Trouble after school.

After having a good talk with Kaede, Leonardo could focus now on Angela’s and Valerie’s messages. They both said they wanted to be alone during lunch, and of course he was worried about it. So before they left school to go shopping for dinner, Leo, Reiko and Kaede waited for Angela and Valerie at the school gates. Some of their classmates walked by and waved goodbye to them, and Leo watched as Kaede meekly waved back.

It wasn’t long before the people they were waiting for arrived, but looking at them made Leo do a double take. Was he imagining it, or was he seeing some sort of… animosity between the two? Both the blonde and the redhead were looking away from each other, but they wore frowns on their brows still. Did they get into a fight?

“Are you okay?” he asked Angela. “What happened?” he asked Valerie in Spanish.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Nothing happened.”

Okay, it was weird because he could tell Angela was lying but Valerie was telling the truth. Did that mean that whatever happened bothered Angela but Valerie didn’t think much of it? Leo was starting to dislike the new Gift. It let him see things but it was still difficult to understand.

“Okay… Um, we’re going shopping for dinner. Do you want to come with us?” he asked after a second of hesitation. Not only did these two not look in the mood, but they were making Reiko and Kaede uneasy as well.

“Sorry, not feeling in the mood,” Angela told him, shaking her head tiredly. “I’ll see you back home, okay? Make something tasty for me?”

“Sure,” he said with a small smile.

“I want to go back and start studying Japanese,” Valerie told him. “I hate that nobody understands what I say.”

“Oh. Okay,” he nodded.

The group of five still needed to walk together until Leo, Reiko and Kaede had to go to the shopping district. And just like that morning, the walk was silent and awkward and Leo was getting sick and tired of it.

“Hey, I heard from a classmate you two broke records in the P.E. fitness test,” he said, repeating it in Spanish for Valerie and then immediately watched their faces darken, something that made Reiko and Kaede flinch. Leo just wanted to groan.

“Hey, you! The blonde!” they all heard the rough and aggressive sounding voice of a woman behind them. They turned to see a girl their age in a fancy school uniform with a white blazer, red plated skirt and matching tie. She wore the jacket open, the tie loose, her white shirt out of her skirt and the first few buttons undone. She had short black hair, sharp eyes and was holding a… was that a bamboo sword!? The girl was glaring towards his group, while two other girls in uniform stood behind her also holding bamboo swords. “You’re Angela, aren’t you? No way I could mistake you for anyone else.”

“Yes, that’s me,” Angela nodded, and Leo saw her shoulders tensing ever so slightly. “What do you want?”

“These four…” she grinned and pointed her thumb behind her, making them all look past her friends to see the four delinquents from their own school trying to catch up to them while they limped and looked bruised and beaten bloody, “…said that there was someone in their school who could beat me up. Since your school is full of nothing but wimps, I had to come check you out.”

Angela blinked, made a gesture like she was cleaning her ear and turned her head towards Reiko. “Would you mind translating? I heard her right, didn’t I? She’s looking for a fight.”

“Y-Y-Yes…!” Reiko nodded, body stiff from fear of a fight breaking out. Beside her, Kaede was trembling with the same fear.

“Oh, nice,” Angela nodded back, casually satisfied and turned back to the girl with the bamboo sword. “I can fight her and say I was protecting my dear schoolmates, right?”

“Are you sure you want to start something over nothing?” Leo asked her. “You might get in trouble.”

“I’ll deal with it if it happens,” she said, passing him her bag while her eyes were fixed on the girl looking for a fight. “I REALLY need to let off some steam.”

“Don’t get hurt,” he told her seriously.

“Say that when you can lay a hand on me,” she answered with a grin. It wasn’t the time or place to say he’d gotten a good hand on her already, was it? They all watched her step up to the trio of girls with a confident stride. “So, will this be three on one?”

“I beat those four on my own. I don’t need help to beat you,” answered the girl.

“I’d suggest you keep those words to yourself or you’ll start getting my hopes up. I’m warning you though, I’m in a sour mood, so I suggest you get your friends.”

“Shut the fuck up,” the girl stepped up as well and held a stance with her sword in front of her, and Leo found himself sucking in a breath. It was like her whole demeanor hand suddenly changed. Sure, she was still smirking cockily, but her eyes were dead set on Angela’s every movement and her body was calm and still. Angela herself noticed this too.

“Seriously, you’re getting my hopes up,” she said. She walked up to her opponent like she was taking a stroll, and there was a blur. The moment Angela stepped into the sword’s range the weapon came down with a fast strike aimed directly at Angela’s forehead.

Yet they all saw the sword come down and slice nothing but air while Angela stood there like she was still waiting for something to happen. The girl in the white uniform, however, looked the most shocked among them all.

“The hell…!?”

“You’ve got good reflexes and you’re fast,” Angela nodded in approval. “I can see how you could beat those losers.”

The girl grit her teeth, held her sword in a firm grasp and swung twice more, back and forth as she stepped in for better range. But her strikes hit nothing, looking like they might connect as they were just inches away from Angela’s face.

“What the fuck!?” she grunted. She swung once more with **** intent, but the attack was stopped solidly. Angela had caught the sword in her hand. She clenched her fist and the bamboo weapon broke in two like a fragile twig, and not wasting any time, she sent a punch straight to the girl’s stomach, knocking the air out of her and making her bend forward in pain. From there, she was open. Angela could’ve practically killed her if she wanted to, but instead she watched with hands in her jacket’s pockets.

“You’re not bad, I guess,” she sighed. “Had enough?”

“…” The girl gasped for air and stepped back, but instead of retreating, she held her hand to one of her friends. “Give me that!” she demanded. The girl’s friend gave her her bamboo sword, and after a final deep breath, she was on the attack again with a new weapon.

“That’s it!” Angela grinned. “I like that enthusiasm!”

She dodged all of the girl’s attacks using only small movement. It was like Angela could see them perfectly or even predict them, perhaps both. This was the extent of her Gift. She wasn’t just strong, but had an almost animal-like sense for fighting. Angela dodged a last attack before countering with a kick to the girl’s side, knocking her down to the ground.

Even if she had come here picking a fight and had already beaten up four guys, Leo wasn’t a fan of seeing girls hurt, but worse was seeing Angela’s expression of disappointment. This girl was someone who could win against four guys on her own, and even she couldn’t pose a decent challenge for Angela.

“Satisfied?” she asked Leo with a small smile. “I didn’t get hurt.”

He sighed. “…Good job.”

“I’m going home,” Angela told them, getting her bag back from Leo. “Don’t take too long shopping.” She waved back to the group as she walked past the two other girls who quickly opened a path for her, terrified.

“I suppose we should get moving, too,” Leo told the rest. The girl was standing up and didn’t look particularly hurt. Angela was still holding back. He asked the four guys if they were okay, but they insisted they’d be fine and to not worry about them. And before he could check up on Valerie, she’d already disappeared.