I hope I don't lose interest in Masaru… Speaking of which, I didn't realize he had the same first name as Masaru Daimon until after I posted the first chapter. I hope it doesn't become confusing later on, though I might be able to work around it…
Shouting… A girl… He doesn't recognize the voice… Someone's following him…
The first thing Leon is aware of is the dull aching in his chest. It doesn't hurt; it's just uncomfortable. He opens his eyes just enough to be able to tell that he's alone, and he promptly closes them again and falls back asleep.
Everything's fuzzy… He knows who the girl is but he doesn't remember…
The next time he opens his eyes, the room looks like it's sparkling. He quickly chalks it up to an exhaustion-induced hallucination and goes back to sleep.
This time, he doesn't dream.
He's awoken by the feeling of pressure on his face, and it's surprisingly difficult for him to open his eyes enough to actually see.
Blue eyes are the first thing he sees, and right away he knows who it is: it's Sayaka; beautiful, kind Sayaka.
He gives an involuntary smile as his eyes focus and his view of her clears.
She's smiling too, though her eyes seem unusually shiny. She's still wearing her cute beanie, and she's gently stroking his hair.
His eyelids are now open enough for him to see that they're not alone: all the other teens save Mondo and Sakura are there too, and Masaru and Dr. Sasaki are talking about something in the doorway.
He tries to ignore them, but it proves to be impossible when Dr. Sasaki suddenly yells, "WHAT!? I EXPLICITLY TOLD HER NOT TO TRAIN UNTIL SHE HAD RECOVERED…!"
His screaming becomes unintelligible as he runs out of the doorway and down the hall. Masaru briefly follows him, but soon comes back shrugging.
"What was that about?" Natsuki inquires.
"I told him that I found Sakura training in the gym," Masaru replies.
"…Didn't he tell her not to train until she was healthy again?"
Masaru shrugs. "I didn't get a chance to ask her about it."
"Didn't get a chance or she glared at you when you asked?"
"…She glared."
Natsuki nods. "I thought so. Where's Mondo?"
"He was organizing books in the library."
"By himself?"
"Yeah. He didn't react much when I told him."
A look of suspicion mixed with concern crosses Natsuki's face.
"That's…odd." She glances at Leon, who quickly looks away.
"How is it odd?" Masaru wonders.
"Well, last week, when I told him that Chihiro had woken up, he bolted out of the room." She notices Chihiro, no longer on Hifumi's shoulders, raising his hand. "What's up, Chihiro?"
He opens his mouth, but no sound comes out.
"…You wanna go find Mondo?"
He nods.
"Oh, okay, uh, go ahead."
Chihiro nods again and leaves the room.
Several moments of awkward silence pass before Masaru says, "So…is there anything else to talk about…?"
"…Not until my dad gets back, I think."
0~*~0
It feels empowering to Chihiro to be able to run by himself through the hallways. It's a strange thing to feel empowered by, but he really can't help it.
Not that he would ever say it out loud, of course; he feels enough like an outsider as it is. After all, he had woken up a week after everyone else and he still has difficulty understanding the hand gesture system everyone had set up. Nobody in the group treats him like an outsider, but he's not sure if that makes him feel better or worse.
On the one hand, he's glad that they're willing to accommodate him, but the fact that they have to do that at all is just…
Well, that's not important right now. What he needs to do now is find the library and, by extension, Mondo!
It takes him longer than he would've liked to find the library, but he thinks that it's an acceptable amount of time.
When he finally finds it, the first thing that he does when he goes in is try to shout out Mondo's name. The only sound that comes out is the sound of forceful exhaling.
Oh yeah…, he thinks, we still can't talk…
He's not sure if it's because they don't remember how to vocalize or if they're incapable of vocalizing, but not being able to makes it extremely difficult for any of them to communicate with people outside of their group (not that he tries to do so very often).
In lieu of yelling, Chihiro begins searching through the aisles, one by one. When he's halfway through, he hears something and stops to listen.
He doesn't hear it again.
Hmm. Must've just been me. Or maybe… Was that Mondo?
Chihiro resumes searching the aisles at a faster pace. After looking through all of them…there's no sign of Mondo. So he decides to search through the back rooms, where tables have been set up to allow people to read in quiet.
It's not long before he comes across a room with a closed door. Which is odd; he hasn't been to the library very often, but he knows that the doors to the back rooms are almost always left open, even when someone's in there.
Chihiro cups his hands around his ear and presses it against the door. Sure enough, he hears something. It's not loud enough for him to determine what it is, but it's not someone talking, that's for sure.
Wanting to be polite, he knocks on the door. After waiting almost a full minute with no response, he knocks again, harder this time. There's still no response.
So he stands on the tips of his toes and peeks through the window in the door into the room. No matter how hard he looks, he can't see anybody.
Finally, he decides to just open the door and pushes down on the turn handle. It barely moves.
Chihiro frowns. That's weird… These doors don't have locks… Is there a chair under the handle?
Unfortunately, he can't quite peek over enough to be able to confirm it, so he does the next best thing he can think of.
He goes to the shelves, picks out a few books on programming, sits next to the closed door, sets a book in his lap, and begins reading.
Mondo can't stay in there all day, he reasons. He has to come out sooner or later. So I'll just wait for when he does.
0~*~0
Taka sits in the back of Leon's recovery room, holding his nose in an effort to keep himself from sneezing. Having a cold is incredibly annoying; he's sneezing and blowing his nose so much his sinuses hurt, the pressure in his head makes it feel like it's going to explode, he has no energy, and he just feels terrible in general. It also means that he can't spend time with the other students, at least not as much as he would like to. He knows it's necessary to keep the other teens from getting sick too, but he gets so lonely cooped up in his room.
Just then, Dr. Sasaki finally returns, looking thoroughly peeved.
"I cannot believe that girl…" he mumbles.
"What happened?" Natsuki inquires.
"She ran off as soon as I went into the room." He suddenly holds up a key. "But I locked the doors to the gym."
"Can't she just break down the doors?" Masaru points out.
"You underestimate the strength of those doors," he responds with a completely straight face.
"…Okay then."
"Where's Chihiro?"
"He went to find Mondo."
"…Why?"
"Cause he didn't come, I guess."
"…Where's Mondo?"
"In the library."
"…Why's he in the library?"
"He was organizing books."
"Organizing books?"
"Yeah… Is something wrong with that?"
"…How much of the broadcast did you watch?"
"…What does that have to do with Mondo organizing books?"
"From what I saw of him in the broadcast, he doesn't seem like the type to spontaneously decide to organize books unless someone like Taka was with him."
"So you're saying that it's out of character for him," Masaru deadpans.
"Yes."
"Well if you're so concerned about it, why don't YOU go to the library and check on him!?"
Heizo stares at him, surprised by the sudden aggression in his voice. He slips out of the room without another word.
Masaru turns back to the students to see all of them staring at him with confused expressions.
"…You're wondering about the broadcast, aren't you?"
They all nod.
"Well…it'd be difficult to explain right now… You wouldn't really understand."
Strangely, his response seems to satisfy them.
He then notices Natsuki looking at him with a strange expression on her face.
"What?"
Author's note: …Yeah, it's much shorter than usual, but I couldn't think of any way to continue the chapter beyond this point without it seeming awkward. That, and I'm tired right now (Didn't sleep well last night).
I think there was something else I wanted to mention but I forget what…