Tatsuo hadn’t been in school for a while. She’d missed him, but she also feared he’d be mad at her about having lunch with Touya. She still hadn’t told him that she planned on meeting again, sometime. Whenever Touya decided he wanted to, she guessed.
Truthfully, Aoi wasn’t sure how to start a conversation today. She couldn’t think of anything worthwhile to talk about. Didn’t mean she wasn’t going to try though.
“Hey, Senpai?” she asked, looking over at him.
He raised an eyebrow “Yeah?”
“What do you think about Tachibana-san?”
“The yellow gem kid?”
Aoi nodded. “Yeah.”
“Don’t know her.” He shrugged. “Can’t say I have an opinion quite yet. But I’m kinda surprised it’s another kid.”
“Yeah. Strange.”
Strange didn’t start to cover it. Aoi was baffled. With such a heavy burden their spirits claimed they had, she thought for sure there would be more Linked who were older. So far, the oldest were two sixteen-year-old boys.
“I hope she at least knows how to fight already,” Tatsuo added with a shrug. “Can’t be bothered to teach another kid.”
“If not, one of us spirits can teach her,” Mulan’s voice echoed around them.
Really, Aoi hoped for the same. They had to have been given these weapons for a purpose. She just wished they knew how to fight from the start. Implanted knowledge, or something like that.
“Hey, Arisawa.” Tatsuo’s voice pushed Aoi from her thoughts.
“Yeah?”
“Is that her?” He motioned to the street outside her house with a nod.
Sure enough, there came Asagi in a white dress with golden accents. It certainly wasn’t a workout outfit. If Aoi wasn’t mistaken, that was a lolita style dress. Hardly the thing one should wear for training. Aoi wondered what the girl was thinking.
And yet she seemed unbothered by how casual Tatsuo and Aoi were. “I take it this is the Arisawa residence?” she asked.
Aoi nodded. “Yep. Good to see you made it here alright.”
“Momoka gave some good directions. And it does help that you two were waiting outside for me.”
“So, um . . . What do you know about the Linked so far?” Aoi asked with a nervous laugh. Even after so long, Asagi was still a bit of stranger, and it was hard talking to her without Momoka around.
Asagi put her hands on her hips. “Don’t you think it would be better for you to tell me what you know?”
“What? Why?” Aoi stammered. Now she was nervous and confused.
“Arisawa’s got a point,” Tatsuo said, coming to her defense. “We don’t even know if you’re a real Linked or not. Prove that and maybe we’ll think about it.”
Asagi looked around. No one else was around; all the businessmen neighbors had gone on chores or were still at the office. So, without a moment’s hesitation, Asagi turned to her side and hiked up her dress, revealing a golden gem nestled just below her underwear line.
Aoi’s face turned scarlet. That was more of the girl than she’d wanted to see. She glanced at Tatsuo and her surprised expression soured. He was blushing too, a bit of a smile on his face if she was seeing right. She gave him a punch on the arm.
“Hey!”
Asagi smoothed down her clothes and dusted them off, as if their gaze had sullied them.
Tatsuo just ruffled Aoi’s hair, offered her a small smile, then turned back to Asagi. “Okay. That’s fine. But do you actually have a weapon you can use?”
Aoi could tell he was thinking of Momoka. Aoi reminded herself to thank Tatsuo later. She’d really needed his support.
“Oh, of course.” Asagi stretched her hand out, showing it to them. “Notice how there’s nothing in my hand.”
And then something appeared in Asagi’s hand—a long, thin strip of fabric. “Doesn’t look like much, does it? That’s because my weapon looks kinda normal.”
“It looks pretty normal to me,” Aoi agreed with a small laugh. She wasn’t sure she understood. What was a normal weapon?
“Just wait.” Asagi looked around, before her gaze fell upon Aoi’s bare feet. Her flip flops rested on the grass at the bottom of the porch steps.
In a single, fluid movement, Asagi whipped the fabric towards Aoi’s feet. It stretched, latched onto one of the shoes, and carried it back to the yellow gem holder. She held the shoe for a moment with a smile.
“It’s better than it looks.”
Aoi couldn’t help but nod. “You’re right about that,” she said, eyes wide with awe. That was the last thing she expected.
Tatsuo was not so easily amazed. He didn’t move from his lounging position on the steps. “That’s all good and well, but can you fight with it?”
She just smiled. “Hold out your arm for a moment, will you?”
Tatsuo grimaced and hesitated, but did as he was told anyways.
Aoi saw a blur of gold—the fabric. Where was it going? She heard a hiss of pain.
“Senpai! Are you okay?”
There was a cut on his arm now. It was small and thin, yes. But it was enough to draw blood.
“She managed to wound him from this distance . . .” Mulan mused. “Amazing.”
How was that amazing? How was she so calm? Tatsuo was bleeding.
But he just placed a hand on her head. “I’m fine, Arisawa. Don’t you worry. I’m not down and out so easy.” Then he looked to Asagi, intrigue on his face. She’d impressed him. “So you can fight.”
“I can,” she said. “Does that mean you’ll tell me what you know?”
“I don’t see why not. As long as Arisawa wants to, of course.” He offered her a smile. “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.”
Aoi nodded. Asagi proved she was Linked. There wasn’t a reason not to tell her everything. Not that that amounted to a whole lot, even after all these months.
“We’re the Linked, holders of the gems with spirits inside of them.”
Asagi rolled her eyes and nodded. “I know that much,” she interrupted. “Tell me the important stuff.”
“Well, let’s see . . .” Aoi mentally went over everything she knew.
Luckily, Mulan was there to give her some hints. “Why did you become a Linked?”
“Our job is to protect those who can’t protect themselves. You know—the elderly, the young, and so forth.”
“A noble goal,” Asagi noted.
“I, ah . . . I suppose that’s everything,” Aoi concluded with a nervous laugh.
“So you really don’t know anything at all.” Asagi sighed. “Don’t you know how many Linked there are? Or why exactly we were chosen? Or how for that matter? Does anyone else’s inner worlds have a large crack in them?”
“I thought the crack was just in my town . . .” Masanori said. Tatsuo looked up sharply at this, but it was too small a motion for Asagi to notice.
Aoi’s head swam. Asagi had so many questions. She wasn’t the only one. There was still so much Aoi didn’t know. Most of that, she just had to guess at, since even Mulan didn’t have the answers.
“I mean, I guess we were chosen because our souls are similar to our spirits’.”
“But isn’t that just a theory?” Asagi asked.
Embarrassment washed over Aoi. She was right. Aoi knew she should have had more answers. It had been months since she became Linked. But she was clueless. She opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out, let alone words. She was sure she was going to cry. Her eyes felt wet already.
Tatsuo scooted closer to Aoi. “Hey. We told you what we know. Unless you know something we don’t, you better relax. Hell, you could even tell us the name of your spirit.”
But Asagi shook her head, looking flushed herself. “Sorry. I can’t do that. It’s kind of embarrassing.” She changed the subject before they could press any further. “I guess I was kind of rude. I’m just frustrated. I hardly know anything.”
“But we can find out together,” Aoi snif
fled. She couldn’t stop crying even if she wanted to now. The floodgates were already open.
Asagi nodded. “I suppose we can.” She pulled out her phone, flipped it open, then slipped it into her bag. “I hope you don’t need anything else. I have to meet up with my brother.”
Aoi shook her head and wiped away her tears. “No, it’s fine. You can go.”
“Alright. See you later then.”
“Yeah. See you,” Tatsuo grumbled. He was no longer impressed, just annoyed. Aoi wasn’t sure if it was because Asagi made her cry or because Aoi was such a crybaby.
But once Asagi was out of sight, Tatsuo wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her to him. “It’s okay if you don’t know things, Arisawa. You’re doing the best you can. You’re doing great.”
Chapter 19
A few days later, the girls and Seiji had nothing to do after school, so they stopped at the café across from Momoka’s place.
Seiji’s company was nice, but it brought up a bigger problem than his constant flirting. With the boy hanging around, Aoi couldn’t talk freely about the Linked. None of them could when he was there.
Didn’t mean they couldn’t try. They just had to be vague.
“I’m sorry about the other day,” Asagi said, cutting the tip of her cake from the rest of the slice.
Aoi just shook her head. “It’s fine. You had every reason to be upset.”
“No, I didn’t. I just thought you might know something I didn’t,” she said with a sigh.
Aoi wished she knew more as well, but she had no such luck. Even after all this time, Mulan hadn’t learned anything about the Linked or what exactly they were supposed to prepare for in her inner world. She’d been looking high and low, and asking all the spirits in the Chinese town. But nothing had turned up. There was nothing new she could tell Aoi other than the crack slowly widening in the main street. Sometimes, Aoi wished she could dream of the town again, just to revisit the place and maybe search herself.
Asagi hesitated. “Is Akab- er, Aka-chan still mad at me?”
Aoi didn’t know. She had trouble telling when he was angry and when he wasn’t. She shrugged. “I don’t think so.” He seemed to have calmed down after she’d stopped crying, at least.
“That’s good.”
Seiji quirked a brow. “You guys have a cat fight or something?”
Aoi grimaced. Did he really have to phrase it like that?
“More like a misunderstanding,” Asagi corrected him.
Momoka glumly poked at her pastry. “What about?”
Guilt twinged in Aoi’s stomach. It seemed Asagi hadn’t told her. Aoi hadn’t either, and she felt bad about it. Momoka loved the idea of being Linked, but she was more or less on the outside right now, unable to join until she improved . . . or was able to do anything, really.
And to make it worse, Aoi couldn’t answer her honestly—not with Seiji there.
“Oh, nothing much. Just a TV show.”
She hated lying to the girl. Aoi hoped that sounded believable enough. It was the first thing that had come to her mind.
“Yeah,” Asagi said. “I thought she didn’t like one my favorite K-dramas—it’s so cute—but Arisawa-san just didn’t know much about it. I got a bit defensive and overreacted.” She turned to Aoi. “And I’m sorry for that.”
Wow. Asagi was a much better liar than Aoi. She just nodded in agreement, unwilling to risk adding to the story.
Momoka looked confused. She knew that wasn’t the truth, but the girl was smart enough to not ask about Linked stuff in front of their guest. Seiji, however, bought it.
“Girls argue about the weirdest things,” he said with a laugh.
Momoka laughed too, though hers was more of a nervous laugh. “I suppose we do,” she said in faux agreement. Then she turned her attention to Asagi. “So? What did you think of Aka-chan?”
Asagi rolled her eyes. “Rough and rude. A total yankii.” That was a blunt answer, though an understandable first impression. But there was far more to Tatsuo than just that. Asagi paused a moment, then added, “But she certainly does have a soft spot for Arisawa-chan.”
Momoka clapped her hands together excitedly, her mood visibly brightening. That was one of the worst things Asagi could have said to her. Now she’d gotten the girl started. “Oh, they’re absolutely adorable together! Don’t you agree?”
Of course, Seiji took it the wrong way, namely because they were calling Akabori a girl.
“Arisawa-chan’s into girls? Never would have expected that from you. Asagi, maybe. But not you.”
“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?” Asagi demanded.
“It really isn’t like that!” Aoi insisted.
Seiji just laughed and raised his hands before him defensively. “Woah, woah. Okay. No need to yell. I respect you either way.”
“But I’m not . . .” Aoi sighed. There was no point in finishing that sentence. He clearly wasn’t going to listen anyways.
She glanced at the table. Everyone’s plates were empty now, the pastries eaten.
“I guess we’re done here?” Aoi asked. “I’ve got some things to do.” Training with Mulan, mostly. It’d been a while since those two had worked on her form, especially now that Aoi could summon two rings of light.
Momoka shrugged, her glum expression returning. She could probably guess what Aoi was up to. “We can be.”
The group stood, with Asagi and Seiji taking the lead. Aoi kept her pace slow. She needed to talk to Momoka without Seiji overhearing.
“Nishihara-chan?”
“Yeah?”
“We need to be more careful when we speak. Seiji can’t know about what we are. It puts him in too much danger.”
Aoi wasn’t sure how exactly he was endangered, but there was a gut feeling telling her that he was. The Linked were given their magical weapons for a reason. Seiji wasn’t a Linked. He didn’t have that advantage when things got rough in the future, which they inevitably would. No. He couldn’t know anything about the Linked. It was safer that way.
“I know,” Momoka said sadly. “I just . . . I wish more people could know about us. We’re like superheroes.”
“I feel the same way,” Aoi replied. Not about the superheroes idea, but about wanting to tell people the truth. Especially Tatsuo’s gang. They were great guys, but they always thought she needed to be protected. They didn’t know she could fight too. She couldn’t tell them that. It didn’t help that they thought she spent so much time with Tatsuo because they were dating. But that was a whole other set of problems.
“Oh.” Momoka sounded surprised. “I didn’t think about you not being able to tell people.”
“You thought all my friends were Linked?”
Momoka laughed nervously. Seemed like that was the case. Aoi was glad it wasn’t. Her friend group would be much smaller that way.
Seiji glanced over his shoulder at them. “Hey. What are we talking about back there?” he asked. “Making some double date plans for summer break?”
Heat rushed to Aoi’s face. She didn’t know how he came up with that, but the thought alone was embarrassing.
Seemed Momoka felt the same because they chorused “No way!” at the same time. They looked at each other and laughed.
The guilt didn’t go away over turning down Momoka and excluding her. Not after midterms ended. Not even after Asagi said she wouldn’t have time to spar with Aoi and Tatsuo on Sunday because of family plans. It meant Momoka wasn’t missing out on too much Linked activities, but at the same time, she was missing out on everything.
Sometimes, when Aoi went by Mr. Nishihara’s ramen shop, Momoka refused to see her. Her father just told Aoi that Momoka wasn’t ready for her yet, or that she was studying.He didn’t know when his daughter would be free to see her, and Aoi didn’t either. Free, or willing.
There was nothing else she could do, so Aoi decided to be patient. She’d wait and keep waiting. And then she’d apologize to Momoka when the brunette dec
ided to speak to her again.
Maybe it would be sometime in June. Then June was here.
Sunday had arrived, and that meant no school. Aoi was free to do as she pleased all day, save for training, but all she wanted to do was check on Momoka.
She walked to the ramen shop, and just in time, too, because Momoka was just heading out, dressed in her pink sweats.
“Hey, Nishihara-chan!” Aoi called. Butterflies swarmed in her stomach with nerves. She’d been mulling something over for the past month in the back of her mind. What if there was a reason Momoka hadn’t been talking to her when they were alone? What if she decided Aoi wasn’t worthy of all her praise? That she wasn’t as good of a person as Momoka thought?
Aoi definitely wasn’t worth the idolizing. She’d be totally fine if she didn’t have to deal with it anymore. But what if Momoka didn’t even want to be around her anymore? What if she didn’t like Aoi anymore?
The thought alone scared her.
All these thoughts and more rushed through Aoi in the heartbeat it took for Momoka to look up at who’d called her. But Momoka didn’t turn away. She didn’t go back inside. She didn’t walk away. Not this time.
Instead, Momoka smiled at Aoi and ran to her. “Onee-chan, you came just in time!”
“Just in time?” she repeated. Just in time for what?
“I think I’m finally ready!” Momoka said eagerly. “I’ve been training really hard so I could be good enough to join you guys. I also wanted to surprise you. I hope I didn’t upset you too my by avoiding you.”
Aoi was taken aback. So Momoka had been avoiding her. Aoi should have known that, but she’d been hoping for the best. She tried not to let it bother her though. She tried to smile as big as she could.
“You . . . avoided me to surprise me?”
Momoka’s smile faded. “I—yeah. I really upset you, didn’t I?”
“Oh, no. It didn’t bother me.” Unfortunately, Aoi wasn’t a very good liar.
“Arisawa-chan, she is your friend.” Mulan whispered from the gem. “Tell her how you feel.”
Linked: The War of the Gems - Book 1 Page 17