I updated! It's been so long! First I was getting used to high school, then I got pneumonia, then I had serious writers' block... excuses, excuses. I'm really sorry, and I hope this chapter is a good one. I'll try to update regularly. Really, I'll try! _
Chitaru
Chitaru had never felt much of a connection to the other assassins. Their methods and ideologies were very different from her own, so she hadn't done much socializing outside of her small group.
The orientation had exacerbated that gap in understanding. The only assassin she still spoke with was Azuma; the others had retreated into their secrets. Other than Ichinose and Kenmochi's friendships with Takechi, Shutou and Kaminaga, alliances were only being forged between roommates.
Having skipped out on the orientation, Chitaru had done her best to glean information from snippets of her classmates' conversations. Whatever they were planning, they seemed to be planning it together. But only one person could kill the target in the end, so maybe it was a tentative alliance, where each waited to backstab the other. In this kind of environment, nothing would have surprised her.
As for the issue of who the target was, Azuma had walked up to her the day after the orientation and informed her that it was without a doubt Ichinose. Chitaru felt a little better knowing that she could trust Ichinose, but that left no explanation for Kirigaya's innocence.
She sighed and resisted the urge to lay her head on her desk. The lesson was almost over, anyway.
From her side, she saw Kirigaya glance over at her, concerned. The tiny girl had been quiet in the four days since the orientation. Then again, she was always that way. Despite the constant threat to her life, she tended to wander off on her own.
Her roommate mouthed the words, "Are you all right?"
Chitaru smiled at her thoughtfulness and nodded back. It was nice to have a friend who cared and showed it. Azuma did care about her (probably), but getting her to show it was a challenge.
"All right, class!" Mizorogi piped up from his podium. "Before we go today, let's do some trivia!"
Everyone groaned. Well, everyone who was still awake. Even Azuma was slumped over her desk. While she didn't ever pay attention, sleeping in class was unusual for the blue-haired girl. Maybe she'd had a rough night.
Their teacher pointed to the blackboard. "Name the three types of bees!"
He took a second to pick on Ichinose, despite the fact that no one else was even pretending to raise their hand. "How about Ichinose?"
The pink-haired girl replied enthusiastically. "Queens, drones, and workers!"
"That's right!" Mizorogi said in the same tone and nearly the same pitch as his student. "All of the worker bees are female, and the drones are male. The queen bee can use pheromones to control the hive."
To everyone's confusion, Ichinose flinched. It was quick and unintentional, but something had clearly bothered her.
"What's wrong, Ichinose?" Mizorogi asked with his ever-present smile. "Afraid you won't be able to memorize all that for the test?"
"Nope!" Ichinose recovered quickly. "You can count on me, sensei!"
Class ended a minute after. Chitaru turned and saw Azuma rising slowly from her desk, awakened by the school bell.
"Azuma-san," she said, pushing her way through the group of zombies trying to get out the door. She got a nasty look from Inukai, though it might've been intended for Azuma.
"Hm?" Azuma grumbled, stretching back. "Can't believe I fell asleep like that…"
Chitaru offered an arm to help her up, but she ignored it. "We've all been on edge these last few days," she said sympathetically. "I almost fell asleep too."
The blue-haired girl pumped her arm to work some feeling back into it. "Why're you still on edge?" she asked. "I told you, you don't need to worry about-"
She shut her mouth. Looking back, Chitaru saw Kirigaya coming toward them, clutching her pink teddy bear. "What're you worried about, Chitaru-san?"
Aside from what was absolutely necessary, Chitaru didn't want to bother the smaller girl with their problems. "It's nothing," she answered with a smile. "I was worried I wouldn't do well on the test, but I think I'll be fine."
"Really? I'm not sure about myself," Kirigaya admitted. "Sensei gets so excited that he goes through the material too fast."
Azuma frowned down at her. "You don't have to push yourself or anything. You know we aren't here to get good grades."
Kirigaya stared blankly up at her, then swallowed. "Maybe you aren't…"
For Azuma, Ichinose being the target meant that Kirigaya had to be an assassin. Ever since the orientation, she'd been acting on that assumption and making Kirigaya uncomfortable.
"Let's talk about something else," Chitaru said firmly, stepping to Kirigaya's side. "You shouldn't assume things, Azuma-san."
Her friend looked like she wanted to say something far ruder than what she actually said. "Right back at you. How do you know she's innocent?"
"Not being innocent doesn't mean that someone is a killer."
The two of them glared at each other before backing down. Getting into an argument over something like this wasn't worth it.
Chitaru took a deep breath. "We've each had our own opinion on this issue from the start," she said as calmly as she could. "I understand that you think I'm going about this the wrong way, but that's a conversation we can have by ourselves." She glanced down at her roommate. "Please, don't be rude to Kirigaya-san."
Thankfully, Azuma was a reasonable person. "That's fair," she replied, giving Kirigaya a curt nod. "I'll try and be fair to you too."
No one smiled, but at least they had avoided an argument. Chitaru really, really hated to argue.
"Hey, guys!"
Ichinose jumped into their circle of negative feelings and bombarded them with positivity. That was something the pink-haired girl did well; a little too well, in Chitaru's opinion.
No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't block out that niggling fear that Ichinose would turn on them. It wasn't surprising. The way things were set up right now, one could trust either Ichinose or Kirigaya, not both.
"Tokaku-san!" Ichinose said happily, latching onto her roommate's arm. "I answered the trivia question! No one ever does that!"
"That's because no one else cares," Tokaku mumbled, shaking her arm. Her face gained some color as well, Chitaru noted. "Let go of me."
Since Ichinose was there, Takechi was right behind her. "Lighten up, Tokaku," she said, patting, or more accurately, smacking her on the back. "You're just jealous cuz Harucchi is smarter than you."
"You're one to talk," Azuma answered angrily, "patting" her back just as hard. "Who mixed up key limes with ketones yesterday?"
"I only heard part of the question," Takechi laughed. "Never said I was smart." Her jealous eyes were focused on Ichinose's hand around Azuma's arm. In a second she'd captured the pink haired girl's free hand. "Let's go, Harucchi!"
"Tokaku-san is here too," Ichinose replied as she was tugged away from the others. She turned back toward Azuma. "Are you really okay being by yourself, Tokaku-san?"
"Of course," Azuma answered with a stony face. "Better to be alone than anywhere near that creep."
Chitaru was surprised to see Ichinose's shock and pain. The pink-haired girl opened her mouth as if to protest, then closed it and sighed.
"All right. I'll see you at dinner."
Without a smile or a wave, she left with Takechi and descended the stairs at the end of the hall. Their faint voices echoed up the stairwell as they walked. It sounded like Ichinose was apologizing.
That left Chitaru, Kirigaya, and Azuma alone in the hall again. Chitaru wanted to say something to Tokaku, but her friend didn't appear to be in the mood.
Swallowing, Azuma turned and started walking in the opposite direction. She probably didn't want to risk running into the other two.
"If you see Ichinose, tell her I'm sorry," she grumbled. "If you see the other one, tell her I meant it."
Once the three of them had left, the whole hallway had filled to the brim with smoke. It felt like it, anyway. Chitaru exhaled and smiled as best she could at Kirigaya. "Do you want to go anywhere today?"
Her roommate smiled back up at her. "Let's go on a walk."
While they made their way out of the building, it occurred to Chitaru that Kirigaya's smile was changing. In the hallway where they'd first met, she'd smiled just like a little girl; charming, endearing, sweet. Chitaru had always been weak to children, partly because she knew what a nasty childhood could do to a person.
The other reason was obvious to anyone: kids were cute. Who didn't want to make a cute child smile? At first, Chitaru had thought of Kirigaya like that. She was cute, endearing. Someone she wanted to be happy.
Now, though, that little girl's smile was beginning to change. It was easier, less forced. Rather than innocent, it was understanding.
Day by day, Kirigaya felt less like a child and more like a peer.
They walked over the smooth sidewalk crowded with students and into the grass that lined it. Leaves poked their hands and faces as they picked their way through the narrow mass of bushes and trees beyond the grass.
Finally they emerged onto a different, narrower path that ran separately from most regular student business. It was on this path that the green house and the field lay. Here, it was quiet, and tall green trees lined the slightly bumpier ground. It was as close to nature as one could get in a school like this.
"There we go," Chitaru said, smoothing out her jacket. "Now that we're away from those three, maybe we can actually enjoy ourselves."
"Chitaru-san," Kirigaya giggled, "you've got leaves in your hair."
"I do?" Chitaru frowned and raked her fingers through her mass of red hair. "Where?"
Her efforts drew more quiet laughter from Kirigaya. "Just bend over."
Chitaru's scalp prickled as Kirigaya plucked several leaves from her hair. Somehow she felt like the child.
"There." Kirigaya tossed the leaves into the grass, where they disappeared into the sea of green. "Let's go."
The two of them set off in no particular direction. As usual, they had no real destination, only the need to be moving somewhere. Students were scattered around like islands, but for the most part they were alone. It was more comfortable that way.
Once they had walked for a few minutes, Chitaru pulled back the curtain of silence. "About Azuma," she said, staring at the path ahead of them. "She's probably going to keep saying rude things. I'm sorry."
Kirigaya matched her long, slow stride with multiple steps of her own. "You don't have to keep apologizing for her, Chitaru-san. I know I seem suspicious."
"Then why can't she keep her suspicions to herself?" Chitaru sighed. She couldn't understand the way Azuma went about things like this. If it were Chitaru, she would have tried to avoid conflict whenever possible, lest she hurt someone by accident. Azuma would walk right up to conflict and spit in its face. That, Chitaru hated to admit, was something she shared with Takechi.
To her surprise, Kirigaya answered. "It's simple," she said, her voice a touch lower than usual. "For someone like Azuma-san, there is no 'agree and disagree'. There are only 'truths' and 'lies'. That's why she likes to spell things out so clearly."
Chitaru swallowed. "Azuma can't be that simple-minded."
"I don't think so." Kirigaya hopped over a rock in the path. "I think right now, her stress is a part of it. You're stressed too, aren't you Chitaru-san?"
Her and the entire class's lack of sleep was proof enough of that. "Of course," she said, then laughed sadly. "And I'm not even trying to kill the target… I can't imagine how the ones who're plotting against each other must feel."
She immediately wished she hadn't brought up the target. Kirigaya had been subtly trying to get Chitaru to tell her who she was really after since the first day of school.
Just as she'd feared, Kirigaya glanced up at her. "You still haven't told me who your own target is."
"I know I haven't." Chitaru rubbed her forehead with her fingertips. "It's not an issue of trust. I just want you to be safe. If something happened to you, I couldn't forgive myself."
The small girl smiled. "Either you don't trust me to keep myself safe, or you don't trust yourself to keep me safe. It's an issue of trust no matter which way you look at it."
"But I do trust you," Chitaru insisted, feeling trapped. "It's the others! Ichinose and Takechi, they're the ones…!"
Kirigaya's fingers closed around her own, sending warmth up her arm and into her wavering heart.
"It's all right, Chitaru-san," she said, her voice level and calming.
Chitaru stopped walking and closed her eyes, embarrassed at her own childishness. She had no tangible reason to doubt Ichinose, and she was well aware of it. Takechi was another issue, but it still wasn't right to pin blame on others.
When she lifted her eyelids and looked down at the little blue-haired girl, she realized what she was truly worried about.
"I want to trust you…" she said quietly, squeezing the girl's hand. "But I don't know if I can…"
That was why she insisted on mistrusting Ichinose, and why she hated it when Azuma voiced her own opinion. She was believing whatever she needed to in order to keep Kirigaya innocent.
If Kirigaya were guilty, what would she have to believe in?
Face full of concern, Kirigaya tugged her gently toward a bench beside the path. Chitaru sat down wordlessly and felt an immense weight settle on her shoulders.
"If you can't trust me, I don't blame you," the girl sighed, leaning against her. "Even I don't know if you should trust me or not."
The presence of her small body seemed to decrease the load. The redhead groaned. "Don't say things like that… I'm confused enough as it is."
"Sorry."
For the first time, Chitaru found herself leaning back into Kirigaya. She was far more stable than she appeared.
"You're in the black class, and you aren't a target," Chitaru said, tilting her head upward to watch the sky. "That means you should be an assassin."
Her roommate closed her eyes. "Go on."
"At the same time," she continued, her voice growing more confident with every word. "You told me yourself that you didn't know what the black class was about, and you didn't go to the orientation meeting. You haven't made an attempt on the target's life or said anything about a wish."
She frowned up at the clouds, whispy ghosts traveling across a sea of troubles. "Finally, you sought my help. Why would a respectable assassin want another assassin to protect her? It just doesn't fit."
That's right. Kirigaya had needed her help, and Chitaru had wanted to be needed.
"Well, the way you've put it, it sounds like you have a lot of reasons to believe me," Kirigaya answered matter-of-factly. "So what is it that's making you uneasy?"
The redhead's distrust stemmed not from Kirigaya's actions, but from the girl herself. "You've been changing," Chitaru answered. "Since we met, you've become less like a helpless child and more like an intelligent adult. Someone a seventeen-year-old can hold a real conversation with." She smiled. "Maybe even be schooled by."
Kirigaya hugged her arm, pressing her cheek to the fabric like she always did. "Don't sell yourself short. You've taught me a lot too."
"Really?" Chitaru wondered what sort of wisdom she could have imparted. According to her mentor, some things that came naturally to her were seen as wisdom by others.
"Of course," Kirigaya replied. "It's partly because of you that I've changed…"
Chitaru waited patiently for her to find the right words.
"You know how I look," the blue-haired girl said, relaxing into the redhead's shoulder. "No one will ever see me as anything more than a little girl. No matter how eloquent I am, I'm stuck inside the body of a forth grader."
Chitaru had nothing to say to that. She had assumed Kirigaya was a little girl as well.
"People expect me to be cute and innocent," the girl continued, "so I put on the act, because they wouldn't care about my real self anyway. At least I get some sort of attention when they call me cute."
So Kirigaya cared about getting attention. From what Chitaru had seen of her, she'd seemed like a quiet person. Maybe she just had to get away from peoples' misconceptions of her.
Lifting her head, Kirigaya smiled. "Then I realized that there was someone out there that I could be myself around."
With that smile and those words, Chitaru felt her ambivalent heart begin to settle down.
Smiling back tiredly, she touched the girl's hand. "You can always be yourself around me."
"I know," Kirigaya replied. "And I will."
Looking up, Chitaru noticed that the ghostly clouds had drifted on, leaving nothing but sky for miles. The same color as Kirigaya's hair.
A pair of arms closed around her waist, bringing her attention back to the earth, where Kirigaya was hugging her gently.
"You're a wonderful person, Chitaru-san."
Chitaru's cheeks grew warm. Carefully, she put an arm around the girl's small shoulders. "So are you."
Neither of them was sure how long they sat on the bench, arms around each other in a promise of acceptance. They let the world pass by them with every minute, watching as the sun descended and their shadows elongated. Never had Chitaru felt so at peace.
This place, this world, and this girl, she thought. Why can't things just be like this?
She frowned and gazed into the sea of tears that was the sky. She knew exactly why.
Because I'm an assassin.
Killers don't get to be happy.
Nio
A whole week after the orientation, and nobody had made their move. Nio hoped she hadn't scared them all off with rule number four. It wasn't that bad, right? Didn't they all have super important reasons to be here or something?
She had talked to the chairwoman about it, and had been assured that things would start in their own good time. They had months left in the school year, after all.
The chairwoman always tried to make Nio feel better, though. It got really annoying sometimes, like when she was trying to pick out clothes and the chairwoman never gave her an honest opinion. Nio still regretted buying that one polka-dotted skirt.
"All right, class!" Mizorogi said, cutting into her thoughts. "Don't forget to turn in those worksheets tomorrow! Remember, we're watching a video!"
Haru clapped from her desk. "I like watching videos. What'll it be about, sensei?"
Otoya laughed. "Animal mating habits?"
"We could just watch you for an hour," Tokaku grumbled. "You're practically an animal."
"All humans are animals, Tokaku," Otoya replied. "You should pay better attention in biology. Actually," her face lit up. "by those standards, couldn't we watch porn?"
"Really? That's what you want to do?"
"I was just making an observation. Keep your shirt on."
"I saw your face light up."
Their pointless argument drew eye rolls from the other students, who had been listening to such arguments everyday for the past week. Mizorogi tried to quiet them and was still failing miserably when the bell rang a minute later.
"Bye, sensei!" Haru waved and bounced out the door. With nothing to attend to on her tablet, Nio left right after her.
"Hey, Haru!" she said, skipping to her side. "Let's walk together."
Haru smiled. "Sure! I haven't spent as much time with you lately, Nio-chan. How are you?"
"Pretty good, pretty good." Nio gave her a cat smile. She missed having fun with Haru and the others. Tokaku's fight with Otoya and Chitaru's thing for Hitsugi had really broken up their group. "What should we do today? I found some ping pong tables in the gym."
Her friend's eyes sparkled. "Sounds fun! I haven't played ping pong in a long time." She rolled up her sleeve jokingly. "Careful, I'm pretty good!"
Someone reached over and squeezed her arm like a marshmallow. "Somehow I doubt that."
"Tokaku-san!" Haru cried, pulling her arm away. "That's mean!"
"I'm not trying to be mean," the blue haired girl replied. "It just seems unlikely."
Her roommate pouted, so Tokaku tried to save herself. "You're good at plenty of things. Running, dancing…"
The girl brightened at that. "It's okay, Tokaku-san. Speaking of dancing," she laughed, "that's something you could work on."
Nio was curious to know how they knew about each other's dancing skills in the first place. She'd ask Haru later, when they were by themselves. "You should also work on talking to girls, nee-san," she said instead. "We like to be complimented, not insulted. And no touching without permission."
Tokaku looked like a cat eating a lemon. Nio resisted the urge to burst out laughing.
"I'm a girl too, y'know," she grumbled. "You guys do stuff without my permission all the time."
"Who knows?" Takechi popped up behind her. "Let's flip up your skirt and find out."
Tokaku bristled and threw up an arm defensively. "Get lost."
"I will, jeez." Otoya pushed her aside. "I just wanted to check on Harucchi."
"More like molest her."
"Look, just because you have this weird 'hands off' approach doesn't mean I can't give her a hug!"
"Can't you see it's making her uncomfortable?"
"She's uncomfortable because you're there staring at us like we're doing something horrible!"
"You-!"
"Uh, guys?" Nio put a hand to her mouth to hide her smile. "Haru's gone."
The two of them blinked and stared down the sidewalk, where Haru was running away at full speed. Nio made note of where she went, so she could catch up to the girl later.
Tokaku folded her arms. "Thanks. Now I can't talk to her and you can't hug her. See what happens when you're an asshole?"
"Right back atcha!" Otoya replied, grinning like a murderer. "Speaking of holes, there's about to be one in your head."
Even Nio couldn't take any more of this. "Guys," she said, putting her hands on her hips. "It's really funny watching you argue, but I gotta step in at this point."
"This has nothing to do with you," Tokaku replied, taking a step away. "But you're right. I'll leave, and you can catch up to Ichinose."
"No," Nio sighed. "Wow, you really don't get it. Okay." She pointed at both of them. "Why do you guys think Haru ran away?"
The blue haired girl sighed. "Because we don't like each other, and she hates to see us arguing. I understand that."
"Also, you're pretty annoying when you're doing it," Nio added. "To everyone in the class. Not that either of you care about the rest of us."
They both got defensive. "I have other people I care about," Tokaku said. "Namatame and Kirigaya, to name a few."
"Yeah," Otoya chimed in. "I don't wanna hurt Haru, but I can't do anything about not liking Tokaku. It's like we add a ton of fuel to each other's stress."
It was true that everybody got progressively more tense and stressed as the days went by. Nio wasn't the only one waiting with bated breath for something to happen.
She knew all that stress was wearing down on Haru too, even if the girl hid it with sunshine and laughter. That was why she had to try and stop these two's arguing. Also, they were beginning to damage the already questionable sanity of their classmates. Isuke had been two seconds away from throwing a freshly sharpened pencil at Tokaku's head before the bell rang.
"I know you don't like each other," she said, bouncing up to Otoya and poking her long black hair. "But you guys really don't try at all. Not liking somebody doesn't mean you need to insult them at the drop of a hat."
Her subjects glanced at each other like guilty children. Seeing that she had the upper hand, Nio continued. "Haru's probably okay with you guys not liking each other. I think she just wants you to shut up, y'know?"
She held out her arms. "Imagine if you wanted to have fun under stress, and your two best friends did nothing but argue all the time! I don't know exactly how Haru feels, but that'd annoy me a ton."
Tokaku stood with her hands in her pockets, a sign that she was getting it. Otoya, well, she was staring off into the distance, but Nio could practically see the cogs turning in her head. Whatever she was thinking about, she was putting in effort. Both had some really nasty looks on their faces.
"So," Nio concluded. "You need to work something out for yourselves where you don't go off every five seconds and start threatening violence. Capiche?"
Before either of them could get angry or start swinging, Nio rushed down the same path Haru had taken, hoping she'd be able to find her friend after waiting so long.
She was in luck. The path lead to the baseball field, where Haru sat in the shade of a tree. The pink-haired girl looked just as gloomy as the tree drooping around her.
Without announcing her arrival, Nio sauntered over and sat down beside her. The dirt might get her skirt dirty, but at least they would be together in their dirtiness, like they had been for the last year or so.
"Haru?" she said, nudging her shoulder. "You okay?"
"Yeah," Haru said quietly. "I think so. Just had to get away for a little while."
She straightened her back against the tree and inhaled deeply. "I really don't get it. When I spend time with them separately, they're completely different people, caring and beautiful in their own way. Each time we made each other happy, I thought things would get better. And they haven't."
Nio had the rare experience of witnessing Haru's despair. The two of them had been hospital roommates after Haru's family had beed murdered and she had been mutilated. They each knew about the marks of pain the other kept hidden; Nio's tattoos, Haru's scars.
"Those two are some really difficult people," Nio answered, hugging her knees to her chest. "But I still get why you like them. It's funny."
Haru peeled some bark from the tree. "Were you talking to them after I left?"
"Yep," Nio nodded, smiling. "I kinda told them to knock it off. I hope they won't get mad at me."
"I won't let that happen." Haru smiled a little bit while she played with the bark. "If they're mean to you, I'll just say I'll never be their friend again."
"C'mon," Nio laughed. "You wouldn't really do that. They're your best buddies."
The pink haired girl looked at her seriously. "If they're gonna be mean to nice people, I don't need them."
Yikes. "You're really mad," Nio said, putting her chin on her knees and watching the field of grass sway back and forth like it was one organism. "Madder than I thought you'd be."
"I guess so," Haru said, chipping off bits of wood. "This is really stressful for me to be here in the first place."
"Didn't you tell us you were gonna live at all costs?" Nio quipped, leaning over to see what she was making.
The once mishappen piece of bark was being turned into a little person. "I'm not worried about living," Haru said. "I'm worried about my life. I never wanted to be a primer."
Nio waited for her friend to keep talking, knowing it was Haru's turn to speak her mind. I'm the only one she can open up to about these things, so I've gotta be a good listener.
"For a while in the hospital, and even at school, I wondered what was making me so upset." Haru put the finishing touch on her bark-person and held it up to the sun. "Was it the people out to kill me? Was it the chairwoman, or you, or Tokaku-san, or Otoya-chan? I stayed up thinking about it, and then it hit me. It's not any of you. What I hate are my powers."
Hearing Haru use a word like "hate" was jarring. Light poured from around the edges of the bark-person, and Nio wondered what its fate would be in Haru's trembling hands.
"I hate them," Haru repeated, caressing the thin bark with her fingertips. "If I didn't have these powers, my family would be alive, and my friends wouldn't fight like they do. I feel like a magnet pulling the people I love to their death."
She swallowed. "You know how I feel, Nio-chan. Something tells me that Tokaku-san and Otoya-chan know too, but they don't tell me anything. It's like they're afraid of something." She laughed weakly and rubbed her eyes. "What am I saying? I'm the same way."
Without hesitation, Nio hugged her. "You'll be all right," she said firmly. "We go through that kind of stuff to get stronger, right?" She pulled back and smiled. "You're the strongest person I know."
Haru nodded stiffly, her face caving in on itself. Then she choked out a sob and hugged her friend back. "I'm scared for them. I'm really afraid that they'll die, and that my last memories are gonna be the two of them arguing about something stupid!"
"You'll be all right," Nio repeated, feeling her own shoulders sag. "You'll be all right."
In their times of sadness, they had kept each other afloat. They had accepted each others' secrets and, with the chairwoman's help, they had begun to build new lives for themselves.
Despite their attempts to live normal lives, they were still slaves to their clans. It was too much pressure for any highschooler to ever deal with.
In a few minutes, the sobbing grew quieter. They were alone on their side of the field while the baseball club gathered near the diamond. It must have been one of their practice days.
Haru lifted her tearstained face from Nio's wet shoulder. "Thanks," she said, wiping her eyes. "I think I'm okay now."
She sat up on her own, cleaning her face with the corner of her shirt. "I hope I didn't get your shirt all wet."
"It's black, so no one'll see." Nio took a deep breath. "We were always really worried about appearances."
Sniffling, Haru pulled a hanky from her pocket and blew her nose. "We still are."
They sat silently for a few moments. Haru squeezed Nio's hand. "I'm sorry I didn't really talk to you when I got here," she said softly. "You remind me of hard times in my life, and I was scared I'd get sucked back in if I got close to you."
The same was true for Nio. She didn't care though, because Haru was the only real friend she'd ever had. They had grown apart in the month or so of business talk before the black class, during which they had both been making preparations.
I didn't really notice before, she thought, but I missed having a friend like her.
Once again, the chairwoman had been right.
"Now I remember how good of a friend you were," Haru said with a smile. "Let's see if we can get that back."
Haru really did have a magical way of making people happy. "Definitely," Nio replied, smiling too. "Wow…" She stared out at the area around them, the same as it had been for years. "Isn't it crazy what little things can turn into? We came out here in the first place because Otoya insulted Tokaku's womanhood."
They both laughed. Haru got to her feet and pulled Nio up beside her. "Do you think I should go and talk to them?" she asked. "See if we can set things right?"
"Hmm…" Nio shook her head. "Those two'll have to figure that out on their own."
"Okay, I'm just worried that they'll get into another fight like the one they had after the meeting," Haru groaned. "They told me they almost came to blows."
Yeah, that had happened. "You could enlist Chitaru," the blonde offered. "Tokaku always calms down when she's around." Noticing the bark-person lying on the ground, she pointed to it. "What're you gonna do with Bark-san?"
"Oh." Bending over, Haru scooped up her creation and set it in the crook of the tree. "There. Welcome home, Bark-san."
Nio made a grandiose gesture. "Aaaaand she's back! The Haru we all know and love." Bounding away from the tree, she flung her arms in the direction of the gymnasium. "You still up for ping pong?"
Her friend followed her. "Yeah!" she yelled enthusiastically. "I'll be firing my cannon shot!"
"Oho! Someone's a little cocky!" Nio stuck out her tongue. "You always used to lose to my angle shot!"
Haru caught up to her in no time, and they linked arms. "I'm practically ambidextrous now. I play with the grace of a ballerina."
"Yeah." Remembering what she'd been meaning to ask about, Nio grinned. "You and Tokaku were talking about dancing earlier. What was that about?"
"We, uh…" Haru blushed a little. "I got her to spin around with me in this field. I was feeling down, kind of like right now, but not as bad."
No wonder Nio hadn't known; they had been out of sight of the security cameras. "Oh my," she sighed, fanning herself dramatically. "The lightning bolt of love has struck Haru once again…"
"What do you mean?" Haru cried, growing redder. "Are you saying I fall for people too easily?"
Nio nudged her. "Are you saying you have fallen for her?"
"Hmph." Haru smiled. "I don't know yet. What makes you so sure?"
"Weeell, there was a certain nurse back at the hospital…"
In their days as roommates, Haru had taken a liking to one of the nurses who came in to check on them. She insisted otherwise, but there was no missing that dreamy look. From then on, it never surprised Nio when Haru took a liking to a powerful girl.
Like always, Haru denied it. "You like to turn everything into a drama, Nio-chan."
"You said you wanted to touch her hair."
"When did I say that?!"
"You were half asleep."
Haru rolled her eyes good-naturedly. "Oh, so of course I wouldn't remember. You're so silly."
They turned a corner and started on a straight concrete path toward the gym. Having kept a close eye on Haru's and everyone else's activities within or around the school buildings, Nio could see that Haru was growing steadily closer to her very stubborn new friends. It worried her to see her being so close with both of them.
She frowned. "Whether you like Tokaku or not, it sure seems like they've both got their eye on you."
"You say that like it's predatory," Haru mumbled. "I see it with Otoya-chan. Tokaku-san, I don't think so."
Otoya was a predator, as far as Nio was concerned. Talking to girls like that was fun once in a while, but she couldn't imagine having one of them on her heels all the time.
"You got the most stoic, dull girl in the world to spin around with you like a goof." She folded her arms. "She definitely likes you at least a little."
"She wasn't embarrassed at all when I fell on top of her," Haru replied. "I was sitting on her, and she was all cool about it."
Nio shrugged. "Cool is still better than cold. Also," she giggled. "You playgirl!"
They arrived at the gym, in front of two gray metal doors. Nio reached out and jerked them open with a creak. Technically they weren't supposed to be in here, but if no one locked the doors, they must not have cared that much.
Haru entered the gymnasium and flipped on the lights. They crackled to life as numerous bars and squares of light floating far above. The gym floor was instantly restored to its usual shininess.
"I do like them a lot," Haru said, her tennis shoes squeaking on the gym floor. "Tokaku-san and Otoya-chan. When I'm around them, my heart starts beating faster, and not just from stress."
Picking up a basketball, she threw it at one of the four baskets lining the walls. "I don't know if I like them in that way or not," she grunted as the ball smacked into the backboard and sailed across the gym. "But it wouldn't really make a difference. I couldn't be with either of them if I wanted to."
Nio realized what it was that Haru was truly afraid of. When she'd said that Tokaku and Otoya might die, she had meant that they would be the ones killing each other.
Especially with Otoya, she thought grimly. If Tokaku started dating Haru, she'd flip out.
"Haru, I'm sorry…"
"That's why I'm not going to worry about it!" Haru cried, running over to pick up the basketball. "You just got me happy again, and I plan to stay happy for a little longer this time."
That was all any human wanted, right? To stay happy for a little longer.
"All right!" Nio shouted back, pointing down the stairs. "Ping pong tables are this way!"
They played away the afternoon, each forgetting her respective troubles. Tokaku and Otoya disappeared from Haru's mind with every ball she dented, and Nio's stress over the black class was smoothed out with every one of her smooth returns.
True to their words, they were happy for a little longer.
I hope these developments aren't happening too quick. If you guys notice any mistakes or have any recommendations to improve my writing, don't hesitate to speak up! :D