Haruka's Fanfiction

This story is not canon. It is based in one of my wife’s and my RPG worlds, this one being set in a family neighborhood. The households are usually large, and are made up of some of our favorite fandoms.

Info/warnings here: http://asylums.insanejournal.com/sakuracourt/profile
Earlier chapters here: http://canadian-haruka.insanejournal.com/tag/sakura+court


Sakura Court – Part 5

By Haruka (haruka@ymail.com)

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I still didn’t know if I could trust them.

Or maybe ‘trust’ is the wrong word. It was really a matter of whether or not I could depend on them.

After the battle with Long, and the farce that was the KenDan (why bother suggesting it if you were going to let us win?) Rio and Mele were joining the Gekirangers. It wasn’t so much that I doubted their intentions, but would they back us up after all the times we’d tried to kill each other?

I said as much to Ran and Jan in the hallway at school before lunch. Since Jan had been raised in the woods by animals, his education had suffered and he was still trying to catch up. For now, he was still in our classes, but we weren’t sure how long it could last. In any case, he was immediately, passionately incensed by my uncertainty.

“Why is Retsu even wondering about that?! Rio and Mele were willing to give up their lives in the Judgement by Fist to prove themselves! They’re bana-bana!”

“I realize that, Jan, but just because they’ve proven that they regret their actions doesn’t mean that they’ll stand up for us in the future.”

“I won’t pretend I don’t have some of the same concerns,” Ran admitted doubtfully, “but the KenDan was supposed to decide things.”

“Well, there has to be another way of proving we can depend on them,” I said thoughtfully.

“Not at home.” Ran shook her head. “The Seven Kensei and Miki have all accepted the outcome of the KenDan. We’re not to hold anymore grudges.”

“We shouldn’t!” Jan declared. “Rio and Mele are GekiBlack and GekiGreen now! They’re on OUR side!”

I knew I should feel the same way, but even after the two of them headed to the cafeteria and I was pulling my sketchpad out of my locker, it nagged at me.

I spotted Rio and Mele a little further down the hall. It was still weird to see them in the school uniforms, and I don’t know how they did it, but they managed to look regal in them. Rio looked my way briefly, then turned back to Mele and said something I couldn’t hear that made her giggle. It irritated me.

“Hey, Fukami Retsu!”

I turned at the sound of my name and was suddenly shoved up against the lockers by a neanderthal twice my size. His name was Koichi and I had the misfortune to share classes with him. A couple of his cronies were hovering behind him, grinning like the morons they were.

“You made me look stupid in Math class just now,” he growled at me.

I had to look up to meet his glare, but that didn’t deter me from doing it. “All I did was answer the question that the teacher asked me, Koichi.”

“Yeah, but you did it AFTER I’d already gotten it wrong!” he reasoned. “THAT’S what made me look stupid!”

Out of the corner of my eye I noticed that Rio and Mele were now watching the scene along with everyone else in the corridor. I suddenly realized that maybe this could be the true test – if we’re all supposed to be comrades now, shouldn’t they save me when I’m in danger? I could have easily taken on all three of these guys by myself, but decided I wouldn’t do a thing to fight back. In fact, a little prodding was going to be necessary to give Rio and Mele a real reason to step in. I smirked up at Koichi.

“I’ve got news for you; you already WERE stupid before class even started. Nothing I did could change that.”

There was a general “Ooo …,” from the surrounding crowd, while Koichi’s cronies looked stunned. I’m sure they were used to having the people they bullied back down right away.

As for Koichi himself, he looked fit to kill, and I was undoubtedly the target. “You’re gonna die, Fukami!” he yelled and drew back his fist. I could have dodged and countered, but my gaze darted to Rio. He had put an arm around Mele and the two of them were murmuring to each other while keeping an eye on us.

CRACK! Koichi’s fist connected with my jaw. It hurt like crazy, but I’ve been beaten up much worse in training with Master Pyon Pyou, so it didn’t floor me. I started to bring up my hand to counter the next punch, but remembered what I was trying to do and faltered. Another punch caught me across the cheek and my sketchpad fell to the ground. My jaguar heart wanted badly to fight and I struggled to hold it back.

A few more punches later and I knew help wasn’t coming. It figured that when I finally realized it, someone called out that a teacher was coming. Koichi gave me another hard shove against the lockers and I banged my head. I felt myself sliding down, but was unconscious before I hit the floor.

When I came to, I was sitting with my legs outstretched, and I hurt all over. However, I was warm in someone’s arms and a soft cloth was carefully cleaning my face. I cracked a swollen eye open and saw Mele crouching in front of me, holding the cloth and dabbing my split lip. I realized there was another pair of legs on either side of mine and the warmth I felt was from a jacket laid over me and a strong chest at my back.

“He’s awake,” Mele said.

“About time,” came the voice near my ear. I shifted around to find myself face-to-face with Rio. He had been holding me upright using his own body.

“Why?” I managed to get out. I didn’t understand – why were they patching me up when they couldn’t be bothered to have helped me avoid being beaten in the first place?

“Someone has to clean you up,” Mele said, turning my face back toward her so she could continue working. “What were we supposed to do; leave you laying there unconscious and bleeding in the hallway for the teachers to find?”

“Why not?” I grumbled peevishly, wincing as she carefully dabbed my lip again. “It’s not like you cared.”

Mele stopped what she was doing and I felt Rio stiffen at my back.

“What is that you just said?” he asked evenly. I thought I heard a lion growling somewhere – he had released a little of his Beast heart with his anger.

“I saw you there, watching them beat me up!” I accused, twisting around to glare at him. “You didn’t even try to stop them! I was right about you all along – we can’t depend on you at all!”

“What did you want us to do that you couldn’t have done yourself?”

I frowned, not understanding. “You could have –“

“Listen up, Loser,” Mele interrupted me. “I asked Rio-sama if we should step in, but he said that since you had held your own against him in the KenDan it would be an insult to presume that you needed any help. And besides, you were acting as if you WANTED to pick a fight with those guys!”

I couldn’t argue the second point, but the first …. I turned half-around to look at Rio’s face. “Is that true?”

“Why would I lie?!” Mele demanded.

“Of course it’s true,” he said calmly. “You’re a skilled fighter and those guys are nothing. You could have taken them out easily, but for some reason, you weren’t trying.” He met Mele’s eyes past me. “I guess now we know why; he was testing us.”

“And here I thought the KenDan was already test enough,” she snorted. “What more do you want from us?”

“I wanted to find out if I could rely on you,” I said, and even to me it sounded lame.

“Well, here we are, sitting on this filthy bathroom floor, cleaning your fool head,” Rio said with a half-smile that could have been a smirk. “What do you think?”

At that moment, my older brother came running in and skidded to a stop. “I heard you’d been hurt, Retsu,” he said carefully, taking in the scene.

“He’ll live,” Rio replied, holding my head steady while Mele applied cold water to another abrasion. “We’ve got it covered, Gou.”

My brother looked questioningly at me and I tried to nod, but Rio’s hands were firm. “It’s okay, Niisan,” I told him.

He sighed and gave his own forehead a light knock with his fist. “Man. You had me worried there. I’ll leave you to it then.” He turned to leave, then paused and looked back suddenly. “Mele, what the hell are you doing in the BOY’S bathroom?!”

“Cleaning up your stupid little brother. Why?”

He looked as if he was going to say something else, but he shook his head and left instead. Mele and Rio exchanged a look of amusement and I relaxed and allowed them to tend to my wounds.

I had a feeling our new team was going to be okay after all.

Retsu

--

End of Part 5

(2008)

No characters here are mine.

This fic is not to be re-posted.