You devoured through plate after plate after plate of curry rice.
Kabeyama, Fudou, and Kazemaru had to blink twice at all the clean plates you've stacked. Once you finished, you sighed, pleased, as you pat your full stomach.
Fudou turned to Endou behind him, pointing at you. "You tellin' me she's the girl with that creepy illusion hissatsu?"
Endou grinned. "Yep!"
"A-and that she's the niece of that c-captain of Occult Junior High we fought l-long ago in a match?" Kabeyama added.
"Sure is!"
The three's minds buffered for a good several seconds. You swore you heard something like a DING and then all three of the men said together:
"It's all a full circle now."
Fubuki laughed at this while Endou asked, "What's the full circle?"
Kazemaru waved his hand side to side. "It's nothing, Endou."
"Rather, we should focus on...." Fudou's eyes fell on you.
You tilted your head with a smile.
"Right," Endou said. "[Surname], where had Fifth Sector taken you?"
You drew a doodle of a prison cell.
"How did you get out?"
You drew a stick figure of you. The stick figure had a fist. You drew slanted lines around the fist, and then a straight line after the fist. You wrote WALL beside the straight line.
"... You punched the wall down...?" Fubuki assumed.
You nodded.
Kabeyama whispered, "D-do you think she summoned a ghost that possessed her with great strength?"
Kazemaru whispered. "Probably?"
Fudou coughed. "Okay, next question!"
Endou continued: "How did you find us?"
You drew Kappa as a stick figure with a shell.
The rest stared. "That thing ... looks familiar," Fudou voiced out everyone's thoughts.
"Maybe it's a forest friend?" Kazemaru turned to you.
You nodded. So, they all agreed to leave it at there.
"Did you see Kidou, Haruna, and the other girls?"
You shook your head with a frown. Guilt rose inside you. You wondered whether you should've punched the door cell instead and look around inside the tower. These thoughts dissolved when Endou patted your head. He gave you a reassuring grin.
You smiled back a little. Right, there was still time to save them.
"Oi, you kids gonna come out or what?"
You turned to the bushes where Fudou had looked at and asked aloud. The leaves rustled. Soon, your teammates came out of the bushes, embarrassed that they were caught eavesdropping.
Endou laughed. "They must have been curious."
"Well, they have been extremely worried, so it's understandable," said Fubuki.
You smiled widely. You stood up, minding the plates, before you ran up to the team. Sangoku opened his arms out and you jumped into them for a hug. Tenma and Shinsuke joined in for the hug, too.
Unfortunately, your hugs came to an end. Everyone gazed up to Shuu who swung in with a vine. Shuu landed across the group. His eyes met yours.
Your crystal pulsed. An extreme coldness washed over you.
You hid behind Sangoku. Sangoku, thinking you were scared of Shuu, shielded you with his arms. Shuu eyes widened, for a short second, before he smiled.
"Hello again," he said. "I grew up on this island, so I know this terrain like the back of my hand. If you play around with nature like I did, then I'm sure you can do it."
He winked. For a moment, you were sure that wink was directed towards you more than everyone else.
"Really?" Tenma asked, followed after by Shindou's "Why are you going this far for us?"
Shuu merely smiled.
Shinsuke and Tenma's excitement were the drive to have everyone agreed to the natural training regimen. While everyone discussed amongst themselves, Shuu approached. You frowned his way.
"Ah, I don't mean any harm," he said. He outstretched a hand. "My name is Shuu. May I know yours?"
You look at his hand. Hesitantly, you took his hand. Shuu hummed in surprise when you pulled him closer.
A pulse.
You held back a gasp, but your fingers clamped around his palm. Shuu stared at you. (His eyes flickered in confusion for a moment.) You didn't look up into his eyes. You traced out your name.
"[Surname] [Name]. Hmm, it's a pretty name!"
Was that supposed to enlighten the atmosphere? Either way, you were still unsure, even when you signed your thank you.
Shuu glanced to the group. Then, he whispered to you, "May we have a private walk together?"
It was with reluctance that you agreed to his request.
♡ --- ♡ --- ♡
You had no clue as to where you were walking to with Shuu. Throughout the entire walk, the both of you hardly say anything.
You gazed to the right. It appeared you've gone out quite far to view the sea. Your soccer shoes withstand the grainy sand.
"I think I understand now," Shuu suddenly said. He looked at you, and there was not a smile on his face. "Why I couldn't sense you, even when you're quite like me."
Quite like him? You were confused. And scared. What -
"You're dead - no, you were once dead, weren't you?"
Your eyes widened.
The wind whistled. The leaves rustled. The waves hushed. You wanted to run, but you were frozen in place.
"Hm. Maybe I shouldn't have said you and I were alike. Since, compared to me, you're freer."
You wondered. If you still had your voice, would you think to say something unlike now?
"Yes, I really get it." He gave you a soft, yet bitter smile. "Your soul means no harm. Maybe that's why I couldn't sense you."
Huh?
Upon your confused face, he chuckled. "Sorry, I scared you, didn't I? Let me reintroduce myself again. I'm Shuu, and I'm dead."
Oh, he's dead. OH HE'S DEAD ⸺ You staggered back. You trembled. Your brain was about to burst. He mentioned that he and you weren't alike, so that would mean he can't be a zombie. But you saw he was able to make contact with you before. What kind of dead is he?
As if he read your mind again, he laughed and said, "I think I'll let you have fun trying to figure it out."
You huffed.
"To make it fair," he added, "I won't ask either what you are. How's that?"
You mulled it over. You nodded.
A snapped twig.
Immediately, you and Shuu lifted up your legs. Dust travelled after when you both kicked away the ball. The ball zoomed back to where it appeared, and a new figure emerged from the trees as he caught the ball.
A boy you figured was around Tsurugi's age. He had spiky white hair that sported a pastel greyblue ponytail. He wore a pair of white jeans, a shirt, and a denim jacket, and looked good in it, too. His eyes were yellow and sharp.
"Hakuryuu," Shuu said.
"Shuu," Hakuryuu said back. He glared at you.
Your hands clenched.
"Shuu, give that girl to me."
"Why?" Shuu's smile didn't reach his eyes. "I mean, I can't do that. I don't control her."
Hakuryuu clicked his tongue. "Fifth Sector needs her, so I'm here to ⸺ hey!"
You dashed away from there. Hakuryuu turned his soles against the sand and burst forward.
Shuu was left in the dust. He looked at where you and Hakuryuu ran off to, before deciding he'd informed of your situation to your friends. That was the least he could do for you as his foe.
You ran into the forest. You could care less the many branches that smacked across your face. The crunches of the leaves and the snapping of leaves clouded your hearing to detect Hakuryuu.
You weren't sure how long your zombie speed could last. Your crystal pulse would slow down, even more than it usually had, if you did not recharge.
Not only that, you still had no clue where you were running to. But you just knew you didn't want to stop in case Hakuryuu was still on your trail.
It was due to your focus in just running that you ended up running into a vine web. The web wrapped around your face, clouding your vision. This slowed down your movements, too.
You hopped around, trying to untangle the vines off you. You slipped. You fell backwards into a ravine.
Dirt smudged across your skin. The splashes of the small stream washed some more of your makeup, enough to reveal your stitches. You landed on your butt. The vines still tangled around you.
Hakuryuu heard your tumble. He followed the sound and skidded to a stop when he saw the ravine's edge. He peered down. "There you are."
You squeaked. You tried to stand up, but slipped cross the mud. The vines neither helped.
Carefully, Hakuryuu slid down the slope. While you struggled to stand, he approached you and towered over you. Just as he was about to pull you up, you sniffled. He froze.
"Wait ... are you crying?"
You sniffled, again, but refused to lift your head up. Hakuryuu clenched his fists. He moved his feet around you carefully. He kneeled down, staining one of his knees from the mud.
"Hey, could you ... look at me? Please?"
You wanted to refuse. But, at his gentle yet deep voice, you slowly sat up. You revealed to him your dirtied face. Tears streamed down your smudged cheeks.
An arrow of guilt stabbed Hakuryuu's heart.
His arms began to flail around your face. "Oh shi - wait, uh, does your entire body hurt? Where do I need to patch? Wait, do I have a medkit with me?" He rummaged through the pockets he had. "Damn it. I don't have one."
You puffed up your cheeks. He looked rather funny right now were your thoughts, but Hakuryuu mistook your reaction as you being upset and about to cry more. He panicked even further, on the inside that was, as he did his best to keep his cool on the outside.
Then, an idea appeared. First, he reached out. You flinched, but he didn't touch you in any way. Instead, he was trying to get the vines off of you. When realising this, you and him worked together.
The untangled vines plopped on the ground. You sighed in relief. Then, to your surprise, Hakuryuu placed his jacket over you. He used one of the sleeves to wipe your face. "I'm sorry," he mumbled. "I terrified you to this point. I went too far."
Hakuryuu checked your face. His eyes widened for a bit. You wondered why, and knew why when his finger traced an outline of one of your stitches.
You pulled away. Then, you pulled his jacket over your head. You clutched the sleeves to cover your face.
Hakuryuu flinched. He acted insensitive again. "I - My bad, I shouldn't have touched your face like that. I'm sorry."
You refused to look.
Hakuryuu quietly sighed. "Can you stand?"
You answered by slowly standing up.
Hakuryuu looked over to the slope. You gazed up when he held his hand out. "I'll lift you up." You pursed your lips. Finally, with a silent sigh, you took his hand.
He lifted you up onto his shoulders. Carefully, you bent your legs forward, then jumped. Your fingers clawed onto the grass. You managed to grab onto a rock and pull yourself up.
"Now run," Hakuryuu said. You turned to him with half of your face revealed, showing your surprise.
"Run and don't stop, but be careful. You and I are enemies, so if I still see you after the count of 50, I'll chase you again."
Your mouth opened, but then you closed it. You turned away from him. You held onto his jacket when you dashed away from there.
Hakuryuu's voice, counting down from one, faded away.