Chapter 6

Chapter 6

School Day Blues

(What Happens Between Classes)

I didn't know how the hell I had ended up here. I'd been out way too long, had a little too much sake, and ended up in a girl's dorm's commons room buried in laundry bags. I didn't even go to school! I hoped that this wasn't like that night with the bouncy castle. I kicked the laundry bags off. I sat up, rubbing my head, and psychically flicked on the lights. There was a girl standing in the corner. At least I thought it was a girl, judging by the dorm I was in, but I couldn't see her face. She was wearing a black cloak with a red jewel clasp. Strange, even for prep school. She poked me with an ebony staff. Where the fuck did that come from?

"Who, ummm… Who are you?" I asked, standing. She snickered.

"Huh?" I said.

"Kai Li," she murmered, "Kai Li."

"How do you know my name? Not another psychic…"

"Sore wa himitsu desu," she laughed.

"Yeah, you too, whatever. I'm not feeling so great, is there somewhere I can collapse and pass out," she pointed to the laundry bags, "that doesn't smell like beer," I added. She shrugged, and reached into the cloak. She produced a piece of paper, which she may have tossed at me, seeing at that point I had a relapse of the sake hangover, and fell back into the laundry.

When I woke up, again, there were girls, and quite a few of them staring down at me. All was still and quiet.

"Pervert!" one yelled, kicking me painfully in the ribs. I wondered if they were demons, or just Sabrina's contemporaries. The others joined in the kicking; one of them tossed a pokeball, out of which popped Clefairy. It did its best to look frightening, which only made it look as if it was smoking something, make that several somethings. I pulled a pokeball.

"Mewtwo, let's rock!" I flung it psychically to the ground. As it opened, the girls stopped kicking, and clefairy suddenly stopped looking menacing. I stood up, and dusted myself off. Mewtwo stared the kicking girls down.

"Okay, ummm, where am I, for one thing?"

"Ummm, Watarishi Karasu Tech."

"Right, okay, doesn't that mean, Watarishi Crow Tech?"

"Shut up, you aren't supposed to know that, we were never here." They rushed from the room, leaving me alone.

"Thanks!" I said cheerfully/sarcastically. I wandered outside. The bright light was almost too much. I stumbled out, tripped over a bike rack, and looked up to see the shoes of a student. He looked down at me.

"Rough night?"

"Unk!" I exclaimed, spitting dirt out. I levitated myself up to a standing position. He shifted his backpack.

"You're psychic, right?"

"Uh-huh." Mewtwo pushed his way out the door, looking as confused as a giant cat-like creature can. I recalled it.

"So you have pokemon, too?"

"Yeah." He started walking away, and I followed him.

"Can I get food here somewhere?"

"Follow me, I'm going to the dining hall. Not like they'll notice another kid."

"Thanks. I'm James, by the way."

"I'm Kevin." We walked down to the dining hall, a large brick building. As we entered we acquired trays, and stood in line. It reminded me of a scene from Oliver Twist. After the line, we walked to tables, which hadn't been cleaned in quite a while. I sat down, my pants sticking to the unwashed chair, tray sticking to the table. I prodded the lump of brown goo, which I had chosen over the vomit-like substance. I looked up to Kevin, and noticed the cloak person, sitting next to Kevin. I could see her face now, just barely, in the light of the cafeteria. It was a girl, maybe nineteen, a semi-smile on her face.

"Uh, hello, again. Are you going to tell me your name yet?" I asked. Kevin didn't seem to notice her as he munched on the fried squirtle, or whatever it was.

"You first, Kojiro."

"That made little or no sense," her smile brightened a bit, she was trying to confuse me, "But, my name is James Kai Li, Everyone calls me Kojiro, though."

"I know!" she replied, almost giggling it out. Who the hell was she? And why did she know my name?

"Now you answer my question."

"What question?" Another giggle.

"I asked what your name was."

"What it was, or what it is, take your pick!" More giggling. That was getting annoying, even to someone with as much patience as I had, which was severely diminished after that night in the laundry bags.

"How about both?"

"One or the other," she said. Laughing at her own little joke. What joke? I wondered. She was way too cheery. That bothered me. Always has.

"Okay, what it is, then."

"What is what?" This was getting severely old. I stretched out a tendril of psychic energy, attempting to probe it out of her mind. I just had to keep her talking.

"You name. What is it?"

"Ahem!" Cute frown, "what game are you playing, little boy?" she asked, forcing the tendril back. It was weak anyway. She had psychic power, or something like it.

"Again, I'll ask, what is your name?"

"You may call me Kira."

"Now we're getting somewhere."

"Somewhere, nowhere, what's the difference?"

"All too much, if you ask me."

"Oh, you're just depressed because your wife is pregnant by your evil brother, left you, and you can't remember what happened in the past 24 hours." Smile again.

"Why do you say that?"

"I know more, or less, however you define it."

"Speak English!"

"How about Nihongo?"

How about this? I asked psychically.

Whatever... psychic giggle, if they exist.

So you are psychic.

Maybe, maybe you're imagining me.

I don't imagine cloaked people a lot.

Sure you don't psychic sarcasm.

Stop with the non-committal answers...

Maybe.

Just tell me, are you psychic, before I get a worse migraine.

Whatever physical injury you have, I can assure you I did not inflict it. But yes, you could call me psychic.

How about calling you Kira.

What about it?

Never mind, just never mind.... She grinned. Kevin was oblivious. He poked at the rubber-like desert on his plate.

Is that food on your plate, and are you going to eat it?

Not without sterilization. She snickered.

Ah, so you do have a sense of humor.

I wasn't joking. This stuff really needs cleansing.

Really? Interesting. she produced a salt shaker from somewhere in the cloak. She sprinkled some on my food, making it look shitty, and salty. She passed the salt to me.

By the way, what is that stuff, she asked, pointing to the salt, one hand actually leaving the cloak.

"Ugh, headache..." I said aloud. She produced a bottle of Aspirin. And a bottle of water. I downed the pill.

What have you got under that cloak, a mini-mall?

Sore wa himitsu desu!

You don't know what that means, do you? She repeated the last sentence. Wrong, she did.

If it's so much a secret, then, I really don't want to know.

"Okay," she said, in normal speech. Kevin looked up.

"Huh?" he asked, noticing the girl. I think she had decided that he was gong to notice her now. Weirder than me or Sab, combined. Whatever. I'd met weirder than her. I didn't want to call up any memories of PokeMerecenaries Inc. Now that was weird. That and fossilized food.

You kept that paper?

Hai, domo. Yes very. I pulled the crumpled paper from the pocket of my trenchcoat. I unfolded it. I read it, and looked up at her. She smiled, nodded, disappeared, leaving nothing but a pine fresh scent. Or maybe that was the 'orange juice.' I read it again, "Non illegitimi carborundum est." Don't let the bastards grind you down.

"What is it?" Kevin asked. I folded it back up.

"Story of my life." But how did she know that?

Kevin and I finished our food-substitute, and left. He showed me the way to a dorm.

"This your dorm?"

"No, it's just a dorm. School's over, half-day. It's national Peat Bog Awarness Day. I have to go home now, I'm a day student."

"Oh, why this dorm?"

"It's the weird one, no one will notice a psychic here."

"How do you know I'm psychic?"

"Just a hunch, and the fact that you were talking psychically to that girl who was trying to make me not notice her."

"Unk?" I said, for the second time that day.

I ended up in the common room, again. Where were these laundry bags coming from? If the ones in the girls' dorm smelled like beer, what did these smell like? I didn't want to know. Several guys watched TV for a while, and I did my best not to be seen, as in using Affect Mind Power. Seeing as they couldn't see me, I left them alone. It would have been fun to make the TV only get the national cheese channel, but I had other things to worry about, like trying to remember tonight when I woke up tomorrow. Right now, I couldn't think of anything to do, so I put up a psychic shield, and sat in the hall. As the first few people started tripping over me and piling up in front of room 207's door, that's when I felt a RANDOM FLASHBACK!!!!

"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There's no use being a damn fool about it."

"Who said that?"

"W.C. Fields."

"Is he the cookie guy?" Joseph asked.

"No, I don't think so." We walked away from the ring. Snowflake's leering defeater, Alex, stood in the middle, arm around his giant Meganium, as it panted, tired from the tournament. Snowflake's pokemon, Typhlosion, had just lost, due to some interesting attacks the grass type had used. One of them had been Hydro Pump. This was strange. Hydro pump was water, not grass. I teleported to the pokemon center, while Snowflake returned to the hotel where the other Mercs were staying. Brian and Kim were already out of the fight, beaten yesterday on round 57. I had another match today, against Alex. Megan's pokemon were in healing now. She had also been beaten by the mysterious Alex. In two hours I would find out what exactly he could do against psychic attacks. I stood in the pokemon center, while the victorious Alex walked in, flocked by several not too innocent looking schoolgirls. He shrugged one's hand off his shoulder, and tossed his pokeballs unceremoniously at Joy, who stood, stock still behind the counter. She caught the pokeball belt. He swaggered off towards his room, the girls following. I teleported to just behind his door. He unlocked the door, while making peculiar comments, which I will not write here, to the girls about whipped cream and an inflatable dragonite. He swung the door open, to find a pistol in his face.

"Come in, sit down make yourselves at home," I said, motioning with my non-occupied hand towards the lavish bed in his room. The four did as told. He protested, but stopped when I shoved the gun closer to his face. He sat on the edge of his bed.

"What's with the Meganium, eh?" I asked.

"Nothing."

"It shouldn't know Hydro Pump!"

"It does, what are you going to do about it?" I found it was hard to psychically probe his mind. I started my next question, or was about to when his foot whipped into the air, followed by his other foot, one catching my gun hand, and sending the gun high into the air to land far across the room, the other caught me in the stomach, and I doubled over, at the last second turning it into a sharp spinning kick. As a result, I was on my back on the floor. He produced a taser from his pocket and aimed it at me. He squeezed the trigger, and I redirected the energy, turned it around and hit him with it.

"Huh?" were his exact words. He toppled over, a nasty burn making smoke come out o his jacket. The three girls cowered at the head of the bed. I tossed a thousand pokeyen on the bed, and left, taking Alex's wallet with me.

"Sorry I crashed the party, by yourselves something nice.

"Joy, I need an analysis on the pokemon the guy, Alex, gave you. I need their stats, moves, whatever."

"I'm sorry Mr. Umm…What did you say your name was?"

"Kai Li, Kojiro."

"Yes, Mr. Kai Li, I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to give you that information. If you had League Clearance, then sure, but I can't give that out otherwise."

"Well, shit. Thanks anyway."

"Bye!"

I opened the wallet, and emptied its contents onto the table. Megan sat across from me, sipping a cup of coffee. I looked at the small pile, a monument to a weird-ass teen trainer. A hundred pokeyen, in ones, a credit card, with someone else's name on it, three unopened condoms, two opened ones, a Johto Girls of Summer Edition Wallet Calendar and the recruitment card for Team Rocket, not too mention the incredibly long list of phone numbers.

"Megan, I need sterilizer, lots and lots of sterilizer."

"Yeah. Ick…" She set the coffee down.

"Fuzzy memories?" It was that girl, Kira, again.

"Huh?"

"Great memory sequence. I really liked the way Alex reacted, 'Huh?'"

"Are you still invading my thoughts?"

"Mmm hmm!" she smiled, barely visible under the hood of the cloak. Then the cell phone beeped.

"Kojiro Kai Li here!"

"Kojiro, this is Magistrate Will, of the Psychic Hegemony."

"Yes, good evening magistrate," I replied, wary now. The troglodytes barely ever came out of their council chamber cave. Will was the head of it all. He was also a Member of the Elite Four. He only called heroes, or those condemned to a terrible fate. Kira's eyes lit up in interest as I shot her a glance.

"Kojiro, you are under arrest for abuse of psychic powers granted to you. You are to report to the Council for trial and sentencing, so justice may be served. Thank you. You are required to arrive in two hours, or we will have you terminated. Good evening." Click…

"That was not supposed to happen, no not at all!" Kira said.

"Huh? Kira, Karma is Karma, whatever happens, happens. It doesn't matter, really."

"Well, it wasn't supposed to happen."

"What was?"

"Sore wa himitsu desu!" That is a secret.

"You like saying that. You know, you could say it in English."

"Iye, it's not as much fun. Now we have to get you out of trouble."

"Let's go then." I grabbed her hand, and she shied back, surprised, as we were enveloped by the teleport's blue glow. We appeared at the court of the Psychic Hegemony. Will sat on his seat, raised high to show his superiority. I stood in the center of a ring of gold embedded in the floor of the chamber. Will stared down at me. I returned his icy stare. Two his left sat a girl, dark-haired, blue eyes burning. To his right sat a man, Mr. Psychic, his only name. The room was dark, lit only by the torches on the walls. I released Kira's hand. She looked around.