Book 3: Chapter 9 (1/2)

Without a thought, I reached out a grabbed Kira. This was no different than the times I had run into Maria or Akiko. Maria was placed in a situation exactly like this. I just arrived right on time to keep her from making a mistake. Akiko had ended up even being raped by several guys. I managed to pull her away too. This time, the only difference was that it was Kira I was holding. I might have been a little late, but it was never too late to save her.

I ignored the damp feeling as I picked her up in my arms. She let out a cry of protest and struggled. Her body was wet and oily, and my grip slipped. Her leg fell down. No, I would definitely save Kira. She was my friend. Perhaps she was the only friend I had ever really had.

“What do you think you’re doing?” A guy suddenly shoved me.

Kira slipped from my hands, landing on her feet and skidding a few steps away. I reached for her again, but she looked startled and pulled away.  A knee slammed into my gut. I let out a wheeze, backing up a few steps. It was only then I looked away from her, only to see a fist slamming into my face. This time I collapsed on the mat.

“Fuck…” I groaned.

“Hey!” Someone shouted. “This is the fucking guy who bangs his sister!”

“That fucking pervert?”

“He’s trying to feel up the student council president all to himself!”

“Kick his ass!”

This call didn’t go unheeded. A shoe slammed into me. And then another. I lashed out, hitting someone. I then attacked someone else. More people came to their aid. I was shoved down by at least a half-dozen guys. I looked up to see basketball players all around me. I hadn’t moved fast enough, and now they were all kicking me. Pain shot through my body and more and more bastards were kicking me. I had to stop reaching for Kira and start protecting myself. Unfortunately, I had already taken too many blows.

I didn’t know how long the beating went on. The kicks and punches all sort of blended together, and it became just one long continuous feeling of pain. When it finally settled, the world was blurring and I could barely see shadows. A certain shadow seemed to come out of the darkness. It was a naked woman, but her features were too indistinct to see.

“I’m sorry, Hakaru,” She said, her voice was the familiar voice of Kira. “I know you wanted to save her like a hero out of a story. I’m sorry. It was never going to work out that way.”

The distant shadows grew until there was complete darkness, and then my head hit the mat as I slipped off into unconsciousness. When I awoke, I was confused for a few moments. I sat up, only to feel my head throb with pain.

“Hakaru!” Two large soft things suddenly pressed up against me.

“Ah… wh-what?” I shook my head and tried to make out the person holding me. “Sasori?”

“I heard about it earlier and came here right away. Since you’re my student and we had no nurse at school today, the vice-principal allowed me to watch after you. Some boys had brought you in. Who did this to you? I tried to get answers, but no one admitted to anything!”

“Ah…” I touched my head, feeling a surge of pain. “That… the entire… basketball team.”

“The basketball team?” Sasori blinked. “Why would they bully you?”

I tried to work through everything that had happened. Kira was there, and I tried to save her, and yeah, I got my ass handed to me by a dozen boys. No, before that, they were getting an award. It was the couch! I started explaining everything that I saw to Sasori, my tongue getting tied several times. She had to ask questions to clarify a bit, but eventually, I managed to work through the entire story.

When I was done, Sasori had her head down, her expression hidden by the relatively low lighting for the infirmary. The infirmary was a typical medical center for a school. Most people who had to go to the nurse’s office just wanted to lie down in the dark for a while, so the place usually had the blinds up. Thus, I was lying in bed in a fairly dark room with Sasori sitting next to me, still in her traditional teaching attire. As for why there wasn’t a nurse today, that seemed odd to me. Maybe Sasori made some kind of deal with the nurse?

“Kira can do whatever she wants,” Sasori spoke up, bringing me back to looking at her.

“What?” I said, my voice tinged in disbelief. “Seriously?”

Sasori shrugged. “What am I supposed to do about the girl? She won’t talk to us. She goes to love hotels in the middle of the night. She sexts and takes erotic photos. Now, this. She’s barely recognizable from the girl I raised. I don’t know what to say. I have a slut of a daughter.”

“Sasori!” I sat up, grabbing my head as I grew dizzy. “This is your daughter! How can you say that about her?”

Sasori gritted her teeth. “You’ve seen the pictures she takes! Maybe… maybe she wants this to happen? Did you ever think of that? She could have gotten my help, but she doesn’t want my help! She doesn’t want me!”

“It’s not about want!” I snapped. “You’re her mother!”

“St-stop!” She said, her face flushing, “I don’t want to talk about this right now.”

“You…”

“Let’s just talk about you… and me… okay?” Her face seemed to turn lewd as she looked me up and down.

“Me and you?” I said incredulously.

Her hand reached out and touched my thigh. “I saw you looking at me in class. You were wondering if I was really not wearing panties, weren’t you?”