Chapter 10: Legacy
~Kyoko~
I round the corner in the Arts Wing to find Mono and Akira already waiting for me. For a split second, I almost didn’t recognise him… I can’t believe the scarred shy-guy I’ve passed in the hall was mostly an act. He still wears the scarf most of the time around school though. Pfft. Method actors…
‘Trick
and Treat? Secret School Stud Un-Scarved!’ Is scarved even a word?
Scarven? Scarven
sounds right…
“Yen for your thoughts?” Akira asks and I look up from the ground, suddenly right beside them.
“Don’t sell yourself so short, blondie!” I playfully wink, “I was just figuring out the title of my next article. You still free tomorrow?” I ask and he shrugs.
“I guess, but if this lead pays off, you’re gonna want to hold the front page.” He smiles to Mono, who stands with her hands in the pockets of her hoodie on the opposite side of the hall to him.
“I don’t know why she has to be here. This is
our case, not the Newspaper Club’s.” Mono gripes, crossing her arms defensively, her scrutinising gaze softening when she looks from me back to Akira.
“You know the old saying; never send a girl to do a woman’s job.” I jab playfully, hoping Mono will take the bait.
“I’m not going to let you swipe this from under me, Nozama. I did all the
leg-work.” She counters perfectly. She might seem like a ditzy weirdo to most but she can hold her own in a war of words.
“I’d argue that the Newspaper Club did most of the work.
You swiped
our files on the Nocturne Joker, afterall.” I respond with a smirk, the pair sharing a confused look before Mono answers my challenge.
“How did you…?”
“A one-eyed girl and a scarred guy making-out in a club they’re not members of
tends to get noticed. Good cover though, I’m impressed.” I give her a coy smile as well as some genuine praise. I roll in between them toward the door of the Theatre Club room. It’s a smidge bitchy to bring up the kiss, no matter how innocent it may have been at the time, so soon after finding out her crush is gay but that leg crack was a low blow. Pun intended.
“Play nice, you two. I came to catch a myth, not referee a cat fight…” Akira groans, pushing himself off the wall and taking a few steps to open the door for me. I give a nod of thanks and he smiles warmly as he pulls the scarf a up to cover his jaw.
“Okay, l-ladies, it’s sh-sh-showtime.”
------------------------------
~Mono~
“I blame
you for this, Nozama!” I growl, my legs pumping as fast as they can to keep pace with both my target and the brunette bitch on wheels. We lost Akira as soon as we breached the corridor in pursuit of Shijima.
“What did I do?” Kyoko snipes back, her chair slanting sideways before slamming back onto the ground as we round the corner.
“You just had to go and flirt with him! We had it handled and your promiscuity frightened him off!”
“I frightened him off? Well excuse
me, little miss fangirl! I wasn’t the one practically drooling over him!”
“Well I wouldn’t put it past you!” I shout back as I surge forward, knocking the double doors leading outside open with my shoulder just a few seconds after Shijima escaped into drizzly outdoors, the darkened skies filled to bursting with potential rain.
Kyoko follows in my wake, almost screeching to a halt as I desperately scan our surroundings.
“You lost him?” She jeers, looking as frantically as I am.
“He disappeared, Nozama! He was here one minute and then--”
POFF-POFF-POFF
The rapid-fire pops of compressed air beckons for our attention and we duly oblige, looking back and up to the flat roof just above the entrance to the Arts building.
For the first time in my life I feel the urge to curse but, thankfully, Kyoko has me covered.
“
You’ve got to be shitting me…” Kyoko mutters under her breath as we come face-to-
mask with the last person we realistically expected.
“I heard you were looking for me.”
------------------------------
~Hikari~
“Thanks for coming, Nat. I know this probably isn’t what you had in mind…” I apologise for maybe the third or fourth time since we met up at the track. This was supposed to be our third date but I ended up hijacking it for my own personal gain.
“It’s fine, slick. This is a big deal for you.” She shrugs with a smile, looking around at the other people gathered in on the bleachers “Sure beats that god awful movie we saw last week.”
“I still can’t believe you got us kicked out of a movie theatre…” I sigh, remembering the three other couples in the theatre giving us death glares as Natsuki provided running commentary.
“I like to make fun of bad romantic comedies! It’s not my fault they didn’t get my sense of humour…” She sulks. I finish pulling on my racing gloves and checking I’m safely strapped into my racing chair. Natsuki looks along the shiny framework, up my legs and torso to my face. “Looking good, slick.” She says with a grin.
“Thanks. Again, sorry for dragging you to this… Miss Ibarazaki insisted that this’d be goo--” Her fingers press themselves against my lips and she looks me dead in the eyes.
“
Hey. I want to see you race. Hell, I want to see you
win. If you do, you’ll get a prize.” She giggles and I raise an eyebrow at her.
“But this is just an exhibition, there’s no pri--”
“From
me. Dummy.” She locks eyes and her intent is clear. I guess I better give it my all then. We share a soft kiss on the lips before she trots off to the stands, hopping onto a bench next to Miss Ibarazaki.
“Go kick some ass, Hikari. Show them what Yamaku’s best looks like!” Her encouraging pep-talk is still on my mind as I see her clench her fists together and give me a nod of confidence.
I roll into position and take a look at my competition. Some are amateurs like me but others are really serious about this. They’re the ones I have to watch. I also have to work double hard because I’m carrying extra weight, still having both my legs. I’m cautiously optimistic though…
“Racers, to your starting positions!” The tannoy chirps and I make sure everything’s set. Last time I did this, I came third. I throttled back because I didn’t really feel like I’d gain anything. Now I have Miss Ibarazaki and Natsuki cheering me on.
“On your marks!”
“Get set…”
The pistol fires and I launch forward toward victory.
------------------------------
~Natsuki~
Unbuckled from his chair and lying on his back on the warm summer grass, Hikari takes long heavy breaths. He’s sweaty, exhausted and grinning with what little energy he has left. I sit beside him, holding his hand as he rests.
“You were amazing out there, Hikari…” I say softly, my heart still pounding with adrenaline. I’ve never seen such an intense race before. Hikari was in third for most of it but as soon as me and Miss Ibarazaki started cheering, he blew past the two professionals. I don’t know how he did it but god damn, he did it. “You won, slick.”
“Heh… Hehehe… Yeah.” He looks up at me and he looks almost relieved. “I’m really glad you came… Don’t think I could have done it without you.”
“All I did was cheer…” I blush hard and he squeezes my hand.
“You gave me a reason to win.”
I narrow my eyes at him with a smirk. “You really wanted that reward, huh?”
“You have no idea…” He grins and I lean in to kiss him before a curt cough interrupts me. We both look up to the athletic frame of Miss Ibarazaki standing at Hikari’s feet.
“Don’t go getting soft on him, Nat. You need to whip his sorry butt into shape for next week.” She stands, arms folded, practically exuding pride and confidence from her exposed skin.
“
Next week?” Hikari asks with a defeated whine in his voice. Miss Ibarazaki laughs and thumbs her nose with an almost sinister smirk.
“Damn straight. You might have beat these guys but I wanna see if you’re worthy to take my title.”
“How?” I ask, confused.
“Simple. He has to race
me.”
------------------------------
~Akira~
“Okay, on a scale of one-to-pissed, how angry are you that your story got bumped off the front page?” I ask Mono as I look at an advanced copy of the Yamaku Chronicle, a picture of Hikari and his coach on the front. The headline reads ‘The Fastest Things on No Legs.’
“I’d be awfully shallow if I was and let’s face it,” Mono responds, resting her back against her desk and gesturing to her single blue eye.
“The only thing shallow about me is my depth perception.”
“Haha, I guess so.” I chuckle. She half-smiles at the newspaper as I hand it to her.
“I’m happy for him though!
Sincerely. Plus getting the whole of page three isn’t too bad…” She says wistfully as she folds the front page to the back so her expose is facing out. ‘Legacy of the Nocturne Joker’ is printed across a large picture Kyoko took on her phone as well as several insert shots of the blurry photograph and an old artist’s rendition.
“Origins, history and the future of the entity. I guess we’ve cemented the Joker’s place at Yamaku.” I offer with a smile, proud of my friend’s hard work and my own little contribution.
“You didn’t have to pose like a dork though.” Mono laughs and my blood runs cold, my jaw slowly dropping as Mono looks at me with a look of absolute smugness.
“Wh-what are you talking about?” I croak and she holds up the picture, pointing at the cloaked figure’s neck. Damn! I clasp my hand around my own throat, somehow thinking that will erase Mono’s prior knowledge of my scars and she laughs at my weak attempt at subterfuge.
“You silly, amazing boy… You did all that for me.” She looks at me with one huge doe eye and I can’t help but blush out of embarrassment.
“Well, yeah… You’re my friend. I wanted to do something cool to finish up the investigation. Especially given…” I stop as a lump of guilt gathers in my throat. I wish I’d admitted I was gay before her crush developed further. I’d hoped that putting on a little show would take her mind off it but since she figured it out my ruse… Seems so stupid now…
“I know. But you didn’t have to…” She sighs wistfully. “Thank you though…
Akira.” She used my first name… That’s kind of a big deal for her, right? I wonder if I should do the same…
“Does that mean I can call you Mitsu?” I ask cautiously and she shakes her head with smile.
“Not a chance,
Nomura.”
“Well that didn’t last long…” I chuckle nervously.
“Everybody gets one.” She raises a her index finger before spinning in her chair and tapping her keyboard to bring her desktop back to life. “Now are you going to stick around for my report to Mrs Ikezawa-Hayashi?”
“Of course! It’s not every day you get to meet the mind behind a myth!” I smile.
It takes a few minutes for Mono to sign in to Skype as she explained how they’d escalated to video chats over the course of this case. The video window blinks into life after a short connection time and I kneel beside Mono’s chair. The picture comes in landscape, the woman on the call seemingly holding the camera. She must be on her tablet.
“Good afternoon, Mono! It’s such a pleasure to see you aga--” The young woman on the screen stops mid-sentence and I suddenly realise who I’m looking at. Violet hair, pale complexion, scarring down the right side of her face…
“Hanako?” I ask and she raises her eyebrows in surprise.
“Is that… Akira!?” She gasps and Mono takes a glance at me with a mix of confusion and shock.
“You know each other?” She asks and I smile weakly in response, rubbing the back of my head.
“
Kiiiinda… I met her and her husband a month or so back. They were touring the school and we kind of bumped into each other.” I look from Mono to the screen to see Hanako blushing hard. I’ll omit the part about her trying to ravish her husband before realising I was in the same room.
“It’s g-good to see you again, Akira. You’re looking well.” Hanako smiles sheepishly. “I had no idea you were friends with Mono.”
“Small world, huh?” I laugh.
“
Curiouser and curiouser…” Mono mutters before shaking her head, clearing her thoughts a little. “I hope you don’t mind us calling you out of the blue, Mrs Ikezawa-Hayashi, but there’s something we’d like to show you.” Mono beams with pride as she presents the newspaper to the camera. She peeks around it as Hanako breaks into a Cheshire Cat like grin.
“Akio! Come and see this!” She calls to her husband and a handsome man with red hair peeks into frame, leaning over the back of the couch Hanako is sitting on to see.
“I told you we should have slapped a copyright on that.” He says with a grin and Mono puts down the paper. We give each other a proud smile and turn our attention back to the monitor.
“Have we got a story for you.” Mono excitedly announces, ready to spin her interpretation of our adventures to a couple of Yamaku alumni.
A tale of myths and legacies.
------------------------------
And that's it for Miraimyth! I said it'd be a miniseries and I stuck to it, sorry for the last part taking a little time and maybe feeling a little rushed. I started a new job recently and between that and my website work, I wanted to have this finished before it fell by the wayside, as an apology, here's a picture of Nat and Akira napping like cuties. I hope everyone enjoyed this little look into the future of the Monomyth world.
*is currently 800 words into the fic*
. And wow, the feels were strong here. Three sad backstories in one. I'm glad Kyoko is part of the group. She's actually starting to become one of my favorite characters. I also thought the acid throw was an immediate reaction, mainly because of the way it was said.
