Chapter 5
Yuna and I followed Isaneko's gaze to the fat utility pole at the side of the road. From behind, a girl around our age stepped out.
"Damn it," she swore. "How'd you know I was here?"
Astonished, I blinked and asked, "Kyouko? What are you doing here?"
Kyouko scowled and said, "That's Miss Azamume to you. Only my friends call me by my first name. And last I checked, you and I are not friends."
Kyouko was Yuna's cousin through their moms. They used to be something like childhood friends, but then had a falling out some time ago and she showed up last summer to bully and play really mean pranks. Somehow, somewhere I wasn't there, they patched things up and became friends again. I don't know how that happened. But as long as everyone was happy, I wasn't going to question it. So now they're close friends. Although the way Kyouko sometimes showed that friendship could be questionable.
Oh, yeah. I nearly forgot to mention it, but Kyouko is also a power user, one who can make herself invisible to people. She doesn't technically turn invisible. Her actual power is Perception Manipulation, meaning she just telepathically messes with people's brains so they can't see her. I'm the only one that power won't work on thanks to my Psy-Armor blocking out whatever rays she sends out from her own cranium.
After snapping at me, Kyouko whirled over to Isaneko and said, "Again, how'd you know I was here? I should have been invisible, and it didn't look like Oota noticed me. It's not like you got me on GPS tracking. Or do you?"
A huge smile spread on Isaneko's face. She didn't say anything, but it was all the answer Kyouko (and really, me too) needed.
"Seriously?" she said. "You got me on GPS tracking?"
Isaneko's big smile got bigger and she showed us all her phone which had a map displayed on its screen. There were dots on the map at certain stretch of road that matched the number of people standing at our spot.
I blinked. "Is that us? Wait, you're tracking me and Yuna too!?"
Both Yuna's and Kyouko's jaws dropped.
"How?" asked Kyouko. "Since when?"
Isaneko impishly lifted a finger over her lips and said, "That is a secret. But I must say, you have very interesting hobbies for a member of the Azamume family."
The Azamume family, which Kyouko's a part of, is another big psychic family. Although, from what I know, they live at another town pretty far away from here.
Color drained from from Isaneko's face and she stammered, "W-w-whatever d-d-do you mean?"
In faux innocence, Isaneko tilted her head sideways and said, "Why, just two weeks ago on Saturday, you - "
Kyouko cut in and in a panic, yelled, "Ah! Ah!"
I exchanged looks with Yuna and wondered to myself, "What did she do two weeks ago?"
I must have said my thoughts out loud, because Kyouko suddenly whirled around at me and snapped, "It's none of your business!"
I was a bit taken aback, but quickly recovered and asked again, "What are you doing here, anyway? Is it okay for you to be so far out of town right now?"
"My school's closed tomorrow for its Founders Day," Kyouko explained. "And if you really must know, I heard about the new Piper that's running around and got worried about Yuna. So I thought I'd check in on her to see how she was doing."
"So you're stalking her again," I said.
"I am NOT a stalker!" she shouted back in dismay. "And what did you mean by 'again'?"
"Well, you did do a lot of stalking during summer vacation," Isaneko pointed out.
"Oh, don't you start too!" Kyouko snapped at her.
While me, Isaneko and Kyouko had our back and forth about her stalking, Yuna rapidly typed on her phone and then played its sound, "I appreciate your concern. Thank you, Kyouko."
Yuna's modest display of gratitude was enough to flip Kyouko's mood and while beaming, said, "You're very welcome, Yuna. And don't you worry. You'll be safe as long as I'm around. If that Piper or whatever ever dares to come for you, I'll teach him a lesson he'll never forget. He won't know what hit him, literally."
"Argh!"
"Yeah, like that," said Kyouko. "Wait, what was that?"
After hearing a guy's yell, we all looked around, wondering where it came from. I heard more yelling coming from down south, or at least where I thought south was and pointed.
"I think it's coming from over there," I said. "Sounds like there are guys fighting."
"Ugh!" Kyouko groaned. "Must be another Soushu-Yamimura dispute. Seriously, this has been going on for so long already. I'm surprised they haven't gotten tired of it yet."
"I don't know," said Isaneko. "That doesn't sound like just any old fight. It sounded more like - "
"Die! Die! Die!"
"Someone's trying to kill someone!" I cried.
I immediately took off running. My feet carried me down the road which split two directions at the end. I went down left and rushed straight until I finally found the source of all that shouting.
A dreadful sight awaited me. A guy dressed in black leather was swinging a long drainpipe up and down onto another guy wearing the same school uniform as me. The guy with the pipe had on a black motorcycle helmet which completely hid away his features.
I had horrible flashbacks to a time, not too long ago, when I encountered another man dressed just like him. It was pretty clear who and what I had run into: it was the new Piper attacking a new victim.
Blood rushed to my head and I shouted, "Hey! Leave him alone!"
The Piper stopped and turned, distracted just enough for his victim to spring up and retaliate with a vengeance.
To my surprise, the victim turned out to be someone I knew. It was Yamimura (sometimes known as Yamimura of Yamimura from Yamimura). He was a tall, rough-looking guy with an intimidating presence, usually surrounded by underlings.
Yamimura threw a left hook against the side of the Piper's helmet hard enough to send him flying away. The space around his fist rippled as if covered by a heat distortion (the telltale signs of psychic energy). He was a psychokinetic user like me.
The Piper crashed into the wall at the other side of the road and fell down. But he quickly got back up, albeit a bit wobbly, and looked at me. He then looked at Yamimura before finally turning his gaze down to the drainpipe that miraculously never left his hand.
He decided to abandon his weapon by throwing it at Yamimura before fleeing.
Yamimura took off after him, angrily shouting, "OI! GET BACK HERE!"
I hesitated and wondered if I should join the chase. Knowing Yamimura and seeing that he was okay, I figured he got this covered. But neither got very far when Kyouko suddenly appeared in front of the Piper and swung her right arm out, hitting him with a lariat.
The Piper went crashing down on his back and then received a merciless stomp to the gut beneath Kyouko's black loafer. He lurched up once and then dropped down limp.
Even with the helmet covering his, it was easy to tell that he was out cold. But that didn't stop Yamimura from rushing towards him, grab him by the front of his jacket, and lift him up while swearing.
"You damn - !"
"Yamimura, wait!" I cried.
I didn't like where this was going and pulled him away from the Piper. He shook me off and snapped, "Don't try and stop me! This guy tried to kill me!"
"I know!" I shouted back. "But if you keep this up, you could end up being the killer instead!"
Yamimura and I locked eyes for probably a good minute or so. And in that time, his breathing calmed and his face softened as his rage gradually left. Slowly he backed away, gave his fallen attacker one final look before turning away.
As for me, I was bewildered by what I had just done. On my own initiative, I met a scary guy's rage head on. Even though this is me I'm talking about, it was just too hard to believe I actually did that.
Finally, Kyouko spoke up.
"You guys finally done?" she asked.
Yamimura looked at her funny and then fired back a question of his own. "What the hell is the heiress of the Azamume family doing here? Don't tell me . . ."
Kyouko cut him off and said, "Relax, Yamimura. I was just here to visit a friend. The Azamume are staying clear away of whatever clown show your family and the other two got going on."
And then she turned around and waved. I could see Yuna and Isaneko lingering back up the road. Yuna waved back in response.
"Visiting a friend, huh?" Yamimura muttered.
"Uh . . ." I went. "Do you two know each other?"
"You could say that," Yamimura said. "We met a few times at some fancy dinner parties."
That probably astonished me the most that day. Yamimura, at dinner parties?
Yamimura scowled and said, low and annoyed, "Oi. What's that face for? You trying to say something, punk? Like I don't belong in a dinner party?"
I frantically shook my head in denial and stammered, "N-n-n-no!"
I was really grateful when Kyouko cut in again.
"Ahem!" she loudly went. "Moving on, since we're all here, why don't we see who's under that mask?"
She reached down for the Piper's helmet.
"Careful there, Kyouko," I cautioned. "You don't know when he might wake up."
But Kyouko waved off my concern and retorted, "Oh, relax. Nothing's gonna happen. Even if this guy does wake up, I'll just knock him back out."
With that said, she reached for the helmet and yanked it off.
"It's . . . Yeah, I have no idea who that is."
Underneath the motorcycle helmet was the face of a gaunt man with sunken cheeks and a big nose. He looked a few years older than us and wore a twisted, pained look. The latter was no surprise after what Kyoko did to him.
"I do," Yamimura said, looking grimly down at the man. And then he let out a long, really exasperated sigh. "I was afraid of this. That's Michioka, a big critic of my family and a bigger supporter of the Soushu family."
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