Rebellion

Sickness

Ayase dug, barely. She lost even more weight. She looked at her hands in disgust. They were shaking from hunger and exhaustion. She was so weak, she felt horrible for it.

She knew she was severely underwieght. She always was, but now it was just worse. The scenery around was spinning. It was horrible, but she tried digging. She didn't want Naoki to feel even worse. The blood under her nails were a good reminder just how much she makes him suffer, even if it was just a scratch. Ayase knew it was more to him than just a scratch.

"Keep on digging, you little slut." One of the men told her, as if he was imitating Hiroji.

This new group was horrible. All of them just made fun of her repeatedly, even when Teruo would make remarks to them to stop.

Guilt was eating the boy. Naoki told him not to do anything. He felt horrible for just watching. But he wanted to be loyal to her brother. He said this would all make it worth it in the long run. Naoki kept repeating it. Just a little longer, he kept saying.

"Will you guys stop it?" Shiro questioned them.

Teruo sighed. Of course he was gonna do that.

"Or what?" One of the men asked.

"Or uh... Just stop." Shiro mumbled out awkwardly, making his intimidating appearance crash in the mud.

The two guys started laughing, very amused by his attempts. The one who was louder came to him, not in the least bit surprised that the white haired kid was at least 20 centimeters taller.

"Setsuko told us we can do what we wanted, we could even rape that little slut again." He continued, using Ayase's new nickname in the gang.

Again.

Teruo's eyes widened.

The other man elbowed him, to which the one talking shut up, as if he noticed he did something wrong. Like he said something he really shouldn't have.

"Again?" Teruo came to the two men, his face blank.

"Relax, kid, it's nothing serious." The man tried to get himself out of this one.

"Setsuko, what does he mean by again?" Shiro asked her, getting very very angry.

He remembered Satoko. This wasn't supposed to be a regular thing. He did the same thing to his daughter. How could he? Was he insane? The anger boiled up so much inside of him, he just looked like he was going to explode any second.

"N-Nothing! It's nothing!" Ayase panicked, obviously trying to lie.

"You see? It's nothi-"

He didn't even manage to finish his sentence before Teruo tackled him to the ground.

"HOW IS THAT NOTHING?!" He yelled at the man, who was getting more and more bloodier the more he punched.

Shiro could only watch. He tried to calm himself down. He needed to breathe. He won't do anything if he exploded here.

A clang noise was heard. Shiro looked up to see Ayase hitting the other man with a shovel, straight against the head. He was laying motionless, his head bleeding hard.

Teruo stopped as he looked at her in surprise. She looked absolutely sick and she was shaking. Her hair was messy and straightened. The bags under her eyes were making her deep set eyes look dead. She let go of the shovel and held her head.

"H-He was trying to get you from behind, Teruo... It's the l-least I could-" she threw up again, all over the floor.

Just it seemed she didn't have anything to throw up, so it place of food was blood. She was holding her stomach as she cried out in pain. It hurt so much, she didn't know how to handle it. Her eyes were filled with tears, but it looked like she didn't have the energy to cry anymore.

"Two men are down... I know, I know, I just... I'm sorry." Teruo talked on the phone.

"Setsuko, she's shaking and throwing up." Teruo said, his face serious.

After a longer pause, Teruo looked outraged.

"Pills won't help her! She needs to go home! Stop saying that!" He yelled in the phone.

He sighed as he noticed that Naoki hung up. He didn't even know what to do anymore.

He felt horribly guilty looking at the girl trying to dig. She was incapable for this job, he knew it. But now she was even feeling sick. How was she gonna survive this?

"Let's get to work. With two men down, it's just like the two of us are working." Teruo told Shiro, acting as Naoki told him.

He was worried. But Naoki was his leader. He needed to stay loyal. He must, for who else could he trust except him?

They dug until Naoki came to get Ayase, who threw up at least three times during the digging. Pills didn't seem to be helping her. Naoki looked even worse than Ayase. It was noticable he wasn't sleeping at all, and his skin was very pale. His arms had noticable scratch marks on them, obviously from trying to wake up Ayase every morning. It seemed like she was developing some sort of mental illness.

"Where do you live anyway?" Shiro asked Teruo as they watched the Setsuko's go away.

"Uh, very near." Teruo answered awkwardly.

"And your parents don't say anything about you being in a gang?" He asked him, always wondering about a 16 year old kid being in a gang.

"... They don't." Teruo answered simply, not wanting to talk about this.

"Well, that's odd. Anyway, I'll be going. See you tomorrow, when this'll be over." The white haired boy greeted as he went the other direction.

"Hopefully it'll be over, but goodbye." He waved, his wave very stiff.

Shiro had no idea where he was even going. He didn't have anywhere to live anymore. The second time not paying rent wasn't something the owner could forgive, and the piano story looked like a very romantic lie. He had no idea what to do now. He thought sleeping on a bench would be appropriate, but he still had his stuff in the apartment. He didn't know where he'd even put them. He never thought he'd end up homeless because of love.

He sighed. Hopefully, he'll find a place to live by tomorrow. A bench will do for now.