Thank you guys for being interested in my story. ^_^ I hope maybe to get some more comments as it goes on and develops more. Speaking of development, in the next chapter there's a
lot of information about the world... And it's also a good bit longer if that's something you wanted.
Also, some of your questions might be answered or explained a bit more fully...
However, it seems like some of you are on pretty good tracks for where the story's going.
I also wanted to comment on the part of Ai liking Miki, which some of you have mentioned (and I'm glad to see you enjoy). Yeah it might have been a little confusing when Reina first started babbling about them, but she'd just come to the realization herself and was figuring out how to express it in her own mind. So I have a feeling everyone in the room was confused at least at first.
More on that too in the next chapter.
Maybe you've noticed a little theme as to the chapters so far... This will probably be the last one like that though, since the plot is really beginning to get underway. The chapter after this should be very interesting.
For now, a lot of dialogue and background! Hope you enjoy, lol.
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Chapter 4 – The Three“All right!” Ai shouted. “We’ll do better next time, I’m sure of it!”
She stood on a slightly raised platform looking at a group of disheveled girls from her house who wore rather disappointed expressions. They’d just finished the final competition of their inter-house tournament – a futsal game - and although they had beaten Goto, they lost to Matsuura in points, something that she knew she would never live down to Yajima-san. She thought a second. She supposed she should just be calling the girl Maimi from now on, since they were both Circle members now after all.
That idea and what it entailed still seemed rather crazy to her. It was just at the end of last year when Yoshizawa-san had called her to her room – the girl’s
own room! – and told her that she was recommending her as Nakazawa’s new Head. She knew there wasn’t a very talented batch of younger students. Tanaka had shown some promise, but for some reason the Circle didn’t look too kindly upon the Skulls, much less recruit from them, and now with both Mikitty and Yoshizawa gone her house was quite weakened. She also knew that she herself couldn’t yet compete with Yajima or Shimizu…
She looked over at the other groups of girls. Shimizu – Saki – was already leading her rowdy group back to their house. She wondered how the girl did it. She looked as proud as ever in her diminutive figure, and her girls chatted as if they’d just won. Maybe competition just didn’t mean the same thing to everyone. Then she looked at Maimi.
The Head of House Matsuura was giving her girls a very emotional pep talk, to which there were loud cheers and condescending looks on the girls from other Houses. They were obviously happy they won.
It doesn’t mean the same thing to everyone…“Um, Ai…chan?” a girl from the front row just before her said. Ai blinked and looked at her before breaking into a smile. “Are you going to stand up there all day?”
She blushed around her smile, and with a glare at a chuckling Tanaka a few rows back stepped down to join the curious one. She wasn’t sure if she liked Tanaka better now that she was ignoring her, or before last night when the girl just cracked jokes and made fun of her. Of course, she did the same thing to everyone, and none of the rest were spared the torments that she now avoided since tossing the girl across a room. She still was astonished, and a bit frightened, of how she did that. Maimi and Saki promised to teach her, but nothing happened last night since they all just wanted go to bed.
The Nakazawa girls began walking back to their house, but most avoided her except for a few of her closer friends at the front, and none were closer than the girl who brought her back to reality when she had dozed off on the platform.
“If I’d known becoming part of the Circle would change you
that much, Ai-chan, I wouldn’t have let you do it…” said Risa Niigaki as she looked over at her with a concerned face.
She smiled back. “I’m not really different. I guess I just have different… responsibilities. You know I’m not used to it. With Mikitty and Yoshizawa around, there wasn’t much need for anyone else…”
Risa snorted a laugh back. The two of them had known each other since arriving at the academy over six years ago, and were close friends almost from the start. However, for some reason the girl had never approved of her choices of people to date…
“Fat lot Fujimoto did,” she said after her laugh. “Unless you call harassing every girl she came across and doing her best to be a bad influence on those delinquents a great contribution to the school…”
“Hey,” Ai said, in a voice that was not amused at all. “Don’t talk about her like that. Nobody really understood her.”
“And
you did?” Risa asked skeptically. “If you regard spending a few nights in her room as a way of finding some
understanding of her, then most of the older girls in the school would understand her perfectly.”
Ai rounded on her best friend, her eyes burning with anger. The girls following them stopped, looking among each other to see if anyone knew why their new leader looked as if she was about to attack one of the other seventh years. Risa gave her a wary yet challenging look in return. A slight breeze also came up from somewhere and started swirling around them.
“I think you’ve insulted her enough for now…” she said through gritted teeth. “You’d think my
best friend would be a little more
supportive at a time like this…”
“…Whatever,” Risa responded after a second. “I’m just glad she’s gone, so you can wake up and smell reality again.”
The wind whipped up a little more, and Ai opened her mouth to give another retort, but stopped when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Seeing the other girls suddenly become anxious she had an idea who it was, and quickly tried to calm her own mood.
Before looking back, she shouted to them, “Good job everyone! Run on back to the house and enjoy the evening.” Most looking very relieved, they hurriedly broke ranks and ran ahead as Ai turned to face the girl who interrupted her.
“I thought I’d break in here before you lose control again and do something you’ll really regret this time,” Maimi said quietly with a small smile. She lowered her voice even further to continue, likely so that Risa couldn’t hear what she said. “Tossing a Skull around is one thing, but I think you’d feel bad doing that to one of your friends…”
Being unable to hear didn’t keep Risa from leaning forward to try and catch the girl’s words. Maimi looked over at her and started speaking in a normal voice again. “Quite an inquisitive friend you’ve got there, Ai-chan. Brave and loyal, too. Not many people would even approach me if I was with other Circle members.”
“Thank you for the compliment…” Risa said in a bitter voice as she scrutinized the younger girl. Ai didn’t think she’d ever gotten used to girls younger than her in their authority positions, especially compared with the examples Yoshizawa and Iida had set in their time here.
“We’ve been best friends since first year,” Ai said quietly. Come to think of it, she never did really see Maimi or Saki hanging out with members of their own houses. From time to time she’d see Maimi flirting with Umeda or Saki chatting with Tsugunaga, but from what she could tell their relationships could hardly be called friendship. In her last year though, she was determined not to let anything change with Risa. She just had to figure out how to keep her temper better... And it would help a whole lot if the girl just dropped the subject of Mikitty.
“I see,” Maimi said with her unchanging smile. “That’s very sweet. Ai-chan,” she began, looking over at her. “Would you walk with us? We should talk about today’s events.” Ai looked beyond the girl and noticed for the first time that Saki had joined them. The petite girl was easy to miss sometimes…
“If it’s all the same to you,” Risa said, “I’d like to stay with Ai-chan too.”
Maimi raised an eyebrow at Ai, who looked back steadily, before responding indifferently, “Suit yourself. We’re going to the Circle’s private bath, but you can tag along on the way.”
Then the two other Heads began walking without regard for what the two of them were doing. Ai gave Risa a look before hurrying to keep up, and her friend fell in at her side soon after.
“It was a fun day, don’t you think?” Maimi commented in a bright voice.
“For you, maybe,” Saki said, her face seemingly dark. “
You didn’t come in last place.”
“You’re right,” Maimi responded, her voice losing none of its luster. “We didn’t!”
“Aren’t you being a little cocky?” Risa asked, and for her effort got a glance from Maimi before she turned her eyes back ahead as if the girl wasn’t even there.
“I’m very happy with my House this year. We’ve got some very strong second years, and our first year class even seems to be the best in a generation.”
“Second years, huh?” Saki said, a little caustically. “I suppose you’d mean Suzuki and the older Okai girl. They
do seem pretty strong… I think they could even beat out some of your fourth and fifth years, don’t you?”
Maimi frowned at her. “I didn’t mean it
that way… I just said they’re strong.”
“Whatever,” Saki retorted. “I’d like to see Natsuyaki or Sudou tackle some of their classmates from your area. I have a feeling we’d have some Matsuura to sweep up from the floor after that…”
“Don’t forget Natsuyaki is a Skull,” Maimi growled, and Ai thought she was nearly going to round on the other Circle member. “That basically forfeits anything she can do.”
“Speaking of…” Saki responded, apparently changing the subject since she knew she couldn’t argue that point. “I heard your Okai girl has set up an audition with them.” This time Maimi stopped dead, and Risa exchanged a glance with Ai as the rest of them stopped too. They were barely halfway across the field and back to the school.
“Is that so…” she said in a low and dangerous voice, avoiding everyone’s gaze as she stared at nothing, apparently caught in her own thought. Ai once more felt the same thing she did in the room with the Skulls yesterday. The air around them seemed to suddenly become chilly. Risa even crossed her arms as if to keep warm, but obviously thought nothing of it. After yesterday’s events, Ai wasn’t so sure anymore that it was a coincidence…
Saki smiled smugly in her apparent victory. “Yeah, it’s too bad really…” she said as if speaking idle thoughts. “I just hope it doesn’t rub off on her sister too… It would be a shame if your first and second year classes, which
do show so much promise, would come under a bad influence…”
“Not if I can help it,” Maimi said, still with her dangerous voice. “No Matsuura has been with the Skulls in either my or Ishikawa’s time as Head, and I don’t intend that to change now.”
Saki kept smiling, despite Ai’s thoughts that it might be good not to press the Head of Matsuura any further. “And how exactly do you plan to stop them? You’ve somehow been able to keep any
qualified girl away from auditioning all this time, but once it’s begun you know we have little power to stop them from doing whatever they want to.”
“Yeah,” Maimi responded, her voice becoming a little more normal, to the relief of both Ai and Risa. “Well, I think it’s time we reassert our authority. The Skulls have been allowed to flourish for far too long at this school.”
Saki even giggled at that. “It’s been this way for centuries, Maimi! You know we can’t do anything about it because we can’t use our powers in front of anyone. Without them, we’re nothing more than average girls that happen to lead the others around by the noses.”
Silence met them after Saki spoke though, because Maimi had turned quickly to a confused-looking Risa, and after a second Saki looked her way too with a frown. As if to put it behind them, Maimi began walking briskly again, forcing the others to either keep up or stay behind.
They walked quietly for most of the rest of the way before Saki spoke up again, this time in a noticeably more chastened and controlled voice. “So what’s going on with you and Suzuki anyway?” she asked Maimi. “Ever since your ‘talk’ with her last spring, you seem to pay a lot more attention to her, and even I was surprised at the, er,
extent you went to back then.
Maimi broke into a grin. “She’s cute, there’s no doubt about that, even if she is a little bookworm. I don’t know. What do you think, Ai-chan?” At the sound of her name, Ai was brought stiffly to attention, but she felt a little lost in the conversation. “Do you think a young girl like her, and a queen like me…” Ai stared at her. “I was kidding about the ‘queen’ thing, you know…” she said quickly.
After Ai stared a few more seconds, she turned away again. “Gosh,” she said in a disbelieving voice. “Saki-chan, we’ve really got some work to do on this one…”
“Don’t bother telling
me that,” Saki responded. “If you went on to
me about skirt chasing after a second year, I’d stare at you like you were crazy too.” She leaned her head around Maimi’s body to give Ai a toothy grin, which she gratefully smiled back at.
“Pssht,” Maimi sassed in return. “Don’t tell me you’ve never thought about it. I’ve seen you making eyes at that one second year of your own. Sugaya I think her name is… right?”
“I
do not!” Saki cried, scandalized.
“Do too,” Maimi said, grinning, and this time she shared it with Ai as well.
“Do not!!” she insisted again. “I’m not a perv like you are.”
“Well,” Maimi said with a shrug. “A Circle member has few choices. Sometimes we have to take what we can get. I still don’t understand how you can be so satisfied with just
boys even though none are around here.”
“There are plenty back at home during vacation time…” Saki explained slowly and with emotion. “While here,
I can restrain my urges for a few months…”
“Your loss,” Maimi said, shrugging again, and this time grinned at both Ai and Risa, who ducked her eyes quickly away from the other girl’s. Now what was
that all about?
“Er…” Ai said, feeling like she was intruding when speaking for the first time in so long. The other two girls looked interestedly at her though, which gave her confidence to continue. “I’m afraid I’m with Maimi here on this one, Saki…” she said carefully, and Saki huffed overdramatically, turning away.
“See?” Maimi said. “Even our wise and powerful Nakazawa colleague sees the sense in not denying your urges. You’ve got nearly three more years here, Saki-chan. You really should lighten up.”
“
I have to lighten up?” Saki responded. Maimi grinned and shrugged again.
“Although…” Ai began slowly again. “Seriously, Maimi…” the girl looked at her curiously. “A
second year?”
This time Saki giggled. “I think she’ll fit in just fine. Don’t you, oh queenly one?”
“Oh I’m sure she will…” Maimi responded distractedly, but didn’t go on since they had finally reached the entrance to the Circle’s compound. “Well, it’s time for us to go on alone,” she said, turning to Risa. “Scram,
unworthy one.” She said that in a teasing voice, but it was still clearly a dismissal. However, Risa looked at Ai before going anywhere.
“You’d better go…” Ai said reluctantly. “There really isn’t supposed to be anyone except Circle members allowed in here, and don’t you remember the stories that the Headmaster will come down and eat you if you try to get in and aren’t in the Circle?”
“And also the fire-breathing dog…” Maimi added.
“And the ghost of an old Head who haunts the tower and will never let you sleep again…” Saki added too.
Ai shrugged and grinned as if to express her helplessness. “I’ll come visit you later tonight, okay?”
“Okay…” Risa said. “You be careful, Ai-chan,” she said seriously.
Ai was a little confused by her tone of voice, but responded brightly, “Aren’t I always?” before following the other two girls in.
…
A short time later saw the three Heads soaking very happily in the large bath which sat in the middle of a chamber that had to have been larger than most classrooms. It was less a bath than a hot spring somehow brought into the middle of the school. After spending a little time there, Ai decided she may very well be able to get used to this whole Circle thing after all…
Maimi sighed in pleasure. “Now that’s what I call nice after such a long day…”
“No kidding…” Saki agreed.
“What are you talking about?” Maimi responded, tilting her head and half-opening an eye to look at the other girl. “If you’d actually done any work you wouldn’t have come in last. I still can’t believe you lost to our Ai-chan here…” Saki just sighed, apparently in too much comfort to be bothered by the girl’s diatribes this time.
“By the way,” she said after a time, changing the subject again. “What’s going on with that friend of yours there, Ai-chan? It’s not too often someone willingly walks with us that far like that.”
“Mmm… What are you talking about, Saki-chan?” Ai responded, unhappy with the interruption of her relaxation. Speaking was something that felt like it took more work than was necessary right at this moment.
Maimi coughed out a laugh. “The girl’s
obviously in love with you,” she said. “I could see it every time she looked at you.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Ai said, brushing off their comments and trying to return to her relaxation. “We’ve been friends for ages. It was never anything like that.”
“If you say so,” Saki responded, and gratefully seemed to let the subject drop.
However, after another minute or so Maimi spoke up. “Was it true? What Tanaka was saying about you last night?”
“Huh?” Ai responded. That seemed like all she could drag out of her throat since words and especially complete sentences seemed too exhausting a proposition at the moment.
“About you and… Fujimoto. You know, you fawning over her when she threw you out like garbage and just treated you like one of her conquests, but you still couldn’t get enough.”
This time Ai’s attention was captured fully, and she lolled her head to stare hard at the rude Head of Matsuura. “It’s not like that,” she told her firmly. “I was special to her.” Maimi cleared her throat instead of responding, and shared a look with Saki.
“You know,” Saki said in a tentative voice. That might be the first time Ai heard such an unsure tone coming from either of their mouths. “Now that you’re in the Circle, a lot of things will be different for you. It’s almost all good, but one of the first things you need to do is be honest with yourself.” Maimi nodded as if encouraging the girl to go on. “Fujimoto kind of… got around.”
“I know,” Ai said stoically. And she did know of all the girls other than herself who had gone to that room and not resurfaced until the next morning. But these new friends of hers didn’t know what it was like. Mikitty just had this way with her… She made her feel more special than anyone ever had before.
The other two shared a look again. “Listen,” Maimi said. “Fujimoto isn’t the type for commitment. I don’t doubt she made you feel, um, very special, and I’m sure she quite enjoyed your little trysts, but that’s all they were to her. Tell me,” she said, pulling herself up in the bath a little to focus fully on Ai. “Have you even
heard from her at all since she graduated and left Seishin?”
Ai stared between the two girls. Maimi looked hard at her, but Saki just gave her glances every so often when she opened her eyelids halfway as she relaxed. “Well… no…”
Maimi nodded solemnly. “And have you tried contacting her in that time?”
“…I’ve mailed her once or twice.” It was more like several dozen times, but the girl had never responded. She didn’t want to hear any more, but Maimi wouldn’t let up.
“Then I don’t think you need our help to figure out where you stand…” And she relaxed back into the water, apparently satisfied she’d now said enough.
Ai sat there a moment as the girl’s words – and her own – resounded through her mind. She’d been trying so desperately to cling to some hope… but they were right…
she was right… It was obvious where she stood. It just wasn’t easy to accept. She’d given to and shared more with the girl than she had anyone else, over the course of almost two years. And even before she had the nerve to approach her, she’d had a crush on her for nearly as long.
She began crying a little and hugging herself, and Maimi reached over to pat her shoulder. “It’s okay… I know it must be hard. But the best thing you can do is move on.”
“I’d start by paying more attention to that friend of yours,” Saki continued. “Like you heard us say, it’s hard for anyone in the Circle to have a relationship while in school, but it’s not unheard of. And as long as you stay away from the Skulls, you’ll be fine.” Ai looked over to see the girl smiling at her. “For example, it’s probably best not to become like Maimi-chan here. Not only has the girl whose skirt she’s chasing barely lost her baby fat, but she also may soon be the best friend of a member of the Skulls.”
“I swear, I didn’t know that,” Maimi said seriously. “If I had… but it’s too late now. It’s not her herself that’s joining, and I know I can best any member of the Skulls any day, so I’m certain I can keep her from being corrupted.”
“Um…” Ai started, wanting to finally ask about things that had been on her mind almost constantly since last night. “Why does the Circle despise the Skulls so much? And what happened last night? I… I don’t know what I did, but I think you guys did something too… I’m surprised what happened isn’t all over the school by now.”
Maimi and Saki exchanged glances once again. “I’m sure you know by now, Ai-chan…” Saki began. “But being in the Circle gives us certain… privileges. Privileges above and beyond authority as Heads of Houses.”
“The ceremony we performed for you last night bestows in a new Circle member the power inherent in her House,” Maimi continued. She checked to see how Ai was receiving this information, and at a blank look since she didn’t understand what the girl was saying at all, explained further. “I suppose you know the legend of how Seishin Gakuin was founded?”
“Of course,” Ai responded impatiently. “That’s one of the basic traditions of the school. Nearly two thousand years ago, around when China first took notice of us, three exceptionally powerful women from different tribes around Japan came together and decided to start what, at the time, was a training center for young women with similar ambitions. It’s evolved over the years as our education system has evolved into the school it is today, but that legend is what we take a lot of our pride as Seishin students from. Of course, there’s surely no truth to it… I bet it was just started during the Edo period to try to rally popular support for the shogunate.”
“Well, that’s an interesting theory…” Saki said. “And one that I’m sure many people believe both inside and outside of Seishin. However…” She looked earnestly at Ai. “The legend is true.”
Ai stared at her. “How do you know that?”
Saki became slightly ruffled at her challenge, but Maimi responded calmly, in contrast to her usual demeanor. “We just know it. If you really think about it yourself, you’ll realize it too. The theory you gave might be what you believed before, but after last night, you’ll experience certain revelations… and that’s one of them.”
Ai still stared at both of them. What the girls had just told her seemed ridiculous, and yet… Now that she thought about it, she wondered why they couldn’t be right. There was
definitely something going on inside her, and it had to have some cause, didn’t it? Plus, it almost seemed like she could envision those three women from the legend more sharply than she could have based on any picture she’d seen up until now. She could almost see them smiling at her…
When she came back to reality though, all she saw were the two other Heads smiling at her. “See?” Maimi asked. “You know the truth now. However, the legend is a little different from how we’ve always learned it…” She looked over at Saki, who nodded before continuing the explanation.
“Nakazawa, Goto, and Matsuura were supposedly women with high authority in their tribes. That kind of power was unusual for any women of the day to hold, so it’s amazing no one wonders more how they came to it.” She smiled eagerly as she went on, as if excited about telling the story. “They came to their status because they had power beyond political authority… In their day, they were called witches.”
Ai became silent in thought at the girl’s words. Witches? That means they had some kind of mystical power – powers like that which she’d just been observing among herself and the other Circle members…
Saki continued hurriedly, “It’s said in secret histories found only in this building that they bestowed some version of their power to those that followed after them… to those students that showed the most promise at the school… to those who were granted authority over other students…”
“The Heads of the Houses…” Ai said, completing the girl’s line of reasoning.
The other two nodded. “That’s what they are today. What we are, Ai-chan.”
Suddenly Ai became afraid as she slowly embraced the realization. So some part of one of these historical witches was now inside her? Aside from being creepy, she was scared about what that power might mean. After all, she’d thrown Tanaka across the room and nearly done the same to her best friend…
“But…” she began in a trembling voice. “What… how… what kind of…
powers… do I have then?”
“They’re different for each Circle member; for each representative of a different House,” Saki responded. “It’s said the original three founders had different powers, and so bequeathed only their own to the Heads of their respective Houses.”
“So that means…” Maimi continued. “We can’t necessarily help you directly with your own, but we can do our best to guide you on the general principles. Yoshizawa wasn’t exactly… forthcoming… over what all she could do, so we don’t necessarily even know everything you’re capable of.”
She looked at Saki and gave her face a discerning inspection. “I don’t think even the two of
us know what one another is fully capable of.” Saki just smiled softly… and quietly. Maimi took her eyes from the girl and looked out the large window looking out onto the night. “If I remember right, it’s almost a new moon tonight, isn’t it? Are you planning to go out later?”
“Maybe,” Saki responded. “There’s an audition for the Skulls tomorrow, after all. It might be good to liven things up a little bit…” Ai looked carefully at the small girl, and noticed that not only was she excited to tell the story, she’d seemed to be excited all night so far. She suddenly felt slightly insecure sitting in the bath with her.
“Ah, yes. That audition…” Maimi said. “We’ll definitely have to keep an eye on it. Care to join us in our plotting, Ai-chan?” she asked her, a sly grin gracing her lips.
“Um…” Ai said, but decided she’d better do what she could to keep these girls happy. “Sure. It sounds like… fun.” She kept her eyes on Saki that whole time, but the girl just smiled up at nothing as if musing to herself.
“Great! I think it’d be the best thing for you, especially since Fujimoto is likely to arrive sometime tonight.” Ai’s attention was instantly caught by this new piece of information, and everything else flew out of her head.
“Yes…” Saki said, still staring at the ceiling. “I’m particularly looking forward to that.”
“Mikitty…?” Ai asked, trying to hold back her excitement.
“Don’t get your hopes up too much,” Maimi warned. “We’ve heard that she’s taken some important position in the Skulls alumni association or whatever they want to call it. It’s kind of like the Circle – once you’re a member, unless you really screw something up, you’re in it for life. Anyway, I doubt she’ll be giving any calls to old flings she’s completely outgrown now.”
Ai was silent at the girl’s words. Well, this might be a chance for her to find out once and for all if what the girls were saying about her was true. “That’s why we want to keep you with us while she’s here,” Saki said earnestly. “I don’t think anything good would come of you meeting her alone now that you’re in the Circle, and while we’re not crazy about seeing her again, we also don’t want you electrocuting her or pulling what you did with Tanaka again. Only this time, I think you’d toss her a much longer distance…”
“I’ll keep myself under control,” Ai muttered, affronted at how these girls thought they needed to take
care of her and watch her every step.
“Well then I’m certain we’ll have nothing to worry about…” Maimi said, relaxing into the water again. “I think we’ve been in here just about long enough,” she said after a time. “But, this talk of you meeting Fujimoto reminded me… We never answered your question about the Skulls, did we?” Ai shook her head, though the girl paid her no mind and just went on.
“The Skulls have been around for almost as long as the Circle. Yes, since not long after the founding. They’ve had different characteristics throughout the centuries of course, but the common thing has been that they’ve always rebelled against the Circle’s – and thus the school’s – authority. Now, not even the ancient Circle members who wrote the secret histories know why, but they’ve always been a thorn in our sides, and despite our best efforts we can’t seem to get rid of them.”
She paused a minute as if to let her soaking relax her a bit more before continuing. “Recently the Circle has been winning that battle, and we’ve managed to regain our full authority a little bit. Yoshizawa was able to somehow keep a leash on Fujimoto…”
“A leash?” Ai asked, responding to the horrible things that image conjured in her mind.
“Yes,” Maimi said. “And now I think we might have to do the same thing with Tanaka and Natsuyaki. Tanaka might be their
Captain, but we’re not fooled that there isn’t some friction between them. They have too few members right now to be much of a threat, but if they start recruiting again, which seems to be starting with that Okai girl’s audition tomorrow…”
“I have to vouch for that,” Saki interjected. “If they get even five members again, they can cause us a lot of trouble. Especially if they pick someone up from Matsuura.” She looked at Maimi, who nodded grimly. “Maimi’s done a good job of keeping order in her House without their meddling, and that’s also why she’s… well… how she is today.” She looked up at Maimi, in a slightly nervous way, Ai thought. The other girl just smiled.
Ai felt like she understood. She’d felt it since she’d gotten to know these girls more. They all might be in the Circle, but Maimi clearly seemed to be the most confident of them all in her power. Were the Skulls really that big of an influence on the Houses?
As if in response to her inner question, Maimi said softly, “I feel sorry for Saki-chan a lot of the time. She puts up with a lot from Natsuyaki. I think she may even be losing a few hairs…” She grinned over at the smaller girl, who gave her a shadowy look in response. Ai had no clue what the girl might have meant other than the obvious – her hair is falling out – but she didn’t notice anything of the like. Her hair was quite bushy now, actually. She also knew that she’d rather not have Saki glaring at
her in that way… It really scared her, and she wasn’t even its target. She idly began wondering what Saki’s secret powers might be…
“Well, I think that’s good enough for me tonight,” Maimi said, climbing out of the bath and snagging a towel hanging beside it. “Ai-chan, just remember it’s best if you stay in. We don’t want you running into Fujimoto yet, plus Saki has her little… scouting mission… that I don’t think you’re quite ready for yet.” She smiled as she talked about the other Circle member, who very quietly and calmly as if ignoring her words climbed out of the bath as well.
Supposing she might as well follow, Ai did the same. “Sure, no problem,” she said. “I think I’ll just go to meet Gaki-san and hang out for a while.” She looked up at the other girls as they toweled off. “That
is okay, right?”
“Of course,” Saki said distractedly. “You two have fun.”
“Yes,” Maimi said with a grin. “Have fun!”
Ai blushed, suddenly feeling very naked in front of these girls in just the towel she held around her, and turned away stiffly to head toward her clothes. She heard some giggling behind her as she did. She honestly didn’t know
what they were talking about. Her and Gaki-san? They’d been best friends for what seemed like forever. There was no way…