After the incident with B4 at school, Cleo found himself in a somber mood. He didn't feel like engaging in conversation at all. Surprisingly, it was Luke, his coworker, who had more to say than him at work. Martin, another colleague, noticed Cleo's lack of enthusiasm and guessed it might be due to a bad grade in class. Deciding not to pry, Martin brushed it off and refrained from asking Cleo any further questions.
Upon returning home, Cleo's father sensed his son's quiet demeanor and decided to address the matter during dinner.
"So, Cleo... You seem quiet tonight. You usually have a lot to share during dinner," his father remarked.
Cleo took a moment to gather his thoughts before responding, "Yeah, Dad. It's not about the cooking. I'm just not in the mood to talk much today."
Yumi, Cleo's sister, interjected with a hint of disappointment, "Is it because of my cooking? I couldn't afford pork from the market, so I had to settle for pork fat."
Cleo managed a faint smile and reassured her, "No, Yumi, it's not about the cooking. It's been a long day, that's all."
Understanding the unspoken emotions, the family continued their dinner, allowing Cleo the space he needed without pressing for further explanations.
"Ah! I know what it is." David's face lit up like a light bulb. "You're having girl problems, aren't you? Is there a rich girl that you like but she can't possibly date you because you're poorer than dirt?" He grinned like an idiot acting as if knew exactly what Cleo's problem was.
Cleo didn't bother answering his foolish father on the matter. This only fueled David to nitpick further.
"If you're having trouble son then what you need to do is be yourself. Once she discovers the real you, you'll have no problem snagging that girl and marrying into her family of wealth which your poor family will benefit from!"
Cleo couldn't stand it anymore. In one swift motion, he punched his father square in the face, sending David to fall back in his chair. Ichigo stood up from his seating position on the floor and left the table to go into his room.
"Son, your hit is getting better!" David yelled out to his son as he stormed off. Cleo answered him with a loud slam of his bedroom door.
"Could it be girl problems, Dad?" Yumi questioned, more worried seeing Cleo in this state.
David shrugged while Yuna gave him an ice pack to apply to his now red and swollen face. "We won't know for sure until he does bring some girl home… I have a feeling it'll be soon." He grinned to himself.
In his room,m Cleo went over to his small desk to work on the homework assigned for that night. After five minutes of reading his textbook he stopped and for once in his life, didn't feel like continuing. He was getting frustrated that he couldn't concentrate and thus forced himself to read. But after countless tries, it was to no avail. He couldn't read the words and keep them in his mind like he usually would do when studying.
"What the hell is wrong with me?" Cleo questioned. As if by some invisible force he ignored his homework and moved elsewhere. He ended up sprawled on his back on his bed, his arms idly behind his head as he stared at the ceiling.
Cleo had to admit it to himself. He was getting rather apprehensive. He thought about what happened earlier that day: Inu's mishap with the B4, his defense against the B4 to protect Inu, and his declaration of war against the B4. Or rather war against Azumi and that helper monkey of hers, Calex. He paid no attention to the other half of B4 but he assumed they took heed of his declaration also.
I'm such an idiot. He thought to himself. I told myself the one thing I'd be sure to do was stay out of other people's business. But damnit, I have to be nice and help someone in need.
He checked the time on his wall clock. 9:30 P.M.
In less than 12 hours he'd have to head back to school. In less than 12 hours he'd have to face his fate from the B4. For all it was worth, he would have to suck it up and act like nothing happened. Maybe that would help him.
In another part of town in an area where only the richest could spend their time, B4 was sitting around and dining on a fine feast of Kobe beef and salty caviars. Ashley had made it even tastier by her standard and added a bit of natto(fermented soybeans) into the mix of beef and caviar.
"Mmm, this is delicious!" She yelled out in pure ecstasy. "Lucas, try some." Like feeding a baby, she grabbed Lucas's head and forced the spoon to go into his mouth.
"Ugh, get that away from my face!" Lucas pushed her hands away resulting in Ashley's face forming a sad pout.
"Aw, will anybody try this? I swear by it." She raised the spoon, willing to shove it in anybody's mouth if they volunteered to eat it.
Nobody answered and continued to eat their food. "Fine. I'll just enjoy this great creation by myself."
Ignoring Ashley's loud munching, Calex spoke up. "Should I call right now to post a notice in that punk Cleo's locker, Azumi?"
Azumi closed her eyes for a moment contemplating. She put her fork down, finished her chewing, and took the cloth from her lap to dab at her mouth. Calex was just about to be ready to dial the number of their lackey who posted the notices when Azumi simply said, "No."
Calex's jaw dropped from shock. Ashley stopped her chewing as a small smile came upon her face. Lucas merely raised his eyebrows at Azumi's answer.
"What? You have to leave a notice! He declared war against us! You have to put his ass back into his place!" Lucas yelled out, quite furious that this was the first time Azumi ever declined to post a notice.
"I have my reasons, Lucas," Azumi replied and got up to leave the table. "I'm going to test him first tomorrow and then we'll see where he stands." She smirked and left the table, making Lucas wonder what her true intentions were.
At the start of school the next day as Cleo walked through the halls, many students gave him weird glances and whispered to their friends as they pointed him out. Cleo continued his walk, not taking notice of the pointing, and stopped in front of his locker. He felt eyes on the back of his head, waiting for his every movement and wanting to see that red notice hang in his locker.
Taking a deep breath, Cleo lifted his hand to turn the knob and inch by inch opened his locker to reveal… nothing. He breathed a sigh of relief while the whispers continued behind him, probably disappointed at the absence of a red notice. Most of the students left for their homerooms as Cleo took out a few books he would need.
After a while, it was seemingly quiet in the hallway. That is until Cleo heard someone step behind him. Thinking it was just some other student who was curious to see if there was a red notice in his locker, he decided to turn around and show that person there was no such thing present in there. But even before he could turn around, he was knocked square on the back of his head with a hard object.
The impact was so quick and hard Ichigo barely had time to register what just happened. His vision grew blurry and before he knew it he was on the ground, staring up at three figures whose faces he did not recognize.
"Goodbye, Cleo Montenegro." One of the figures said and with another hit to his head, Cleo fell into an unconscious state.
Cleo came back into consciousness feeling sore and aching in many places. He felt his hands tied behind his back and he was sitting on a wooden chair. He groaned and opened his eyes, feeling as if that was a chore in itself. He heard laughing and wearily lifted his head to see the three figures he had seen earlier. He now saw their faces clearly and knew one of the boys to be a classmate of his.
"You're awake, eh?" The boy who was his classmate said. "Hah, you've been out cold this past hour and I'm surprised you wake up for real now."
"Yeah, you kept trying to wake up but we just beat you back into your stupor." Another one of the boys said. "Are you ready to go back into that stupor, punk?" He got up from his stool chair and approached Cleo, menacingly throwing up his fists.
"Heh." Cleo chuckled even though his throat hurt and was burning. "You dumbasses are cowards. You have to get me unconscious to beat me up."
The boy stopped in his tracks. Cleo's words affected him. "You little shit. You want to get fucked up, don't you?"
"Give me your best shot," Cleo answered boldly. "I'm awake now. Let's see what you can do."
The boy looked over at the other two and nodded his head. They all proceeded to get up and walked toward Cleo, getting their fists clenched and ready. Cleo's classmate was the first and took his stance. He aimed to hit Cleo straight on his jaw but the door to the class opened suddenly.
"Ano… what are you guys doing?" Cleo heard a female voice question. He turned his head to the speaker and his eyes widened. It was one of the members of the B4. Ashley Smith. She scratched her head in confusion and walked in.
The three boys threw their hands down and quickly bowed to her as she approached them. "Ashley, we were told to use this classroom to give Cleo Montenegro special treatment." One of them quickly answered.
She glanced at Cleo and looked back at the three boys who were still bowing. "Haha!" She laughed surprisingly. "This is the home economics room and you're giving him special treatment here?"
"Yes, Ashley. We're sorry if you didn't know this beforehand. We expected that Azumi had informed you of this." Cleo's classmate explained to her.
"She didn't. And I wanted to use this class to experiment with some new food ideas." Ashley frowned slightly. "You there." She was referring to Cleo.
He looked up at her, still quite shocked at her being there. "Are you okay?" She tilted her head sideways curiously and Cleo felt a little flustered that she was asking him.
He nodded slowly. "I guess. But I would be better if I weren't tied down to this chair." He said honestly.
"Hey you, go on and untie him." She pushed one of the boys toward Cleo. The boy stood there for a moment, mouth open confusedly. "Did you not hear me? Untie him." She repeated and he quickly obliged.
Now that Cleo was free, he gave a deathly glare at the boys who in turn cowered back. Cowards. Cleo said mentally, seeing their fright even in his current bruised state.
"Now you may leave," Ashley ordered the three boys and made a motion of her hands as if shooing them away.
"B-but, Ashley, Azumi said we have to"
"I will talk to her," Ashley said and waved her hands at them. "Now goodbye."
They shuffled out of the classroom one by one. Cleo's classmate looked back as if making sure no one was looking at him. Cleo sneered at him and he walked out quicker.
Once they were gone, Ashley turned back to Ichigo and smiled. There's a nice member of B4. Cleo thought. Maybe she's just pushing me around, yeah. She's probably tricking me then she'll try to kick my ass too. But I'm ready for it this time. B4 will not get to me-
"I'm sorry this had to happen to you," Ashley said, stopping Cleo's train of thought.
Cleo blinked a few times as if trying to absorb this all in at once. "You're sorry?"
Ashley nodded and gingerly fiddled with her fingers. "You see, Azumi doesn't mean it at all…"
Cleo snorted. "She doesn't mean it for me to get me beaten by a couple of random guys?"
Ashley stopped her fiddling and held her head down almost in defeat. "You're right. She does mean it." She quickly lifted her head and pointed at him. "But you're different, you see. Normally she would have given you a red notice but instead, she made this happen so it's different with you!"
Cleo still didn't quite figure out where Ashley was going with this. "Both of them sound the same to me." He slowly said.
"It's hard to explain exactly. Ano… I really shouldn't tell you this but… she's testing you." She blurted it out fast.
Cleo's brow furrowed as he did not fully understand her point. "Testing me? For what? How many punches I can handle? Because if she's testing me on that, I'll show her how much I can-"
"No, that's not it!" Ashley interrupted him.
"Then what is it?" Cleo was getting fed up with this guessing game.
"Her… her interest in you has piqued since you stood up to her yesterday. I don't know exactly what she's planning but all I know is she's testing you."
Cleo shook his head and laughed. "I told her this was war and I'm ready for whatever punch she's going to throw at me. Make sure to give her that message."
Ashley nodded. "Okay… yet… do you need to go to the hospital?" She questioned when she saw a big bruise form under his eye.
"I'll go after class. I missed enough today." Cleo responded. Before he left, he turned back to Ashley who was in the middle of setting her things down on the counter. "Hey."
She looked up. "What is it?"
"Thanks for helping me. I figured when I said it was war against the B4, it'd be against all of you. But I owe you one so… I'm not going against you." He went back to where she was and held out his hand. "I'm Cleo Montenegro."
She smiled happily and shook his hand. "I'm Ashley Smith. Nice to meet you."
Cleo had managed to find some time to go to the bathroom and wash himself up before returning to class. He looked in the mirror and found a cut on his lip as well as a bruise under his eye. "That's all those guys could do with the time they had?" He wondered but was still thankful that they didn't manage to put him in a comatose.
He went back to class and noticed the classmate who was ordered to beat him wasn't present. Even though there were still whispers that he knew were about him and the occasional ball of paper thrown at his head when the teacher wasn't looking, he blocked it all from his mind and focused solely on the teacher's lesson plan.
School ended quicker than normally for Cleo since he had lost at least an hour and a half earlier. As he walked outside of International School, he noticed the yells from student's vehicles were more frequent this day but he paid no heed to it like normal. Cleo wished he could block out the sounds and kept a hand over his bag where he left the remnants of his mp3 player.
Cleo started thinking of things like how he was going to tell his father about the mp3 player, how he was going to pay his dad back for the mp3 player, assignments and projects that were due next week, and… for a brief moment he thought about Ashley Smith.
He was still in total surprise that someone as nice as Ashley hung out with someone as cruel as Azumi. With rich people, he could try to understand but with girls, he really couldn't get them at all. Since those two were rich and were of the female species, his head was spinning from trying to figure them out.
One thing Cleo knew for sure was that Ashley was different from the typical rich girl. He could tell from their encounter that she was cheery, thoughtful, and kind. She helped him out of a sticky situation and at the same time tried to help her friend, Azumi by trying to explain her actions.
While he was thinking of all of these things and walking toward Sagaroza's shop, Cleo failed to notice a sleek black limousine drive slowly on the road beside him. He also failed to notice when it stopped abruptly on the side of the road and two men in black suits and black sunglasses stepped out and went behind him.
Cleo felt hands grab his body tightly and another pair of hands placed a cloth over his face. He struggled to fight them off but these men were too strong and resisted his squirming. He inhaled whatever substance was present on the cloth and in less than 3 seconds, went into a drowsy state and eventually passed out.
The men in suits dragged his body over to their limousine quickly and shut the door. The limousine drove off past Sagaroza's shop toward the east side of town where most of the wealthy resided.