Andromeda

Countless thoughts were spinning around Yuki’s head. He had been on the verge of death, told that he was an heir to some land that he did not know existed, had sealed powers like what he saw displayed before and brought back to life with no scratches. Even with Saki’s attempts at distraction was not enough to pull Yuki up from his deep pensive expression pulling him away from reality. He was pretty sure that he heard Ayumi speaking, but all he could hear any more was a dull noise as though he was underwater. Reality was fantasy and fantasy was reality now and nothing made any sense to him. Yuki began to walk forward leaving the two girls behind making it to the other corner of the school before they realized.

“Hey, Yuki!” Saki said interrupting Ayumi in an explanation that was meant for Yuki. The two of them rushed after Yuki catching up to him quickly, but it was hardly that difficult seeing as he was barely walking. “Yuki? Ayumi saying something important I think.” Saki stood in front of him putting her hands on his shoulders to stop him seeing that he was not listening to her from behind. “You need to listen. I don’t understand everything going on right now, but this sounds serious.” Yuki turned his head away darkening the shadow over his eyes making Saki pull her head back a little confused. She would have thought this would be exactly what he would want with how much his head was in the clouds about his manga.

Yuki lifted up his left arm pushing her arm away with his and stepped around her. “We’ve got class soon. Lunch is almost over.” His voice was almost too quiet to hear as he started walking again.

‘What’s wrong with him? He looks so depressed, but why?’ Worry was transmuted to frustration and Saki turned around to yell at his back. “What’s wrong with you, Yuki?! Isn’t this what you wanted? Isn’t this what you dreamed about?” The quiet back of Yuki was enough to make her leap forward to roughly take Yuki’s wrist so that he was forced to stay. She was not going to let him go. “Answer me!”

His arm was shaking up through his shoulder and back for a reason that could not be clearly understood, even by Yuki. He angled his head over his shoulder in a quick snap narrowly looking at Saki. “What wrong with you, Saki? How can you accept this unquestioningly? You see one magic trick and suddenly you believe!”

Saki leaned back in surprise dropping her mouth open, but retained her tight grip on him. ‘Yuki…this isn’t like you…’ She did not want to believe it, but she could not lie to her eyes. “How can you not?! That man tried to KILL YOU!”

“I won’t! This has nothing to do with me. Leave me alone!”

“Yuki!”

“Shut up!” Yuki shouted loud enough to petrify the two girls. He ripped his hand free from Saki still iron locked hand and marched off leaving the two girls dazed for a moment. Yuki disappeared into the school with a solitude wind brushing by the two in silence.

Chapter 8 – Shouting Silence

“Oh that Yuki! I’m going to kill him for treating this like its nothing!” Saki tried to go after him, but found that Ayumi was holding her back.

Ayumi looked a little embarrassing and sweating at the thought. “I don’t think killing him is going to make him listen to the danger he is in.”

“Grrrr…I guess you’re right.” Saki sighed out loud and stopped pressing forward to lean against the school wall. She looked down at her feet hearing Yuki’s words echo through her mind. ‘What’s going on? There is something else that is nagging at him. But what?’ The ground did not offer any answers for her, but she was not ready to return to class yet with what she saw from Yuki.

“Hey, finally found you, Saki!” Hiroshi said running up accompanied by Yumi and their other friends. “You found Ayumi I see. What did you say to Yuki?” There was little transition for him with only the turning of his head into Ayumi’s face with a frighteningly looking face. Ayumi was startled by Hiroshi falling backwards landing on her butt nearly looking like she was ready to cry as Hiroshi leaned. She pulled back drawing her arms in around her chest and face frightened by the silent interrogation from Hiroshi. “Well?”

“I-I…um…” The scary face was suddenly disfigured by a sneaker across Hiroshi’s cheek sending him flying into the iron fence leaving lined bruises along his back. Hiroshi was left twitching and stuttering as their friends went to check on him. “Oh dear! I-Is he going to be alright?” Ayumi said with her hand up close to her mouth staring in surprise at Hiroshi.

Saki leaned down offering a hand up for the new girl. “Don’t worry about him. He might not be a resilient as Yuki, but I’ve toughened him up.” She flexed her free arm tightening her fist to illustrate her point.

“Toughened me up?! Is that what you call this abuse?!” Hiroshi charged Saki’s position glaring into her face as they began to press foreheads together and growling at the other.

While they were fighting Yumi stepped forward fidgeting with her hands looking like she was trying to say something. Ayumi had nearly a mirrored stance though appearing to be worried about what was happening behind Yumi. Hiroshi and Saki continued to bark and yell pulling at the other with whatever happened to be close. The two shy girls remained unable to speak more than two letters for an entire minute.

Eventually, the lack of progress by Ayumi and Yumi to actually make a line of conversation had finally gotten through to Saki and Hiroshi that they broke their fighting to yell of the both of them. “If you got something to say speak up!” Yelling sadly did not improve their speech only making them clam up even tighter and cling on to other in panic.

“Hey, Hiroshi there’s a crater back here!” one of their friends said looking around the school building and waving the others to look. Saki and Ayumi looked at the other with wide eyes and panic. Minutes of plans ran through their minds in the seconds that poured out as Hiroshi was being pulled away.

‘I’ve got to think of something or they will have even more questions. Need a plan. Something else.’ However, Saki heard Yumi suddenly scream with a flushed face and fall to the ground. She looked up to Ayumi getting a confirmation that this was a part of her plan. It made sense to her that it was going to have to be Ayumi that cleaned things up. “Hiroshi! Yumi fainted help me get her to the nurse’s office.”

“What?! Alright. What’s wrong?”

Hiroshi rushed up to Saki with him pulling in their friends. Saki began to pull up Yumi with Hiroshi’s aid. Ayumi disappeared on them in the confusion and Saki guided them away. She looked over her shoulder once seeing some light behind them knowing that Ayumi must be fixing things back up. ‘I nearly forgot who she was. She changes so quickly from being serious and confident to being shy and weak. Amazing…’

Lunch was finally over and Yumi returned back to class later with the nurse unable to figure out a reason for her fainting other than stress. Yumi could not answer clearly what happened and when Saki inquired from Ayumi about what she did Ayumi was mysterious. Saki could only let it go at this point knowing that it managed to fix matters so complaining was not going to help. Throughout the rest of class Yuki had remained silent, but attentive to the teachers. Which was an odd occurrence for the number one daydreamer of class 3-A. Saki continued to watch him throughout the day trying to understand what was going on in his mind.

Class was over with the sounding bell and students were quickly pushing their way out of the class to their after school clubs or activities. Yuki was given special exception to the requirement of being a part of club due to his family situation. Saki had track today and was not going to be able to talk to Yuki any further. She walked over to his desk as he was putting his books away in his bag. Her head was hanging low on her with the ground in view rather than Yuki. “Umm…about-“

Yuki stood up abruptly from his desk with the noise being enough to interrupt Saki. He turned away from her and walked to the back door of the classroom leaving without a word. Saki had her hand out trying to grab him, but he was out of reach the entire time. She did not know what she was going to do with Yuki. This entire incident must have been weighing on him, this she knew, but she had not seen him act like this for nearly a year. ‘It’s almost like back then…I hope he’s not regressing.’

“Hey Saki! Senpai is calling for us. Better hurry!” one of her track teammates said from the hall through the doorway.

It was barely enough to break her free from her thought. “Oh? I’m coming. Sorry!” She ran back for the rest of her things and ran out of the classroom with the fog in her head still hanging thickly around.

The walk back for Yuki was somewhat quiet as other students passed by him in his slow paced walk. Everyone seemed to be cheerful laughing at jokes, but it only made Yuki feel a heavier weight on his shoulders. He could not think about anything it felt like he was empty inside with nothing more than a shell of a body that moved. It had been like that through class. He knew that there were more than enough things for him to be thinking about, but none of it wished to be considered. Nothing made any sense to him and he needed to understand, but it was not allowing him the time. ‘It’s so quiet inside. It’s driving me crazy that I can’t think. Not even dream…’ He roughed up his hair in frustration restraining him from screaming out loud and looking like an idiot.

He suddenly turned his head over his shoulder getting the strange sense that there was someone behind him. It was Ayumi to his pain rather than a stranger. He pulled himself around, reluctantly, to face her. “Following me home? Protecting me?” Yuki crossed his arms with his bag still in hand.

“Yes, I am protecting you. That’s not all. I have-“

“Shut up! You’re just a stalker. Go away.” Yuki turned away from Ayumi and resumed walking up the side of the street. Unfortunately, Ayumi was still following behind him at his pace and he was quick to pick up on it. “Leave me alone, Stalker.”

“I live in this direction as well.” She closed the distance between them coming up along his side, but looked forward. The mood that he was in made it clear to her that he did not want to see her, but she figured that the nagging feeling behind was more annoying than being at the side.

Yuki stopped and turned to her only getting more annoyed by her presence. “You’ve got to be kidding me! Why do you think I would possibly believe that? I know for a fact that there are no houses that are open on my street, except for the Kitayama’s and no one wants to buy it because of all the strange stories about them being involved with the Yazuka or the Triad or whatever.”

“The neighbors said something about that. I didn’t know what they meant.”

“What?! You can’t be serious…” Yuki said as his voice trailed off at the end as he remembered his sister saying something about movers last night over dinner. He began to slouch over nearly dragging his bag along the street. ‘Why does she have to torment me?’

“Well I can’t very well keep an eye on you if I’m not nearby.”

“You really are a stalker…” He marched on with a heavy blue gloom hanging over him until he ran into street barricade that knocked him flat on his back. Yuki blinked in confusion until the pain in his stomach from the barricade finally spoke up. His hands held him with one eye closed trying to get through the stinging.

Ayumi walked over to him leaning over him checking to see how he was feeling. “You alright?”

“Huh?” Yuki pushed himself up sitting on the ground looking at the barricade in front of him. “When did get placed here? It wasn’t here this morning.”

“Looks like something happened.”

Yuki stood up dusting himself off and walked around the blocked off area of the street. There were piles of a tree’s trunk cut up in the street along with a lot of sawdust. He came to a slowed pace as he stared longer at the tree. The tree was old, but it was in no means weak from what he remembered. It looked like they had cut it down for some reason. Around the edge of the street was broken glass and on the opposite side of the street the grass was filled with branches and leaves as though the tree has been resting there. Yuki walked over closer to see that the ground was pushed down a little from the impact of the tree. “This tree fell…this tree…”

“Yes, this was the tree that you-“

“Shut up!” Yuki ran up the street not stopping until he was on the sidewalk in front of his house. He was bent over breathing heavily. Ayumi had arrived soon after him standing next to him with that same cold expression that she wore outside of the view of the public. “Leave me alone, Stalker. This is my house. Yours is further up.”

“Indeed it is.” Ayumi walked on past Yuki quietly not further pressing the matter. Her body had disappeared into the distance and passing students.

Yuki remained standing in front of his house for several minutes as his mind finally began to accept thoughts to flow. The quiet void had been replaced with a loud train station. It was almost deafening making him wish for the void nearly. There were too many questions and thoughts passing through him that he could not keep anything straight in his mind for longer than a second. He did not know what he was going to do. Finally, he took a step and reached his house eventually. “I’m home!” he said subconsciously.

“Yuki!” Ken said with Jun at his side as they arrived at the door to greet him. “Welcome home!” They attempted to latch on to him but found that he was slippery today and only collided into each other falling amongst the shoes. Yuki disappeared upstairs before they realized their mistake and closed the door quietly.

The room felt noisy even though he knew that it was only his head. He dropped his school bag on the ground and fell down on his bed burying his face in his pillow. The events of lunch played through his mind and the story from Ayumi. ‘Heir…assassins…power…none of it makes any sense…but even still…’ Every image spiraled around him refusing to let him ignore it. All his concentration was focused inward on this. He had nearly died today and was unable to do anything about it. There was something larger than him pulling him into a world that he did not understand and he was not sure if he wanted to accept it.

Saki seemed to have quickly taken it all in without a single question of it. Yuki did not understand why she did not freak out about what happened. She acted like it was an everyday occurrence and yet he was one that dreamed of these things happened. It was him that could not accept it. ‘Am I so ground in fantasy that I can’t believe it to be reality? What is it?’ His thoughts spun around trying to think about it from different angles, but the more that he focused on it the more he was starting to realize that there was something else holding him back even deeper.

“Hey, Yuki!” Momoko shouted from the side of Yuki’s bed nearly in his ear.

It was enough to throw him to the ceiling and drop him back down on his bed face up frizzled. “Why you yelling?”

“Because you fell asleep. Now get moving downstairs and help me with dinner.”

“Asleep?” Yuki looked around his room and then the window seeing that it was dark out. He stretched out his arms and back realizing quickly that she was correct. “Why you need my help?”

“I had to stay late for class and I have work in thirty minutes. So you need to help if we’re going to have a meal in time. Now out of bed!” Momoko grabbed Yuki by his ear in his protests and brought him to his feet. She waited until he was in front of him and moving to the stairs before she started out of his room.

“I can’t believe I have to help with dinner…” Yuki said slouching over again a little. He could see his little brothers running around the first floor of the house playing some game. All he wanted to do was sit in a corner and do nothing, but his sister was not going to let him. She began to drag him by the arm into the kitchen when he suddenly slipped on a pool of water bringing Momoko down with him.

Momoko crashed against the wall of the stairs alerting Jun and Ken. Yuki was still stunned by what happened, but Momoko was already getting to her feet. “Yuki…watch your step…next time…” Her voice trailed off almost not finishing her sentence.

Yuki rubbed his head in pain feeling his back crawl in needles as well. “Well make sure you clean up Ken’s messes then.” He slowly pulled himself up shaking his head still feeling uneasy from lunch. His hand was pressed in the pool of cold water and when he realized this he brushed it against his school uniform to dry it. When he looked at his hand to check if it was not any worse he saw that it was stained red. From above him a red drop fell into his palm drawing his head and gaze up. His eyes drew out wide and his pupil’s shrank in horror and surprise. “Blood? On the ceiling?”

“It’s everywhere!” Ken said jumping up and down in an expanding pool of blood nearby them. He did not understand what it was only finding it to be a similar to water after it rained and just as fun.

Momoko and Yuki looked around the house confirming for themselves that the house was being covered in blood for no apparent reason. Yuki could see panic slowly wash over Momoko as he stood up and watched her run for Ken and Jun. Yuki watched paralyzed as every surface was slowly engulfed in blood. Once all was crimson the ceiling above him suddenly gave way filling them up to their knees in a pool of blood. It felt like it was crawling on him and soaking through his skin. His paralyzed body could not move and his mind was empty screaming through his mouth that would not budge. All that Yuki could do was shake in uncontrollable horror as his house was pulled part.

All that remained in their house was the first floor walls now as all of the furniture had fallen apart as well anything above them. The cloudy night sky with thin rays from the moon poured down on him tinting the blood an eerie color. Blood filled up to their necks finally gave out with the walls collapsing spilling countless gallons of blood into the yard and street. The sight was the same next to them as there was nothing, but a field of blood on everything. The neighbor’s house was falling apart in a bloodied mess accompanied by screaming.

A heavy splash like the sound of a foot echoed through the area into Yuki’s ear. The paralysis ended, but he collapsed to the ground in fear as every muscle in his body that had been tensed relaxed letting him go free. His mind was empty, but his body understood all too well. All he could do was sweat and shake violently making ripples in the blood. “Yuki Hayashi...”

To be continued…