Chapter 10: Operation; Take out the trash!

Time passed slowly in the classrooms, it was ironic how that always happened when you most wanted the clock to tick away at high speed, but finally it was time for them to leave. The bell rang releasing everyone from their imaginary chains. Studens ran towards the exit as if the buildings were on fire. But there was another reason to rush outside. The rumor that there was going to be a big fight, had spread at the speed of lightning, and many went to the appointed place for the duel immediately so as not to miss any action.

The four bullies were in the center of the school's backyard, the biggest one carrying a broomstick, emphasizing that he did not intend to fight fair. As a counterpart, only Zafiro was there to face them, with her arms crossed, completely determined to kick their butts.

- What happened to the other long-haired midget? did he go crying to look for his mummy? - asked the tallest boy who was still wearing the bucket on his head as a helmet.

- You don't need to worry about him, I will take care of all of you, unless you are too afraid, little chicken. - Sapphire replied, making chicken noises and moving her arms as if they were wings.

- What did you say? I'll finish you off myself, then I'll find that skinny coward and beat the crap out of him. - Everyone go get her! - The boy shouted and his gang ran at full speed to fall on Zafiro.

But Zafiro did not intend to fight as they wanted, Ashram had told her that only a fool fights under the conditions their enemies choose, as soon as she saw them approaching at a certain distance, she turned around and ran at full speed on the opposite direction.

The bewildered thugs took a little while to decide what to do, as they were not expecting that to happen.

- What are you useless fools waiting for? after her! now! bring her in!" their boss shouted to them and all but him went in pursuit after Zafiro.

The thugs were sweating for the first time in their lives, running as fast as they could to catch Zafiro, but no matter how hard they tried to close the distance, they couldn't catch up. The race took them up the stairs all the way through the passageway, through the classrooms, and then down towards the bathrooms in the direction of the recycling depot.

In their desperate persecution, they paid no attention to their surroundings. A grave mistake as Ashram had told before, Zafiro ran past the restroom door, heading for the recycling dumpster. Everything was going according to plan.

Just as they were about to walk past the restroom door, Ashram kicked over the janitor's bucket, filled with the soapy, dirty water he had used earlier to mop the restroom floor. The thugs were running at high speed and would not have been able to stop in time even if they had been aware of the danger. They slipped and hit the floor loudly, but that was not all, as they were carrying great momentum, the soapy water made them slip several meters without them being able to do anything to stop it. Zafiro overturned the dumpster, which welcomed them with open arms when they fell head first into it.

- I'll take care of them from here. - Said Ashram tossing Zafiro the mop and grabbing a broom. - Time to take out the trash.

The thug boss was surprised when he saw Zafiro arrive on her own and without his buddies who should have captured her. Was it possible that she could have beaten all of them?

- It's just you and me now. - Zafiro said rather annoyed, wielding the mop as a weapon, her red sweater flapped in the wind as if it was a cape.

The bully attacked trying to hit her, but he was clumsy, he was used to fighting four against one, and his gang always held their victims. This time it was not like that, Zafiro blocked the blow, and hit him with the smelly mop in the face, the bucket he wore as a helmet, broke with the impact.

- What is this? How disgusting! - said the thug almost vomiting, as his face was covered by the stinky liquid of the mop.

- I think they cleaned the toilets with it - She replied in a mocking tone. - Since you smell like a toilet seat, it's very appropriate for you. Hahahaha - She continued to seize the moment.

The students who were watching the fight burst out laughing, while pointing at the bully with his head wet with urine and other unknown substances.

- Toilet face! yelled one on the crowd and soon, everyone were singing with great enthusiasm.

-TOILET FACE!! TOILET FACE!!!

- I WILL KILL YOU!!! - The boy shouted leaping at Sapphire trying to break her mop with the stick he had, but he was standing poorly, so she knocked him down by sweeping his leg with her weapon and then gave him a blow to the stomach that knocked the wind out of him.

- Your mouth stinks, it needs to be washed out. - Said Zafiro while she put the mop on the lips of the thug who was lying on his back.

- Yuck! aghhh! - He exclaimed in a fit of nausea and immediately returned his lunch in front of the whole school.

Would Ashram be all right? wondered Zafiro and left the vomiting bully to go and look for his friend... was he her friend? yes, that was what he was, her first friend.

While all of that was going on, let's go back to where Ashram was. The thugs tried to stand up several times, only to fall flat on their faces and wallow even more in the garbage. Ashram walked towards them and took it upon himself to knock them down with the broomstick every time they tried to stand up.

- What have we learned today? - There is no small enemy, so I don't want them you to bother me or my friends in the future. - He said as he brought them down. He didn't have any problem keeping his footing, as he took the precaution of putting on the janitor's rubber boots, so he didn't slip on the soapy dirty water when he walked around.

Zafiro watched in amusement as Ashram took it upon himself to spank their asses in his own way. His style of dealing with problems was different, unusual, but that pleased her, he wasn't that physically strong, but he had his own kind of strength.

The bullies tried to stand up again and again without success a considerable number of times, until finally the soapy water was absorbed by the garbage. Then they managed to stand up. They were completely furious.

- Let's get them! - They said, starting the race once again.

- Run Zafiro - Ashram exclaimed, leaving the rubber boots behind and grabbing his friend's arm to make her react.

They ran through the passages of the second floor, in front of the classrooms. Toilet face joined his friends and went after the pair, the pursuit kept going until they were cornered between the classrooms and their chasers.

Toilet face and his minions wanted revenge for the humiliation suffered, so they took some rocks from the nearby construction, as they were expanding the school, and began to throw them at Zafiro and Ashram who were running back and forth to avoid them. The bullies continued to throw rocks, breaking the windows non stop, trying to hit them. The friends hid inside one of the classrooms.

- WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU BRATS DOING?!?!?!!!! The professor with the red beard roared, he was behind them along with the janitor. The veins in his neck, muscled arms and forehead were very marked and throbbed as if they were about to burst. The bullies froze in fear and dropped the stones they held in their hands.

Faye came out of the classroom in tears. - Buaaaaa!!! they hurt me! - She screamed as she rubbed a reddened area on her forehead. Apparently she had been hurt by a rock.

- You see what you've done?, you damned delinquents! How dare you hurt a little girl like her! I'll see to it that you are expelled! - The teacher bellowed as he led them away with the help of the janitor. If we were in my time, I would brand your hands with a hot iron, so that you won't commit misdeeds again. The rules are very mild.... He continued as he walked away with his prisoners.

- Are you all right Faye? You're in a lot of pain! Zafiro asked worriedly.

Faye put a drop of saliva on her hand and "wiped" the reddened area, which regained its normal tone.

- I pricked my finger with the school badge and used a drop of blood to pretend to have been injured. - She responded, with an innocent smile very pleased to have been of help.

-Did the teacher arrive on time? - Ashram's younger sister asked, walking towards them.

- Yes, you were very timely. - He answered nodding in aproval

- I just did what you told me to do, when the bullies started running for the second time, I went to look for the teacher in a rush.

- You did very well. - Replied Ashram patting his little sister on the head.

- You had everything planned? how did you know what they were going to do? - Zafiro asked completely puzzled.

- You see, I was watching the place and how these bullies behaved, so I figured that if we provoked them they would go after you, confident in their numbers, they weren't going to notice the floor or the sorroundings, so I used the janitor's bucket. He usually cleans the bathrooms after school, he left his work unfinished because a little girl went to tel him someone broke the water tap in the girl's bathroom and everything was a mess. - Ashram continued as he petted his little sister's hair, making it obvious who was who did it. - Once it was all prepared they fell on the trap easily, i knew you were going to be able to take down the biggest one so i just had to keep the others away from your back. The last touch was the stones, i noticed the construction site, and i was sure they were not going to resist the temptation of throwing rocks at us, we just needed the teacher to appear on time and wait behind wall safely. You see, life is often like a chess match, if you pay attention, you can make your opponent move as you want, specially if they act before thinking - He concluded with a big smile.

- Amazing. - Said the three girls at unison.

- You are really smart Ashram. - Continued Faye with sparkling eyes.

- Not really, it's just that they were too dumb. - The boy replied rather embarrassed.

- I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. - He added as everyone joined hands.

Faye heard them getting progressively quieter, and watched them lose themselves in the fog once more until she could no longer hear or see anything else.

- Don't leave without me! - Faye exclaimed, delirious once again.

Everyone's faces showed that they were less hopeful of a good outcome, the minutes passed and Ashram did not arrive. Perhaps the mission he had set out on was impossible from the start. That is to say, what were the chances of finding the flower he was looking for in an unknown forest? They were reflecting on these things when Kunoichi saw an owl arrive. Owls don't make noise when they fly, so no one else noticed it.

The owl did not fly past them, but circled overhead, without landing.

- There's something strange about that owl," said the ninja girl, pointing to the bird that refused to stop until it got the group's attention. It's not my little brother?

- It's impossible, that useless fool said that his level was too low to transform into an animal. - Mathew answered annoyed as usual.

- I can't speak animal language like my brother, but maybe I can make it understand me. - Kunoichi said as she gestured with his arms and raised one of them as if inviting the bird to perch.

The animal observed this and stopped on her arm, it was quite a large bird, but it didn't weigh much, still its huge claws worried her. - Wait, it has something in its leg. - She tried to grab it with her other hand carefully, trying not to discomfort the bird and lifting its feathers she could see that there was a piece of paper tied to its right leg. He took it delicately, after which the owl took flight again, to perch on a nearby branch.

- Is it a message? Runkdar asked.

- I think it is. - I hope it is good news. - Kunoichi replied as she unrolled the paper so that she could read it.

"come quickly, follow the owl, two stay." The message said, it had been written with a piece of charcoal in a rush apparently, it was very brief and gave no explanation.

- What do we do? - the young woman asked her friends. - It must be something urgent for him to ask us to hurry.

- What could be so urgent as to make us leave Faye alone in this dangerous place? - Mathew complained.

- He says two of us should stay, I assume to look after Faye. So that's what we'll do, Ashram has always been our leader when we played and has never steered us wrong. - Mila added.

- Sure, in a game, not in real life, besides thanks to him we lost the tournament too, such a brave leader... - Continued Mathew

- Don't you dare to talk about my brother like that!. - Replied the young ninja.

- Come on, come on, we have to calm down. - I don't think we have time to be wasting in useless discussions. - Said Runkdar being the voice of reason. - I vote for following his instructions.

- Me too. - Said Kunoichi.

- Me too. - Added Mila.

- I vote in favor. - Said Sapphire raising her hand.

- Damn it! - Said Mathew annoyed, admitting his defeat.

- That decided, well, I think I should stay, I don't have healing magic like Ashram, but I've been taking care of Faye and it wouldn't make sense to leave her at this point. I would like Runkdar to stay with me, I can cast some spells if necessary, protected behind his shield. - Mila added.

-It's settled then, let's go quickly, don't take more than your weapons and whatever you need to fight, I don't think he called us urgently, to solve a problem in a peaceful way. - Said Zafiro taking her weapon and some things from her backpack. - Friend owl, I don't think you understand me, but please take us to where Ashram is.

The bird took flight as if it understood Sapphire's words and flew away in the direction it had come from, the group of friends ran after it without knowing what would be waiting for them at the end of the road.