Inwardly, I winced at the sight of blood on my wrist. Whatever this was, I couldn't deal with this right now. I wiped it quickly with my sleeve just as Ken stepped into view.
Namazu followed, looking like he'd rather be anywhere else. And behind them, their tall, angular friend grinned like a ventriloquist dummy who'd just learned how to move on his own.
Ken crossed his arms.
"Namazu. You know the arrangement made with our clan. You'd better obey the agreement since you're so 'honorable' now."
Namazu turned toward me slowly, like a man carrying the weight of his own funeral.
"I don't want to fight you, Ryu," he said, looking down. "I'm truly sorry. I don't wish to harm you. But I'm bound. My clan has long-standing obligations to the Musashiba family. I swore an oath."
I nodded. "I get it."
He looked surprised.
"I really do," I said. "You're a man of honor. And I respect that. But before you do anything, wait a second, okay?"
I slung my bookbag off my shoulder and pulled something from inside—wrapped in a hand towel.
I unwrapped it and held it up.
A cucumber.
Namazu froze.
His eyes dilated like a shark that just smelled blood. "Is that—?"
"Yeah," I said, grinning. "A cucumber. I learned about your kind, Namazu. We're friends now, right? So I figured I should at least learn something about kappa."
I held it up so he could see the side.
Carved into the cucumber's skin—my name, in clean kanji.
Ryu.
He stared at it like it was sacred.
"This cucumber bears Ryu's name," Namazu said.
He turned to Ken, who was scowling.
"There's nothing I can do. I'm bound by honor. He's offering me a cucumber with his name carved on it. I can't harm him, Ken." Namazu sounded relieved.
"I thought this might help," I said, tossing him the cucumber.
His hands trembled slightly as he looked it over. "You… you didn't have to…"
"Yeah," I said, "If I wanted us to still be friends, then I did. After what happened in front of the whole school, I owed it to you."
He ate it in two bites.
Chewed. Swallowed.
And I swear I saw tears well up in his big, watery catfish eyes.
"I don't have to fight you at all," he whispered. "Thank you."
He stepped aside.
Ken curled his lip. "So much for honor."
And then he jerked his chin toward his tall, lanky friend.
"Kick his ass, Ivan," Ken said.
The one called Ivan stepped forward with a grin too wide for his face. His teeth were sharp and slick like something from a deep trench.
I felt the ground shake again—just a little.
This wasn't over.
Not by a long shot.
The troll's boots cracked the gravel as he stepped forward. I hated how I could feel the way the rocks slid together under his tread at the base of my spine. I didn't even have to concentrate.
I held up my finger. "One down. Two to go."
Ivan just smiled lazily. His grin looked like it had been stitched onto his face after the rest of him had rotted.
"You sure you want to do this, Puff?" he asked me.
I didn't answer. I just glanced behind him.
A the growing shadow at his back.
"You're talking to the wrong person," I said.
His grin faltered, just a little.
No wind. No warning. Just Shion—already mid-air, her boot slamming across the side of his face with a wet crunch that sent a ribbon of spit and blood arcing through the air.
He spun, staggered, then dropped to the gravel with a heavy thud.
She landed, boots scraping the earth, her claws glinting in the dying light.
"Think you're so clever with your damn bag of race, huh? You want me to count?" she growled.
He turned toward her, starting to snarl something.
"Let's count. I see one dead troll."
She brought her boot to his side and kicked his ribs. I heard something snap.
"Shion!" I shouted.
She looked absolutely feral.
"Two blind eyes."
Her hand whipped forward—claws dragging across his face. Skin split. Eyelids shredded.
He screamed, high and wet and animal.
I saw the absolute gore that clung to her nails as they flew through the air in a perfect, beautiful, deadly arc.
He rolled, hands over his eyes, blood leaking through his fingers.
Shion grabbed him by the ankle and flipped him like a sack of garbage.
She didn't even have to stop to breathe.
"You want to see what's behind door number three?"
"Shion!" I screamed.
My voice blending with Ivan's ungodly howls cut through the forest like a horror show. A vocal butcher shop in the open air.
And I could feel vibrations through the ground.
People were coming, fast.
"Shion—"
She let go of Ivan and spun towards me.
"Relax, Ryu. I think we're done here," she said.
The calmness in her voice sent chills rippling through my entire body. And she just stood, motionless, in front of me.
Ivan's blood splatter covered half of her face and wet gore and eye gel dripped from the ends of her fingernails like raindrops from a gutter.
"We sure showed 'em, didn't we?" she asked.
Behind her, Ivan crawled blindly on the ground like a worm baking in the sunlight.
Ken and Namazu were already by his side.
Namazu looked towards me, fear and shock painted brightly across his face.
I shook my head. I hadn't wanted this.
I looked back at Shion's waterless eyes and saw the half-grin on her face. Then I watched in horror as she opened her mouth and licked Ivan's blood from her lips like it was chocolate sauce.
I felt the vibrations before I felt the hand on my shoulder, but I still jumped.
"Kazeyama-san! What is the meaning of this?"
And my soul died inside when I recognized the voice of the tengu guy teacher, Takamaru-sensei, and felt his hand clamp down on my shoulder.
He didn't wait for me to answer. He would've been waiting for awhile.
"Musashiba-san! I should have known," he said, releasing my shoulder and striding forward.
He walks past Shion, Namazu, ignored Ivan, and stood in front of Ken. He was at least a full head shorter than the orc, but somehow it seemed that Ken was struggling to keep eye-contact with the tengu.
"He started it," Ken said, pointing at me.
Ivan continued clutching what remained of his eyes.
Takamaru-sensei didn't even turn towards me or acknowledge my presence in any way.
"Of course, Musashiba-san. You expect me to believe that Kazeyama-san, a first year came here looking to pick a fight with an upper-classman, after I saw the quality of his character in the gym yesterday with your friend, Kawatarō-san?" Takamaru-sensei did not back down an inch.
"I am offended that you think so little of me, after I took you under my wing," he scolded.
I watched, amazed, as Ivan slowly stood up and blinked. His eyes, which had been torn to shreds moments before, now merely bloodshot.
"What the hell just happened?" I asked.
I heard Shion take a breath. "Oh my god. You didn't know trolls can regenerate."
Ivan didn't answer. He just narrowed his bloodshot eyes at Shion.
She smirked. Pointed at her two eyes with a V, then pointed back at Ivan.
Takamaru-sensei turned at once. "Enough! Explain yourselves at once, or all of you will be expelled for fighting outside of the school!"
"It wasn't a fight, sir," said Namazu. "This was a sparring match that got out of hand. Yesterday, Ivan, Ken, and I shamed Ryu's friend, the vampire, Shion. We would never think of breaking the school's sacred rules."
Ken pointed at me. "This had nothing to do with me and Ryu, either. The rules state that our dispute was settled yesterday when Ryu was in the ring with Namazu."
I narrowed my eyes. "Is that why you won't fight me? I thought you were a coward."
I saw a fire of pure rage swell in Ken's eyes.
But Takamaru-sensei spoke. "Ken isn't allowed to fight anyone. Not after last year. Tell him why Musashiba-san."
Ken's face darkened in shame. He looked away. "After an official fight, I took a folding chair and I smacked Jirō-san's arm with it. I broke his arm, and since then I'm not allowed to fight anyone."
He practically spat the words out. Anger and frustration straining every syllable.
He pointed at me again. "Now do you get it? You understand why I hate you, Ryu? You show up here, outta nowhere, and without lifting a single finger, you suddenly get to be a dragon? You got other first-year students running around bowing to you, huh? You think you're funny? You think you earned that kind of respect that took me years to get?"
"Musashiba-san! You're out of line!" yelled Takamaru. "You come dangerously close to violating the rules of the academy. I won't be there a second time to speak on your behalf!"
But Ken was already walking back down the gravel path with Ivan. Namazu turned and looked at me solemnly.
"I know you didn't realize how crazy your friend would fight, Ryu. But now that you know, consider you who choose for allies," he said.
He turned and walked away too, leaving me and Shion.
She stood off to the side, arms crossed, blood matted to her black hair.
She just shrugged.
"What?" she said. "I knew they'd grow back."