Sukeban (Discontinued)

Chapter 5: Secrets

She poked her head in, noticing the attention of the five girls in the room snap to her. Maybe this was a mistake. No. It couldn’t be; she had to do this. Mao shook her head, pushing those thoughts into the back of the head as she slowly walked into the room. She wanted to say something, but she found her throat so dry she was unable to speak. She looked across the room, noticing Hana was sitting on the teacher’s desk that sat in the room. Her navy uniform clung to her figure as her long black hair rolled over her shoulders, her parted bangs laying gently against her forehead. Hana’s legs were crossed one over the other as they fell down the desk, her fingertips drumming softly on the table beneath her.

“What can we do for you?” Hana asked softly, giving her a sweet smile. This is why Mao never believed the rumors she heard about Hana, the girl seemed way too sweet to be a delinquent like those rats. Mao cleared her throat, wringing her now clammy hands together.

“Can we-can we talk please? Just for a minute?” Mao said, a stutter clinging to a few of her words. The four girls standing in front of Hana turned to look at her, clearly waiting for her to answer.

“I don’t know,” Hana replied in a bit of a sing-song tone, “we’re planning to leave soon. Family business and whatnot, I’m sure you know how it is.” Mao laughed nervously, shifting on her feet. She didn’t want to move too much and she didn’t want to say something overly stupid. She needed them to take her seriously. But she had to figure out a way to make them stay and listen to her, she just didn’t know what that way was quite yet.

“This is important. Just a few minutes, please?”

“Well… The teachers will be coming through soon…” Hana let her sentence trail, off leaning back on the teacher’s desk she sat on, extending her arms behind her to keep her body held up. She knew that if this underclassman wanted to talk with her badly enough, she’d get right to the point. She didn’t want to waste her time with something unimportant.

“It’s about Haruna and Rina!” Mao blurted out quickly. She was stalling and she couldn’t stall. If she didn’t come out and say it then she never would. Mao noticed how Hana’s attention seemed to perk up. She pushed her body up right again, smirking in Mao’s direction. Well that had her attention.

“Come in and close the door behind you.” Mao nodded, following what Hana had ordered her to do. “The teachers really will be coming through in a few minutes to clear any straggling students, so you better talk fast.”

“Ignore Hana’s attitude, she gets like that sometimes,” one of her friends said with a giggle when Hana glared at her. Mao laughed nervously again, feeling more than just uncomfortable with the situation. She gulped audibly, her hands beginning to tangle with one another as she held them behind her back.

“No, ignore her. Please continue, what is it that you want to tell us?” Mao squeezed her eyes shut before letting them flutter open again seconds later, exhaling a shaky breath. This was her last chance to back out if she wanted to… Mao’s head shook violently at the thought. She wasn’t going to be scared anymore, she wasn’t going to back out.

“I-I was in the park yesterday and I saw Rina and Haruna there. I didn’t mean to but I… I overheard what they were talking about.” Hana stopped Mao’s talking with a soft tsking noise made by the clicking of her tongue. She thought the girl had gotten the hint not to stall and waste her time, but clearly she hadn’t. Hana really did want to yell at this girl to hurry up, but she knew better. Doing so could ruin her perfect image, and she couldn’t let that happen.

“You don’t need to be scared of us; we’re not going to hurt you. We’re not like them.” Mao knew that. She never thought that they’d hurt her, she was more scared of Haruna ever finding out about this. “I do want to ask though before you continue… Will this information be of any use to us?”

“I think it will,” Mao said, trying to find confidence in her voice. But as she did so, Mao could only find herself failing to have any confidence whatsoever. She was the farthest thing from that at the moment.

“Very well, carry on then.” Mao began to rock back and forth on her heels, her eyes darting around the room as she desperately searched to find something comforting to stare at her. But her search proved to be in vain as her eyes settled on Hana again. She’d just have to deal with this.

“Maybe instead of telling you, I should show you,” Mao said with a small smile. She set her bag down on the floor, rummaging through it to find her cellphone. As she pulled it out, Hana nodded her head towards one of her girls, silently telling them to go fetch the phone from Mao. Mao pushed herself back up into a standing position, quickly searching through her photos. When she found the desired one, she gladly handed the phone to Hana’s friend, allowing her to take it over.

Hana reached out, gently grabbing the phone that her friend had handed her. She brought it in front of her, her eyes widening and a smile crossing her face as she looked at the picture. This explained everything. This explained why Haruna was so much more protective over Rina than the others. The others were just Haruna’s friend but Rina… Rina must be more. The picture Hana stared at was one of Haruna and Rina, nestled behind a large building, probably thinking they were out of sight from everyone. It looked like the girl had taken it from around the corner of the building, hiding out of sight from them. She was surprised this tiny and seemingly easily terrified girl could be so smart about that.

In the picture, the girls were held in each other’s arms, Rina looking pressed tightly against Haruna’s body. But the absolute best part of the photo was the kiss the two were locked in. That spelled out everything very clearly, and this could definitely be used against them. Hana knew Rina and Haruna were close, everyone knew that in fact, but what Hana didn’t know was exactly how close they were.

“This is very good. But not as much as I had hoped for,” Hana mused aloud. She was only being honest. While the photo would certainly help her control Haruna into doing some of her bidding, she wanted something more. Something bigger. “It won’t help as much as I had wanted. Although, do you mind if I send it to myself? Just for safekeeping.”

“Go ahead,” Mao said. Hana gave her another sweet smile, punching in her own number into Mao’s phone. “I have something else.” Hana raised an eyebrow at how dark the girl’s tone had turned. Mao’s eyes were looked down at the floor now, her ridged body stuck still in the spot she’d been standing in. Her hands were curled into fists at her side.

Mao was going to feel bad for this one. This was bigger than the photo, bigger than anything else she’d had to say during Hana the entire time she was here. If this got out, it could ruin Rina’s life… Or what was left of it at least. It could put her in a lot of trouble. But even if Mao felt a little bad for it, she expelled that feeling by reminding herself of how horrible Rina was. Rina may look innocent and sweet, but she was the farthest thing from it. She was one of [i]them[/i]. She was bad just by association. Even if she never did anything, she had helped enable it. That made her just as bad in Mao’s eyes. She deserved to be punished for helping them. She deserved everything it would bring if her secret was exposed. Besides, it’s not as if Mao was planning to expose it. She was just telling Hana, it would be Hana’s fault if it got out. That’s right. It wasn’t her fault, none of this would be. Why should she feel guilty over it? It was a pointless thing to feel.

“I am very interested to hear this,” Hana said, leaning forward and looking at Mao expectantly. Mao drew in a large breath, exhaling it slowly as she looked back up, smirking at Hana. She wasn’t going to feel sorry for a criminal like Rina. If she didn’t want things like this happening, she wouldn’t have anything to do with them. This was her own fault and she would deserve everything she had coming to her.

And with that, Mao opened her mouth, letting the secrets spill out.

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Word count: 3,111

No Rina backstory just quite yet. ;) It'll come soon though. >:3

A chapter very heavy on the OCs, but it'll be an important one for the future. Hana in particular is going to be very importat, so make sure to remember her. <:

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