Upon reaching her classroom, Koharu would be the first to find the brown skinned boy sitting near the front of the classroom.
He held his head on the palm of his right hand, his elbow pressed into the desk he sat on, as though he was tired, his eyes closed.
Seeing this, she raised an eyebrow, walking to the boy's side, crouching down in front of him, crossing her arms over her knees as she stared at his face, her seeing that he looked troubled as well as tired, "Hey, Kai."
His eyes whipped open, his head lifting itself up, meeting her eyes in surprise for a moment, only to relax when he realized who it was.
"Hey," he smiled at her, resting his head on his palm again, "I'm sorry, but I don't think I caught your name before."
She pouted at him, "What? You don't remember me?"
"I do, don't worry," his smile turned bitter, "I just don't know your name is all. Could you tell me what it is?"
"It's Hinata, Koharu," she said, her pout remaining, "But how did you know Saki's name if you don't know mine?"
"Miyu-senpai?" He asked for clarification, Koharu nodding. "I read the post that red haired girl showed me yesterday. Since I wanted to refer to Miyu-senpai by name, I looked at her username, or whatever it's called, and I just remembered it more easily after using her name myself."
"I guess that makes sense. And that red haired girl's name is Yui." Koharu added, Kai nodding in understanding.
"Should I call you Hinata?" He asked curiously.
"No." She shook her head, smiling again. "I'd prefer it if you called me Koharu. It wouldn't be fair if all my other friends could call me by my first name and you couldn't."
He gave a surprised look, but smiled nonetheless.
"I'm glad to hear there won't be any discrimination."
"Nope, none on my end." Koharu shook her head. "There's no point in keeping up formalities if it's probably going to make it more awkward."
"Does that mean you'll be calling me "Kai" from here on out?"
Koharu nodded.
"Okay then." Kai looked to the door to his right. "Where did your blue haired friend go?"
"She went to the library. She kind of likes to read."
"I see. That's good." Kai smiled, only to look at Koharu again in curiosity.
"She also isn't in this class anyways, so I don't think she'd be with me anyways." Koharu said jokingly.
He shared her tone, "I see. That would only make sense," he glanced down at the position she was in, "By the way, aren't you uncomfortable like that?"
"A little." She admitted, looking behind herself warily before standing up, keeping a hand over the back of her skirt as she did this.
This sudden wariness didn't fail to catch Kai's attention.
"Why were you looking around like that? Did you think there was someone behind you?" He asked curiously, looking behind her in curiosity.
"No, but I wanted to be sure." Koharu said honestly, moving to a desk and pulling the chair out with one hand, her other hand pressed against the back of her skirt still.
As she turned to face him, sitting down in the drawn seat, Kai's expression implored her to elaborate.
She didn't disappoint.
"Yesterday, after that whole thing with you pointing out how we weren't being good friends to Kokona," he noticed she was clasping her knees together as she spoke, "We all apologized to her, and afterwards, we were trying to make up with her by hugging her as a group."
Koharu's gaze left Kai's face and moved elsewhere as she kept speaking awkwardly, "But then some creep tried taking pictures of our underwear again. So now I'm trying to be extra cautious about it."
Kai blinked, surprise taking his features.
"He tried taking pictures of your underwear?"
"That's what I said." Koharu sighed, redness coming to her face from embarassment at the remembrance of the fact that the boy she was talking about had taken more pictures of her panties than the rest of her group.
"How? You were... wearing them, weren't you?"
Though the last part was spoken with a lowered tone of voice, the redness in Koharu's face spiked up at the implication.
"Of course I was wearing them you idiot." She hissed, glaring at him.
He raised his hands, as if in surrender, "Sorry, I just want to understand completely."
She sighed.
"How else do you want me to say he aimed a camera up between our legs to get a picture of our underwear?"
His expression flickered with understanding.
"Oh, so an upskirt panty shot." He mused, half to himself.
"Yeah. Don't know where you got the idea we'd be going commando from." Koharu said, and he laughed lightly despite himself.
"I'm sorry, really, but the way you worded it confused me." He said honestly.
"It's fine I guess." She sighed. "So that's why I'm trying to be more careful."
"I see. I didn't think there were people who actually took panty shots of girls in skirts. I thought it was just some dumb anime cliche." He crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair as he said this.
"It's actually more common in this school than most people are willing to admit." Koharu sighed.
"Really?" Kai glanced over at her, his tone curious.
His mind couldn't help imagining the headmaster trying to silence victims of sexual harassment via compensation.
"Yeah. A bunch of guys try getting panty shots of girls without their consent. It's sad really."
Kai's eyes studied Koharu features for a moment before he answered.
"Well, I guess if I looked at it from their point of view, I can somewhat see where they're coming from."
"You too? Are all guys just that perverted?" Koharu asked, giving him a weird look.
"That depends on your definition of "perverted" really." He uncrossed his arms, shrugging. "If you think having sexual needs qualifies someone as perverted, then anything living that isn't asexual can be said to be perverted."
"I mean someone who has trouble thinking about anything that should be kept private, if that's the case." Koharu clarified, her genuinely curious.
She hadn't had any guy friends to ask this question to, and though she hadn't intended to ask such a thing of the boy in front of her, the conversation had simply taken that turn.
"I doubt I could speak for all guys in the world," Kai began, and she knew he couldn't, though Koharu still thought this with a mental smile, "But most guys our age would probably be more likely to be perverted than people older than us. I say that I can probably understand their actions somewhat, because though I wouldn't go to that kind of extreme," he looked her in the face again, "I can't say they're wrong for wanting to go there."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that people all have different ways about going about approaching members of the opposite sex when it comes to relationship building. Some of them can easily see when a girl's attractive, but just suck about pursuing a relationship with them. Some of those people realize their attraction and try to vent their sexual frustrations out in a very physical way, with no regard of the other person's feelings on the matter. Even if what that guy did yesterday was wrong, it'd be better to deal with someone like him than someone who acts the exact same way behind closed doors."
"You mean like guys that act nice to girls when all they're thinking about is screwing them?"
He nodded, almost sadly.
"Those are the ones that are the most dangerous." He said with a distant look. "At least with that guy, he was being upfront about his wants instead of pretending to care about your feelings, getting close and forcing those wants on you."
"I hear you." Koharu sighed, leaning forward and pressing her elbows into her knees, holding her face in her hands.
"It's pretty sad whenever I think of those type of guys. They don't know or care about the fact that girls are people. They don't even realize just how badly they're hurting themselves by not looking for anything other than what they want." He sighed, closing his eyes. "I don't even get why some guys are so obsessed with sex. It's not like it's going to automatically make their lives better. What's the point of romanticizing something that does more damage than good?"
"You sound like you're talking from experience." Koharu noted audibly after hearing his tone.
"You could say that." He opened his eyes, gazing at the ceiling. "Getting revenge on people who wronged me wasn't nearly as satisfying as I thought it would be."
Not even accounting the fact that his religion said revenge was a sinful endeavor, the act of murder after seeing his parents getting killed in front of him for their religious affiliation felt different to him than he imagined and anticipated it would.
Standing amongst a place filled with the gory remnants of what used to be living people's bodies, he felt neither joy nor self-remorse for his actions.
In hindsight, he realized that he felt more guilt about taking judgement into his own hands as opposed to actually feeling bad for having killed so many people.
Kai wondered what his parents would've said if they'd seen what he'd done for a moment.
"Hey, are you okay?"
Koharu's voice, significantly more worried than before, brought him back to the present.
He closed his eyes, bringing a hand to his face, him realizing then that his body was shaking slightly, tears threatening to spill from his eyes.
"I'm sorry," he said, though he wasn't talking to Koharu as he did.
Despite this, she was none the wiser, her blatant confusion notwithstanding.
"Sorry for what?" She asked, concernedly.
Kai shook his head slightly.
"I'm sorry," he repeated, taking a shaky sigh, "It's... just some bad memories."
"Will you be okay?" She asked, and he smiled despite himself, nodding.
"I think I just need some time to myself." He said, standing up.
Koharu watched him as he walked his way towards the door, his hand to his face the entire time, his steps much more unsteady as compared to before, him leaving the classroom with this.
Amidst eavesdropping on the two, whilst pretending to be reading something on her phone as she leaned against a wall directly behind Kai's seat, Ayano dared a look at Koharu, seeing that her attention was drawn to the boy leaving the room, and she looked down at the time on her phone.
They still had some time to kill before class started, she thought, turning the phone off and walking forward, following behind the Middle-Eastern boy as he left the room.
She would follow him around a corner and half a hallway before he stopped walking, no one being in front of him.
The hallway was silent as the two stopped walking, Kai only moving to a wall and leaning his shoulder against it, the hand he held to his face falling to his side, his eyes closing as he did this.
A heavy sigh escaped his lips, and he shifted himself, his back pressed against the wall as he slid down to the floor, his knees bent at near ninety degree angles.
He grasped at his arms in a futile effort to steady his shaking body, and he gave a shuddering sigh, as though he were cold, whilst lowering his head.
After a moment of this going on, he started muttering to himself, and with the bits and pieces she managed to hear, Ayano realized he was speaking a language she didn't know.
The muttering went on for a long time, with him only stopping when he apparently needed to take a breath of air, and after a few minutes had passed, Ayano walked forward, him not raising his lowered head as she approached.
"Are you alright?" Ayano asked, her voice in a monotone.
At the question, he raised his head, and Ayano saw that despite his shaking, he gave a calm expression for her to see.
"Yes, I'm fine."
His response notably lacked much of the emotion that filled it earlier.
It was impossible to tell which of their voices lacked emotion more in that moment.
"Why are you shaking like that?"
"I end up like this when I remember more..." he gave a short pause for thought, "... Stressful times in my life. It shouldn't last too long."
"Is there any way I could help you?"
"Nothing effective can be done right now. It would be best if you left me alone for the time being."
As though to emphasize this, he closed his eyes, leaning against the wall again tiredly.
Ayano gave a fake shrug, "Fine."
As she turned away, she added over her shoulder, "Be careful though. A lot of accidents have been hapeining here recently. I don't want you to get hurt."
"I probably deserve an accident happening to me more than anyone else." He said wistfully, as though talking to himself, and Ayano stopped, looking back at him.
Not knowing what to make of his words, in response to to the ones she'd said that had carried a rather dark warning of what would happen to him if he kept interfering with her, she turned and walked away, Kai still physically shaking behind her.
While she was out of class, she might as well could've gone about setting up something to get rid of Kokona.
When lunch time would begin, the first thing Koharu would do would be walking from her seat to Kai's own as he pulled a bento out from his bag.
He'd notably stabilized since the morning, and when Koharu spoke his name to him, his reaction was about as happy, if not more so, than yesterday.
"Hey, Kai," his gaze lit up with a smile, and she returned it in full, "Do you want to come to the rooftop with me?"
"Sure," he looked down at her empty hands, pressed behind her skirt, and questioned her curiously, "Aren't you going to eat though?"
"I'm kind of on a diet right now," Koharu said simply, and Kai nodded in understanding.
"Alright then." He put his bento back in his bag before closing its strap, standing back up and looking to her, "Do you think it'd be fine if I left my bag here?"
Koharu gaze a cursory look to her left, seeing the half-empty classroom, "Yeah, no one usually worries about their bags. No one would think to steal anything unless it was a pencil or paper."
After following Koharu's gaze, Kai smiled in understanding, looking to her again, "Okay. Are you ready to go?"
"Don't you want to bring your lunch?" She asked curiously.
"I'll be fine," he raised a hand to her to wave her worries away, "If you're on a diet, I wouldn't want to make it harder for you to stick to it."
She smiled at this.
"Thanks Kai." She walked past him, Kai pushing his chair in behind himself before following her as she left the classroom.
Upon leaving, Koharu looked to the other classroom curiously, seeing Mei walking towards her from her classroom already.
"Hey Mei, Kai's going to be coming with us to the rooftop today." She notified her friend with a smile, only for the smile to drop at Mei's somewhat nervous expression.
"Actually, something just came up." Mei said, her voice matching her expression.
"What?" Koharu asked, eyebrows raised in curiosity as Kai walked out of the classroom behind her.
"Well, I kind of need to meet someone near that old cherry blossum tree behind the school." Mei said, and Koharu's eyes widened.
"Who?" She asked curiously, Kai seeing Mei's expression and giving a curious expression to her nervous one.
"They didn't say." Mei reached up, showing them a closed envelope, and the duo's eyes widened. "They just said to come alone."
"Do you think it's a guy?" Koharu asked, and Kai gave her an odd look in response to hearing the undercurrent of excitement in her voice.
"I don't know." Mei shook her head, and Koharu grasped her hips, smirking at her friend.
"Well, you'll never know if you don't go. Go on ahead, don't let us stop you."
Mei nodded, jogging slightly as she started to move past them, her tied hair swinging strangely with her.
Kai gave a brief glance to Koharu, then yelled after the blue haired girl, "Remember to be firm if they try to take anything too far!"
She stopped at this, turning to look at him.
They held each other's gazes for a moment, before Mei nodded in understanding, running down the stairs and out of sight.
Koharu, who looked at him curiously, asked the question Mei decided not to ask, "Why did your mind immediately go there?"
"Why didn't yours?" Kai asked, him as curious as she was towards him. "You WERE just asking about whether all guys are pervs after all."
"Yeah, but that doesn't mean that they immediately jump to... THOSE things." Koharu said, Kai crossing his arms.
"I guess I'm a little paranoid about that tree since I went over there a couple of days ago."
"What's wrong with it?"
"There's nothing wrong about the tree ITSELF," he said honestly, "But a little after I first met Haruka-senpai, I saw the tree for the first time and was a little curious about it. So, after running all the way to the tree, which took a lot longer than I anticipated, I found that near the tree, there was someone's bra lying around it." He shook his head, "I know it's none of my business, and that I shouldn't assume things, but I can't help wondering why someone's bra would lying around there like that, especially so far from the school."
"Oh. I guess I can understand your reasoning then." Koharu said in a taken aback tone. "I wonder who would be willing to do something like that and leave that there in school."
One floor above the pair of talking classmates, Saki Miyu sneezed.
"Are you okay?" Ayano asked her, though more for the sake of her facade than out of actual concern.
"Y-Yes." Saki said, looking at Ayano again, "Now, what favor did you want me to do for you?"
"It's pretty simple really. Do you remember that guy who was with Haruka in the nurse's office yesterday?"
"Yes, what about him?" Saki asked, wondering what Kai had to do with this.
"Could you ask him if he has a crush on anyone?"
Saki blinked, "What?"
"I know it sounds strange, but I need to know."
"Can't you just ask him yourself if it's that important?"
"I would prefer it if you did it."
"Why?"
"Because my friend wants to know for some reason." Ayano said, her being as honest as possible.
She had a gut feeling that Info-chan didn't have any information on who the transfer student liked, so this was somewhat for her benefit, even if he understandably didn't like anyone, at least in THAT way, at that point.
"Really?"
"Yes. She wants to know, but I don't know how to go about asking him for her."
Saki stared at her for a moment, then sighed heavily.
"Okay. I'll ask him if he likes anyone."
She wasn't exactly the most willing person in the world to ask someone something so personal, especially when they'd only met almost exactly 24 hours prior to then, but if Ayano really needed this for someone, she reasoned, she would be willing to ask for her sake.
She still owed her for finding her bra after all.
"Thank you. Could you text me the answer later?"
"I guess so."
"Thank you." Ayano gave a genuine smile to Saki, feeling genuine elation fill her at the fact that her plan to remove Kokona from the picture was falling into place.
"You're welcome." Saki nodded, turning around and walking forward quickly, wondering where Kai could've been then as she walked towards the stairs, only to find him walking up the stairs whilst conversing with Koharu.
Blinking in surprise at this level of good timing, but being happy to get the favor over with then and there, she pushed this thought to the back of her mind, walking behind them as Kai and Koharu went up the steps, them not noticing her as they reveled in their conversation.
Seeing that they were so engrossed in conversation made Saki hesitate to bring Kai's attention to her.
Realizing this hesitance, she decided to follow after them, hoping to gain the opportunity to ask with time and patience.
She would never see Ayano sprinting away from there, the barest hint of a smile on her face as she went, running after where Kokona had gone after Saki told her to go on without her when Ayano had first arrived to talk to her.
She simply hoped that nothing could get in her way this time, if Saki managed to distract the transfer student long enough.
Her faith in her decoy would fade from her mind the more she ran through the different floors, mindful of different teachers telling her not to run in the hall.
She searched all throughout the second floor and the cafeteria, but found no one, and when she searched throughout the first floor, she had no better luck.
Wondering where Kokona was, Ayano would run into the plaza, only to stop when she caught the unmistakable sight of hair curled into outlandish purple drills.
Kokona was hiding herself behind a tree, staring around its thick trunk to see the boy with shaggy black hair sitting at the fountain.
Her Senpai, Ayano realized.
Her eyes caught onto the sight of a bento sitting on the bench behind Kokona, and recognizing it as the same bento Kokona was going to eat out of when she left to be alone, Ayano smiled, breathing a sigh of relief.
She hadn't been running around the entire school for nothing after all.
She did a speed walk as opposed to a run to avoid attracting attention to herself, and reaching into her bag, Ayano pulled the canister of rat poisoning out, aiming it at Kokona's food, spraying all over her food for a few seconds, giving many glances up to her rival and Senpai whilst doing this, before stopping, putting the canister back into her bag hurriedly before walking away as quickly as she could, walking back inside with a satisfied smile on her face, leaning against the wall upon reentering the inside of the school, giving a sigh of relief.
She wouldn't have to worry about Haruka stealing her Senpai anymore, she thought.
All that was left was for Kokona to eat her poisoned food, and that would be the end of that.
She subconsciously turned around, peeking around the corner, her heartbeat picking up in anticipation when she saw Kokona sitting down on the bench again, picking up her eating utensil after sitting her bento into her lap.
She pressed her spoon her into the food, scooping it up, and gave a visible sigh.
Ayano leaned in closer, waiting for the moment when Kokona would eat the food that spelt death for her, the senior listening to her silent urgings and bringing the spoon up to her mouth...!
"KOKONA! KOKONA!"
Ayano, Kokona and Taro Yamada would all jump in surprise simultaneously to the scream, looking around frantically for the source of the terror filled voice.
"I'M UP HERE HARUKA-SENPAI!"
After this yell came the sound of someone saying something that seemed to be something along the lines of telling the speaker to calm down, but Kokona and Yamada both looked up at the source of the voice despite this.
On the roof stood Kai, him bent halfway over the railing that kept him from falling, as he called out to Kokona.
"DON'T EAT THAT FOOD, WHATEVER YOU DO!" He continued to yell at her.
She felt the impulse to ask why for a moment, but the sheer amount of panic conveyed in his expression kept her from doing this, her instead choosing to push her bento away from herself and scooting away from it to help convey that she wouldn't be eating out of the bento.
Seeing this, and apparently understanding Kokona's silent message, Kai leaned off the railing and stood back up straight, breathing a heavy sigh of relief, calmness reaching his face again after a few seconds.
"Kai, what's wrong?" Koharu asked to his right, her surprised at her friend's loud outburst, looking down at Kokona's surprised face.
"Kokona's food's been sprayed on. I don't want her getting hurt or worse." Kai said, sighing, his knuckles a bit paler from how tightly he held the railing.
"Do you think it was necessary to be that loud?" Saki asked to his left, eying him strangely.
"All I care about are results." Kai said simply, unabashedly. "Haruka-senpai's fine. That's all that matters."
A moment of silence passed them by as they saw Kai's calm expression mold into a relieved smile as he looked down at Kokona, who still stared at him in a bewildered manner.
"Are SURE you don't like her?" Koharu asked, and though Saki acknowledged the irony in the fact that she'd been asking him a broader version of that question minutes before, and had settled for his answer of no, that she was mildly curious about this.
"I do like her, but in the same way that I like you two." Kai said with an exasperated expression before he looked down at Kokona again, "Haruka-senpai, I'm going to come down! Wait for me!"
"O-Okay?" Kokona said in an unconvincing tone, this still being enough for Kai to move away from the rail.
"Could you two please make sure that she doesn't eat that stuff?" Kai asked the two dual pig-tail wearing girls, looking between them.
"I'm pretty sure she got the message the first time Kai." Koharu said with a laugh.
"Better to be safe than sorry." Kai said, walking away for a moment before running, getting to the stairs and leaving from there.
While all of these things transpired, Ayano was busying herself with the prospect of walking away from the spot she was in when her new classmate had made the claim of coming downstairs.
She did not run, so as to elude any chance of drawing attention to herself, instead walking as normally as possible.
As she inconspicuously walked up the steps, she eventually came face to face with the Middle-Eastern boy who'd foiled all of her attempts to kill Kokona up to that point.
He stood at the top of the section of the staircase leading to the second-year floor, and she kept walking as she made her way up the stairs despite him standing there.
"Can I ask you something?" He asked her, and Ayano stopped, staring up at him curiously.
Taking this as a yes, Kai narrowed his eyes.
"Why did you spray that stuff onto Haruka-senpai's food?"
"What are you talking about?" She asked, giving a confused look to him.
"You spraying something on the food of a bento that belonged to someone else when they weren't looking. It happened a couple of minutes ago."
"I don't know what you're talking about." Ayano said, and Kai gave her a sneer.
"Would you mind it if I looked into your bag for a moment?" His voice was calm, his rather curious tone not reaching his eyes.
"Yes, I would." Ayano said, holding the bag she had closer to herself.
"Why?"
"Because it's my bag. I don't want you looking through it."
"At the very least, show me what you sprayed onto Haruka-senpai's food."
Ayano narrowed her eyes, then walked up to him, "Fine."
She walked a step past him, scanning the hallway for anyone else.
Seeing that there was no one else around, Ayano took off her bag, handing it to him, "Look inside and see for yourself."
He took it wordlessly, opening the flap, him seeing the contents of the insides of her bag, him no doubt seeing the can of rat poisoning there a second after looking.
Though the realization of what she'd sprayed dawned on him, Ayano was already taking advantage of his moment of distraction, her knife drawn as she moved forward, aiming for a stab to his neck.
He noticed her movements however, and as she thrust her knife in a circular path to plunge the sharp tip into his jugular, something she didn't expect to happen happened.
He dropped the bag, and his hands whipped up, catching her wrist with a tight grip a split second before the knife could kill him, him yanking her to him and allowing his right hand to reach up and take a firm hold of her neck, him gripping it tightly before he roughly spun around.
Ayano's feet left the floor and swung a small height into the air before he threw Ayano behind him with a small grunt, her landing on her side on one of the steps, this starting the process of her rolling down the staircase, this not stopping until her body rolled face on the floor, at the halfway point that needed to be passed in the staircase to reach the second floor of the school.
Even after he threw her, he was already walking down to her, Ayano having let go of her knife in the midst of losing her bearings, her surprise evident on her face.
She grit her teeth, trying to force herself up whilst reaching out for her knife, yet just when her hand reached it, Kai's foot slammed down on her wrist, Ayano wincing in pain at this.
"Tell me why you're trying to kill Haruka-senpai."
She looked up at him, her gaze meeting his.
His voice was emotionless then, and his eyes lacked any sort of empathy, them hardened completely as he looked down at her.
"I-It's because of Info-chan." Ayano said, telling him the best lie she could come up with.
""Info-chan"? Who's that?"
"She's someone who blackmails girls and sells panty shots to people."
"You're saying this "Info-chan" is blackmailing you then?"
"Y-Yes."
"That's why you're doing this?"
"Yes." She winced when he put significantly more force into her wrist, and as she slowly regained her bearings, she managed to pull herself up slightly, Kai scraping his foot off her wrist and on the knife, kicking it out of Ayano's reach before reaching down, taking her by the arm and pulling her forcefully onto her feet, Ayano giving a small cry at this as she was yanked harshly back on her feet.
"You're saying that you've been blackmailed into KILLING someone?" He asked for clarity, and Ayano nodded, feigning a fearful look to keep up her victim act.
"What will happen if you don't kill Haruka-senpai?" He asked, his voice still emotionless.
"W-What?"
"Answer me." He demanded. "What is she blackmailing you with that would make it worth it to become a murderer?"
"If I told you, wouldn't it make everything I've done be for nothing?"
"No. If you told me, I'd probably have half a mind to help you with your problem instead of hurting you for trying to kill me. Does that at least make sense to you?"
"Why would you help me? I thought you said you wanted to protect Haruka." Ayano looked up at him, the false fear fading from her expression as she looked up at him.
"I do. I want to fix whatever problem you've got going on with Haruka-senpai and cut it at the roots so no one gets hurt."
"You'd really be willing to help me because you don't want anyone to get hurt?"
Ayano knew questioning it would open the chances of him getting cold feet, but she asked him anyways.
"I'm not willing to help fix your problem for you. I'm doing it for her sake." Kai sighed, holding her gaze still, "I have no intention of making enemies, but if you keep doing this, it won't be long before you become one of them. And I REALLY don't need that on my plate."
As the good book said, Kai thought, he was to love his enemy even more than his friend.
This, in layman's terms, basically meant he was supposed to love the person who had just tried to kill him, along with trying to kill his friend three times, more than the person who was friends with him.
As he did not want to be put in that position, making enemies with this girl was not very high on his to-do list, especially given that the burns on his legs still hurt greatly.
"You shouldn't get involved with me then. Remember how I said you would make a good boyfriend for her?"
"What does that matter?" He gave a weird look at this.
"It matters more than you realize." Ayano looked down with a troubled expression. "The reason Info-chan is blackmailing me to kill Haruka is because... there's a boy that she likes."
"What?" His eyes widened, and Ayano looked up at him.
"Haruka likes that boy, so Info-chan's forcing me to kill her, so she won't take him away."
"So she wants you to KILL someone because she doesn't want him dating anyone else?" Kai half-yelled in disbelief. "What kind of logic is that?"
"What do you mean?" Ayano asked, feigning confusion now.
He scowled, but not at her, releasing her arm from his grip, "Everything involved in that logic is... it's just stupid!"
He brought his hands to his face in exasperation, and Ayano stared at him.
"What do you mean, it's stupid?" She asked, her curious now.
"Come on, you can't think there's NOTHING wrong with that, do you?" He looked at her, eyes wide in surprise. "I mean, what's the point of killing someone for liking a guy? Is that really a crime punishable by freaking DEATH?"
"Well..." Ayano looked away, "Info-chan said she wouldn't be able to tell him how she feels until everyone else vying for his affection gets eliminated."
"That logic doesn't make any sense." Kai sighed. "I get it if she's afraid of rejection, but there's no point in KILLING someone for the sake of making up for her problems with telling him."
"But... she says he's very important to her. She said that doing all the things she does to make sure he was hers would be fine as long as she got what she wanted in the end."
"That's not good. She shouldn't be willing to hurt others for the sake of that. Doesn't she know what type of effect that would have on the guy she likes? What if he knew that people died, all because of him?"
"Wouldn't he be happy to hear that she'd be willing to go to those lengths for him?"
"Only if he's a genuinely terrible person. If someone likes him, they need to consider his feelings before doing something for him." Kai shook his head. "They can't force their feelings on him like he doesn't have feelings of his own."
Ayano winced at this, "But... uh..."
"What? What's wrong?" He asked her, his tone several times more concerned than before.
"Well... what if someone were to like him, but on a deeper level than just "boyfriend-girlfriend"?"
Kai paused.
"You mean loving him?" He asked, an eyebrow raised.
"Yes." She clarified.
He sighed, crossing his arms.
"Well, if I had to say what a person should do if they loved someone, I'd say to do the best thing possible for them whenever they could, no matter their loved one's feelings, or how they might get hurt by that person."
"But... how do you know what would be best for them?" Ayano asked, and Kai gave a moment of thought.
"I guess... You'd have to look at their situation, and see what would make them safest and happiest. And maybe, you'd even have to stop caring about their happiness and make sure that they're safe." Kai uncrossed his arms, rubbing his head in slight frustration. "But regardless, why do you ask?"
"Well... it's just that..."
Seeing her sudden nervousness, along with her slightly reddening face, Kai mentally sighed.
"Please don't tell me you like him too."
Ayano looked away, crossing her arms.
"I don't just like him. I..."
"Do you love him?" He asked, when she trailed off.
"Yes. I do love him." Raw emotion filled her with this confession, and she pressed her hands over her heart, it beating strangely.
"Does he know it?"
"No, he doesn't."
"But you weren't willing to let others have him because of that?"
"No, I wasn't."
"Very well." Kai crossed his arms again. "You shouldn't have gone this far for the sake of having him as yours. That much is obvious. But it's not too late for you to do this the right way."
"But... I don't know if he'll accept me, if there's someone else who wants him to be theirs."
"If you love him, I think you should be willing to have more faith in him than you seem to have right now." Kai looked at her earnestly. "And if you truly love him, so much so that you'd be willing to kill for him, then you should be able to sacrifice something for him as well. Be it the consequences of you not complying with your blackmailer, or anything else."
At the implicit meaning of Kai's words, Ayano hesitated before responding.
"I... suppose you're right."
Kai held his hips, looking down slightly in thought.
"Do you know where I can find this "Info-chan"?"
"No, I don't."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"Very well." Kai sighed, looking around himself, seeing the knife on the floor. "You should get rid of all the stuff you brought to try killing Haruka-senpai. I don't think it'll benefit anyone if you get expelled before you got the chance to even tell your "special someone" how you feel, am I right?"
"You're right." Ayano smiled. "I'll have to be more careful."
"You shouldn't be trying to kill anyone over him." Kai said, minding her warily as he walked past her, back up the stairs.
"Yes, I realize that." Ayano looked over at him. "But I'll do exactly as you said I should do as someone who loves him, and do what will make him safest and happiest."
"I hope you don't mangle up the meanings of the things I just said and pretend that you did exactly as I told you." Kai looked at her sternly. "That almost always ends up having the worst consequences imaginable."
"How are you so sure of that?"
"Well, there's Social Darwinism being misused TERRIBLY, as a justification, for European countries to try doing the equivalent of taking over the world, then there's four centuries of abusive slavery for those of African descent in the U.S., because slave traders tried using one passage in the book of Genesis instead of the entire Bible to justify themselves, and then there are the religious groups that think gang raping women can be counted as a conversion process. Like I said, misinterpreting or outright abusing teachings can have terrible consequences. Thus, I'm telling you now not to misuse my advice to keep doing terrible things."
"Why do you think I've done terrible things?"
He scowled at her, "One burned up corpse and two wounded schoolmates of yours, one of the latter being ME, are living embodiments for the fact that you've done terrible things."
"I see."
"So don't take my advice lightly. While I'm willing to forgive the last few times you've tried killing her, if you try to hurt another hair on her head, I WILL find you, and I'll give you everything you deserve."
She gave him a smile likened to that of a doll then, her eyes lifeless, her smile something that would be unnerving to many.
"I'd like to see you try to stop me."
Kai gave a simple smile of her own at her lifeless one.
"Such an unnerving smile. I almost like how that looks." Kai said nonchalantly, and seeing that her attempt to scare him into submission had failed, Ayano's expression reverted back to normal.
Seeing this change, Kai pouted, "Awww, such a disturbing face gone. I almost wanted to add it to my manga colection."
"Weirdo." Ayano said with a low voice.
"I know I am. And I love being one." Kai smirked lightly, only for his expression to turn serious. "But, again, don't take my words lightly. You may have killed someone, but you can't possibly compare yourself to the number of people I've taken out of this world, even if you were to kill every last person in this school. If you're going to hurt my friend, just know that you'll just be another name on a kill count."
"If you were to date Haruka, we wouldn't be having this problem."
"Quit saying that." A tinge of irritation came into his voice now. "Quit acting like we're in some "love at first sight" romance story. Just because I risked my life to save someone I love doesn't mean I'm going to fall in love with them by the end of this."
"For me it's a love at first sight kind of story. Why can't it be one for you?"
He looked back at her, his gaze boring into her eyes, "Because, at best, this is just a story about friendship and its limits. Simply that. At worst, it's a horror story with a dumb excuse plot."
He walked up the stairs with this.
Ayano looked to her knife, walking to it and picking it up, her wondering for a moment if she would have felt offense at his words if she could feel emotions like regular people.
Walking up to her bag after putting the knife away, she picked it up and looked inside, the syringe and vial were still there.
If he would come for her if she attacked Haruka, she thought, then she would have to find a way to work around that solution and get the same end result, considering her attempt at killing him had gone south so quickly.
It was as she thought this that her phone vibrated to signal her receiving a new text message.
After taking out her phone and looking at it, Ayano half-lidded her eyes.
You backstabbing little liar. All the prices of the panty shot business are going to be raised by 20% for that little stunt.
A few minutes later, as Kai walked out to the plaza, him seeing Kokona there made him smile softly, though she now sat alone in the plaza, knowing he wouldn't have to kill someone for the first time in the past few months.
He walked towards her, the bento he had for lunch in hand, and she took notice of him a moment later.
"Hey Nasir," Kokona said awkwardly, "Would you mind explaining to me why I can't eat my own lunch?"
Him standing next to her now, he handed his bento over to her, "Long story short, someone put rat poisoning inside of there."
"Huh?" Kokona looked at his lunch, visibly confused.
Seeing that she didn't take his offer of a bento, Kai crouched down, setting his bento down next to Kokona's before opening the other one, raising it up to his nose and smelling it whilst closing his eyes.
After taking a small whiff of it, Kai reached it to Kokona, "Don't you think this smells a little weird?"
She took her food, her poised to feel offended before she actually smelled it.
There was obviously something very wrong with the smell, and it showed on Kokona's face.
Looking over at him, Kokona opened her mouth, but no words came out in her shock.
"It does smell wrong, doesn't it?" He repeated the question for clarification, and Kokona nodded slowly.
"Alright then. Would you mind letting me get this off of your hands?" He took a hold of the bento as he spoke, and Kokona gave it to him willingly.
He stood back up with this, "You can eat from my bento. I don't want you to go hungry."
"But what about you?" Kokona asked, Kai smiling as he shook his head.
"Don't worry. I wasn't planning on eating today since Koharu's on a diet right now."
"Are you sure? I'd feel bad if you were to get hungry later."
"Well, I guess there's one way you could make it up to me if you REALLY feel that bad about it." Kai looked towards the sky in thought.
"What is it?"
He smiled down playfully at her, "You could give me another hug."
"What is with you and hugs?" She asked, though she couldn't help reciprocating the smile.
"Nothing really. They USUALLY help make people feel better, so I like them because of that."
"But how does it make it up to you?"
"Simple. You'll feel better, which will make me feel better." Kai turned with this, him walking away, only to stop after a few steps, turning back around to face Kokona, "Oh, and do you remember that girl from yesterday that came into the nurse's office? The one with the black hair that was wearing that gym uniform?"
"Yeah? What about her?"
"She's the one who's been trying to kill you all this time."
Kokona's eyes widened at this, her somewhat unnerved by how matter-of-factly he said this.
"But don't worry. She won't try anything anymore."
"How do you know?" She asked with eyes now reflecting fear.
The very reason she'd come outside, into the plaza, in the first place was because she wanted to be in the place where people would most likely see her if someone tried hurting her.
"I had a short talk with her a couple minutes back, and after she attempted to stab me in the neck, I pretty much had her at my mercy a few seconds later."
"What... what did you do?"
He looked up, rubbing the back of his head, "I kind of... threw her down half a flight of stairs."
Amidst Kokona's shocked look, he sighed.
"Apparently, she wants you dead so badly because you like some guy she likes. Pretty dumb reason to push someone off a roof and set them on fire, right?" He shrugged.
"She... she told you she did that?"
"When I saw her poisoning your food," he lifted her bento for emphasis, "It was pretty obvious she was trying something. When she attempted to kill ME for seeing what she sprayed on your food, it became obvious that it was her that tried killing you yesterday, given the fact that she SOMEHOW heard about you getting burned, when everyone I asked today just knows someone died in the fire at most."
He looked away as he said the last bits, his memory of how he'd attempted to take his mind off the problems of the past by focusing on the present making him think of his visit to the demon realm.
Though he wanted to have faith that the girl with black hair had genuinely just heard that someone in the nurse's office had gotten burned in the gymnasium fire yesterday, he wanted to be absolutely sure.
Though he asked around about the fire, it soon became obvious that the Drama Club had said very little about the event other than what they could tell the police to help them capture the perpetrator.
If even a small few had heard about Kokona getting burned, he wouldn't have thought twice about it and assumed that girl had been telling the truth.
But none of those outside the club and the staff knew anything about said burning, at least those he'd asked.
When he'd encountered a member of the Drama Club however, she'd reminded him of the fact that the one who'd set Kokona on fire had a ponytail on her head.
Thus, when he realized the person who'd somehow heard about Kokona getting burned also had a ponytail, along with her being the same person who'd poisoned Kokona's food, it became exponentially more difficult not to connect the dots that were staring him in the face.
The fact that she'd tried to stab him in the neck only served to cement any chances of her being the prime suspect for what had happened over the course of the past 72 hours.
"But... how did you know she used rat poisoning?"
"I asked her if I could see in her bag, and almost as soon as I saw the rat poisoning, she tried to kill me. It's pretty obvious she doesn't want to get caught for her murders."
"But... she wants to kill me because I like someone?" Kokona asked, mind buzzing.
"That's what she says the reason is at least." Kai shrugged, sighing heavily.
"But... why would anyone kill someone over something like that?" She asked in disbelief.
"They'd have to be pretty desperate for that."
"I guess." Kokona hung her head, holding her face in her hands, sighing heavily.
Kai walked back to her, sitting next to her, "Are you okay?"
"I wish I was. But this... it's just too HARD." She said, her sounding greatly distraught. "First I can't even help my dad's financial situation at home without doing gross stuff, I couldn't even be a club president for a single day without someone dying, and now I can't even have a crush on a guy without someone being out to kill me over it. Why can't anything in my life be EASY for once?"
Kai's gaze reflected sympathy at this.
"I can understand how you feel." He sighed softly. "I can't go a day of my life without something bad happening or my life getting put in danger. It can get tiring after a while."
She sniffled, and when she looked at him, Kai realized with a jolt that Kokona was crying.
"How do you find it within yourself to act as carefree as you do, when that's the case?" She asked, voice a small sob.
He looked down slightly, trying to find the right words to say.
"Well... I try to take everything that comes my way in stride. I do what I can to fix as many problems as possible. And if I can't solve them, I try not to get depressed about it. I just think, "hey, at least I tried", and try to at least alleviate the problem if I can," despite his words, he looked down sadly, "But even so, there are still some days where I feel like I can't take it anymore... where everything feels like it's just too much to handle. I guess, in those times, I try to remember the people I care about, and why I go so far for them. And, usually, it helps me remember that I'm not putting myself in a rut for me, but for them."
She sighed softly, a small smile on her lips, "I wish I could be that way. But I guess it's even harder than you make it sound."
"It may be." He admitted.
"Yeah." Kokona sighed. "I guess I shouldn't be complaining, considering how rough you have it."
"No," Kai shook his head, "You have every right to complain. No one your age should be going through the things you do."
"Maybe not. But some of the things I shouldn't be focusing on anyways." Kokona sighed. "I mean, what kind of idiot thinks about romance when there's someone out to kill them, among other things?"
"Someone who wants to be happy, maybe?" Kai suggested, and Kokona thought about it.
"I guess so. But being happy isn't going to make my problems go away."
"No. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't be happy."
"Maybe. But I doubt the guy I like would want anything to do with me." Kokona hung her head again. "I mean, who would want to have a girl who's a giant load of problems as a girlfriend?"
"Kokona," she looked up at her name, Kai looking at her disapprovingly, "The world's already dead-set on putting anyone and everyone down. Don't make it worse than it already is."
"Well, sorry, but I don't know what else to do. I'm just stuck in this dumb situation that keeps getting worse and worse at every turn."
Kai watched her for a moment, seeing that she held her head in her hands again, and scooted himself closer to her, reaching over and wrapping his arm around her, pulling her into him, his other hand setting down her bento and pressing her head into his chest.
"We'll get through this together. I promise that it'll get better soon."
For a moment, Kokona said nothing, giving only a heavy, shuddering, sigh, before her eyes, shimmering in the unspilt tears, allowed them to fall, them sliding down her cheeks messily as she cried into his shirt.
Looking down at her scalp, Kai spoke in as soothing a voice as possible, "It's okay. Cry as much as you need to. I'll be here for you whether you cry or not."
Hearing this, Kokona hugged him back, and cry she did.
A/N: The word count of this chapter... IT'S OVER 9,000!