Chapter 2
"You're not half bad," admitted Keira. "Or I guess I've heard a lot worse…"
Kousei frowned. "Ouch?" The two of them sat on a couch in the living quarters of the dorm. He strummed his guitar, playing a relaxed melody. "I've played guitar since I was in 4th grade. It's sort of my outlet," he admitted.
Keira nodded. "That's good. I haven't found any real passion, honestly. I can draw pretty well and sing okay, but…"
"That's pretty cool." He played a little jingle before he spoke again. "How come you and your mother moved here?"
She gaped. "How did you know?"
"Senpai told us all…"
Keira shook her head. "It doesn't matter." She was relieved when Koyuki called her.
"Keira! Come meet Saki-senpai!"
The Lefeon smiled as she met Keira. "How do you do? I'm Saki."
"Hi. I'm Keira."
Saki looked up thoughtfully. "I sure hope Ryujin told you everything…"
"He didn't talk much, honestly."
The Leafeon rolled her eyes. "Of course. He hardly talks to me even. I thought he'd at least try help out a new student." She shook her head. "Well then, I suppose you could try and move all your st-"
"Koyuki already helped me move everything into my room," said Keira.
"Really? Hmm… Alright then! Koyuki!"
"Yeah?" The Glaceon came down the stairs. She yawned and rubbed her eyes. "I'm so sleepy…"
"Can you go shopping? I'm going to marinate the vegetables right now."
"Fine… can I bring Keira with me?"
"Sure. If that's okay with her…"
Keira shrugged. "Why not? We don't have very much homework today."
Koyuki looked at Kousei. "You want to come too?"
He shook his head. "I've got an essay due tomorrow. Could you pick up a thing of Coke though?"
"I guess. Alright Keira, let's go."
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
"So… you never explained why you moved here, Keira."
The two girls sat at a table outside a small drugstore. Keira sipped her iced tea while Koyuki drank some Sprite. "W-well… I don't really know where to start…"
Koyuki's eyes opened wide. "Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't know it was like that…"
"No, it's okay…"
"Here, I'll go first. My parents own a large temple, actually. We live up in the mountains…" She paused. "I wonder if the first snow came yet…" She waved her hand as if to blow that thought away. "Anyways, it's about an hours drive away, so my parents had me live with my cousins over here. I haven't seen them since the start of 9th grade, honestly."
"Why don't you visit them?" asked Keira.
Koyuki seemed surprised, before awkwardly answering, "I don't know." They sat there in awkward silence before Koyuki asked, "You?"
"A divorce. My mother used to live here when she was a child."
"Oh. I see then." Koyuki pulled her purse over her shoulder and stood up. "Would you like to head back? We've already got the groceries."
"Yeah. Let's-" A dark reflection passed on the glass behind the Glaceon. Keira narrowed her eyes. "Koyuki, I-"
Koyuki turned around, but it was gone. "What's wrong?" She turned back to face Keira. "You looked as if there was something behind me… it's just glass."
"I… hmm…" What she didn't tell Keira was that the shadow had blocked out both of their reflections; something that shouldn't happen.
Koyuki yawned again. "Probably just a reflection or something. Let's start heading back. I heard Yusei is cooking! He's an amazing cook!"
The two girls walked back to their dorm slowly as the sun slowly began to set. The sun cast an eerie glow on the dorm, and trees around seemed to shake from an imperceptible breeze. Something about the whole scene made Keira uneasy. It felt almost as if they were being watched…
"Let's hurry in," said Koyuki hastily. She apparently felt uncomfortable as well.
When they got inside, it was chaos. "What do you think you're doing?" A muscular Flareon was shouting at Saki.
"Watch it with the fire! You'll burn the meat and everything!"
"I know what I'm doing! You're the one who has to watch out! I thought you grass-types don't like fire, so get out!"
"Please stop fighting…" A Sylveon was trying to diffuse the situation, but it didn't seem to be working.
Ryujin the Vaporeon was sitting on the couch, watching Kousei do some of his homework. "You forgot to factor out the 3x…"
"I know, I know… hey, Keira and Koyuki are back!"
The fighting in the kitchen subsided. "Oh, hey," said Saki, as if they hadn't seen the argument.
"Hey…" said Koyuki. "Umm… We got the groceries…" She put it down on the table.
"Oh, thanks, Koyuki." The Flareon looked through the groceries. "Hmm… good… ooh, thanks for getting this… alright, thanks Koyuki!" He smiled at her before frowning when he saw Keira. "Oh, who's this?"
"This is the new transfer student."
"Oh, that's right…" He nodded to Keira before heading to the stove, a carrot in hand.
"Keira? Hello!" The Sylveon walked up to Keira and smiled. "I'm Rin."
"Hi. Yeah, I'm Keira…"
"Nice to meet you, Keira. Me and Yusei- oh by the way, the Flareon is Yusei."
"I see…"
"Oh hey, you're a 2nd year too! That makes… 5 of us now."
She turned back to see where Koyuki was. The Glaceon was talking with Saki and Ryujin.
"I've got Kendo later on tonight," she heard Ryuji say. "Just keep an eye on them all for me."
"I know, I know. You're hardly around these days though, Ryujin."
"Saki-senpai is right. You don't spend as much time with us as last year," added Koyuki. The Vaporeon patted the top of Koyuki's head, and she blushed slightly before trying to push his hand off. "Hey, I'm not a pet!"
"Don't worry about it. This weekend, Saki and I have a lot of activities planned for us all."
The Leafeon smiled. "Yup. It'll be a lot of fun. Don't worry Koyuki, it's Thursday."
"Oh… alright. It better be fun." Koyuki smiled as she turned around. "You want to go up and do homework together while Yusei cooks or…?"
"It's okay. I have virtually zero homework since it's my first day."
"Lucky," grumbled Koyuki before she headed up the stairs to their rooms.
Saki and Ryujin stood next to each other, quietly talking. "Yeah… it'll be fine."
"Alright then." The Vaporeon sighed, then said, "I'd better get ready for Kendo."
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
November 14, 2014
Keira lay in her bed. The quiet rhythm of rain hitting the building was suddenly interrupted by the sound of the door opening. She looked at the clock on her nightstand. 1:58? How long is practice for them?
She stood up and shook Koyuki. "When does Ryujin senpai normally come back?"
"Urr… it's so late. Why?"
"He's just coming in… and it's like 2:00."
Koyuki yawned, then said, "2:00? Really?"
Keira frowned. "Wait, I hear him coming up the stairs…"
Saki and Rin were sleeping still. Saki rolled in her sleep. Koyuki sat up. "You do have a good point… it's rather late for Kendo… could… senpai be seeing… a girl?" She pulled the sheets off of herself. "Alright then, let's go see what he's up to."
The two of them went out of the girls' room. They saw a light in bathroom; the bathroom was modeled after a traditional bathhouse, with room for all the students. Of course, the boys and girls agreed to specific times.
The two girls stood just outside the door. "Keira, we can't go in there…"
"I know… we'll just wait outside. He'll probably ans-" A strange gurgling sound came from inside. "Wait… did you hear that?" whispered Keira.
"Y-yeah! Senpai… what is going on in there… alright, that settles it. We have to see what he's doing! That noise was too weird… but let's call out first! Senpai!" called out Koyuki as she opened the door. Then she paused.
"Wait! He's… not here!"
Keira didn't know how to respond. The room had nothing much in it other than a large pool for bathing and a small nozzle where water came out of. It had a mirror on the left side and some hooks on the right for their towels. There wasn't anything particularly remarkable about it, other than the traditionalism of it and its size.
"Where did you… go…?" Koyuki looked around the bathhouse, but there was no trace of the Vaporeon, other than how the lights had been on. "This is really starting to creep me out…"
Keira stared at the steam. "Can't he disappear at his will in damp places?"
"Why would he do that?" Koyuki huffed. "It still makes no sense…"
"Koyuki. Keira." They turned around to see an upset-looking Leafeon staring at them. "What are you two doing here?"
"S-Saki senpai! Uhh… Ryujin senpai vanished into here. He… uh, was in here for awhile and the light was on, so we decided to check up on him…"
"He's probably under the water swimming or something. Out out, before he sees you." She hurried them out of the bathhouse and closed the door behind them. "Ryujin just came in about 3 minutes ago if I'm not mistaken."
"Oh… it's just…"
"No peeping now, girls. He's tired from his training."
"Oh. Umm, okay."
"Alright, let's head to bed now." Saki took one last look back before they headed up to their room.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
"Good morning senpai!" said Koyuki cheerfully as she greeted Ryujin.
"Hey." The Vaporeon nodded at her.
"How was your bath last night, senpai?"
He paused, then said, "Fine. Why do you ask?"
"I don't know… maybe we went into the bath and-"
"You went into the bath with him, Koyuki?! What the-" Kousei was interrupted by the Glaceon's embarrassed scream.
"No! I didn't mean it that way!"
"Then how did you mean it?" asked Keira.
"Sh-shut up, Keira! You were there… too…"
The Vaporeon seemed somewhat guilty. "I… I'd appreciate it if you don't watch me bathe anymore."
"But you weren't in there, senpai! Where were you?"
"I was swimming under. I chose to dissolve once I saw you guys."
Keira nodded. It was a reasonable explanation, since if he tried to answer them, he'd have to reform naked. Koyuki agreed. "I guess that makes sense then. Sorry…"
"It's fine." He still looked guilty. "Don't… mention it…"
Wonder what'll happen next? Hmm… I wonder…