=][=
What the Boyz called the Salt Park was actually what used to be Mamoru Community Park, now half-swallowed by the sea. It was one of the most secluded portions of the town, with tall weeds hiding it from the road. Behind its tangled reeds opened up a clearing with several benches, with an excellent view of the sun sinking into the sea. It was a properly romantic spot, remote and intimate and mostly unknown to the grownups.
Shinji dropped the Gretz upon reaching downtown. "Go gets the boyz. Bring food and rocks. Big sticks. Nothing sharp or could stab, all right?"
He panted for breath, and kept running the rest of the way.
He arrived at the Salt Park to see it no longer an unknown secluded refuge for troubled teenagers. Police cars ringed the place, their warning lights bathing everything in harsh flickering red and blue.
There were already a few curious people milling around. They were outnumbered by blue-garbed policemen though, who kept everyone away from the police line. Behind that yellow barrier was an ambulance, and Kobayakawa surrounded by cops. The round teen seemed unafraid though, and easily broke away from them to get to Shinji.
He ducked under the tape and bounded over. "Hey boss! Good thing you got here boss. Da cops were getting annoyed I wouldn't talk, but I had to tell it all to yas first." He grinned. "I dids what you wanted me to, boss. I saw Ayane-san and followed her, but without her seeing me, you understands. I heards some yelling and her screamin' so I went right into da park. Dere I saw Minase, and she was naked and cryins' and that grot Jishin gots Ayane-san, and he was just abouts to slap her. So I jumped him, boss! I jumped him good like you told me to!"
What.
Kobayakawa's face was a mass of cuts and bruisers, his left eye purpled and shut. His grin only made it look even more grotesque. "He gots me a few times but I didn't really feel it." He patted his belly. "All dese fat's gotta be good for somefin', ha!"
Shinji's was surprised at his own tone of voice. It was cold and calm, and yet he still wanted someone to tear apart. "What happened next? What happened to Jishin?"
"Dat's whats awesome, boss! We was muckin' about dere and Minase just up and gets him at back of a head with dis big 'ard rock! He turns around and looks all confused and he sees her and she's cryin' and she bashes him AGAIN with rock at the side of his head. He makes dis little spin in the air as he falls over. Minase falls down too, and cries there for a little bit, then she gets up and STOMPS ON HIM IN DA GROIN and den Ayane-san hugs her and the girls can gets on so some propa cryin'."
He nodded and looked proud. "I coulda looked, but I didn't wants me groin stomped too. We was gonna sneak her back into town but it turns out da Gretz went to da cops first before headin over to yas. Da cops came by and dey was actually scary for a while until Ayane-san yelled at them. They led us away and gave us blankets and coffee. I think I like coffee, boss. It's bitter, but you need it to fight the sweet of the round cakes we was supposed to dunk into it."
Kobayakawa shook his fists over his face. "We stomped dat Jishin good! Da boyz rule!" Shinji looked behind his follower to see a covered stretcher being loaded into the ambulance. He didn't have the heart to correct the statement, not just Stomped but Stomped Ded. "Now I gots ta talk to the cops. Thanks for gettin' here, boss."
Shinji watched him go, and hoped the police would get something more substantial out of him. Or perhaps into him, the least he was owed was something good to eat after his battle.
=][=
Intellectually, he knew about rape. He could somewhat understand the reasons behind it, the biological imperative, the desire to dominate and reduce someone else to just an object. Minase was quite well-developed for her age and without ever even seeing Kotaru Jishin's face could deduce to some extent why he'd taken this particular day to lose it.
But emotionally? He got it all in one lightning-hot glance as Minase emerged from the Park, bundled in a thick warm blanket and flanked by her parents. Her hair was matted with dirt and sweat; her skin bluish pale; and her gaze hollow. She was just /shattered/.
Life only returned to those eyes when she saw him, and all the shame and the horror there could likely be matched only by his own.
Jishin may have been sixteen. But Minase was /twelve/. This was an atrocity.
"Don't look at me!" she shrieked and hid herself behind her parents. "Not him… anyone but him." she said into their embrace. Her words came out in sputters. "Just yesterday I told him… I never wanted to have anything to do with a short little weirdo… when I had someone cool waiting for me."
She wailed. "I didn't want to be seen with someone like him. Now even he would never have anything to do with me!"
"Mina-chan…" her mother hugged her well. She looked at Shinji standing there, whose young face was stricken with grief. "Such a pity. He seems like such a nice boy."
Minase continued to sob. They went into their expensive new car, and drove away.
The future might have been closed to him, but the past was not. He /knew/ that /somehow/, that he could have prevented this. If he had just been paying attention. If he actually cared enough instead of dismissing it as a low-priority task to keep the boyz busy with little spy games as he tried to deal with his pathetic little emotions and move on.
To bigger and brighter things.
=][=
Next to come out was Mitsugane Ayane, escorted by policemen as her parents hadn't arrived yet. Her frightened expression abruptly brightened as she saw him, numbness faded from her joints as she abruptly rushed him and fell into his arms. "Shinji-kun!" she sobbed into his shirt. "Shinji- kun. Shinji-kun." She repeated his name as if it would drive all the bad things away. "It was so horrible, Shinji-kun."
"What happened, Ayane-san?"
She looked up with tear-stained eyes, her glasses gone, and said. "I thought about what you said, and what I would say. I just knew Minase would just ignore me if I went over to scold her, so I had to go where she couldn't escape what I would say. So I came here, because I knew she would come here…" Then in a softer voice, her train of thought unwisely leaking out her mouth, "and I was hoping that someday we would go here too…"
Then louder, "... And she did arrive. She had her boyfriend and he was older than her. And they were celebrating her getting out of elementary, she was saying he couldn't feel so guilty anymore. I was hiding and I can see his eyes and I knew the he wasn't ever guilty of anything. They were doing things, Shinji, things we shouldn't be doing yet and I just had to get out there and say it to her!
"And I went out there and said it! It was wrong! She should be ashamed. It was all wrong, and it would end wrong, and how could she throw aside the good that you would have brought her?" Ayane gripped his shirt tightly and pulled herself closer to him, grimacing with heartfelt pain she spoke it to his face. "And she stood up and spat out what was in her mouth and told me I was a child. And you were a child. And that she wasn't anymore and that she didn't have to listen to us. Going here and there, crying and asking for help, we're so useless. She was better than us. She didn't have to listen to us."
She collapsed into sobs. "She said it, like I knew she would, she didn't care about any of us at all. That's where I slapped her. That's where I told he she might not need to listen to me, but she had to live with her parents."
Ayane buried her face into the folds on his shirt. "I told her it was wrong, and her parents would find it wrong, and they would do something about it. She slapped me back. She told me I wouldn't dare. She told me no one would believe an attention- seeking brat like me. She was afraid." The girl continued her tale in between wordless desolation. "She grabbed my hand and told me she would find some way of making me regret it. I wouldn't tell anyone, would I? Would I? Her parents would lose face, and a word to the right people MY parents could lose their jobs. The Houkos are a proud family, they wouldn't see it as a favor. She pushed me away and told me to go away. And, I did! I left her there and I shouldn't have!"
And Shinji could see it. Minase's words hurtful aside, she must have reconsidered. She must have thought over how continuing her charade at being grown-up could harm her later. She had forgotten one thing. Other people had their pride too.
=][=
He could almost hear it:
/'Who do you think you're talking to?/' she would have said with her chin up in the air. /'Just because I grace you with MY attentions is no reason for you to think you're actually WORTHY of me.'/
/'What, should I be scared of you now? I won't go away like a dog, not while I still have this here.'/
/'You SHOULD be. My parents will-'/
/'Your parents aren't here, you little bitch. Now get down and finish it!'/
She would have resisted, but she would find her strength was nothing against his. They were alone, she had made sure of that.
/'Let go of me!'/
/'You're not better than me! You're the one that wanted this, you were the one who threw yourself at me. This! Take it! Take it! You want to be treated like you're grown up! This is what grown-ups do!'/
=][=
Shinji wanted to gag. Experiencing many emotions simultaneously was something he had cultivated a little with his imaginary conversations, but never to such an extent! His imagination was running away from him! No way it could it be that accurate!
"But… Ayane-san, if you left her… then what are you doing here now?"
"Because I thought of you!" she said back, such hurting in her face. "I thought of you and how you were brave and I was such a coward. I was almost home when I thought of you saying it was all just alright that I couldn't do anything when it wasn't! I should have been able to DO something! I shouldn't have just run away. You wouldn't have run away. I mustn't run away! I turned around and went back. She wasn't going to get rid of me that easy. I would drag her out of there, it was for her own good. She was MY friend! I had to help her. You wanted me to help her!"
She had already ran out of tears. She was shaking. "But I didn't really expect them to still be there! He was just zipping up his pants, and told her she would enjoy it more next time. She was naked, Shinji-kun, and she was… bleeding! There was blood!" She screamed her words. "I screamed. I was scared! And he looked at me, and I couldn't move. He was so angry! I couldn't do anything! I was completely worthless!"
She stopped and looked down. "And that's… when he arrived. He jumped and wrestled him away from me. I never really noticed Kobayakawa-kun before, but he was really bigger than the rest of us. He was fighting that high schooler without any fear, no hesitation whatsoever. He was laughing, Oh, Shinji-kun...! /'Stay away from Ayane-san!/' he was shouting. /'Dis is for Da Boss!'/ I never knew he could be so fast or so brave… "
Ayane shook her head. "It wasn't enough. I saw him almost beaten but he was still saying /'You don't mess wid friends of Da Boss!'/. He was going to keep throwing himself to the fight until he died! I could see that he could, he would! His enemy was going to have to kill him just to keep him down!" She shivered.
"But he was so intent on beating Kobayakawa-kun that he didn't notice Mina-chan get behind him. Mina-can had this… this rage, this despair, and this big rock, and she hit him with that. She hit him again! She kicked him. She killed him. He hurt her and she hurt him back. But I could tell it wasn't enough to take the pain away. That's where I saw she needed me. I tried to help her, Shinji-kun. I helped her the only way I knew how.
"I took off my own clothes and gave it to her. I cried with her. I stayed with her. I told her I'd never leave her again."
She sniffled, and her eyes upon him held some emotion he couldn't decipher. "Kobayakawa-kun stood guard until the police arrived. He was so brave. He was so strong. He wouldn't let me look at his wounds. He told me Da Boss sent him to protect me. His Boss wanted to make sure that nothing ever harms me. He didn't care about anything except that I was safe. I didn't care about anything except that Minase was safe."
She whispered directly to his ear. "You're his Boss, aren't you? You sent him."
Shinji could only nod.
She gave him a bone-crushing hug. "I'm sorry, Shinji-kun! You're so kind and good and I know this must be hurting you! It's not your fault! You had nothing to do with it."
But it IS my fault! he wanted to scream. Don't you get it? If I hadn't sent you out to confront Minase, you wouldn't have set this in motion. It was all so premature! I could have planned to separate them instead of this! I didn't want her hurt!
/…but you did. You wanted her to hurt as you have been hurt. Your will is ABSOLUTE, can you see it, my bright lord?/
That voice, its return filled him with equal parts relief and simple terror.
Ayane stared at him, and he realized that without her glasses and with her hair down, she could be even… beautiful. Her face held such strange trust and serenity in it now. "Thank you, Shinji-kun. Thank you! I'm sorry for being so useless…"
"Y-you're not useless, Ayane."
"Yes I am! Please don't be too kind to me. I can't bear it! Shinji-ku… Shinji-san." She put her head to his shoulders again. "Shinji. From now on I… I…"
"Ayane!"
The girl lifted her head and turned. There behind them stood a big police officer, his thin moustache keeping his face looking always fierce. "Dad!" she yelled with renewed relief. "Oh, dad…"
She looked up at Shinji, waiting for his approval. At his slight nod, she fled from his embrace and into the waiting arms of her police chief of a parent. "My little Acchan…" said the big man gently. "You're safe now."
"I've always been safe, Dad." she mumbled. Ayane turned to look at Shinji. Her father noticed it and frowned at her attention towards a boy. Well, any member of the opposite sex. He was predictably protective that way.
"Who's that?"
"That's Shinji-san." said Ayane. "He's my friend."
"He's Da Boss!" piped up Kobayakawa form nearby.
The father's expression lightened up seeing him. "Ah, you're the one I have to thank for saving my daughter! Thank you, young man! You're a hero!"
Kobayakawa looked down and wrung his hands. "It was nuttin'. Ayane-san is friends o' Da Boss. His friends are friends o' da boyz. Da Boyz are always ready to help their friends."
His frown returned a fraction. "Boyz, huh? And he's the boss. How is he the boss? Can you tell me?"
Kobayakawa, simple and unsuspecting, went on. "Sure! He tells us whats to do. He shows da boyz da right and proper way of things. He's told us that the use of strength is to protect da weak, and da weak can be strong when they needs ta be. Deres no strength like having a lota friends." He nodded. "Da Boss is NEVER wrong."
"Shinji's my FRIEND, dad." Ayane added.
The policeman's face softened, up at that boy… no, a young man, who still stood there with his head bowed, his shoulders shaking in grief. A natural leader, eh? He looked back to the side towards Kobayakawa, and saw that beneath layers of fat was a good heart and a good policeman in the making, maybe even Chief someday. His daughter could be anything she wants to be, maybe even the Mayor! And the one the little hero showed such loyalty to, that little one over there, he had a feeling he would be Very Important Someday. With such kids around, the future didn't seem so bad.
"He sounds like a nice boy."
"Yes." Ayane whispered fondly. "He is." She waved at him one last time. Shinji only looked back at her with such misery in his face, before he fled back into the darkness.
=][=
"I never wanted this…" he said under his breath.
/But see! He that has stolen from you has paid for it with his LIFE.
/She that set herself above you now lies humbled and broken, the BLOOD of that she once loved on her hands.
/He that follows you is now a HERO, respected by many.
/And she who once held you in high regard, now WORSHIPS you.
/Chaos IS. And in CHAOS all things are possible./
=][=
Shinji screamed.