Fikush-ON!

Ch. 42: Cold Coffee, Buried in Snow, Part II

A faint taste of blood lingering in the back of my mouth, I ran. The air blowing against my face was cold – it felt like my lungs froze with every breath I took. My heart kept beating so hard it seemed to want to burst out of my chest. With a constant ringing in my ears and my vision blurred to obscurity, I couldn't make sense of my surroundings, yet I kept running. The other pedestrians had to make way for me, I almost got run over by a car... My mind was rid of rationality and reason. It had been taken over by two of the most primitive feelings: fear and anger. Constantly blaming myself, constantly cursing quietly to myself, constantly fearing the worst, I kept running.

My sprint came to a halt when I came across the train tracks, acting as the shopping district's border. The barriers were down and the lights were flashing, indicating that a train was about to roll through. Breathing heavily and glancing around the tracks, I weighed my options for a second, before crouching to slip under the barrier.

But my plans were cancelled by a pair of hands, pulling me back by my shoulders.

"Not worth it, man!"

I turned around, finding Ichiro, also breathing heavily from the previous run. The annoyed look on his face indicated that he didn't approve of the stunt I almost pulled.

"Yeah. Let's just... Let's just catch our breaths for a second."

The other one raising an objection was Tadaaki, panting tiredly. Behind him I could see a dozen other guys approaching us in a hurry, everyone looking more or less exhausted as we were. They were part of our group. Our common goal was to give Tsukuda a lesson. But I never thought it'd lead us to this situation...: All of us heading to the Sakuragaoka High School at a fast pace, with the intention of getting into a fight.

Snorting loudly, Tadaaki spitted, and wiped his mouth clean. "Or let's save our breaths, to put it better. We won't be much good if we're all worn out."

Though I clearly saw the sense in his words, I still felt restless. I wanted to continue running, to get there as fast as I could. But if I did that, I wouldn't even be able to stand straight, let alone fight.

"Hey, if I knew this was gonna happen, I would've taken my moped with me and given you a ride!" one of the guys in the group voiced his support.

I could see another guy nodding. "Yeah! What kind of fucker gets someone's girl involved in something like this!? Total bullshit!"

Ah, right, I think I remember Tadaaki quickly explaining to the others why I was having a panic attack when Tsukuda mentioned Sakuragaoka.

As I was watching the train pass us by, I took a moment to think. Why? Is Tsukuda doing this intentionally? Does he even know about Ui and me? Or does he just think that Sakuragaoka is an important place to me, based on what I did to those three bastards at the festival? Whatever the reason, it's clearly an attempt to intimidate me. Maybe even to hurt me. Well it ain't gonna fucking work. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Tadaaki took notice of my sulking face. "Hey, only a kilometer or so left, right? We'll make it there before anything happens, trust me."

"The worst has already happened," I muttered, frowning as I was staring somewhere beyond the train in front of me. "I will rip that fucker's head clean off his shoulders."

"I know you will, and I ain't gonna stop you," he said, spreading his arms and shaking his head. "But you gotta get a grip. Obviously, you can't fight him there. And you know damn well I'm not talking about the danger of someone calling the cops."

I sighed, grinding my teeth. "Yeah, I know that, I know... It's just... Urgh!" I kicked the barrier out of frustration, shaking up a few pedestrians further away.