Water and Cherry Blossom
(CHAPTER 6: The Red Truth)
"There is no way Makoto could be a traitor" said Haru, glaring at Nagisa "He had been allied with us since the beginning of all this, you should know that better Nagisa"
Nagisa said nothing and Rei raised up his hand.
"But if it was not Makoto-senpai then who was it? Clearly none of us here had brown hair except him…" said Rei.
Haru quickly unsheathed his katana and point it at Rei's throat.
"IT'S. NOT. MAKOTO." he said, glaring at Rei. He was furious. Rei gulped, he raised both of his hands, trying to calm his senpai down.
"Cool down Haru" said Rin while trying to put Haru's katana down. "Rei has a point but you too has a point, it might or might not be Makoto, I mean- who knows, Yukichi might have invited another person into the game…"
"I agree with Rin-chan" said Nagisa, his expression still serious "When you talk about abnormality such as 50 clones attacking our shed and Gou's absentees of mark, having a new person in the game wouldn't be that weird"
Haru put down his katana while Rei sighed in relieve.
"It also means that we have to find Makoto-senpai- right?" asked Rei "Since he's still missing" Everyone nod in agreement. Gou who was clueless about everything just stared in confusion, but she decided not to ask any question as the situation seemed too tense. Then something hit her. Everybody's clothes were bloodstained, except-her. She shivered, her courage thinning down again.
"Alright, enough discussion" said Rin as he clasped his hand "It's dinner time!"
Rei nodded and he took out supplies from his packed backpack. He then approached Gou to give her share of food.
"Hey Gou, how are you?" he asked. Gou gave Rei a faint smile and took the bread.
"Are you okay?" she asked "I heard you and Nagisa were fighting off some clones"
"I'm fine" said Rei as he took a seat next to Gou "Well maybe not THAT fine… but you- you look worse"
Gou stopped eating and stared at Rei, wondering what he just said. Rei sighed.
"You have no memories about this do you?" he asked. Gou shook her head. Rei smiled and pat her back.
"It's alright, don't worry about it" he said and his face saddened "I wish I don't remember either… It was all bad memories"
Gou frowned and put down her food "What do you mean?"
Rei looked left and right, making sure that none of the others were listening to them, then he cleared his throat.
"I'm not supposed to tell you" he said, getting nervous "Please forget about it"
Gou gave Rei an annoyed look "Rei, you brought up this topic in the first place" she said "Now take responsibility!"
"Sush!" Said Rei, trying to calm Gou down and he gave a last glance towards the others, they does not seem to realize anything suspicious. He sighed in relieve. "Fine I'll tell you, but DON'T tell the rest… especially Haruka-senpai"
Gou gave Rei another curious look 'Why Haruka-senpai?' she wanted to ask but she shrug it off. As long as she get all the stories out, that question could come later. "Alright, I won't tell" she said.
Rei took a deep breath and moved closer to Gou.
"You see…" he whispered "Haruka-senpai said all of this started when Yukichi-san arrived, 10 years ago-…"
"10 years?" exclaimed Gou "But we've all met not too long a-…!"
"Don't cut me!" whispered Rei "Let me continue…"
Gou nod and Rei continued.
"I'm not sure either, but time had always reset itself once we finished the game, we won't remember anything about the game, until the next game starts but this year is weird… Makoto-senpai and Haruka-senpai seemed to remember something before the game… which explains how they both act differently in front of Yukichi-san…"
"B-but I thought senpai's relationship with Yukichi-san was not that good in the first place" said Gou, obviously confused.
"You must have heard that from Kaguya-san" said Rei, sighing "That woman… I don't trust her since the beginning… even when I and Nagisa-kun were on Yukichi's side once"
"What do you mean?" asked Gou.
"Well… not all of us were united during the game you know… the first year, it was only Haruka-senpai and Makoto-senpai… then the second year, Rin-san and you joined… But that's what Haruka-senpai told all of us… Nagisa-kun and I only joined on the third year, so we remembered less"
"I see…" said Gou "But that doesn't explain how you were on Yukichi's side once…!"
Rei sighed "I'm getting to it… be patient!" he said "So the year after I joined the game, me and Nagisa-kun noticed something amiss, everyone seemed so different, each of them had lost their unique characteristic, it took me a while to realize all this but Nagisa-kun was sharp…"
Gou stared at Rei, still confused.
"First, he realized that Makoto-senpai was not afraid of storms since he swam at the port to collect back our supplies when it was raining hard" continued Rei "Secondly, he realized that Rin-san had lost his competitiveness with Haruka-senpai and was much more- passive, thirdly… Haruka-senpai was not obsessed with water"
Gou eyes widened "So your point is?"
Rei sighed "We both thought they were clones, so we ran away from the shed and looked for Yukichi-san ourselves, at first we thought that we were overreacting… maybe Haruka-senpai and the others were just overwhelmed with the fear of the game, but then Yukichi-san told us the truth"
"Truth?" asked Gou.
"This game isn't about killing clones" said Rei "It's about killing the real ones to become real, that is what he told us"
"So your point is?" asked Gou. Rei clenched his fist and stared straight into Gou's eyes.
"It means that, we are not real…" he said "We are the clones"
To be continued…
