Chapter 10

More months went by. By now, Graduation was finally here. Leon and Kazuichi had continued to hang out, and he had continued to improve his guitar skills. It was 6 am, and he was attending an early lesson from Ibuki Mioda. She sat on the bed, smiling excitedly as she listened to him play. She watched his hands as he hit the cords he was instructed to. Ibuki had given him a song to practice, and so far, the baseball player was actually doing pretty good! Luckily, his voice wasn't bad enough to where he needed voice coaching lessons. The musician clapped lously when he finished.

"Alright, you did it! Awesome work! If I can teach you to play guitar, then I can teach ANYONE to play!" She laughed. Leon looked over with a sweatdrop and a frown.

"Aw come on, don't tell me I was really THAT bad?" at that thew musician formed her own sweatdrops, rubbing her neck as she giggled nervously.

"Uh...no, no, of course not...! You just...needed a tiiiinnnnyyyy bit of help, that's all! I better get ready for classes now." As she got up off the bed, Leon gave a thumbs up.

"Thanks again for the lessons, Ibuki...after classes today, I'm gonna invite Kazuichi to my dorm and play for him! Show him how much I've improved! I've actually been working on some lyrics...I can't wait to sing them! and now, I can play the msuic for them, too!" he set the guitar down and said goodbye, then left to get ready for his own classes.

As he promised, Leon had run from his homeroom class, waiting excitedly outside the door to class 77-B. When the door didn't open, Leon scowled. He reached for the doorknob. But the moment he touched it, a deafening explosion bombarded his ears. His eyes widened as the door suddenly smashed to pieces, flying into the red head. He cried out as the explosion slammed him back, hurtling him straight through the glass window behind him. Students screamed as the small section of the school exploded. Leon didn't even have time to think about the explosion as he fell. Just last month, the reserve course students had went nuts, fighting the main course students for spots in the main course, now this?! What was going on?! As he fell from the school, he wasn't even thinking about the possiblity that the fall would kill him. All he could think about was Kaz-

"Gotchya, dude!" Leon's thoughts were cut short. His fall had ceased. It took him a moment to gather his surroundings.

"Leon, are you alright?!" A voice chimed in worriedly. He looked around as his vision came back into focus. His classmates were surrounding him, with Mondo having been the one to catch him.

"What happened...?" he groaned as he reached up, pulling some splinters of wood from his face. His clothes were singed from the explosion, but otherwise, he was fine.

"Leon...That was a bomb...on the fifth floor...in Ms. Chisa's room..." Leon slowly turned his head, careful not to aggravate any soreness, to look at a very scared, very nervous Chihiro. He looked around at his classmates. all around, students had evacutaed the building as quickly as they could. But...where was class 77-B? Fear began to grip his heart.

"Where's class 77-B? Where's Kazuichi?! Kazuichi?!" Leon pulled himself free of Mondo's grip, shaky on his legs as he cried out. His eyes widened as he looked up at the building. two more explsoions suddenly sounded and the windows for the dorms on the second floor suddenly shattered. Leon paled in horror.

No...No, no, no, no...! This can't be happening! They can't be...! He can't...!

"Leon...I'm sorry...maybe the police will find them in the rubble!" Leon looked over at Hifumi.

"Yeah...Yeah you're right...they're totally ok!" After that, class 78 was silent, as the fire department arrived. Students watched as the fires were put out from the explosions. They waited, and waited...and waited...until finally some firefighters emerged. Leon ran over as fast as he could.

"You found them right?! Class 77-B! they're safe, right...?!" The firefighter frowned sadly down at the baseball star. He held up a horribly burnt dark grey cap in his hands. Leon snatched it before the firefighter could stop him.

"I'm sorry, kids...We didn't find anyone in the building...the bomb destroyed everything..." it was if all the voices and sounds around him suddenly went silent. Leon couldn't hear them. he just stared at the cap in his grip and clutched it tight. For the first time in a long time, tears fell from his eyes, falling down his cheeks. the gentle arms of Sayaka Maizono wrapped around his torso, hugging him tightly as he cried.

"Leon I'm so sorry...I know Kazuichi was important to you..." Her soft voice was tinged in sadness. Leon hugged her back, holding her close as he wept.

There was no doubt...Kazuichi Souda, along with the rest of class 77-B...was dead.

Hidden off to the side, away from the academy, class 77-B watched the students. They were sad to see their fellow students in despair. But they had no choice. It was junko's orders. Like they were brainwashed, they obeyed the orders and helped their homeroom teacher, Chisa Yukizoma, set the bombs. Then they evacuated, having faked their deaths. Kazuichi Souda's eyes were glued to the sobbing red-head. It hurt more than anything to see the one he loved in such pain. But orders were orders. They couldn't fight it even if they wanted to. Suddenly a hand on his shoulder pulled him from his thoughts. he turned to look at gundham Tanaka, who had swirls in his eyes. the same swirls everyone one of them had.

"The dark queen beckons us to spread the call of chaos and despair, and bring Hell upon this mortal plane... We must get to work..." Kazuichi nodded.

"Understood..." He turned to look at Leon once more.

"Goodbye, Leon...I'm sorry...for everything... I'll always love you Leon..." He turned away, following the rest of his classmates. Class 77-B WAS dead...Now...there was only Ultimate Despair...