The Mysteries of the Community Service Club (Chapter Twelve)

*****

Homura

*****

Now, you might be wondering why I was hiding behind a corner while glaring daggers at the door to the Community Service Club room. I assure you I was not up to anything weird or suspicious.

"What's up with her?" a passing student whispered to her friend.

"Shh!" her friend hissed as they hurried along. "She'll hear you!"

Not up to anything suspicious at all.

The thing is, I was worried about my underclassman Oota. He had just fought in a duel with another psychic the day before and I wanted to see how he was doing. But I still haven't forgiven Toshiro for dragging Oota into that duel, and for his insensitive remarks, so it was impossible for me to go in when he was there as well.

"Ugh! I feel sick," I groaned while covering my hand over my mouth.

This morning, news came out that the Piper struck again. His latest crime happened at another town next to mine, one to the east.  Thanks to that, my nerves have been assailed by waves of anxiety all day, from my neighbors to my classmates, to the teachers. It really is the pits, having the power to sense other people's feelings. And it was worse when the news first broke out in the morning. It felt like a bolt of lightning had struck me while I was eating toast. I nearly blacked out.

But my power did come in handy sometimes. Although I couldn't see or hear what was going on inside, I could still sense everyone's feelings. And it wasn't hard to tell apart who was feeling what. For example, the heavy sense of boredom coming from the clubroom likely belonged to Isaneko. Since I've known her in elementary school, I noticed that very few things interested her, of course except when she teased or bullied someone. She especially liked to tease girls. There was also a sense of relief and peace which I usually found hanging around Yuna. The slight feeling of stress was likely from Oota as he did his homework. He's always been the type to get his homework out of the way as soon as possible.

After sensing these familiar, everyday feelings, I breathed a sigh of relief for Oota. It looked like the duel went well for him and that it didn't affect his life in any way.

Oh yeah. I suppose I should mention what I sensed from Toshiro's heart. It is a part of the problem I had with him, after all. Well, what I got from him was . . . anxiety. He was nervous, afraid and way more stressed than the average kid. There was so much of it that it almost eclipsed everyone else's feelings. And he's been that way for years. I've tried to find out what's been bothering him, but I've never been able to break down the wall that he had built around himself.

"Seriously, Toshiro," I muttered. "Just what is this cloud hanging over your head?"

While wondering to this personal ages-old mystery of mine, I was startled to hear the door abruptly open. Oota and Yuna stepped out of the room and announced, "We'll be going now. See you guys tomorrow."

Toshiro's voice replied back in faux cheerfulness, "See ya!"

As I watched the Oota cousins turned to leave, I noticed something odd.

That's weird, I thought to myself. That bundle Oota's got definitely got a sword inside. Why's he carrying one around now? I was very familiar with all the sports clubs' schedules so I knew that there wasn't any Kendo practice today.

Oota and Yuna turned around, and then froze. It looked like something in my direction caught their attention and I wondered what it could be. No, wait. They can't have spotted me, have they? No, that's impossible. Not to brag, but I was really good at Hide and Seek as a kid. There's no way they could have found me in my optimal hiding place. That's what I genuinely thought. But then . . .

"What are you doing, Omoyo?" Oota asked.

"Uh . . . N-nothing!" I quickly replied. "I definitely wasn't spying on the clubroom or anything like that."

I know. I know. I was a terrible liar that time. And I could tell right away that I wasn't fooling anyone looking at the Oota cousins' faces. The pity in their eyes really hurt my pride.

"Do you want to go in and talk to the others?" Yuna asked.

I shook my head. I wasn't ready to face Mirai yet, and I dreaded what Isaneko had to say to me.

That was when Yuna suggested, "Then how about we hang out on our way home?"

"It has been a while since we hung out together," I admitted. "And I would like to get to know you better, Yuna. So sure."

And that was how me and the Oota cousins ended up going home together. The End.

. . .

. . .

Not.

You probably thought that our day was going to end in an uneventful, slice-of-life story kind of way, huh? Well, unfortunately for us, that was not the case.

As soon as we got to the shoe lockers, I immediately sensed hostility piercing through the clouds of exhaustion from a tiring day and the lights of excitement for that day's end and frantically looked around. There were people everywhere, but I was able to pinpoint the hostility coming from the right corner that someone was likely hiding behind.

I glanced at Yuna, but she didn't look like she noticed anything weird going on. Well, at this time, there were still lots of people around, so it's not unusual that there'd be people hanging around behind a corner or two. And I'm the only one who would even be able to notice things like hostility anyway, which meant I was the only who noticed that something was wrong.

It looks like going with the Ootas was the right call after all, I thought to myself. Whoever was hiding behind that corner must have been lying in wait for them. The hostility was so thin and sharp that it wasn't hard for me to figure out where it was being directed. 

Causing a scene at school seemed like a bad idea, so I kept quiet about my discovery and instead asked if I could hang out with them at home. Yuna was for it and Oota quickly called his mom to get her permission. After that, we all walked out of the school together. I was hoping that as long as they were not alone, whoever that hostility came from would eventually go away. But unfortunately, that was not the case. No matter how far we went, the hostility I sensed never went away.

There were still plenty of people around who used the same roads as we did, but after a while, the number of people around us dwindled until it became just the three of us, plus that one extra, walking down a quiet road, in a maze of houses and surrounded by white, cinderblock walls, I wasn't sure what that person was going to do once we reached Oota's house, and I wasn't willing to risk it. Yuna was also beginning to get agitated. She must have sensed our stalker and realized that something weird was going on. So, I decided that now was the time to confront him.

I stopped.

Oota, none the wiser, asked what was wrong, but I didn't say anything. Instead, I turned around, stepped between the Ootas and the stalker and called out, "I know you're there. It's useless to hide from me. Come on out!"

I wasn't expecting someone as dangerous as the Piper, but I figured since he was someone from our school, the stalker was either Yamimura or one of his lackeys. Either would be trouble enough for Oota and Yuna. But I was wrong. It was not Yamimura, or any of his friends. The person who had been following us was none other than Eiji Shikouyama, Naoko Soushu's right-hand man.

Eiji slowly walked out into the open from the street light he had been hiding behind. I could sense both his contempt and his aggression towards me and the Ootas.

"I figured I'd be found out with you around, Omoyo," he said. "When did you notice?"

"From the beginning," I said. "What do you want, Shikouyama?"

Oota looked at me and then at Shikouyama, looking completely clueless. "Uh . . . do you guys know each other?"

"You could say that," I said. "That's Eiji Shikouyama, the vice-president of the Student Council."

"Eiji Shioyama?"

"That's SHIKOUyama," Shikouyama snapped. "It's not that hard a name to get right."

"Who cares?" I snapped back. "Just tell us what you want already."

Shikouyama cleared his throat.

"Let me cut right to the chase," he said, pointing at Oota. "I have some questions I want to ask that underclassman there."

Oota pointed at himself while wearing a puzzled look and went, "Me? What is it?"

"You and your clubmates had a secret meeting with Yamimura and his gang," Shikouyama said. "What did you talk about?"

So that's what this was about, I thought. Well, Soushu and Yamimura are on bad terms, so it's no surprise that anyone who meets Yamimura will get a red flag from Soushu's crew. But just because this was all a misunderstanding, I couldn't let my guard down. Why, when all any of us would need to do was clear the misunderstanding up with words? Well, because a lot of the people around me were idiots.

"Sorry," Oota said. "But I can't tell you that."

"Oh? And why not?" asked Shikouyama.

"Because that's between me and Yamimura," Oota said. "It's his private stuff. You wouldn't like it if someone blabbed to complete strangers about your private stuff, would you?"

But Shikouyama only heard the first half of what Oota had said, and he took it the wrong way.

"I see," he said. He sounded calm at first, but I could feel the tension building up in him. "So you refuse to tell me what went on between your club and Yamimura. In that case, you must be plotting something with Yamimura against Naoko."

"Hold on, Shikouyama," I said. "That's not what we said."

But he wouldn't listen.

"Whatever it is you're plotting, it won't work," he said as electric sparks danced around his head. "One way or another, I'll get you to talk!"

"This is bad," I said. "Everyone run!"

"Oh no you don't!" Shikouyama shouted. He held his hand out and a ball of pressure shot out of his hand like a cannonball. That missile of pressure, which had electric sparks dancing around it, flew straight at Oota. 

"Look out!" I cried. 

But it was too late. Shikouyama's missile hit the ground at Oota's feet and exploded. Shikouyama probably just wanted to keep Oota from running, but an attack like that was too devastating and the shockwave from the bang sent the Oota cousins tumbling down. Oota was fine, thanks to his Psy-Armor, but as for Yuna . . .

"Hey, what was that for?" Oota shouted at Shikouyama. "Hey, Yuna. Are you okay?"

Yuna sat up, wincing. She had a nasty scrape on her knee that was red and bleeding at several places. Oota froze when he saw the scrape and seemed to tremble. I could sense something terrible building up in him, and it exploded into a mixture of rage and fear. If I had to guess, I would have to say that some kind of trauma switch in him was flipped.

Psychic energy made the space around him distort and ripple, dancing like a blazing fire. With a yell, Oota pulled out his wood sword and swung it at Shikouyama. Shikouyama dodged the sword and threw a punch at Oota, but Oota jumped away and charged again. He swung the sword wildly at Shikouyama. Shikouyama dodged right and left over and over again, but Oota's attacks were relentless. Shikouyama couldn't keep up and had no choice but to block the next sword attack with his arm. 

But Shikouyama's power was electromagnetism, and he could use that power the same way that Oota uses psychokinesis, meaning that Shikouyama had his own version of the Psy-Armor, which protected him from Oota's attack.

You might be wondering how I know so much of Shikouyama's power. Well, it's because Toshiro told me. And as for how he knew about it, I never asked. I thought it would be better if I didn't know.

Shikouyama was able to block Oota's sword, but Oota proved to be stronger than him and pushed him off-balance and followed with a sideways swipe that sent Shikouyama flying away. 

I was outright stunned. Oota, of all people, sent a human being flying with a sword swing. Not only that, a human being was sent flying by a sword swing right in front of me. This was the first time ever that I saw something like that in real life. I've seen psychic powers used in training halls and practice grounds, but never in a serious fight between two psychics, so stunts like that really got me frozen like a deer in front of headlights.

*****

Hisao

*****

I took deep breaths as I glared at Shikouyama's fallen form, squeezing the sword tightly in my hand. Yuna wasn't really hurt that bad. I knew that much. But when I saw the blood from her scraped knee, I had a flashback to that day at that river when the body showed up. The blood just rushed to my head and my instincts screamed at me to take down my enemy. But now that Shikouyama's down, I calmed down and for a moment, I dreaded if I accidentally killed him. That last attack I did was inhumanly powerful thanks to m Psy-Armor.

And then he stirred and looked up at me.

"You damn low-life!" he growled while glaring at me. Even without Omoyo's power, I could feel the animosity in him. It leaked through his eyes and his menacing voice.

I took a deep breath and held my sword out in front of me, ready to take whatever hits he'd throw.

He picked himself up fairly quickly. It looked like he wasn't hurt all that much at all from my last attack, which was a bit of a relief for me, even though he was still raring for a fight.

Sparks danced from his hands as he and I shared a stare-down. As we each braced to take each other on, Omoyo suddenly stepped between us.

"That's enough, Shikouyama!" she shouted. "Any more of this and someone's going to notice. What do you think people will say if they find out that the person Soushu handpicked for Student Council vice-president started a fight with an underclassman?"

Shikouyama hesitated. It seemed like Omoyo's words got through to him, but with the electricity still hanging around his hands, he looked reluctant to stop at this point. And then a girl's voice cut in and said:

"She's right, Eiji. Back off."

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The Mysteries of the Community Service Club (Chapter Eleven)

While sitting on the floor, I stared at Yamimura in disbelief. I could hardly believe it, but it looked like I won. Mirai even announced as such as Yuna broke away from Isaneko to hurry over to me. She held her hand out and I graciously took it.

She took out her phone and showed me the text she typed in big letters, "Are you okay?"

Left speechless from the fight, I could only nod in response. 

And then I heard someone shout, "No way, no how Yamimura would lose to a dweeb like that! You guys must have cheated!" 

It was one of Yamimura's followers. He was just some mob I never got to talk to, so I won't waste time describing him.

"Hey, hey, hey," Mirai said as he walked towards me and took my side. "How could we be cheating? It's not like we could tamper with a sword you brought over yourselves. Not to mention Yamimura of Yamimura from Yamimura was using his power this whole time. Even if we wanted to, only Underling Hisao, his opponent, would be able to do anything. And since this is not just a clash of swords, but a clash of psychic powers, all's fair."

"Furthermore, how could you say you guys won?" the mob continued. "Yamimura knocked that guy's sword right out of his hand!"

"That's enough . . ." Yamimura said. (Note the three dots, it's been a while so I completely forgot the mob's name.) "You heard the rules as clear as day. There were three conditions for victory, to make the opponent unable to battle, give up or destroy their sword. My sword's broken. I agreed to the rules, so there's no room for debate. I lost."

The mob was clearly unhappy, but he stopped talking and trained his eyes to the floor. At that point, I could no longer stay silent.

"Uh . . . so what are you going to do about that broken sword?" I asked. "It's not yours, is it?"

Yamimura looked at me funny and then glanced at the sword half he was holding before shrugging his shoulders.

"It's just an old sword that was already on its way to the garbage can," he said. "In any case, you don't have to worry about that. But although I lost, I have to ask, how did you get that much power? You've only been a psychic for a few months, right?"

"I don't know," I replied, shrugging. "I just did what Mirai told me and wear my Psy-Armor every time I go out."

"That's it?" Yamimura said. He looked surprised. "That's all you did?"

"Well, sometimes I wear it while mimicking fighting moves I see on TV," I said. "But yeah, that's about all I did."

"Psychic powers are like muscles, Yamimura of Yamimura from Yamimura," Mirai said. "Exercise everyday, they naturally get stronger. You should try it sometimes, Yamimura of Yamimura from Yamimura. I noticed your defence is a little lacking."

"Is repeating my name like that three times over and over again really necessary?" Yamimura asked. "Well, I'll think about it. I did lose to you, after all."

"Speaking of losing, we never did discuss YOUR penalty, did we?" Isaneko said. While putting her finger against her chin, she had a really evil grin on her face. "I wonder, what shall I have you do?"

Even though that smile wasn't directed at me, I could feel my spine tingle from a cold chill through my nerves. She was even cackling like a witch. It was downright scary. Even Yamimura couldn't help but gulp nervously.

"There's nothing to be nervous about, Yamimura of Yamimura from Yamimura," Mirai cut in. "All you have to do is answer a question of mine honestly."

Isaneko scowled and grumbled, "Way to spoil my fun."

"Hey, it's only fair, since the main bet was info," Mirai said. "So, how about it?"

"Fine," said Yamimura. "It's only fair. Just what question do you have, though?"

"I just want to know why you're so interested in hunting down the Piper," Mirai said.

I felt a jolt at the mention of the Piper, and I couldn't help but look around nervously. This is even though I shouldn't have a reason to.

Yamimura looked at Mirai, shocked.

"How'd you - !?"

"The timing," Mirai said. "At almost the same time an alleged victim of the Piper shows up, you come to me about making more psychics, even though rumors about that should've been spread a long time ago already. Your real aim couldn't be more obvious. But even though catching a killer like the Piper might earn you some rep with the town, there must be tons of better, easier ways to raise your reputation. A smart guy like you, who's not wet behind the ears when it came to this town's politics, must know that. So there must be some other reason you're after the Piper, a reason beyond anything I could figure out. So? Come on. I'm waiting."

We all looked at Yamimura anxiously. Earlier, he seemed like the type who was used to attention, but with all our eyes on him, he looked the most anxious of us all. He couldn't resist the pressure for long.

"You all remember that guy they found floating in the river, right?" he said.

There was an unpleasant churning in my stomach as I knew exactly who he was talking about. There was only one guy floating in one river that could come to mind. 

Yamimura continued. "He . . . has a close connection to someone in my family. When news got out of his death, that someone in my family got a mental breakdown."

"I see," Mirai said. "So revenge was your motive."

He turned away as if unable to look at Yamimura anymore. And as he did so, I thought I heard him mutter something like, "I wish I had known this before." But that could have just been my imagination.

"Anyway," Yamimura said, "I wanted to find and give that Piper payback. I tried to get my old man to take action, but he just shot me down and said that it'd be better to leave it to the police. So, I decided to take matters into my own hands. But I knew that I couldn't do it alone. Taking him down won't be a problem, but I have to admit even I would have a hard time finding a criminal that the police can't seem catch."

"And that's why you came to me, hoping to learn how to create allies you can depend on to get what you want," Mirai finished.

Yamimura nodded.

"That's everything," he said. "Satisfied?"

"Greatly," Mirai said.

"Then that's my cue to leave," said Yamimura. "Come on," he said to his lackeys. "Pick everything up and let's go."

But then Mirai stopped him and said, "Hold on, Yamimura of Yamimura from Yamimura. There's just one more thing, but you can say no if you'd like."

"What is it?" Yamimura asked.

"Can I have your phone number?"

**********

It was about One in the morning when my eyes flew open to the rapid beating my heart made against my chest. I was so hot and sweaty beneath my covers that I threw them off and sat up in my bed, panting like I had just run in a marathon.

Because of that talk we had with Yamimura earlier about the Piper and the guy we found in the river, I ended up reliving the day we found his dead body in my dreams. It was no less unpleasant than when it happened for real.

But that wasn't the only feeling that still lingered on me. While looking down at my right hand, which was silvery white like the moon shining down on it, I could still feet the sensation from when it held that sword. The fight with Yamimura was the first time I ever won a sword fight, or ever fought for real. Fighting with a sword . . . To think that I would actually do something like that.

The image of the dead body in the river suddenly flashed in my head, as did what Yamimura said, how that guy was connected with his family. It got me thinking that even someone from a bigshot family like the Yamimura family could end up the way that guy in the river did. If anyone I knew had been at the town the body was from, they could've ended up that way too.

Thinking about it got the unpleasant churning in my stomach to become stronger.

I stared at my hand some more and then muttered, "A sword . . . Now that I think about it, didn't we get some katana-shaped bokuto a while back?"

I remembered that a distant relative of ours sent us a bunch of wooden swords as souvenir gifts from some trip. I think it was someone from my mom's side of the family, a sister-in-law of her cousin by her mom's cousin. Or something like that. Basically, we should be complete strangers, but for some odd reason a lady who liked to travel a lot, who was connected to my family in a really roundabout way decided to send us swords.

Wondering if we still had those swords, I decided to tiptoe out of my room and made my way towards the storage room where we put all the junk we didn't need anymore. I sure as hell wasn't going to go back to sleep anytime soon, so may as well use my time constructively.

My room was at the very end of the hallway, while the storage room was at the exact opposite side, which meant that I had to go past both my parents and Yuna's rooms. I tried to be as quiet as I could in order not to wake anyone up. I noticed light seeping out from beneath the door to Yuna's room, but didn't think much of it.

As soon as I reached the storage room, I carefully opened the door and dug through the boxes. I had to be careful not to make any sound as I sorted through all that stuff, so it was really slow and long work until I found a whole bunch of long, cloth bundles leaning against the wall. 

I took one of the bundles, closed the storage room door and went back to my room. There, I unwrapped the slightly dusty green cloth and pulled out a smooth, red wood sword. Even though it's been a few months, the sword looked and felt brand new.

After admiring the sword beneath the ceiling light, I straightened up and drew the sword in front of me. I held the sword with two hands and lifted it over my head before bringing it down with a hard swing. There was a satisfying woosh, and I swung the sword again. After maybe five swings, I wrapped the sword back up in the cloth, tied the bundle tight and put it in my closet.

The next day, I brought it with me to school.

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The Mysteries of the Community Service Club (Chapter Ten)

 *****

Hisao
*****

Ever since I was forced into a duel with some guy named Yamimura, I never saw Omoyo much. We ran into each other from time to time in the hallway between classes, but she had altogether stopped coming to the clubroom and whenever one of the girl sports teams came asking for her help, Mirai or Isaneko would say that she wasn't going to be available for a while.

Although I, admittedly, am a bit of a withdrawn person, I wasn't so blind to my surroundings to not notice that something was wrong with the club, especially between Omoyo and Mirai. Every time I saw Mirai and Omoyo accidentally bumping into each other in the hallway, Omoyo would grimace and turn her nose away before brushing Mirai aside.

If that wasn't enough proof that something was going on between Omoyo and Mirai, there was also what Isaneko told Yuna.

Yuna was incredibly concerned about the rift between the club members and tried asking Isaneko what had happened. She didn't go to Mirai, wisely figuring out she would learn nothing from him. But it was the same with Isaneko. Isaneko wouldn't give any details other than that Mirai and Omoyo had a difference in opinion. 

I was concerned too, but I had my own worries to deal with, mainly my upcoming duel with a fellow psychokinetic. I had heard that Omoyo tried to dissuade Yamimura from going ahead with the duel, but nothing she said would get through to him. Word somehow spread about our duel and so, because of some kind of complicated pride thing, even if he wanted to back down, Yamimura couldn't. And the same went for me. 

Apparently, because the psychic community was such a dog-eat-dog world, if I run away now, I'll be seen as easy pickings from every psychic in the school and beyond looking to trample someone beneath their feet. Those were Mirai's words and Isaneko backed them up with an evil smile and creepy cackle while an aura of darkness surrounded her. Yamimura's pride also meant that he would hunt me down for all time if I tried to run away.

So, resigned to my fate, I trained every day to prepare for the duel. I had my Psy-Armor on every time I went outside. I practiced sword swings and fighting moves every day in my bedroom, using a plastic clothes hanger.

Now, obviously, I did not think that swinging around a plastic hanger could count as sword training. I told Mirai this during our club meeting, but all he would tell me was that the sword training wasn't important.

"Uh . . . News flash, Mrai," I said, "I'm gonna have a sword duel soon. If the sword training's not important for that, then what is?"

Mirai grinned and said, "You are mistaken, my underling. You are not going into a sword duel. You are going into a psychic duel. And what do you think is important in a psychic duel?"

"Uh . . . Psychic powers?"

"Bingo!" Mirai cheered. "So instead of worrying about your sword skills, worry about your psychic powers. Don't worry. It'll be fine. It'll be fine! Just stick to my advice and victory will be a cinch. I give you the Mirai stamp of guarantee!"

That did not inspire me with confidence, but I stuck by his advice anyway because I had nothing else to go on.

The days went by and finally, the time came for me to face off against Yamimura. Me, Mirai, Yuna and Isaneko were all five minutes early to the rooftop of the building that housed all the clubrooms, but Yamimura and his gang were already there waiting. 

Naturally, because of how much attention it'd draw, we did not bring protective gear and armor. Mirai said that with my Psy-Armor, I wouldn't need any. But I still thought it'd be a bad idea to have a sword fight without any protective gear. That's why I cannot stress enough to all you good little boys and girls, NEVER have a sword fight without protective gear. Absolutely DO NOT copy what me and Yamimura were about to do. Unlike you, we have superpowers that make getting hit by bamboo swords no big deal. But if you get hit by a bamboo sword without any armor, be ready for a world of hurt, a serious world of hurt.

When we got outside, we were greeted by a blinding, orange afternoon sun, a strong westward breeze, and Yamimura who said, "Yo. It's about time you showed up. I was getting tired of waiting."

Back when he burst into the clubroom, he already looked like a really big guy to me. But I thought that was just because I was sitting down at the time. Now that we were both standing, I realized that he didn't just look like a really big guy. He was a really, really big guy. He was like about as big as an American pro-wrestler. I wondered to myself, just what does he eat every day to get that big?

"I don't have all day," he said, "so let's just get this over with."

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!" I cried out. "Can't we talk about this? I'm sure if we just all calm down and talk this over, we might find some common ground."

But Yamimura wouldn't budge. "The time for talk is past," he said. He raised the bamboo sword he had brought with him and pointed it at my chest. "Sword, now!" I had no choice but to obey.

While muttering to myself, "What did I do to deserve this?" I took out the bamboo sword from its rough black cloth. I followed Yamimura's lead and made my way to the very middle of the rooftop. We stood maybe ten paces apart and faced each other with our swords held in front of us, standard style.

"You know," I said, "I seriously think we should go about this another way."

Yamimura seemed to have lost his patience, because he said straight out, "Oh, just shut up and get ready to fight."

I could see space faintly rippling around the sword, much like how space rippled every time I cloaked myself in my Psy-Armor. After letting out a deep sigh, I put my Psy-Armor on and braced myself.

Meanwhile, as Yuna and Isaneko went to my side of the roof while Yamimura's crew went to his side, Mirai stepped forward between us and raised his hand.

"If no one has any complaints, I'll be the referee for this match," he said. "Don't worry. I'll make sure that this match is clean and fair. Just for refresher, let me go over the rules. We're calling this a Kendo match, so you'll both be attacking each other with swords. The only difference, however, is that you have to keep going no matter how many points you score until one of three things happen: you give up, your sword breaks, or one of you gets knocked out."

"Well, in that case - !" I spoke up but Yamimura cut me off.

"If you forfeit now, I will personally make your high school life a living hell. You better give me everything you got!"

"Never mind, then," I said, and I steeled myself once more for a comic book situation I seriously did not want to happen to me.

"Now with the rules out of the way, let's get to intros, shall we?" Mirai said. "In this corner, we have an infamous master of psychokinesis, and a skilled swordsman to boot. Please give a warm welcome to Yamimura of Yamimura from Yamimura!"

Yamimura glanced at Mirai. He said nothing, but I could tell right off the bat that he was displeased with Mirai's intro of him.

"And in this corner, we have Hisao Oota," Mirai said. 

"Wait!" I called out. "That's it? That's all I get in my intro?"

"Well, you're just my underling, so why would I go through the trouble of thinking up a cool intro for you?" Mirai said while shrugging his shoulders, looking away and sounding super snarky.

Our bantering must have gotten to Yamimura because I could see a vein throbbing on his forehead when he shouted at us to quit messing around.

"We're here for a serious duel!" he shouted. "Not horsing around. Now start the match, ref, or I'll start it for you!"

To match his temper, the subtle ripples surrounding his sword exploded into a huge blaze, kind of like roaring fire. The sword looked more like a giant axe made of distorted glass thanks to that.

"Alright, alright," Mirai said. "Sheesh. Guy can't take a joke."

He coughed once into his hand and raised it above his head. After a brief pause to breathe in, he brought the hand down and shouted, "BEGIN!"

Yamimura instantly kicked off and flew at me. His sudden close up to my face startled me and I instinctively jumped back, thinking I had to get away. I narrowly dodged that axe blade of psychic energy from cutting through my torso. But then he raised his bamboo sword over his head as he took a step forward and swung it down.

As soon as I saw the flash brownish-white bamboo, I twisted to the left and dove, rolling after hitting the floor. It was a perfect roll. I didn't even know I could do a roll like that.

While crouched down on the floor, I happened to glance towards my clubmates. Yuna had a very anxious look on her face, while Isaneko just stared with eyes cold as ice. Mirai was . . . being Mirai and fiddling with his phone. No wait, that was my phone! When did he that?

I was snapped out of my thoughts by an angry shout that came from Yamimura.

"Don't just run away!" he yelled. "Fight me, coward! Attack me!"

Easy for him to say, I thought. He wasn't the one getting an onslaught of attacks right off the bat. There was absolutely no openings for me to counter. As soon as I dodge one attack, then came another one. And then another one. And another one. We must have run around the whole rooftop at least twice already. The only times I ever got to use the sword was to block an attack I couldn't dodge, which was way more than all the dodging I did, so that still counted as me sword fighting.

Yamimura tried stabbing the sword at me, but a sidestep was all I needed to avoid a hit. I thought I finally had my chance then to strike back, but as I swung my sword down, Yamimura threw his up. When our swords met, mine was sent flying in the air and out of my hands.

"I got you now!" Yamimura shouted. "Take THIS!"

No good, I thought as I stumbled back. Time seemed to slow down for me and I could see the sword headed straight for my torso. With my brain going into overdrive from the adrenaline, I could see right away that I was not going to dodge this one. I couldn't, plain and simple. 

My instincts took over and I raised my arms to protect myself. But at the same time, my Psy-Armor suddenly exploded into a dancing inferno of energy, much like how Yamimura's did around his sword earlier. But mine covered my whole body and was even twice as big as that. And it was several times more dense. 

The proof was what happened next.

Like I said before, Yamimura's sword was covered in psychic energy the same as how my Psy-Armor covered me. So really, this battle was a clash between our psychic powers. As soon as the sword struck my arms, there was an incredible gust of wind that erupted into a deep howl. The space ripples around Yamimura's sword suddenly split apart like they were a splash of water and the sword splintered and broke. Tiny pieces of bamboo flew in a brief cloud of dust and gently fell onto the pavement while one half of the sword bounced once on the floor and rolled across, stopping at the feet of Yamimura's stunned followers.

Yamimura stared at his broken sword looking downright shocked. I was just as surprised, but after a few seconds of silence, Mirai came forward and announced, "Winner, Hisao!"

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Poem: All Because Of A String, Misplaced

 All because of a String, misplaced
A Banshee screams
Thunder Claps
Rain drizzles into a storm.

A Storm brews and rages
A collapse of order
With Insanity reigning
All because of a String, misplaced

A Tortured Soul screams
Piling Torment bit by bit
Until a Heaven becomes a Hell

Why is this happening?
Why did this Storm come?
Why is this Disaster here?
Why all because of a Strong, misplaced?

This is Crazy!
This is Madness!
It doesn't make sense!
Illogical to the extreme!

And yet, it happens
A reversion from Big to Small
Mature to Immature
From Sane to Insane
All because of a string, misplaced

The Mysteries of the Community Service Club (Chapter Nine)

Mirai looked at the boys who intruded into our clubroom and bent his head sideways to express confusion. And then he went, "Oh! I got it!" and took off the elephant costume he had been wearing on his head before handing it over to the leader of the boys.

The leader's right eye twitched and then he aggressively threw the costume head onto the floor.

"That's not what I'm talking about, and you know it, you damn weirdo!" he snapped. "I'm talking about making psychics! I want you to hand over the info on how to make new psychics. And don't lie and say you don't know what I'm talking about. I've done my research. I know that Oota here's not natural-born!"

The leader of the intruders rudely pointed his finger at me, but I was still pretty rattled and confused to voice any complaints. 

Omoyo glared at the leader and said, "Doesn't your family already know how to make new psychics, Yamimura? Why're you asking Toshiro when you could ask your folks at home?"

The leader called Yamimura scowled back at Omoyo and venomously responded, "It doesn't concern you."

Omoyo, of course, was not amused by the answer and got up, cracking her knuckles.

"To hell it ain't," she said. "You came bursting into my clubroom, demanding something from my friend like you own this joint. We're into the whole helping people biz, but that doesn't mean we're anyone's yes men."

The two boys that had come with Yamimura quickly stepped forward.

"If it's a fight you want," one of them said, "it's a fight we'll gladly give."

Things were taking a turn for the worse right before my eyes, and my mind raced as I tried to think of a way to stop them from snowballing out of control. But Isaneko was quicker to act than I was. She raised her hand and the two boys suddenly found themselves floating in the air, close to the ceiling.

"H-hey! What's going on!?" they cried. "Put me down! Put me down!"

But Isaneko just coldly responded, "But I thought you guys were glad to give a fight. Right back at you, I'll gladly give you a fight, if that's what you want. Brats like you need to know your place."

Suddenly, the space around Yamimura's hands turned all wavy. I knew right away that he was using psychokinesis and that with the way he balled his fingers into fists, he was going to attack. I moved to use my own psychokinesis to make a wall between him and Isaneko, but before that -

Clap! Clap! Clap!

Mirai clapped his hands three times and cried out, "Okay, okay, okay! That's enough! Someone'll call the teachers if you guys keep making racket like that. I'm sure you don't want that, do you Yamimura?"

Yamimura said nothing and glared at Mirai, but he lowered his fists and the wavy rippling around them disappeared.

Isaneko watched Yamimura back away and then lowered her hand. The two boys she had in her psychic grip dropped to the floor in a collection of "Ouch!"

"So, Yamimura," said Mirai, "you're here because you want to know how to give regular people powers like ours, right? Sorry, but I don't want to tell you. Though, I suppose just telling you no won't get you off my back. So I propose a challenge."

"Oh? A challenge?" Yamimura's eyes lit up a little as his interest was piqued. "What kind of challenge?"

"A special Kendo match between two psychics," Mirai said, "between you and Underling Hisao!"

"Wait, what!?" I cried out. Omoyo and Yuna gaped at Mirai, looking dumbfounded. I was both surprised and horrified, and I threw my hands up and waved my refusal at everyone. "No, no, no! No way! No how!"

"And as an added bonus to the info you want, I'll even throw in this photo album full of Underling Hisao's baby pictures," Mirai said. He held up a large, leather-bound book with the words "Photo Album" printed on the cover in big, bold, cursive English.

"You're bluffing," I said. "Even if there were baby pictures of me, there's no way you could have gotten your hands on any of them."

But with a sly grin, Mirai said, "A frog."

My response was instant.

"Alright! Alright! I'll fight! Are you happy?"

The girls, Yamimura and his henchmen exchanged puzzled looks.

"Frog?" Omoyo said.

"It's nothing!" I shouted, speaking as fast as a hummingbird beat its wings. "Absolutely nothing! So forget about it! Erase it from your mind. Right now! Right this instant! This conversation never happened!"

"O-okay," Omoyo said. She stared at me wide-eyed, and it was only then that I realized that I had put my face really close to hers. 

"Yikes!" With a startled cry, I leaped back and quickly stammered an apology.

"And there you have it, Yamimura," Mirai said.

"Hold on there, Mirai," said Yamimura. "Aren't you getting ahead of yourself? I never said I'd agree to this."

"But don't you want to know how to make your own army of psychics?" Mirai asked. "That's the reason you're here in the first place, isn't it? This is your chance to get what you want. Are you really going to pass it off?"

Yamimura clicked his tongue irritably.

"I hate to dance to anyone's tune," he said. "But fine. What are the rules?"

Mirai smiled, looking pleased that things were going his way.

"You and Underling Hisao are both psychokinetics," he said. "You will add your powers in your fight using bamboo swords until one side surrenders or their weapon is destroyed. How does that sound?"

"Sounds simple enough," Yamimura said. "If it shows how strong my psychic powers are, I can't complain."

"Good," said Mirai. "We settle this a week from now, on the roof at Four o'Clock. No one'll get in the way there."

"Fine," said Yamimura. "I'll see you then. Make sure you don't chicken out at the last minute. If you do, I'll hunt you down to the ends of the earth. Got it?"

Even though his beef should be with Mirai, he was glaring specifically at me. 

"Come on, we're going."

"G-got it!"

"Right behind you!"

At Yamimura's command, his two lackeys followed him out the door. They stopped to give us all one last dirty look, but Isaneko grinned at them and ran her finger across her neck. A really creepy giggle escaped her throat and made color drain from the boys' faces. They didn't waste time scurrying away.

When the door closed, I collapsed into my chair and held my head in my hands.

"What did I just get myself into?" I moaned. "I can't believe I let you drag me into this. Now what am I going to do?"

"Don't worry about it," Mirai said off-handedly. "You'll do fine."

"Easy for you to say," I said. "In case you forgot, I'm terrible at Kendo! I'll be pulverized! Just who is he, anyway? It sounded like you guys all know him."

"Oh, you mean Yamimura?" Mirai said. "Yamimura's Yamimura of the Yamimura family."

"What? No first name?" I said sarcastically. But Mirai ignored my retort and continued to explain things.

"Like the Soushu family, the Yamimura family's a family of psychics," he said. "His family's just as powerful as the Soushu family and, although they look like they're working together right now, the two of them are actually really bitter rivals. Sort of like Romeo and Juliet's families, except the Romeo and Juliet of this neck of the woods aren't Romeo and Juliet-like. Naoko and Yamimura pretty much hate each other's guts, thanks in no small part to the rivalry between their families."

"I thought you said that we were all safe from these feud things?" I snapped.

"I thought so, too," Mirai said. "But what happened at the river has really changed the game a bit."

I clammed up at the mention of the river. Mirai continued on.

"Even though the news said that the crime happened at another town, the fact that the body was found here was really rattling. It's got everyone spooked, which is more than enough to shake the power balance in this town. Yamimura of Yamimura from Yamimura probably wants to act on it and start building up his own power base. One of basic ways to do that would be to get more followers."

"Which was why he wanted to know how to give people psychic powers like you gave me," said Hisao. "Okay, I think I get what's going on here, but that still doesn't explain why I have to risk my neck and fight him! What if something happens? To me?"

"You're blowing this way out of proportions," said Mirai. "It's just a Kendo match on the roof, using superpowers and with no adult supervision."

I looked at Mirai and after a pause, replied, "Exactly! Anyway, don't act like this doesn't concern you! If I lose, you have to tell him how you gave me powers!"

"Well, you've been putting up your Psy-Armor every day like I told you to, right?" Mirai said.

"Yeah," I said, nodding.

"You also copy moves from those kung fu movies while using Psy-Armor, right?"

Again, I nodded and said, "Yeah."

"Then, as long as you have a clear picture how you want to move with a sword, you'll do fine," Mirai said.

I confessed that I didn't get it.

"I don't get it," I said to him.

"That's okay," Mirai said. "I never expected you to."

"I feel like you just insulted me."

"That's just your imagination," Mirai said. "Well, just keep doing what you've always done with your Psy-Armor and keep up the image training for Kendo and you'll do fine.

"Anyway, now that that's sorted out, let's get back to the whole reason we're meeting today. Basically, I wanted to tell you all that we're going to be stopping with weekend volunteer work for a while. Because of what happened at the river, my parents got spooked and don't want me running around outside. I'm sure it's the same for everyone else. After all, no one wants to chance their kid running into a crazy serial killer. Right, Team Oota?"

Yuna and I exchanged looks. 

Rubbing the back of my head, I said, "Yeah. I was going to talk to you about that, but I guess you beat me to the punch. That's one less thing I have to worry about. Is that all you needed us here for?"

"Yeah," Mirai said. "You guys can go on ahead, if you want."

"Then I guess me and Yuna'll head home now," I said. "That okay, Yuna?"

Yuna looked at me and nodded. We bade our clubmates farewell and then headed out the room.

*****

Omoyo

*****

As soon as the Oota cousins left, I slowly got off my seat and went over to my childhood friend, Toshiro. I balled my fingers into a fist and drew it back at shoulder level. And then I unleashed my fist as a punch, throwing it as hard as I could. My fist connected with Toshiro's upper right arm and he yelled out in pain.

"Ow!" he cried out. He fell from his chair and landed on the floor. The tears welling out of his eyes were proof that he wasn't faking his pain. "What was that for?"

"That's my line," I snapped. "What were you thinking? Yamimura might be pushy, but you didn't need to take things this far! And of all things, to pit an herbivore like Oota against him! Just what are you scheming?"

"I'm not scheming anything," Toshiro said. 

"Don't give me that garbage!" I shouted. "I can sense what you're feeling, remember? Throughout the whole time Yamimura was here, you were calm. You weren't even surprised when he showed up!"

"Well, yeah," said Toshiro. "I can see fifteen minutes into the future, remember?"

"And yet, you never felt anxious leading up to Yamimura and his cronies showing up," I pointed out. "Even when a person knows what's coming, they can't help but feel nervous about it. Especially when they've only got a fifteen minute notice. You knew that Yamimura would show up long before today."

"And what is your point?" Toshiro asked. There was an edge to his voice. Even without my power, I could tell that he was getting annoyed, and it only made me more angry.

"That you had this all planned out way before today," I said. "You set Oota up. I'm right, aren't I?"

Toshiro looked at me, keeping a stony face as he stared into my eyes and I stared into his. But he wasn't fooling anyone, least of all me. I could sense his anxiety shooting through the roof.

"Just what are you planning to do with him?" I asked.

"What is it to you?" he shot back. "I don't see how that's any of your business."

"I joined your little club because you said that it'd give me the freedom to do what I want without my folks back home complaining all the time," I said. "I did not sign up to get mixed up in harebrained schemes and drag others into overblown conspiracies between psychics."

"That's not what I asked," Toshiro said. "I'm asking why are you so concerned about what happens to Oota? It's not like he's your boyfriend or anything."

That did it. I couldn't take it anymore. I grabbed a clear, plastic water bottle sitting on the table, twisted its white cap off and dumped all its contents onto Toshiro's head. And then I threw the bottle as hard as I could against his forehead, grabbed my bag and left.

I won't say that I don't have any feelings for Oota. But far from being boyfriend-girlfriend with him, I just saw him as a friend. And I don't like my friends being set up.

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Good bye, 2020. Hello, 2021

 Wow.

So it's finally here, the end of 2020. Can't say I'm gonna miss it. But there were a few significant moments for me in 2020 as a writer, the most significant of which is the conclusion of a novel series that I had considered as some of my greatest works, the Ben and Co. Novels. 

For those of you that don't know, the Ben and Co. Novels is a book series that I started on back in 2014, which focuses on a group of teens who get mixed up in a world of psychic powers, supernatural beings, and secret organizations. Among those teens is a boy named Benjamin Tao, who's the main hero and a central figure in all the troubles that take place in the novels. I wanted the main genres of the series to be Science Fiction and Teen Spy Thriller, but I suppose you could also call it a fantasy story because of the elves, dragons and other fantastical creatures encountered in the books. 

The main storyline had ended as I had intended with the book titled Temporal, which saw the struggles of the next generation. And with its conclusion was the conclusion of Ben and Co.'s adventures. But life goes on, and we start to see how others live after their adventures with my new online story, The Mysteries of the Community Service Club. There won't be as much action or global high stakes like in the Ben and Co. Novels, but the club's adventures are sure to be exciting enough for them.

2020 was also the year that we saw a sequel to my Quest for the Witch book being published, called Journey with a Witch. Both stories take place in a magical world called Emeron and involve a magician known as the Eternal Witch. I'm working on a third book right now and was hoping to get it done before the year was up. I'm already three-fourths done. But, I suppose now there's something to look forward to in 2021.

Speaking of 2021 . . . 2021. What's my plan? Well, obviously to get vaccinated so I can finally kiss this fear of Covid good-bye. But as a writer, here's what I got planned:

2021 will obviously see the third book of the Eternal Witch Saga completed and published. Once that's done, I plan to go back to working on the Paladin Academy Chronicles, which I hope will be my main focus until that series finally reaches its conclusion. It's one of the earliest book series that I've ever worked on, after all. I also plan to expand on the world of the Eternal Witch into an overall metaseries called the World of Emeron, which the Eternal Witch Saga is a mere part of. 

And, of course, I'll be working on The Mysteries of the Community Service Club in 2021 as well. I have around five story arcs planned for that series, and hope to get at least one of them done by the end of Winter or the start of Spring.

Well, that's all I got to say in this final blog post of 2020. Stay safe out there. Happy reading, everyone. And have a Happy New Year!