"I think we need to sit down and sort ourselves out. " Tada decided as they left the Kyoto Museum of Traditional Crafts, arms laden with arty souvenirs and various flyers.
"Agreed. This is ridiculous. Why didn't we just do the normal thing and just visit whatever shrines in the area?" Kuroba griped.
"Well, someone's a sourpuss, aren't they?" Tsukuda chirpily retorted, before bee lining towards a bench. I'm inclined to agree.
"Why the fuck would you want to visit a shrine? They're overrated." Yukiyama stated shortly when he passed Kuroba to reach the bench. Tada was sure Kuroba would find something suitably cutting to say, but he didn't. Instead, he plonked himself on another nearby bench, and Izzy joined him.
"Well, a shrine would probably be okay if it was nearing an auspicious occasion." Hana added as she busily sorted out the things she had bought into piles.
"I suppose so." Tada conceded, doing the same thing. "Anyway, what did you get, Hana-Chan?"
Hana smiled up at him, and indicated what she'd spread out on the bench. One woven bag, various furoshiki and some other trinkets, including two decorative boxes. She was currently busy separating the furoshiki into two piles.
"I'm giving some to Asami." Hana explained as she busily sorted and folded them. She paused for a moment to open the two boxes, before picking up one of the piles and folding it again to put carefully in the pink box, before doing the same with the purple box. Then, she continued. Tada couldn't discern what system Hana was using to decide which ones would belong to Asami, and which ones to her, but there seemed to be some sort of system, all the same.
But one Hana came across seemed to give her pause. It was dark blue, and had a pattern of flying birds in white printed across it. Tada thought they could be cranes but he couldn't be sure. Hana stared at it for a long, long time without picking it up. Her expression was utterly inexplicable, even as she mouthed something indiscernible. Then, slowly, she reached for it.
"Tada, hey, Tada! Help me put these in my hair?"
Tada whirled around to face Tsukuda, who held out a decorative, flowery looking hair tie and an elaborate hairpin. She grinned at him. Tada glanced over his shoulder at Hana, who seemed recovered from whatever had caused her odd reverie. He also noted Yukiyama listening to music and looking out into the distance while Izzy and Kuroba remained further away, chatting enthusiastically while Izzy used the bench to show off some of his jumps or something along those lines. Utterly inexplicable.
"Okay then." He said eventually, returning to facing Tsukuda. She grinned again, and shoved the items in his somewhat unprepared hands before turning so her back was facing him.
"Uh…should I untie your ponytail and start from scratch?" Tada asked.
"Yeah, sure, whatever. No, wait, I'll untie the ponytail. Tsukuda's hands deftly to release her hair from the hairband and it fell, cascading. Tada caught the scent of something he could not define, but liked all the same. He almost forgot to grab the original hairband while thinking about it.Great job, Tada!
Hiding his embarrassment with silence, he quickly twisted the decorative hair tie and the plain hairband around each other so that it would tie tighter, then gathered her hair up back into the shape of the ponytail it had been in before, silky strands struggling in his fingers. Bloody hell, her hair is long. Somehow though, he managed to tie it up. But he still found himself feeling rather flustered, and that annoyed him, so with some effort, he clamped it down and continued on.
"That good enough?" he asked once he'd adjusted the hairband so the decorative bits could clearly be seen. Tsukuda tilted her head to either side, as if considering the feel of it, then reached up to tentatively touch the hairband, her fingers feeling out the little flowers.
"What about the clip?" she asked without turning around. Tada sighed deeply, but obliged all the same, wondering where the best place to clip it in without clashing with the decorativeness of the hairband. Then, he just shrugged to himself.
"Hanae-Chan, I have no idea what to do with this." He confessed. Tsukuda whipped around, and her fringe tickled her face, which actually gave him an idea. He held out the hairpin.
"Just clip back some part of your fringe or something. "
Tsukuda pouted, but then took the hairpin and did just that. Then, she beamed.
"Well, what do you think?" she asked, tilting her head slightly.
"Cuuuute." Hana said approvingly, causing Tsukuda to turn and laugh, ruffling Hana's hair. Hana giggled, causing the black hoodie that had materialised and hung itself over her shoulder (as if she was a clothes rack or something) to slip. She caught it and readjusted it without becoming too fazed.
"Looks nice." Tada said, honestly. And the more I think about that, the more it's true. And as soon as that thought came, he blinked, wondering where, exactly, it had come from. But he didn't get a chance to properly think of it, as a shout came from further down the street. There were plenty of loud noises, and plenty of boisterous students around, so Tada wouldn't have thought anything of it if he hadn't realised it was coming from where Izzy and Kuroba were coming from. That, and something was just not right.
"Sei-Chan, I c…I can't f...f…find it..!"
…
There was no time for Eriko to coordinate any plan with anyone from her group as they hurtled towards the site of the apparent fight, but as it happened, they all seemed to assign themselves to roles. Hirigi tackled one of the main campus students, Tsuwabuki got between another one and the high school girl who was arguing with him, shielding her. Kinomoto, Haru and Kaori all formed a human barricade in front of the remaining main campus students, and Eriko zoned in on the purple haired high-school boy who might or might not have been responsible for triggering things, quickly restraining him from behind.
And surprisingly, the group effort seemed to stop things, the five main campus students and the three high schoolers halting in their tracks. A moment passed where they were utterly silent, the high-school girl and the other boy looking at their classmate, the main campus students and finally the six of them, the new arrivals. Then, the girl edged away from behind Tsuwabuki and rushed to pick up something large that had been dropped. When she knelt to the ground to open the item, Eriko realised that it was a case for a musical instrument. I'm so confused.
"Where did you all come from?!" the main campus boy who had been hit by Hirigi groaned from the floor. Eriko sighed.
"That hardly matters." She said brusquely before any protests could be made.
"Now, are you going to attack again, or can I let you go?" Eriko addressed the purple-haired boy, noticing his bruised hands. He twisted around to regard her, his gold eyes oddly searching as he scanned her face. Eventually, his expression relaxed, and his mouth quirked up into a smile.
"Let's see what happens, Eri-Chan, eh?"
Eriko jumped and let go on him as a reflex. She spluttered in astonishment. I don't know this guy, do I?!
"Woah, how do you know our names?!" Hirigi asked, bug-eyed. The purple haired boy gave a resigned laugh, which still somehow managed to sound rich and warm, as well as a little cheeky. He ran a hand through his hair and regarded them all.
"Well, unless I'm mistaken, you are in Tadacchi's class in Kunugigaoka Junior High, Kunugigaoka,Tokyo, right?"
Eriko genuinely had no response for that. But the boy, whatever his name was and however he knew Tada, didn't seem too concerned with clarifying anything for Eriko, instead turning to the general vicinity of the barricaded main campus boys. He dusted down his black trousers, rebuttoned his dark blue blazer, then spoke.
"Okay, so now we're not trying to kill each other anymore- not that I don't want to kill you-"The boy's face took on a slightly evil look, giving Eriko the chills. "But anyway, could we just cut through the bull crap now? Then you can give me the inhaler, and I can pass it onto Eri-Chan or one of the other lovelies who just came to our aid, and they'll give it to the rightful owner."
"Lovely, them?" The main campus boy on the ground snorted. "You have no idea what you're talking about!"
"Oh, should I just kidnap you then?"
"Don't make me restrain you!" Eriko barked out, even as she clocked the jokey tone to his voice. He turned again and flashed her a smile. Eriko sighed deeply. She was definitely not connecting events together, but her brain didn't seem to want to work to rectify that. What the hell is going on?
"And anyway," a boy with dark green hair and pierced ears stepped out from behind Kinomoto, Haru and Kaori, all three of whom gave him a worried look. "It was just a joke. Like, really. "
The boy didn't seem like he was going to do anything, so Kaori broke off and returned to Eriko's side. Haru and Kinomoto trailed behind her, and the others soon joined. Accordingly, the main campus boys all clustered together, staring them down.
"You guys are so going to get into trouble." The one who had been on the ground said. An impressive bruise was forming on his cheek. It looked like they were going to get into trouble. Ah, dammit.
"Yup," The boy with the pierced ears started. "Wait until our class teacher, or even Principal Okikura hears about this! You'll be expelled for sure."
"Hey, you were the ones who instigated the fight!" Hirigi yelled. "And you were the ones harassing people from other schools!"
"Yeah, yeah, but they won't believe you!" another of the boys retorted, causing all the others to laugh.
"Aaaaaaand you were hitting on YoriYori even though she told you to leave her alone, and you stole an inhaler from someone who needs it, and you probably damaged our instruments while you wer- actually, wait. YoriYori! How are the instruments?!"
Eriko turned to glare at the purple haired boy as he spoke loudly over the words and jeering. Was he seriously trying to rile the main campus students more? She just sighed and turned her attention to the person that the boy had been addressing as 'YoriYori'.
"Akabane-kun, don't call me that in front of strangers, please!" the girl said, running over holding two instrument cases. The other boy, a slight, pale being with brown eyes and floppy blond hair, carried two more as they came to join their purple-haired friend.
"Right, enough!" Tsuwabuki said. "There are a lot of things being stated or implied that aren't making a whole lot of sense right now. Could we at least get a full account of what happened before any adults are contacted or punishments are meted out?"
"Yes, go on then." The purple haired boy-Akabane? – taunted the main campus students. Eriko didn't bother to berate him this time. At least they didn't rise up to it this time, which was the main thing.
"I think your names, and what you were doing out of school, would be a good place to start."
"And we should probably move to the side, too." Kaori remarked, indicating where they were, Eriko realised her friend was right, so they all did just that, their invisible battle lines shifting alongside them. Once they had, Eriko opened her mouth to try and get things going along again, but she didn't need to, as the words tumbled from the pale boy's mouth.
"Okay, we're part of our high school's concert band, and we have a festival event-marching- coming up. So we were given the day off typical school to do a proper practise on the grounds where the festival will occur. A lot of events that happened could, well, make this story longer, but we were asked to go back to our school during the lunchbreak to pick up some spare instruments- Yorimoto-san's trumpet was …malfunctioning, for one thing- so this would be why we were wandering the streets at lunchtime. That sums it up, right, Yorimoto-san, Akabane-kun?" He checked.
The girl nodded, dark blue hair falling out from a pink hair slide and across her eyes somewhat.
"That's right. " She agreed. "And to be honest, I think Akaba- ah, wait, you wanted our names, right? He's Kou Akabane, I'm Yoriko Yorimoto and that's Yuuto Matsunaga. Just calling me Yoriko is fine, though."
Yoriko Yorimoto. YoriYori. Eriko face-palmed, and Tsuwabuki had a similar reaction. Clearly knowing what her reaction was about, Kou laughed heartily at her, before sticking his hands in his pockets and becoming serious. He fixed the main campus boys with a hard look, resulting in glares both defensive and belligerent.
"Aaaand, like I said, these guys appeared from nowhere and started to harass YoriYori, clearly thinking they're entitled to just take what they want. So obviously I needed to correct that assumption-"
"No, you didn't." Yoriko sighed. Kou ignored her smoothly.
"Anyway, as if that wasn't bad enough, they actually tried to claim they weren't doing anything wrong, and then this one here decided to start playing around with this stolen inhaler."
At this point, Kou stepped forward and casually crossed the battle lines so that he was face to face with the pierced-ears boy.
"Speaking of which…" his voice was little louder than a whisper, but still managed to sound threatening. His head tilted to the side, but of course, because he had his back turned to them, Eriko and the others couldn't see his expression. It probably wasn't anything good though.
"So….?" Kou asked, his voice still dangerously quiet. The boy with pierced ears groaned in annoyance.
"Fine, fine." He dug in his trouser pocket and threw something at Kou, whose hand whipped out and grabbed at it neatly without missing a beat. His fingers closed securely around it, and then he spun back around and returned to the other side.
"YoriYori, Mattsun, you'll back me up if these events get reported, right?" now Kou's voice was loud, as if trying to make sure the main campus boys could hear them.
"Yeah, I suppose." Matsunaga said. Kou nodded once, briefly.
"Good."
"Um, could you kindly clarify what you're alluding to, exactly?" Haru stepped forward and demanded levelly.
"Yeah, sure, Haru-Chan." Kou flashed a smile at Haru. Understandably, she looked wary. How does he know our names?! Eriko asked herself the question again, but naturally, she found no answer.
"Here, catch this." Naturally though, Kou didn't clarify, and instead threw the object that he had coaxed (or forced) out of the main campus boys. Haru jumped, but caught it all the same, gripping it with both hands. She gripped it like that for a good few moments, still wary.
"Ichinose-san, what is it?" Kinomoto asked curiously. Haru looked over at him, and blinked.
"Yeah, let us see." Hirigi peered curiously at her closed hands. Tsuwabuki and Kaori joined the other two boys and crowded around her. The high-school students remained where they were, Yoriko and Matsunaga looking over at them from the ground where they were crouched, presumably checking over the musical instruments that they'd had. Kou was near them, and standing, watching them challengingly. All of them seemed to want to see what they'd make of whatever Haru was holding, but none of them seemed surprised about its existence. I'm missing something, aren't I? I'm missing something. Thinking that, she also crowded around Haru. She nodded at her friend once, and she uncurled her fingers hesitantly, revealing a small plastic tube like object.
"That's an inhaler." Hirigi stated the obvious. Haru nodded, looking at it and then holding it between her fingers as she turned it around.
"Say, Akabane-kun, why would you get so het up ove-ohhh. Oh. Oh no." Haru stuttered and came to a halt. Quietly, under her breath, she swore and then uttered something that sounded oddly like a prayer to Eriko's ears. I don't like the sound of that….
"I'd say, call me Kou, please, but I'll deal with that later. I think you can see that we possibly have more pressing things at hand."
"You're ridiculous, you know?" Tsuwabuki asked, sounding more than slightly baffled. Eriko couldn't blame him; she felt the same about Kou. Although there was definitely more to him. That and she agreed there were more pressing issues at hand.
"May I see that?" she asked, trying to hide the fact that Haru's reaction had shaken her. She plucked the inhaler out of Haru's hands before she could concede or object, and scanned it. And then her own eyes widened when she noticed the label stuck on the side of the inhaler.
And more importantly, the name that the label held: Izaya Arisato.
…
"Stay back! Don't crowd around him!"
The voice of his first close friend since Tsugaru sounded distant and a little tinny to Izzy as he somehow found himself sitting on the ground, struggling and struggling to take a breath, just one breath. Blindly with his hands, he kept searching and searching his waist pouch and trouser pockets, hoping for the lifeline he needed, but his hands kept coming across other, more useless things. Rubber bands, paper clips, tissues, his switch-blade knives (because he definitely did not keep pencils in his trouser pockets), a toy that had come with his breakfast cereal (probably, he couldn't tell and hadn't the energy to look), a twig and a folded piece of paper. All useful things at other times, but not now. Definitely not now.
Stay calm, Izzy, Izaya. Stay calm. This isn't the worst you've had. There had been worse asthma attacks when he'd been younger, ones that had resulted with him being in hospital. But since 3E, since the possibility of 3E, the most he'd had to do was to take a puff or two from his inhaler occasionally. Or even a puff from the spare one. But where were they? He was sure he'd had both of them, one in the pouch, one in the pocket. He was sure of it, he checked every time he left somewhere. So…where?
The more he searched, the more his panic mounted, and the more his throat closed up. His hands began to flutter, unable to grasp onto anything, and he gave up on that particular endeavour. All the same, he kept gasping, hoping to get some supplies of air. A couple of times, he coughed, and each one seemed to scrape at his throat.
"Kuroba-kun, what -think?"
"Do I -a bloody doctor to -?"
"Tha- he meant and you know it! "
"Hanae-Cha- call an ambulance?"
Ambulance? Oh, right, ambulance. Blearily, Izzy somehow managed to look at the faces of his classmates, although both their faces and their voices seemed to come from somewhere far beneath the water (although that couldn't be the case, for he could still somehow feel Kuroba's hand on his shoulder) and they flickered, blurring remorselessly. But he could tell that they all seemed worried, looking at him and each other over and over, wondering what to do. He didn't blame them, not really. After all, how would they know anything about asthma? Even wonderfully snooty and awesome Kuroba- Sei-Chan- didn't and couldn't know everything. I don't want to go to hospital again…but I might need to.
The thought entered his spinning head with a cold, hard ring to it, and he tried to communicate this – yes, call an ambulance, Tada-Chan, I need it- but words were becoming difficult, burdening him more. What remained of his breath rattled in his tight chest and he clutched at his dress shirt tightly, closing his eyes against the pain, still continuing to try and get some air, wheezing and coughing. Will this end? Will it end? It hurts too…huh?
All of a sudden, something soft and small pressed another something into his hands, closing his fingers around them. Somebody…else's hand? And what is this? His useless fingers brushed plastic with a texture he recognised almost instantly, and the knowledge suffused him with a sudden relief. Wasting no time, he grabbed at the inhaler properly, and put it to his mouth, puffing at it. Instantly, something cool and soothing worked its way down his throat and towards his lungs, expanding them, soothing them. Allowing him to breathe, finally, at last.
Some time went by, and he let that time pass, allowing himself to settle back into the centre of things, to re-root himself in the world. He kept his eyes closed until he was perfectly sure he could breathe again, and until the painful banging in his head quietened into an annoying throbbing. And then, he leaned back slightly, and opened his eyes.
The first thing he saw was Hana, kneeling in front of him, a hoodie bunched in her hands as she stared anxiously with those wide, wide eyes of hers. It took him a moment to realise that the hoodie was his own one. And then he remembered that he'd taken it off and asked Hana to look after it while he and Kuroba were testing out the parkour potential of their surroundings. She'd been dividing her time between sorting out all her pretty dinky souvenirs and watching Tada tie something oh-so-girly into Tsukuda's hair (something he'd have poked fun at if he hadn't already been perfectly happy entertaining himself). That much he remembered from before his chest had suddenly decided to fold in on itself as he made another landing.
"Izzy, you're okay now?" she asked timidly. Her fists seemed to twist at the material of the hoodie harder, and his brain started to make connections as to where the inhaler that was now in his hand had gone. How fucking embarrassing.
"Mhm…" he said.
"Well, that's good then." Kuroba appeared in front of him too. "But do you still feel unwell, tired, hungry? Anything like that? We could go back to the inn if you needed to rest up."
"Sei-Chan…." Now that it was mentioned…he did feel rather tired, and his stomach was starting to rumble a fair bit. And since he couldn't bring himself to tease Kuroba's mumsy side, he just nodded gratefully. He looked down at the inhaler in his hand, and recognised from the colour and the label that it was his spare. More composed, he did another search of his waist pouch, and his trouser pockets. And this time, he brought up nothing. Just like the other times.
"That was the only one in here." Hana softly answered the question he'd barely thought of himself when he looked to her. She handed him the hoodie, and he shrugged it on. Then, he cautiously tucked the spare inhaler into his trouser pocket. Where's the other one then? What happened to it? How did it get out of my pouch?
"Kitakawa, we're going to go back to the inn." Kuroba proceeded to order Tada brusquely. "I don't care what other things you wanted to go and gawk at, Izzy needs rest and you know it. Plus, if what you said about summering here is true then you're not missing on anything."
"Whether I'm missing on anything is hardly the point." Tada replied levelly (to his credit). "But I don't mind, and I certainly don't think the other- oh, hold up."
Clearly stunned, Tada took out his mobile phone and answered the call he had just received.
"Oh, hey, Kou-kun, what's up?" Kou-kun? As in, Kou Akabane? As in, that Akabane? Is this just a coincidence? Izzy sat up straight all of a sudden, startling the still kneeling Hana, and he tried to listen in. And his curiosity deepened when Tada's face took on a rare, angry expression, and he started to glance over at Izzy.
"Really? Eriko-Chan and the others? You manage to bump into them and not me? ...Jokes aside, are you all okay?" Tada listened for a moment and nodded grimly.
"That's….good I guess. But Kou-kun, Yorimoto-Chan is right you know. You didn't need to go that fa…..Ahh, how typical of you. So, where are you all now then?"
Tada listened and nodded again, with a few sighs in between before he next spoke. All the others stared at him, utterly confused. What on earth?
"Right, got that. Nah, no problem, I think we can get there. It's probably best for us to come anyway. Mhmm. Yes, okay. Get Eriko-Chan or one of her group to call Ichijou-sensei as well won't you? See you then."
Tada hung up and tucked the phone back in his pocket. Tsukuda looked at him with a raised eyebrow. He tipped his head at her and she nodded. A silent conversation Izzy couldn't decipher. Then, Tada turned to face Kuroba.
"Actually, I'm going to have to disagree with you, Kuroba-kun. We have one last place we need to go."
…
Tada was not surprised when the teacher who had accompanied Class 3C to Kyoto hurtled into the classroom of Kou's school and instantly honed in on the presence of both his group and Eriko's group. Namely, the 3E students.
"Of course it's you! "the man spluttered in sheer annoyance. "Causing trouble wherever you go and involving another school in that trouble as well! I hope that at least you apologised properly. Sir, did they?"
As the 3C teacher turned to Kou's homeroom teacher,-who had been the one who'd been tasked with dealing with the mess of their situation- Tada and Kou exchanged looks. Tada raised an eyebrow at Kou in an I-told-you-so expression. Kou just shrugged heavily before switching his attention to his teacher. After checking that Tsukuda (and the others) weren't overly upset by the outburst, Tada did the same.
"Erm…I'm sorry, I don't think we introduced ourselves. This all happened rather fast."
"Saikawa. Haruhiko Saikawa. Very pleased to make your acquaintance. "
"Jin Otosaka." Kou's teacher didn't return the pleasantries, and instead got straight to the point. "I think you may have misunderstood the events that my students reported to me. From what I understood, it is your class who…perpetuated some of the trouble. "
"Oh no, that can't be right!" Saikawa laughed heavily, as if he'd just been told a cheerful joke over a beer. "Class C students aren't troublemakers or delinquents at all. No offence to you, but I'm sure you're the mistaken one. Or…"
Saikawa circled around carefully, catching the eyes of each and every student in the room who happened to be a member of 3E. Some of them flinched visibly, Hana gazed forlornly at the teacher, Kuroba and Tsukuda bristled and glared in annoyance, and Izzy just blinked as he looked up from the sandwich he was steadily chewing through. Tada just tried to remain calm and not react, and he exchanged another look with Kou, who shrugged again. Naturally, he was not nearly as surprised at Saikawa's words as Yorimoto and Matsunaga were.
"Or." Saikawa said eventually. " It's very likely that the 3E students lied to you before I could get here and set you straight. It's a shame that they would have marred our school like that, but I can assure you tha-"
"Now, I have no prior knowledge or connections with Kunugigaoka Junior High School, so while I am sure you're an outstanding school, I have no personal opinions on the students who attend there, because I don't know them .So I wouldn't know which students are likely to cause chaos and lie to get away from the consequences, and logically it would make sense for you to know that. However, if you're suggesting that it is these students-"
Otosaka broke off to calmly gesture at the 3E students, and although he still looked calm and composed, a glint appeared in his dark eyes, something which made Kou lean forward and grin. After a beat of silence, Otosaka continued.
"If you are suggesting that these students are lying, then you are also implying that my students are liars, too. And as they are my students, and I know them, I am able to say that they would not lie to me about things like the stealing of medical supplies, vandalism, intimidation and potential sexual harassment."
Otosaka stopped there, but what he didn't say rang very clearly in the minds of everyone, and Tada could see that Saikawa was very much taken aback. Hah! What do you make of that?
"Well…well….." Saikawa stuttered and stammered, for he couldn't very well make any more accusations of lying.
"Saikawa-san, surely what class they're in doesn't make a difference to what happened?" Matsunaga piped up, clearly spurred on by his teacher's smooth speech. "Sure, those boys are in your class, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't at least tell them off!"
"Why, you…" Saikawa narrowed his eyes at Matsunaga and was clearly ready to say something else when suddenly another female student entered, bringing Ichijou along with her. At last!
"I'm so sorry I'm late!" Ichijou said, addressing the two other teachers first as the other student slunk away. "I was assisting and accompanying some other members of my class and I couldn't get away as soon as Eriko-san called me. But putting that aside, I'm Rina Ichijou, and I happen to be the class teacher of 3E. What, exactly, happened?"
It was definitely Yamada-Chan that she was helping, wasn't it? Tada wanted to face palm and grin, but the situation was too tense for that, so he just watched as Otosaka responded swiftly, introducing himself as well as Kou, Yorimoto and Matsunaga, before explaining what had happened. Ichijou blinked as owlishly as usual, but listened carefully and nodded in all the right places as she did so. Then, once Otosaka had finished, the first thing she did was go over to where Izzy was sitting and kneel down in front of him.
"Ah, oh my creaky joints." Ichijou said, wincing briefly before looking Izzy in the eyes. "Are you all right now, Arisato-kun?"
Izzy blinked at her, but still nodded. He had finished his sandwich and was now happily demolishing an onigiri, which interested him more than answering his teacher. But his response seemed enough to reassure her, as she smiled fondly and slowly got herself up again.
"We had his spare one." Hana piped up waveringly. Her expression was drawn tight, and Tada's heart clenched a little, knowing that she felt guilty for not realising that Izzy's inhaler had been there sooner. He gave her a reassuring smile, and Tsukuda patted her shoulder. Ichijou nodded distractedly at Hana's statement, clearly more occupied with her creaky joints. She took a moment, then turned back to Otosaka.
"So, Otosaka-san, you mentioned that some of your instruments got damaged?"
"Ah, it wasn't too bad!" Matsunaga jumped in , hurriedly. "Well, actually, it was in a way, given that the point of us returning to collect them was to replace others but….the problems this time around are more fixable, if that makes sense?"
"Mhm, it does." Ichijou yawned again.
"Matsunaga-kun is correct." Otosaka said. "We won't be asking for payment from the students or the school body itself, as we can take care of it here."
"We're a musically biased school, after all." Kou remarked at this point, earning a carefully raised eyebrow from his teacher, face-palm-type reactions from Yoriko and Matsunaga and a heavy eye roll from Eriko. Tada chuckled quietly, hiding his hand with his mouth, since he'd seen this one coming. The exact phrase was an old favourite bad joke of his, after all. You silly, Kou-kun. But at least the mood had lightened a little, for more than a few of them in the room (although not Saikawa or the main campus boys) were now smiling.
"We have a specialised music program at this school." Otosaka corrected empathetically. "But that's not the point. The point is, I think the ones who are in the wrong should be made to see the consequences of their actions today. I myself will be having a particular word with Akabane-kun…"
At this, Otosaka gave Kou another look, to which Kou just grinned. Even if Tada hadn't had the prior knowledge, it would be easy to see that the teacher and student had a good relationship. He wished that he could have the same in his own school. I used to...but that isn't the point anymore.
"Ah, well, the trouble with that is, we can't really implement any consequences while we're so far away from our own school….." Ichijou hesitantly started.
"This is most certainly true!" Saikawa leaped onto this suggestion happily. "After all, this is the trip of the rest of my class as well as the main campus students. I wouldn't want to spoil it for them."
"Yes, that is true. Nothing too serious happened, and my class are so enjoying themselves, so as a teacher I can't take that away. So!" Ichijou suddenly clapped her hands in an earnest manner. "How about we just deal with this internally when we get back to Tokyo, and in the meantime over here, declare bygones to be bygones?"
"That would certainly be fine with me." Otosaka nodded.
"Well, I suppose…." Saikawa glared at the 3E students. Ichijou appeared to notice, and she started to bustle.
"Well, okay then children, how about we go back to the inn? Your classmates will probably be finished with their own sightseeing soon so you'll all be together soon. How does that sound?"
"Okay then, that's fine." Eriko spoke for them and they all stood up and at various paces began to file out of the classroom. Saikawa could be heard whispering something to his students before they, too, got up.
"Yo, Tadacchi, hold on a moment." At the door, with most of his classmates already in the corridor, Tada turned to face Kou. Tsukuda also stopped and raised a suspicious eyebrow. Tada caught her eye for a moment, and then nodded. Tsukuda gave him a thumbs-up and then carried on walking with the others, the pretty accessories in her hair twinkling.
"What is it, Kou-kun?"
"Just wanted to say, I'll probably be messaging you about the summer. Mum or Dad will probably also call….Chika-san, isn't it?"
"Yeah, we're staying with Aunt Chika….." Tada said, cautiously. "So, what's the general idea?"
"We'll be coming over there."
"But…." Tada thought of last summer. That summer would have been his family's turn to travel, going to stay with Kou and his family. At least, that's what had happened if things had been normal. But of course, they hadn't, and instead the entire Akabane clan had come to Tokyo to rally around, staying with Rio for the duration of the visit. And now they're coming again. Surely that isn't fair.
"Tadacchi. We're coming down to yours this summer." Kou's brilliant gold eyes narrowed as he placed a hand on his hip, and his tone brooked no argument as he stared his childhood friend down. Tada blinked and his throat closed up. He shook his head a little and rubbed his forehead. Then, he smiled and nodded.
"Cool. Okay, confirm the arrangements later, okay?"
"Sure thing. Tell Hirocchi I said hi, okay?"
"Mhm."
"Akabane-kun! Don't hold up the Kunugigaoka students anymore!" Otosaka called from inside the classroom. "We still have things to talk about!"
"Yes, sensei!" But Kou didn't move straight away, instead he leaned in and whispered one last thing.
"Don't worry; we'll still have your back even when everything is 'internally managed'."
Then, from nowhere, he produced a small burgundy drawstring bag and dangled it from his hand. Although it was old and worn, Tada could read the black writing that told the reader to 'be prepared'. Oh dear…..
Imagining Kou randomly appearing outside Principal Okikura's office, imaginary devil horns and all, Tada shook his head in amazement. It was far too easy for him to recall the wasabi sauce, nose plugs and ghost peppers that were one of the myriad things that occupied the bag. Kou grinned evilly and winked and disappeared back into the classroom. Tada smiled and shook his head again, and then rushed to catch up with his teacher and his friends.
They were now chatting amongst themselves and filling in the disparate details of the separate parts of the incident they were involved in. It was really quite lucky that nothing worse had happened, but he was sure that once they got back, things probably would get worse. It wasn't as if they'd left Tokyo problem-free, after all. So until they actually reached the building entrance, Tada stayed quiet and listened to his classmates, friends and teacher, just thinking. And then after that little bit of melancholy he allowed himself, he pulled himself out of it, and then dove right into the conversation. I wonder what everyone else will think of this.