Chapter Twelve
Naoki's body was not in the room anymore, and only a dark splotch remained in the place where he had fallen. The concrete would probably always be stained at that spot, the last place Naoki had laid what was left of his head post execution. At some point, several Committee members had lifted Naoki's limp form onto a stretcher and carried him from the sanctuary with soft, somber voices. Shortly after, another Committee member had stooped beside Manjoume to wipe up the excess blood and brain matter. The young man had paused to lay a hand on Manjoume's shoulder, not realizing who he was, and whispered something that might have been comforting if Manjoume had been able to translate it. Then the green beret had gone back to cleaning and left him alone to his shock and grief.
He was alone now. There was a hand print in red on the shoulder of his combat blouse. The room smelled like incense and all-purpose cleaner, dimly lit as the candles burned themselves down in their holders surrounding the altar. Manjoume sat back on his heels, tilting his head up to stare unseeingly at the low ceiling above. His back and neck hurt from kneeling for so long, and his heart felt numb. How had this happened?
His mind was reeling, scrambling to make sense of it all. Raphael had killed Naoki for being a member of the Society of Light. He had executed the young man for daring to believe in something else, in something that gave him hope and purpose. Manjoume thought back to their last conversation, to the dried out well in the clearing and Naoki's smile as he explained the purpose and history behind the Morality Committee.
I wonder what you'll think of the Order?
Manjoume thought it was ugly and terrifying. He thought it was as far removed from the Society of Light as possible. It was too dark, too cold, too far from the graces of God to be saved. Was that what would become of anyone who fought the Darkness for as long as they had? If he had stayed with the Society of Light, if the Society had not fallen when it did, would it have been infected with this disregard for humanity?
We believed in God. . . and we were willing to sell our souls to save the world.
But the Society of Light had never wanted to save the world. What did that mean for its capacity for evil?
"—der-san? Thunder-san?" the sound of his title being repeated in the darkness shook him from his thoughts. Manjoume looked over to the man they called Shark, who had taken a knee beside him. At their last meeting, Manjoume had not given him much thought; he was just the man who guarded the lecture room door, who listened in to the radio to make sure they would not be interrupted. But he was a member of this Doom and not the Society of Light, and somehow he was still here, kneeling beside him with concern plainly evident in his blue eyes. He was young and blond and spoke with a French accent. He was fresh out of the training camps and he could die for being here next to him, Manjoume realized. Raphael could shoot him for reaching up a gloved hand to wipe at the blood that had spattered Manjoume's face, and it would be justified here because Manjoume had been the voice of the Society of Light last year. "Thunder-san, are you all right?"
Manjoume pushed Shark's hands away. "Don't. . . don't touch me."
"We should go."
Shark stood, moving aside to allow Manjoume to stagger unsteadily to his feet. He stumbled, but when the Committee member reached out a hand to assist him, Manjoume only shook his head. It was dangerous to touch him. If Naoki had been killed for being a mere member, then Manjoume was surely a marked man, and anyone who helped him would meet a similar fate.
"When did they realize—" Manjoume began, his voice a hoarse whisper, but Shark motioned for him to be silent.
"Not here," he said.
"Where's Genji?"
Shark turned without answering and headed for the exit. Manjoume followed a few paces behind, his head down as he watched Shark's boots. They paused for a moment in the adjacent room where the weapons had been stacked, and Shark pulled an M-16 from the pyramid formation to hand to Manjoume. He stared at it, not comprehending. They had not given him a weapon when he came in; rifles were sensitive items, tracked by serial number. It was not something like the boots and fatigues he wore, which had been easy for Naoki to sneak out of the barrack's supply room. Shark was still holding the weapon out to him when it dawned on him.
It was Naoki's rifle.
He took it with unfeeling hands, shouldering it the way that he remembered seeing the other Committee members do around campus: strap high on the right shoulder, muzzle pointed to the ground. Shark kept his own weapon in hand, at the low-ready like always, and they continued on through the empty halls.
Genji was waiting for them at the main door, leaning his shoulder into the frame as he scanned the dark tree line with red rimmed eyes. They paused beside him and stood for several moments in silence. There was nothing out there, no movement in the shadows. Manjoume felt like he should say something, but there were no words that would comfort the other man. Genji had known Naoki for much longer than Manjoume had and anything he offered would have felt hollow, pitiful and inadequate.
". . . When did they find out?" he finally managed, his throat tight around the words. Shark put a hand on his shoulder, pulling at the weapon's strap. Manjoume let him take it, and was glad to be rid of it. Genji wiped at his damp cheek, then his nose, and folded his arms over his chest when he was done.
"They've always known," he paused to sniffle, and swallowed hard before continuing. "It was never a secret, and we knew we were being watched."
Manjoume looked between the Committee members, confused. "What do you mean?"
"The Society of Light is something they feared, something that threatened the whole of the Order. Lord Raphael is not a cruel man; he's only doing what he thinks he has to do to save them and prepare them for the next battle. Can you really blame him for punishing those who strayed from the path they were sworn to walk?" Shark answered, and at his question, Genji sneered and straightened from the door frame. He took one step towards the younger Committee member, practically nose to nose with the blond.
"Whose side are you on, Shakku?"
Shark held up his hands slowly in a peaceful gesture. He chose his next words carefully. "If you had won, wouldn't you have killed them? Wouldn't your new White Order have burned these barracks to the ground with all the unbelievers trapped inside? Wouldn't you have made the world clean, by your doctrine? Your anger blinds you."
Genji pushed Shark back against the other side of the hall, gripping the young man's shoulders tightly. "Not like this. Never like this."
A stillness settled among them, daring each to move and shatter the tense silence. Manjoume looked down at his own hands, dirty and speckled with Naoki's blood. If the Society of Light and the White Order had not destroyed themselves, would they have killed the Morality Committee members who refused to join them? He didn't know anymore but supposed it was a possibility. They had been planning on burning the world clean with a laser satellite; what was one building in the grander scheme of that plan? He shivered at the thought. Shark's gaze darted over to him, and he lifted his chin ever so slightly in his direction, as if reminding Genji that they had an audience. Genji grunted and released him.
"You had better go, White Thunder," he said at last, shaking his head and looking back outside. "Lord Raphael will be looking for excuses to remove members of the Society of Light from the grounds, so stay out of trouble for the next few weeks."
"You think this is just the beginning, don't you?" Shark asked. Genji nodded. Manjoume thrust his hands into his pockets and stepped out into the night. He could hear the others growing quieter as he walked away. "If it's a purge, Genji, how many of us will be left when everyone who joined the Society is gone?"
"I don't know. He wants our faith to be shaken. He wants us to be too afraid to fight, but I will not give him the satisfaction of seeing me kneel again. No one here has ever been afraid to die."
He kept walking, not paying much attention to the twisting trail through the jungle. Manjoume did not make it back to the well in the clearing. He ended up at the beach on the eastern side of the island, looking out over the dark waves as they stretched out into the distant horizon. It was quiet here, too, as it had been all evening. He had expected the Ojamas to find him in the jungle when he bypassed the Fourth Dorm, but those three had stayed hidden. The Dark Scorpions had not spoken since that morning. The hordes of useless monsters that normally kept him company were nowhere to be found. Even the sound of the ocean before him could not comfort him in the deafening silence.
Is this what normal people felt like when they talked about feeling trapped in a quiet life? Was this what being alone felt like? Manjoume had not been alone for a long, long time, but already he was beginning to hate it. How was he supposed to drown the knowledge of his uselessness if the only sounds in his head were his thoughts?
"You think too much, Manjoume," a familiar voice said from behind him. Manjoume looked back to the other boy, who had a Ra Yellow jacket thrown over his right shoulder and his shoes in his left hand. He was barefoot, perhaps enjoying the feeling of the wet sand.
"–San da," he said with a sigh, and looked back to the water.
"Whatever." Juudai came to stand beside him. Manjoume sat, pulling his knees up to his chest and wrapping his arms loosely around them as he rested his chin on his knees. The water rolled up over their feet and ankles, seeping into Manjoume's fatigues and leaving him feeling cold in the warm night air, before sliding back. "What're you doing out here?"
"I don't know. I guess I was hoping to be alone for a while tonight."
"Liar," Juudai said, holding back a laugh. But then he quieted down, and his expression softened. "Hey. What happened, Thunder-san?"
"I don't know," he repeated, his voice straining on the last word. "God, Juudai, I don't know."
Tears were welling up in his eyes. Manjoume pressed his face into his knees to try to hide them from his companion but if Juudai had seen, he made no mention of it. Why, of all people, did it have to be Juudai who found him like this?
"I thought I knew," he said, the words beginning to tumble out of his mouth, raw and hitching with his breath. He couldn't make them stop. "It wasn't supposed to be like this, it wasn't supposed to be darkness and death and pain and confusion! How can this be all that's left of the beauty and glory of the Light? He promised that we would all stop searching blindly in the night once the morning of the revolution came! He promised that everything that hurt us and dragged us down into the filth would be washed in the purity of white, even our shadows, and we would be set free from despair and the weight of doubt. . . But I'm not certain of anything anymore."
"What are you talking about, Manjoume?" Juudai tilted his head to one side, confused.
"I mean. . . They said that they. . . That they saw this, the Order, in the Society of Light, but how could they see that monster? In something that was supposed to be so pure, so clean? The Order is just darkness, Juudai; that's all it is. It's darkness that turns on more darkness, and anything good that comes out of it comes at much too high a cost. This, this thing is what the members of the Society of Light had to go back to, because there's no one left to follow. There's no White Order, there's no Society, there's no prophet. How did I let that happen?" Manjoume shook his head, tightening his grip around his legs. "How did I just walk away, like it didn't matter what happened to them? How did I leave them all in the dark like that, alone? We were supposed to be the ones who got rid of all the shadows, because there wasn't supposed to be anything left to hide. And now the only people left are in hiding, too afraid of what they once believed to face the idea that we could have gone wrong somewhere and can't admit to ever knowing the Light's guidance."
Juudai knelt in the wet sand beside him. "You're scared, I get that. It's okay to be scared, and it's okay not to understand everything. Sometimes we just have to fumble through it, you know? We just have to smile and walk and hope that we get there in the end. We just have to trust that it's going to be okay."
"They killed him! They. . . They just shot him. They killed him. Juudai, it's not going to be okay. It's never going to be okay. Naoki isn't coming back. Saiou isn't coming back. No one is coming back!" his words seemed to echo out across the water until they were lost in the lapping of the waves. Juudai just watched him. For the first time in his life, Manjoume wished that the other boy would reach out to him, would put his arm around him, and hold him until he was done crying. But Juudai didn't embrace him and didn't comfort him. Manjoume pressed his face harder against his knees, as if that would make the tears stop. It didn't.
For a long time, neither of them said anything. He had expected Juudai to get angry at the mention of Saiou and the Light, but there was nothing. The silence was almost too much for Manjoume to bear.
"That's really what's bothering you, isn't it?"
"What do you mean?" Manjoume mumbled the question.
"I mean. . . you left them. You made a choice: you're the guy who sacrificed them, first by bringing them into it, and then by leaving them behind when you realized it wasn't what you thought it was going to be. But you're also the guy who keeps trash cards because you're worried that they'll get lonely or feel bad. Being both those guys doesn't sit well."
"Who does that make me, then?"
"You're the guy who wears black to hide his soy sauce stains," Juudai said, his lips quirking up into a dry smile. "You're the guy who hears voices that don't belong to duel monsters or spirits. You're the guy who everyone cheers for during the duel, even if they won't say hi to him in the hallway. You're the guy who keeps trying when everyone else has given up. You're Manjoume Thunder, and no matter what you've done or what you will do, you'll always have the power to become whoever you set out to be."
Manjoume looked up in open-mouthed shock, tears streaking his face. He didn't remember Juudai ever being that articulate. It didn't sound like empty kindness. Juudai was watching him with that odd serious expression, that furrowing of the brow that had been followed by the sound of snakes and the gleam of gold. But there was none of that now. It was just the two of them, alone in the quiet on the beach with the cold water soaking into his borrowed clothes where he sat. In that moment, Manjoume wished that this was the kind of friends that they were, that Juudai was this kind of person that he could confide in. His lower lip trembled as he remembered that they weren't, and that this kind of insight was not something that Juudai would have shared with him.
"You're right." The trembling in his voice was getting worse.
"Of course I am. I'm the hero, remember?" Juudai gave him a smile. Manjoume's shoulders shook with the force of effort not to sob. "Feel better."
"I do," he lied. "Promise. Let's never speak of this again."
Juudai laughed at that. "Right, right. Don't worry, Thunder-san, your secret is safe with me." He released him, and got to his feet. "Are you coming?" He put his hand out to Manjoume, offering. Manjoume nodded.
". . . Yeah. I'm coming." He ignored Juudai's hand and stood, and together they walked back to the jungle path that would lead them to the Fourth Dorm. Manjoume tried not to notice how his companion left no footprints in the sand, or how he disappeared when he reached the tree line.
It was not even seven o'clock yet, and Kenzan was already bored.
The junior let out a dramatic sigh, absently stabbing at his breakfast but not really eating anymore. It was weird to have time to eat breakfast in the morning, he thought. He must have still been used to last year's rituals, and would need at least the rest of the week to adjust to this odd, unhurried way of doing things. Kenzan's new roommate had set an early alarm today; the electronic chiming had gone off promptly at six twenty-five, leaving him no choice but to wake up and smash the obnoxious device against the wall. The clock had done its job, though, and Kenzan was unable to go back to sleep. He had decided to kill some time by stopping at the Ra Yellow cafeteria downstairs for a little breakfast before heading off to the main academy building for the day's classes. Last year, when he had stayed with Juudai at the Osiris Red dorms, he had grown accustomed to waking up five minutes prior to first period, throwing on his uniform haphazardly, and running for the door. They would hurry to Tome's shop as soon as the bell released them from lecture where they would grab a Draw Bread or two to tide them over until lunch.
But that was last year, back at Osiris Red with Juudai and Shou, and neither boy was present that morning. Kenzan set his fork down and held his chin with one hand, elbow propped up on the table. Shou was in Obelisk Blue – and probably only just now waking up – and Juudai. . . well, Kenzan did not even know what floor Juudai's room was on. The Ra Yellow dorms were a lot bigger than the Osiris Red dorms, so it was unlikely that he would be able to find the room through trial and error. He would just have to wait until he ran into the school's hero during classes to find out what room he had been forced into by the Morality Committee.
At this point, the only person that Kenzan could count on to be awake at – he glanced up to the clock on the far wall to double check the time – six forty-two on a Monday morning, and whose room number he actually knew, was Misawa.
Another sigh, this one even heavier than the last, and the muscular young man got to his feet. He lifted his tray and carried it back to the dirty tray line, depositing his trash in the appropriate receptacle. He made sure to recycle his milk carton, too, because keeping the world alive long enough for future evolution was important. Then he headed for the stairs. Misawa's room was on the third floor, near the end of the hallway, room 353. It was a single room, if Kenzan remembered correctly. How lucky, he thought. How come I couldn't get a single? But really, he already knew the answer to that: seniors got first priority in everything on the island, and until he reached that lofty third year status or was promoted to Obelisk Blue, Kenzan would just have to suck it up and deal with having a roommate. He stopped in front of the door, one big hand poised above the wood to knock.
He heard a noise on the other side of the door, and paused just before his knuckle made contact. It had been a low, breathy kind of sound, followed by a hiss of pain. Had Misawa hurt himself while testing dangerous chemicals in his room? Kenzan grabbed the doorknob, but it only turned a fraction of an inch when he twisted it. Locked. Another muffled sound from beyond the door – "Hold on!" – but the junior would not wait. What if Misawa really needed help? Sure, they were not the best of friends, but they both had girl trouble and agreed that Shou was an obnoxious whiner and that had to count for something, right? Kenzan thought so, anyway. He took a step back, adjusted his bandana for a moment, and then lowered his shoulder and charged the door with a roar. The wood made a sharp, cracking sound, giving way at the hinges. It fell inward and Kenzan stumbled forward into the room.
Misawa was standing in front of his dresser with a look of utter mortification evident on his features. There was a bloody patch on his cheek, the surrounding skin red and ragged, looking like it had been rubbed raw. He had an antiseptic swab in one hand and sterile pad of gauze in the other, an open first aid kit sitting on top of the dresser next to his crumpled up shirt. His hair was mussed and sticking every which way, as if he had just woken up. There were deep scratches all up and down his arms and back, and Kenzan could see a massive bite mark at his collar bone when the older boy turned towards him. For a minute, the boys just stared at each other, jaws slightly agape as words eluded them.
And then, all at once, Kenzan noticed that they were not alone.
"Holy fuck, is that a tiger?" There was, in fact, a giant white tiger lounging in Misawa's bed, the tangled sheets speckled with what looked to be tiny drops and smears of blood. At the outburst, it opened one eye and growled lazily, tail twitching.
"What the hell are you doing? Get out!" Misawa shouted, dropping the swab and gauze as he grabbed his shirt and jacket. The heat had risen to his face in an instant, making him look red and blotchy and really, really pissed off. He quickly closed the distance between them and started shoving Kenzan back towards the door. "Don't look at her! Jus-just. . . just get out! Now!"
"Put a sock on the door or something, man! I think I. . . I. . . I— shit! A tiger! A giant, fuck-off tiger!" Kenzan sputtered, backpedaling towards the entryway and shaking his head. This was something that he had never wanted to know the upperclassman was into; he was going to have nightmares forever. "What the hell, Misawa?"
"Don't. Don't even talk to me, Kenzan. I locked the door; that means don't come in and certainly don't break it down. What is the matter with you?"
"You're having sex with a fucking tiger and there's something wrong with me?" Kenzan asked incredulously, his broad shoulders bumping into the wall on the opposite side of the hallway. Misawa threw his jacket at the junior's head, snarling:
"We did not have sex! We were discussing Duel Theory!"
"Duel Theory my ass! That's the worst euphemism I've ever heard!"
"Shut up!"
By now, other doors in the hallway were beginning to open as their fellow Ra classmates poked their heads out to see what all the commotion was about. Misawa whirled around and stalked back into his room, grabbing the gauze and medical tape from the first aid kit and stuffing the items in his pocket. He then turned his attention to closing up his room, struggling for a moment to drag the door back into place. He set it into the mangled frame where it rested at an odd angle. It could not have stopped someone from entering, but it did block the view of anyone passing by. Kenzan was still shaking his head and muttering about large predatory cats when Misawa grabbed him by his arm and hauled him down the hall towards the stairs.
"Your uniform has cat hair all over it."
"I am never speaking to you again," Misawa ground the words out from between clenched teeth, releasing the junior so that he could finally finish getting dressed as they headed out of the dorm. He pulled his shirt over his head, not bothering to tuck it in, and ran his fingers through his hair a few times in an attempt to tame it back into its characteristic shape. Kenzan held out the older boy's jacket wordlessly, which Misawa snatched back.
"You know, we still need to grab our stuff for class."
"We are not going back in there," the older boy stated with a grimace, shaking his head as he continued to herd Kenzan down the main path that led to the academic campus. He was stronger than Kenzan often gave him credit for; aside from having an affinity for hard sciences and catgirls, it seemed that Misawa had packed on a little muscle from last year. Or maybe it was just that he was using it more often now. It seemed like someone had mentioned that the senior used to throw a mean curve ball and had a phenomenal batting average.
"Buh- but. . .!" Kenzan sputtered again, still bewildered by the idea that Ra Yellow's resident genius was forcing him to go to class unprepared. He may have taken after a tough lizard with a tiny brain, but Kenzan put a lot of effort into getting good grades. All through middle school and the summer prior to applying, he had studied hard to make sure that he would get into a good high school. Even last year, when he spent all that time with Juudai, sleeping through all the classes they shared and skipping breakfast every morning, Kenzan made sure that he brought his books to class. "But I don't even have a pencil on me!"
"Kenzan. We go to Duel Academy, not Eton; all you need to graduate is a deck and a duel disk."
"Eat-don?" Kenzan asked, wrinkling his nose and eying the other boy oddly. Misawa heaved an exasperated sigh and rolled his eyes.
"It's a. . . a really prestigious boarding school in the United Kingdom."
"Ah. . ." he held out the sound for an extra beat while they walked. The senior was attempting to bandage his face before they reached the school, and the result was somewhat messy but at least covered the bloody spot on his cheek. Misawa did have a point; missing one day's worth of notes at the beginning of the year certainly was not going to kill him or his grade point average. But then his thoughts drifted back to the dorm hallway and the white tiger that the senior may or may not have slept with, and Kenzan just had to shake his head with a frown, muttering: "A fucking tiger, man. . ."
"You haven't taken chemistry yet, right, Kenzan? If you like, I can give you a crash course on the effects of hydrochloric acid when applied directly to your face."
". . . Point taken."
The boys slowed as they neared the main campus and were hailed with a wave by a shorter student; some girl with long dark hair and a sleeveless Osiris Red uniform vest. Kenzan narrowed his eyes, trying to remember her name. He was pretty sure that it was the same young girl that Juudai had reluctantly introduced him to after the assembly on Friday before disappearing for the weekend. What was it again? He frowned and regarded her thoughtfully. Kei? May?
She jogged over to meet them halfway, and the makeshift party stopped just in front of the stone lined walkway leading up to the entrance of the school. Her uniform skirt had been switched out for black short-shorts, so it was not quite within school regulation any more, Kenzan noted absently as she grinned up at them. She seemed a lot younger than the average freshman; was she even old enough to be coming to Duel Academy? But hey, who cared? She was pretty cute.
"Morning!" she greeted, bouncing up on her toes a little in an attempt to look over and then around the taller boys' shoulders. Kenzan glanced behind him to make sure that she was really talking to them.
"Waiting for someone, Rei?" Misawa asked with a raised brow and knowing smile. The girl – Rei, apparently – huffed, crossing her arms over her small chest. Kenzan's eyes got stuck on their quick scan from her legs to her face, his attention caught on the action.
"Shouldn't Juudai-sempai be with you?"
"He's probably still sleeping," Kenzan offered helpfully. Rei sighed, a small exasperated sound, and turned back towards the building. Misawa just chuckled at her antics and followed after her. His longer stride allowed him to catch up to her in only a few steps, and he patted her on the shoulder reassuringly.
"Don't worry. I'm sure you'll have plenty of courses together. I mean, it's not like he's taking any advanced classes."
"How do you know, Misawa-don?" his question was met by a disbelieving look from the other Ra Yellow student.
"Are you kidding me? He never showed up for anything last year. Juudai didn't even take the final in History or Duel Theory."
Rei greeted another freshman girl by the doors as they entered the commons, who waved, returned the greeting, and. . . surprisingly, wished Misawa a good morning, too. By name, even. And then she blushed, giggled, and looked down at the floor. Misawa looked confused, offering the odd girl a half-hearted 'good morning' before leaning in closer to Kenzan and asking:
"Do you know her?"
"She's a freshman girl, Misawa; of course I don't know her," he retorted, almost biting his tongue before 'but I would certainly like to' managed to escape. They continued passed the Morality Committee guards and the grand staircase leading to the higher levels. It was a little strange, Kenzan thought, how easily they had all gotten used to those green berets and their loosely slung rifles, to the low sound of those foreign voices when they spoke into their radios. He thought that having them posted in the main hallways would have been oppressive, but for the most part, none of the students seemed to notice; maybe it was the dark sunglasses, the lack of eye contact making them seem not real. Or maybe, he thought, as he caught sight of one guard explaining something to a freshman Ra boy who was clutching his schedule in hand like a lifeline, it had something to do with the fact that all the Morality Committee members were still people and no one actually believed they would use force on any of the students.
"Rei? How does she know me?" Misawa asked, not really expecting an answer. Rei also blushed – which Kenzan thought only made her seem younger – and looked away hurriedly.
"She doesn't, but. . . but, I mean, she's probably seen the video."
"Huh? Video?" the boys asked, almost in unison.
"You don't know?!" Rei stared at him, utterly disbelieving. "Don't you ever log onto the school forums?"
At the helpless look from the older boy, Kenzan shrugged. "Shou spends a lot of time on the Social subforums, and he showed me how to access it from our palm pilots, but that's all I know about them."
"Well. . ." Rei played with her hair absently, not making eye contact. They passed the hallway that would have led them into the language department's wing and a row of wall lockers. Two more Morality Committee members passed them heading back towards the stairs. Kenzan had to head up to the second floor for his morning classes; the easiest way to reach the history department was with the secondary staircase behind and off to the right of the main. Misawa's classes would be further up on the third or fourth floor, probably closer to the gymnasium and theatre department. At least, Kenzan was pretty sure that was where the advanced courses were held; it was not something that he had ever needed to know before. "Someone uploaded this link. . . to the video, you know. And, so, it was from last year, and. . . Well, a lot of the girls were sharing it with each other and giggling like idiots over it on the boat ride over. . ."
"A video of what?"
"Of you. But, well, you see. . ." Rei struggled with the right words for a moment before finally sighing, pausing in the hallway to place one hand on her hip as she gestured vaguely with the other and just said it: "Okay, look, you were very clearly naked in it."
For a moment they just stared at her in silence before Kenzan burst into laugher.
"Ahahaha, they think you're the school streaker, Misawa! Oh man, I am so glad someone caught that on camera!"
"I'm not!" Misawa blushed a deep crimson, making the sloppy bandage on his face stand out even more. "I wasn't streaking; I was throwing off the uniform of the Society of Light—"
"Yeah, but then you ran across campus butt naked."
"Shut up, Kenzan. . ." he sighed, rubbing at his temple with one hand. "I hope Tanyachi doesn't find out about this. . ."
"Wait a minute! Misawa-don, you said yesterday that some freshman girl asked you out, right? That means someone at this school wants to date you because she's seen your—"
"I'm going to class now, goodbye!" the older boy yelled over Kenzan's reasoning, quickly walking away up the stairs in embarrassment. The junior only laughed harder. Rei busied herself with waving to another student that she seemed to know, beckoning the boy in blue over. It turned out to be Shou, who looked after Misawa's furious exit with an odd and confused expression on his face.
"What's his problem?" he asked, coming to stop between the two remaining students.
"Girl issues," Kenzan and Rei said at the same time. They looked at each other in surprise as soon as the words left their respective mouths. He smiled at her. She was awfully cute. For the third time that morning, he wondered if she was really old enough to be in high school. Rei turned back to Shou with a suddenness that betrayed how awkward the exchange had left her feeling.
"Can you show me where the Osiris Red lockers are, Marufuji-sempai?" she asked politely, and Kenzan could see the way Shou tried to hide the wince. 'Marufuji-sempai' had always been his brother, and between the alumni's title and the familiar upperclassman Obelisk Blue jacket, he could only imagine how hard the little senior was taking the changes. He made a mental note to ask how things were going at the Marufuji home before the day was over.
"Ye-yeah, sure. And Rei?" Shou put a hand on her shoulder, turning her gently away from the stairs and leading her down one of the hallways on the left near the back exit into the outdoor commons. "You can just call me 'Shou.' I didn't really plan on calling you 'kouhai' or 'Saotome.' I do remember you from freshman year, you know."
She laughed and seemed to relax. Kenzan tried not to huff. Well, that was simply not fair. Shou got to use his whole, cool smooth senior thing on the one cute girl they were going to get to hang out with this year. It was not like they knew many others; with Asuka away at college, their eye candy score had dropped to a dramatic zero.
"Okay, I think I can live with that, Shou-kun."
They passed the freshman lecture halls and science labs, and one right turn later found the three of them looking down a long corridor lined with red painted lockers. Shou pointed towards the end of the hall. "You see those really crummy looking lockers down by that fire exit?"
Rei squinted as her gaze followed the trajectory of his finger, her expression falling somewhat. ". . . Yeah? The ones with all the peeling paint and dents?"
"Yup. Those are the freshman Osiris Red lockers," Shou announced, possibly reliving fond memories of having been forcibly stuffed into some of those lockers. Kenzan frowned. Was it possible to have fond memories of that kind of thing? He did not know, but whatever the Obelisk student was thinking of, it seemed to be leaving him in a positively nostalgic mood. Shou patted Rei's drooping, dejected shoulder. "Welcome to Duel Academy, where as long as you stay on the bottom, you should expect everything to suck. A lot."
"The food in Osiris isn't that bad," Kenzan reminded him. "And I thought the bunk bed set up was neat."
"Are you kidding?" Shou turned to the junior, aghast. "If by 'that bad,' you mean 'it didn't give us food poisoning,' then yeah, it wasn't that bad. But the dorms were terrible. I loved having a double while I was in Ra Yellow! And right now? I have a single room , Kenzan. It is amazing. I wouldn't trade it for all the shrimp in the world."
Rei diligently trudged down the hallway to find her locker, dragging her feet. The boys waited patiently next to the first few lockers; Kenzan leaned back against one and crossed his arms over his chest, watching her long hair swish back and forth as she walked.
"Hey, let me see your schedule," Shou demanded, but instead of waiting for Kenzan to hand it over, he snatched it out of the air as soon as the junior fished it out of his back pocket. "Hmn. . . Looks like the only things we share this year are our lunch periods and math."
Kenzan grinned. "I told you I studied hard for the final last year! You are going to help me in math this year, right, Shou-don? I'm good with geometry and proofs, but the algebra is hard. I can't get my head around the quadratic functions they tried teaching us."
Shou nodded with a small smile. "Yeah, I'll help you study. Hey, Rei!" he called out to her just as she popped open one of the lockers at the end of the corridor. When she looked up at the sound of her name, he gestured at the schedule in his hand. "What do you have?"
She waved him off, emptying her bag into her locker and pulling two textbooks and a spiral bound notebook out. Rei set those on the ground next to her feet and closed her locker with a loud bang, resetting her combination by spinning the dial all the way around until it reached zero again. She grabbed up the things she had gotten for first and second period and hurried back to them.
"Probably nothing with you guys," she said a little breathlessly, but her tone was still sad and she was pouting a little. Kenzan thought it made her look about nine years old and had to resist a very strong impulse to pick her up and cuddle her right on the spot. "I have all freshman level classes."
"You might have something with aniki, though; he has to retake a bunch of freshman classes, I think," Kenzan offered, trying to cheer her up. It worked like a charm. She brightened immediately, a huge and hopeful smile on her face.
"Really?"
"He showed me his schedule yesterday," Shou mentioned as he handed the schedule back to Kenzan, who promptly returned it to the back pocket of his pants. "I'll let you know if you have anything with us."
She quickly handed him the piece of paper. It looked like she was holding her breath while Shou scanned it.
"Let's see. . . Ouch," Shou winced. "You even have the secondary lunch period. I'm convinced that the guys working Admissions hate you."
"Nothing?" she whispered the word like it was a sign of impending doom, and hung her head. Kenzan glared at Shou, who shrugged.
"Actually, you two will have the same math class."
"Really?" her head snapped up and she snatched her schedule back. "Juudai-sempai is retaking Algebra? Lucky!"
The boys laughed, and after a moment, Kenzan poked at Shou's blue jacket collar. "Hey, what about your schedule? What are you taking?"
Shou handed him the document, and Kenzan made a big presentation out of unfolding it and holding it up to the light to inspect it critically. Rei giggled at his antics, so he continued, reading it aloud in a dramatic voice. "This year, the mighty Marufuji Shou-don is taking Chemistry, Japanese Lit, A.P. Duel Theory, Writing Comp III, A.P. World History, and Integrated Math. He is such a successful brainiac that he even has a Free Period squeezed in there to do smart people stuff."
"You mean study!" Shou laughed, hopping up in an attempt to reach his schedule. He was still too short. "All those A.P. classes include essays, and I have to get my Duel score up before I can take the certification final at the end of the year in Duel Theory. It's going to be a nightmare."
"Do you know about anyone else?" Kenzan asked, giving Shou back his schedule and pushing himself away from the lockers as they headed back towards the secondary staircase. He was not sure where Rei's classes were, probably here on the first floor, but he knew that most of his were on the second, and the senior classes were kind of scattered. Most of the seniors took their classes on the third floor or in one of the annex buildings; it was the only time that being a senior sucked. Maybe they did that because Gym and clubs were no longer required during senior year? It would have made sense for that to be the reason, but it meant a lot of stair climbing throughout the semester. "Misawa was in a fit this morning and wouldn't show me his schedule."
And I totally forgot to ask because I was too busy flipping out about his catty sexcapades and getting threatened with acid.
"He's probably about to test out of high school and go do a bunch of independent study classes or something," Shou observed with a sigh. "He's stupidly smart, and he was taking all the A.P. classes last year, I think. Manjoume and I probably have the same Duel Theory class, for the certification, but otherwise I don't know what he has. I haven't seen him since the assembly, either."
"And Juudai?"
"He and I have the same Chemistry and lunch, but that's it. His schedule is a mess. I have no idea how he managed to get two electives this semester if he plans on graduating. He failed pretty much everything but Duel Theory last year, and that's only because his Duel score made up sixty percent of his grade."
"He has two electives?" Kenzan repeated it with a frown. He had only managed to get two electives this semester because Admissions counted Geology as a hard science course and not as a 'fun excuse to play with rocks and go on field trips to the island's many ruins and active volcano' class.
"Gym and Art," Shou informed them with a roll of his eyes. "Like I said, no idea. He must have made friends with the Admissions staff while we weren't looking." The group stopped at the base of the staircase again, the boys both looking back to their freshman tag along. "Will you be able to find your classes all right, Rei? You have your academy map and your palm pilot is fully charged?"
Kenzan laughed. "Geez, Mama-fuji! She'll be fine!" he paused and gave Rei a thumbs up and a wink. "If she gets lost, she'll just shoot us a private message over the forums and we'll come to her rescue, right?"
Rei nodded. "Yeah, I'm okay. What are you guys doing after classes are over?"
"Not sure yet, depends on how much stuff they give out the first day," Kenzan replied, checking to make sure Shou was nodding along in agreement. "We'll let you know though, yeah?"
"Yeah. See you later!" Rei waved and headed back down towards her first period.