Thanks for the wonderful comments everyone!!!
It seems like the most popular topics are Miya/Airi cuteness and the Risako-ness.
Hmm, interesting.
Well I can guarantee there will be more of all of that to come!!
One more thing - mode: Yay for the egg-spotter!
Let's see what you think of this chapter.
I'm trying to give voice to those who have... well, little at this point.
Keep it up please!!!
There's a lot that happens in this chapter! It took a little while, but I hope you'll give me a break for what went into it... I think it's fun, and I hope it'll give you a bit of a roller coaster feeling as well.
As always, enjoy~
Chapter 15 – The Icy Hand of Friendship“So what do we do now?” Airi asked, glancing over at Miyabi as the two of them along with Chisato stood together just inside the entrance of the cave, peering out at the rest of the girls now a part of their rebellious number who were socializing in hushed tones. They were up to eighteen strong now, so it was almost as if they were just members of a class, if one that included very diverse ages as well as students.
Miyabi was leaning lazily against the wall as she looked on, one foot crossed in front of the other, and she responded, “Well we have to do
something. Standing around here isn’t going to fix anything.”
With that, the older girl brought herself up and walked over to the two eldest senpai, Airi and Chisato trailing behind, and stopped just in front of Mari to look down into her face. “We should do something,” she told the woman. “I can’t imagine the Circle is sitting back on their heels like this, and we have the disadvantage right now.” She flourished an arm behind her. “I mean, we’re in a
cave!”
“I completely agree,” Mari said, looking her steadily in the eye. Miyabi stared back, frustrated at the lack of elaboration in the response she received, before spinning around to Airi. “Well these two are gonna be no use. I guess we’ve just got ourselves.”
“What’s up?” Reina asked, walking up with a couple of younger girls. Airi smiled at Konatsu, who was a fourth year and one of the few of the gathering from her own House.
“Your assistant here is getting impatient,” Fujimoto said with a grin, and Miyabi gave her a short glare, to which she responded with an innocent roll of her eyes.
“I’m just getting tired of sitting here doing nothing!” the Goto girl retorted in defense of herself.
“I thought you would be enjoying your free time with your little girlfriend,” Reina chided the slightly younger girl, now drawing her glare as well.
Throughout the whole exchange, Airi had been staring up into the dusky sky. This was perhaps a good thing, because otherwise she might have started glaring at Reina too after her last comment. “I don’t like this…” she said ambiguously.
The others stared at her, and in her peaceful obliviousness she didn’t notice that everyone else around the cave entrance was beginning to stare at them too. “You don’t like what?” Fujimoto asked with a frown.
Miyabi followed Airi’s eyes up toward the sky and the canopy of gently swaying trees. “Are you talking about whatever it is that’s making it dark?”
“Yes,” Airi responded ethereally. She nearly became detached from her surroundings as she tried to feel what lie within the magic that enveloped them. “It’s blocking out the Sun and I…” She felt a chill ripple through her, and shivered slightly. Miyabi was quickly at her side to wrap arms around her, and the touch brought her back to the cave, where she blinked around at the attention she received. “I have a bad feeling about it.”
As if her senses were amplified by the chill she received at the thought of the dome around them, she felt her already bad feeling amplified suddenly and darted her eyes around into the trees. She could have sworn she just noticed something within them, but nothing was there now except for the restlessly swaying brush.
“Are you… quite all right?” Reina asked, raising the eyebrow above her wonky eye at Airi.
“Yes,” Airi responded, now beginning to be slightly miffed. “I’d like to see the Sun again, though.”
“Well that does it!” Miyabi pronounced, keeping at Airi’s side with one arm around her slim waist. “That’s what we can do – go see what we can do about this dome of darkness!”
“‘Dome of Darkness’...” Koharu repeated, giggling as she joined the other Skulls along with Chisato and her sister, who was still looking in awe all around her and didn’t seem to want to come any nearer Reina and Miyabi at least.
Everyone stared at the giggling girl until she dropped off into silence, looking around at them self-consciously. “What? It’s funny! It sounds like some scary movie or something…” The sound of crickets chirping their unintelligible symphonies surrounded them.
“…Yeah,” Miyabi said finally, and Airi felt a tug as she was pulled along by the girl toward the woods. “All right, we’re going! I need to make my girl happy, after all,” she said with a grin and a wink over to Airi, who blushed profusely.
The two of them walked in their mutual intimate awkwardness until they reached a path in the woods, catching it in the direction of the road away from Seishin. Eventually they fell back to just holding hands while walking since it was rather uncomfortable doing so while embracing, and a short while later Airi felt suddenly pre-occupied and looked behind her, coming to a stop and dragging Miyabi with her.
Behind them were arrayed all of the girls that had been at the cave, with Miki, Mari and Reina at the front. Some of the non-Skulls looked around uncertainly, though showed no signs of anything out of the ordinary.
“You’re all coming too?” Miyabi said with a frown as she turned too and scanned the small crowd.
“If I’m leaving the school, I have to go this way eventually,” Mari responded, smiling.
“What, you two think you’re so special you don’t need me?” Reina grumbled.
Miyabi gave them a level look. “…You know you’re not who I’m talking about.”
“If we’re going to…
rebel… against the school, we have a right to know the intentions of who we decided to follow instead!” explained Kamei in a frantic voice, apparently terrified at the words she was daring to use once again.
Airi smiled sentimentally. She supposed she was like that too. After all, they were the best and brightest and
of course most well-behaved students, and doing something like rebelling against school leaders was very near to sacrilege to many of them.
Then she got involved with Miyabi…
She blushed again. Well, they couldn’t
all be that well-behaved could they? After all, there
were the Skulls. Suddenly Mari’s explanation held a much stronger meaning for her as she peered from face to face of the delinquent girls.
Miyabi stared at the now diverse crowd of students a few seconds before responding. “Fine, whatever… Like I care about what you do. Just keep your chins up. This could be dangerous.”
There were murmurs of laughter that Miyabi didn’t seem to notice as she turned back forward, and a few of the girls leaned toward each other whispering through their giggles. Airi smiled herself at the ironic comment by her girlfriend, feeling her own chin self-consciously, but before turning back to join her shook her head and mouthed to the rest,
“She didn’t mean any of that… She really cares about you! Really!” She received many raised eyebrows in return, including very sardonic ones from Miki and Reina. Turning the corners of her mouth in a pout, she widened her eyes. If she could, she would have stomped on both of their feet right there!!! But then she was quickly whisked away back down the path by the girl who still held her hand tightly.
It was a quiet trip through the woods, made even eerier by the sense that it was getting even darker the closer they thought they were getting to the border. At one point, when she thought they were very near the main road, Airi wondered why there wasn’t even thunder and lightning crackling just within the trees above their heads.
It certainly felt like a storm. At least, Airi felt something malevolent all around her just like one. It became so bad that she was holding onto Miyabi even tighter than the girl was to her now, and she did her best to stay shoulder-to-shoulder. Taking a few nervous glances behind from time to time, she noticed the other girls were comforting each other just the same, except for the three “leaders” of course. Still, Airi thought they too walked just that much closer together…
“Miya…” she whispered from right next to the girl’s ear, using her contracted name without a thought in her fear. “Something’s not right…”
“Just a little farther,” Miyabi responded, squeezing Airi’s hand consolingly. Airi wasn’t fooled though. She knew the older girl was terrified too. Her eyes darted to and fro along the path ahead of them that now seemed to disappear into darkness not far up.
Suddenly the Goto girl’s face brightened, and she pointed over to the side. “See! There’s the other path that comes straight from the school. Ours will meet up with it soon, and that means the road’s just up ahead!”
Airi squinted through the dark fog and the trees in the direction she indicated but could barely make out anything. She thought she detected a slight gap in the trees where another path could have split them, but couldn’t be sure of it. As they walked a few more, quicker steps toward the looming veil of darkness, she began to see the gap more clearly… but then someone screamed.
Airi jumped what she felt must have been a meter off the ground, and when she could finally regain her senses spun around to see the people behind her recovering from what must have been similar jolts. As she felt the tight grip of the sweaty hand of her girlfriend, she realized even Fujimoto and Reina had reacted to it.
“What the
HELL was that for?!” Reina scolded, nearly screaming at the top of her lungs at a young girl who was somehow now nearly right behind her. “I
swear, it sounded like someone…”
She trailed off when she noticed her words were having no effect on Risako, who was gaping with her eyes wide as saucers at a spot slightly ahead of them and in the direction Airi had just been looking in order to track the path beside theirs. The girl normally had a pale face, but now it didn’t seem as if there was any blood left in it. Airi, along with everyone else, followed the girl’s eyes into the trees. She didn’t see anything at first, but gasps from behind as well as girls who suddenly began crying and falling down to the ground to cower close together made her realize she must just have been missing something. She was really going to have to get glasses one of these days…
Walking toward the trees in order to get a better look, and finally being able to identify what appeared to be a few large mounds scattered among them, she felt a hand on her shirt attempting to tug her back.
“Don’t go over there!” Miyabi hissed, fright no longer concealed in her voice.
Airi shook the girl’s hand off though and started forward again. She wanted to see for herself what was causing such chaos among the others. When she reached the side of the path and started into the trees, she tripped over something and fell to the ground, to renewed wailing by one or two of the other younger girls with them. Rising to her knees, wincing with the pain, she looked back at what had tripped her and froze.
Now that she was close, she could make out a small body in seifuku lying amid the packed leaves. The girl’s face was fixed in an expression of horror, and stared out through wide open, lifeless eyes. There were bloody marks all over her as if she’d been tossed around like a sack of garbage, and an arm and a leg were each twisted at horrible angles. As her own wide eyes adjusted more and returned to the girl’s face, she gasped in recognition.
“Nakki…?” she managed to choke out disbelievingly. She didn’t know the girl well, but she was from her own House – just a year ahead of her and Chisato – so she of course knew her.
In a daze, still kneeling in the leaves next to the cold body, she looked around and noticed other, similarly abused fellow students. Now knowing Saki Nakajima was there, she was able to recognize the others as students the other Matsuura girl normally hung out with – Morisaki was there as well as Kanna, both lying haphazardly within the trees and leaves that now seemed to induce harsh chills with their rustling.
Further toward the other path she saw another form, and yet another actually on the path itself, just before it seemed to completely wind into the pitch darkness. She couldn’t tell for sure, but she thought the last looked even blacker than the others… Maybe the darkness itself was enveloping it somehow. The thought sent chills down her spine.
As she looked on in her horror, pinpricks of light caught her attention from the trees on the other side of that path, and for a moment she stared into eyes that were bright yet as cold as the darkness they pierced.
She lost the connection suddenly though when Miyabi, who had slowly been edging her way forward this whole time, grabbed her arm and pulled her quickly back onto the path with the other girls, most of whom sat in small groups still huddling together and crying.
“…You shouldn’t have had to see that,” Miyabi grated in a hoarse and hollow-sounding whisper.
Airi turned her face from the woods the apparition had now disappeared into and toward Miyabi’s own, unblinking and with her eyes fixed wide.
“I know…” She swallowed, looking longingly into the warm features of her delinquent girlfriend. “I
knew those girls…” she said weakly, amazed she wasn’t shivering. Despite that, Miyabi still brought her into a tight hug. “What happened…?”
“I would guess they tried to get away,” Mari said solemnly, giving a look up the path that was almost as dark as the blackness beyond. “Whatever the Circle has set up, it’s not meant to let anyone through… A harsh price to pay for those whose loyalty couldn’t be ensured with an iron fist.”
“They did this because they wouldn’t follow the Circle?” exclaimed Erina, rising up from her spot next to Kamei and Michishige, who still huddled together, the raven-haired one sobbing heavily and the shorter-haired girl expressing only a fixed look of terror. “B-but… How
could they?! Ai-chan would never…” She now seemed to only be reassuring herself.
“I would imagine you have nothing to worry about… yet,” Fujimoto said, now frowning ahead of them along with Mari. “This is only meant to keep anyone from running and telling anyone what was happening in here. I don’t think they counted on a rebellion acting from the inside.”
“But…” Erina continued, but now seeming at a loss for words.
“If they would do this, they would surely come after you just as strong,” Li Chun said, stepping up to lay a hand on Erina’s quivering shoulder. She was shaken, but somehow not as badly as the rest. Then again, she was one of the eldest ones here aside from Mari and Fujimoto. “And that means us, too.”
“No!” Michishige suddenly said in a squeaky, tear-roughened voice, jumping up and making Kamei fall back and flat on the ground for a moment before she also jumped up just as quickly to her side as if she’d fallen on a bed of needles. “Ai-chan wouldn’t
do this!” She looked desperately around all of them, then through the trees at the bodies. “I mean, look at that! I
know those girls on the path! Even the b…” Her voice broke in her sobbing. “…the
burned one next to the darkness. It was Kikk…” She couldn’t say any more through her choking tears, but after a moment swallowed and cast a heated gaze back at the girls standing around her, so much so that Kamei even fell back from her slightly. “Ai-chan just
couldn’t!”
“Yajima would,” Chisato said in a low voice, her tear-streaked face turning into one of fury. Airi darted a scandalized glance her way. “Fire
is her trademark after all, isn’t it?” she continued challengingly. Airi stared at her friend, mildly impressed at her focus and composure despite what she had to say about a girl she still couldn’t hate.
“I don’t think they actually know…” Mari cut in quickly to quell the budding arguments, now stepping cautiously forward and peering curiously into the blackness. “This is old magic… the kind of thing I’ve heard tell of from my ancestors. I don’t think they’d know how to do something like this.”
“How do we know that?” Miyabi said, fury quickly painting her own features. “Do we really know anything about what they can or can’t do?!”
“I don’t think they could…” Airi said thoughtfully, finally losing some of her own fear. “I mean, we were able to beat them before, and we certainly don’t know anything about this.”
“You mean
you were able to beat them.” Fujimoto grinned before catching the hot glares of both Miyabi and Reina and clearing her throat. She now studiously watched Mari, who looked like she was treading on thin ice as she made her way tediously down the path. “But you’re right. I don’t think they could do this either.” She was now studying the older woman, who raised a hand in front of her.
“Airi,” she said, gesturing her forward. Airi blinked. “Come have a look at this with me.” Automatically Airi began walking forward, of course with Miyabi right at her side. “Stop,” Mari said, throwing her arm out in front of them as they were nearly to her.
Airi joined her in peering up. Now that she was closer, she saw something too. The darkness wasn’t solid; it was as if a thick roiling mist just blocked their way. “This was
set here…”
“I
knew they had something to do with it!” Miyabi suddenly growled, and she broke away from Airi to march back toward the others. “Look!” she said, gesturing vaguely to the dead girls lying in the trees and the blackness behind them. “
This is the kind of thing they do to those who don’t agree with them! I know you may not trust me all that much either, but do you really want to ally yourselves with people like that?”
“Ai-chan wouldn’t…” Michishige sniffed again, clutching Kamei tightly.
“Are you sure about that?” Miyabi shouted back at her. She looked around at the others. “Would you bet your
lives on that?!” Uncomfortable silence was all that greeted her this time, even from the older women.
Chisato stepped forward out of a small group also consisting of her sister, Risako, and Koharu, half of whom were still on the ground. “I think they’ve showed their true selves and intentions by what just happened here,” she said in a rough, sober voice. “I may not be able to do much against them myself, but I think those of us who
can, should.” Airi’s eyes widened at the intensity of the gaze the other second year Matsuura girl then held on Reina, Miyabi, and even herself. She knew Chisato was braver than she led herself on to be – although she definitely knew it as it was a large reason she joined the Skulls – but still, she’d never heard her friend talk in a way quite this resolute and grave before.
Feeling the dark mist behind her as if through a sixth sense, she was going to respond that she thought that should still be their main concern, but looking into the young girl’s determined eyes gave her pause, and so Miyabi voiced her agreement instead.
“She’s right, you know,” she warned everyone. “Do you want this to happen to any more of your friends?” She gestured back toward the trees and the dark shapes within as she spoke.
Nobody else opened their mouths for anything other than continuing sobs, but no few of the small company shook their heads slowly. “All right then,” Miyabi said in response to her own question, and Airi noticed slight resignation in her voice. Miyabi then looked at both her and Reina in turn, and Airi knew why. They were asking these girls to support them, but
they would be the ones doing the fighting, and that was quite a burden for the three of them no matter how just it might be. Swallowing again, Airi gave her girlfriend a nod.
“We might as well get started then,” Reina said, starting back down the path away from the wall of mist. “They’ve probably already retreated to the Ivory Tower with whatever idiot students followed them, so I’d say that’s a place to start.”
Feeling a squeeze on her hand and seeing a reassuring grimace and nod from Miyabi, the two of them started after the Captain. Miki and Mari followed a short ways behind, and then the rest, all of whom finally managed to come to their feet.
No one looked back at the darkness, shed tears, and lost friends they left behind.
…
“They’re coming,” Saki said from her shadowy perch next to the window of a small meeting room in a very old, austere structure bleached through the long years to the point that some called it the ‘Ivory Tower’.
“Aww, and we were just starting to have some fun! Weren’t we, Ume-chan?” Maimi asked the girl perched on her lap with a devilish grin. The other fifth year Matsuura girl giggled in response and laid her head on Maimi’s shoulder to watch the other occupants of the room.
Ai couldn’t help a slight sickly twist to her face. They’d left the other wide-eyed members of their “army” down in one of the large halls to have whatever fun they maybe still could while the Circle members came upstairs to plan their next moves. However, since she was apparently the Matsuura head’s new “conquest”, Maimi had brought Umeda up with them and hardly even paid attention to what the others were saying in between short make out sessions with the girl on her lap.
Then again, Ai supposed she wasn’t in a position to say
too much about that, since she had a Risa Niigaki glued to her side as well. At least they didn’t make such a blatant show of their affections though. She looked at the girl next to her, and Risa rolled her eyes. It didn’t take much to discern that she had a similar opinion of the two as Ai did.
Saki, the only one of them alone at the moment, didn’t turn from the window at the playfulness from behind her. “They’ll still be a while, but we’ll need to be prepared.” The small Goto girl herself had only just joined them after wandering off who knew where. Ai still didn’t have down what the girl did in those times outside by herself, but felt that for some reason she didn’t like it one bit.
“How many did you say joined them?” Ai asked. Upon returning, Saki was a fountain of knowledge about the small rebellion that was going on, and even though she was beginning to reclaim and decipher some memories from another time of women who they apparently shared much in common with, Ai wondered how she was able to learn all that she seemed to know.
“There are no more than twenty,” Saki responded. “But not much fewer. Of course, not all of them are worth our attention.”
“A mutiny!” Maimi cried out suddenly, brandishing a bony fist in the air. “That’s what it is! Rotten disloyal traitors, the lot of them.” Her furious face right beside Umeda’s smugly grinning one offered quite a contrast.
“I wasn’t aware we had become the crew of a pirate ship,” Ai commented wryly, eliciting a soft coughing laugh from Risa beside her.
Saki finally turned around and faced the others, although it was still hard to see her face through the shadows. “You are once again acting in a way that does not befit your station, Matsuura,” she warned coldly, catching even Ai off-guard. She hoped the girl was referring to the school Maimi came from. Otherwise…
Not for the first time, she began worrying for the girl’s sanity. After another thoughtful moment and observation of the disdain Saki was showing her comrade, she acquired another worry. Maybe the relationship of the two heads really had been as close as Ai suspected.
“Calm down, Saki-chan,” Ai cooed, and the small girl’s eyes flickered toward her. She didn’t seem to fully realize that Ai was talking to her. Taking a deep breath, she continued. “We’ve already discussed what will happen if they come here, because we expected they would. I think it’s… rather odd that they’re doing it so quickly, knowing that we must be waiting for them, but all the better for us. Maybe we’ll be able to quell their little uprising before it even really begins.”
“I don’t see why you’re so confident,” Maimi said in a tight voice, glowering at nothing in particular. Umeda apparently could sense her mood, and started tracing lines along her collarbone in a soothing motion. “Then again, nobody tried to rip your soul apart either.”
Ai watched her carefully. The bitterness and anger in her eyes seemed to extend beyond whatever physical torture she’d felt, and Ai noticed she was barely even paying heed to the girl on her lap. There was something much deeper that was bothering her, and as most things she couldn’t understand did, that made Ai curious.
She thought back to the first assault on this building. Those reprehensible girls had come to save their slippery sleazeball of a “friend”, and despite some flashy fireworks Ai knew they weren’t in any trouble… At least, until that innocent-looking young Matsuura girl stepped to the front and faced Maimi down. The odd thing was that Maimi had seemed overly concerned with her as if she held an old grudge over something.
The next moment though, when Saki tried to “convince” her to step aside and let the adults play, all hell broke loose. Before Ai knew it both Saki and Maimi were on the ground, the Matsuura head screaming in pain, and so coming out from her position next to Risa, she scrambled to do something to stop them.
Somehow she managed to knock the young girl out of the battle, although obviously not disable her permanently. That was something that she was quite relieved by though, because she didn’t want any more people getting hurt than she could help. However, the surprising girl was doing something that was hurting her friends, so she had to do
something. Unfortunately, it had taken her a while to explain that to Risa. With the young girl gone, the Skulls’ assault ceased and it allowed Risa and Ai to care for the other two with relative ease.
“Do you guys really need to fight them again?” Risa asked, and not for the first time. “I’m sure there’s some way you could talk this out. Tell them about your history; I’m sure they’d understand then. You’re more than just high school students.” She looked around at each of the Circle members as she spoke, her eyes finally coming to rest with pride on Ai, who smiled warmly back at her.
“You don’t know those girls,” Maimi said, waggling a finger at her. Upon seeing the slim appendage dangling in front of her, Umeda grabbed the girl’s wrist and brought it toward her before kissing and suckling lightly at one of the fingers. Maimi blinked in surprise as if just realizing there was a sizable girl on her lap, but quickly her expression turned playful, and she watched the girl contentedly.
For her own part suppressing a surge of bile that suddenly began rising within her stomach, Ai hurriedly turned her attention back on Risa and agreed, “She’s right, Nii-chan. Don’t you remember what Natsuyaki did to me in the hallway? They’re not going to listen to a word we have to say. I wish it wouldn’t… come to that myself, but I’m afraid we have no choice. You
do believe in us, right?” she asked, beginning to smile again at her friend, who she now supposed was more than that. “…in me?”
“Of course I do, Ai-chan,” Risa admitted softly, lowering her face in embarrassment. “I just worry…”
“Well,” Ai said reassuringly, laying a finger below the girl’s chin to lift her head again. “There’s no need for that. They’re making a mistake already by coming here right now. See? It won’t be long before this is all settled.”
“Come
ooon…” Maimi crowed teasingly in their direction. “Kiss her! You’ve got no excuse not to now.”
Ai turned to her quickly to see both pairs of Matsuura eyes watching them in anticipation, and she grinned. Then she leaned forward and planted her lips on those of a surprised, but definitely not reluctant, Niigaki.
“Yatta!!!” she heard twin voices yell, and she thought Umeda might even have been clapping, but then Saki’s voice cut through the excitement like a cold knife.
“They’re here.”
…
“We’re there,” Miyabi said, glowering at the large structure that suddenly loomed out of the trees in front of them. Airi knew her last memories of the place couldn’t have been the best, although she never told her exactly what had gone on.
“I don’t see anyone…” Koharu said hopefully, peeking around Reina. “Maybe they left already?”
“And where would they go?” Reina asked skeptically. The reminder of what they’d just left made the younger Nakazawa girl slip back beside Risako. Airi sighed as she looked at her friend, who seemed to still be trying her best to ignore her. She would definitely have to try and talk to her once all this was over with.
After deflating all of her kouhai’s hopes, Reina turned to Airi and Miyabi. “Should I ring the doorbell like I did before?” she asked.
“No need,” Miyabi responded, still staring at the structure. “They know we’re here.”
The gloomy pronouncement caused a stir in the girls behind them, probably because the new arrivals hadn’t witnessed any of their “special abilities” yet and so were a little scared at why Miyabi would have known that.
“Well then,” Reina said in a too-sweet voice. “I guess we’ll march up to the door and
ask nicely for them to let us in.”
“No,” Miyabi commanded with an outstretched arm, eliciting narrowed eyes from her senpai. “That’s what she wants. She’d hit you before you knew what happened, and then we’d all be served up on a platter to their whims.”
“That’s what
who wants?” Kamei asked. Despite their growing knowledge of their enemies, the other girls still weren’t fully sure of their allies.
“Airi…” Miyabi said reluctantly, turning to her. Airi smiled at her keenly. “…You’re the only one that’s really been able to beat them. I can only protect all of us for a time. What do you think?”
Seeing the concern in her girlfriend’s long features, Airi kept her comforting smile as she turned toward the building. “Well…” she began. She heard a cough from behind that she figured was from Li Chun, who still very visibly doubted her credibility in making any decisions on things as important as this. “Knocking on the door probably isn’t a bad idea. I’m not sure what I can do if I can’t see who’s attacking me.”
“I’ll go with you,” Miyabi said quickly, taking her wrist. “I think I can keep her out of your mind.” Airi nodded, and started forward.
“Osuzu!” Chisato shouted as they embarked, and Airi turned to see her friend stepping out of her sister’s tight grasp. “Are you sure you’ll be okay?”
“I’ll be fine,” Airi responded reassuringly.
Then, surprisingly, Risako stepped up next to the other Matsuura girl and gave her a strong look of support, although Airi noticed she carefully ignored Miyabi next to her. “Take care… okay?” she said quietly. Airi nodded again, her smile even wider now, and turned back around.
The walk up the last meters of the path to the bastion of the Circle seemed to get harder with every step, but with her hand tightly entwined in Miyabi’s, the large and somehow already repaired door became closer and closer. The darkness that surrounded them as well as the newfound knowledge of the mist that lay above and around all of it made Airi think she was walking up to some witches’ castle from out of any one of many fantasy mangas she’d read, although this was very, very real. It seemed very much darker, too.
They finally reached the big doors, and Miyabi looked to her inquisitively. Airi just shrugged in response and raised her free hand to knock at the door. Miyabi twitched as if surprised Airi actually did what she told her she was going to do, but then both girls stood still as they waited for some response.
“…I don’t think anyone’s coming, Airi,” Miyabi said after a moment. “Can’t you like, blast your way in or something?” Airi gave her a very level look in response, to which the older girl grinned nervously and scratched at the back of her neck.
However, just as they spoke, something clicked and the door swung open barely wide enough for someone’s head to stick out. They heard whispers coming from inside, although there was definitely also someone peering cautiously out at them.
“Who is it, Momo?” came an excited whisper from within.
“Is it one of THEM?”“Let me see!” cried another voice.
“I’m older than you!” There was the sound of a bit of scuffling, which caused Miyabi and Airi to look at each other with raised eyebrows, but eventually the small head of an apparently short Goto girl popped out to peer at them. She looked a little strained as if she was holding somebody back from the door, as well as trying to keep it cracked open only so much, but she suddenly gave them a too-bright smile.
“Hello!” she squeaked. Airi couldn’t have thought of another way to describe her almost forced shrillness. “What can I do for you?”
After exchanging another skeptical glance with Airi, Miyabi looked at her. “Don’t act like you don’t know who I am, Tsugunaga,” she drawled lazily, hunching down a bit as if trying to appear unimpressed and unconcerned. Airi widened her eyes. There was a lot she could learn from her girlfriend.
“Why, Miyabi!” the girl in the doorway piped, as if suddenly remembering her. “What a pleasant surprise!”
“I’m sure it is…” Miyabi grumbled. “So are you going to let us in or do I have to stuff you into the trash can I passed just a little ways back? It’s small and square; seems like a perfect fit.”
This… Tsugunaga’s… smile faltered a little at that, and suddenly another face appeared in the doorway as it widened just a bit more. This girl seemed much bigger, as well as older, and blond highlights in her brownish hair framed a round and slightly pudgy face. She was definitely still handsome, though.
“I can’t believe you even dare to come here!” she scolded Miyabi. “I knew you Skulls were no good, but this really is crossing the line! Not even showing up to the assembly?! The Circle has been so good to you to even let you stay here and not be
expelled, but now you just turn your backs on them when they need us most!”
After giving the new arrival a wide, toothy grin, Miyabi tightened her grip on Airi’s arm and dragged her in front of her, to where
she now was staring right into the faces in the doorway. “Who’s this?” the blond-highlighted girl asked. “She’s not a Skull. Looks like a runty little first year to me.” Airi felt her face grow redder as the girl looked her up and down appraisingly.
“Actually…” came a voice from within, but Airi had had enough.
“I am most certainly
not a first year!” she roared. “And you let us in
right now or I’ll… I’ll…” Her hot gaze fell to the door, and she was just about to bash into it when it swung open fully, causing the two girls inside who’d already spoken to stumble over each other and fall to the floor. Surprisingly, it was the younger Tsugunaga who was able to overpower the other and get to her feet first.
“Airi!” she heard a familiar voice cry in greeting. With the door now opened she noticed many students were gathered in the entryway, but couldn’t identify too many of them before one jumped forward to hug her.
After a second though, her assailant pulled back and looked anxiously at a smirking Miyabi before smiling back at Airi. “I was so worried about you! Where have you been? You missed the assembly!” Airi stared into the face of the Nakazawa third year, Aika Mitsui, who until lately was one of her closest friends.
“Isn’t it obvious where she’s been?” the round-faced girl growled, getting up finally and dusting herself off with a glare toward Tsugunaga and then Miyabi. “Apparently hanging out with
Skulls.” She almost spat the last word.
“That’s what I was trying to tell you, Ogawa-san,” Aika explained patiently and yet a little nervously. “I think she’s joined them actually.” She peered up into Airi’s face, and Airi thought she hoped the girl would deny the allegation. “Didn’t you?”
Airi looked up at Miyabi for a moment, who nodded, before turning back to her friend. “Yes I did, Mittsi.” The slightly older girl’s eyes widened. “And we’re here for a reason.”
“Well if that’s the case,” announced another older girl from further back. “We need to take them to see the Circle. Don’t any of you remember what they said if any Skulls happened to drop by?” She glared challengingly around at the others as if she was trying to assert some kind of haughty authority, but Airi nearly almost giggled since it was hard for her to think the glare looked like anything other than a pout. Then her eyes inadvertently fell to the girl’s chest, and they opened wide. She had never seen…
anything… like that before!”
After a second or two of staring she was blinded by a hand in front of her eyes, and she felt Miyabi slide an arm around her waist and pull her tightly to her side. “H-hey…!”
“We’d
love to see the Circle,” Miyabi demurred, and after futilely struggling for a moment Airi’s eyes were finally uncovered only to see the busty girl turned around and walking away from them, as if expecting them to follow. They did so at urging from her girlfriend that Airi did
not need, and as they walked they passed through a veritable sea of blank-faced girls who obviously didn’t care one whit what happened to the two of them. There were a few exceptions of course, such as small smiles from Kanon Fukuda and Akari Saho, Airi’s classmates from House Matsuura, as well as Mia Sainen, who was a good friend of Aika’s. She and Aika actually followed them for a good ways as if offering unspoken and possibly taboo support.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Airi whispered up to Miyabi, looking cautiously ahead as another girl who was likely also a seventh year joined their chauffeur.
“Don’t worry,” Miyabi whispered back from the side of her mouth.
“I told you, I’m protecting you. It’ll take them a bit to figure out how to get past that, and by then I hope you’ll have it all under control.”Airi stared at her girlfriend. Oh, she would just have it all under control, would she? The girl made it sound so simple.
“Right through here,” their leader said evenly, gesturing to a door at the end of the hall before them, and Airi did her best not to let her eyes stray back to the girl’s chest.
As the two of them started walking forward, she heard a sound behind her and looked back to see Aika raising a fist.
“Ganbatte!” her friend whispered, appearing as if she was trying not to be worried. Airi’s heart sank just a little more. Whatever she was going to face beyond this door, it couldn’t be half as hard as that just was.
The next thing she knew, she and Miyabi were passing through it into a large, comfortable-looking fire lit room, and when she caught sight of Ai Takahashi standing smiling just inside beside another unfamiliar seventh-year, she felt Miyabi’s arm tighten around her waist just a little bit more. She knew there were others in the room, but there was so much furniture she couldn’t see them. They must have all been sitting.
“Natsuyaki-san,” Takahashi said in a sweet and warm voice, although with a wry twist to one corner of her mouth. “Welcome back.” Then her attention shifted slightly. “And you must be Airi Suzuki. I’ve heard
so much about you.”
Airi stared back into those eyes that seemed friendly on the surface, but upon closer inspection appeared dark as a harsh winter’s night, as the door they just entered creaked shut behind them. However, it wasn’t ice she saw in them, but the far superior abrasiveness of raw and incredible power.
Topic: The Circle of Three [CONCLUSION: 28: Ascension] (Read 84325 times)