Niijima was silent as he sat on the ground not too far from the big muscled guy still carefully holding Kenichi's unconscious body against his chest and couldn't stop the thoughts crossing his mind.

Kenichi was a girl.

He'd been bullying a girl with a medical problem. God he was a moron. How could he be so careless not to notice the few signs that had been present? All the times the kid had thrown fits about being picked on, snuck up on, grabbed exct...

Why the fuck hadn't he noticed how nervous she would act? Was he really such a creep that he would continually inflict pain on someone who was broken?

Dammit Kenichi, why didn't you say something? He thought as he gnashed his teeth a little bit as Honoka walked over and sat down next to him, but didn't look at him. The kid was tense, anxious- She was probably thinking that someone was going to lash out at any moment. However no one who had been present to hear her story would bother to lash out at her or her sister.

They simply wouldn't dare.

Not with the two masters hovering so close by. Not if they wanted to walk away in one piece anyways.

"Honoka," The guy holding Kenichi said, his tone coaxing. "When Kenichi wakes...if his personality is that of Saya, should we call him that?"

"No!" Honoka almost shouted causing the masters and everyone else to look at her funny. "Are you crazy? Saya is the really mad personality. If she finds out you know- she'll tear you apart! And don't give me that disbelieving look either pal- she can do it. I know she can because she's the only personality who can really use the training you've been putting Ken-chan through." Honoka sniped at the two men, startling them a little bit with her words.

She sounded as if their student would attempt to kill them if they knew.

(****)

Sakaki shifted the hand holding Kenichi's head against his chest and gently ran his fingers through the girl's dark, wild mid back length hair. Turning his head so that he was looking down at Kenichi's face he absently studied the girl's features for a moment.

Everything from her wide eyes, hair, to the way she spoke had practically screamed 'girl' to him when he had first met the kid. It had been part of the reason why he had turned her down when he had been asked to teach her karate. He hadn't wanted to seriously injure her.

She was just so- so...well, cute.

She still was, though there was something to be said for actually knowing that she was an honest to god female now. Apparently knowing the truth about Kenichi just made the kid more adorable to him. He couldn't seem to stop running his fingers through her hair or gently touching her face.

Something that he was sure Akisame had noticed him doing by now. If the man's unblinking pale eyed stare was any indication at all.

Sakaki stared back at him for a second without pausing his hand movements in the slightest and received a creepy head tilt from Akisame a moment or so before he blinked his eyes and shrugged. Either deciding to let him be for the time being, or deciding that it wasn't his place to question his actions towards Kenichi.

Whatever the reason, the man would have plenty to speak to him about later.

(***)

Sakaki was reacting to the fact that Kenichi was a female rather strangely, Akisame noted unsure of whether or not he should worry for the girl's safety (even though Sakaki wasn't likely to intentionally harm her physically) there was the matter of hurting her heart.

However Sakaki was his friend, and for the moment the man seemed more than a little bit rattled by everything that Honoka had told them, if the fact that Sakaki kept running his fingers through Kenichi's hair and gently brushing her cheek with his hand, was any indication to the current state of his mind.

Not that he could blame the other master any, he was feeling rather unsettled himself.

And while he was curious, he knew that he had to bide his time here. Kenichi apparently didn't want anyone knowing about 'her' little trick. Though he had to say, she pulled off being a teenage boy admirably. Still... Casting a quick look over at Honoka, he studied her for a few moments trying to disconcert just why she was so upset.

Okay she had pretty much told them that Kenichi was a killer. Something that he still didn't totally believe for himself. And had a split personality to boot. However- Akisame wasn't buying it. Not completely anyways.

Kenichi- er Saya could have had the 'failsafe' put into place on herself to serve as a restraint to keep her from killing again should she need it. Which to him if it was true that she really had killed, was perfectly understandable to him. And it was a fairly simple matter for her to fool doctors if she changed/altered some parts of her personality and habits on the fly.

But if she did that, Honoka would be aware of it because the two seemed to function more like- Well he was having a difficult time naming their functionality. But he knew just from watching that Honoka took her hints and cues from Saya. The two didn't even have to actually speak. Not if they were used to spending long periods of time not speaking anyways.

Saya could very easily get Honoka to follow her every whim or wish or command with a simple motion of her head, hand, fingers or word spoken in code.

Come to think of it... Isn't that more or less what had happened when Honoka had first come to the dojo to check on her- er brother? Looking down at Saya's face as she slept in Sakaki's arms, he narrowed his eyes a little bit and carefully went over everything in his mind until he figured out just what Saya had done to manage to get the girl to leave the dojo that day.

While Saya had made a big show of not wanting her pesky little sister bothering her- Honoka had been continuously glancing down at Saya's hand. She had been watching for- a nail flick?

True Saya tended to flick her fingernails often when agitated, but she hadn't been truly mad or upset with Honoka for coming to the dojo. If anything the two seemed to have been trying to figure out something. Though for the life of him he didn't know what it was. Unless...perhaps Saya was becoming tired with the lies and was attempting to figure out if she could trust them.

As in really, truly trust them.

After all it was one thing to simply trust them with her training. It was another entirely to trust them with the lives of herself and her little sister.

Damn this was giving him a headache.

(******)

Kenichi was a girl.

Well the kid had always been kind of on the cute side.

It wasn't his job to think such things. Kenichi was his friend.

But he was a guy and sort of couldn't help it.

Kenichi was a girl!

Dammit he'd been over this once already. He knew Kenichi was a girl...now anyways. Still, what the hell? Why hadn't the little punk said anything to him. He had thought that they were bros.

Well, sort of.

He supposed that it was difficult for a girl to be a bro anyways.

Kenichi was a girl.

He needed to bang his head on something to clear his mind of all thoughts. Except for the possible head injury that he was going to suffer.

But Kenichi was a girl...

He was suddenly sort of horrified by some of the things he'd said and done around said girl. He inwardly cringed at the thought that she probably thought him to be a freak or something. After all, he was a boxer- and a teenager, and never really dealt much with girls.

However...

Now he didn't really have a choice but to deal.

And that thought terrified him. Just what the hell was he supposed to say to Kenichi now?