Mikey bets in his mind that Karina Maya would give up and stop.

But so far she looks far from quitting.

He sighs and places his cheek on the palm of his hand. He's sitting on the wooden porch in the garden of Maya's house. He'd instructed her to do 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 crunches, and 100 burpees. For the past thirty minutes, her weak body hasn't managed to successfully do a single push-up yet. Mikey looks up at the sky and hears his stomach grumble.

Fuck.

He forgot that he hadn't eaten breakfast yet. His head has been in the clouds since agreeing to help Karina Maya. He remembers her crying form. She looked so fragile and emotionally battered. He is aware that the girl already has so many problems on her little shoulders and Mikey's words only added to her hurt. But, what could he do? He only told her the truth.

Although, after their encounter, for some reason, he's been looking forward to seeing the weak girl again, wondering how she would react to their meeting and how she would look. She doesn't look fine at all. She's even more unsure and nervous, doing her best so that their eyes won't meet.

"E-excuse me..."

"Huh?" Mikey responds to her trembling voice.

"W-would you like to eat? I can prepare us something."

"Can you?"

"Of course!" She looks close to smiling. Is she... proud? That's new. "I always cook," she says.

"Okay." Well, seems like, somehow, the girl's already fine with what happened to them the night of Ken-chin's birthday. She was beginning to get over it. Maybe she wasn't as rattled as Mikey thought she was. Good.

They head inside the wooden house. He notices that only the living room is dirty. The rest is clean and shiny. Mikey accompanies Maya as she gets the ingredients and places them near the sink. He cannot help but stare at her. The girl suddenly looks confident and sure about what she does. Why can't she be like this all the time?

She must have sensed Mikey's gaze because she stops from washing the carrots in her hands and looks at him. "I-is there something wrong?"

Then she blushes.

Cute.

WHAT?

What the hell?

He didn't just think of that.

No way.

No fucking way.

Damn that Emma. He shouldn't have agreed to her request.

"It's nothing—" Mikey blindly walks away, hitting his forehead against an open cabinet. His wound bleeds, making him close his left eye.

"Sano-san!" Maya is already by his side, tissue in her hand she wipes some of the blood away. "Stay here. I'll get alcohol and some bandages. You can clean your wound by the sink."

Used to injuries, Mikey washes his forehead with the running water.

"Here." Maya gently pats some alcohol to clean the wound and covers it with a band-aid. "It's small but it's a bit deep. I hope it won't scar." She lightly taps the bandage.

This close, the boy becomes aware of her scent. She smells like kitchen ingredients and vanilla. Inside Mikey, he feels something stir.

He hates it.

He bristles and brushes the girl's hand away. "I'm alright. It'll heal. Didn't you say you'll cook?"

"Y-yeah." She continues what she's doing inside the clean kitchen. Soon, she places the cooked omurice on the dining room table.

Impressive.

It looks like it was done by a pro and it tastes good, too. It takes all of Mikey's willpower to stop himself from smiling wide and gobbling the whole meal in one go. Food has always been one of his weaknesses.

Wait... "Where's yours?" He asks the girl.

She shakes her head and says, "I already ate breakfast earlier. I'm going to try doing push-ups some more."

That's surprising. Mikey thought she already quit. He takes his plate and follows Maya back to the garden.

"O...on..." She tries her best to lift her body but she flops down again. "Why can't I do it?" Another try. "O..." Another fail.

Mikey swallows a spoonful of the sumptuous omurice. "Do sit-ups first. Then the crunches and burpees. Try the push-ups later. We should make your body stronger."

"Okay!"

As she does her best to do the workout routine, Mikey watches her. She'll soon be out of breath but she pushes her body to its limit.

Mikey arranges a training menu in his mind. She's already used to pain so that's a plus. She needs to muscle up and learn some punch and kick techniques. Or maybe she could learn how to defend herself first.

The doorbell rings.

Mikey stands up and volunteers to open it. Outside are Draken and a smiling Emma with take-outs.

Honestly, though he's helping her now, Mikey doesn't know what his sister sees with Karina Maya. Since they first met, Emma always wanted to be with the weak girl. And, now, she's going to great lengths just to support her.

"It's rare to find someone with a pure heart, Mikey," Emma once told him.

Pure heart? One that brought Emma trouble?

No way.

Karina Maya may not be evil but she's not as innocent as his sister believes.

"Karina-chan! We brought lunch! How's it—" Emma gasps loudly then shouts, "Karina-chan!"

The weak girl is lying on the ground, panting and looking like she'll soon pass out.

Emma fusses around her. "Mikey! I told you to help her not torture her!"

The blond boy shrugs his shoulders. "That's nothing if she wants to be stronger."

"Mikey—"

"It's alright, Emma," Maya tries to stand up. "I feel like I'm getting stronger already." She smiles a heartfelt smile.

So, she can smile like that.

A smile that reaches her eyes and exudes a calming warmth.

"Okay. If you say so. But, you can stop now. Right, Mikey?" Emma asks.

Mikey immediately looks away. "Yeah."

His sister takes Maya's hand and leads her to the house's living room like she was the one living here.

Draken stops following them and turns at him, "What are you thinking?"

"Nothing," he answers.

But the other boy doesn't believe him. "It's not nothing. I know you well enough to know when something's plaguing your mind."

Fine. He closes his eyes and says, "It's Karina Maya. Do you really think we can trust her? She's been spending too much time with Emma. I know she's been through a lot and that she's being bullied but I just don't know what to think of her. It's not that I hate her. Or do I? I don't know."

"Heh..." Draken is grinning as he says, "That's not like you. You immediately either like or hate someone at first glance. What changed?"

Huh?

That's right.

Thinking about it, it's the first time that he takes a lot of time to think about how he feels toward someone.

Is Karina Maya different?

What makes her different?

He escapes Draken's grip and follows the two girls inside. "I'm just thinking of Emma," he lies.

Luckily, Draken doesn't pester him with his observation any longer. They reach the living room and see Emma fixing Maya's hair.

"Her hair's not really unruly. It might be curly or wavy. We'll see later." Emma explains. She applies different products to Maya's hair as she tells her that Draken's moms always give her beauty products. "Now, you need to shower and apply this. And this. Oh, and this too."

That many just for hair?

Well, Emma has a nice hair. She's been taking care of it since forever.

When Maya is done showering, the ritual isn't over yet. Emma does something to the hair more, and when it's dry, they can see how it has improved immensely. Maya's gray hair is curly and it's beautiful.

"Don't stare too much, big brother," Emma teases.

He wasn't staring. He's just... looking.

Karina Maya blushes hard.

"We need to take care of her pimples next." His sister rummages through her big bag.

"We'd like to stay but we need to meet with the Toman executives." It's good that Draken reminded them. Mikey almost forgot it. The tall boy says to Emma, "We'll be back."

"Sure," Emma replies with a smile, clearly excited to do more girl stuff with her new friend.

The two delinquents ride their bikes and head to Musashi Shrine, where their friends are already waiting. They need to meet so they'll be prepared for their meeting with the rest of the Toman members later.

Their concern is no other than Mammon—the group that wants to destroy them.

One by one Mammon's been targeting the Toman executives, ambushing them when they're alone. A cowardly act but extremely dangerous. Mikey needs to be assured that his executives do not go to places alone, they must be always guarded by their people.

And they must declare war with Mammon.

Soon.

To finish them once and for all.

Mikey is not afraid of them. Even though they're bigger and older, Mikey knows they're nothing compared to Toman's strength. They can defeat them.

Mitsuya approaches him with a photo in his hand.

"That him?" Draken asks.

"Yeah," replies the boy.

Mikey takes the picture and looks at it. There is finally the image of Isamu Itsuki—with shoulder-length bright red wavy hair, tanned skin, and green eyes.