Crows Zero [fanfiction] [rewritten]

08: Suzuran's Hierarchy

The next day found Tanaka Yui sitting on the rooftop, watching the guys play mahjong poker as she had seated herself on one of the old but still usable car wheels someone had brought to the rooftop.

Yui's back was leaning against the concrete rock wall, legs crossed as she was attempting to do their English homework, which she knew that the boys bluntly ignored.

It was a rather tricky part in their usually easy English, something she preferred – she never had trouble with languages, mainly because Yui worked her ass off to achieve good results. However, math, physics, and chemistry were completely different stories.

She sucked at it. According to Genji (when she had told him about it a while ago, he had given her a look before laughing at her), it was a miracle alone that she managed to somehow pass the classes in the first place.

The noise the Serizawa Fraction was making turned out to be a distraction, much to Yui's displeasure, for she had been on the rooftop long before they arrived. Her own classroom was noisier than usual, probably because of news of the transfer student, and god-knows why – come to think of it, being noisy was a part of the student's personality in Suzuran.

"Who did that?"

Yui blinked before looking at the wall Tamao was pointing at as he picked up new mahjong pieces, a cigarette hanging from his mouth. She hadn't really noticed when exactly Tamao had joined them or when the guys had arrived at the rooftop as she had been too immersed in her studies.

He hadn't notified her that he had been released from jail — thanks to him pissing Detective Kuroiwa off by playing Chicken with him. And him knowing she was still mad at him for keeping quiet about Tokio.

"You're already out of jail, Tamao?" She questioned with an amused smile, greeting the rest when they greeted her, surprising the guys.

"Yeah, since yesterday," Tamao asked as he kept an eye on the game, noticing that the girl was strangely in an excellent mood. "Mom bailed me out," he added at her questioning look.

"And who did what?" She added, noticing Tokio shift uneasily, looking at her strangely.

Tamao pointed at the wall, where she noticed his name had been painted black. She raised an eyebrow, especially when Tokaji quietly told her that a punk named Takiya Genji had erased Tamao's name and replaced his own.

Her eyes had widened at the name, cursing her bad luck and position in this game—that idiot.

"Beats me," Tokio said while interrupting Tokaji as nonchalantly as he could. "Probably one of our fresh-faced first-year students," Yui sighed, deciding to stay out of this conversation and damned Genji to hell for immediately drawing attention to him.

And herself from Tokio. 

"Save them for later," Tokaji said, his glasses pushed on the head as he too held a cigarette in his lips. "Focus on the third years," he continued while observing the game board. "Let's crush classes B, C, D, and E in order."

Yui threw Tokaji a glare, "Don't forget that I'm in class D, Tokaji."

"For as long as you officially don't side with Izaki – you're fine to remain as the bystander as you are," Tokaji replied, uncaringly, making her remember Izaki's words from yesterday.

What's gotten into everyone that they've started to remind me what's at stake?!

"The Mikami Brothers are in B," she groaned, not liking the idiot brothers at all.

"Ah!" Tamao suddenly said as he picked up a piece, eyes widened. He snickered happily. "Thirteen Orphans!"

"In your dreams! You're cheating, again, right?" Tokio accused him, of not believing him before turning to Yui. "Yui – can you take a peek at his pieces, and tell us if he's lying or not?"