Not the Face [Marik]

[Shana Hitoehi]

WHAM!

"I told you! I'm sorry! Please stop!" Shana cried out, but obviously it wasn't good enough. Another punch flew threw the air, hitting her right in the gut causing her to groan in pain. There were five boys around her, all about the same age as her. One was standing right behind her, holding her in a lock with his arms going between her pits to keep her from moving. Another two were standing right in front of her. Those were the two who kept using her stomach as a punching bag. Then finally, there were the three boys who stood in a line behind the other two, just watching everything happen.

"You shouldn't have crossed us Shana-chan... You embarrassed our entire gang," the boy in the middle said. He was apparently the leader of their little group. "People just didn't take us seriously with us all getting beat by a girl.. We have to show them that we simply went easy on you."

Shana was only half-listening to what he was saying. She was trying to break free of her lock, but it all seemed futile. She was crying wildly, but she couldn't stop the tears from flowing. She wanted to get out of this, but there was just no way. She'd have to deal with the punching and there was nothing that she could do about it.

"But don't worry Shana. We won't hit your face. We don't want the adults to know, after all."

POW! Another punch to Shana's gut came only a moment later. She couldn't help it, soon she was beginning to throw up. the boy holding her tilted her forward allowing her to cough up on the ground, though she soon stopped.

"You did this to yourself Shana. We can't have people going around thinking that we get beat up by girls."

[marik]

Marik couldn't beat himself up enough. After negotiating a plan to sort through his and Shana's issues, he had ended up grounded from pretty much all communications until his grades were up again. This had left him with no computer (save for when he required it for school work, but he was strictly monitored), no phone, not even post. His parents had pretty much kept him on lock down for weeks while he struggled to bring his grades back up to satisfaction. So of course, poor Shana, after having hope, he had just seemingly vanished, and he felt horrid for that.

Marik had only gotten his freedom to go out back recently, but he was still off the hook for phone and computer, so his only choice was just going out and finding Shana. His first stop was Shana's house, for the obvious place to look. Her mother however, informed him that she hadn't returned from school yet. He then went to her school, but she wasn't there either. He had spent hours wandering around town, with no avail.

The last place he looked, was the place he... didn't really want to find Shana in. It was the most shady part of town, and the place was where people often ran into trouble -- or looked for it. He didn't want to think that Shana had regressed back into her aggressive behavior when he disappeared. He hoped he didn't find her here. That she had only went to a place he had already searched.

Marik stepped carefully down the streets, avoiding the shifty looking people that were standing around, and staying on high alert, for both Shana, and what ever possible trouble that might find him. He looked down alleys, in store fronts and through the windows of abandoned buildings... Nothing. Nothing until he heard a chillingly familiar cry. Shana. He thought, and he headed down the alley, keeping close to the wall as he peered around the corner to a disturbing sight.

Shana was being held in a lock by one guy while two others beat the lunch right out of Shana. Fortunately they were too focused on beating up Shana to notice him peaking around and Shana's cries covered whatever sound he made. "If things go awry, you know what to do." Marik muttered into his jacket, where Kudamon was hiding. Kudamon nodded once. Marik then took another peek at his target, before charging into the scene suddenly, straight for the one who was holding Shana. If all went well, hopefully he'd be able to free Shana and make things a little more even.

[[NPC]admin]

"Geez! Save some for the rest of us man!"

It was sharing time apparently as each one of the bullies wanted a shot at teaching the girl a lesson. But if things kept up, she'd likely be passed out before all of them got their chance. There was no love for Shana in this group, none what so ever. This girl had humiliated them, so now it was time to return the favor. They wouldn't hit her face, but they would make her feel pain. Though just as they were about to toss her to the next person, a figure caught the attention of her current captor.

Shifting himself in a position to face the incoming attacker, the boy smirked as he pulled Shana in front of him, using her almost as a shield for any attack.

"Well well well...Looks like we got a hero guys..."

[Shana Hitoehi]

Shana looked up in awe. She was sure that her eyes were deceiving her. That couldn't be who she thought it was approaching. Marik? She hadn't seen him in ages. She felt like her eyes were playing tricks on her. What was he doing in this part of town, and much more importantly, why was he trying to save her? Shana couldn't understand. Maybe her tearfilled eyes were deceiving her.

"Marik! No! Run!" Shana screamed to him. She didn't want him getting hurt. She couldn't imagine how much worse she'd feel if something were to happen to Marik because of her. She knew that she had caused Marik hardships in the past, and if she could take them back, she would, but after all she had done, she hadn't meant for him to get dragged into it. That was why she had stopped, and because of it, she couldn't stop crying.

"Let me go!" she screamed once more to the guy still holding her. Unfortunately, it seemed he had no intention of doing so.

[marik]

Marik stopped at the last second before he crashed into Shana. Coward. He thought, as he stepped back. He had lost his chance to free Shana, for the moment. He instead turned his attention on the two other bullies that didn't have their hands so full. "Looks like I have a couple of morons to take care of." Marik shot back.

Too bad the bullies didn't find their remarks too amusing. "Its our turn for some fun! Grab him!" The boy smirked and the two of them went at Marik, one throwing a punch which to Marik's face, but Marik threw his arms up to defend. Marik still got pushed back by the blow, and before he had a chance to recover himself, the second grabbed him and put him into a similar lock that Shana was in.

Marik struggled for a moment as the other male approached him. It was that moment that Kudamon shot his head out of his tamer's jacket and bit the guy who had Marik in the hold, before quickly withdrawing back into Marik's jacket. The guy holding him leaped away, in surprise, eyes wide in panic as he looked at his hand, which was now bleeding. "He's got a rat in his jacket! I'm going to get rabies!" He shouted before turned tail and running for it.

Marik took the punch the first bully threw him, but he too took a considerable jump back when his buddy freaked out. All eyes were on him, and for a moment they looked shocked by what had happened to their friend. The leader quickly shook it off and got his crew back together. "You may have surprised the new guy, but you aren't going to scare the rest of us with a dumb rodent! Get him!" He shouted as he went for Marik himself along with Marik's remaining opponent.

Marik this time dodged out of the way, and this time made a run for Shana, flipping out his sunglasses as he went. The one holding Shana once again attempted to use Shana as a shield, but Marik had no plans to charge. He simply reached around, and held on. The bully immediately began squirming, but refused to relinquish his grip on Shana. "Your rat bites me, you are going to wish you were dead!" He threatened.

Well, good thing that wasn't the idea he had with this. Marik made no attempt to hit the guy or anything, he just held on. Meanwhile the other three were surrounding him. Marik regretted that Shana was likely to get caught in this attack, but she's already been subjected to it once before, perhaps she'd think to close her eyes, and at least avoid the brunt of it. The second one of the others grabbed him, Kudamon darted out of the jacket again. "Shining piercings!" Kudamon spat, and his earring emitted a blinding light.

"I'm blind!"

"I can't see!"

The once rough and tough bullies, were now panicking, waving their arms around as they slowly went to get away. The one holding Shana almost immediately. Marik then grabbed Shana's arm and lead her into a run away from the stumbling bullies, and towards the residential area. Once they were a good distance away from the thugs, he turned to Shana. "Shana, how badly are you hurt?" He asked. He himself had a bruised arm and cheek, but he was fortunate enough not to have been hit too much during the fight.

[Shana Hitoehi]

"AH!"

Thoguh she probably should have predicted it, Shana had some difficulty doing so and was blinded by Kudamon once again. The light shone off into her eyes, and as soon as she felt and the boy released her, she brought her hands up to her eyes and hunched over. It was painful, but nonetheless it was much better than the first time she had seen it being that it was potentially saving her life.

Shana felt Marik grab her, or at least she assumed it was Marik, and she stumbled behind him following his lead, though her eyes were still closed even now.

"I... I think I'll be okay," Shana said to him, though she was still rather shaken by the visual attack, and her body was rather thrashed by what those boys had done to her.

[marik]

"Okay. First, we need to get out of here." said Marik, sparing a glance at the surroundings. Even as they got closer to the edge of the slums, the place got no less shady looking, with numerous beggars and shifty people around. Marik continued walking along with Shana, letting her set the pace. She may have said she would be okay, but he was still very very concerned about her. He himself had a few scrapes and bruises from the encounter, but he didn't look nearly as bad as Shana did.

Kudamon poked his nose out of Marik's jacket, watching what was happening behind Marik and Shana. "Bullies... What brutes." He remarked with a snort. He would never understand their stupidity. Going around acting like they are better than everyone, only to be only capable of displaying brutish stupidity in attacking those considerably weaker than themselves, which only completely contradicted any claim of being better.

He then shifted his attention to Shana momentarily. Alas, she had failed to shield herself from his attack. It was very unfortunate. "I do regret having hurt you in that mess." He apologized curtly. Kudamon had nothing less than complete disdain for Shana. She herself wasn't all that different than those bullies they had just fended off, and he wholly approved of Marik's decision to cut the relationship off, and wasn't too impressed by his tamer's efforts to undo that decision.

Marik's expression turned to unease as his thoughts turned back to how he had pretty much vanished off the face of the earth after trying to sort things out between them. "Shana, I'm sorry I disappeared," Marik started off awkwardly. "My grades have been slipping and it didn't escape my parent's noticed, and they cut me off of communications for weeks. Today's the first time I've been able to actually go out freely." Marik sighed. He felt really stupid. It felt like only an excuse, but the truth was the truth and that was all he had.

[Shana Hitoehi]

Shana followed behind Marik's lead, though it seemed he had slowed down just a bit and allowed them to go at her pace. That was good, because otherwise a lot of dragging would have been involved. Shana wasn't even sure that she was capable of running much in this state. Her stomach hurt a lot and she was feeling rather dizzy.... but at least thanks to Marik she was okay.

"Thanks Marik," she said to him rather calmly. It was rather hard to believe that not very long before this she had actually been somewhat mad at him, namely for his disappearance. But now that he was here, she felt so much better, especially sense he had a reason for his absence, regardless of whether it was the truth or not. She wasn't about to question him on this.

"But how did you know that... they dragged me out there?" Shana wondfered. She was a bit surprised that he had found her all the way out there, especially considering she had been dragged there after school. If he had been trailing her, she wondered what had taken him so long to come and help her. Otherwise, it seemed to be more than a mere coincidence that he had found her.

[marik]

"Well, I didn't know." Marik responded truthfully. "I looked all over town for you. It was pure luck I had found you. Only wish I had found you sooner." Why didn't he check the slums first? It wasn't like that wasn't one of Shana's common hang outs in the past. The answer to that was obvious though. He didn't want to find her here because he thought he'd walk in on the discovery that Shana hadn't been keeping her word. Once was bad. Twice was heartbreaking, thrice? He wasn't sure if the relationship would survive past that. Thankfully though, it hadn't come to that.

Unfortunately it was likely that because of that fear making him wait so long, Shana had endured more punishment than she might have had to if he hadn't let those worries make him avoid the slums. There was no use lingering on those thoughts. Everything was done and over with after all. "So... How's Aruraumon?" He asked, trying to make conversation. He guessed the plant digimon had been left at Shana's home, which was usual. Shana could hardly bring the plant digimon to school with her.

[Shana Hitoehi]

Luck... it seemed like too much of a coincidence to be considered luck to Shana. No. It had to be something much more. It was fate driving the two of them together. How sweet fate could be at times, even though Shana was actually in quite a deal of pain right now. Her body felt sore, as would be expected considering how she had been close to beaten to a pulp. She'd consider herself lucky that they didn't try to hit her face, though at the same time, such fierce blows to her lower body and stomach wasn't much of a consolation. Even now, she could taste the residue of her vomit swirling within her mouth.

"Aruraumon's okay. She's at home right now," Shana explained to Marik before turning her head to the side away from him and spitting a wad of spit from her mouth to help get rid of the disgusting taste left over. Still, that taste probably wouldn't go away without quite a bit of brushing. Oh well, she had been in worse condition than this before. She knew it'd heal eventually.

"Aruraumon and I haven't done much together recently though," Shana regrettably added. It was the truth nonetheless. She and Aruraumon had been a bit distant as of lately, as much as she hated to say it, especially when she could see Marik and Kudamon were as close as ever. Shana sighed before pulling her arm from around Marik's shoulder.

"Thanks, but I'm strong enough to support myself," Shana attested, though she was actually quite thrashed. Regardless, she hated feeling weak, and even if her body was in all kinds of pain, so long as she could limp on her own two feet, she would. It wouldn't even matter if she had a broken leg. She refused to have someone carry her for pity.