*****
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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