Writing Pause

 Hey, everyone!

I hope you've all had a good April. Mine was okay. 

So, I'm writing this post right now to tell you all I got an announcement. As you could tell from the title of this post, I've decided to take a break from my writing for a bit. It's nothing major, really. Now that I've finished Volume One of The Mysteries of the Community Service Club series, I'm going to put all the chapters together into a book to be published in paperback. I think I said something along those lines way back when. But don't worry, I don't plan on taking the chapters down from my blog. Instead, the book volume will be paperback only. Please be sure to support me when it comes out!

Just between you and me, I'm going to add a bonus chapter that's exclusive to the book. Meaning, it's a chapter that I haven't shared with you on this blog.

Other than that, I also still need to work on the second half of Tales of the Witch. I'm done writing the whole thing, but the document still needs to be edited and brushed up like with Volume One of The Mysteries of the Community Service Club. I hope to have that published by the end of next month.

That's all I got to say right now.

Stay safe out there, and happy reading, everyone!

The Mysteries of the Community Service Club (Arc One Epilogue)

*****

Mirai

*****

The sun was already setting, bathing the clubroom in an orange glow. It was just me and Lady Isaneko here, as everyone else had long since gone home. Noticing how quiet outside had gotten, I glanced at my phone to check the time. We still had like half and hour before the school was completely locked up, so there was no need to rush. Lady Isaneko also had her phone out and read from it as she jotted down notes. Like always when she does that at this time, she had a huge, serious frown on her face. 

While she worked, I decided as the good servant I am, to brew her a cup of tea. I had brought a type of tea over specifically for her at times like this. It only took a minute or two for the water to boil which I poured into the white mug I had thrown the tea bag in. She thanked me as I set the mug next to her, and I replied, "No thanks needed for this humble servant, my master."

And then, after bowing to her like some pretentious Western butler in a comic book, I strolled over to the window to take a look outside and started humming happily to myself.

"You seem to be in a good mood right now," Lady Isaneko said. She laid down her phone on the table and looked at me. 

I glanced back at her and grinned. "You can tell, huh?"

"Of course," Lady Isaneko said. "For once, the stupid look on your face is genuine."

"Always with a biting remark, huh, My Lady?"

"You're really committed to acting out the butler trope, aren't you?" Lady Isaneko said.

"You're the one who told me to act like this as part of our contract," I pointed out. "Don't tell me you forgot!"

"It's been years," Lady Isaneko said. "Can you blame me? Anyway, it's okay for you to celebrate, since this is a huge victory for you and all, but don't forget that the mission is far from over. My problems still haven't been taken care of completely, and you still have one more problem coming up."

That really wiped the smile off my face and brought me back to reality.

"I know," I said. "Don't worry. I won't let this case closed give me a swelled head. In fact, this case has shown me that we're still far from a perfect place. It was a really close call, even with all the pieces in place. Tank Hisao, especially, needs to improve. If you don't mind, Lady Isaneko, I'll be counting on you to chuck more things at him with that power of yours. It'll keep him on his toes and make his power grow from the experience."

"Of course," said Lady Isaneko. "I need him to become stronger for my own sake, too." She held the mug to her lips and took a sip. "Though, I'm surprised that he still hasn't realized that all those soccer balls, baseballs, basketballs, volleyballs, and bamboo swords, that he took to the face were because of me. I think he still treats them like freak accidents. It's almost scary how oblivious he is. But I think we should move on from that and start giving him some actual training. Just giving him nudges in the right direction from the shadows isn't going to cut it anymore. Especially if you expect him to play a part in resolving your FINAL PROBLEM."

"I know," I said. "Well, given that Soushu's gang sees us as enemies now, and that Yamimura of Yamimura from Yamimura got a taste of what Tank Hisao can do, there's really no point in being subtle anymore."

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a pink, fuzzy elephant head left on a table sitting at the back corner of the room and I felt a pull towards it. There was just something about its glassy cartoon eyes.

"I wouldn't call turning a normal nobody into a psychokinetic iron man, subtle," Lady Isaneko said. "But you have a point. After those confrontations we had, they definitely know that something is up. If only we could come clean with them. It would save us a whole lot of headache."

"But we can't, since that could change the future in a way that ruins our plans," I pointed out. "If word gets out on the street that we're trying to change the far future like the Shirogami Clan did, who knows what others might think or do? The Shirogami Clan definitely would try to get in our way."

"I know, I know," Lady Isaneko said lazily as she waved her hand at me. 

I pouted and wanted to ask her, "Do you really?" But then her phone made a chime, and she looked to see what was up before jotting down notes again into her notebook. She took her work seriously so, not wanting to bother her, I held my tongue. When she was done writing, she took pictures of the notes on her phone to save on a cloud drive. After that, she put the phone in her pocket, drank some more tea, and sighed.

"Done looking over the reports about your mom's business?" I asked.

After looking over those reports and jotting down notes, Lady Isaneko usually takes a bit of time to think up orders to give to the bigwigs of her mom's company. Her mom might be the official leader, but Aika Isaneko was the one who was really in charge, thanks to all the decision-makers in the company being devote believers of the cult.

"Yeah," she replied to my question. 

"How's your mom going?" I asked.

Lady Isaneko answered, "She hasn't done anything illegal, but I really can't let my guard down since she is the sort of person who would use her own daughter to start a shady cult for money."

Lady Isaneko turned around as she answered and froze up when she saw my face. Looking dumbfounded, she said, "You really like wearing that elephant head, don't you?"

While she was finishing up her note taking, I got bored, picked up the elephant head and looked at it straight in the eyes. I thought to myself, "Why not?" And then I put the head on just as she looked at me.

"Yeah," I said. "I'm thinking about wearing this everyday in the clubroom."

"Please don't," Lady Isaneko said. "That gag's already gotten boring."

"You think?" I asked as I took off the elephant head. 

"Definitely," said Lady Isaneko. "Oota didn't even blink the last time you wore that." 

"Darn," I said. "I guess I'll have to think of something new."

I took off the elephant head and tossed it aside.

"Maybe I should try using a horror clown mask instead," I said.

But Lady Isaneko shot that idea down. 

"You just got back on little Homura's good side again," she said. "Do you really want to waste your second chance like that? Honestly, I know our great sponsor, the one who gave us the chance to change the future said that playing the fool could help stave off people who'd get in our way, but you don't have to take it that far."

"I kind of like playing the fool, as you call it," I said. "I definitely got more friends now than I did with my other personality."

"Really?" Lady Isaneko said. She propped her elbow onto the table and leaned her cheek against her hand while wearing a wry smile on her face. "I actually liked that gloomy version of you."

It was a move that made my heart skip a beat. But I was able to keep my cool and shot back a grin of my own.

"Oh? What's this?" I said. "Could it be that the great Lady Isaneko was charmed by this humble servant's good looks?"

"Ha!" laughed Lady Isaneko. "In your dreams. You know very well that you're not my type. Anyway, it's getting late. I'm done here, so we should head home."

After packing up our things, we locked up the clubroom and exited the school. We were always hanging out late after school so the security guard was used to seeing us leave as the sun set. Though he never looked happy every time he did.

The roads we took on our way home were mostly empty and eerily quiet except for the wind blowing, the leaves rustling, and the birds tweeting. Looking at these peaceful streets, it would be hard for anyone else to imagine that just the night before, an violent battle took place against a brutal murderer.

Normally, even with the sun bathing everything in yellow-orange as it sunk beneath the horizon, there'd be the occasional tourist walking around. But thanks to the Piper, tourism dropped. It was just another way that psycho monster hurt the people of this town. 

But all that was over now, I thought as I enjoyed the warm, setting sun hitting my face and the cool breeze brushing against my back. The Piper's reign of terror has ended. It'll be a while before the town recovered, but now no one had to worry about a serial killer on the loose. And I no longer had to worry about Homura being killed, because the nightmare future I had seen had changed. 

But like Lady Isaneko said, we couldn't let our guard down. There were still problems that we had to deal with, more of the future we had to change for ourselves and the people we loved. And little did we know, by changing the future as we knew it, we also created new problems that could shake our town to its very core.

<== Previous                                                                          To the next arc ==>

The Mysteries of the Community Service Club (Chapter Nineteen)

*****

Hisao

*****

When we entered the clubroom after school, me and Yuna saw the whole gang together, Omoyo included. 

"Oh, hey guys," she said, giving us a casual wave. "Glad to see . . . you?"

But as soon as Yuna saw her, her face turned red and her cheeks puffed out. She walked right over to Omoyo, glaring at her. This was the first time I had ever seen Yuna look anything other than gloomy. She. Was. Seriously. Mad.

And to illustrate how mad she was, she pushed the volume of her phone to max and shoved it into Omoyo's right ear as it played, "YOU ARE AN IDIOT!"

Computer-generated or not, we were all surprised by the outburst. I certainly couldn't think of a reason why Yuna would be so mad. But then she explained, "Hisao told me that you were the Piper's target. That he broke into your house to get to you. That means at some point, he was following us. I sensed someone was close by and following us, but didn't think there was anything wrong with that. You, however, can tell what other people are feeling, so you must have known that whoever was following us was bad news. Why didn't you say anything? If you had, that whole ordeal could've been avoided!"

"I'm sorry!" Omoyo cried out. "But I couldn't help but. The Piper's feelings really did a number on my mind and I couldn't think straight!"

She put down the phone and moved her lips like she was screaming. No sound came out, of course, so I had no way of knowing what she was trying to say until Mirai, who also had a talent for lip reading translated for us.

"That's no excuse. If Hisao had been even a second late, you would have died."

Yuna put her hands on Omoyo's shoulders and then dropped her head down as if her neck could no longer keep it up. With her face pointed to the floor, her next words were obscurred. But Mirai had no trouble translating since his power let him see anything and everything.

"I've already lost my mom because of that tunnel," she had said. "I don't know what I'd do if I ended up losing a friend too."

I wanted to ask what tunnel she was talking about, but I held my tongue while knowing that now was not a good time to ask. But I did vaguely remember hearing something about a tunnel before. I think it was from one of the police officers who interviewed us that time.

We were all still, unable to say anything, but Yuna eventually calmed down, retreated from Omoyo and took her seat. The air, however, remained heavy. Even Mirai, who had his hand on that mascot elephant head thought better and left it where it was on the desk sitting at the back corner of the room.

As soon as I sat next to Yuna, our meeting began.

"Ahem!" Mirai stood before us and coughed. "So . . . as you all know, the Piper went after Homura. Thanks to Underling Hisao, the worst was averted and Omoyo is still with us. As both the president of this club and Homura's friend, Hisao, I thank you from the bottom of my heart."

He turned to me and gave me a deep, deep bow. I've never had someone bow so deeply to me before and it left me feeling somewhat embarrassed. There was little that I could say, other than a hesitant, "Uh . . . you're welcome."

"Henceforth," Mirai continued as he straightened up and flashed one of his usual big smiles, "you will no longer be called Underling Hisao. Instead, You are now Tank Hisao! Give a round of applause!"

He was the only one clapping. I was just dumbfounded and wondered if I should be happy that my reward for risking my neck and livelihood fighting a deranged serial killer was a new nickname. And honestly, I wasn't sure if the new nickname was a good one either.

"Well, with that out of the way," Mirai said after he was done clapping, "let's get on to even more serious business. I'm sure all of you know by now, but instead of handing the Pipers over to the cops, we let the Shirogami Clan take them. The news hasn't given out much details yet, but you can be sure that they'll tell the whole world that the Shirogami Clan, or someone tied to them is the hero who stopped the evil monsters. That is, of course, is a lie. The truth is, members of this club were the ones who took down the Pipers. But we're not going to say anything about that and will let the Shirogami Clan hog all the glory. Let me tell you why.

"First reason, the attention we'll get for capturing the Pipers will be a headache to certain members of this club."

All eyes turned to me, singling me out. It was uncomfortable, but I couldn't say anything against it. Mirai continued on with the second reason.

"Second reason," he said, "if we tried to get the truth out after the Shirogami Clan has already taken the credit, we'd end up on their bad side. They've already kicked their old leader out of office, so there's no telling what they'd do to anyone who crosses them."

"Wait, what?" I asked. "What do you mean they kicked their old leader out?"

"It's exactly what I mean," Mirai said. "Some of the big shots of the Shirogami Clan got together to stage a coup, a rebellion, an uprising, a mutiny, whatever word you want to use. And they succeeded."

"What!?" Omoyo cried out in horror. "You can't be serious, Toshiro!"

"Oh, but I am," Mirai said. "Luckily, though, the great Lady Shirogami and her family escaped capture. I heard from my dad that a friend of the family helped them get away and kept them safe."

"Then shouldn't those guys in the Shirogami Clan get arrested or something?" I asked. "Or at least, can't this Lady Shirogami person come back with lawyers to take back control?"

But Isaneko said, "It's not that simple, even for someone with friends in high places like Lady Shirogami. For one thing, those scumbags in control of the clan now have their own 'friends in high places' and lawyers. They also have their own army of thugs willing to do dirty work."

"You make it sound like they're the Yakuza," I said.

"Well, with the stunts they've pulled recently, that's pretty much what they've become," Isaneko replied apathetically. It was amazing how she was treating these bombshells like it was yesterday's news, yesterday's boring news. "They also have the money to hire assassins."

"Suddenly, I feel like I'm in a spy action flick," I remarked. "I don't like it."

"Anyway, we're getting off topic," Mirai said. "Basically, I want us all on the same page that that the truth about the Pipers' capture doesn't leave this clubroom. But if any of you have something to say about it, now's your only chance."

He looked at all of us and all of us looked at him. The heavy air left from Yuna venting became heavier with this new serious situation.

"I have no objections," said Isaneko. She spoke without any hesitation. 

As for me, my answer was obvious. "Same," I said.

And then our eyes all turned to the remaining two members of our club who hadn't said anything. Omoyo looked about conflicted as I was, and I was still wondering if I did the right thing after voicing my choice. Yuna, however, appeared stony while holding her phone facedown on her lap. 

Finally, Omoyo spoke.

"Fine," she said. "It's not something worth fighting over anyway. As long as the Pipers' are behind bars, it doesn't matter who gets the credit. BUT! I do have a condition."

"What kind of condition?" Mirai asked.

"It's okay if you got secrets you don't want the rest of us to know," Omoyo said, "but if there's something about the future that involves any of us, and you got a scheme cooked up for it, you come clean and tell us everything. I'm grateful that everything you did was to protect me and save my life. I really am. But it just wasn't right for you to forcibly drag Oota into this without knowing anything. And it wasn't right for you to keep to yourself that I was going to die. That's the sort of thing you need to be upfront with us about so that we can work together to stop it. So, can you promise me that the next time you get a prediction like that, you'll tell us?"

Mirai seemed to hesitate. But after a moment, he said, "Alright. But can I at least choose when would be the right time to tell everything?"

Omoyo seemed reluctant, but then she said, "I guess if it's a matter of life and death, that's okay."

Mirai smiled. "Thanks." he said. "I promise if anything comes up, I'll let you all know as soon as I can."

"If that's settled," Isaneko cut in, "that just leaves Yuna."

Our eyes were all on Yuna now.

"So, Yuna?" Isaneko said. "What do you say about keeping this secret about the Piper?"

Yuna looked at all of us, her face unreadable. And then she typed into her phone. When she was done, she pressed play and it said, "I'm for it."

"Great!" Mirai said, flashing a beaming smile at us all. "Glad to see we're all on the same page. Now let's move on to our usual club stuff. Oh! But before that, about that promise I just made, Homura."

"What is it, Toshiro?" Omoyo asked.

"You know that Lady Isaneko's mom owns a company right?" Mirai said.

"Yeah," said Omoyo.

"Well, let me have Lady Isaneko explain," Mirai said. "Take it away, Lady Isaneko!"

Isaneko sighed. "If I must," she said before turning to us. "My mom's company is basically a front for a cult that she made, tricking gullible people into worshipping me as a heaven-sent messenger."

"Oh," said Omoyo.

There was a short pause, and then we all went, "Say WHAT!?"

Mirai had a big grin on his face and said, "And I signed us all up as official members of that cult!"

"WHAT!?" we all screamed again.

I had no idea what that would mean for me in the future. But what I could tell you then was that I was absolutely horrified to find out that I was technically a member of a shady cult. And I prayed that nothing seriously troublesome would come out of it.

<== Previous                                                                                           Next ==>

The Mysteries of the Community Service Club (Chapter Eighteen)

*****

Hisao

*****

“Isaneko?” I exclaimed in surprise. “What are you doing here?”

Isaneko kept her cold gaze on the Piper floating in the air and replied, “For the same reason as you, Oota. Toshiro called me. He told me our cute little Homura was in danger, so here I am. But it appears I was a bit too late. Sorry about that. There was a wall of psychic energy in the way, but it suddenly disappeared for a second. I managed to slip through before it came back up. I suppose I have Toshiro to thank ffor that, if that bloody trash heap over there is any indication.”

“Heh heh!” The second Piper laughed shakily, wheezing a bit. He had the wind knocked out of him when he got thrown against that concrete wall by Isaneko’s telekinetic power. “W-well, ain’t this something? Running into two power users in one day.”

While chuckling, he tried to maintain some bravado.

“Four, actually,” Isaneko spoke back. 

And then she moved her hand like she was turning a dial. At the same time, the second Piper’s hand was pulled back behind him, and his arm was slowly twisted.

“Ow, ow, ow!” the second Piper cried out. 

Isaneko kept twisting his arm with her power until he dropped the knife, and then she released her hold and let his arm drop back down to his side.

“S-say, pretty lady,” he said. “You don’t mind letting me and my friend here go, do you? Come on, what do you say? I promise we’ll be good and never come back here again. We’ll even turn ourselves in to the police so you don’t have to go through the trouble.”

“Hmm.” Isaneko tapped her chin with her finger thoughtfully. “That’s tempting.”

“WHAT!?” Me, Omoyo and Mirai all cried out in disbelief. But Isaneko just ignored us. 

“Dealing with the police can be troublesome,” she said. “It’ll be especially troublesome trying to tell them what happened.”

“I know, right?” said the second Piper. “So, if you’ll just let me down, me and my friend’ll be on our way.”

“Sorry, but I can’t just do that,” Isaneko said. “I learned a long time ago that a grownup’s promise isn’t worth a single yen.”

And then she swiped her hand to the left and the second Piper flew straight into the first Piper, who had been crawling on the ground bit by bit. They both crashed against the wall.

“And where do you think you’re going?” Isaneko said to the first Piper. “You’re not going anywhere either.”

And she got them both in her psychic grasp again.

“It’s going to take some time before the police show up,” she said. “Let’s you and me have some fun while we wait. That sounds good, doesn’t it? After all, you two like to have fun.”

Both Pipers flew up into the air.

“Aika,” Omoyo said to Isaneko. “That’s enough.”

Isaneko turned her gaze halfway to Omoyo and said, “Are you sure about that? These two were going to hurt you just because they wanted to.”

“Please,” said Omoyo. “I’ve had enough of people hurting other people tonight.”

Isaneko was quiet, and then she dropped her hand to her side and the Pipers fell to the ground.

“As you wish,” she said. “Anything for my cute little Homura.”

Omoyo scowled.

“Stop treating me like a little kid,” she protested. “And aren’t I older than you?”

“In a way,” Isaneko said, shrugging her shoulders.

Thanks to the bit of banter between the girls, I started to relax a little. But that, of course, was short-lived when the second Piper decided to cut into the chatter. 

"Ha ha ha," he said mockingly. "Laugh it up while you still can, you brats! 'Cuz this ain't over. I'll make sure to remember all of your faces. Even if I get locked up in prison, there are so many, many ways I can make your lives a living hell. The internet, the media. I'll use whatever I have to. And that includes my powers. Hey, yeah. There's an idea. I can use my powers in public, expose us all to the world and point you out as freaks just like me! I can just imagine all those trash tabloid magazines and TV opinion shows being all over you for that."

I have to admit, what he said really scared me. I watch TV, so I know how unfair people can act on their platforms, especially those opinionated show hosts who don't care who they hurt with their words as long as it brought them viewers.

The second Piper cackled. "Just imagining the harassments you'll all go through tickles my funny bone!"

But then Mirai said something that cut the murderer's laughter short.

"Sorry, but that's not going to happen," he said.

"Oh?" went the second Piper. "And why not?"

Mirai looked at the Piper coldly and replied, "Because some guys are coming who want to talk to you."

"Some guys? Who are you talking about, Mirai?" I asked.

Mirai turned and looked behind him. He said to me, "Ask them yourself."

I turned around to see what he was looking at and saw men and women approaching us. One thing I could say for sure at a glance was that they weren't police officers. They were all dressed in casual out wear, save for the old guy with thinning hair leading them.

"Hello there," he said, smiling at us. "We're of the Shirogami. One of our seers sensed a disturbance and had us come here to see what's wrong. Can one of you fine young men and women tell me what happened?"

Mirai shot the man a look and then said, "Please stop it with this charade, Mr. Shirogami. You know as well as we do what happened. And I know what you're really all here for."

I looked at Mirai in surprise and then at the old man. That guy's a Shirogami? I thought. Someone from that really big and important family?

I was at a loss for words, so I just quietly watched and listened. The two Pipers were probably confused by the turn of events because they were quiet as well.

"Oh?" said Mr. Shirogami. "And just what do you think we're here for?"

Looking the old man in the eyes, Mirai said, "The Pipers. After driving away your all-important priestess, the Shirogami Clan's reputation's sunk. You plan to build it back up again by taking all the credit for their capture."

"That's quite the accusation you've made there, boy," said Mr. Shirogami. The friendly tone he had earlier was gone and the air around us turned chilly.

"Well, you guys are here instead of the police I called," said Mirai. "If I had to guess, the guy on the phone, or maybe someone close to him is one of your people who decided to keep quiet about the Piper from the cops and told you instead."

"Do you have any proof?" Mr. Shirogami asked.

Mirai threw his hands in the air and shook his head.

"No," he said. "But it should be made clear if we wait a bit. If I'm wrong, the police should be here any minute. But honestly, I don't really care if you take all the credit for capturing the Piper."

"Oh?" Mr. Shirogami raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"What?" Omoyo exclaimed. "What are you thinking, Toshiro? We're the ones who - !"

Mirai cut her off and said, "You heard what Piper Number Two said just now, didn't you? He really means what he said, and I think he can do it. Even if he doesn't expose our powers to the public, there's no telling what'll happen to us once news spreads that we took him and his partner down. For all we know, there could be more Pipers out there than just the two we got now and they'll be coming for revenge."

Piper Number Two chuckled. "You're not wrong about that," he said. "But does it really matter who takes the credit? Even if you hand us over to this old guy and he takes the credit, that won't change the facts! It won't change what I'll do. And besides, old man, Shirogami was it? Do you really think we'll just go along with this and say, 'Yep! That old guy and his squad of regular-looking nobodies caught us'?"

"Oh, you will," Mirai said. "And that's because you and us brats aren't the only ones with powers. And there's a whole lot of different kinds, including memory tampering. I'm sure one of you aunties, uncles, big brothers and big sisters have that, right?"

Mr. Shirogami chuckled.

"I'm impressed," he said. "I seriously underestimated you kids. You're almost like the children of the Tao family, clever to the extreme and coolheaded. That's right. There are plenty of people here with power over the minds of others. How they do that, I'll leave it to your imagination."

It was hard for me to pinpoint the gist of everything, but basically, what I got out of this conversation was that these guys from the Shirogami Clan had come to take the Pipers off our hands and will make sure they don't bother us ever again. And I was all for that. 

Omoyo, however, didn't seem too happy about it. But she couldn't argue against Mirai and bowed her head. "Fine," she said. "Please take these guys away and make sure we never hear from them again."

"Don't kid with me!" the second Piper screamed. He seemed to understand what was going on, even as I was having a tough time with it, and did not like what he was hearing. "I ain't letting anyone mess with my head! Let me go! Let me go!"

But no matter how much he struggled, he couldn't budge and inch from the ground. Isaneko's telekinetic hold was perfect and she made gravity not let him move. During his futile escape attempt, a man in denim overalls strolled over to the Pipers and knelt down in front of them. Without a word, he removed the second Piper's helmet, revealing a youngish man's face with hair dyed copper. That man put one hand on the second Piper's forehead, and the other hand on the other Piper's forehead. Both Pipers screamed in dismay for the overalls man to stop, but he ignored them. And then the overalls man's hands suddenly shined as if there were lights hidden in his sleeves that turned on.

Slowly, the Pipers quieted down. And then the glow from the overalls man's hands faded.

The overalls man straightened up and said to us all, "It's done."

"That's a wrap, then," Mr. Shirogami said, clapping his hands together. "Please take them away."

The overalls man nodded and he called out to the others to help him out. Two guys joined him and helped to carry the Pipers away. Isaneko stepped to the side of the road to clear the way for them.

"Toshiro," Omoyo muttered to Mirai.

"I know," Mirai said back. "Don't worry. Until they hand them over to the police, I won't take my eyes off them."

"Oh!" went Mr. Shirogami. "Before we go, how about I have someone patch you all up. Can't have fine young folks like you walking around all banged up like that."

He snapped his fingers and from the crowd of people he brought with him came a ray of light. It hit us all and gave me a warm feeling. To my amazement, the scrapes and bruises on Mirai and Omoyo disappeared. And then the ray of light was gone.

"Well then," he said, bowing. "Have a good evening."

We all watched him and the others disappear into the darkness, saying not a word. But once they were gone, Isaneko broke through the silence and said, "I'm going to go home now. You all should do the same. Especially you, Oota. I'm sure you don't want your parents finding out you snuck out at night."

A huge jolt ran through my chest, and I gave the others a hasty farewell before running back home. I entered the house as quietly as I could and found Yuna waiting at the top of the stairs holding a lit flashlight in her hand. 

It was obvious why she was there awake, so I held up my phone for her to see and shook it a little. She understood that I'll tell her everything through the phone and went back to her room while I went to take a quick shower. The bathroom was downstairs so I didn't have to worry about my parents hearing me since their bedroom was at the back end of the second floor.

After cleaning myself up, I tiptoed to my room, crammed the whole story as I knew it into a single text and sent it to Yuna. With everything I needed to get done, done, I dropped onto the bed and almost immediately blacked out.

And that was how my very exciting night ended.

*****
Omoyo
*****

After watching Oota leave, I found myself unable to keep standing, or even sit. So I just laid down in the middle of the road and looked at the night sky, while shielding street light from my face with my hand.

"Toshiro," I said. "Were you the one who sent Oota to my rescue?"

I could hear footsteps as Toshiro approached me. He sat down close to me and leaned his back against the wall.

"Yeah," he said.

"How did you know I was in trouble?" I asked.

"How do you think?" he said. "I can see the future, remember?"

I fell quiet for a bit and a thought crossed my mind.

"Did you always know that this would happen?" I asked. "Since the beginning of the school year?"

It was a ridiculous question to ask, knowing the limits of Toshiro's power. But I couldn't help myself, thanks to the the thought that crossed my mind that he might have known the Piper would attack me since a long time ago. It would make sense the things he did, dragging Oota into the Community Service Club, giving him powers, and pushing him to slowly become stronger. And it would explain the growing anxiety I sensed in him these past few weeks.

Yeah right. I thought I was overthinking it, but then Toshiro replied -

"Yeah."

"Huh?" I looked at him. "What did you just say?"

He looked at me and said, "I said, yeah. I knew since the beginning of the school year that this would happen. But not exactly how you probably thought. I saw that on this day, at this time, in this place, you died."

I was stunned and confused by his confession. All this time I knew him, I thought that he could only see a couple of minutes into the future, so to hear that he could actually see further was kind of shocking. 

Unable to say anything, I just stared at Toshiro with my mouth hung open while he sat against the wall. But then I saw tears rolling down his cheeks, and I heard him cry.

"Thank goodness," he said softly, resting his forehead against the back of his hand. "This nightmare's finally over. Thank goodness I managed to change the future. Thank goodness you're alive."

And then I felt something warm and wet roll down from the corner of my eyes while my nose became unusually stuffy. I realized that I was also crying.

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The Virtual Experience (Chapter Five)

Chapter 5

The Top Player

"SKILL ON! MULTI-CRESCENT MOON SLASH!"

Curved strips of light flew over our heads and struck all the Ogre Chiefs in the belly. The boss monsters of the fifth area bellowed in pain and stumbled back as a shadow zipped right past us and charged at the monsters.

It was a boy our age who engaged in combat with the ogres alone. He was so fast that I could only catch glimpses of his long, flowing silver-colored gown as it fluttered with his movements and the flash of light against his sword blade as he twirled the weapon in his hand.

After gracefully dancing around the Ogre chiefs, he finally stopped and I could get a good look at his face. Like me, he was Asian with unkempt black hair and dark brown eyes, over which, he wore a pair of slightly dark eyeglasses. There was a cocky grin on his face as he twirled his sword right and left, kind of like how swordsmen danced in my mom’s Chinese wushu TV shows. His sword itself, an elegant straight sword with a silver handle, had a Chinese vibe to it. 

After giving his sword one final twirl, he sheathed it, and the monsters all exploded, showering shards of data around him making it look like he was surrounded by tiny, twinkling stars. It was truly a mesmerizing sight.

“O. M. G.,” I said. “That’s SilverKungFuMagicMan! That’s THE SilverKungFuMagicMan!”

Lotus looked at me with a confused look on her face.

“Who?” she asked.

This was her first day in this game, so it was no surprise that she didn’t know who SilverKungFuMagicMan was.

I turned to her and replied,” He’s only one of the most powerful players in the game. He regularly takes on raid monsters solo, is almost always in the top 100 in rank events, and once wiped out a whole squad of players in a PvP event with a single A.O.E attack. In other words, he’s a top player!”

Lotus just looked at me blankly before confessing, “I didn’t understand a word you just said.”

I rolled my eyes and groaned, thinking there was going to be a lot that I had to teach my cousin.

“Basically, he’s really famous and super strong,” I said.

A voice suddenly spoke up behind us and said, “Thank you for that.”

“Whoa!” I cried out. Me and Lotus didn’t hear him walk up to us. Leave it to a top player to have topnotch sneaky skills.

Grinning down at us, SilverKungFuMagicMan said, “I’d love to hear more about how awesome I am, but it looks like we got more company.”

As he spoke more Ogre Chiefs and Arachno Lords started to show up, rising from the ground like zombies. SilverKungFuMagicMan grinned from ear to ear as he drew his sword and pointed it at the enemy.

While his back was turned to us, he said, “One of you guys appears to be a newbie. You’re lucky. You get a chance to see how a veteran does things. Watch and learn.”

He drew his sword with his right hand, raised it to eye level as he bent his knees. After tracing his left-hand fingers across the flat of the blade, he said, “Skill On, Wolf’s Howl”

Upon hearing the pre-recorded wolf howl coming from the top player’s mouth, all the monsters jerked rigidly and froze.

“Skill On, Triple Stack.”

Gold light covered SilverKungFuMagicMan from head to toe. Triple Stack was a skill that multiplies the power of the next skill by three times.

“Skill On, Lunar Glow.”

The gold light covering the top player changed to silvery. Lunar Glow, if I remember right, was a skill given out during an event that celebrated the Chinese Moon Festival. It had the power to boost magic power.

“Skill On, Mind over Matter.”

The skill, Mind over Matter, adds magic power to strength and made gusts of wind burst from the caster's feet as a special effect. Skills just wouldn't be interesting without some kind of special effect. You can learn the skill by visiting a Shaolin Temple where you talk to the head monk who’ll give you some quests to do in return.

So here’s what SilverKungFuMagicMan did: he added a boost three times over to his magic power. After that, he added that magic power to his strength, which affects how much damage he can do with his sword. And what all that means is for a short amount of time, he is one really deadly swordsman.

With each swing of the top player’s sword, a boss monster that normally took several hits from several different people to kill was reduced to a flash of light. He stabbed, sliced and diced the monsters into nothingness with his graceful, acrobatic dancing. And it only took him a minute to clear the area of a horde of monsters I and Lotus had no hope of taking care of on our own. But just as he reduced the monster horde to zero, more monsters appeared to take their place.

As Lotus and I watched SilverKungFuMagicMan decimate the never-ending army of monsters, we heard our names called out from behind us. NovaFlash and LOWW ran towards us.

“There you are,” Nova said. “We looked everywhere for you! What were you doing?”

“And is that SilverKungFuMagicMan, A.K.A. the Silver Storm?” LOWW added.

“What? Where?” Nova cried out, looking left and right. She peered over my shoulder and spotted the top player as he destroyed an Arachno Lord with flying roundhouse kick. “O.M.G! It’s the Silver Storm! Check it out, Lotus! It’s the Silver Storm! He’s one of the best players in the history of the game!”

Although Nova was super excitedly jumping up and down, Lotus just looked at her with a confused look and said, “Silver Storm?”

“It’s a nickname people use for SilverKungFuMagicMan,” I explained.

Lotus asked, “Why do they call him Silver Storm?”

LOWW answered her, “Because one time, he used an A.O.E. attack, a single widespread attack that destroyed every monster on the field. That attack had swords raining down from the sky. It was really dark and cloudy that day, so it looked like the swords had come flying from storm clouds. Combine that with that whole silver theme he’s got going on, and you get the Silver Storm.”

“I remember that day,” I said. “There were a lot of explosive bright lights, big booms, and whooshing sound effects that could split your eardrums. It . . . was . . . awesome.”

“Tell me about it,” LOWW said. He raised his hand for a high-five, and I took it.

Lotus rolled her eyes and then said, “Can we just head back to town? Since I completed the quest, we don’t need to stick around this bugged out place, right?”

But her voice was lost over a loud rumbling in the sky. We all looked up to see what looked like a fiery meteor fall down diagonally towards us. 

“Hit the deck!” NovaFlash screamed. She pushed us all to the ground as the meteor came crashing down right next to SilverKungFuMagicMan. 

A fiery explosion spread from the impact and blanketed all the monsters in sight. If I hadn’t fiddled with my hearing settings to be low for attack sound effects, the loud bang from the meteor’s landing would have knocked me out cold. When the fire disappeared, so did the monsters. 

Standing in the middle of the smoking, scorched earth were two figures. One was, of course, SilverKungFuMagicMan. The other was a large boy around his age with light ebony skin and short, curly, dull black hair. Like SIlverKungFuMagicMan, he wore a gown over a sharp suit, but his gown was orange. His chest was adorned with medals like a decorated military officer in ceremony wear. Stuck to the ground in front of him was a beautiful broad sword, decorated with a gold hilt and red gems. The blade of the sword was orange and polished to a shine.

“Is that . . . who I think that is!?” NovaFlash cried out. She cupped her hands over her eyes and peered through the dust cloud and smoke. And then she shrieked. “It is! It’s Blaze Leo!”

Lotus looked at me, confused, and asked, “Who?”

“Blaze Leo’s another top player,” I explained to her. “He’s about as powerful as SilverKungFuMagicMan and is the leader of the guild both of them belong in.”

Blaze Leo pulled out a star-point wand and pointed it to the sky.

“Skill On, Meteor Shower!”

I don’t really have to tell you what the magic skill, Meteor Shower, does, do I? It basically summons fiery meteorites to rain down from the sky onto the heads of the caster’s enemies. The new batch of monsters had barely been born before they were utterly wiped out in grand fashion. Those explosions were just as big and loud as the ones that SilverKungFuMagicMan did.

As we watched this umpteenth slaughter of monsters, LOWW cut in and said, “I wonder where the other members of the Seven Stars Guild are. It would be awesome of the rest of them showed up now.”

“True that,” I said. And then we did another high-five.

The Seven Stars Guild is the name of the guild that SilverKungFuMagicMan and Blaze Leo were a part of. It was said that each and every member in the guild were equal in terms of level, strength and magic power. Because of that quality of players, they’re said to be the Number One guild in the entire game.

Lotus, however, seemed no longer interested in the flashy spectacle and said, “Whatever. Can we go now? I still have to turn in the quest to the guard.”

I frowned at her in dismay, but then said, “Yeah, we should go. There’s nothing more we can do here.”

And so we left the two top players alone to hold back an army of monsters. At the end of the day, when I took a peek at the rankings list, no surprise, both SilverKungFuMagicMan and Blaze Leo were neck and neck at the top ten with rapidly climbing triple digit numbers. The numbers, of course, measured how much monsters they each defeated.

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