Arise to the Surface (2)

"You look relentless…" Someone called him out as Shouichi absentmindedly stared at the empty space in his classroom. It was already the end of today's lesson and other students had hurriedly dashed out to enjoy their free time. The pretty boy with graphite-black hair unhurriedly turned to the source of the sound.

"You alright?" Shinji asked him as he shoved his stationary into his school bag.

"Oh, yeah… I just had a lot on my mind…" Shouichi admitted, hanging his head.

"Yeah, I've noticed." Shinji agreed, after a short pause, "... Do you wanna talk about it?"

"I dunno…" Shouichi glanced out of the window, at the pastel blue sky.

"Sigh* Up to you, man. If you need someone to vent, I'm here for you." Shinji gave his friend encouragement while tapping lightly on his shoulder.

"Thanks…" Shouichi cut him off, a clear indicator that he wanted to disengage from the conversation.

"Then… I'll be going to the practice now." Shinji bidded him farewell and turned his back on his friend.

"Wait! Shinji…" Shouichi suddenly called out to him. There was a hint of reluctance in his expression. As Shouichi fumbled for words, Shinji mindfully waited for him.

"About Kasunagi…"

Then Shouichi began to offload Kasunagi's case on the silver wolf, where he was listening to it quietly with a few nods and brief responses.

"What a hideous man, I should have killed him when I got the chance!" Shinji eventually boiled up with anger after hearing that the man might spend his life comfortably in the mental hospital instead of a cold prison cell.

"I don't think he deserved to die." Shouichi objected while remaining indifferent.

"Really? You don't feel anything?" Shinji asked him in an incredulous tone.

"Of course, I do feel things. I just don't allow it to cloud my judgement."

"Sigh* It's such a shitty thing to happen, man. I hope you don't beat yourself up to it."

"I think I'm doing fine…"

"Yeah… Apart from the gloomy part, I think you are alright." Shinji quipped.

"Let's go to the practice. I've been itching to exercise." Shouichi made up his mind.

"For real? You'll come?" Shinji was dazed by his sudden development.

"Yeah, I guess I don't wanna be a brooding type of guy. Also, Ayane is at the store with my mom today." He explained in a slow and monotonic tone.

"Lit!" Shinji exclaimed with excitement, his bright aura acted like a sun that lit the entire room. To the point that it was blinding for Shouichi.

***

Afternoon's light illuminated the white buildings, painting them in a yellowish hue. It was about the time when Shouichi and co. completed their club practice. This particular session mainly focused on the endurance and swiftness of the legs.

To put it simply, running as far as possible, as fast as possible. Apparently, Shouichi didn't hate to join in such a boring but wasn't too keen about it either.

One thing was that he couldn't seem to beat Shinji's best record for some unknown reasons. His silver wolf friend not only was inhumanly fast but also ran further than other club mates. People did claim that he could be a sports prodigy if he put in the effort.

"Haaaaaaah haaaaah…" Shouichi rested both hands on his knees, breathing raggedly.

"Shouichi you got 1 minute 22 seconds for a 600-meter sprint!" Toru, the spikey-haired senior shouted.

"I'd say that's pretty fast, right?" Shinji asked, sitting on the bench next to his girlfriend, Ito Emi.

"Yeah! Still, you got 1 minute 13 seconds. About 9 seconds longer than you, senpai." Emi compared their results in an admirable tone.

"I'm the flash, hehehe." Shinji jested with a big smirk on his face. The two seemed to be enjoying their time together. Shinji had never missed a practice since the two started dating, which was about 2 months ago. With their tall appearance and their mismatched personalities, one could observe that Shinji and Emi were a perfect fit for each other.

"They are such an amazing and lovely couple." Shouichi struggled to maintain neutrality, devoid of jealousy. But failed miserably as he saw the two were having a hell of a good time.

"Alright, guys! That's it for today!" Toru announced to the other members to dismiss. And the team let out a loud cheering chant that marked the end of the lesson.

***

After a brief moment, Shouichi had already changed back to his school uniform which was unusual for him.

"I'm quite sweaty today, probably stank too." He figured, hence the change of clothes.

While the pretty boy was walking alone, he rounded the corner and ran into a group of 3 seniors huddling together.

"Let me see it!" A tall one yelled as he reached out to grab the smartphone of his friend's hands.

"Hey! This is a paid view, bruh!" The owner of the smartphone was wearing rectangular glasses.

"It's awesome right?" The blondie cheerfully commented. It appeared that they were sharing a funny video or a short clip.

"Ahhh Ahhhh" The continuous moan of both males and females were heard from the phone speaker. The tall guy ramped up a volume and glued his eyes to the screen.

"...That's such a disgusting thing to do on the school grounds…" Shouichi thought and walked past them, ignoring their presence entirely.

Then something hooked Shouichi right back, "Haven't you heard that she works at the cafe in our town?" The glassed dude spoke up to his friends.

Shouichi's eyes widened and his legs stopped immediately.

"Yeah, they just reopen it, I've been to the cafe. It's real!" Blondie interjected with a condescending tone as if he won the prize.

"She's so hot too. I never thought she'd do adult videos. What a greedy bitch!"

"Shit! We oughta go, maybe she'll let us have a piece or some!" The tall one was firing up.

"I got fifty thousand yens here, you think she'll let me hit it?" The blondie gestured by humping air.

"I think the store was called Yoko Sweet Shop or something. It's just 5 minutes from here." The glassed guy narrated. Although he might appear like a nerd at first glance, he actually was on the delinquent side of the scale.

"Let~." Instantaneously, the impactful punch launched his glasses flying into the air. The two seniors screamed with fright.

"What the f*ck is your problem?!" The blondie barked with furious. Shouichi's cold eyes rendered them motionless. He unhurriedly walked toward the dropped smartphone that was still playing the video loudly.

"Answer us! You freaking bastard!" The tall senior demanded as he helped his four-eyes friend to his feet. His friend appeared to be in a numbing pain as his cheek began to turn bright red from the earlier blow.

"She is not doing adult videos. I'll take the liberty to delete this clip for you." Shouichi clarified while tapping on his smartphone, composed.

The smartphone auto-locked by itself after a few minutes. "What is the password?" He asked coldly, keeping the killer's eyes fixated on them.

"Huh? Why would I tell you that? Who the f*ck you think you are?!" The blondie growled with his deep voice. Shouichi observed that he was ready to fight, no… He wanted to fight.

In an instant, the tall boy kicked Shouichi on the side but he managed to block it with his arm. Shouichi performed a quick backstep to find his position.

"Let's not fight guys. I'm sorry about the first punch… My intrusive thoughts had won me over recently," Shouichi lifted his hands up as a sign of surrender and truce with his neutral expression.

"You dumbf*ck! Do you think about that now? Let's screw this snotty kid up!" The tall one sneered at the pretty boy.

"Sigh*..." Shouichi let out a deep exhale before glancing up at them.

"Get this, you lil bitch!" Blondie instantaneously launched his first hook which Shouichi would anticipate a mile away. His weak and frail swing would definitely miss him. In a split second, Shouichi decided to counter with his left jap which landed right on his nose.

"Makoto!?" His tall friend cried out when he saw his friend drop like a fly hit by an electric bat. Then he simultaneously dashed in to try for a low kick.

"Huh?" Shouichi easily intercepted with his feet before rotating his body to perform a 360 kick on the tall boy's chest.

"Two down… One remains…" Shouichi mumbled to himself, his expressionless face and furious eyes were awfully horrifying. The glassed boy screamed in fear as pale liquid spurted out of his crotch, seeing his friends rolled down in agonising pain on the ground.

"Pass…word…" He asked the petrified boy coldly.

"Uumm… I~I… Umm~um" Nothing but squeaking noise coming out of his mouth as he was too scared to word it properly.

Shouichi grabbed him by the throat and pinned him up against the wall, he didn't realise that he was essentially choking the boy to death with his inhuman strength.

"Arrrh arrhh… Plea~please don't kill me" The boy pleaded with tears streaming down on his pathetic face. Then it snapped Shouichi back, he was about to kill someone.

"Oh…" Shouichi quickly loosened his grip and let him down on the ground.

"Hhhhhhahhhh hhhhhahhh." The boy gasped desperately for air, rubbing his throat.

"It's … 4321," He told him the password obediently between his ragged breathing.

The pretty boy somberly stood there, going through the explicit video clips of Yoko and deleting them all before returning it back to the owner. The 3 seniors were scared for their live, scrambling together before helping each other get out of the spot as fast as their bodies would allow.

"I've done it again… I f*cking hate myself." Shouichi lamented on his recent actions, regretting what he did. In the glowing evening light, the black-haired boy stared absentmindedly at his trembling hands.