Magic Knight Rayearth Fan Fiction ❯ Lion Heart ❯ No Mercy ( Chapter 3 )

Lion Heart: Chapter Three: No Mercy

***

The sun was shining high in the autumn noon, and at Shougaku Elementary School, the children were enjoying the precious sunlight that would soon go away in the coming month. It was recess, many children's favorite time of the day, and Hikaru with her three friends were playing the game most children liked to play on the jungle gym: "Let's Pretend".

Fumiko Tachiiri took the lead in the game as a queen in a fairy-tale land. She decided that Rei Chuutei should be the princess, since Rei was the smallest and acted a bit younger than she should--she always carried around her doll--and Sera Araki was a "good witch". Since Hikaru was the one who acted the most like a boy, Fumiko decided that Hikaru should be a girl-knight. Fumiko wanted Hikaru to be Usagi Tsukino from "Sailor Moon" at first, but since Hikaru hardly ever watched television, a knight Hikaru became.

Hikaru already defeated several monsters that threatened the castle, and Sera created an episode in which she tried to make Fumiko a love potion, but it turned her into a frog. All of that had been over in a mere fifteen minutes; now Fumiko was back to bossing people around.

"Um, Fumiko-chan," Hikaru called up to the very top of the jungle gym, where Fumiko's "throne" was, "do you think we should get anybody else into the game?"

"Fumiko-sama," Fumiko corrected. "And if you want to invite your brother to join your army, I give you--ah, per, um, Sera-san, you know when we go on field trips..."

"Permission?" Sera offered as Hikaru gave Fumiko a funny look.

This isn't "pretend" right now...

"Yes, that's it. I give you permission to do so."

"Um, okay, but Fumiko-chan--"

"Fumiko-sama. Or Queen Fumiko."

Hikaru sighed; it was no use, for when they were playing "Let's Pretend", they were always in "Pretend Land" until playtime was over. "O-Okay, Fumiko-sama. That wasn't what I meant. We should get somebody to be like the king--"

"Prince," Fumiko interrupted once again. "There will be no king because I'm in charge. There will only be a prince or a joker or another knight or a bad guy."

"Okay, Fumiko-chan."

"Fumiko-sama."

You're really weird sometimes, Fumiko-chan.

"Fumiko-sama," Hikaru groaned as she climbed a rung of the jungle gym ladder to look for one of her brothers. They were the only boys that would join the little game if she asked; she was not well-acquainted with any other boy, so she was sure they would say "no".

She perked up once she spotted her brother Kakeru sitting underneath a tree with his friend Yuujirou, who was also Rei's older brother. The way Hikaru figured Fumiko would think, Yuujirou would be Rei's brother, a prince, and Kakeru would be another prince from another land trying to win Rei's heart. Fumiko was always a fan of love stories, after all.

With Kakeru and Yuujirou, though, anything would be fun; it didn't matter if there wasn't a real fairytale going on; a mock sword fight between Kakeru and Yuujirou would be funny to watch!

"Hey! Hidehiro, give me back Kitsune-san!"

"Make me!"

Hikaru looked behind her by the sound of Rei's voice and saw that her classmate Hidehiro Akugenta had Rei's stuffed animal fox in his hands above his head--far above Rei's reach. Rei tried to jump up to wear Hidehiro had his hands so that she could get her doll back on her own, but Hidehiro only teased her further by snickering and moving his hands around so that it was impossible for her to grab it.

"You meanie! Give him back already!"

"No way! A fox doll is exactly what I need," Hidehiro sneered, "for... my experimentations."

"I don't know what an "experi-man-taishun" is, but if you don't give me back Kitsune-san...!"

"You'll what? Cry?"

And indeed, Rei looked like she was on the verge of tears. Hikaru had had enough; she jumped down from the jungle gym, Fumiko quickly following, and stood in between Hidehiro and Rei.

"Give her back her doll!" Hikaru demanded angrily, giving Hidehiro the angriest look she had given anybody in her seven years of life.

Hidehiro was unfazed. "Oh, what do you know? The little red-head is getting angry! C'mon Shorty! I dare ya to try to get it back from me!"

"Give. It. Back." Fumiko stood next to Hikaru, showing her fists threateningly.

Hidehiro laughed evilly. "You guys are just girls! What do you think you can do? Beat me up?"

***

"I don't get you, Kakeru," Yuujirou Chuutei groaned. "You know every little bit there is to know about "Dragonball Z", but you don't even watch the show!"

Kakeru rolled his eyes. How many times has he had to explain this? "Like I said, Masaru has watched "Dragonball" ever since it came out in that manga magazine he likes to read. He's made me watched it a couple of times."

"Did he show you the episode last night when Goku went Super Saiya-jin?"

"A what?"

"Never mind," Yuujirou mumbled. "So you don't know every little bit. Have you seen any of the Gundam series?"

"A what series?"

""Dr. Slump"?"

"Dr. what?"

"Never mind. Tenchi Muyo?"

"What does having a box upside down have to do with this?"

"Never mind. Please tell me you've seen "Crayon Shin-chan", though!"

"Oh yeah! I love that series!" Kakeru piped up. He wasn't an avid television watcher like his brother and Yuujirou and most other children his age were, but he watched the shows that appealed to him; most of the time, it was funny shows, such as "Crayon Shin-chan". "Are you going to watch the movie when it comes out?"

"Yep! Father is going to take me to see it when Mother takes Rei-chan to see the "Sailor Moon" movie," Yuujirou said with a proud smile. "You think Satoru-san will let you go see it with me?"

"I hope so!" Kakeru smiled, a momentary burst of jealousy flowing through him. The Chuutei family was a happy one; his father hadn't abandoned them, his mother was in great contact with Yuujirou and Rei, and Yuujirou and Rei hardly got into any fights. Kakeru only saw his mother when he found himself in trouble; his father was gone, and Satoru was the one in charge. It really wasn't fair at all--with the only exception that Satoru was less strict than their father.

"Are you going to buy the Super Nintendo when it comes out?"

"Satoru already doesn't like that Masaru spends most of his New Year's money and allowance on comic books and music and most of his time watching television," Kakeru pouted. "I don't do good in school--better than Masaru, at least--so I don't think--"

"Hidehiro! If you don't give it back--" Hikaru's angry voice was picked up on Kakeru's radar-like hearing.

"You'll what? Tell on me, ya little babies?"

"No, I'll--"

The boy laughed in a way that Kakeru didn't like, and Kakeru sharply spun his head to the source of the commotion.

"You don't think...?" Yuujirou began, until he looked to the group that Kakeru was glaring at and growled. "What does that punk think he's doing?!"

Sure enough, over by the jungle gym only a few meters away, was a round, chubby kid with a raggedy fox doll in his hands. Yuujirou's little sister Rei was on the ground crying with a short-haired girl by her side, while Hikaru and a curly-haired girl were yelling at the chubby boy angrily. The boy, who was called Hidehiro, continued his teasing and snickering.

Kakeru narrowed his eyes and stood up sharply. "Let's go, Yuujirou. Nobody messes with our cute little sisters."

"Right on, Kakeru."

***

"When your brother gets home, you are going to get an earful from him! Now go to your room!"

Those were the first and last words his mother had spoken to him all day, but Kakeru wasn't ashamed of himself as his mother would hope he would be. He was angry. Nobody understood exactly what happened and nobody understood why. His mother didn't want to hear any of it, the principal could have cared less, and his teacher was willing enough to give him detention for the next two weeks.

But for now, he was suspended for the rest of the day.

Satoru was going to get a big surprise when he arrived home since he's usually home before Kakeru and Masaru and Hikaru were.

Kakeru looked at his alarm clock. 1:45. Satoru should be home any minute.

The nine-year-old boy fell on the tatami mat and stared up at the ceiling. The only place he was allowed in the household was his own room for the rest of the night. He was forbidden to eat in the living room with the rest of the family or find a comfortable seat in Masaru's room to watch television--though, for the latter, he was actually happy about. His mother did take away his toys and drawing pads and modeling kits, so he was only left with his homework and boring books that did nothing but teach.

He was going to spend the rest of the day either doing work or sitting in the middle of his room fuming.

Watching anime with Masaru actually didn't sound too bad anymore...

"I'm home."

Kakeru sighed with much fury and sat up. He knew what was coming next.

"Satoru, go talk to your brother. He won't listen to me anymore, but I already grounded him. I need you to go talk to him."

A pause. "Kakeru or Masaru?"

"Kakeru."

Maybe Satoru would go nicer on me than Mother would, anyway.

The rice paper door slid open, and Satoru stood in the doorway with not an annoyed look but a compassionate one. Kakeru let out a breath of relief but still had no desire to talk about it. How was he absolutely sure that Satoru would understand?

"Kakeru, what happened at school today?" Satoru asked as he walked into the room and sat in front of Kakeru.

The younger brother hesitated. "Nothing."

"Then there should be a reason why you're home so early today," he continued speaking in a calm, concerned manner, "and why Mother is so upset with you right now."

For a moment there was silence. Kakeru knew that Satoru would stay until he told him what exactly was wrong, but he was unsure if Satoru would really go easy on him once he told him what had happened. Of course, Kakeru wanted to tell him the entire story, which nobody so far had yet dared to listen to.

"Is Yuujirou in trouble too?"

Kakeru jolted in surprise. "Wh-why?"

Satoru only smiled. "If Yuujirou is in trouble too, then I know it isn't completely your fault whatever happened. I'm not saying that part of the blame would go to Yuujirou, but he does try to keep you away from trouble unless--"

"--unless his little sister was being bullied like Hikaru-chan was?"

The older brother blinked and frowned but kept quiet. Kakeru took this as a sign that Satoru was listening and would most likely understand.

"There's this kid named Akugenta--Hidehiro Akugenta, I think--and while Yuujirou and me were talking about... stuff... we heard Hidehiro teasing Yuujirou's little sister Rei-chan and not giving her back her fox doll, and Hikaru-chan and Fumiko-chan were trying to get it back, but they couldn't, and he was being mean to them, and... well, Yuujirou and me decided that we oughta help them, so... well, it's not our fault! Really!"

Satoru shook his head lightly. "You didn't get into a fight, did you?"

"No!"

"So why are you in trouble?"

Kakeru kept quiet. This is the part that Satoru would be disappointed with since this part is the one that he found himself in trouble with. This is the part that Hidehiro had used to his advantage to keep Kakeru away from Hikaru for at least the rest of the week, letting him bully her and her friends as much as he wished although Kakeru had emphasized...

"Kakeru?"

"I... I told him that if he ever bothered Hikaru-chan and her friends again..."

Another pause, but Satoru understood immediately what had happened. "You threatened him. Kakeru, you know stuff like that would get you into serious trouble especially when you are grown up. Next thing you know, when you're twenty-five years old, you're threatening to kill somebody just because they forgot to pay you back--and that somebody could be Yuujirou--"

"I wouldn't do that to him!"

"You never know, Kakeru. The thing is, threats may make you feel strong, but they really make you look weak if you threaten to hurt somebody because you don't get your way."

"But it wasn't about getting my way."

Satoru grinned the tiniest bit. "You can't always protect Hikaru. You have to let her have the chance to defend herself, no matter how much you think you need to protect her. She is a strong girl, after all."

"But still," Kakeru muttered, glaring at the tatami mat, "she can get hurt easily. She takes everything personally and she always blames herself for the littlest things!"

"Do you think she would blame herself for you getting in trouble today?"

The younger brother trembled. "I hope not."

"That's fine. Then I won't tell her why you're in trouble and make sure that Mother doesn't tell her either," Satoru agreed. "For now, why don't you try to do your homework and try to get ahead of your class? Maybe Mother would put this behind her if you manage to become one of the top ten students in your class."

Kakeru nodded and glanced at the backpack he had thrown across the room once he had returned home an hour ago.

"Maybe."

***

Masaru was in disbelief. He was in trouble when he did not do anything because he didn't do anything. At least he was not grounded like Kakeru was, but he might as well be since he could do nothing else at recess anymore.

No. Satoru and his mother decided to punish him for Kakeru getting into trouble.

At least, they might as well be doing so.

For the next two weeks, Satoru wanted Masaru to keep an eye on Kakeru to make sure that he would not go off and actually carry off the threat he proposed to this Hidehiro Akugenta kid the other day or even threaten anybody else for that matter. Masaru knew the school rules, but he thought that Kakeru's intentions were justified. After all, as Hikaru's older brothers, they should make sure that nobody tries to hurt her feelings. Satoru had better feel lucky that Kakeru only threatened Hidehiro Akugenta instead of beating him to the ground.

Because after the story Kakeru told Masaru, Masaru knew that he would have at least socked that kid.

Lunch aide or no lunch aide. School rules or no school rules.

Still, having Masaru watch over Kakeru at all times would be difficult. For the next two days, Kakeru was forbidden to go out to recess. In fact, for the next two weeks, the time that Masaru should be watching over Kakeru, the youngest brother had detention after school. Masaru had art classes to go to after school, so Masaru couldn't look after Kakeru then. And how was he supposed to watch Kakeru during school when he was in a totally different grade?

Well, considering that Kakeru and Hikaru were also in completely different grade levels, maybe nothing bad would happen.

Maybe. Hopefully, if Masaru wanted to keep out of trouble this time.

Masaru refused to get in trouble because of Kakeru, even if Satoru and his mother did not actually punish him.

However, since Kakeru was being detained in his classroom during recess, Masaru decided to keep an eye on Hikaru from a distance for a while. To make sure that Hikaru, her friends, or his friends suspected nothing, he invited his friends to hang out with him at the swings while Hikaru and her friends were playing on the nearby monkey bars.

Unfortunately, Masaru had strayed from watching his little sister and ended up striking up a lively conversation with his friends about ways to improve the Nintendo.

Although the Super Nintendo was going to be out soon...

"You know how the non-animated cartoons are?"

"Yeah..."

"Maybe there should be a game system where it looks like that!"

"Um, do you mean 3-D animation?" Masaru questioned. The boys nodded, and Masaru smiled brightly. "Exactly! They should have something like that. Actually, I wonder if they should do that with animation TV shows."

"What? And watch the shows and play the games with those weird 3-D glasses?"

Masaru thought for a moment. Good point; that could be bothersome. "Well, maybe they could make it so you don't need 3-D glasses."

"How? Magic?"

"Not really..."

Masaru was unsure why he did, but the sight of a chubby kid, who looked about Kakeru's age, made him stop his train of thought and just watch him amble by the swings. For some reason, he looked fishy. "Hey, who's that kid?"

"Which one?"

"That fat boy," Masaru pointed at the chubby kid's general direction, "there."

"Oh, him! I know him; he's some kid in the second grade who's supposed to be in the fifth. Since people in the fourth and fifth grade tease him about being stupid, he's been picking on everybody in the second grade."

"That's not all; he also got some fifth grader in trouble yesterday."

"Guys," Masaru groaned, "that's not helping me. What's his name?"

"Hidehiro Akugenta. I think it was your brother he got into trouble, but I'm not sure. Did he?"

"So that's Hidehiro." Masaru nodded as he walked in the kid's direction. "I'll be right back guys!"

Why is he heading over towards Hikaru and her friends? Masaru narrowed his eyes as he took cover behind a nearby tree. He had better not be making trouble again--lucky thing Kakeru isn't out here or else I would have double the trouble!

To make sure that he would not be seen by his sister, he did not peek past the tree. Instead, his back was to the trunk, and he was facing the opposite direction from Hikaru, but the tree was close enough that he could hear every word that the five second graders were saying.

"Heya Shorty and Cry-Baby! What's been going on?"

"Go away, Hidehiro. You got Hikaru's brother in trouble yesterday, and you were mean to Rei."

"Oh, boohoo, now you're getting into a bitchy girl, Fumiko! Is that what you're going to do all your life? Bitch?"

"What?"

Where did this guy learn how to curse? Just because he's the same age as Kakeru doesn't mean anything!

"It's not nice to say those types of word, Hidehiro. My father told me that those types of words could get you into trouble."

"Hm, now I have new names for you, Fumiko and Sera. Fumiko is a Bitchy Girl and Sera is a Daddy's Brat. Perfect!"

"Hidehiro, could you please not make fun of my friends. I'm not really happy about you telling lies to the teacher about my brother," Hikaru said with an air of anger that Masaru had never heard out of her.

"Well, he did threaten me."

"That's because you were being mean to Rei-chan!"

"Yeah, you didn't tell the teacher the entire truth, you big meanie!"

"So? And besides, if you think about it, Shorty, Cry-Baby--"

Can't he think up of any better names than that? What a wuss!

"--it was your fault to begin with. If you hadn't made such a fuss and just asked me nicely to give your stupid doll back, I would have! But no, you had to yell and shout which got Shorty's brother's attention and, well, you know what happened from there."

That little punk! He's doing exactly what Mother and Satoru and Kakeru and I had prevented Hikaru from thinking! But damn, I can't just go out there...

"You didn't have to take Rei-chan's Kitsune-san in the first place!"

Masaru smiled wickedly. You go Hikaru! Kakeru was wrong; you can take care of yourself!

"Heh. I was bored. Whaddya expect? Besides, that's not all you're at fault for, Shorty."

The middle brother frowned as he pictured Hikaru forming a confused expression on her face.

"I heard the rumors about your family..."

Oh crap!

"... is it true that because you beat your weak father in kendo that he left you and your brothers as bastard children?"

What. The hell. Did that guy. Just SAY?!

"Weak? He wasn't weak!" Hikaru yelled angrily. "And what is a ba-"

"That does it, you little freak!" Masaru yelled as he jumped out from behind the tree, shoving his sleeves up to his shoulders.

"Masaru-oniisama!"

"Nobody insults my father. Nobody puts any kind of blame on my family for anything. And nobody, especially you, will accuse any of us, especially not Hikaru-chan, of being bastard children and try to her at fault for it! Because we do have a father, and he will be back, and when he does, you will suck your pride on your thumb like a little baby!"

"Masaru-oniisama, quit it!" Hikaru pleaded as Masaru grabbed the collar of Hidehiro's shirt. "You'll get in trouble too!"

"And I'll take this damned brat down with me!" Masaru formed a fist and brought it behind his neck...

"Hold it right there, Shidou-san!"

***

His mother sighed wearily. "Satoru-kun, what are we going to do about your brothers? For the past two days in a row, both of them have gotten in trouble over Hikaru-chan and Akugenta-kun."

"You did hear about what the boy said to Hikaru today, didn't you?" Satoru asked with much concern. "What he said wasn't true since the word "bastard" can be confused with so many other meanings. I guess somebody must have taught Masaru and the boy that it meant "fatherless child" instead of "child born to unmarried parents"."

The aging mother shook her head. "No. From what I've heard, Akugenta-kun heard that from his older brother who knows the meaning and used it as he saw it fit for this family. Mitsuru-san, your father, doesn't live with us anymore." She looked up at Satoru sadly. "Even I will admit that people are speculating that we were never married in the first place because of Mitsuru-san's long absence."

"Mother..."

"Even so," she said, closing her eyes, "tomorrow I'm going to go to the school and have a conference about this with Akugenta-kun's parents and the principal and both of the boys' teachers. We'll even discuss about how to punish both Masaru-kun and Akugenta-kun since they did break school rules in the end.

"Unfortunately..." She paused for a moment. "Unfortunately, the principal is suggesting that Hikaru-chan should go into counseling over this whole ordeal, too. I know she didn't do anything wrong and the teachers know, but they still want to make sure that she wasn't... emotionally scarred over what had just happened."

"Mother, isn't that what both Masaru and Kakeru had wanted to do the past two days? They wanted to keep her emotions safe. Kakeru told me, just before I left for school, that he never wants to see Hikaru cry. I think that was also a part of the reason why he threatened the boy the other day. Masaru, well, we all know how he hates for Hikaru to blame herself for anything, and his anger didn't allow him to remember that Hikaru doesn't know about the word "bastard" other than it's one of those words that she's not allowed to say."

"Do you think that Hikaru-chan is completely oblivious to what has been going on the past few days?"

"I didn't say that, Mother," Satoru politely dissented. "What I am saying is that maybe putting Hikaru into counseling isn't a great idea since Masaru and Kakeru would beat themselves up for not protecting Hikaru better."

She sighed with disapproval. "So we shouldn't do it for Hikaru-chan but because Masaru-kun and Kakeru-kun--"

"I'm sure she has a little bit of a clue about why Masaru was so upset since she was angry herself--at least, that's what Masaru told me. But I'm sure that what she would need, if she did need counseling, is not a school counselor, but somebody within the family."

"Somebody besides Masaru-kun and Kakeru-kun," his mother nodded, "would mean you, Satoru-kun. Could you talk to her, then?"

Satoru blinked. He had not meant that, but since his mother was requesting that he do so, he found that there was no use arguing. "Fine."

"I'm still going to ground Masaru-kun for two weeks, and Kakeru-kun is still on his punishment for a few more days," the Shidou mother concluded. "But even so, all of this would never have happened if Mitsuru-san hadn't abandoned us--how long ago was it? More than a year, wasn't it?" Satoru nodded. "We have nobody to blame but your father."

"Mother--"

She only smiled as she stood up. "I'm going to get dinner ready. Why don't you and Hikaru-chan go and take Hikari out for a walk? It's a nice evening, after all."

Satoru sighed. Translation: Go and talk to Hikaru now.

***

Hikaru peeked into her older brother's room and saw Masaru at his desk, furiously writing something. She figured he was doing his homework again, but he seemed just as angry as he had been at recess that day. She didn't know why, really; sure, Hidehiro might have made fun of her and her friends when Masaru had been around, but whatever a "bastard child" was, it sure had made Masaru very upset.

"Um, Masaru-oniisama?"

Masaru glanced up from the desk and gave Hikaru a small smile. "Hey, Hikaru-chan. What's up?"

"Is it okay if I talk to you?"

Her older brother frowned. "But you can always talk to me, so you don't need to ask. This isn't about during recess today, is it? Because I've gotten an earful from the lunch aides and the principal, and I think Mother and Satoru are going to do the same after dinner..."

"I-I don't want to talk to you about recess. Wait, I do, but I'm not mad or anything," Hikaru said sheepishly as she walked into the room. "I just want to know... why you got so angry and was going to beat up Hidehiro."

"Why? You were there, weren't you?"

"Yeah, but Hidehiro wasn't hurting us or anything. He was just saying some bad stuff. He wasn't even stealing anything from us this time."

"Hikaru-chan, he was insulting our family. Do you think I would even forgive him for that?"

"But why can't you forgive him? I'm sure he didn't mean it!"

Masaru widened his eyes. "You mean you do forgive him? After what he said?"

"He didn't mean it!" Hikaru argued. "And he didn't hurt Fumiko-chan or Rei-chan or Sera-chan! And since he didn't, I don't think that you should be mad at him forever because he'll say "sorry"!"

"Hikaru-chan," Masaru said quietly. "When do you think he'll ever apologize to you and your friends and to this family without being forced? "I'm sorry" won't mean anything unless he actually means it and isn't forced to say it."

"He will! Nobody is really that mean!"

Masaru opened his mouth as if to say something but shut it and shook his head lightly. "Maybe you're right. But I won't forgive him until he personally comes to the front door and apologizes to all of us without his mother or father or brother around to force him. I really do hope you're right about..." The middle brother trailed off as he stared behind Hikaru. "Satoru."

Hikaru turned around and saw the oldest brother standing in the doorway of the room. "Satoru-oniisama!"

"AH!" Masaru exclaimed in panic. "Oh, I was just here doing my homework. Yep, nothing better than good ol' homework. Um, yeah, and Hikaru-chan was helping me too because she's a really smart kid and I'm not and--"

Satoru blinked as Hikaru smiled at the middle brother's cover-up. "Masaru, I heard some of the conversation you two had."

"Eh?"

"Only the last bit, so don't worry about it if I wasn't supposed to know," Satoru grinned weakly. "Hikaru, are you okay with what happened the past couple of days?"

Hikaru nodded. "Fumiko-chan and Rei-chan and Sera-chan aren't angry or sad or anything. And I'm sure Hidehiro didn't mean what he said or anything! He just doesn't... seem to have any friends, so I'm sure he'll apologize because... nobody likes to be lonely."

"Hm?" Masaru wondered from behind Hikaru. "I know that he failed a couple of grades, but I was sure he had cronies or something. Most people would be nice if they didn't have friends... or shy... or something."

"Mother is going to a parent-teacher conference tomorrow to get this all solved," Satoru told them. "Hikaru, maybe you could be Hidehiro's friend for a while if Mother finds out that Hidehiro's lack of friends is the case for all of this?"

"Yeah!" Hikaru piped up excitedly.

"I don't think that's a good idea, Satoru, Hikaru-chan. After what that kid did? Maybe you should wait until he does apologize, Hikaru-chan."

She shook her head as she turned to face Masaru. "I can't! I'd be waiting too long maybe."

Masaru twirled his pencil in his fingers uncomfortably as he glanced from Hikaru to Satoru and back to Hikaru again. He finally shook his head and muttered, "You are too kind sometimes, Hikaru-chan."

"Hikaru, why don't you get Hikari? It's around that time to walk him, and I'll go with you."

Hikaru nodded and ran out of the room, but before she strayed too far, she heard a little bit of the conversation her two older brothers were having.

"Do you really think Hidehiro Akugenta--"

"Satoru, I really don't think that Hikaru-chan should do that. Maybe Hidehiro doesn't have any friends, and maybe he did fail a couple of grades, but he cannot bully people the way he did. After what he did, it might be a little dangerous for Hikaru-chan to befriend him."

"She can take care of herself."

"I know she can, but what he said to her... what he said about this family... I can't deal with that."

"That doesn't mean that you should've started a fight with him. It wasn't completely his fault; what he said about us is something he used to get back at Hikaru and Kakeru because his brother said it. He doesn't know the meaning of "bastard", and somebody taught you the word wrong. Where did you hear your definition of it?" There was a pause. "If you knew the real meaning of it, you wouldn't have overreacted as you did."

"Overreacted? Satoru, what would you have done if you were in my shoes? Just stand there and let that Hidehiro kid insult our family? Just stand there and let him spread bad things about the family?"

"Masaru--"

"Look, I'm supposed to make sure Kakeru-kun doesn't get into anymore trouble than he already is in. Don't tell him what happened today. That threat he made... I'm sure he'll carry it out if he finds out. And at least Hikaru-chan doesn't seem to be blaming herself for something she's not at fault for."

"That's true."

Hikaru resumed running to the backyard to get Hikari.

They're worried that I'll get angry at myself for Masaru-oniisama and Kakeru-oniisama into trouble? I... I'm not angry at myself, but maybe if I become friends with Hidehiro, there won't be anything to worry about. Tomorrow. Tomorrow at school, I'm going to talk to Hidehiro with Fumiko-chan and Sera-chan and Rei-chan. Everybody needs a friend, even if they are bullies.

**To Be Continued**