Rebellion

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Ayase was laying in her bed, her face looking very dull and bored. But her expression changed as soon as she saw many familiar faces. Her smile grew as she saw Satoko's her hands spreading as she ran to her. Satoko pulled her into a hug, even though it seemed to hurt Ayase. She let go, feeling stupid. 

Ayase smiled at the gesture. Satoko running over to hug her was really sweet. Both of them forgot it would probably hurt, but it was the gesture that counted. 

"I was so worried about you! Don't you ever let this happen again!" Satoko said, her worried tone finally visible.

"Sorry, I really don't want to be a burden..." Ayase whispered out, feeling a bit guilty. 

"I think it's time for you to undergo some basic training." Naoki spoke up, ruffling her hair up a bit. 

She smiled at her brother, who sat down next to her chair. Satoko sat on her bed so she can talk to her friend properly. 

"Oh, hello, Akiyama-San! Come sit!" Ayase greeted him, not noticing him at first. 

"Uh, um, I don't have anywhere to sit." He said in a very awkward way. 

"Come sit on my lap, lovely lady." Satoko patted her lap, wiggling her eyebrows.

"I won't sit on your lap..." He mumbled, not being in the best mood currently. 

Why? Jealousy. Hard jealousy. 

Naoki got up. 

"I couldn't..." Shiro started.

"Go ahead. I don't mind standing." Naoki continued. 

"But you sat there first." 

"I really don't mind though." 

"But you're closer to her..." 

"I can stand, I'm not a cripple." Naoki retorted, sounding a bit annoyed by now.

Shiro hesitantly sat down, looking up at him. He felt a bit guilty. 

"I'll stand up later if you want-" 

"Anyway, we should go back to the subject of training." Naoki spoke over him, his voice sounding very annoyed by now. 

He saw some similarities between the two now. Both of them got annoyed by him being overly nice. The two of them had the same coldness around them, and both of them were pretty closed off. He couldn't help but feel like Satoko was trying to take some inspiration from his personality. 

"Geez, Naoki, she just got shot. Have some mercy on her." Satoko punched his arm lightly. 

He just pulled the hood of her oversized hoodie over her head, ignoring her completely. 

"Look, Ayase, I'd hate to do this to you, but there's no way out of this now. I protected you while I could." Naoki continued, a very hard tone in his voice. 

"I can do that, Naoki. I really just don't want to be useless anymore." She whispered out, feeling a bit sad they even had to have this conversation. 

If only she wasn't so overprotective over Satoko...

"Ayase! You do not want him to train you!" Satoko said, her voice panicked but in a humorous way. 

"He sucks the life out of you! He's like a vampi-" And he put his hand over her mouth. 

Shiro felt very out of place. They all had a family vibe to them, he could just feel that they lived together for years. Like they were fully comfortable. 

"Listen, I wanted to spare you from this. But there's no other choice." Naoki answered, still tightly holding his hand over Satoko's mouth.

She was trying to squirm out, to no avail. 

Ayase seemed scared of this. Like she didn't want her brother to be the one to train her. She knew he had this softness when he spoke to her, and only to her. But she was scared he'd take his duty very seriously, completely ignoring their relation. She knew he was like that. She didn't like the cold Naoki. She was scared of him... He almost looked like his father in the gang...

"Why couldn't Tsukamoto train her?" Shiro asked, seeing how nervous was.

Naoki let go of Satoko finally, but his face was uneasy. 

"That won't be a good idea." Naoki said, his voice uncertain. 

"But Tsukamoto-Kun is very nice! I think he'd be good for this!" Ayase cheered for the idea.

"... Too nice." Naoki mumbled to himself. 

"Why do you think it wouldn't work out?" Shiro asked, not seeing why he couldn't do it. 

He was serious. He was training Benjiro too, so why couldn't he train them both now?

"It just wouldn't. Believe me, it wouldn't." Naoki answered, not wanting to give out too much information.

He didn't want to embarrass the boy. He knew Teruo had feelings for Ayase. He was just a kid. He knew he wouldn't train her properly, he'd be too kind to her. He'd protect her just like Naoki did, and that type of love didn't get her anywhere. It just caused her problems. Naoki tried so hard to spare her the gang life, but it just looked like it backfired more than it helped. Not knowing the danger only seemed to bring her closer to it. 

"I could do it." Satoko offered. 

Naoki looked at her, looking like he was unsure.

"Hey, come on!" She punched him, feeling offended he had to give her such an uncertain look. 

"I'm scared Ayase will come back traumatized if she trains with you." Naoki said, only halfway joking. 

Satok huffed and turned around, crossing her arms. 

"I'm up for that idea." Ayase smiled at her, thinking her best friend would do a good job. 

"It'll be like the time when you taught me how to choke a person properly!" Ayase reminded her. 

"Yes, that was very fun. Especially when the cops came on our door for abuse on the neighbor's child." Naoki mumbled nervously, remembering the event.

"Hey, the kid was being a dick to us, not the other way around!" Satoko retorted.

Shiro felt even more out of place. This seriously wasn't somewhere he should've been at. 

"I'll think about this..." Naoki stated, deep in thought.

This wasn't a decision that should be made in a minute. It should be thought about for at least a day. It was his sister in question anyway. 

"Let's get going. I'll drive you guys home." Naoki motioned them to go outside.

Satoko immediately stood up and followed, but Shiro was a bit slower. She was so fast at following his orders, it was very obvious who trained her. She respected him so much. 

They said their goodbyes to Ayase, this time without any painful hugs. 

Just as Ayase thought her visits for today were done, there was someone else on the door. She didn't know what to say...