Gremlins

The next day passed with a few incidents but none of them enough of an imminent deal to be of any concern. Benjiro didn't see the creepy guys who were staring at him the other day, but he still kept his eyes peeled. He still had no idea who they were, but he figured it was just a group of punks trying to intimidate people. Evidently people like that were in almost every neighborhood. The Domon Battalion was eerily absent in their mockery. He saw a stray couple of them throw dirty looks and the occasional slur at him, but overall they seemed content to just watch him. And the most infuriating thing is that every time Benjiro caught them looking, they just grinned, as if there were some hilarious inside joke that only he wasn't in on.

As classes ended, he slowly made his way to the library. Yesterday he had been afraid because he wasn't sure exactly what to expect, but today was the complete opposite. Knowing just how volcanic that girl's temper was and just how little it took for her to blow her top, occupied his thoughts throughout the day, making for more than a few awkward moments when teachers would ask if their lessons were boring them.

'No, but giving lessons to a certain someone would be lethal, boring or otherwise.' he silently grimaced.

He purposefully dragged his feet on the staircase, making a few people yell at him for being slow, but he just plugged in his music so he couldn't hear the complaints and the jeers. Standing at the entrance of the library he felt that sick sense of nostalgia wash over him again, 'As soon as I walk through those doors, there's going to be a physically and verbally abusive woman waiting for me. We're going to sit and pretend the other doesn't exist. If I so much as make a peep, she's going to tear me a new ***hole and then act as if she did nothing.' As he reached forward, the metal of the handle felt odlly cold and the door oddly heavy.

Haruoka was in the same table as before, and she didn't even look up as he sat down, "So you decided to show up." she said dismissively. Benjiro decided he wasn't going to answer that, but also realized that statement was most likely rhetorical. He sat down and watched out of the corner of his eyes as the athletic girl repeat the same pattern as she did yesterday. Flicking through his phone, he found a few things on the internet to catch his interest and make a few small snorts at memes he liked. But after a half hour he quickly grew bored with doing nothing. If he were at home, it would be one thing, but he was at school, and as much as he didn't like to go looking for extra work, he needed something to actually stimulate his mind for a while.

Benjiro stood up, leaving the table and its only other occupant without any announcement. Although, he had a feeling that was for the best. A short wander up to the front desk, he was going to attempt asking for some light reading to pass the time, but something caught his eye. In the display was the town newspaper, and the front page was enough to make him look twice.

Waving his hand at the librarian, "C-Can I t-take this p-paper?", he whispered.

She handed it to him, "Yes you may, but this is one thing you have to return before you leave", she said in a casual tone.

With a bemused smile, "And for future reference, you don't have to whisper in the library. Just keep the decibel level at a low conversational tone, if you please."

Benjiro smiled sheepishly at her, before going back to his table. Sitting back down, he stared intently at the front page which read "40% Uptake in Gang Related Violence." Scanning his eyes down the article it read:

"In the last three to four weeks, there has been a exponential increase in the number of crimes in the area. These crimes have ranged in severity, including: armed robbery, grand larceny, assault and battery, attempted murder, terroristic threats and others. Allegedly, the violence seems to have mostly been concentrated among local gangs as confrontations about territory and revenue have caused them to clash. But no confirmations about these theories have arisen quite yet. What is clear though, is that these clashes have escalated both in numbers and violence. Many gang members have ended up in the hospital as of late mostly with signs of extreme blunt force trauma. Police have arrested nobody suspected of instigating these turf wars. However a group of men, who appear to be led by a tall man wearing an eyepatch were sighted near the town of Mabuli. While it may be unclear why these confrontations are flaring, the authorities are issuing warnings to the public. Such as to have students walk in groups, keep their eyes out for suspicious persons and to report anything that could be suspected to relate to these incidents to your local police officers."

Benjiro scoffed as he tossed the newspaper onto the table, sighing with frustration at how little the article told him about the situation. There was hardly anything to glean from reading it, except for the one line. "Lead by a tall man wearing an eyepatch." Tall. Eyepatch. Either punks in the city were trying too hard to look tough, or fate just had developed the sickest sense of humor in its spare time. The article had no pictures to accompany it which just made the lack of any real clues all the more aggravating.

Staring at the small pockmarks on the ceiling, which made Benjiro think they looked like the surface of the moon... and he was getting off track again. Ordinarily, seeing something like that wouldn't concern him too much. At least no more than the average person, after all he was a student in the area, and having dealt with situations like that before, it wasn't something he hoped to revisit anytime soon. But reading through the article gave him an odd feeling of foreboding, so he just hoped it was nothing more than baseless anxiety talking to him at the moment.

The rest of what could barely be described as a study session passed, thankfully, in relative silence and a respectable distance between the two parties. They finished at about the same time as before, and they both left the table without even acknowledging the other's prescense. As soon as he could no longer see Haruoka and was out of the school building, he started to feel lighter, 'How does that saying that Anthony taught me go? "Some people are like clouds, when they go away, things become sunnier."' He chuckled to himself a little as he got farther away from the storm cloud.

Thinking it would be rude, and most likely earn himself more pain, Benjiro decided to wait for Higaki to be the one to come and get him, rather than just walk across the street and sashay through the front door. Or, maybe he could. After all, her parents seemed to be friendly enough and the brothers while annoying didn't seem to be completely antagonistic towards him. No sooner had the thought left his synapes than he heard a knock at the door. As expected, it was Akiko, and although the meeting was prearranged, Benjiro couldn't help but feel annoyed as the short girl seemed to be shepherding him to her house.

This time as they did the walk of what shouldn't be shameful, Benjiro saw that Higaki's Dad, sitting in a recliner reading a book. Offering greetings, Mr. Higaki responded by offering a friendly nod. As they walked over to the staircase, he only looked back at the older man for a moment and Shoma's eyes were definitely on the book, but the lanky boy still felt like there were a pair of eyes boring themselves into his back. Surprisingly he didn't see the boys anywhere.

They entered Akiko's room, this time making sure to leave the door cracked open a few centimeters to satisfy the potential overseers. The setup was similar to the day before, except she had remembered that talking too long wear out your throat, so this time there were two bottles of ice tea sitting on her table. Akiko handed Benjiro the script, she'd go through the scenes, he'd offer feedback and they'd occasionally pause to take a sip of some tea and bat ideas back and forth.

"Do you think this one part should be sad, or more scared?" Akiko asked.

Scratching his head, "Hmm, I'd s-say, if you c-can it should be m-more scared. After all, y-you're m-meeting a monster f-for the first t-time in th-this scene.",

Benjiro raised a finger and hesitantly said, "Um, th-that's m-my tea you're d-drinking." Her eyes grew wide and she began coughing and sputtering. Benjiro tried to help by slapping her on the back but she waved him off. He tried thinking of a way to help but paused as he glanced behind Akiko. In the crack of the door, Benjiro saw two sets of eyes looking back at him. The two younger brothers quickly held their fingers to their lips as they barely restrained their laughter. But it was too late because, following his gaze, Akiko turned red when she saw them, "What are you two doing?" she yelled throwing the door open, shooing them away, "Go on, get lost. Go play videogames or find someone else to spy on you little gremlins."

Outside the room, the brothers could be heard laughing, hooting and hollering for a good three minutes before getting bored and realizing they couldn't spy on the two teenagers anymore. Akiko's face refused to return to its normal shade after slamming the door shut in their faces. Plopping down on the matress, she actually looked more embarressed than angry, which made no sense to Benjiro. After calming down a bit, she picked up the right bottle this time. She needed soothe her throat from yelling at them, since it was also important to not lose your voice.