(Wind Breaker) The Green Rose's Thorns

Part 7

"What the hell!"

Aoi sat up to see another desk where the face-bound projectile had fallen. There was another bang as the teacher's desk was smashed to bits, and two bodies blocked his view of the commotion. He stood up and moved to stand beside Suo and Nirei, who had been dragged out of the way just in time apparently.

"Ah! You're bleeding! You took a desk to the face, should you be standing up?!," Nirei was freaking out hard just as something vaguely warm rolled down Aoi's nose and under his mask front the middle of his forehead. He touched the spot it came from, and saw bright crimson on his fingertips.

"Oh, I am."

That poor reaction left Nirei even more shocked. Aoi pulled out his phone, using the front camera as a mirror, and dug through his pockets. He pulled out a bandage, and a handkerchief to dab away the blood as the fight behind his back was interrupted by the loudspeaker screeching on. A booming voice startled him, and the rest of the room's occupants, before droning on in some incoherent rambling. Aoi finished tending to his busted face and stood back up to face the room. He was just in time to see Suo attempting to bridge the divide between Sakura and his would-be assailant, a taller boy known as Sugishita who had a mess of blood smeared across his face from his nose. Before they could do anything further, the door once again flew open and they were all shouted at by an upperclassman to go to the schoolyard.

Once they were all outside, they were greeted by Hiragi and a bunch of second or third years. He dragged Sakura off and shouted at him for several minutes, before getting back on track. Once his explanation was done, he pulled five of the first years to stick with him. On request from the top, apparently.

"Aoi, you ain't been fightin' have you? Yesterday you were-"

"I wasn't fighting. Dog over there threw a desk, missed, and hit me," Aoi cut him off before he could spill about the previous day's brawl. He wasn't fast enough, though, and let out a defeated groan when Suo acknowledged it with a sing-song hum.

"Dog?," Sakura questioned the name, but once again it went ignored.

"Hmm, I did hear about you being there too. Threw a cup of coffee at one guy's head," Suo pretended to be unbothered by it, laughing a little at the last part. His laughter was oddly flat though, and Aoi felt the sting of sweat under his hairline where the fresh cut was. Aoi grimaced and refused to meet the reddish brown stare pointed right at him.

They were bombarded with odd jobs from the locals soon enough, freeing Aoi from the silent wrath of his friend. Or so he thought, letting his guard down when Suo waved him down from around the side of a building that was being repainted by their little squad. As they rounded the corner, on the way to get more paint, the atmosphere suddenly got damp and chilly. Aoi shivered, rubbing his arms and feeling his lips curl up as his fingertips brushed over the goosebumps that formed.

"Aoi," Suo's voice was low, but not harsh. Aoi didn't need to see his face to know what sort of expression was on it. He had seen it before, a few times when he had gotten into scraps during his last year of middle school. The pained, almost sad look that followed several missed swings at Suo from a rage-blinded version of himself.

"I didn't fight," Aoi turned around to look directly at Suo, his gaze lagging behind his conviction somewhat. He took a deep breath, letting it out slowly and unclenching his fingers where they dug into his arm. He locked eyes with Suo, careful not to grind his teeth and deeply aware of the snarl under his mask as he did so.

"A dude grabbed Kotoha and had a knife to her neck. I panicked, but Sakura took care of it before I did anything. I threw a cup of coffee at another dude who had a bat, to distract him until Hiragi and the others showed up," the smaller of the two boys explained with measured breath. Suo studied his eyes, Aoi reaching his limit just as the other's expression softened and the air cleared.

"Alright. Sorry, I heard it was a pretty nasty situation, and I probably couldn't have gotten there in time," Suo apologized for a couple of reasons, most Aoi wasn't fully aware of. They each grabbed a bucket of paint and returned to the group, finishing up their task and earning freshly baked taiyaki as a reward. The rest of their patrol was filled with random tasks and explanations as Sakura's brain caught up through the afternoon.

"You okay?," Suo watched Aoi beside him as their walk brought them to an unfortunate location. Aoi nodded but didn't say anything, obviously tense as they walked along the brick wall that led up to a pair of train tracks. A train passed overhead, and Aoi's small shoulders tightened even more until it was gone. Sakura stopped, staring up at a painted lion dog insignia over the highest arch of a tunnel that went underneath the tracks.

"What an ugly dog."

They stopped there, some conversation or explanation being drawn out to Sakura. Aoi wasn't listening though, spotting something just a few seconds before the rest of the group. A middle schooler, face beaten and bruised, running toward them. Behind him were three bigger guys, wearing orange jersey jackets sporting the same insignia that marked the tunnel. He tripped, and Aoi rushed out while Hiragi and Nirei shouted something out behind him. His hand met the scruff of the younger kid's military-style blazer, and there was a rush of wind over their heads as Sakura and Sugishita crashed into the leading pursuer with a double diving kick to the face.

"Ah! Um!"

The middle school kid tried to explain something, but was flustered when Aoi traced the bruised eye and bright green eyes gave him a once-over. There were a few cuts and scrapes, which Aoi immediately cleaned up and covered with bandaids while some shouting went on behind him. He stood up, dusting off his knees, and offered a hand to the battered kid.

"He means well, just forgets things sometimes," Suo beamed down at the clearly confused kid, who took Aoi's hand finally and allowed himself to be pulled up.