Radiance Academy

Class Two

xxx

His head felt like a bell or a gong that had been hit, the ringing of his migraine incessant and unforgiving. The only time that had come close was the time he'd tried his dad's offered sake, though he was twelve and it didn't agree with him. Or maybe it was the hit his mom had given him – he'd forgotten.

He felt himself again, torn from the world of dreams. Reaching for his forehead, he rubbed away at a thin layer of sweat. He'd had the worst dream that he had died next to some girl called Megumi. He didn't know that a dream could have so much blood in it, but now he knew that they could.

He went to sit up, but he couldn't.

'Wha-?'

He looked down to his stomach where a weight was pinning him to his bed. A girl was asleep, her arms on her stomach like a makeshift pillow.

It was Megumi.

Tai's headache worsened as his dream came back to him. It must have been a dream, since Megumi would have died from so much blood being lost.

It was too much blood.

Yet she was sleeping on him, a chair beside his bed her only support. It was his desk chair, and she was in his room.

Embarrassing as it was, he hoped he could manage to move her without waking her. He was famished. He felt like he'd been asleep for days on end. His muscles were so relaxed that it took great effort to even look up at Megumi's sleeping form.

There were footsteps outside his room – it had to be his mom or his dad. One of two things would happen if they found him awake and looking at the girl sleeping on his stomach: his mom would hit him for acting indecently or his dad would laugh without end.

Neither applied to him, so when he heard the doorknob turn, he fell back into his pillow, closed his eyes and stayed perfectly still. He heard them enter, along with a small rattle – glasses on a tray, maybe?

He heard them being put on his desk, soft footsteps coming across to him. It was a struggle to keep his face still.

'Ms Kanada?' his mother's voice – he could feel Megumi being shaken gently, 'Ms Kanada, please wake up.'

There were stifled moans as the girl complied, her weight leaving Tai's stomach.

'Ms Kanada, we were wondering if you'd tell us our options… we never thought that Tai would be like Kari.'

Tai's dad then added, 'Does this mean your school will take him in now?'

'I – yes…' the girl yawned. 'W-where's Yuri? She was meant to talk to you while I watched over Tai.'

'Yeah, she did but she got a call on her cell and left earlier. Didn't so much as say why she was going.'

'Oh, that was for a statement I think… when things like this happen and we get hurt or hurt someone, we have to give a statement,' Megumi's voice was so confident, so completely stark to the dream. 'Only the family's meant to know, so if something happens in public we need a way to hide what really happened.'

'And… t-that includes Tai and what happened, doesn't it?'

Tai struggled to remain still and calm in his false-sleep. He could hear sadness in his mom's voice for some reason.

'I'm so sorry… Tai wasn't supposed to get h-hurt. I was told to watch him but I let him get hurt anyway… but now we know what he can do. Now we know that he needs to be with Kari.'

'I see…' his mother sighed sadly, and Tai could almost sense his dad standing next to her, comforting her. 'Well… we saw Kari yesterday when you called. She really missed him, she'll be happy, won't she?'

''Course she will,' his dad reassured. 'I mean yeah, it'll be lonely without our little heartbreaker here, but we'll adjust.'

'Tai's our little what?'

'Heartbreaker – Ms Kanada, you said he was with you in the park, right? What's that tell you, dear?'

'Oh dear… Ms Kanada…'

'I-i-it w-was only t-to keep an eye on him, I-I swear!' Megumi's voice was higher and Tai could tell she must have gone red – he wondered if he was going red, too. 'I-I mean…'

'Ms Kanada, I don't blame you,' his mom was saying with music in her voice, 'it's a little sad that you feel like that about Tai… he's so dense that light bends around him.'

His dad's laugh echoed in his room as though it were a cave.

'Well then, Ms Kanada, I guess we need the forms signing again.'

'Y-yes! I've been carrying them just in case Tai did need to transfer,' he heard a zipper of a bag open and the crinkling of paper. 'Here you go. I also need a letter to the headmaster this time since he got hurt.'

'Alright, best do it in the kitchen then,' his dad offered, the three pairs of feet all leaving the room, switching the lights off and closing the door behind them.

xxx

Tai lay in the darkness, staring up at the ceiling. After about ten minutes, his curiosity got the better of him, and his legs regained some functionality without Megumi's weight holding him to the bed. Steadily, he got to his feet and waded through the dark to his desk.

His mom had left a tray there with a single glass of water. Tai's throat was parched, so he immediately drank the lot and let it clear his sleep-fogged senses. Slowly, he headed over to the door, finding himself bumbling and stumbling for some reason. He figured he was just tired and twisted the doorknob. He could hear scribbling and chatting.

'Mom?' he groaned as he walked into the light of the kitchen and living room. 'Dad? You there?'

'Oh my…' he heard his mom joke, chuckling.

'Son, you're learning,' his dad offered, chortling, 'you're not there yet, but you'll learn.'

'T-Tai!' Megumi's voice shrieked at him.

'What?' Tai still couldn't believe she was real. 'You're real?'

'That's rude, Tai,' his mom huffed. 'Before you judge others, why not put some clothes on?'

'What's that?' Tai looked down at himself – all that he was wearing were his boxers and socks. 'Where're my PJs?'

'Is that really what you should be asking? Poor Ms Kanada here was worried about you and you repay her like that?'

Tai noticed that the girl was looking at the kitchen rather than at him, her face red. She could've been mistaken for a traffic light with such a heavy shade of red at her face, ears and neck. Tai himself didn't care – she'd seemed to like him, so she probably visualised him enough already to render his being embarrassed worthless.

And girls said that only men were perverts! The nerve of them!

'Son, please…' now his dad's laugh had given way to an order, 'go change, now.'

'Sure.'

Two minutes later he came back in a pair of jeans and a baggy T-shirt he picked up out of his clothes pile at the corner of his room. His mom and dad nodded at the improvement, but Megumi was still looking anywhere else but his direction.

'So… that happened, right?' Tai questioned, speaking of the park. 'I mean, the whole bleeding thing's probably a dream but-'

'That happened, honey,' his mom said glumly, pointing in the direction of the working washing machine. 'When we were back, Ms Tachibana had put your clothes in the machine for me.'

'Who?'

'Yuri…' Megumi said weakly, still flushed. 'Y-Yuri and I took your c-clothes off – they had b-blood on them, so…'

Great, just great. With a large groan and a palm to the face, Tai realised he'd been stripped by two girls while he had been asleep.

'What happened?' he pressed on, hiding his embarrassment. 'I mean, there you were talking then you were bleeding and then my phone sort of blew up in my face! How's that happen?'

'Oh, about the phone, don't worry!' Megumi rifled through her bag at the foot of her chair quickly.

Tai lifted an eyebrow, 'You saved my phone?'

'Better!'

She held it out to him – the cellphone strap, a snowflake with an encased heart. With an awkward grin, he accepted it.

'Uh… thanks, was worried about that,' he inspected it, finding it cleaned of all traces of blood. 'This thing's clean! How's that – I saw it, in your blood! Speaking of which, how're you still alive after that if it happened?'

Tai panicked, patting at the right side of his face – his ear was still there, as well as his skin. It was unmarked and unharmed. All he felt was a cold sting similar to the aftermath of a shave.

'It blew up in my face – how-?'

Shoving the cellphone strap into his pocket, Tai assumed the seat left unclaimed, taking notice of the sheets of paperwork his mom and dad were both working through.

'What's this stuff? Somebody mind saying something?'

'T-Tai…' Megumi looked conflicted. 'I… you won't believe me, nobody ever does, so I'm going to do something to prove it, alright?'

'Prove what?'

'Can I have your hand?'

'Sure, but why?' he reached over and gave her his hand as asked, but then she dug her nails into his forearms and scratched him. 'Ow! What's the big idea?'

He cradled his arm – she had drawn blood!

'Megumi, what-?'

'Look at it, Tai. I'm sorry, but this way you'll see for yourself.'

'See what for myself?'

But then he saw what she was on about.

Where the scratches had been there were now thin scabs. The blood was dry, seconds after it had been exposed to the air. Tai didn't know much about biology, but he was sure that blood didn't dry out after a few seconds.

'Now watch this,' Megumi scratched at her own arm, drawing blood in thin strips. Taking Tai's hand, she assumed it as someone would in a handshake. 'Tai, do you see it?'

He saw alright, but he didn't believe.

The bloodied cuts weren't drying out, but rather they were repairing themselves, closing as though she hadn't been cut at all.

Then came a sharp sting at his own arm, and there he found fresher cuts, though he watched them dry this time. It had only taken a second for them to become scabs.

'H-how did that-?' Tai was more than a little freaked out, 'T-that's not meant to happen, is it?'

'No, but it saved me!' Megumi told him sternly, a reverent look on her face. 'You saved me, Tai! In the park I woke up and you were holding my hand like this – you took my cuts and stopped me bleeding, that's how I survived!'

'Then how am I alive? I thought you'd bled to death, anyway!'

'When I woke up the cuts had already closed, so you stopped bleeding pretty quickly… I-I don't understand why I feel so healthy but… but I know that you saved me, Tai.'

'T-this isn't me!' Tai disputed, a little frightened, 'This hasn't happened before!'

'These things happen to boys and girls like you when they're scared, is that right, Ms Kanada?' his dad said, getting a short nod. 'Kari went through the same thing last year, but-'

'What's Kari gotta do with this?'

'Son, you've got to understand-'

'No, don't try that! You've not told me anything about Kari for a year – I want to know what's going on with me – what boys and girls are you talking about, and what's going on with me? Well, you just going to sit there all day or are you actually going to tell me?'

'Tai…' his mom looked crestfallen, but he didn't ease up.

'Mom… please, just… just tell me. What's the worst that that'll happen now?'

'Tai… you're right, but it's not – it's not that easy,' she mumbled. 'When we lost Kari because of this, I got scared but… now that you have to go as well…'

'Go where, mom?' Tai was relieved and scared of finally getting answers. 'Mom, please… what's going on?'

'Last year… Kari's elementary school had a problem with some girls. They did what they wanted, tearing up the kids' books and breaking windows for fun. Then they came after Kari since she was the most popular in her class, but…'

When his mom looked away, his dad continued.

'But when they tore her books up in front of her and started pushing her, Kari got scared and hurt them.'

'Yeah, I'm sure,' Tai scoffed – Kari cried once for stepping on squirrel by accident, even though it ran off. 'Kari's not like that. First off, she's not the healthiest kid ever.'

'Tai, after what you just did do you really think it's all about muscle and size?' his dad gave him a vague stare. 'Kari's like you, but… she did something different. Don't know what, though. Those girls never talked about it again, that's for sure. We knew you'd never believe us anyway, so we told you that we had her transferred because of bullies. I can tell by looking at you that we were right.'

'So that's why the school never expelled them?' Tai demanded hotly, remembering how badly Kari had been crying when he'd gotten home. 'Fine… I don't like it, but fine… so what's supposed to happen to me now?'

'You're going to go live with Kari at her boarding school,' his dad told him. 'It's a nicer place for her and you since nobody will come looking for you, not to mention you can make friends without feeling like outcasts. Yesterday Kari even showed us her friends – she'll be happy to see you.'

'What, so that's that?' Tai asked, looking between the three of them and only getting blank stares. 'I'm moving now? What about school?'

'Tai,' Megumi spoke up, 'the Academy's a special place for people like us. They have all sorts of ways to make trouble go away. When there's someone new, they try to get them there as soon as possible. I was taken there a day after I had an accident with my bullies…'

'Oh…' Tai was caught off-balance by that. 'I – uh…'

That was when his dad cut in.

'Tai, we're gonna have to drive you there, so go grab some clothes. We'll take you as soon as your mom and I finish these papers.'

'And the letter, please,' Megumi asked in a slight panic.

'Don't worry, I'll make it clear it wasn't your fault. Could you give our son a hand, Ms Kanada?'

'O-of course I will!'

xxx

'Seriously, how's this happened?' Tai cursed to himself, shoving a shirt into his dad's old suitcase. 'I thought this sorta thing only happened in movies and anime.'

'I was surprised when it happened, too…' Megumi weakly input folding a pair of jeans neatly, 'But seeing Kari will be nice. I haven't seen her in a month, but she'll be happy to see you.'

'Megumi, I was wondering… this school of yours, is it like a prison?'

'I-I'm sorry?'

'Well, since we're freaks and all, I thought we weren't allowed outside.'

'Oh!' she gasped. 'No, it's not like that! We have school excursions and a cultural festival, and you're allowed out into the city with a curfew! If you get the headmistress's permission, you can come home for vacations, too!'

Tai shoved another shirt into the suitcase, thinking on it – it didn't sound like a terrible punishment, but being sent off for apparently saving someone's life was ridiculous. Was it because he scared his parents?

Had they sent Kari off because they thought she was a freak?

He certainly felt like a freak, and worse still, nobody had really explained what was happening to him at all. They were hurrying him along, trying to force him away to some freak's school. Where was the divine Japanese justice?

Nowhere to be found was the answer.

'Megumi!' called a squeal of delight from the door. 'You're alright!'

'Yuri!' the two ran and hugged each other tightly. 'I'm alright. Tai here saved my life…'

'I know!' Yuri smiled cheekily at him and nudged Megumi in the ribs, 'If it wasn't for them, you think that Tai might've given you something that wasn't the Kiss of Life?'

'Y-Yuri! That's not what happened!' the girl flushed and punched her friend in the arm. 'It isn't funny! Stop laughing! Tai was hurt!'

'He's fine,' she said inbetween breaths. 'When I got there it looked bad, but his wounds were closed. I'm more worried about you – I saw how much of your blood was there!'

'I-I woke up in it, thank you! It was on my clothes!'

'Good thing we washed them! We didn't want you flinging yourself at your hero naked, did we?'

'Y-YURI!'

'Sorry, I meant 'I',' Yuri's smirk was almost evil in its enjoyment. 'What, you got something to say?'

While Megumi ranted at Yuri's remark, Tai instead focussed on packing, all his thoughts bent around seeing his sister again. The last time he'd seen her was a year before, a frail girl in tears who was locked in her room one day and gone the next.

He never wanted to be separated from her like that again.

xxx

'That's right… yeah, he'll be coming too… oh, he's here – Tai, come talk to this lady, would you?'

Tai had just finished packing when his dad had called him over to the phone, his mom making some tea in the kitchen before they set off to Kari's school.

'Hello?' Tai said into the receiver, his dad sitting on the couch with a worn expression. 'This is Tai.'

'Mr Kamiya?' a sharp voice came through like a drill in his ear. 'This is Naomi Ohno, I'm the deputy-headmistress of Radiance Academy, the school your sister is attending. I was informed of your circumstances and rest assured a room is quite ready for you, as is your sister. I trust you're feeling well?'

'Apart from finding out I'm a freak, yeah, I'm fine,' Tom scowled at the phone.

'Mr Kamiya, you are far from a 'freak'. You are among friends even now, are you not? Ms Kanada and Ms Tachibana are with you, aren't they?'

'They're like me too?' Tai wasn't anything more than mildly surprised. 'How'd you know that – this – would happen to me? I don't get it…'

'Patience, Mr Kamiya. Patience and resolve. I will be there to greet you when you arrive at Radiance Academy, and then I will tell you everything you wish to know. For now, please keep calm and do as your parents and our students tell you to. They will see you to us, I promise you that.'

Then the tone sounded, telling him she had hung up without waiting for his answer.

'Son, you're not a freak,' his dad said. 'Your mom's got the strength of a bear when she's angry, but she's not a freak. We all have something that's ours, but it doesn't make us 'freaks'.'

'Your dad's right, Tai,' his mom chipped in, handing him a cup of tea. 'Kari felt the same way. She thought you would hate her for what she could do.'

'I wouldn't ever hate Kari,' Tai shot down, frowning as he took a sip of tea.

'Well, if she isn't a 'freak', then why should you be?' his mom argued logically, sitting down and grabbing at his dad's cheek, 'If anyone's a freak in our family, it's your dad for making me mad in the first place.'

'I-I'm showwy dea! L-let go pwease!'

Yuri and Megumi giggled, but Tai didn't even try to pretend he found it funny. He had bigger things to worry about, like how he had ended up getting hurt.

'Hey, Megumi?'

'Yes, Tai?'

'How'd we get all cut up, anyway? I heard someone talking to me, but then my phone blew up in my face…'

'Oh…' it was clear that she had been hoping he wouldn't ask. 'Well… Tai, there are people like us who don't go to the school.'

'What d'you mean?'

Megumi and Yuri looked at each other, looking panicked.

'Well, there's this organisation that thinks that we shouldn't have to hide who we are,' Yuri told him. 'But since normal people would panic and want to get rid of us, they think that we should all fight so that we can have our own country to ourselves.'

'A country?' Tai gaped at them, never having heard such a thing before. 'But, then we would all be in one place! Everyone would go there, wouldn't they?'

'That's… well, they think that normal people are dangerous, that's all I know. The rest's from history class, so I couldn't really tell you if I wanted to.'

'So, these people are the ones that tried to kill Megumi? Why?'

Again, they looked at each other before answering.

'W-well… that was because I was with you, Tai,' Megumi sat down before explaining. 'When Kari came to the school, we were transferred to your school a few months after, since you were around the age that we change. I-I think it was because I was with you that Junta was interested.'

'"Junta"?'

'The organisation we're telling you about,' Yuri clarified. 'They've been around since the first of us were born in the early 1900s, but they got quieter, so we haven't been found out yet except by the parents of students.'

'Why'd they get quieter?'

'Well, mostly because their old leader died but… well… in 1945, something happened that made them kind of not want to be seen…'

'The bombs, right?' his dad spoke up knowledgably, slouching in the couch. 'Makes sense, but as long as Tai and Kari are safe at this school, I don't really care. Do you dear?'

'Kari seemed happy there,' his mom said, 'that's all I care about.'

'Oh, the headmistress is really strong, so don't worry! See, we can class people now based on what teaching they need to give them control. After that, we have exams like any other schools and we go off to get jobs like normal people without worrying about setting things on fire and stuff like that.'

'You can class people?' Tai asked, feeling overcome with strange information. 'How's that done?'

'Class IIIs are the most common with people who can use fire and water and stuff like that, Class IIs are a little more rare, mostly because it's made up of telekinetics. Class Is are people who need the most attention from special teachers because what they can do hasn't been dealt with before and they're making it up as they go to teach them control.'

Megumi nodded, 'I haven't really seen them before since talking about it's not something everyone does, but there's this boy called Davis in a Class I group. I never asked him what he could do, though... I think the deputy-headmistress teaches him herself.'

'Right…' Tai had lost interest with the confusing things happening all around him. 'I'm packed, by the way.'

'Right…' his dad and mom looked sadder for him saying it, 'well, we'd better go then. We've a bit of a drive ahead.'

xxx

Two hours later, Tai was beginning to wonder where the school was supposed to be. Not only were they away from the city, but towns and villages, too. All that he could see anymore was farmer's fields and the odd house dotted from place to place. Eventually, they were driving on unmarked dirt roads. He could tell since the last sign he saw was a long way back.

'Where's this school meant to be, the woods?' Tai was still unhappy with having to go at all.

'It's in a place with plenty of protection, far away from normal people,' his dad said solemnly while his mom drove. 'At least that's what they told us when we brought Kari here. Least she's safe from some things there.'

Dad had never been happy that he had never gotten round to learning how to drive. The subway had always done him justice and got him around, but Tai's mom wasn't exactly the most talented of drivers in the world. He, his dad and Kari had always thought she was actually trying to kill them at times behind the wheel. She was a danger.

But that didn't matter to anyone right now. They were away from people and on dirt road.

'Dear, I'm emotional and driving, but I will pull over if you need your manners pounded back into you,' his mom threatened in a sickly sweet tone, smiling.

'Stop,' Yuri told her, and to his surprise his mother did just that, turning off the engine. 'Sorry, but you know the drill. We can't show you where it is.'

'Its fine, we usually get blindfolds…' Tai's mom told her. 'Tai… I want you to promise me not to get in trouble… and if you do, I want you to come home. Understood?'

'Mom, I hardly know where I am – how am I meant to just come home?'

'Kari had a computer in her room, so I'm thinking you will to. I want you to email me if there's a problem. And if you can, since I don't have to worry about Kari scaring you anymore, I'd like the two of you to come home for Christmas.'

'But it's almost summer!' Tai told her. 'That's weeks! Why can't we come home then?'

'You need to bond and make friends, son,' his dad put it cautiously. 'Your mom and I talked while you were sleeping. We've already come to terms with this.'

'Dad-'

'Tai, watch over Kari. She's been lonely without you. She pretends not to, but she does. I'm her mother and I know.'

'Mom…'

'Come here,' Tai was wrapped up in a double hug by his mom and dad before he could even breathe; the seatbelt dug into his shoulder as he was pulled forward. 'I'm sorry son, it's for the best…'

'Don't go forgetting – you promised to email me if you had a problem.'

'I… okay, mom… I'll try… but…'

'But?'

'I can't breathe…'