Time Warp: The Fox and the Giant

[Vincent Meian]

Despite having spent nearly two years at this specialized school, one particular student was as petulant and irascible as ever. Meian Vincent (they did indeed check that this was his birth name; multiple times) was a surly and aggressive youth, one that had come to their school and started trouble the day he'd arrived. Fortunately, as the years passed, his training and joining of the school kendo team seemed to diminish the occurrences of violence, even if it did not stop them entirely. Granted, there were still times that the now quite tall fourteen year old was hauled down to the disciplinarian's office for fighting or insubordination, but for the most part he seemed to (finally) be adapting to life at the metahuman school.

Of course, in order to help control the amount of fights, the boy also had a dorm of his own in the male wing - not common, but when only two at a time were paired in such close quarters, it seemed a reasonable concession to keep students from going to the hospital on a regular basis.

August had been warm this year, but more humid than the year before. It was easy to see on all the athletes, and tempers were easily roused amongst the few misfits the school would admit to. The young Meian was no exception, and during his kendo matches and training sessions he seemed particularly more temperamental than even previously. (This was surprising, considering that the young man had already sprouted six inches in the last year - between growing pains and his general attitude, him being more aggravated seemed unlikely.)

One particularly hot day, Meian walked back from practice still dressed in his uniform. The black and white kendogi, with the Eisai crest stitched into the left breast , clung uncomfortably to his lean frame, the sweat from exertion and heat already starting to dry and itch. Add in the fact that his legs were still hurting (no surprise there) and his hair had gotten long enough to start sticking to the back of his neck, and all the middle school junior wanted to do was go back to his dorm and shower.

Granted, with his luck, that was very unlikely to happen without incident.

Cue, of course, the sound of a scuffle (or a beating) from the walkway ahead of him.

[Suekeichi Minamori]

Minamori Suekeichi had not been at Eisai more than a couple of months, and a reputation had already started blossoming. The pranks, usually reserved strictly for his step-brother Shinji, had taken on new targets. Confetti in the uwabaki lockers was a particular favorite, but one he'd only pulled a couple of times. The teachers had started monitoring the area, and Suekeichi didn't feel like getting in too much trouble right off the bat. This meant finding smaller, easier to hide pranks. Challenge accepted.

In all honesty, the firecrackers hadn't been hard to obtain, and he had slipped one into Watanabe Soma's back pockets without a hitch. Lighting it had been trickiest part, with Soma's two friends hanging rather close most of the time. What Suekeichi had failed to take into consideration, was Soma's lack of humor. But then again, it's kind of hard to find it funny when someone tries to light your pants on fire. Kitsune, as he'd become known within the next year or so, also wasn't aware that his victim had a short fuse.

Soma had time to spin on his heels and catch the guilty smiling face of the prankster before Suekeichi could make it out of sight.

["You are so dead!"] came Soma's angry response as he proceeded to take hold of the younger boy's shirt, and push him against the wall.

["Come on Watanabe-san, it was just in good fun. Really."] Suekeichi nervously replied. But the smile on his face, and waver in his voice would cause that bit of nervousness to be mistaken for laughter. And while Suekeichi did find his pranks funny, he normally got his chuckles from a safe distance.

["What's your name, funny guy?"]

Suekeichi could feel his feet leave the ground and the wall behind him catch the back of his shirt as he was lifted off the ground the few inches needed to bring him face to face with his angry acquaintance. ["Oh, I don't think that's necessary."] Anonymity might not have been a plausible option, seeing as Soma knew what he looked like, but even fleeting options were ideal.

["Alright, so once I've beaten you to a bloody pulp, I'll just tell them to put 'Funny Guy' on your tombstone."]

None of the boys had seen Meian Vincent round the corner. Or if they had, they didn't acknowledge it.

[Vincent Meian]

If there was one thing that stuck with the aggressive boy throughout his childhood, youth, and (later) adult life, it was the fact that he hated seeing people pick on others smaller than them. There was a certain point where one's own idiocy was enough to get them a good deal of retribution, of course, but when you were almost literally twice the size of your opponent... there needed to be some control. As for ganging up on someone three-to-one, that was just uncalled for when there was already that size difference in play.

So, it really wasn't a surprise (to him, at least) when the Meian boy stepped forward. ["Oi. The Hell are you idiots doing?"]

He wasn't the tallest of them, though he was close - one was either a high school junior or just tall for his age. (Given that he was easily the youngest aside from the brat in trouble, though, it was still impressive.) He was, however, very obviously in a bad mood and known on-sight throughout the school for not only for his bad reputation but for the fact that he was on the kendo team's starting roster. And he had a shinai with him still so that he could practice in his dorm.

Still, apparently that mattered little when someone had just lit your ass on fire.

["None of your business,"] Watanabe retorted, scowling at the taller middle-schooler as if the fact that he was even there was an insult to his senses. ["Just teaching a brat a lesson."]

["That you're twice his size and an asshole? He can see one, and the other is obvious,"] the younger replied, gold eyes narrowed almost in boredom. ["He's got to be... what, ten? Takes a big man to pick on a kid, you know."]

The trio looked at each other, as if debating whether or not they wanted to take on an opponent with a weapon while trying to beat up another one. Even if they did have the advantage of numbers and age, it still wasn't nearly as clean cut as most bullies would have it. After all, it seemed like an unspoken rule - at least twice as many as the other guys, or don't bother.

[Suekeichi Minamori]

As quick as he had found himself against the wall, Suekeichi's feet found the ground beneath them again. Soma's grip loosened a bit, but he hadn't completely released Suekeichi's shirt. The two other boys seemed more nervous as Vincent intervened.

["Twelve."] Suekeichi corrected quietly, not removing his gaze from it's forward direction. He wanted to be able to attempt to dodge any swings that came his way. He may not have been a martial artist, but he had scuffled enough with Shinji to know to be ready to get out of the way.

Soma's own gaze wavered from Suekeichi to Vincent, and back to Suekeichi again. He was trying to decide if exacting revenge on the prankster was worth being on the receiving end of whatever Vincent and his shinai were capable of. Which, were in all likelihood, worse than anything even the three of them together could dish out. There was a glare on his face when he finally dropped his hands from Suekeichi's shirt, and motioned for his friends to follow him. ["Come on guys, it's not worth it."]

Suekeichi stood for a moment, shocked that the group retreated as quickly as they had. Then again, Vincent could have been standing there without a weapon (practice or not) and he'd have been intimidating enough. Raking his fingers through his hair, the plant manipulator turned to his "white knight", and gave him a toothy grin. ["Thank you. You didn't have to step in, though."] He brought up a hand to rub the back of his neck. ["I did kind of deserve it."]

[Vincent Meian]

The correction was noted with a somewhat annoyed glance from the newcomer, but went unchallenged. Fine. Twelve.

It was only after the group had left line of sight that the taller boy relaxed, his shoulders loosening and his feet shifting idly into something less rooted. He didn't doubt that he could have managed all three of them if necessary, but it was still odds that were not in his favor. Granted, all the fights he got into were ones where probability of success was lower for him than the opponent, but that didn't mean he didn't try and pick his fights carefully.

The gratitude was... unexpected. Tawny eyes shifted back to the younger student, and Meian rolled a shrug off his lean shoulders. ["Of course you did,"] he stated bluntly. ["I saw the scorch marks. I'm not blind. I just don't think you would have learned your lesson with the three of them beating you senseless - you wouldn't remember anything when you woke up."]

Call him what you like, but at least the teen was honest. To the point of being rude, perhaps, but honest.

Without another word, he kept walking, heading back to the dormitories for that shower. Maybe he'd be able to barter with the dorm monitor for a few extra yen and slip out before curfew to head to the nearby public bath for a soak, too. It'd probably help with the aches in his legs and shoulders, which after being tensed with no real release had started up with that pulling sensation again. Honestly, his mind wasn't even on the smaller boy anymore - whatever Minamori did was his business and his alone.

[Suekeichi Minamori]

["I didn't say you were blind,"] he replied, looking over his shoulder for a briefly to see if the other boys had decided to try their luck. When he turned back around, presumably to speak again, Vincent had walked away. Suekeichi brought a hand and ruffled his hair before deciding to sprint after him.

["My name's Minamori. Suekeichi Minamori. What's yours?"] It was said in a manner not of a boy nearly beaten to a pulp moments earlier. It was happy, punctuated by the squint of his eyes that came with the wide grin he gave. Despite the fact that he was walking quickly to keep up with Vincent's longer stride, he still managed a fairly decent o-jigi.