"Cat's feud"

It's been four days since the incident with Soujiro. For the most part he's heeded my warning and stayed away from Riki. Occasionally he'd stop by our classroom and ask about practices. It bothered me how Riki had seemingly forgiven him so easily. It was as if he didn't mind being injured, or that he didn't even remember being injured.

But now that we were headed to the beach, I felt slightly uncomfortable having to sit next to the guy. Soujiro. That name alone was enough to make me mad. He had an essence about him that scared even my cats.

Cats were cautious beings, so if they were scared of something…They tended to have good reasons. That was enough for me to not trust him. Luckily, I wouldn't have to be paired up with him. Or at least I hoped not. If I did, then I would be ticked off. Kyousuke was picking the pairs, and knowing him I would be.

A few minutes passed after we reached the beach. I spent time with Saigusa and Futaki, who had decided to join us for some odd reason. Saigusa had begged both Kyousuke and Riki to let her sister come with us. Of course, Riki didn't have a problem with it. But Kyousuke was against it since she wasn't part of the team. Riki had a good point about numbers not evening out.

The mission was going to be divided up into five teams of two. I listened intently as Kyousuke and Riki took turns picking one name. The teams, in order, were: Komari and Saigusa; Kud and Kurugaya; Kyousuke and Kengo; Futaki and Masato; and then finally Soujiro and I.

Finally the time came for us to begin, "Riki and I have hidden several pieces of paper around the beach and the surrounding area. There are a total of nine. The team who collects the most will get to receive a trophy upon returning back to school. Since I hid the papers, my team will leave last. Everyone else goes when Riki starts us off," Kyousuke had begun speaking.

"Remember to mainly have fun and work as a team. You've been paired up according to your skill types. I won't go into detail, but when participating in this mission it should be made clear. Begin!" Riki announced.

The teams scattered. Soujiro had grabbed my wrist and dragged me alongside of him towards the edge of the water. I eventually managed to get out of his grasp and just simply strolled alongside him. It bothered me how he had suddenly grabbed me, but ultimately I knew it was a good thing. I wasn't about to be the leader. While it's true I was more confident in myself, I wasn't ready to be a leader. I had tried that once when the cafeteria had been deserted and we had to fix lunch for the whole school.

It had gone decently…For students. We made special dishes and served people. But we had sometimes fallen behind and I might have gone a little jelly crazy and gave too much to people. But I loved jelly. They should too. It was my little gift to them.

"Take a look around," Soujiro broke into my thoughts, "There's got to be one alongside the shore."

I gave a small nod. Having been paired up with this guy, I didn't feel like trying. My plan was to just hope the time passed quickly and it was over before too long. As I ran my hand through the waters, I remembered something. Kyousuke had helped hide things. That meant traps.

"Rin."

Riki's voice coming so suddenly from behind me made me jump and hiss at him. But when I saw it was him, I was embarrassed.

"What is it Riki?" I asked, trying my best to slowly back away from him.

"I know you and Soujiro don't really get along…Kyousuke told me what happened between you two," He glanced towards the other teams who were sifting through sand, "That's why we decided to put you two together though. Having a feud between two of our players isn't good for the team."

I was silent. He had found out. Originally I had hoped to keep it a secret from him. Half of me felt like he would have been angry, the other half wanted him to not be any different. But, I guess those thoughts were pointless. He hadn't changed since he had found out.

"Hey I found something!" I hadn't realized how far away Soujiro had gotten until he had called out. And then he started coming back holding a glass bottle.

When he came back, we took a look at what was inside. It was an old paper with a map drawn on it. I glanced up at Riki, who seemed shocked.

"This isn't one of yours?" I asked with a slight bit of fear in my voice.

"Nope…" Riki shook his head, "I didn't put this one here. If there wasn't a trap…Then neither did Kyousuke. Let's go talk to him. He'll know what to do."

We walked over to Kyousuke and Kengo, but before we could say anything Masato and Futaki had appeared. Masato seemed to be angry by something that Kengo had done.

"Hey you!" Masato shouted, "I'm going to make you pay for what you did!"

"What did he do this time…?" Riki whispered to me.

I shrugged and listened in, "You told me that perforated meant that something was beautifully decorated! When I tried using it today Futaki told me it meant that something had holes in it!"

"It's not my fault you always come to me for answers and believe what I say," Kengo shrugged him off.

"Why you…!" Masato seemed like he was about to punch Kengo.

"Hold it!" Kyousuke got in between them, "You remember our fight system right? We'll throw in random items from the van and you'll use whatever you catch in the fight."

And so Kyousuke came back dragging a bag of various items. What bothered me is how prepared he had been for this. We all threw in items. Masato caught a small water pistol. Kengo caught a pool noodle. I shook my head. Kengo was going to win. He always did.

The fight began with Masato shooting water at Kengo. Kengo, in return, began to whack him with the noodle. He retaliated by throwing his water pistol at Kengo, who side-stepped and continued to beat him. In the end, Kengo won due to Masato losing his weapon. Kengo bestowed upon him the title of "Gullible Monkey-Face".

Having witnessed the fight, everyone laughed except for Masato. It was a good relief for us, but it was time to talk to Kyousuke about the map we had found. Riki took the bottle and the map and went off to talk to him.

"What was that about?" Soujiro asked me.

"Whenever we have a fight we like to even the playing field by having students throw in weapons for us to use. The winner gets to give the loser a title that we use to refer to the loser. So for today, we could call him by his name or by his new title," I explained the best I could. I didn't really understand why Kyousuke had started the fight system, but it worked.

After a moment Riki and Kyousuke came back to us, "Rin…Soujiro…We're going to follow the map. Us four I mean. This is a real map and we should follow it. Kyousuke decided that."

"What about the mission?" Soujiro asked.

"The others can do it. Besides, this is more exciting," Kyousuke said.

"Where to first?" I finally decided to ask the very question everyone was thinking.

"It says to go to the Vallensworth Mansion hidden in the rocks," Kyousuke looked around to see if he could find a series of large rocks. He pointed and motioned for us to go that way.

The journey consisted of us going behind large rocks and following a hidden path into a cave. Then we went into a large house hidden in the cave. After that we traveled into the cellar and found another hidden path. When we reached the end of that path, we came to a door with a puzzle on it.

"We have to solve the puzzle," Kyousuke finally announced.

I took a look at the puzzle after everyone said they couldn't solve it. Then, I placed my hand on the stone pieces. When I pressed the pieces in, I was able to move them. It took me about ten minutes, but I finally got the puzzle solved. Eerily the puzzle formed the words trap.

A stone door opened and we went inside. Once we were in, we followed a dimly lit path to a large stone door. I placed my hand on it and glanced at my brother for the next instruction.

"Answer the riddle: I am the beginning of sorrow and the end of sickness. There's no happiness without me nor is there sadness. I am always in risk, yet never in danger. You will find me in the sun, but I am never out of darkness. What am I?" Kyousuke recited the riddle.

"That's weird," Soujiro complained.

"I don't get it. What's in the sun, but never out of darkness?" Kyousuke asked.

"I have no chance of figuring it out," I gave up before even trying, "Riki?"

"Hold on. Let's think this through. A riddle is usually a trick. So you think of something material right? So let's throw out material possibilities. Sorrow…Sickness…Happiness…Sadness…Risk…Never in danger…Found in the sun…But never out of darkness. Four of those have ness in the end. So that's what those have in common. But Risk…Sorrow…and Sun. What do they have in common?" Riki thought this through.

For a moment I smiled. He was really trying. And then it clicked, "Try looking at the words themselves…Not what they mean or are."

"S," Riki concluded, "They all have S. Danger doesn't have S, so it's never in danger. Thanks Rin."

I gave a nod, and I jumped when the ground began to shake. The door slowly opened up and Soujiro and I went inside first. But when we went inside, the door suddenly closed before the other two came in.

We were trapped. Separated. I was scared. I was left alone with a guy I didn't trust. I wanted Riki. I wanted to be held by him and told that everything would be okay. I wanted my stupid brother. I wanted anyone.

And to make matters worse, Soujiro suddenly laughed and leaned against the door, "Perfect…Absolutely perfect…"