Archive of Our Own ^beta

Staring down at the scene below them, Sakura felt keenly that maybe he should've listened to their upperclassmen when they advised not to get on the train without double checking the map.

"-ther fucker! I'll kill you!"

"Bastard!"

"Woryaaaa!"

Beside him, Suo and Nirei shuffled closer, the latter looking spooked by the sudden brawl and the former unreadable as usual, maybe a little bit stiff since he was on guard. Sakura puffed up and squared his shoulders, steeling himself to turn them around and figure out where they were so they could make it back to Makochi in one piece.

"Say that again! I'll bury you!"

"...Ah... should we not interfere...?" Nirei asked, wobbly even as he peered over the ledge to get a better look at what was going on. There were easily more than fifteen people down there. "S-Someone could get -hurt..."

"It might not be wise," Suo said, one eyebrow ticking up as he watched an impressive kick hit another student in the face, sending him tumbling backwards into a bush. "This isn't our town after all. Butting in when we don't know the lay of the land could land us, or Furin itself, in hot water."

Went unsaid was the fact they had only just left the confrontation with Shishitoren and didn't need to get into another because they weren't careful. Though it rubbed Sakura wrong not to be able to do anything outside their neighborhood, that was part of the deal with joining Bofurin officially.

Nirei gulped and nodded quick, and despite his nerves Sakura noticed his eyes were flicking around and he was scribbling notes absent-mindedly -taking a peek, Sakura caught some words on the various uniforms involved in the fight, and he nodded to himself.

He approached the station help desk, and the attendant eyed his hair and uniform critically before deigning to look at the schedule Sakura was asking about, and the time of the train that had just dumped them out here. He hemmed and hawed for a good bit, clacking away on the ancient computer behind the desk of the help office unhurriedly, but Sakura gritted his teeth and bore it. He was a first year captain, he should at least be able to set something like this to rights!

"Not many people going to Makochi lately..." the guy mused, and then he clacked for a bit longer. Sakura folded his arms and waited, noting that the sounds of the fight had stopped and Nirei was looking a lot less harried beside Suo over there. "Ah."

"Ah?" Sakura tensed. "What 'ah'?"

"Outbound trains with stops there are done for the day," the guy said blandly. Sakura whirled around to look at the station clock, and sure, it was half after five, but that couldn't possibly mean...? "Yeah. We're only connecting with Yurikawa from here."

"Something wrong, Sakura-kun?" Suo tilted his head and came over, Nirei close behind.

The attendant stiffened and was watching them warily now, eyes moving between the three of them like they were about to punch straight through the glass separator and grab him. Sakura frowned and felt his ears turning red in frustration and embarrassment, feeling stupid for being the one to get them into this situation, and awkward at the obvious mistrust from the station worker when compared to how people acted in Makochi. "There's no more trains from here to home for the day."

"Huh? But that's-!" Nirei cut himself off and looked around, like he was going to check a time board for himself. Suo's brow pinched, and he stepped up a bit closer to the desk with his typical disarming smile on his face.

"Are you able to check where the nearest station is that may have a departure?" he asked the attendant, which -Sakura was glad Suo thought to ask something like that. Didn't he say that Sakura could rely on him for... logistics? Or was it negotiations? Something that involved him getting other people to agree with him. "You can imagine we'd rather not be stranded."

The guy still looked tense, but ultimately nodded and clacked at his keyboard, huffing, "Especially in these parts, you've got that right. Let me see..."

These parts? Sakura exchanged a glance with Suo and Nirei at that, wondering just what he could've meant, but then he was making a sound of recognition and Sakura's attention was drawn as he got up and started moving around.

"Here, you want Shinmachi station, which is a ways away on foot," he said, pulling out a little paper map of the area and showing them with his finger. For all he'd been a bit rude and standoffish, he was professional now that he was giving them the information. "They have departures until late at night, since many of the workers there have to commute. Here, I'll draw it out for you and you can take this..."

"Ah, thank you, ojisan," Sakura ducked his head quickly, remembering some of what Hiiragi-senpai had impressed on him, and didn't complain when Suo accepted the map instead. He didn't really have a head for navigation.

"Now listen there, that's not like the idiots who come through here all the time," the attendant nodded and waved them off, apparently impressed at Sakura being just barely polite. That, or he finally figured out that they weren't locals. "Steer clear of Hotei quarter right now, those Housen students are getting uppity!"

"Housen?" Nirei repeated to himself, writing the name down quickly. Suo hummed and Sakura hiked his shoulders up as they exited the station on the opposite side from where that brawl had been, keeping an eye out for anything threatening that might come at them. Getting a comment like that within ten minutes of arrival was not exactly heartening.

"There's a high school plotted here with that name. It's rather close by," Suo looked around and checked the map, and then nodded towards the direction they should walk. "He gave that warning, but we actually can't avoid Hotei quarter at all..."

"Tch! We're Furin students! We can handle whatever it is," Sakura said, moving around to bracket Nirei's other side. He could trust the both of them to hold their own, but Nirei was the most distractable when he was getting info overload and trying to note it all down. "How long do you think it'll take to walk there?"

"The station we need is a full district away, maybe an hour or more even if we take the quickest route," Suo said, angled slightly away from Nirei at the street. Sakura was glad to see he had the same idea to watch Nirei's back -if Sakura was feeling out of sorts at the unfamiliar town, Suo might be just as off-put. "This other way crosses a long river, so it would probably add nearly half an hour."

"Well, if you two think the short route is fine... uh, even if we have to go through a not great neighborhood, I'm in!" Nirei gave a shaky thumbs up, jumping in surprise when someone across the street began shouting at a group of students milling around the corner. They paused to watch as the shopkeeper came out of his business with a broom in hand and waved it threateningly at the students, who all hissed at him and puffed up in response. Nirei mumbled something and wrote, flipping through his pages and adding a note in to an earlier entry.

Sakura shrugged when Suo tilted a questioning look at him. "I just wanna get home as fast as possible. I..." he looked away and hunched his shoulders, and both of his 'assistants' switched their attention back to him. "I'm sorry I got us lost like this."

"Well, you live and learn," Suo said easily.

Nirei nodded, "It's okay, Sakura-san! I can't make heads or tales of the map at the station either! That's why I always ask Io-oji for help when I need to travel."

Sakura nodded, willing his blush to lessen. "M-Maybe you could introduce me, when we get back..."

Nirei seemed imminently pleased at that suggestion, and they chatted a bit as they walked, passing regular buildings and parks as Suo kept them on track. Soon he said they should cross the street since they were coming up on another station, this one on the same line as the one they'd taken in but not connected to the Shinmachi station they needed.

"Something's happening," Nirei said, low, and Sakura tensed. Up ahead on the side of the road with the station traffic, there were a number of teenagers a little older than them gathered and fighting each other; one side in black uniforms sort of similar to Furin's, the other in blue like some of them from earlier -he only noticed now, but most of those in blue had shaved heads.

"I wanna watch," Sakura said, curious about this town's students after the angry exchange earlier. He didn't exactly care about being the strongest anymore if it wasn't connected with Furin and how Umemiya ran it, but that didn't mean he was boring.

A guy with spiky hair stood surrounded by some baldies, and he yelled something that sounded like a name and a question. Sakura shifted forward to hear better, and got a few feet before Suo gently touched his arm -he refrained from going closer, but at least where they were now they could tell what was being said.

"I am the leader of Housen!" a tall guy declared at the top of his lungs, aiming to sock the black haired guy right in the face, but he was dodged and got called out for lying, and when the other guy retaliated Sakura gaped a bit at how powerful of a punch it was. The sound of it cracked through the air like a shot and sent his attacker off his feet.

Two others jumped in to gang up on the black haired guy, and it was only Suo's presence that stopped Sakura from jumping in too -he couldn't stand underhanded fights like this! Why weren't any of the guy's classmates stepping in?!

Internally, Sakura told himself he shouldn't be getting so worked up. This wasn't Bofurin, he reminded himself -watching the tall guy get back up and stalk over with no one even trying to stop him, Sakura had to just seeth and hope that-

"Oh crap!" Nirei gasped, and Sakura had to tense his whole body to keep himself with his friends instead of moving to futilely try to interfere now that there was a knife being brandished around.

The tall guy was obviously going nuts, and all the surrounding students froze in shock as he raised the knife up above his head in preparation to go after the black haired guy who'd humiliated him. Sakura felt his stomach drop out even as he, too, couldn't figure out what to do -no one in Makochi so far had been threatening with a blade, and reacting to any weapon being pulled on you was a lot different than figuring out how to stop an attack in progress.

Then, somebody in dark clothes brushed past Sakura's off side and he flinched, spooked. As several of the combatants across the street yelled out in alarm, the man who'd moved past them grabbed the wrist of the knife wielder and took the weapon away with a rough twist.

Sakura felt Nirei latch onto his arm in fright as the new person, a man with brown hair and a leather jacket, turned to face the knife guy and slashed him straight across the face. All three of them took a sharp step back as blood spurted out of the new knife wound between the guy's eyes and he screamed, falling to his knees and clutching at his face in pain.

Nirei hid his eyes in Sakura's shoulder, so he didn't see the brown haired guy pick his victim back up by the collar and rattle him, and then deliver a punch straight to the face so strong it sent him flying into the fence that surrounded the tracks.

"Squawking over a few scratches on your face... shut the hell up," he said, scowling, and when his survey of the surrounding area passed over them, Sakura reacted instinctively. He turned sharply with Nirei still attached to him, Suo falling in line, and they all started running.

Suo was smart, so he kept them from veering away from their proper route too bad. By the time they slowed and collapsed in a public park many blocks from that situation at the station, all three of them were out of breath and jittery, and Nirei legs just sort of gave out under him, leaving him in the grass.

"Geez, what the hell was that?!" Sakura demanded, coughing harshly when his breathing didn't get back in line right away. Suo was bent over, leaning on his knees and looking uncharacteristically manic; well, for Suo at least. "He -He cut that dude's face open!"

"I hesitate to wonder if they knew each other already," Suo said, wiping at his forehead. On the ground, Nirei giggled a little hysterically.

"Please tell me we're getting closer to Shinmachi," he begged, pushing himself up with what looked like great effort, arms wobbly and face pale. Sakura frowned, wondering if they should all get some water before they continued on. "This place is frying my nerves."

"Well luckily, I'm able to say for certain we're... not," Suo said, and Sakura groaned in unison with Nirei at the let down. "In fact we've gotten further into the Hotei quarter, so we should probably tread lightly."

"And avoid that 'Housen' school..." Sakura said. Looking around, there was a slightly busier street on the other side of the park, and yeah, Makochi had begun to sink its roots into him, but he still remembered from middle school where best to go if you didn't want to be bothered. "Let's head onto that street if it'll take us in the right direction. No one will start any crap with more people around and we can get something to drink to hold us over."

"It takes us skirting around this quarter and the next, and doesn't add much time... good thinking, Sakura-kun," Suo praised, and Nirei too, and Sakura bristled but allowed it.

A crowd was where you went to avoid being bothered -that was something Sakura had learnt all throughout middle school, when he didn't want to go back to his so-called home but he also didn't feel like getting picked on at the typical spots in town. In a crowd everyone was too busy paying themselves attention to notice one more guy around them, and in a busier area you could always duck into a shop for cover if you saw someone you wanted to avoid.

This, though, this was pretty much the opposite of what he expected, and yet it was still so far from Makochi as to be another planet. The three of them were given a wide berth on the sidewalk from anyone walking towards them, and Sakura keenly felt that they were being watched from all angles.

He tried not to be too tense, telling himself part of it was just being in an unfamiliar place, but every time he looked around he caught someone's unfriendly eye. Other high schoolers who edged away from them, shop workers who scanned their hands as they passed, ladies whose faces pinched before they turned to cross the street; it was all a little bit much.

Finally they got more than a few blocks down and the street emptied a little, and they all breathed a sigh of relief. Nirei pointed to a bento shop within sight that didn't seem too busy, and after checking that they had enough money between them, they decided to go in.

If there was one thing that Sakura would never get used to in Makochi, it was saving money so easily since everyone was so eager to give out extra food and such to Furin students. Going into a shop where no one knew them was actually kind of refreshing.

Or, it would have been if they hadn't gotten a startled reaction as soon as they walked inside, the clerk behind the counter only half getting through his greeting before cutting himself off. Without a word he disappeared into the staff door behind him -Sakura felt uneasy again, but looked around even so to find where the drinks were.

Suo prodded Nirei to stick with him and tipped his head at Sakura over to the counter -Sakura crossed his arms and nodded, making himself busy waiting there by inspecting the magazines lined up next to the cash register.

About ten seconds after his friends went behind the shelves to get their drinks, a large man in a cook's uniform appeared from the staff door followed by the clerk from earlier. He immediately gave Sakura a narrow look.

"No trouble in the shop," he said without preamble, looking down at Sakura with a measuring stare, then glancing obviously over at where Suo and Nirei browsing. "Better be in and out and pay for everything, got it?"

Sakura clenched his fists tightly enough it hurt, but he refrained from letting himself say whatever, hanging onto Suo's words about how anything they did here would reflect on Furin.

"We're not here to cause trouble," he said with forced calm, taking a deep breath and bowing his head politely. When he looked back up, the clerk was staring at him with obvious surprise. "We aren't like that! Furin High students protect and help people! I promise we'll be paying and on our way."

"Hm," the man -his name tag read 'Hayashida' -switched places with the clerk clerk so he could take the register once more, which meant the cook could stand at the end of the counter where anyone looking to get past him would have a pretty big, intimidating obstacle. Sakura frowned at the thought of why that was a practiced move. "I've never heard of 'Furin High' before because?"

"Uh, because it's in Makochi?" Sakura accidentally said it with a bit of an 'are you stupid?' tone and he winced at the way Hayashida's eyebrow twitched. "Well, it is! It's a few towns over. We're walking to the station now to get home but it's going to be awhile."

"Hah..."

"Um!" the clerk piped up, glancing with a worried look at his coworker before ducking his head. "Uh, I have a high school friend who moved to Makochi. Isn't it called Bofurin, though?"

Sakura nodded, thankful at least this person wasn't being completely frosty when he was just trying to explain. "Yeah! Bofurin is us, the students who help, and we all go to Furin High."

"Oh, I get it," the clerk -hm, Tatsuo? -smiled at him, and he'd seen enough bystanders by now to know he was still nervous, but trying to keep things going smoothly. "Yuki-chan works at Samehama Bakery, have you been there?"

"I have!" Nirei said suddenly, loudly, right next to Sakura, and he jumped just about half a mile in the air. Suo stepped up just to his right and handed Sakura a bottle of water and a protein bar Tsugeura handed out the day before that he'd liked. "I've met Tomura-san, she's very kind! And her matcha buns are the best."

Tatsuo made a noise of acknowledgement and accepted their items to ring them up when they piled them on the counter, quietly reading out the prices as they totaled up. Hayashida was still watching them, though he looked more neutral now.

"I still want you out once you pay," he said firmly, turning a stern look on them when Tatsuo fumbled in scanning one of the bottles, his hands shaking. "It's one thing if you're Housen students, that can't be helped. But with the tension right now anyone else'll just bring in broken windows and harassment, and I won't have it."

Suo nodded for them all, bowing much more properly than Sakura managed earlier. "Thank you for allowing us to purchase from you, then. We'll take our leave once we pay."

They were much more subdued when pooling their money to give over, taking their water and snacks with little fanfare once it was all said and done. Nirei, however, lingered for an extra moment to say to Tatsuo that if he was ever inclined to visit Makochi, please mention to Tomura that he had met a few Bofurin students and they could get in touch to say hello. They all ran out when Hayashida let out a long-suffering sigh.

"Okay, something is seriously up in this town," Sakura said as they started walking again, none of them interested in sitting and lingering any longer than they had to. "That was crazy, right? Even where I used to live you'd never get that sort of reaction just to walking in somewhere! They'd just wait out the guys they knew were trouble."

"You know," Suo said, thoughtful. "This is a little like what Makochi was, before Bofurin."

Sakura absorbed that, chewing on his protein bar silently. He'd heard about the change, of course, seen the aftermath, but at the end of the day he was still an outsider -he hadn't lived through how badly things must have been that they made Umemiya take such a drastic stance as overturning a whole school.

Relatively speaking, Makochi was just one neighbourhood, though it was a large one. Toarushi, going by the map, was about three times as large, with many more schools and obviously a lot more tension between them, too. So, unlike their home, no one here seemed willing or able to keep the peace.

"I'm glad it's not like this anymore," Sakura said at length, and his friends agreed instantly. Suo checked the map, looked around, and then got them back on track.

On their route out of Hotei they kept alert and moved as quick as they dared, wanting to avoid anyone thinking they were up to no good about as much as they wanted to avoid everyone, period. On the edges of certain streets they caught sight of a few more teenagers in those blueish uniforms, less so than if they'd been here just as school let out but still frequent enough that Nirei made the guess that those were the exact Housen students they wanted to steer clear of. Sakura watched each pack of baldies as they passed them -and they were all baldies, and that guy at the train station who'd yelled about leading them had hair but also been punched and declared a liar.

Finally, Hotei was truly behind them when they reached a little park a few streets away from the border they'd just practically sprinted across, and Nirei seemed to breath easier just from that.

Sakura walked over to a trash can nearby and dumped all their empty water bottles and wrappers, and Suo pointed out they were making good time. They'd pass a culvert for the short end of the river soon, and after that it was a matter of walking deeper into Shinmachi to the station there, smack dab in the middle of a bunch of factories to be accessible to the workers but less so for visitors like them. Regardless, it was good to hear.

"So, now that we have a route- ah!"

Sakura sucked in a sharp breath as Suo bumped into someone wearing that damned blue uniform, and the five baldies all walking together turned with hostile expressions to stare at them. Suo took a quick step back and neatly slid in front of both Sakura and Nirei, hiding the map up his sleeve and raising his hands to try and diffuse the tension.

"Watch where you're going!"

"The fuck uniform is that?"

"Cocky ass middle schoolers, you wanna go?!"

Suo shook his head and stayed where he was despite the looming Housen students. "I'm very sorry, of course. I should've watched where I was going."

"Tch, high line brat, just like that little..." one of them, the only one with a little hair, a punch perm, said darkly, and the others made sounds of agreement.

"Don't their uniforms look familiar, Ono-san?" the tallest asked, moving around to start bracketing them in; Sakura shifted in front of Nirei quickly and got sneered at.

"Like Suzuran, right?"

"What, you think they've got a fucking feeder school for those fucking bastards?"

Suzuran? Sakura blinked, and he felt his face drain of colour.

Why were they talking about Suzuran?!

"I assure you, that is not the case-" Suo tried again, but evidently that was not the best thing to say, because 'Ono' reached out and grabbed him by the collar, yanking him up onto his toes. Sakura and Nirei both protested, and he was nearly ready to throw all of this 'holding back' to the wind, but Suo's raised hand stopped him. Sakura grit his teeth as Suo was shaken like a ragdoll, his body hurting from restraining himself, especially as they got boxed in on the other side.

"Maybe you punks didn't know, but Housen's about to take over this town," one to the right with a big scar on his chin said, and he reached out and smacked Sakura right in the chest. Sakura nearly punched him then and there. "So why don't you turn out your wallets and-"

"Hey, why don't you just stop?"

The voice was level, and carried from across the park -Suo was dropped and he moved lightning fast to get Nirei in between himself and Sakura again, his face taught with stress after that bit of excitement. They were still bracketed in by the Housen students, but Ono and his main lackey turned to look at the guy who seemed to be passing through with a couple of friends.

Sakura didn't think he looked so intimidating on that first glance, another shaved head with a stocky build, in a purple cardigan over a white shirt and black uniform pants, one leg wrapped stiffly in a cast as he leaned on a crutch -his three friends were obviously at the ready to give him a bracing arm, at least. But this must be some local they didn't have a clue about, as all the baldies shifted uneasily and a couple whispered nervously to each other.

"Bulldog," Ono said, sour, and the guy smiled cooly.

"Y'know, your boss may've taken Harumichi out of it, but Suzuran's not the only player in town," he said, and his gaze was assessing until he made brief eye contact with Sakura and his mouth ticked up at the side. "And you're not free to make trouble anywhere you please just yet. Don't you think it's a little pathetic, shaking down middle schoolers out here? I guess that's how little you think of the Kurotaki Alliance?"

"This is a border zone," chin scar said, but it came out weak. One of 'Bulldog's' friends snorted.

"I think they've just got ahead of themselves, Aniki," he too peered at Sakura, Nirei and Suo curiously, though it wasn't really concern on any of their faces, not like it would've been with their Furin senpai. "I remember you said it's not worth our time, though. That your brother's enough to take care of them."

Ah, trash talk, classic.

Housen bristled, and Suo leaned in subtly to speak in Nirei's ear, close enough that Sakura could hear it too.

"We may not want to be in the middle of this, either."

Sakura kind of agreed, everything in this town was leaving a bad taste in his mouth, and the mention of Suzuran on top of it all didn't exactly help... but...

"I'm not liking all this running away," he whispered, and he glanced around to make sure the other teenagers were still preoccupied with talking shit. "Wouldn't Umemiya-san and everyone be okay with us defending ourselves?"

"They would," Suo allowed.

"B-But, then we'd be -be hurt and stranded," Nirei pointed out, and Sakura grumbled unhappily, but he was convinced.

"I don't give a shit you're Kurotaki's Chairman! I'll kick your ass any day of the week!" Ono shouted, stalking forward and getting right up in Bulldog's face. "You're a fucking cripple right now anyway!"

Sakura had started learning to watch, and he saw even from here that Bulldog's half smile didn't change, per say, when Ono got close enough to hit him. What shifted was actually his eyes, a glint appearing in them that reminded Sakura intensely of Umemiya speaking to him after their win against Shishitoren, and declaring with easy confidence that he would never lose. Thinking of Umemiya in this town that was so antithetical to everything Bofurin was striving for was like a shock to his system. Sakura took in the four Housen students left surrounding them, and began planning out the best route for them to run.

"Hm. Sure you even can?" Bulldog settled back with most of his weight on his good leg and tapped the ground a couple times with his crutch. "You're the Housen Army -I thought your General didn't trust you to wipe your fucking asses unless he gave you permission?"

A lot happened very quickly after that.

Between them, Nirei let out a high pitched, startled laugh at Ono's -and the other Housen students' -expense, and Sakura reacted a split second too late. Chin scar grabbed Nirei by the shoulder and spun him around, fist catching him in the temple and sending him sprawling to the ground with a sharp cry. Suo tried to grab chin scar, and Sakura lashed out with a punch, but the both of them were restrained from behind and pulled back, away from their friend which to be honest only made Sakura struggle more. Someone clamped a hand over his mouth while Suo slipped his attacker and positioned himself above Nirei, and a loud shout made everyone freeze in their tracks.

"ALL OF YOU QUIT IT!"

Bulldog had been the one to yell, and out of the rest of the park other students started appearing. Some in the same uniform as his followers, some in lighter green, some in beige and others in brown; it was like they'd been traveling in packs spread out from each other to avoid detection, and now were coming back in to form the herd. There were ten, then twenty, and after a few seconds more than thirty guys around in all different uniforms, with a few here and there clearly waiting on further direction. The Housen students all balked and cursed, and Ono took a big step away from Bulldog, now a lot less confident than he'd been before.

Sakura twisted and the guy holding him let him drop, and he rushed to Suo to help him get Nirei's arms over their shoulders.

"You idiots do know what fighting Kurotaki means, right?" someone called from inside the crowd, and Sakura met Suo's eyes and instantly knew they were on the same page.

"Enemy to one is an enemy to all!"

"Just try us, Housen!"

Suo tilted his head at a nearby gap in the gathering delinquents they could get through, and Sakura mouthed the words 'on three?' to make sure. Suo checked the Housen students were distracted, tightened his hold on Nirei, and then whispered, "One."

"Two," Sakura flexed his legs and flicked one last glance at Bulldog, who was calmly watching as his people milled around threateningly.

"Three!"

They both pushed off from the ground at the same time and rushed out from the circle of Housen students, clipping one in the elbow on their way and drawing startled shouts from the closest guys from Kurotaki. They ran unerringly towards that gap in the crowd with Nirei clutched between them, and Sakura made a frustrated noise when one of them, a guy tall enough to look like Frankenstein with a nervous expression, stepped sort of in their way with his hands raised like he was going to stop them.

"It's alright! Let them go!" called a familiar voice from behind them, and Sakura didn't question it. He pushed and Suo matched him, and the tall guy backed off, and they broke through the gathering completely after that and just kept running.

Nirei groaned as he was jostled, but they weren't going to stop until Sakura felt like any chance they'd be followed was out of the question. This district was quieter and more deserted in the early evening so they were free to run without bumping into people, passing streets and houses and businesses as fast as they could manage while keeping Nirei upright -eventually they reached the point where the apartments got bigger and the commercial area turned to industrial, and then there were more factories and empty warehouses than homes, and barely any people at all.

They slowed when they hit upon a bench with a properly working light at the top that shone down on a spot at the intersection of two roads. Suo was panting and Sakura honestly wasn't doing much better, and they made the decision to stop despite the desolate area in order to finally look at Nirei's injury in the light.

Sakura helped lower him down and he hissed when he caught sight of the blood -chin scar must have been wearing a ring that cut him open when he hit Nirei in the temple, because there was practically a sheet of red on his face, even dripping from his jaw onto his uniform shirt.

Suo took out a napkin from his pocket and held it up to the wound, directing Nirei to use his hands to keep it steady there until the bleeding stopped. It soaked through after a minute, but it was better than nothing.

"This town... it's like the warring states era...!" Sakura forced out around the stitch in his side. "No wonder it's... so crazy! Crap... and Suo, you... what was that about...? You were gonna let... yourself get mugged?!"

"...I may have misjudged my... ability to diffuse the situation, earlier..." Suo admitted, taking few breaths around it to get his breathing back under control. "I would not have played pushover much longer, I promise."

"...ugh... I thought it... was bad when we... set things off... with Shishitoren..." Nirei said, sounding woozy and distracted. His head was probably pounding. "...this place seems... so much more stressful..."

"Uh, yeah, this place is... this is where Suzuran is..." Sakura pushed himself upright with effort and gulped down air until he was feeling better, the soreness in his side subsiding. He never thought he'd say this in his life before moving to Makochi, but -he really wanted to go home right now. He wanted to curl up in his futon and sleep and wake up knowing the only thing he had to do was represent Bofurin to a town that actually wanted him to be there.

"Suzuran?" Suo asked, dusting off his shirt. "They mentioned that back there, too."

Sakura probably made a strange noise, because his friends looked at him in concern.

"You've never heard of Suzuran? I don't know anything and even I know Crows High!" Sakura looked to Nirei, fountain of information that he was, but he made an unhappy face and just sort of shrugged at him. "It's the worst school in the prefecture at least! If I came to Furin to get to the top, it's because I knew I had a chance! There's never been a top at Suzuran! People only go there because they've been expelled from everywhere else."

"Like a... a... a super-Furin?" Nirei put forward.

"A super Furin with no Umemiya-san, in a town like this!" Sakura threw up his hands for emphasis.

Sakura had been something of a lone wolf in middle school, for obvious reasons -but even he'd known a couple upperclassmen in his school who weren't complete assholes. Halfway through his third year, he'd mentioned looking at 'rejects' high schools to one of them, Kobanzame, who he happened to come across while out walking.

Kobanzame was an okay guy, a little flaky and the type to bring extra muscle to a one-on-one, but he'd never gone out of his way to pick on Sakura even when he'd been particularly prickly. So it had surprised him a lot when Kobanzame took him by the shoulders and looked him dead in the eye, completely serious, and told him to not even think about applying for Suzuran All-Boys High School, and if he ever encountered someone who went there then to turn and walk in the other direction.

Of course, Sakura had asked around about it after that and received similar, more-or-less spooked warnings about the place and all manner of tall-tales about past escapades of its student body. Needless to say the sentiment had stuck.

"Come to think of it, my upperclassmen in middle school were all in a tizzy a few years ago about some student deaths here in Toarushi," Suo said. "If the 'crows' they were talking about was the same one, it would make sense."

Nirei sat up and winced as he peeled the napkin away from his face, though luckily it looked as if it was at the point where it wasn't going to bleed anymore. "Guys, I hate that I'm saying this, but I don't wanna learn any more about anything going on here. Can we just get home, please?"

Nobody had any complaints about that plan.

Of course, that was when they realized that in their mad dash to get out of the confrontation with Kurotaki, Suo had misplaced the map.

"It's alright, I pretty much remember the route," Sakura hadn't yet seen his friend embarrassed, but there was a telltale flush high on his cheeks at this exact moment. "I just need to figure out where we are right now..."

"No, we can't be guessing at this point. Well just get lost," Sakura looked around and spotted a payphone by the entrance to one of the factories a few feet down. He'd put off calling back to Furin about this because he'd been embarrassed as all get out and honestly thought they could get home without so much of a hitch, but with Nirei hurt and no map the situation had changed. "Let's pool our coins, I'm... I'm going to ask Hiiragi-senpai for help."

When he'd become first year captain, Sakura had been given the phone numbers of all the seniors on a little paper, and he'd memorized Hiiragi's because the guy was his direct superior at the end of the day. Hiiragi was also one of the few students who had a cellphone, so he was someone they didn't have to reach at home or at school first.

It took a few seconds, but eventually he answered and Sakura blurted out the bare-bones of the situation, highlighting that Nirei was hurt and they had barely any clue where they were beyond the factory name and number they were standing in front of. Sakura listened tensely as Hiiragi mumbled about his stomach and the awful train schedule, and then how he trailed off in thought.

"I would come to you, but you said it yourself -you're lost. We'd be missing each other since I don't know my way around," he said, and Sakura knew it wasn't ideal, and with a two hour commute each way having Hiiragi come to meet them was just asking for trouble in the meantime. "Hrm... Shinmachi? Give me twenty minutes, then call me back. I... might know a guy who lives nearby. An old kouhai from middle school."

"Twenty minutes," Sakura confirmed.

They wasted time on that bench playing Contact -Nirei was crazy good at guessing words with just the definition -until Sakura got up to go and call Hiiragi back. The phone ran with a 'busy' tone for a long time, and Sakura grumbled about it, but placed it back on the receiver and decided to wait an extra five minutes before calling back. They only had so many coins left after all.

Of course, five minutes was just about up when Nirei stilled and turned to look down the road, his nerves putting them on alert too.

"Guys, someone's coming...!" Nirei shook Sakura's shoulder and he held back a groan. He hated this town!

They all tensed at the sound of clunking steps approaching them, and preemptively Sakura stood up to place himself in front of his two friends. Out of the gloom on the far end of the street, at first Sakura could only tell whoever it was was big and muscled and dressed in dark clothes, but then more details came together as the guy entered the dim light of the flood lamp on the top of the gate next to them.

He was big, built like a bruiser with the cauliflower ear to match, dressed in leather and wearing sunglasses even though it was getting dark. There was a bit of a logo on one of the arms of his jacket, and Sakura wasn't enough of an optimist to think it was just a brand name, considering the context clues. Another group like Kurotaki, maybe?

Sakura braced himself, this whole evening having him on edge -this guy who looked like really bad news paused once he registered them, now standing about ten feet away with a blank look on his face. He glanced behind him and two guys Sakura hadn't even noticed materialized out of the dark, slightly shorter and both wearing face masks and marked clothing too.

"Right where he said," one of the masked guys said with a sigh, and Nirei tried to lean around Sakura to see but hissed when he moved too far and aggravated a bruise from getting sent to the ground, and Suo was quiet where Sakura couldn't see him but he trusted him with his back.

"Don't come closer!" Sakura barked, shifting his feet to better hide his friends from view and raising his fists. The guy in front tilted his head and didn't say anything, and the other masked guy, the one in a white shirt, laughed a little.

"Uh, kid, I think you should calm down a sec," he said, crossing his arms, and Sakura grimaced. This whole afternoon they'd been calm and look where that got them! He wasn't going to let this obvious lackey tell him that he shouldn't have his guard up at default, especially not when he needed to call Hiiragi back right about now! While these guys weren't hostile yet, Toarushi's track record so far left much to be desired.

Sakura was just considering telling them to shove off, damn the consequences, when the guy in front let out a little huff.

"...Hiiragi called me," he said after a moment's pause, and both Sakura and Suo jumped in surprise. And it was only partly because his voice sounded like he'd just gargled rocks.

"You... are Hiiragi-senpai's kouhai from middle school, sir?" Suo asked, and by his tone Sakura knew he was thinking the same thing he was -this guy didn't look like he was anyone's kouhai, let alone one of their seniors. Sakura stayed on guard, bristling as he felt the invisible scrutiny of this guy on them, moving from one to the other to the next completely silently.

"Yes. Come with us," he said, and gestured back the way he'd walked before turning and heading out without so much as a backward glance. Sakura gaped at the guy's back and felt Nirei shakily move to stand beside him, peering at the two men left standing with them, who both seemed bemused.

"Well, you heard Ryuushin-san. Come on I guess," white shirt said as he followed after him, and his friend, black hair, shrugged.

"Boss'll take care of you, alright? He wouldn't have bothered coming here if not," he jabbed his thumb at the road. "Once we're back, Ryouta'll grab something for your friend there, so hurry up."

He ambled away, careless with his attention, or maybe the weirdos in this town just didn't even register them as a threat. Sakura grimaced and shared another look with Suo, and they both steadied Nirei at his elbows and decided as one to follow.

They caught up just as Ryuushin reached a long, low gate to what seemed to be an old junkyard -he grabbed at the gate's latch with one hand and heaved it open, going further inside after glancing back to check they were all accounted for.

The lot wasn't anything special, full of old cars and heaps of junk metal with a small building on one far end -the most impressive thing about it was the fact it contained a few motorcycles, which Sakura hadn't ever seen up close before. Black hair beckoned them along until they came across a bench that was shoved against the one side of the little building with some folding chairs and a big can filled with sand for cigarette butts, and he got them sitting and calmer in moments. 'Ryouta' appeared in the minute after with bandages and a square of gauze, and he also handed over a cloth and a water bottle which Suo took so he could clean Nirei's face of all the blood.

Black hair introduced himself as Bunta, and while they got Nirei sorted out he asked a little bit about how long they'd been lost and how they'd made it out to the boonies of Shinmachi -Sakura skimmed their eventful evening down and sheepishly told him about the train mishap, and then the Housen students that thought they might be affiliated with Suzuran, and from where he was sitting smoking in a chair Ryouta let out a bark of startled laughter.

"They're hallucinating crows everywhere, idiot skinheads," he blew out smoke and coughed from chuckling. "You'd think they'd be happy with taking out Bouya already."

"That won't last," Bunta scoffed. "Crazy that your senpai still had Ryuushin-san's number after all this time."

Suo hummed, "Well, Hiiragi-senpai has always been a bit more forward thinking. Umemiya-san made big waves turning Furin High into a protectorate, two years ago, and I know he was involved earlier than that, it's likely he wanted to keep any contacts he had regardless if they'd moved to other towns..."

"Eh... you know your senpai best. Two years ago would've been before we all got involved with the Armament," Bunta caught Suo's questioning look and gestured at his jean vest, where a skull and the initials T.F.O.A were painstakingly embroidered. "That's our group, The Front of Armament. Ryuushin-san took over as our Fourth Head earlier this year."

"He told me he's never changed his number. He's had a cellphone since before the Armament too, because of all the moving," Ryouta mused.

"That's right."

Sakura jumped and clutched his heart -how did a guy so big and dressed in so much leather barely make a sound moving around like that?! Ryuushin joined their loose circle and crossed his arms, and his two followers subtly perked up so they were at attention.

"I called Hiiragi back," he said to Sakura. "He said he didn't mean to miss your call, but your boss caught wind, somehow."

"Umemiya-san, too... oh, no, and I bet this is making Hiiragi-senpai's stomach nerves really bad..." Nirei lamented.

"...Yeah," Ryuushin almost, sort of smiled right then, but after a second he went back to serious. "He knows where you are now, that we've got you. Tried to insist on coming here, but that's not a good idea with all the skinheads making trouble."

"If you can tell us how to get to the station, we'll be fine from there," Sakura said, standing up to face Ryuushin to show he was serious. Ryuushin hummed but shook his head.

"It's late, and this area is no place for children," Sakura bristled but held himself back from snapping that they were high schoolers -those Housen guys had thought they were in middle school too. Sure they weren't built like brick shit houses like everyone here seemed to be, but they weren't exactly weak either! "Juuzou's finishing up. He, Ryouta and Bunta will ferry you."

"Where to, boss? You're not coming?"

Ryuushin shook his head. "Teru's calling soon. Besides, Hiiragi isn't exactly keen to see me. You'll be going as reps of the Armament to Makochi."

The bikers all started talking on their own about directions and gas, which left Sakura to stew -he didn't like having nothing to keep him busy, but the idea that they'd be on a one-way ticket out of here in the next few minutes and would be home before nine was a good incentive to wait. The fact that his friends' were looking more settled and were doing their own quiet chatting, Suo pointing out things that could be added into Nirei's notebook from the evening, well, that also let him relax a little further. His adrenaline might be going down, now that they he had more than a minute to breathe.

Bunta came over with a few extra helmets in hand and shoved one to each of them, saying they'd be better safe than sorry, going outside of Toarushi and being under the Armament's protection and all. Across the lot, Ryouta was conferring with a new man who'd appeared from the little building, who had blonde hair in a pomp and a scar slashed straight across the bridge of his nose. A few minutes later, Bunta led them over to the motorcycles and introduced them to Juuzou, the one Ryuushin had said would help drive them.

Juuzou nodded to them politely as he finished his cigarette -what was with all the smokers around here, that was not a common habit back in Makochi -and once he flicked it into another sand bucket nearby he looked between the three of them and gestured for Sakura to come with him. Sakura exchanged a nervous look with his two friends but obliged in splitting up, clutching at the helmet while Juuzou quietly explained how being a passenger on a bike worked, where he should hold onto and the way he'd have to move to reduce discomfort for the hour they'd be travelling. Sakura did his best to remember, tuning out the quiet sounds of the same being explained to Suo and Nirei a few feet away.

"Relax. It'll fly by. You'll be a biker in no time," Juuzou... joked? He was too even-keeled for Sakura to really tell, and he was a little busy making sure everything was strapped down and ready to go before they left.

But, leave they did. Juuzou braced easily as Sakura clambered up behind him on the bike, and spent another second telling him how to adjust to sit better, to hold on when they accelerated and brace when they were braking, all that stuff. Ryuushin stood by the gate to watch with his arms folded, and raised a hand to send them off -and then they were off.

If Sakura hadn't ever seen a motorcycle up close, then he definitely hadn't ever ridden on one. It wasn't like they were going incredibly fast at first, still being in the industrial district -he had a feeling they also wanted to get them used to how the bikes moved -but the roar of the engine and the noise, coupled with having to trust someone else to handle all of their movement, it was jarring to say the least. Sakura managed to glance back at the bikes behind them when they stopped at a light, and when he saw Suo's arms tight like a vice around Ryouta's middle while Nirei was actually sitting up with an awed smile on his face, he found it easier to trust in it.

The ride took a little under an hour. It was dark but the roads were well lit and there was a lot to look at even while speeding by. Big rowers for electrical lines, flood lit fields with covered crops and late night fertilizing, small hamlets with only a dozen homes, or rivers in deep culverts they flew over on bridges. Sakura had travelled only the barest amount in his life, and only ever to get somewhere else with no interest in the in-between, and maybe Juuzou wouldn't make him a bike-enthusiast, but the view on the ride over was enough to make Sakura think he wouldn't mind doing this again.

He'd never thought about what he'd do after high school before. Maybe he'd want to get out and drive this route again as a good starting point.

"Think you can point me to Renjakucho?" Juuzou called over the sounds of the engine, slowing now that they were entering Makochi proper, though on the opposite side of the city from where Furin High was located. Sakura yelled back that he wasn't good with directions, so Juuzou slowed further and raised one hand to signal something to Ryouta and Bunta -the bike carrying Nirei eventually pulled in front of them, Nirei looking around and then tapping Bunta on the back and pointing to where they needed to go.

Navigating city streets went slow, but a lot smoother than Sakura expected -then again, just being in Makochi again took a giant weight off his shoulders. He was happy to be nearly back, and dead tired, and looking forward to getting back to a normal routine of patrolling with the rest of the students and not having to worry about warring states-level affairs lurking around every corner.

Sakura was alert the moment that they entered Renjakucho, the familiar sight in the distance of Kanchomei Park which Nirei seemed to be steering them over to with perfect accuracy. It was a good spot for bikes given its little parking lot, and they rumbled through the last leg of the journey and pulled in just in time to see Hiiragi-senpai waiting on a nearby park bench looking testy, next to...

"Ugh...!" Sakura ducked his head into Juuzou's jacket instinctively when he felt his blush coming on, and the older guy made a noise like a stifled laugh.

"Hey! Sakura, Nirei, Suo! Are you all okay?" Umemiya called out as he levered himself up from the bench and approached the bikes as the Armament members began stopping and shutting them down. Sakura got off when Juuzou nudged him and nearly fell over, not expecting his legs to have lost so much feeling. "Wow, you guys sure had an adventure, huh?"

"More like a survival game, Umemiya-san..." Nirei said, tottering over but looking pleased as punch to be back. Suo basically had to be dragged off the bike he was so stiff, Ryouta keeping him upright when his knees wobbled too much.

"...S-Sorry for troubling you," Sakura said, bowing quickly to Umemiya and then to Hiiragi, the latter of whom was walking over with a grimace and one hand on his stomach. "And -thank you very much!" Sakura then bowed to Juuzou, Bunta and Ryouta, the former of whom nodded and waved his thanks away easily.

"It wasn't any trouble," Juuzou turned to their Bofurin seniors and gracefully dropped into a type of bow Sakura hadn't ever seen before, with his legs wider and his hands on his knees. "Kumicho-san, we've delivered your young ones safely as promised. I am Murata Juuzou, vice-head of The Front of Armament, extending greetings on behalf of our Fourth head, Kunou Ryuushin."

"Ah, right," Umemiya looked a little taken aback for a brief second before he bowed formally in reply, and when he straightened he used a hand to bring Hiiragi forward. "It's good to meet you, Murata-san! I'm Umemiya Hajime, and this is your boss's old senpai, Hiiragi Toma. Thank you for accepting his request."

"It was all Ryuushin-san's prerogative," Juuzou deflected, and he took out a cigarette and paused before he lit one -Umemiya sighed but gave the go-ahead while Hiiragi winked his nose, and they both refused when he tilted the carton at them in offer. Sakura, Nirei and Suo dropped down to sit and recover on the curb now that their part in this was over, listening to their seniors talk above their heads. "He thinks highly of you, Hiiragi-san."

"Funny I haven't heard of this kohai before, eh, Hiiragi...?" Umemiya teased, and one of Furin High's esteemed Four Heavens grumbled unhappily.

"If you won't be offended, I'll speak about it now, Armament," he hunched a little over his stomach when Juuzou said it was fine, looking even more uncomfortable with the permission given. "My elder brother fought that bastard Kunou Issei a number of times and I saw that Kunou-ku... Kunou-san was going in the same direction, so I made him exchange numbers in case he needed help. Not that he ever took me up on it. I only thought to trust him with our juniors because I'd heard he'd banished his brothers from your town," here Hiiragi got a particularly frustrated look in his eye. "I'll be honest, I nearly rescinded my request when he said he was still involved in this petty-Yakuza gang of yours!"

Ryouta and Bunta bristled at the accusation, but Juuzou merely shrugged.

"It's not my place to tell you what to think," he leaned down to ash his cigarette into the gutter, keeping away from where Suo was sitting. "But the Armament of Kunou Ryuushin is as different from his brother's generation as day is to night. Under his hand we are men, not cheap pawns. Respectfully, Boss's senpai."

Hiiragi looked stung, but he nodded in acceptance. Umemiya's face was now thoughtful and a bit sad, eyes flicking between the gathered delinquents -though he smiled slightly when he caught Sakura watching him and winked.

"I think I'd like to meet Kunou-taicho sometime," he said, easily cutting through the tension at the brief exchange. "As another person who reformed an organization such as ours, I think we'd have a lot to talk about! Why don't you guys come to our harvest feast once the seedlings are all grown this summer?"

"U-Umemiya..."

"If Bofurin would welcome us, why not?" Juuzou replied. "Here, I was going to offer my number to you, Kumicho-san, if you ever needed to get in touch..."

"Ah, Murata-san, please drop the title! You're quite traditional if you don't mind my saying so..."

"You mean old-fashioned, huh?"

Sakura sighed and tipped back until he was sprawled out on the sidewalk, bone tired and wanting nothing more than to go home and go to bed. Suo leaned over him on his one side with Nirei on the other, and they both sighed as well -glad to be back but utterly exhausted after the harrowing last few hours.

"I'll introduce you to Io-oji tomorrow, Sakura-san," Nirei promised cheekily. "That way something like this definitely won't happen again."

Sakura blushed, and quickly agreed. If he never had to go back to Toarushi, all the better.

*