Little Enforcer (Kasarian Girl Series #1) | Rewrite in Progress

|1| The Usual Day

Four hours before the fight, Kimari Kazakari had been sitting at home, reading whilst enjoying a good cup of tea. Most other twelve-year-olds didn't do anything of the sort, but Kimari was an unusual child. At least that was what Jo, her adoptive mother, called her anyway. She hadn't thought her evening would end with her meeting five of her least favourite classmates down a dimly lit alleyway just after the sun had set. She also hadn't thought they would try to ambush her.

Sighing to herself, she wiped away the blood dripping down from her nose. Her shoulders sunk as she stared down at the five unconscious teenagers, and silently Kimari wondered to herself about how on earth she was actually going to talk her way out of the mess she'd made this time.

They had thought because they were two years older than her, they would have the advantage. They had thought five against one would even the odds. They had been wrong. Very wrong. It had, in fact, been alarmingly one-sided. Why wouldn't it have been? They barely had the slightest amount of training when it came to combat arts. Kimari, on the other hand, was training her damned hardest to become an Enforcer. The ones who laid down the law – and ambushing someone down a dark alleyway was definitely breaking a few of those laws.

Not to mention they'd lured her there with one of her few weaknesses. The cute little furry animal had long since vanished, and she would bet it was probably due to all the violence. The same violence she had just caused.

"Idiots," Kimari grumbled, nudging the nearest teen gingerly with her foot, silently praying she hadn't broken anything too important. "You've gone and got me in trouble again..." She poked at him again for good measure, and then dug out her phone, calling her one and only partner in crime. "Hey, Riko," she spoke, tone joyful as though she hadn't spent the last part of ten minutes beating up a bunch of fools. "I'm in a bit of a bind. Would you mind coming down the alleyway behind the bakers? You know – the really dark one... I've got a slight situation."

"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?" the boy on the other end asked, hanging up without another word. Less than five minutes later Riko appeared at the end of the alleyway like a ghost on the wind, his blonde hair shimmering slightly in the moonlight. He took one look at the scene behind her and cursed. "Seriously, Kim?" He scowled, having finished muttering curses under his breath.

"They started it!"

Riko pinched the bridge of his nose, knowing eyes locking on her own. "You know no matter what everyone says – you do belong here you know... You're my friend. Don't let any of these idiots tell you otherwise."

Kimari shrugged, ears becoming uncomfortably warm even in the coolness of the evening. "They got what was coming to them."

"Whatever you say." He rolled his eyes, quickly checking all of their pulses whilst she leant back against the wall, silently waiting for the verdict. "Kim," he said, after a minute or two of silence. "You know you could try to hold back once in a while."

"How bad is it?"

"None of them are dead." Riko stood, folding his arms across his chest. "That's the good news. The bad news is you broke Jack's arm and Matthew's leg."

The corners of her mouth twitched. It was survival of the fittest. That rule had been drilled into her far too deeply for Jo to try and snap her out of that mindset, not that she hadn't tried. "That's bad news?"

Riko's shoulders sunk. "They're gonna hold a grudge against you for the rest of their life, Kim. I might not mind being beaten up by a girl when it's during our training, but I'm fairly sure this lot won't appreciate it."

She paused, reminding herself once again she was no longer in the forest. It was far too easy to slip into that mindset... but it wasn't like it really mattered. They didn't matter. Jo and Riko were the only people who did.