kazu_chan
02-02-2006, 01:33 PM
Lol, well I have had exprience in submitting this into a few other forums and not one person replied...as I am thinking the length but yeah
This is what my best friends and I rote..It's is sumthing of a manga idea..
Anyways anyone in a reading mood lol please comments..CnC
Chapter 1
A man in his thirties, younger woman, and a 16-year-old girl with long black hair, walked into a classroom scattered with students. The moment they walked in all became quiet.
"Everyone, back to your desks," the woman shouted in a strict, harsh voice. All of the students hurriedly returned to their chairs without saying another word. Her name was Nikoma Zakuna, and she was the student advisor of Yokohama Senior High School: a voice to be reckoned with. When everyone was settled the woman spoke again.
"We have a new student transferring to our school from Sapporo today. I want you all to make her feel welcome."
As she turned to the girl, a few of the closer students heard her ask 'Would you like to a introduce yourself a bit?' in a kind tone. The student remained silent, and thinking she didn't hear, Zakuna-sensei repeated so the class heard.
"Would you like to introduce yourself to the class?"
Silent still, the girl looked out of the window, staring into the distance and taking no notice of the repeated question. Nevertheless, the teacher continued.
"Well, her name is Yukibana Chizuru and like I said she has just transferred from Sapporo. I myself don't know her whole family history so…" She turned to the man.
"Itoman-sensei, would you please take over?"
"Why thank you, Zakuna-sensei," said the man in a slightly sarcastic tone of voice. His full name was Azuma Itoman, a class teacher at the school.
"Hmmm. Chizuru, looks like the only free space is next to the boy at the end of the room with the blue headband. Kazuki raise you hand so that Chizuru can see who you are."
Kazuki was a boy with black hair tucked by a blue headband. His shirt was folded up to his elbows and without a tie, and he raised his hand slightly. Chizuru looked at Kazuki, swung her bag behind her, and started to walk toward the back of the room.
"However," coughed Itoman-sensei, clearing his voice, "I would not recommend messing about with ruffians like Kazuki and Naisha. Ryusuke, however," he indicated to a small boy with glasses in the second row, "sets a much better example. Ryusuke, can I ask you to show Chizuru around the school grounds when you have time?" Just then Zakuna-sensei asked Itoman-sensei for a private conversation outside.
"Everybody turn to page 65 and start reading," Itoman-sensei commanded to the class. "When I come back I want you to have fully analyzed the passage on Edward Turner's belief in social equality."
As he closed the door behind him, the teacher-less class immediately started to talk. Kazuki started speaking to a dark-haired girl in front of him. Her name was Naisha. She was dressed in black faded hipster jeans and wore a rolled-up white shirt, with an incredibly loose tie that served no apparent purpose. Her loose ebony hair whipped around as she looked at Kazuki with strange dark purple eyes.
"Oh great," said Naisha sarcastically. "Another first impression flawlessly ruined."
"Be grateful we don't have to take care of her; the crowds would be awful. I heard she has her own fans to get through," said Kazuki. Naisha raised an eyebrow.
"Oh really? Fans of what? Does she have... it too?"
"Oh no, it's just that loads of guys are after her phone number."
"What's the point of that? She doesn't even speak."
Kazu shrugged. He looked across the class where Chizuru was still making her way over. Her progress was being impeded by a raucous group of boys haggling to introduce themselves. However, one by one she was getting rid of them with a cold stare that could destroy armies.
"Strong silent type, I suppose," said Kazuki sheepishly. Naisha rolled her eyes.
"Fans. Honestly."
"Yeah Naish, and plus, I heard yours has a new cheer!"
"Oh do shut up Kazu, it's not like yours don't spend all their time making posters and might I say really catchy rhyming phrases."
Kazuki threw his book at her, she ducked, and he turned around to finally see the newcomer arrive. As Naisha came up, he did his level best to be friendly.
"Hello Chizuru! I'm Syuusuke Kazuki - call me Kazu - and this is Shadurei Naisha, but don't ever call her Nai because apparently in some language it means…"
"What Kazu is trying to say is," Naisha interrupted in a tone of annoyance, "Welcome to Yokohama. Nice to meet you. Civil things like that."
"Since when, Naisha, is anything about you civil?" said Kazuki. Naisha laughed.
"True. Nevertheless, hi! What brings you here, weary traveler?"
Chizuru stared and stared. Her face had remained immobile up till now, and a flicker of emotion ran across it. After an awkward silence, in which Kazuki and Naisha looked perplexedly at each other, she sat down, and resumed the murderous death-stare.
Luckily though, Naisha and Kazuki didn't die. At that moment, Itoman-sensei came back into the class, and the bell rang. He dismissed the class, packed his books and left. Slowly the bustling classroom has started to clear. There were only a few people left in the classroom who wouldn't brave the cold outside when Kazuki walked up to the door and made an announcement.
"This draught. Is. Freezing. Anyone else who wants to leave the room should speak now or forever hold you peace." Ryusuke made his way to the doorway and turned to Chizuru, who was still sitting motionless at her desk.
"It is lunch break now," he explained, "Come and I'll show you the school grounds. Did you bring anything for lunch?" Chizuru looked at Ryusuke and then proceeded to stare out the window. Ryusuke tried again.
"I'm Ryusuke; I am supposed to show you around the school. If you want me to show you around, we better leave now or…"
Before Ryusuke could finish his sentence, the door slammed shut in his face, seemingly of its own accord, even though the wind wasn't nearly that strong. Kazuki picked up the doorstop, which was now completely broken, and grinned at Naisha.
"Sorry too late now!" shouted Naisha with sarcasm and relief. In her opinion, Ryusuke was a royal pain, and even more so because all the teachers thought it went dark when he sat down. Kazuki came back and sat by opposite Naisha with his bento to feast. He dropped the defeated doorstop in front of her.
"Another one for your collection," he said to Naisha with a sigh of knowing. "One of these days you're going to break someone's nose."
"I really do hope so. Mind you, Ryusuke doesn't have to worry, his nose is too stuck-up to be hit like that."
They realized they were talking a bit too loosely when they felt Chizuru watching them. However, she had the slightest hint of confusion on her face, so they were safe. Still, she remained mute to the world.
"Do you think she can't talk or she doesn't want to talk?" said Kazuki, taking a bite of sushi and ogling at her.
"Come on, Kazu. This is not a school of the disabled students. She's just going through a rough patch, leave her alone."
Chizuru's eyes bulged, her breathing became heavy, and she furrowed her eyebrows as if to ask: 'How did you know?'[i][b] In a flash she ran out of the classroom, slamming the door behind her.
[b]"Dun-dun-dah!" exclaimed Naisha with a shocked expression, and dramatic motions. Kazuki laughed, but then both their expressions became pensive.
"I wonder what's with the reaction? How rough can a patch be?" asked Kazuki.
"Pretty rough. When she sat behind us I got shivers down my spine. Without even trying, I could feel the presence of horrible memories. Grief reverberates around her. It feels like someone close to her was killed with her nearby."
Kazuki was confused.
"But didn't you look?"
"No way," replied Naisha gravely, "If I can feel a violent aura without trying, imagine how scarring it would be to explore that darkened mind. I have my own darkened mind to deal with. You know how it is, if the emotion's really strong I'll feel the after effects."
"Woah," replied Kazuki in awe, "We have to take care of her. With a stare like that she's gonna get into trouble, AND it's Ryusuke who's supposed to be taking care of her, she's really in for a bad start at this school."
They sighed heavily together. The mood was depressive, so they decided that some fresh air would do them good. As they opened the door, they looked out to see a group of people, who immediately started jumping up madly and shouting. The pair slammed the door shut and there were hammerings from the other side.
"How did they know we were here? We only changed our timetables yesterday!" exclaimed Kazuki.
"I don't know!" shouted Naisha, because there were yells coming from the door now. "Hang on!" she said. "Dammit, I left my timetable at the benches!!"
"NO WAY!! What's wrong with you, you have the memory of a goldfish!"
"I'm sorry; I didn't do it on purpose!"
"Well thanks to your brilliant mind, the stalkers are fully equipped!"
"Ok ok, I said I'm sorry. I'll distract them for you."
"Wow, big deal. I know you really like signing autographs anyways."
Naisha grinned and opened the door, stalling the crowd while Kazuki slipped along the wall and away.
"Hi guys," she said to the cheering bunch of gradies.
"HI NAISHA!" said a freckled girl with red hair and glasses.
"Nice to see you, Ai. I just heard the most amazing piece of gossip. Can you believe that Chizuru, the new super-cool student who happens to be even more amazing than me or Kazu, is giving out her phone number at the tennis courts?"
"NO WAY!" chorused the young group, and they turned, running down the corridor at full speed.
If one of them had turned around to check if Naisha was coming, they wouldn't have seen her, for she was already somehow on the ground floor, laughing out loud at how gullible she had made them, and also noting that even if she hadn't done anything funny, they probably still would've believed her.
***
Kazuki sat in a tree, surveying the courtyard of Yokohama - A field of dead grass that was rebelling and starting to sprout green, but was being discouraged by hundreds of chatting students walking over it between the randomly scattered stone benches. He was actually quite proud of himself for finding a new hiding place behind the just-blooming buds of the large cherry tree. Suddenly heard an impressed voice in his head:
[i]'Wow, this is even better than the roof.'
Kazuki almost fell out of the tree in shock, irritated at the fact that he would never be used to Naisha telecommunicating with him. Resuming his original position, he thought furiously:
'No it's not. I can't get a proper grip.'
'Well it's either this or rat poison, it's up to you.'
'Don't take that tone with me! You're the one who thought it would be a good idea around in squeaky All-Stars.'
Naisha was saved from coming up with a reply when a raucous cheer on the field became audible. Kazuki peered through the white blossoms and saw a huge group of people surrounding a small clearing. In the clearing, he could see the bulk of Hatsuka Maoro, a boy in their grade who was notoriously known as the school bully. Kazuki feared for the worst as he moved his head to get a better view. Sure enough, opposite Maoro, there was Chizuru, teeth clenched at the menacing oaf. The cheer was getting louder, and he could now hear what they were shouting.
"Barney! Barney!"
Kazuki looked away and saw Naisha next to him. For the second time, he almost fell out of the tree.
"HOW did you get here?!" he cried incredulously.
"Levitated, how else?" replied Naisha, getting a better seat further up the branch.
"Are you MAD? Someone could've seen you!"
"Nah, not really. They look fairly busy with the initiation ceremony." Kazuki let it slide and looked back at the hordes of people shouting while Chizuru and Maoro carefully circled each other.
"I'm worried about her. This whole 'new-school' thing isn't working out too well for her."
"I know, but it'll be better if we don't interfere. If we do, everyone will think she's a weakling and corner her when we're not around to protect her. She has to prove herself, but if it gets bad, we'll help." She finally stopped shifting and looked on from the vantage point with interest.
"In any case," she added, "I'm interested to see what she's got."
"What're they saying?" enquired Kazuki after reflection.
Naisha concentrated and recited to him.
***
"What're you waiting for, small fry?" yelled Maoro over his peers' jeers.
Without taking her venomous glare off him, Chizuru started to take off the huge black school cloak she had been wearing up to now. She wore a long-sleeved white school shirt, a short black skirt, and knee-length school socks. But what really caught the eye was the huge wooden katana sheath that she had on her back.
"I will not even draw my sword for pond scum like you," she muttered with vice.
Enraged, Maoro roared, rearing like a bull and charging towards Chizuru. She remained motionless, up to the moment that he was almost upon her. In a flash that none of the people in the crowd could see, she jumped, flipped over him and hit him on the back with her un-drawn wooden sheath as she did so. In an instant, the flurry of black and white material was once more blowing gracefully in the breeze, and Maoro was on the floor.
Kazuki gasped, but Naisha grinned, she had been expecting this kind of thing. She could tell that Chizuru was of those kinds of people. People who were quiet and cold, that only let their dark pasts out when they fought. Naisha knew them well; their emotions gave them power, and so, she was surprised that Maoro was still breathing.
In fact, she thought, with a perplexed expression on her face, I'm surprised that Maoro is still conscious. What's that idiot planning now? She listened to his train of thought, and didn't like it at all.
"Kazu," she muttered while getting up, "Maoro's trying something funny. Look."
They looked, and saw what Chizuru couldn't see. Maoro was getting up gradually and quietly as Chizuru walked away slowly, her back turned. He had found a fairly large stick on the ground, and was raising it to strike.
"Now now, we can't have any of that," said Kazuki.
Maoro brought the stick down to hit Chizuru on the head, but Kazuki, who had appeared, breathing heavily from his wild dash, stopped it just in time. He crushed the stick with his bare hand, and looked without any fear at Maoro, a bulk at least twice his size.
"This fight is over," he panted, fuming.
Humiliated, the bully took a few steps back and looked to see his 'friends' no longer cheering him on. Glaring at Kazuki with beady eyes in a sea of fat, he spoke.
"Stay out of it freak!" he yelled, but Kazuki remained. "Fine. I don't care about how weird you are. I'm still gonna beat you to a pulp!"
He ran towards Kazuki with a mind set on regaining his pride as the head honcho around here. However, by this time Naisha had casually strolled through the crowd and stood in his path of destruction. Unable to slow down, and his mood aggravated, Maoro continued his attack, to his downfall.
It was a very efficient procedure. A simple and well-placed kick from Naisha had him lying bent over on the floor, unable to speak, barely gasping for breath.
"And for heaven's sake, you idiot," she said to the heap on the ground, "please stay down this time, if you have any intelligence."
As the bell rang for the end of break, she looked up at Chizuru, who had been watching indifferently. She gave Kazuki and Naisha the now trademarked death-stare, and walked off, her long black hair blowing in the breeze.
"It's a pleasure!" yelled Kazuki after her, as they made their way across the path back to class.
"I swear she practices in front of the mirror," remarked Naisha.
A few of the students were gawping with amazement at Chizuru's look. Naisha heard a few of them say things like 'Hasn't the new girl been warned about Naisha and Kazuki?' and 'That'll be her downfall! She shouldn't have messed with those freaks!' Naisha wished that they'd at least try to keep their voices down. There was a groan behind them.
"Naish, the shame, did you really have to hit him there?" said Kazuki sympathetically.
"He needed that. In any case, people like that shouldn't be allowed to reproduce."
Kazuki laughed, but he was quickly silenced when he saw Zakuna-sensei coming down the path, looking furious.
[SIZE=7]"MISS SHADUREI AND MR SYUUSUKE!!"[/SIZE=7]
She arrived to where they were standing, and they didn't bother to say 'But ma'am we can explain,' because Zakuna-sensei had developed a kind of immunity to it, owing to the thousands of times this had happened.
"Shall we just cut it short, then?" she breathed sinisterly. "Aha, I see Mr Hatsuka is in pain over there. I'd say that's roughly 5 hours worth of detention. Would you like to do it all this afternoon, or in daily installments with compound interest?"
Kazuki and Naisha knew that Zakuna-sensei's 'interest rates' were crazy, and so they had come to learn to take the punishment all at once – spreading it out was punishment in itself in any case. In fact, a few months ago they had done that same thing, and got themselves into trouble during the 'repayment' period, so that they had had to go to 4 hours detention every day for a month.
And so it came to pass that they were sitting in the middle of a great hall full of juvenile delinquents. Kazuki was right in the front right desk, and Naisha was at the very back left corner. The teachers were smart to realize Kazuki and Naisha's obvious ability to talk to each other in class, but putting them as far apart from each other as possible was not going to fix the problem of telepathy.
Naisha looked ahead of her at the students. Some were writing lines, some were studying or reading, and some were in pairs, periodically slapping each other. There was a reason for this: The teachers came to know what each student hated doing the most. So, there were a lot of jocks that were allowed to go if they just finished reading one page of Shakespeare. Disobedient students were having phrases like 'I will not now or ever again talk back to, scrutinize, ignore, or question a teacher and/or any of my superiors, these being … etc…' drilled into their heads.
The students slapping each other with rulers on the hands was a newer technique. The school was very old and its teachers used to beat the students, but since that had been declared illegal, the teachers had found a loophole around it: Let the students beat each other. It saved them the effort, and the students hit even harder because the one who had slapped the hardest and thus produced the reddest hand, could be excused from the next detention.
'This would be so much easier if we were the only ones in here,' Naisha thought.
'Yeah,' thought Kazuki, 'but I bet you could disillusion them all if you had been meditating daily like you're supposed to.'
'You're one to talk, Mr I-have-discipline-I'll-study-for-the-science-test-in-the-morning. Besides, when my parents are here, they work me harder than their supposed to, so it balances out.'
'Tut, tut, tut,' Kazuki sighed aloud, 'Excuses, excuses…'
'Hey!!' Naisha's thought was very tetchy, and Kazuki felt it in his own head. 'Look, in order to meditate properly I need a calm environment. You try focusing with a bloody woodpecker outside thinking "Man this termite tastes good. Peck peck peck. This wood is soft. Peck peck." And I haven't even mentioned the fact that Moondust is in heat.'
Kazuki had to cover his mouth to stop himself laughing. A teacher turned around at the sound of his muffled convulsions, and he quickly turned round to carry on writing lines. Since Kazuki hadn't actually hurt Moaro, but was the 'troublesome type' anyways, the sentence he had was 'I will not break an innocent boy's stick.' Kazuki almost cracked his ribs from not laughing when he remembered that Naisha had the same sentence.
***
It was 7 o'clock, and Kazuki and Naisha were finally walking home. This was because they lived relatively close by, and because they weren't the kind of people who were afraid of crime – they were the kind of people to cause it. Both were too exhausted to speak, and the low hum-drum of breathing, shuffling feet, and night sounds were the only things to be heard. But, Naisha and Kazuki were not the only things to be seen.
"Hey, Kazu, do you see what I see over there?" said Naisha, increasing her pace and squinting.
"Holy crap!!" cried Kazu, running now, as fast as he could.
***
Chizuru was badly beat-up and was lying on the ground in the cold, dark street. She had been stupid to not take the bus at 6:30 with all the other kids after the catch-up class. But, she had shied away from their questioning looks and judgmental glares, and now she was going to die for it. The gang of thugs had been torturing her for a good while now, kicking her and cutting her when they felt like it. The chloroform they had drugged her at the start with wasn't helping, either – but despite her impaired thinking, she was pretty sure who had sent them.
She could feel her life force slipping away… She coughed and tasted the bitterness of her own blood. Another kick came in her ribs, but she hardly felt the pain anymore, nor could she hear them talking, nor could she see the two figures approaching in the distance. She whimpered … She couldn't feel anything in either of her arms, and her right leg felt like it was broken from the knee down.
Every second passing was agony, but she found refuge in the fact that it would all be over soon. Guiltily she knew she hadn't put up as much of a fight as she should've… But she welcomed death. Away from living sorrow, she could join her mother… Her eyelids began to close for the last time, but then snapped open. She looked, and saw both Kazuki and … she remembered, Naisha. Two people she had met only hours ago and been a total ***** to, were running this way, trying to save her. But they would not make it… Why were they trying to save me, in any case?
Suddenly, a voice inside her said:
She wouldn't want me to give up.
Another kick pierced her consciousness.
If only I had something… Anything… Small… Just enough for help to get here… Please… Just…
Suddenly Chizuru began to glow white. Or, something on her chest did. A shape was appearing. Chizuru's eyes had turned orange, and she looked down to see the light dim again, and the shape became more definite. It had claws. It had teeth, and it was growling. It was… She squinted.
It was a polar bear.
The attackers looked at it in complete astonishment, jaws hanging. Naisha and Kazuki had arrived by now, and filed in a gap, only to gawp, fixedly, at the tiny white fluffy thing looking up at them from its perch on Chizuru. Everyone was so completely bawled over, even Chizuru had forgotten about the whole 'dying' thing. It spoke, in a cute, high voice:
"So, a polar bear walks into a bar. It sits and says to the bartender: 'Bartender, I'd like a shot of whisky and…'" the thing stopped to think for a moment. "'… and… A bag of peanuts.' And the bartender says: 'Alright, but why the long PAUSE?!' Geddit? Paws? Hehehe…"
A cricket chimed somewhere, on cue.
"Fine," said the polar bear. "Be like that."
And he disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Everyone gawped. The thugs, however, were the first to recover, as one of them threw a knife at Naisha, who was still standing with her jaw dropped. As the weapon whooshed through the air, she turned to look at it, as if to say ‘Don’t you dare.’ It stopped instantly in mid-air, and swung round, hurtling at the original thrower, who ducked. Kazuki spoke.
“Naisha, this is not the time. I need to help Chizuru.”
“Sorry,” she said, the coldness fading away as she spoke to him. “You’re right.”
Chizuru suddenly had the most amazing feeling of weightlessness, and looked down to see that her body was rising above the pavement. She couldn’t believe her eyes, and so she promptly closed them and passed out.
***
“Okay, I fixed the broken leg and arm, so that’s the major ones, though she still has a lot of bruising. In any case, she needs to tell me what hurts; I’m a healer not an X-ray machine.”
It was Kazuki who was speaking. He was on Naisha's bed, tending to the bruised and unconscious Chizuru. He and Naisha had decided her house was best, considering Kazuki's parents would not be at home with floating bodies. Naisha was currently trying to tidy her room, which was perfectly ordinary, except that everything in it was either black, white, or shades of grey. Her clothes, which also followed the grayscale theme, were folding themselves up and flying into their drawers, while Naisha directed with various flicks of her wrist.
"Good stuff. Though it'll probably be a while till she wakes up," she said.
"Who were those guys? Robbers?"
"No - Robbers wouldn't torture her. They were sent to kill her, specifically, but none of them knew the actual reason. They don't even know their boss's name."
"Woah," Kazuki said gravely, and wondered why.
"We'll make a point of asking her when she wakes up. Mind you, we'll have to tell her about us when she does."
"Ok," said Kazuki, not really listening. Then the penny dropped.
"WHAT?!" he yelled. "We can't tell her about us! She'll freak out! What happened to the pact?"
"I told you – her mind is creeeepy. I. Am. Not. Going. Near. It. I can't erase her memory – remember the pavement stunt? In any case, I don't think it would be that bad for someone else to know. In fact, I think it should be encouraged."
"NO WAY! Naisha, we've had this conversation billions of times. We can't just go around telling people things like: 'Hi, I'm Naisha, and I can read minds and levitate things.' People need to think it's an urban legend, nothing more!"
"Oh do shut up! I'm so sick and tired of all these stupid-ass looks we get from everybody, like I might kill them if they ask to borrow a pencil. What the hell?!" she cried, ranting and really raising her voice now. "I'm tired of watching my every move! And it's not even just us, it's those stupid gradies too – just because they saw us once, everybody rejects them as mental patients and they suffer for something that's true!"
"Well, guess what Naish, you know how annoying they can get?! Everybody would be like that if they found out! If we let something slip, it's all over!"
"Earth to Kazuki, come in Kazuki, if it weren't for an incident like that WE wouldn't have met!!"
There was a silence as Kazuki took this in, and he decided to change tactics.
"Please, Naish, can't you just tiptoe into her mind and fix it?"
"No, I cannot just 'tiptoe into her mind and fix it.' You, of all people, should know that. I don't want my dreams stained with blood." There was a silence she took a deep breath. "Look, I'm not asking for a national broadcast, but we can at least tell her. I feel like I'm on an island, and there aren't even little cocktail coconut drinks."
Kazuki raised his eyebrows at the drinks part, but let it slide as he ploughed on, oblivious to all else.
"Look, we just can't tell her! This is a secret between you and me. End of discussion! I don't want to be sent to some asylum where people can run tests on me all day. In any case, she doesn't need to know. YOU said yourself that she doesn't need that burden. What would that help? She'd freak!"
"Erm, no I wouldn't," said Chizuru, "and you've completely forgotten about the fact that I summoned something."
"HA!" exclaimed Naisha triumphantly. "You see! WE CAN TELL HER --"
She stopped in mid-sentence, looking at Chizuru, who had apparently been listening the whole time.
"Aha, Chizuru, um…" said Kazuki, smiling widely. "How long have you been awake?"
"Long enough. Do you have anything to eat?" she said casually to Naisha. "Oh, and Kazuki, can you please heal my cracked rib? You missed it."
Naisha and Kazuki just fell over in astonishment.
***
This is what my best friends and I rote..It's is sumthing of a manga idea..
Anyways anyone in a reading mood lol please comments..CnC
Chapter 1
A man in his thirties, younger woman, and a 16-year-old girl with long black hair, walked into a classroom scattered with students. The moment they walked in all became quiet.
"Everyone, back to your desks," the woman shouted in a strict, harsh voice. All of the students hurriedly returned to their chairs without saying another word. Her name was Nikoma Zakuna, and she was the student advisor of Yokohama Senior High School: a voice to be reckoned with. When everyone was settled the woman spoke again.
"We have a new student transferring to our school from Sapporo today. I want you all to make her feel welcome."
As she turned to the girl, a few of the closer students heard her ask 'Would you like to a introduce yourself a bit?' in a kind tone. The student remained silent, and thinking she didn't hear, Zakuna-sensei repeated so the class heard.
"Would you like to introduce yourself to the class?"
Silent still, the girl looked out of the window, staring into the distance and taking no notice of the repeated question. Nevertheless, the teacher continued.
"Well, her name is Yukibana Chizuru and like I said she has just transferred from Sapporo. I myself don't know her whole family history so…" She turned to the man.
"Itoman-sensei, would you please take over?"
"Why thank you, Zakuna-sensei," said the man in a slightly sarcastic tone of voice. His full name was Azuma Itoman, a class teacher at the school.
"Hmmm. Chizuru, looks like the only free space is next to the boy at the end of the room with the blue headband. Kazuki raise you hand so that Chizuru can see who you are."
Kazuki was a boy with black hair tucked by a blue headband. His shirt was folded up to his elbows and without a tie, and he raised his hand slightly. Chizuru looked at Kazuki, swung her bag behind her, and started to walk toward the back of the room.
"However," coughed Itoman-sensei, clearing his voice, "I would not recommend messing about with ruffians like Kazuki and Naisha. Ryusuke, however," he indicated to a small boy with glasses in the second row, "sets a much better example. Ryusuke, can I ask you to show Chizuru around the school grounds when you have time?" Just then Zakuna-sensei asked Itoman-sensei for a private conversation outside.
"Everybody turn to page 65 and start reading," Itoman-sensei commanded to the class. "When I come back I want you to have fully analyzed the passage on Edward Turner's belief in social equality."
As he closed the door behind him, the teacher-less class immediately started to talk. Kazuki started speaking to a dark-haired girl in front of him. Her name was Naisha. She was dressed in black faded hipster jeans and wore a rolled-up white shirt, with an incredibly loose tie that served no apparent purpose. Her loose ebony hair whipped around as she looked at Kazuki with strange dark purple eyes.
"Oh great," said Naisha sarcastically. "Another first impression flawlessly ruined."
"Be grateful we don't have to take care of her; the crowds would be awful. I heard she has her own fans to get through," said Kazuki. Naisha raised an eyebrow.
"Oh really? Fans of what? Does she have... it too?"
"Oh no, it's just that loads of guys are after her phone number."
"What's the point of that? She doesn't even speak."
Kazu shrugged. He looked across the class where Chizuru was still making her way over. Her progress was being impeded by a raucous group of boys haggling to introduce themselves. However, one by one she was getting rid of them with a cold stare that could destroy armies.
"Strong silent type, I suppose," said Kazuki sheepishly. Naisha rolled her eyes.
"Fans. Honestly."
"Yeah Naish, and plus, I heard yours has a new cheer!"
"Oh do shut up Kazu, it's not like yours don't spend all their time making posters and might I say really catchy rhyming phrases."
Kazuki threw his book at her, she ducked, and he turned around to finally see the newcomer arrive. As Naisha came up, he did his level best to be friendly.
"Hello Chizuru! I'm Syuusuke Kazuki - call me Kazu - and this is Shadurei Naisha, but don't ever call her Nai because apparently in some language it means…"
"What Kazu is trying to say is," Naisha interrupted in a tone of annoyance, "Welcome to Yokohama. Nice to meet you. Civil things like that."
"Since when, Naisha, is anything about you civil?" said Kazuki. Naisha laughed.
"True. Nevertheless, hi! What brings you here, weary traveler?"
Chizuru stared and stared. Her face had remained immobile up till now, and a flicker of emotion ran across it. After an awkward silence, in which Kazuki and Naisha looked perplexedly at each other, she sat down, and resumed the murderous death-stare.
Luckily though, Naisha and Kazuki didn't die. At that moment, Itoman-sensei came back into the class, and the bell rang. He dismissed the class, packed his books and left. Slowly the bustling classroom has started to clear. There were only a few people left in the classroom who wouldn't brave the cold outside when Kazuki walked up to the door and made an announcement.
"This draught. Is. Freezing. Anyone else who wants to leave the room should speak now or forever hold you peace." Ryusuke made his way to the doorway and turned to Chizuru, who was still sitting motionless at her desk.
"It is lunch break now," he explained, "Come and I'll show you the school grounds. Did you bring anything for lunch?" Chizuru looked at Ryusuke and then proceeded to stare out the window. Ryusuke tried again.
"I'm Ryusuke; I am supposed to show you around the school. If you want me to show you around, we better leave now or…"
Before Ryusuke could finish his sentence, the door slammed shut in his face, seemingly of its own accord, even though the wind wasn't nearly that strong. Kazuki picked up the doorstop, which was now completely broken, and grinned at Naisha.
"Sorry too late now!" shouted Naisha with sarcasm and relief. In her opinion, Ryusuke was a royal pain, and even more so because all the teachers thought it went dark when he sat down. Kazuki came back and sat by opposite Naisha with his bento to feast. He dropped the defeated doorstop in front of her.
"Another one for your collection," he said to Naisha with a sigh of knowing. "One of these days you're going to break someone's nose."
"I really do hope so. Mind you, Ryusuke doesn't have to worry, his nose is too stuck-up to be hit like that."
They realized they were talking a bit too loosely when they felt Chizuru watching them. However, she had the slightest hint of confusion on her face, so they were safe. Still, she remained mute to the world.
"Do you think she can't talk or she doesn't want to talk?" said Kazuki, taking a bite of sushi and ogling at her.
"Come on, Kazu. This is not a school of the disabled students. She's just going through a rough patch, leave her alone."
Chizuru's eyes bulged, her breathing became heavy, and she furrowed her eyebrows as if to ask: 'How did you know?'[i][b] In a flash she ran out of the classroom, slamming the door behind her.
[b]"Dun-dun-dah!" exclaimed Naisha with a shocked expression, and dramatic motions. Kazuki laughed, but then both their expressions became pensive.
"I wonder what's with the reaction? How rough can a patch be?" asked Kazuki.
"Pretty rough. When she sat behind us I got shivers down my spine. Without even trying, I could feel the presence of horrible memories. Grief reverberates around her. It feels like someone close to her was killed with her nearby."
Kazuki was confused.
"But didn't you look?"
"No way," replied Naisha gravely, "If I can feel a violent aura without trying, imagine how scarring it would be to explore that darkened mind. I have my own darkened mind to deal with. You know how it is, if the emotion's really strong I'll feel the after effects."
"Woah," replied Kazuki in awe, "We have to take care of her. With a stare like that she's gonna get into trouble, AND it's Ryusuke who's supposed to be taking care of her, she's really in for a bad start at this school."
They sighed heavily together. The mood was depressive, so they decided that some fresh air would do them good. As they opened the door, they looked out to see a group of people, who immediately started jumping up madly and shouting. The pair slammed the door shut and there were hammerings from the other side.
"How did they know we were here? We only changed our timetables yesterday!" exclaimed Kazuki.
"I don't know!" shouted Naisha, because there were yells coming from the door now. "Hang on!" she said. "Dammit, I left my timetable at the benches!!"
"NO WAY!! What's wrong with you, you have the memory of a goldfish!"
"I'm sorry; I didn't do it on purpose!"
"Well thanks to your brilliant mind, the stalkers are fully equipped!"
"Ok ok, I said I'm sorry. I'll distract them for you."
"Wow, big deal. I know you really like signing autographs anyways."
Naisha grinned and opened the door, stalling the crowd while Kazuki slipped along the wall and away.
"Hi guys," she said to the cheering bunch of gradies.
"HI NAISHA!" said a freckled girl with red hair and glasses.
"Nice to see you, Ai. I just heard the most amazing piece of gossip. Can you believe that Chizuru, the new super-cool student who happens to be even more amazing than me or Kazu, is giving out her phone number at the tennis courts?"
"NO WAY!" chorused the young group, and they turned, running down the corridor at full speed.
If one of them had turned around to check if Naisha was coming, they wouldn't have seen her, for she was already somehow on the ground floor, laughing out loud at how gullible she had made them, and also noting that even if she hadn't done anything funny, they probably still would've believed her.
***
Kazuki sat in a tree, surveying the courtyard of Yokohama - A field of dead grass that was rebelling and starting to sprout green, but was being discouraged by hundreds of chatting students walking over it between the randomly scattered stone benches. He was actually quite proud of himself for finding a new hiding place behind the just-blooming buds of the large cherry tree. Suddenly heard an impressed voice in his head:
[i]'Wow, this is even better than the roof.'
Kazuki almost fell out of the tree in shock, irritated at the fact that he would never be used to Naisha telecommunicating with him. Resuming his original position, he thought furiously:
'No it's not. I can't get a proper grip.'
'Well it's either this or rat poison, it's up to you.'
'Don't take that tone with me! You're the one who thought it would be a good idea around in squeaky All-Stars.'
Naisha was saved from coming up with a reply when a raucous cheer on the field became audible. Kazuki peered through the white blossoms and saw a huge group of people surrounding a small clearing. In the clearing, he could see the bulk of Hatsuka Maoro, a boy in their grade who was notoriously known as the school bully. Kazuki feared for the worst as he moved his head to get a better view. Sure enough, opposite Maoro, there was Chizuru, teeth clenched at the menacing oaf. The cheer was getting louder, and he could now hear what they were shouting.
"Barney! Barney!"
Kazuki looked away and saw Naisha next to him. For the second time, he almost fell out of the tree.
"HOW did you get here?!" he cried incredulously.
"Levitated, how else?" replied Naisha, getting a better seat further up the branch.
"Are you MAD? Someone could've seen you!"
"Nah, not really. They look fairly busy with the initiation ceremony." Kazuki let it slide and looked back at the hordes of people shouting while Chizuru and Maoro carefully circled each other.
"I'm worried about her. This whole 'new-school' thing isn't working out too well for her."
"I know, but it'll be better if we don't interfere. If we do, everyone will think she's a weakling and corner her when we're not around to protect her. She has to prove herself, but if it gets bad, we'll help." She finally stopped shifting and looked on from the vantage point with interest.
"In any case," she added, "I'm interested to see what she's got."
"What're they saying?" enquired Kazuki after reflection.
Naisha concentrated and recited to him.
***
"What're you waiting for, small fry?" yelled Maoro over his peers' jeers.
Without taking her venomous glare off him, Chizuru started to take off the huge black school cloak she had been wearing up to now. She wore a long-sleeved white school shirt, a short black skirt, and knee-length school socks. But what really caught the eye was the huge wooden katana sheath that she had on her back.
"I will not even draw my sword for pond scum like you," she muttered with vice.
Enraged, Maoro roared, rearing like a bull and charging towards Chizuru. She remained motionless, up to the moment that he was almost upon her. In a flash that none of the people in the crowd could see, she jumped, flipped over him and hit him on the back with her un-drawn wooden sheath as she did so. In an instant, the flurry of black and white material was once more blowing gracefully in the breeze, and Maoro was on the floor.
Kazuki gasped, but Naisha grinned, she had been expecting this kind of thing. She could tell that Chizuru was of those kinds of people. People who were quiet and cold, that only let their dark pasts out when they fought. Naisha knew them well; their emotions gave them power, and so, she was surprised that Maoro was still breathing.
In fact, she thought, with a perplexed expression on her face, I'm surprised that Maoro is still conscious. What's that idiot planning now? She listened to his train of thought, and didn't like it at all.
"Kazu," she muttered while getting up, "Maoro's trying something funny. Look."
They looked, and saw what Chizuru couldn't see. Maoro was getting up gradually and quietly as Chizuru walked away slowly, her back turned. He had found a fairly large stick on the ground, and was raising it to strike.
"Now now, we can't have any of that," said Kazuki.
Maoro brought the stick down to hit Chizuru on the head, but Kazuki, who had appeared, breathing heavily from his wild dash, stopped it just in time. He crushed the stick with his bare hand, and looked without any fear at Maoro, a bulk at least twice his size.
"This fight is over," he panted, fuming.
Humiliated, the bully took a few steps back and looked to see his 'friends' no longer cheering him on. Glaring at Kazuki with beady eyes in a sea of fat, he spoke.
"Stay out of it freak!" he yelled, but Kazuki remained. "Fine. I don't care about how weird you are. I'm still gonna beat you to a pulp!"
He ran towards Kazuki with a mind set on regaining his pride as the head honcho around here. However, by this time Naisha had casually strolled through the crowd and stood in his path of destruction. Unable to slow down, and his mood aggravated, Maoro continued his attack, to his downfall.
It was a very efficient procedure. A simple and well-placed kick from Naisha had him lying bent over on the floor, unable to speak, barely gasping for breath.
"And for heaven's sake, you idiot," she said to the heap on the ground, "please stay down this time, if you have any intelligence."
As the bell rang for the end of break, she looked up at Chizuru, who had been watching indifferently. She gave Kazuki and Naisha the now trademarked death-stare, and walked off, her long black hair blowing in the breeze.
"It's a pleasure!" yelled Kazuki after her, as they made their way across the path back to class.
"I swear she practices in front of the mirror," remarked Naisha.
A few of the students were gawping with amazement at Chizuru's look. Naisha heard a few of them say things like 'Hasn't the new girl been warned about Naisha and Kazuki?' and 'That'll be her downfall! She shouldn't have messed with those freaks!' Naisha wished that they'd at least try to keep their voices down. There was a groan behind them.
"Naish, the shame, did you really have to hit him there?" said Kazuki sympathetically.
"He needed that. In any case, people like that shouldn't be allowed to reproduce."
Kazuki laughed, but he was quickly silenced when he saw Zakuna-sensei coming down the path, looking furious.
[SIZE=7]"MISS SHADUREI AND MR SYUUSUKE!!"[/SIZE=7]
She arrived to where they were standing, and they didn't bother to say 'But ma'am we can explain,' because Zakuna-sensei had developed a kind of immunity to it, owing to the thousands of times this had happened.
"Shall we just cut it short, then?" she breathed sinisterly. "Aha, I see Mr Hatsuka is in pain over there. I'd say that's roughly 5 hours worth of detention. Would you like to do it all this afternoon, or in daily installments with compound interest?"
Kazuki and Naisha knew that Zakuna-sensei's 'interest rates' were crazy, and so they had come to learn to take the punishment all at once – spreading it out was punishment in itself in any case. In fact, a few months ago they had done that same thing, and got themselves into trouble during the 'repayment' period, so that they had had to go to 4 hours detention every day for a month.
And so it came to pass that they were sitting in the middle of a great hall full of juvenile delinquents. Kazuki was right in the front right desk, and Naisha was at the very back left corner. The teachers were smart to realize Kazuki and Naisha's obvious ability to talk to each other in class, but putting them as far apart from each other as possible was not going to fix the problem of telepathy.
Naisha looked ahead of her at the students. Some were writing lines, some were studying or reading, and some were in pairs, periodically slapping each other. There was a reason for this: The teachers came to know what each student hated doing the most. So, there were a lot of jocks that were allowed to go if they just finished reading one page of Shakespeare. Disobedient students were having phrases like 'I will not now or ever again talk back to, scrutinize, ignore, or question a teacher and/or any of my superiors, these being … etc…' drilled into their heads.
The students slapping each other with rulers on the hands was a newer technique. The school was very old and its teachers used to beat the students, but since that had been declared illegal, the teachers had found a loophole around it: Let the students beat each other. It saved them the effort, and the students hit even harder because the one who had slapped the hardest and thus produced the reddest hand, could be excused from the next detention.
'This would be so much easier if we were the only ones in here,' Naisha thought.
'Yeah,' thought Kazuki, 'but I bet you could disillusion them all if you had been meditating daily like you're supposed to.'
'You're one to talk, Mr I-have-discipline-I'll-study-for-the-science-test-in-the-morning. Besides, when my parents are here, they work me harder than their supposed to, so it balances out.'
'Tut, tut, tut,' Kazuki sighed aloud, 'Excuses, excuses…'
'Hey!!' Naisha's thought was very tetchy, and Kazuki felt it in his own head. 'Look, in order to meditate properly I need a calm environment. You try focusing with a bloody woodpecker outside thinking "Man this termite tastes good. Peck peck peck. This wood is soft. Peck peck." And I haven't even mentioned the fact that Moondust is in heat.'
Kazuki had to cover his mouth to stop himself laughing. A teacher turned around at the sound of his muffled convulsions, and he quickly turned round to carry on writing lines. Since Kazuki hadn't actually hurt Moaro, but was the 'troublesome type' anyways, the sentence he had was 'I will not break an innocent boy's stick.' Kazuki almost cracked his ribs from not laughing when he remembered that Naisha had the same sentence.
***
It was 7 o'clock, and Kazuki and Naisha were finally walking home. This was because they lived relatively close by, and because they weren't the kind of people who were afraid of crime – they were the kind of people to cause it. Both were too exhausted to speak, and the low hum-drum of breathing, shuffling feet, and night sounds were the only things to be heard. But, Naisha and Kazuki were not the only things to be seen.
"Hey, Kazu, do you see what I see over there?" said Naisha, increasing her pace and squinting.
"Holy crap!!" cried Kazu, running now, as fast as he could.
***
Chizuru was badly beat-up and was lying on the ground in the cold, dark street. She had been stupid to not take the bus at 6:30 with all the other kids after the catch-up class. But, she had shied away from their questioning looks and judgmental glares, and now she was going to die for it. The gang of thugs had been torturing her for a good while now, kicking her and cutting her when they felt like it. The chloroform they had drugged her at the start with wasn't helping, either – but despite her impaired thinking, she was pretty sure who had sent them.
She could feel her life force slipping away… She coughed and tasted the bitterness of her own blood. Another kick came in her ribs, but she hardly felt the pain anymore, nor could she hear them talking, nor could she see the two figures approaching in the distance. She whimpered … She couldn't feel anything in either of her arms, and her right leg felt like it was broken from the knee down.
Every second passing was agony, but she found refuge in the fact that it would all be over soon. Guiltily she knew she hadn't put up as much of a fight as she should've… But she welcomed death. Away from living sorrow, she could join her mother… Her eyelids began to close for the last time, but then snapped open. She looked, and saw both Kazuki and … she remembered, Naisha. Two people she had met only hours ago and been a total ***** to, were running this way, trying to save her. But they would not make it… Why were they trying to save me, in any case?
Suddenly, a voice inside her said:
She wouldn't want me to give up.
Another kick pierced her consciousness.
If only I had something… Anything… Small… Just enough for help to get here… Please… Just…
Suddenly Chizuru began to glow white. Or, something on her chest did. A shape was appearing. Chizuru's eyes had turned orange, and she looked down to see the light dim again, and the shape became more definite. It had claws. It had teeth, and it was growling. It was… She squinted.
It was a polar bear.
The attackers looked at it in complete astonishment, jaws hanging. Naisha and Kazuki had arrived by now, and filed in a gap, only to gawp, fixedly, at the tiny white fluffy thing looking up at them from its perch on Chizuru. Everyone was so completely bawled over, even Chizuru had forgotten about the whole 'dying' thing. It spoke, in a cute, high voice:
"So, a polar bear walks into a bar. It sits and says to the bartender: 'Bartender, I'd like a shot of whisky and…'" the thing stopped to think for a moment. "'… and… A bag of peanuts.' And the bartender says: 'Alright, but why the long PAUSE?!' Geddit? Paws? Hehehe…"
A cricket chimed somewhere, on cue.
"Fine," said the polar bear. "Be like that."
And he disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Everyone gawped. The thugs, however, were the first to recover, as one of them threw a knife at Naisha, who was still standing with her jaw dropped. As the weapon whooshed through the air, she turned to look at it, as if to say ‘Don’t you dare.’ It stopped instantly in mid-air, and swung round, hurtling at the original thrower, who ducked. Kazuki spoke.
“Naisha, this is not the time. I need to help Chizuru.”
“Sorry,” she said, the coldness fading away as she spoke to him. “You’re right.”
Chizuru suddenly had the most amazing feeling of weightlessness, and looked down to see that her body was rising above the pavement. She couldn’t believe her eyes, and so she promptly closed them and passed out.
***
“Okay, I fixed the broken leg and arm, so that’s the major ones, though she still has a lot of bruising. In any case, she needs to tell me what hurts; I’m a healer not an X-ray machine.”
It was Kazuki who was speaking. He was on Naisha's bed, tending to the bruised and unconscious Chizuru. He and Naisha had decided her house was best, considering Kazuki's parents would not be at home with floating bodies. Naisha was currently trying to tidy her room, which was perfectly ordinary, except that everything in it was either black, white, or shades of grey. Her clothes, which also followed the grayscale theme, were folding themselves up and flying into their drawers, while Naisha directed with various flicks of her wrist.
"Good stuff. Though it'll probably be a while till she wakes up," she said.
"Who were those guys? Robbers?"
"No - Robbers wouldn't torture her. They were sent to kill her, specifically, but none of them knew the actual reason. They don't even know their boss's name."
"Woah," Kazuki said gravely, and wondered why.
"We'll make a point of asking her when she wakes up. Mind you, we'll have to tell her about us when she does."
"Ok," said Kazuki, not really listening. Then the penny dropped.
"WHAT?!" he yelled. "We can't tell her about us! She'll freak out! What happened to the pact?"
"I told you – her mind is creeeepy. I. Am. Not. Going. Near. It. I can't erase her memory – remember the pavement stunt? In any case, I don't think it would be that bad for someone else to know. In fact, I think it should be encouraged."
"NO WAY! Naisha, we've had this conversation billions of times. We can't just go around telling people things like: 'Hi, I'm Naisha, and I can read minds and levitate things.' People need to think it's an urban legend, nothing more!"
"Oh do shut up! I'm so sick and tired of all these stupid-ass looks we get from everybody, like I might kill them if they ask to borrow a pencil. What the hell?!" she cried, ranting and really raising her voice now. "I'm tired of watching my every move! And it's not even just us, it's those stupid gradies too – just because they saw us once, everybody rejects them as mental patients and they suffer for something that's true!"
"Well, guess what Naish, you know how annoying they can get?! Everybody would be like that if they found out! If we let something slip, it's all over!"
"Earth to Kazuki, come in Kazuki, if it weren't for an incident like that WE wouldn't have met!!"
There was a silence as Kazuki took this in, and he decided to change tactics.
"Please, Naish, can't you just tiptoe into her mind and fix it?"
"No, I cannot just 'tiptoe into her mind and fix it.' You, of all people, should know that. I don't want my dreams stained with blood." There was a silence she took a deep breath. "Look, I'm not asking for a national broadcast, but we can at least tell her. I feel like I'm on an island, and there aren't even little cocktail coconut drinks."
Kazuki raised his eyebrows at the drinks part, but let it slide as he ploughed on, oblivious to all else.
"Look, we just can't tell her! This is a secret between you and me. End of discussion! I don't want to be sent to some asylum where people can run tests on me all day. In any case, she doesn't need to know. YOU said yourself that she doesn't need that burden. What would that help? She'd freak!"
"Erm, no I wouldn't," said Chizuru, "and you've completely forgotten about the fact that I summoned something."
"HA!" exclaimed Naisha triumphantly. "You see! WE CAN TELL HER --"
She stopped in mid-sentence, looking at Chizuru, who had apparently been listening the whole time.
"Aha, Chizuru, um…" said Kazuki, smiling widely. "How long have you been awake?"
"Long enough. Do you have anything to eat?" she said casually to Naisha. "Oh, and Kazuki, can you please heal my cracked rib? You missed it."
Naisha and Kazuki just fell over in astonishment.
***