Chapter Ninety-Seven: Protection Money

At dawn, when Aoki Tsukasa stepped into the school grounds again, he keenly sensed that the gazes around him were different.

They were no longer merely fearful, disdainful, or curious. To his surprise, he could feel respect in them.

Could a delinquent boy really earn respect from others? Tsukasa gave a wry little laugh and could only assume it was all in his head.

As usual, he went to the backmost seat in the classroom, yawned, rested his head on the desk, and closed his eyes to steal a little peace.

“Aoki-kun?” came Teruhashi Kokomi’s voice at his ear.

Tsukasa blinked and looked sleepily at her, then nodded. “What is it?”

Teruhashi seemed to have even put on a light touch of makeup. Her already lovely face looked all the more delicate and otherworldly, her long blue hair falling over her shoulders. There was a hint of fatigue in her large eyes, but when she looked at Tsukasa now, she wore a bright smile and, with obvious concern, held out a small bottle in her hands.

“This is a spray medicine from home for bruises and sprains. It was a gift my mother received from a friend in Han country. I heard it works very well for external injuries.”

Tsukasa looked at her and smiled faintly. “It’s all right. These injuries aren’t much trouble. Still, thank you, Teruhashi-san.”

When Teruhashi saw him smile at her, her heart began to pound. She set the bottle on the desk, clasped her hands behind her back with obvious nervousness, and rose slightly onto her toes. “Better to have it than not. If the injuries don’t heal, it’ll hurt, won’t it?”

Tsukasa touched his bald head, which for some reason still showed no sign of hair growing back, and waved a little awkwardly. “Um...”

Teruhashi gave him no chance to refuse, cutting him off with a sweet smile. “Then it’s settled. I’m going to review my lessons.”

With that, she turned and walked back to her seat, her light, buoyant steps seeming almost excited.

Tsukasa sighed, still put the spray bottle away, and glanced around at the faintly envious looks from the boys nearby. It felt as though he had gathered a little more resentment for himself.

“Boss!”

Maeda Tora’s voice was always so full of energy. Tsukasa turned to look and saw the scarred-up Maeda Tora striding in from the doorway with a broad laugh. He dropped into the seat beside Tsukasa, and the dark circles beneath his eyes were shockingly pronounced.

“Hey, were those black circles of yours from getting hit?” Tsukasa raised an eyebrow.

Maeda Tora rubbed the back of his head and grinned. “No, no. I got home yesterday and was too excited to sleep. The TV drama version of Underworld Storm happened to be on, so after watching that I ended up rewatching the movie too. Once I started, I couldn’t stop.”

Tsukasa covered his face, speechless. “Seriously, what is the appeal of a drama that has absolutely nothing to do with reality?”

Maeda Tora grew animated. “How can you say it has no meaning? The protagonist, Tiger, never gives up no matter what, and faces every danger without backing down. He’s inspired who knows how many people to summon up their courage and meet hardship head-on!”

“And he’s so cool!” Maeda Tora went on, then actually gave a shy little laugh. “Though he still falls a bit short of the boss. But he’s definitely cool enough!”

Then he sighed like a starry-eyed fan. “How wonderful would it be to become a man as strong as Tiger or the boss!”

At that, he sprayed excitement all over the place. “Yesterday I was lying on the ground watching the boss knock down one person after another while surrounded by more than a dozen men. It was unbelievably cool!”

Maeda Tora even made a chokehold motion, flailing his arms wildly as he spoke. “Especially that Ueno guy. He was absolutely miserable! Honestly, at the time I would have believed it if someone told me the boss really wanted to kill him. As expected, the boss is the boss. That kind of presence is something I’ll never be able to learn.”

Tsukasa smiled in silence.

Back then... he had really wanted to kill Ueno Yosuke.

At the thought, Tsukasa sighed. At the time he had truly fought with blood in his eyes, not even knowing whether he was in reality or in the training room of his dream. If Maeda Tora hadn’t called out to him, something terrible might really have happened. Fortunately, he had come back to his senses now. Next time, he would absolutely not risk his life so carelessly against the relatives of those little troublemakers from his dream.

He pulled a can of hot coffee from his bag and took a sip. The caffeine made him feel much more awake.

“All right, enough about that. It’s nothing worth boasting about.”

Maeda Tora finally relented, though he still looked at Tsukasa with sparkling eyes. “Yesterday I got a lot of messages on my phone from people who want to follow you, boss. What do you think?”

“Quality over quantity.” Tsukasa took another slurp of coffee. The sweet-bitter taste made him squint. “Anyway, anyone who follows me can go by that... what was it... the Five Commandments.”

Come to think of it, that thing really was useful. At the very least, he didn’t have to waste time explaining things.

“Oh, right, boss.” Maeda Tora gave a sly grin, lifted an eyebrow at Tsukasa, and handed over a thick wad of cash.

Tsukasa looked at him in surprise. “What are you doing?”

“Protection money!” Maeda Tora said matter-of-factly. “Now that we’re the ones running the school, of course we’re supposed to collect protection money, aren’t we? These were all handed to me voluntarily by people this morning. It seems like they’ll pay once a week.”

“Give it all back!” Tsukasa said firmly, his voice sharp. “When did I ever say I wanted to collect protection money? What did I tell you back then? Never bully the weak with strength! From now on, nobody is allowed to collect protection money!”

“Uh...” Maeda Tora frowned and actually pushed back. “Boss, that’s the rule, isn’t it? If we don’t take it, the people paying it won’t feel at ease either.”

Tsukasa was starting to get angry. “Bullshit! Who likes handing over their own money willingly?”

“Uh...” Maeda Tora was momentarily at a loss.

But he soon tried again. “However...”

“There are no howevers. Collecting protection money is just wrong.” Tsukasa looked at Maeda Tora, his expression somewhat cold. “Do you think this is the right thing to do?”

Seeing Tsukasa’s stern face and hearing his words so decisively, Maeda Tora no longer dared to argue. He only sighed and said, “All right, I’ll return it. Though I suspect they’ll come looking for you again.”

Tsukasa glanced at him and didn’t bother responding. “None of you are allowed to bully people at school. You can’t hit people, and you certainly can’t take their money. And make sure you tell the other delinquent students who aren’t under me: if anyone bullies people or does anything rotten, they’d better be ready for me to come find them.”

Maeda Tora shook his head and said no more. He felt that the facts would eventually make Tsukasa understand why he had done it.

In the society of the archipelago, its hierarchy was probably among the most obvious in the world.

Not even counting the senior-junior order, even within school the class differences between students were stark.

Delinquents need no further explanation. They were naturally the most feared kind, the top of the social pyramid.

In the second tier were students who excelled in arts, athletics, or academics.

The third tier consisted of the hangers-on of those students, or members of student clubs.

The fourth tier was made up of isolated people, those with poor athletic ability and no particular talents, or simply the odd ones.

And at the very bottom of this hierarchy stood a kind of person most commonly seen in anime or novels: the bullied and excluded. These people were so miserable they even hid in the bathroom to eat, just to avoid being tormented, unable even to have a proper lunch.

If those at the very bottom wanted to stop being picked on, stop being bullied, stop being isolated, what could they do?

Change themselves? Don’t be ridiculous. If they had that ability, how could they have fallen this far in the first place? Resist? If they had the courage to lift their heads and fight back, how could they have been bullied all this time?

For people like that, there was only one way to avoid being abused: either slip into some little group and find a friend willing to speak up for them, or cling to a delinquent boy.

Paying protection money was naturally the easiest road. Taking the initiative to offer money to those delinquents, willingly enduring exploitation in exchange for a peaceful school life, was the simplest way for them to escape their present misery.

Maeda Tora understood all of this, but Tsukasa did not seem to.

Even if Tsukasa made every delinquent in the school stop bullying their classmates, what would that accomplish?

Those who bullied people were not only delinquents.

Maeda Tora sighed and, seeing that Tsukasa was clearly angry and had turned his face away, refusing to speak to him, decided to let Tsukasa handle it himself.