The remainder of the walk to the school for Yuki and Saki had been peaceful enough, once they had gotten rid of the fairy. However, Saki was forced to be on heightened alert with Yuki. Even though he seemed focused on the outside it was made clear to her that he was losing it inside. She had never seen him lose control of his power so much just on a simple walk. If it continued for them Yuki’s head would be nothing but bumps by the end of the day. ‘What’s bothering him so much? And why doesn’t he want to tell me?’

In school she had to keep Yuki concentrating in the halls. There were two near run-ins with bullies that had issues with Yuki in the past. It surprised her how easily he made enemies from just being clumsy and an easy target. The only thing that saved him that day was Saki as his escort. They were all too afraid to even consider doing anything with her presence near Yuki. While almost everyone knew that she protected Yuki from just about everything; it would still require her company with him to make others afraid. She would never understand why people would think that they could get away with it even if she was nearby, she always knew (almost as though she had radar to detect these sorts of things). ‘I wonder if Ayumi might know something about Yuki’s problem…but I haven’t seen her yet…’

Saki looked in the classroom for Ayumi hoping that she would be able to talk to her quickly before class started, but she had not arrived yet. ‘Hmm…not here yet…well she doesn’t always walk with us…just usually the days I have morning practice…’ However, she had to pay attention to Yuki who was losing control again. “Hey! Yuki! We’re in class!” She slapped him in the back of the head allowing his chair to reappear before he fell to the floor.

“…Oh! Right!” said Yuki starting to laugh sheepishly. “I’m so sorry for causing you so much trouble, Saki!” He began to bow repeatedly to her acting more apologetic with each second.

The attention got to her making her a little red in the face. “It’s fine, Yuki! I’m here for you! It’s a promise!” She forced down the embarrassment to redirect it in the hope of getting a little more out of him. The results were completely opposite of what she was expecting from Yuki.

He turned his head away suddenly having a dark shadow cast over his eyes. “…promise…”

Chapter 56 – Splitting the Dream

From across the room in his seat Hiroshi empty gaze was turned towards Yuki and Saki. He had briefly caught it, though at this point it did not even cause him to a raise an eyebrow to the fact. It almost made him nervous how easily he accepted something that could not possibly be happening. The question of his own sanity came up to him frequently, but he could only answer to himself that if he was questioning himself then he was still sane. However, none of that helped to make it any easy for him to deal. ‘…is it just another day? Then why do I feel so strangely…’

Their homeroom teacher, Ms. Kuniyoshi, arrived bringing the class to order. Hiroshi was not one to pay much attention to homeroom regardless of the day. However, he quickly began to zone out of the class fading away into his memories. He was not certain what he prompted the thought for him, but his nostalgia carried him back to his middle school days.

It was not much different for him being a first year middle school student than it was being a first year high school student. He had dealt with things in the same fashion that had known. Joking and mischief were his tools. They allowed him to get through the days without becoming bored by everything. Hiroshi managed to keep himself up barely above getting in to trouble, knowing almost uncannily when to stop (trait he always failed at with Saki).

School life dragged on for him. His behavior gained him attention, but not friends. It never really bothered him greatly since he always felt like he had someone near to him. However, during the summer term in school there had been a lot of troubles between some of the students. It had been an unusually hot and humid year putting a lot of people on edge. Tensions got to the breaking point and things quickly spiraled out of control.

During the lunch break of those summer days the entire first floor of the school was in an uproar. Hiroshi had been munching on some school bought bread looking bored when he heard a tidal wave of screams. They came from far end of the hall and distinctly girls. He poked his out of the classroom through the door catching someone running by away from the trouble. Hiroshi grabbed the boy with his free hand. “What’s going on?”

The boy looked nervous like he knew, but did not want to say. Which only made Hiroshi even more curious. A little pressure from a well placed lean and stare opened the boy’s lips, but briefly. “The girls in Class 1-E…”

“Yes…” he said pressing for even more information. The boy flipped his head back and forth down the hall looking suspicious by the moment. He then leaned in towards Hiroshi whispering to the rest of it. Upon hearing what happened Hiroshi eye’s immediately widened in surprise. “You can’t be serious! That’s enough to get you expelled!”

The boy nodded to him. “It’s true! And I saw Tatsuya Mori and Kazuhiro Nanase coming out! Everyone’s already saying that it was them!”

Hiroshi roughly let of the boy and marched off down the hall towards the screams with anger building up on his face. “There’s a line that no man should ever cross! I’ll show them where their stupid prank has taken them!” He stomped through the hall pushing everyone that got in his way. The line that had been crossed hit him so that he could not stand and do nothing. He found the two boys trying to flee from the screams only to bump into Hiroshi with the eyes of a demon staring them down. “Where do you two think you’re going!?”

“Who are you?!” Kazuhiro shouted as Hiroshi grabbed his uniform roughly to keep him from running away.

“We didn’t do anything?!” Tatsuya plead as he was restrained as well.

Normally not very strong, Hiroshi had gained a significant surge that allowed him to pin both of them against the wall. His demon eyes refused to turn away from them. “What you did was unforgivable! Do you have no pride as men?!”

“It wasn’t us!”

“Honest! I swear!”

“Disgusting you can’t even own up to what you did!” His teeth began to grind together staring at them with contempt. He pressed the two against the wall even more having difficult control his anger in front of them.

Kazuhiro began to choke and cough giving under the strain. “It wasn’t…I think it was Minori Nakano’s group!”

“Shifting blame now!?”

“Caught the creeps, Hiroshi?” said a girl behind him approaching from another classroom having heard the noise.

Having heard someone speaking to him cut off the rage that boiled in him. He looked over his shoulder to the girl and nodded. “Yeah, Sakura…I’ll take them to the principal’s office right now. Can you make sure the girls are alright?”

“Thanks, Hiroshi!” She smiled to him and ran off to see what she could do to calm everyone down.

The talk with Sakura cooled him down enough that he was finally thinking straight. As he stared at the two boys his gut was speaking to him. ‘Something’s off…’ He had not really been listening clearly to what the two had been saying; he was just simply reacting to the moment. Yet the longer he looked at them the more that he was uncertain about everything. ‘He said something about Minori…wait!’

His mind turned back for a moment to when he was running through hall. It had only been brief and he did not think much of it, but he had seen Minori with his three friends. ‘In all the rage I didn’t notice them, but they…’ Minori was not strictly known as a troublemaker, but what he was known for was holding a grudge worse than the Yazuka. ‘…something doesn’t fit…’

Kazuhiro and Tatsuya began to look at each other feeling a little more comfortable in their confinement by Hiroshi. They were uncertain why he had suddenly stopped and looked deep in thought. However, neither could go anywhere and was left to Hiroshi’s mercy. The moment disappeared though as Hiroshi’s dark look returned and he dragged them away from the wall and pressed them down the hall. “You two are coming with me,” Hiroshi said with an air of doom that left him blue in the face.

When Hiroshi came to pass Minori in the hall he exchanged a brief glance with him. There was a very smug look on his face as well as far too relaxed for something that had the entire floor of the school in chaos. It looked like was almost taunting the two he dragged knowing that they had nothing to prove their own innocence. ‘…I hate people like that even more…’

Hiroshi presented the two of them to the principal dropping them in chairs near the desk. While word had reached to the facility of the school, none of them knew much. So the principal was at a bit of a loss to their presence in his office. Hiroshi quickly explained what he knew of the incident while withholding any names.

“I can’t believe…are you implying that it was these two that caused this?!” the principal said trying to contain his own outrage from hearing the story.

Hiroshi stepped up to the edge of the desk looking closely at the principal. “No! I dragged them along as witnesses. They saw who did it!”

“Then who did it?”

Kazuhiro was about to speak up with Hiroshi stepped in. “I did, sir!” he exclaimed pointing to himself. Kazuhiro and Tatsuya both looked at each other stunned.

The principal’s eyes were twitching furiously. “Are you serious?!” A determined nod came as reply from Hiroshi not flinching. “I can’t believe this! In all my years…” The principal dropped down into his large office chair having to rest from his disbelief. He required a pause to collect his thoughts before looking back at Hiroshi. “I admire your honestly, but regardless I can’t allow you stay in this school. You’re here by expelled and your parents will be called.”

“I understand! I’ll have these two escort me back to my class to take my bag and leave school. I’m sorry.” Hiroshi bowed deeply to the principal and turned away. He pulled Kazuhiro and Tatsuya along with him to get them move, both still unable to even react.

Once they were out of the principal’s office Kazuhiro stepped out in front of Hiroshi forcing him to stop. The cowardly look from before had disappeared. “Why?”

“Because I believe you,” Hiroshi said simply before walking around him to keep walking.

Tatsuya reached out grabbing Hiroshi’s arm to stop him again. “But that doesn’t make any sense! Why would you stand up for us like that and take all of the blame when you did nothing?!”

Hiroshi looked back at them giving a smirk that did not show someone that felt they had did anything special. “I can’t stand people that would do that. They have no pride just for a grudge. And this way he’s failed at his revenge.”

“But how can you be fine with getting expelled?!”

There was no reply to their question. He simply gave them a smile and walked away. The look that Hiroshi had given them had spoke more to them any words could have. While they were not certain, something inside understood the meaning. They chased after him and followed quietly behind him as he entered the class, still in lunch. He left without a word and, for what they thought would be the last time, disappeared down the street from the school.

The next day Hiroshi showed up to class as though nothing had happened. He had been the talk of the entire school, the rumors that he confessed to the incident were well known. It made everyone uneasy by him still being in the school after he left so mysteriously the day before. Kazuhiro and Tatsuya had heard he returned to school and rushed into his class, homeroom was still not starting yet. “Hiroshi!? It’s true then! You’re back!”

“But what about what the principal said!?”

Hiroshi leaned back in his chair with a devilish grin on his face. “The principal called late last night apologizing to my parents. Apparently, Minori was actually the one that did it and ended up confessing to it late after school.”

“Huh?”

“What did you do?”

The smile on Hiroshi turned innocent, almost frightening to be seen on him. “Nothing.” In spite of his words, there was a sense of mystery behind them that implied more than he was letting on. However, Kazuhiro and Tatsuya were not able to get any more out of him and with homeroom starting they were forced to leave.

During lunch, the halls were feeling much safer for everyone. Hiroshi was walking down the hall catching sight of Sakura passing him. He gave her a knowing grin that she responded back with in kind. Nothing more was said on the matter, but the rumors fell away about Hiroshi when they learned he had been falsely accused. After that incident Kazuhiro and Tatsuya both began to hang out with Hiroshi developing his first real friendships. While never reaching the notoriety that Minori had, Hiroshi eventually carved himself a name as a mischievous individual with a surprisingly honest streak.

‘…huh? I fell asleep?’ Hiroshi pulled himself up trying to not draw much attention himself, while figuring that everyone already knew. It took him a moment to figure out what class was being held at the moment. He quickly shifted around his books to look like he was following along while his mind felt a little drowsy still. ‘Can’t believe I was out for two hours…and the teacher said nothing.’

His hand combed through his hair trying to straighten himself out a little. ‘Kazuhiro and Tatsuya…I wonder what brought that on? It has been a long time. I guess at lunch I’ll see if they want to hang out after school. It’s been a while. Just need to talk to Yuki first…’ A relaxed smile pulled up on his lips as some of the stress that he had been feeling seemed to have disappeared. He leaned back in his chair looking towards the window. ‘Maybe it won’t be such a bad day after all…’

The pencil on the desk to his neighbor fell on the floor alerting him. He went to pick it up for them when suddenly books and pencils started all dropping on the floor. It did not take too long for him to realize what was happening. “Earthquake!” The shouts from the students bounced around the room as everyone tried to go for their desk for cover, but it was too late.

A massive crash of breaking cement and earth pounded through the room followed by shattered glass in all the windows. The ground literally felt as though it had jumped under them followed by repeating resounding thuds from neighboring rooms of classrooms falling apart from the sudden cracks in the structure. Outside a jagged cut had been sliced into the middle of the school from the split earth.

Then a voice came through the air with clarity despite its distance. “Yuki Hayashi! Come out!” Down at the school entrance stood Demosthenes staring up towards the school making his declaration to the entire school without any regard to secrecy.

To be continued…