Linked: The War of the Gems - Book 1

by Alexandra Johnson

  “Arisawa-chan, calm yourself,” Mulan said. “Rumors are nothing more than harsh words from foolish people.”

  Aoi felt an arm go around her shoulders and looked up at her tall companion. She drew in a choked up breath, then exhaled. “Senpai?”

  “Just follow my lead.”

  Before she had time to ask what he meant, he started walking faster, pulling her along with him.

  “Hey!” he snapped.

  The girls froze, then slowly turned around. Their makeup-heavy faces went pale when they realized who’d interrupted them.

  “Akabori-san . . .” they breathed in unison.

  One of the girls, the one with her hair in a fluffy ponytail, was quick to speak. “Don’t get mad at us. Everyone says stuff like that.”

  It wasn’t much of an excuse, and Tatsuo wasn’t going to stand for it. “I don’t care what other people are saying.”

  His glare was filled with so much anger Aoi was sure it might be lethal. He stepped towards them, his fists balled tightly at his side. “No one talks shit about me.”

  The girls whimpered and cowered at his approach. Suddenly, Masanori appeared at Tatsuo’s side.

  “Akabori, this is not part of your calling. They are small, weaker women—”

  “Hey!” Mulan protested.

  Masanori gave a curt, hurried bow to Mulan. “Apologies, Hua-san.” He turned back to Tatsuo, who stood quivering with rage. “Tatsuo, remember our training. Release the anger, embrace the justice.”

  The girls were unable to see the spirits’ confrontation before them, and their confused looks bounced between Tatsuo and Aoi as they waited for their punishment. Tatsuo released a long, heavy breath, then released his fists.

  “I caught you talking shit this time,” he said, “but I’ll let you off easy. Better not catch you again though. Got it?”

  The girls nodded quickly, desperate to flee to safety. “Yes. Of course. We’re very sorry.”

  “You better be.” Tatsuo crossed his arms. “Now get out of my sight.”

  And the girls did as they were told, running as fast as their legs could carry them.

  “Good riddance.” Tatsuo spat, then turned back to Aoi. His anger seemed to have disappeared. “Better?” The corners of his mouth pulled upward with the faintest hint of a smile.

  But Aoi couldn’t smile. Quietly, she asked, “Isn’t this just gonna make them think I’m your yankii girlfriend even more?”

  All traces of his smile vanished. He muttered a curse under his breath. “Damn. My bad. Wasn’t thinking.”

  It couldn’t be helped now. He’d just been trying to help her anyways. Still, she was worried. The last time someone had thought Tatsuo liked her, she’d ended up in an abandoned warehouse.

  “You’ll protect me if something happens, right?” Sure, Aoi could defend herself. But if Tatsuo would fight for her sake, Aoi was sure she’d feel even safer.

  But he didn’t answer. Hs teeth were grit, his brow furrowed. Perhaps Masanori was speaking privately to him.

  “Akabori-senpai?”

  “Hm?” Realization lit his eyes. Aoi had asked him a question. “’Course, kid. I’ll look out for you.”

  That brought a smile to her face. “I really appreciate it. Thanks.”

  He shrugged. “Think nothing of it.” He still looked angry.

  It should have been a normal day at school. But Aoi couldn’t forget what had happened that morning, especially with constant reminders. The rumor had already spread throughout school.

  From Aoi the foreigner to Aoi the yankii girlfriend—it wasn’t an improvement.

  Everything felt so wrong. Entering the main hall, people were quick to move out of her way. Others watched her suspiciously. It was like they expected her to start a fight or pick on someone at any second. Clearly, they didn’t know Aoi at all.

  She walked into homeroom and took note of Makoto’s empty desk. No books. No backpack. Not even the boy she’d thought was her friend. He really had switched schools.

  She settled into her own seat, never able to look away from that empty seat for too long. It was a constant reminder of his lies and betrayal. It was a reminder of her mistake that almost cost Tatsuo his life—maybe even her own.

  Before she knew it, English class had begun and homeroom was just a distant memory. She couldn’t cry about Makoto. Not here. Not with everyone watching.

  Class gave the others something else to look at—the teachers and their lectures. They got to take notes and focus on that. Of course, the other students still risked glances at Aoi when they didn’t think she’d see. But she noticed. It was hard not to.

  Aoi was trying to focus on class. She took notes quietly, now and then risking glances at the board and only the board. She wanted to take good notes, not see the stares she felt stabbing into her.

  Everything was starting to seem almost okay again, but then Mulan spoke. That in itself was a surprise. Ever since school began, Mulan would pay attention to the lectures and the board with almost as much fervor as she watched the news in the morning, making up for missed time over the years. But today, Mulan’s attention was elsewhere.

  “Do not be alarmed, but a delinquent is staring at you,” she said.

  Aoi was definitely alarmed, but she did her best to stay calm. Her mind was a panicked, repetitive mess. Please don’t be trouble . . . Please don’t be trouble . . . She risked a glance to her right.

  Sure enough, a boy was staring at her. He was just a bit taller than her and skinny as a twig. That would have been all good and well if his over-gelled, blonde, spiky hair didn’t scream yankii. The ear and nose piercings didn’t help his case any, either. Aoi remembered seeing the boy on the roof, but she couldn’t remember which side the yankii had been on.

  Aoi scribbled a question on the border of her notes. “How long has he been staring?”

  “For quite a while,” Mulan admitted. “Although I don’t recall seeing him come to class before.”

  Never? They’d been in class for over a month. Strange.

  That probably meant he’d been skipping up until now. The guy was likely a delinquent, after all. But what was his deal with her? Aoi wasn’t sure she wanted to know.

  She turned her attention back to the lesson. Only a bit longer before she could take a break. Lunch was soon. At least she’d still have Tatsuo to eat with.

  The bell rang. Aoi gathered her things quickly and fled, pausing only to buy a drink before she rushed upstairs with her bento box.

  She didn’t want to see people staring at her. She just wanted to spend time with Tatsuo.

  “Are you sure this is a good idea?” Mulan asked. “This will only make the rumors seem more realistic.”

  Aoi was aware of that, but she couldn’t handle being on her own at a time like this. She needed someone. She needed support.

  “Not like I have a choice,” Aoi mumbled.

  “You always have a choice.”

  “I like spending time with him,” Aoi added. “Plus, only punks will want to be my friend now.”

  Mulan went quiet. She knew it was true. Why lie?

  What was the problem anyways? One friend was better than none. Especially after Makoto’s betrayal. Tatsuo said he had her back though. Everything would be okay.

  Wouldn’t it?

  She’d thought everything would be okay before, back when Makoto was still around, calling himself her friend. The liar. And she’d been stupid enough to believe him. Look where it had gotten her. And Tatsuo, for that matter. He was fresh out of the hospital, likely still bandaged underneath his school uniform. Aoi just had to bear the guilt; Tatsuo had to deal with the pain.

  She opened the roof door and smiled when she saw Tatsuo. “Good afternoon!” Even with everything that had happened, Aoi still wanted to seem happy. She didn’t want to worry him.

  It seemed to work, too, since he smirked. “Yo. How was class?”

  Her smile turned to a grimace almost instantly.

  “That
bad, huh?”

  She nodded.

  “Wanna talk about it?”

  She wondered about that, and she wondered what there was to say. There was Makoto, who had betrayed her. There were people who stared at her, and those who avoided her. There was the yankii who was staring at her in class.

  “Well, I wanted to talk about before.”

  “Before?” Tatsuo asked, folding his arms over his chest.

  “Yeah. About the fight. About Makoto.” But the question was, where to start?

  As if reading her mind, Mulan said, “There was that metal weapon Makoto used. A . . . gun, I believe you called it?”

  Perfect place to start. “Do you guys all have guns?”

  “What’s a gun?” A deeper, masculine voice asked. That was Tatsuo’s spirit, the famous samurai Masanori Fukushima.

  “I’ll tell you later,” Tatsuo said to his spirit, before turning back to Aoi. “But about the guns—”

  Aoi interrupted him. “And about the gangs—do people think I’m in one? I mean, clearly they think I’m a yankii, but . . .” Her voice trailed off and she shook her head.

  “How could anyone think you of all people were in a gang?” Tatsuo gave a sour laugh. “Look, kid, Makoto’s gang was one of the worst ones, mostly because they never got caught. For the most part, the gang fights have been pretty tame. It’s just been a little rough recently—”

  “A little rough!”

  Tatsuo kicked at the ground. “It’s gotten a little more dangerous lately, I’ll admit.”

  “I’ve never been so scared to go outside before, and I lived in Tokyo! It’s crazy!” Aoi knew her voice was growing shrill, but she couldn’t calm herself down. Aoi still had more she wanted to say. “And your gang! Do they have guns? Chains? Pipes? Do they hurt people?”

  “Arisawa, if you’d just let me speak—”

  Mulan said, “Let the boy explain himself—”

  “No!” Aoi didn’t care that Tatsuo was now pleading. Tears of frustration burned behind her eyes. “And what was that this morning—Were you going to hurt those girls? I don’t think you should hurt people if you’re a Linked. You can’t just do stuff like that anymore—”

  Before she had time to continue her rant any further, the roof door slammed open. Aoi turned just in time to see the guy from her class walk out.

  “Ah! So Aka-aniki is up here!” he said.

  Aka-aniki? So he was up here for Tatsuo? Color her confused. She’d been pretty sure he was on the opposite side during the fight. But she’d only gotten a quick glance at him back then. Her mistake.

  “Yeah, I told you so,” a second voice said.

  The boy from her class wasn’t alone. Three others were with him.

  One was a short guy about Aoi’s height with spiky black hair. There was a large grin on his face and he couldn’t seem to stand still, constantly bouncing from one foot to another.

  The second was also short, but also notably round and scarred. His face was squished in like a pug’s.

  The third was as tall as a mountain, complimented by large muscles. It may have just been how buff he was, or his height, but Aoi couldn’t help but think him the most intimidating.

  However, they all seemed to know who Tatsuo was. Judging from what the blonde guy had called him, they were all part of his gang.

  The mountain spoke. “We figured if you were still here, you’d be on the roof.”

  “You’ve been coming to school a lot lately. Wondered why.” The boy from her class grinned widely at her. “And then we heard the rumors and it all made sense.”

  “Yeah,” the jittery boy said, bobbing his head in agreement. “She’s kinda cute too.”

  Aoi didn’t want to hear this. She appreciated that they seemed to think she was cute, sure. But she was tired of being called Tatsuo’s girlfriend and everyone assuming she was a yankii by association and appearance.

  Aoi and Tatsuo weren’t even that close. They just happened to share a bizarre secret. In fact, she wasn’t sure if they could even be called friends.

  This was the last thing she needed during lunch. Aoi was done.

  “Please excuse me,” she said, pushing past the boys and heading the way she came. She’d just have to eat in the cafeteria. The skies were dark and grey anyways.

  And it wasn’t like she fit in with them.

  Aoi fled down the stairs, concentrating on not tripping. Mulan ran beside her, looking around them protectively.

  “Hey!” A voice echoed down the narrow stairwell. Aoi kept going. Tatsuo chased after her, catching up to her just as she finished heading down the stairs from the roof. He grabbed her wrist and spun her towards him.

  “Arisawa, what was that about?” he demanded. “First, you won’t even let me speak. Then you won’t even meet my friends. What is the deal?”

  “They’re the deal,” she snapped. She was frustrated with this—with everything.

  “What? I can’t have friends other than you?” he said with a snort, like it was some kind of a joke.

  But it wasn’t a joke to Aoi. “This isn’t about jealousy, Senpai,” she said. “This is about the fact that they’re a gang. Sure, they’re your gang. But gangs are bad no matter what.”

  “Arisawa, they’re not bad people,” he insisted, still gripping her wrist so she didn’t run away from the conversation. His hand was warm against her skin. She hadn’t planned on running anyway. “They’re my friends.”

  “They’re a gang, no matter what you try and say,” Mulan chimed in.

  “What—you’re tag-teaming me now?” Tatsuo snapped. He let go of Aoi’s wrist and folded his arms over her chest, as if to block out the supposed attempt at tag-teaming. His spirit, Aoi noted, was nowhere to be seen.

  “We are doing no such thing,” Mulan said. “I was simply coming to my holder’s defense.”

  As much as Aoi appreciated that, it seemed she’d just made the conversation more difficult. She took a deep breath. “I don’t want guns around me. I don’t want gangs around me. Not just me, but around the Linked, too. Gangs are bad, and we’re not.”

  “You’re not in charge of the Linked, kid. There’s just the two of us, and I say these guys ain’t bad.”

  Aoi took a step away from him, down the stairs. “Then maybe you don’t deserve to be a hero.”

  Tatsuo looked like he’d been slapped.

  “Fine, Arisawa. Be that way. See if I care.” He turned around and stomped up the stairs, leaving Aoi alone.

  She stood there, stunned, for a few minutes. Then, more to herself than anyone else, she whispered, “What does being a hero mean, anyway?”

  Chapter 12

  The next time Aoi saw Tatsuo was when she passed the shady part of the housing district the next day. She was still mad at him, at his friends, at the situation. And he looked pretty mad, too.

  Even so, he slowed down and waited for her, raising a hand in greeting. “Yo.”

  “Hey,” she replied softly, giving him a small smile. “I’m sorry about yesterday.”

  And she was. She didn’t mean to get so angry at him, even if she did think he was wrong. She was honestly a little surprised that he even waited for her today. If she’d snapped at one of the girls back in Tokyo like that, they would have ignored her for a week!

  But Tatsuo didn’t. Tatsuo was different. Aoi was grateful for that—but that didn’t mean she forgave him.

  “Hey, after school today, let’s go to Kokutan Arcade to talk Linked stuff.”

  An arcade? Interesting choice. “Sure,” Aoi said, a little skeptical. If it was just the two of them, plus their spirits, it wouldn’t be so bad. “Where’s that?”

  “The shady part of the business district, down by the tracks. I’ll take you there after school. Just wait for me outside your class.”

  She made it through the rest of the school day alright. She struggled a little bit in PE and the other girls laughed at her for how slow she was, but Aoi just thought of it as training. It helped to ha
ve Mulan running right beside her, even though the two women couldn’t talk without risking Aoi seeming like a freak.

  Finally, the end of the school day came. Tatsuo might have hung out on the roof all day, but that was okay. As long as he was here now. She’d hated walking home alone yesterday.

  Honestly, Aoi was a little excited. She’d never gotten the chance to go to an arcade before. Not that Tokyo was short on them. Her friends just weren’t the type of girls to play video games other than dating sims. Not that there was anything wrong with dating sims. You just couldn’t go to an arcade enjoy those. They were more a solo sort of thing.

  The outside of the arcade was run-down and painted black with splatters of paint on it. Aoi couldn’t tell if it was graffiti or just an odd design choice.

  Tatsuo paused outside the door. Aoi looked up at him with wide blue eyes. “Something wrong?” she asked.

  He gave a small shrug. “Nothing . . . wrong, exactly. I just don’t want you to get mad me and storm off again. It’s dangerous here.”

  “Why would I do that?”

  “Because by ‘talking about Linked stuff,’ I meant that I wanted to stop this stupid fight of ours.”

  “Senpai?” Aoi asked. “What do you mean by that?”

  Tatsuo just opened the door and gestured for Aoi to enter. She glanced around the arcade, taking it all in. The black walls were splattered with different colors of paint, making it look like a rock and roll mosaic. The floors were carpeted in zig-zagging patterns. There was an eating area to the left, arcade games to the right, and a door near the counter up by the front that said, “Laser Tag.” So this was an arcade. Aoi felt the excitement building up inside her . . .

  Only to deflate when she saw a group sitting at one of the tables with two seats left empty. There were four boys downing pizza and soda, and Aoi recognized them. Tatsuo’s gang.

  Aoi looked up at Tatsuo in disbelief. “What are they doing here?” she asked.

  “I wanted you to meet them,” he said with a shrug, like it was no big deal. “Trust me, Arisawa. They’re good guys. You just gotta get to know them first.”

  “Arisawa, what shall you do?” Mulan’s voice echoed in her head.