Chapter Fifteen
--Ienji--
An hour later, the buses arrived and the students of SHS were returned home. Ienji, Jared and Alec had agreed to meet later that day at the library. The latter waved farewell as he departed on a bus separate from Ienji and Jared.
Discussion had continued onto the bus. The two of them were silent, but Ienji overheard a discussion in the seat adjacent to theirs, in Japanese.
"I still can't believe that was Anish Kumar," one girl said. Ienji knew she was a freshman, but didn't know her name. "Didn't he come over from India first term with his little brother? He was so quiet. He always sat in back."
"I wonder if they've caught him yet," a second girl wondered. "Maybe they'll give him a life sentence. I hope so."
"Me too. What a freak," said a girl sitting behind theirs. "Weird stuff. I don't know how he pulled it off, but--"
"Could you guys just give it a rest? I'm certain the police will clear this up. That couldn't have been Anish," a fourth voice, a girl, cut in.
"What do you mean, it couldn't have been him? I was there when it happened, it was definitely him," the second girl responded. "Yushi, if you'd been there, you would've recognized him. He was in your biology class, right?"
Ienji focused in on another conversation, happening in the seat directly in front of him, between two seniors.
"How many times do I have to tell you? There are no such things as aliens," the first kid stiffly informed the second one.
"Then how do you explain today's phenomena, Justin? There's no way that conventional science could explain a connection between a glowing object and earthquakes, and no human technology could create circular fissures," replied the second kid, in a British accent.
"Honestly, Mitch, you are the living end. You will feel very silly when the school committee is able to provide a perfectly logical--'
The second kid, Mitch, cut in. "Of course, they always do. It's the key ingredient of a cover-up; people want answers, so they can sleep soundly each night, and the higher-ups are always more than happy to satisfy that need."
At this point, Jared's stop came, so Ienji scooted over so he could get out. "Four o'clock, right?" he asked as he walked up the aisle to the front of the bus.
"Yeah," Ienji called back as his friend stepped off the bus.
He set his backpack on the empty part of the seat, now that there was space, and attempted to again listen to conversation, but there was a distraction.
He'd felt sensations like this earlier today and yesterday; it was connected to this 'empathy' and the 'digital device' and these strange happenings.
But he couldn't place it, so he attempted to ignore it as he trained his ears to another nearby conversation between two juniors.
"I wonder who was that man who broke open the door? Was he working with the Anish kid?" one asked the other.
"No, he used his own glowing thing to hit Anish, remember? Anish flew against the wall, and then before everyone was blinded, he told the man that he'd see him again. As if they didn't like each other," the other replied.
"Oh, I guess you're right," the first said.
Ienji's 'empathy'--his ability to feel the minds of others--was definitely providing for a lot of emotion. But, it was fading, he could tell. People were calming down, rationalizing things, making explanations.
People's minds tend toward resolution, Ienji realized.
However, he still couldn't get the sensation out of his mind, and so he remained disconcerted until the bus finally dropped him off in front of the apartment building.
--Evan--
In the darkness of disconnection, and the pit of unconsciousness, he felt nothing for some time. He couldn't say for how long, or that it was long at all--for all he knew, it could have been a brief moment flickering past.
Then he felt something 'nudging' him--something worried about him. It felt like a very close friend. And so sooner that he'd liked, Evan return to wakefulness.
He groaned and blinked. He felt like so much shit. His eyes focused and he found himself in a train station. Memories of his digital fight with the Indian kid returned to him at once; he checked his watched instinctively.
Twenty minutes had passed? So he'd been unconscious for a relatively short time; it certainly felt short. "No rest for me," he muttered.
Evan stood himself up haphazardly, then shook of his unsteadiness. He took in his surroundings, materialized and dematerialized his GD to make sure there was no permanent damage to any part of him.
Still no one in the station, and he preferred to keep it that way; he knew there'd be cops swarming the place in no time, likely maintaining some sort of perimeter or whatever; something like that.
He suddenly realized that his disguise, one of a man in his thirties with a full beard and black down-combed hair, had disappeared; his unconsciousness had let it up, apparently. No focusing on digital energies when you're out cold.
He trudged up and out of the train station, and then back to the hotel.
--Ienji--
An hour later, the buses arrived and the students of SHS were returned home. Ienji, Jared and Alec had agreed to meet later that day at the library. The latter waved farewell as he departed on a bus separate from Ienji and Jared.
Discussion had continued onto the bus. The two of them were silent, but Ienji overheard a discussion in the seat adjacent to theirs, in Japanese.
"I still can't believe that was Anish Kumar," one girl said. Ienji knew she was a freshman, but didn't know her name. "Didn't he come over from India first term with his little brother? He was so quiet. He always sat in back."
"I wonder if they've caught him yet," a second girl wondered. "Maybe they'll give him a life sentence. I hope so."
"Me too. What a freak," said a girl sitting behind theirs. "Weird stuff. I don't know how he pulled it off, but--"
"Could you guys just give it a rest? I'm certain the police will clear this up. That couldn't have been Anish," a fourth voice, a girl, cut in.
"What do you mean, it couldn't have been him? I was there when it happened, it was definitely him," the second girl responded. "Yushi, if you'd been there, you would've recognized him. He was in your biology class, right?"
Ienji focused in on another conversation, happening in the seat directly in front of him, between two seniors.
"How many times do I have to tell you? There are no such things as aliens," the first kid stiffly informed the second one.
"Then how do you explain today's phenomena, Justin? There's no way that conventional science could explain a connection between a glowing object and earthquakes, and no human technology could create circular fissures," replied the second kid, in a British accent.
"Honestly, Mitch, you are the living end. You will feel very silly when the school committee is able to provide a perfectly logical--'
The second kid, Mitch, cut in. "Of course, they always do. It's the key ingredient of a cover-up; people want answers, so they can sleep soundly each night, and the higher-ups are always more than happy to satisfy that need."
At this point, Jared's stop came, so Ienji scooted over so he could get out. "Four o'clock, right?" he asked as he walked up the aisle to the front of the bus.
"Yeah," Ienji called back as his friend stepped off the bus.
He set his backpack on the empty part of the seat, now that there was space, and attempted to again listen to conversation, but there was a distraction.
He'd felt sensations like this earlier today and yesterday; it was connected to this 'empathy' and the 'digital device' and these strange happenings.
But he couldn't place it, so he attempted to ignore it as he trained his ears to another nearby conversation between two juniors.
"I wonder who was that man who broke open the door? Was he working with the Anish kid?" one asked the other.
"No, he used his own glowing thing to hit Anish, remember? Anish flew against the wall, and then before everyone was blinded, he told the man that he'd see him again. As if they didn't like each other," the other replied.
"Oh, I guess you're right," the first said.
Ienji's 'empathy'--his ability to feel the minds of others--was definitely providing for a lot of emotion. But, it was fading, he could tell. People were calming down, rationalizing things, making explanations.
People's minds tend toward resolution, Ienji realized.
However, he still couldn't get the sensation out of his mind, and so he remained disconcerted until the bus finally dropped him off in front of the apartment building.
--Evan--
In the darkness of disconnection, and the pit of unconsciousness, he felt nothing for some time. He couldn't say for how long, or that it was long at all--for all he knew, it could have been a brief moment flickering past.
Then he felt something 'nudging' him--something worried about him. It felt like a very close friend. And so sooner that he'd liked, Evan return to wakefulness.
He groaned and blinked. He felt like so much shit. His eyes focused and he found himself in a train station. Memories of his digital fight with the Indian kid returned to him at once; he checked his watched instinctively.
Twenty minutes had passed? So he'd been unconscious for a relatively short time; it certainly felt short. "No rest for me," he muttered.
Evan stood himself up haphazardly, then shook of his unsteadiness. He took in his surroundings, materialized and dematerialized his GD to make sure there was no permanent damage to any part of him.
Still no one in the station, and he preferred to keep it that way; he knew there'd be cops swarming the place in no time, likely maintaining some sort of perimeter or whatever; something like that.
He suddenly realized that his disguise, one of a man in his thirties with a full beard and black down-combed hair, had disappeared; his unconsciousness had let it up, apparently. No focusing on digital energies when you're out cold.
He trudged up and out of the train station, and then back to the hotel.