Keiko Yukimura clutched her satchel in nervous fists. She wanted to be going back to her old school, with her friends and her familiar neighborhood. Everyone here was strange. Everything here was strange. She wished her mother could be with her, but with the new shop to open there was too much to do.
“You’re a big girl, Keiko-chan. You can help by going to school by yourself.”
So here she was, staring at a forbidding-looking brick building and trying to get up the courage to go inside.
“Oi. I ain’t seen you around before. You new?”
It was a boy, with bold dark eyes and a cocky grin. “Mm!” she nodded.
“Then I guess you oughtta see the principal first. C’mon, I’ll show you where. My name’s Yuusuke Urameshi. What’s yours?“
“Keiko. Keiko Yukimura.”
Yuusuke led Keiko to the principal’s office and knocked on the door. “Come in,” a man’s voice called.
“Let me go first, okay?” he whispered as they walked through the door. Bewildered, Keiko nodded and allowed the strange boy to take the lead.
The principal was a youngish man with slicked-back hair and dark-rimmed glasses. “Urameshi-kun,” he said to Yuusuke. “I hope you have a good explanation this time.”
Explanation? Keiko wondered.
“Here. It’s from Ofukuro,” the boy said, handing the principal an envelope. “This is Keiko. She’s new. And he was gone; she could hear running footsteps in the hall.
“Chotto matte, Urameshi-kun!” the principal called, but it was too late. He sighed. “That boy…” Then he noticed Keiko, standing in front of his desk clutching her satchel and manila envelope. “You’re a transfer student?”
Keiko nodded and held out the envelope her mother had given to her. Her mouth went dry and she stared at the principal looking over the papers. What if there were something wrong with them and he wouldn’t let her come to school? She wished her mother had come with her.
“Well, Keiko-chan, everything seems to be in order. Come with me and I’ll show you to your classroom. I’m sorry, you’ll be in the same class as Urameshi-kun, but that can’t be helped, it’s the only one where there’s a space.”
“Everyone, we have a new student joining us today. Class, this is Keiko Yukimura.”
“Yoroshiku, Keiko-chan.” One student didn’t join in the chorus of greetings: a dark-haired boy whose desk was right in front of the teacher’s. His head was buried in his arms and he looked like he was asleep.
Everyone else looked friendly enough. “I’m Keiko. My parents just opened a ramen shop in san-chome so everybody come eat there! My dad makes the best ramen in the world!
“All right, Keiko-chan. Why don’t you have a seat next to Shizuka there, and let’s get started. Yuusuke-kun, if you’d wake up and join us…?”
“Huh?” The boy sat up and rubbed his eyes. It was the one who had shown her the way to the principal’s office. “Oi, Keiko! You in this class?”
Maybe sensei should have let him sleep, Keiko thought several hours later. There hadn’t been anyone like him at her old school. He had caused one disturbance after another all morning: talking out of turn, giving answers so wrong it was like he wasn’t in the same book as the rest of the class, let alone on the same page, and turning around between lessons to stare at her with his bold dark eyes. Once he passed her a note. When the teacher turned back to the board she unfolded it. Her name and his were written under a crude triangular sketch of an umbrella.
Eew! Embarrassing! Keiko sniffed and flounced upright in her seat, folded her hands demurely on her desk and stared pointedly at the teacher. He was a thoroughly nasty boy, even if he had shown her where the office was.
It was a nice day, so the class went outside for lunch. Keiko took out the bentou her mother had packed for her. It was a nice bentou, and Okaachan always wrapped it in her favorite Hello Kitty furoshiki.
Some of the other girls came up to her. One was Shizuka, who sat next to her in class. She introduced the other two as her friends Fusami and Miyoko.
“Why was Urameshi-kun paying you so much attention, Keiko-chan?” Shizuka asked.
“Eew, you'd better stay away from him! He’s stupid and gets into fights,” Miyoko warned.
“He doesn’t have a father,” sniffed Fusami, “and his mother is Gold Badge’s girlfriend.”
“Gold Badge?” Keiko asked.
“He’s yakuza.”
“He’s scary!”
“Urameshi-kun will probably be yakuza too when he grows up.”
“And get arrested and go to jail.”
“Maybe even kill somebody!”
I thought he was nice when he showed me the office, but…
A shadow fell across the little group. “Hi there, new girl.”
Keiko looked up. Two boys were standing in front of her. They were big boys, fifth graders. They had slick hair and hard eyes and nasty grins. They looked like the men who had come to the old store and scared her father.
They scared her. Keiko didn’t like being scared, it made her mad. “Hello,” she said. But she wasn’t smiling. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see her new friends backing away.
“We just want to be friendly, new girl,” the leader said. “You want to be friendly, don’t you?”
“Friends share,” said the other.
“That looks like a really nice lunch,” the leader went on. “Your mommy make that for you?”
“Our moms don’t give us nice lunches,“ the other one said. “You ought to feel sorry for us and give us yours.”
Keiko was confused. If the boys were sincere, then she ought to share, but they were so much like the men who had come to the store that she wondered if they were bad boys, maybe boys who were going to be yakuza like Fusumi said Urameshi-kun was. She looked around for her new friends, but they were gone.
“Of course if you don’t want to be friendly…” the bigger boy said. He let his voice trail off suggestively and raised his clenched fist.
Ungh! Whoof!
Keiko blinked. The two big boys were lying on their backs on the ground, rubbing their jaws, and Urameshi-kun was standing between her and them. Where had he come from?
“Che,” the boy sneered. “You guys are somethin’ else, pickin’ on girls.”
The two boys picked themselves up. “You’d better get out of our way, brat!” They cracked their knuckles.
“Feh. Go ahead.” Yuusuke cracked his knuckles too.
Kowaii… Keiko started backing away, very slowly.
The older boys charged at Yuusuke – who evaporated. They ended up colliding with each other. “Missed me!” he jeered.
They charged again. Yuusuke – grinning like a maniac – bounced off each of their heads in turn, then delivered devastating punches to their midsections. Both bullies folded over and collapsed on the ground, groaning.
Sugoi… Keiko knew it was wrong to fight, but there had been two of them – big boys too! And there they were rolling around on the ground clutching their stomachs, and Yuusuke-kun was… going through their things?
“I knew it!” Yuusuke came up with a package in each hand. “Those two weren’t hungry, they always buy anpan on their way to school! They just like to pick on the little kids!” He tore open one of the packages. “Yumm, curry, my favorite!” He inhaled it and opened the second one. “This is great! Ofukuro was still sleepin’ it off this morning so I didn’t get breakfast – didn’t get dinner last night either on account of she was out gettin’ drunk.” He blinked at Keiko, who was staring at him in fascinated horror. “Oh, sorry. Want some?” He held out the end of his curry bread.
Keiko sweatdropped. “Umm… no thank you, Urameshi-kun.”
“Suit yourself,” he mumbled with his mouth full.
“Keiko-chan!” “Keiko-chan, are you all right?” Now that the danger was over, Fusami and Miyoko came out and started fussing.
“Daijoubu, daijoubu!” Keiko laughed. She looked over at Yuusuke, who was starting to scuff across the playground. He looked disappointed… sad… lonely. “Urameshi-kun?”
“Huh?” Yuusuke stopped.
“Thank you.”
He looked blank.
“For protecting me!”
He raised a hand to the back of his head in embarrassment, then grinned. “Heh heh… any time, Keiko-chan!”
Why that… that boy! How dare he call me Keiko-chan when we just met! She took a step toward him, fists clenched.
The bell rang just at that moment, but Yuusuke Urameshi didn’t join the stampede toward the door. He watched the new girl instead. She was exchanging remarks with her new friends, and her clear laugh floated back to him across the playground.
“Urameshi-kun!”
Shimatta, it was the principal. Too late to stop those goons from bullying the new girl, but in plenty of time to hassle him.
“What’s up, kouchou?”
“My office, Urameshi-kun. Now!”
Yare yare… it shouldn’ be too bad this time. Those two were known bullies with really bad reputations, and fifth graders to boot. If he did it right, he shouldn’t even have to involve Ofukuro, let alone Gold Badge.
“Thank you for protecting me.”
Even if he did get punished, it would be worth it. She’d thanked him. She’d smiled. Wow, I didn’t know it made you feel good inside to have a girl smile at you.
And two pieces of curry bread – life just didn’t get much better.
Yuusuke Urameshi sauntered into the school building, hands behind his head, feeling inordinately pleased with himself.
NOTES, EXPLANATIONS ETC.
If you know my Kenshin and Ranma stories, you know I like writing about characters’ childhoods. One day I just pictured six-year-old Yuusuke taking on a bunch of ten-year-old hulks. Atsuko’s yakuza boyfriend comes from a manga translation, and one of the FFML writers who has been teaching English in Japan mentioned there being very little future for high-school dropouts apart from organized crime. Yuusuke’s inattention in class is a classic case of No Breakfast – I think most of his problems in school are due to teachers who were either unaware of his home situation or prejudiced against his mother’s lifestyle, and were thus more than willing to discard him as a troublemaker.
The idea that Keiko’s family was forced to move comes from a movie called A Taxing Woman Returns. Ordinarily a first-grader transferring schools would probably be accompanied by her mother, but with opening a new shop Keiko’s mom is probably too busy.
Names written under an umbrella means the same thing as initials inside a heart.
bentou = lunchbox (traditional ones don’t have handles so you carry them
wrapped up)
furoshiki = wrapping cloth. One used for a first-grader’s lunchbox might well be printed with
some popular character like Hello Kitty.
kowaii = scary
anpan = bread filled with stuff like curry or yakisoba or whatever.
kouchou = school principal
ofukuro = mom. Very rude.