(Wind Breaker) The Green Rose's Thorns

Part 14

Kotoha didn't come back with one of her usual quips, instead sitting back with her hands folded in her lap and staring hard at the floor. Umemiya's icy cold stare pierced right through her, and gave the whole room a chill.

"I said I-"

"That's why he doesn't fight anymore," Suo cut Sugishita off. He was looking away from the older boy, much like Kotoha. Unlike her, he didn't flinch under Umemiya's hardened glare.

"Right. He clearly just did, though. He's a loose canon," Umemiya's voice was flat, and sent shivers around the room.

"You saw it, didn't you?," Suo looked up at him then, unwavering as he returned the intense look with one of his own. It wasn't cold, or hollow, or angry, but something else entirely. Something that made Umemiya's hard exterior melt somewhat as he recalled the things he had seen that evening.

"He wasn't...aware of what he was doing. Not really."

"I woke him up, he was asleep under the playground," Sugishita tried to help explain, but wasn't quite sure how to. Umemiya studied both their faces, then looked back to Kotoha.

"So, he wakes up like that. And you thought it was a good idea to have him stay here? You won't be able to fight that," Umemiya dug into her, with an unsettling gentle fury.

"He's always up before I am, so I don't have to wake him. He's got a bunch of alarms," Kotoha went on the defensive. Before they could get into it, the door opened and Aoi re-entered the living room. Umemiya relented his interrogation, or rather, switched up his approach to it all.

"Your hair's still wet," Kotoha chided him, pulling him over beside the table so she could disinfect the various cuts on his arms and face.

"Tattoos? Wait, how old're you?," Umemiya just now noticed the black bands that circled Aoi's arms and neck, and seemed to arrive at a rather odd conclusion.

"Fourt-uh, fifteen?," Aoi switched his answer part way through. The uncertainty was equal parts funny and sad, and it completely obliterated any remaining tension in the room. His voice was scratchy as he spoke, and his head stayed bent down so no one could see his face clearly. His now wet hair clung to his shirt and dripped onto his lap.

"Huh. Okay. I thought you were younger at first," Umemiya spoke freely. He just watched while Kotoha wrangled the boy's hair aside and inspected his face. Aoi shrank back, raising his arms over his mouth.

"Hey. You busted your lip, I need to see it," Kotoha pushed his arm out of the way with little resistance. Everyone went still, seeing how Aoi's lips trembled and he bit down on the lower one. Trying to stop that awkward, nervous grin from sprouting up again even though he was making his lip bleed.

"So, how d'you two know each other?," Umemiya made a point to turn his head toward Suo, who wore a pained expression for the briefest moment he was unaware of the attention aimed at him.

"Huh?," by the time he turned his head, the expression had been wiped clean and replaced with his usual carefree look.

"Tsubaki's talked a bit about you two. More about Aoi. But I wanna know how you and Aoi know each other," Umemiya asked again, with more clarity. Whatever the case, he found it hard to believe that the way those two middle schoolers acted was something that developed in just a few months' time. There was an unwavering trust in each other, along with something else that he couldn't quite place.

"He fell from the sky," Suo gave the wildest possible answer with the straightest face he had worn all day. Even Kotoha's head whipped around to give him the most flabbergasted look she could manage.

"Eh?," Sugishita's incredulous stare almost made the others burst out laughing. Umemiya did chuckle at it, but he wanted a serious answer still.

"Right. I heard something like that. Off the tracks, yeah?"

"Yup. Looked like he was in a fight and they fell over the side," Suo explained a little more clearly. Kotoha was packing away the first aid kit for good now, and moved to the kitchen.

"Alright! Well, let's head out Sugishita. He's all good, right Kotoha?," Umemiya slapped his knee, then stood up. Sugishita followed suit, trailing behind him to the door to slide on their shoes. The hulking middle schooler stole one last glance as he followed his leader out the door.

...

"Wait, so he beat the shit outta Sugishita, and then they were just buds?," Sakura had listened intently as Suo and Umemiya regaled their tale, but he was still struggling with the nuance of it. There were certain details Suo kept to himself as he shared his parts, one of which was lingering in the back of his mind just now. Umemiya studied his face for a moment, piecing a few things together from earlier that day. He gave Suo an out, which the latter took gracefully to excuse himself.

"He was able to almost beat Sugishita?," Nirei looked up from his notebook. He had failed to write down a single scrap of what he just heard, and the nod from Sugishita and Umemiya verified that part of it.

"Shame, then," Sakura blurted out, watching Suo's back fade out of view down the street.

"Sakura!," Nirei just couldn't with that reaction. He shook the other boy's shoulders, sputtering in hushed tones.

"You mean because he doesn't fight?," Umemiya sought some clarity that he didn't really need. Sakura nodded, and Nirei deflated next to him.

"The way he fights, it's not...right," Umemiya's eyes clouded as he said that. He had kept a close eye on Aoi during the fights earlier, but didn't see any of that wild look or crushing guilt. Well, there was some guilt after Suo's fight, but that was a shared feeling between the two from what he observed.

"That's why you set that rule for him, then?," Sakura asked, raising a brow when Umemiya shook his head in answer.

"I didn't set it. That's something between the two of them. I agree that Aoi shouldn't be made to fight, though," Umemiya glanced to his right when he said that, at Sugishita who nodded in agreement.