The Mysteries of the Community Service Club (Chapter Sixteen)

I was really certain that whoever, or whatever, was lurking outside was going to come and kill me. I had sensed it following me all the way from school, and as the sky turned yellow while everything else turned dark, it had yet to leave.

But even though its feelings of wanting to kill made me sick to my stomach, literally, and made my legs jelly-like, I couldn’t just lie down and do nothing. 

Fighting against the crushing weight the monster's killing intent had on my shoulders, I slowly sat up from the floor and went to lock every door and window in the house. I also turned on all the lights and the TV in both the living room and my parents' bedroom, setting the volume to high. I hoped that would trick the monster to think that I wasn't alone in the house and make him go away. 

When I was done with my set up, I grabbed a knife from the kitchen and went to my parents' room. I huddled inside their walk-in closet and closed the door. After that, I predialed 110 on my phone and set it beside a shoebox full of trading cards that my dad's saved since he was a kid. Using the vent-like gaps in the door, I peeked outside while keeping a firm grip on the knife's smooth wood handle.

Thanks to the TV playing the news in my parents' bedroom, I could more or less keep track of the time. I've been hiding in the closet for hours. My stomach growled from hunger, but I dared not go outside. Not even for a light snack. I could still feel the monster's presence outside. 

My patience and my endurance were stretched, and my mental state eventually reached its breaking point. 

"Why here?" I whined softly. "Why me? Why? Why? Why?"

Just go away, I silently pleaded. Just go away and never come back.

Of course, the monster didn't hear me. Nor would my pleas be answered by a higher power. The monster stuck around, his thirst for blood as strong as it was in the afternoon. Actually, it was getting stronger and that scared me because like me, it was reaching its limits.

And then it started.

I heard a loud crash of glass breaking come from downstairs, which shocked my heart and electrified my nerves. There was no mistaking an intruder breaking into my house through the window. The monster was here.

I quickly pressed the call button on my phone, but the call wouldn’t go through. The reason, I saw, was there was no signal. 

“How!?” I wanted to scream. This had never happened before. It shouldn’t have happened. This phone was top of the line, as was the network plan my old man helped sign me up for. But there was no use complaining, I needed to call the police. 

There was a wireless landline phone by my parents’ bed. If I could just grab that, I could call for help. But I couldn’t get to it. The monster had already reached the second floor. I could hear it kicking the doors one by one with only a few seconds pause between each bang. 

It wasn’t long until my parents’ bedroom was next. With one swift kick, the door flew open and in walked a man dressed from head to toe in black, wearing an unmarked motorcycle helmet with a darkened visor that completely hid his face. In his hand was a long pipe that he let drag across the floor. The pipe was a dead giveaway of his identity.

He was the Piper, and he had come for his next kill, me.

*****

Hisao

*****

It was past midnight when I was awoken by my phone vibrating. I left lying next to me on the bed after some last minute grinding on a game.

With a groan. I opened my eyes and squint against the bright light coming from the phone’s touch screen. After rubbing sleep, tears and crust from my eyes, I grabbed the phone and swiped my finger over the green icon.

“What is it, Mirai?” I asked sourly. His name was on the caller I.D. I didn’t appreciate being woken up so late at night.

“GET UP!” Mirai shouted. “HURYY UP AND GET!”

My drowsiness was instantly blown away, and I was startled.

“What?” I accidentally asked loudly. I quickly clapped my hand over my mouth and glanced at the door.

“JUST HURRY UP AND GET UP!” Mirai screamed. I had never heard him scream like that before, and it kind of scared me.

“C-calm down,” I stammered. “What’s wrong?”

“DAMN IT, OOTA! IT’S THE PIPER! HE’S GOING TO KILL HOMURA!”

Saying that I was stunned and puzzled would be an understatement. I was struck frozen in shock. But then Mirai started sobbing.

“Please, Oota,” he begged. “Please save Homura. She’s going to die. Please!”

“Die? Omoyo is?”

A horrible image in my mind resurfaced of the man we all saw in the river. Omoyo suddenly replaced the man and I leaped out of bed. I threw open my closet door, grabbed the wood sword leaning against the wall inside it and then raced out of my room. After hurrying down the stairs and reaching the front door, I slipped on a pair of black flipflop slippers laid out on the floor and rushed out. I paused only to lock the door before departing.

*****

Yuna

*****

I had heard my cousin’s voice from next door through the wall and opened the door just as he ran by. I stood at the top of the stairs with light spilling out of my room and watched him as he ran out of the house. After he was gone, I heard a door open behind me and turned around to see my uncle, Hisao’s dad, poking his head out of his and Auntie’s bedroom.

“What was that?” he asked.

In response, I typed “Restroom” into my phone and showed it to him.

*****

Omoyo

*****

I watched, quivering from head to toe while biting my lower lip to keep from squealing. The Piper turned his head from left to right. He ignored the TV playing the news and walked over to the bed. After taking a quick peek beneath it, he straightened up and slowly approached the closet.

I held the knife in front of me tightly in my sweating palms as he reached for the handles. I was poised to thrust the kitchen utensil into his gut the moment he opened the closet. But when he did open the door and I did lunge forward, he jumped out of the way and I fell onto the bed.

I turned around just as the Piper lifted his pipe over his head. He swung it down, but I rolled away before it could hit me and scrambled out of the room. After tumbling down the stairs, I ran out of the house and screamed as loud as I could. My long shriek should have been loud enough to wake the entire town. But no matter how much I screamed and shouted, no one seemed to hear me. No matter how loud I shrieked, the lights in people’s houses remained dark. No matter how much I begged for help, no one peeked out their window or looked outside to see what was going on. It was as if I was the only one left in the entire world, except for the Piper who casually emerged from the house like he was going on a leisurely stroll.

He stopped just before the front gate and stared at me. I stared back. We both had a weapon in our hands, me and my knife, and him and his pipe.

I wanted to fight back. I wanted to end his reign of terror once and for all. But I knew that I would be no match against him in a fight. Normally, I could handle my own in a fight, having learned self-defense alongside Toshiro and Aika. But I was in no shape to put up much resistance thanks to the Piper’s killing intent which continued to nauseate me. 

So I ran. I ran, and I ran, and I ran. I ran left, and then I ran right. I ran barefoot over rough concrete, ignoring pebbles jabbing into my feet while screaming for help. I screamed for someone, anyone to wake up and call the police. But like my neighbors, none of the houses I passed woke up or heed my pleas.

Why? I asked myself. Why won’t anyone come out? Why won’t anyone notice me?

I continued to run, making my way to the shopping district, the nearest place I knew to have a police box. But I never made it, not even close.

Halfway through another street of residences, I felt a sharp force hit my back, which made me lose balance and fall. As I hit the ground, I could hear the musical clatter of metal, and I realized that the Piper, tired of the chase, had thrown his pipe at me and struck me in the back.

Although he was unarmed, so was I. When I had fallen, the knife had slipped out of my grip and slid several feet away. I tried to scramble for the knife, but the Piper was faster and he ran right over me, stepping on my back two times before jumping onto the knife. He kicked it with his heel and let it slide further away before walking towards me.

Not sure what to do, I looked around and spotted the discarded pipe, just lying at the side of the road and I scrambled to grab it. But before I could reach it, something hit my shoulder and knocked me aside. 

“Ow!” I cried out. 

It felt as if someone had kicked a soccer ball at me, but I wasn’t sure what it really was. Not until I looked up, that is, and saw the space around the Piper’s outstretched hand was blurry.

Psychokinesis. This guy had psychic powers that were just like Oota’s.

That explains it, I thought. I looked around a bit more carefully and noticed the same blurriness around the Piper's hand covering the houses that surrounded us. No wonder no one came out after all that screaming. My voice never reached anyone. It couldn't with that wall of psychic energy in the way.

The Piper’s shoulders heaved up and down.

“Man,” came a muffled voice from beneath that helmet. “I haven’t had this much trouble in a while. You’re a feisty one, aren’t you?”

I didn’t say anything and slowly edged away. A loud pop next to my hand startled me and I shrieked.

“Sorry,” said the Piper, chuckling. “I want to drag this out a bit longer, I really do, but I got a meeting to get to tomorrow. So I’m going to end this now. When you get to the other side, be sure to say ‘hi’ to the others for me.”

A wave of psychic energy pinned me to the ground. As much as I tried, I couldn’t break free. 

The Piper picked up his pipe and walked over to me, gently bumping the murder weapon against his shoulder as he loomed over me, probably leering at me through that impenetrably black visor. His back was to a street light, which cast a shadow over his front and made it completely dark. Unable to move I could only watch him and imagine the kind of disgusting smile he had on his face as he got ready to kill me.

He slowly raised the pipe over his head and then swung it down.

<== Previous                                                                                                 Next ==>

The Mysteries of the Community Service Club (Chapter Fifteen)

*****

Omoyo

*****

Kawatori's joke had hit a nerve and I couldn't stay in school. So I hurried down to the shoe lockers, grabbed my shoes and then made a beeline to the front gates. 

Now just to be clear, the part about Omoyo dating someone was not what upset me. It was the part about him hiding something from me that bothered me. I mean, we were friends since we were kids.

"Hey, Omoyo!" I heard my name called out and turned around to see the Oota cousins running after me.

I didn't feel like talking with anyone then and thought about just running. But I was too late and they caught up to me before I could even turn my back to them.

"Hey!" Oota said while taking in deep breaths after that breath run. "Are you okay? You looked like you were in a bad mood."

"It's nothing," I replied. "Like I said earlier, I have something to do, so I'm headed home now."

I tried to walk away, but I stopped when a robot voice came out and said, "Is what Kawatori said bothering you? Is it about Mirai hiding things from you?"

I turned around, and the voice from Yuna's phone continued.

"Is it really so wrong to hide secrets from others?" she asked through her phone.

Our eyes met, and then I turned away.

"Well, we were friends for a really long time," I said. "It just kind of hurt that he would keep secrets from me."

"Then what me and my secrets?" Yuna asked. "Does that mean we shouldn't be hiding them?"

She stared at me with a very serious, cold face. 

Me, Yuna and Oota all just stood around outside on a sidewalk in complete silence, each unable to say anything. For Yuna, it was because she had already said all she needed to and was waiting for my response. Oota was probably at a loss for words, with his confusion as clear as day on his face. As for me, I just couldn't say anything. Reminded of last night, I realized how much of a hypocrite I sounded earlier. I just had no excuse, so I didn't say a peep.

After a little bit of time, I decided to steel myself and try and break this gathering up with a forceful, "It's getting late, so let's go home." But before those words could leave my lips, I was suddenly overwhelmed by a chill, a really cold and intense chill that brought me to my knees, literally.

These chills left me dizzy and confused, and I could barely hear Oota calling out to me, asking me what was wrong and if I was okay. I didn't know what the chills were at first, but I felt something familiar mixed in with them. That was when I realized that I was detecting the feelings of someone close by.

It was the first time ever that I sensed these feelings before. They were unpleasant and made my skin crawl. I would even go so far as to call them disgusting and evil. Whoever these feelings came from, whoever was close by for me to sense them, they were bad news.

"We need to get out of here," I said softly.

"What was that?" Oota asked.

His voice finally got through and gave me the push I needed to fight off the unpleasant feeling in the air. I shook the dizziness from my head and straightened up.

"S-sorry about that," I croaked. My voice had become gravelly, like I was close to losing it. "I think I might be coming down with something."

When I looked at them, my two juniors, I hesitated to tell them the truth that there was someone evil close by. Partly, I was afraid that Oota might give it away. But mostly, I just didn't want to worry them. Maybe, if we all stay together, the evil presence will go away. Maybe it'll all be fine if I just don't say anything. Those thoughts really ran in my head. I was so scared out of my mind, I wasn't thinking straight and thought up things that people would call me out for being stupid and the like.

There are people on TV that say they get chills when they get just a glimpse of a monstrous person's heart. Well, thanks to my powers, I got way more than just a glimpse. It was like the guy's heart became a pool and I was pushed right into it, and that nearly made me faint. Honestly, people thing Sensory powers are so great, a ticket to the top of the food chain in today's society. But to me, it's an unwanted pain in the neck.

"Well, that's no good," Oota said. "I don't get what's going on, but we should shelve whatever teen drama this is and head home. That okay with you, Yuna?"

Yuna nodded.

I wanted to get away from this street ASAP, but thanks to the downside of my power, it took everything I had to just keep walking by myself. And I walked like a zombie from an old horror movie, slow and unsteady, literally dragging my feet across the pavement which must have shaved away leather from the bottom of my shoes. Yuna stayed at my right while Oota took my left. They were probably worried that I might collapse. I can't say that it wasn't possible.

Together, we turned down a road towards a fork where I usually split from the gang going home. The Ootas usually went right while I went left, but this time we all went left together. We had gotten a long way from the street where I had first sensed that monster. Everything was quiet and peaceful with the birds chirping, a gentle wind blowing, and the normally white and gray streets bathed yellow by the setting sun. 

But even with all that, the monster's presence never disappeared from my radar. It was constantly looming behind us with the distance between us seeing almost no change, making the peaceful everyday scenery around us a complete lie.

Although my mind was a jumbled mess, I could tell that the monster was following us. It had set its sights on us as prey it absolutely had to get.

Damn it, I thought. It's totally stalking us, that monster!

Monster was the only way I could describe the person following us. Only a monster would harbor such horrible feelings. And now that I knew that it was following us, I realized what this feeling I sensed was. It was the feeling of bloodlust. Whoever was following us wanted to kill us.

When that thought crossed my mind, I wanted to run. But I could barely even walk the way I was. 

"This totally sucks," I muttered. Of all the psychic powers that I could be born with, it had to be the one that would make me a helpless toddler at the first sign of trouble.

"Hey, don't worry," said Oota. "We're almost to your house."

"My house?" I asked. Now that I thought about it, Oota had been to my house before a couple of times. He and the rest of the club sometimes used my house as a meeting spot. Toshiro was the one who first brought the idea up and practically strong-armed the others to follow along.

Yuna typed in her phone and played, "Maybe we should've taken her to the hospital."

"No!" I shouted. Yuna looked at me in surprise, but I didn't really care. "No hospitals. I'm fine. Really. I just need a good night's sleep and I'll be as good as new. Yeah."

If that monster ended up following us to the hospital, it might take interest in someone else. Who knows what would happen after that? I definitely didn't want to find out.

I did think about going to the police, but I realized that wouldn't be enough to deal with that monster. With no evidence of a crime, they would just chase that monster off. It would be like shooing a fly away. After chasing it off once, it would just come back again.

With all that said, however, there was still the Oota cousins to worry about. What was I to do if the monster lurking close by decided to follow them? I could invite them to stay over for dinner and spend the night at my house, but there were problems with that: mainly, I practically lived alone. 

My parents, like Toshiro's, used their powers in the world of business to get ahead. Their jobs as top business people had them going around faraway big cities, leaving me by myself at home ninety-percent of the time. I used to have a caretaker look after me, but that stopped the moment I started high school. So even today, there would be no one but me at home.

I'm sure I don't have to spell it out, but a group of teenagers, especially a girl and a boy, hanging out at home alone without any grownups around was a big no-no. Oota, goody two-shoes as he is, would be against that. It'd be no problem to have Yuna stay with me, but that would mean Oota would be going home alone, which would likely turn him into the monster's prey.

In the end, I didn't say anything.

We reached my house, and we bade each other farewell. I stayed outside the door to watch the Oota cousins leave. And once they turned a corner and out of my sight, I quickly went back inside, shut the door and locked it before dropping to the floor.

I laid down, staring at the ceiling. The monster's presence was still around. It had not moved since I had come home, which meant that its sights were squarely on me.

I draped my left arm over my eyes and groaned. 

"I'm such an idiot," I said. I should have said something, anything. Maybe going to the police or the hospital wasn't a bad idea after all. If I just screamed my head off and said it was the Piper, the police would have nabbed him, no questions asked. Who knows? Maybe that monster really was the Piper.

And then I swore. I swore and I swore, and I swore. I knew a few words in English that most parents don't want their kids using. One word in particular, I used over and over, and over again.

When I was done, I removed my arm from my eyes and stared at the ceiling again.

And then I said to myself, "I'm going to die tonight."

<== Previous                                                                                                Next ==>

The Mysteries of the Community Service Club (Chapter Fourteen)

*****
Hisao
*****

With the arrival of morning came the arrival of a new day. Me, Yuna and Omoyo had breakfast in the kitchen, just a normal one with eggs, toast and bacon. And once we were done eating, we grabbed our book bags, put on our shoes and walked out the door.

Outside, the sun was shining, the birds were chirping and while there is the chatter of people, the road to school was otherwise quiet and peaceful. Both this morning's walk to school and the night that Omoyo spent at my house were so . . . normal that it was hard to believe that just yesterday afternoon, I had an intense psychic battle with the vice-president of my school's Student Council, a real action-packed comic book situation that felt like a dream.

But it wasn't a dream. That fight definitely happened. And because of that, I was really not looking forward to going to school. I never looked forward to going to school, but that time I really, really wasn't looking forward to it because it meant that I would be running into Shioyama, I mean Shikouyama. And the closer we got to school, the more dreadful my anticipation of meeting him got.

But as soon as we walked past the school gate, Omoyo noticed something weird.

"Hey," she said. "Don't you think something's weird?"

Yuna and I gave her blank stares, showing how clueless we were.

"Weird how?" I asked. I looked around, but I didn't see anything out of the ordinary. It was just guys and gals all over, split into clusters of friends, chatting and greeting each other as they walked towards the main school building.

Yuna, however, typed into her phone. "Now that you mention it," she said, "There are a bunch of people standing around outside the school's walls, Two or three at each side, evenly spaced apart and doing nothing."

"The way you said it, it's like those people were guards or something," I said.

"They probably ARE guards," said Omoyo. "I'm getting tense feelings from all around the school at the perimeter walls. Whoever's loitering outside the school's on high alert."

"If they're guards, I kinda wish they'd be on high alert somewhere inside," I said. I happened to look over my shoulder and spotted Shikouyama glaring at me from far away.

Following my gaze, Omoyo saw who I was looking at and patted me on the back.

"Hey, don't worry," she said. "We're in school now and there are teachers around us. Even Shikouyama's not stupid enough to try something where the teachers could see him."

As if to prove her point, knowing that he was watching us, Omoyo flashed Shikouyama a hand sign. I won't say what kind, or describe it. Just know that it's a really bad hand sign that good boys and girls should never, ever do.

Well, Shikouyama saw the hand sign and turned really red in the face. He quickly turned his head and marched away, leaving the other Student Council members behind to carry out their morning duties, whatever those were. I am wholly ignorant of what the Student Council actually does normally. (But just to be clear, I AM sure it's not like they have war councils in their room like a demon king with his generals cooking up evil schemes in the dark. I'm not a delusional idiot like Mirai is.)

But despite what Omoyo said, I couldn't help but feel at unease the whole day at school. Whenever I was out in the hallway, I kept looking over my shoulders while maintaining my Psy-Armor at low enough settings that most people wouldn't notice it. I half-expected to be ambushed while drinking water or using the restroom. And even when school was over and nothing happened, I had my guard up as I made my way to the clubroom. I was doubly focused that time because Yuna was with me. There was no way I could let her get mixed up in my issues.

Yet it was those same issues that actually distracted me as I walked through the hallway towards the clubroom, and I ended up bumping into someone as I was about to turn the corner like I've always done almost every day for the last couple of months.

"Oof! Watch it!"

"S-sorry about that!" I stammered. And then I froze in surprise. "Wait, Omoyo?"

"O-Oota! A-and Yuna!" Omoyo cried out, looking flustered. "W-what are you doing here?"

"We were on our way to the clubroom like always," I replied. "What about you? I thought you weren't coming back anymore, so what are you doing here?"

"N-nothing!" Omoyo said. "I-I-I-I certainly wasn't t-trying to spy on the clubroom because I was worried about you guys or anything like that."

Now, admittedly, I'm not what people would call the sharpest tool in the shed, but even I wasn't fooled by Omoyo's lie. That's just how bad a liar she was.

"You're as terrible a liar as you are at spying."

All three of us jumped and turned around to see Kawatori casually leaning against the wall with her arms crossed over her torso.

"What are you doing here, Kawatori?" Omoyo asked. She was really venomous and put herself in Kawatori's way to us.

"Easy there, Omoyo," Kawatori said. "Didn't I help you guys before? I did stop Shikouyama from attacking you, didn't I?"

"After watching us for so long," Omoyo pointed out.

"Well, yeah," Kawatori admitted. "But that's because I had to put up a water barrier. If I didn't, we'd all be answering to the police."

Omoyo kept a sour look on her face, but she fell quiet. I'm sure it was because she couldn't argue back anymore. But then, after a short pause, she said, "You still didn't answer my question. What are you doing here?"

"I heard that someone was acting weird around the third floor of the clubroom wing of the school and came to check it out," Kawatori said. "I'm guessing that's you, Omoyo. You really should learn to better blend into your surroundings if you're planning to spy on someone."

"I-I wasn't spying on anyone!" Omoyo said, shifting her gaze away. "I was . . . I was just tying my shoelaces. Yeah."

Kawatori blinked and then pointed down.

"Your shoes are velcro," she said. "Anyway, if you don't have any business here, why don't you all come hang out with me on the roof? We can sit down and have a chat. I'll even treat you guys to drinks."

"Gee, thanks, but no thanks," Omoyo said.

Kawatori crossed her arms and said, "Really? Well if you're not up to it, then maybe Mirai will be. Let me go check right now. I'll also let him know that you're here."

Omoyo was suddenly flustered again.

"H-hey!" she cried out. "Hold it!"

She rushed over to Kawatori and put her hand on her shoulder. Kawatori had her hand on the doorknob but stopped.

"Fine," Omoyo said. "I'll take you up on that offer."

Kawatori had a frown on her face that looked like it said, "Way too easy." But she quickly straightened up and smiled, saying, "Great! Then let's go. What about you two? Want to come along?"

Yuna and I exchanged looks for a moment and then, we nodded. 

"Sure," I said. "Who wouldn't pass up a chance for free drinks?"

"Huh? Are you sure about that?" asked Omoyo. "What about club? You guys were on your way to the clubroom, weren't you?"

"We don't have anything scheduled, so it's okay if we skip club today," Yuna said through her phone.

"Y-yeah, that's right," I said.

Omoyo looked really surprised and stared at me like she smelled something fishy. While Omoyo has no hope of becoming a master spy, I wasn't much of a great liar either. I'm sure she could see through me and realize that something was up.

Truth be told, while Omoyo was distracted by Kawatori, Yuna and I got a text message from Mirai asking us to keep Omoyo company today. He was really worried about Omoyo being on her own with the town all shook up by the tension between the Yamimura and Soushu families. If a fight ever broke out, she could get really hurt if she happened to be around one. After he told us all that in his message, there was no way that me and Yuna could refuse, especially since a fight did break out just yesterday.

So we all followed Kawatori to the roof.  On our way, staying true to her word, she bought each of us a drink from the vending machine. After that, we got to the top floor, opened the door to the roof and stepped outside.

"So?" Omoyo said as she sat down with us on the base platform beneath the door. "What do you want to talk about? Just so you know, we really aren't in some kind of collaboration with Yamimura."

"I know," Kawatori said, snapping open her can of melon soda. "Mirai actually challenged Yamimura to a duel, and had Oota here do the fighting."

We all looked at Kawatori, shocked.

"Y-you know!?" I cried out. "How?"

"Easy," said Kawatori. "I just snuck up behind a bunch guys who're close to Yamimura and listened when they talked about the duel. I seriously can't believe you managed to beat Yamimura, of all people. He's like one of the Four Kings of this school."

I gave Kawatori a blank look, "The Four Kings?"

"It's just a silly nickname some guy who read too many comic books made up to call the strongest psychics in the school," Kawatori explained. "The Four Kings include Naoko, Yamimura, me, Eiji, and Aika Isaneko."

"Well, no surprise to hear Isaneko's one of the Four Kings," I muttered. And then I realized something. "Wait a minute. Soushu, Yamimura, you, Eiji, and Isaneko. That's five people. How are they the Four Kings when there's five of them?"

"Don't ask me," Kawatori said, shrugging. "I asked the same thing to the guy who came up with that nickname in the first place, but he just told me not to sweat the details. And what's weird is the name stuck, so now that's what every psychic in the school calls us now. But what's even weirder and stupider is both me and Eiji technically work under Naoko, so you can't actually call the two of us kings alongside her."

"That's what bothers you the most?" Omoyo exclaimed, incredulously.

"That nickname sounds like something that Mirai would come up with," I pointed out.

"That's because it was him," Kawatori said. "He was the one who came up with that nickname. I think it happened closer to the end of the last school year. And speaking of Mirai, did you break up with him or something?"

"Huh!?" I cried out. I was super surprised. "You and Mirai are DATING, Omoyo?"

Omoyo spat out her soda. It was the first time ever that I saw someone do a spit-take in real life and it went insanely far.

"NO!" she cried out. "We're not dating!"

"Oh," said Kawatori. "Then I suppose he's dating Isaneko then."

"No, he's NOT!" Omoyo said. "He's not dating anyone!"

"Do you know that for sure?" Kawatori asked. "He could just be hiding it from you."

Omoyo quickly fell silent and looked down. I would go so far as to say that she was upset. Kawatori must have thought so too, because she sounded really panicked as she said, "I was just kidding! There's no way anyone would date that loser!"

But that didn't help at all and Omoyo abruptly stood up.

"Sorry," she said softly. "I just remembered I have to do something, so I'll be going now."

"H-hey, wait!" Kawatori called out. But then Omoyo disappeared behind the door and closed it.

Yuna tapped me on my shoulder and then started pulling me towards the door.

"H-hey!" I cried out. "What is it, Yuna?"

Yuna glared at me and shoved her phone into my face. I was still clueless at first, but then I saw the text message on her phone and remembered why we were hanging out on the roof in the first place.

I quickly gulped down the rest of my soda and turned around to Kawatori.

"Sorry, Kawatori," I said. "We gotta go too. Come on, Yuna!"

"Huh?" Kawatori went. "Wait, not you too!"

Me and Yuna went back inside and raced down the stairs after Omoyo, leaving Kawatori frozen at the door as she reached her hand out to us.

*****

Kawatori

*****

I stood facing the door with my hand held out to it for a few seconds and then sighed, before sitting back down.

"Sorry, Naoko," I said. "I couldn't get anything out of them."

Naoko Soushu and Eiji Shikouyama stepped out from the wall they had been hiding behind.

"Hmph!" Eiji sniffed. "Where did all that confidence of yours go? Didn't you say you'd get to the bottom of Mirai's schemes faster than me? This was a complete waste of time!"

Angry, I snapped back, "Well, at least it's a hundred times better than trying to start a fight that'll ruin the student council's reputation, like you nearly did!" 

Naoko clapped her hands and said, "That's enough, both of you!" 

Both me and Eiji quickly shut up. The sharpness in Naoko's voice made me feel like I was a little kid again being scolded by my mom.

"Sorry," we both muttered to her.

Naoko gave a satisfied nod and said, "Good. Now, we might not have been able to get anything concrete, but we did figure something out about Mirai's club."

Me and Eiji exchanged looks and then said to Naoko, "We did?"

Naoko nodded.

"We know that those three are out of the loop of Mirai's plans," she said. "Except for Isaneko, it's safe to say that Mirai's nudging the others into doing what he wants, like they're chess pieces. But Omoyo, at least, suspects that Mirai is up to something same as us, and doesn't seem happy about it. And because of that, whatever Mirai's plan is must be unraveling right now."

Impressed with Naoko's deduction, I said, "Wow, Naoko! Impressive detective work!"

Pleased with my compliment, Naoko smiled. I couldn't have asked for anything better.

But then that idiot, Eiji ruined it when he went over to the edge of the roof, looked through the fence barrier and pointed at one of the men standing outside the school's walls.

"So, what's up with all those guys outside the school?" he said. "Are they security guards or something?"

Naoko's smile quickly faded and she replied, "Oh, those guys are my bodyguards. Mom ordered them to keep me safe."

Damn you, Eiji Shikouyama, I cursed in my thoughts. How dare you make Naoko frown like that? I swear, slapping you once isn't enough!

Eiji, of course, was ignorant of what I thought of him and kept blathering on.

"Is it because of the Piper?" he said. "But isn't this town supposed to be under the Shirogami Clan's protection? I know they've declined over the years, but with clairvoyance like theirs', their security should be foolproof!"

But Naoko shook her head and said, "Not anymore."

"What do you mean?" Eiji asked. "Is there something wrong with the Shirogami Clan?"

"Something wrong?" I stared at him, utterly dumbfounded at his ignorance. "Something wrong? There's not just something wrong with the Shirogami Clan. It's a major disaster! There was a coup."

Eiji looked at me and blinked. "A coo? You mean that Barbadian dish?"

"That's cou-cou!" I snapped. "I'm talking about a coup, not some food made with corn meal and okra. A coup d'etat! A rebellion and take-over!"

"You two know a surprising lot about Barbadian food," Naoko said. "But never mind that. Kawatori's right. I heard from my grandmother that some of the top dogs in the Shirogami Clan didn't like the way the current head was running things and got greedy. They tried to put her whole family under house arrest."

"Wait, what!?" Eiji cried out. "Don't tell me the mutiny won! I mean, this is the Shirogami Matriarch, we're talking about here! The one everyone, young and old, calls the Queen of Futuresight! The one who can control the future! We've all seen what she could do personally! Like that trick with the bouncy ball she showed us when we were kids!"

"Not even the great Lady Shirogami can do anything and everything," Naoko said. "But with that said, it's not a complete victory."

"What do you mean?" I asked. I knew about the coup, having heard the grownups whispering about it when they thought I wasn't listening. But I didn't know all the details.

"The matriarch escaped," said Naoko. "She and her family managed to get away before the rogues of the Shirogami Clan could catch them in one fell swoop. Those rogues managed to take over control of the clan, but without the matriarch, the source of the clan's power, or anyone who'd inherit her powers, they may as well have stolen a treasure chest without any actual treasure. Talk about a waste of effort! Am I right?"

"But she'll be back, right?" Eiji asked. "I mean, she's not going to just let those bad guys get away with stealing the entire clan, right?"

A really troubled look flashed on Naoko's face before she shook her head and replied, "I don't know. I just don't know."

 I had never seen her look so distressed before. And that really upset me. To me, seeing such a sad look on Naoko was like looking at a bad omen. A really bad omen.

<== Previous                                                                                          Next ==>

The Mysteries of the Community Service Club (Chapter Thirteen)

 A girl around our age, wearing our school's uniform showed up and slowly walked between Shikouyama and Omoyo.

"What are you doing here, Hana?" Shikouyama asked the mysterious girl. 

"That's what I should be asking you, Eiji," said the girl named Hana. "What are you doing, picking a fight with an underclassman? Especially one that hasn't done anything wrong?"

"Hasn't done anything wrong? He and his club are with Yamimura's crew!" Shikouyama shouted.

"And what's wrong with that?" Hana asked. "Is it against the rules for students to hang out with each other?"

"They must be plotting something!" Shikouyama said. "They must have allied with Yamimura and have something dastardly planned against us."

"No, we don't!" I shouted back. "We don't have any alliance with Yamimura, and we certainly don't have anything planned!"

But Shikouyama shouted, "Lies! Then tell us what you and Yamimura have been talking about in that secret meeting of yours!"

Suddenly, Hana got close to Shikouyama and, to all of our surprise, she slapped him hard across the face. It made a really loud sound that made me flinch, despite that I had my Psy-Armor on.

"You really are an idiot," she said to him. "You're the vice-president of the Student Council! Not some stupid hardboiled cop from some American flick who doesn't play by the rules! Do you have any proof of any wrongdoing? Did you hear them say anything along the lines of doing something bad? Acting out like this over mere speculation, don't you know it's stuff like that from a supporter which'll drive Naoko's name to the mud?"

Shikouyama looked like he wanted to say something but couldn't. And that was because he had no way of refuting everything Hana said.

"Now get out of here," she ordered him.

There was a short pause and then Shikouyama clicked his tongue and turned around. As he walked away, some kind of clear, blurry wall split apart to let him through. I didn't notice there was a wall like that around us. But that wall opened up at Shikouyama and then shrank into a ball floating above Hana's outstretched hand.

"I was wondering why no one came after all that noise we made," Omoyo said. "So that was your doing, Kawatori."

Hana nodded and snapped her fingers. The free-floating ball disappeared like hissing steam. Afterward, she walked up to me and bowed.

"I don't believe we've met before," she said. "I'm Hana Kawatori. I'm a member of the Student Council and a Hydrokinetic."

"A what?" I said.

"It means I can control water," she replied, "just like I did earlier with the wall. It's a very useful power. Whenever I need some privacy, just a snap of my fingers and bam, an instant soundproof room."

To demonstrate her power, she snapped her fingers and we were suddenly surrounded by walls of water. There were streaks of light in jagged shapes swaying on the ground where sunlight hit. And when Hana snapped her fingers again, the water all disappeared into the ground.

"I should be going now, too," she said as she looked up at the sky. The sun was beginning to set. "It's getting late. You guys better hurry on home. It's not a good idea to be out so late with the Piper running around nearby."

"Don't need to tell me that," said Omoyo.

We watched Kawatori leave and then I finally relaxed and lowered my sword. I quickly wrapped my sword up and we all headed to my house without saying a word between us. We were all just too exhausted by recent events to hold a conversation. It was hard for me to wrap my head around what I just went through. I actually had a real intense fight with someone using my powers and it hit me that I might have actually won that fight. Before meeting Mirai, I didn't think something like that would ever happen to me.

But don't you worry, boys and girls. There's no way that I'll let my power and my recent victories go to my head. I'm too much of a coward who likes to avoid drama like a plague. To me a normal life relaxing and watching TV is the best!

Well, we got to my house, my mom greeted us all, I put away my sword, and we all gathered in the living room to finish up whatever homework we hadn't taken care of yet. In the meantime, we talked aloud about our club activities like what clubs we'll be helping out tomorrow and such. But secretly, we used our smartphones and messaged each other to talk about the fight that happened earlier. Because of my mom's presence, we couldn't just talk it out normally.

"So, tomorrow, Isaneko's going to be helping out the Library Committee," I said loud enough for my mom to hear. "Mirai's helping out the Cafeteria."

And then I messaged Omoyo, "Seriously, what was that all about?"

"Oh? Well, that sounds right up Isaneko's alley," she said, while texting back, "You know how the Yamimura Family and the Soushu Family have beef with each other, right? Someone must have spotted you guys meeting each other and got the wrong idea that you're making an alliance."

"An alliance?" I texted back. "We're not some country out for war. That beef has nothing to do with us!"

"I know," Omoyo replied. "But things have been tense between those guys for a while now, and I heard it's getting worse because of the Piper nearing town. It's got everyone on edge and doing some really stupid stuff."

"Well, I really wish they didn't drag me into this stupid stuff," I typed. 

"Say that to Toshiro," Omoyo messaged. "It's because of that duel he set up between you and Yamimura that Soushu and her crew got the wrong idea and thinks we're going buddy-buddy with their enemy. Although, you could have just said something to Shikouyama to get him off your back."

"There's no way I could do that," I replied. "What went on between us and Yamimura's private."

"By the way, what did happen between you and Yamimura?" Omoyo asked.

When I received her message, I hesitated. Omoyo was technically still a member of the club, but I wasn't sure if it was okay to blab about Yamimura's matters, given how private I thought they were to him. But before I could come to a decision, a text message came from Yuna into our group chat that detailed what happened with our duel. Omoyo looked mighty shock  when she learned that I was the winner, but her face softened upon reading about Yamimura's motives for creating and recruiting new psychics.

"So that guy's someone connected to Yamimura's family," she said, putting her phone down. "And now one of his relatives got a mental breakdown because of his death. This is even heavier than I thought."

"Tell me about it," I muttered. "Ever since that Piper brought his reign of terror to this region, my life's been flipped upside-down even more than when Mirai gave me superpowers."

I leaned back against the sofa and stared at the ceiling. An orange streak of light was drawn across it by the sun slowly setting down for the day.

"Say, Omoyo?" I said, removing my gaze from the ceiling. "Are you sure that we're safe from the Piper?"

Omoyo didn't answer right away, but after a bit of time, she replied, "Honestly, I don't know."

"You said something about the Shirogami Clan before, right?" I said. "About how they solve problems in town. How do they do that?"

"The Shirogami Clan's one of Japan's most powerful psychic families," Omoyo said. "At least that's what my grandpa told me. He said that they were the best at predicting the future, that they could even control it so that things could go their way. That was how they got to be so powerful, and how they've kept this town safe."

"Sounds like they're unstoppable," Yuna cut in.

"You'd think that, wouldn't you?" Omoyo said. "But you heard Isaneko before. The Shirogami Clan's not as powerful as they used to be. Even my grandpa, who's a bit of a fanatic supporter, said that they've been losing control of the town little by little for decades now."

"Why is that?" I asked. "Did the Shirogami Clan decide that they got enough of being on top?"

"That's . . . actually one of the reasons," Omoyo said. She sounded impressed by me for guessing right. That actually hurt my feelings a little. "But a bigger reason is," she continued, "the dampeners."

"Dampeners?" I said.

Yuna messaged us, "Dampeners are machines that cancel out psychic powers. They were invented way back when our grandpas and grandmas were still kids and are now hanging in every major street, in every major city. This town's probably the only place in Japan where there are no dampeners."

"Yeah," Omoyo said, nodding. "Here, you can be a superhero. But once you step out of town, you're as powerless as anyone else."

"And because of that, the Shirogami Clan can't control the future as much as they want before," I concluded.

"Right," Omoyo said. "Well, their record has always been a bit spotty. I mean, nobody's perfect. Not even the Shirogami Clan. I heard that around the time my grandpa was born, the town was hit by a few major disasters that even the Shirogami Clan couldn't stop."

"Really?" I said. "It's hard to imagine something like that happened here. What happened?"

"I don't know the details, but it seems like at one time, a lot of people fell into comas for no reason,"* Omoyo said. "Another time, a group of thugs attacked an inn.* And then another time, ninety-percent of the town turned crazy and broke whatever they could get their hands on."*

"I've heard of the coma thing and how the town went crazy," I said. "I had to watch old news clips about them for middle school history class. I got nightmares from the people-going-crazy one."

"Anyway," went Omoyo, "the point is, thanks to the dampeners causing the Shirogami Clan's power to decline, this town can't be called the safest place on Earth anymore. Under normal circumstances, small as it is, even without the Shirogami Clan's protection, this town would be a pretty safe place to live. But with the Piper roaming close by, we definitely can't call our town the safest on earth."

"Yeah," I said. "That's a given."

Our conversation was cut short and the door opened. In came my mom who wanted to check in on us and asked Omoyo if she was going to be staying over for the night. Omoyo probably wanted to say "no", but since the sun was already setting, she decided to take Mom up on her offer and spend the night with us.

I asked if she was really okay with that, but she just said, "Yeah. There's no one at home anyway, so it's no problem with my folks."

When it was decided that Omoyo would be staying for the night, Mom immediately started to make dinner for five (me, Yuna, Omoyo, Mom and Dad). Over the dinner table, Omoyo talked to my folks about the stuff we did for the Community Service Club and how everyone was getting along well. That last part was obviously a lie, but it wasn't like she could just tell complete strangers that she had a major fight with a childhood friend.

*****

Homura

*****

Night at the Oota residence was normal and uneventful. I had a pleasant dinner, chatting with Oota's folks about the stuff we do at the Community Service Club. They were all smiles and even praised how much of a good boy Oota was, which made him smile both proudly and bashfully at the same time. 

When dinner was over, the Oota cousins took turns to bathe. Oota's mom offered to let me go first, but I opted to go last instead.

I was in the living room watching some television which had on a reality ghost hunting show when Oota came down wearing a white Aloha shirt with a yellow pineapple pattern. I couldn't help but say snarky-like, "So you even wear Aloha shirts at home. Don't you have anything else?"

Oota looked down at his shirt before replying, "Of course. I do have other sets of clothes to wear. One's a summer set and the other's a winter set."

"Those are school uniforms," I pointed out. 

It was just a pointless little exchange we had while I waited for my turn to bathe. After my turn was done, I changed into clothes Yuna lent me and we all separated to our rooms to spend the rest of the night however we wanted. I went to Yuna's room, where I would be sleeping on a futon. 

I was planning to get Yuna to catch me up on what happened with the Community Service Club while I was gone, but as soon as we got to the bedroom, Yuna bade me good-night, dove in beneath the bed covers and went to sleep. 

"Hey, hey, hey!" I went. "It's a bit too early to sleep, don't you think?"

But I was too late. Yuna had already started snoozing. After watching her dozing a few seconds, I sighed and sat down on top of the futon.

"Jeez," I muttered. "You left the lights on, you know?"

Yuna, of course, didn't hear me. She probably left them on for my sake, probably knowing that I wouldn't sleep 'till later. At least, that was what I thought.

After an hour watching a show on my phone, I turned off the lights and went to sleep. But an unknown amount of time later, a deep, raspy breathing reached my ears through the darkness of sleep. While not knowing what that was, I slowly shrugged the futon covers off my shoulder and looked up, feeling really annoyed.

And then I heard a whimper and instantly became worried.

I threw the covers off and reached to turn on the lights, only to find Yuna curled up against the corner of her bed against the wall, hyperventilating.

I was a bit taken off-guard and sort of panicked when I saw Yuna just hugging her knees at a corner of her bed, breathing feverishly while having such a terrible look on her face. Her eyelids were stretched open as far as they could, and I thought at first that her throat might have closed up or something. But that was when my power turned on and I sensed an immense amount of both fear and anguish. It was so intense, I had to shut my power off before I would become like Yuna.

"Yuna! Hey!" I cried out as softly as I could for fear of waking the other members of the Oota household up. I went up to her, put my hands on her shoulder and whispered to her, "It's okay, Yuna. It's okay. You're safe here."

There wasn't anything else I knew what to do, and I wasn't confident it was working. But it didn't take long for her after I had turned on the lights to recover. Her breathing calmed and slowly clarity returned to her eyes. When she fully calmed down, she turned away from me and grabbed her phone. A moment later, she showed me what she typed into it.

"Toilet," was what I read.

Yuna then pulled away and headed out of the room, leaving me to puzzle over what had just happened. When she came back, I noticed that she still had her phone in her hand and its flashlight function was turned on. 

I asked, "Are you okay?"

Yuna nodded before shutting her phone's light off and returned to the bed.

I hesitated a bit, but there was something else that I just needed to ask.

"What was that all about?"

It was Yuna's turn to hesitate, but then she typed into her phone and showed me, "I'm bad with dark places, to the point I get panic attacks. My doctor called it nyctophobia."

"I see," I muttered. So that was what those intense emotions were about, I thought. I also realized that she had not left the light on for my sake, but for her own. "You slept earlier than me so you wouldn't be awake when the lights were turned off."

Yuna nodded.

"Does Oota know?" I asked.

Yuna shook her head. I wasn't surprised. Oota wasn't the sort of person to pry into other people's affairs, no matter how small or big. 

"What about his folks?" I asked.

Yuna typed into her phone, "They know, but I don't think they said anything to Hisao."

Wow, I thought. They must really not trust him a lot.

Yuna sat on her bed with her eyes on me while waves of fear hit my psychic sensors. I sighed.

"Don't worry," I said to her. "I won't tell anyone about this. Your secret is safe with me."

Yuna felt a bit better, but I felt I had to add one more thing.

"But," I said, "I can't guarantee that the others won't figure it out on their own. Oota aside, both Toshiro and Aika are really shrewd. So you need to be really careful around them."

Yuna paused a bit before giving me a solemn nod.

Normally, I would say that there was no need to hide something like this, that the others wouldn't judge her for being afraid of the dark. But with how things have gone these past few weeks, I honestly couldn't trust them anymore. And that really pained me to admit about my childhood friends.

"Alright," I said, nodding back. "It's getting late, so let's get some sleep."

That time, we left the lights on.

<== Previous                                                                                          Next ==>