Cardfight!! Vanguard: Generations Volume 2 [Zyriot War]

- Part 5

I waited outside the fight room in anticipation. Now that break was over, everyone was returning to class.

Machida exited the room with his gang, giving me a dirty look as he passed me. Koishi used his shoulder to bump into me on purpose, while Ritaka mockingly smiled at me. I could feel my fist tighten at the sight of his face.

A few moments later, Akihiro left the fight room.

"Akihiro-san."

Even though I tried reaching out to him, he ignored me. He gave a brief look at me before walking away like a zombie. In that moment, I caught a glimpse of his facial expression. It was completely lifeless.

Kawaguchi followed after him. He gave a quick glance at me, then looked away. Before he chased after Akihiro, he mumbled something in my direction.

"I'll deal with him."

Seeing as Akihiro and Kawaguchi were already close friends due to their shared love of Vanguard, I trusted Akihiro's current state in Kawaguchi's capable hands.

However, the cold behaviour I saw Kawaguchi exhibit towards me implied that he doesn't fully trust me anymore. I guess I deserve it, considering the rumour and what he saw me do to Ritaka.

The next pair I saw leave was Nora and Katsumi. When me and Nora met eyes, he rushed over to me. Katsumi followed him, looking exhausted.

"T-Takanori-kun... are you okay?"

"...yeah, I'm fine. How about you guys?"

Compared to me, those two had it worse.

"Um... y-yeah..."

Nora gave a small smile, pretending to be okay. It was obvious that he was distraught and hurt inside though. He was just doing his best to conceal it. Katsumi simply nodded at me. Despite her rambunctious personality, she stayed unusually quiet.

"Katsumi-san, are you okay?"

"Eh...? Ah, yeah..."

She gave a distant response to me. It was strange that this situation shook her up so much, as Koishi never did anything directly to her. He just used his presence to scare her. Surely, this wasn't enough to knock her self-confidence down?

"We weren't able to get through all the training. Sorry."

I bowed apologetically.

"N-no, it's fine! You don't have to do that..."

Some life returned to her voice as she waved her hands frantically at me, trying to get me to stand up straight.

"I'm... gonna go back to class. See you guys... I guess."

Wanting to withdraw from the situation as soon as possible, Katsumi scurried away. Nora frowned, turning to me.

"D-don't take it personally, Takanori-kun... Kou-san's just... um..."

"Her mind's probably a mess right now, huh?"

"In a way... yeah..."

"Do you know why she's acting like this?"

Seeing as Nora and Katsumi went to the same middle school, I thought it would be a good idea to ask him about the underlying reason why Katsumi was acting this way.

For Nora, while he was probably feeling weak and useless on the inside, on the outside he could appear calm due to the bullying he endured throughout here and middle school. From that repeated experience, he's learnt to cope with it by pretending he's alright, so his current behaviour made sense.