I had been woken up by a real racket caused by a student from another class. But it was mostly for a good reason that even I stayed up for. Not really for me, because I was kind of expectant of what I had achieved now. I just wanted to see how my friends did. It was the naming and shaming of people on the boards about the marks for the mid-terms. Yeah, wonderful system there. Not.
I walked up to the bulletin, already finding a whole lot of students gathered around the place. I could understand why, but once I had entered into the fray, something of a pathway had formed for me specifically so that I could get to boards. Well… I guess being popular does have SOME quirks and nice stuff.
I looked up and down the sheets for my friend's marks, already catching a glimpse of my name at the very top of my class list. It was as I expected. I only had to scan down a little to find Kanashi's name. He was basically in the top five. I'll have to congratulate him on that later, and I can tell that some of my friends might be pretty unhappy about the fact that he was actually acing the whole thing. Chihiro and Fuuka were in the top five as well. I'll have to congratulate them as well…
Kaz and Kenji were around the same area, and they were above average. Nice. However, what was surprising… Junpei was actually a bit higher up than them, and was in the top ten. I wonder whether that note passing that Kanashi pulled really helped him that much to climb up?
Yukari, Rio, Aigis and Yuko were around the same area as Kaz and Kenji. It was what I expected as well, though Yuko was the highest out of those four girls. She did decidedly more studying than she did before, so it was good to see that her studying paid off.
Nyx was the lowest score that I found, but it was still above average. Apparently her definition of not trying on the test was still getting just lower scores than all my other friends. Geez… I'll have to talk to her about that, won't I?
Looking over the class that Yashiro was in… Yashiro was in top ten. Huh. Cool. Reminds me more of Akihiko every day.
I walked back to my class pretty satisfied with everything that I had seen that day. No-one actually sucked this time, so that was cool. In fact, everyone did really well. So, that was something at least. Isn't it just awesome how my friends and I take up eleven spaces on the class roll without even trying, which also means that a third of the class basically is in the above average range?
…since when did I consider Nyx to be part of my little 'friend group' thingamajig? Mysterious, and… somewhat foreboding.
"Well, guess what guys. I kinda DIDN'T fail the exam like I thought I did. So… how did you guys go?" Kanashi grinned.
"We went okay," Kenji and Kazushi said with slight smiles.
"I don't have to deal with Rio," Kenji breathed a sigh of relief, lowering his chin onto his table.
"And now Yuko won't kill me," Kaz had a triumphant grin. "Awesomeness," he mumbled as he thought about it.
"Also dude, you said that you were totally going to fail!" Junpei cried. "So why is it that nearly every answer that you had was right?"
"…um, you do realize I was just trolling you guys?" Kanashi deadpanned at all of them, probably wondering how and why they didn't figure it out. Well… at all, actually.
A pall of silence fell over the four of them as Kaz, Kenji and Junpei carefully scrutinized Kanashi's expression. "Master, show us your ways!" Kenji and Junpei cried, placing their hands together in a prayer position and bowing of all things.
Kanashi's eyes widened before uttering a single, solitary, "What?"
Well… that was entertaining. Kaz seemed to be tuning out of their conversation at this point, and was looking around for Yuko.
"Hey Chihiro," I called just as she was about to leave the classroom.
"Um, yes?" she replied, looking back to see who had called.
"Congrats on your score," I smiled slightly, getting to see Chihiro smile back.
"Thank you Minato-kun," she replied before she hurried out the doors.
And now, next on the agenda since Fuuka seemed to leave early this time, and something that I'm very curious about, yet don't really want to deal with: Nyx.
"So… care to explain about your test scores Nyx?" I asked, standing next to her desk as she got ready to leave.
Nyx gave me a questioning look. "I told you, I was never going to put any effort into those tests…" she sighed. Apparently not putting any effort into those tests meant that she would still get over eighty per cent. I'm almost tempted to call her crazy, but this is Nyx I'm dealing with. It's inevitable.
"No effort means getting over eighty per cent?" I asked with an incredulous tone and a deadpan. Nyx scrutinized my expression for a few moments before she eventually sighed and explained.
"I only put down the things that I managed to remember easily in a ten second time frame. If I did not come up with an effective answer during that time I would move on and place a guess mark on the test paper," Nyx sighed. "The multiple choice tests were laughably easy."
…so you know how I might've said that Nyx is good at retaining information? She can remember things just as easily. Geez… "Oh. I see," I sighed. "Well, wanna go back to the dorm now?"
"Sure," Nyx agreed, finally standing up and picking up her bag.
"Yo, can I come too? I have some things to talk about with Junpei and stuff," Kanashi asked just as we were about to leave.
"Why would you even need to ask man?" I chuckled. "Come on," I waved my hand, telling him to get over to where we were faster.
"Hell yeah," Kanashi yelled before following along with us.
When we reached the school gates, I noticed someone else that I knew walking at a much slower pace than us. It was the kinda pace that said that he didn't really care too much about when he got home. "Yo, whatcha doing Yashiro?" I asked.
Nyx gave me a questioning look before I ran off to catch up to him. I have to wonder what she's wondering about, but I guess I can ask later.
It was pretty easy to catch up to him since he stopped when he heard me call for him. "Oh Minato-san. Is something up?" Yashiro asked.
"No, but you look kinda lonely there," I said with a concerned tone, folding my arms.
"Oh. Really?" he chuckled. "Well, I don't really have anything to do after school this time because boxing's been off for a while. Exams and stuff."
"Well cool, do you wanna hang out for a little bit? I could introduce you to some new people and stuff," I smiled a little.
Yashiro gazed into mine before he finally sighed. "Well… alright then."
"Uh guys, you gonna catch up sometime soon?" I asked with an almost mocking tone. Nyx rolled her eyes, just continuing at her pace, however Kanashi sped up when he heard that.
Kanashi skidded to a halt just in front of Yashiro. "Oh hey, it's you again. Yashiro right?"
"Yeah," Yashiro replied.
Nyx arrived just a few moments after Kanashi. She just seemed to be observing what Kanashi and Yashiro were talking about at that point, and she never really bothered to interrupt the conversation. Stand offish much?
"Aaaanyways, she hasn't really spoken up or anything, but this is Nyx-chan," Kanashi chuckled, gesturing to Nyx just behind him to Yashiro.
Nyx looked up immediately and shot a devastating glare into Kanashi's line of sight, making him freeze up momentarily and shrink back a little. "Do not. Call me. By that honorific," she warned with a growl in her voice.
"Yes ma'am," Kanashi whimpered. Okay, I have to admit that was kind of amusing.
"So you're Nyx? I'm Yashiro," the latter introduced himself.
"…Nice to meet you," Nyx nodded. Yay, courtesy lessons.
"Also, and I assume that many others have told you the same, and I only say this because I believe it's the truth," Yashiro said. "You are quite beautiful."
"Oh," Nyx sighed. "Old news. But thank you for the sentiment I suppose."
Well, after that sentence, I was pretty sure that I heard her mutter something about burning the letters in her locker, but… okay actually, I could think of many reasons as to why she might want to burn some of the letters in her locker. A majority of them were letters of love and admiration. And she had a lot of them.
"You're welcome," Yashiro nodded.
"How did you manage to say that without getting a glare?" Kanashi sighed, scratching the back of his head with an almost disappointed expression.
"Because you were one of the two fools, the other being Junpei, that actually had the gall to call me 'hot' instead of 'pretty' or 'beautiful' like everybody else," Nyx snarled. Scary Nyx is scary…
Again, Kanashi shrunk back a little. Oh man. How did he even get into that conversation with her?
"Kanashi, know that you have some things to explain to me soon," Yashiro smiled slightly, patting him on the back.
"W-Wha?" Kanashi paled. "What are you talking about?"
Yashiro deadpanned at him, Kanashi seemingly getting the message. Whatever it was. "Oh. Fine!" Kanashi sighed.
When we finally got back to the dorm, I opened the doors to find Koromaru wagging his tail like the blade of a fan; many times, back and forth, and very. Very. Quickly. "Hey, Junpei here yet?" I asked the shiba-inu.
Koromaru barked an 'affirmative.' "Oh okay. Cool," I smiled a little, patting him on the head.
"Huh, you have a dog here too? What's his name?" Yashiro asked as he bent down to get a better look at Koromaru.
"His name is Koromaru. He is a shiba-inu," Nyx answered.
"Oh I see. Hey Koromaru," Yashiro smiled, holding out his hand. Koromaru barked happily before he placed his paw on Yashiro's, like a handshake, except the one hand was actually a paw. "Huh. He's pretty smart," Yashiro commented as he gently shook Koromaru's paw.
"Yeah, that's what everyone says," I chuckled. I looked back at Kanashi and… uh…
"Away from me beast!" Kanashi yelled, backing away from Koromaru and throwing a 3DS. Thankfully, Yashiro just managed to catch it safely.
The shiba-inu tilted his head in confusion, walking out of the way where the 3DS would have landed if Yashiro didn't catch it.
"Kanashi, he's-" I started, however I was cut off.
"I know, he's Cerberus, and he's come for my freaking soul!" Kanashi exclaimed, throwing a Playstation Portable. Was he actually trying to drive Koromaru away by throwing stuff at him?
Just after Kanashi threw that one gadget, Yashiro managed to catch that one too, even though Koromaru was moving out of the way already.
"No, he-" I tried to say.
"No! He won't get me! I'm still single!" Kanashi yelled, throwing his cell phone at Koromaru. Oh man… I can tell this is going to take a long time to resolve, isn't it?
"Kanashi! This is Koromaru! The one you're friends with?" I finally managed to say, stopping Kanashi just as he was about to throw an iPad at Koromaru.
"E-Eh?" Kanashi's eyes widened.
"Yeah, take a good long look at him and now, do you finally recognise him?" I sighed, hoping that he wouldn't start throwing things again. Poor Yashiro barely had any time to react when Kanashi started throwing stuff at Koromaru.
"Death to dog kind!" he yelled as he was about to throw the iPad in his hand again.
That is, before Nyx pinched a pressure point on his neck.
"What?" Nyx asked as Kanashi collapsed. "He was getting annoying."
AN: Yoooo. Done with another chapter, I'm on fiyah with mah writing. Anyways, plz box me your thoughts, and review.
Imma see ya guys, later.
Decode: No problem man. Days of Darkness is fun to write, so I won't stop updating it any time soon, I can assure you.
Yeah, otherwise… bad stuff could happen. Hehe.
Actually, I seem to update less in the holidays. I dunno why.
Nights: Nup, on FIYAH. *cough*
Yeah, he's… yeah, he has a lot of courage. A surprising amount. And yet it all drained away at the end of this chapter.
Well, hope only the best for Yashiro, because his luck can only get better from here.
Thanks!
Raidou: Yeah, I love writing Kanashi and Yashiro. It's funny. Hope you like this one the same!
Yoshikunitsu: Haha, foreshadowing's fun, even though I'm kinda crap at it. It's either too hidden for anyone to know, or too out in the open that it isn't foreshadowing anymore.
Yeah, Minato… surprisingly has a lot of problems, ne?
I know that sentiment, and yeah. I agree.
Eivexst: Ah, don't read too much into it. It's just representative of the main Arcana that Minato possesses, nothing more. But feel free to interpret it as you wish, this is TAROT we're talking about, after all.