It's a little before eight. Yunoha is sitting on my bed, actually visible for once.

Before parting ways with her outside the infirmary yesterday, she agreed to help me not get lost around campus. Then she went to Vector Training (she's a Vector, a Jericho-941. Can you believe it? Sweet little Yunoha, a gun!), I went to the library; then we joined up for dinner- she was invisible, of course, which had drawn a few stares. Though it had kept the other girls away, which was a definite plus. She'd shown up outside my room just a minute ago.

I double check my boots to make sure that the laces are tied. "Hey, Yunoha?"

The girl nods at me. "Mm-hmm?"

"What exactly is P.E. anyway?"

Silence.

I look up, squinting just a bit, to see her staring at me. "…Yunoha?"

"Mikono…" She loosens her grip on the ever-present frog doll. "…Where did you transfer from?"

Uh…

Somehow, I doubt telling her I'm from New Venice would be a good idea. "I was homeschooled."

"Oh." A swirl of golden yellow and a slight brightening of the pastel orange. Surprise? It's not that odd nowadays. (Or is it? I've yet to look up the statistics on this situation… It hasn't really seemed all that important. In light of… things.) "I didn't know people still did that."

Oh. So it is unusual. Huh.

"Weren't you also a transfer student?"

"Yeah." The tone is low, her light dimming slightly.

Okay. Time to change the subject. "You know, you never really answered." I ignore the startled "Huh?" that she emits. "What is P.E.?"

"O-oh." Her orb brightens back to its normal level of light. I stand and adjust my hood, heading for the door; she's kinda bright. Yunoha trails after me, her body slowly fading from view. "Well, it's basically just exercise."

"Exercise?" That doesn't sound too bad.

"Mm-hmm. Usually Miss Suomi has us run on the track or play baseball, but since it's getting closer to summer, she's letting us do volleyball this month."

Never mind.

"Oh," I say, forcing some cheer into my voice. My lips curl up into another false smile. "That sounds like fun."

Not. Team sports. Lots of loud noises and bright colors and people bumping into each other. Yay.

Yunoha pulls ahead of me, leading the way. "It is, though I don't get to play much."

Huh? "Why not?" Vectors are great at sports, usually.

"Um, I… I don't really like t-team sports." She finishes fading into the background- her body that is. Her orb remains as bright as ever.

Before I can ask why she "disappeared," she ducks through a doorway and we arrive outside. It's the same field from my incident on the first day: big and green, a reddish track off to one side; Miss Suomi and several students standing around a pit of sand with a net strung up to bisect it. I frown and stop abruptly. Did I ever find out who nearly killed me the first time?

I glance around, squinting slightly from behind my hair. Bikini-top (who's wearing an actual bikini this time) catches my gaze and smirks. Her teal orb begins to darken and expand, the occasional arch shooting off from it. I look away first, gulping. Maybe I should have just left a letter for Cayenne…

"Alright, class!" Miss Suomi calls. "Time to pick teams!"

Reluctantly, I follow Yunoha over to the rest of the group. And I carefully avoid everyone's eyes as Miss Suomi selects that busty girl from yesterday, MIX, and Bikini-top (whose name turns out to be Zessica, though I, personally, feel that my nickname suits her quite well) as the two team captains.

The two begin to call out names. From the corner of my eye, I spy Yunoha picking up a score sheet attached to a clipboard.

"Sazanka." MIX says.

"Yunoha, are you-" I start. Zessica yells for a blonde with pigtails to join her, and her voice drowns me out for a moment. I try again, "Are you really not playing, Yunoha?" She, or rather, her light flushes pink around the edges. (Again, does a sphere have an "edge?")

But any reply I might have gotten is cut off by MIX saying, "New girl."

I look up- And wince at the brightness, and the mixture of colors. "Yes?"

Zessica (oh, that feels weird) snorts and a few other girls- including Paper Bag- follow her lead. My cheeks heat up, but other than that, my face is blank. MIX glares at Z- Bikini-top, then turns to me with a smile. "I want you on my team."

Oh. "Uh, I-" Sazanka, a brunette with a toxic yellow sphere of light and green-and-red clothing, pulls me over to the right side of the sand pit. I flinch at her touch and try to dig my heels in. It doesn't stop her. The only thing I accomplish with that is a need to clench my jaw as she unknowingly tugs too hard on my bruised wrist

Miss Suomi, who'd apparently been watching the whole exchange, says, "Alrighty then," and tosses the ball over to Bikini-top. "Game start!"

"But I don't-"

And, the ball gets spiked. Into my face.

Tears blur my vision as the force sends me backwards. A weight seems to settle on my chest. Do things just like hitting me in the head?

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!" Paper Bag.

I glare up at the voice, and a traitorous tear trails down my cheek as my forehead throbs in time with the bruise on my jaw. The girl's orb displays both mortification and amusement. My gaze hardens even as I stand up and brush aside everyone's (Yunoha, Miss Suomi and my teammates') concerns. Dark spots appear in my field of view. I stagger as I try to move, but right myself before I can fall again.

"Uh," Miss Suomi's voice and light both waver, "do you need to go to the infirmary/"

And explain to Sylvia why I visit her every day? Yeah, no.

"I think I might need to sit down though." The effect of being surrounded starts to kick in- nausea, a headache, trouble breathing- start to kick in. Though the headache might be from the hit to the head. I'd better not have a concussion.

As Miss Suomi gives me the okay to head over to Yunoha, Paper Bag, the culprit, mutters, "I didn't hit her that hard."

Bikini-top's response? "What a baby."

I grit my teeth together and force a smile. I'm about to say, "You know what, I'll keep going," but I'm interrupted by the faint sound of a voice carried by the wind. (That seems to be a thing with me, being cut off.)

"…'cause of your punk… to…early!"

I whip my head around, eyes wide.

Lo and behold: the guys are back from their fieldtrip- and there at the front of the group, yelling his lungs out at four other guys, is my brother. B-But the note said I had another day!

"Mikono?"

I startle. Yunoha's the only one that notices, since the rest of the class is focused on the game. I force a smile and nod, my throat tight to tight to speak. Okay, calm down, Mikono. My hands are shaking, and stiff with cold. It's just a day earlier, nothing to panic about, you just have to tell him-

Hands holding me down

Terror can'tbreathe

"Freak," four voices but only

One sound: shrill squeeeeeeeeak

Bright light colors so soclose drowning

Squeee

Burnsneedair

"Good for nothing fre-"

"Mikono?" Yunoha's light begins to do the same reverse hiccup thing that Sylvia's did that one time.

Suspicion?

Drat. The smile drops and I take a shaky breath, remembering that I can breathe. That means I have to talk myself out. I attempt to swallow the lump in my throat. "Y-Yes?" The word is a squeak.

"Are you okay?"

Deny, deny- don'tlethersee-

"I'm fi…"

"One of three…year… you brats!" Cayenne's voice carries over, and the rest of the class notices this time.

On second thought. "Maybe I do need to go to the infirmary." I stand up, sway a little from the rush of blood draining from my face as I realize he's getting closer.

"Do you need me to walk-"

"No!" Her orb blues around the edges and several girls look over at us- well, at me talking to myself, since they can't see Yunoha. They glance away. "No, thanks, Yunoha. I- It wouldn't be right for the score-keeper to leave midgame." The last bit is a quiet rush, probably too incoherent for her to comprehend. I walk away before she can insist- before her orb goes back to its normal color.

She's the only one to notice. But I don't look back to see her watch me leave.

I don't go to infirmary.

After a long debate with myself, a few sessions of using my hands like a paper bag, and several wrong twists and turns, I end up in front of the headmistress's office. Okay. In and out. Just ask for his room number and t- see him today.

I raise my hand to knock…

And wimp out when I recognize Cayenne's red orb on the other side of those doors. It shoots off flares and small sparks and is brightening steadily in the way it does when he's furious.

"You're dismissed," I hear Headmistress Crea say. That's when I realize that there are four other people in the office besides my brother and the headmistress herself. "Suzushiro, your father might call you tonight."

The door opens, nearly smacking me in the face as I backpedal. A quick glance at the people exiting the room reveals the rest of the group. But I'm too frazzled to take in more than their colors (magenta, mist-grey, gold, electric blue). Cayenne steps out and brushes past me- doesn't even notice me beyond a cursory, dismissive glance.

I finally find my voice, "Caye-"But it's too little and too late, because he's walking away and after a moment they're all gone, the golden one trailing behind the others before breaking off (and then being dragged back by the blue one).

He… He didn't see me?

Worse than that- did he see me and decide…Decide I'm not worth his attention.

("Scream as loud as you want; no one would waste time on you, Freak.")

No, I reason. (Don't remember it don't remember it dontremember.) No, no, no, no, no. We- we haven't spoken in more than six months. With my hood up and my longer skirts and my- my short hair, he doesn't recognize me. I swallow back another lump and follow after them.

But my voice is lodged in my throat and I can't make a sound, even when he splits off from the others and head to what I realize is the wing with the boys' dormitories. He still hasn't realized that I'm following him… But that's just because it's lunch time now. Students always wander around at lunch, so footsteps in the hallways are normal and he's angry so he wouldn't pay attention to that.

(But Cayenne pays attention to everything. Always.)

Cayenne unlocks a door and steps through. But he hasn't shut the door completely, so I try again, clearing my throat until it feels like it can work again. The next series of events is perfectly visible- and audible- to me.

And it's branded into my brain with all the pain of-

No. Not thinking about that.

Cayenne's bedroom back home matches his dorm down to the last detail. Sunlight streams in from the windows and the overhead head lights are also on. Several motes of dust flutter willy-nilly through the air, probably existing only because of the field trip. His bed is made up to Suzushiro standard and covered in dark blankets. Nothing is out of place, though he has a few posters on the wall- the Suzushiro crest, the Vector's Pledge…

He focuses on something out of my line of sight. Cayenne's light is more subdued as he says, "Sir." His posture is rigid as ever.

"Son." The voice freezes me completely. If there had been a chance of me blinking and missing something, it doesn't exist now.

My heart skips a beat. And then another. When it starts back up, it's deafening in the slight pause.

Father continues, "I hear that you were part of that debacle last night."

Cayenne speaks up, face blank, voice inflectionless. "I apprehended the responsible parties, sir." For all his sounding like a robot, his light shoots off angry arcs again.

"But they were your classmates, were they not?" Cayenne has no answer to this, though shame dims his orb a bit (and still the anger is visible). "I was under the impression that you would be in good hands when you left to receive further training. In light of recent events, I am beginning to reconsider your enrollment to Neo-Deava."

"There's no need, sir. This was a one-time incident. And the students responsible will be punished appropriately."

"Hmm." A moment of silence in which Father leaves Cayenne to stew. Goodness knows how Father loves to do that to me. "On another note. Son, have you heard from your sister recently?"

Cayenne's orb turns greenish around the edges. Confusion.

I take a half-step forward, almost brushing the door. I can tell them and c-

But then Cayenne answers.

"No, sir. Not since Christmas. As you requested, I've been screening her calls."

What.

"Good to see that you've remembered not to let her distract you. The distance seems to be working then."

"Yes, sir."

…What. My eyes burn, and the world blurs. I blink and something hot trails down my face.

Father continues speaking, oblivious to the mini-melt-down I'm experiencing mere feet away from their words. "Unfortunately, you might have to accept the next call."

"Sir?"

"This morning, I was made aware that Mikono has not been meeting with her tutors. I sent someone to check on her, and they discovered that she is missing."

Only now? My eyes narrow and my jaw clenches. After three weeks?

Cayenne's orb turns orange- he's that surprised. "How long has she been gone?"

"At least a few days." The words are spoken in that voice Father uses when he pretends he's not angry.

Now Cayenne seems a little concerned. "Do you think that the Shadow Angel-?"

"No. A connection to the case was ruled out after we noticed that purchases on her account seemed to indicate that she's heading your way. If you see her, send her home."

"Yes, sir." And now Cayenne is irritated again.

There is a moment of silence. I assume that Father hangs up because my brother lets out a, "Darn it, Mikono! How could you pull a stunt like this now?"

I turn away. Next thing I know, I'm in my room. I don't remember if I got lost, or if I saw anyone in the halls. I don't even remember if I've locked the door. I just suddenly become aware that I'm curled up on my bed and there is this thing in my chest- a hole- some hollow thing.

Then it presses on me and I can only gasp, "Oh, Shush!"

And for the first time since the- that I cry. "Shush!"

I'm so, so sorry…

Word Count: Approx. 2,600

So this chapter is a bit smaller than the others. (And it took a while...) But! We can finally start the fun parts now! Most of the characters have been either introduced or spoken of, and Mikono's issues are out there. I bet a few people (more than a few?) will be able to figure out what happened to her. But the fun parts are finally coming! (And there will be blood, mwahahaha! Er, yeah. But it's starting.)

I'll be giving little snippets of other POVs for this story on my blog.