Strangulation

Ike had witnessed the brutal duel yesterday. It was true that the bully was guilty of abetting an attempted murder, but failed. It was also true that Maverick broke his bones mercilessly. But that was what was strange in this situation. Maverick might've acted like a hungry monster, but all the injuries he had inflicted upon the bully wouldn't be enough to kill him.

Yet, all the rumors he heard on this way to his classroom turned out to be facts when all students were gathered in the school's gymnasium. Standing in the line, Ike kept his eyes on the old man — the headmaster of Laguna High — making a speech regarding a tragic incident.

"Because of the rising concerns regarding duels…" the headmaster continued his speech, telling the students about the investigation and new rules they were planning as measures to avoid such incidents. He had also addressed how disheartened he was at the death of such a 'precious' student, how sorry he was for it, and then subtly blame the system for it.

Throughout the assembly, Ike only made up bits and pieces of the speech. The headmaster only beat around the bush, apologizing to ease the terror this news had brought, before promising everyone to do his best.

The assembly took up an hour before the students were told to return to the classroom.

'Why…?' Ike wondered to himself as he dragged his feet to his desk. He stopped in front of it, gazing at the presents filling his desk and chair.

"Man… what the hell?" Suddenly, a youth's voice echoed in the classroom. "Someone died and everyone is suddenly acting as if it was a big deal! That guy is a rotten piece of trash — isn't it better for him to die?"

Ike slowly turned his head in the voice's direction, only to see a young man sitting at his desk. Some students also gazed at the youth; some bore surprise and disbelief at his remarks, while others frowned at him.

"What?" the youth placed his feet on his chair, resting his arms on his thighs. "It's true, though."

"Ken, are you a part of the student organization now? Is that the reason you're siding with them?" another student spoke. Dismay laced his voice.

"What? Why would I join the student organization?" said the youth named Ken. "I'm not siding with anyone. If anything, I'm just spilling the truth. This school's problem isn't this incident or the duels, but the fact that the school allows it. Why make a big deal out of it?"

Ken fixed his eyes on the student who confronted him. "Come on. Your grades will not go up even if you deny the truth. This school is too big and understaffed. Hence, the bullying persists."

"Funny." The student laughed. "That you are talking about bullying when you are one of them?"

"That's what I'm saying." Ken didn't deny the argument and simply shrugged indifferently. "Why would I pull pranks if I know I'd be in deep trouble? More students need to get disciplined, so why would they bother to deal with a small troublemaker like I am?"

Ken smiled, cocking his head to the side as if taunting the other student.

"Ken, shut it, will you?" a young lady rolled her eyes, making Ken gaze at the female student sitting beside him. "And sit properly. You're annoying."

"Tch."

Ike kept his gaze on the guy named Ken as the latter kicked his chair away before hopping out of the desk. He remembered this guy. Ken was the troublemaker who concocted a harmless prank on the first day of school, and Ike, unfortunately, was the unlucky victim.

As the banter came to an end, Ike slowly turned his head in the particular seats. Ashley's and Bernis's seats were vacant.

"Interesting." He peeled his eyes away from the vacant seats and then took a large garbage bag from his bag. 'I am thinking this is another way of bullying since this chore is exhausting.'

Ike lazily took the gifts inside the garbage bag with a poker face, sighing deeply as soon as he finished bagging up the gifts. As expected, the second class for the day couldn't make it to the class as they still had an important meeting. It was the same on the third and fourth — the entire morning was vacant — and thus, students had time to talk about the incident yesterday.

Ike was forced to listen to these discussions and witnessed occasional banters because Ken would press their classmate's nerves whenever an opportunity opened up. One would assume Ken was siding with the student organization, but Ike ruled that out because Ken would verbally attack others for badmouthing bullies. It only showed Ken liked riling up people.

When lunchtime rolled in, Ike didn't waste a second and picked up the garbage back to throw the gifts away. Ashley and Bernis weren't present to drag him to the cafeteria, so no one stopped him from going wherever he wanted to go.

**** BREAK ****

CLANG!

The trashcan clanged as Ike dropped the garbage bag inside, dusting his hands off over it. As much as possible, he didn't want to think of anything else as he turned on his heel to walk away. But just as he did, a person was already standing behind him.

His eyes slowly panned up, catching a pair of golden eyes staring back at him. The latter was a lot shorter than Ike; his hair was shaved off, revealing a thumb size mole on the side of his scalp.

"Were you here to see me?" asked Ike, as that was what he was thinking. Seeing that the latter wasn't responding and simply keeping his silence, Ike rocked his head in understanding. "I'm not interested in who you might be, since people seemed to be dying to recruit me to their club. I hope that is not your intention. It'll be disappointing."

The bald youth offered a subtle smile, staring at Ike from head to toe. He then glimpsed at the trash can behind Ike.

"Michael Sullivan," said the youth. "That's the name of the student who passed."

Deep lines appeared between Ike's brows while the youth maintained his kind smile.

"Do you know the cause of his death?" the youth continued, taking a step toward Ike. But he didn't stop in front of Ike but walked past him to throw a piece of candy wrapper from his pocket. "Strangulation."

Ike glanced over his shoulder, only to catch the youth's timid back. "Strangulation?"

"While he was resting in the hospital, someone sneaked inside his room in the middle of the night and did the unspeakable." The youth unwrapped a lollipop and threw the wrapper, and then faced Ike as he shoved the lollipop inside his mouth. "But no one cares about the truth. All they care about are the seven broken bones he inflicted from the duel."

"And why are you saying this to me?"

"Because it reminded me of one particular case." The youth sucked the sweet juices off the candy before he continued. "It reminded me of the case of Ike Lobo, the unfortunate boy who got into a traffic accident a year ago."

Ike narrowed his eyes, watching the youth offer his hand to him.

"Before anything else, a brief introduction won't hurt," said the youth, taking the lollipop out of his mouth. "Nice to meet you, Ike Lobo. I know you are not interested in who I am, but in case the name is Yama."