Barefaced

The two of you make it to your grandparents house. You knock on the door, using the metal knocker. Hikari opens the door and smiles at you.

"You came back." She says smiling. You smile and nod. "I didn't think you would come back anytime soon." grins Hikari. Hikari holds open the door for you and Ren. The two of you walk in and slowly walk into the room where your grandfather's chair is. He wasn't sitting in it. "If you're looking for Papa... he's in the dojo..." You nod and walk towards the back, sliding open the door and walking outside. There's another small building behind the house.

"This place is just as pretty as I remember it." Ren comments.

"Yeah." You reply. The two of you walk through the backyard. There's a pretty fountain and pretty decoration in the backyard. You start to get Yuki's flashbacks of gardening with your grandmother and meditating with your grandfather by the fountain. You walk up to the small building, sliding open the door to see your grandfather quietly sitting on the ground in a strange position meditating.

"Yuki... my little mochi." He quietly says with his eyes closed. "You have brought a friend with you... How are you Ren." He says slowly opening his eyes. Ren slowly looks at you with a small smile on his face. He leans in closer towards your face to whisper in your ear.

"I forgot how weird your grandpa is." Ren smiles. You nod and smile.

"So... did you come back to practice with me?" Your grandfather asks.

"Yes... but Ren also wants to learn some things too." You add. Your grandfather nods.

"Okay then Ren. I will teach you... but first I want to know how strong your core is and how relaxed your body can get." Your grandfather says, patting Ren's shoulder.

Your grandfather hands Ren a lightweight outfit and started making Ren do different poses. You also put on a lightweight outfit. You watch ren bend in twist and many different ways.

"Ich... I c-can't move any f-further..." Ren heaved, falling to the ground after your grandfather let's go of him.

"mmm... you need to work more on your core muscles and flexibility... we should start practicing with that." Ren nods, showing pain in his face. "Also... meditation... practice relaxing your body... it is very important... try doing that today with Yuki... I'm going to make lunch." Your grandfather says walking out the dojo and into the house. Ren leans back with his legs open and his head hanging back. Sweat slowly drips down his forehead and his hair looks wet. His eyes are closed, and his chest is moving slowly as he takes deep breathes.

"Do you need water?" You ask. Ren nods. You stand up and grab some water from the cooler in storage room. You crack open the bottle a bit so that he doesn't have to use much strength to open it. Handing Ren the bottle, he takes it and gulps down the water.

"Thank you..." He says sitting up and wiping his face with his sleeve.

"Are you okay?" You ask. Ren nods.

"I'm just not used to this... the most exercise I do is morning runs... but that's all..." Ren says taking a deep breath and then coughing. "My throat itches when I take deep breaths." He adds sluggishly.

"Drink more water." You say. Ren nods drinking more water.

"So..." He drinks a bit more before closing the water bottle. "Are you going to show me how to meditate?" He asks in a quiet and tired tone. You nod.

After meditating, lunch, and some more flexibility and core exercises it was time for dinner. You and Ren take a shower and put clean clothes on. Your grandmother made dinner, Yuki's favorite, Yuki's grandmothers special spicy curry. It smells really nice. You sit down at the Kotatsu... Your grandmother usually sets one up when it starts to get cold outside. Your legs feel cozy and the food tastes really good.

After eating and chatting at the table it was time to go home. You and Ren had school in the morning. Ren decides to walk you home.

"I'm definitely going to be sore tomorrow..." Ren sighs rubbing his neck.

"You will get used to it..." You say smiling and patting Ren on the back. Ren nods and smiles.

"You should really get a new phone Yuki... so that I can start texting and calling you again." Ren bubbles. You thought about it and you really do need a new phone.

Once you got home you went through your dresser to find the phone you remembered Yuki stored. Grabbing the phone, you leave the house and walk to an electronic store. Once you got to the store you asked the store clerk for a replacement and to back up your phone data. He told you it will take a bit of time and to come back in 2 hrs. You left the store and decide to walk around and look through other stores.

You come across one store that had a lot of collectibles and decide to take a look. You come across some interesting things and grew excitement in looking at them... but they were so expensive you won't be able to afford anything.

"H...hey... are you going to buy that?" A boy asks, tapping your shoulder. He looked kind of nervous. You shake your head and move to the side. The boy walks up to the collectible and starts examining it.

"You like these types of things?" You ask. The boy looks at you and nods. You notice his school uniform and that he went to the same school as you. But to why he's wearing his school uniform on a weekend confuses you.

Maybe he's on a sports team... You thought to yourself. But he didn't really look athletic... he looked kind of scrawny.

"We go to the same school... what grade are you in?" You ask. The boy looks at you and then looks back at the collectible.

"Grade 1..." He mumbles. Aw... he's your Junior. No wonder why he's so small. So adorable... wait... why are you thinking like that. It makes you sound like an old lady. "W...what grade... are you in...?" The boy asks, stuttering a bit.

"Grade 2..." You answer.

"Oh... so you're my Senpai..." He replies. You nod and he smiles. The bell from the store door chimes and a group of guys walk in. The boy leans down and looks through the holes of the shelf. His eyes widen when he sees the guys. He quickly shuffles away, trying to hide from them. The guys walk towards the back of the store and the boy runs out the store and down the sidewalk. The guys notice and quickly walk out after him. You furrow your eyebrows and decide to follow them.

When you walk out the store, you look around to see where they went and notice they disappeared. You shrug and continue to look around some more.

After 2 hours you went back to the electronic store to pick up your phone. Once they hand you your new phone, you head your way back home. You decided to take a short cut and walk through the alley... not a smart idea but you didn't really care. You are tired and the time says 22:38...

As you walk you hear guys yelling and a guy crying and begging for forgiveness. You don't know whether or not you should be nosy and check what's happening or if you should mind your business and keep walking.

You chose to be nosy.

You walk to where the noise is coming from to see the boy you met at the store on the ground crying.

"Please stop..." The boy whines looking up at the guys.

"Ew..."

"Disgusting..."

"Oi... faggot... you like guys right...?" The guy asks. The boy stares at him with a sad look on his face. "Do you like me? Does this turn you on?" You cringe to the guy's questions. "Would you suck me if I pulled it out?" The guy says gripping his inner thigh. You cringe again thinking about what to do. You tie the bag around the fence beside you and put your hoodie up, tying it so that they can't see you. You look up at the sky. It's dark outside. You sigh and slowly walk over towards them. The guy grabs the back of the boy's head, shoving his fingers in the boy's mouth. The other guys hold the boy down. "Come on... Open your mouth... don't make this difficult." The guy huffs.

"Gross..." You say loud enough for them to hear you. They all turn to look at you.

"Who the fuck are you?" The guy asks. The guy has tattoos on his arms and his hair is buzzed short.

"Why does it matter? Leave the boy alone... he's clearly not interested." You reply. The guy lets go of the boy and starts walking up to you.

"Mind your business..." He seethed, getting closer to you.

"It's hard to mind my business when you're being loud..." You respond. One of the guys grabs you from behind and holds you down and the guy with the tattoos punches you in the face. It shocked you, making you zone out. As he tries to punch you again you drop your weight down, making you slip from the guys grip. The guy ends up punching the dude behind you. You slide your foot back, making him fall on his stomach. You jab your elbow back, making the guy cringe and loosen his grip around you. You jab him again, but in the face, knocking him out.

You stand up, preparing to fight the next guy but he's holding down the boy, holding a knife to his neck.

"Leave and I won't kill him..." The guy says. You stand still feeling a pain in your chest. Then you feel someone hit you in the back of your head, causing you to fall. The guys start laughing as they approach you. You hold your head and slowly stand back up.

"STOP! DON'T HURT HIM... I'LL DO ANYTHING YOU WANT... JUST DONT HURT HIM..." The boy cries out, bowing his head down at the guy with the knife. You clench your fist and jump up, twisting your body as you roundhouse kick the guy in the neck, slamming him to the ground. The other guy who is holding a glass bottle he picked up from the ground that he used to hit you with earlier lunged towards you. You jump up and jab him in the face with your foot, causing him to fly a few feet back.

You pant and rub your head again. It felt wet and your head hurt a lot. You stagger towards the guy with the tattoos who's grunting and trying to get up. You grab him by his clothes and face him towards you.

"What's your name?" You ask him, still panting.

"Tch... FUCK YOU..." He growls. You aggressively let go of his hair. You stagger towards the boy, one of the other guys are grunting. You notice a logo and words on the back of his jacket.

"Moebius..." You whisper to yourself. You slowly turn around to face the guy with the tattoos who's slowly getting up. "You a member of Moebius?" You question. The guy looks up at you and scoffs. You feel the blood dripping down your face. You start to feel dizzy.

"Tsk... Why do you ask..." The guy scoffs smiling at you. Your eye twitches in irritation.

"I want you to tell your leader something for me..." You say in a stern voice. The guy raises an eyebrow and smiles.

"Yeah...? What?" He laughs.

"Tell him my name... V... and that I will tear his phony little gang apart..." You goaded. The guy scrunches his face and clenches his fist.

"Watch your mouth you little-" Before you let him finish his sentence you spun and side kicked him in the head, knocking him out.