---------------
Chapter 5 - The Sky at the Center of Everything
---------------

At this point it becomes necessary for us to pull back from the story in which we have become involved. Five distinct threads are winding their way through Sumaru City, twisting and knotting together as they spiral in towards... what? Some overwhelming force that ties them to each other, perhaps, or maybe a false order purported by simple coincidence. Either way, they are coming full circle despite themselves, and it isn't going to be long before poor dear history is forced to shuffle the cards and show us her trick one more time.

For you see, the color of the sky over Seven Sisters High School is the color of the sky at the center of everything.

* * *

By the time Maya and Ulala pulled up to the high school, the rain had stopped and the sky had already started to clear. Sunlight poked through dark clouds and turned the air a warm shade of yellow, and as they approached the doors they made hushed reverent small talk about the sudden change in the weather.

"It's a little eerie, don't you think?" said Ulala after they were safely inside. "Beautiful one moment, rainy the next, then beautiful again with rainbows and butterflies. The harmless, non-immortal kind," she added hastily after Maya shot her a look.

"I'm not too worried about it," said Maya as she handed her press papers to the secretary in the front office. "I'm sure it's just the changing season."

The secretary looked the paperwork over and handed it back. "Here you go. The teacher's lounge is right down that hallway and up the stairs. Please be respectful and try not to disturb the students." Maya took the papers and gave the woman an odd look before turning to usher Ulala out of the office.

"She certainly seemed nonchalant about whatever happened here," she said under her breath as they climbed the stairs. "Maybe it was nothing serious after all."

"Knowing you?" said Ulala. "I'd say the chances of that are slim to none."

Of course, she was right.

* * *

Katsuya had gotten the call earlier that day. He'd been wrestling with paperwork all morning and his fingers were sticky with correction fluid when he picked up the phone. "Yeah, Suou here," he said gruffly, wedging it between his shoulder and his ear.

It was the new captain, a rough middle-aged man by the name of Michel. "Suou? I need you to head out to Sevens this afternoon. A couple kids got into a fight and got beat up pretty bad."

He suppressed an exasperated sigh. "Sir? Isn't that police work?"

"Everyone's a cop these days, Suou. Someone's gotta check it out, make sure there's not something more sinister going on. Today, that person is you. Got that?"

Katsuya nodded, trying to pick up a piece of paper without using his fingers. "Yessir, I'll take a look," he said, and let the phone slide down his arm to the receiver.

He finished up the stack of reports he was working on and set them aside gratefully. At least it's an excuse to get out of the station, he told himself as he pulled on his jacket.

Still, I always get the dull assignments.

* * *

Tatsuya was trapped in history class.

Yesterday, for what he could only assume was a lapse in sanity, he'd returned to live with his brother again. They'd come to an understanding that he could accompany Katsuya on basic assignments as long as he agreed to go to school three days a week, and it had seemed like a pretty okay deal at the time. Today was only his first day back, and he was already starting to regret the whole affair.

He'd never taken school as seriously as most kids his age, but he used to at least show up most of the time. He shifted in his seat and glanced around at the host of faces around him, some attentive, some dazed, all unfamiliar. This uniform doesn't fit me anymore, he thought simply. Maybe he was supposed to be here, but he certainly didn't belong here.

Where do you belong, Tatsuya Suou?

He frowned and brushed the thought away as the history teacher scraped a list of dates onto the board. He turned to look out the window at the patchwork clouded sky, a dull restlessness weighing in his stomach.

After a long moment he looked back down at his notebook, returning to a doodle of a tall, many-branched tree covered in little leaves.

* * *

Baofu sat cross-legged on the roof of the school, his fingers steepled as he looked thoughtfully at a bloodstain on the pavement. Warning tape that had been strung half-heartedly around the area flapped in the wind, and the new sunlight threw long shadows across the ground.

Amazing, he thought sardonically. I thought I'd find something at the school, and here it is.

He reached down and touched another mark on the pavement, a very faint charcoal-gray line that curved away from the tape and the bloodstains. His long fingers traced the shape, barely visible even in the wash of post-rain sunlight, until he had to stand to follow it. It ran straight for a while, then turned back to the scene in a large, bumpy circle.

Baofu let it go and straightened up, a sudden premonition raising the hairs on his neck. He ran to the side and hunted for a sharp rock, eventually settling for a lump of talc that he found by the door. He returned and bent down to follow the line again, this time tracing it with the chalky white rock. After half an hour of squinting and scraping, he threw the rock aside and stood up to look at the markings.

The shape burned faintly into the pavement was unmistakable. Baofu looked at it for a long time before turning away, genuine fear singing in his heart.

What happened here? he thought, and it was all he could bring himself to think.

What happened here?

* * *

This is the story so far. It was 2:47 when Ulala and Miss Amano encountered Katsuya on the second story stairwell. They exchanged surprised greetings for two minutes, and approximately six minutes later they passed by Tatsuya's classroom door, where by some quirk of fortune they paused to compare notes on the incident that had occurred earlier in the day. Precisely five minutes after that, a tinkling melody over the speaker system hailed the end of the school day, to which Tatsuya responded with great enthusiasm. After three and a half minutes of bundling his things, he threw himself out the room and, naturally, ran headfirst into Maya, who grabbed onto Ulala, who in turn stumbled into Katsuya, and the whole crew went down without so much as a whimper.

From 3:03 to 3:05, there was much apologizing and extracting of tangled arms and legs, followed by five minutes of nervous glances and awkward introductions. At 3:10 the boys and girls separated to consult each other on plans of action, and at 3:12 they regrouped and Katsuya announced that he was bringing his little brother along to investigate the scene. The girls agreed after no small amount of elbowing and shushing, and it took them three minutes to make their way up to the roof. As fate would have it, for fate has a rather sick sense of humor, the minute hand on every clock in Sumaru City struck the quarter hour when they slammed open the door and tramped noisily into a very rumpled-looking Baofu.

Whatever god of destiny that brought these five people within inches of each other once again was having a good laugh wherever he was, for not only had he done it; he'd done it in record time.

For about ten long seconds they stood in stunned silence before Ulala pushed her way to the front. "Hey Bao," she said with an awkward smile. "I brought some friends."

Baofu looked at her, then at Tatsuya. "Nice to meet you," he said dully. "But this is no place for kids." He turned back to his outlines.

Tatsuya stepped forward with a wounded expression. "Now wait just a -"

"Baofu," Katsuya interrupted, "this is my brother, Tatsuya. I said he could come along. He wants to see me work." He couldn't hide the proud note in his voice.

Baofu turned and looked at the detective with an upraised eyebrow. After a moment he said slowly, "I suppose that's your prerogative, Suou." I hope you know what you're doing, he added silently, glancing sideways at Maya. And who you're hurting with your stubborn pride.

Tatsuya looked from Baofu to Katsuya and back. "Er, big brother," he said, "what exactly are we supposed to be looking at?"

Maya, who had been hesitating by the door, stepped forward. "There was a fight," she said in a professional voice, flipping open her notepad. "Two male students, both seniors, were involved. They both suffered bad injuries, were treated at the emergency room, and are now resting at home." She looked up. "That's all we know."

Ulala nodded. "No one could tell us what happened, just that the janitor found the two kids on the roof, unconscious and all bloody, and called an ambulance."

"Oh," said Tatsuya simply, then added sheepishly, "I didn't know them."

Their conversation was interrupted by a sharp noise from Katsuya, who had moved to stand next to Baofu. He turned around with a somber expression on his face. "Miss Amano, Miss Serizawa, you should see this."

They stepped forward and stood at the edge of the scene, the warning tape fluttering across the toes of their shoes. The sun hung lazily in the sky and two crows hopped and chattered along the roof. The five of them stood in silence for a long while as they stared at Baofu's faintly chalked outlines.

"They're people," Ulala finally said, her voice laced with fear. "Shapes of people."

"They're human shadows," Baofu said grimly, taking a cigarette out of his coat pocket. "Burned right into the pavement." He lit up and took a long drag before looking over at Katsuya. "Needless to say, I don't think this was just a simple fight."

Tatsuya swallowed dryly. "Then what did happen?" he asked. He couldn't take his eyes off of the two faint shadows on the ground. They seemed to twist and stretch in the fading sun, the taller one with its arms thrown over its head in... what? Pain? Fear? He ran his fingers through his hair and suppressed a shudder.

Katsuya bent to inspect the bloodstains more closely. "This is odd," he said. "Baofu, did you notice the pattern in the blood here? These marks," he pointed to three small puddles, "are clearly drips, as from a cut. But these," he motioned to an arc that curved away from them. "These are from a scuffle. It's in a streak, see? Like someone fell and scraped their knee or hand across the pavement."

"Why is it so long, then?" asked Maya. "Wouldn't a scrape like that be short? You wouldn't drag yourself over the pavement."

Baofu looked straight ahead, as though he were watching something that no one else could see. "This one was crawling," he said, without looking down. "He was pulling himself away."

Ulala hugged herself. "Then what was the other one doing?" she asked slowly.

Baofu squinted. "The other one was kneeling where those puddles are." He turned towards her. "Look at how perfect they are. The blood dripped from about a foot above the ground, not far enough to splash."

Her eyes widened in sudden understanding. "One was crouched, nursing a wound, and the other was struggling to get away," she said. "They weren't fighting each other, were they?" Baofu simply looked away and inhaled deeply from his cigarette.

Katsuya was silent a moment, then straightened up. "I'm calling the station," he said resolutely. "I want to get somebody up here to analyze these marks. If there was a third party involved," he set his jaw. "Then these boys were victims."

Tatsuya spoke up and said what they were all thinking. "Victims of what?"

No one, not even Baofu, had an answer to that. Katsuya took out his phone and wandered off to the side to make his calls as Ulala and Maya spoke with each other in hushed tones. Baofu walked to the edge of the roof, looking out over the city as he finished off his cigarette, and Tatsuya just stood where he was.

My brother sure is friends with some weird people, he thought as he looked around at the four of them. He sighed and shrugged out of his jacket, slumping against the door to the stairwell. I just can't wait to get home. He loosened his collar and rubbed his neck. It never occurred to me that this might be hard work, he thought woefully and closed his eyes.

Less than two meters away, Maya was slowly breaking down. "Ulala..." she pleaded quietly. Ulala cooed and stroked her back, leading her away from the three men.

"Come on, let's go over here," she said helpfully. "Breathe in, out... that's right. Remember what you told me earlier! Think of him as an old shoe."

Maya nodded bravely. "Right, just a shoe." She glanced at him over her shoulder and her eyes softened. "Just a shoe... a gorgeous, young, virile..."

"Ma-ya!" Ulala turned her roommate's head back towards her. "Not that kind of shoe. Think old, smelly shoe." She fanned Maya's face with her hand. "Think shoe that reminds you of an ex-boyfriend you hate."

Maya gave her a blank look. Ulala rolled her eyes. "I suppose you've never had the benefit of that experience. Remind me to tell you I hate you when you're feeling less vulnerable."

"Miss Amano, Miss Serizawa!" Katsuya called from behind them. They turned to see him collecting Tatsuya. "The forensics team is coming, so I'm going to take Tatsuya home." He waggled his phone in the air and mouthed 'call me'. Ulala nodded and they waved goodbye.

After the brothers had disappeared down the stairs, Baofu wandered over to where they were standing. They all stood in silence for a moment, then he turned to Maya and asked, "Are you okay?"

Startled, the two girls looked at each other, then back to Baofu. "Yeah," Maya said with a smile. "I'm going to be fine, thank you."

Ulala patted her shoulder proudly. "That's my girl!" she said. "Come on, I'll take you home."

Maya turned to her. "Actually," she said hastily. "I need to go back to Kismet tonight. You know what a slave driver my boss is! I'll just see you at home later, okay?" She gave Ulala a knowing grin and disappeared through the door, waving cheerily to them both.

Ulala numbly watched the door close behind her roommate. A few crickets chirped through the silence, and finally she turned to Baofu.

"So," she said with a nervous laugh. "Wanna get a drink?"