Big Book of Writing

Match (Hajime x OC, SDRA2)

This is a commissioned work for Kagameeh on Twitter! Please check her work out!

Warning: smoking, attempted sexual assault, implied violence

***

Looking out at the dusk street, the delinquent took a long drag from his cigarette. He exhaled and watched the smoke from his lips disappear, and he checked his watch. It was nearly curfew time for the orphanage he was living at, he hadn't aged out of gotten adopted yet.

"...Whatever. I'll sneak in later," he decided, leaning against a back alley wall and sighing. "Dammit, Hajime. Can't even vote, and your life's already ruined."

A few moments later, a fellow delinquent with a pompadour came to check in on him. "Yo, Hajime," the taller boy greeted, leaning against the wall beside him. "Want a drink?"

Hajime looked down at the other's hand and noticed that he was holding a flash, but he shook his head. "Not tonight, Taro. Give it to Ryuchi instead."

Taro put the flask back into his coat. "Is something up, man? You don't look all there."

The blonde didn't know how 'all there' he normally was in the first place, he'd been troubled ever since he was a young child. Nowadays, skipping school and taking drugs were the only kinds of stimulation he had to fill the gaping void hole in his mentality.

"I'm good. Don't worry," he muttered, and he took another drag of his cigarette. "It's a pretty warm night tonight. It wouldn't be too bad of an idea to stay out later."

"If you say so, boss..." the other delinquent got up from the wall and went to find his other groupmates, most likely to do drugs with them. Hajime closed his eyes as he leaned on the wall, taking in the night air among the smoke.

But having your eyes closed enhances your other senses, and he heard the sound of an argument coming from nearby. It sounded like a girl and a couple men were getting into some kind of argument, and the prospect of a fight intrigued the delinquent. If there was one thing Hajime was at least proud of, it was his fighting skills.

He pushed himself off the wall and walked down the alleyway, turning a couple corners until he found the source if the scuffle. A scared girl with purple hair was being cornered at a building wall by two guys taller than her, and Hajime recognized the three of them as people from his class, despite barely ever showing up to school.

"Oi, what's going on here?" Hajime demanded, getting the attention of the three in front of him.

"What's going on?! These assholes don't know how to take a hint!" the girl angrily replied, though she was shivering like a leaf and never took her eyes off the ones cornering her.

"Nah, this girlie just doesn't know how to have a good time!" one of the boys spoke over her. "I mean, doesn't look half-bad for a foreigner."

"Hey, why's a wannabe dropout getting involved with this anyway? Don't you have a building to vandalize with your little gang or something?" the other boy huffed pompously, turning his body back to the girl. "You're getting nowhere in life anyway. Just get lost, blondie."

Hajime dropped his cigarette and crushed it under his shoe. "To think that I used to wonder if you were uptight idiots...but you're just the scum of the earth instead." He took off his cost and dropped it nearby. "For two supposed 'aces' of the class, you're even worse than a delinquent. And you know what happens to those people, right?"

While the boys were distracted, the purple-haired girl quickly ducked under their arms and raced to get out of range. Out of instinct, the two boys made the grave mistake of turning to look at the girl running.

A no-holds barred beatdown occurred next. The two boys ended up getting the stuffing beaten out of them by Hajime, who didn't let up until the boys on the ground were covered in blood. He eventually stepped back to let them escape, which they did with their tails between their legs.

As soon as they left, the purple-haired girl came out of hiding. "Thanks for that..." she cautiously spoke. "Those two, they said that you were a dropout wannabe, but I haven't seen you in school much. Who are you?"

Hajime picked up his coat from the floor, shaking the dirt off before draping it over his shoulders. "Hajime Makunouchi. Don't bother remembering it," he answered, reaching into one of his coat pockets and taking out a cigarette. He got out a matchbox from the same pocket, but it had no matches in it. "Dammit."

The girl reached into her pocket and took out a lighter handing it to him. "I'm Kagami," was her reply. "Here that back after you're finished."

"Yeah, I know." Hajime quickly used the lighter to light his cigarette, and he put it in his mouth. "I'm not gonna bother questioning why you have a lighter on you. You don't look like you smoke."

"And you don't look like you have any shot at a grade. But I guess that's fair," Kagami sighed, and she took her lighter back. "Even if you're a gangster, at least you have people to go back to. Me, I have no one."

As Hajime realized that she must have been referring to any friends or family on her side, he began to sympathize with her. He didn't know the situation the girl was in, but she was probably just as hopeless as him. It was for that reason that he didn't bother telling her that his gang was not his family. He didn't want to put any guilt on her.

"Even so, you shouldn't be sticking around these parts. If I weren't smoking around the corner, then..." Hajime trialed off, and Kagami got the message. "You might not be so lucky next time. Get out of here."

Without another word, the purple-haired girl quickly took the hint and began briskly walking towards the exit of the alleyway. Hajime watched her and took another drag on his cigarette, and her figure became lost in smoke.

A few months later, Kagami ended up running into Hajime again outside a gym downtown on a sunny day. He wasn't smoking anymore, but he was drinking an energy drink while panting for breath. She was slightly nervous that he would be as cold as he was a few months ago, but approached him anyway.

"Hey, um...Hajime, right?" she asked hesitantly. "I didn't expect to see you here. Are you supposed to be with your gang or something?"

"Nah, I left them a while back," Hajime briefly explained, then took another sip from his drink. "A man beat the shit out of all of us when we tried to jump him, and I thought his strength was cool. Turns out he's a retired boxing pro that runs this gym here, and he's setting me on a different route."

"Oh, I didn't expect that," she remarked, noticing that he seemed to have more visible muscles. She broke her gaze away and cleared her throat to focus. "So, what are you going to do now?"

"Well, he took me in and he's been training me as a boxer, just like he was. I don't have a problem with that, I'm only good at fighting anyway." Hajime checked his watch, then threw out the empty drink can. "Sorry, I gotta get back to training. The old man wants to put me in a practice match in a few days. See you around."

Kagami watched as the former delinquent began jogging down the street and went around the corner. She smiled as she thought to herself that she should come here more often with her sketchbook. After that happy interaction, Kagami continued her walk back to her home.

***

Art credit: Kagameeh on twitter