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.
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment