Chapter 4
Risa's bed was empty when Niko Sensei sounded the wake-up call. The blanket and pillow were gone and the sheets had been stripped from the mattress. Her shorts were gone. When the girl on the other side of Risa's bed saw, she looked away quickly, as if trying to forget she had seen. Rei jumped out of bed, quickly remembered that she was supposed to have trouble walking, and fell to her hands and knees with a cry.
The girl looked like she wanted to help, but after a calculated glance at Niko Sensei, walked on toward the door with her robe in her hands. Several other girls passed in much the same manner. Niko Sensei huffed and marched across the room, the girls parting around him like he was a rock in a swiftly flowing river.
Rei was hauled to her feet mercilessly. She was intensely thankful that she wasn't as injured as she had to pretend to be. Niko Sensei released her bicep and made to move back towards the door, but Rei squeaked an attempt at a question. "Sensei… where…?"
No emotion touched his voice when he said, "She expired in the night." Then he was gone.
Rei stood there, shell-shocked. She knew that Shinobi-in-training died frequently at the Academy, but she hadn't imagined that her only friend would be one of them. There was no outpouring of tears and there were no screams of frustration.
Instead, Rei turned to her trunk, brushing the dirt off the lid that Niko Sensei had left the night before, and retrieved her robe. She snatched her shorts from the floor where they had been tossed and slipped her feet back into them. She went with the other girls to the showers.
She was in a fog. The edges of her vision were fuzzy, like she was on the edge of losing consciousness, but she was very awake. She remembered to move slowly, painfully, the way she'd seen some of the other girls walk after their nights of being chosen.
No one spoke to her and she did not want to speak to them. She let the lukewarm water of the small showerhead pelt her face, and maybe a few tears fell then. She wasn't sure.
The entire day passed in a blur. She sustained a few minor injuries during training, but it was nothing the medics couldn't stitch back together in three seconds. She had no idea what she ate during the day. She only grew a little more alert when Zane Sensei called for lights out that night.
Who would he pick tonight? Would they die, too?
"Please," she whimpered when Niko Sensei appeared by her bed, "just leave me alone."
He ignored her and slid under the covers, resting his hand on her shapeless waist. He turned her onto her back slowly, forcing her to look him in the eyes. Rei started when he lowered his mouth to her ear. "If I don't, someone else will."
Why did he care? She set her mouth in a firm line and endured as he slid her shorts down once again and made those strange movements against her, the ones that brought neither pain nor pleasure. She made no sound this time. She just counted the seconds until he would leave.
But he didn't. On this night, when he was done with his business, he settled onto his side and rested his head on her pillow, pulling her into his embrace. Nausea rolled in Rei's stomach as she felt him breathing against the back of her head. Why?
She thought she had mouthed the word, but he answered in the softest whisper. "We need you for something more."
Three days passed in much the same way, and Rei was sickened that she was beginning to get used to the feeling of Niko Sensei's body against her back. And even worse, she was starting to feel safe.
Rei had heard a few girls muttering in quiet voices that sensei didn't usually show such favoritism, and she couldn't decipher the latent emotion in their voices. She didn't care what they thought. She didn't care about anything.
Her bed felt cold and strange when she slept alone now. When Zane Sensei and Niko Sensei ended their shifts as monitors, two other sensei took over. They were patrolling the lane between the two rows of beds, making sure everyone was in bed and ready for sleep, and they paused when they reached Rei's bed. "Not that one," the one with a dark beard said. "She's Niko's girl."
Tonight was Tanoka's night, apparently. As the violet-haired girl struggled across the room, Rei shut her eyes tight. She was Niko's girl.
Niko Sensei was gone from the Academy the next morning, and Rei took her seat in the classroom, well away from most of the other students. The girls avoided her eyes whenever possible and the boys ogled with unabashed curiosity. What was so special about this girl that a sensei had chosen her for himself?
Rumors had spread very quickly. Hina Sensei hadn't said a word to Rei in days. The young woman watched the girl avidly, unable to shield her morbid interest. The Headmaster couldn't allow this to go on. A short dalliance of a night or two, here and there, was one thing. But staying all night with the same student multiple days in a row? It was unheard of.
Shadows appeared under Rei's eyes and she knew she was losing weight as the days wore on. Niko Sensei had been gone for over a week, and more rumors were constantly being born. Niko Sensei had been fired. He had been relocated to another school. The Mizukage had sent him on a very dangerous mission. He had fled.
Rei didn't really care where he was. She felt a very strange sort of pride at being the girl that everyone was talking about, but she didn't want to. She knew what was happening was gross and wrong. She was twelve and he had to be close to thirty. He hadn't done anything to her, but everyone thought he had. She hated this, but what did that matter?
No one cared about the Blood Mist orphans.
