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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