Andromeda

The scene around the fallen tree continued to develop with more people gathering at the site drawn in by curiosity and an already large crowd formed. Most of the students began passing through to reach their school. Left a short distance away from the street a figure in the shadows of the tree watched carefully of the events. A slow grin pulled up on their lips as though they understood and were pleased. They faded into the shadows without drawing attention leaving the confused neighbors to figure out what to do next.

Chapter 2 – Transfer Student

“You can stop pulling my arm, Yuki,” Saki said before she ripped free from the Yuki’s hold easily and taking her wrist into her hand. She rubbed it a little feeling that it was no worse for wear.

Yuki turned back a little surprised looking at his hand that had been holding on to Saki. “Sorry, Saki. Thought you want to get to school quickly.” He gave her a slight smirk in his tease before walking again to let her catch up.

She quickly sprinted forward to be at his side looking a little cross at him. “Says the one with his head in the clouds. Honestly Yuki, you can’t stay with one thing long enough.” Saki gave him a little shove as she put her hands behind her back walking with him to the school entrance. Yuki grinned back a little not losing his balance too long.

The front gate of Monou High School had a large iron gate pulled in resting on the slide waiting for it to be moved. A brick wall ten feet in height covered the gate and spanned a short length of the school grounds before changing into iron fence. There was even spacing of brick columns that connected and fastened each section of fence. Behind the fence was the school itself with a long cement pathway leading to the front door surrounded by grass and trees for its yard. A narrow pathway forked at each side of the main path disappearing into the distance at the building’s boundaries. The building was three floors with a smaller fourth floor that was stopped at the building’s divide where it pulled in narrowing itself to expand further at length. Smaller buildings were hidden behind the main school used for clubs and the gym classes with the large field for track and sports.

The school grounds were already filled with students when Saki and Yuki arrived. A few were milling around outside speaking to each other enjoying the late spring weather and looking forward to changing into their summer uniforms with the temperatures already getting warm. Most though packed the halls inside putting their shoes away speaking and generally crowding the entrance.

Saki went to her side pulling out her loafers and leaving her street shoes inside to meet with Yuki on the other side wading through the sea of students. Yuki had pushed on ahead to get out of the heavy crowd unable to reach Saki waiting where he was. While he was walking through he bumped into a couple students accidentally causing them to losing what they were holding. Yuki apologized to them as he continued on.

When Saki had finally managed to pull herself free of the mob she looked everywhere for Yuki, but he was nowhere in her sight. She had thought that he was close by, but she started to push students aside becoming a little worried. ‘I know I saw him go this way. Where is he?’ Saki continued to look and lift herself up on the tips of her toes trying to look over the crowd. “Yuki! Yuki?” There were no replies to her call forcing her through more. Once she made it out of the students into more breathable halls distant noise could finally be heard.

Saki turned her head in the direction becoming alerted immediately to a gang of boys surrounding a frightened Yuki on the floor. The boys were staring at him looking like they were ready to hurt him and Yuki was doing nothing. Saki narrowed her face in anger and charged down the hall looking at the boy on the end bringing her elbow to bear on him unaware. She braced her outstretched elbow with other hand giving it a little extra strength as it connected with the back of the boy’s neck sending his body tumbling down the hall to crash into the hallway wall harshly cracking it. The charge attack left her standing over Yuki staring down the other three boys who were still agape by what just happen to their friend with Yuki included.

“Saki! What are you-“ Yuki started to speak, but was immediately cut off with Saki arms spread out becoming a wall between them.

“No, Yuki. They were bullying you.” Saki had her head turned partially to look down at Yuki from the corner of her eye. She refocused back to the boys staring at them. “You think just because he’s weaker you can pick on him. You aren’t touching him!” She watched the three remaining boys carefully to see what they would do next. Her body was prepared for them to try to go through her.

The boy in the middle pushed his friends back a step meeting with Saki evenly. “Your friend down there knocked our things on the floor. He needs to respect the upperclassmen.” He pressed forward a little more not concerned with the girl that was trying to protect a helpless boy. It was more insulting to him than anything else at the moment.

“I assume he apologized to you,” Saki said looking at them as the other two crossed looked with each other in silent recollection before they agreed with her. “Then you have no business bullying him. Go on to your class.”

The other boys were content to leave it be feeling uncomfortable with the stance that Saki was taking with them. She was unaffected by being surrounded and the look in her eyes said that she was actually holding herself back from fighting. However, the upperclassman in the middle was not so easily swayed by her words and even less by her appearance. “This is between us, get out of our way!” He grabbed Saki at the shoulder throwing her aside to the floor a few feet away while he leaned down towards Yuki. “Now that your little girlfriend is out of the way…”

The moments ticked away from that instant with a vein popping along Saki’s forehead in anger. It followed that the two boys noticed Saki rising from the floor in flaming anger for being toss aside. They quickly turned blue paralyzed with fear from seeing what was boiling from Saki with the other boy not taking notice. The two began to sweat and quickly back away from Yuki as Saki charged in at the remaining one with her knee raised in a mid-air leap from her well toned legs strong enough to run the hundred meters in less than eleven seconds. Her knee connected with the boy’s half turned body in the last seconds when he realized what was happening. While she had hoped for the face the chest settled well enough for her as he flew through the hall past students with girls holding down their skirts in surprise. The boy faded into the wall at the end as students nearby gathered in confusion.

Saki came to a sliding rest on the floor watching with aggressive eyes at the three other boys fleeing from the hall to aid their probably unconscious friend. “Hrmph, weak boys.” She turned back to Yuki leaving the students to begin idle chatter again or whisper in awe of what had happened. “Yuki? You alright?” Saki offered a friendly hand to Yuki.

Yuki looked down at the floor letting his hair slide in front a little over his face darkening his features. “I’m sorry, Saki.” He did not give any more of a reason to Saki beyond those short words.

She left her hand out confused by Yuki words. There was an idea what he was meaning, but she still had to ask him. “Why are you apologizing to me? You have nothing to be sorry for. They were the ones in the wrong not you.” Saki knelt down to Yuki seeing that he was still not convinced to move. She worked to make their eyes meet preventing him from looking away. “Yuki…what’s wrong?”

He tried to pull away from Saki, but she was stubborn and strong making it difficult for him. It left him to give up hiding away from her and confront what was bothering him. “You’re always saving me. I feel like a burden.”

“Is that it?” Saki said with a smile grabbing Yuki by the hands at his wrist and forcing him up, which happened to be an easy task with the little resistance he was putting up now. Once Yuki was standing straight again she let him go and then looked him in the eye once more leaning in heavily to make her point. “We made a promise. You don’t need to feel sorry about it. End of discussion.”

“Yeah…but Saki…”

“No ‘but’s’.” She scowled at him for a moment immediately stopping anymore debates that he was going to have on the matter. Saki cheered up the moment later grabbing him by the arm and pulling him down the hall. “Good, class is starting soon.”

“Saki…” he said softly while being nearly carried to his class. Yuki hung his head for a while thinking about it silently. ‘We made a promise,’ Saki said. It was a promise, but he still felt bad for it to be happening. He got into trouble so frequently from the students either in school or outside. They seemed to find him with no trouble and it was Saki that would show up. It had only been a couple months since starting high school, but the students were beginning to learn not to mess with her. She had developed a rather frightening reputation around school leaving even some girls afraid of her at times. ‘Why…why…’

Saki flung the door to their class 3-A open hard letting it slam against the stopper in the tracks. She had an over-exaggerated smile on her face that was obviously compensating for something. When they looked at Yuki blue gloom it was pretty clear the reason. She plopped Yuki down in his seat taking her spot in front of him still trying to dispel Yuki’s mood.

When she turned around to look at him he stared back at her with a surprisingly pleasant expression on his face. It made her façade crumble a little as she slid back into her seat completely. She often forgot how quickly Yuki’s moods seemed to change usually changing back to the happy pleasant expression he had now. It made it all the more unsettling for her knowing his past as she did. ‘Well at least he is over it now.’

The classroom slowly filled in with the remaining students until Ms. Kuniyoshi, the teacher, arrived walking through the doorway taking her place at the front of the room with a freshly cleaned chalkboard behind her. As usual the class was still murmuring between each other while she took her place. She lined up her things by dropping them on their edge creating an even enough noise to echo through the room and be her traditional signal that homeroom was starting. The class came to a slow hush waiting to hear from the teacher. “Alright, listen up. Today we have a new student joining our class.” Hearing the word of a new student was enough to start everyone talking again speculating on everything that they could in the minute that the teacher allowed before she was tired of their interruption. “Quiet! I expect you to be welcoming and nice to her she comes from America, so she won’t be used to all of our customs.”

Once more the students began speaking, this time Ms. Kuniyoshi was stepping out of the room so they were not going to get into trouble for being too loud. “A new student and a girl too.”

“I know can you believe it.”

“What’s so special about an American girl?”

“I wonder what she likes?”

“Oh come on, she’s a foreigner. You know all foreigners are hot.”

“Shut up! Boys and their dirty minds.”

“Really.”

“Say that again!”

Saki turned around to see what Yuki was thinking, but he seemed to already be in the clouds again. She pulled out her pencil case from her bag and whapped him on the head to clear his fantasies out. “Hey Yuki, welcome back to Japan. Don’t want to give the new student a bad impression on her first day.”

Yuki closed his right eye feeling a little sting on his head while he rubbed his hair with his hand. “Hey, what you do that for? New student? When?” He looked around the class not seeing any faces that did not look familiar, but most of them were not common to him leaving it seem like a moot point for him. Yuki stood up out of his chair to try to get a better look of the classroom wondering if the student might be hiding out of sight or even possibly some really tall student was blocking them. “I don’t see them. Where are they?”

Saki slid down in her seat a little slapping her forehead realizing that Yuki must have been already zoning out when the teacher first began speaking. ‘It’s amazing that he has decent grades with his lack of focus.’ When she saw him standing up embarrassing himself in front of the class a bit of sweat dropped from her head. Saki attempt to reach for Yuki before Ms. Kuniyoshi came back in, but it was too late for that.

The new student walked in behind Ms. Kuniyoshi keeping a little to the back near the wall. Ms. Kuniyoshi looked narrowly at Yuki who was still too oblivious to realize what was going on. A small vein popped on her forehead before she restrained herself some to yell at Yuki. “Yuki Hayashi, sit down!”

“I was just looking for the new student, Ms. Kuniyoshi,” Yuki said not affected or acknowledging the seriousness in her voice, which case it was difficult to tell. He continued to turn his head around the room seeking blindly still not picking up on the front of the classroom. The other students lightly laughed or giggled to themselves.

Ms. Kuniyoshi cleared her throat working on keeping herself in check with Yuki. “I’m glad you’re concerned about your new classmate, but she is next to me. So you can sit down now.” She pointed behind her looking back to find that she was suddenly no longer there. Ms. Kuniyoshi turned around quickly searching the entire front of the room until she found the girl on her right now rather than her left when she entered. A sigh of relief was exhaled relieved that she was not losing it and she knocked her books against the table again to bring the class to attention.

Yuki had finally sat down with it difficult to tell if he was embarrassed or not for being called out by the teacher and everyone laughing at him. Saki could only sink in her chair a little more fearing for how the rest of the day would go. Ms. Kuniyoshi pulled out chalk from the short shelf that ran at the bottom of the chalkboard writing the new student’s name up on the board while all of the students still worked to get a clear view of the new girl. When she was done it read “Ayumi Nishimura” making it clear to them that she was Japanese, in spite of being from America. “Don’t be afraid Nishimura. Introduce yourself.” She stepped out of the way of Ayumi leaving her to be exposed to the class.

“She doesn’t look Japanese,” a student whispered.

“Yeah, you sure that she is?”

“But her name.”

“Maybe she was in America too long.” The last comment, while quiet, made a few of them laugh. They were silently told by the teacher glaring over Ayumi at them causing the ones being disruptive to become very still.

The new student seemed very quiet and shy holding her hands tightly together as she looked cautiously around the room. Ayumi turned her head back staring at Ms. Kuniyoshi for assistance to be freed from speaking, but found no comfort from her. She hung her head viewing the tiled floor at her feet. She pulled her head back up and pushed back the stray strands of her black hair to slide behind her ear and to just above the small of her back. Her green eyes open brightly signaling life in her. “My…name is…Ayumi Nishimura,” Ayumi said softly barely carrying her voice past the couple rows of students.

Ms. Kuniyoshi waited long enough to see if Ayumi had anymore further to add, but Ayumi remained quiet. She stepped forward leaning over Ayumi to get a look at her face. “You have anymore to add?” Ayumi held her lips sealed simply shaking her head. “Well it seems that Ayumi is a little shy. You may take the empty seat behind Hayashi.” She pointed the desk out to her so that she would be clear. “And Hayashi don’t show her your weird side, got it?”

Yuki rubbed the back of his head with his hand innocently laughing looking like he did not know what she meant. He understood well enough what the teacher was driving at, but did not want to acknowledge it openly. ‘Always picking on me. She never quits.’ Ayumi picked up her bag slowly walking down the aisle until crossing eyes with Yuki. He suddenly felt something through his body and under his skin like he had only experienced in his dreams. He could not place it, but her eyes seemed to be talking to him as though they were familiar. Yuki felt sweat building over his hands and arms as the feeling grew. But in the next second Ayumi was continuing on politely smiling to him sending another message to him. This time it was contradicting the last. Yuki turned his head looking at her out of the corner of his eye confused. ’What was that look she gave me? And that smile… What’s going on?’

To be continued…