Sanji rushed down the street, while still remaining vigilant at all intersections lest he get hit by a truck, and got to Lema academy as quickly as possible. All the while he constantly checked over his shoulder to ensure that he was not followed, he had no idea what lengths Rett and Zach might go to in order to get revenge.

He would have to gather up stories and rumors about them later, but for now he had to warn the others. But when he got to the girl’s academy the building was already locked up and empty. Were their school days shorter than Sanji’s?

Sanji couldn’t waste time, so he turned and hurried back toward his home. He didn’t make it far at all before a tall, thin figure stepped out of an alley and directly blocked his path. Sanji didn’t even have time to say, please move, I’m in a bit of a hurry, before a few other figures emerged from the alley and took hold of Sanji, dragging him off of the street and into the shadows between the buildings.

Ret and Zach must have figured out that he was lying, they would kill him- or at least permanently cripple, which might be worse, but neither option was exactly ideal. Sanji tried to stammer, “Please don’t-”

“Chill out,” a nasal voice snapped at him, “Stop kicking, we’re just here to talk.”

Once all the movement had stopped Sanji looked around at his captors. There were half a dozen of them and they all wore black jackets and pants, each of their tops marked with a gray wolf head insignia. Students from another school?

The nasal voice spoke again- it was a very tall, very thin kid with a black bowl cut and enormous classes- he put Sanji’s scarecrow body to shame. “You were at the park last night, yes?”

“Who are you-” Sanji began, but the boy snapped over him.

“Yes or no?”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Yes,” Sanji replied, wanting to keep his beatings for that day down to the singular.

“Good, so you saw what happened?”

“Yes,” he said again, still trying to figure out the situation.

“At that park there was one Rett Vich and Zach Terrance, yes?”

“Yes.”

“And what happened to them?”

Was this some sort of test? A trick to see if Sanji would talk behind Rett and Zach’s backs?

“I don’t know-”

“Yes you do,” nasal voice replied, “But I can see you’re going to be difficult so let me explain. Let him go.”

The hands holding Sanji’s arms fell away, but he was still backed against a wall by a semicircle of people who all looked a heck of a lot more violent than he. “My name is Nyklas. We’re from Central Road Academy, or more specifically a bit of a… private organization at Central Road Academy. Do you understand?”

Sanji did not understand, but he nodded. Nyklas looked at him with flat eyes, “You do not understand. I’ll be clear then- we deal in nefarious goods and services. We’re a what some might call a gang, but I keep us a bit more organized than that, but anyway Rett Vich and Zach Terrance happen to be in charge of our… competition. I had a trusted source tell me they ran into some trouble at the park last night, and I’d like to know about that because my enemies trouble is good so long as it does not also become my trouble. Now do you understand?”

This time Sanji did actually understand, and he nodded again. Nyklas gave a small smile, “Good. Now, this same source puts you at the park last night- who were you with?”

Just because Sanji knew that these people weren’t with Rett and Zach did not mean that he would tell them everything needlessly. Fortunately, he already had a practiced lie, “A couple of girls I met earlier in the day. I was just helping someone find their lost friend.”

“And how did that translate to two enemy gang heads lying on the ground beaten and running away with their tails between their legs?”

Sanji wanted to know how this guy had such a detailed recounting of the evening, and why Sanji was even needed at all, but he didn’t ask any questions, just shrugged and said, “They tried to feel up the wrong girl.”

And that was probably the truest thing he had said all day. All the same, Nyklas frowned slightly and asked, “What were their names?”

“I-” Sanji began, ready to try to worm out of answering, but a shout echoed down the alley.

It was very clearly the voice of Eva Montague, “Wait up Rothe, I can’t move that quick, my butt thill hurth!”

Sanji looked toward the mouth of the alley, just in time to see Rose glance in his direction. They made eye contact for the briefest moment before Eva collided into Rose’s back. The two took a second to disentangle themselves, and in that time one of the Central Road Gang members approached Nyklas and said, “Both of those girls fit the descriptions from last night.”

“Yes,” Nyklas replied, then gestured to four of his gang members, “Go grab them.”