Rebellion

Sharing The Blame

Teruo was again caught with the same situation. He pursed his lips, trying to hide his disappointment at his teammate. 

All Benjiro did was hold the shovel shakily, trying his hardest to dig. He was painful to watch as he tried to pull it up, his movements overly slow. Benjiro gulped at Teruo's gaze.

Teruo couldn't help but wonder why Naoki put him in this group. He wanted his sister safe, but why did he put Benjiro here? He knew the guy was sweet and all, but his skills were... Way below average, to put it politely.

"I'm really holding this team down..." Benjiro smiled awkwardly, trying his hardest to be quicker.

Teruo sighed. He walked up to him and got the shovel.

"A-Ah! Tsukamoto-San, you really shouldn't! You'll get in trouble!" Benjiro fumbled as he tried to take the shovel out of Teruo's hands, but failing miserably to even budge his arm.

The guy was 10 years younger than him, yet still managed to look older and manlier than the feminine Benjiro.

"How about I dig instead?" Shiro's voice was heard.

Teruo looked at the taller guy, his face serious.

"No need. I can do this by myself." Teruo answered, starting to dig.

Shiro stopped his hand. Teruo, wanting to continue, trying to budge his hand. To his surprise, it wasn't nearly as easy as he thought it would be. This got him oddly... Scared. He used to be the strongest here, a child prodigy. But this guy had something weird about him, something unnatural. Even if he still could move his hand away, he still felt threatened. Threatened and like it wasn't justified. 

He doubted this guy even deserved the strength he had. Sure, he was muscly, but he wasn't nearly as much as Teruo. He wasn't nearly as tactical as him. He doubt the white boy even got any training. 

But why... But why was he still better if he never trained?

"I'm serious, there's no need." He answered, now even more reluctant to let him help.

He wanted to be the one who leaded this, he wanted to be the one who's serious and dependable. He didn't want him taking that role.

"He'll get mad at you again. Let's just spread the blame a bit. You don't need to be the one punished all the time." Shiro told the younger boy, who seemed to forget that he doesn't need to be the one who helps out everyone.

"It won't bother me-" he was interrupted by a very soft voice.

"Tsukamoto-Kun, please... It'll be better." Ayase's voice was different than the last time, more soft and fragile.

Teruo couldn't help but feel bad for her. But... But there was rage in there. He wanted to hurt anyone who made her like this. She was the most talkative usually, and now she was just quiet, trying to dig as much as she possibly could, even if it caused her to shake vigorously. More solemn and depressed, not any energy in her. 

How could that man kill all the bright energy she had? How could he kill the first girl who ever smiled at him? He didn't know how to bring that smile back, especially since he never saw her outside this work, and they never are near to each other. First cause he has to work, and second cause he doesn't know  how to approach a girl, let alone a very depressed and sad looking one. He could make the wrong move, or even worse, hurt her even more.

"Alright, I'll let you do it this time." Teruo couldn't say no to Ayase, she was his huge weak spot.

Shiro grabbed the shovel and started working, not noticing Satoko was looking at him in amazement from behind him. He really was sweet. He was something new, and nobody asked him to do it. She smiled to herself. Maybe he was something to hold on to.

"Ayase, I could dig half the time for you too." Satoko came to her very depressed best friend. 

Ayase's eyes were dead and lifeless, not showing any emotion. To Satoko's surprise, she just gave her the shovel, as if she gave up. 

"Do whatever you want. I'm never right anyway." Ayase walked to the place where Satoko's hole was, her shoulders slouching and her walk rigid.

Satoko hugged her tightly, telling her it'll be fine almost. Just as soon as she get's enough money. Almost and they'll be out of this town, free from that man who makes her life a living hell.

Satoko felt good she could at least do this for her, seeing how she felt bad last time she didn't notice her small hole, maybe now they could help each other out, switching out holes every now and then. When she suggested that, everyone agreed and said that that would be the least suspicious, because everyone would have the same hole size. No one to suspect.

"You have really nice hair." Ayase heard next to her.

She looked at the man, 'man', next to her. His hair, which was now much shorter and uneven, was looking dirty from all the mud here.

"It's not. It's brown and dry and frizzy..." She continued to name all the things wrong with it, never finding anything nice about it in the first place.

"But it looks very nice when you just let it be." Benjiro said, stopped digging a bit so he could look at her hair.

It was very long with defined waves to her lower waist. It looked almost as pretty as his former hair.

"I like it better when it's straight..." She mumbled to herself, slowly thinking about how she disliked everything about herself. 

"Everyone has straight hair. It's better if you stick out a bit." Benjiro winked, finding Ayase one of the cutest girls he ever did get the pleasure of meeting.

While this would usually make her blush, she just looked straight and continued digging. 

"Father told me I look too much like my mom when I don't straighten it." Ayase said very quietly, just enough for Benjiro to hear her.

He didn't get very surprised, but he did get happy. He did know how to open people up, but the fact he opened this lovely girl up was something to be overjoyed. He really wanted to help her. She deserved it, even if he couldn't do it physically. 

"Well, he looks like my dead ugly aunt and you don't see me complaining to him." He said, wishing it was a joke.

He always did have nightmares from that cat owning lady. He was glad he did, since she did laugh a bit. It was small and shy, not really similar to the one she usually had, but still pretty to see nonetheless. 

"Even if I did complain, I'd doubt he'd listen. So why would you?" He finished, wanting her to understand that that man didn't own her.

She smiled, again, not her usual flashy energetic smile, but she did smile. It wasn't at him, it was directed at the floor, but he could still see the glimmer in her eyes. Like he did make her feel better, which he noticed only he could.

And listening in on the conversation was Teruo, who just couldn't help but dig deeper and faster, his anger obvious. Why couldn't he be so talkative? All he was good at was physical strength, yet it seemed he was outdone by someone who didn't even work hard. He didn't have anything but strength. 

He wanted to be the one to comfort her, but he couldn't help but finding flattering words very very hard to come up with, or even muster out. How he wished he just grew up as a normal child.

Just then, in his fit of rage, he heard panicked voices. He looked at the distance, seeing known signals from his gang. Benjiro and him looked at each other, as they were only ones who understood. They gulped. This'll be hard to cover up.