The two boys were awoken by a soft cooing above them, Budo opened his eyes groggily to see his golden-haired, pigtailed friend smiling at them. He looked in his arms to see a stirring Taro and smiled down at him.
"He had a nightmare last night, I presume anyway... he woke up terrified." Budo frowned as he spoke to Raibaru quietly.
Raibaru smiled sadly as she glanced at Taro with a glaze in her eyes.
It was silent for a few minutes before Raibaru spoke again in a broken voice.
"Hey...Budo... do- do you think this will ever end? The kidnappings... and murders I mean." Raibaru's lip trembled.
Budo stared up at her, feeling conflicted in his response.
"Of course it will, it has to end at some point... Megami knows what she's doing, she'll get them..." Budo replied softly.
"It's just..." Raibaru started.
"It's just that it's been nearly 10 weeks... 7 disappearances 3 of which haven't came back... and the murder of Hanako! And...and the police have no leads? It just feels like we'll never get a culprit, except her, and the police don't even suspect her!" Raibaru's voice was getting louder and louder, sadder and angrier.
They both know who they were talking about, the strange girl who sat next to the grieving Raibaru in class, Ayano Aishi. The girl who stared and glared at people with her emotionless, void eyes when they weren't looking, the girl who was always carrying at mop and a bucket; like she always had a mess to clean up. The girl who stared at Taro Yamada, the loner but charming student, with eyes filled with love, and another emotion; something dark and obsessive.
Budo hugged Raibaru as best he could with the other male still in his arms as she sniffled, Taro slowly stirred in his arms and woke up to see the upset Raibaru.
"Raibaru! What's wrong? Are you okay?" Taro asked as he sat up quickly and along with Budo, put his arms around her.
"It's nothing, Taro. I just got really emotional about everything that's going on is all!" Raibaru chuckled as she sniffled and wrapped her arms tighter around the two boys.
"You know you can always talk to me about anything right? I know we aren't as close as you and Osana were but...we can help each other through this." Taro whispered and hugged her tighter as Raibaru cried harder.
"Yeah, thanks Taro...thanks both of you." Raibaru replied gratefully.
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Soft footsteps followed the three students as they walked to school, laughing and joking happily.
She glared daggers into a certain martial artists back as she thought of all the ways to eliminate him for even breathing the same air as her precious senpai.
Late at night she had received a photo from a certain red-head, god knows how Info-Chan got the photo and Ayano didn't care enough to ask; what she did care about though was the fact that his arms were around her senpai.
What gave Budo the right to comfort her loving, sweet senpai? Her and Taro were destined to be together, her mother told her so; so why was Taro so happy with them and so terrified of her? Her fists clenched in her palms as she followed the trio through the gates and into school.
—————
Budo was trying to pay attention to whatever the teacher was droning on about, really, he was. However, he couldn't stop the sense of dread he was feeling in the pit of his stomach; he couldn't help but think something bad was about to happen. As he was deep in his thoughts, a radio suddenly went off that was playing loud music. The teacher called on him,
"Budo? Do you think you could go turn that radio off, it's disrupting my lesson," she asked.
"Of course, Miss!" Budo replied as he got up and left the class.
That same sense of dread was still in the pool of his stomach, screaming at him to turn back; he should've listened to that little feeling.
Just as he bent down to turn the radio off, he heard footsteps behind him; quickly, he stood up and turned around just to be face to face with a masked woman holding one of the drama props.
Suddenly, she swung at him, Budo just barely dodging the blow; he lunged at her, grabbing her arm holding the weapon and kneeing her in the stomach. Before Budo could do anything else, she scrambled away, leaving her weapon at Budo's feet. He was dumbfounded, what had just happened..? His heart was racing and he was breathing heavily, was the killer after him now? For what? Talking to Taro? He scoffed at the pathetic act she had just attempted as he slowly walked back to class.
—————
That wasn't the end of it though, after that whole attack she pulled on him, he was noticing other attempts on his life indirectly, one of them would've gotten him too if it wasn't for Raibaru's awesome senses sensing a bucket of gasoline on top of a door he was about to walk through.
It seemed like Taro noticed too, when they were walking together they both saw random tripwires filled with water wherever the two, specifically Budo, was walking.
He didn't know what the person was trying to accomplish with this, cause it clearly wasn't working. In Budo's opinion, it just made her look a bit silly.
"Ah!"
Budo was taken out of his thoughts by Taro's gasp.
Taro was drenched head to toe in water, a blue bucket before his feet of the door he just opened.
"Why-Why would someone do this!? I...I can't go to class like this, I need to change my clothes..." Taro grumbled.
"I'll come with you, in case you slip of course." Budo teased and Taro laughed dryly.
As the two speed-walked to the boys changing rooms, Budo spotted the girl, sporting a very apologetic and shocked look on her face, like she couldn't believe what she just did.
He scoffed again, another poor attempt at trying to take his life that ended in her 'one true love' being inconvenienced.
The two went into the changing rooms as Taro opened his locker and pulled out a towel and began to change, a light blush painted Budo's face. He looked away, he shouldn't be feeling this way about his friend; not only would it not work out at all but it could also put his and Taro's lives in danger, who knows what she would do if she found out that Budo felt this way.
He didn't realise Taro had left, washed himself and changed until he was tapping Budo on the shoulder, startling him.
"Hey, you okay?" Taro asked worriedly.
Budo smiled brightly as he looked at the other students' radiant face.
"Yeah, you ready to go?" Budo asked.
"Yep! Let's go!" Taro replied happily and the two walked out of the changing rooms and walked back into the school to go to class.
Little did they both know was that someone was staring at their distancing figures, eyes dark with anger and fists clenched tightly.

*Author's Note: This chapter features a bit of Ayano's POV, I hope you enjoyed it! Budo is also starting to get the feels for Taro, though he doesn't know for sure yet! I wanted to make this a slow burn but I'll happily give some BudoTaro fluff every few chapters! I Hope you enjoyed this chapter <3*