𝚃𝙴𝙴𝙽𝙰𝙶𝙴 𝙳𝙸𝚁𝚃𝙱𝙰𝙶 ,, high&low

chapter eleven | what took you so long

Todoroki laughed "Because you're in love, Midori. Anybody with eyes and a brain can see that."

I didn't even try to fight it this time, knowing that Todoroki was right. I felt pathetic, quite frankly, but I knew that Murayama needed me, and that I had to shove my feelings aside and approach this calmly.

I followed the full-time leader upstairs, to a room with four beds and stack of discarded pizza boxes sitting in a corner. I had no doubt that this was where the part-timers lived. I paused in the doorway, hurriedly putting my hair in a braid before taking the medical bag from Furuya.

Murayama was lying on one of the beds, clutching an ice pack to his face. Cloths covered in dried blood littered the floor around him. I quickly sent away everybody else who was in the room, sitting down next to Murayama on the bed.

"They got you good, didn't they?" I chuckled, gently taking the ice pack as the boy sat up. He rolled his eyes, gently tilting his head back before he groaned in pain form the effort.

"Well," I started, examining the head wounds. "You aren't going to die, that's a good thing."

He cracked a small smile as I helped him take his shirt off so I could see the bruising "I'm going to kill those Sato assholes."

My stomach dropped to the floor. "Sato?"

"Some blond asshole in a Sato basketball jacket and some other guys. They looked like kids."

"Sato was my alma mater. I think I know exactly who you're talking about." I exhaled sharply, tensing up as I ran my fingers over the bruises on his chest. "No internal bleeding, but maybe you should get someone more qualified to take a look before you start spitting blood."

Murayama pulled his black t-shirt back on, his messy hair and wide little eyes making him a lot cuter than he should of been as he asked me who the guy that did this to him was.

I sighed, spraying some antiseptic on his cuts. "When I was at Sato, this blond idiot, Noboyuki, he was the school's top. Not in smarts, in aggression. He rarely ever lost a fight, spent his days hanging out on the rooftop waiting for somebody to come and challenge him. He'd been held back a few times already by the time I graduated, I assumed he was just going to be a permanent fixture. He was always power hungry, and I guess he got it in his head that if he could take over the bordertown that he could start a S.W.O.R.D power. I was never able to beat him."

The room went quiet after I spoke, neither of us quite knowing what to say as I pressed some gauze to his forehead. I started to get nervous again, wondering if somehow I had messed things up between us by talking about my high school days.

Abruptly, Murayama got out of the bed, dragging me towards the door with him "Come on, I want to show you something."

He looks like a five year old in a candy store.

I laughed as he pulled me towards another staircase. In his condition, I was honestly surprised that he could move that fast as I struggled to keep up, following him onto the roof.

"Wow."

The view was incredible: the eerie dark of the night punctuated by the lights of the S.W.O.R.D District. It was magical. Turning to my left I could see the soft lights of the Nameless City reflecting off the water. To my right, the lights of Club Heaven lit up the sky and reflected off the clouds. I truly can't describe it.

"I told you it was incredible up here at night." Murayama laughed, settling himself on the leather couch. "You should see it at sunrise, the light reflecting off Daruma's temple."

I smiled, moving to sit next to him. "I should stick around then, one day. That way I wake up early enough to see it."

We sat in silence for a moment, staring at the lights from Sannoh in the distance. I'd never thought of S.W.O.R.D as a beautiful thing. No, I had thought of it as something unnecessary, something immoral. I'd thought that putting four millennials and a nightclub owner in charge of keeping the peace was a terrible idea.