𝚃𝙴𝙴𝙽𝙰𝙶𝙴 𝙳𝙸𝚁𝚃𝙱𝙰𝙶 ,, high&low

chapter thirteen | and so it went

thirteen

and so it went

I stood at the door to the roof of Sato High School, my nerves jumping all over the place as I stretched on the small landing, trying desperately not to look down. Naomi and Odaijima were behind me, trying to talk me out of it.

"Babes, you just got out of the hospital like three weeks ago." Naomi protested

"And then you fought nationals, don't feel like you have to do this." Odajima agreed

I shook my head, turning back to look at my two best friends, who had barely ever talked to each other before now. "I have to do this. I quit judo, Shuntaro broke up with me, my sister is now the favourite, my mom won't even talk to me. I need a win, guys."

"But this is a sure fire way to get yourself killed."

"Then so be it. At least I'll go out with a bang."

Back in the present, I stood in the back trailer of one of Oya Kokoh's transport lorrys, propped up on a ledge so I could see over the cab as Todoroki drove us to go and find Noboyuki. I screamed out into the night air, drumming on the metal roof of the cab. Tsukasa was next to me, waving a tattered Oya flag as Todoroki pulled to a messy stop in front of an old warehouse.

I remembered this place. It was a hangout for Sato seniors when I was in my last year. They used to throw parties here, bunk off class and drink. My group of seven only went a few times, opting instead to spend time in our abandoned classroom. The parties weren't even that good anyways.

We disembarked the trailer without a hitch, which was surprising given everybody's varying states of non-sobriety.

"You can't stop me." I hissed at my friends before shakily carrying myself out onto the roof.

Ignoring the world, painting himself as blissfully ignorant, Noboyuki sat on his stupid futon in the middle of the roof, his best mates playing poker on a coffee table in front of him.

"Hey asshole!" I shouted, pulling my hair back "I want a rematch!"

Noboyuki chuckled "A rematch? Haven't we already had six?"

Enraged at the memory, I lashed out in front of me and kicked over an empty oil drum.

"You good?" Tsukasa commented, nodding at the overturned metal barrel.

I shook my head "This has been a long time coming, Takajo."

There was a crash behind us, causing me to turn around just in time to see and fairly drunk Tsuji trip over his own feet and fall on the ground, a hungover Nakaoka tripping over him and landing on top of Tsuji, and the two of them were soon tripped over by Kiyoshi, who somehow missed both bodies and just flat out fell on the concrete.

"Are you sure that this is the team you want for this?" Todoroki chuckled

Sighing, I turned back to the warehouse door "Gotta work with what I was given."

It was like a scene from a bad action movie as I walked with Tsukasa and Todoroki at either side of me, kicking the flimsy push door in like it was nothing, Oyakou behind me as I lead them into battle. Ideally they would have been sober, but beggars can't be choosers.

Just like I thought, in the large, graffitied main room of the warehouse, the blonde asshole I had grown to hate was drinking beer with a few familiar faces, a sea of teenagers engaging in various activities their parents would likely not approve of littering the rest of the floor. The air was heavy with marijuana smoke and yells form a nearby blackjack table.

It was like they were trying to be a knockoff Daruma Ikka crossed with Oya or something.

Whatever it was wasn't working for them.

"Hey asshole!" I shouted over the screaming and bad trap music "Remember me!?"

The music went silent. Dice stopped rolling at the blackjack table, a rowdy group of kids bordering on their twenties stopped their game of basketball, the orange rubber ball dropping sadly to the floor as they stood stock still, staring that the ragtag group of us. Noboyuki chuckled to himself, standing up off the leather couch in the center of the warehouse floor.

"I see you upgraded from that god-awful futon."

"And I see you got taller. And thinner." Th blonde snickered "You're actually attractive now. Never knew what Shuntaro saw in you, but I guess he left you anyways."

"Shut the hell up, Noboyuki." I spat "You don't know shit so why don't you just stop talking before you say something you'll regret."

Noboyuki chuckled "Is that Tsukasa Takajo and Fujio Hanoaka? Man, those guys are a fun fight. Almost threw Hanoaka's skinny ass of the roof the first time we fought."

Fujio gnashed his teeth, Tsukasa pulling him back to stop the boy from springing at Noboyuki. "Maybe that's because I was fifteen years old and you were almost twenty one! Fifteen, asshole!"

"I heard you quit, Miss National-Champion. What, all the fame getting to your head?" The blond mocked sarcastically. If only he knew. Wait, that would be worse.

"Let me kick your ass and maybe you'll have a better appreciation for athletes on the circuit, the art of the fight."

I threw the first punch, a move that I always fell for with him. He countered with a sucker punch to my stomach, another things I should have seen coming. My emotions were all out of whack, affecting the way that I fought. With a strangled cry, I drove my knee into his stomach, pounding his back over and over again with my fists until I felt blood on my hands. My own blood, from my fingernails ripping into my flesh. With an evil sounding chuckle, Noboyuki threw me over his head, my body hitting the roof with a sickening crunch as Odajima and Naomi rushed onto the roof.

"This guy is bat-shit." Yasushi chirped form behind me "Do we have to keep talkin' or can I just hit him?"

"No, we're gonna hit him." I replied, to which all the of the guys behind me responded to with a chorus of screams before we all surged forward for the second time that day to attack the kids from Sato.

NOTES!

splitting another chapter in half because i didn't want like three thousand something words.