Chapter Twenty-Eight
Sown Seeds
"The view is beautiful from here," admitted Kaede with a smile. The entire campus was visible form her current vantage point. The setting sun rendered the image like some kind of painting, idyllic and peaceful. Fumika stared in wonder at the beautiful view, whilst Fuka was busy shouting down over the ledge on which they were standing.
"Hurry up! We haven't got all day you know!"
"I'm...going...as...fast...as...I...can!" Luke managed to gasp out, dragging himself up the unforgiving mountainside. The fact that he was carrying the entire luggage didn't help either. They'd all been climbing now for about two hours, and showed no signs of stopping. Well, good for them, they haven't got several tons of equipment slowing them down he thought viciously, grinding his teeth in anger. He knew his fury was only temporary, brought on by circumstance. When looking back on this, Luke was sure it would be with a smile and laugh at how he always ended up doing most of the manual labor. But right here, right now, he was one small move away from death. One loose rock to grip and he would plummet all the way back down to the bottom. Painful enough as that is, the girls had decided it would be fun to start climbing above a thicket of brambles. Someone's got it in for me, I'm sure of it.
Luke still couldn't quite believe how he had ended up like this. Only this afternoon he was happily wasting time by playing cards with Mr Izashima, talking about holidays and other special anniversaries in Japan. Then all of a sudden Miss Nagase and the Narutaki twins came in, told him they were all going on a camping trip to the mountains, and dragged him from the shop. And now here he was. The youth rolled his eyes. Great.
Fumika joined her sister in peering over the ledge. "Luke! You alright down there?" she shouted, a note of worry in her voice. The struggling lad grinned slightly. Well, at least someone's worried about my welfare...
"I'm alright so far. I think I should be able to make it to you in the next ten minutes!"
"It'll be dark by then!" replied Fuka, clearly impatient. "Geez, what a slow guy."
"Strong though," countered her twin.
Fuka shrugged in response and turned around. "What do you think, Kaede?"
The kunoichi strode over to the small pair and glanced down as well. She frowned slightly. "I think you overdid it," she said eventually.
Fuke huffed and sat back, looking away from the ledge. "Well you said so yourself, to be worthy of training one has to pass difficult trials."
"I was referring to the obstacles I had set up on the path."
The twins glanced at each other, sweat dropping. "Ah."
Chisame awoke with a start. She sat up, rubbing her eyes furiously. She had dozed of in front of her computer again. The long haired girl sighed. She hadn't had a proper sleep in almost a week, preoccupied as she was with cleaning up her life after the whole hacker thing. She had been continuously pressed to answer questions regarding the techno-mage, forced to recall everything she could until they left her alone. That had been three days ago. Only now was she getting around to deleting all the files relating to magic on her laptop. Instead, she would keep those stored on a USB she always carried around, for safe keeping. As if that wasn't enough, her room still stank of dried blood, despite her scrubbing the entire dormitory clean several times over.
Who'd have known Luke could hold so much of the stuff!? She sighed again. He really is an idiot. Going through so much for me. He should've just got a message through to the mainframe computers, and let the Academy staff sort it out. Yet he hadn't. Against common sense, he'd come back for her, as promised. Chisame had been grateful for that, but only just. Mostly she was furious at him for acting so recklessly. So he had kept his word! So what?! Look at where it got him! Intensive care with barely any blood left inside! He barely made it! If Konoka hadn't managed to heal him then...then... It wasn't worth thinking about. Someone's life lost because of her was a far from comforting thought. And despite everything, she had gone and visited him in the infirmary. She still wasn't sure why. Perhaps because, despite his amnesia, he was the only person she knew who was remotely normal.
She yawned and walked to the window. Leaning against the sill, Chisame Hasegawa watched the day darken, her thoughts plagued by a blonde youth.
A hand shot up and grabbed the ledge. Fuka yelped in shock, whilst Fumika just gasped. Kaede shook her head at the over-reactions of the startled twins, smiling as Luke finally hauled himself up. For a minute he just lay there, eyes closed, panting.
"Not too bad de gozaru," said the girl eventually, walking away to find a place to set up camp.
Luke's eyes fluttered open. "Eh?"
The twins glanced at each other, sharing a giggle.
The blonde sat up and glared at them. Pitching his voice in a high whine, he said, "We know a shortcut. Don't worry, everything'll be alright." His voice returned to normal. "Shortcut my ass! It took me two bloody hours to clamber up here!" He stood up shakily, trying to balance the mammoth bag strapped to his back. The twins were stifling their laughter as he swayed like a drunkard.
"S-s-sorry," Fumika manage to choke out, smiling broadly. "We forgot you were going to be carrying the entire luggage. Normally, it only takes about half an hour to climb up that slope."
"Yeah, sorry," added Fuka, showing her own amusement at Luke's antics.
He spared them another glare before tramping off after Kaede.
"Come on, we haven't got a lot of time left!" cried Sakurako, bouncing around, full of energy.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm doing this as fast as I can," replied Madoka, perched precariously atop a ladder, trying some balloons to one of the floodlights in the theatre.
Holding the tottering ladder was Misa, who threw Sakurako a dark look as she queried, "Why aren't you helping too?"
The energetic teenager paused momentarily, looking back at her friends with a smile. "I am helping!" she replied, holding up the streamers she was putting up on all the walls for emphasis. Madoka finished tying the balloons as Misa sighed in exasperation. Sliding down, the husky voiced cheerleader turned to her two friends, grinning.
"All preparations complete!" she said victoriously, clapping her hands together. "We're all set!"
"Great!" exclaimed Sakurako, bouncing over to the other two-thirds of the Mahora Cheerleading Trio. "So all that's left are the invitations and costumes!"
"This is going to be the best party we've thrown yet!" cried Misa in delight, already considering all the cute costumes she could put on her classmates. Her friends glanced at each other, knowing full well what was going through the pink haired girls mind. Nervous smiles were all that betrayed of their worry for whatever scheme Misa was already considering on the topic of costumes.
Knowing it to be best to be taken care of sooner rather than later, Sakurako spoke up. "So, uh, what costumes are you planning Misa?"
The girl in question turned to her friends with a laugh. "It's a secret!" she winked at them. Madoka shook her head at this childishness, smiling nonetheless, whilst Sakurako whined "No fair!"
"Never mind then," shrugged Madoka. "What about music? We still need a song list for what we're going to play."
"True. But that should be easy, after all, it won't be the first time we've done a concert gig!" pointed out Misa, with an approving nod from Sakurako. "Which reminds me, we need to tell Ako about this so she can get ready."
"Oh yeah…" said Sakurako sheepishly.
"But it's always nice to have some variety in a show, right? We only know so many songs after all," countered Madoka.
"You're only saying that. We both know you just want to – MMMPPPHHH?!" Sakurako mumbled in surprise as Madoka clamped a hand over her mouth. Misa laughed openly as the pigtailed cheerleader tried to tear Madoka's hand away from her mouth to reveal some piece of gossip she was itching to say.
