Swim Story [OC] - Chapter 11: Wake Up (24/07/2018)

[Mirage_GSM]

On that note it also seems odd that He has Kenji for a neighbor but didn't even know Hisao existed.

Can you point to the section you're referring to?
I think I checked for consistency here, but I might have missed something...

[Oddball]

Chapter Six

She turns to face me “Good. Sorry, I was busy having fun with one of your neighbours, you know, the slightly weird one from 3-2? He has glasses and a Hogwarts scarf. He doesn't seem to like me, and I only made a joke about taking over the world. Forgot his name”

“Kenji Setou.”

“That’s him! He is quite interesting.”

Despite being in same class and apparently neighbours, I haven’t actually spoken to him yet. Maybe I should try change that?

Chapter Seven

After a while Hanako stutters out “T-There is a-a new g-guy in my-my class.”

So I’m no longer the new guy? Perhaps that means Saki may go after him? Poor guy. Perhaps I should try to find and warn him?

[Mirage_GSM]

Well, this story is kind of sparse with temporal cues, but in chapter 8 it is still "a few days" before the festival, so chapter seven might still be Hisao's first or second day at Yamaku. Not that surprising that he hasn't met him yet.

[Hesmiyu]

Thank you for your comment Oddball.

Which of your stories are you on about? I have read probably 90% of the fics here (too much free time )

The reason for the Hisao like introduction to Yamaku is because this is my first fic and that was based on
Hisao's introduction. The start of the story was set about 3-7 days before Hisao arrives. Fun fat: Originally Ryuunosuke was going to be in 3-3 and become friends with Hisao but upon realising his eye issue would mean he'd be in Lilly's, his friendship with Hisao disappeared and Hisao mostly from the story. The term "The Scarred One" came from a movie quote Sean Connery's Draco from Dragon Heart says to Dennis Quaid's Bowen. I somehow have it in my head that Miki would like that sort of movie.

Part of the reason it is getting better is because Mirage proof-reads and points out little story errors I've done. (Thank you Mirage)

I have run into a little snag though; The computer with the word document on it has a hard drive which has completely failed now. Thankfully the document is on the second hard drive in it but the first one has the pc's boot manager.

[Oddball]

Which of your stories are you on about? I have read probably 90% of the fics here (too much free time

Freaks and Freinds. As of my posting this, the story is only a few topics below this one.

[Hesmiyu]

Which of your stories are you on about? I have read probably 90% of the fics here (too much free time

Freaks and Freinds. As of my posting this, the story is only a few topics below this one.

Oh yes, I'm enjoying that story

A good note; The dead hard drive has semi-come back to life so I can now boot up the computer and use it . This means I can continue to write the story and as such currently have written just over 6k words of chapter 10. If I don't split this chapter (due to length) then Act 1 will be 11 chapters long.

[Hesmiyu]

Again, months between chapters. This time there are two main reasons. One; I got distracted my Steam games >.> , and two I was busy writing out future notes and rewriting what was already written: I have 40+k worth of notes for the upcoming chapters.

----
Chapter 10: Pain

*** Ryuunosuke’s PoV ***

As I close the main door of the boys’ dormitory behind me, I hear and feel my phone. Akemi has replied now? Pulling my phone out, I look at it and find my guess was correct. I open and read the message. [This is Yasuko, Akemi still recovering. Shell be happy you concerned. May not be in pool tony]

I wince slightly at Yasuko’s texting skills. Also, Yasuko has Akemi’s phone? I guess Akemi’s seizure warning works then. I hope she’s okay. I wonder who ‘tony’ is. I may ask Yasuko why she wrote tony, if I meet her. My phone beeps again in my hand, and I see another message from Akemi’s phone saying that ‘tony’ meant ‘tmoz’. Ahh, that makes more sense. I send a reply. [Tell her I hope she is okay.] I put my phone back into my pocket and look up to see I have almost reached the gates already. I’m glad there weren’t any obstacles, such as lampposts, in the way. I chuckle to myself as a memory of Hitomi surfaces. I see a brown-haired girl up ahead facing away from me. She is wearing a pair of jeans and a pink tracksuit jacket with white stripes. As I get closer, I recognise the girl as Miki.

As the gap between us closes, she turns around, smiles and waves her left arm. Although her choice of clothes isn’t what I was expecting, they do look good on her.

“You didn’t go check on Akemi?” Miki asks as I stop walking.

I shake my head. “No, I wasn’t sure if she would have wanted me to. I don’t know if she would even be at the Nurse’s or in her room, wherever that is.”

“So… Nothing going on between the two of you?” A cheeky look appears on her face.

“No.” That was probably said a bit too quickly. I guess we have gotten close. Heck, I’m not even bothered by her seeing my scars anymore - my chest scars that is.

Miki looks at me as if studying me before saying “Uh huh, if you say so. Should we go now?”

“Yeah we can. Uh… Any place in particular you’d want to go?”

A smile spreads across Miki’s face as she asks “You didn’t think of where to go, did you?” I shake my head. “Hmm… There is a café in the city that does good meals, but it’s too late to go now.” Miki thinks for a moment before an idea seems to appear in her head. “How about the Shanghai?”

***

Making our way down the hill, Miki and I have a conversation about random stuff, parts of which include her poking fun at me for not choosing a destination. I do remind her that I am new to Yamaku and the area.

Partway down the hill, Miki and I see a person on a bicycle zoom past us at a high speed. I would hazard a guess that he was probably going somewhere around fifty kilometres per hour. The cyclist looks a bit familiar, and I find out who it was when I hear Miki say “Geez Akahito, it’s a bad idea for you to go that fast, even if you’re freewheeling.”

“He crashed then? I guess it wasn’t that bad if he can go that fast now.” I say.

“It would have been, if he had been going as fast as he is now and if it wasn’t his prosthetic side he landed on.” She says, clearly not happy.

“Prosthetic side?” I enquire.

“Yeah, his left arm and leg are prosthetics.” Miki replies.

***

We soon end up inside the Shanghai where we are taken to a spare table. Nearly all the other tables are empty, too, so we are able to choose where we want to sit - Miki wants to sit next to a window.

One of the staff soon comes to us and takes our orders. As I feel I have been having mapo doufo so much, I am going to change it - though not by much – to katsu chicken curry and a pot of green tea. Miki picks out a meat udon dish, and our server bows and walks off. I watch as he walks off, and once he’s out of range, I turn to Miki and ask “No drink?”

Miki shakes her head and replies “Nahh, I’m not a fan of the drinks here, so I’ll just have water.” She then proceeds to fill a glass with water from the pitcher which was already on the table.

After taking a few mouthfuls and swallowing, Miki asks “So, did you finish your little research thing on Akemi’s epilepsy?”

“Not quite yet. It was an interesting read though.” Even if I couldn’t read it all.

Miki takes a sip of her glass of water. “Interesting read? Speaking of interesting, earlier today I had a guy from my class ask me to help him lose weight.”

“Are you going to help him” I ask, interested, not in the guy, but in what her response was.

Miki looks into her nearly empty glass of water and answers, in a slightly subdued tone “I’m not sure. I’m not really one for teaching or being able to help others, or myself.” Her voice trails off as she looks at her left hand – no, wrist.

“Except Suzu?” I add to her sentence, hopefully to improve the mood, causing her to look up at me and smile.

“Snoozu’s different. We kind of rely on each other, but this guy... I would have no idea how to help him. He’s good at drawing but that wouldn’t help me help him,” Miki finishes.

“So what are you going to do?” I ask, curious.

Miki looks at her glass and starts spinning it on the table before replying “I have no idea. I’ll work something out, like I have in every other situation I’ve ended up in.”

Miki stops spinning the glass and looks straight at me. “That’s enough about me, did you do any sports at your old school?”

“No, I used to, but I stopped about five years ago because… reasons.” I reply, nearly going deeper than I’d want to. Saying that, I can almost guarantee what Miki is going to ask next.

“Care to share?” she asks, a genuinely curious look spread on her face.

“I’d rather not say if that’s alright.” I reply and offer Miki a smile.

She stares at me for a few seconds as if she’s trying to find my reasons on my face. Good luck with that, I’ve had years of practice hiding it. Not even my best friend Hitomi knows everything.

Our eyes soon lock with each other’s causing me to look down at the table. I think of something to say, and a question immediately pops into my head.

“What about you, what sport do you do, Miki?” I ask.

“Running, I’m on the track team. I’m the second fastest on the team, right behind Emi.” I sense a competitive tone in her voice as she says the last part.

“Who’s Emi?”

Now smiling, Miki describes her “A small, cute girl in Sakurai’s class. It can be hard to see her as she likes the run around the school, including the corridors. She gets chastised all the time about it.

“Sounds like a fun girl.” I respond.

Miki makes a noise in acknowledgement before asking “So there’s no chance of you joining the track team?”

I shake my head. I had enough of that five years ago.

Miki makes what looks like an attempt at puppy dog eyes. “What are you doing, Miki?”

“Damn, how does she do it then? Should have known Emi’s puppy dog eyes wouldn’t work if I tried them. Shame. It usually gets her what she wants - mostly with the guys,” she laments.

Miki’s eyes widen, and I look at her in confusion as I ask “Were you not meant to say that?”

“No, Well yes, but not that. Your eye’s bleeding, Ryuunosuke!” she explains in an alarming tone.

I bring my hand to my left eye and feel wetness. “Oh, yeah, so it is,” I say in a semi-caring tone. Having it happen as much as it does has made me quite impassive. With my right hand I reach for one of the napkins on the table before cleaning my hand and eye.

“Better?”

Miki nods her head and opens her mouth, but as she is about to speak, we hear the sound of a woman apologising getting closer to us. We look and see a familiar looking woman carrying food approach us before almost dropping it on our table and telling us to enjoy it before rushing off to the front of the place.

“Poor Yuuko. I wish she’d relax just a little bit, she’ll have a stroke or some sort of aneurysm otherwise.” I hear Miki say.

Miki then looks down at her food and quickly starts eating - in a way that would lose her any ladylike points if she had any. Looking too busy to reply to any question I could ask, I dig into my food, too.

After some time passes, we have both almost finished our food, Miki having considerably slowed down her pace.

“You know those puppy dog eyes you tried? Even if this Emi were as good as you say she is, I doubt they’d have worked. Only one person’s puppy dog eyes have ever worked on me, and she doesn’t even come here, so I’m safe.” I tell Miki.

Interested, Miki replies “Oh? And who would that be?” A look I can’t quite explain adorns her face.

“My best friend, Hitomi...” I feel myself smiling, but my smile freezes as I realise something. “...who I have not spoken too since before I started here…?” I offer a nervous laugh, knowing full well what Hitomi would do if she was here right now. She’d be either angry or disappointed, probably both.

Miki offers her own, non-nervous chuckle before saying “Maybe you should call her when we leave, so she doesn’t think you’re dead?”

“Heh, maybe. I’m worried she’d come down here and kill me herself-.” I’m cut off by a recognisable chiptune sound coming from Miki.

I hear her quietly ask “Kurou?” She pulls out a purple phone from her pocket and brings it to her ear. “Hey Kurou, what’s u- What?” I can hear the sound of a non-distinguishable male voice through her phone “Hold on, wait for me, I’ll be there in a few minutes!” She moves the phone from her ear and presses a button before putting it back into her pocket and bringing out her purse. “Sorry Ryuunosuke, but something important has just happened, and I need to leave. Let me give you my share of the cost.”

I put my hand up and say “Don’t worry about the cost, it was my treat anyway. And also don’t worry, stuff happens.” I offer a smile to her.

Miki beams a pretty smile at me as she stands up and puts her purse away. “Thanks, you’re one of the good ones. Sakurai sure is a lucky girl.” Wait, what? Miki then rushes out of the place in a surprisingly fast and agile way.

***

I return to Yamaku and surprise myself at how lost I’m not getting now, a feat I’m happy with. Entering the boys’ dormitory, I make my way to the top floor where my room is. I look down the corridor and see a wrapped box outside my door. Curious and already heading that way, I head to the package and look at the label on top of it. I immediately recognise the scrawl as my uncle’s. Unlocking my door, I open it and pick up whatever my uncle sent me and enter my room. It is lighter than I expected it to be, especially from him.

I close the door behind myself with my foot and hear it close fully. I walk to my desk and place the package on it. Lacking a knife to cut the tape binding the top of the package together, I use the next best thing – my keys.

After I open the flaps I can see three things: on the top is a letter which I take out. Under that is a DVD boxed set of a show I haven’t finished watching yet – Twelve Kingdoms, and the third and biggest item: a portable DVD player. I look back at the DVD case and remember that when I was at home, I was watching it with my best friend, Hitomi. When I say she is my best friend, she was also kind of my only friend, at least before I came here. I was surprised how judgemental everyone at my school was when I returned after my accident. I tended to bump into quite a bit of stuff back then, and they laughed. I am glad I have grown mostly accustomed to my lack of depth perception. That is one of the reasons I wanted to come here, another being away from the town and neighbourhood where Shiori died.

After going off on that depressing tangent inside my own head, I think about what started it. I quickly remember it had something to do with Hitomi, the friend whom I haven’t gotten in contact with since I started here. She will probably be mad at me, knowing her. I will try to remember to call her later as I wouldn’t want to end up like the guy who got on her bad side after he attacked me.

For now, I think I will check to see if this DVD player has survived the journey. I remember my uncle sending me a box of biscuits that you could only get where he lives but when it got to me, I thought he had sent dust for some reason, until he told me what it was. I am curious why he went all the way to my house and sent this player though. I wonder if it even has any charge in it.

As soon as I open it and turn it on, it beeps at me and shows a low battery icon. I look in the box and I see my uncle put the charge cable for it in the box, too. I plug it in, and it thankfully starts charging. I then open the DVD case and insert one of the discs into the player. As it starts, I remember the letter that was in the box, too.

After opening the envelope, and unfolding the letter I start reading.

Hello Ryuunosuke. I hope you are well and are adjusting to Yamaku. If I remember correctly from my time at Yamaku and the current temperature here, it should be getting warmer there. You will probably be wondering why I am writing a letter instead of calling you, correct? Well, one reason is so you will have an explanation as to why I seemingly randomly sent a DVD player to you while not ruining the little surprise at the same time. The other reason is that despite having written several books, I am still useless at writing letters.

When you receive this letter and the box I sent, I will not be in the country as I will be in America to do some hands-on research for my next book. One of my friends here has graciously let me stay at his during my visit. Tamiko will be joining me here once her pet project in China is finished. Don’t worry, our house is secure and Yuudai is at yours and will no doubt be enjoying Hitomi’s company. That dog really loves that girl. That dog also knows how to greet you in a painful way, for guys at least.

At the bottom of the box that should have come with this letter there is a mosaic photo that Tamiko managed to finally complete, the one you asked for a few months ago. The one of Shiori. It is wrapped up to hopefully protect it on its way to you.

The DVD that is in the box is your copy of it. I got you a new player as your old one was on its last legs and was almost seven years old. I went to your father’s and Hitomi told me you hadn’t finished the series before you left. I’m not sure how many TV’s Yamaku will have gained in the past thirty years since I was there.

How old is my uncle again? Nearly fifty if I remember right? I am about to continue reading the letter when I hear my phone notify me that I have a message. I reach over to my phone and open it. I see the message is from an unknown but familiar looking number. I open the text and it reads [Are you still alive and are you busy?]

Part of me wants to ignore the message since the number is unknown, but a bigger part wants to reply, purely for curiosity’s sake. I am glad I’m not a cat. I reply [Yes and no. Who are you?]

I close my phone and put it back down, but it immediately emits a different tone, a caller tone. I look at the display and see it’s the same number. I wonder who it is. To sate my curiosity, I press the answer button and put the phone to my ear. “Hello? Who is this?”

I am greeted with a female voice, sounding slightly hurt, saying “Really? I’m disappointed you tried to remove another eye.”

What? A second or two of confusion passes before I realise. Oops.

“Hey Hito-”

I am cut off by Hitomi’s slightly hurt sounding voice. “So you do remember me. I was thinking you had forgotten who I was. I was beginning to wonder if you were alive.”

I wonder how much of her hurt tone is faked. “I could never forget about you, Hitomi. You’re my best friend after all.”

“Except you didn’t call or have my number,” Hitomi interjects.

“Sorry, you know my father gave me a new phone and SIM card before I came here.”

“Nope. It’s just as well your uncle dropped by with Yuudai and asked if I had talked to you yet- No Yuudai, that food is not for you, it’s mine!” I can’t help but chuckle at what must be unfolding. Yuudai must have snuck up to her and jumped at her. He really is a hyper dog. “Don’t look at me like that... Fine. Sit. Sit. Good boy. Here you go... You, stop laughing Ryuunosuke. When I come over, I will hurt you. I wanted that bacon.”

“You do know that the reason Yuudai likes you so much is because you give him food every time he looks at you. I would say you’re too soft, but I know better.”

“Hey! I’m plenty soft enough. Stop Yuudai, don’t lick my mmph-.”

I chuckle and say “His way of saying he loves you, Hitomi.”

I hear the sound of another female through in the background on Hitomi’s end call Yuudai’s name.

“Thanks mum. Love sucks.”

“So, you were calling to make sure I hadn’t died yet.” I state.

A slight pause. “Yes. Well, that and to tell you that there’s a festival at your school which I will be going to. Jirou told me about it when he dropped Yuudai off before leaving to go off to another country.”

Hitomi, coming here? I’m not sure if that is good or bad. Interesting for sure though. “Isn’t that a little far to travel?” I ask as I remember it taking my father several hours to drive us from the house to Yamaku. Granted, we did leave during rush hour, so that didn’t help with the journey time.

“Not really, as long as I have my music and don’t forget my train stop, I’ll be fine. Jirou suggested that I come anyway, even offered to pay. Now, I have a question. Met any interesting people at your school?”

Define ‘interesting’. By her tone, I can tell what she is referring to.

I tell Hitomi about the people I’ve met so far; the jokester Miki, the posh-type but approachable Lilly, Shizune, the shy, but good swimmer and wheelchair-bound Akemi, a guy who wears red tinted sunglasses inside called Masahiro and a second year girl called Kaiya who doesn’t appear to care what her words do to people.. When I tell her Shizune and Lilly are here, Hitomi laughs and asks if they still hold the grudge. I tell her that I think they do judging by how they acted around me. Hitomi tells me that I shouldn’t have done that bet.

As we start to speak about something else, my phone makes a beeping sound. I look at the screen and see the battery icon is red. I tell Hitomi, and she says she should go anyway as she has stuff to do tomorrow morning. Before she puts the phone down, she tells me one more thing, and that is to not to get into trouble.

***

*** Yasuko’s PoV ***

I arrive in Akemi’s room and sit down in her wheelchair - the wheelchair I just pushed all the way from Nurse’s office. I think I regret doing that, even if what I intend to do is good. Even pushing it hurt, but I endured it. I tried wheeling myself, in it but upon pushing down on the wheel, my ribs screamed at me. They probably would have if they had a mouth. That’s a weird and disturbing thought. I scratch that from my mind.

Akemi’s wheelchair is really comfy. I am glad my father was able to repair this after Akemi’s last crash in it. She’s had this for several years as her father, my uncle, bought it and modified it for her with a custom powered attachment unit. Speaking of that, where would it be? I spin the left wheel of the wheelchair round so I won’t have to painfully turn my neck, not that it can turn it much anyway... Well it can but not without excruciating pain, which I prefer to avoid. I find the attachment behind the door to get in. Looking at it, I contemplate attaching it myself but I remember my fingers are still very sore. Letting out a sigh, I pull my phone out of my pocket and call Kaiya.

After a few rings, I hear a familiar voice but with a raspy tone say “Hey Yasuko, how’s Akemi?”

Figures she’d already know. Kaiya can easily find things out - that’s how I found out stuff about Akemi’s crush, even if she is denying it. “She’s, err, recovering. She’ll be back to her normal self soon. What’s wrong with you?” I reply.

“Dry throat, from the cannula,” She explains, “Also not wearing the cannula at the moment either.”

“Isn’t that dangerous?” I ask, worried.

“Eh, can be if I’m doing anything more strenuous than a very slow walk, I’m only in my room resting anyway. If something does happen, the emergency button is only an arm’s length away. Why’d you call anyway?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, Could you put your oxygen back in and come up to Akemi’s room?”

A long pause occurs. “Kaiya? You still breathing?”

“More or less. Yeah, I can come up. Will be a few minutes. I need to check the pipe first and then take some medicine, but I’ll come after.” Kaiya replies.

“Thank you, see you in a few minutes.” My statement is followed by a click on the other end signalling Kaiya ending the call. From what I know, it doesn’t take her that long to change her pipe. Also from what I know, Kaiya seems to have some sort of asphyxia fetish. That is what I’ve gathered from the past few months that I’ve known her at least.

Sitting in this wheelchair is comfy for my butt, but not my back. How can Akemi find this back panel comfy enough to lean back on it for most of the day? I stand up from her wheelchair and, ignoring the pain, walk to her bed and lie down on top of it. Akemi’s bed is really, really comfy. Possibly more so than mine. I really like it. I wonder if she’d notice if I changed the mattress.

While lying on Akemi’s bed, I think about my visit to the nurse’s office. Nurse was swapping gloves and had to open a new box. It didn’t want to open, and I’m pretty sure he cussed a few times.

I find myself letting out a small chuckle which gets instantly cut short by pain. While Nurse can be fun, it does get annoying that he keeps going on about me and my neck brace. Honestly, I have no idea where that thing is. I’m not telling him that though as he would not be happy. While I still am feeling pain from my ribs, it isn’t as bad as it could be. Nurse was kind enough to give me some painkillers one level above my current ones. He wouldn’t give me any higher ones due to some reason which he wouldn’t go into.

After my ribs were x-rayed, it was found that there’s a hairline fracture on one of my lower right ribs. I was also told how long it would take for it to heal - around four to six weeks. Just enough time for Akemi’s next seizure to happen. Oy vey.

That’s probably the only Yiddish I know.

Continued

[Hesmiyu]

Previous Post

I think back to her seizure and the show we were watching. I had never noticed until now, but there seems to be a similarity between myself and Tsukushi Makino. If Akemi and I were in that show and I was Tsukushi, then would that mean Akemi would be Sakurako? Well, except for the betrayal part, hopefully. If that were the case, who would Yamaku’s F4 be? I think for a few seconds, and then a really strong candidate comes to mind – Masahiro. He comes from a really wealthy and powerful family, and I’ve heard stories about his mother. That’s probably why they stowed him away at Yamaku: They do not want to ‘taint’ their image. Two other names pop into my head, two people I hate, Saki Enomoto and Rika Katayama. Hmm, that’s only three names though. Who could the fourth person be? Shizune, maybe?

From my current position, I slowly sit up and audibly groan as my ribs also groan, in protest and subdued pain. I believe the manga that show is based on is in Akemi’s room somewhere as I’m sure I left it in here at one point. Looking around from my position, I spot the corner of a manga by the side of Akemi’s desk. Slowly, I go to it and grab it, but to my disappointment, I see it is the eighth issue of Rurouni Kenshin. Never been fond of any of those mangas, but Akemi likes them. I throw it on top of her desk and spy another. This is not what I was looking for either, this one being Sailor Moon. I slump into the nearest thing I can sit or lie on, that being Akemi’s wheelchair.

After waiting for around 15 minutes, there is a recognisable knock at Akemi’s door. I call out for the person to enter. The door opens revealing who I was expecting; Kaiya.

Upon seeing me, the first thing she says is “God you look awful.” I resist the urge to chuckle as she then looks around the room. “Where’s Akemi?”

“Thanks, I try my best. Akemi’s still in the infirmary, yet to wake I think.”

“Oh, okay. What did you want me for if she isn’t her here?” Kaiya asks.

“Someone to talk too, and I need someone with able fingers to attach Akemi’s powered unit to her wheelchair and I injured mine protecting Akemi’s head during her seizure,” I tell her, making a show of my hands which are still quite red.

“Ouch, where’s the unit?”

“They’re by the door. Thank you.”

Kaiya turns her neck, a feat I’m jealous off, and I hear her say “Got any decent music to play while I do it?”

Akemi’s tastes vary so I don’t really have an answer to her question. I go over to the CD player which is by the side of her dresser and press play assuming there’s already a CD in it. A song starts playing, and I then spy a CD case next to it, labelled ‘Fiction Yuki Kajiura’. I’ve known Kaiya since the start off this school year, and I still don’t know what sort of music she likes.

I look back to Kaiya after one of the songs starts, and I hear her say “Why doesn’t Akemi get an actual powered wheelchair instead of this setup?”

What? Oh yeah, we’ve never told Kaiya about Akemi’s dad. “It may not be the best, far from it actually. Neither Akemi nor I want to change it as her dad, my uncle, made it for her.”

“Why doesn’t he change it then?” she asks. I go cold, then remember Kaiya doesn’t know he died. I’m glad she’s asking me and not Akemi.

“He probably would, if he could.” Kaiya looks at me with a confused look so I continue “He’s dead. Died during a boating accident six years ago.

“Oh. Oh, I’m sorry.” Kaiya apologises, her eyes wide.

“Don’t be. But be careful if you end up asking Akemi about him. She was very much a daddy’s girl. He taught her to swim twice, before and after her accident.” Kaiya nods her head in acknowledgement, a serious look on her face. This is one of the few times I’ve seen such a look on her face.

Kaiya looks at the powered unit’s parts and then back to me before asking “So, now the depressing parts are out the way, how the fuck do these parts fit?”

Over the next few minutes, maybe even half hour, I explain to Kaiya how each of the pieces fit on the chair: The two motors sit just above the wheels to friction drive it, the joystick control sits on the right arm, and the heavy battery goes underneath and they’re all connected by wires.

“When you can, could you also take it to the nurse’s office?” I ask Kaiya.

“Yeah, of course,” she answers.

“Thanks. I would, but it would hurt my ribs.”

“Anytime. I’ve noticed Akemi has taken a liking to that Ryuu guy quite quickly. I guess that’s why you wanted me to look into him, right?” Kaiya says, sitting on the bed next to me.

“Ryuunosuke? Yeah. Don’t want her to make the same mistake I made.” Kaiya looks at me with an interested and confused look. I assume she wants me to go on. I let out a sigh. “I fell for Massimiliano pretty much as quickly, except we were friends during our childhood when I lived in Italy. Akemi had warned me about him when I told her how I felt about him. It turned out she was correct after I found out he hated the fact I was coming to this type of school and that he only ‘put up’ with Akemi because I was there. I dumped him then and there. No one uses her to get to me, good or bad intentions! Akemi and I visited each other quite a lot despite living over nine thousand kilometres from each other. What did you find out about Ryuunosuke anyway?”

Kaiya blinks several times, and I start to think she didn’t hear me. “Well, I’m glad you found me rather than me finding you.” She lets out a light chuckle. “I went to my grandfather’s house yesterday, and I asked him about the Shibanuma house. Turns out he knows quite a few things about them as he’s crossed path with a person called Jirou Shibanuma. Apparently, he’s wheelchair bound and went here. You know my father works at the hospital nearby? It turns out my father treated Ryuunosuke when he got injured during some demonstration nearby.”

“I remember that! Well, the story that appeared in the school paper.” I’d never seen Naomi and Natsume getting so excited about getting a story so quickly. I even got a copy of it.

“Really? Maybe- no, if it was the school one, it’s doubtful he’d have read it. Why not come with me to my grandfather’s and ask him about the family?” Kaiya says as she tilts her head.

***

*** Ryuunosuke’s PoV ***

After changing, I walk to the pool next to the lifeguard’s office. I notice a lack of something, like yesterday – Akemi’s singing. It seems I’ve gotten used to her singing. It doesn’t hurt that her voice isn’t too bad either. As I pass the office, I look through the doorway and see the same person as when I tried to jump out the pool, looking like she’s busy reading. I continue on and enter the pool room. Looking up and down the pool’s length, I can’t see Akemi. Strange. The time on the clock on the wall indicates a suspicion I may be early to be wrong. So if I’m here at the right time, where is Akemi? The lifeguard I passed in that office may know. I backtrack to it.

“Hello?”

The lifeguard puts her book down, looks at me and gently smiles. “May I help you?”

It’s a nice smile. “Yeah, I was wondering if Akemi has been here yet, she’s normally here before me.”

The lifeguard’s smile falters as she puts her book down. “Shibanuma, right? Akemi had a seizure yesterday. Sei-? Oh, oh yeah, I remember Yasuko telling me through Akemi’s phone.

“Is she okay? How bad was it?” As I speak, I hear my voice take on a tone of urgency.

The lifeguard sweetly smiles and tells me “Please calm down, Akemi is fine now. She is recovering from what I’ve heard. If you want, you can get into the pool. But this time, please try not jump out of the pool like Akemi can.” I don’t have any plans on doing that again. I wince as I remember the pain in my shin afterwards.

“Thank you. I don’t plan too”

I turn away and start to head back to the pool, entering the room again. I walk to the pool and sit on the edge, dangling my legs into the pool. The pool feels as cold as it normally does, so I brace myself as I slide the rest of myself into it. A decision I regret as it turns out the pool feels colder than it normally is. Could that be because Akemi isn’t in here? A random and unrelated thought appears in my head – I didn’t read the rest of my uncle’s letter. I should do that when I get back to my room. I think I put it on my desk. Seeing as the pool’s cold, I decide to immediately start swimming and hope I warm up.

After completing several laps, I am not much warmer so I stop at one side of the pool. From where I’ve stopped, I can clearly see the clock on the wall and find I have only been in here for about fifteen minutes, it feels a lot longer than that. Perhaps I should leave after I’ve done a few more laps? Before I do that, perhaps I should see how fast I can swim now. Maybe I can now be faster than Akemi. That would surprise her. A smile appears on my face and I decide to do that.

Positioning my legs so I can push off the wall, I wait for the seconds hand on the clock to reach twelve. As it reaches twelve, I push as off as hard as I can from the wall and swim as if my life depends on it. Stroke by stroke, I definitely feel like I’m going very fast. Somehow, it feels wrong to be in here by myself. I think that may be because every time I’ve been here so far Akemi's been here. I hope she’s okay. I’ll try to remember to message her to see if she’s okay. I could go to her room, but that would lead to three problems; one, I’d be in the girls’ dormitory, two, I have no idea where Akemi’s room would be, I would assume ground floor because of her wheelchair, and three, even meeting in the pool makes her shy, so how’d she deal with me on her doorste-? “Ouch!”

All thought disappears as my vision gets replaced by a blinding light filled with stars as I feel extreme pain in my head. I manage to get my head above water and flail to find the edge of the pool with my arms. I manage to pull myself out and I sit on the edge grabbing my head in pain. As I’m doing this my vision returns to normal. The seconds tick by, and I feel as though the pain is getting worse. I then feel a hand on my shoulder followed by a female voice “Are you alright, Shibanuma?”

In the midst of the pain, which is slowly starting to subside, I am able to reply “Hit my head on the wall of the pool.”

I feel her put her hands on my head as she says “Hold still, let me look.” A few painful seconds pass as she searches my head. She then says “Thankfully there’s no blood so you should be fine. I would say, however, to take a break from the pool for the rest of the day. Also, it may be a good idea to get checked by the nurse later in case you have a concussion.”

Thankfully, the pain in head is lessening, and I am able to tell her that I will if I start feeling unwell. I start to stand, and she helps me up for which I thank her. I try to see if I can walk without help, and thankfully I can.

As I make my way back to the changing room, I think to myself that perhaps seeing how fast I could swim with bad depth perception and a running mind was a bad mix. My head would agree with it I’m sure.

Entering the changing room, my head notices the cold air circling around, slightly worsening the pain. I try to ignore it and pull a towel out of my bag. I dry my hands first and reach into my bag to pull out my phone to text Akemi while I still remember. After I’ve sent the text, I look at the time and find that I have plenty of time to get a decent breakfast, but first, I’ll get changed before going to my room to get my uniform. Hopefully by then, my head will have stopped pounding.

***

Author's Notes;
- For those who are wondering what Hitomi means by Ryuunosuke removing another eye, Hitomi’s name is Japanese for eye.
- Initially I wasn’t going to have Akemi’s epilepsy revealed until much, much later in the story where she was able to hide it and the seizures form Ryuunosuke. With Mirage saying stuff (forgot what, sorry) I had the reveal at the start so had to add areas where she seizes, adding to inconvenient spaces, like real ones.
- You may notice a similar naming theme with the Shibanuma family; Ryuunosuke, Ryouichi, Jirou, Yuudai… This is completely intentional.
- The Rurouni Kenshin manga is mentioned as a drawing I did if Ryuunosuke got compared to the titular character, wasn’t intentional.

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[TravelingMaster]

I know it's been almost a year, but I'm enjoying this story a lot and hope you eventually plan to add more to it.

[Hesmiyu]

It's been over a year? Whoops lol. I have notes for all upcoming chapters. Distracted by jobs, YouTube channel and 3 other stories (non fan fiction) I've got in the works. I should really continue it

[Hesmiyu]

Whats this? A new chapter after a year? :O As stated in my previous post, I had gotten distracted. What I hadn't stated what that my drive for the story had subsided due to lack of response. Here is chapter 11 with 11.9k words.

----
Chapter 11: Wake Up

I enter my homeroom, my head now thankfully only emitting a dull thud, easily bearable. I see several people already here, including Lilly and Masahiro. I take my seat and greet them both. Lilly greets me in a cheerful tone whereas Masahiro appears to be distracted.

“Is everything alright, Masahiro?”

“Yes. Well, I’m still trying to figure out how my sister managed to trip over something that was very easy for her to see,” he replies.

A thought appears in my head, one I’ll keep at bay for the moment.

“Does she have bad depth perception, like me? I still misjudge things, including pool walls,” I say, thinking of this painful morning.

A confused look crosses Masahiro’s face before quickly disappearing. “No, she doesn’t have any disabilities, she’s perfect. Aside from her Asperger’s that is.” Do I detect some disdain there? “She’s only here because our mother sent her to keep an eye on me,” Masahiro says, his tone indicating he doesn’t like that. I can’t say I blame him. Isn’t Asperger’s some type of Autism or something?

“Asperger’s? I thought Yamaku didn’t allow those kind of illnesses?” I ask.

Judging from Masahiro’s expression, I accidentally hit a nerve. “First, Asperger’s isn’t an illness, and secondly,” I notice his expression change to a slight frown, “Wakana was allowed to come here due to my mother’s financial support for the school.”

A different thought appears in my head. One I vocalise to him. “Masahiro, are you sure your sister tripped and did not fall?” Some people are against those with disabilities, as I found out at my old school, but could the opposite be true in this school?

“You sound like you are implying that my sister is being bullied.” Masahiro’s tone thankfully does not sound accusatory.

“It is a school after all, even if the students are disabled.”

Masahiro appears to enter a state of thinking for several seconds before saying “Come to think of it, that would explain some other stuff that has happened.”

We are suddenly drawn by a male voice at the classroom entrance “Come on Kirino, you know you want to.”

The girl, Kirino, has long bushy brown hair which goes over the front of her shoulders. She is also wearing an eye patch which has a smiley face on it. She stops, and I notice a smile appear on her face. She turns to face the guy before saying “Moriya, just because you have a camera and copies of Badi and Labrys, it doesn’t mean I want to do that kind of photoshoot. Moriya turns red as the people in the class start laughing. He splutters out something as Kirino faces back to the class with a big smile on her face. She is still wearing the smile as she walks past and takes her seat behind me. Poor guy. As she walked past me, I was able to see the patch better and noticed the smiley face only has one eye. As I wonder about the eyepatch, I realise that I know very little about my classmates, aside Masahiro and Lilly. I know Kenji but I am far from fond of him.

***

Japanese is followed by English. Japanese, I’m good at, unlike English. I hope I don’t have to leave the country for any reason, I’d probably end up stuck there, unable to speak the native language. English slowly passes and changes into Mathematics where I am paired with Lilly and Masahiro, the three of us working on quadratic equations. When I say three of us, I mean two as I’m staring at this maths question, struggling to figure out how to do it. We formed a group to do these questions after our teacher, Kobayashi, told the class to make groups. I know that to graph this equation, I need to plot the vertex, but I can’t seem to figure out where the y-intercept goes. This is frustrating as normally I’m good at maths. Each time I try to do my part of it, my mind keeps getting drawn back to the empty pool this morning. During Japanese, I was okay but during English I think I did worse than I normally do, if that was even possible. I haven’t received a text back from Akemi yet.

I hear Masahiro speak to me “Are you alright, Ryuunosuke? You appear to be distracted.” That obvious?

“I can’t focus. Akemi had a seizure, at some point yesterday, and this morning she wasn’t in the pool. I sent a message to her phone asking if she’s okay,” I explain.

“Will she be okay?” Lilly asks, concerned.

I hope so. “I don’t know. I haven’t got a message back yet,” I reply.

“You must be worried. You’re normally really good at maths, if Miyagi’s mock test was any indication.”

“I normally am. I don’t know why her seizure seems to be on my mind so much.”

“I can think of a reason why,” Masahiro says, a smile appearing on his face. What are you implying? I also hear a soft giggle escape from Lilly. I sneak a look at her and see a smile on her porcelain face.

***

*** Akemi’s PoV ***

Why is my body so stiff and sore? I open my eyes and am greeted by a blinding white light from somewhere causing me to squint. As my eyes adjust to the light, I hear two voices, one male, and the other sounding similar to mine. I’m in the nurse’s office, and that male voice belongs to him. Why is he here- no, why am I in the nurse’s office? I suddenly let out a yawn. Why am I- Oh. I think I know the answer. I had a seizure didn’t I?

I slowly sit up, and I can’t tell if it’s me or my joints groaning as I do so. After managing to sit, I look around and see a mirror. In it I see a girl whose brown hair is really messy and knotted. Oh joy. This will take me ages to sort out, even if Yasuko helps! I let out a sigh at the thought. Looking closer I see my platinum roots starting to show. I haven’t had my hair back platinum for a while now. I see and hear the curtain divider behind me open, revealing two people; Nurse and a long platinum-haired girl with golden yellow eyes and wearing a purple track top and bottoms. She looks extremely familiar, almost as if she is my tw- Aneko?! I turn round and my body groans in protest. My mind and memories are still semi-foggy due to the seizure I had. I hate this part of the seizure. Well, I hate all of it really.

Nurse is the first to speak “Welcome back to the land of the living, Sakurai.”

I offer Nurse a weak smile before asking Aneko “Why are you here, Aneko?”

All of a sudden, Aneko rushes forward and pulls me into a tight hug, causing me to let out a small “eep” sound. While her hug is nice, warm and comforting, it isn’t good for someone who’s aching as much as I am. Aneko is still tightly hugging me as the Nurse explains “You had a bad seizure yesterday, another nurse and I brought you here. Because of the extent of your seizure, your guardians were called.” Guardians? Yasuko’s parents, my aunt and uncle? “This morning your sister here came by. I always think I’m seeing double, except for your eye colour and your dyed hair.” Don’t forget the non-walking part.

“When they got the call, Aunt Yuuki and Uncle Keisuke asked me to come check on you seeing as I live and work in the city,” Aneko tells me, her life draining, tight hug having loosened a bit. Considering we’re both 19, She sure doesn’t mind hugs.

“Now you’ve been reacquainted with your sister, Sakurai, could you let her go, so I can do some tests on her, please.” Nurse asks Sakur- no, Aneko with a slight chuckle. My head is still messed up somewhat.

Aneko lets go of me and looks at Nurse before responding. “Sure.” She turns back to face me “I’ll be outside.” I nod my head weakly, and she smiles. Aneko then leaves the room leaving me with the nurse.

Once the door closes behind her, Nurse turns to me and says “Seeing as you’ll figure it out later even if I don’t tell you, Yasuko came by a short time after you were brought here because you had accidentally hit her during your seizure.” What?! Shit, how’s her neck?!” My eyes widen as that thought runs through my mind. Obviously noticing my expression, Nurse then says “Don’t worry, Yasuko is well enough. It was her ribs you caught, not her neck. She will be happy that you’re awake and coherent now.”

“Where is she? Can I go see her?” I ask, possibly slightly too quickly.

Nurse smiles. “Worry about yourself first, Akemi. After all, you are the one in my office, not her. If your examination goes well, you can leave today. I’m not sure if you’re aware, but you did wake up earlier and were mildly distressed.”

I… I don’t remember that. I have been told numerous times that that happens to me. I never remember it though. Should I be glad or not?

“By that look on your face, you don’t remember it. At that time, it appeared some of your memories had returned, namely two people; your cousin, and a certain guy who’s been swimming with you.” Nurse finishes with a sly smile.

Ryuunosuke was one of the first people to reappear in my head, right? I can feel my face warming. I can’t look in Nurse’s direction right now so I look down at my body. That’s when I notice bruise marks on my arms. What will Ryuunosuke think when I see him in the pool? The pool, the one thing I absolutely love and that now I can’t go to for a few days. I feel my heart sink.

“Worried about your bruises? They should disappear within a few days. Now then, are you feeling weak or sore at all?” Nurse asks.

“A- A little. Mainly my arms and legs,” I say, looking down at where the thin bed cover is covering my legs. Both sets of limbs in question are really aching. How will I wheel myself to my room? Maybe Aneko?

“Okay, as you know, the weakness is be due to the seizure. Now, I have a question; have you been remembering to take your medication?” Nurse asks, his expression becoming stern as if he already knows the answer. Not good.

“N-No,” I stutter “I- I’ve been forgetting recently.” Here it comes. I hope he doesn’t ask me about stress causing some of my seizures.

Nurse raises his eyebrows. He then sighs and shakes his head as he says “Not good, Akemi, not good. You know those tablets allow us to better regulate your seizures to around one a month, and those to a lesser degree. You should know better than anyone that forgetting them increases the chance of you seizing or having a debilitating one.”

four times suddenly appear in my head; the first time I had a seizure, on my mother’s horse, which got spooked and trampled my legs, the time I broke my wrist during a seizure, the time I had a seizure in the sea, thankfully my dad was alive then and nearby, the fourth time I remember was my first year here, and it was a new environment.

“Without those, you would need to lead a stress-free life which is hard for a student. Trust me, I know.”

Please don’t tell me that story again. That’s one of the reasons I swim, even if my dad died at sea.

“Now, you already know this, but whether I let you go now or later, you can’t go swimming for a few days. I would recommend to wait until your strength has returned enough to be able to push yourself in your wheelchair. This will allow your body to recover. We wouldn’t want you to nearly drown, again.”

I reply with a dejected nod. My mind goes back to a seizure I had here in the pool just after I started. I was in the hospital for a short time because of it. My family were worried, but also unhappy that I had ignored the advice. I got the third degree from Nurse for that and the fourth from Aneko. That was much worse. Drowning is one thing I wouldn’t want to happen to me again, either at sea or in the pool.

“You may not swim, but you can still visit it if you want. I’m sure Shibanuma will like that.” Nurse says, finishing with a smile as I feel my face warming up. Why, Nurse, Why?

“Now that you’ve had another seizure, will you remember to take your medication? If not I may end up having to recruit two people to make sure you do.” Kaiya and Yasuko? Just telling them would be bad. Surely he can’t do that anyway, confidentiality and that, right?

Nurse appears to be able to read my mind as he then says “If you’re wondering what I’ll say, it’ll be along the lines of ‘Makes sure Sakurai takes her medication.’” He’s not smiling, meaning he is serious. I don’t like serious Nurse.

“I-I will remember. Please don’t tell them.” I plead.

Nurse smiles, Good, “I won’t, unless you forget. In the meantime, I’ll keep tabs on you to make sure. If I’m busy then remember I also have spies.” I notice a hint of a smile as he says that.

“I-I’ll remember.”

“Good, I already have enough paperwork.” Smiling, he points to a thick folder on a table. My folder. I feel guilty, even if that wasn’t his intention. “Now that I’ve chastised you, I’ve heard from my spies that you and Shibanuma are getting close. Judging by your redness, I’ll say she is correct. I hope he stays around, unlike your cousin.”

Yasuko likes swimming, but not as much as I do. She only joined me in the pool because her parents and I asked her too. Still, I’m glad she did, as she was there when I nearly drowned. I think that is why she is less fond of the pool now.

“Does Shibanuma know about your epilepsy? Nurse asks.

I nod and say “He knows I have it and that I have an unavoidable trigger.”

Nurse’s smile falters as he says “Unavoidable trigger? I assume he doesn’t know your menstrual cycle causes most of your seizures? Does he know that a lot of stress can cause it too?”

I shake my head. “N-No, neither, it has been such a long time since I had a stress-related one, I think I had actually forgotten about it.” Nurse did not like that.

“I didn’t want to lecture you more, but forgetting your triggers is as bad as forgetting your medication. I feel as though I have lectured you enough now. You’ve ended up here plenty of times anyway. Do you have any questions for me?”

Yes. “ I-Is there chance of me regaining some feeling or movement in my legs as I grow a-and get older?” I ask.

“Grow? You’re already nineteen, so I’ll doubt you will grow much more and I doubt you have an overactive growth hormone.” Don’t remind me that I’m two years older than everyone else in my year. I don’t want to be reminded of the reasons either. Nurse pauses and appears to think for a second “As for feelings and movement, the human body is a complex organism, so it can be possible. I wouldn’t put all my faith in it though, sorry.” He gives an apologetic smile.

That is a shame. I look around the room and spy a familiar wheelchair - my wheelchair. I see something attached to it. “Hey Nurse, that is my wheelchair, right?”

Nurse looks in the direction I’m looking before turning back and replying “Yes, Your cousin took it with her and got Ichimonji to attach the powered unit, at least she said she was going to get Ichimonji too. Ichimonji came by and dropped it off.” Thank you Kaiya and Yasuko.”

“When can I leave?” I ask.

Nurse smiles and says “Not enjoying my company? Normally in this situation I would want you to stay here until you’ve regained your strength but seeing as you seem to be attached by the hip to your cousin and as your sister is outside, you should be easily looked after. They will be able to help should you need it so you can leave now. Do you want too?” I nod my head.

Without a word, Nurse gets up and manoeuvres my wheelchair so it is next to the bed I’m on. I start to lift myself up but my arms refuse to cooperate properly. Nurse watches me struggle for several seconds before he asks “Do you want some help?”

No. I can do this. I want to do this. Several times I try to move myself, to no avail or than a few inches. If I keep this up I will get off this bed, but will end up in a mess on the floor.

“Yes.” I reply in a dejected tone. I hate this. Nurse offers another apologetic smile, not one of pity thankfully, as he manoeuvres himself so he can pick me up under my arms, baby-like. I am glad I am quite light but even so Nurse looks like he is struggling even as I do what I can with my arms. After lowering me into my wheelchair, Nurse lets out a breath of air. “T-Thank you. A-Are you okay?” I timidly ask. Why do I feel timid?

Nurse takes his seat and smiles. “Yes I am. You are okay to move your joystick, right?” Good.

I look to the right arm of my wheelchair where the joystick is and move it to the right to turn away from the bed. As it moves, the motors begin their whirring, or it may have been the motor wheels on the wheels doing that, I’m not quite sure. “Y-Yeah. Am I okay to leave?”

“Almost, hmm.” Nurse thinks for a second while stroking his chin. He then shakes his head. “Never mind.” I tilt my head in confusion, wondering what he was thinking. He doesn’t say what was on his mind as he instead says than I can leave. He walks to the door and opens it. Pushing the joystick on my arm rest, my wheelchair starts moving forward with a semi-loud whirring sound. As I pass Nurse, he says “Have fun with your sister, and remember to get some rest. And to not swim for a couple of days.”

I smile at him as I pass and say “I will.”

“Also, medication, don’t forget.”

Outside the office, I hear nurse close the door. To my left I hear something snap shut. I look that way and see a closed book by the side of my sister. Either I blanked out or Aneko’s gotten faster, but next second I feel her tightly hugging me. I bring my arms to hug her back as tightly as I can, which admittedly, isn’t that strong at the moment.

“I missed you Akemi!” It has been a while since I last saw Aneko, even though she only lives in the city near here. It’s also been a while since she’s deafened one of my ears. She lets me go and easily gets out of my weak grip. She draws back so her hands are on my shoulders. She stares at me for several seconds with her yellow eyes. When I don’t have dyed hair, our eyes are the only way to tell us apart.

“How are you truly feeling Akemi?” my sister asks me.

“W-Weak, and achy. I want to go to my room,” I reply, weakly. She smiles back at me.

“Not with that hair you’re not. You really are a mess Akemi, let me fix that.” Aneko turns to a bag on the seat next to where she was and pulls out a hair brush. Please be gentle, I’m fragile.

She walks back to me and starts pulling at my hair with the brush. “Why are you brushing my hair here and not in my room?” I ask her.

Aneko just blinks at me before she replies “Do you really want to go across the campus looking like a White-Eye has been nesting in that hair? You wouldn’t want any cute guys here to think you don’t take care of yourself, would you?” As I feel myself getting warm and going red, I realise Aneko was baiting me. Dammit! Judging by Aneko’s laugh, she noticed. “so, who is he? And when do Yasuko and I get to kill him? If she hasn’t already.” She noticed.

“N-No one.” I say too quickly. Aneko just stares at me with her bright yellow eyes which she knows how to pierce me with. After around a minute of trying to avoid her intense, silent staring. I look into her eyes and notice one of them twitch, almost as if she needs to blink. I give in and say “H-His name is R-Ryuunosuke S-Shibanuma.”

After finally blinking, Aneko smiles and says “There, that wasn’t so hard was it? Shibanuma, huh? I don’t know why, but I recognise that name. Maybe it’s on Yasuko’s murdered list? Now, let’s go to your room, never liked being in this sort of area.” Aneko puts her bag on her shoulder before disappearing behind me followed by my wheelchair moving.

***

With Aneko pushing me, we enter my room. As soon as I enter, I notice something is different, and I’m pretty sure it isn’t because of the temporary retrograde amnesia thing I get. I’m glad that’s only temporary. “Something’s different,” I find myself saying out loud.

“Of course! Can you figure out what?” I hear Aneko say with a slight giggle at the end. It must be something obvious then. Three years later I am still wondering if it was a good idea to give Aneko a key to my room. Looking around my room I spy the obvious stuff; my bed, table, TV, dresser- wait. I’m pretty sure my TV was taken after I broke it in a seizure. I twist round and look at Aneko, who is smiling, “Figured it out now? I was meant to bring it over a while ago but I was too busy with work.”

I would hug you if I could. “Th-Thank you Aneko.” Now I can watch all those boring programs to fall asleep too. I look at the TV more closely and see it is very similar to my previous one. Aneko walks round to the front of me, and I move forwards and manage to give her a hug, a weakened one though.

Aneko chuckles and says “Don’t squeeze me too tight, I still need to tell our aunt and uncle you like it.” So they’re the ones who bought it then. Sometimes I feel like they’re too good to me. I give Aneko a look and she says “What? They’re the ones who bought it, I just drove to them and brought it back as well as other reasons. This one comes with a remote so I won’t have to push the button on the TV itself.” Aneko smiles at me. Way to rub that in.

I get an itching feeling on my arm so I start rubbing it. When I do, it starts hurting so I roll my sleeve up and look. I somehow have a bandage wrapped around it. I guess I hit it during my seizure then. “Akemi, are you alright?” Aneko asks me.

“Yeah, I think I hit my arm earlier. Don’t worry about it, it’ll only become another bruise I have.”

I jump as I hear a knock at my door. By the time I face the door, Aneko is already at it, opening it. I watch as the door opens, and I see Yasuko there, with a pained smile on her face. Oh no.

“How’d you know I was here, Yasuko?” I ask.

Aneko answers by turning around and saying “I sent a message to her when we got here.”

“Yea-.” A pained expression appears on Yasuko’s face. How bad did I hit her?! “I thought I’d come by and check on you.”

Yasuko walks to my bed and carefully sits on it, she normally doesn’t do that carefully. She is joined by Aneko as I ask Yasuko “H-How bad are your ribs?”

“They’re okay, it’s just a scratch.”

“Y-You winced. T-That’s a lie.”

Yasuko looks squarely at me, no expression on her face. I know she isn’t trying to, but it is intimidating. She then says “See, I’m not wincing.”

“Y-You were.”

Yasuko’s sighs and says “Okay, so maybe I was.”

Aneko grabs my attention as she starts making a prodding motion towards Yasuko’s ribs. I smile and Yasuko notices. She swats away Aneko’s hand and immediately hisses and winces. She then says “I can’t win.”

Smiling, Aneko asks “Shall we put in a DVD and test your TV?

***

Continued

[Hesmiyu]

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*** Ryuunosuke’s PoV ***

The annoying tone of my alarm wakes me up, and I manage to turn it off with one swoop of my arm. I sit up and rub my eyes, feeling the suture scar around my bad eye as I do so. As I look around my room, my good eye is drawn to the time on the alarm clock. Either I hit the snooze button or slept through its initial sounding. Either way I woke up 15 minutes later than normal. Getting out of bed, I go to my wardrobe to get out some clothes to use to get to and from the auxiliary building. As I grab a pair of underwear, I remember that is easier to go there wearing my swimming trunks and have the underwear in my bag to come back in. I finish getting changed and make sure I also have a towel in my bag.

I look at my bed and see the messy state it is in. Perhaps I should make it look neat, even if it’s only me in here. My eye then gets drawn to a rectangular looking object poking out between my desk and my bed. Reaching down for it, I grab it and pull it out. That is when I notice it is my diary. How did it get down here? Did I knock it off at some point? I then remember that I haven’t written in it for the past few days. This makes me open it to see exactly which day that was. I do so and confirm what I knew. I wonder how I forgot to write in it. Could it be because of starting this new school distracted me more than I thought?

I look up at the time on my clock and see I have a few minutes until I need to leave for the pool, so I start to read my diary. As I read, I notice several tonal differences which I don’t remember when writing these passages out. I soon reach the part around my accident and see an immediate drop in morale while writing. I also notice Hitomi appearing a lot more after, which - considering we live in the same house - should not be that surprising... except most of the passages are about her trying to make me emotionally better. I get to the part where a fellow student, Hiroto, was bullying me due to my eye, and then suddenly Hitomi appeared behind him and distracted him before hitting and knocking him to the floor. She very nearly broke her wrist because of that. I smile at that memory and remember that we went to the nurse’s and we lied that Hitomi had tripped and fallen.

Even excluding her helping with bullies, she knows how to cheer me up most of the time. I assume part of the reason she does that is to avoid me going down a dark path which I would have probably ended up on had she not been there. A path she knows of. I look away from my diary, my eyes fall on my clock, and my heart drops. I am running late. I snap my diary closed as I stand up. I drop it onto my bed, grab my bag and exit my room.

***

*** Akemi’s PoV ***

I enter the pool room, and it is empty and silent. I look up at the clock on the wall and see that it is past the time Ryuunosuke normally gets here. I let out a small, dejected sigh, and a wave of fatigue hits my body. I am glad Kaiya attached the motorised part of my wheelchair. This fatigue occurs often after each seizure. Even opening the door to the building was difficult. I feel sorry for the other girl in my year who has epilepsy. I can’t remember her name though. I think it was either Naomi or Natsume, I keep mixing the two up.

I am curious if Ryuunosuke will turn up. When I entered, the lifeguard told me that he asked about me yesterday. My reaction caused her to smile, but that smile vanished when she mentioned Ryuunosuke swam right into a wall.

I asked her if he was alright, and she said that all he damaged was his ego. She did mention that something was on his mind. She didn’t mention what, but I have a feeling I know: me. Know, or hope; I’m not sure which I’d want.

I look up at the time again and see he is now ten minutes late. I let out a bigger sigh than last time and decide I’ll try to find him later. I wonder what happened to the male lifeguard? I drive to the exit and reach out for the door but jolt back in surprise as the door is suddenly pulled away from me. Standing where it was is Ryuunosuke, trying to regain his breath.

“Are you… Are you okay, Akemi?” he asks, still panting.

“Y-Yeah. S-Shouldn’t I b-be asking that?”

Ryuunosuke smiles and says “Maybe. I’m glad you’re doing better. I was worried as you didn’t message back.”

Message ba- oh! Oops. “I-I only looked at my ph-phone this morning, and f-forgot to r-reply.”

I can feel myself getting warmer as my brain processes the fact that Ryuunosuke seems to care about me.

“P-perhaps you s-should get r-ready to s-swim,” I manage to stammer out, while failing to get images out my head.

“You’re right, are you not changing too, Akemi?” he asks, seemingly forgetting what I’ve told him before.

“I-I can’t. My b-body’s still t-too weak. I-I’ll wait b-by the poolside.”

A concerned look now appears on Ryuunosuke’s face. Get rid of that look, your previous one makes you look better.

Ryuunosuke is about to enter the boys’ changing room when he stops and faces me before saying “I hadn’t noticed before, but you look good, tired as heck, but good.”

With that he smiles and disappears into the changing room.

Eeeek! I quickly wheel myself into the pool room to hide from anyone who’d enter the main corridor as I feel my face get really warm and probably very, very red. As my mind starts to calm down, I realise this is the first time Ryuunosuke has seen me in clothing other than school or swim outfit.

Thankfully some time passes before Ryuunosuke returns. Seeing him I feel myself going slightly red. I watch him enter the pool and out of curiosity, I ask him “W-Why were y-you late to-today?”

“I found my diary which I didn’t know I had lost and lost track of time reading it.”

Diary? How often do I pop up in it I wonder.

“Say, Akemi, how difficult is it to swim with just your arms?” Ryuunosuke asks, shaking me out of my thoughts before they can lead me down the wrong path.

“W-What did you say?”

“How hard is it for you to swim with just your arms?” I scrunch my face a bit in thought as I haven’t thought about the difficulty for years.

We’ve been swimming for around two weeks and you finally ask now? “I… c-can’t remember. I believe i-it was difficult at f-first. I had always b-been stronger with my legs. I may have given up s-swimming if not for my dad’s p-patience and persistence in reteaching me.” I wish you were still here to see how good I’ve become.

My thoughts of my dad vanish, and I see Ryuunosuke looking straight at me. I’m sure I can see some hint of concern on his face. Did me lamenting about my dad show on my face?

From the look on Ryuunosuke’s face, some idea has come to him. “Is it alright for me to start swimming?”

“Y-Yeah, sure,” I reply.

Ryuunosuke smiles and drifts a little way from the side of the pool. His positioning is different from normal. I don’t think it’s because of my different view either. As he moves away from the edge of the pool, there is something very different about his acceleration. He is using only his arms to propel himself Wait, his arms?! I watch as he swims slowly along the length of the pool, his legs vertical instead of how mine are more horizontal. The wrap I use to keep my legs together having some air in it helps with that but not dangerously so. Ryuunosuke has no idea how to swim with just his arms. He hasn’t adjusted his arm movements for the lack of leg power. If he really wants to learn this he’ll need a lot of coaching to fix his positioning. But first I should find out why he isn’t using his legs.

After reaching the far side, I notice he cheats and uses his legs to push off the wall. Swimming back, I can get a good look at his face. He is being very inefficient. Even from here I can see he is breathing more than he should. This is actually the first time I’ve watched him swim while not being in the pool myself. I find that thought in itself, saddening. My eyes shift from Ryuunosuke’s poor swimming attempt to the body of water in front of me. If I just take a dip, I’ll be able to feel the flow of the water around me and help Ryuunosuke’s positioning better. Would it really be so bad to just take a dip? My mind flashes back to the last time I ‘took a dip’. That is a memory I wish my epilepsy would permanently make me forget. I shake my head to rid myself of the thoughts. I look down at my outfit. The clothes I’m wearing are too nice to ruin with the pool’s water. A pink skirt, with black leggings and a white shirt with a pink cardigan. I pay attention to Ryuunosuke again and see him just reaching the edge in front of me. He is breathing quite a lot.

In between breaths, he asks “How do you make it look so easy?”

It’s a slight compliment, but I can’t help but smile slightly anyway. “I-It is probably b-because I know h-how to swim with m-my arms.”

Ryuunosuke lets out a chuckle that ends up in a cough from the lack of air. “That would explain my difficulty.”

“W-why did you t-try swim like m-me?” I ask, curious. I do hate my nervousness showing up in my speech.

“I wanted to see what it was like. It makes me appreciate your skill even more. Maybe you can teach me to do it better?”

So he’s been watching my movements? I can feel myself getting warmer. “I-I-I don’t know I-If I can t-teach th-that.”

“I thought you were a good instructor. After all, you helped teach me to swim properly easily enough.”

Good instructor? That title belongs to my dad, not me. “I-It’s easier to show than say. It was how my dad taught me.

“Why not practise being an instructor?”

“I-I suppose I c-can try.” I’m not much of one if I stutter like this though.

“So, is there anything you want me to work on?” he asks.

“Like w-what ?”

“Well, I mean like what I tried, with swimming with just my arms,” He says.

He really wants to learn to swim with just his arms? Why? “Y-You struggled because your b-body positioning is wrong.” Wow, Akemi, harsh. Ryuunosuke doesn’t seem to take in the harshness, thankfully. “B-Because you can swim with a-all four limbs, you rely on y-your legs to maintain your positioning, because I c-can’t use mine, I have to rely on their n-natural buoyancy. That, and y-your legs are m-more muscular t-than mine, making them s-sink more.”

“That’ll be from when I did my martial arts then,” Ryuunosuke states.

L-Letting my legs float lets the water go past a lot easier than swimming into a wall of water.

“So, I should try letting my legs float then?”

“M-Maybe. A-At the worst, you’ll remain upright due to your muscles, or be horizontal and sink.”

“Uh, if the worst were to happen, I’d prefer the first one,” Ryuunosuke states making my chuckle.

Ryuunosuke pushes himself away from the edge of the pool and then tries to make his body so it is horizontal. He does it face up which I am glad about. When Yasuko tried, she did it face down as it was easier but she had to stop to get air. I am surprised that Ryuunosuke is able to get himself to float on his first try. I do have a feeling if he tries to move he will go under though. While he’s floating on the water, I find myself staring at his body. His legs are clearly defined meaning they will sink more than mine due to their density whereas his arms are defined, but not as much as mine. I hope he doesn’t mind girls with stronger arms.

“This is actually quite nice,” the subject of my mind says, breaking my mind’s thoughts. “Shall I start swimming again Akemi?”

Thinking for a second, I nod my head then I realise with him looking straight up to avoid water going into his eyes, he can’t see me. ”Y-Yes you-c-can.”

Ryuunosuke moves and for a second goes under water. He quickly resurfaces and wipes the water from his face as he wades to the edge. He smiles at me, making me feel warm, before starting his arms only swimming. He pulls away from the edge and manages to swim several laps. Each lap he does I can see he is starting to slow down as he is struggling to keep his mouth above the water.

He finally reaches my side of the pool and stops. He then asks me “Do you think you could time me?”

Time you? In your current state? “N-No. Y-You’re out of breath a-and it w-wouldn’t be fair o-on either of us.”

A confused look appears on his face. It’s cute, but why is he sometimes dense? “I-If you use all four of y-your limbs, you will be faster t-than me. If you use just y-your arms, I’d beat y-you as I’m lighter and am more e-experienced.”

I add “A-Also, with you tired out, e-even I can swim faster than y-your fastest speed.”

He lets out a cute pout to that. He responds with “That isn’t fair.”

I let out an involuntary giggle. “N-Neither was y-your suggestion. M-Maybe you should t-take a break s-so your muscles don’t l-lock or get too tired in the middle o-of the pool. Ryuunosuke appears to think about my suggestion before heading it. I watch as he struggles slightly lifting himself out of the water before sitting on the edge of the pool. It would appear I made the right call. I wheel over to him and hand him the towel I have on my lap.

Ryuunosuke looks up to me, takes the towel and smiles as he thanks me. As he uses the towel to dry his face I find my eyes wandering over his body. His arms are quite defined, not as much as mine are however. I hope Ryuunosuke doesn’t mind that my arm muscles are better than his. I look at his chest and see he has the beginnings of a nice-looking six-pack. My eyes look over the rest of his body once and I have a sudden envious feeling, one which I’ve never felt regarding my condition before.

Trying to ignore that feeling, I move my eyes from Ryuunosuke to the pool in front of us. I begin to feel wistful. I suddenly have to yawn reminding me that I have been awake since the early hours of this morning. My seizures, especially the bad ones tend to destroy my sleeping patterns as well as my body’s energy.

My thoughts are interrupted by Ryuunosuke asking “Say Akemi, how are you able to swim for so long with just your arms? Don’t they get tired?”

“T-They do, but I p-push through it. T-They don’t get tired that often b-because they are used to t-the stress and strain of m-moving my whole body. I’ve had several y-years to build up the m-muscle in my arms and d-develop my technique.” I raise my arms to show off my arms.

Ryuunosuke smiles and says “They do look good.”

I can feel myself becoming very warm. I assume my face is red. I manage to stammer out “T-T-Thank y-you.”

“I think I’m rested enough. I’m even breathing normally now,” Ryuunosuke says as he drops himself back into the pool.

Once in, her turns around and faces me. “Should I swim normally or try again with just my arms?”

There is no way he didn’t notice my reaction, speech and face. Why is he acting like nothing happened? “Y-You should use all f-four limbs. Using just y-your arms will tire you out.”

I watch as Ryuunosuke pushes himself away from the wall using his feet and legs. I wish I could still do that. I remember the feeling of pushing off the wall and having the water rush past me while motionless. It was over in less than a second but was really nice. I watch his motions and feel a sense of pride that they are becoming more refined and less splashy making his movements more efficient. My feeling of pride stemming from me hoping it is my tutoring that is shaping him. Heh, I am helping shape him. Wonder what reward I’ll ge- No, get rid of thoughts, at least while I’m around people!

I quickly change what my mind is thinking about and remember a few days ago Nurse asking me to keep tabs on Ryuunosuke. I know he has a network of spies so I wonder if this means I am now one. I look to where the life-guard has her window overlooking the pool room, and I see she is looking at the pool. After a few seconds she shifts her gaze to meet mine. I’m glad this one knows how to sign. I wonder how many of the staff are learning or have learned to sign. The life-guard waves, and I wave back.

I signal that I am about to start signing, and she nods her head. I tell her how Ryuunosuke’s progress is improving quite nicely. I look back to Ryuunosuke and see he is still swimming away. I look back to the life-guard and tell her that Ryuunosuke wants me to teach him how to swim using just his arms. She tells me that I should teach him, but only when I can start swimming again. She also says she’ll relay it to Nurse. I thank her and turn around to continue watching Ryuunosuke. He has just reached the far end, and I watch him push off the far side to continue his full lap. My signing is rusty but it looks like she understood what I signed. I should practise my signing more. I think the last time I used it was the last time I spoke to Sute before she disappeared close to two years ago. Sute was a 2nd year who showed me and Yasuko around Yamaku when we first started. I still have no idea what happened to her.

As Ryuunosuke draws nearer, I notice he is breathing quite a bit. “Y-You need to breathe while swimming, R-Ryuunosuke.”

Ryuunosuke reaches my side of the pool and stops before replying “I know, it’s difficult when you don’t want water to go into your lungs.” I know what that is like. I experienced it and it is scary.

“I-If you keep practising swimming and b-breathing at the same time it will make you swim for longer between breaks. Y-Your muscles work a lot better when they h-have oxygen,” I explain.

“I think I learned that in biology, Akemi.” From the sound of his voice, he knows I’m teasing him. I wonder if that’s all they taught him in- No Akemi!

“You aren’t trying to get me to breathe underwater are you Akemi?” Ryuunosuke asks. What is with my mind this morning?

“O-Only if you’re a merman,” I joke.

Ryuunosuke smiles and says “Maybe I was but lost my trident, and it turns out that holds my swimming capabilities.”

I let out a giggle. “So, you are secretly Poseidon?”

Ryuunosuke leans his head either way and replies “Possibly, although with this eye, more likely Odin.”

Wrong mythology, Ryuunosuke. If he were to be Poseidon, could I become his wife? What was her name again? Aphrodite? No, Amphitrite I think. No, I’m thinking way too far ahead. I don’t even know if Ryuunosuke likes me that way. Friends definitely, but more? I do not know. I’ll be able to find out during the festival

“I think I’ll do some more laps Akemi. We do have time right?” Ryuunosuke asks me.

I look at my watch and see he does have time. “Y-You have plenty of time. I-I’ll spot anything amiss and t-tell you how to correct it.”

“That’ll be a lot of talking then.”

I can’t help but giggle at his self-deprecation. “Y-you’re not that b-bad. Y-Yasuko is worse.”

Ryuunosuke then sets off, like last time, pushing off of the wall. I silently watch him swim across the pool. I wonder what I would look like if wore a mermaid costume, maybe not the seashell-bra, but the legs and fin I would. I could do that for Hallowe’en. If I were to wear a mermaid outfit, I wouldn’t run into the usual problems people would have, such as not being able to walk properly. I could be a true mermaid and have to use my current wheelchair. Maybe I should go for more of a siren outfit, seeing as I have a singing voice which seems to have brought Ryuunosuke to me. I wonder if Ryuunosuke knows who Amphitrite is and her relation to Poseidon.

The next half hour is filled with me watching Ryuunosuke swim and offering him tips to improve his swimming technique. He still occasionally forgets to breathe during his laps resulting in him requiring multiple breaks to regain his breath. I look at my watch and see it is time to stop. I wheel over, so I will be in front of Ryuunosuke as he reaches my side of the pool to get his attention. It works when he reaches me.

“What’s up Akemi?” Ryuunosuke asks.

“I-It’s time to finish, unless y-you want to be late for c-class.” I tell him.

“I’ve done that enough already. Thanks,” he says as he climbs out the pool. He shakes his head a bit splashing the water everywhere, including on me much to my chagrin. I let out an annoyed sound as I pass him the towel.

“B-by the way Ryuunosuke, I w-won’t be waiting for you outside the changing r-room. I n-need to speak to Nurse,” I say.

Ryuunosuke finishes wiping his face and asks “Is everything okay?”

“My s-seizures often damage m-my sleeping p-pattern w-which is why I’m very t-tired now. Kind of like jet-lag. H-Have you ever b-been on a plane?”

“Yeah, not for several years though.”

“I have a f-few times. T-Then you know w-what it’s l-like. It’s the s-same feeling, but not c-caused by time-zones. I w-want to see if Nurse w-will let me s-skip t-today’s lessons.”

“Why not just skip the swimming then? You would have gotten some sleep.”

“T-That would lead to a b-bad habit, Ryuunosuke. Plus, I can’t let you s-swim by yourself and i-into a wall again. Only s-seizures themselves c-can stop me from coming h-here. Also, I like being w-with y-you.” I-I just said that?! I can feel myself blushing.

“I didn’t mean to swim into the wall,” Ryuunosuke mumbles.

***

Continued

[Hesmiyu]

Previous Post

*** Ryuunosuke’s PoV ***

Running late seems to be my theme for the day, I blame my diary for that. First running late for swimming - which Akemi seemed to be concerned about until I managed to calm her - and now I am running a few minutes late for my homeroom. I am concerned that she is missing the day of school though. The bell chimed a couple of minutes ago, and I am just now entering the classroom. As I enter, Miyagi looks straight at me, and I suddenly feel fearful.

“Glad you could join us, Shibanuma. Would you care to talk outside?”

I knew looking back on more of the diary once I got back from swimming was going to be a bad idea.

“Shimohira, could you take the room while I talk to Shibanuma, please?” Miyagi asks.

Shimohira says he will, and as Miyagi leads me out the classroom, I hear him tell the class “Now the teacher’s gone, time for a nap.”

Miyagi sighs but doesn’t do anything else. She opens her mouth ready to speak, and I brace myself. “So, Ryuunosuke, aside from your swimcapades, how are you coping with being in a new school?”

“I’m sor- what?” I reply, caught off guard.

Miyagi laughs softly before replying “You thought I was going to be angry at you being a few minutes late for homeroom? You haven’t forgotten what type of school you are at, have you? No, the reason I called you out was to ask how you are coping, the lateness just provided a good reason. So Ryuunosuke, I repeat my question, how are you coping?”

I think for a moment before replying to her question “Well, I’m still getting used to the school and living away from my house. My friend’s mother used to wake me, and if she failed my friend would make sure I would be awake in time, sometimes painfully. But apart from that I feel I am doing well.”

“Also aside from the bizarreness of the whole place and the usual soul crushing post-accident depression, am I correct? Sorry, more students than I like to admit go through a phase such as that, including myself.”

I raise my eyebrows slightly and blink a few times as I wasn’t expecting her to say anything like that. “I never really got any kind of depression. Probably due to family and Hitomi being around.”

Miyagi smiles, seemingly satisfied with my answer. She asks “Ready to go in now?”

I nod my head, and Miyagi opens the door and allows me to enter first, to see all eyes on me... Well the ones that can see that is. I take my seat back between Lilly and Masahiro. Masahiro leans towards me and asks what Miyagi said, including what I’m sure is some film quote. He chuckles and then says “Don’t worry, give it a few weeks and you’ll be able to regularly be late, like that Ikezawa girl in 3-3.”

“Hush now!” a sharp voice whispers out from our side. I look and see Lilly looking towards us with those cloudy eyes.

“Feisty.” Masahiro replies. I feel myself fighting to keep my lips from smiling. A battle I am losing. It feels wrong that Lilly can’t see what’s happening to me. Masahiro then whispers to me “I like feisty girls.”

“You’d like Hitomi then.” I say, thinking of my pink-purple haired best friend.

Masahiro chuckles, “Great name, but I have no idea who that is.”

“She’s from my hometown. I have a picture of her on my phone.” Paying attention to Miyagi, I see she is distracted in talking to Shimohira, allowing me to pull my phone out and search for the photo of Hitomi. Once found, I show it to Masahiro.

He looks at the photo for a few seconds, and I start to wonder what he’s doing. I suddenly wonder if wearing his glasses makes it harder to see screens such as my phone. I also wonder if taking them off would help him see.

“She’s pretty,” I hear Masahiro say, bringing me out of my thoughts.

I smile at his praise of her, “Yeah, I do have another but that is only to use if she annoys me too much.” Which, hasn’t happened in the past couple of years.

“Would you mind putting your phone away and paying attention the both of you.” We start at the sound of Miyagi’s voice.
***

The school bells ring out for the end of the day. Today was not the best day, even if I just count my tardiness; late for swimming, late for homeroom. Don’t bad things come in threes? I start to stand but Masahiro puts his arm out signalling for me to wait. Is this the third thing?

“Do you want something Masahiro?” I ask.

“Want some advice? Let the other classes dissipate first to avoid the rush and crush of the other students in the corridor.”

Slightly odd advice, although thinking back to my old school at lunch and at the end of the day, the corridors were always busy, sometimes suffocatingly so. I then ask Masahiro “How long should we wait for then?”

“I normally wait about five minutes,” he replies.

I nod my head in acknowledgement unsure if he can see it. “What about lunch? Surely the best food will be gone by then?”

Masahiro smiles and says “So you like that food, huh? There are too many dietary requirements for others for me to get what I like. I normally eat with my sister. She’s a surprisingly good cook. Probably a good thing as she’s the only one without vision issues in my house.”

“So you don’t live on your own?” I ask, my curiosity taking over.

“Masahiro smiles and shakes his head and says “No, Wakana and I live with our grandmother, Keiko Pavlov.” ’Pavlov? Isn’t that a Russian last name or something?’ If I recall, they had a house or something. Masahiro notices my confused look upon hearing her name, “She married my Russian grandfather after the war.”

Thinking for a second to figure something out, I respond with “So that would mean you are a quarter Russian?”

“Da.” He says in a tone that makes it sound like he’s agreeing. “You should come to my house one day, my grandmother loves to meet new people. She is really friendly, unlike my mother.” I hear a hint of disdain when he mentions his mother.

I don’t want to start poking bears, so I just respond with “I may one day.”

Masahiro’s attention suddenly deviates to the other side of me as he says “See you later, Lilly.” She’s still here? I hadn’t noticed until now. I say my goodbyes to Lilly as she walks away, presumably to either the library or the tea room. Thinking of that reminds me that I should make another appearance at some point.

“Masahiro, how old is your sister?” I ask.

My question draws his attention away from the door Lilly exited through, and he locks eyes with me. He then says “She’s a seventeen year old second year. She has medium length jet black hair and golden yellow eyes, like our dad, except his is short. And no, you cannot date her, Ryuunosuke.”

Although that last part surprised me, I chuckle as I say “I wasn’t planning to anyway.”

“Good.” Masahiro then gets his phone out and looks at it before saying “Outside should be clear enough now.”

I stand up from my desk and put my bag on my back as Masahiro says “I’ll see you in class tomorrow.”

“Yea, see you.”

I exit the classroom and immediately notice how much emptier the corridor is. There are still students about, but not as many. As I fully step into the corridor, I hear a male voice shout out “Move!” I look up one way of the corridor but don’t see anything abnormal, so I look the other way and see an unfamiliar student running. It looks like he is on a collision course with me so I try to step out of the way, but he seems to have the same idea and he ends up colliding with me.

He yelps as he collides with me. I feel my arm hit the wall and judging by the pain, my head also makes contact making my vision blur for a second. I hear the person say an abrupt apology as they get back up and start running again. Ignoring the pain, I want to know why he is still running. I soon get my answer when I hear a female run past shouting “Come back here, Summer Demon!”

As I watch the girl, who I assume has eighth-grade syndrome, I hear Masahiro’s voice on my left ask me if I’m all right. I look at him and see he has his hand out for me to grab. I grab it, and he helps to pull me up. As I stand, I feel the blood move from my head, notifying me of where I hit it. “Ow, that hurt,” I mumble out. “Avoiding the rush, huh?

“You’ll be fine. You should have a hard enough head as it is.” Another female voice calls out, I instinctively brace myself before recognising the voice as belonging to Kaiya. I look in her direction and confirm. She has a look of concern on her face as she walks towards me.

As she reaches me, she states “Shinobu should really look where he is going. I’ll talk to him later.”

"How do you know him and why are you up here?”

Kaiya gives me an immediate reply, “Shinobu is in my class. I’m waiting for Akemi and Yasuko. Want to wait with me?”

I smile. “You would be waiting a while. She isn’t in class today.”

Kaiya’s face drops “What?”
***

*** Akemi’s PoV ***

Sitting on my bed, Yasuko is partway through plaiting my hair. She gets to about halfway down the length before we hear a knock at my door. Yasuko stops plaiting and tells me to hold it so the thre- no, four? lines don’t start untwirling themselves. Yasuko then gets off of my bed and goes to the door. She opens it and reveals Kaiya on the other side, carrying some small bag. Kaiya walks in with an indignant expression, and the first thing she says is “You could have told me you wouldn’t go to class today.”

’What? Oh, I’m glad it wasn’t something worse. I see Yasuko close the door and head back towards me. “How are you, Kaiya?” I ask.

Kaiya’s indignant expression changes to a solemn one as she replies “I’m not going to make it.”

I feel my face and hands drop, and Yasuko cries out my name as I drop the plait. Kaiya starts laughing and then says “Not really. I only need to take these. Took a detour to the nurses before I came here due to being left in the cold.” She indicates to the bag she’s carrying while staring right at me.

I let out a sigh of relief, trading my worry for anger. “I hate you. I-I’m already worried about one of my friends.”

Kaiya smiles and says in a sing-song tone “No, you don’t. And you worry about every one of your friends.” ’True, but not all of my friends will be having an appointment to discuss the effectiveness of their chemo.

“I do hate you.” I say, looking straight at Kaiya.

My head is lightly but forcefully pulled a bit by Yasuko as she asks Kaiya “So you are okay then?”

Kaiya puts her medicine bag on the seat of my wheelchair before sitting on the floor and replying “Yep, well as good as someone with scarred lung tissue who needs a nasal cannula can be. I have enough here to last me a whole month unless I become a dealer. I decided to get them from nurse now rather than later which I think was a wrong choice. He is quite cranky today.”

My anger forgotten, Yasuko and I, in unison, ask “Why is he cranky? He wasn’t this m-morning.”

“I think it’s because of a prank gone wrong in my homeroom this morning. Two people suffered allergic reactions. Shizune wasn’t happy when she came to me. She blamed me for it even though I had no idea of it.”

’Why would Shi- Oh yeah, Kaiya’s her class’ rep.’

The conversation dies there while Yasuko repairs and continues her plaiting. The silence continues until Kaiya looks at both of us and suddenly says “We’re the Bad Trio.”

I look at her with a confused expression and she explains by pointing at me and saying “bad legs,” then pointing at Yasuko, “bad neck,” and then herself, “bad lungs.”

I think about it for a few seconds before saying “We’d need a better name t-than that.”

“Done.” Yasuko says, still behind me.

“That name won’t fit either,” I say.

“I meant your plait.”

“Oh. Th-thanks Yasuko,” I respond, embarrassed. I run my hand over Yasuko’s handiwork and smile. “It feels nice.” I turn my head to face Yasuko, who is getting off the bed.

There is a question I want to ask these two, but I’m worried of the teasing they’ll give me. I know it won’t be done to hurt me, but I still won’t like it.

“Akemi, you alright?” I hear Yasuko ask. ’I guess it’s now or never.’

I internally sigh and ask “W-What do y-you both think of Ryuunosuke?”

I notice Kaiya’s eyes flicker to Yasuko for a brief second. Yasuko looks from me to Kaiya, back to me then back to Kaiya again.

Kaiya starts speaking. “From what I know of his family, Ryuunosuke seems to have a good heritage. As for him, he seems to have some issues, more than his eye, but I’d trust him. Yasuko?”

“He seems good. Anyway, if he does something bad, I’ll kick his butt.” Tamer than what Aneko said you’d do. “I’m not sure if I would trust him yet or not. I just need to find out more about him.” Finding out stuff about people is one thing she’s good at. She been able to find out stuff about people without even trying. It is scary sometimes, almost stalker-ish.

“Why are you asking?” Kaiya asks me with a badly acted innocent look on her face. She already knows the answer.

I mumble out “I may h-have fallen for h-him.”

Kaiya and Yasuko look at each other in sync. “W-What’s w-wrong?”

“Nothing.” Kaiya replies a bit too quickly for my taste.

Yasuko follows Kaiya with her reply. “You finally admit it. Kaiya was thinking of us locking you in the track shed with him to get you to admit that.” My eyes widen. “Ti ci è voluto un po 'per ammetterlo.”

“D-Don’t tell anyone.” I plea, my voice faltering. ’Why am I a wimp at times like this?’ Yasuko just smiles at my plea. I wonder what she said. Yes I know Italian, but I learned three other languages prior so it is my weakest. I know she was on about me though. I just hope it was nothing bad.

“Speaking of your boy toy, he got sideswiped by a guy from my class earlier,” Kaiya says.

He got injured? “Is he okay?” I ask.

Kaiya chuckles and says “True love.” ’I. Hate. You.’ I hear Yasuko grunt in agreement. ’I hate the both of you.’ I try to elbow Yasuko but find only air. I would try to hit Kaiya, but she’s out of reach.

Seemingly knowing this, Kaiya smiles at me and then says “He should be fine. His head may have stopped hurting by now. A guy named Shinobu ran into him while trying to run away from some first year chuunibyou.”

***

*** Author’s Notes ***
- I split this at the previous 6.5-odd thousand words as originally this chapter, half filled, lead to about 14 thousand words.

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[Christov_Jones77]

Great couple of chapters! I finally took the time to catch up on your story and I really love your characters and how easily they fit into the world of KS. I did notice two things in the last chapter.

"I hear Masahiro’s voice on my left ask me if I’m all right. I look at him and see he has his hand out for me to grab. I grab it, and he helps to pull me up. As I stand, I feel the blood move from my head..."

"She offers me a hand to get up, which I take."

When I read it it seems like he is pulled up twice, first by Masahiro then a second time by Kaiya. Not sure if he supposed to be first pulled into a sitting position then to a standing one or it's just accidental redundancy. I also saw one more thing.

'Why would Shi- Oh yeah, Kaiya’s her class’ rep.’[/]

After this this which is italicized (I don't know if the quote showed up as such as I am on mobile) to represent Amemi's inner monologue, the rest of the chapter is italicized, even the parts that are not apart of her inner monologue. It was confusing at first because I am so used to your set format and style but otherwise easy to follow. Granted I am not a writer by any means so take this with a grain of salt.

I'm really enjoying your story and I can't wait to see more or your characters. Have an good one!

[Hesmiyu]

Great couple of chapters! I finally took the time to catch up on your story and I really love your characters and how easily they fit into the world of KS. I did notice two things in the last chapter.

"I hear Masahiro’s voice on my left ask me if I’m all right. I look at him and see he has his hand out for me to grab. I grab it, and he helps to pull me up. As I stand, I feel the blood move from my head..."

"She offers me a hand to get up, which I take."

When I read it it seems like he is pulled up twice, first by Masahiro then a second time by Kaiya. Not sure if he supposed to be first pulled into a sitting position then to a standing one or it's just accidental redundancy. I also saw one more thing.

Accidental redundancy :O fixed though.

'Why would Shi- Oh yeah, Kaiya’s her class’ rep.’[/]

After this this which is italicized (I don't know if the quote showed up as such as I am on mobile) to represent Amemi's inner monologue, the rest of the chapter is italicized, even the parts that are not apart of her inner monologue. It was confusing at first because I am so used to your set format and style but otherwise easy to follow. Granted I am not a writer by any means so take this with a grain of salt.

The issue isn't you viewing it on mobile, heck most fics i read on hear are on my mobile. it was a case that i forgot an i after the slash which is now fixed

I'm really enjoying your story and I can't wait to see more or your characters. Have an good one!

Thanks for your feedback there are two planned chapters left of Act 1. currently festival day is sitting around 12k just in notes so it may be more than 2 chapters.