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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