Chapter 1: Prologue
Chapter Text
Waardenburg Syndrome.
Type 2 Waardenburg syndrome.
When Sakura was young, it was something the doctors had told him he had. (With pen and paper, because it wasn’t something he’d be able to hear them say anyway.) But they didn’t give him much explanation after that, only that it was the reason to his… obscene… genetic traits.
The two-toned hair, mismatching eyes, and most of all, his loss of hearing.
Sakura had never been born with hearing to begin with, so it’s not like it was something he could ever miss. Still, even so, he could make out noises and phrases, like everything was underwater. Profound hearing loss was something he could not fix nor fight, and even if he had the chance to buy cochlear implants or hearing aids, no one would waste the money on him.
So it was why he bounced around from foster home to foster home, each departure with the excuse of "He's too much for us… not the right fit.” And while Sakura couldn’t hear enough to make out the exact words, he could clearly see them written on their faces.
So he had learned.
He learned to communicate with his own language (his fist) and learned what people portrayed through their body languages, the disgusted looks they shot at him, and most of all, their lips. Sakura could hear voices and blurs, but the way their mouths moved told the story.
Even if sometimes, ‘Sakura’ looked to him like ‘Sucker,’ he was still perfectly capable of communicating, as long as he could fight whatever got in his way, because his fist worked as his mouth and he had nothing nice to say, in the end.
At least, not to the people whom he had met the first fifteen years of his life.
It was the night he had graduated from middle school (something that none in his crowded overpopulated city thought he would accomplish) that things in Sakura Haruka’s life came to a fever pitch.
The foster family (his last, he was afraid) hadn’t shown up, of course, and when he returned to the house late that night, there was a single duffle bag sat out on the front porch with the little belongings he owned. It was a silent affair, no arguments, no fights. The front porch light was flickering, and it cast a long shadow to hide how small he truly felt at the moment.
In the end, though, it was fine, because he was used to taking care of himself. He took the hot summer to disappear completely from his hometown, like a ghost. It was large and bustling, so it was easy to pretend he had never lived there in the first place. Simply an urban legend parents told their children (their biological ones that they kept, and didn’t throw out when they noticed their hair and eye color) to go to bed on time.
The foster parents were forced to send him checks every month of the bare minimum amount he needed, but they would rather set some money aside every month than see his face. (Ugly, hideous, unnatural.)
It didn’t take him long to find a small town, far away from his old one, where no one would know his name. He wasn’t looking for a fresh start at Bofuirin, simply a way to express himself through action and get to the top of the hierarchy, so that before he died, he could say that at least he was the best at something.
He took his little duffle bag, wired a new town PO box to his old foster parents before blocking both of them and their biological children (twins, who made him sleep out in the dog house every night while the family dog slept in their beds.) And hopped on the closest shuttle to get to the small town.
Sakura knew his way around dangerous situations, toed the line of them every day, so he found a run down apartment complex just on the border of the town and the railroad to another section of the red light district. The apartment was so shady that he wouldn’t need to sign anything to keep ownership, nor show an ID, only present cash once a month to cover the proper expenses. (There was no AC or water heater, but Sakura could work with that.)
By the time he claimed the small apartment as his own, set his duffle to the side to unpack for a later time (he wouldn’t, he would live through it) and lay his weary head down to rest on the cheap futon the apartment came with-The last guest left it, they had probably passed away on top of it- he could only sleep and sleep some more.
Summer was sweltering and school started in a few days time.
He took extra care to hang dry the school uniform that he received through the town's mail system on top of the window rail. There was no real window, it had been broken and never fixed. Anytime it rained, he simply moved his bedding to the corner of the room and hoped the downpour wasn't torrential enough to breach past the first few feet of the broken window.
A day before school was set to actually start, that was when Sakura decided he would finally emerge from the run-down complex he had been sleeping the summer heat away in. He could get a good look at the town (aside from the mail house that he had visited multiple times before) he would be residing in for at least a month before the people here chased him away as well.
Maybe he could find a cheap fan to battle the summer heat with.
So, like every night, he closed his eyes and ignored the chirping of crickets and cicadas directly outside. He couldn’t hear them all too well, like white noise in the background of his screaming mind, but he could feel their vibrations.
Ignored the humidity bearing down on him, even without a blanket, and ignored the stinging in his eyes because he was used to this by now.
At least he was no longer living in a dog house.
It was dark around him when he next opened his eyes, and at first he had expected to be back in that lonely broken down room, but instead, he found himself balancing on an all too familiar tightrope.
A recurring dream he’s had since he could remember.
He couldn’t see much aside from the tightrope under his feet, utter darkness surrounding him. Strange, because while the rest of his senses were shitty, Sakura had better than average vision despite his eye discoloration.
It creaked as he inhaled deeply, attempting to squash the rising nerves under his feet as he took yet another step. Steady. One by one. As long as he didn’t fall, he wouldn’t have to face them.
He felt a cold wind blow on his skin like a taunt as it brushed his hair back, goosebumps rising on the back of his neck as the rope swung from the right to the left.
The breeze grew even more violent until the tornadic winds sent him flailing until he lost his balance. Ultimately, this dream always ended the same, so he didn’t bother in a last ditch effort to reach up for the rope as he fell.
He blinked once, twice, three times.
There was a group of girls in front of him, wearing the uniforms from his middle school. Their mouths moved, spitting vile insults at him, and with his haze he could only make out a few of the words they were saying. “Ugly… scared… hideous.” They were all familiar words he was accustomed to seeing roll off of people's tongues anyways.
Then there were the adults, all criticizing him for repeatedly getting into fights. At the time, no one had actually sat him down and tried to explain, write, or even sign what he had done wrong. He had only been defending his own honor, but adults never understood that.
Then there was the foster parents, who had attempted to put on colored contacts and dye his hair, even if it wasn’t his own fault he looked like this besides the two who birthed him. He had no idea what they even looked like, they were long gone.
By the time Sakura finally blinked awake he was already tired and wanted to go back to sleep, though sleeping meant he would see their faces again, and he would rather avoid that. Forcing his tired muscles awake, he decided he would get ready to have his first look at the town.
Chapter 2: Sakura thinks everyone in this town is crazy
Notes:
IMPORTANT: The written version of signing is referred to as GLOSSING, and while ASL is a completely separate language than English, it takes english words and essentially rearranges the structure of a sentence completely. When anyone signs in this fic, I will not be GLOSSING, but if anyone would like me to write the ASL counterpart to what is signed in the notes, I can.
Chapter Text
‘Tonpu Shopping street’
It was a street Sakura was fairly unaware of since it was one he wasn’t forced to take to gather mail or to grab a few necessities from the small shady convenience store that ran down the street in the bar district across the train tracks.
It was brighter than he had seen from any of the other streets, and fairly populated. Children ran around, chasing each other while proud parents watched. A few civilians gave him spare glances over his shoulder, and instead of quickly looking away when he caught them staring, they smiled and waved at him.
Strange.
No one had thrown him out of town yet, so he ventured onwards until he crossed a barrier of wind chimes overhead, all separate sizes and colors. They swirled in the summer breeze, and chimed against each other, small ringing noises that would never quite reach past Sakura’s eardrums.
So focused on the colors, it took him a moment for his eyes to zero in on the scene that was going on a few stores up. A woman with her back to a graffiti infested wall, at least five men surrounding her. Sakura didn’t quite know what they were saying to her, but based upon her tense body language and the way she held her groceries close to her chest, he could tell it was an unwelcome exchange.
Not that Sakura really cared for her or her damn groceries.
He just hated weak people, and if he started to weed out the weak from Bofurin now… Then that would lead him to the top dogs.
Decision made, Sakura popped his knuckles and rolled his shoulders before roughly grabbing the tallest man by the back of the neck, shoving him backwards onto the ground until he sprawled out. Sakura looked down at him with a victorious smirk, and the man looked up, just as angry.
Around him, he could hear the muffled shouts of the men coming to their friends' rescue, but rearing a fist up behind him, he successfully clotheslined another. Putting his foot onto the man's chest, he peered down at him and sneered.
‘Weak’ He mouthed, more to himself than anyone else, then finished the job off with one swift blow. Easy.
Figures he would get knocked out at a baby punch.
He sighed to himself as he turned his back to the twitching man on the ground, putting his hands in his pocket to back away. Luckily, this area of town was slightly more isolated than where he had entered from, so he wouldn’t have to worry about too many gawking stares.
Well, except for…
A hand on his shoulder caused him to violently flinch and instinctively throw himself back, arms up for whomever dared to take him on from behind….
“Hey!” The girl shouted loud enough for him to hear, and he zeroed in on her with narrowed eyes. She was uncomfortably close when she talked again “Been trying…attention… while now!”
Sakura raised an eyebrow. She was talking really damn fast, but at least she was loud to make up for it.
Finally, her lips moved to form “Thank you,” it it took Sakura so much aback that he was sure he had read her wrong, because no one else had ever told him ‘thank you’ even if it was an incredibly easy thing for him to interpret.
Just in case, he looked around to see if she was talking to anyone else, and when the street was empty aside from the wind chimes, he pointed to himself questioningly.
Me?
She nodded slowly and looked around as if saying, ‘who else would I be talking to, the wind chimes?’
Thank you
Thank you
Thank you
The meaning echoed through Sakura’s mind like the beat of a snare drum as he felt his entire face grow hot with embarrassment. He glared at her and angrily signed off 'I didn’t do it for you! That guy was weak!'
She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.
Right, she probably assumed Sakura was just throwing gang signs at her.
That was fine, it was what he had intended anyway. She was being way too up close and personal with him and it made his face grow crimson.
She only took a moment to blink before she shrugged, then rubbed her hand over her stomach, her mouth forming the word “Hungry?”
…What?
This girl, Sakura decided, was way too weird. First, she had seen him beat up a few men with his fist and thanked him, then, she had seen what he had looked like, and invited him to… her cafe?
It had only been a street down, and apparently the groceries she had been saving from the men were the ones she needed to make her favorite dish. Or at least, that was all he had caught from her rambling on their walk over. She talked fast and loud, but oftentimes she used her hands, and whether that was for Sakura’s benefit or not, he didn’t know.
Now, he sat on one of the high chairs at the bar of her cafe, the closest one to the wall because he liked to be able to see as much around him as possible.
The interior was rustic and the lights were warm rather than the overbearing white buzzing lights that overwhelmed his eyes. It was… Nice.
He idly kicked his legs until a smell, overwhelming and heavenly, filled his senses, grabbing him by the neck and forcing him to look down at the meal that had been placed in front of him. The woman- Kotoha, he had learned, because her name tag said so- smiled as she wiped her hands off on a dishrag.
He looked back down to the egg dish, omelet rice, the meal she had claimed as her favorite, and felt his hands twitch from where he kept them placed on the wooden countertop. He knew how this worked, she would offer him something, and then take it away with a deep laugh that even his shitty ears could pick up, and then kick him from her cozy shop.
Instead, she stared at him and he stared right back for permission (because the times his foster parents offered him food, they would slap his hands away harshly and force him to eat it like the dog he was.)
She pushed the dish even further across the countertop, forcing Sakura to catch it so it didn’t fall in his lap.
“Eat,” she demanded, and how could Sakura deny that? His stomach was cramping anyway; he had run out of food at the apartment, and planned to stop on his way back to the shady convenience store to buy a few snacks.
He awkwardly fumbled with the fork until the glorious creation was shoved into his mouth, and when it was, he decided that it tasted as good as it looked. Immediately, he buried his head down and inhaled the rest of the meal on his plate until there were only a few crumbs left, and even then, he licked those up too because he wasn’t the type to waste food.
Kotoha looked at him with what could only be described as smug, and he flipped her off with a hand sign that was universal in all languages.
Despite that, he had a burning question that needed to be answered this instant. ‘Food’ he awkwardly signed to her, and she watched patiently as he attempted to find the words he was looking for, but failed. ‘S-H-I-P?’ he finger spelled, but she only looked at him with confusion.
“Sorry, I can’t understand,” she seemed to say, or at least, he estimated she did, but instead of turning her back and ignoring him like anyone else would have, she ducked low into the drawer underneath her and handed off to him… an erase board and marker?
“Write,” she said, imitating a drawing motion that was close enough to the actual sign for it.
She actually wanted to… Talk to him? Even if it would take more effort?
Once again, he felt his face grow red as he angrily yanked the marker cap off and aggressively wrote down onto the board. He hadn’t learned to write until an older age, so he still wasn’t the best…
He turned the board over so she could see, and she idly read the words on it for a moment before bursting into laughter, but not the kind of mean laughter that shop owners had before they kicked him out. Instead, she gently took the rag from him and erased the word “Takeoff” to replace it with “Take out.”
She showed him the board and pointed to the words “This is the correct sentence.”
‘Can you get Take-out from this place?’
Sakura sunk back into his seat with a huff as she shook her head in response to the question…
‘No,’ Sakura signed, and Kotoha blinked at him before imitating the sign with her own clumsy one.
“I see!” She exclaimed, then signed ‘No’ again. And no one had ever looked so happy when Sakura had attempted to get them to sign simple words, that he couldn’t help himself when he nodded his head, then knocked on the air in front of him, the sign for ‘yes.’
Kotoha repeated it with a smile before she nodded, then turned the whiteboard back to herself with a look of determination.
‘Are you from around here?’
‘No’ Sakura signed, but didn’t offer her any more information than that because he had abandoned that past now. He was here to beat people up and talk to them with his fist. She looked a little dejected when he didn’t elaborate, but didn’t let that stop her from pointing to herself and nodding.
“Me too. Why here?”
Sakura thought for a moment before pointing to his fist.
She didn’t look too surprised, and it took her a while to form her next sentence on the white board. “There’s a lot of gang activity in this town, lots of brawls.”
He felt a smirk tug at his lips before he nodded in agreement because it was just what he needed.
“Name?” She asked, and Sakura glared at her for a full moment before taking the board from her to write out his name and show it to her. She greedily read it and a smile grew on her lips, slightly menacing, but mostly with good intentions.
“Cute!” She said, and Sakura wanted to sink through the floor and die.
Before he could rapidly throw signs at her that neither of them would understand, she leaned over the countertop to get a good look at him, her face dangerously close. Alarm bells rang in Sakura’s head as she muttered something lowly to where Sakura couldn’t hear, but could pick up the words “Look… hair…eyes…color.” She was making fun of his appearance.
He was surprised she didn’t do that before the meal.
Then, she got even closer and Sakura jumped back, the chair he had previously inhabited almost falling completely to the floor as he held his fist up. He didn’t care if she was a girl, he’d fight her anyway.
She put her hands up in surrender and said something that could be ‘sorry,’ but the rest of her sentence was inaudible to Sakura. He squinted at her for a moment, read her calm body language, before deciding to sit back down.
‘Sorry,’ Sakura signed, and she caught the gist of it and repeated the sign back, closed hand on her chest. Then, she wrote some more on the whiteboard. ‘I wasn’t making fun of you, you look unique.’
Unique?
That was the last word Sakura had ever heard to describe him. Freak, psycho, and ugly, were more like it. Kotoha was weird, almost too weird for him. It made something clutch in his chest and it made his feet want to get up and run right out of the cafe.
Even so, he remained rooted to his chair as she rambled about something or another, about other people's hair, he supposed, as she mimed a mohawk. She was awfully good at pantomiming, easy to follow.
But… he wouldn’t get attached. It’s not like he wanted to make any friends here anyway, considering the sole reason he was at Bofurin was to overturn whoever their strongest leader was. From how low he was now, living in a trashy apartment with no parents or anyone who cared about him, he could only go up from here.
There was a tug on his uniform sleeve, and Sakura gave the woman an unimpressed look as she smirked. This time, it was fully taunting. “School uniform?” she said, then, “excited?”
Excited?
Sakura was Not an excited kid on their first day of school, he just wanted to fight.
He attempted to tell her as much, but when he was angry or flustered, his communication skills were lacking, and she just looked at him and his red face with that annoying smirk. ‘You’ me signed, ‘me,’ he signed, then put his fist up. ‘Outside now!’
It didn’t matter how good that omelet and rice was if she was just going to tease him.
As an interruption, Kotoha broke eye contact with him to look at the front door. The bell above it moved with a ring that alerted her attention. An old man was exiting, waving to them, but before he could leave Kotoha was ditching her apron from behind the counter to talk to him. Maybe it was a customer service thing, or maybe the people in the community were really that close.
Sakura didn’t know if he would stick around long enough to find out.
His eyes wandered sadly from his empty plate and across the shop, where the old man was previously sitting, to spot the pink bag that had been left on the table. Curiously, he got up and snooped to peek inside the bag, disappointed when he didn’t find a bomb, but rather, a children's toy.
He guessed it would be weird if even the old people in this town fought as well.
Disappointed with his find, he padded to the front of the shop where the man and Kotoha were still talking, shoving the bag forward in offering.
Both of the shop residents blinked at him in surprise.
Sakura didn’t expect to get anything out of his… ‘Kind action’ as Kotoha had called it, but as he looked down at the candies in his hand, he shoved them in his pocket and decided he would eat them for dinner.
It was strange. The man hadn’t even looked into the bag to see if the gift was still in there, when normally, people couldn’t stop looking at him with disgust and accusing him for things he didn’t even do. Apparently in his old city he was a wallet thief when he had only touched one to return it to their owner.
The total and utter strangeness of it all made him uneasy, like he was walking on glass around these people.
Even so…
Kotoha tapped him, then pointed to her head. “Thoughts?”
‘You’ he pointed at her, then signed ‘crazy.’
Instead of looking offended like she should have, she laughed, because everyone in this damn town was crazy. Kotoha reached for the whiteboard they hadn’t touched for a while, biting her lip as she concentrated on writing.
‘Furin is a good choice. You’ll like it there.’
Yeah, he’ll like beating peoples asses, that was for sure.
Then, she erased it and wrote some more.
‘But you won’t make it alone, if you want to make it to the top.’
Sakura stood from his chair, and for the second time that day, it nearly fell to the floor. Instead of running, he forced his legs to stay planted as he pointed to his fist. ‘Watch me.’ He would make it to the top-
She tapped on the whiteboard. More specifically, to the word ‘alone.’
Alone.
Underneath Sakura, the tightrope he was walking on swayed dangerously, the updraft of memories below him threatening to howl alive and reach out to claim him.
He shook his head to swipe away the memories. He didn’t need a damn sidekick or any help, he just needed his fist and an opponent, that was all.
Clutching the candies in his pocket, he brushed past her with a wave over his shoulder because he wasn’t a monster, she did feed him, afterall. But he’d had enough of this crazy town and her crazy words for one day.
Unfortunately, Sakura Haruka didn’t get what he’d asked for because he usually never got what he asked for.
He could feel the windchimes above him sway and the candy inside his mouth sour as he stared down the entire group of thugs. The head thug had a nice shiner on his face from earlier, and Sakura pointed to it with a smirk.
‘Looks good,’ he mouthed, and whether or not the man understood his taunt was beyond him as he talked over him, those lips forming the vile words he was used to, like ‘ugly’ and ‘weird’ and for some reason, Sakura’s anxiety settled because this was what he was used to. It was the norm, people calling him a freak and pushing him away.
If he beat the guy in front of him… that made him better than them. Not a freak, or weird, or ugly.
The second the man reached to touch his shoulder and jeer at him, he immediately reeled back to swing at him and utterly destroy his one good eye.
And then Sakura was doing what he knew best, brain buzzing in his ears as he swung and kicked and fought like a cornered animal, like he had nothing to lose, because he didn’t. If he was taken down in a fight, so what? He got beat up? He died? He didn’t care enough, nor did he expect to ever be taken down. As long as he only had his own back to worry about…
His train of thought cut short when above the muffled and underwater sounds of men yelling, there was a distinct higher tone. Sakura had an easier time hearing higher sounds than lower registered ones, read once that they reached further down the cochlea and bounced harder off the tympanic membrane. Or whatever the fuck that meant.
When he looked up, there that crazy woman was, a knife held to her throat as she yelled up at the man holding her hostage.
Dammit.
He didn’t care about her that much… but she had fed him the best food he had ever tasted, and it would be a shame if he could never eat it again if she was dead.
Besides, no one should bring a knife to a fist fight, it was common knowledge.
Using the back of a fallen man to pounce high into the air, he aimed a soaring kick to the man's arm to disarm him and send the knife clattering to the ground, then shifted momentum midair to use his other leg and kick him square in the face.
Lightwork.
When Sakura stood from his crouched position in an attempt to get Kotoha behind him, she clumsily put a hand to her lip and flicked it outward, the sign for ‘Thank you.’ She didn’t mouth it this time around.
Sakura could feel his ears grow pink.
Did she do some research while he was out prowling the town?
Embarrassing.
He ignored her and shoved her behind him, albeit a little roughly, as he continued to fight off renewed attacks. He liked fighting, it was the only time his mind was truly silent. Ironic, for someone hard of hearing to want silence, but the rush of adrenaline was what he’d imagined the ocean to sound like. It was peaceful.
Blood covered his fist as he took another dude down, but soon, their backs hit a wall because this time around Sakura didn’t only have himself to look after. He was weak with Kotoha behind him.
Think about the omelet rice.
Unfortunately, he could only feel a hand on his shoulder and the rough sound of someone yelling in his ears. He didn’t realize it was a warning until too late, until pain bloomed over his ankle and settled over it like a thick blanket. He looked down to see that a fallen thug had taken the knife from earlier and slashed at his calf, probably a clumsy attempt to slash his achilles tendon.
Still, he gritted his teeth. It hurt like hell.
He hadn’t been able to hear him pick up the knife.
He stumbled backwards, crushing both of them into the same graffiti colored wall from earlier, and when he looked back up, there was a metal bat flying straight for his head. Something he also hadn’t heard until it was too late.
He held his arms up in a last ditch effort to stop a blow that never came.
Eyes squeezed shut, he felt Kotoha move from behind him to peer over his shoulder, and when she didn’t tense up, he decided to open his eyes to see a guy in a Furin uniform in front of them, blocking the bats path.
It had hit his shoulder but…
Sakura shuddered and felt his own shoulder ache.
He didn’t look injured at all. Instead, he simply grinned down at them with shark teeth (there was no way this was a highschooler, he looked like a grown man) before. He was saying something, maybe to him, or maybe to Kotoha, but with just how low his voice rumbled, Sakura couldn’t distinct the words correctly over the rushing in his head.
He watched, useless as the thirty-year-old-highschool took the bat, towering over the thug as he made a show of bending it in half, discarding it to the ground. He yelled something to the scared thugs- louder this time, but it all sounded so muddled to Sakura. He could make out a few key words like ‘Furin’ and maybe even‘ fuck off’ but he wasn’t too sure.
All he knew was that… furin was helping him.
Why?
Weren't they all supposed to be at eachothers throats? Bloodthirsty to fight? In coming to the town, Sakura had hoped to find an even match for him to crush to the pavement, but now…
The Thirty-year-old-highschooler and his passi of three other students were the ones crushing Sakura’s enemy to the pavement while he watched.
The three moved like a unit, something that Sakura had never seen before. Teamwork? In a fight?
So immersed in the scene, he nearly missed the thug sending a fist to his face from the right, the only warning was the boom of the pavement beneath his feet. Dammit. He made to dodge, but the slash on his leg thrummed with an even hotter spike of pain, keeping him firmly in place and in the trajectory of a fist.
He closed his eyes.
It was fine, he had been punched before, and would probably be punched many more times.
But then, there the thirty-year-old-highschooler was again, batting the man away like he was nothing, protecting Sakura. He looked over his shoulder and yelled something unintelligible and Sakura didn’t understand. If it was an order, he couldn’t follow it.
He stayed stock still and stared at the man, who froze in confusion. He shouted something again, and Sakura shook his head in defiance. He didn’t care what he had to say, all he knew was that these Furin punks were taking his own fights away from him-
A hand gently pressed against his chest and pushed him back into the graffiti wall. ‘-ay still!” the thirty-year-old-highschooler shouted, and Sakursa could only assume he was telling him to sit on his ass and do nothing. The man pointed down to his injured foot, then held a hand out.
He wanted him to just… sit there and do nothing?
Before he could rush back out, Kotoha was grabbing him by the shoulder and reeling him back to the protection of where she had been standing. He went to glare at her, but it lost heat when she smiled apologetically and put a fist to her chest, rubbing it in a circular motion. ‘Sorry’ she had signed, the exact way Sakura had taught her to.
He looked away.
Whatever.
It was only then that he felt something… strange. Like the feeling of hoof beats he had felt the one time he snuck into the concert. People made fun of him- for wanting to go even though he couldn’t hear the singer- but the boombox was amped so high that he could almost have his own little concert in his head with the rhythm.
This feeling was similar, like the dull roar of applause that happened after that concert.
He looked right, then left, and then Kotoha poked his shoulder, and pointed up.
And that was when he noticed the residents of the small town all watching out from their windows, hooting and hollering (he would assume, based off of their mouth shapes and the veins poking from their foreheads) and clapping and waving rags around and… cheering them on.
Why In the hell were they cheering on a bunch of delinquents like them?
What was going on?
Sakura was so confused that he wanted to put his fist up and curl into the corner like a wild animal, on its last breath with rabies.
Then there was Kotoha again, pointing out the obvious as if she could read his mind. She directed his attention to the sign posted up not too far from where the were, one of many. He had seen a much larger one exactly like it at the entrance of the town, one that read.
‘Anyone who causes pain past this point, who brings distraction, who holds evil in their heart, will be purged by Bofurin without exception.’
Then she pointed to the Fruin kids fighting, and it all clicked at once.
He thought the sign had been a funny promotion for some super hero cartoon, but… the students of Furin highschool had written it, so they were… protectors of the town?
What the hell?
Sakura was too busy in his own shock to notice that the thirty-year-old-highschooler and the rest of his minions had finished off the thugs, met with roars of approval from the civilians as they crowded around them.
Delinquents shouldn’t be treated like that. They should be feared, but instead…
There was a touch at his injured leg, a hand grabbing it. Something trying to reach his weak spot and target him in a moment of surprise. Many hands had done the same before, and for a split second, these ones looked the same. They wanted to harm him.
On instinct, he threw himself backwards to avoid the scalding touch his back hitting the brick behind him rough enough to leave a bruise as he growled- did anything to avoid those hands from touching him. He wanted away.
“Don’t touch me!” He cried out, or at least, tried to. Sakura had never been good at talking when he couldn’t hear himself, so he was sure that what he had cried came out as a jumble of nonsense, even if he thought he moved his lips and tongue the right way.
His pathetic threat must have sounded shrill, because now everyone's eyes were on him, and the old woman who had reached out to… fix his wound? Reeled back immediately.
Sakura was at a standstill, awkwardly, unsure of what to do.
Before he could run away, Kotoha was on the ground before him, reaching out to take his injured leg and lift the bloodied pant leg to eye the damage. Her touch didn’t burn him nearly as bad as he thought it would.
He analyzed as she carefully took a rag to swipe the blood away, then frowned. She reached into her large apron pocket to protrude a… whiteboard? Was she keeping that with her from now on?
‘Stitches.’ She wrote when his bleeding started again through the makeshift bandage,, and he wasn’t surprised. He huffed as she returned his leg to him, he could to the stitches by himself later in the privacy of his own shitty apartment.
He knocked on the air, ‘Yes.’
Kotoha didn’t look too amused as she uncapped the dry erase marker to write even more. The townspeople looked worried at the growing scene, but thankfully, the thirty-year-old-highschooler had busied most of them with helping them deposit the unconscious thug bodies in a heap.
‘Furin, ‘Bofurin’ protects the town, the town loves him. We accept you here.’
He read it, then rubbed his eyes again, just to be sure he read it right. And when he did, he shook his head. He stubbornly signed no, and she stubbornly signed yes, and Sakura was regretting even teaching her how to sign the word.
‘The town will rely on you, and you can’t do that alone,’ She wrote again, ‘so do it with us. Let us have your back. Look up at us and you’ll find the community you’re looking for. You won’t be alone anymore.’
Sakura’s entire body tingled, whether it was from the blood loss or the lowering of his adrenaline rush, he didn’t know. His fingers and toes were numb and for some reason, his eyes stung.
The tightrope he was walking on pulled taught underneath his weight, but there was no wind threatening to knock him over this time. He balanced on it, and he didn’t fall.
If all he had to do was win a fight… then even someone like Sakura could manage that.
Finally, as an answer, he stepped forward, unsteady on his injured foot as he pushed past the townspeople, past the curious furin students, as he marched to the lead thug whom he had gifted two separate shiners to. He was just getting up, eyes swollen shut.
He uppercut the man under the chin, and he fell down once again like a tower of cards under Sakura’s hand.
Maybe someone as messed up as him could find somewhere for… comfort.
Suddenly, his vision doubled and he was forced to sit down before the world tilted on its axis and he passed out.
This was strange and weird and new, but it was fine. He could manage this.
Chapter 3: Sakura sees a hideous shirt
Notes:
I did forget to mention that I realize Sakura would realistically use JSL and not ASL, but I didn’t catch that until later, plus I am more familiar with ASL soooo lol.
Chapter Text
Sakura, in the end, avoided ever talking to the students at Furin who came to… protect him. The moment his ass hit the ground and he stared up at the sky, there was one, the boy with headphones, who stood above him and stared down at him. Before Sakura could growl at him to go the fuck away while he recuperated and licked his wounds, headphone boys head shot up to attention. Someone must have called him. As quick as he came, he was gone.
The evening sky above him swirled like a canvas watercolor, still drying. Everyone was weird as hell here… but he liked it.
And then there was Kotoha, the crazy cafe owner, standing above him and offering him a hand. She was saying something to him- probably scolding him for nearly passing out- but he didn’t have the energy to try to read her lips or translate what she was saying.
He stared at her hand, and she heaved a sigh and instead, grabbed him by the shoulders to pull him upwards. The townspeople had by now dismissed themselves, only a few worriedly staying a few feet away, chatting amongst themselves.
And they must have called a paramedic, because there was a young looking doctor with scrubs on standby with a medical kit. The sight of her made Sakura’s hair stand on end, and he made sure to send her a nasty glare.
She smiled awkwardly.
Kotoha whacked him on the back of his head (it made his vision dance with black dots) and sent her a venomous glare of her own. ‘Be nice’ she seemed to say with just her own look alone. Sakura reeled back like a soaked cat, glowering.
‘No,’ he signed, ‘no touching.’
She gave him an exasperated look, and Sakura could clearly see her lips move to form “Why?”
He ignored her, using her shoulder as leverage to stand himself up once his vision finally rightened itself. He, once again, left with a hand wave over his shoulder. (Only after taking the medical kit the doctor had offered to him.)
That night, stitching himself up with a rag in his mouth to hide any ugly noises his throat would unconsciously make, with a light head and a heavy body, he couldn’t help but think he would have let that crazy lady stitch him up if she offered him another rice omelet.
“Dude, did you hear about the new guy who moved into town?”
“Yeah, I heard he lifted a car over his head.”
“Oh no, I heard he took on a grizzly bear by himself and knocked it on its ass.”
“Whoever has his voodoo doll needs to chill because there’s no way he’s that OP.”
“He’s going to Furin, I heard.”
“I think you should shut your mouth before he comes for the both of us. Hide your kids, hide your wife.”
Sakura woke up to the loud complaining of his stomach, rumbling like some internal alarm. Sakura’s mental alarm clock was always pristine since he couldn’t rely on the sound of a normal alarm clock to wake him.
He rolled over onto the uncomfortable futon and blindly patted the floor around him for his phone to look at the time. Judging by the sun barely peeking past his non-window, it was much too early. He didn’t have to meet at school for an introductory orientation until later.
Once again, his stomach rolled uncomfortably.
He hadn’t stopped by the convenience store on his way back like planned since he was too lightheaded to do much else besides stumble to his apartment. Therefore, no food.
He sat up and patted his aching stomach, then moved his hands to cup his bandaged calf when it stung with the movement. Sluggishly, it was bleeding through the bandage. A stitch must have pulled loose in his sleep, dammit.
After restitching and rewrapping his cut, the sun rising even higher in the sky, he decided he couldn't marinate in his own starving misery any longer. He longed for some more omelet rice, and maybe the lady was crazy enough to feed him scraps like a stray. It was late enough for her breakfast rush to be done.
Decision made, he threw on the Furin uniform hung over the curtainless rack, then splashed water over his face before exiting his apartment. The door didn’t lock, but it wasn’t like he had any valuables for anyone to steal anyway.
The morning sunlight caught the wind chimes as they fluttered in the air and Sakura, never usually one for sceneries, forced his eyes away as he slowly made his way down the street. There were townspeople out, milling about the market. A few stared at him and some even waved, their mouths moved to form words but Sakura couldn’t make them out.
He was stopped about halfway down the street when he bumped into something… or someone. He looked to his right, then his left, then down at the woman who was shouting something up at him. She looked angry.
Sakura stepped back, sucking on the inside of his cheek as he assessed the situation. She could be telling him he was cursed and to get out of her town, but…
She reached up to grab him by the ear, then bent him over forward. Surprised, he went all the way down with her until he realized she was pointing to his bandaged leg. The pant legs revealed the end of the bandage, slightly short.
She was worried about his leg? Maybe it was an ugly sight for him to drag all downtown.
Suddenly the woman seemed to catch onto the fact that he either couldn’t hear her, or didn’t want her help, because she snapped her finger and from the shop next to them, a tall man emerged. He had a large frame but looked similar to her… maybe her son? Nephew?
She demanded him to do something, and suddenly, Sakura was being lifted into the air and thrown over a stern shoulder.
No matter how much struggling he did, there was no way to escape the man's iron grip. It made his hair stand on end, like he was about to be executed on the spot, but no matter how hard his fingertips dug into his shoulder, his grip always remained gentle.
He really would rather die in a hole than be subjected to this, but he figured that kicking and pounding on the man's chest and back like a child would be even more embarrassing, so he simply hung limply as the lady led them around.
Maybe she was taking him to the entrance of the town to kick him out. Maybe they got tired of looking at his gnarly appearance.
But then… They were entering the crazy ladies cafe and he was being deposited on a bar stool- the same high chair from yesterday (plus a small dent from where he had knocked it over.) He let out a huff in surprise, mildly confused as to why they took him here rather than forcing him out of the town.
He would take small victories when he could claim them.
The old lady waved her… son? Nephew? Young husband? Away from the shop and he looked frustratingly chipper as he waved goodbye. Maybe she was his sugar mama.
He prepared to jump off of the stool and make his way back to his apartment to die from embarrassment on his own, even if his leg was aching like the stitches were pulling at his every seam. Before he could jump from the chair and storm out, a plate was placed in front of him, and it smelled so good that not even his nose could resist.
It looked like… an egg sandwich, loaded with lettuce and seasoning.
He peered up to see Kotoha grinning down at him, hands buried in the pocket of her apron as she implored him to dig in with a jerk of her shoulder. This was… strange.
‘I don’t have money,’ he signed, and when she stared blankly at him, he signed a more simple message that she would understand. ‘Money? No.’
She broke into peels of laughter and pushed the plate even further towards him, “It’s free” she said to him, slow enough for him to process the movement of her lips.
Free?
In Sakura’s world, everything came with a price, no matter how small. Maybe she just didn’t want to tell him what that would be at the moment because she was relatively insane.
His stomach cramped ferociously and he forced himself to grab onto one of the sandwiches and shove it into his mouth, consequences be damned because he was starving. Kotoha made a disgusted face, like he was a wild animal, and then slid some napkins over to him.
He angrily wiped his face off to continue eating, all while Kotoha pulled out the whiteboard to write something down.
Sakura wasn’t used to people wanting to talk to him- taking the time to write things on a board so he could understand. Of course he tried- tried to use his voice to answer questions back when he was younger, but after his foster parents slapped him and scolded him not to make such ‘inhumane’ noises, he decided he wouldn’t ever try it again.
He was done with his entire meal by the time she showed him the whiteboard.
‘Your ceremony isn’t until later, were you walking down the street at ten in the morning because you were… excited?’ she wiggled her eyebrows and Sakura gave her a solid thumbs down, then rubbed his stomach.
He couldn’t care less about high school or entrance ceremonies, he had just been hungry.
Her gaze softened as she took the empty plate back from him to place into the sink. Then, she turned around and met his eyes, “Look at me,” she said, slow and deliberately for him to translate, and it caught his attention. “I want to make sure you understand..” her words trailed as he lost what she was saying, and he tilted his head to the side to show her that she had lost him mid sentence.
She put a closed hand to her chest, looking apologetic, ‘Sorry’ she signed, then wrote down onto the board in all capital letters.
“I want you to know that you can come here to eat anytime you want, understand?”
Sakura’s eyes widened in shock as he looked down at the message, then nodded slowly. Kotoha was crazy, but not this insane. Why would anyone do such a thing for him? Feed him like he was a stray cat?
He put a fist up beside his head and flicked his pointer finger upwards, the sign for ‘Understand.’
She nodded triumphantly, and Sakura would have never noticed someone entering the cafe if it wasn’t for the vibration of the door hitting the wall as it was swung completely open. Whoever it was, had decided to make a flashy entrance.
He quickly turned around in his chair to see…
The most atrocious purple shirt he had ever seen, not even dulled down when covered by a furin uniform. Sakura squinted his eyes, because they were awfully sensitive to light and… atrocious purple shirts.
The kid who couldn’t have been much older than himself was happily shouting something to Kotoha while she smiled politely and cheered him on. Sakura could assume that he was also a first year student who went a bit overboard on excitement for his first day of school.
As he showed off his flashy outfit, Sakura cringed and pointed at the tags still stuck to the back of his blazer.
“Huh?” He seemed to stop at his silent pointing, and when he noticed what he was referring to, he let out a loud “Oh!” and essentially fell to his ass as he struggled to get the tag. Sakura watched, unimpressed.
He looked back to Kotoha and pointed at him, and then to his own school uniform. ‘He’s a Furin student?’
She smiled like she was used to the scene the kid was making, then wrote ‘His name is Nirei, he’s in the same grade as you! Besties!’ then doodled a little heart and Sakura was quick to erase it with his own sleeve out of annoyance.
There was no chance he would be friends with someone like… That.
Finally, the purple shirt guy- Nirei- picked himself up off the ground with two tags in his hands. Apparently, he had missed the one on his pants too. “Thanks!” He shouted, then paused when he met eyes with Sakura.
Sakura tensed because here it comes, the questioning and the expected bullying.
“Who are you?” he seemed to say, and when Sakura just squinted at him trying to understand what in the hell he was saying with his mouth moving a mile a minute, Kotoha placed a hand on Sakura’s shoulder, and thankfully, began talking to… Nirei?
He missed whatever she was saying, but it must have been enough for him to curiously scoot closer to him. Sakura wished that him and his hideous purple shirt would go away.
He looked at Sakura curiously and- with worry?- as he reached out to twirl a strand of his white hair between two fingers. Sakura, on instinct, batted his hands away and kicked a leg out to create some distance between them.
“Sorry, sorry!” Nirei and his hideous purple shirt said, and then Kotoha shoved the whiteboard in his hands.
She was… laughing?
That crazy-
‘He thinks your hair is white because of stress. He says you’re too young to be stressed.’
… stress?
‘S-T-R-E-S-S?’ He fingerspelled as if it would make any more sense to him. Sometimes he defaulted to finger spelling when things didn’t quite make sense to him.
Nirei looked at him as if cogs had turned in his brain, then quickly took the whiteboard and fervently wrote down chicken scratch to show off to them.
‘You’re hairs so interesting, I mean, it’s not stress. pleasedontkillme!
You’re Sakura from out of town
Why did you come here?
Where are you from
How…’
The whiteboard ran out of room by the time he finally was done writing his questions out. Sakura only squinted at the questions, slightly overwhelmed.
Sakura decided to sign ‘why’ and then erase the board and write down in all capitals ‘I will win.’
The two of them both stared at him and Nirei nervously took the board back to write…
‘You shouldn’t stress yourself out over winning- you’ll go bald.’
Dammit!
By the time Kotoha was done laughing at Sakura’s red face, and Sakura was done trying to shove Nirei and his stupid annoying purple eyesore of a shirt away from them, Nirei was gone.
He had eyed the clock and ran out of the store with little more than a wave.
He looked at Kotoha and she told him that he “went out on potato,” but that couldn’t be right. He tilted his head and lowered his eyebrows in confusion, and she wrote out, ‘he went on patrol.’
Oh.
That made more sense.
What a weirdo.
Was someone like him really a Furin kid? Someone who wanted to fight people?
Sakura angrily pointed at the door, then his fist, as if asking ‘Can he even fight?’
The cafe owner rolled her eyes and asked “Is that all.. About?” But Sakura didn’t quite catch the middle of her sentence. He signed ‘again’ and she must have understood what he signed because she repeated, this time slower. “Is fighting all you care about?”
For now, it was.
‘He,’ Sakura pointed once again to the door where he had left, then gave a giant thumbs down. ‘Looks lame.’
“You,” she pointed at him, then gave him a thumbs down, “Look lame.”
Before Sakura could leap over the counter to strangle her, she was already up and brewing him coffee. He would kill her later, after she finished his drink.
Sakura could see her ask something with the way she tilted her head backwards to him, but he couldn’t see her well enough to read her lips or see her sign, so he looked at her lamely and pointed at his ear.
“Oh!” she smiled sheepishly, then revealed the white board to him. ‘What color are coffee beans?’
He raised an eyebrow at the completely out of left field question, then signed ‘Coffee colored?’ But she didn’t even give him time to answer the question before she showed him the whiteboard again.
‘I’m assuming you’re going to say brown, like coffee, which is wrong. Do you get what I'm trying to say?’
He tapped his middle and pointed finger to his thumb twice while shaking his head. ‘No.’
‘It means, don’t be a hypocrite.’
Sakura didn’t even have enough time to guess what the word hypocrite meant before she was leaning over the counter to whack him on the back of the head, hard.
By the time the ceremony drew near Sakura had attempted to leave the cafe nonchalantly- keyword, attempted.
He was still mildly shocked at receiving free food from a stable source with no force to pay her back by any means necessary. He was also shocked at being able to talk to someone long enough for it to be qualified as a proper conversation.
The most he had talked to someone in his life was simple yes or no questions.
And the most someone had talked to him in his life was when his foster parents or fellow students were picking on him for one thing or another.
He couldn’t help but feel awkward at interacting with someone for a prolonged period of time- but for some reason it made his chest feel lighter all the same.
A weird feeling he had never felt before, so foreign that he wanted to squash it like a cockroach and sweep it under the rug of his mind.
Unfortunately, before he could even try to leave the cafe, the same old lady (whom he had assumed had left, but maybe was even dropping on their conversation) who had forced him here earlier stopped him with a wooden crutch.
He looked down at the item and wrenched it out of the way, but she had just smiled as if she had expected him to do so, and then left him with the wooden crutch and a laughing Kotoha.
He turned to her, waving the offending item in her face to get a rise out of her, but she only laughed louder and pushed the crutch away.
“For you,” she mouthed, then said something else that Sakura couldn’t comprehend.
For… him?
He had never received anything from anyone before, so he could only assume that the crutch was a jeer towards his appearance.
‘Don’t get defensive,’ Kotoha wrote, ‘she wants you to use it for the next few days until your stitches can be removed.’
She wanted him to walk around with a useless handicap.
Kotoha’ eyes grew menacing and she tapped the dry erase board with the marker.
‘She used to be the town's doctor, so what she says goes.’
That was how Sakura Haruka found himself crunching down the street like some useless wannabe with townspeople waving at him and wishing for him to get well. (He actually knew this time because for some damn reason they all had their own chalk boards to show him. Why were they all writing for him?)
Still… his leg hurt significantly less and the healing time would be lessened now that the weight wasn’t on it. At this pace, he could get back to 100% fighting normal within the next few days.
He would need a place to hide the crutch when he went to orientation because there was no way he would show them how weak-
Suddenly there was someone wrapping their arms around his torso and suffocating him- yanking and pulling him and nearly knocking him and his crutch to the ground.
He stepped on his foot and winced as he felt his stitches pull at his skin.
Sakura reeled his arm back to punch whoever was attempting to kidnap him, but stopped short when he realized it was a woman who looked on the verge of tears. She was saying something so rushed that Sakura couldn’t understand what she was saying.
It got frustrating sometimes, so frustrating not hearing what was going on in the world around him and not being able to process it. It made something simmer and boil in his chest, threatening to crawl up his throat and devour his entire being, but he was used to it by now.
She continued to say things, words spilling from her mouth but not quite reaching Sakura’s brain. He reeled back in confusion, overwhelmed at her pestering. Eventually, a townsperson stopped her- the same one who had held a bag of bread up to him but he ignored, because nothing was for free- and listened to her story. He nodded along, and then, eventually pointed to a nearby alleyway off of the shopping street.
“Help me,” he said, slowly and deliberately, and it finally clicked in Sakura’s brain that she wasn’t screaming at him to get out of town or that he was possessed, but she had been asking him for help.
He turned heel with his (stupid) crutch and went to see what the ruckus was about, because if there was a fight, he was more than willing to take a detour. Orientation didn’t start for another hour anyway, and he had just been wandering aimlessly before.
He put his hand against the concrete wall to feel the grainy texture of it, trailing it along as he continued his trek down the more shaded area of it, and once he spotted the group of four circling behind a dumpster, he knew he was in the right spot.
He couldn’t hear the sound of flesh beating against flesh, but he could see it in the way the group was shoving and hitting on astounding-purple-shirt-guy. Nirei, if he remembered correctly. He had always been bad with names.
Sakura paused against the wall for a moment to watch the scene unfold- see if he had any fighting skills to match his charisma, but he remained the punching bag. He must have been yelling at them, with the way blood trickled down his face and onto the floor, but it was lost on Sakura.
Despite being relatively weak… He didn’t run away, and he stayed defiant even with a fist aimed for his face.
He didn’t run, just like all of the others in Sakura’s life had.
That was enough for him to warrant interrupting the fight by swinging his crutch in a clean arc, taking on the front leader and effectively creating a gap of space between them and Nirei. From the side of his vision, he could see Nirei look up in surprise, but he didn’t give him much chance to talk when he passed his crutch back to him. The universal sign of ‘Hold this while I beat their asses.’
It didn’t take too long, as they were all useless, but by the time the dust cleared, Sakura was looking down unimpressed at them as he nudged a limp body with his toe. His stitches had pulled slightly and the blood may be welling up under his bandages, but it was something that could be fixed when he got back to his lonely apartment later.
When he turned back around, he nearly wanted to simply move out of the entire town because Nirei was crying. The kind of crying with a runny nose and red eyes. Sakura was never good with crying people.
He scooted back, ever so slightly.
Maybe he wouldn’t notice if he left…
“-AIT!” THe boy shouted, so loud and high pitched that it ricocheted off of the alleyway walls and all the way past the busted up ossicles in Sakura’s ears. He flinched and slowly crouched down to retrieve his crutch.
“___ … Weak,” Nirei said, looking down and saying more, though Sakura couldn’t tell exactly what it was without seeing his face or without him speaking up. It must have been important though, because he was crying again and Sakura just wanted him to stop.
He tugged at Nirei’s hair to get him to look back up before signing ‘No,’ he pointed at him, ‘you grow.’
Strangely enough, that seemed to do the trick as Nirei’s eyes widened and sparkled like Sakura had just hung the moon. “I get it! Youwantmeto-”
Sakura stopped him, then signed ‘slow’ because for the life of him, he could never understand fast talkers.
“I get you!”
Sakura signed back, ‘no, you don’t’
Nirei nodded, “Yes! I do! You’re cool!”
Cool? That had never been a word to describe him before. All of these people were so strange.
‘Stop crying,’ Sakura signed back, and before Nirei could retort again, the same woman from earlier emerged from where she had been watching, lavishing Nirei with what he could only assume were compliments as she helped him up. His face was red, and he wondered if it was what his own face looked like.
Sakura turned away from the woman before she could turn her attention on him, crutching his way out of the alleway and into broad daylight-
A notebook was shoved in his face, one that Nirei held out with a look of a beggar on his face. He said something and thrusted it into Sakura’s hand for him to read. He looked down to see…
Personal Info?
Height-
Weight-
Gender-
Preferred partner-
Measurement of-
Okay, what the fuck. Sakura threw the book back at him with a frown. Why would he need this information from him?
Nirei tapped on the front of the notebook where it was titled ‘Dudez I think R cool.’
… Huh?
Sakura ignored him on putting the information in, signing ‘Do what you want’ as he left, and somehow, that seemed to be an invitation for Nirei to trail him like a puppy all the way across town to Furin high school, whether he understood sign language or not.
The school was as he expected, run down and with weeds growing like vines through the concrete of the broken building. Graffiti littered the courtyard and crows pecked at each other, only to be scared off by their entrance.
This was the type of place where people fought daily. Where Sakura could fight everyone here and be on top.
Nirei took him by the arm- mindful of his crutch- and practically dragged him up the entrance stairs while pointing vicariously to some ancient time period prop with a list on them. Nirei waved his arms frantically for some reason as he observed the list, eyes lighting up as he noticed that the two of them would be in the same class.
For some reason, something strange pooled in his chest at that because no one had ever been excited to be apart of the same class as him before.
And then Nirei was chatting about something else, so fast and excited that Sakura had to take him by the shoulder and sign ‘Slow.’
Nirei smiled apologetically and then pointed to four separate names on the list, then his fist. They were strong people he could fight, and judging by the way Nirei clutched his notebook, he assumed they were written in there.
Though there was one name that Nirei looked… absolutely terrified to see.
The stronger the better.
The inside of the building looked just as run-down as the outside, and the place was looking more promising the more he saw it, even if Nirei was cowering behind him nervously. By the time they made it to the classroom he looked as if he was about to be sick, and Sakura stopped outside the door to glare at him.
‘What?’ he signed.
Nieri pointed to his fist, then shook his head. “Don’t fight pleasepleaseplease-”
Sakura huffed at that, because no way in hell did he come to a school notorious for its gang activity, only to sit on his ass and watch the fights. He passed his crutch to Nirei, who took it willingly, happy to have something to hold onto. Sakura had to be ready for anything once he entered that door, and a crutch would only hinder him.
He slid the door open and he could practically feel Nirei shiver behind him at the stares they got. If the classroom was loud before, Sakura could imagine it was pin drop silent now. He made sure to make direct eye contact with everyone in the room as he entered slowly, and the tension only snapped like a taut spring when one of the classmates approached him.
He had a strange look to him- tassel earrings and traditional clothing under the uniform. Even a damn eyepatch.
Sakura put his fist up to fight as he approached, but Mr.Eyepatch only smiled at him serinley. Nirei poked his head out from behind him, looking way too excited as he pulled his notebook out and clumsily flipped through the pages.
So this must mean eyepatch was strong.
Instead of fighting, eyepatch only tilted his head and said “You must be Sakura.”
And oh, Sakura liked the way he talked. The way he enunciated every word, slowly and surely, seemingly rolling perfectly off of his tongue without Sakura even being able to hear him. Sakura usually was never able to talk to patient people like this.
Sakura could only nod because- well, that was his name- but then eyepatch was going on to say something else. “Hello, I’m…” And, Sakura wasn’t sure he read his lips right, but the name that left them was so very american that he had to perk up in excitement.
Was eyepatch a foreigner?
And then eyepatch tilted his head ever so slightly with a teasing grin and said “Joking.”
Even if he was great and perfectly understandable, Sakura would punch him.
Nirei tapped Sakura on the shoulder and pointed to the classmate, probably trying to attempt to tell him that he was not really a foreigner and his actual name, but Nirei had a problem with stuttering and lip trembling that made it hard to formulate what he could possibly be telling him.
Eyepatch seemed to watch their interaction, and his one dark eye lit up with surprise, even if the rest of his expression remained the same. He lightly waved to get their attention, and then much to Sakura’s surprise, began signing.
‘My name is S-U-O, or,’ and then he traced delicate hands over his eyepatch… he had a sign name? Sakura had never actually ran into someone who knew sign language- let alone had an appointed sign name before.
Eager to test his proficiency, Sakura signed, ‘What’s with the eyepatch?’
His way of signing, of course, was much more informal than Suo’s, but he had never been taught. He was self taught based on youtube videos he watched when his foster parents left the house on occasion.
Suo smiled, ‘Ancient spirits dwell in them.’
And his way of signing was… beautiful. Mesmerizing, even. His hands traced the air and painted words to life compared to Sakura’s own harsh and clumsy ones.
Sakura didn’t care if the rest of the class was giving them weird looks. This was something he had never been able to have before.
“Enough about me… how about you?” Suo approached even closer. He talked and signed at the same time to involve both parties in the conversation.
Sakura put his fist up, ready to fight the signer, but rather than engage in a fight, Suo raised a hand up to… pat him on the back. (Sakura had flinched because his hand up, ready to hit him, reminded him of getting slapped many times before when he couldn’t fight back.)
He continued to pat his back (and continue signing, it was strange) as he announced that Sakura had ‘saved the town yesterday’ or whatever, and that had a few of the other students peeking up from their seats and circling around them in curiosity.
“Wow, that was him?”
“My grandma said he was amazing! He held down the fort until Higari was there!”
“Wow, that’s with the cane, Is it yours, did you injure your leg in the fight?”
It was quite overwhelming, especially because Sakura could actually understand what they were saying. Suo, with lightning precision, signed their questions like… his personal interpreter.
Sakura wasn’t sure what to think or do about it.
Nirei poked his head out from where he had been hiding behind Sakura, “the cane, he hurt his leg yesterday!”
He snitched on him.
Sakura growled as he snatched the cane from his grasp. How had he even known he’d gotten injured yesterday if he wasn’t there?
The group of boys moved even closer, backing Sakura and Nirei almost to the wall. He felt his face grow hot because of the proximity of so many new people. He wanted out.
“Why are you here?” One of them asked, and Sakura didn’t need Suo’s translation to understand that they were suspicious of his appearance.
‘You’ he pointed to Suo, who only smiled blankly, ‘you translate this to them.’
Suo nodded and watched Sakura’s signing, expression unchanging. Then, he turned to the crowd (was his smile even bigger?) and announced exactly what Sakura wanted to say.
“He says he’s here to claim the top spot at Furin.”
a full beat of what Sakura suspected was dead silence as everyone stared at him. Until then, a chair flew right in their direction, crashing against the wall between Sakura and Nirei.
Sakura could only glance over to the lumbering beast at the doorway and wonder just why In the fuck he had seaweed looking hair and how he could best fight him.
Chapter 4: Sakura makes enemies with the slowest talker in the world
Notes:
Hey guys! Updates will probably be one every week since I am moving off to college in a few days, thanks for sticking with me!
Chapter Text
Nirei was clinging onto the front of Sakura’s shirt, fiercely shaking his head and blubbering. Sakura could only assume he was scared of their new classmate who had just flung an entire desk in their direction.
Before Sakura could push Nirei away, the new guy was already slinging a fist in their direction, sending the group of students flying backwards Sakura could only focus on defending himself, but caught sight of eyepatch- Suo- grabbing Nirei by the collar to get him out of the fights range. Good.
Sakura Defected the punch and was pushed back, the crutch he had been holding clattering to the floor. Suo was quick to catch it with his foot and pick it up with a supportive thumbs up. Though, around them, the class was yelling inaudible phrases, the most Sakura could make out was “He’s… Injured,” but his focus was broken by the lumbering giant in front of him.
This kind of power was just what he had expected from Furin high.
With a grin on his face, Sakura shot forward, ignoring the pain in his foot as he tried to get a hit in because whether he was injured or not, he would take down this bozo and climb his way to the top of the school.
Though, with the other students' large wingspan, it was almost impossible to attempt to get a blow in, forcing Sakura on the defense. He expertly weaved and dodged punches swung directly at him. Ducking, he could wonder just what in the hell Sakura had done to piss him off so much. Was it his appearance? Was it because he was a newcomer?
It didn’t matter, because this was how people were supposed to react when he was around instead of being so welcoming like everyone else was.
The lanky guy bent low and attempted to swipe Sakura’s legs out from under him, but Sakura was quick to jump to avoid it. In the movement, a stitch tore and he bit his lip to avoid making a noise at the sudden sting of pain. It was fine, he would keep fighting.
The class was still hollering all around them, some even yelling at Suo (though for what, he didn’t know. Weren’t they all delinquents? Shouldn’t they all enjoy a good brawl?)
Sakura could feel the pain shoot up his leg when he landed, but seaweed-hair was already aiming for another punch straight to the face. Sakura backtracked, but the sudden movement on his leg caused it to give out and make him fall backwards.
In the corner, he could vaguely see Nirei reach out to him in worry.
The punch was still flying directly at him, so out of self-preservation, Sakura sunk low into a backbend as his fist sailed directly over his body, meeting only open air.
Sakura smirked. A swing and a miss. This was the opportunity he needed to do a back walkover to get back to a standing position, delivering a swift uppercut with his foot on his way up. He could feel the way Seaweed-hairs jaw clenched and buckled under his foot as he flew backwards.
The class watched with open mouthed awe as Sakura landed on one foot (avoiding putting weight on the injured one. He could already feel blood seeping through his uniform pants.) Then reared a fist back to go back on the offensive.
Just as his fist was about to collide with seaweed-hair’s face, his opponent stopped suddenly, facing the whiteboard with the graffiti strewn over it. Sakura was forced to call off his punch and regain balance to see just why in the hell his opponent had given up so early in the fight.
When he looked around the room to question, he saw the entire class staring at the same exact place. That… was weird.
He could feel a loud sound vibrating from off of the floorboards, tickling his ears, but it was all feedback to him.
Then, he made eye contact with Suo, who pointed to the loudspeaker over the whiteboard. Sakura’s shoulders fell back with the realization- someone was talking over the speakers, probably someone of high respect with the way the entire class looked like zombies. Not that it mattered to Sakura, he just wanted to keep fighting.
Then, Suo was beside him, slipping the clutch under Sakura’s arm so that he wouldn’t have to balance on one foot. He then signed ‘I’ll translate it for you,’ then pointed to seaweed-hair, ‘That is S-U-G-I-S-H-I-T-A, he fought you because the top spot belongs to his idol. He is very defensive of him.’
Ah, so Sakura was fighting a puppet. There was no way he’d ever lose to a puppet who couldn’t think for themselves.
Sakura gestured to the speaker, ‘Is his idol speaking right now?’
Suo nodded with a smile, and it was nice that none of the class were looking at him in a weird way, trying to make out their conversation. The one thing Sakura liked about sign was that it was a private affair that could be eavesdropped on very little.
‘U-M-E-M-I-Y-A Senpai, the school's representative, is speaking, yes.’
Sakura was suddenly inclined to see what he had to say. If he wanted to take the top spot in the school, he would need to beat this Umemiya dude before that. He gestured for Suo to continue with a small motion, and Suo pursed his lips as he eyed the speaker, then began to translate for him.
It was embarrassing, having someone else do such a thing for him, but it was an opportunity he’s never had before, so he watched Suo’s liquid smooth signing like a hawk.
‘I’m your Bofurin rep, H-A-J-I-M-E U-M-E-M-I-Y-A…’ a long pause that had Sakura wondering if the speakers cut off, but then Suo continued. ‘Sorry, I totally lost my train of thought! Oh! That’s right, some advice. Enjoy your youth!’ Suo signed the last three words larger to prove that this Umemiya guy was, in fact, yelling through the speaker.
Sakura furrowed his eyebrows and wondered if Suo was messing with him and interpreting the wrong thing, but by the serious look on his face, he wasn’t.
'High School is about being a kid, go make memories, make fun beach trips!’
Sakura turned to Sugishita, who was nodding in rapt attention. He would probably head to the beach right after school, then. Suo looked slightly amused as he continued to sign. He probably couldn’t care less about the beach either, he’d probably get an awkward tan line with that eye patch.
‘Well, not all of us may be taking the field trip!’ Nirei decided to hide behind Sakura from Sugishita, who was giving him a nasty look. Sakura let him be and continued to eye Suo. ‘With so many students, some of you are bound to argue and fight… but hopefully not on the first day! I won’t tell you to be best friends, but try to get along!’
At that, Sugishita quickly wiped away the blood from his nose and Suo smiled in a way that was almost taunting him. Sakura huffed and signed, ‘He threw the first blow!’
Suo held his hands up in surrender to cut off his argument, then pointed to the speaker because for some reason, Umemiya was still talking. ‘More importantly, our main goal is to protect the town. They blessed us with the name Bofurin, so live up to it and protect the people!’
The aura of the room seemed to change as the entire class shouted what Sakura assumed was battle cries.
He wasn’t even in the room… and he had this kind of effect on people. What kind of person was he?
Suo appeared between the both of them, smiling much too happily for Sakura’s taste. He was up to something. “Uh-oh brawlers,” he said and signed at the same time so they both would understand, “how about you shake hands as a truce? Show some school spirit!”
Sakura pointed at Sugishita angrily, ‘why in the hell should I apologize to him in the first place! He started it and if he tries it again I’ll kick his teeth in an-‘
Nirei patted his leg and looked up at him from where he was still hiding on the floor. “Breathe,” he mouthed, and Sakura realized he was signing so fast that not even Suo could understand him.
Sakura’s face went red.
Suo then turned to Sugishita to say something else to him- and he didn’t sign what he was saying, so it was probably bait to lure Sugishita in.
Suo looked back to Sakura, ‘you want to get to the top, right? Shake his hand and it’ll be in the past.’
Before Sakura could think too hard on it, Sugishita held his hand out, much to everyone’s surprise.
They were gonna… call a truce?
Nirei patted his leg with urgency and nodded towards the outstretched hand rapidly until his face turned red. Sakura grudgingly stepped forward on his good leg, slowly outstretching his own hand.
For the first time In his life, he was going to call a truce. He had never shook hands with someone before, much less touch them without trying to punch them.
They clasped hands.
It felt… weird.
Both of their grips intended until they pulled apart from each other with throbbing hands. Sakura grit his teeth and held onto his red hand. He needed it to communicate, was that guy a damn gorilla?
Then suddenly, there were hands all over him, pushing him down to the ground. Sakura panicked for a full three seconds before realizing that instead of the hands harming him and holding him down, they were doing things like patting his shoulder and ruffling his hair.
The dog pile on top of him squirmed and said things that Sakura couldn’t hear.
‘They’re complimenting you,’ Suo offered, from his place next to Nirei.
Oh.
That made sense.
The people around him were laughing and praising him, touching him In ways that weren’t hurting him. So many of these things had happened to him in this strange town, and Sakura didn’t understand.
One of them even had him in a headlock- and they weren’t choking him. Even so, when they realized he was still in their hold, they scrambled to let him go and check if he was still alive.
Unfortunately, he was.
With a red face and a racing heart.
The human body… was a lot warmer than Sakura thought.
Then, Suo was clearing the crowd away, kneeling down in front of Sakura. ‘May I?’ He sighed, and Sakura didn’t know what he was asking, But he nodded anyway. Suo then reached for the hymn of his pants and rolled them up to his knee to reveal the suture that came out of place, blood trailing down.
‘This could get infected,’ Suo signed, and the rest of the class looked at the scene over his shoulder with concern. Sakura started to ignore his signing when he realized he would just be chiding him. Then, Sun reached into his pocket and pulled out a needle and thread, measuring a small amount and then biting it off with his teeth.
‘Temporary solution,’ he signed as he tore off the end of the string Sakura had broken and replaced it with a new one, expertly threading it through in a way that was almost… painless compared to the way Sakura had struggled to do it the previous night.
His touch was gentle when he skirted his fingers over the injury in contemplation. ‘Let me know if it gets infected,’ he signed, and Sakura swallowed and nodded.
What would he do to him if it did get infected? Get mad at him?
Then, Nirei passed a medical kit to Suo and Suo was doing more than just stitching him up- but wrapping gauze around his calf too. Sakura hadn’t even asked him to. The first day of class and he was already being a burden to his classmates.
Suo lightly tapped his leg to signal that he was done, and his wrap job was the cleanest one he had ever seen. Impressive.
Sakura was quick to roll down his pant leg- and before anyone could do anything else, someone was breaking through the class door and announcing something that had the entire group jumping in surprise.
He left shortly after, and whatever he said must have made the class excited because they all looked to each other and headed out the door without question.
Huh?
‘He announced that we all must meet in the courtyard,’ Suo relayed to Sakura. It must be a first day ceremony or something. ‘Can you stand?’
Sakura ignored his offered hand (because if he had taken it, that would have been way too much physical contact for the day. He had reached his quota.) and grabbed a nearby desk to get to his feet.
For one moment, he was happy to finally have the crutch forgotten about, but then Nirei was on him like a puppy, forcing it under his arm.
He didn’t even need the thing.
Who cares if his foot ached?
It didn’t matter.
Sakura hadn’t been expecting to see the guy who had saved his ass and bent the metal bat with his bare hands so soon. But he had been the one standing and waiting out for them in the courtyard. He showed his phone screen to them which revealed a timer of seven minutes. He was timing how long it took for them to get there. A vein bulged in his forehead as he started yelling at them, and the only upside to Sakura not being able to hear most things was the fact that he could just ignore when someone was scolding him.
Then, he reached into his jacket blazer slowly, and Sakura flinched back because he could be getting anything. A weapon, or-
It was heartburn medication. Oh.
He grabbed a generous handful and downed it without even looking at the necessary dosage.
While he was doing that, Sakura turned to Nirei and pointed to his book. Nirei looked confused, but handed it over nonetheless. Sakura thumbed through the pages until he landed across a sketch that resembled the thirty-year-old-highschooler in front of them.
Higari.
Sakura read more of the neat handwriting, because he needed to know just who he was and what these ‘Four kings’ were that was written down.
‘Four kings,’ Suo signed, ‘The four heads under the president that function like captains. They are each in charge of their own classes.’
Sakura looked up, unimpressed as Higari shoved the heartburn pills back into his blazer. ‘He’s in charge of us?’
Then, Higari was explaining something to the rest of them, and all Sakura could make out was "Team… Split…" He squinted in confusion, and like he was someone who needed help, Suo explained to him that they would be splitting into groups of four or five to patrol the town.
Higari caught sight of Suo signing to him and momentarily paused, then continued with whatever he was saying- this time slower. Sakura’s ears burned at the attention, and he just wanted to sink into a hole and die.
It didn’t take long for their groups to split up, and Sakura, miraculously, had been sorted with Nirei and Suo, but Sugishita was there as well, a looming presence to their patrol as he lingered behind them. There was still some dried blood under his nose, Sakura noticed, and he was smug about it.
Patrolling was fine, but with Sugishita bringing the entire mood down and his ankle cramping up with every step- even with the stupid crutch. He didn’t know what kind of noise it made against the cobble stone floor, but he was sure it was an annoying clank.
It was a good thing the group was moving slowly- since Higari was still explaining things to Nirei at the front- who nodded and jotted everything down. Suo just looked like he was enjoying the afternoon breeze, waving at a few passerbys.
Patrol was a lot more… boring than Sakura expected it to be.
Then, Suo nudged him to get his attention. ‘You look bored.’
‘I am. The most action we’ve seen is holding an old ladies step stool still when she was hanging up a sign.’
‘H-I-R-A-G-I wanted me to relay something to you. He says that patrolling isn’t about fighting, but about protecting. We are a symbol, and when people see us walking around with our uniforms, it gives them hope.’
Sakura huffed. That guy. ‘So… no fighting?’
‘No,’ Suo shook his head. He pinched the air in the sigh for 'no' and if it was upside down, it would have been the sign for 'dog.'
‘No fighting.’
Well damn.
Arguably the worst part of the entire patrol was painting over the graffiti of a local bakery. Well- Sakura hadn’t painted as much as the others considering that he sucked at it, and the owner dragged an entire stool for him to sit down and rest his leg when he noticed his crutch. He begrudgingly sat on it and hurriedly painted over the graffiti dick in front of him.
None of the others had commented on it aside from Higari stating that his painting sucked and to try and get a new hobby, or something along the line of that, and Sakura rolled the paint on the back of his white undershirt without him noticing. Maybe if he was lucky, he’d anger the thirty-year-old-highschooler enough for him to want to fight.
He was bored out of his mind, all the way up until they reached the border of Makochi, the train tracks, close to where his apartment was. It was shadier here, darker and with more bars, but Sakura hadn’t explored the tunnel they lay before them despite living relatively close. It was a long and dark tunnel with the image of… a real ugly looking dog stamped upon it.
As if he could sense Sakura’s judgment and foul thought, Nirei clung to his elbow and shook his head. His lips quivered when he talked, and he talked fast, but Sakura could still make out him saying “Be nice!... Isn’t our territory!”
Sakura gazed out to the long tunnel. It was where their territory ended, and where a new one began.
He looked to Suo and put a hand up to his head, ‘Who?’
‘S-H-I-S-H-I-T-O-R-I-N,’ he fingerspelled, ‘the devotees of power.’
Sakura gave him a thumbs down, ‘lame.’
Then, from next to him, Higari was pointing something out down the tunnel, and Sakura barely had to squint his eyes to tell it was a younger looking person running towards them. Sakura had seen those blazers before… he must have been a part of the feeder middle school not too far away from his apartment.
But Sakura noticed the people chasing after him first, wearing ugly orange jackets with that same dog printed on them. He was running from thugs. Sakura cracked his knuckles, but Higari put a hand on his shoulder and shook his head.
He… didn’t want him to fight? He didn’t want him to save that kid?
‘Their territory,' Suo reminded him as a train blew past them overhead. Sakura huffed and turned back. At the way that kid was running… he wouldn’t make it to them in time. Even so, Higari and Nirei cheered him on, gesturing for him wildly as if he could run any faster.
And then, he tripped, hitting the last nail into his coffin. It was over for him, but it just started for Sakura. He passed his crutch to Suo and broke out of Higari’s grip to deliver a kick (with his good leg) to goon number 1’s head… then looked to his left to see Sugishita doing the exact same thing.
He stole his damn prey.
Sakura shoved him on the shoulder once they landed, because he was in his way. Sakura turned back to see Nirei, white as a ghost, about to pass out. Suo kept a hand on his shoulder and smiled with his eye closed.
“We’re dead!” Nirei yelled into the tunnel loud enough for even Sakura to make out the gist of his terrified voice. “Doomed!”
The way Sakura saw it- the thugs struck first, so territory bullshit wasn’t his problem to soert out.
Sakura prepared himself for an all out fight, but instead, the thugs in front of him were kicking their own teammate, poking his unconscious face and laughing. Was Sakura mistaken? Weren’t they on the same side?
Sakura didn’t know too much about teamwork, but he did know about the cruelty of the world and the people in it. Morally, it wasn’t how teammates acted, if it were him, he would have just fought them-
The entire aura inside of the tunnel shifted as yet another orange-jacket-freak made an appearance, the thugs scrambling to bow to him. He walked languidly and talked even more so, so slow that Sakura could read his lips almost perfectly.
This guy… was strong, but annoyingly slow. Would he fight as slow as he talked?
Judging by the low bows, he was at command, but just how high up the chain was he?
Orange-jacket-freak lowered his glasses and gazed at all of them with lazy eyes. “Furin?” he asked slowly, “why are you here?” And then he nearly stepped on top of his fallen comrade, finally noticing the destruction they had caused.
Sakura cracked his knuckles.
Finally, he would get a good fight in. Orange-jacket-freak would see his comrade beaten and out his fist up to fight them, and then… Higari was walking in front of them, entire body tense as he talked to the Shishitorin freak.
The man only smiled and waved in slo-mo, and Sakura was starting to get pissed at him.
The thug that was previously knocked out dragged himself up from the floor and pointed at Sakura- then to all of them. He was obviously yelling something, but Sakura didn’t know what. He was probably just embarrassed about having his ass whooped in front of his boss-
And then said boss was cracking a glass bottle over his head, and Sakura’s stomach flipped upside down at the pure maliciousness in the movement. It was a type of emotion he had only seen outside of Makochi- from his foster parents growing up and from school, and now here, under the railroad that divided Furin and Shishitorin territory.
The thug fell down in a heap, but Orange-jacket-freak continued to beat on him, even if he was knocked unconscious. From the side, Nirei hid behind Suo, but Sakura was only focused on the blood that splattered across the concrete as he reeled back for another punch. Sakura was too disgusted to try and decipher the conversation between Hiragi and the orange-jacket-freak as he attempted to get him to stop, and eventually he did, only to strip the thug of his orange jacket.
And Sakura finally tuned back in to read his lips as he said “No…place for…weak.”
The world around them seemed to still as Sakura clenched his fist so hard it left crescent marks. Higari remained still in front of him, and if he wasn’t going to do anything, then Sakura would.
He pointed at orange-jacket-freak, gaining his attention as he walked forward. He was even taller up close to him, and he peered down at him through the orange tinted glasses.
How fucking lame, and they called themselves the ‘devotees of power?’
The Orange-jacket-freak raised an eyebrow and continued to speak slowly, “I can see it… in your face… you think…lame?”
Sakura nodded, because he was way worse than that. He poked the man's chest directly and gave him a big thumbs down, then broke into a flurry of fast signs that had the man blinking.
“Whoa whoa,” he put a hand out to stop Sakura’s hands and lower them, “Slow… your roll.”
Sakura was pissed at just how easy it was to read his lips. He talked at the speed of molasses! Slow-orange-jacket-freak lowered his glasses to get a good look at Sakura, like he was some animal in the zoo. He could see the way his face lit up with interest at his appearance, the way one would when they were going to make fun of him, or use it to their advantage-
“Whoa! You look… like… Othello.” Sakura tilted his head because he didn’t even know who in the hell Othello was. He turned back to Suo to make sure he had read things right, and Suo smiled and fingerspelled ‘O-T-H-E-L-L-O, he thinks you’re interesting!’
Oh, well fuck that.
But when Sakura turned around, the man was already tossing the jacket he had taken from the thug over his shoulder. ‘I will fight… you later…” He turned his back to them to retreat back to his own territory like the coward he was, but he kept his head tilted back so that Sakura could read his lips when he waved over his shoulder. “Bye Othello!”
Then, Nirei was sneak attacking him from behind, jumping on his back and crying into his unhearing ears. “I’m dead, I’m dead!”
Sakura must have really pissed off a strong person for Nirei to be crying and for Higari to be popping some more heartburn pills. At least he knew he would have a good fight in the future.
Suo patted Nirei’s back comfortingly as he signed to Sakura, ‘That was T-O-G-A-M-E J-O, second in command.’ With Nirei’s reaction, Sakura would have assumed he was the captain. But if Sakura was going to piss someone off, at least it was someone who was decently strong.
Higari turned back to them once he downed all of his pills, looking downtrodden. Sakura blinked. He looked… even older when he was stressed. How was that physically possible?
“I’m sorry” he said, and Sakura rubbed his eyes to make sure he was seeing things right. He was talking purposefully slow again, like he was earlier. He was even using hand movements, while they weren’t signs, it was easier for Sakura to understand people who talked with their hands and gestures. “I should have helped, as an upperclassman.”
Then he turned to the middle schooler, who sat on the floor the entire time with a terrified expression, only slightly less so than Nirei's. He gestured for him to stand up and follow them. Follow them all the way back across Makochi to Furin. Sakura’s leg hurt already at just the thought of it.
Sakura looked down at the blood littering the floor before they departed, and while he was doing so, Suo offered him that damned crutch once again. Normally he would shoot it down, toss it over the train tracks for a train to run over- but his leg throbbed and he had been walking all day, so he took it and followed them out.
The staircase to get to the roof was only slightly worse than the walk to the run-down school. The rooftop was apparently where that Umemiya guy resided. If he was lucky, maybe he would get to fight him.
Sakura held onto the wall as they went up the stairs, Suo silently remaining by his side as they trekked all the way up until they reached the rusted door. Hiragi took a moment to hold his stomach and compose himself, and the middle schooler beside him (plus Nirei) looked batshit terrified as he pushed the door open.
Light invaded his vision, making his blink until it focused itself to…
Furniture?
Sakura mindlessly followed behind Hiragi as he eyed the place. The overgrown vines clinging to the high fence, the hammock and pillows and umbrellas accompanied by the rows of plants. What the hell was this place?
He was so focused that he hit Hiagri’s back when he stopped in front of him. He stumbled backwards, and his leg ached at the angle, but Suo steadied him by the elbow and then retreated back as if he had done nothing.
Sakura poked his head out from behind Higari to see the top of Furin, their number one fighter, crouching down with the plants and turning to them with a big goofy smile that definitely shouldn't be on the face of such a strong fighter. He said something and smiled as he showed off his plants, looking dirty from the soil and the sun, like he had been tending to them all day.
He’s… grinning like a little kid. This was the best Furin highschool had? For real?
Chapter 5: Bofurin's leader is a child with clumsy hands
Notes:
Short chapter- but the end of this chapter marks where we start to deviate a little from the anime's plot.
Chapter Text
Sakura could only watch the back and forth banter of Higari and the Bofurin captain, Higari looking like he needed to pop another gas-kun and the captain spreading his arms out and animatedly gesturing to his plants.
Sakura could assume that whatever they were talking about… they weren’t on the same page.
Sakura must have been making an underwhelmed face at the interaction, because Sugishita was quick to grab him by the collar and stare into his eyes, as if warning him to diss his ‘God.’ Before Sakura could wrench himself out of his grasp, Umemiya was poking his head from around Hiragi and giving Sugishita a pointed look.
Sugishita immediately put him down and pretended as if he had done nothing wrong. For good measure, Sakura stomped on his shoe with his good foot and smirked at the pained wince he got in return.
Umemiya forced them to all sit down on the bench once he noticed Sakura’s crutch, and even if Sakura hated the fact that he was the reason they were sitting, he couldn’t hide the relief from his face when he put the weight off of his foot because after patrolling all afternoon- it was starting to ache. He should have accepted the pain meds he was offered, but he didn’t trust whatever was in them.
Sakura absentmindedly massaged the swollen skin around his ankle as Umemiya blabbed about his plants, introducing them because apparently they had names. Sugishita looked absolutely entranced, of course. Kiss ass. Sakura made eye contact with him and made sure to stick out his tongue.
Sakura really didn’t get this Umemiya guy and what made him so… magnetic.
He was nearly about to fall asleep there, but under the table, Suo grabbed ahold of his injured leg and stretched it out so that it was resting on his lap and elevated. Sakura nearly fell out of the bench in surprise, and he would have flopped around like a fish out of water at the contact if the middle schooler next to Suo hadn’t shot up and started to cry.
He had been wound with tension the entire time Umemiya was going on about his plants until he finally sprang to his feet and clasped his hands together. Suo’s hands were vaguely covered by the table, but he still lazily signed with one hand. ‘He’s explaining like a little child- how cute.’
Suo continued to give him a secretive smile even when the boy next to him started crying. Sakura watched as he lightly patted his back, then once again moved his hands back to Sakura’s aching leg, and then those deft fingers were digging into his tender flesh in such a way that Sakura wasn’t even sure if he made a noise or not.
If he did, no one noticed, too busy listening to the middle schooler spill his guts out. Sakura still struggled to focus when Suo kept on doing it, his hands like some kind of cool rag over his hot skin, kneading the pain away for just a moment.
Sakura would rip his leg away from him and curse him out later- when he was done.
The touch was so intense it almost hurt at first, since Sakura wasn’t accustomed to touch that wasn’t used as a mechanism of harm, but the look in Suo’s eye had him holding still. He wasn’t pinned down like prey, he was getting… help?
Then Umemiya was talking, looking more serious than he had ever seen him. Sakura wondered if he was chewing the middle schooler out, but the others around him were smiling like idiots (Especially seaweed-hair) and then Umemiya was patting the relieved middle schooler on the back. Whatever he had said must have been inspiring, but all Sakura could read was when Umemiya said “Big brother” or maybe it was “Big Bother.” He didn’t know.
‘All is good,' Suo signed. Ah, so it wasn’t big bother.
And then the Furin captain was smiling and pointing at Sakura excitedly and the middle schooler was nodding, animatedly describing a fight using his hands. Oh, it was when Sakura had thrown his crutch aside and kicked the bastard. Pretty impressive how the kid could convey that with just his hands.
Nirei and Hiragi side-eyed him and Sakura ignored their looks.
He would take their backlash later for initiating a gang war, but for now, he would hang his head and wait to see what the captain had as a punishment. Maybe the glass bottle that Togame dude used earlier wouldn’t be so bad. Then he’d have a real reason to leave this place other than ‘they were too nice.’
But when Sakura looked up, Umemiya was… laughing. Big belly laughs as he slapped his knee.
He wasn’t mad, but he thought they were funny; this place was really confusing.
Hiragi clutched his stomach in pain and Suo smiled, and his hands left Sakura’s ankle to sign ‘Umemiya thinks you cost the thug a few teeth. He seems to like you.’
When his hands returned to his calf this time, Sakura shot up ramrod straight and hissed at him until his fingers returned to his lower leg. Suo gave him a teasing smile and Nirei watched them suspiciously, then pointed a finger at Sakura, blaming him for the entire incident.
‘You traitor!’ Sakura signed furiously and Nirei simply looked away, pretending that he hadn’t just lugged all of the blame on Sakura.
Umemiya looked at the exchange and blinked before suddenly he was at Sakura’s side, looming down on him. Sakura flinched as he brought a hand up- probably to slap him for using Sign language on his roof (or maybe he thought it was gang signs.) His foster parents never liked him using it when he learned it- said he should just sit there and ignore the world around him- it was bad enough that he was two different colors, but hard of hearing too?
But then, Umemiya was pointing at him and forming the letter ‘D’ with his hand, swiping it from his ear to his mouth with his eyebrows furrowed. ‘You Deaf?’ he signed.
Sakura and Suo paused while the rest of the group looked on in confusion. First Sakura ran into Suo- who was even more fluent in sign than he was himself, and now the school captain?
He tilted his head in confusion, ‘You sign?’
Umemiya sheepishly shrugged and pinched his fingers close. ‘So-so, I fingerspell.’
‘You learning?’
Umemiya nodded, ‘Little sibling is…’ he thought for a moment, then fingerspelled ‘M-U-T-E.’
“Umm, guys?” Nirei interrupted him, waving his hands around to catch their attention. Judging by his pout, he didn’t like being left out. Sakura had been used to it his whole life, so he didn't really care too much to elaborate, even if their leader did.
“Sorry!” Umemiya apologized and signed, then returned to the topic and tuned to Sakura. “You pick a fight?”
Sakura signed ‘Again,’ because he didn’t quite catch the last part of what he had said. Suo assisted Umemiya in his signing and Sakura grew red with embarrassment and anger.
“He called him lame” Suo smiled and Umemiya laughed some more. Still no glass bottle to crush over Sakura’s head. Instead, he was even closer to Sakura, and he flinched for the second time when he raised a big hand- blocking the sunlight above him- until he brought it down to pat him on the head.
Sakura was too shocked to push him away, plus, his hand felt warm. While Suo’s were quick and mesmerizing to watch, Umemiya’s were big and sturdy. “Well done,” he praised, then switched to sign ‘Same.’
Oh, so he would have said the same thing, if he were in Sakura's shoes?
Maybe he wasn’t as lame as Sakura had originally thought.
Umemiya then frowned and looked at him with worry, “maybe try not to fight with a hurt foot, I’ll worry.”
Sakura didn’t know if he caught that right. Why would he ever worry about him? He barely knew him.
Sugishita looked like he wanted to throttle Sakura out of jealousy, but Nirei held him back.
And then his hand wasn’t leaving- but he was ruffling his hair even more with that big smile on his face, and Sakura was struggling to read his lips because his signs were too clumsy, but he caught on that he was saying “Thanks little brother.”
Sakura pushed him away and signed, ‘were not related.’
Umemiya only gave him a blank stare before Suo butted in and translated what Sakura had signed. “He’s saying he’s not your little brother Umemiya-senpai.”
Umemiya knocked twice on the air, ‘Yes.’
Sakura frowned, ‘No.’
‘Yes.’
‘Nu-uh.’
‘Yes.’
And then Hiragi was springing to his feet- phone to his ear. He looked distressed, but not in the way he typically did with his heartburn. This was different; Sakura hadn’t even realized he was on his phone. Umemiya took a step back and frowned as Hiragi yelled into his phone, then angrily ended the call.
Whatever this was, it wasn’t good, and before Sakura could ask Suo just what in the hell was going on, they were all rushing to the chain link fence that overlooked the entrance of the school. What the shit? They had just left him behind, was it something he did?
Then Suo and Nirei were next to him, offering him his crutch and helping him off of the bench before rushing to the fence to see what lay down below.
And oh, that explained why he didn’t know what was going on, because whoever was down there, was speaking to them with a loud speaker. Sakura squinted and noticed he was small and maybe not even in high school. He looked like a child- but he had on one of those ugly orange Shishitorin jackets with Furin members' bodies littering the courtyard like a breadcrumb trail. One was even being held by the collar and shook around by him.
So he had taken all of them out single handedly?
He couldn’t have been older than twelve.
‘Who?’ He signed to a grim looking Suo, who’s eye slid to the side to look as Sakura as if he was contemplating whether to answer the question or not. Sakura was trusting this guy too much- because what if he relayed the wrong information to him… or he one day stopped signing and Sakura couldn’t rely on him anymore, or-
‘S-H-I-S-H-I-T-O-R-I-N leader, C-H-O-J-I T-O-M-I-Y-A-M-A, he is requesting to fight with U-M-E-M-I-Y-A.’
Sakura was getting tired of fingerspelling all of these guys names, and he was sure Suo would too. He would give them sign names, eventually. Not because he cared about them or anything- it was just hard to fingerspell.
‘I want to fight him first.’
Suo let out a huff of exasperation but chose not to reply to that and turned back down to the courtyard. If that Jo Togame guy was the second in Command… then this new guy was even stronger.
He felt a feral smile creep up his lips, but it quickly fell when his bones chilled and the hair on the back of his neck stood up. His instincts were never wrong and heightened- especially with his lack of hearing, so he was quick to look back to see Umemiya fling his jacket on and trail down the stairs followed by Hiragi.
Was that… him just now?
Entranced, Sakura followed behind them alongside Sugishita and Suo. Nirei… looked like he was going to piss his pants. If Sakura wasn’t so focused on maneuvering down the stairs with the crutch, then he would have just made him wait upstairs and watch them. It was true- he didn’t know how to fight- and Sakura would rather Nirei be safe on the roof if things got worse.
Despite his slow pace, the others didn’t bypass him, and because of that, they were the last on the scene. Umemiya and Hiragi were already talking to the leader, who was bouncing around Umemiya like a little flea.
When Umemiya noticed them, he turned slightly and ignored his little challenger to hold a hand out to stop them. “Hang back” he said, though his sign for ‘stop’ was even more prevalent for Sakura. Normally he would argue that fighting was what he was here for… but…
The look in Umemiya’s eyes, cold and frozen, forced his feet to stay still.
From next to him, he felt Suo’s hand snake to his side before he snatched his crutch from him and hid it behind him. Sakura easily shifted his weight and stared at Suo.
‘You shouldn’t let them see your injury,’ he signed, and that made sense to Sakura. He didn’t need to use the damn thing anyway, the only reason he had it was because that old lady made him. He only needed it to go up and down stairs after a long day of walking around.
‘I’ll fight them anyway.’ He signed back.
Suo looked amused, ‘I know you would.’
And Sakura found himself growing red and reeling back to force his gaze from Suo- because he had only known him for a day but he already knew him? What the hell?
Before he could linger on his own embarrassment for too long- the student that the little leader- Choji- held by the collar, was being discarded carelessly to the floor. Sakura was good with reading body language, so he didn’t miss the minute shift of Umemiya clutching his hands into a fist, and he certainly didn’t miss Choji reeling back to throw a kick at the leaders head.
In an impressive feat, he caught his leg like it was nothing.
It wasn’t fair, because Sakura had been the one who wanted to fight Umemiya first.
And Sakura had never seen such malice cloud the captain's eyes as he glared down at him, saying something that must have sounded badass. Like from those American action movies Sakura liked to watch through the window of the family home when they had movie nights. They used subtitles, thankfully.
And then they were talking some more, and really- that kid had a bothering empty dead fish look to his eyes that really pissed Sakura off.
‘He wants to fight Umemiya-senpai to be free,’ Suo lightly suggested from next to him, his hands held low so that Sakura would be the only one to see him, but Sakura didn’t care about that, too busy with the fact that the entire Shishitorin gang was pulling up on their terf to defend their twelve-year-old leader.
And Sakura could respect a one on one fight, but he would not sit still while Umemiya was outnumbered by a bunch of orange jacket freaks. unsuprisaingly, Sugishita was the first to head down the stepped of the school entrance, followed by the rest of them. (And Suo with the annoying hand he kept on the small of his back like he couldn’t walk by himself.)
And of course, there was that annoying second-in-command, waving at him with a slow smile on his face mouthing the words “Othello” all too happily.
Seriously, what was an Othello? Who was an Othello? He would need to search that up as soon as he figured out how to work his phone.
Umemiya sent them a warning look, probably about to open his mouth to order them back to their places, but Sakura stopped him with a simple glare, and the leader seemed to nod in understanding. Because when Sakura made up his mind, there was nothing that anyone could do to stop him.
Choji was stomping his feet like a little brat, pointing to Umemiya with an accusation, like he wanted to fight him and he was angry that his own team came to help. They were all selfish, the lot of them.
Then, Togame was nodding towards the Furin building, where faces were watching through every single broken window in sight. The glares sent a shiver down Sakura’s spine- but he got the message between their conversation. They couldn’t fight Furin on their own home turf, even if they had been the ones to start the mess in the first place. It wasn't the right time or place.
But then, people were talking, all around Sakura. Even the ones next to him- Suo, Togame, the jerks from across of them- and Sakura had no fucking idea what they were saying. It made him dig his nails into his palms, because usually he was able to read the room just fine, but there were too many people talking to each other (challenging each other, for fights) at once to keep up with what everyone as saying and-
A ragged inhale.
A staccato exhale.
Blood pumped through his ears as the world faded in and out around him, and then there was a nudge to his side that forced his attention back to reality, and Suo was pointing across to Togame.
Sakura squinted at him in question, and he said something slowly like- “Can’t… fight- dark. … Crushed face.”
What?
Sakura furrowed his eyebrows together and glared at him, because it was the defense method he used for anyone when he couldn’t understand them. But everyone around him was apparently all coming to a swift agreement of some sort, and Sakura had no idea where he fit into all of this, and-
Then Togame was sluggishly walking even closer to them, and Umemiya had his hackles already up and about to attack him, but the slow jerk only waved him off as he came to a stop in front of Sakura. Then he looked down at him and patiently repeated the sentence- this time impossibly slower.
“Me and you will fight later, so I can see your bloodied face.”
Yeah, that sounded like something he would say, and Sakura was honestly dying to fight a one on one with the orange-jacket-jerk. He wondered if he fought as slow as he talked.
But then, those predatory green eyes were glancing down to his foot- and just a moment too late, he realized he was leaning too much weight on his good foot to look like he was standing naturally. His eyes widened a fraction and Suo must have recognized his reaction the same time Sakura did because he was already pushing him behind his back and putting his fist up.
When Sakura angrily tried to shove Suo out of the way to look over his shoulder, Togame was laughing.
‘I’ll still kill you’ he signed, even if he wouldn’t understand it, but instead of attacking him on the spot after finding out his foot injury, Togame was turning to Umemiya and asking him a question. Umemiya shifted in surprise, eyes roving over to Sakura momentarily before replying with a small shrug.
In turn, Togame nodded and seemed to agree. And just like that, they were leaving with Togame throwing a wave and a lazy grin over his shoulder, just like he did last time.
Sakura angrily snatched his clutch from Suo, tinnitus ringing in his ears as he signed, ‘What the hell was that? What’s going on?’
'We are all having one on one fights,’ Suo supplied flippantly, as if it was expected, but it was news to Sakura. That had been why everyone was talking and he couldn’t keep up. Sakura’s cheeks burned. He felt like an idiot.
Suo’s eyes softened minutely, hut that could have just been the reflection of the setting sun. ‘He wanted to challenge you, then noticed your injury… That I told you to hide.’
‘Whatever, sorry,’ Sakura signed, not very apologetically.
‘He wanted to fight you at your best, so asked U-M-E-M-I-Y-A when your foot should heal. Because of that, we now have two weeks to prepare before our fight.’
Sakura’s jaw would have dropped if he weren’t a self conscious person because the surprised idiot look didn’t suit his face. Instead, he glared, like he always did. ‘He gave me two weeks for my foot to heal?’
Suo knocked on the air, ‘Yes, then we will fight them in their territory. Sounds fun, dosn’t it?’
Sakura was never one to admit things, but he slowly nodded his head to agree because… yeah. It sounded fun. But… what were they going to do for two weeks?
Chapter 6: Sakura experiences the obligatory festival episode
Chapter Text
Unfortunately during the two weeks, training wasn’t on their roster. Or at least, not Sakura’s. Anytime he had even tried to move, there was Nirei or Suo annoyingly by his side, so he wouldn’t even be able to get a good fight in.
Apparently, the entire first few weeks of classes were dedicated to training the first years anyways before they were sent off to do patrols by themselves. Of course, they had practice patrols with upperclassmen- but Sakura was forced to stay on the roof for those and help Umemiya ‘tend to his garden’ as he ‘needed help with it.’
But they all knew it was a way to get him to hang back and stay off of his foot. And also help Umemiya improve on his shitty signing skills.
But seriously- Sakura hated waiting on the sidelines while everyone else fought. The morning after their little conflict, they had been led to the broken down gymnasium by Hiragi. Apparently, some kid named Kaji and the second years were supposed to be in charge of their training- but their group had been the ones on patrol when Choji plowed through them, so most of them were stuck licking their wounds for the week.
Hiragi had forced Sakura to sit down on the gymnasium stage with his crutches while he partnered the rest of the class up to spar- and the ones that really stood out, he promoted to instructors to help the weaker- less experienced- classmates.
Sugishita, Suo, and then a pink haired guy and a muscle maniac. He observed the other two and narrowed his eyes at their complete polar opposite fighting styles. Pink-hair liked to evade and muscle maniac attacked everything with brute force. Interesting. They would be fun to fight.
Sakura twitched impatiently with the need to get up and do something- but everything he tried to, Hiragi shot him a warning look from where he was correcting a students posture.
Damn.
Bored out of his mind, occasionally Sakura would point to someone and correct them using hand gestures- and rather than curse him out or yell at him, they thanked him for the feedback and got back to fighting. It was… strange, to say the least.
Eventually, Suo trotted over with… a whiteboard. Just like the one Kotoha had stored in her cafe to talk to him every morning with. She too was getting better with her signing, but it was nice to write- he even learned a few new words he hadn’t known before.
‘What’s this?’ Sakura signed as he handed it over to him, along with a marker.
‘H-R-A-G-I wants you to write notes of others for him to announce at the end of class so that he can better focus on fighting them.’
Sakura’s face went red… because he trusted him enough to do that? Sakura had never been the teaching type, more of a punch first type of person, but now he was being entrusted to help correct people.
Before he could reply, Suo gave him a mocking thumbs up like the Asshole he was before turning back to help teach Nirei how to duck and cover.
Well, at least it gave him something to do.
He watched and silently wrote down corrections- he didn’t know everyone’s names, so he just wrote down general notes. By the time class ended, Hiragi clapped and summoned everyone around to the stage, plopping himself down next to Sakura.
Sakura glared at him and pointedly scooted a foot away from him.
The class In Front of him were all panting and sweating through their uniform undershirts- chugging Gatorade that Nirei had apparently offered to everyone from the goodness of his heart.
Hiragi took the whiteboard from Sakura’s hands and scanned his messy handwriting. Sakura shifted subconsciously, embarrassed, but Hiragi started reading off to the group and nothing happened. The world didn’t explode- nor did time stop. Everything was fine.
In fact- the group was even nodding along in rapt attention until he finished. Towards the end of the day, they were finally dismissed and some had even approached him to try to thank him- they made an effort even if they knew he wouldn’t be able to hear him.
And that made something break loose in Sakura’s chest- some ancient old being awakened from its slumber.
“Did you hear that the new kid challenged Togame to a fight?”
“Oh really? And how exactly did he do that?”
“I heard they used echolocation or something.”
“No dude, he just gave him a thumbs down and they’ve been rivals ever since.”
“Jesus Christ, are they in elementary school? That’s absurd.”
“Who wants to make a betting pool?”
“… I’m in. Twenty for Togame.”
“Nah dude, you gotta have faith for your teammate! Uh… one dollar for Sakura.”
Apparently, it was a complete and utter travesty that Sakura had never had an official tour of Furin- nor ever had a picnic in his entire life.
They had found out during lunch the next day. It was another hard day of training, and Kotoha had blissfully sent them boxed lunches for their training camp, and Umemiya has delivered them happily with a smile on his face- even if he was weighed down by the twenty or so boxes.
The glass gazed at him in awe as he handed them out, and Sakura was once again reminded that he was sort of a big deal around here- that he was Furin’s leader and not some bumbling idiot who talked nonstop about his plants and only fingerspelled.
He said a few words with a grin, then left with a wink to Sakura and a wave over his shoulder. Or whatever that had been about.
‘He’s encouraging group bonding’ Suo signed from next to him. For some reason, he, Nirei, and even Sugishita had insisted on sitting with him nearly every lunch, and even some of the other class would drop by to exchange a few words. (That Sakura didn’t know.) But other than that, they were mostly sequestered to their own groups.
So slowly, their small circle had grown to one huge circle with the entire class where they all faced each other and shared their food and talked and laughed and… it was nice.
Sakura was even asked a few questions, to which he answered via whiteboard- and once one person asked, it was like a dam being broken and everyone was trying to talk to him.
Eventually- Suo calmed them all down to Sakura’s relief, because he was starting to get a little overwhelmed about the questions. Some were more personal than others.
Then, from Sakura’s right, Nirei said something that had him furrowing his eyebrows in confusion. Nirei only smiled as he took the whiteboard sat between them to write out with his near handwriting ‘this is kind of nice, like a picnic, isn’t it?’
And that only made Sakura even more confused. He fingerspelled P-I-C-N-I-C to see if the word prompted any muscle memory- sometimes he did it when he didn’t remember a word- but came up with nothing. Suo watched him closely with a dark eye and Sakura refused to rely on him and ask, instead he grabbed the board to erase with the bottom of his shirt to rewrite.
‘What’s a picnic?’
Revealing the board to Nirei meant that he was revealing it to the entire class- and he watched with embarrassment as one by one, their faces shifted from content to mixes of horror and sadness.
Oh, had it been a simple word? Would they think he was stupid now?
Sakura shrunk back and hunched his shoulders, like a defense mechanism, but the day was only full of surprises because Sugishita (who he thought had been asleep) nudged him and motioned to his food as a hint.
A picnic was… eating?
And then, Sugishita pointed in a circle to the people in the room. He looked gruff and annoyed, but not like he was tired of Sakura. Sakura knew what that look looked like.
So a picnic was eating… with people.
By the time Sakura had figured that out, (it wasn’t rocket science, really. It was just gestures. Nirei once told him he’d be really good at a game called charades, and maybe that was closer to rocket science.) Nirei already had a new sentence written on the board.
‘Who wants to give Sakura-Kun a town tour and then have a picnic? Saturday during lunch.’
And we’ll… most of the students hand shot up.
And now apparently Sakura was Dragged into weekend plans he didn’t even want to be a part of.
In Front of him, Kotoha stared at him, in thought as he scooped his morning omelet up with a spoon. He signed with one hand ‘What’ and even if she knew damn well what he signed, she ignored him anyway.
Just when Sakura had enough, she reached across the counter to take the spoon from his hand, adjust his hand, and place it back. She nodded, satisfied, and Sakura pulled away, slightly bewildered.
Then, he looked down and realized that the new way he was holding his spoon was awkward- but a lot more comfortable. He had been holding his spoons and forks wrong his entire life… but no one had thought to correct him about it until now?
When he looked back up to Kotoha, she didn’t look disgusted, or like she was going to tease him. She looked at him with such a tender look that it had him quickly scooping up the rest of his food and leaving without even chewing.
The next morning, she announced that the cafe was going to start doing take-out as an option, and Sakura tried to ignore that it was probably a new edition for him.
‘Sakura… like the flower? Umemiya had signed one day when he was forced to be on plant duty while the rest of the class practice patrolled that afternoon. Apparently, the second years were finally up and able to patrol again after their fights with Choji.
‘Duh,’ Sakura signed, unimpressed. He and Umemiya had both shed their blazers because of the heat and placed them onto the bench next to where Sakura was forced to sit. He didn’t need his crutches anymore, it was friday and his foot was starting to hurt significantly less.
Umemiya had given him some gloves and assigned him to pick the weeds from the potted plants laid out on the wooden table.
‘Sakura plants… die easy.’
Sakura raised an eyebrow, ‘Is that a threat?’
Umemiya immediately looked alert and Sakura watched in amusement as he shook his head and attempted to backtrack on what he signed. ‘No! No-’
‘Go on.’
Umemiya laughed at himself, but Sakura couldn’t tell if it sounded self-deprecating or not as he leaned back from the tomatoes he had been tending to, flinging a sweat towel over his neck. ‘They die easily so we have to… take care of them. That's why they’re beautiful, because with the best care they can…’ He took a moment to think before fingerspelling ‘B-L-O-O-M.’
That… was a lot to unpack. Sakura didn’t feel like blushing and telling Borufins captain to take his stupid metaphors and shove them up his-
‘We will take care of you, Sakura.’
Sakura wasn’t sure he could feel his own feet with how high up he felt at the moment. It was a bad feeling, he wanted to be back on the ground.
‘Go back to your stupid tomatoes.’
It was Saturday morning and Sakura didn’t know what was appropriate to wear to a picnic. He momentarily considered wearing his Furin uniform, but he didn’t want to stick out like a sore thumb, not when he already did.
And somehow, the class must have read his mind because he felt the buzz of a notification from his pocket. He never used his phone before and he still didn’t know how, but when the class thought they had been ignoring him, they realized his phone wasn’t set to vibrate so he wouldn’t know if he got any notifications.
Pink-hair (Kiryu) taught him how to set it to vibrate because apparently he was really tech savvy, and then labeled everyone's contacts for him so that he wouldn’t get confused. Sakura had thought he just took his phone, but when he handed it back with a wink, he realized he had upgraded the entire thing.
And now, ‘weather’ wasn’t the only name in his contacts anymore. (Much to Kiryu and the class's confusion. They didn’t need to know it was his foster parents contact, the one he had blocked but not deleted in case they stopped sending him checks and he needed to message them a slew of curses.)
Sakura checked his phone.
Nirei: It’s really hot outside today guys! Let’s try wearing clothes that won’t give us heatstroke!
Tsugeura: No Furin jackets?
Suo: No, not on a non-school related outing. If there is trouble, we can resolve it quickly, though the third-years always make sure to keep an eye on the town for the weekend.
Sakura huffed as he pocketed his phone to look at the clothing options- and they were sad, to be quite frank. Hoodies and jeans, he had about three outfits he could rotate through and they were all made for colder weather.
Sakura got cold pretty easily, had trouble regulating body temperature.
He eventually spotted a tank top, a hat, and something that could be considered the ugliest pair of shorts he had ever seen (Jorts) and left out the door before he could overthink.
He was the second person to get there, and when he laid eyes upon Suo, he frowned at the traditional chinese garments. ‘Didn’t N-I-R-I-E tell us to wear summer clothes?’
Suo shrugged, ‘I don’t like showing skin,’ and then his eyes roved up and down Sakura, but he didn’t look like he was judging him. ‘Jorts are very in fashion these days.’
…Were they? Sakura honestly couldn’t tell if he was messing with him or not.
Before he could ask, the rest of the class gathered at their meeting spot (In front of Pothos cafe) and their tour began.
They shoved Sakura to the front of the group as Nirei led them around, and he was sure the blonde would be using a megaphone if Sakura wasn’t, you know, Deaf. Suo strode next to Sakura, signing everything Nirei said like an unpaid interpreter and Sakura wondered if he ever got sick of it.
It was hard for him to read Suo most of the time, and that both intrigued and frustrated Sakura since he was used to being able to read people through body language like an open book. But not Suo, who remained incredibly poised, like a fabricated china doll. One with an eyepatch and a freakish attitude.
Occasionally a few of the classmates would butt in, pointing to shops they liked in particular (or shops that their parents owned) and by the end of their trip, all of their arms were full of food and beverages.
Sakura had wondered why none of them had to bring food to the picnic, but it turned out he forgot that everywhere he went, townsfolk shoved food into his arms like he was a starving orphan.
One of the students- Anzai, he would learn later- spread out a checkered mat onto the grass, large enough to fit the entire class. Sakura eyed the group and realized that not a single person was missing, even if Sugishita looked like he’d rather be anywhere else.
They all dumped their spoils into the middle of the mat and didn’t fight each other over the food like vultures, instead sharing and serving each other. The weather around them was warm, but not oppressively so, and the hat that Sakura wore kept him from squinting and not being able to view anyone. Nearby, a butterfly fluttered around his head like the moon to the earth.
He watched it contently until a sandwich was placed down in front of him. When he looked back, Pink-hair gave him a secretive smile and returned to his place in the circle. Sakura distantly thought that his piercings looked badass, they shouldn’t fit a feminine face like his- but they did- and Sakura was the last one to judge people on looks.
‘Eat up,’ Suo pushed the sandwich closer to him, and Sakura eyed everyone one last time before taking a bite of the sandwich.
And for some reason… The plain lettuce, tomato, and bacon sandwich tasted better than anything else he had ever had before.
By the end of the day Sakura’s foot was aching.
He had ditched the crutches a few days ago, but even so, the class had moved slowly on their tour, even if Sakura tried his best to convince himself that it wasn’t because of his banged up leg, but because they wanted to take their time.
Walking on it all day hadn’t felt the best- but the stitches were all in place when he checked on it that night.
In his pockets, his phone vibrated and he thought about ignoring it for a moment, since it had been going off a lot more lately, but for some reason he was a lot more compelled to answer.
It was a private message- not from the bustling group chat.
Suo: Be sure to disinfect and rebandage your leg, Sakura-Kun. Have fun today?
Sakura: Okay.
That was enough socializing for today. He ignored the second question and slipped his phone under his pillow.
Tossed and turned for a few moments.
Then re-bandaged his foot.
“Dude, he’s scary but also… Kinda intriguing?”
“Wow, that's a new way to say someones hot.”
“Hey! We go to an all girls academy and he’s new in town, Darci. Let a girl live a little.”
“I heard he once skydived and his parachute broke but he still landed unscathed.”
“Really? Well I heard that when he bungee jumped, the cord snapped, but he grabbed onto a vine and became one with the forest.”
“Maybe he was raised by a wolf pack and gifted to us.”
“Um, I heard he got into a wrestling match with a boa constrictor in the amazon rainforest and choked it out.”
“...No Darci, that's just obscene. Where did you hear about that, it doesn't even sound real.”
Apparently, If Sakura was going to fight together with the group, it meant he needed to have… fun together.
According to Umemiya.
He didn’t know how much of that was bullshit and how much of it was the truth- but he would take it as a truth because that was how he ended up at the nearby towns festival a few days before the fight (and a day before his doctor's appointment to clear him. He had stated that he didn’t need a damn doctor to tell him when to fight, but Umemiya had insisted upon it.)
Because that weird ass Togame guy wanted to fight him only when his leg was healed. When he was at his best. Sakura would personally fight him either way.
He had never been to a festival before, so when he was having an afternoon nap and received a phone call and answered it, only to realize that he couldn’t hear anything, the caller hung up and facetimed him instead.
When he answered, he looked through the screen at Umemiya, unimpressed.
‘Festival’ he signed, ‘meet at F-U-R-I-N in an hour.’
Before Sakura could protest, he hung up.
So an hour found him staring blankly at Umemiya, Sugishita, Nirei, and Suo, all dressed in traditional clothing. Suo looked the most in his element, since it wasn’t too far off from what he normally wore (though the clogs made him taller and the crimson and gold silk was much too expensive looking.)
Nirei fidgeted a little in his Yukata, stiff and awkward.
Sakura felt the same way in his damn jorts.
He stared at them and they stared back, then Suo laughed and produced a white bundle of fabric from his robes. He passed it to Sakura, like he had expected him to show up looking like a bum, but Sakura had never been to a festival before. They were the types of events that he only glanced at (the fancy Kimonos and pretty decorations) and walked away because those events were only for people of importance.
The white Yukata was a little too big for him- probably a hand me down of Suo’s- but it at least made him stick out less.
‘Have you been to a festival before?’ Nirei wrote down on the whiteboard- because ever since the faithful lunch he carried it with him everywhere as a new method to communicate with Sakura and piss him off. 'Have you worn traditional clothing before?'
It's not like he could ever afford it.
Sakura stared at him, signed ‘no’ and promptly followed behind Umemiya and Hiragi, trying his best to not look like he was tripping over himself.
The festival was further away than expected, considering Sakura didn’t know where in the fuck they were going. They walked all the way along the edge of Shishitorin territory (Nirei hiding behind Sakura and Suo) through the red light district (to which Sakura himself kept his head down as they kept walking, much to Umemiya and Suo’s amusement) and all the way to the partnering town.
And the festival was hard to miss, considering it was a beacon in the darkness. The gold lights strung across tents and stands, twinkling like stars, along with the movement and swishing of robes, accompanied by an influx of so many aromas that they mingled in the air, making it impossible for Sakura to single any out.
It was overwhelming.
It was new.
There were a lot of people in there.
Sakura felt his feet dig into the ground, forcing him to a halt as he took everything in. He had been too busy staring that he didn’t realize, in turn, someone was staring at him. Suo, like a fox in a henhouse, gazed at him, forcing Sakura to return to the present.
‘Are you okay?’ When he signed, the sleeves of his Yukata swished down to his elbows in a mesmerizing way. Sakura forced his eyes from them.
Sakura thought for a moment, ‘Too much.’
And there was too much of everything, he didn’t know how to explain it. In his chest, his breath rattled shortly.
Suo, though, seemed to understand. He turned to their waiting group who kept a respectful distance and said something that had them nodding and heading inside towards the festival.
Sakura watched them go, ‘what did you say to them?’
'We’ll meet with them later. Come with me.’
And Sakura didn’t have much room to protest- not when he was being led along the outskirts of the festival rather than straight through the middle. Not when Suo’s hand on his wrist felt more like an anchor than a restrictive grip, and not when he led them to the benches placed close enough to watch the festival, but not close enough for it to assault his sensitive senses.
They sat together for a while, Suo reaching into his sleeve to read off of a poetry book in peace while Sakura just stared at everything. The stars up above, the bustle of the nearby crowd, the way parents laughed down at the children at the booths, the way friends playfully shoved bits of caramel covered apples into eachothers faces.
Sakura people-watched a lot as a kid. Observed the things he would never have. They all called him weird for it, it was one of the reasons he got into so many fights, but here, no one tsked in disapproval at him. They just realized it was his way to compartmentalize the world around him.
After what felt like eternity, Sakura tugged on Suo’s sleeve to gain his attention, and he bunny eared his book before looking at him.
‘Let's go’ he signed.
Suo led the way through the crowd, thankfully, much more accustomed to it that Sakura could ever be. He weaved between people and smiled at them diplomatically, clearing a path all the way to the middle of the festival where they were dancing.
Towards the front, Umemiya was there, teaching the dance to a frustrated looking Sugishita and a starry eyed Nirei. Hiragi laughed at them from the sidelines. When Umemiya spotted them, he lit up like the sunlight. ‘Want to learn?’ he signed and yelled at the same time.
Suo politely passed.
‘I would rather die,’ Sakura signed back. Maybe Umemiya didn’t understand him, because he just shrugged and turned his attention back to his new dance proteges.
Sakura wasn’t really amused by it at all, but he did let out a huff of air from his nose when Nirei fell on his face. Hiragi from next to him fell to his knees with rambunctious laughter.
After that, Umemiya insisted he try a caramel apple.
It was one of the sweetest things he had ever tasted. When he nodded in approval, somewhere to his left he could see Suo and Nirei trading money, Nirei looking a bit downtrodden.
The booths were interesting too, seeing Umemiya and Hiragi battle it out for a toy duck more than made up for them dragging him an entire town over.
By the end of the night, his eyes were heavy and his foot was starting to cramp up. The moment Umemiya seemed to notice, he called it a night and led them all the way back to Furin, where they then peeled off one by one to their own houses.
Sakura was the first to leave, since his apartment was on the outskirts of Furin, next to Shishitorin. Umemiya practically begged to walk him home, but the very thought of any of them seeing what kind of place Sakura lived in, made his insides turn.
He shot him down and ignored their rowdy goodbyes as he made his way home.
He could feel eyes on his back, watching him all the way up until he entered his doorway, but a larger part of his brain told him to ignore it because he was tired from the social interaction and needed sleep.
The doctor's visit the next day went smoother than Sakura had expected it to be. It was a sunday, so everyone was out and about on the market street.
He had insisted he go alone, despite Nirei’s begging to come along and Umemiya’s puppy eyes.
In the end, he was able to finally return the annoying crutch to the old lady as she looked down as his foot with narrowed eyes before finally nodding. (Because apparently she was retired from the hospital, but used as Furin kids medic when they got into fights.)
She patted his back as a ‘Good Job’ and handed him a lollipop before promptly shoving him out with a kiss to the forehead and a pinch to his cheeks.
He was red for the entire rest of the day, but felt satisfaction when he sent a picture of her doctor's note to Umemiya, who quickly saw the message (Within the first, like, two seconds of him sending it) and replied with a sakura flower emoji.
Sakura didn’t know what that was supposed to mean, but he would take it as a clear message that he had permission to beat Togame’s ass.
Chapter 7: Umemiya gives pointless advice (Sakura takes it anyway)
Chapter Text
Leaving Furin the day of the scheduled match was nerve wracking. It wouldn’t have been, if it had just been him, Nirei, Suo, and Sugishita slipping out of class halfway through the day towards lunch, but no.
The entire school had choraled around the courtyard to chant rambunctiously and cheer them on during their departure. Sakura wasn’t too sure what all was said around him, but he was sure he could make out a few “Kill them!” and “Beat their asses!”
The noise was like a loud waterfall against his ears, loud and overwhelming to where he was never able to pick apart specific noises. It was how it always was for him.
He had bothered to learn a few of the students' names over the weeks. Which is why he knew who came up to him when Tsugeura patted him on the back with enough force to knock him over. And then there was Kiryu, clasping one of his hands between his own and squeezing them with a fox-like smile before disappearing into the crowd.
Seriously, what the hell was up with them?
Before his brain had time to overload, he was being dragged by a pissed-off Hiragi and a happy Umemiya as they bade the school goodbye. Luckily, the other three idiots in Sakura’s class hadn’t gotten lost and weren’t far behind them.
Sakura popped his knuckles because he had been itching for a fight for weeks now. He distantly worried that he had grown rusty, not putting his body to proper use, but he knew that all he needed was a little time before he was up and running again, like a well oiled machine.
Once he was reminded what a good hit felt like and blood was spilled, he was sure his body would act out of self preservation. He worked mostly on instinct, anyway.
‘Whoa there tiger,’ Umemiya signed, and Sakura shot him a pointed look, wondering why he was calling him tiger. Did he get the sign for ‘Tiger’ mixed up for ‘friend’ or something? ‘We need to eat first.’
So that was why he was leading them to Pothos cafe? Sakura’s nerves were already jumbled in his body, wires tangled while signals fired without warning- he just wanted to fight.
But here he was, being shoved into the very corner of the booth with his two seniors across from him as Suo slid in next to him with both an apologetic and a taunting smile. Sakura didn’t know how he could possibly feel both of those emotions at the same time- but it pissed him off so he elbowed Suo in lieu of getting more comfortable.
Suo didn’t respond, but that was maybe because he was too busy patting Nirei who already had his head in his hands and was shaking. Sakura didn’t really know what he was so batshit terrified of because he wasn’t even fighting.
‘Don’t be insensitive, N-I-R-I-E is worried for us,’ Suo signed, as if he could read his thoughts, and just in case he could, Sakura slid even closer to the wall to escape his all-encompassing eye.
‘He doesn't have to come,’ Sakura shot back, and before their argument could break into an all out brawl, Kotoha was there, placing plates onto the table. It was Sakura’s favorite.
She said something to Nirei, pushing one of the plates closer to him, probably telling him to eat to calm his nerves, but that didn’t matter to Sakura because by the time Nirei finally reached out to his fork, Sakura was already done with his own meal.
‘Can we go fight now?’ He signed to Umemiya, who pretended to play stupid and not understand his sign. ‘Don’t be an asshole.’
‘No,’ Umemiya replied sternly, ‘eat your vegetables and maybe we can go.’
Sakura huffed and let out what he hoped was an exasperated groan as he stabbed a broccoli with enough force to send it careening to a nearby wall, nearly missing Hiragi’s head. Suo laughed and clapped his hands like Sakura was some kind of circus act, but Nirei was laughing too and he wasn’t shaking anymore, so maybe Sakura would accept that just this once.
Then Kotoha was leaning over the table to place even more meals down for the upperclassmen, and right before Sakura’s pure, innocent eyes, Umemiya threw his arms around her like a damsel in distress.
…eh?
Sakura blinked as Umemiya whined about something or another, nuzzling his cheek against her hair like she was some kind of baby animal all the way up until she sucker punched him in the gut, forcing him away, but only slightly.
Sakura blinked some more, but could feel his cheeks grow red with utter mortification. He his his face behind his hands and peeked slightly at the scene in front of him- but when he looked, he realized that everyone was staring at them with some kind of look in their eyes.
‘Are you hiding?’ Umemiya signed, lips curled upwards into a fond smile. ‘No need to be so cute, S-A-K-U-R-A.’
And Sakura must have been doomed from the start, because at that his face grew even more red hot until Kotoha had mercy on him and brought out the dry erase board to write out a huge ‘It’s not what you think.’
And it certainly looked like it was what Sakura thought.
He tilted his head in confusion and made the letter ‘D’ with both of his hands, lightly tapping them together. ‘Dating?’
Kotoha didn’t know what that meant, but Umemiya did with the way the smile slowly fell from his face. He scrambled to the whiteboard and wrote down hastily ‘She is my treasured little sister.’
And Sakura had never had any siblings- at least, not biological ones. He saw how some treated each other at the foster home, but they mostly fought and tackled each other until the parent made them apologize.
‘You don’t look alike.’
Umemiya met eyes with Kotoha, who looked only slightly reluctant as she took the board, erasing it and writing something else down. It must not have been a secret with the way she showed the entire room- even if she looked slightly embarrassed.
‘We grew up in the same group home.’
Then it clicked. That made a lot more sense to Sakura.
He offhandedly flapped his hand as if to say, ‘Not a big deal’ before returning to glaring down at his vegetables on the plate. The broccoli was still attached to the wall behind Hiragi, slowly sliding down.
From the corner of his eye, he could see Kotoha’s face shift from surprise to something softer, and then she was leaving and Umemiya was giving him such a blinding smile that Sakura was sure he would go blind. He already had hearing issues as it was, so he pointedly avoided eye contact as the subject changed and conversation flowed around him.
He liked sitting in the corner booth- being a spectator. It was what he was used to.
But apparently whatever conversation they had fallen into must have been important enough for Sakura to have to listen because Suo was nudging his side, snapping him back from his zoned off reality.
Suo nodded to Umemiya, who looked grim as he talked about what Sakura could only assume was Shishitorin. They didn’t just come here to eat then, but to plan too?
When Umemiya noticed Sakura squinting at his lips to try and get a good grasp on just what the hell he was saying, his eyes widened and he immediately signed ‘sorry’ before easily signing and talking at the same time. (Still fingerspelling a lot, though he must have really been practicing to be able to talk and sign at the same time. Someone had put practice in… for Sakura?)
‘S-H-I-S-H-T-O-R-I-N changed to become more violent after T-O-M-I-Y-A-M-A became leader. We should work on changing that.’
Sakura frowned, ‘How?’ He thought they were just there to humble them in a brawl. It was something he was perfectly capable of doing, but changing someone from a violent person wasn’t something he had necessarily done before.
‘I want you to have a conversation with your fist.’
Sakura gave him a flat look, unimpressed. ‘I do that, like, everyday.’ He purposefully used the wrong sentence structure just to test if Umemiya could see his tone indicators through sign. (The indicator was that he was a stupid idiot.)
It didn’t work, because Umemiya only laughed.
‘You’ll see what I mean when you start fighting. Just try to understand him.’
Sakura cringed because he probably thought he was giving out good advice- but in reality, he had no clue what the hell he was talking about.
He looked over to Suo for help- but blatantly realized he hadn’t been even dropping on their conversation and instead was sipping on his tea, nodding along to something Hiragi was saying. It must have been interesting because Nirei was writing it all down.
They were forced to leave the cafe by the time lunch rush hit and Kotoha became too busy to keep them in their corner booth. Sakura was fine with it because it meant they could fight sooner, when when Umemiya pouted like a little kid and waved goodbye as Kotoha slammed the door shut on them.
Before they could depart completely, something strange had the others halting. Sakura was about to ignore their collective reaction and just keep walking- because whatever it was, it couldn’t be that bad. Not bad enough to keep him from a fight when he was already itching for it- but Umemiya was grabbing him by the collar like some ally cat and ushering him back to their place.
The middle schooler was nearly on his knees, panting like he had rushed to the cafe to get there in time before they departed.
Nirei was patting his back worried until he regained his composure, then he looked up at them with hopeful eyes. The bandage on his face was still there- but he was otherwise uninjured.
Good.
Sakura turned heel to head back to Shishitorin territory- but suddenly the boy was grabbing onto his sleeve, forcing him back, and Sakura almost instinctively whacked him backwards because he didn’t like people touching him, especially when he couldn’t see them, but when he looked back, the boy looked too pitiful to kick down.
Sakura counted five slowly in his head before finally wrenching the kid's grip from his wrist, because he did need his hands to communicate.
‘What?’
The kid stiffened- then looked to the others for support. Suo kindly offered an explanation and the kid turned back to Sakura and said something slowly. They were almost the same height so it was fairly easy to read his lips when he said ‘please win.’
Sakura swallowed down the lump in his throat and awkwardly nodded.
Of course he’d win. He wasn’t fighting for a damn middle schooler, he was fighting because that Togame guy annoyed the shit out of him.
But then the kid was still looking up at him with those hopeful eyes- ones he wasn’t accustomed to. No one ever looked at him that way.
Sakura fidgeted, uncomfortable, then his eyes caught onto Kotoha’s who watched from the cafe window in bemusement.
Shouldn’t she be making food or something?
As if she could sense his thoughts, she glared at Sakura, then shrugged with one shoulder as a signal.
Sakura turned away from her and her stupid advice, but took it anyway- he slowly reached a hand out to put on the kids shoulder, giving him one firm squeeze before he let go like he had been burned.
But that didn’t seem to matter to the kid because he looked like Sakura had hung the stars and the moon.
He didn’t look at him anymore, already headed down the street with the group in tow. He didn’t know what they were saying since they were trailing behind him, but he could feel their gazes on his back.
And just when he thought things couldn’t get worse- the town was a cheering committee too, cheering them all the way on their walk to the Shishitorin bridge and offering advice that was probably annoying and useless, but even so, the upperclassmen took it in stride and thanked everyone.
The old hag- the town's retired doctor and Bofurin kids unofficial doctor- slid a medical kit into his hand. Judging by the weight of it, it was fully stocked.
She winked at him and mouthed ‘troublemaker’ and before Sakura could angrily shove it back in her face, she was gone.
The weight of it felt heavy in his hands, so he passed it onto Nirei- who looked like he needed an important task to do or he’d have a nervous breakdown.
He looked down at the first aid kit and something In his eyes glistened- like he was going to cry- before he thankfully returned to normal. (That was good, because Sakura was never good with crying people.)
He held the kit in his hands as if saying ‘leave it to me’ and then they were departing down the tunnel, a train passing overhead, the rattling reverberating through his body.
Vibrations were a welcome thing- like an anchor to the turbulent sea that was Sakura’s life.
As expected, the orange-jacket-freaks were waiting on the other side of the tunnel- the smaller one bouncing off of the walls and the Togame dude looking bored- up until he met eyes with Sakura and smiled in that creepy way of his.
Sakura had no idea how he was going to have a conversation while fighting- especially not with that dude.
And then there was the rest of Shishitorun- cornering them like Cat to mice almost the moment they entered their territory.
Sakura clenched his fist. He was ready to fight Togame here and now-
Togame held up a hand, looking so aloof that Sakura wanted to sock him then and there.
‘Come on’ he seemed to signal him, and Sakura rolled his eyes as the entire shishitorin gang encased their smaller group on both sides- leading them to some run-down looking theater.
Umemiya sent warning looks to all of the Gang members as they were led, warning them away, and none of them made a move on them. Whether it was because they didn’t want to or Umemiya scared them, Sakura wasn’t too sure.
The first thing he noticed about the Shishitorin hideout was the mold. He was sure that all of them would be dead by the age of thirty if they breathed that shit in everyday.
The second was that all of the movie posters were all… shark movies.
No wonder the place ran out of business. Not enough ‘jaws’ films to keep it alive.
Tomiyama smiled brightly, a paradox to the emptiness of his eyes, and dramatically flung open the double doors of the movie theater- and if Sakura thought that the outside of the theater looked desolate, then this looked even more so.
Graffiti covered every square inch of the walls, the auditorium stage cracked and uneven, the red seats torn to shreds with cushion spilling out of the sides.
Sakura was sure the cockroaches would all be lurking around if there wasn’t such a large crowd of rowdy gang members- shouting so loud at their arrival that even Sakura could hear them.
Umemiya was the first of Bofurin to enter, taking the head of the group with Hiragi in tow. The both of them took the brunt of the empty cans and wrappers being thrown at them, but a few still hit Sakura in the back of his head at the rear of their group, which pissed him off.
Before he could dive at the idiot who threw a banana peel at his head, Suo smiled with mirth and took him by the elbow, dragging him along and forcing him to settle down in the chair between him and Nirei.
When Sakura finally calmed down enough to not see red and focus his attention back on Nirei next to him, he looked like he was going to throw up.
Sakura tapped on his shoulder, and when he had his attention, put a hand out to tilt his chin towards. ‘Don’t look down.’
He didn’t think he understood him, but Nirei looked defiant anyways, as he nodded and slid his medical kit under the broken seat. That was more like it.
Tomiyama hopped and slipped to the stage like some kind of overexcited squirrel, opening his arms to the roaring crowd and looking like a maniac as he pointed to Umemiya. From next to him, Togame said something that had them pouting, but he was dragged off of the stage by the scruff anyway, replaced with some nameless orange jacket freak that Sakura had never learned the name of.
So they wanted to save the main event for last?
Whatever, Sakura would refer to him as undercut. He would learn his name if he ever fought him. Someday.
Sugishita stood from his place on the other side of Suo (closer to Umemiya because he was a kiss-ass) and their leader simply gave him a hard pat on the back before he was lumbering to the opposite side of the stage that his opponent was on.
Sakura sunk back in his chair and crossed his arms.
‘You’re pouting,’ Suo pointed out- very unkindly.
Sakura tried his best to look like he wasn’t doing just that. ‘I wanted to fight him first,’ Sakura signed back, ‘I still have a score to settle with him.’
‘He’ll win,’ Suo replied like he knew everything- and he hadn’t been wrong so far, so Sakura huffed and looked back just as the fight began. (The roaring of the crowd never really stopped- and it was something new to Sakura, being able to hear so much. It was overwhelming.)
And they all watched as he reached out, because he had the wingspan of some Eldritch horror, and easily grabbed his opponents face to smash him backwards into the floor.
The cheering settled down (or maybe Sakura’s ears were getting worse by the moment) and the entire room stilled.
His opponent twitched on the floor, but otherwise didn’t get up.
Then Choji was clapping, (at least, Sakura guessed he was judging by his hand movements) and running to the stage. Togame once again grabbed him by the scruff of his jacket and deposited him down on the least rickety chair they had.
And when Sakura saw the look in his eyes- his stomach twisted. He was pissed. It wasn’t the angry boiling of a pot- more like the serine stillness of a lake before a storm.
None of them were worried about their teammate. Not In the slightest. In fact, the cans that were being thrown at Sakura earlier were being aimed at their unconscious teammate.
These guys… have got some screws loose.
When Sugishita returned back to the pit, he was heeling like a well trained dog and Umemiya was patting him. Sakura was glad that he couldn’t hear him saying “good boy” or “here’s a treat.” (He didn’t know if that was exactly what he said- but he could make an educated guess.)
But while that was going on, Sakuras attention was directed to the two Shishitoren lackeys dragging their teammate's body to the end of the stage to unceremoniously dump him into the pit, directly in front of Sakura.
His head hit the floor with enough force to bounce.
From next to Sakura, Nirei flinched.
The two hopped off of the stage with smug smirks on their face as they began to already kick their teammate when he was down. And that was something that left an awfully bad taste on his sensitive tastebuds.
Sakura shrugged Nirei’s trembling hands from his shoulder and roughly grabbed onto the collar of both of their jackets, forcing them backwards and onto the ground like attack dogs. As expected, when Sakura looked down on them they were barking like little idiots, pointing up at him in anger and challenging him.
He could see the shocked look on Nirei’s face, but even more surprising was the tense look in Suo’s visible eye. He wasn’t looking at Sakura, though, but at something behind him. Suo lifted a hand to point to his ear, maybe warning him that someone was trying to call him, but Sakura didn’t give a shit, not when he had two fleabags on the floor in front of him that he could kick around-
And then a tiny hand was wrapped around his recently healed injury, pushing down with enough force to get him to wince and immediately back into the stage. Before he could even react, the same hand was reaching up to grab onto his ear and drag him down.
The stranger was saying something into his ear- he could feel the breath on the shell of his ear and the vibrations of their voice. Then there were stronger arms separating them, Toganme pulling them apart from each other. Sakura managed to wrench himself free to look down at Tomimiya with enough hatred to burn a small village down- but he only smiled up with those empty eyes of his.
“He can’t hear you” Togame said when he looked down at Choji, or at least, it’s what it looked like he said judging by the way he cupped one ear. The leader's face shifted from crazy to even more crazy as he eyed Sakura with interest.
He must have attacked because he had assumed Sakura was ignoring him- and little kids hated to be ignored.
How annoying.
“Not your fight” The middle scholar (because there was no way he was a highschool kid) said, or maybe he said “not your friend.” Either one would make sense. But what he did clearly understand was when the kid took his thumb and slid it across his neck, looking like a maniac.
And just like that, the room grew heavy with tension at the threat. Even Togame grew still, but the one person who didn’t shoved Sakura behind their back and pointed at Choji. Umemiya had a large frame, large enough to cover him and hide him from whatever was being said.
Sakura’s ankle fucking hurt.
Hiragi pulled Sakura back onto his (very broken) seat, looking like he needed to pop a few of his heartburn meds.
‘Don’t pick fights with people who aren’t your opponent,’ Suo signed from next to him. ‘The little kid wanted to play a one on one game, and we know how children can be when they don’t get what they want.’
‘What, am I some kind of toy now?’
Suo pretended to have a moment of thought, ‘perhaps.’
And then Umemiya was in front of him and Togame was dragging Choji to his time-out chair.
‘Don’t antagonize him, leave him to me,’ Umemiya signed (very slowly) as he crouched down in front of Sakura. ‘He is my opponent.’
‘They’re lame,’ Sakura retorted with a thumbs down, and Umemiya signed, but it was in a fond way if the upturn of his lips told him anything.
‘Then Show them with your fist,’ Umemiya pointed to his fist, then looked over to say something to Suo that had him standing up with a straight back. Sakura almost forgot they were still fighting matches, kendo-style, and apparently Suo was next.
‘I will show these children how to become an adult,’ Suo signed to him, and Sakura honestly had no fucking idea what that meant, but he was sure that Suo felt cool when he ascended the stage stairs. (He did look cool, but only a little.)
And it was now that Sakura realized he had never actually seen Suo in action before, only protecting others with evasive maneuvers. Never on the offense. Sakura moved Umemiya to the side in a not very polite way so he could catch sight of the starting match, and Sugishita looked like he wanted to suplex him on the spot, even with Umemiya calming him down and laughing.
Sakura ignored them because none of that mattered. He was about to see Suo fight.
Pages Navigation
Jyuu_no_Hana on Chapter 1 Mon 15 Jul 2024 02:28AM UTC
Comment Actions
Jyuu_no_Hana on Chapter 1 Mon 15 Jul 2024 02:30AM UTC
Comment Actions
viithevee on Chapter 1 Mon 15 Jul 2024 02:46AM UTC
Comment Actions
Love_Hyuneee on Chapter 1 Mon 15 Jul 2024 03:53AM UTC
Comment Actions
AliceGrant_Morgan on Chapter 1 Mon 15 Jul 2024 03:47AM UTC
Comment Actions
atangsteater (CharmSeeker) on Chapter 1 Mon 15 Jul 2024 05:27AM UTC
Comment Actions
Darkky on Chapter 1 Mon 15 Jul 2024 04:39PM UTC
Comment Actions
Azarisage on Chapter 1 Mon 15 Jul 2024 06:14PM UTC
Comment Actions
Fly_agaric_mooshroom on Chapter 1 Tue 16 Jul 2024 02:35AM UTC
Comment Actions
IconicAlice on Chapter 1 Wed 24 Jul 2024 06:54AM UTC
Comment Actions
atsumi_natsume on Chapter 1 Tue 06 Aug 2024 08:40AM UTC
Comment Actions
tango_blue on Chapter 1 Sat 31 Aug 2024 10:41AM UTC
Comment Actions
LaLaLandCritic on Chapter 1 Sat 24 May 2025 10:16PM UTC
Comment Actions
sandradaffodils on Chapter 2 Tue 16 Jul 2024 02:49AM UTC
Comment Actions
SlashSenpai on Chapter 2 Tue 16 Jul 2024 02:58AM UTC
Comment Actions
viithevee on Chapter 2 Tue 16 Jul 2024 03:06AM UTC
Comment Actions
FallSprite159 on Chapter 2 Tue 16 Jul 2024 03:34AM UTC
Comment Actions
Kwato on Chapter 2 Tue 16 Jul 2024 05:44AM UTC
Comment Actions
atangsteater (CharmSeeker) on Chapter 2 Tue 16 Jul 2024 06:01AM UTC
Comment Actions
Dj_cat on Chapter 2 Tue 16 Jul 2024 06:06AM UTC
Comment Actions
Mirykirigum on Chapter 2 Tue 16 Jul 2024 11:18AM UTC
Comment Actions
Kawaii_Kingz07 on Chapter 2 Tue 16 Jul 2024 12:45PM UTC
Comment Actions
Pages Navigation