Interview with the Yokai

Chapter 7

Yayaka had fire in her eyes, before she could say anything Benihime asked," Shoji-san what type of girl do you like?"

Shoji felt his life was in more peril than when he had faced down Benihime the day before. Three pair of eyes were looking at him, very interested in his response and not one of them was trying to hide the fact that they were interested. Shoji looked to the one pair of eyes that wasn't showing any interest and saw bemusement in them. Shoji was cornered, He went to open his mouth.....

" That nitwit, come on, Shoji-san is the type of boy who wants a girl just like his mother. No, you know what I'm mistaken, I've seen his type before, he's a sis-con, he wants the little sister type," Mari said before Shoji could open his mouth. Shoji could have kissed her, for insulting him. The other girls were once again shooting Mari dirty looks.

" Anyway if all you are just going to do is talk, I'm going to steal your food," Mari said and then started swiping their food. The rest of the girls started eating until it was time for class to start again.

The rest of the day went a lot better for Shoji, gone was his feelings of guilt, if Benihime could put on a happy face after what happened the day before, who was he to mope around. It was not lost on Shoji though that Benihime was taking an interest in him, normally he would think that he could never be good enough for her, but he had learned how harmful that thinking could be. After the school newspaper meeting, were Onze went over the strategy they would use to cover the last two weeks of the election, Shoji headed for his locker. While at his locker changing his shoes, Shoji was looking forward to studying with Noriko, out of all the yokai girls she was the easiest to be around.

" There he is," Shoji heard Tanto say. Shoji didn't wait, as soon as he tied his shoes, he took off running towards the entrance. Unfortunately Shoji had barely made it outside of the doors to the school when he was grabbed by Tanto and Kobe long before he could make it to the gate and the walkway towards the dorms. Tanto and Kobe dragged him to the side of the school both were still wearing their soccer uniforms. There were some students around, but no one paid any attention.

" You sit still and wait until Tanahashi-san gets here," Kobe said driving his fist into Shoji's gut forcing him to fall down to his knees. Shoji started to weigh his options, he could try to run again, but that would probably result in the same outcome. Shoji had a big decision to make, should he try to fight his way out of this? The odds weren't in his favor, but the other option was to take a beating without fighting back. Kanto and Tobe had their backs turned to Shoji and he wasn't too proud or too honorable to cheapshot his opponents. Shoji leaped at Kanto and cracked him in the face with a straight right as he turned. Tobe was slow to react when he saw his friend go down from the surprise hit, he never saw the uppercut that Shoji landed on his jaw. With both of his opponents stunned, Shoji took off running. Shoji's face exploded into a world of pain as he ran into Tanahashi's fist. Shoji found himself on the ground, with a very angry Tanto and Kobe dancing on his ribs.

" Stop," Tanahashi commanded and his stooges followed his orders instantly. Tanahashi grabbed Shoji by his collar and brought him to his feet. It was already hurting when Shoji breathed, he didn't know how much worse this beating was going to get.

" I thought after our last talk, I would have gotten the point across, to not mess with me and Benihime-chan. It seems I didn't make my point clear enough, because after Benihime-chan breaks up with me, she's making you a bento. How do you explain Benihime-chan breaking up with me out of the blue and then hanging out with you at lunch?," Tanahashi asked.

Shoji knew that regardless of what he said he was going to get hit, the question was how hard and for how long. " If you really want to know go ask Benihime-san," Shoji said.