Ugly Duckling Pt. 2

While the trio walked to the gym where the karate match was taking place, both Akiko and Daitan were sizing each other up.

'This girl's like a chihuahua in human form' Daitan surmised, 'Small, quick to lash out but scared when things come back to her. She seems like a pain. Wonder how Scarecrow knows her.'

'I remember Nojiri saying he was tutoring someone', Akiko recalled, 'But I never imagined it'd be the gang leader, Haruoka. She's every bit as intimidating as the rumors say. That short haircut to make her appear more masculine, not that those thigh muscles don't help. Sheesh, she looks like she could break both of us in half.'

Poor Benjiro breathed a silent sigh of relief when he saw the doors to the gym and could hear people inside. The bleachers held a respectable amount of kids as the fights below ran their course. The trio found a set of seats at the top since all the heads towards the front were blocking the view. It had probably been close to ten years since Benjiro had seen an honest to God martial arts match. Like he mentioned to Haruoka, he watched them on TV all the time as a little kid and had occasionally gone to watch matches for the middle and high schoolers in his area. But after going to live on base, he was relegated to just watching them on tv.

His current school had a pretty good lineup of fourteen members while the other had seventeen members. What Benjiro didn't realize was that this was a full contact match. While somewhat brutal to watch, it had a certain fascination that excited so many. Matches typically lasted about three minute at most, but many boys made quick work of each other. It appeared the home team was well adept at striking while the visiting team preferred grappling.The girls on both teams were definitely in the minority. He wondered if they'd do alright at first. After seeing a few black eyes and body shots dealt, nobody could deny that they could give the boys a good thrashing.

Benjiro always had rather good ears. He rarely tried on purpose since most of what he heard was completely inane, but eavesdropping continued to be a rather unexpected talent of his. He heard someone in front of him mention, "Man, these Osaka kids are really cleaning house tonight."

Another guy concurred, "Yeah, do you think we'll pull ahead?"

"It'll take quite a stroke of luck."

It had been such a simple exchange but that one word, made his blood run cold. Osaka, his old prefecture. Home to a slew of enough closet skeletons spilling out to make a gay dictator jealous.

"Hey, Scarecrow", he heard Daitan cut in, "Now are you doing alright. You look like you're about ready to blow a blood vessel."

Benjiro hastily nodded as he slackened his grip on his knees and remembered to breathe.

"If you don't feel well, we should probably go home", Akiko suggested.

He waved his hands, "N-No, I'm fine. I j-just need to... go d-do something."

Abruptly, Benjiro stood up and lurched his way out of the gym. Tossing himself into the nearest bathroom stall he could find, the young man gently rubbed his cramping stomach. While he knew that Osaka was a large area, just thinking about it made his anxiety skyrocket. After coming to live with his father, it had been weeks since he had even slept properly.

'Geez, all it takes is a casual mention of home and suddenly you're ready to panic?'

Benjiro had to bite back his urge to snap, 'You know it's not that simple, Inei. I couldn't even go to any of the surrounding towns without people recognizing me.'

'Come on, it's been almost nine years already', Inei pointed out, 'Don't you think that by now most people will have forgotten?'

Turning his gaze away from the toilet bowl and towards his mental companion, 'All it takes is one person who remembers', he suppressed the urge to sob, 'And then it all just comes crashing back.'

Inei slumped down beside his originator, 'If all it takes is a mere mention to throw you into a conniption fit, then you haven't moved on.'

Benjiro snorted humorlessly, 'Yeah, and who can blame me?'

Inei cocked his head, 'I can think of a few people who wouldn't be satisfied to know.'

A deadly glare was shot at Inei, 'Don't even go there. We tried to keep her from knowing the full extent of it just so we could keep her from worrying.'

'And yet she's your only confidant', Inei countered, 'How do you think she'd feel knowing that you're lying about how hurt and scared you still are? That's essentially like saying you don't trust her.'

A fist bashed off the side of the stall as Benjiro had a mental wrestling match.

...

Back at the bleacher, Daitan and Akiko were only half watching the matches. The other half of their attention was spent trying to figure the other out.

Akiko was the first to try breaking the ice, "So... what kind of things does Nojiri teach you?"

It was a rough start but it was something, "English."

Swing and a miss on Akiko's part, 'Maybe if I just double down...'

"Learning a whole new language can be tough. Uh, are things coming along well?"

Daitan shrugged, "Yeah, I think they are."

Suddenly, that idiom she learned about brick walls was starting to make sense. One match was finishing up as the two opponents bowed to each other. Two girls entered the circle and bowed to each other.

"What about you? How do you know the Scarecrow?"

'Ok, maybe there's a space in that brick wall', Akiko thought.

"Well, we're neighbors", she listed, "He's met my family, I got him to become an unofficial member of my club and I'm helping him with a project as part of it."

The girl from the home team was good at keeping the Osaka girl at a distance. Daitan gave Akiko a calculating look, "Sounds like you're fond of the guy."

Akiko's face began flushing red.

"That is, when you're not being a total spaz around him."

Red from embarrassment changed to a red of annoyance, "Oh yeah? From what I hear, you're not exactly the picture of calmness and stability yourself. Always blowing up over the smallest bump in the road."

This time it was Daitan's turn to be annoyed, "At least he actually wanted to help me. He tried to find a creative way of teaching me English in a way that no teacher ever con-sidered. The guy may not be good for much, but dammit, he's good at what he does."

Luckily or unluckily for both of them, Benjiro came back from the bathroom looking a little pale. Akiko tried to ask if he was feeling alright, but he just waved her question off and tried to focus back on the match.

"S-So who's winn-ning?"

Daitan decided to offer color commentary, "Well, one of the guys from the home team wiped the floor with the Osaka dude. Caught 'im with a roundhouse to the thigh and managed to get him in a headlock. Whole thing basically ended right then and there. It's the last girl match right now. This visitor girl is really giving my friend Junko the what for. Junko's got faster hands, but this girl has her so tangled up that she can't get a clean shot."

Benjiro tried factoring Daitan's observations into his own. He recognized the one called Junko as one of Hauroka's underlings that rescued him when he got captured. Indeed the visitor was giving her opponent a tough time. There was something oddly familiar about her. All he could see was that her hair was tied back in a ponytail. She was good at slipping shots and every time she linked up. A few times, Ponytail managed to almost take Junko to the ground, but probably due to her time as a gangster she knew how to keep her footing. No sooner had this thought run through Benjiro's head than the Ponytail yanked Junko forward. This was proceeded by loading Junko up onto her hips, wrapped her arms around and dumping Junko on the floor. Setting her opponents arm against her leg, Junko tapped out before her arm could be used as a crank.

Benjiro couldn't help but let out a low whistle at the impressive display. Daitan obviously wasn't pleased that her friend lost, but she nonetheless accepted her friends defeat as legitimate. All Akiko could do was cringe at seeing the fight. While her temper was something that got her into trouble, violence wasn't her forte. With the matches concluded for the night, the two teams lined up on opposite sides of the mat to bow and thank each other.

Daitan stuck around for a few moments to talk to her friend while the other two waited for her to finish up. When she was finished, they all left the gym to head home for the night. Along the way, the trio spotted a small group of the Osaka kids walking by. Ponytail girl was among them. Benjiro could tell by the way she carried herself that she was disciplined and that odd combination of tough yet graceful that was trademark of martial artists. Now that her hair was down, he could see that she had beautiful, shoulder length auburn hair that cascaded down in little wavelets. She was certainly pretty, but there was still something about her that bothered him that he couldn't place.

While trying to think of what it was, Ponytail noticed him staring and decided to stare right back. Benjiro couldn't think of why, but her face was equally quizzical about him. A look of curious realization and tentative wonder spread across her face. She actually began approaching them, leaving the lanky young man to wonder if he had offended her. He was already working on an apology as she stopped in front of him with the ghost of a nervous smile.

"Benji, is that you?"

One simple question. Four words. People could make songs, speeches and countless words of affirmation till they passed out. But, in that moment, all the worry, guilt, fear, anxiety just... melted away.

"M-Mine", he whispered, eyes tearing up, not even daring to believe she was right there.

Her own eyes misting, "Yeah, it's me. I'm right here."