Chapter 10: Chapter 10 – Short One

Saki doubted that it was anything serious that caused Takako’s absence from practice.  She didn’t have many morning practices, so she didn’t know much about the girls that only went in the morning.  However, it was strange for Takako to be gone.  Few minutes remained until class began.  There was enough time, if she was quick.  “Let’s go check her homeroom, Hitomi.  She might have skipped for some reason.”

Hitomi rushed up to Saki, unable to shake the panicked expression on her face.  “The first big meet is coming up.  What reason would she have?”

It was pretty clear that Saki didn’t have an answer.  If Hitomi had been thinking straight it would have been obvious, but it felt like a request.  “I don’t know.  We’ll ask her reasons when we find her.”  Saki stepped forward around the girl.  She took her hand and hurried together.

Chapter 10 – Short One

Saki’s class, 3-A, was left behind at the end of the hall of the third floor.  Along the floor were all of the first year classes with many of the students still hanging around outside of their classrooms.  The classes ran the east side to 3-D with windows opposite.  Past 3-D the hall widened with classes on both sides.  The last of the first year rooms stopped with 3-J.  Takako was in class 3-H near the opposite end of the building and through the crowded hall.

Saki arrived at the front door for 3-H.  Hitomi continued on to the back door.  The panicked girl went into the class not fearing the students.  Saki remained outside looking in.  She stayed cautious about the number of students that she did not know.  There were only half of the seats filled and several standing up talking.  It made it difficult to look around.  Plus, Saki barely knew Takako, the girl wasn’t going to stand out to her immediately.  Unfortunately, she could not see her in the room and Hitomi returned shortly afterwards.  “Any luck?”

“No…I couldn’t find her and no one has seen her.  I’m worried.”

“Well class is starting soon.  Everyone misses classes once and a while.  After school we can check on her at her house.  There’s probably a reasonable explanation for it.”  Saki began to walk back for her own class, but was stopped by a shaking hand on her arm.  She looked back to see Hitomi’s face wrinkled in worry, still not satisfied by the brief look that they had made for Takako.  “Hitomi, we…”

“We can’t give up!”

Saki's face turned a little to frustration and pensiveness, still confused by the whole situation.  She had been helping Hitomi out, because she was worried.  However, this seemed to be going beyond just rational concern even for simple friends.  ‘There is something strange about the whole thing.  Why is Hitomi so caught up by Takako missing one day?  People do react differently, I guess, but this feels too extreme…’  Rational thought didn’t appear to be a top priority.  A few more seconds was all Saki needed to see Hitomi wouldn’t give up.

Weighing her options, she could be cold and leave.  Things would get weird between them during practice.  Other paths went through her mind.  A quick listing of her choices left her with one clear reality.  She would be late to class either way.  “Let’s talk to the teachers.  Maybe they know something.”

The new idea calmed Hitomi.  A little of the fear that gripped her eased.  “Alright.”  Saki helped Hitomi through the hall and downstairs to the teacher’s office.  Here all of the teachers stayed before classes would begin in the morning or if they didn’t have a class for a period of the day.  It was normally a place that students would avoid and stay out of without permission, but Saki needed something that would settle Hitomi down.  This was the last chance that they had.

Hitomi looked at Saki upon their arrival.  “Will it be alright to go in?”  She stared at the door of the teacher’s office as though it were an ominous creature that would attack if she so much as touched the door handle.

“It’ll be fine.  We’re just asking about a student.”  Saki realized it would be up to her to take the initiative.  She grabbed a hold of the door’s indented handle pausing for a second.  A wave of dread washed over her from knowing that this was not a place that she belonged.  The moment passed quickly for her and she tightened her hand against the handle and pulled it open.  The sliding of the door alerted a couple of the teachers.

“Is there something you need?” said one of the male teachers approaching Saki with a couple notebooks in hand.  It was a teacher that she had not seen before, no doubt for one of the upperclassmen.

Saki swallowed roughly suddenly feeling more out of place than she would have thought.  She tried to bow politely in apology even in failing.  “U-Uh…I’m sorry!  We’re looking for class 3-H’s homeroom teacher.”

The teacher pulled back giving Saki a comforting smile to try to not make her feel nervous.  “Oh, you’re looking for Mr. Akutagawa.  He’s still here, but class is starting soon, you know.”  Saki and Hitomi nodded quietly to the teacher, but remained at the doorway not wanting to enter any further.  “Well I’ll go get him for you.  What is it about?”

“Oh!  It’s about Takako Yamazaki.  She hasn’t showed up today and we were concerned she might be sick or something.  If so, we thought she might need someone to deliver her homework to her, if she is sick.”  Saki hoped it didn’t look clear that she lied.  Normally it wouldn’t be something that bothered her.  Lying to a teacher felt worse, but she just had to remind herself it wasn’t that bad of a lie.

“Alright.”  The teacher walked back through the aisles of desks towards one of the teachers whispering to him.  Saki remained watchful while still trying to hold back the uneasy feeling. A minute later Mr. Akutagawa approached them.

The class 3-H homeroom teacher was a young man in his late twenties wearing the usual suit that most male teachers did.  He seemed kind from his warm expression.  “Hello.  Mr. Shimomura was telling me that you were worried about Miss Yamazaki.”

“Yes, we’re her trackmates and haven’t seen her today and didn’t know what happened.  Have you heard anything?”

“I actually had just gotten off the phone with her mother.  She is staying home today having come down with something.  I’m told it shouldn’t be too bad.  Just keeping her out of school for a couple of days.”

“Oh, thank you very much.  That’s very relieving.  Are you okay, Hitomi?”  Saki looked behind her to see what reaction that she was having from the news.  It was nothing to be worried about, just a normal flu or something.  There did seem to be some calm brought to Hitomi, but her face was still heavily covered in concern.

Mr. Akutagawa picked up on this quickly and stepped forward looking towards Hitomi.  “If you want, she’ll need her homework taken to her.  I would normally have someone from her class do it, but…”

“T-Thank you,” Hitomi said slowly, beginning to finally come to ease.

“Well then, you can stop by here at the end of school and I’ll give you her assignments from all her teachers.  You should be getting back to your class though.  The last bell is about to ring.”

“Right!  Come on, Hitomi!”  An undefined relief came over her stepping away from the door.  She pulled Hitomi along until she was able to walk on her own.  Saki left Hitomi when they reached the third floor, letting her go to her classroom.  She ran back to her own room hearing the bell ringing for her.  The halls were empty for her, but that only signaled a deeper panic for her knowing how late she was going to be.

She softly attempted to slide the back door to her class open to not pull attention to herself, but that turned out to be a futile effort.  She cautiously drew her eyes forward seeing the cross expression of Ms. Kuniyoshi staring her down.  The attempt at a sheepish innocent look had failed her just as quickly leaving her cornered.  “You’re late, Miss Furukawa…”

“I’m sorry, Ms. Kuniyoshi!”  Saki fled to her seat trying not to pull in any more attention to her than she had already drawn.  The teacher glared a little longer at her and then continued on with roll call for the class, the reason that Saki had failed so miserably.  She dropped her head down on the table exhausted from the morning already.

Yuki leaned forward from his seat having watched the whole thing unfold and tapped Saki on her shoulder.  “What happened?”

“I’ll tell you at lunch.”

He leaned back in his chair.  His mind divided between holding his mind in check and pondering Saki’s little adventure.  The exhausted look made him curious to know what happened.  ‘Guess I’ll wait then…’

The lunch period came for everyone, a normal one this time (relatively, of course).  Yuki and his friends walked up to the roof of the school. A few other groups shared the space when they arrived.  The warm air and cool breeze made it enjoyable to be outside.  They still had time before they could change to their summer uniforms as well, so it made things more bearable as well.

Yuki pulled at his dress shirt’s collar underneath to relieve a little stuffiness.  Hiroshi sat down next to Yuki undoing all of the buttons on his coat and placed his lunch in his lap looking eager.  On his other side Kazuhiro and Tatsuya sat down.

Kazuhiro sat next to Yuki opposite Hiroshi sitting down slowly with Tatsuya following up behind him forming a semi-circle now.  They both knew Yuki through Hiroshi and in part became like friends.  However, Yuki remained the new guy in their group.

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Tatsuya remained a little cautious still with Yuki.  It seemed a little weird how easily Hiroshi got along with him.  The rumors surrounding Yuki, not to mention the constant people out for revenge, there was more going on than the smile Yuki always presented.  But Hiroshi liked him, so he trusted his friend’s judgment.

Opposite of them were the girls this time it was only Saki and Ayumi.  Only Saki in the group held an inwardly pensive look.  Despite everything inside, Yuki kept up appearance like Ayumi did.

Yuki slowly ate through his lunch before looking up at Ayumi and then to Saki.  He remembered then that he had wanted to talk to her about the morning.  “Hey, Saki!  You said you’d explain what happened this morning.”

“Oh, yeah that was unusual for you since you’re usually attached so closely to Yuki,” Hiroshi said with a mischievous grin that looked like he was asking for trouble.

Saki nearly choked on her lunch pounding on her chest to get the food down.  She grabbed a sip of her juice to push down the rest of the way.  The look from Hiroshi knowing that he hit a nerve on her made her cross her brow.  “I was helping out someone from track.  I ended up losing track of time.”  She went back to eating, leaving her explanation to go no further.

“Oh I see.  Makes sense.”  Yuki continued to eat his meal as well watching Ayumi sitting quietly minding her own business looking innocent and lost.  ‘I guess for being a foreigner she knows Japanese culture pretty well.  The food all looks pretty normal.  Though I don’t know what I was expecting to see.’  Knowing about the lie, it made him watch the others more.  He wondered if hints of cracks appeared in their face like stepping on thin ice.

Nothing gave away any signs they doubted her presence.  Apparently, her little jedi mind tricks worked as well as advertised.  Honestly, he had to consider himself in that brainwashed equation.  He knew nothing, just as them.

When the end of school came for them, Saki was pulled away by Hitomi like a dog on leash.  She had practice, so they had no plans, but the urgency felt a little strange.  It just made him wonder further about what was going on that she was being pulled away.  But he currently had more things juggling in his hands than he could manage.  Curiosity had to sit out for the moment.

He looked over to Ayumi, as she walked up next to him.  She maintained her lie that they always walked home together.  “We need to talk about this morning, Ayumi.”  Yuki started walking through the hall with her in silence.

Fortunately, nothing more happened today.  He didn’t know if his focusing on not thinking worked or if he just got lucky.  The whole superpower thing came as a new thing.  Reading a library’s worth of manga and light novels apparently didn’t grant the user perfect mastery.  Who would have thought that things didn’t work like the books.

Out on the city streets, Yuki broke his silence, now under the safety of noisy sidewalks.  “Thanks for that.  You had excellent timing.  You sense my power or something like that?”

“You read too much of that stuff you call ‘Manga’.  It doesn’t work the same way in the real world.”

“…real world…”

“Yes, something you’ll be learning more about.”

“So no power sensing?”

Her brow twitched with him still hung up on that part.  “No.  In theory, you could probably create a Law that would serve that function, but that’s extremely limited.”

“Limited?  How?”

“Out in the streets isn’t the best location for long explanations like that.”  She scanned the horizon and environs for ideal locations.  Nothing stood out.  Shops risked too much eavesdropping.  Sidewalks had variable safety.  A mental check gave her a solution.  “The park two blocks west of here.  Let’s go there.”

The plan had been track practice in Saki’s mind.  However, the moment Hitomi appeared that changed.  Hitomi dragged her in front of the coach and begged for them to get the day off.  She explained to him that she wanted to deliver Takako’s assignments to her immediately before it was night and she would be out too late.  The coach wasn’t nearly as understanding as Mr. Akutagawa was about her concerns. Understanding however wasn’t needed with enough pressuring.  Tears helped too.

Now dragged out to the west side of town, Saki felt out of place.  She never traveled to this part of the city.  And the money in the houses made it pretty clear why.  Some almost looked like they were out of a TV show she had seen.  It only increased her sense as a foreigner.

Hitomi maintained the lead, marching with surprising purpose.  A stark change to the girl Saki witnessed this morning.  It made her wonder why she was even needed.  But Hitomi insisted and went through all the trouble.  Saki couldn’t turn her away, even confused by the whole thing as she was.

Maybe she hoped for answers.

The deeper into the wealthy properties they went, Saki felt like she needed to leave.  “You sure it’s this way?  These houses are pretty expensive looking.  I don’t think she lives here.”  Overbearing gates and lawn presentation made the neighborhood uninviting.  She didn’t know if Takako was rich, but it never seemed to come up.

Hitomi didn’t listen very well to Saki marching on looking at the paper that showed the address.   “This way.”  She disappeared around the corner leaving Saki to catch up quickly before she lost sight of her.  When Saki caught up to Hitomi she had already stopped staring up at the gate before them.  “This must be her house.”

“You haven’t been here before.   Did you know she lived here?”

“Takako never mentioned it before, but she was usually pretty quiet about her family.  I’m going to ring the bell.”  Hitomi leaned in pushing the button on the panel that was built into the brick wall that fenced off their property.  An annoying buzz came from the button that sounded off until Hitomi released it.

A minute later, a reply came over the speaker.  “Yes?  We aren’t interested in anything you’re selling.”  The voice was deep and old with a little crack in the speech.  It made the two girls step back expecting that they would see someone rather than a voice.

“U-Uh…I’m sorry.”  Hitomi searched for the courage to speak while Saki kept a placid face trying to look like she belonged.  “We aren’t selling anything.  We’re classmates of Takako.”

“I see.  Well Miss Takako is not here currently.”

Hitomi looked back at Saki as though she was expecting an answer to explain what she was just told.  It was plainly clear to her that the instant glance at Saki told her that she had no answers.  She turned back to the speaker.  “What?  But we were told that she was sick.  We have her assignments for her.”

“You may leave her things in the box.  I’ll inform her of your visit.  Thank you.”  The voice ended and a clicking sound that seemed to tell them silently to leave.

“What does this mean?  The school says she’s sick and her family says she’s out.”  Hitomi looked back at Saki wanting something from her this time.  She was at a loss as to what was going on, but there was something being hidden by someone.

Saki had no more of a clue to what was going on than Hitomi, but it had been made clear to them that someone was lying.  She did not know why they were doing it, but this was not going to be as simple as she thought anymore.  ‘What’s going on?’

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