The Substitute

Chapter 2

Saiga Reita found himself strangely angry with Yankumi.

Now, being angry was quite normal for Reita. He had been angry for so long, at so many people, that it was almost comforting to have such a familiar feeling to fall back on. The way adults acted around him and his friends kept up a steady stream of things to resent, and soon the tiny hope of meeting someone who wasn't so despicable, who treated him like an actual person, grew very dim.

Until he met Yankumi.

She did all the things he wished adults would do. She didn't write them off because of their speech or hair color. She defended them to the principal and other teachers. She believed what they said.

And it infuriated him.

He thought it'd be a relief to find someone who trusted him, who acted like she cared. It strangely just made him angrier. Every time she gave them passionate speeches about friendships or the future, his bitterness grew, because adults didn't really talk like that, didn't really care like that.

When the Black Skull biker gang rolled up to the high school and demanded satisfaction from Reita for beating up three of their members, he covered up his flash of fear with more anger. The universe clearly didn't want him doing things like rescuing his friends from gangsters, and was now trying to punish him for it. Damn universe.

As the principal yelled at them, Yankumi once again stood up to defend them. She looked in their eyes and said she believed them, told the principal that it wasn't their fault. When the principal asked if she'd take responsibility if they got in trouble again, she agreed with all the solemnity of taking an oath.

Marching back to the classroom, he reminded himself that she was all talk, that no one was stupid enough to risk their job for a bunch of high school hoodlums. As he sat down at his desk, his friends agreed, said she was faking it, said she was bluffing. But the way she said it...

Reita stood, surprising his classmates.

"Where are you going?"

"To end it."

His friends stared at each other with wide eyes.

"That's insane!"

"They'll leave you half-dead!"

He paused. "I don't want to owe her." He said finally, then took off running.

Just in case she wasn't lying, just in case she actually would get fired the next time the gang showed up, he'd take care of it on his own. The cynical, bitter part of him pointed out that this hope, this vague belief that she was somehow different, was only going to come back to bite him in the ass. Hopes like that always did.

"Saiga!"

Speak of the Devil, he thought as Yankumi appeared before him.

"Where are you going?" She asked so sincerely, so simply, that he didn't even try to make his tone sound calm.

"To end it with them. Like you care." He answered, his voice cutting and sharp. Before she could do anything but blink at him, he ran past her.

He half-thought (half-hoped, his mind corrected acidly) that she'd follow him, do more than shout his name and answer her phone.

"Shin, this isn't a good time..."

Whatever, he thought, falling back on his anger to smother his disappointment. There's your proof that she's just like everyone else. Depending on teachers, on adults, on friends even, is weak and naïve and stupid.

As he walked into the Black Skulls hideout, he knew that the only person you could ever count on was yourself.

"You've got guts coming here alone." Fujita, the leader of the biker gang, called out with a mocking smile. Reita ignored him.