I think at some point I wrote Kamiya instead of Kuraki. But I couldn't find it. If I did and it doesn't really make sense, then you know who I mean. And sorry if u find it lol

How long has it been since that teacher came to our school? A week already? I'm surprised she is still here. She just gets to work with the class as though we are paying attention even though we glare at her and don't pay attention at all. She has guts to still be here. She had crossed my mind only briefly as I walked with Kamiya and Honjou to school when we heard her annoying voice calling our names from behind us.

"Ohiyo!" she called to us.

"what? Man, she's too high-strung this early in the morning." Honjou said was he watched her wave enthusiastically at us. What, did she want us to wave back? Yeah right.

"lame" Kamiya complained as he threw his head back and thrust his hands in his trouser pockets.

"let's go" I called to them as she started running towards us. Like hell I'm walking to school with a teacher. We ran away from her as she called after us, "hey… hey! Omairo."

She stopped running, but just our luck we ran up the hill right towards Kazama and his crew. They were all jumping around looking like idiots. All of them seemed to be happy as though they were children with stupid idiotic grins on their faces, pleased by such simple things and it seemed somewhat relieving to see Kazama with a smile on his face. A part of me thought that it made him look so much more… innocent and childlike. But that was probably just because they were complimenting each other on a good jump on their way to school. We stopped when we saw them, merely a couple meters away and they slowed down and stopped their playing around when they saw us. Their smiles gone, it was back to the glaring contests as Honjou shook his bag by his side in an aggressive manner.

I had forced myself to refrain from thinking back to the kiss that Kazama and I had shared the day after he was cleared of the mugging charges. And our glaring contests were the same as before. Neither of us wanting to talk about what had happened, neither of us needing to talk about what had happened. It had been a mistake… an accident. I tried to forget the detail of how our lips had become merged together and of how soft and warm his lips felt against mine and convinced myself that it was an accident that would never happen again. I wasn't given much of a chance to really think about anything as Yamaguchi called after the group in front of me, having failed after calling us, she was their problem now.

"Kazama, Ichimura, Kuraki! Oooi ohiyo!" she called to them in her cheerful voice. Ichimura voiced my earlier thoughts of the day about her lasting longer than other teachers and Kuraki responded by asking if they thought he should punch her one of these times. The idea hadn't escaped me, but a part of me found this teacher suspicious and I felt as though a thoughtless punch from a student would be easily dodged by her, but I threw these thoughts away when they occurred; she was a small female teacher, what could she do?

"just leave the damn teacher alone" Kazama didn't seem to particularly care that the teacher was still here. Maybe he felt in debt to the teacher for attempting to prove his innocence the previous week and believing him when no one else would. Maybe he trusted her after one thing that she did, apparently, for him. But then he would be stupid. Everyone in 3-D knew better than to trust a teacher. But none the less, he walked away from the teacher and from me and was soon followed by Kuraki and Ichimura. We walked slightly behind them as they walked to school, postponing our glairing contest for later on.

--

What is wrong with me?! That stupid kiss- no! Not even a kiss, his lips just happened to touch mine. That's all... argh! Whatever it was, I can't get 'it' out of my head! How am I supposed to glare at his damn face and look him in those ferocious looking eyes of his if I can't stop thinking about that… 'thing' that happened. I had tried the last week to get rid of the thoughts I had about that event and kept the same composure that I had had for the last two years and glared as I always did. I wouldn't let him know that I was battling hard to forget about it when he obviously had no trouble forgetting. I wouldn't let this corrupt my plans of beating him. I won't let him take over my head!

I went over to my desk on the opposite side from Ogata and sat down talking to Ichimura and Kuraki as usual. Somewhere along the lines our conversation had stopped and I spent some time staring in Ogata's direction. Who cares how it started, but somehow a fight broke out within the class about 10 of the guys were fighting and taunting each other, the tables had been moved to make room for their battle and the rest of the class had made a circle around them to egg them on and enjoy the free show. I wasn't interested in their petty punches and name calling. Neither was Ogata. I knew this because we were having another glaring contest. I and he were in our own world where nothing seemed to get through to us.

That is until….

"Temera! Give it a break already! If you want to fight that badly I'll take you on! Let's go outside!"

That caught our attention. The class was deathly quiet, some of the pairs fighting still in their last position frozen in them, but all staring at the ridiculous teacher. First she sticks up for me, then she wants to take on the entire class in a fight? What is she thinking? What kind of teacher is she?

"Yamaguchi-sensei" Sawatari whispered to her.

"kowaii" the deputy muttered in shock.

A look of realisation seemed to dawn on her determined face and her look or fierceness turned into panic as she gasped, she shifted uncomfortably in her place, "ano…" she got down from the table she had been standing on and students on the ground shifted away from her in fear. It was strange seeing the drastic change in her, to both sides that I had never seen before. She had my attention but in the corner of my eye I could see Ogata eyeing her suspiciously. He didn't seem as surprised to see this angry, fight-hungry side of our new teacher.

"aite… aite te te te te" she reached down and grabbed her ankle as she called out her apparent pain… like anyone would buy that… actually, with the idiots in this class, they probably would. But something was up with this teacher. There was something very different about her indeed. She got up again and smiled a too sweet smile to the class of scared males. Soon after that, all fights had been thoroughly stopped and the damn teachers were able to leave again. It's for the best if she doesn't try and get involved with us. We were fine without her and we would be if she decided that she didn't want to work here anymore.

--

We had all gone separate ways when she left. All of us splitting into our various 'friendship groups'. When lunch came around Honjou, Kamiya and I went and lay under a tree on the grounds enjoying the heat of the sun. Most of the time we lay there silently, each of us in our own thoughts, me trying desperately to have no thoughts, or at least, no thoughts about Kazama that didn't include pounding his sorry ass into the ground; it was the only way to keep me from thinking about that damn stupid moment where I pressed my lips to him and keeping the memory of their texture and the need to do it again, at bay.

"shall we ditch school?" Honjou asked.

"you'd only get sleepy anyway" Kamiya reasoned. I stretched my arms up having been half asleep in the welcoming sun when Honjou called to me, "huh, what should we do, Yamato?"

"how annoying" I always had to come up with a plan didn't I. well, it's not surprising. I am, after all, their leader.

"so this is where you were!" damn it, she was by our side again, acting all cheerful and friendly. We all got up immediately and glared at the infuriating lady.

"don't bug us during lunch time" I told her.

"lunchtime is valuable, why don't we talk about things? Ha ha ha"

"shut the hell up" thank you Honjou I couldn't have said it better myself. I may have been a member of 3-D but I still refrained from talking too badly to anyone when I could help it. I preferred to keep a calm exterior and prevent people from getting under my skin, unlike my hot headed friend Honjou. However I wasn't always able to control my temper, especially when it came to Kazama Ren.

"shoo" Kamiya waved his hand at her in a manner you did to an annoying dog as we walked away from her. We would look for another tree to rest under…

--

"ah. Hey!" she was calling after Ogata and the other two after Kamiya had just shooed her. Had you ever seen something so pathetic? Everything about it was laughable, from the way she had approached them to the way they had brushed her off so easily.

All three of us, Kuraki, Ichimura and I, laughed at her, freely saying how lame she was. She just turns around and calls to me as though we hadn't done anything.

"Kazama" she raises her hand in a friendly gesture.

"baka ja ne?" Ichimura asks her. We snigger a while longer before running away from her with her hand still in the air, "'hey' she said ha ha right"

"she really is an idiot isn't she"

Who cares what we did when we left. We messed about and laughed at our stupid new teacher making light hearted bats about what she would do next to try and get 'in' with us. Anything to distract me from the memory of Ogata and the dreams I had been having. Unfortunately, none of us had come up with 'kick the can'. What was that anyway?

We had returned to our class and when we were in our seats she put a tin on the table, "let's start the 3-D 'kick the can' competition! Woo yeah!" she called out to us all trying to get us to join in with her celebration, but that wasn't going to happen anytime soon. We all just wanted this teacher gone, so things could go back to how they were before, but a part of me realised that if she hadn't been here, then I would be in jail right now, and the mugger would still be out there.

"what?" the whole class called out together. That would probably be the most we would ever do together as a class. I shook my head at her and looked away noticing the incredulous look that Ogata was giving her. I don't mind if she's here. Not if she will actually listen to us when other teachers don't. But does she have to put herself in these traps? I knew that no one would go, but a part of me felt as though I owed her, as though I should go so she isn't completely on her own. I wasn't ready to trust her just yet, but I was more open to her being around than the others were. Of course, I knew that there was no way Ichimura and Kuraki would go with me, and I wasn't feeling that bad so I would leave her like the rest of the class.

"hey! Why do we have to do this childish crap?" Honjou was never one for keeping his thoughts to himself.

"what this class needs right now is a sense of solidarity and friendship", so there's a method to her madness? It doesn't matter what she thinks this class needs. She is in over her head if she thinks anyone will listen to her, "in order to build that, everyone needs to work and sweat together and get passionate about the same thing" sweat? Ha-ha she's definitely lost them now I couldn't help but inwardly smirk as her mistake, "of course, I'll be participating too"

"how stupid"

"whatever"

"what a drag"

"what the hell is 'kick the can' anyway?" Kuraki asked what most were probably thinking.

"huh? You don't know?" she seemed amazed that we wouldn't know what the stupid game was. How interesting could a game called 'kick the can' be anyway?

"we don't know, ne?" Kamiya called out amongst the class, however whether he was humouring the teacher or he genuinely didn't know, I couldn't tell. Various members of the class called out saying they don't know.

"you don't know the fiery and fun game? The world is at its end" how very dramatic. I wasn't interested in her ramblings; my only concern was when I was going to get that fight with Ogata. It had been a week since I told him that I wanted to fight him. I barely noticed Ichimura telling her that she always exaggerated things. That was probably true, but I was getting used to her stupid over the top ramblings, it was getting easier to block them out. My mind was unable to remove Ogata, so if I had to think about him, I was going to try and think about when we would finally have our fight. I wasn't going to let him push me around and I wasn't going to let him walk all over me. I wasn't going to go down without a real fight.

"kick the can is a game where you use your head and physical strength to save your comrades from 'it'" she began to explain the game that probably no one really wanted to know about. "in other words it's a battle that requires teamwork. It's a perfect game for this class right now" your right. If this class wanted to learn about teamwork then it would be great. However in this class, your only friends until you need to depend on someone. Once you need their help, it's everyone for themselves. It was a bitter thought but a true one none the less. Unless victory was guaranteed, they weren't involved. "yosh! Everyone change into your gym clothes and meet me in the school yard!" she threw her fist in the air and left with a bounce in her step obviously thinking that we would actually want to play the stupid game and that she had made 'progress'. Yeah right…

"I have a better idea than 'kick the can'" Ogata called to the quiet class when Yamaguchi was clear of the classroom. I looked at him and we were in a glare once again, this was it. We would finally have our fight to determine the leader of 3-D. "we're doing this now. No more waiting"

He was in front of me now his hands on the table I sat behind. I stood up and signalled to the door, "lead the way" he grabbed his bag and we all walked out towards our destination in silence where at long last this would be over. Our leader would be decided and I wouldn't have to worry about the dreams I had where he beat me to the ground or where we did things other than fighting.

The rest of the class stood in a line outside the shrine as Ogata and I stood across from each other preparing ourselves for what we had waited for, for so long. We threw our bags to the side as the calls began from the sidelines, "don't lose Yamato!" obviously the hot-headed Honjou was calling out and backing up his friend, until he lost.

"deck him good Ren!" Kuraki called out to me, but I knew somewhere in my mind that he would probably side with Yamato if I were to lose this battle. I tried hard to focus on the fight ahead but images of my dreams kept coming to the front of my head. It was only the calls that helped keep them away.

"you'd better win!" another call for Ogata from Kamiya.

"Go ahead and knock him out" confident Ichimura seemed sure I would be able to, of course, so was I.

"go! Go! Alright!" the rest of the class began to call at us now. I don't think they particularly cared who won; they just wanted to see a good fight. They wanted to know who would be their leader and defend them when the times came where they needed to be defended. Who would be their fearless leader? They were about to find out.

"don't lose you two! Go all out! Fire away!" that voice… oh no. you have got to be kidding me. Everyone quietened down at the feminine screeching and turned to see the short teacher punching her fists out as she joined in the cheers, "fight fight!" she called. Like hell I'm fighting in front of a teacher. No teacher allows fighting. Surely not even this one!

"why are you here?" Yamato called to her before I had the chance.

"anyway, wouldn't you normally stop it?" I chimed in, determined to find out how this teacher thought. I thought that she would do what she did the other time she had slipped up and retrace her footsteps and tell us to not fight, but instead….

"there's no need to stop a 'bare-one', right?" what is she talking about? I thought as everyone looked at her with confused expressions.

"bare-one?" they chimed together.

She sighed exasperated, "a bare-handed one-on-one fight. Don't you know?"

"of course we don't!" Honjou's expression and tone made it clear that none of us had ever heard of that term before. But that didn't seem to make her falter. She just put a hand in the air as though making an oath and said that she wouldn't stop us.

"go ahead and fight each other with all your strength" she encouraged, this was ridiculous. I was almost tempted to throw a punch, at Ogata or her I didn't know yet, but the way that Ogata was staring at her cautiously made me think that it was some sort of trick or trap. "you guys will become real comrades"

"Comrades?" that threw me off; I didn't want to be friends with Ogata. I wanted to beat his ass in the dirt and prove that no one could just push me around however they like to. Well, that's what I wanted on the surface, somewhere deep down… deep deep down, I secretly longed for his lips on mine again. I wanted my dreams to be reality but even I didn't know that at the time.

"right. Guys wanting to be the boss are like that" so it was decided then? As soon as we fought, we would become comrades? What world is she living in?

"what do you mean comrades?" Ichimura asked

"you keep saying that, don't you?" Kuraki noted.

"let me tell you" Ogata called out, "I'm not fighting for that" he wasn't? A tired look crossed her face as she sighed and made her way towards Ogata, but just then, her phone rang, she rushed through her bag.

"just a minute" she called out as she answered her phone, "moshi moshi?" she walked away from us by only a few meters as the class looked in the direction of Ogata, Yamaguchi and I. I don't know who they were looking at, but I was looking at Ogata, trying to figure out what it was that he was fighting for and him looking at me probably trying to work his way back into my head.

"a brawl at Shirokin shrine?" what was that? Everyone had heard her talking and walked closer to hear what was going on.

"……" they couldn't hear what was being said on the other side.

she gulped as she covered the speaker and said "how did you know?"

"……" they only heard the silence that signalled something was being said.

But then her tone changed back into the sweet voice of hers that she put on, "ah, there must be some kind of mistake."

"……" they couldn't help but wonder what she was talking about.

"Those guys have an unexpectedly adorable side." Eh? Which guys? There's no way she was talking about us. "there's nothing to worry about. Talk to you later" she quickly hung up the phone and turned to look at us, not surprised by our change in positions, she seemed anxious about something.

"the fuzz are coming" she called out in a warning voice… hang on…

"fuzz?" we all called out.

"the cops! Everybody run!" only then did we all realise how bad this was and started running in all different directions to get away from Shirokin shrine before the police got there. I don't need to be taken in again! She encouraged us all to split up into different directions and Ichimura, Kuraki and I ran as far as we could reaching a small river and bridge when we slowed down and Kuraki complained saying that he was going to die from running so much.

"this is bad. I'm at my limit" Ichimura slipped in panting and trying to regain his breath.

"man, what is Yamaguchi thinking?" I was still trying to catch my breath back as my thoughts processed through my head. It was them that she had said has an adorable side. Kyoto must have been told that there was going to be a fight at Shirokin shrine and called Yamaguchi to warn her about her students. She stood up for them and protected them from Kyoto and then warned them and got them to escape before they were all caught. She really as protecting them wasn't she but the situation earlier was still probing my mind.

"seriously, where do you find a teacher who would cheer for a one-on-one fight?"

"I'm right here"

We turned to the voice still breathless, "wha!" where the hell did she come from?! We all backed away from where we sat as she sat there comfortably regaining her breathe.

"why are you here?!" Kuraki yelled at her having had enough surprises for one day.

"don't follow us around" I've had it with her by now as well. If she wants to stand up for us and defend us then that's fine. But don't follow us around as if your part of our group.

"I can't help it" she claimed, "I thought you and Ogata had made peace? " I couldn't look at her as she said this to me, "why do you guys want a one-on-one so badly? Do you have some sort of history with him?"

"nothing like that, but he's picking a fight with me. I have to take him on." I won't let anyone push me around anymore. I thought solemnly.

She laughed at me, "why don't you just ignore him?"

I couldn't keep my voice calm anymore and stood up to look down on her, "he'll look down on me then!" I growled out, my voice calmed down somewhat as I explained my reasoning, "in this world, there are only enemies, or allies. I can't allow an enemy to look down on me" I could feel when Ichimura and Kuraki's eyes turned away from my back and they looked down towards the ground.

"Ogata isn't an enemy. You know that, don't you?" a part of me did. A part of me, the part that wouldn't keep the thoughts of Ogata and the dreams I had locked up, was telling me that he wasn't an enemy. That he meant more to me than an ally. But that didn't change the fact that he was picking a fight with me and I couldn't have him looking down on me. I turned away from her and strode away. Ignoring her call for me and hearing her calling after Kuraki, telling me that he had run after me.

"Ren was bullied in elementary school" Ichimura had told her now. I couldn't change anything and his words faded from my hearing range as his voice quietened. I didn't care if she knew about my past; I just didn't want to be the one telling her about it. But maybe now she would understand why I had to fight him.

--

We ran away from the shrine at such speed. So much adrenaline was pumping through me. Wanting to get away before the police arrived and the anger that I felt at having got so close to settling things with that damn Kazama! Fighting him was going to be my only true way to get him off my mind. Once I had beaten the crap out of him I would no longer have to fight the urge to hold him and put my lips back on his. I wanted to escape this needing feeling that I felt when I thought back to him. His smile from earlier that day kept coming back to the front of my mind and almost made me smile when I thought of it. Almost. But it kept my legs moving all the way back to the hang out where we rested and caught our breath back. We said nothing for a while not having anything to say and we settled for a game of darts.

"you were so close to settling things with Ren" Honjou was kind enough to remind me and refuel my anger and agitation.

"man, that teacher's so annoying" Kamiya decided to add.

Right now that damn teacher was the least of my worries. As much as I hated to admit it, she had just saved all of our asses; if she hadn't been there and told us that the police were on their way then we would all probably be in the station right now. But her words always got to me, "what 'real comrades'? don't make me laugh" I said as I took a sip of my drink. "next time, I'll be sure to crush him" I slammed my glass on the table and heard her voice coming in through the door.

"why do you have to go that far?" she asked me. what did it matter to her? It didn't! this was between me and Ren! "why do you want to fight so badly?"

I laughed as I looked away from her and explained my reason for fighting, "I can be No. 1 only in fighting"

"huh" I knew she wouldn't understand me.

"I'm no good at studying or sports. Is that bad?" I asked her somewhat mockingly.

"why do you need to be No. 1?" she had worn away at my patience and I threw a basket out the way and stood in front of her shouting at her to not patronise me.

"damn teachers like you" I continued, "all you do is set ranks!"

"then let me ask you this, by fighting to be No. 1 aren't you setting ranks? When you are doing the same thing, do you have the right to talk all high and mighty?" I glared at her as my lip twitched and strode away from her before I punched her, with my 'comrades' following behind me like dogs following their owner. If I wasn't No. 1, then they wouldn't have a reason to follow me, they wouldn't have a reason to be associated with me.

But once we had got further down the road the other two and split off to go home anyway. It was late and I was now on my own. I leant against a light post as that stupid teacher's words swam through my head. Why do you need to be number one?

Maybe she had had a similar talk with Kazama and now he was also on his own walking down one of these streets thinking about something that teacher had said.

--

I walked to school as usual with Ichimura and Kuraki. Yamato walked up to me as soon as he saw me outside the school grounds. He stood in my way glaring at me, "we end this now" he was already on his own. I gave a subtle nod to my companions and they glared at him with smirks on their faces as they walked away and left the two of us together. I'd had another dream the night before. We were fighting and he had pinned me to the floor straddling my hips and pinning my arms above my head as he leant down and bit my neck. The image of that came flooding back to my head as we walked to the park we would fight in but I pushed it away and only focussed on fighting him as we got into position and stared at each other again.

"let's do this" he called out to me.

"time out" I looked away from him knowing he would be confused.

"what?

"ne, can we stop this already?" I asked. Yamaguchi's words had been prying my mind for all my conscious state that night and I decided to try and see if she was right or not. If he insisted on fighting… he was an enemy.

"what the hell are you talking about?"

"I don't really care if you lead the class" I really didn't. I just didn't want to be looked down on or pushed around.

"that'd be meaningless" he shouted at me, "unless I beat you in a fight, I can't call myself the head!" he seemed so determined about it. So passionate almost. And his determination to defeat me was as though he had never got close enough to try and press his lips on mine the way he had a week ago. No I pushed those memories away and focussed on what was happening now.

"I don't really care anymore about being the head or ruling Akadou." I wasn't going to fight him. I was trying to call a truce, but he just started running towards me while telling me to start caring. He threw a fist in my face and kicked me in my chest as I fell to the ground clutching at the leaves beneath me as he called out and beckoned me to fight him.

Painful memories flashed through me as I pushed myself up to face him, "you ass!" I screamed as I threw a fist into his recently healed face. I threw another punch at him but he ducked and got me straight afterwards. I was bent over as he strode towards me and kicked me in the stomach, kicking me again to raise my chest and push me down with another shove of his foot. I kicked him back till he was on the floor and grabbed at his school blazer and told him to stand up as we wrestled followed by him choking me and me throwing him over my shoulder. He got up and we both faced each other hitting and missing, kicking and missing until we both kicked the other away from us. I heard him moving behind me as I pushed myself up and saw a piece of wood beside me. After a quick internal battle, I grabbed it and tuned around ready to use it. He had one as well and we both threw our entire weights into delivering that blow but was stopped midway when Yamaguchi turned up and blocked both our attacks with her arms.

"stop playing around!" she shouted at us as she threw both of us to the ground with ease, "a one-on-one is supposed to be bare-handed" like hell we cared. We weren't doing a one-on-one. I wanted to call it quits! He's a damn enemy if ever I saw one.

"Whether bare-handed or armed, wining is all that matters in a fight"

"you didn't stop us yesterday did you. So why the hell are you stopping us now?!" I all but screamed at her as adrenaline flooded through my veins. Who was she to tell us what we could or couldn't do? Who was she to suddenly change her mind and decide that she doesn't want us fighting?

"because yesterday was barehanded" she answered simply, "the brats nowdays don't know how to fight properly. They don't understand moderation, they go overboard. Listen up. When you hit someone, your own fist hurts, right? If you feel that pain, you shouldn't want to hit someone for no good reason."

"we don't need a lecture on hitting someone! A fight is fought in order to win!" she looked at us with a pitying expression.

"that's not it at all" she said. What would she know? What would she know about fighting? The rules the reasons. She has probably never hit anyone in her life. She probably only heard that your own fist hurts from someone else. How could she possibly understand why and what we fight for?

"Yamato!" his crew had arrived.

"Ren!" so had mine.

It was over.

"what's going on?"

"I don't know"

I supose they would be confussed wouldn't they. They expected to come and find one of us out cold on the ground bloodied up and the other to be standing strong, victorious. Not getting a lecture from a teacher. And she still carries on talking.

"alright, listen well. People can't live on their own. In order to live you have to have comrades. Real comrades are those who will be with you when you're in the most pain. They can show their tears and weaknesses infront of you." What a nice thought. How nice it would be to have a real comrade. A small part of me, the part that would't let me forget about the dreams or the kiss was telling me that it would be nice if I had Yamato as a real comrade. "before you realise it, their by your side. A fight is to protect those comrades and other things that are precious to you. Fighting for yourself is meaningless." She was directing this at Yamato. It was clear. But he wasn't taking any of it. His lip twitched beforehe spoke.

"can it with the pretty words! I can't take all this shit from you teachers!" it felt as if he had given me another blow to the chest. His words weren't directed at me in anyway. He was telling Yamauchi to shut the hell up saying how he couldn't stand her words and her speeches. But it felt as though he was saying that there was no way that me and him could ever be comrades. And it hurt.

"Ogata!" she called to him. I gave him one more sideways glance before turning around and briskly walking the other direction. "Kazama!" what more could she have to say? Could she really pull more 'pretty words' out her ass to put into a speech? I wasn't going to give her the chance and carried on walking.

"just don't forget this!" she called desperately, "theres no top, bottom, high or low amongst comrades. Those things don't matter!" she lives in an ideal world doesn't she. She thinks that everyone is equal when they are comrades. People are always competing and there are always ranks whether people realise it or not. They are there. It's why Ichimura and Kuraki follow me and why Kamiya and Honjou follow Ogata.

--

We had walked away from Yamaguchi and her idealistic chatter. Fighting for yourself is meaningless , that's what she said. Well what if your defending your honour? Or your title? Is it meaningless then? What if your trying to prove something to yourself? But then I remembered when I was caught in the middle of a fight last week. When I was trying to prove that Kazama was innocent. Was I fighting for him then? No, even then I was just fighting to put right what I had done wrong. It had nothing to do with Kazama.

We had got to a bridge below a road where I kicked a nearby bin and emptied its contents with my kick screaming out my frustration. He was consuming my mind, and I needed to get him out of it. I stormed forward and bumped shoulders with some passer by, I turned around and glared at him, grabbed him by his shirt collar and shouted at him, "watch where you're walking asshole!"

"you're the one who ran into me!" he shouted back.

"hey Yamato, just leave it" Honjou suggested. But no, I wouldn't leave it. I needed to get Kazama and that stupid teacher out of my head. I fight for myself. No one else. And I fight to win. I completely ignored Honjou and shouted back at the guy again.

"stop acting like an idiot!" I shouted as I punched him in the face and he fell to the ground.

"damn that hurts!" he shouted.

"get up!" I ordered as I pulled him up off the ground. I punched him in the gut and as he fell to the floor kicked him repeatedly. I was going to win. No one would stop me. Not Yamaguchi and deffinetly not Kazama. I was the No. 1 fighter. I wouldn't stop kicking him. I was deaf to everything other than the darkness where I continuely kicked the jerk that bumped me and all I could hear was the sound of contact of my foot in his stomach. But the next thing I know, Kamiya and Honjou are beside me, holding onto my arms and trying to pull me away saying that we needed to get out of there. But I tried to fight them off and tried to get to him again. It had worked. I was only focussing on kicking his ass. On wining the fight. If they took me away then I would remember again, I would think again.

"Get a grip Yamato!" they shouted at me and they wrapped their arms around my chest and over my arms to hold me back.

"I never want to see your face again!" I shouted as they became more successful in their attempts at keeping me away from the guy on the floor.

"you sure seem to have lots of energy" a voice called from the entrance to the underpass. I stopped what I was doing and looked up to the voice to see a big gang of dangerous looking guys. There was a leader in the front and it was then that I realised that this guy I was beating must be a friend of them. Shit I thought to myself.

--

"Theres a cute girl working at that resteraunt now. Lets go there" Kuraki suggested. We had gone to a random park after leaving the teacher and walked around aimlessly. Not really saying much. 

Ichimura could detect my frustration as I walked around aggressivly and got the message to not say much. Kuraki on the other hand…

"not interested" I replied to his latest suggestion. Of course I'm not interested in a cute girl. I can't get stupid Yamato out of my head! I can't stop thinking about how he threw away the idea of having a comrade so easily. Threw away the idea of having me for a comrade so easily. It replayed in my head and hurt every time. I was becomeing agitated with Kuraki and his suggestions. Going to the games arcade and playing his best game, going to kareoke and him singing what ever the hell his song is.

"hey. Isn't that Yamato?" Ichimura might have been saying it to test a thoery of his. He may have figured out that Yamato was the cause of my frustration, but I turned around anyway and looked in the direction he was looking at.

"huh?" I jogged towards him to get a beter look and saw a big gang fighting three guys. At least three guys holding each of them as others punched them and threw them around like toys. My eyes widened as I saw Yamato trying to fight against them and yet seeming so helpless against them.

"Even Yamato can't win against that many" Kuraki spoke my thoughts as painful memories forced me to feel every blow that Yamato was receiving.

"woldn't it be better to call the cops to deal with this?" Ichimura, the logical thinker. I didn't think so. Every other sound was blocked from my head as I watched Yamato being thrown around so easily. If word got out about anyone from Akadou 3-D being in a fight, then they would be punished by suspension or expulsion. And somehow, even though he had made it pretty clear that he wasn't planning on being my comrade any time soon, the idea of Yamato not being there anymore made me feel somewhat empty.

Ogata isn't your enemy. You know that don't you? Yamaguchi's words replayed in my head. I really thought now that he wasn't my enemy. I really believed that maybe I could convince him to be my comrade if I treated him like my comrade. I didn't think anymore as I ran at the gang grabbing the first thing I could, that happened to be a pole, that I started swinging around. I warned them to get away and once I had put a sufficient distance between the guys and the gang I told them to run for it and the six of us ran for our lives away from the gang that would rip us to shreads given the chance. We didn't speak as we ran and simply followed in one direction until we believed that we had lost them completely.

We ran to the bridge that we had run to the day before when we were running from the police. And once again Kuraki was the one that started saying he was going to die.

"we should be fine, coming this far" Ichimura said as he sat of the edge to catch his breath back like the rest of us.

"man if I run anymore I'm gunna die!"

"no kidding"

It was only once we had regained our breaths and looked up did we each realise that we were sitting right next to the guys that we had been glaring at for the past two years. Honjou next to Ichimura, Kamiya next to Kuraki and me next to Yamato. Me heart rate picked up again as we looked up into each others eyes and I realised what I had done. How would he react? Would he be thankful? Angry? 

Would things just return to how they had been the same way they had after that kiss? Either way, we all turned away fom who we were sitting next to, pretending to not care about if they were alright and putting back up the barrier of hatred between us seeing if we could see them through the corner of our eyes. I wiped me hand across my forehead before speaking.

"are you hurt?"

"nah" he probably wouldn't admit it even it he was but I accepted his answer.

"soka" there was a slight pause before anyone spoke again. I suspect he had been building up to make himself say it.

"I suppose I owe you one, huh"

"it doesn't matter" I replied soon enough. Comrades don't owe each other. They are there for each other and don't expect anthing back. A real comrade would be there for them without them needing to ask. They don't openly say that they owe each other.

--

The silence was pressuring as we held our backs turned from each other. The other four gradally left, with nothing else to do Kuraki and Ichimura walked together and Kamiya and Honjou walked together incase they bumped into those jerks to act as back up or, whatever.

It was just me and Ren sitting with our backs to each other lost in thought.

He practially saved me. But maybe he was just paying me back for when I caught the real culprit. It must just be that. Maybe I should kiss him again. Wait what? What good would that do?

It may have seemed random and out of the blue but at the back of my mind I couldn't stop thinking about when his lips were on mine and how they felt. When Yamaguchi had talked about comrades I had sneaked the quickest glance at Ren wondering if he would want to be my comrade after how badly I had wanted to fight him. I wanted to fight him to try and make him forget any idea that he might have had of me being any less of a man for that tiny moment when our bodies met in the most tender of touches.

Would me think me strange? Repulsed? Had he forgotten already?

All these thoughts ran through my mind and yet. Before I knew it he was infront of me, lifting my head up with his first and middle fingers and this time it was him who pressed our lips together. But I welcomed it fully even if I was surprised. We looked into each others eyes and our heads moved closer together and even once we were connected we still looked into each others eyes for a reaction. I was the first to close my eyes at the sensation I felt and pressed our lips closer together. But all too soon he pulled away and when I opened my eyes he was gone and I was on my own.

--

I ran home as fast as I could. I didn't know what he would do once our lips were parted. He may have ran after me or attacked me, punched me. or he may have wanted to go further. I doubted that, but he didn't seem to mind how my lips felt agaist his. But I still ran unbelieving of what I had done. I ran home and changed for bed falling asleep quickly but not peacefully. I had another dream, a dream of what would have happened if I hadn't run away, or if he had opened his eys before I had left.

My lips were on his, I had also closed my eyes seeing that he wasn't repuled by this act. I had to draw away, before I did anything else. I took my lips back to my self and forced my knees off the ground to try and run before he opened his eyes and I had to be a witness to his reaction. But as I got passed him his hand flew out and got a hold of my wrist.

"who kisses somone and then runs away? I didn't"

I couldn't look at him as he turned around and stood infront of me. He was smaller than me but he look at me with superiority, determination and a slight hint of being hurt.

We stared at each other like we had so many times before, except his time we weren't looking at each other with hate or anger. His hand was still on my wrist and he held onto my other wrist and pulled me forward to put our lips back together. I think that the majority of the night our lips were simply pressed together and our eyes shut, our fingers had linked together as we stood there and after a long while our lips began to move and massage each other and it felt so good. I had never kissed anyone before but the feeling of being connected to another person and the feelings radiating off of us were full of what my sister watched in those corny chick flicks where they cried at the end because 'Miranda' was finally with 'Carlos' the love of her life who had pulled out a cheesy romantic line and they kissed as the finishing scene.

We seperated our lips and pecked them together one more time before everything faded…

And I woke up in my bed. I smiled remembering the dream and touched my lips. I wanted it again. I had got ready with a bounce in my step that I had to stop when Ichimaru and Kuraki turned up at my door to go to school. But I couldn't help moving along quicker than usual as our journey progressed.

"Hold on! I ran so much yesterday! I'm all sore!" it was of course Kamiya who was complaining. He should excersise more. I thought to myself as I giggled and continued on our way. He told us to shut up and winged about his aches and pains. "ouch itai te te te te" much like Yamaguchi had the other day in class.

"Kura, you're totally out of shape" I spoke out loud now calling him by his nickname as he screamed to the world "Ah! I can't walk any more!!"

"metabloic syndrome?" Ichiruma suggested.

He chased afer us under another underpass where we stopped our fooling around at the sight of the gang we had run away from yesterday. Damn it. We turned to see that hey had trapped us as they thanked us for yesterday. I couldn't help but wonder what our relationship was with Ogata and the others at this moment. Would they pull through for their comrade if they found out?

--

I was angry at myself the next day. Sorely regretting not opening my eyes quicker and grabbing a hold of Ren to kiss him again. I had touched my lips the entire night every time I had thought back to him but I couldn't do that in the presence of Kamiya and Honjou. I had to walk to school the same as every day and wait to see what would happen with Ren.

I wondered where he was when two of the other guys in our class barged in, "come quick! Ren's crew is being attacked by some dangerous guys!"

Only one image came to my mind. "those bastards from yesterday" I informed all those listening. I was fueled by anger at the thought of them taking out their anger on Ren when I was the one that had initially attacked their gang member. He was paying for my actions. I couldn't allow that and ran out the class to find them wether the others were coming with me or not. I heard them calling after me and speaking out loud wondering what they were going to do but after that I heard no more as their footsteps joined mine and we searched for Ren.

I could hear their shouts and yells and the smack as there was contact between their weapons and the bodies of our comrades. I thought of them that way now. Ren anyway. He had turned up out of nowhere and fought for us and helped us. We ran away as a group and he stood by me. I ran with an extra rush of adrenaline towards them and shouted, "yamero!" I chanced a glance at Ren and saw him looking at me with his wide eyes. He didn't think I would come for him. I can see that. But I did and I would make sure to tell him that I will always be his comrade from now on. But they were hurting him because he was my comrade. If I was to help them and get them out of here. I would have to make it clear that they meant nothing to me.

"what, did just the three of you guys come to save them?"

"baka janero?"

They all laughed at us but we didn't weaken our stance.

"those guys weren't involved! Keep your hands off them!" I don't think any of the guys had ever seen me so pissed off or heard me shout so angrily, but they had now. I was beginning to understand what that teacher meant when she talked about fighting for someone that you cared about.

"don't fuck with me. they're your comrades, right?"

"they're not my comrades" I could see the hurt expression in Ren's eyes. I didn't want to hurt him. He had seemed so hopeful and happy when I had arrived and all of that died with 4 words. But it seemed that the leader of the gang was the only one who saw through my bluff.

"stop talking nonsense!"

They all ran at us and ran at them going straight into the fight. I knew that the chances of us wining would be small. It was three of us against about 15 of them. And then 6 against 15 if Ren and the others were still up for fighting. But I had to defend it. I had to fight for him. Luckily they did get up and the field was a little more evened out as we fought side by side. We weren't loosing completely and gave as many hits as we received, to begin with anyway. I felt Ren behind me as we both kicked our own approaching attacker but it had soon turned against us. They had circled me and Ren and were attacking us with poles and their bare hands and feet. I could here Kuraki calling to Kamiya as he was hit. A form of proof for our new comradship. Whilst quickly looking out for the situation my new and old comrades were in I saw Honjou using his own body as a shield to protect Ichimura and Kamiya now doing the same for Kuraki. We were falling and we were falling quickly. I didn't think we would make it. But then Yamaguchi arrived. I didn't know what she would be able to do. You can't convince everyone with a speech.

"cut it out!" she shouted louder than I had heard her before. Everyone stopped and we all looked up at her as she jumped from a great height with ease. "haven't you had enough?" she asked the deadly gang.

"Yamaguchi…" Ren spoke her name out to the air. He was wondering, like me, why she was here.

"Why is a teacher…" Ren may have become my friend, but I still didn't trust teachers and didn't understand why they would be here. Of course, being in the situation I was in, I couldn't think a whole lot and could just bare witness to what happened as the gang approached her.

"who the hell are you?" the leader asked.

"I'm those guys homeroom teacher" it hardly makes her seem threatening. It would have been better to lie and say she was the police or someone of a higher power.

"Senko?" he repeated as the rest of the gang laughed. They weren't scared and they wouldn't hold back because she was a female. I couldn't understand what she was doing. "because you teachers aren't dependable, we're teaching them a lesson"

"lesson?"

"this brat messed up one of my comrades" he pointed at me and I looked away as I felt Ren's eyes turn on me. He hadn't known about what I had done. If he had, he probably wouldn't have stepped in to help me. I felt more ashamed from him giving me that shocked look than from the teacher giving me that look.

"is that true?" she asked, well I was hardly going to lie.

I easily looked her in the eye and said, "yeah"

"I see" she didn't seem to want to stand up for us either anymore. Maybe it would be best if she would say, 'well then, carry on with your lesson' and leave us rather than getting hurt herself, but she carried on talking "I'm very sorry for that" and then she bowed down to them. She bowed down! To these thugs! They would have beaten us up whether I had beaten up their comrade or not and she is bowing to them apologising for me! The others couldn't believe it either and we all looked at her with disbelief. What the hell would she do next? "as you can see, these guys are still imature. Because of that, they make mistakes and cause trouble for others. From now on as their homeroom teacher I'm planning on teaching them right from wrong. Could you please spare those guys? Could you please return them to me?" she bowed down to them again and waited the leaders reply as we all watched her astonished. Hadn't I only a week ago been jealous of the attention that she was giving Ren and the faith she was showing in him? I had started this whole mess and here she was standing up for me, making excuses for my mistake and asking for them to let me and the others go.

It didn't work though.

"I'm not releasing them. These punks probably won't listen to you anyway. We've got to teach them to fear us here and now." I turned and looked at Ren when I felt him pale. His eyes were glased over in fear and I could only imagine it had something to do with a past situation. Had he been in a position like this before? When he was taught to fear? I reached my hand over towards his and placed them ontop of each other and started to stroke his hand reasuringly as he pulled out of it and looked at me before I gave a small nod and we turned to look at what was going on with our teacher and the gang. We seperated our hands as we saw one of the members walking towards our teacher.

He reached for her wrist but in an instant she had twisted his hand behind his back and he was keeping from calling out in pain. All of our eyes widened at her strength and ease and we raised our heads to see better and see more of what she could do. She threw him to the ground and took two steps forward and removed her two hair ties and glasses as she spoke, "it doesn't seem like you're someone I can reason with."

"you're getting carried away while we're going easy on you. Hey, get her" the entire gang ran towards her as we looked in shock as she dodged and punched and threw each guy to the ground one by one. The used their positions and weapons against them and never hesitated for a moment, swiftly moving through one attack to another. Those left standing backed away from her in fear as their leader moved forward towards her. She didn't seem intimidated in the slightest.

"don't fuck with us" he warned her as he threw a punch at her. She grabbed it with ease and held it tightly as she spoke again.

"you're in trouble if you think I'm just another woman. I wont hold back in order to protect my precious students."

"you bitch!" he threw his other fist toards her but she caught that as well and turned him several times before pushing him to the ground with the rest of his gang. None of us could believe the look of absolute fear on their faces as they backed away from our teacher. We couldn't believe the strength that she had and wondered how we had never noticed it before or where it came from.

"whats wrong?" she asked, "you want some more?!"

"shit, I'll remember this!" the not-so-powerful leader shouted at her and he and his crew scuried out of the wharehouse we were in.

Once they were gone, we all pushed ourselves to our feet, and me and Ren being the stronger of the now one large group were able to stand on our own whereas the other two pairs used each other to stay standing.

"why are you that strong?" why bother waiting to ask the question we all wanted answered?

"that's because… I want to protect what is important to me" that's not the answer that I wanted to hear. We looked at her with mixed emotion as she carried on talking, "you guys sure are idiots getting this beat up. but you're pretty admirable. You did well, guys"

None of us could look at her and I felt Ren looking towards me.

"don't praise us," Honjou was the first to speak.

"these guys helped us yesterday," I explained why Honjou didn't feel the need to be praised.

"having a debt is annoying, you know." Kamiya finished.

"it's not like we did much to save you," Ren said, his eyes wide.

"we all just ran away together," Ichimura smiled as he said those words, the memory seemed to be a fun one for him.

"it wasn't cool at all." Kuraki finished their humble story.

"that's just fine. when you realised, you were running. When you realised, you were together. That's just fine. That's comradery" she said.

I turned to Ren and he turned to me. I wanted to do what I hadn't done the night before, but here wasn't the place, and now wasn't the time.

"hey you guys, lets go back to school" Yamaguchi suggested.

We followed her back to school, back in our original groups we walked behind her. It was a quiet walk back but once we had stepped through the school gates we all came to a stand still. She had carried on walking without realising that we had stopped. I signalled for us to run away from behind her and we did. As we turned the corner we looked at each other knowingly.

"kick the can" we all said.

We ran to the class and got the can from the desk ignoring the questions and looks we were provided with and soon we were back outside. Our line had changed. Me and Ren were on the outside of the line, furthest away from each other and the others were standing one after the other between comrades they had only just made. We walked onto the field where we found Yamaguchi who started shouting at us, "what the heck are you guys doing here?" she asked. We came to a stop a few meters away from her as I put down the can and placed my foot on it, explaining, "we thought we'd give 'kick the can' a try"

"huh?" we could see the shock on her face and new she was getting excited so Ren was quick enough to inform her that we would only do this once.

As expected, her too friendly smile broke out on her face as she ran towards us totally excited and rubbed all of our heads as her way of expercing her happiness. We all ofcourse brushed her away from us as she told us to go and get the rest of the class.

"yoooosh!" she called as she ran to the other side of the field. I looked down the line at Ren as he finished fixing his hair and spoke, "what a strange teacher"

I turned back and looked in her direction, "yeah, but she's kind of interesting" the others seemed to agree and I saw a smile tug at Rens sweet lips that made me long for this game to be over so I could either feel those lips again or dream about them.

--

Okay. So 'kick the can' was kind of fun. But I still refused to play it again. We deffinetly all sweat together. Disgusting. But as everyone had come out of the showers that we had never really needed to use before. Me and Yamato were the only ones remaining. He was toweling his hair dry and I put back on my blazer as he sat down on one of the benches to watch me as I got ready. I saw him through the mirror as I checked that I was decent looking and saw him watching my face the same way I was able to see him.

"why did you kiss me?" he asked. It took me off guard? Why? Because I wanted to. Because I couldn't forget about when it happened the first time. I had to have it again.

"I can ask you the same thing. You were the one that did it first" I turned to look at him and walked up to him sitting down on the bench right next to him. our faces were inches apart as we looked at each other intesely. And seconds later we were attached again. That heavenly sensation was back and as I took a deep breath I could smell the fresh shampoo in his hair. His hands were in my hair holding my head to his so I wouldn't be able to part us like I had before. I held my eyes shut tight and left a sliver against my bottom lip. I assumed that it had been his tongue but kissing was completely new to me and I was unsure what to do. I parted my lips as that seemed to be what he wanted me to do and as soon as I did, his tongue darted in my mouth and searched for my tongue. I reacted to this and moved my tongue against his. The kiss being sloppy as it was obviously his first time as well but we didn't care as my hands went around the back of his neck and held him as close to me as possible as we parted for air, a sliver of drool connecting us. We looked at each other uncertainly as the chain dripped and we wiped it away. He was the first to speak and I had no idea how he could, my mind was all in a jumble but I heard him say, "because I wanted to" before he pecked me again and left me sitting on my own.

OMG I start 6th Form tomorrow! Argh! Im terrified!! This took ages to write again and I will spell check it properly when I have the time. But I just wanted to post it before I get loaded with a tone of hard A Level work :S

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