11 Loudmouth

"I said, what are you doing down there?"

The real world began to steadily come back into view. The sound of the waves and the sky that looked like a canvas were gone and replaced with tile floors, some gray walls and a few closed doors. The troupe was gone and Yamanaka was kneeling beside him, feeling his forehead.

'Oh no, not Yamanaka', he silently bemoaned, 'I've dealt with people enough today, I don't want to deal with the class loudmouth on top of everything else.'

He blinked a few times and took a few deep breaths before trying to sit up. But doing both of those things made him wince. The pain in his ribs was stabbing and the ache in his head was throbbing.

Yamanaka supported him as he got off the wall and onto his bottom

"What happened to you? Did you have a sudden attack of narcolepsy or is the ceiling just that interesting?"

He rubbed his jaw and groaned a little

"Ugh, wh-what t-time is it?"

"It's about five in the afternoon. Seriously, what the hell happened here? You were just laying on the floor, not moving, staring blankly at the ceiling."

"Am... Am I bl-bleeding?"

"No, you look perfectly fine, good enough to get married in the morning. And stop dodging the question already."

"W-will y-you help m-me up f-first, pl-please?"

She grabbed one of his hands and hoisted him onto his feet. He took a moment to dust himself off and breathe out a few curse words.

"OK, are you going to tell me what's wrong or not?"

"I th-think this d-damn comp-petition will b-be a bit m-more hazard-dous than I-I had pr-previously reck-koned."

"What about the competition?"

Benjiro explained the how class contest would continue on and gave the best explanation he could think of for how he had caused more than a minor hiccup with his opponent for whatever reason.

"Do you realize what you've done?"

"Hon-nestly, no I d-don't. I j-just tried to-"

"No, it's not about the competition. You've managed to catch the attention of the Domon Battalion."

"Is th-that what those g-goons call th-themselves?"

"Is this the first you've heard? I'm not even the most well informed in our class and I've heard of them. Enough about that, let's get you out of here."

She jerked her head to the side, indicating for him to follow.

"Are y-you walking m-me home?"

"Yes, because you need some education of the social variety. So, you had better pay attention, child, because class is in session. And you aren't dismissed until I say so."

Yamanaka walked with him until they got home, and in the roughly half hour it took them to get there, she explained the reason behind the sudden ganging up. The thing about Hiromi's fan troupe is that they had quite the reputation around the school. First that there were a lot of them and second that their 'devotion' which seemed to only be rivaled by terrorist organizations and cults ran deep. Yamanaka tried firing off a few jokes about the situation to try and make the short journey at least a little less morbid.

"S-so, th-they just g-go around obs-sessing over her and if any-yone s-so much as says anyth-thing mildly off c-color to her, they harass them?"

'Jeez, Inei wasn't kidding when he was talking about that obsession.'

"That about sums it up. Point is, if you're smart, you'll most likely want to give up from competing if you want to go the rest of your high school career without having your days filled with the force and intimidation of what is most likely Japan's craziest and most bloodthirsty cheerleading squad."

Benjiro sighed when he heard those words. He had done the exact opposite of what he wanted: Just to remain another face in the crowd.

'I just had to let those feelings out of their cage, didn't I? Just had to make a bunch of small allusions and think someone would break the riddle.'

"Which, if you do it would be a great shame if you did. Your poem was pretty dark and gloomy but I can honestly see why Mr. Watanaba bent the rules for you."

Benjiro turned towards her with widened eyes and both eyebrows raised. That was probably the first time he had someone who wasn't his Dad had given him a compliment in who knew how many months. He wasn't sure how much credence he would put into the words of someone who was constantly saying a bunch of weird stuff.

"D-do y-you really m-mean that?"

"Well, sure. I rarely say things I don't mean. Domon may have a way with words, but I saw a few people actually shivering in their seats the more you talked. If it weren't for Ms. Straight-Laced, you probably would've absolutely dominated in our class."

Benjiro felt something inside his chest quiver a little.

"Th-thank you. Your p-poem was n-nothing to sn-neeze at either. I honestl-ly never thought of s-something like it. A sn-nake that t-tries to l-learn how to j-jump r-rope with its own b-body. It r-really made me l-laugh."

He turned his face away from her a little bit so she wouldn't see the smile that was becoming harder by the second to keep down. Yamanaka leaned her body forward, trying to peek at him. A mischevious little grin broke out on her face from ear to ear.

"Oh, is that a smile that I see? Is Mr. Gloomy going to stop being such an edge lord for a moment? Come one, you can smile. You know you want to."

She tried to put a hand on his shoulder to jostle him around a little but he shied away from her touch. She drew back her hand.

"It's alright. No need to be skittish around me. I don't bite, at least not enough to cause serious bodily harm."

He shook his head a little.

"S-sorry, it's j-just th-that I don't always l-like being t-touched."

Yamanaka stuck a thumb up in the air.

"Alrighty then", she broadcasted, "If you say so. You don't wanna be touched, then I will avoid touching you the same way people don't feel right about trying to touch nuns."

'Yikes, this girl has way too much energy.'

But Benjiro tried to play along to hide his annoyance and gave her a jokingly odd look

"When w-was the l-last time y-you ever s-saw or inter-racted with a nun?"

"Never, but I've seen enough about them in movies to know that people usually try not to be overly touchy feely with them. So that's what I'll use as a reference. Teehee."

'OK, I've never seen someone actually go 'teehee' before. Please never do that again.', he thought.

When they eventually came to his house, he breathed a sigh of relief. He looked over and saw the car parked out front, which meant that his Dad would be home now.

'Huh, wasn't he supposed to-- nope. Yesterday was when he went to work, so it'll be today and tomorrow that he has off then."

"Um, th-this is m-my house. Uh, I d-don't know w-where you go from h-here, but th-thanks for c-coming this far."

"Ah, it's no problem on my part. I just couldn't leave you at school getting intimate with the linoleum, now could I?

'Ugh, this girl is a serious pain in the neck.'

"Isn-n't your home a d-different dir-rection, though?

"It is, but there's no telling when the goon squad may appear."

'Definitely something I don't want to consider.'

"Besides, even if it a little out of the way, it's not a difficult trek. Anyway, I suppose I'll see you in school tomorrow. Laters."

She walked backwards while waving at him and he just rotated his wrist back and forth like some kind of automaton. He started walking towards his door, at a normal pace at first but then he began speed-walking when he saw she turned her back away from him. He shut the door behind him, took off his mitts and shook his head as he gave an annoyed eyeroll at the ceiling.

'Finally. I thought I'd never get away from her. How does anyone have that much to say without taking a breath?'

Back outside when Yamanaka rounded the corner, she turned to face forward again and her smile quickly dropped away from her face. She continued walking down the street, taking a few twists and turns until the public library came into view.

'If only this were for a class project or just cause I needed someplace to kill time.' she bitterly thought.

Fumihiro heard the door open and close and his heavy footsteps could be heard before he was seen.

"Welcome home Ben. Hey, who was that girl you were walking with just now?"

Benjiro muttered a quick curse and tried to dodge.

"N-nobody Dad. J-just the resident loud-dmouth that wouldn't leave me b-be."

"Good, maybe she could actually get you to say something more than a ten word sentence."

"Not funny", he called as he walked past his Dad.

Fumihiro chuckled a little but stopped when Benjiro turned around.

"Alright, but-. Son, what happened to you? You look really roughed up."

Benjiro muttered another curse

"Uh, we had a r-really intense g-gym class today. P-played some f-floor hockey. Lots of b-body ch-checking."

"Oof, that sounds like a rough ride."

"Y-yeah."

"Hang on, let's get you a little ice or something."

Benjiro had little moment of fear. He didn't want his Dad to see the fist marks. He stepped forward and stammered quickly:

"N-no, I'l-l g-get it."

Fumihiro raised an eyebrow in suspicion as he watched his son dart past him and grab a bag and some ice cubes from the fridge. He leaned his body and rested his head against the wall observing. Benjiro felt a little nervous with his Dad watching behind him.

"So, anything besides some mild bodily harm happen?"

Grateful for the change of topic, Benjiro gave a brief blow by blow of what happened during the day. It took a moment but he looked like he could hardly contain his excitement about what happened with the contest. Fumihiro couldn't help but give an impressed whistle when he heard about what his son had accomplished.

"Boy, I never knew you were that good with just rhyming a few sentences."

"There's m-more to it than th-that, you know."

Fumihiro gave his son a cheeky smile.

'Yet another thing you inherited from your mother. Take that as you will.'

"Yeah, I know. But either way, that is impressive that you managed to be creative. Although", he cocked his head, "from the sounds of it, you aren't out of the woods just yet."

Benjiro slowly nodded his head in assent.

"Mmhm. I'll b-be going against-t Hiromi, and a f-few others..."

Benjiro gritted his teeth as he realized he had said more than he intended. With the words already out of his mouth, Fumihiro's smile changed from satisfied to that look that could only mean that some mild needling was approaching.

"Hiromi. Isn't that girl that you have a hopeless crush on?"

"Oh no", Benjiro quietly groaned

"The one where you get that dreamy look on your face when you start thinking of her? Is that the same Hiromi?"

Benjiro closed his eyes and sighed.

"Yeeesss", he begrudgingly admitted.

Fumihiro rested his chin on his hand and continued grinning at Benjiro who was sinking even deeper into embarrassment.

"And, how does it feel to be competing against a girl you're apparently smitten with, hmm?

Benjiro's embarrassment was replaced by an unpleasant feeling he couldn't identify as he remembered what Hiromi said to him.

"Hon-nestly, up clos-se she's ev-very bit as scary as sh-she is pretty."

Fumihiro nodded in agreement

"A confident woman is quite the terrifying creature... Anyway, you want to help me prep for dinner? I got stuff to make chicken soup."

"Ooh, th-that sounds pret-ty good for a chilly day."

"That's what I thought you'd say. Here-"

Fumihiro handed his son a paring knife.

"Better start cutting the carrots and celery."