His Playground

 October 1st 2018  

Two months later. It's the week of the annual Kyoto Magical Event. The school starts to set up for it, putting up flyers, posters, and decreactions up. The annual Kyoto Magical Event doesn't happen for only one day but over multiple days. Today is Monday, the event actually starts tomorrow but the Fight show happens on thursday.

These past two months nothing much happened. I listened to Ryusei and Takamei words and tried not to mess with Rory anymore.

It seems to work because even Erika stopped staring at me 24/7 after the confrontation we had two months ago. And I don't feel other people staring down my back anymore.

My class decided to help put up the decorations for the event outside in the hallway and also within our class. Each class during these days would have their own event.

What this means is that one class could be a maid cafe, a game room, or horror house. The class president of each class comes up with the idea. And for our class 2-C we decided to do a reverse maid cafe.

Reverse maid cafe, is when the men are the servers not the women. And just by luck me and Ryusei got chosen to be the servers for tomorrow.

Ryusei and I were looking at pieces of paper in our seats that had different color suits on them. Red/black, green/black, pink/white, and just full on black.

"So which one do you like, Ryusei?" I asked

"I don't know man, I'm really digging the green and black one."

"Green and Black? I don't think that would make us look good, let's just go with the black suit with white undershirt."

"That's too basic. Don't you want to stand out from the rest of the classes? We could be famous!"

"Famous just from a maid cafe? You really lost it now."

Our classroom door slid open and Takamei appeared. She finds us and with a smile walks over towards us. She stops right in front of us.

"Hey you two, did y'all class decide what they wanted to do?" Takamei asks, turning her head slightly.

"Yeah, we're doing a reverse maid cafe. Ryusei and I are trying to figure out what suits to wear." I waved the piece of paper in my hand.

"Ooo can I see?" 

Takamei takes a step behind me to look at the paper. She puts her hand on her chin, then a few seconds later points at one of the suits on the paper.

"I think you two would look great in the red and black, it would put some spice on the both of you."

"But the green and black would look more cool." Ryusei said.

"I guess that means we all have different answers. Why don't we do rock paper scissors?"

Takamei and Ryusei looked at each other and then nodded. Takamei comes back in front of me and Ryusei. We all hold out our fist.

"Ready… set… GO!" I shouted.

We all change our fist at the same time into something different. But sadly it was one winner. Me and Ryusei both put out paper and Takamei held out scissors.

She jumps in the air out of excitement for winning. I look at Ryusei in disappointment.

"Come on Ryusei, how can you put out the same thing as me?"

"How am I supposed to know that you were going to do paper? I should be disappointed in you also."

"Ha, you two really work on one brain cell. Y'all let me, a girl who's not even in y'all class, win a decision for your own class."

Ryusei and I just scoff in disbelief, on how we lost. And now we got to do a suit that neither of us wanted to do. Ryusei gets up to go tell the class president our decision.

"Suika, you really are going to participate in the fight show?" Takamei turn and asked me.

"Yep, I want me and Ryusei to have a rematch with no interruptions this time."

"You're not doing it for Rory?"

".... well at first it was for Rory. Some of my reasons for doing it are still for Rory. But after these two months not really trying to do anything with him, my focus hasn't really been on him."

"I'm glad you'd listen to Ryusei and I's words."

"Of course, you're my friends after all. I could tell both of y'all were worried for me. So I stop for y'all."

Ryusei comes back after giving our decision. His face was saddened.

"I can't believe we couldn't do the green and black." Ryusei flops back down in his seat.

"Aw, don't worry that much Ryusei. It won't be that bad, I think the red and black might make us cooler. If that makes you feel better."

He sighs heavily. "I guess you're right Suika, it might make us look cool."

"Hey! A suit is not going to make you cooler. It's about who you already are that makes you cool already, so don't worry about some stupid suit." Takamei expressed. 

Me and Ryusei became shocked by the words we've just heard from Takamei, we both had to rub our eyes just to make sure this was Takamei speaking. She never said anything so nice before… well mainly to Ryusei.

"Wow, it seems like the witch is becoming good. Now saying good things to me? Are you sure you are Takamei?" Ryusei waves his hand in her face.

She grabs his hand, gripping it tightly where you could hear the bones crunching. "Ow!" Ryusei weeps. Takamei's face slowly became irritated.

"Don't make me take back everything I'd said, cause I will." She swore.

"Ok ok ok, I'm sorry. Let go of my hand, I feel my bones crushing."

She lets go of his hand, her face softening becoming more content.

"So what is your class doing Takamei?" I asked.

"My class is doing an art exhibit. Each person in the class tries their best to draw something and we put it out for everyone to see."

"Oh, that sounds pretty cool. I can't wait to see it."

"Pff, her art is probably hot tra-"

Before Ryusei could even get that last part out, he got punched on top of his head by Takamei. His face hit straight down onto his desk, I could see steam coming off his head.

Takamei blows on her fist and puts it back to her side, looks back at me with a smile.

"Well when tomorrow comes I'll be waiting for you to come by and see. I guess you can bring that pitiful person next to you if you want. I'm going to head back to my class now, see ya."

She waves goodbye at me and I do the same… An hour later It was the start of P.E. class, usually we would do something but the teacher was busy trying to set up things for the event also. So he just gave us a free class.

Me and Ryusei just decided to walk around the school building, just laughing and talking about things.

"So bro you read that novel i was talking about?" Ryusei asked.

"Oh The Ending after the beginning? I guess you were right, it's pretty good."

"See I tried to tell you, it's like the best thing made on planet earth."

"Woah now, I wouldn't say it's the best thing ever made but it's up there."

"What's better than that? It has the best story, characters, art, the wor-"

I stop walking and put my hand over Ryusei's mouth, shutting him up for a second.

"Do you hear that, Ryusei?" I slowly removed my hand away from his mouth.

"Hear what?"

"Groans and whimpering."

"Nah, i don't hear it."

I begin walking again but more slowly, Ryusei slowly follows behind. As we walked the noises became clearer and clearer. We reached the side of the school, and when we walked past me, Ryusei's eyes widened. As we finally saw where the noise was coming from. 

There were three boys, one with black hair in a fetal position on the ground. The other two, one with red hair and the other with green standing above him kicking him.

"Oh come on, you lousy wimp. I thought you wanted to be strong." Red hair said, kicking him in the back of the head.

"Yea, you wanted to stop us from bullying you huh? Sorry but that's never going to happen." Green hair said.

Ryusei and I took no time and rushed in. Before the two boys could even react to our presence, we both punched them in the face. Knocking them off the boy who's on the ground, the two boys fall to the ground a few feet back.

I kneed down to the boy, putting a hand on his shoulder and shaking him a little.

"Hey are you ok? How long have they been at this?"

The boy looked up at me, I could see the scratches and small bruises on his face. Also seeing tears form up in his eyes.

"T-they been at this for the longest time, ever since the beginning of the year." He coughed. "I'm scared."

Ryusei and I helped the boy up and sat him against the school wall. We then step back and look at the two bullies.

"To be honest I wouldn't think it would be bullying at this school. But it seems bullying never stops, it's an endless cycle." I said.

"Why are you guys even bullying him in the first place?! What has he done to you two?" Ryusei asked.

The Red hair one lets out a small chuckle, struggling to stand after the punch I gave him. The other bully stands up beside him, wiping the dirt off of himself.

"He looks weak and pitiful. That's what he did." Red hair said.

"Yep, that's exactly right. Someone like him is just looking to get bullied." Green hair said.

My calm expression was starting to become more frustrating, eyes starting to get sharped. I point my finger at them.

"The hell are you saying? Just because he doesn't look as strong, means he deserves to be bullied? That's Nonsense!" I shouted.

"That's right, you two are the pitiful ones here. Picking on someone for that kinda reason, is just sad." Ryusei chimes in.

Both of the bullies start to get angry, both of them clench their fist. I could see the faint glow of magical energy about to be used.

"Oh yea, we'll show you who's pitiful. We'll put you both into the ground for trying to be heroes!!" Red hair Shouts.

The red hair outstretched his hand and a fire blast came out and launched at me, I quickly reacted and sent a twilight arrow to counter the attack. They both clash, dispelling each other, sending a small shockwave but the attack also created smoke.

I used this smoke as a smokescreen and ran through it. He wasn't expecting that, so I had a clear shot and I punched him right on the chin, sending him to the ground.

The green hair saw this and raised his hand. The ground starts to shake beneath us and a piece of the ground comes out. It was a huge chunk, shaped like a cube. He sends that towards me but Ryusei gets in front of it and freezes the chunk midair.

The chunk falls to the ground and breaks into different pieces. Before he could make another move Ryusei hardens his fist with ice and punches the bully right in the face, putting him to the ground.

I turn my attention back to the boy who was bullied. I walked over to him, and bent down. Ryusei also walks over. I put my hand on his shoulder and smiled a little.

"Look me and my friend handle them for you, I don't think they'll ever touch you again ok?"

The boy smiles and nods, wiping the built-up tears in his eyes. Suddenly the red-haired boy stands back up, a creepy smile appears on his face. All three of us turn to look at him.

"Oh you two are in big trouble now."

"What do you mean?" Ryusei asked

"You see, I worked for Rory and he put me and my friend to bully this poor boy and tried to make him a lowly servant for Rory. And when I tell Rory what happened to me, he'll send his most loyal squad after you both!"

He grabs his knocked out friend, holding him up and putting his arm around his shoulder. He gives up one last glaring look and runs off.

 Ryusei bends down and picks up the boy, putting his arm around his shoulder. I stand up, my face full of anger, my fist clenched so tightly that blood starts to form. 

Rory… I was only going to deal with him at the Fight Show. But it seems like he needs to be taken down before that. Making other people bully others, that's just so wrong. He's no king, he's a devil in disguise.

I look at Ryusei, my face still enraged a bit.

"Ryusei, I know you and Takamei told me to not mess with Rory, but this is too much to ignore. He must go down."

"...I agree with you Suika. I want to help you, you already know the past grudge I got against him. But this is too far. He treats this place as his playground."

"Then, his playground must be destroyed along with him. His actions have gone too far."

"That bully is probably going to tell Rory about what happened. Rory isn't going to come after us himself, he's just going to send people for him. Like Erika and more."

"Then we'll take down those people no matter what. Like I said before Even some kings have to be slain."

After that we helped the boy to the infirmary, to help with his injuries. The boy sits on the bed, while the nurse starts to ice him, also bandaging the scratches and cuts he had.

"I want to thank you both for helping me back there."

"No problem. I'm glad my friend and I got there in time."

"You said they've been at this since the beginning of the year, right? Did you tell anyone?" Ryusei asked. The boy looks down.

"I want to but I can't."

"Why is that?" I asked.

"Because of Rory. He wanted me to become his servant at the start of the year. Saying he sees great 'potential' in me, but I'm not stupid enough to fall for those tricks. I sense the malice in his voice. The only potential he saw was for me to be his slave."

"Well how is he stopping you from telling a teacher? Or any other staff?" Ryusei asked.

"R-Rory threatened my family. He knows where I live, he knows where my dad works. And where my little sister goes to school."

Ryusei and I stood in disbelief. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Rory threatened this boy's family if he tells someone about what's happening to him. Rory, he's… a goddamn monster.

"I'm scared, you know. If I just slip up and tell, he might kill them. He might make me watch as he tortures them." Tears start to flow out, like a waterfall. "I don't want that, so I just take it all in. Even though it hurts, I hold it all in."

I walk over to him. The nurse moves to the side as I sit down next to him and look straight into his eyes.

"I'm really sorry you had to go through all of that, I really am… I promise you that I'll take down Rory." I place my hand on my heart. "On my soul, on my very life I'll bring him down. I will slain the king and you'll or anyone else that has been affected by him will be free."

I stand up and walk towards the door, I look back at him and smile. I open the door and leave, Ryusei follows after me. He closes the door and now we stand in the empty hallway.

"You think Rory is going to send people after us right now?" Ryusei asked.

"Knowing him, he probably wants to get rid of us quickly. He probably already assumes that we both are participating in the Fight Show. Getting rid of us would make the tournament easier for him. So him sending people now would be understandable but, it's too many people around."

"What do you mean?"

"For him, he doesn't want people to see his actions. For example, Rory is the King of the school and he has some guards protecting him. People know him and his guards and if they see him or his guards doing something wrong, that would hurt his reputation and he definitely doesn't want that. So he'll send them at the end of school."

"So do we wait?"

"We'll wait Ryusei."