Chapter 11: You Told A Lie

A light buzz from happily busy bees filled the sweltering, hot air. Suzuki and Axel led the little adventurous group of mischievous students down a small path in the grass. Anzu swiveled her head in a near 360 as she tried to absorb every little detail of the outdoors. It had been such a long time since Hareta had snuck her out of the luxurious, air-conditioned Alice Academy buildings. Every Thursday and Saturday, they would hurry and buy lunches, scarf the edible things they couldn't transport (like soup), and meet each other outside secretly by their little gazebo.

Anzu's eyes glazed happily when she spotted a dandelion puff that Maiko passed. She stooped down and plucked it mercilessly from the ground. Milky sap coated the bottom of the stem, and she smiled as she touched it with her finger. Anzu held it close to her chest, as if she had just acquired a treasure. In jest, Maiko deviously blew on the seeds.

"You meanie!"

"Baka."

Suzuki and Axel simultaneously spun around and glared at them.

"Shhhh!"

Anzu pouted, and held the lifeless stem in her right hand. She then waved to Naruse, then Maria and Nakao, for good measure. Even gloomy and self-conscious Hoshino received a googly-eyed reception from Anzu. Maiko's mouth turned downward, and she leaned in toward Anzu's ear.

"Did you forget the scary face that Misaki-sensei had?" she breathed into her ear. Anzu fought down a laugh. It felt really tickly. "Up ahead there's definitely something bad, or at least wrong." Her face indicated to Anzu that she knew more than she was saying.

Anzu shook her head and dropped her gaze to her fingers. "But because there's something scary, someone should be at least happy, right?" she whispered, her smile not reflecting her quivering heart.

Maiko stared straight into her eyes. They had both stopped in the path, facing each other while the others continued on ahead, as they were unaware of their conversation. Naruse, on the other hand, paused to study the situation, then shuffled away with the rest of the group. Good thing he was smart.

"Where did you learn that?"

"Uhm… what do you mean?"

Maiko's eyes softened, and she ruffled Anzu's hair. "Nothing," she said with a smile. Conversation closed. Anzu pondered the bewildering words that had happened between them, then easily dismissed it as she spotted another dandelion puff.

Ironically, the star of the trip was Naruse, who was asked to clear the rest of the way for the whole group. A tangle of branches and leaves obstructed their path, which, Suzuki insisted (along with the back up of Maiko) was still in the direction that the two teachers had gone.

"No way," the isolated boy said brusquely. "Go around it."

Annoyed, Axel replied, "That'll take too long. Even Fukutan-sensei would notice our absence."

A wave of hostility between the two was almost visible. "Fukutan wasn't there when we left," retorted Naruse.

"Well, maybe another teacher left him in charge," Axel said falteringly, his tongue stumbling in anger. "Either way, clear it out, since only you out of all of us actually has an offensive Alice." Hoshino got stiff at this one. Everyone probably didn't know he had the ability to produce weapons from a drop of his blood. Anzu glanced at him pityingly. Poor guy.

Naruse growled an incomprehensible string of curse words, then grudgingly faced the behemoth undergrowth. In his right hand immediately grew out an ice shard, so clear that it could have been mistaken for glass. A chilling, translucent mist swirled around his hand, which, to Anzu, looked similar to the frosty air coming out of a freezer.

The shard grew vertically at an alarming rate. Its length reached a yard until Naruse willed it to stop. Suzuki and the others hung behind him warily, and watched Naruse slice the wild mess. Strangely enough, the ice sword with its sharp edge didn't cut a thing. But it was as if the sun had become a huge light bulb, and suddenly turned down its beaming light on the branches.

"Oh yeah," Naruse said with slight surprise. "Anzu, can you step back?"

Anzu jumped in alarm. Everyone else was annoyed, and thought the same thing: Don't pretend we aren't here!

Naruse lifted his leg and kicked out at a branch. There was an odd crunch sound, followed by a session of loud cracks. Leaves began to crumple and branches exploded with a sound like breaking glass. Then the whole undergrowth dropped with a dramatic BOOM, with the result of a neat little hole in the forest.

Maria and Nakao clapped. Anzu cheered. Maiko and the three boys balked, but in the end, everyone stepped through the hole.

"Okay, so now where?" said Hoshino quietly. He was drawing "The Nogi Theory of Evolution" in the dirt with a stick. The stick figures looked comical with their lolling tongues. Clearly he wasn't intending on going back to the classroom any time soon.

A finger pointed to a slight right, just beyond a point where the dirt path rounded a corner. "Over there," Suzuki announced confidently. "We're really close. I can hear their thoughts."

Axel added, "No more talking at this point. We have to be quiet, or we'll get caught." Everyone nodded silently and obediently, then glided soundlessly through the forest.

"Ah, there they are!"

"Shhh…"

Several hands pulled back some leaves to reveal a most grave atmosphere between a rather large group of teachers. Their voices were hushed, and most irritatingly, their backs were covering whatever they were gathered around.

"Suzuki, will you translate, please?"

The boy in question threw a wink. "Sure, sure," he laughed quietly. His smile evaporated as he concentrated what was being said. He began to speak in a low voice.

"Shimizu Rokuro was such a fine student. This is impossible to believe."

"Perhaps he had his reasons…?"

"No, he was never like that. He always wore such a bright expression to class."

Suzuki tried to imitate a woman crying. Most likely Serena. The others, in particular, Axel, looked at him strangely. "B-b-but, he's so young too…"

"Shall we call authorities to handle the situation? Maybe it wasn't a suicide. Someone just as easily could have slipped a noose around his neck-"

Everyone in the group, with the exception of Maiko and Suzuki froze with shock. The moment they had stepped out of the school had thrust them into danger. It was a realization that crept over them, akin to a paranoia of bugs crawling down a person's back. The campus wasn't as safe as it ought to be, considering the fine amount of security watch, cameras, and round-the-clock eye on the electrifying black iron fence called the front gate. What had happened? Whose innocence was lost? The culprit? What had gone wrong?

Nakao, with a sickly pallor, tugged on Suzuki's sleeve. "Let's go inside."

Suzuki shook off her hand and his stupor. It was obvious that he could see Shimizu Rokuro's decaying body in his mind's eye. "Yeah, that sounds good…"

Maiko stood up abruptly, with eyes red and streaming with tears. She didn't bother to wipe them as she nudged Suzuki aside.

"Oy, Imouto!"

Maiko turned slowly to face her brother, Hoshino. He wore a frightened expression.

"What are you doing? Don't tell me you're going over there!" he cried. It was the first time Anzu had ever seen him so disturbed, and a startling change from his indifferent nature by default.

His sister halted in her tracks and turned to face him. A smile lit up her face, but it looked odd with her tears. "You're stupid," Maiko laughed, "as always." Either way, she stepped through the undergrowth separating the group of eight from the teachers without any hesitation.

A ripple of shock went through the loose, quiet group of teachers as they turned to see a small girl in uniform emerging from the bushes. Narumi showed a mix of disappointment and anger, for she was one of his best students.

"Maiko-chan, just what are you doing here?" he snapped. Narumi promptly crossed his arms and glared at his student. "For one thing, this is a restricted area. You could've gotten injured or killed! Especially with whatever is lurking around lately. Surely you of all people would know that there's been a security breach?" Narumi continued spewing furious words at Maiko while the other teachers whispered quietly.

My, my, what is this student doing here?

It seems Narumi's word doesn't have enough authority to control his class…

Ara, isn't that Nogi Maiko from Class 1A? What has the world come to?

She tilted her head up to blink at her teacher with an air of surprise, and her mouth formed a little o. Anzu swore that the tears on her friend's face had instantly dried once she faced the heat from Narumi and the critical stares from the other adults. Then, to Anzu's utter surprise, Maiko gave a cool smile, and turned sharply away from the teachers in a brusque and silent manner.

M-M-Maiko-chan… what is up with you today and jokes? she thought. Anzu clutched her hands to her heart. The poor organ was beating rapidly under her shirt. It had seemed certain that Maiko would've been expelled from Alice Academy instantly once she set foot into the little sunny clearing. Now everyone was waiting and watching with the knowledge of some larger, but different consequence…

"Sh-!" Hoshino dashed through the bushes to the teachers with a breathy curse. Suzuki glanced at Axel for a split second, then followed Hoshino's stunning example. Soon, everyone was heading through the bushes, leaving a confused and befuddled Anzu twiddling her thumbs.

Anzu twisted around in a flurry of panic. What? W-w-what? No one was left by her side. She was alone in the shelter of leaves and twigs. Anzu tried to squint through the little spaces in the undergrowth. Everyone… Should I go too? Personally, Anzu was worried for Maiko, since it was natural to feel anxiety when one's life at the school was at stake, but she felt no strong need to barge through the bushes to get busted like the others. Anzu deliberated and made all kinds of pondering gestures, including cupping her chin, twisting her hair around her finger, and nudging some rocks with her shoes.

Ohhh, whatever! Anzu started to go through the undergrowth, which was unexpectedly a formidable foe. Her arm got caught between two branches of a single tree. Agh, how did everyone fly out there so fast… she thought with a hint of annoyance. But eventually her clumsy stumbling reached the edge of the tiny clearing when she heard a most startling sound.

A short-lived shriek ripped through Anzu's body, setting her heart to climb a dangerous high. Maiko! In a flash, she didn't care whether or not the teachers scolded or charged her with expulsion. The most important thing in her eyes was her friend and roommate, Nogi Maiko, who was now crumpled on the ground in a lifeless heap in front of Shimizu Rokuro's putrefied body.

"No!" Anzu hurdled to Maiko's side and violently shook her shoulder. "Maiko! Maiko!" Anzu hurriedly turned the girl's face. Maiko's eyes were still open, but they were glazed and unseeing. From her mouth dripped saliva and foam.

Wha…

The alarming image of Maiko and the thought, She's dead? was the last thing burned onto her faltering heart before the roof of the world caved in.

When Maiko opened her eyes, she was where she expected to be. Everything was white and void of color, with the exception of the gray gauze wrapped around her chest. Her body felt heavy, and she knew that she was bruised too, remembering that she had fallen hard on a patch of grass and rock. She struggled to sit up, but a plethora of plastic tubes were attached to what seemed every inch of her body. Still, a strained effort was made to shift herself in the high hospital bed. Lying down always made her breathing shallow and the air smell of chlorine.

"Hey, hey, hey, you don't want your IV's to all detach and set an alarm off, do you?" A boy with familiar half-spiky and half-soft hair appeared like a shadow ninja with a scornful look.

Maiko stared at Suzuki and directly felt a powerful wave of annoyance and anger from him. She remained silent as he fussed with her blankets and pillows, and even with the mountain of gifts on the bedside table.

"Why are you here?" she asked with doubts as to what it could be.

Suzuki didn't respond right away. With a gentle touch of his finger, he shifted a sunflower in its enormous bouquet then read the tag. Maiko couldn't see his expression, but a fresh and more powerful wave of anger smashed against her side.

"Why are you here?" he shot back. Suzuki turned to face her bitterly and a tension held the air. "Even though I'm a mind reader, I have no clue what you're thinking right now!" When Maiko continued to say nothing, he lost his temper and went on madly. "You think you can protect everyone? Even though this is all a lie? You can't deceive me, but you can pull the wool over everyone's eyes. Even Anzu."

The girl clenched the white cotton sheets of her bed with her eyes only on her hands. "It isn't any of your… concern."

Suzuki violently grabbed her shirt. The gauze around her chest almost unwrapped, and she gasped, not in pain, but in surprise. "Like hell it is!" he roared. "No one knows these things! Why do I need to keep them? If there were no secrets, there should be no problems! What is your deal?"

Maiko was shaken by this Suzuki. She had always assumed he was a carefree boy with no personality that would interfere in her orders, but kept careful tabs on her thoughts around him. It seemed that she was wrong.

"That is confidential information, and either way, it doesn't affect you," she said calmly, but with increasing uneasiness. "Now let go of my shirt. I can't breathe."

Suzuki snatched his hand back, but the hostility was still there.

"You won't tell anyone about your …condition." A statement, not a question.

"No."

Apprehension crept onto his face, and Maiko knew it too. Too bad for him then, because he was going to be let down.

"Even Anzu?"

Maiko smiled and shook her head. "No," she said slowly, and Suzuki's confidence crumbled, "but why do you keep bringing her up?" Her smile spread wider, for the topic had gone in a different direction than Suzuki intended. And as an added plus, Suzuki jumped in nervousness.

"What, no! That's because…"

Maiko's eyes hardened. "You like her?"

Suzuki was pretty bad at denying it. "…..What…"

She laughed shrilly. It was so easy to get things to go in her favor. She didn't need Suzuki butting into her business, much less her official orders. "But Axel doesn't know. Which is weird, since you two are stuck like glue."

Suzuki ground his teeth in frustration, his cheeks slightly flushed. "No, not yet, and he probably never will." He shook his head angrily. "Anyway, I will definitely tell Anzu your secret if you don't spill it soon!"

This time, Maiko grabbed Suzuki's shirt, and for a moment, Suzuki's mind wiped blank. "You better not," she said ominously in a voice that shouldn't belong to a young girl. The poisonous light behind her eyes was not a trick.

Suzuki threw off her hand and straightened his shirt, and made an edge toward the door of the hospital room. He glared at her. "I will do it. And you'll have an answer for me and everyone else, Nogi Maiko."

He strode out of the room, but lingered by the door.

"Or is that even your name?" he inquired scathingly.

Maiko returned this with a cold smile.

Author Note: Ahhh, I am so sorry for all the waiting! The truth is, I was really caught up with school, then I couldn't remember my password and stuff. Yeah... that was it. xD I'm still really sorry! :x

* "The Nogi Theory of Evolution" might've gotten you confused. It's based on my friend's stick figure evolution thingy... Basically, the figure on the far left is a on the ground flat. And somehow it progress to a normal stick figure we know as man. Pretty weird, but funny. Hoshino was just really... bored.

* Imouto means little sister! And yes, Hoshino is slightly older than Maiko, as mentioned in... chapter 2 or 3?

Ahhh, again, I'm sorry for the wait... O3O Please comment if you'd like! xD