A week after the events in the Games Club room, Yuudai has been constantly looking over his shoulder as if Miyu is lurking in the shadows, ready to strike at any moment. The crew has encountered nothing out of the ordinary in the meantime. They gather at the clubroom an hour after today’s afternoon classes.

The tension in the club has been high since the incident, with Yuudai being paranoid and Mayumi ignoring him. “Anyone else just want one day without something going batshit?” Katsuki groans.

Mayumi herself is leaning back in her chair, her feet on her desk. She steals a peek over at Yuudai, who’s looking out the window towards the school gate. She lets out a scoff as she turns her attention to Katsuki. “If we wanted that, we wouldn’t have come to this school, Prez.”

Cerys states plainly. “This school wasn’t as advertised, I expected something more… refined.” She rolls her head towards Yuudai herself. “Yuudai, you still looking for that insane girl? It’s been a week, it’s time for you to tell us what’s wrong between you two.”

Yuudai shudders lightly even at the mere thought. “You don’t want to know. It’s… really personal.”

Cerys jumps from her chair, raising her voice at Yuudai. “You’re making it an issue for ALL of us. It’s becoming personal between EVERYONE. This is OUR issue now, not yours alone.”

Mayumi jumps up surprisingly fast. “Yeah, you little bitch. I saved you, but you push me off to save HER? While you think she’s trying to KILL you? You’re as fucking crazy as she is! As far as I see it, you deserve each other!”

Yuudai turns to Cerys, shouting a bit himself. “She didn’t do anything to you! You don’t know what happened and I hope you never know anything like that!”

Yuudai shocks himself into silence with his outburst. He looks around the room, everyone staring at him. He sits back down and hangs his head. Yuuri raises from her seat, walking over an patting him on the back. “C’mon. Talking about the pain is the first step towards healing it, Akiyama.”

Yuudai shrugs at Yuuri’s hand as if to knock it away with his shoulder, but she doesn’t cease. “It’s not something I can talk about. It doesn’t matter what I say, we can’t go to anyone about it.” He looks to the side.

Yuuri gives him an confused look. “Why not? If what she did was enough to cause you this trouble for this long, surely-”

Yuudai interrupts her with a frustrated yell “Because she’s the daughter of the chief of police back in Chiba! And you know being away from Chiba won’t reduce the pull that she has!”

Mayumi marches over, looking him directly in the face. “We don’t NEED to tell anyone else! I handled her myself for fuck’s sake, if we have everyone here taking her on we’d kick her ass so hard she’d shit out her mouth for the rest of her life!”

Yuudai snaps back, “And you all would be in jail for the rest of yours! I’m not letting you all go through that for MY past!”

Saito pushes his way in between Mayumi and Yuuri and puts his hands on Yuudai’s shoulders. “Dude, if she’s as dangerous as you say, we’d have to do something anyway. She already came after Mayumi, who’s to say she wouldn’t come for us too? It’s better to take care of this while we still can.”

Yuudai groans a bit, his resolve weakening. Saito shakes his head back to lock eyes. “We need to know what we’re dealing with. What exactly did she do to traumatize you so much?”

“Fine.” Yuudai looks up, staring at the people around him. “I’ll tell you. But if you try to do anything, it’s your own fault when your ass ends up in prison.. or worse.” He looks around at everyone’s faces, finding they’re still more than interested in his story despite any risks. Yuudai takes a deep breath, then sits down. “It all began last year…”

***

Yuudai walks to the gate of his school on a early fall day. Fall practice just ended and he is getting ready to go home after staying late to help put away the equipment. As he approaches the gate he suddenly he hears voices from around the corner.

“Where do you think you’re going?” a threatening voice calls out.

Yuudai suddenly stops and peeks around and sees a group of delinquents surrounding a small looking girl by the corner.

“N-N-Nowhere… just going home…” the girl answers.

“Ehhhh? Home? You should come with us,” one of the boys responds.“Yeah! We can show you a good time!” another boy laughs.

The girl looks incredibly nervous “N-No thank you… I really need to-”

Suddenly she’s slammed into the outer walls of the school by what looks like the leader of the boys. The girl cries out in fear.

“Listen bitch. We don’t care if your daddy is in charge of the authorities here. You’re gonna come with us and you’re gonna help us show him not to mess with our gang. You got that?” the taller boy growls.

Suddenly Yuudai jumps out from around the corner, still holding his baseball bat as a weapon. “Hey! Leave her alone!” He begins charging at the group of boys with the bat.

“S-Shit! It’s the Golden Boy!” one of the weaker boys calls out. “Y-Yeah boss! C’mon!” the other one calls.

“Tch. Damn goodie two shoes…” the taller one goes. He drops the girl and spits on the ground near her. The boys run off.

Yuudai keeps waving his bat at them and shouting. “Yeah you better run! Punks!” When he sees that they’re out of his sight he hurries over to the girl who is nearly in tears. “Are you okay? Did they hurt you?”

“N-No…” the girl says with a sniffle. She’s still looking down at the ground. “I’m fine… you didn’t have to save a girl like me.”

“Eh?! Nonsense! I’m glad to see you’re okay! You’re from class 1-3 right? The name’s Yuudai Akiyama!” Yuudai replies with a grin.

The girl finally looks up towards Yuudai. She has an awestruck look to her face, like a kid on their birthday. “The name’s… Miyu.”

“Well Miyu, I’ll walk you home today. I don’t really want to see those guys bugging you again.” Yuudai suggests. He walks off with Miyu right on his heels like a lost puppy. Miyu says with a pleasant voice. “Sounds… nice~”

***

Katsuki chimes in. “Even back then you were popular with girls, huh? I don’t see how that leads into what last week, though.”

“Well I started noticing something was off after a couple of weeks. She started getting really… weird. Then a few months later...” Yuudai continues.

***

Yuudai unwraps a bento lunch on the roof while Miyu’s gaze doesn’t leave him in the slightest. “I hope you like it Yuuyuu~” Miyu calls out to him playfully.

Yuudai gives off a chuckle. “Well your lunches always looked good so when you invited me to try yours I couldn’t refuse! Especially since I somehow misplaced my own lunch…”

Miyu hides her laugh behind her hand. “Y-Yeah… I made it with a lot of care and even put a little bit of myself in there!”

“Yourself?” Yuudai asks her. He sits and ponders for a moment before he comes to a conclusion. “Oh you mean like how my mom always puts love and care in her food!”

Miyu claps her hands. “Yup! Lots of love.”

Yuudai finally opens the bento to reveal a basic meal of meat with rice. The rice is decorated with a red sauce in the shape of a heart. He takes his chopsticks and puts his hands together. “Thank you for the meal!”

He takes some of the rice in his chopsticks and puts it in his mouth. The taste of the sauce instantly gives him with a curious expression, it’s definitely familiar to him but he can’t think where.. He continues to chew it out of politeness, still trying to figure out the taste.

Miyu begins breathing heavily watching Yuudai eat the meal she made. She seems unfazed by the confusion on his face. “N-Now part of me is inside you Yuuyuu!” She claps her hands together in excitement. Her sleeve droops down her arm slightly, showing a bandage wrapped around it.

Yuudai’s eyes begin to widen as he sees the bandage. “M-Miyu! Are you alright?! What happened?”

Miyu looks confused and then turns to see her bandage. She turns back to Yuudai with a quizzitive look on her face. “Eh? How else was I supposed to get it on the rice? Although now that I think about it it may have been easier to...”

Yuudai pauses for a moment and then realizes where he remembers the taste from. He remembers all the times as a youth when he rough housed too much and split his lip. It’s the taste of blood. “YOU MADE ME EAT YOUR BLOOD?!” Yuudai says, anger showing in his voice.

Miyu tilts her head. “Well yeah. I wanted to make sure you truly had me inside of you. Isn’t it romantic?~”

“WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!” Yuudai shouts as he quickly stands up, spilling the contents of the bento onto the ground. “I DON’T KNOW WHAT KIND OF SICK JOKE THIS IS BUT DON’T GIVE ME YOUR LUNCHES EVER AGAIN!” Yuudai storms off back downstairs.

Miyu looks down at the spilled lunch for a moment and calls out to him. “I guess I’ll have to win your affection some other way.” Yuudai can hear the echo of her laughing as he descends the stairs.

***

Yuudai’s friends sit there in stunned silence after he finishes retelling that part of the story. Saito is the only one that is able to find words. “Man, that’s fucked up.”

“The worst was only a few months before I started here…” Yuudai actively avoids eye contact with the rest of the club at this point. “V-Valentines Day…she...” he croaks out.

***

“Hey! Yuudai!” a girl calls out to him. She runs up to him at his locker. She’s hiding something behind her back.

“Oh, hey Kaede. What’s up?” Yuudai answers. He gets his shoes on while waiting for Kaede to speak up.

“W-Well would you um… like to walk home together? There’s something I want to talk to you about.” Kaede says, fidgeting around.

“Yeah sure! You’re only a few blocks from my place right?” Yuudai happily answers as he begins putting on his coat. He proceeds to walk out of the school with Kaede.

As they walk, Kaede starts to speak. “You really helped me out by training with me for track, even if you didn’t have to. Seeing you smile and work really hard at it though, it made me feel good.” She smiles and continues. “I liked seeing you so passionate about sports and helping me out. I… I really think you’re cool for doing that and stuff!”

As the two walk, they cut through a shortcut in the park where they usually train due to the lack of people. After a minute or so of awkward silence Kaede finally pulls out the chocolate from behind her back and shoves it towards Yuudai. “...Here,” she shyly says.

Yuudai looks over and is immediately overcome with embarrassment. His face grows bright red as he doesn’t know how to answer. “EH?! B-B-B-B-B-But Kaede…”

“And… I-I’d like to be able to know you more personally and… augh jeeze you get the idea right?” Kaede spills out. She bites her lip before finally saying it. “Yuudai Akiyama! I like you! Please go out with me!”

Yuudai is taken aback. Ever since Miyu started talking to him many people began to avoid him. Even his own baseball team had. However seeing Kaede feel this way made him feel very warm inside. He gives off a gentle smile and puts his hand on Kaede’s shoulder. “Kaede I…”

Suddenly a mysterious figure appears in front of them wearing all black baggy clothing. They have a black ski mask on to conceal their identity. Without any warning the figure jumps towards Kaede. Instinctively, Yuudai jumps in front of where Kaede is. “Run Kaede! Get help!” he shouts. The last thing he’s able to hear is the sound of a taser being primed before his vision and senses go blank.

***

“...” at this point Yuudai is almost on the verge of tears.

Yuuri interrupts him to put her arm around Yuudai. “If this is too hard for you, you don’t have to continue.”

“T….There...There’s still more…,” Yuudai manages to speak out from behind his soft sobbing.

***

“No… N...No...more…” Yuudai manages to speak out from behind his soft sobbing as he continues to lay chained to the table. He hears a metal clang on the stone floor and Miyu looks over at him.

“So… does that mean you finally get we’re meant to be?!” Miyu gleefully asks.

“Y...Yes… yes I do...I…” Yuudai begins to speak but it gets interrupted by a coughing fit. His throat dry from the screams. “...l...lov…”

“Gaaah! I’m not ready to hear it yet~” Miyu jumps up and down with joy. “I’m just glad you understand! I want the perfect moment to hear you say those words, okay?”

Yuudai doesn’t say anything. He just stares at the ceiling. He has no more tears left to shed. Suddenly he begins to feel the chains loosen up. As he does Miyu begins to guide him up.

“So you’re free to go now! You won’t have to worry about that bitch Kaede getting away with our relationship, you’ll just have to reject her is all. Even if she ran away before I could catch her there’s no way she could blame it on me! It’s like I told you, my daddy is the chief of police and he’ll be sure to pin it on someone even if they didn’t do it,” Miyu lectures to Yuudai with a cackle.

As she hands Yuudai his clothes back she reveals a knife hidden underneath. She leans in closer poking the knife at his chest but not enough to break skin. It is however enough to make Yuudai flinch severely and whimper. “If I find out you don’t actually love me, or you aren’t fully devoted to me… we’re going to have to have another one of these sessions again, you hear me?” she says coldly.

Yuudai gives off a weak nod. She immediately kisses him on the nose and giggles while walking towards the stairs! “Good! I’m glad we’ve come to an understanding! I’ll see you at school, boyfriend~” Miyu gives off a wave as she disappears up the stairs.

***

“...After that I… ended up going back home and asking to be transferred out of school because of a better sports program… I couldn’t tell them what happened… I didn’t want anyone to be put in danger again… I can’t... I can’t…” Yuudai just freezes up before his sobbing becomes harder and harder. “I... can’t... do... this... again!”

Katsuki grabs Yuudai by the shoulders and looks directly into his eyes. “You’re not alone anymore, Yuudai, we’re all here for you.”

Yuuri speaks up, “We can take care of ourselves just fine, and right now we’re worried about you. So let us watch your back, kay?”

Yuudai pulls away from from Katsuki. “You...you don’t understand! You can’t understand!”

Katsuki doesn’t break eye contact with him as she continues. “We’ve all gone through heavy shit in our lives, alone. We don’t have to do that anymore. We’re clubmates but we’re also friends, so don’t try to handle this all by yourself, alright?”