"L-let go off me!" Mayu told the guys holding her from behind. "Y-you're going to regret this!"

The gang howled in laughter, while Suzuki smirked at Mayu's words. "We're going to regret this?" He repeated. "Can you not see the situation at hand at the moment?"

"Y-you bastard!" Eiji tried harder to escape from the grip of the guys holding him in a lock but it was three against one. There was nothing he could do.

Recovering my breath, I stood up from the ground. I had to do something. Everyone else in the classroom was frozen in fear, and Luna was nowhere to be seen. How convenient. 

"Suzuki!" I called out, and he turned his attention away from Mayu and to me instead. I took a breath and mustered my courage. "If you're a man, fight me one on one without your goons."

Suzuki seemed disinterested.

"Or are you too scared without your gang?" I added hastily. "Because you're actually a coward deep inside."

Suzuki leaned away from Mayu and stood up tall, emphasising the height difference between me and him. He walked over slowly, while my heart dropped lower and lower down my chest.

"You're an idiot." He said and punched me in the face.

The hit propelled me backwards and I fell onto a table behind me. The adrenaline pumping through my body neglected much of the pain and I pushed myself forward immediately. This surprised Suzuki and I caught him with a punch of my own straight onto his jaw using the momentum of my movement. It was a move I had seen Luna used.

The problem was that I wasn't Luna.

His head moved slightly on impact but that was it. The cold reality was that he was much more muscular and stronger than me. However, it seemed that my punch made him extremely angry despite doing no damage. Perhaps it was due to the fact that no one had ever dared to hit him before.

"Y-you!" Suzuki's face twisted into a maddening look and he hurled himself onto me. Frightened, I stepped to the side, narrowly avoiding the attack. Somehow, his feet caught onto mine as I was moving away and he tripped forward, his forehead smacking hard on to the desk that was formerly behind me.

He fell down to the ground, motionless and the classroom went quiet.

"R-Ryo..." Eiji stared at me. "You beat him..."

The goons released their grip of their victims, as they stood confused, lost without their leader.

Suddenly the classroom exploded into cheers as the realisation of what had just occurred sunk in. The goons swarmed Suzuki, picking up his body from the ground as they tried desperately to revive him. Unfortunately, he was knocked out cold by his own undoing.

"T-that was actually impressive." Mayu said, her face red. "Thanks, Ryo..."

I was still in shock from how things played out. It almost seemed like a fairytale of sorts. The pain from the punch that I took was slowly building up as my adrenaline wore out, confirming that this was not a dream.

"It's okay, Mayu. I should be thanking you for sticking up for me there." I replied.

In my mind, I was preoccupied with thoughts about Suzuki's awakening. He wasn't the type of guy that would simply let something like this go, and there was no chance in hell that I would be able to pull off a lucky stint like that in a second fight. Would I have to stick by Luna's side for the rest of my life at school?

----------------------------------------

"W-what?! Ryo, you did that?" Luna stammered upon hearing the story from Eiji.

"I-I didn't purposely trip him over, I was trying to get out of the way and I moved my leg too slow." I explained, trying to clear up Eiji's version of the event that took place. "That's when he tripped over and hit his head on the table."

"I'm so proud of you!" Luna cheered.

"Did you even listen to what I said?" I asked. "Anyways, the point is that Suzuki is going to literally kick my ass when he wakes up, Luna."

School was over and there was no sighting of Suzuki even though he had been sent to the school ward for recovery. My nerves were jittery, and I was on high alert for an ambush attack.

"Ryo, you're going to be fine." Luna said, noticing my unease. "If Suzuki dares to touch you, I will chop him up and feed him to the school birds, literally."

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"You're funny, Luna." Eiji laughed. "I haven't heard that one before."

"I heard Suzuki's last victim committed suicide after two weeks of bullying." Akane chirped in standing by Luna's side, away from Eiji as far as she could. "Apparently, it was really bad."

"Thanks, I feel a lot better now." I rolled my eyes.

We came to a stop by the school gates and I looked around briefly for Mayu but there was simply too many people rushing out of the school for me to spot her amidst the crowd. Luna saw me glancing around and frowned.

A group of students pointed at me, chattering among themselves. "Hey it's Ryo, the Suzuki slayer." One whispered.

"I heard he single handedly bashed up Suzuki's gang, one by one, before besting Suzuki in hand to hand combat."

"I heard he knocked Suzuki out with a flying roundhouse kick to the head."

"Eh? I heard that he broke his knuckles trying to punch Suzuki's jaw."

I sighed. It was ridiculous how fast the rumours had circulated. At this rate, there was no doubt that Suzuki would come back for revenge.

"We're going to go now." Luna dragged me away from Eiji and Akane, much to their confusion.

"H-hey, Luna."

We were walking down the road, ahead from the other students leaving school.

"Where are you taking me?" I asked, unfamiliar with the road.

"To teach you how to fight." Luna replied.

We stopped at an empty park away from the path of where students normally walked. Luna turned to face me, smiling. She reached behind her skirt and threw something at me.

I caught the object with both hands and almost dropped it, surprised by the weight. I looked down and saw her switchblade in my hands. The black delicate handle emitted an ominous aura even when the blade was retracted.

"L-Luna—"

"Try to kill me." Luna said.

I stared at her dumbfounded.

"Go on, Ryo." Luna urged, excitedly. "I won't hurt you."

"Okay..." I said unsure.

I looked down at the switchblade again, studying the handle. How did this thing even open? There was no button or slide on the handle like with normal switchblades.

"You have to flick it." Luna said.

She walked up and grabbed my hand holding onto the switchblade. She was standing really close and her cleavage revealed slightly from the top of her shirt as I looked down. My face grew hot but I was jolted awake from my thoughts when Luna suddenly flicked my hand and a sharp metallic noise resounded. The force of the blade shooting out from the handle made my arm drop but Luna held onto my hand tightly so that I wouldn't lose grip.

"Yay! You did it Ryo!" Luna said, thrilled. She released her grip of my hand and the weight of the switchblade fell on me again. I had to hold on as tight as I could to not lose grip. Luna stepped backwards until she was at her original spot.

"I want you to try your best to kill me." Luna said. "Pretend I'm someone that you don't really like."

Someone that I didn't really like? I thought to myself. Why the hell would I kill someone that I didn't really like?

"Okay, Luna." I sighed. The whole idea seemed ridiculous to me. "Here I come."

I walked slowly towards her, eventually picking my pace up to a half jog with the switchblade raised in my hand. She stood still, a smile on her face and her hands sitting idly behind her back.

"Don't blame me if I hurt y—" I started.

Suddenly a huge force jerked me forwards, then backwards and I felt myself tumbling into the grass, all the while with something cold pressing onto the skin of my neck.

When the world stopped being a blur, I realised I was lying on the ground with Luna sitting on top of me, the switchblade in her hand and on my throat. I looked down at my own empty hands wondering what the hell happened.

"You never show them your intentions, Ryo." Luna said, staring at me from above. Her face slightly red. "The way you raised your hand was too obvious."

I stared up at Luna's face. She blinked at me, her dark eyelashes fluttering and her pink lips parting slightly in an alluring manner.

"L-Luna, you're really close."

She ignored me and leaned closer until our lips almost touched. I felt her breath on me and my mind melted.

She stopped above my lips. "Do you want me to kill Suzuki for you?"