Here's another revision to the first chapter, sorry, but there were some changes to the grammar. Content-wise, it's pretty much the same.

Again, this is a condensed version of the original first four chapters.

Themes: Anime, Manga, Drama, Romance, Tragedy, Comedy, Moe, Supernatural, Slice of Life, High School, Family, Hurt/Comfort

Screaming, wails of unrelenting pain echo throughout the halls. This terrible lamenting won't stop. Even if I close my eyes, no matter how much pain I feel in the palm of my hand as the fingernails dig deeper, I can't wake up. I stand there, dumbfounded. How did I get here? How did things end up like this, I wonder. I can barely comprehend what's going on. I try to understand if it was my fault that things ended up this way. It has to be, at least in part. If we never met, if she and I had never spoken, we wouldn't be here. And she wouldn't be crying.

I try speaking, but my throat feels raspy and dry. I can only sound the words I want to say with my lips, a useless effort in retrospect. But I have to do something; she's crying and I'm just standing here? How pathetic am I? I'm sorry, I try to say, but my voice is nothing more than a whisper. It feels like I'm swallowing thorns. My head starts to hurt, and I feel like my head is being crushed under the pressure of the sea.

How did things get this way?

Clannad: Gathering the Light

Chapter 1:

Bruised and Scarred

April 16, Monday

There's a quiet noise droning in the distance, a noise I've heard in the past, but hold no happy memories with (to my knowledge). Unfortunately, I can not attend to it as I have far more important matters to deal with. At the moment, I am in a hostage situation in a local bank. I came to this situation after not having enough money to purchase a soda for a fellow classmate; the quickest way to deal with this situation was to skip class and go to the bank and withdraw enough money to buy a soda for the whole neighborhood. It all started when I was standing in line to receive my payment, and I heard a raspy voice yell, "Pon pon pon!"

I turned in horror to see a male Kyara Pamyu Pamyu singing. I began to feel sweat drip down my back at this horrifying sight. His chest hair was extremely visible and I could feel the rising urge to cry, but I held my ground. After all, he was just trying to destroy my composure. The man began to dance erotically, and I knew. I knew the one sure way to defeat him; I had to dance. I cracked my knuckles and they boomed like thunder. This made Kyara stop his dancing instantly, understanding the challenge clearly. His eyes narrowed offensively so I returned the gaze. My legs began to spread apart as if God was possessing my body to give a performance that would be spoken about for centuries. Children would speak of me when they gathered saying, "I want to grow up to be just like Yamada!" Teachers would tell of my epic battle, telling students, "It's because of Yamada that we live in a Democratic society." I couldn't let the children down. No, I couldn't let the world down.

My opponent stepped closer to me and I did the same. He looked intimidated, but I didn't call him on it. We knew only one of us could walk away alive. And then, we leaped. We leaped as if the gravitational pull on the Earth had been removed. Our floating bodies danced, at our level of dancing, we no longer had a need for floors to dance upon. We floated above the town and people called after us with things like, "Save us Yamada-kun!" or "Provide our country with Democracy, Yamada-san!" And Even, "Deliver your people carbonated juice, Yamada-kun!"

And then Kyara grunted as blood spewed outward from his mouth and then he had began to descend toward the Earth's surface. It appears he couldn't handle my custom Swing Jazz- Bboy style. I began to fly toward him and could hear a sonic boom sound behind me, shattering the windows of a nearby sky-scrapper. I caught the man by his shoulders and then began to carry him in my arms as I floated down to earth. The citizens of Earth gathered around us as my feet touched the street softly. I knelt down and could see the man had turned back into the girl Kyara! She looked at me weakly with her eyes half open. "Pon, pon pon pon," The girl said to me, looking up into my eyes.

"Yes," I replied. "You were the strongest opponent I had ever faced."

Kyara smiled warmly and closed her eyes, whispering, "Pon pon..."

I brought the girl closer to me and embraced her body. "I understand." I stood up to face the crowd made up of many different nations with Kyara in my arms. Tears had began to build up in their faces. "Listen to me, everyone!" My voice echoed throughout the crowd of people. "This event shows us that even if we're women that can transform into men, at the end of the day, we're still people! Kyara proved that to everyone! She had to die to show us that!" Tears began to slide down my cheeks and onto the face of the girl in my arms. "Now, go claim your carbonated soft drinks!" Everyone ran past me and to the various vending machines all over the town as I weakly fell to my knees.

"How long do you plan on laying around like that?" A voice broke through my dreams and brought me back to reality. I could hear my alarm blaring as I focused my eyes on the ceiling fan above me. I turned my head to my door on the far side of my room where my mom was standing in the doorway. I moved my head again and looked at the alarm clock beside my bed. My palm slammed down on the off button and turned my body once more onto my back and looked at the ceiling. The clock said it was 8:03 and homeroom starts at 8:45, is it even forth getting out bed to make it on time?

"Who knows." I replied, not looking for a conversation with her.

"Well, you might not pass again if you don't attend class enough." My mom replied, apparently not noticing my unsociable behavior.

"You don't think I know that? How dumb do you think I am..." My voice carried on as she turned her face away from me, obviously bothered by something. I got up from my bed and pulled my shirt up and over my head, throwing it on the floor. "You mind? I'm getting dressed." I said to her, walking over to my school uniform that was hanging on my wall.

"Okay, thank you Hisashi." She said as she left, closing the door behind her. I guess I should explain something; I didn't pass my freshman year. It's not like I'm a complete idiot or something like that, I just didn't attend school enough. Even when I did go, I was always late. Now I'm a junior; a second year, even though I should be a senior. I guess my mom's gotten disappointed in me. I had gotten a scholarship to play basket ball at my high school. I was pretty good; I'm tall and decent at the sport; due to this, I started acting cocky. I was an ass to everyone, even my teammates. I stopped attending school, I thought I was good enough to just show up for games and nothing else. I dropped in my classes and then I was kicked off the team. By that time it was already too late, I failed most all my finals and classes and had to repeat my freshman year.

In my second year of being a freshman, I was asked to join the team again, since there was a "significant change in my character and grades". I declined. I knew that if I rejoined the team, the same thing would happen. I'm pretty sure I'm better off this way though, even if I go to school late all the time.

I slipped my arms into my jacket and put the buttons through their small holes. I straightened my red tie and walked into the bathroom on the second floor of my house. I then looked in the mirror above the sink. There was a small stubble growing around my jawline due to me not shaving this morning. My brown hair was a few inches above my shoulders and my bangs hung a little below my green eyes at about the middle of the bridge of my nose. I could see that I still had a lean body body, but I didn't have as much muscle as I did during my time playing basket ball.

I ran water over my razor and then raised the blade to my chin, sliding it along the surface of my skin. After I was done shaving, I picked up my bag and walked down my stairs and through the living room. My mom was standing in the kitchen with an apron over her clothes while washing the dishes. "Have a nice day." She says without turning to look at me.

"Yeah," I mumble back. I then begin my long trek to school out my front door. I meet an unforgiving sun along with the heat that follows. It's as if the beams are trying to burn through my clothing. Although it isn't hot, it's much warmer than inside my house; I guess I'm just over dramatic. After a few minutes of walking, I meet many students wearing the same uniform as I. With all our tan and blue apparel, it's sometimes difficult to tell who is who from the back side. I am a little easier to spot, considering my decent height advantage on most students. I'm guessing that if you were to average the male student height here, it'd probably be around 5' 7" and I'm around 5' 11" this year. Of course, there are other students taller than 5' 7", just most of the guys are under that height. It might be my heritage though; I'm only half Japanese. I'm about half English where as most everyone at this school is fully oriental.

Sometimes it sucks sticking out though. It's harder to cut classes and avoid both the teacher along with the class representative. I reach the foot of the hill leading to the school and stare up at the cherry trees above me. Students pass by, talking and gossiping about random things that aren't really that interesting anyway. These trees really are wonderful in the way that they lead the way up the hill, like they're inviting you to the school. I laugh a little thinking about it; it's sort of like those fish that hang out at the bottom of the ocean with the lights hanging in front of their heads. They fool the smaller fish by luring them with the light and then eat the smaller fish. Yep, I think that's a good analogy.

In the midst of my thinking about how this school must suck the life-energy out of students to fuel the air conditioning, I heard a soft voice. "Um," The voice said. "Are you alright?" I turn my head at the voice to see a girl standing next to me. She must have been wondering what I was looking at because she was looking up toward the sky too when I looked at her. She then smiled and realized what I was looking at. "Oh, you're enjoying the song birds," She said cheerfully.

A little off. "Actually I was looking at the sakura." But with my answer, she seemed more puzzled than when she thought I was starring off into space like an idiot. During her confusion, I took note of her features. She had long brown hair that reached halfway down her back, which matched her brown eyes. She was probably about 5' 1", if I had to guess and her student badge was red, like mine. She's a junior. I'm pretty sure she's not in my class though.

"The sakura?" She asked. "The trees have been here for years, I think."

"You're probably right about that," I agreed. "I was just thinking that they're the good point of this school." Wait. Why am I telling her this?

"You think so?" She asked. "I like many other things about this school."

"Is that so..." Why is she wasting her time talking to me about this sort of thing?

"It is!" The girl stated with a out-of-nowhere determined face. "I like my teacher and the students here are nice too. The lunch is also well put together."

"I never really noticed that; lunch is lunch, right?" I replied, half-heartedly.

"It's not though! It's a very important meal." Her eyes were really serious over such a small thing.

"I've never seen anyone so serious over a meal before." When I said that, it seemed the girl snapped back to reality and her face became flustered. It was a pretty cute sight. I looked around us and saw that there was no one left on the hill. I then looked at my watch and followed the minute hand with my eyes. It was 8:40.

"Well... I..." Her voice trailed off as she tried to think of something to say. "I think you should take eating well seriously."

"Thanks, mom, but I think we should get to class. We're going to be late if we just sit here all day, which I'd be fine with, but something tells me that you want to get to class to enjoy all the good things about this school." I tell her, and again, she's brought back to reality.

"Thank you very much!" She then begins to jog up the hill with her bag in front of her skirt. Her hair fluttering behind her. She stops halfway up the hill then runs back down toward me. She stops in front of me and then asks, "Aren't you coming?" As she tries to catch her breath.

"Well..." I contemplated the idea. She did run all the way back to me; it would be kind of mean to ignore her after jeopardizing her being punctual. "I might as well. But I'm pretty sure we can make it even if we just walk it, so take it easy."

"Alright." She agrees and then follows behind me up the hill leading to school. And on the way up the slope, I wonder about how my school year will be this time around.

Both the girl and I part as our shoe lockers are a few lockers away from each other. I turn the dial with repercussion because I'm having difficulty remembering the numbers that would ensure my day of wearing clean white shoes. It really shouldn't be this difficult to remember. Come on, think.

After a few moments of thinking, I immediately pull the handle up with out turning the dial. The locker creaked open. Eh? Oh that's right... I remembered that my locker was broken, so I didn't actually need to put in a combination to open it. I looked inside the small locker and saw a small note folded neatly on the top of my shoes. Another surprise, I guess. I picked up the note and began to unfold it when I heard, "Are you coming?" I quickly turned around, throwing the slip of paper back into my shoe locker and looking at my guest. The girl from the hill stood before me with a puzzled look on her face. "What's wrong?"

"Oh, it's nothing. Go on ahead of me." I replied, reaching behind me and after the note.

"Well... okay," The girl said hesitantly. She turned from me and walked toward the stairs with small and quiet steps. I wonder if she has a boyfriend. He'd probably confront me if he saw me walking with her up the hill; I don't blame him. But then again, she might be dating some older guy who is out of high school already. But it could be the opposite of that; she could be dating a grade-schooler. Would that mean she has a loli complex? Wait, wait, wait. Why am I thinking about this? My thoughts are so weird. I don't think it's really in question why I had such a strange dream this morning.

I slipped my feet into my indoor shoes and tapped the tips of them on the floor; making sure they fit. I then stuffed the note that was previously lying neatly on my shoes into the tan pocket in my coat. I'll read it in class, I decided. I held my bag underneath my left shoulder as I walked along and then the bell rang before I was at my class. I slid the door open and walked to my seat on the far end of the class right next to the end and at the back. It's a very nice seat, I might add. The teacher still wasn't in so I rested my head on the desk with my arms to use as a substitute for a pillow, but it isn't the same.

After a few minutes the teacher strolled into the classroom, apologizing for her tardiness. Of course, there was no need for apologizes; I was enjoying my resting time. "All right, time for attendance." Our home room teacher said. "Kishigawa?"

"Here." A student replied, raising his hand.

This continued for a while until a familiar name came up. "Isogai?"

"Yeah." A black haired male stated, sounding bored.

"Yeah, what?" Our teacher asked.

"Present~." The boy said in a mocking tone. The teacher continued, swallowing the words that would have been useless to say. That boy is one of the people that I associate with. I'd say we're close enough to be friends but we've never been to each others house before. We usually just hang out after school in the shopping district or outside the station. His name's Jun Isogai. He's, quite obviously, a junior like me. He has black hair that's a little longer than mine, but his bangs are flipped to the right, covering his right eye; it sort of makes me wonder if he can see through it. He's considered good looking by most all the female students. I guess they like guys with the really thin physiques. Isogai, like me, played basket ball his freshman year. Unlike me, however, he quit; I guess he thought it was boring. He's a few inches shorter than me; probably around 5' 9" and he was the center and the star of the team. Maybe it was too much pressure. I don't think he's gone out with any girl before, but I think it's because he intimidates them. He sits a few seats diagonally in front of me. I think it's so the teacher can keep an eye on him.

Then a voice broke through my thoughts. "Yamada. Yamada. Yamada!"

"Oh right, yeah, I'm here." I replied, half yawning.

"Is it too early for you, Yamada?" The teacher asked.

"It always is, Sensei." I said this while rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.

The teacher rolled her eyes and walked to the chalkboard. "This is typical." Our teacher said, annoyed. "Yamada and Isogai, you're on cleaning duty today."

"Whatever." I said, slumping in my chair.

"Jackpot!" Isogai yelled excitedly. He beamed his bright smile and I could hear at least four different girls sigh in bliss.

"Why are you so happy about that?!" Our teacher blurted out, shocked.

"Well that means I get to spend time with you after school, Nakamura-sensei." Isogai replied, keeping up his blinding smile.

Nakamura-sensei sighed. "Well I can't have you two enjoying a punishment. The original students on cleaning duty will have to deal with the chore."

Isogai turned to me, giving me a thumbs up along with his legendary smile. So that's what he was up to. Another thing about Isogai, I wouldn't exactly call him book-smart but he definitely has a lot of commonsense, which might be better in this day and age. And also, it doesn't matter what season it is, Isogai always wears his spring uniform even if he's playing gym, he keeps the jacket on.

I eased back my chair; balancing on the back two legs and I pushed my hands into the pockets of my jacket. I felt a piece of paper resting in my pocket and remembered about this morning. I pulled the piece of paper out of my pocket and unfolded it. The paper read: Hello Yamada, I'm sorry to be so blunt, but I've fallen in love with you. I was looking to do dirty things with you on the roof. Go there during lunch.

"WHAT!?" I suddenly jumped up from my seat, allowing my chair to fall backward. Who the hell writes this kind of letter?! Even if this person did fall in love with me, who writes, I was looking forward to doing dirty things with you on the roof?! I looked around the classroom to see everyone looking at me as I held the crumpled letter in the palm of my hand. "Right. Sorry." I sat down in my chair once again. I guess I'll go see what this is all about at lunch, but then again, it might not be a good idea.

As the bell rang for the fourth period to come to a close, most of the students filed out of the classroom. Isogai walked up to me as I stood up from my seat. "Yo, you want to go to the cafeteria today?" He asked, peering at me from his visible left eye.

"Sorry, there's something I have to do today," I replied. "You go on ahead."

Even with the news of me not joining him for lunch, Isogai still smiled brightly. "That's fine by me; more bread for my own consumption." His smile turned more malevolent. "But now I'll have to make fun of Hirano all by myself."

"I'm sure you'll be fine without me. See you after lunch." I replied walking out the door. My destination: the roof. This sounds stupid to me. Who would want to meet me on the roof?

This used to be the old building. Well I guess the part I'm in right now is still part of the old building. A few years ago, there was a plan to replace this building with a whole new building, but that plan was eventually stopped before it could be completed. The school board contemplated on what to do with the building; they couldn't leave it under construction, after all. At that time, there weren't any classes being held in that part of the building but it was still an eyesore. Instead of replacing the whole building, the board decided on adding on to the building. This became an even bigger project than leveling the building and building a new one. There was pretty much a whole facility added to the school. Specialty and supplementary classes are mainly held in this section of the school; their good for prepping for universities, I guess. There's a huge range in classes here. If you want to learn about musical arts, this is the place. If you want to train to become a carpenter, well, this is the place for that too.

Along with this newly constructed building came an easily accessible roof, although I'm fairly sure we're not supposed to be up there, it seems that the person who wrote this note doesn't care about that. I pushed forward up the stairs. I could hear the faint sound of sneakers squeaking in the distance. Possibly my secret admirer? I'd see soon enough, I suppose. I probably should have gotten something to eat, I think as I hear my stomach growl.

I finally reach the roof exit at the top of the staircase. I extend my hand to the doorknob, my fingers lightly touch the metal and I stop. What if it's a prank? That would probably be for the best, though. I turn the nob and hear a clicking noise as I push open the door. The flutter of a skirt scurries out of sight as I peer out onto the roof. I move out from the doorway and quickly turn around to where the girl moved. At the same time, I could hear something soar through the air and it was coming in quickly. My body moved to the right instinctively and I could see a book pass right by my head. No way... I faced my attacker. Her eyes were blood-shot with the aura of a wild beast. Her teeth were jagged and sharp; as if they were made to tear through defenseless animals.

"Hey! Hisashi! Somehow, I get the feeling that you've gotten the wrong description of me out there in the open! So how 'bout you make something else up!" A voice screeched through the flurry of thoughts going through my head.

"Very well." I then cleared my throat. "So there she sat, that girl from so many years ago, returning to my side once more. She's come to me once more to try and win my heart, but this time, it's a race against time. She only has a week before I move to America to study marine biology and-"

"What the hell are you talking about?" The girl asked, shattering my cliché plot line in an instant. "Never mind, I don't really care." The girl moved away from me and sat against the railing surrounding the entire roof. "So you came here for some perverted things." She got right to the point.

"I was hoping for that, but I saw you and all my hopes completely diminished." I replied, sitting next to her. "So what was that letter all about, anyway?"

"Well we haven't hung out since March. I thought you were beginning to forget about me." The girl replied in a teasing voice.

"Already had. But if you were expecting me, why'd you throw an encyclopedia at me?!" I said, remembering the unpleasant near-death experience I had just a few moments ago. "You could've seriously hurt me!"

"It was an accident~!" The cheerful girl replied.

"How could you accidentally hurl an encyclopedia at someone?!" My anger burst through my normal and calm self.

"Accident~!" The girl repeated with the same smile on her face, attempting to feign innocence.

"You really are a scary girl, Kei Fujibayashi." I said and looked out toward the sky. And then my stomach growled heavily, breaking the silence between us. "Er..."

Kei looked at me condescendingly. "You didn't get lunch?"

"I was told to head to the roof during lunch, you know. I didn't have much of an opportunity." I said bitterly.

"Then I guess I'll have to give you some of mine if you're going to be so pitiful about it." Kei picked up a bento lunch box from beside her. She unwrapped the box and took off the lid. The contents looked delicious, suspiciously so. I'm pretty sure Kei could tell I was in thought about the lunch box because she asked, "What's wrong?"

"Did you make this yourself?" I asked to which Kei immediately blushed.

"Well, I had help from my sister," She replied, looking down at the bento. "I'm not very good with cooking, so my sister usually helps me with my lunch."

"You have a sister?!" I never knew. I couldn't imagine a world with more Kei's walking around, or more so, I didn't want to. However, the image crept in to my mind. They take towns down at a time, sucking the life out of citizens for immortality while launching dictionaries at unsuspecting victims. "There would be a mass dictionary burning in the streets." I said in horror.

"What are you picturing about my sisters?" Kei said, sounding pissed.

"Sisters?!" Now there are Kei's marching throughout the streets of my mind laughing maniacally and yelling, "Hisashi~!" with dictionaries in hand. "I can't absorb knowledge by being hit by books!"

"Want to find out if that's true or not?!" Kei exclaimed, apparently fed up with my daydreaming.

"I apologize." I said, slightly bowing.

"I have two older sisters. They're twins but really different." Kei explained. "I thought you knew."

"Nope, you've never told me before."

"I thought Isogai might have told you..." Her voice trailed off. That's right, I'd forgotten. When I said that Isogai hadn't gone out with any girl before, that's not necessarily the case. He went out with Kei for a short period of time during their freshman year and my second freshmen year. It probably lasted a month. They seem to not hold any bad feelings toward each other but when it's just the three of us, things feel a little awkward.

Things got awkwardly quiet between us. But then I said, "So how much older are they than you?"

"Eight-teen years older." Kei said, seeming a little embarrassed.

"Wow, so you're the baby sister, Kei-chan." I said smiling, but Kei didn't seem amused with the nickname I gave her. After that, we both started eating. The food really was delicious. Kei got the bigger share, since it was her bento, after all.

The bell ending lunch rang and Kei gathered up her bento. "We should hang out sometime." Kei said running a little ahead of me and then turned back to look at me. "You're not as much of an idiot as you look~." She stuck her tongue out at me and then dashed back to class.

Not a bad way to spend lunch, but I'm going to get hurt one of these days. Yeah, I think hanging around her brings down my life expectancy.

Well, it looks like my anxiety for the rooftop meeting wasn't needed at all. Kei's the same as she's always been, and I find that reassuring. With all the change around here, it's nice to see things stay the same.

I began my journey back to the classroom. Kids were still hanging out in the hallways when I was in the second floor of the main building. Teachers began to guide the students back to their classes as I entered my own. I immediately saw Isogai waving me over to his seat, he seemed rushed for some reason. I made my way over to him and as soon as I did he swung his arm over my and around my neck. "Yo, let's get out of here before the teacher gets back; I just can't sit here all day." He said, proposing something that I wasn't really contemplating. I was just going to sleep all afternoon, after all.

"Sure, but where are we going?" I asked and Isogai picked up his sports bag from atop his desk.

"Follow me!" Isogai shouted triumphantly and marched into the hallway. We walked down the hallway toward the stairs leading to the first floor. "Oh!" Isogai shouted suddenly. "Let's go get Hirano."

"Hirano? Whatever we're gonna do, he's just going to try and mooch off us." I shrugged. "It's like he only wants to spend other peoples' money."

"I just feel bad sometimes. We make fun of him all the time; so I like to include him in things." Isogai chuckled.

I sighed, "It's not like he doesn't deserve it."

"I guess you've got a point there." Isogai said, smiling. "Well let's go pick him up."

"How're we gonna do that? Classes already started; his teacher's probably there."

"I've got my ways." Isogai gave me a thumbs up and crept down the hallway, hunching forward as if he was a thief. I followed behind in a more normal fashion. In this school, at least, if you act like you're supposed to be doing something, no one will think otherwise. So if I walk around like I'm supposed to be walking around, everyone will think I'm supposed be doing so.

We both stopped outside classroom 2-B. Isogai slid the door open slightly, peering through the crack in the door. We could see a kid sitting on the opposite side of the room from us, toward the windows. He had light brown hair and was leaning back in his chair, supporting himself on the back two legs. "Now what?" I whispered.

Isogai unzipped his sports bag and fished his hand into it. He made several laps around the outside before pulling out an eraser. He began plucking the eraser into smaller erasers. Flick. Isogai flicked one at Hirano. It came up short. "Damn." Isogai whispered in frustration. "Help out, Yamada." Isogai handed a few pieces of eraser to me. Flick. Flick. Flick. Flick, flick, flick. They wouldn't go anywhere near Hirano, and he didn't seem to notice, turning to look outside the window.

"Well, that didn't work. Now wha-" I couldn't finish what I was saying. Isogai suddenly stood up, pulling something out from his sports bag. It was a calculator. He threw it with all his might across the room and hit one of the legs that Hirano was supporting himself on. Hirano lost his balance, falling out of his chair and greeted the floor with his face. "That ought to of brought him back to reality." I stated, satisfied.

"Oh crap, run!" Isogai yelled, sprinting away as the teacher approached the fallen Hirano. We both did a combination of running and jumping down the stairs to the first floor. "Hirano always gets us into these kind of situations!"

"That's what I'm saying!" I agreed, jumping down half a flight of stairs. We agreed, even though we both sought enjoyment from the unsuspecting Hirano; that's just how things went around here. This is how we keep school life interesting for Hirano. That's how we justified it, anyway.

Now we could hear the teacher running behind us. "Get back here you idiots!" The teacher called after us, but we both had a considerable lead. Then I heard the squeaking of indoor shoes running out from a hallway next to us. Someone sprinted out the hallway that intersected with this one from the right, cutting us off from the exit. Now our exit's been blocked. The one blocking the way of the exit was Kei Fujibayashi. The girl's purple hair fluttered as she stopped in front of the exit. She had a devilish smile on her face. Isogai turned to face the teacher that stopped behind us. It turned out to be our teacher rather than Hirano's, Nakamura-sensei. She was in surprisingly good shape to have kept up with us and without breaking a sweat.

"It's the end of the line, Hisashi~." Kei said, with an evil voice, but also a smile on her face. "If this were to be a jail, I'd be the equivalent of a jailor and you an escaping convict."

"My rival, Kei Fujibayashi, comes to challenge me once again." I said, a smirk on my face. "I've gotten a lot stronger since our last encounter."

"Is that so~?" Kei said, her smile growing more malicious. "That's good to hear; I was afraid you'd disappoint me." She pulled two dictionaries out from behind her back.

If I'm hit with one of those, I'm done for. Come on, the exit's right in front of me. It's not time to lose heart; I'm almost free. I slightly turned my head, keeping my eyes on Kei. "Isogai." I said, trying to not let Kei or Nakamura hear me. "You run the other way, I'll deal with Kei. We'll meet up outside the station after all this is over."

Isogai looked frightened. "Er, you sure about that? Fujibayashi's been known to get a little violent."

"Don't worry about it; we go back. I think she'll go easy on me." I said, trying to give a reassuring smile.

"If you say so..." Isogai turned back to look back at Nakamura. "I guess we get to hang out after all, Nakamura-sensei. Ha ha..." Isogai laughed nervously.

My right leg moved a little farther forward and I began to put my body weight into it. I ran at Kei, and she responded accordingly, launching a dictionary toward my jugular. I ducked under the book and stumbled a little, I pushed myself back up with my right arm. I looked at Kei, but her image was blocked out by a book speeding toward my face. And then everything went dark.

I opened my eyes, finding myself on a bed in a foreign room. I pushed myself up and looked at a clock that was hanging on the wall. It read 3:27. School was over now. Did Kei knock me out? So much for going back. A woman walked into the room I was in. She had brown hair and was about 5' 5" and she was pretty good looking too. It's strange that I've never seen her before; I think I'd remember if I had. "Hello, Yamada-kun." she said. "You've been asleep for a while."

"Yeah..." I replied, still looking around the room.

"Fujibayashi-san said that you slipped and knocked yourself out earlier in the day." So the woman said.

"She did, huh?" That sounded like her; covering for herself. I wonder if I should contradict that? But then she'd probably get in trouble, and I don't exactly want that; she's my friend, after all. "Yeah, that sounds about right."

"I thought it best to let you sleep. I don't think you received a concussion, but you should still take it easy for the time being." The woman stated, sounding worried.

"Thanks." I got up from the bed. "I should be fine now, so thank you for worrying about me." I began to walk toward the door and then the woman handed me a small piece of paper. "Eh... what's this?"

"Your detention slip." The woman said cheerfully. "You should try to avoid doing bad things for the future; the world outside high school won't be so easy on you."

"Yeah, I'll try to remember that." I walked out of the nurses office with the slip in my hand. The nurses signature said that she was Miyamoto-sensei. Alright, the room designated for detention is classroom 3-A. A senior class, huh? I start climbing the steps to get to the third floor. If I never let basket ball get to my head, there's a possibility I'd be in that class this year. I reached the third floor shortly.

After a few moments of walking, I was standing in front of the door to room 3-A. I slid open the door to the classroom. Inside the room were three students. Kei Fujibayashi was there, drawing on Hirano's sleeping face with a permanent marker while Jun Isogai was holding his head in his hand while looking out the window. There didn't seem to be any teacher supervising them.

"Yo." I said, breaking the silence.

Kei turned around quickly, holding the marker behind her back. "His face was like this when I found him!" Then Kei noticed I wasn't the teacher. A condescending look grew on her face. "Oh~, Sleeping Beauty's returned to the world of the living."

"That's kind of scary to hear from you." I replied. "And why are you here?"

She grew an angry look on her face. "That first dictionary I threw missed you but found its way to a nearby window! I told them that it accidentally slipped out of my hand and broke the window, but they still gave me detention!"

"And it accidentally almost destroyed my wind pipe!" I exclaimed.

"Accidentally~!" Kei replied cheerfully.

"Looks like we couldn't make it to the station." Isogai said, getting up from his seat with a smile on his face, despite being in detention.

"I was hoping that at least you escaped." I said, turning to Isogai who walked over to the two of us.

"Well, Nakamura-sensei sort of put me in an arm-lock as I tried to sprint by her." Isogai then began to rub his left arm to show his still occurring pain.

All three of us looked at the sleeping Hirano with Kei's name written on his forehead. Isogai took the marker out of Kei's hand and then wrote his name on Hirano's left cheek. He then held out the marker to me. I then wrote my name on Hirano's right cheek. "It's finished." I declared, putting my hands on my hips.

"Now time for a picture~." Kei said, taking out her cell phone from her bag. She set the timer on the phone and aimed it Hirano. We hunched down toward Hirano. I was in the middle with Kei on my left and Isogai on my right. Kei held out a peace sign, and we all smiled honestly. It's strange to think that high schoolers could have fun during detention, but there we were. Most high school students have fun at the shopping mall or at parties, but we were different; enjoying the time we had in detention. But I've got to say, there may not have been any other way I'd want to spend my time after school than with these people around me.