-End of Class-
The class had ended and students were still hanging around, talking or packing up their things to go to their next activity. Some students still sat at their desk, some in groups of two's, three's or four's. Some in the same gender group, others mixed. Some students could be seen walking out of the classroom, either by themselves or with someone at their side. Luna, on the other hand, had a very perplexed expression on her face. She sat at her desk, her eyes shooting from left to right as she was surrounded by fan crazed students.
"Luna! Oh my god I can't believe it's you!" One female student exclaimed with her hands clasped together. "Do you have a boyfriend?" A male student spoke up. "Why did you choose to come to South High Academy?" Question after question was asked as Luna felt bombarded by the number of students that gathered around her.
Meanwhile, Rakaia still sat in his seat, a bit annoyed by Luna's appearance. Taking his eyes off of her, he simply turned his head to look out the large window that he sat next to. "We just had to be in the same class, didn't we?" He mumbled to himself.
"Oh, come on; it's not that bad," Cana spoke from behind him, leaning over her desk close to him. "I mean, it's about time we got a new student in the school and look, she's already popular." Cana turned her head to the scene and simply smiled at her.
"I'm not interested in her popularity Cana," Rakaia told her. Still looking out the window as Cana turned her head towards him.
"Oh so you're interested." Cana smirked at him as Rakaia quickly gave her a side look. "Tell me Kaia, what about her are you exactly interested in?" Cana asked him as she moved a bit closer to him as she was trying to learn his dirty little secret.
"You know that's not what I meant Cana." Rakaia huffed.
"Well what is it then?" She asked him as she sat on top of her desk. "Don't tell me you're still upset about earlier?" Cana responded as she rolled her eyes. "Kaia let it go. So she helped us out, big deal she is a professional fighter, it's not like we got saved by a rookie or anything." She finished as Rakaia remained silent as Cana gave him a light huff. "Geez, get over it already," Cana added.
"You know she's right." A gentle voice was heard as both Rakaia and Cana turned their heads to the source. "She is quite the fighter, not to mention we've all seen her win some pretty tough matches; I think you should count yourself lucky."
Their eyes fell on a boy that appeared to be no older than Rakaia. He was dressed in the same school uniform as Rakaia was, except his top was buttoned up and neatly pressed. His white was a bit messy in the front, but it appeared to be comb down neatly in the back. His green eyes fell on Rakaia and Cana, the sun light shining through the window on his healthy white skin as he walked up to the two with a friendly smile on his face.
"Noah..." Cana called to him as he approached the two.
"Aren't you supposed to be going to gym to train, you know they're still trying to book you for a match later on," Rakaia told him as Noah brought his hands up calmly and shook his head.
"Yeah, aren't you worried?" Cana asked him. "You haven't thrown a punch since you enrolled, are you going to be ok with fighting later?" Cana crossed her arms and asked as Noah gave them both a sincere grin.
"No need to worry about any of that. I declined the match anyway; I'm not going to get in the ring. I'd get pummeled." Noah gave a gentle laugh as both Rakaia and Cana calmly nodded their head in agreement. "I'm actually on my way to the book club, there are a lot of things you can learn by just purely reading and understanding the content that's in front of you," Noah stated as Rakaia looked up at him with a smirk on his face.
Standing up, Rakaia grabbed his bag; slinging it over his shoulder. "Man, Noah, I swear, sometimes I think you came to the wrong school," Rakaia told him as he looked at the passive male standing in front of him. "Come on, I'll walk you to the club." He told him as Noah gave him a warm smile.
"Well that's much appreciated," Noah stated as he waved goodbye to Cana and the two walked out leaving Cana with the rest of the students that were hovering over Luna.
It didn't take long for the two students to get outside as they made their way along a long path that led to a large library. "Man, I needed to get out of there." Rakaia sighed. "They were getting really annoying and that girl…"
"Luna…" Noah interrupted him.
"Yeah, Luna," Rakaia repeated as Noah gave a light snicker.
"Does she really get under your skin?" Noah asked him.
"No, it's not that, it's just her attitude, is all," Rakaia answered him.
"Well, you're one to talk," Noah replied.
"What was that?" Rakaia lightly growled at the boy that walked beside him causing Noah to let out another light snicker."
"Don't take it personally." Noah continued to laugh as they both continued on their way. "By the way…" Noah began. "Were you really about to fight Saitou earlier today?" Noah hit him with another question.
Rakaia glanced over at him, walking with his hands in his pocket. "Yeah, why?" Rakaia gave him a slightly curious look.
"Do you know who that is Rakaia?" Noah turned his head to face him as well.
"Yeah, the guy I was going to pound into the ground this morning, why? Is he somebody special?" He asked him, clueless as to the seriousness of the situation.
"Special is putting it lightly," Noah responded. "He's the leader of the group called the Viper brothers. Not to mention the oldest. Maitou is in the middle and Kaitou is the youngest." Noah began to explain.
"The Viper Brothers?" Rakaia repeated as he thought on the name for a bit. "Nah never heard of them." Rakaia retorted as Noah sighed at Rakaia's lack of knowledge of the people he was about to fight.
"Do you ever acknowledge the people you are about to trade blows with?" Noah asked him as Rakaia gave him a smug smile and laughed off his comment.
"Nope, I see em, I beat em; simple as that." Rakaia laughed as Noah sighed again, shaking his head before stopping in front of Rakaia.
"Listen Rakaia, Saitou and his brothers are no laughing matter." Noah pointed out. "It's probably wise that you stay clear of them, you don't want to get hurt." Noah tried to warn him, but Rakaia just blew Noah off with a shrug of his shoulders.
"Heh, they don't seem all that tough." Rakaia retaliated. "If we cross paths again I'll just make it sweet and easy and lay em out with one punch, simple as that," Rakaia stated, taking the situation lightly.
"Rakaia, this isn't a joke." Noah pressed on. "Don't get involved with the Viper Brothers. They hurt a number of people they've come across and hospitalized them. It might be the same for you if you keep confronting them.
"Nah," Rakaia replied. "I think I'll be just fine, that guy, Said so…or whatever his name is isn't even all that strong." Rakaia walked confidently as Noah just stared at him with a smile forming his face as he moved to catch up with him.
Sighing heavily, Noah corrected him. "It's Saitou."
"Yeah whatever, listen, Noah, you have nothing to worry about," Rakaia assured his friend. "Nothing' s going to happen, don't worry about me." Rakaia finished as he looked over at him. "You need to worry about fighting here one day, if you don't get some training in, you're going to get plowed over," Rakaia told him as they stopped in front of the book club.
"You don't need to worry about that," Noah answered, turning to face his friend. "I'm going to decline a match every chance I get." He smiled triumphantly.
Rakaia gave him a bewildered, confused look. "You can't decline it forever you know?" he gave him a look of disbelief.
"Trust me; I would use every fiber in my being, every ounce of energy given to me by the stars. Mark my words Rakaia, I…WILL…NOT…FIGHT!" Noah balled his fist tightly and lifted it high up in the air, standing his ground as Rakaia simply pushed him through the door.
"Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, have fun reading your books or something," Rakaia stated as he walked off without saying goodbye, leaving Noah on the ground face first in the book club, getting stared at by its club inhabitants.
-Meanwhile-
Luna finally managed to get away from her surrounding fan base full of her new classmates as she sat on a park bench in the court yard of the school. She leaned back exhausted against the seats, tired from being bombarded by mindless questions and flirtations from her peers. "Ugh, why did I even agree to this?" She asked herself. "I wish I didn't have a fan base." She sighed at the realization of her situation.
"But, you worked so hard to get all of your fans."
A voice came from behind her as a shadow blocked her view from the sun, causing Luna to open her eyes.
Cana's smiling face could be seen as Luna took a second to recognize the girl that was in principal's office with her earlier. "Oh it's you, you're not going to ask me to sign anything are you?" She asked as Cana swiftly moved over to the side of Luna to sit beside her on the bench as Luna lifted herself up to sit upright.
"Wow, I still can't believe it," Cana said with excitement. "I can't believe I'm sitting beside the famous Luna Kazahaya." She stated as Luna looked down at the girl beside her. "This is like a dream come true," Cana added as Luna took a deep breath.
"Don't get too excited ok, I'm not that special," Luna told her as Cana quickly got up and stood in front in front of her.
"That's not true!" She exclaimed, still barely able to contain her excitement. "You're a world class XMA fighter, you ranked top 3 at the proven ground arena, then you went on to win the local tournament 3 years in a row and then you went national and…" Cana was getting beside herself.
"Let's stop there," Luna raised her hands nervously. "Seriously, all I did was practice. I'm nothing special, honestly." Luna stated.
Cana stood in front of her for a few more seconds before she returned to her seat beside her. "So what brought you to South High Academy?" Cana questioned her. "What could you possibly find in a low-class school like ours?" She followed up as Luna looked at her for a moment before she responded. "I mean, I would put you as the type to join North Academy, before you came here." She added.
"I…I have my reasons," Luna said gently as she turned her head to look down at her lap with her hands folded together, her thumbs circling around each other. " It's nothing more than that,"
Luna answered her as she brought her head up to look at Cana. "I honestly don't want to be treated as nothing more than a regular student, but everyone around here can't see me as nothing other than a celebrity." She sighed as Cana leaned back against the bench.
"Can you blame us though?" Cana asked her, giving her a friendly smile. "We don't normally get anybody important that even wants to come here." Cana continued to explain to her.
"Normally, the only people that come here are some rouge school fighters or a bunch of thugs or gangs coming to start trouble," Cana admitted as Luna gave her a questionable look.
"Rouge school fighters?" She repeated curiously.
"Yeah, students going AWOL from their schools and moving to other schools trying to sneak in and create a name for themselves there," Cana answered. "It happened at North High Academy about a year ago," Cana told her as Luna sat patiently, listening intently to what Cana had to say. "Then there are the thugs." Cana's voiced darkened a bit.
'
You mean those three guys that wanted to start a fight earlier?" Luna asked her as Cana nodded her head.
"Yeah, but it's not just them." Cana leaned her head back, letting the sun light reflecting off her face. "They are all around this school, picking on people weaker than them; taking what they want, when they want; Bullies in their prime, stupid jerks." Cana sighed.
"It's a lot of them in the pro league too," Luna answered as Cana turned her head towards Luna, confused at her statement.
"Seriously?" She asked her, not believing what Luna told her; but the celebrity fighter nodded her head.
"People who have the strength tend to let it go to their heads and they try to bully those who don't have it," Luna explained to her. "If you are weak in the pro league, then you won't last long at all." Luna continued. "However, there are some good people in there as well." She gave Cana a soft smile. "If you're ever serious about going that far, then I'm sure I can show you to a few people." Luna continued to smile at her as Cana's eyes nearly popped out of her head as her excitement exploded in front of Luna.
"You mean it!" Cana's eyes lit up with excitement as Luna simply nodded.
"Sure I don't see why not, we can teach you a couple of things that the school doesn't teach you," Luna told her. "At least then you won't be caught off guard and you'll have a better way to defend yourself." Luna finished as Cana's excitement quickly faded as the events of last night ran through her mind as she calmed herself down.
"Hey…." Cana spoke softly causing Luna to suddenly tilt her head to the side as she eyed Cana. "Thanks for last night, there's no telling would have happened to Rakaia if you hadn't of showed up." She brought her eyes up to look at her. "You really did help us out last night. Though, Rakaia won't admit it; but I don't have any problems thanking you." She ended with a smile as Luna looked at her nodded.
"Well…Don't mention it." Luna replied to her. "You guys needed my help and I had to step in before something really bad happened. Too bad your friend can't see it that way." She ended.
Cana nodded her head. "Don't worry about him, he's just a bit on edge right now. " She told her as she brought her eyes to meet hers once again. "He's going through one of those man stages, you know." Cana stood up in front of Luna and started to pose like Rakaia, mocking his voice as she did. "Look at me, I'm Rakaia; I'm tough and I'm a man." Cana flexed her arms as Luna couldn't help but giggle at the show that Cana displayed before her.
"Yea that's how most men act in XMA." Luna giggled again. "Big and tough with no brains." She giggled again as Cana stopped her charades and took a seat beside Luna once again. "You two seem like you're pretty close." Luna stopped herself from laughing as she spoke to Cana. "I saw how you two fought against those guys yesterday; you two can really hold your own." Cana accepted her compliment.
"Yeah, well we kind of grew up together. We kind of trained each other as we got older. You know, fighting against other people on the streets or in competition." Cana explained to her. "After a while, we decided that we really wanted to be XMA fighters and enrolled here." Cana leaned her head back and sighed for a moment. "The process is slow, but we're working our way up there." She smiled at Luna. "Who knows, maybe I'll become good enough to fight you." She closed her eyes in delight as Luna just returned the friendly gesture and smiled back at her.
"Well, you know you don't have to wait for that. When you feel like you're ready we can have a sparring match or something." Luna told her as Cana nearly jumped off the bench, clasping Luna's hands in hers with pure excitement.
"Really! You mean it!" Cana asked her as Luna gave her a bit of an awkward look, surprised by the young girl's enthusiasm.
"Um…Yeah, sure." Luna nodded her head.
"Seriously! Oh, this is so cool!" Cana released Luna's hands and jumped for joy as she turned to leave Luna. "I can't wait to tell Rakaia this!" She shouted to the heavens. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!" Cana exclaimed as she ran off, leaving Luna smiling at her as she disappeared from her sight.
Taking a deep breath, Luna leaned back against the bench, looking up at the sky; a calm smile still plastered on her face. "What did I just get myself into?" She asked herself.
Cana ran as fast as she could to try and find her best friend, looking over every part of the school that she thought he would be, but to no avail. She searched the cafeteria, the training room, the rooftop, but still no sign of him. Her pace slowed as she came back to a nearly empty courtyard, where only a few students sat while the rest left and went their separate ways.
"Hmm, I wonder where he could be," Cana asked herself as she turned around, trying to see if she could spot her friend, but he was nowhere to be seen. "Rakaia, where are you….."
"Cana." A female voiced called to her, causing Cana to turn around to see her principal walking towards her. "Cana is something wrong? You seem lost."
"Ms. Imuran," Cana called out to her as her principal approached her. "No, I'm not lost, I'm just looking for Rakaia have you seen him?" She asked her principal, but she shook her head negativity.
"I'm sorry Cana, but I haven't seen him since this morning." She told her. "Do you think he's gone to see the exhibition match, you know it's about to start right?" Mariko told her as Cana shook her head.
"No, he said that he wasn't going to watch the fight today, maybe he really did just go home," Cana said her tone somewhat disappointed. "Oh well, I guess I can tell him tomorrow," Cana said to herself as Mariko looked down at her, tilting her head a bit.
"Something special happen?" Mariko questioned her curiously. "Something I need to be aware of?" She hinted as Cana quickly shook her head negativity.
"No, no, Ms. Imuran. " Cana quickly replied. "Everything's fine, it's just something really cool happened and thought Rakaia would want to hear about it." She spoke truthfully as Mariko turned her head to look around for a bit, not seeing Rakaia anywhere.
"Well, if you want." She brought her gaze back towards Cana. "You can tell me about it while we see who is going to win the fight tonight," Mariko stated as she continued to look down at Cana.
"Come on, I'll buy anything you want at the concession stand." She stated as Cana's eyes lit up once again. Drool exiting the concern of her mouth as pictures of hot dogs, fries and popcorn entered her brain.
"Maybe, I shouldn't have said that." Mariko slapped her forehead as the two made their way towards the arena as Cana shouted out the various snacks she wanted to eat.
-Later that evening-
Rakaia made his down the street, not really paying attention to the few people that were out and about. His hands were stuffed in his pocket; his body calm as the gentle breeze blew passed him. He could hear the sounds of people conversing as he made his way passed them.
The sounds of laughter echoed through his head as he lifted his head up to see a family of four walking home together; a mother and Father with their two kids with the son riding on top of his dad's shoulders. Rakaia took in the image as he rolled his eyes at the scene, jerking his way from the image as he resumed his walking.
He remained silent, not uttering a word but his eyes fell a bit low as he continued to ignore his surroundings. As he walked, he passed an open alley way and quickly felt the force of someone pull him in violently and slamming him against a hard brick wall. "Ugh…" Rakaia fell to his hands and knees as he quickly looked up angrily at his mysterious assailant. "Hey who the hell…"
"I bet you thought that little stunt you pulled earlier wasn't going to get checked didn't you?" A male voice caught Rakaia's attention immediately as he quickly hopped up, but received a powerful blow to the side of the jaw, knocking him back down to his knees. "You think this is a game don't you?" The male voice questioned again as Rakaia tried to get back up, but a pair of hands quickly grabbed him by the back of the head, ramming his face first into the ground.
"Hey, Saitou." Snickered Kaitou. "I think I heard something crack," Kaitou informed him as Saitou stood in front of Rakaia as Kaitou quickly lifted him up and slammed him back into the wall again, causing his body to bounce off the wall and back down to the floor.
"Good job Kaitou, maybe next time we can break something," Saitou stated as Maitou quickly jerked Rakaia back up to his knees and held him his arms tightly behind him leaving him defenseless in front of Saitou.
"So runt, I bet you're sorry now that you ever messed with us," Maitou stated as Rakaia let his head hang low, blood dripped down the side of his cheek from the face slam he received prior. "Stupid punk kid, all bark, and no bite," Maitou added as Saitou approached the defenseless student.
He used his right hand to lift Rakaia's face so their eyes could meet. "Any last words kid?" Saitou asked him. "Do you want to apologize for me getting my hands dirty last night? Or how about sticking your nose in my business and messing up my fun with the girl this morning?" Saitou asked him, hoping that he scared the young fighter.
A small laugh escaped Rakaia's lips as Saitou's eyes narrowed at him. "Seriously? You guys went out of your way to jump me." Rakaia let out another small laugh. "That's hilarious, too scared to dance one on one?" Rakaia responded as Saitou looked down at him in disgust.
"Don't get too cocky kid, you are outnumbered and outmatched," Saitou told him. "There's no way you're getting out of this unscathed, if I were you, I'd start kissing my boots." The last part of his statement slithered out of his mouth as Rakaia just smirked at him.
"I got a better idea," Rakaia stated as he quickly cocked his head back and spat in Saitou's face. "If I were you, I would get ready to finish where we left off," Rakaia smirked at him, his hands still held behind his back by Maitou as Saitou glared down at Rakaia in pure anger.
"You little shit!" Saitou shouted as he quickly punched Rakaia hard in the stomach, causing Rakaia to cough up spit as Maitou held Rakaia up as Saitou continued his gut shots. "You stupid sorry waste of space," Saitou growled as he continued to try to push his fists through Rakaia's stomach as he continued to pummel Rakaia.
The sound of grunts and screams could be heard as Saitou unleashed a flurry of punches to
Rakaia's abdomen, his final punch caused Rakaia to spit out blood as Maitou released him, causing Rakaia to fall to his knees, then face first on the concrete, leaving the Viper Brothers standing above him with no one around to help.