This was a stand off, as Koujji stood up to this mysterious man. Well, mysterious to the girls at least, but those two knew each other very well.
Waa and Anastasia stood in the background, concerned for both him and Yuma. That girl found herself with these two in front of her, and an inescapable wall behind her.
"It just looked like you were about to do something you were going to regret." The man told him. "I thought you were better than that."
"Maybe if you understood me better, you'd realize that I was doing it to help her." Kouji countered.
Anastasia took special attention to the person that Kouji was talking with. When she used a reflection to catch a glimpse, she had an idea, but wasn't certain as to what he looked like. Now that he was right in front of her, that feeling she had about them earlier was right.
"That guy kind of looks like…" Waa began, nothing herself as soon as he entered her vision.
"...Kouji." Anastasia finished that sentence. They couldn't believe what was in front of them, but it appeared as if Kouji was talking to an older version of himself. The man had similar hair, but some stubble made the only difference to their facial features. It certainly showed the age difference between the two.
"Sir…" Yuma spoke up, not wanting for thing to get worse. She knew she had to be the one to bring tensions down. The man turned to look at her. Despite his animosity towards Kouji, she could see that he had good intentions. It really did look like she was in trouble. "We're fine."
"Are you sure?" He asked. Her words weren't really convincing him. From his view, it sounded like some canned response for something like this.
"Yes." She said simply, no reason was given to help them out here. However, that was enough to get the man to drop his guard. Kouji did the same, though he still maintained that quiet anger within.
"So, you going to tell me why you're here of all place?" Kouji asked impatiently.
"Um, hey we're still here." Waa waved to them. "Maybe you should tell us who this is?" Apparently, the person following them was familiar to Kouji. He also wasn't viewed as a threat either, so it wasn't an unsavory character. At least not towards the girls.
"I'm Yokakura." He answered for Kouji. "Yokakura Kuzuhana." That name, it became clear to all of them who this man really was.
"Yeah, my uncle." Kouji finished the explanation for him.
"...It's an honor to meet you." Yuma bowed down to him, which seemed to have somewhat of a positive effect.
"I suppose it's nice to meet you too." He said, but that wasn't the most important thing for him at the moment. "What? You can't honestly expect me to not check up on you after you decided to leave."
"Well, as you can see. I'm doing perfectly fine." Kouji responded with that irritated grate to his voice. "So you can go now."
"What?" Anastasia was shocked to see his quick dismissal. "Kouji, if he took the time to travel and see you. Why would you not want to spend time with him?"
"I don't." The way Kouji spoke to her. That was something he never did with her. However, he was just too upset to care about how he spoke. "Now come on, we're going." Without waiting, Kouji walked past his uncle to leave. They didn't have a choice, and so the three girls went to follow him.
"…" His uncle didn't have any more words to say about this departure. There wasn't anything else he had to speak in this conversation.
"Kouji, are you okay?" Anastasia asked him.
"I'm fine!" He snapped back, causing her to take a step back.
"Sheesh, aren't you just a ball of sunshine." Waa commented, which prompted him to turn on his other friend.
"Just shut it." That wasn't a response she was used to. "I don't want to hear your dumb witty remarks." Then he picked up pace to move away from the rest of them. "I'm going home, so don't bother following me!"
"Kouji…" Anastasia was about to move up to catch him, but Yuma grabbed her arm. Stopping her right in her tracks. She shook her head, telling her that it would be best to give him some space.
***
The next day, Kouji was a mess. He hardly slept a wink with what happened yesterday. Honestly, he couldn't believe that something like that could ruin his day so quickly.
Now he was sitting at his desk, head resting on his arms just trying to stay awake. It was lunchtime, and as per usual the three girls were sitting with him.
"I'm not hungry." He rejected Yuma's attempt to give him some food she made. "… And I'm sorry about yesterday. I was mad, but I shouldn't have taken it out on you three. You didn't do anything wrong."
"No offense taken." Waa brushed it off like no big deal.
"I am okay." Anastasia also forgave him, giving him a rub over his back. "But, are you?"
"Of course I'm fine." He said, straightening out his back, and stretching his arms in response. "Just didn't get that much sleep, that's all." As they were talking, an announcement was made calling for him and the entire study group to come to the headmistress's office. That was concerning, he hoped that no one did anything bad to warrant all of them getting in trouble.
Lunch was cut short as they all made their way to Isako's office. On the way, they met up with Himawari and Teru as well.
"Okay, so what did any of you do this time?" Himawari was already accusing all of them for taking away her lunch time.
"What are you looking at me for?" Teru took that personally, believing that the message was directed at her. "I've been good since the break, seriously."
"Just calm down, and we'll see what she wants." Kouji broke it up. If neither of those girls were to blame, then what prompted this meeting? "Oh no." Upon entering, it was clear to him. Especially with that man sitting there with Isako.
"Who's that?" Himawari whispered to ask the rest of the girls.
"It's Kouji's uncle." Waa answered the question. "And trust me, that's not a good thing."
"Why wouldn't that be a good-" She was stopped when Waa put a hand up to her face. This was going to have to be shown to her.
"Well, here he is." Isako brought her arm up to point and show off Kouji and the girls. "Happy now?" She asked, with a smug smile on her face.
"Isako, are you crazy?" Yokakura asked her. He had a look of disbelief on his face. "This is ridiculous, what were you thinking?" How she didn't get in trouble with the parents was beyond him, but somehow she was able to pull it off.
"I'm actually trying to help Kouji here." She retorted. "Unlike a certain someone."
"I'm sorry, but what are you doing here?" Kouji asked his uncle. The man knew something was up as soon as he saw Kouji. That uniform he was wearing certainly wasn't that of the public school he planned on going when he left. In fact, he knew from past experience exactly what school those girls went to. However, it was Kouji's relationship to them that puzzled him. Why did he seem to be friends with girls from such an exclusive class?
All he wanted to do was check on him, but soon enough he found out just how crazy his nephew's life had become.
"Why did you accept this? I thought you wanted to keep your head down."
"I guess things changed." Kouji defied him. "And besides, I'm on my own now. So you don't get to tell me what to do."
"Wasn't planning to." That was enough for his uncle, and he made his way for the exit. "I see my trip here was a waste of time."
"Yeah, you really wasted your time coming down here." Kouji replied, as he was passed. It took a lot of self-control to hold onto his emotions.
***
And so, a couple of days passed from that incident. However, as much as Kouji would've liked to put it behind him, his mind just couldn't move on. Sleepless nights, along with that anger building up. He just couldn't figure out what was wrong with him.
Not only that, but his head was starting to really hurt.
In the morning, Moku wanted to drop by and ask for some opinions on some artwork before school started. So he knocked on his door and hoped Kouji was up. He was, but given the bags under his eyes, he had been up for a while.
"What do you want?" Kouji asked, rubbing his eyes to try and stay awake. The boy was a complete mess, not only was he tired, but his body wasn't in the best of shape.
"Are you okay?" Moku asked cautiously. This was a complete change from the last time he saw Kouji, which was just last week.
"I'm fine." And he was getting tired of hearing everyone asking him that question. "Look, I'm about to go to school. And seeing as we don't go to the same one, I doubt you want to walk me there." Moku tried to protest, telling him to take a sick day, but Kouji was having none of it. Instead, he marched out in defiance.
His walking buddies, Anastasia and Waa certainly noticed his change in attitude. Well, they've been noticing it since he saw his uncle again. It was only a mere couple of days, but that boy didn't look so good anymore. Instead, it was almost like he was dying in front of them, with no way of helping him.
"Are you sure you should-"
"I'm going to school." Any attempt to tell him to take a break was met with argument. It was like he was doing as much as he humanly could do. Almost like he was trying to keep his mind from resting, wandering to a subject he didn't want to think about.
However, he was about to meet the straw to his back. That being the skateboard that tipped him up as he got to the entrance of the school. In rage, he got up quickly. There was only one person that could own something like that here.
"Teru, can you please be a little more careful?" He scolded her, as she got up to the rest of the group. "Honestly, are you trying to kill me?"
"Sheesh calm down." She said, beckoning him to return the board.
"Calm down?!" He lost it. "Sure, maybe I can just take naps in tree too. And then, I won't have to care about anyone else, or what they're doing to help me."
"What's that supposed to mean?" She knew that he was targeting her. "And give me that back!" She grabbed the end of her board and pulled. However, he didn't relent to her.
"Look, I'm just saying that…" He tried to pull back on the board. However, his body failed him, and he let go. From her effort of pulling, Teru tripped back and fell on her back. In pain, he grasped himself in the chest.
Anastasia ran up and checked on him. She wanted to make sure he was okay, but he tried pushing her away.
"I'm fine." He said again, the phrase becoming a constant in his recent life. "I can take care of…" However, he couldn't finish that sentence, as Kouji suddenly collapsed onto the hard floor at the entrance of the school.
"Hey?!" Teru saw what was going on, and got back to her feet. "Hey, wake up!" She yelled to him, but no response. This wasn't good. "Someone, anyone get help!" She screamed her lungs out to the other students for aid.
Meanwhile, Anastasia struggled to get him to move, but the boy failed to budge.