Stand

Calm Before the Storm

Hey everyone~ here's the new chapter. Sorry for the wait, but school started again and I've been busy with trying to adjust :(

Anyway, hope you like this chapter!

  ~'0'~  

Tenma hesitates for a moment. ''This morning, I didn't feel good, and Aki said that I had to stay home. But I'm feeling much better now, just a slight headache.'' That's not true: his head feels like it's close to exploding.

Aoi looks at him worriedly. ''Are you sure? You look pale,'' she says, and frowns.

Tenma looks at her, and grey meets blue. ''I'm a little tired. Maybe I should go home for today,'' he answers, and stands up.

Shinsuke's voice stops him. ''Will you be going to school tomorrow?'' he asks Tenma.

Said boy shrugges. ''I'm not sure, but you don't have to worry. I've had worse. See you later,'' he says, and walks away, leaving his classmates behind.

The moment he can't see them anymore, the headache disappears. Tenma frowns and stops. ''Okay, that's... strange,'' he mutters to himself. Then he shrugs, and walks home.

~'0'~

Two days later, Aki finds herself at Teikoky Academy. Again. She decided to pay her friends a visit to see how the research is going. When she exits the lift, she sees Endou, Kidou, Kudou, Hiroto, Midorikawa and Haruka. She walks toward Kidou and Endou, who are talking to each other. She smiles at the two males. ''Hello. How is the research going?'' she asks them.

Endou gives her a smile and Kidou nods as a greeting. ''It seems like Hiroto's information was right. We found some interesting facts. Turns out, the Ishikawa twins used to play soccer when they were young, and immediately after they graduated, they became scientists. We made a list of Kanashimi's soccer team too, and researched the players and managers. They all suddenly transferred to Kanashimi, in the same three months, about a year ago, without any apparent reason,'' Kidou tells her. ''We've also been searching for information on the science projects, but we didn't have much luck. The twins have also been buying a lot of chemicals, from the money they earned from their cloning project. We're not sure why they need chemicals, but the past three years, they've been getting their hands on a lot of strange stuff. Midorikawa and Hiroto are searching for illegal activities, which they found. Some of the things they bought are forbidden in Japan,'' he finishes.

Aki frowns and looks at the ground. ''Wow. I never expected that,'' she mutters. Then she looks at her old friends. ''And what about the Keshin and Mixi-Max? Did you find anything about that?''

Endou is the one who answers. ''A bit. After watching the other matches of Kanashimi, we found out that none of the other teams they played against lost their Keshin... and also, they've been playing much nicer against the other teams. Nobody has scored against them yet, but Kanashimi hasn't been scoring as much as they did against Raimon. Actually, they never score more than ten points.''

Kidou takes over. ''If we really want to find out more about the Keshin and Mixi-Max, we have to get one of Raimon's Keshin users to help us. Right now, we can't do much.''

Aki frowns, and Endou looks at her. ''How's Tenma doing?'' he asks her.

The woman shakes her head. ''Not good.''

Endou looks at her surprised. ''What do you mean?''

She sighs. ''He's... sick. But it's not normal. It's not a normal fever, but it doens't look like anything too serious either.''