Twilight Syndrome

Hope's Peak Academy - West Quarter, The Reserve Course Building

The next day, near the evening...

"So you're telling me you want to teach this Sato girl a lesson?", Vince asked, unsure of why Natsumi called him today to meet her here. She wasn't exactly too specific about what the meeting was for, so he was pretty much clueless about it.

"Shut up. You listen to me, Vince," Natsumi told him, in a very impatient tone. "Sato has undermined my authority for far too long without suffering the consequences. I decided to arrange a 'friendly meeting' with her upstairs in the music room. I figured I needed to talk some sense into her, you know what I mean?"

"You're going to take her all on your own?", Vince asked.

"Eh... not necessarily. But I will definitely talk some sense into that marble-sized brain of hers, that's for sure," she told him. She reached for her back pocket, which made Vince startled since he thought she was pulling a weapon out on him. But she did it slowly, and he saw that it was a yellow taser. Natsumi placed it in Vince's hands.

"Now, this could go wrong. So if I'm I'm not out of the music room in the next ten minutes, you come upstairs, take that taser and immediately back me up. Tase Sato on sight if you have to. Do you understand?", she told him very strictly.

"Loud and clear, ma'am," Vince replied. I can probably see why she gave me a taser instead of a gun, he thought. Makes much less noise, draws much less attention.

"Don't call me that. Just wait right here for now. REMEMBER, if I'm not back in ten minutes, run like hell upstairs to the music room! Keep track of the time until then, Vince," Natsumi said, before walking up the staircase to get to the floor of the music room. Vince decided to sit back and wait outside for a bit for the time being. It was getting boring quickly.

"Never gonna get it, never gonna get it, never gonna get it, never gonna get it," Vince mumbled, trying to find something to do other than count. He continued mumbling lyrics from different songs until he noticed a Reserve Course boy outside that was running like hell towards his location. Vince could tell because the boy had the traditional black RC uniform that all the other male students wore. This boy had very spiky, dark brown hair, and jade eyes. Suddenly, the boy pushed Vince out of the way to make it upstairs.

"Out of the way! I need to get upstairs, and fast! No time to explain!", was all that the boy said before opening up the door and running up the flight of stairs to the top floor.

"Woah, hey hey hey! Slow down! Geez, what was his problem?", Vince said out loud. He didn't decide to go after that boy yet. I figure he's probably just late to his class or something like that, he thought. Say, he was running pretty fast for a Reserve Course student, though, I'll admit that. By now, about five minutes have already passed.

*Meanwhile*

The Music Room - Hope's Peak, The Reserve Course Building

"Stay away from me, you fucking psycho!", Natsumi screamed as she backed away from Sato. Sato swung the metal bat and lunged at her, before Natsumi ducked and avoided the attack. The bat hit and smashed a flower vase to pieces, spilling shattered pottery across the floor. She tried to crawl away before getting back up.

"Someone help! This bitch is trying to kill me!", she screamed at the top of her lungs.

"You can scream all you want, but it's futile. This room was made to be soundproof. That way none of the music disturbs the other classes. No one can hear you. Why do you think I picked this room in the first place?", Sato told her tauntingly. Natsumi was frightened by the furious look in Sato's eyes, like a lion ready to murder its prey.

"Listen, Sato! I was just talking shit! I wasn't actually going to hurt Mahiru! My family wouldn't even let me-" Natsumi said, before dodging another bat swing. Tears started welling up in her eyes and rolling down her cheeks, as Sato screeched out in fury.

"Please stop this! We were friends, remember?!" Natsumi said, in a desperate last ditch attempt to protect herself from Sato. Sato's eyes were now frightened and anxious, but she was determined to carry out her plan, no matter what. She had to do this. For Mahiru. If she didn't, who knows what would happen to her.

She laughed out loud once she heard what Natsumi said. "For once in your life, just shut the fuck up, Natsumi! You were never my friend, and I was never yours, and we BOTH know that! You're nothing more than a selfish, lying, arrogant, scumbag piece of shit!!," Sato yelled. Before she could move in, Natsumi tried to throw a chair at Sato. This was able to distract her as she dodged the incoming object. Natsumi tried to make a break for the door. She grabbed the handle, but the door wouldn't budge. She narrowly dodged yet another attack from Sato, as the bat shattered the glass window of the door.

Natsumi punched Sato in the ribcage, making her lose grip on the bat. She leaned towards the window and screamed out, "Help! Somebody help me- AAAAAH!!!…". Natsumi felt her left leg being shattered when the metal bat came down hard on it. Shit, she's getting too loud. I need her to pipe down for this to work. Immediately, Sato dropped the bat. In an instant, her hands covered Natsumi's mouth, keeping her from screaming. This is taking too long, Sato thought. The room is no longer soundproof thanks to that window. If I don't do this now, someone is bound to find out! Sato knew she had to end this here and now.

She put Natsumi in a neck lock position and started choking her. Sato's strong grip began to cut off Natsumi's blood supply to her brain. She mumbled and tried to break free, but Sato was not going to let her go. Natsumi started feeling much dizzier than before, and her eye sight began to fade away, losing consciousness as she finally collapsed to the floor with a dud.

Sato checked to see if Natsumi was still alive. Her pulse was still beating, so she wasn't dead yet. She was still breathing. Alright, good. Now I can end this without her making such a big fuss about it. Sato looked around to find a way to formulate the murder. She saw that Natsumi's swimsuit seemed to be sticking out of her bag. Hmm... I can use that. If she was careful enough, perhaps she could pin this out as the actions of a crazed pervert rather than an act of revenge. But before she could finish forming that idea, she saw an arm sticking out the broken glass window of the door. She instantly could tell it belonged to a male Reserve Course uniform. The hand found the handle and the door slid open.

It was a Reserve Course boy, one with very spiky dark brown hair, an ahoge, and green eyes. Sato recognized this boy from class. Hajime… The boy looked around at the battered room, then at Natsumi, slightly bleeding from her head injury. The boy's first instinct was to rush over to the blonde girl to see if she was okay. He let out a sigh of relief once he saw she was still breathing.

"Hajime… get away from Natsumi! Don't try to stop me! I have to do this!", Sato screamed, as the look in her eyes became much more vengeful and desperate, as she picked up her bat again and raised it towards him.

"No, you don't! Killing her is not going to solve your problems! Stop and think about the consequences-" Hajime tried reasoning with her.

"You think I haven't thought about this?! Are you really willing to stick up for a demon like her?! I have know Natsumi for years! You've only known her for a few days! She does nothing except hurt everyone around her! You think you actually mean something to her?! NO! You're just another pawn in her sadistic game!!", Sato screamed in fury, as she swung the bat. She aimed towards his rib cage, mostly because she didn't want to kill Hajime. She knew that he wasn't a bad person at heart: he was just another misguided soul that Natsumi must've manipulated.

Hajime felt immense agony as the bat hit and shattered a few of his ribs, as he collapsed to the ground. He dropped to his knees, grabbing his side while cursing under his breath.

"I didn't want to do that! Just let me finish her already!", she screamed.

"You'll only be making this harder on y-yourself. Is this really w-what Mahiru w-would want-" Hajime tried to say, before coughing up some blood.

"SHUT UP! There is no other way! As long as she lives, she will never stop harassing Mahiru. This is the only way to make it stop! For good!", she said, raising her bat once more. As she aimed for Natsumi, Hajime lifted his right arm to block the hit. The steel bat instantly came down on his arm, snapping his ulma on impact. Hajime screamed out in pain as the bat broke his left arm. He could feel part of his bone crack at the impact. He was beginning to pass out from the pain.

"You're just another pawn that she's using," Sato told him, with slight tears rolling down her eyes. Why the hell would he go through all of this pain, to defend HER of all people?! Hajime couldn't remain conscious much longer, as the world around him began to fade. Shit, it's taking too long already! I have to end this now, or else it'll be too late! Sato firmly grasped the bat, preparing to end Natsumi once and for all, when unexpectedly…

—-------------------

"What the fuck is going on here?!", Vince screamed out. The music room was a complete mess, as if a hurricane had just made its way through here. I saw Natsumi lying down on the ground, bleeding, and some Reserve Course boy that had gotten the shit beaten out of him. Wait a minute... that's the same boy from before! How the hell he did know this was about to go down?!

Then his eyes met with that of the green-haired girl. I guess this was the Sato that she was talking about, Vince thought. It didn't take a genius to figure out what was happening. Sato was trying to kill Natsumi. Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit! I have to put a stop to this now!

"For the love of God, how many more of you are going to get involved?!", Sato screamed. "Get the fuck out of here right now before I hit you, too!" She aimed her bat and prepared to run at him at full speed. I knew if I just stood there, I would end up no better than that boy. Vince immediately reached for his back pocket and pulled out a taser, aiming it at Sato.

"Never bring a bat to a taser fight, bitch!", he cried out, before Sato stopped dead in her tracks.

"Why are you defending her, you fucking moron?! Don't you know how horrible of a person she is?! She deserves to die! No, she NEEDS to die! For all of our sakes!", Sato yelled.

"Because if I don't, then BOTH of our asses are as good as dead! Don't you know the first thing about the unspoken crime family rule?!", Vince yelled. "You kill their guy, they kill you! The entire Kuzuryu family will come looking for you, and if they find you… they won't hesitate to kill you and your entire family if they somehow believe it will benefit their cause!"

"So what?! I can always find a way to stage things up! Make it look like a pervert did it!", Sato said.

"I owe her a LOT of money, and if she's dead, I'll probably be getting a visit from her brother! I don't know if you're familiar with them, but unlike her brother, Natsumi here is much more flexible when it comes to debt! If she dies, then my ass is as good as screwed, too!", Vince anxiously spoke.

"Natsumi is the spawn of fucking Satan! You're full of shit! You're probably only defending her because you're… fucking her or something like that!", Sato screamed.

Vince couldn't help but laugh out loud. Yeah, no fucking way, Jòse. "Please, we'll both get a mohawk before that ever happens!"

"I'm doing this to protect Mahiru! If I don't, Natsumi will kill her! Don't you understand?! You have just as much reason to want her dead as I do! All she's ever done is ruin the lives of everyone around her! Why can't you see that?!", she screamed.

Vince did understand that. He knew exactly that Natsumi was a horrible person. But horrible or not, her death was not going to make his or Sato's life any better. In a way, he could empathize with what she was saying. However, he wasn't just going to let her ruin both of them.

"If you kill her, the only thing you'll be doing is making our lives worse than they already are! I know you hate Natsumi, and believe me, I do, too, but that doesn't justify killing her! We have so much more to lose if you do this-!"

*WHACK*

In a fit of rage, Sato swung the bat towards Vince's left arm, catching him off guard. Vince cried out in pain and collapsed to the ground, accidentally dropping his taser and holding his arm in pain as he cried out. His arm was probably broken at this point.

"That's it! I'm going to finish this once and for all, and there's nothing you can do to stop me!", Sato yelled at him.

"Sato?", a gentle voice behind them spoke. To Sato, it was instantly recognizable. The redheaded photographer stood in the doorway in shock at her friend. Sato stared back at her, paralyzed with shock, dropping the bat to the floor. She felt like she couldn't move. Mahiru saw that Sato's tears began running down her cheeks, completely ashamed of what she had done. Sato felt guilty for Mahiru having to see her attack another student right in front of her eyes.

"M-Ma-Mahiru..." Sato mumbled, even more tears running down her cheeks.

On instinct, Vince used his right hand to pick up the taser while she was distracted, aiming it right at Sato's chest. It sent Sato falling to the floor and twitching around while being electrified. The threat has been neutralized. Yeah, I think the situation could've been resolved without that last part, but hey, I wanted some payback for my arm, Vince thought. Fuck, my arm hurts so much.

To be continued...