Part Two


Chapter Twelve

Shut up. Yes, I mean you. You think that just because my powers are gone, I don't know what you're thinking?

"That last chapter was so cute!"

"Saiki-kun has finally realized he likes Teruhashi-san!"

"Romance is blossoming!"

Well sorry to burst your bubble, but you're wrong. Teruhashi-san is my friend, and what kind of friend would I be if I didn't comfort her when she's upset?

Yare, yare. This is why I never wanted friends or acquaintances or any other kind of relationship in the first place; people are always such a pain.


Fallen Angel

"Kusuooo~3!"

Yare, yare. Kusuo stopped on his way to the second-floor landing and looked over the railing. Aiura ran down the hallway, waving frantically with her free hand while clutching her school bag with the other. She smiled radiantly, but there was an underlying tension in her face that Kusuo couldn't read. Once again, his lack of telepathy pricked him, but he pushed that aside. He'd made the decision to seal his powers with his eyes wide open; he would bear with the consequences of them being gone.

Except it's not just me who has to bear with it. Kusuo clenched his fists at the sudden memory of Yuuta's grinning face, but he shoved that away too. Now wasn't the time.

"I'm glad I caught you!" Aiura stopped at the base of the stairs to dig through her bag. "I did some digging like you asked, but I wasn't able to locate anything about Dark Reunion. Isn't that organization made-up by that Chuunibyo boy in your class Chiyo-pipi is crazy about? Anyway." She pulled out a bedazzled notebook that looked heavy enough to be classified as a blunt-force weapon. "I took some notes about some other stuff I saw, but it was all pretty hazy. I'd say your aura is messing with me again, but we were both at home yesterday."

Kusuo's attention sharpened at the way she said 'home,' and he eyed her uncertainly as she almost pounded up the stairs.

" And, well, I guess you got rid of your powers, or whatever. I guess that would shut off your aura too." She ripped a page of notes and doodles—lots of flowers and hearts, a few umbrellas with their initials, a half-finished wedding dress—and Kusuo took it with a nod.

"Thank you, Aiura-san. Your help is appreciated."

"Just my help?" A pained wrinkle appeared between her eyebrows as Aiura reached out to grasp Kusuo's sleeve. "You've been distant these past few months."

Kusuo resisted the urge to sigh. "I've been busy. Teruhashi-san and I had a project to work on."

"A project you didn't need to start until this week, according to Chiyo-pipi. She's been trying to get that Kaidoh boy to come to her house for weeks, but he kept putting it off because there was plenty of time."

"Teruhashi-san is more thorough than Shun."

Aiura flinched back, blinking in surprise. "Since when do you call anyone by their given names?"

"Does it matter?"

"I…I guess not…" She dropped her hand from his sleeve and rubbed her arm. "Um, I was thinking, though, since your project is done now, you should have more time, right? Summer vacation starts tomorrow, and I thought we could, like, get together sometime? With your telepathy gone, there are a lot of places you can go and things to do that wouldn't have been much fun before: like the movies, an arcade. I know a few clubs that aren't too strict about carding, and I mean, we'll be, like, eighteen soon anyway."

"Ah, sorry; I have plans."

Aiura wilted. "All summer?"

"Aa."

"Does it have to do with this Dark Reunion stuff?"

"Aa." Kusuo frowned. "I have Toritsuka looking into it too, but so far, he says the same thing. None of the ghosts he's talked to have heard anything about Dark Reunion outside of what everyone already knows."

This was the most frustrating mystery of Kusuo's life. On the one hand, it was obvious that the whole Dark Reunion thing was a hoax; maybe Amamiya was someone from cram school trying to pull one over on Shun. A rival for a scholarship, perhaps? Except that didn't make any sense because that Amamiya had known about Kusuo, and maybe he could excuse that because maybe Amamiya knew Kusuo was Shun's friend and the guy did good research, but then what was that about Teruhashi? And why involve Yuuta? Shun hadn't even met Yuuta until the party, so there would be no reason for Shun's rival to look that far into Kusuo's life unless Kusuo was somehow involved in this whole mess.

No, more likely than not, Dark Reunion was very real and very dangerous.

But if that was the case, why hadn't Kusuo learned a single damn thing about them? Who were they? Where did they operate from? What did their organization look like? Were they a haphazard street gang or something more organized? Judging by the way Amamiya dressed, Kusuo would say that money was involved somehow—probably a lot of it.

Is that how they managed to keep things so secret? Money? Bribes could go a long way toward erasing memories, but to remove any traces available on a psychic level? That should be impossible.

"Kusuo?"

"Hm?" Pulled out of his thoughts, Kusuo looked down at Aiura's concerned face. She rose another step, so they were almost eye-level.

"You look like you're falling apart."

The main part of him wanted dismiss her concerns with a scoff and hurry to class before someone else managed to ambush him in the halls, but the smaller, more rational side of Kusuo's brain reminded him that Aiura was his friend, she was trying to help, and he actually needed her help now that he couldn't look into things like this on his own. He sighed.

"Yare, yare."

Aiura chuckled at that. "Good to know you're still yourself."

"Everything that happened at the party has me on edge. Yuuta is just a kid; he shouldn't be dragged into my problems."

"Mm, I see, I see." Aiura folded her arms and nodded before looking up at Kusuo with one eye closed. "But the way you explained things, it sounds like you're the one getting dragged into someone else's problems. Didn't you say they, like, thought you were dead?"

"Hoped," Kusuo corrected. He looked away and passed a hand over his tired eyes. Last night, with Yuuta asleep on the spare futon on his floor, Kusuo had slept better than he had in a week, but that wasn't saying much. Every creek or groan of the wind made his eyes snap open, his hand instantly falling over the edge of the bed to brush Yuuta's green spikes. This must have happened four times at least—though Kusuo half-remembered a few more that he was either too tired to fully wake up for or he'd been dreaming—and every time, it took him almost an hour to fall back asleep.

Finally, around four o'clock in the morning, after Kusuo had nearly flown out of bed when his fingers didn't brush Yuuta's downy head because Yuuta had woken up needing the bathroom, Kusuo had made the boy climb in bed with him. It was a bit weird sharing a bed with someone; he remembered his parents trying to snuggle him once or twice when he was a baby, but he didn't take it well. Mom was fine, but who would want to snuggle with Dad?

"Kusuo?"

"I'm fine." He looked Aiura in the eyes to punctuate his point. "Come to the roof at lunch. We'll talk more then."

Aiura brightened, her eyes sparkling as she all but dripped flowers in her happiness. She saluted him. "Yes, Kusuo-sama!"

Then she was skipping up the stairs singing la-la-la as she went. Kusuo stared after her, stunned.

What was that all about?

Shaking his head, Kusuo put Aiura's craziness out of his mind and continued upstairs to class.

#

"Good morning, Saiki-kun!" Teruhashi was sparkly as ever as she gave him her patented pretty-girl smile, enhanced today by her clasped hands resting beneath her chin. As expected, a chorus of 'offu' sounded as the boys in class caught sight of her. "How did things go after I left?"

She leaned forward. "Did Yuu-chan get to bed okay?"

She leaned forward. "You were a bit late coming to class."

She leaned forward. "Did you have trouble getting him to kindergarten this morning?"

"Teruhashi-san."

More sparkles. "Yes, Saiki-kun?"

"You're in my space." Forget his space, she was so much in his face he would fall out of his chair if he leaned back any further.

What's with her today?

There was something frighteningly desperate about her usual pretty-girl routine, which didn't make sense. They had that whole talk yesterday about how it was all an act foisted on her by her parents, so why was she suddenly throwing herself into it like the world was ending?

"Oh! Sorry, Saiki-kun." Her smile widened. "It won't happen again."

"Teruhashi-san."

"Yes, Saiki-kun?"

"You're still in my space."

"Oops!" She sat back down in her chair, smoothing out her skirt with that never-ending smile that was seriously creeping him out. "Sorry, Saiki-kun."

Dark murmurs and complaints circled around the class as the guys talked bad about Kusuo using the most benign set-downs ever. Honestly, even the bullies at P.K. Academy were pretty nice. The one real exception to that had been Kongo, and he was now attending Tokyo-U with a full-ride scholarship in advanced neurobiology.

"It's a good thing we change seats at the beginning of the second term," Takahashi said from his lonely back-corner where his friends gathered every morning before class to talk shop. "That way, poor Teruhashi-san won't be stuck with that loser for the whole year."

"No kidding, Takahashi," said friend #1 with the slicked back hair. Kusuo never could remember his name. Or the other one's either. Why bother when they were basically just Takahashi yes-men?

"Hey, Saiki-san!" Toritsuka jogged over to Kusuo's desk with a grin. "Did you hear? We're getting a new transfer student!"

"Eh?" Teruhashi put a finger to her cheek and tilted her head at a well-practiced angle, which naturally produced another chorus of 'offu.'

She's really hammering her cute side today.

"A transfer student at this time of year?" Teruhashi said. "How strange!"

It was strange. Usually, students waited until after summer break so they could start the new term with everyone else. That's what happened with Aiura, Toritsuka, Kuboyasu, and Akechi.

Why does this school have so many transfer students, anyway?

"Offu, Teruhashi-san." Toritsuka nodded. Wait, is 'offu' your way of agreeing with her? "And even more strange, there's supposed to be another transfer student in year 2! Apparently, the girls are cousins or something, and they're both supposed to be super hot!"

"Really?" Teruhashi's pretty-girl smile ramped up to an all-out angel smile. "That's wonderful! It will be so nice to have more girls in class. I hope we can be great friends!"

She knows something.

Did she know the new girls personally? Maybe they had a bad history, sort of like Kusuo and Akechi. Maybe she was bullied? He supposed it was inevitable that Teruhashi would run into people who didn't like her, especially girls. Teruhashi didn't have the usual pretty-girl problems because she was genuinely nice, even if she amped it up to an uncomfortable degree, so she tended to avoid making enemies of the other girls.

It also helped that most girls would much rather be friends with her than enemies as Teruhashi's enemies wouldn't survive long in a school that worshiped her from year 1 all the way to the faculty. Just look what happened to Rifuta—now in year 2, she still had no idea if she was coming or going when it came to a romance with Teruhashi. Well, it probably was more 'going' now since she was still disturbingly into Teruhashi's perverted brother.

Excited conversation buzzed about the room as both guys and girls discussed the new, apparently gorgeous, transfer student. Many of them tried to scale the new-girl on how well they thought she would rank-up against Teruhashi, and so far, it sounded like they were settling on someone better than Rifuta—wonderful as she apparently was—and Teruhashi, because obviously no one could be more beautiful than God's chosen angel.

The classroom door slid open, and Shima-sensei Kyouka-sensei stepped inside. Formerly the homeroom teacher for class 2-3, Shima-sensei transferred to class 3-1 during their final round of year 2. It was a bit strange having her as a teacher again—the first time she walked into the classroom, Kusuo had a minor panic attack because he thought he'd reset time again by accident—but overall, it was no big deal.

Hairo, once again the class-rep, led everyone through the customary stand, bow, sit greeting, after which Shima-sensei got right to the point. "Good morning, class. As I'm sure you've all heard by now, we have a new transfer student. Now, please be mindful of her as she has a certain condition that makes it difficult for her to interact normally."

Questioning murmurs broke out before Shima-sensei managed to regain control. "Before you contemplate whether she's dying or not, I'll let you know that she is legally blind."

More astonished murmurs. Shima-sensei waited for it to die down before continuing. "Please be kind to her." Then, turning to the door, Shima-sensei said, "You can come in now."

The door slid open, and the new girl stepped inside. As expected, she wore the same summer uniform as everyone else, but it seemed to fit more elegantly on her slim figure than should be possible, and the bright green complemented her pale, pale skin. Her long, orange-red hair looked like fire-spun gold and fell to her waste in gentle waves, framing her delicate, symmetrical face.

Her eyes were a bright, ruby red that seemed to take in a lot of information for someone who was supposed to be blind. They moved eerily from person to person before coming to a stop on Kusuo and widening; her plump, pink lips opened slightly in shock before she smiled. Even Kusuo, who didn't put much stock in physical beauty, had to admit she didn't hold a candle to Teruhashi's torch.

This girl was a bonfire.

"Ng!"

"Ng!"

"Ng! Ng! Ng!"

So that's the sound people make when they swallow their tongues.

"Please introduce yourself."

"Yes, sensei." The girl bowed to the class like a perfect, high-born lady with her hands atop one another and her angle an exact 45-degrees with her spine properly aligned from tailbone to nape.

"Ng!"

"My name is Kuwabara Natsuko. It is written using the kanji for 'mulberry field' and 'summer child.' Please forgive me for not writing it on the board."

"NG!"

"Well, then," Shima-sensei said as she looked around. All the boys (minus Kusuo), and most of the girls, sat up straighter as Shima-sensei looked them over until she paused on the empty desk beside Takahashi. The green-haired boy looked like he might faint. "Ah. Why don't you take a seat next to Takahashi-kun, Kuwabara-san? Takahashi-kun, please escort—"

"A-actually." Kuwabara's soft, sweet voice cut through Shima-sensei's order with a surprising level of delicacy. "I would like to sit next to him, if I may."

Everyone turned to follow Kuwabara's finger, and Kusuo wished he had the power to teleport. Why was it always him?

"Y-you can't!" Teruhashi stood up, almost slamming her palms on the desktop. "This is my seat! We're not supposed to change seats until next term!"

Shima-sensei frowned, her brown eyes radiating disappointment. "Teruhashi-san—"

Again, Kuwabara cut her off with such supreme delicacy that no one seemed to notice how rude she was being. "I apologize for the confusion. I meant the desk behind yours."

Everyone turned, even Kusuo, to stare at Nendou in shock.

"Eh?" Nendou said, looking around while picking his nose with his pinky. "What's going on?"

"You…you want to sit beside Nendou-kun?" Shima-sensei gaped like a landed fish. "Really?"

"Nendou-kun." Kuwabara blushed softly, actually blushed. "Is that his name? He has a very beautiful aura."

"Nendou?!"

Everyone in class was too shocked to protest as Kuwabara strode gracefully down the aisle between desks and came to a stop at the empty one beside Nendou's. The pseudo-punk stared up at her in stunned disbelief for a long moment, his pinky still shoved up his nose.

"Hello, Nendou-kun." Kuwabara's blush deepened. "Would you mind if I sit here?"

"Ng! Uh!" Nendou jumped out of his chair, wiping his pinky on his shirt, and scrambled to pull out her chair. "Not at all, dear lady. Please, allow me the honor of getting your chair."

Kuwabara giggled. "Thank-you very much; you're such a gentleman!"

Did I die? Kusuo wondered, his entire body frozen in horrified disbelief. Is this Hell?

Not even those five minutes when Kusuo and the others thought Nendou had received a legitimate love letter could top the way he felt in this moment watching Nendou offer his hand—the hand he'd just been using to pick his nose—to settle the most beautiful woman Kusuo had ever seen (though admittedly, it had only been three months since he'd accurately been able to see anyone) into the chair next to his because she'd asked to sit there.

Offu.

"Well then," Shima-sensei said, her voice still a bit shaky with disbelief. "It's time to begin class."

Reluctantly, Kusuo turned forward and tried to shake the feeling that some terrible horror was taking place behind him. The hairs on the nape of his neck stood on end as if he was about to be struck by lightning, and honestly, compared to Nendou's "handsome face," Kusuo probably preferred that.

If I ever needed proof that she's blind, that's definitely it.

Class proceeded as normally as it could with Nendou sitting up attentively behind Kusuo with that creepy, sparkly face. Although it was kind of nice that Kusuo was no longer the center of his classmate's irate attention since Teruhashi was now, apparently, a fallen angel beneath the gloriousness that was their new angel. Or did they consider Kuwabara a goddess? That seemed a bit more apt; honestly, if Kusuo still had his powers, the girl would no doubt be radiating a godly aura the likes of which would put Teruhashi's meagre angelic aura to shame.

And speaking of Teruhashi, she was staring at him. That wasn't, of itself, and unusual occurrence; Teruhashi often shot sideways glances at him when she thought he wasn't looking. What was unusual was how blatant she was being. Her chin was propped on her open palm, her whole face turned in his direction, and maybe he was imagining things, but from the corner of his eye it looked like she was smiling like a love-struck idiot.

He shouldn't look—Teruhashi didn't need any more encouragement as she managed to encourage herself well enough—but the opportunity to see Teruhashi with a legitimate goofy grin on her face was too much. Kusuo glanced over, his magenta eyes meeting her indigo, and stared. She was smiling goofily, though of course—as with everything—she looked beautiful while doing it. She didn't even turn flustered and look away even when she'd been so obviously caught staring. If anything, her smile grew wider, more sincere, and Kusuo was both mortified and irritated to find himself fighting a blush.

"What?"

Stars practically fell from Teruhashi's eyes. "You didn't 'offu.'"

Kusuo's eyebrow went up; since when was that a good thing in Teruhashi's eyes? "And? I never do."

"You never do for me." She turned her head so she cradled her whole cheek instead of just her chin. "But you didn't for her either. I thought you might when everyone started swallowing their tongues; that was such an extreme reaction that I thought only an 'offu' from you could match it, but you didn't."

Her goofy smile softened in a way that made Kusuo feel suddenly nauseous, but not necessarily in a bad way. "Thank you."

Kusuo looked forward again, ordering his faint blush to disappear right now. "Yare, yare."

Teruhashi giggled but let the subject drop. She even turned her attention back to Shima-sensei and started writing in her notebook. Kusuo was pretty sure she wasn't taking notes, but he was equally sure he didn't want to know what she was doing. One page of hearts, stars, and rainbows, courtesy of Aiura, was enough for one day.

The first few periods of the day dragged on and on as Kusuo waited for lunch with almost visible anxiety. More than once, he caught himself about to tap out a steady rhythm on the desk or to restlessly bounce his knee. It didn't help that Teruhashi somehow managed to get her desk and chair even closer to his than before (which should be completely impossible as they were literally side-by-side already). She'd brushed his arm with her elbow three times already—each one accompanied by a syrupy-sweet smile and a soft, "Gomen ne, Saiki-kun"—and he just knew she was prepping for a fourth when the clock struck the hour; it was time for lunch.

Maybe God does love me.

Before anyone could leave, not even the teacher, the classroom doors slid open with a bang that made everyone jump and both Takahashi and Shun yelp like little girls. Framed in the doorway was a girl Kusuo didn't know with waist-length chestnut hair pulled up in a high ponytail. Like Kuwabara, this girl's skin was creamy and pale, though nowhere close to the crystalline, snow-like shade of Kuwabara's, and her features were well formed for her height, which was a good ten centimeters taller.

Her eyes were a sharp, golden brown that didn't miss a thing as she scanned the room with precision and purpose. Her eyes landed on Kusuo's section of the room, but she was obviously Kuwabara's cousin—and just as pretty as Teruhashi in an entirely objective way, as evidenced by the chorus of 'offu' that went up at her unexpected intrusion—so she probably came to escort the blind girl to the cafeteria to eat.

The new girl stared for a long moment before shifting the lollipop in her mouth with the clack of candy on teeth. She pointed right at Kusuo's face.

"You."

Kusuo shifted, but the finger followed.

"Come with me."

Kusuo shifted again; again, the finger followed.

"Don't be an idiot, Saiki. You know I mean you."

Kusuo sighed at the outraged cry that went up among his classmates.

Never mind, Kusuo thought as he pressed his hands flat against the desktop and stood. God really does hate me.