"speech"

'thoughts'

POV of a character

TENZAI

Chapter 6

The previous rains have been very opulent, not to mention pernicious, to some areas of the country. It made the daily routines moribund. The fishermen who you will usually see early in the morning weren't there during the past few days unless they wanted to catch a disease or drown in the then fierce slosh of water due to the sharp winds. The mothers weren't seen hanging their families' clothes to dry outside anymore. Worst of all is seeing the once gallivanting children inside their homes, watching beside their windows with such forlorn faces, waiting for the rain to cease for them to be able to play outdoor games once again.

Today, thankfully, Kami-sama decided not to pour down any more grisly, deluging amount of water that seemed to be His form of glowering at the now dry land, more specifically at the people it contains. Therefore, what should have been done by our two protagonists (not that there was an antagonist..) long ago may now be finally resumed.

The two woke up early and bumped into each other in the corridor.

"Hey, you're up early today," Kikuchi started.

"Well, I just finished reading that book of yours, you know, the Little Prince.," Kanzaki answered.

"Oh, so how did you find it?" he asked, heading to the staircase at the end of the corridor.

"It's fine, really, not as crappy at it seems.," she said, trailing behind him.

In the stairs, they met the ever-so-happy couple, Ryoko and Koji. Ryoko immediately greeted them with a jest.

"Good morning, you lovebirds..," She said, with a knowing grin.

But we all know that our two geniuses do not like being teased. Especially with such a mushy moniker. Their faces immediately got beet red with embarrassment as they shouted in unison, "What?"

The plump, middle-aged woman replied with a faltering smile, "I guess your morning is not so good, then.."

It's a good thing that her husband was with her that instant. He nudged her and tried to apologize to the teenagers.

"Honey, stop that. You're embarrassing them. Anyway, kids, just in case you didn't know, the rain has stopped. You can now continue your work. Oh, not that I already want you to finish and go, but well, just in case,--"

The said teens looked at each other, immediately said a thank you to the housekeepers and ran outside.

Ryoko and Koji blinked at each other shockingly and said, "What was that about? Thank you?"

The warm rays of the sun greeted them upon emerging from the house that has kept them like captives for days.

"Finally.." Kikuchi said with a sigh and a stretch of his arms upon going out of their house.

However, his partner seemed to be far from happy with how he looks at the current weather.

"What do you mean finally? The heavens have been munificent to me these past few days," She said, crossing her arms and harrumphing at the same time.

But he didn't seem to be happy with her reaction, either. He pulled out a rolled newspaper, which was stuffed inside his pocket, and showed it to her.

"Munificent? Munificent with what? With mayhem?" He said, all the while pointing at the pictures of greatly flooded areas and a number of families that were cramped inside a few evacuation areas.

Kanzaki just looked nonchalantly at the pictures and said, "I only said munificent to me. Those," she continued, now pointing to the pictures, "are not included in my statement."

She placed her arms down and raised an eyebrow at Kikuchi.

"Why are you being histrionic, anyway? You look unscathed by the typhoon, anyway."

In return, he glared at her and replied, "Look here. First of all, I am affected. We could have finished our work and gone home by now, if it weren't due to the rain. Plus, we couldn't have been stuck in that house walking our asses off and around like we were hypnotized already. Second of all, you could at least show some empathy for those who were greatly affec—"

But his dramatic speech had been cut off by a yawning girl in front of him. She tapped his nose like a little ignorant kid and said, "Well, sorry to say but empathy does not exist in my vocabulary. Not even sympathy exists."

She walked away, leaving an irked Kikuchi behind.

'That girl, she just had to ruin my beautiful morning with her insufferable tolerance with stuff like these.. She is just so obdurate! Hmmph.. There's no use blabbering here.. We have to finish our work here so I can now free myself of these frequent arguments..'

A few hours later, the duo emerged from the house again, after a nice breakfast prepared by the husband and wife and a nice hot bath, too.

"So?"

"I already told Sakurai-sensei that we will resume our work today."

"So?"

"And the device is already being carried by Koji-san from the basement. I kept it there so that it won't get wet."

"And?"

"The yacht that we're going to use is ready. He said he'll just put it there."

A nod.

"So, we have to get ready. I think the outfits for diving are inside the yacht. We better get there right away."

"Okay, then," Kanzaki said as she started to head for the yacht in a semi-port.

Kikuchi was also about to go there but he stopped for a moment and hit his forehead with his palm. This made Kanzaki turn back as she heard the loud sound of the slap.

"Err.. Go first. I left my cellular phone inside the house. Sakurai-sensei said she'll call me when they are already near the vicinity," Kikuchi said.

Kanzaki looked at her and asked, "They?"

"Yah, with her driver, of course," He said before running to the house.

"Oh," Kanzaki replied before continuing her disrupted walk. While she was walking, an idea formed in her mind.

'Since he's being touchy today…'

Kikuchi walked out of the house with his phone in hands, talking to Sakurai-sensei.

"Okay, sensei…. You're in?… Okay… Which wing?….. Okay, just turn to your right, and when you see stoplight, turn right again. When you see a store with a huge poster of… Yep, that's it…. And uh, sensei.. you still have to walk… Well.. just walk straight and when you reach a stream, cross it, then turn to the right… You'll see a house that's not so large near the shore... Yup, that's all.. But I have to warn you, sensei, that's a pretty long walk, though it doesn't seem so.. Hahah.. "

Still not ending the call, he looked at the ocean overlooking from where he was standing.. And saw a..

"What the!"

"Hello, Kikuchi? Is everything alright," Sakurai asked in the phone..

Remembering the phone, he switched his gaze back there and said, "Uhmm.. I guess I'll just see you later, sensei.. There's one peculiar thing going on here."

He ended the call without even saying goodbye before rushing to the shore with his binoculars..

"Huh? Is that an arm I see? A waving one at that.," He whispered while trying to get a better view to see if it was really what he assumed it to be.

His attention was caught more when he saw a streak of blonde near the flailing arms.

"What the heck.. Is that Kanzaki?"

He immediately dropped his binoculars near the shore and ran to the yacht. Well, he couldn't just dive in because the 'arms' he saw were very far from the shore.. It seemed like the owner of it, which seemed to be Kanzaki, was drowning.. Panic immediately rose from Kami-knows-where-inside-him and pushed him to just find a way to save her.

What's worse, she's not in the yacht.

He immediately stirred the yacht to the direction of the "flailing arms", which seemed to have stopped flailing by now. Due to the disappearance of the flagrant flitter, he even got more nervous with the thought that maybe his friend already lost consciousness.

He immediately got to where she was and saw that she was already far from the surface of the water. He pulled on the emergency switch and a mini-boat appeared from the side of the yacht. He jumped on it and tried to pull Kanzaki off the water.

'I didn't know you were this heavy, Kanzaki.' He thought while hauling her into the boat.

When he has successfully pulled her into the yacht again, he was already panting with exertion. His previous thought is now being worded blatantly.

"Geez, Kanzaki. I never thought you were this heavy."

'Anyway, what happened to this girl, anyway?' She thought. 'Wait, I'll have to ask her that later. By now I have to find a way to wake her up.. Er.. should I slap her?'

He tried to slap her gently, but of course, that didn't work.

'Wait a minute..' He thought.

He took her pulse and let out a sigh of relief when he found out that her heart was still beating.

'My, how long has she been drowning there? Silly girl.. Now what should I do?'

He was thinking of a way to get her perception back as he absentmindedly took away some of her hair that were sprawled all over her face with his thumb on her gently caressing her cheek. He jolted up when an idea came into his mind.

'Why didn't I think of that? Erm, but this is Kanzaki we're talking about here.. I can't just do that..'

After a few minutes of contemplation, he finally decided.

'She still hasn't waken up yet? This leaves me no choice..'

He tilted up her head in attempt of resuscitating her back to consciousness.

'Now what did our Physical Education teacher tell us about the steps on this first aid? Check her pulse.. Well, I've already done that.. What's next?'

He got red again, for the second time around that day, due to the next step..

'Get a grip, Kikuchi! You're not doing this for hentai purposes okay?'

He then leaned on her chest to see if she was still breathing..

'Okay, clear here.. Hey, I forgot one stupid step.. DO I really have to say that line?' He remembered their sensei demonstrating the first aid asking the patient, "Hey, hey, hey, are you okay?", even if the patient is obviously not okay.

He realized he was still leaning on her when he felt slight movement beneath him..

'Woah.. What the heck.. Oh.. She's awake.. I better sit straight now.. Not that I was doing something out of the ordinary there..'

"I think she's awake.." He said gently..

He sat up straight and saw an Urumi Kanzaki with a grin on her face. She pointed an accusing finger at him and laughed. The latter just looked at her like she'd just grown another head.

"Ha ha… I.. got.. you.. there.." She sat up straight now, looking far from being drowned and nearly killed.

Kikuchi finally got the idea and began to think frenetically,

'She was just acting all this time? Silly me.. I must have looked really, totally, absolutely overreacting, then.. This is one hell of an embarrassment..'

Kanzaki was still laughing her head off with her arms around her stomach..

"You.. looked.. so.. hilarious.."

Kikuchi paled and stammered, "You.. actually.. saw me? I thought your eyes were closed for this 'pretend game' of yours!"

She answered, her laughing lessening a bit, "Well, I peeked twice or thrice, you know.. Even when you were just in the yacht you looked so afraid! Haha! This is so hilarious! Did you actually think I'll let myself drown just like that? That was so picture perfect! Too bad, it had to end so soon, though, when I realized you were about to give me an artificial resuscitation.. I just can't let that happen, you even reached the third step, you pervert!"

Kikuchi is by now speechless, infuriated and full of chagrin. He was red with embarrassment, for the third time that day.

Kanzaki got a closer look at him, still guffawing and said,

"Look at you! You.. are.. so.. funny! You actually looked scared of me drowning! You actually looked like you cared!"

Kikuchi immediately stood up, turned back and said, although barely just above a whisper, "I actually did…" He was so humiliated he walked away with his head bowed.

Kanzaki heard it but she just ignored the sudden leap she felt in her chest.

"What did you just say? You gotta be kidding!"

Kikuchi turned around and shouted at her, to her surprise.

"Look here, Kanzaki. If you can go kidding around, well, I can not, okay! The next time you do that I won't help you anymore. Even if it's a real accident already, I won't care anymore like I did today, get it! A genius like you should know the story of The Boy Who Cried Wolf by now."

Kanzaki just blinked at him as he walked away.

'I can't believe he said all those things..'

She sighed when he was nowhere in sight already.

"No one has ever dared to talk to me that way except for Onizuka. And I never let anyone get past me without a punishment just like that.. Except for Onizuka.. And him.. What's going on with me?"