied and faces grim

They turned to her.

She ran.

Her heart thumping in her chest she weaved through the buildings not knowing where exactly she was going

She heard gunshots behind her

"damn!!!!" she yelled as she was met with another dead end

"you put up quite the chase little missy," a voice said behind her "we cain't exactly let you go after you've seen that" she turned to see three men cornering her

The one in the middle towered over her as the other two approached her

She drew her sword.

She was the council's vice president, an elite fighter in the fortress she would not go down easily

She charged the man to her left, making a faint strike before striking at his solar plexus with a kick. She rounded on the other man who was already mid-swung his hand to punch her

She brought her sword.

The fist collided painfully against the flat of the blade earning her a howl of pain from the man before she sent him tumbling with a kick

Suddenly pain laced up her leg as she crumpled down on the dirty floor with a knife stuck to her right leg bleeding in the ground

"you gave us quite the fight you little shit," the man in the middle said smugly as the other two recovered

"well you certainly have quite the figure, it would ba waste to just kill you now," he said his stare became lecherous "come on boys get to work" he ordered

The other two approached

She couldn't move, fear ground her to where she sat afraid and bleeding. She could only watch as they approached her

Something behind her snapped and suddenly the two men were on the ground writhing in pain

"wha-" she barely completed the thought when black smoke started to come from nowhere clouding her vision making it almost impossible to see

She felt a streeking pain through her leg as someone picked her up started moving rapidly jumping in odd directions before stopping

She finally got some of her bearings straight and began to punch at her assailant

"godammit, Masaharu! stop your heavy enough as it is" a voice complained

"This voice-" the smoke cleared revealing raven hair and a defined face with piercing gold eyes

"Shutup I wanna see the show" he put a finger to her lips as he pointed down

They were on top of a building looking down on three individuals about to duke it out for real this time

"is that Sagara!?" she asked in a panic a little worry creeping into her voice

The president and the treasurer would kill her if anything happened to him when she was around to prevent it

"Why aren't you helping him?!" she screamed at Sebastian "he's the most inexperienced fighter in the committee, why did you leave him down there" she glared at Sebastian who face hardened

"that simply logically not true," he said calmly

"him by himself against three people is overkill as it is even without me thrown into the equation," he said pointing down to Sagara who was standing over three bodies

"darn it, I missed the action," Sebastian said

Sagara looked back at them and made a sign Takiko couldn't place

"godammit, man!" Sebastian cursed "why are you leaving me with her?!" he continued

"what's that supposed to mean?" her eyebrow twitched

"it means Sagara is a total jackass and I have to take you to my place to patch up that leg of yours," he said annoyed as he leaped from rooftop to rooftop

"i-i'm fine I don't need your help!" she said indignantly

"you're injured and could barely walk" he reasoned

"plus can you even find your way out?" he smirked smugly

"go to hell"

LINE BREAK

They traveled in relative, silence aside from her occasional grunts when Sebastian accidentally scraped her wounded leg on anything

He would always mutter an apology before clamming up again keeping his eyes ahead

Takiko found herself wondering if this really was the Madog Sebastian she knew and loathed. He almost seemed serious and duty-bound unlike his usual carefree nature when fighting or in school

She looked back to his face.

His eyes were focused.non of the usual mirth in them as if he could be fighting a life or death battle at the turn of a corner

It was afternoon when she had entered the slums. But now she looked up to see a moon hanging overhead illuminating their path

"get on my back" her thoughts dissipated when Sebastian finally spoke.

"I'm going to need my arms for this," he said shifting her position from being carried bridal style to his back

She held on to Sebastian's back a hint of red creeping into her cheeks as before she scolded herself for the action

"j-just so y-you know I-I'm only doing this cause its needed!" she huffed indignantly. cursing herself for the stutter

'where did he hide this much muscle?' she wondered silently as she climbed on his back holding on tightly as to not fall

Sebastian looked kinda lanky for a teenage male. but then again anyone would if they're compared to the rest of the committee

Sebastian for his part seemed to have a leaner build like Sagara's but hid it through baggy clothing

But now that she was this close she could surely tell he wasn't lacking in that department

'stop it! He's just doing this cause it's necessary. You do not derive any joy from this at all!' she mentally berated herself

She stared dead ahead to a tall building that bordered the more dangerous place in the slums. Fighting the blush on her cheeks

Sebastian began running… towards the edge of the building

"wait! you're not planning to-" she was cut off as Sebastian leaped an impressive height and grabbed hold of a ledge