Andromeda

“Ayumi?” Yuki said looking at the distant almost vacant look in Ayumi’s eyes after Fumiko had left them. There seemed to be a reddish glow in her face that Yuki was having a little trouble understanding for a moment. He put his hand out on her shoulder hoping that it would snap her out of the trance that she was in now.

It mostly seemed to work making Ayumi initially blink and then step back a little like she was not expecting to see someone in front of her. “What are you looking at?” The softer features of Ayumi were washed away almost immediately to be revealed as the cold calculating expression that appeared under the surface, so easily forgot.

“Well you were zoning out ever since Fumiko was standing near you and even after she left. You feeling alright?” Yuki stepped in closer to Ayumi, but she backed away from him.

She looked at him a little suspiciously not certain why Yuki was acting in a strange manner towards her. “I’m fine, why wouldn’t I be?” When Yuki tried to reach out a hand to help Ayumi she slapped it away looking insulted. “Just because I let a bunch of immature boys near me, doesn’t mean I’m helpless. I can’t be revealing myself.”

“Yeah I know…” Yuki thought to himself for a moment remembering her reaction. The image made him think that he might be not seeing the entire picture correctly. ‘Is she being defensive?’ A change in his features became almost sly and mischievous making Ayumi’s eyes narrow only further questioning his behavior. “How come your face was so red then if you were just acting?”

“What?!” She stepped back a couple steps from Yuki being taken off guard by Yuki strange probing question. “I was just keeping with the moment.”

“Oh?” said Yuki becoming even more suspicious of what she had told him before. He was starting to believe her less and perhaps even see that there might be a human being underneath all of that cold manipulating exterior. “But you were still like that even after Fumiko left. You didn’t need to keep the façade up for us, right?”

“Huh? I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said turning away and crossing her arms.

Saki was minding her own business during most of it, but her hand was up at the side of her face thinking as Yuki was acting like a fool. There was something valid to what he was saying in spite of being as tactless as Hiroshi looking for a victim for his next joke. “You…were… Were you acting?” She had a more curious tone in her voice than one that was accusingly looking for someone to play with.

“You too?” She turned back to look at Yuki with her cold stare that would have normally frightened him into submission. However, it did not seem to be working this time as Yuki was grinning to the point of laughing almost. “If you say another word about this I’ll kill you…”

Yuki could not hold back his laughter anymore seeing how seriously that Ayumi was trying to make this just to cover up the issue. The expression that she had was too funny for him. She could not take a joke. However, Ayumi did not find it amusing and grabbed Yuki by his uniform’s jacket collar and tightened her hold quickly to make him choke while he laughed. The glare from Ayumi was firm and unmoving by anything that Yuki did making him cough himself serious in a few moments. “Alright! Alright! I’ll drop it!” He was released and stepped back to pull down his jacket to straighten it out.

Chapter 34 – Far Enough

‘Ouch…can’t take a little teasing…’ He rubbed his neck feeling the rawness that left behind from Ayumi. ‘Sort reminds me a little of Seiji.’ Yuki finished getting himself back to normal and stepped forward to Saki and Ayumi. “Still that Fumiko, is something. She was able to scare off the boys with nothing, but her glare. Huh, Saki?”

“Hmm…”

“But speak of…Saki I—“

“I’ve got practice now. I’ve got to hurry before the coach yells at me.” She ran off quickly from the two of them returning to the building leaving Yuki with his hand out and speechless.

“…Saki…” Yuki dropped his arm to his side holding his head down looking at the grass at his feet. The chances that he had been given to speak to her were both stolen away from him. He did not have any choice in what happened, but even when he tried he could not say what he wanted to her. It felt like the weight would not leave his back no matter how much he tried to strengthen his resolve.

Ayumi walked up around Yuki facing him even if he was not looking at her. “It’s time to go.” She waited for him to make a move seeing clearly enough that he was still held within his own problems. She did not want to waste much time stand around, but it could be afforded slightly. However, he was not moving even with her being patient in giving him the time that he needed to be able to settle his issues. ‘If he’s this unfocused and distracted… How is he going to be able to control his power…’ Ayumi pushed forward on Yuki getting into his space making him be forced to react even if it was only to fall back. She needed him to snap out of this if he was to move forward.

“Ayumi?” The distance between the two of them was frightening for Yuki. She was nearly touching his face with her face. He did not know what was wrong with her or why she was so close to him. This was not something that he was used to, especially from Ayumi. He was half expecting her to attack him and send him flying across the school grounds for whatever small reason that she had for doing it. When he saw that she only seemed to be getting closer to him, the serious cold stare never changing for a second, he stepped back as the unnerved feeling he was getting quickly grew in strength. “What’s the matter with you?”

“What’s the matter with you?”

“Huh?” He did not know why she was just repeating what he had asked her and it only made him shuffle away further. However, she was quickly to keep the gap short. “I asked you! You can’t just ask me like that!”

“What’s the matter with you?”

“Stop asking me that!” Yuki turned away from Ayumi feeling like running away and covering his ears up so he did not have to hear her anymore. Even though he wanted to run all he could manage was a few steps before he was stopped in his tracks.

“Running away now?” Ayumi had been able to stop him with just a few words. She needed to harden him from the emotions that he was letting run wild through his mind. They were only to cause more problems and break his focus. It was disrupting the flow of his power. Unfortunately, she knew that he needed to deal with this matter before she could lecture him too heavily on the need to separate his emotions. This was something that lingered and held with him in spite of his personality because it was with someone close to him.

‘Running away now?’ The words echoed through his mind sending a paralysis across his body that held him unable to move. ‘What’s the matter with you?’ Ayumi’s words were bouncing around in him making bring his own thoughts inward. He did not want to listen, but the voices were too loud to ignore. ‘Running away now?’

‘I don’t want to run away, but… But how can I…’ Yuki tightened his hands in to fists pouncing at his legs. It was a simple matter that he needed to just go to Saki about, but it had become something much greater as he ignored it. He thought that if he just did not think about it and return to being normal that it would just disappear. However, Saki could not let him forget as she remained quiet each day in class. She was acting in a way that Yuki did not understand, but he knew the cause only making it fester even more in him until he could not take it anymore. “I won’t run…”

“Good,” Ayumi said pleased that he managed to find his backbone. She began to walk forward towards him. “Now that is settled, let’s go—“

“I’m going to speak to Saki!”

Ayumi came to a painful stop as her knee snapped into place feeling like it was being pushed back against her leg. “What?!” She fell over into the grass unable to stand after hearing from Yuki the opposite of what she was expecting. “You can’t!” Once she was able to pull herself back together she jumped back to her feet getting around in front of Yuki.

“I will! You said not to run!”

“Well yeah, but she’s at practice. She’ll be even less approachable if you interrupt her.”

“Then I’ll wait until she’s done with practice!”

“She won’t be done for a few hours. You need to go home!”

“No, I’ve made my decision. I’m waiting on her. I can’t leave until I’ve talked to her. You can go home, though. I won’t make you wait around with me.” Yuki started to walk away from Ayumi getting around to go towards the track and field in the furthest parts of the school grounds.

“I’m going with you!” Ayumi turned and rushed to catch up with him not letting him go alone to wait.

Yuki stopped and turned toward her getting a little defensive that she was going to follow him. “What?! No! Go home! I can do this alone!”

Ayumi leaned in towards Yuki with a serious stare in her eyes. “I won’t leave you alone, even at school. It’s my job to protect you since you can’t protect yourself!”

The weight of ‘failure’ and ‘useless’ fell on him snapping his back a little nearly making him collapse to the ground. He straightened himself out looking at her with a stare that he hoped would match her in intensity. “This is a school! I don’t need protection here. Who’s going to act with so many people around that could see?”

“The first assassin did!”

He was pressed into the ground with the weight of ‘forgetful’ pressed against him. Yuki smoothed out his features seeing that he had lost and that Ayumi right. “Fine. Come along!”

Across the campus Fumiko was rushing to her club that she was pretty much late to at this point. It was not a huge issue for her to be late, being that she was the club president, but she still wanted to be there on time. Her club was a branch club of the Literary Club that met regularly during the week in a room near them. However, when Fumiko joined the Literary Club it was developing too quickly with too many members to maintain with the budget that they were provided. As a result to deal with the financial concerns it was decided to break up the club into smaller interest groups that could provide more focus for those that were only interested in a single genre or two of books.

The result was that the branch club the Fantasy Literary Club was born in addition to two others, the Classical Literary Club and the Science Fiction Literary Club. It was often that these individuals were polarized to their own interested and either had trouble showing interest or possibly even validating the other genres. So it also provided an ease in tensions between the club members with the more vocal or strong voiced students separate. It ended up being a great solution for the members as they were able to continue with that they had a passion for without causing undue stress to the Literary Club President, who was frail and weak willed to deal with the problems.

Fumiko became part of the founding of the Fantasy Literary Club and when her senior left last year, she became the president of the club. She always had a deep passion and imagination for worlds that were created in the fantasy books. The western books had a greater appeal to her than ones from Japanese authors, but it was not always easy to find translated versions of the newest books. It was often even harder to find any of the less mainstream books, which she often preferred over the often over used concepts. However, that did not stop her from reading and thoroughly enjoying them.

It was easy for her to picture in her mind the old cities and villages with the medieval like appearance. She could not help but have some respect for the old sort of chivalry that existed where it was a sword and shield that was the only protection one had. All of the technology that existed in the present day had no meaning and life was a little simpler where nature was more at one with the people. She also liked seeing a clear cut good and evil that stood across an epic landscape that she could not find in other books.

“President!” one of the male students said looking up from his book seated in front of several tables pushed together to create a large table, that would hold the ten members of the club. As Fumiko entered the students set down their books to greet her as well as a little surprised that she was late. It was common that she would be the first to arrive and usually stacked with at least four books at her place.

“I’m sorry that I was late. I ran into someone that needed some help.” She walked over to her seat at the head of the table pulling out of her pack five books from the rest dropping them on the aging table’s surface. Around the table were the other five female students and four male students. Each had a strong passion for fantasy.

“That’s our president.”

“Yeah, she’s always helping out other students.”

“Especially the underclassmen.”

“Has she always been like that?”

“Oh, right. You’re a first year. Yeah, for as long as I can remember she always comes to the aid of anyone in trouble regardless of who they are. It doesn’t matter if they are strangers or not to her.”

“How come?”


“Alright! Since we’re all here now let’s get started. There are a few matters that need to be resolved before we can get to discussions.” The members were quick to change their attention from the gossip to Fumiko as she brought them to order. The first year boy was a little confused feeling like he was missing something, but he was not going to press the matter.

The club moved from club problems into discussions on the latest book that a few of them were reading without missing a beat. Any signs of the previous discussion were erased and forgotten as they all were easily engrossed in the topic. When everyone had been given the floor to talk about whatever they wanted, so long as it was related to the club’s focus, they all divided up and went back to reading their books. At that point they were free to leave whenever they wanted. The club was only scheduled for two hours and they always used that and then some. Afterwards, they were no longer required and some usually took the time to leave before the sun was too far down. However, Fumiko and a couple others usually stayed behind forgetting about time.

As it usually happened, Fumiko was the last to leave. She typically waited until the other members left and cleaned up anything that needed it before leaving herself. This day was no exception with Fumiko closing the door to the club room behind her as she checked her bag one last time to make sure that she had everything.

Fumiko walked out of the hall and the club wing of the school going towards the front of the school. “Oh wow, I’m tired. Probably should go straight home…” She made it to the gate entrance, before she could not help but yawn. Her eyes became a little blurred, but she blinked a couple times clearing up the cloudiness that was hanging over them. “Mmm, guess more tired than I thought…huh?” As she came out of the school turning left on the sidewalk to head home she nearly ran into a little girl standing at the side of the school wall. She stepped back to try and not let her apparent and well known height become intimidating to the little girl.

She looked closely at the girl to figure out if she knew her, but it was not anyone that she had seen. The girl looked almost lost, but Fumiko was not certain if that was case. She had long black hair that was tied off into two ponytails that rested against the girl’s back in a white and red one piece dress with a large bow in front. ‘What a cute little girl…’ Fumiko knelt down in front of the girl, which still managed to make her look very tall and imposing. “Is something wrong?”

The child looked up to Fumiko with her bangs coming free that had been masking up her face a little to reveal sad nearly tearful eyes. “I’m lost. I don’t know where I am.”

“Oh! I see. Where were you trying to go?”

“I was looking for my big sister.”

“Your big sister? Where do you think she is?” Fumiko could tell that the girl was distraught from not being able to find her sister. ‘She must have been wondering around town for hours.’ There was dirt and a worn look on the girl’s body that must have been from her searching. She could not help but feel for the girl and before she even thought about it Fumiko decided that she was going to help.

The girl looked down and away for a moment, but Fumiko tried to encourage her. It was enough to make her to look back at her. “I was told she’s at this school, but it’s so big. That I-I…I-I…”

Fumiko lifted up her hand placing it on top of the little’s girl head giving her a gentle pat to comfort her. “Don’t worry. I go to this school as well. So I can find your sister. What’s her name?”

To be continued…