Forgive the delay. As most of you know, I was having webpage problems. Also, you'll notice this story has some definite east/west clashes. Although some of it is based on Japanese language/culture and some on American language/culture, I hope you can still enjoy it. Maybe you'll even learn some new words. ^_^ Have fun! -Lianne (liannesentar@hotmail.com) http://Lianne_Sentar.tripod.com *Fraternity Days* Part 2 Rated PG-13 for some adult content **PLEASE do not do the things in this story. Alcohol is bad. Fighting is bad. Having alcohol and then fighting is bad. Having alcohol and then driving is *very* bad. Hanging out in places you shouldn't be is bad. Things like that *aren't* funny in real life. Please just keep that in mind. Reika coughed and waved cigarette smoke from her face. She let her eyes scan their surroundings, instinctively moving closer to Motoki. He took her hand, but his palms were even clammier than hers. "This place is awful," Reika whispered. Indeed, the I.D.-lenient "alcoholic beverages institution" the fraternity brothers had chosen was not exactly of the highest class. The lights were dim, the floor was dirty, the tables were dirty, the counters were dirty, the stools were dirty, and, most noticeably, the huge, brutish, tattooed patrons were dirty. And the bartender had an eyepatch. "That's it." Mamoru spun around. "We're going." Yagami was directly behind him, a big smile on his face. He closed his hands over Mamoru's shoulders and spun the freshman back around. "You're staying." Mamoru furiously knocked Yagami's hands off. "If you think this is an appropriate place for a teenaged girl," he said through gritted teeth, "you need even more help than I originally thought." "Mo, lighten up." Yagami furrowed his eyebrows. "You really think we would've brought you somewhere dangerous? The guys here won't bother you if you don't bother them." "Use your HEAD, Yagami!" Mamoru's eyes flared up. "You're a 21-year-old guy! Reika's an attractive 19-year-old girl! Do you really *think* you're on the same level?" Yagami's face darkened. "You'd better watch it," he warned lowly. "You're getting pretty disrespectful for an underclassman." "I could care less!" Mamoru grabbed Reika's arm. "We're going," he snarled. "And don't you dare try to stop us." For a moment, Yagami said nothing. Anger began to nip at his features. "Chiba," he growled, his hand closing into a fist. "Ne, Taichi." A blond junior at the bar beckoned. "Just leave Chiba-tachi* be. It's not like they can walk home." Yagami thought on that a moment. The anger drained from him, and he let out a breath. "Sou da na**," he murmured. He focused again on Mamoru, his expression one of dissatisfaction. "We're in a nasty part of town, so don't try leaving on your own. We'll bring you home when *we're* ready. You can stand there, for all I care." He snorted. "And since you're so against all this, you're designated driver." "Pick someone else," Mamoru snapped. "We're getting a taxi and getting out of here." "Chiba, I said-" "Stupid kids, always messing the atmosphere." A large, scowling, quite drunk man at a nearby table scraped his chair back. He stumbled to his feet. "Cut down the racket before I make you." Yagami shot Mamoru a look before turning to the man. "Suman***," he said, tipping his head slightly. "We're not looking for trouble." The man drunkenly made his way to Yagami. "You still found it," he snarled, pushing Yagami back several steps. Yagami stumbled, though he quickly held up his hand to the alerted fraternity. Yagami cautiously raised his head. "Suman," he repeated. The man snorted. "Noisy brats," he muttered, looking over at Mamoru, Reika, and Motoki. His hazy eyes settled on Reika. "She what the argument's about?" Motoki's knocking knees were audible. Mamoru slowly pulled both Motoki and Reika behind him. "No," he said carefully. The man rubbed the back of his hand over his mouth. "How much?" "She's not selling." Mamoru could feel Reika trembling behind him. He took a step back, pulling Reika and Motoki with him. "And we were just leaving." The man suddenly grabbed Mamoru by the front of the shirt and yanked him forward, dragging Mamoru's startled feet across the floor. "Did I say you could leave?" the man snarled. With a cry, Motoki ran forward and tackled the man around the waist. The two of them crashed to the floor as the released Mamoru stumbled to keep from tumbling down with them. "FIGHT!" somebody in the back shouted. That was all that was needed. In a split second *everyone* in the bar - the drunken patrons and the semi-sober-as-they-hadn't-had-enough-time-to-drink-much-yet fraternity of Katsumoto University alike - jumped from wherever they were sitting and started pounding on anyone nearby that wasn't specifically a friend or acquaintance (the drunks) or defending against such attacks (the students). The result was a full-fledged brawl that resembled a low-budget action-and-pirates movie. Particularly considering the eyepatched bartender had leapt over the counter with a club in hand and had started trying to end the fight by shouting and beating the more aggressive fighters around the shoulders. It didn't seem to help much. The man Motoki had attacked, meanwhile, had gotten on top of the skinny freshman and begun throttling the life out of him. Reika screamed as Mamoru dove on the man and knocked him into a table. Cursing fluently, the man grabbed Mamoru by the front of his shirt and rolled with him across the filthy floor. The two of them disappeared into the fray of battling drunkards. Reika ran to Motoki and dropped to her knees beside him. "Motoki!" she cried, pulling his head into her lap. She quickly wiped the dirt from his hair. "Ne, daijobu?" Motoki coughed and massaged his throat. His face had gone red from the choking. "Y-yeah," he wheezed. He blinked water from his eyes. "God, I thought I was gonna die." Reika hiccuped and hugged him tightly. "You were so brave," she whispered. "Motoki, why did you attack him? He could've killed you!" Motoki swallowed. "He could've killed Mamoru," he answered quietly. Reika sniffed and held him tighter. Wincing, Motoki pushed himself up to a sitting position and looked behind him. The brawl had gotten substantially more violent in the 30 seconds he had been on the floor, and the sound of crashing stools and shattering beer bottles was painfully audible. Motoki's eyes widened. "Oh *man*." He swallowed. "Did I start this?" Yagami suddenly burst from the fight, dragging an unconscious Mamoru by the arm. Motoki gasped. Yagami threw Mamoru into Motoki's arms and spit out a tooth, afterwards giving a thin, bloody smile. "You win," Yagami said shakily. "We won't bring you here anymore." Motoki suddenly heard the wail of approaching sirens. "The police!" he cried, struggling to keep his passed-out friend from sliding out of his arms. "Yagami-san, if we get arrested, we could get kicked out of school!" Yagami swore colorfully under his breath and turned to the fray. "Katsumoto students!" he shouted. "Out! The cops are on their way!" The mention of police seemed to attract most of the other drunks as well, and the brawl momentarily lessened. The dozen fraternity boys scrambled to get out of the fight and run out the door, followed by Motoki and Reika, who desperately tried to carry Mamoru between them, and Yagami, who counted heads. He waited until the last sophomore stumbled outside before following them all out and running to his car. The sirens had gotten *loud*. The frat piled into their three vehicles - a big senior helped throw Mamoru in Yagami's car with Motoki and Reika - and raced out with tires squealing. Luckily, each car had a driver that hadn't had anything at all to drink, and they managed to flee the scene without any accidents. Once well out of the vicinity of the bar, Yagami let out a breath and lifted his foot a bit from flooring the gas pedal. He wiped his chin and glanced at the blood on his fingers. "God protect me." He raised his eyebrows at the road. "We've all had our Hepatitis B vaccinations, right?" The senior sitting beside him carefully wrapped a bleeding hand in a dust rag. "Everybody get check-ups and blood tests when we get back," he said. "Make sure no one got anything. That place was probably crawling with disease." Reika trembled against her seat. "Listen to yourselves," she breathed. "You put everyone's lives in danger. Our *lives*! What were you *thinking* going to a place like that?" Yagami snorted. "Hey, we've never had any problems before. Besides, that's the first time we've been there in years. We only went because you guys are under-aged.****" He wiped blood from his chin again. "We usually go to clean places because it's legit. We only went to that hole when we were your age because we couldn't get in anywhere else. It's worse now than it was, though." Motoki only stared at the upperclassman a moment, his jaw slack. "Y-you're saying ..." Motoki swallowed, then tried again. "You're saying ... that you only went to that place ... for *us*?" "Yeah." Motoki swallowed again, harder this time. He carefully brushed hair from the dark bruise forming over Mamoru's left eye. "Somehow I don't think that'll make Mamoru feel any better," he mumbled. Silence. "Gomen na," Yagami murmured at last. "We didn't mean for things to go like that. We won't force you to go to bars anymore." For a long moment, nobody spoke. The senior rubbed the back of his head, winced at using his injured hand, then carefully rested his palms on his knees. Yagami rolled down his window, spat out blood, then rolled it up again. "That was pretty nice, though." Yagami flashed a smile over his shoulder. "If you weren't so little, you would've had that guy good, Furuhata. I didn't expect you to stand up for Chiba like that." Motoki's cheeks colored. "In the end, he was the one who got hurt for me." "Yeah, but I expected that of him. *You* were the one who surprised me." He let out a breath. "Guess I've underestimated you. You're pretty tough, huh?" Dread swirled in Motoki's stomach. The way Yagami's mouth savored the words, the crafty grin he saw curl the junior's lips, made Motoki feel ill. "Please ..." Motoki bit his lip and clasped hands with Reika for support. "Please don't try to pull us into your fraternity. We don't want to join." The senior chuckled. "Mo," he cooed. "That might hurt our feelings, y'know." "Yeah." Yagami tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. "Relax, Furuhata-kun. Your fun's just beginning." *************************** *= "-tachi" is roughly "and others" **= "sou da na" is along the lines of "I guess that's true" ***= "suman" is a way of saying "sorry" ****= I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure the drinking age in Japan is 20 *************************** Mercifully, nobody was seriously hurt in the fight. No one got any kind of sickness, and besides one sprained wrist, one mild concussion, Yagami's tooth, and some ugly bruises, the fraternity was fine. Mamoru's swollen eye was one of the nastier - and more noticeable - of the injuries, but despite the fact that curious teachers' inquiries received nothing beyond a suspicious mumbled, "I fell," the people around him didn't particularly bother him about it, and he was able to go about his daily life without too much interference. From the general student population, at any rate. The fraternity was a different matter. "Chiba-kuuuuuuun." Yagami suddenly appeared from behind, grinning as he draped his arm over Mamoru's shoulder. "Whatcha doooooing?" Mamoru irritably shrugged Yagami's arm off. "Going to class," he snapped, walking faster. Yagami kept up with his pace. "Which class?" "Chem." Mamoru scowled. "So unless you feel like sitting through a long and detailed lecture on oxidation, leave me alone." Yagami chuckled. He suddenly threw his arms up under Mamoru's and caught the freshman in a solid headlock. Mamoru snarled as his books went scattering to the ground. "Cut it OUT!" he shouted, trying to break free. Yagami clicked his tongue and started dragging Mamoru to the soccer field nearby. "I heard you were good at soccer in high school, Chiba," Yagami drawled. "Wanna have a game?" "NO!" There was already a small match taking place in the field; Mamoru recognized all the players to be members of the fraternity. He fought harder. "Oi, minna!" Yagami called, beckoning with his head. "Chiba thinks school's more important than play!" The match stopped as the players turned in Yagami and Mamoru's direction. The fraternity complained loudly about "ridiculous notions going through freshmen heads" and ran over to help Yagami. Mamoru soon found himself dragged into the middle of the field and thrown to the ground, seven older fraternity members standing over him ominously. "You disappoint us, Chiba." The blond junior shook his head, sighing. "What are we gonna do with you?" Mamoru coughed and pushed himself into a sitting position. A sophomore chuckled. "I guess we have to teach him, guys," the sophomore drawled. "What do you say, Chiba?" Mamoru spat and glared daggers. "I'm not staying." The fraternity laughed. Yagami crouched beside Mamoru and lovingly stroked the freshman's dark hair. Mamoru furiously knocked Yagami's hand off. "It's only because we love you, you know." Yagami smiled and rested his hand on Mamoru's shoulder. Mamoru pulled away. "We have to make sure you have your priorities straight," Yagami explained. "All work and no play makes a dull kiddo." "Like you ever let me do *any* work," Mamoru snarled, standing. The fraternity immediately pushed him back down to land hard on the ground. "We'll make a deal with you." Yagami gestured to the field. "One game. If you can score three goals, we'll let you go to class. In fact, we won't even bother you for the rest of the day. How's that sound?" Mamoru's fists clenched so hard they turned white. "I'm ALREADY late!" he shouted. A big senior shrugged. "It's not like you have much choice. You know you can't outrun all of us here." The fraternity laughed again. Mamoru gritted his teeth and stared at the grass. He knew they were right - if he tried to bolt, they'd just catch him and drag him back. As it was, he was losing time, and he had too many assignments to do that day to allow any more delay. He shoved himself to his feet angrily. "Fine," he spat through his teeth. "Swear to me." The fraternity cheered and clapped him on the back. As the members all made their way back into semi-decent soccer positions on the field, Yagami draped his arm over Mamoru's shoulder. "Don't worry," he cooed. "We swear." As Mamoru angrily pushed off Yagami's arm, the junior smiled wickedly. "Oh," he said. "And by the way, you'll be going by yourself against *all* of us." He jogged to catch up to his friends, waving at Mamoru. "Good luck, kid!" Mamoru, for a moment, could do nothing but stare. He suddenly slapped a hand to his forehead, his body trembling with fury. "God ..." He shook his head violently, then started to run toward the others. Someone passed him the ball, and he barely looked at it as he dribbled mechanically down the field. The seven fraternity brothers eagerly awaited him. Mamoru snarled. "I *hate* college!" he shouted. *************************** It was a full 45 minutes before Mamoru collapsed on the field, exhausted and, predictably, unsuccessful. The fraternity was so pleased with his vehement playing, though, that they left him in peace, laughing and waving, as the sun began to set. Mamoru, in the grass, panted and closed his eyes. He squeezed his eyes shut tighter and gritted his teeth. Not only had he missed his class, but he hardly had the strength to stand up, let alone deal with the paper he had to write that evening. After praying to God for strength (or a fraternity-house-destroying typhoon) for a good long while, he tiredly pushed himself to his feet and stumbled from the field. He barely managed to find his dropped books in the approaching darkness, then slowly made the long trip back to his dorm. "I can't deal with this anymore," he breathed, climbing the stairs to the second floor of his building. "They won't give up. I haven't been able to get a decent night's sleep in weeks." As he dragged himself down his hall, he tried to think of a decent solution to his problem. Despite the many his reeling mind came up with, his logical side reminded him that every one of his plans would end up getting him kicked out of school and/or arrested. He sighed and pushed open his door. The reeking smell of chlorine hit him like a battering ram. Quickly covering his face with his hand, he frantically flipped his light switch. Light flooded the dark room. A very, *very* wet Motoki, dressed in nothing but a pair of boxers, lay soaking on his bed. Mamoru ran to his friend, nearly stumbling as his weak legs tried to give, and quickly checked Motoki's life signs. He found that Motoki was overall fine, save he was pale and in a very deep sleep; Mamoru sank to the floor in relief. Wrinkling his nose against the reek of chlorine on his friend, Mamoru pulled off the piece of paper taped to the bedpost. Chiba, Your buddy seems to think school's more important than play, so we had him do some laps in the pool before going to class. He passed out pretty quick, though. Too bad. We thought he was tough after that bar fight. You might want to get him in the shower later. Mamoru crumpled the note without reading the signatures of half a dozen fraternity brothers at the bottom. Throwing the letter into a nearby trash can, he swallowed and crumbled against the bedside. "God." He angrily wiped his watering eyes. He clenched his fists against the hard floor and squeezed his eyes shut. "God, *please* let this end." Motoki stirred. Mamoru looked up, but the blond only murmured something fearfully in his sleep and turned over. Letting out a breath, Mamoru slowly pushed himself to his feet and rested a hand on Motoki's shoulder. "Don't worry," Mamoru said quietly. He looked out his window, eyes hard. "We'll get through this. I promise." Motoki murmured something again, then settled back in his deep, albeit troubled, sleep. Mamoru rubbed his eyes before making his way to his desk and falling into his chair. "I hate college," he muttered, turning on his laptop as he prepared for an exhausting night. To be continued ... -Exciting? No. Entertaining? Hopefully. Part 3 will be up for May 28th; the whole story will probably be 4 parts. Keep it cool until next time! -Lianne (liannesentar@hotmail.com) http://Lianne_Sentar.tripod.com *Sailor Moon and all its characters copyright © Naoko Takeuchi/Kodansha Ltd./Toei Animation, Co., Ltd. This revised story part copyright © Lianne Sentar, April 2001.