He hesitated. “No,” he said after a moment. “I suppose it isn’t. I did not realize your friends were all Linked.”
“Well, not . . . all of them are Linked. Just Tatsuo here at school. The rest are at the junior high.”
“Did you know Makoto was Linked before?”
“No,” she said. Aoi then proceeded to tell him what she told her other friends about Makoto, what happened between them, how she met her Linked friends, and how Makoto’s death could mean trouble for all of them.
“So Azuki-san was another secret of yours . . .” Touya shook his head in frustration. “I can’t trust someone like you if you keep secrets from me.”
Someone like her . . . It made her want to yell at him that she wasn’t some sort of delinquent, and that there wasn’t anything bad about it even if she was. Instead, she hung her head and said, “I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”
He looked appeased by her answer. “It better not,” he said.
“Will you come to my house tonight to meet everyone?”
He shrugged. “I might. Not sure if it’s a good idea. How do I know you’re not just trying to lure me to a trap?”
Aoi rolled her eyes. “Please,” she said. “This is really important.”
“Fine,” he said. “I’ll try and be there.”
Aoi supposed that would have to be good enough.
That night, the Linked waited for Touya in the front lawn for a while, but he didn’t come. They didn’t train. They didn’t relax. They just moved indoors, sitting solemnly around the living room.
“We should wait,” Aoi said softly. “In case he comes.”
“He ain’t gonna come, Arisawa.”
“He said he would.”
So they waited some more. But Touya didn’t come. With slumped shoulders, they moved to the kitchen and began to eat.
Even when everyone was full, Touya still hadn’t come. He probably wouldn’t. Must have changed his mind or something.
Aoi helped her father with the dishes before returning to her seat at the table. “I guess he doesn’t trust us,” she said.
“Good riddance,” Tatsuo scoffed. “We don’t need someone like that.”
Aoi didn’t want to believe that Touya would just not come. He wouldn’t do that. He wasn’t like that. “He has to join us. He could be killed.”
“Arisawa, c’mon. He’s a self-righteous punk who insulted his potential allies.” Tatsuo was still sore about that. “He ain’t gonna come.”
“You’re wrong.” There was more to Touya than that. She was about to say more to defend him, but the doorbell rang. Aoi sprung from her seat with a smile.
Momoka also got to her feet. “That must be him!”
Tatsuo rolled his eyes. “He’s still late,” he grumbled.
But that didn’t matter. Touya was here. He’d kept his word after all.
“Coming!” Aoi rushed to the door. She opened it with a smile that only grew when she saw who was there. Touya really had come. “Come on in,” she said, stepping out of the way.
“Thank you,” Touya said, taking off his shoes near the door. “Forgive me for being late.”
Aoi waved the apology off. “It’s fine. I’m sure something important came up.”
“Indeed,” he said with a nod. “I was held up with training.”
Aoi didn’t understand. Wouldn’t his spirit want him to come to this? Why would they hold Touya up so much?
“Not Linked, if that’s what you were wondering about.” He really was a perceptive guy.
“Then what kind of training was it?”
“Police. With my mentor,” he replied, before quickly changing the subject. “Where are the others?”
“In the kitchen.”
“I take it I missed dinner?”
She hesitated. “Yeah.”
His expression didn’t change. “Let’s not waste any more time.”
“Okay. Right this way.”
She led him back to the table and sat down. “Have a seat,” she said.
He hesitated for a moment, looking around at the group. Momoka gave a little wave, but Asagi just returned his level stare, taking in his presence without much interest. Tatsuo ignored him entirely, scratching at his bokken.
Touya sighed. “Why not?” he mumbled and sat down in an empty seat.
“So,” Aoi said. “This is our group. We meet to train and basically just hang out. Would you want to join us?”
Touya folded his hands in his lap. “Let me answer that question with one of my own.”
Aoi hesitated. She didn’t think she liked the sound of that. But she might as well hear him out. No harm in that. “Okay.”
“Why are you gathering Linked, Arisawa-san?”
What kind of question was that? Even if she wasn’t thinking it through too much, she had good intentions. He had to know that.
“We became Linked in order to protect those who can’t protect themselves,” she said. “I just thought we could protect more people if we all worked together.”
Touya tensed at her words. His fists clenched tight in his lap. “I should have known.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The legend. You . . . know the legend, don’t you?”
She’d never heard a word about such a thing until now. Hopefully her spirit would. Mulan? What is the legend?
The spirit hesitated. “I don’t know. I’ve never heard of such a thing until now. Forgive me.”
That’s okay. Maybe the others know something. Aoi looked around at her friends. But then she saw the blank looks of confusion on their faces. They were as clueless as she was.
Without a word, she looked back at Touya with a sheepish smile. He knew something they didn’t. She just hoped he was willing to share the information.
He sighed heavily. “Of course you don’t,” he muttered.
“Could you tell us?”
“I have no choice,” he replied. He closed his eyes and recited the lines. “Youth, holder of the gem, brings peace to the world. Protect those in need. Yet take care. The dark gather their numbers. Calling it ‘teamwork’, they only sew chaos.”
Sew chaos? Was that what Aoi was doing? She wasn’t so sure. But she remembered something. “Senpai, aren’t you planning on working with the police? Isn’t that teamwork?”
His fists clenched tighter. His teeth were grit. “I am not gathering officers.”
“Then what about the student council? You wanted me for it because I was Linked.”
“I wanted you because you seem reliable,” he corrected her.
Aoi wasn’t so sure about that. But, then again, she wasn’t so sure about anything anymore. “So . . . you won’t join us?”
“It isn’t safe.”
Aoi frowned. It wasn’t safe to be alone, either. Makoto had proven that. “Please reconsider, Midorikawa-senpai.”
“I won’t.” But then he paused and thought for a moment. A small sign of hope. “Unless you can learn more about the legend. My spirit has admitted that he thinks there may be more to it than what he’s found, but I doubt that’s possible.” He stood up and pushed in his chair. “Until then, I will refuse and keep refusing. Please excuse me.”
Aoi did not see him out. She sat there, her shoulders slumped, her head down. She may have learned more about the Linked, but it only revealed how little she knew. That, and how much danger she could be in.
“Are we really doing a bad thing by being friends?” Momoka asked.
Aoi had no sure answer. “I hope not.”
“Absolutely not,” Tatsuo insisted. “That fancy-pants doesn’t know everything. He told us that himself.”
Touya didn’t know the whole legend. What he knew put them in a bad light, sure. But there was always the chance he could be wrong. Aoi would cling to that chance as tightly as possible. She had to prove him wrong.
“Don’t worry. If he found something in his inner world, then I’m sure we can as well,” Mulan assured her.
Maybe they’d been too focused on training and not focused enough on learning. There was still time. They could still change things.
And she wouldn’t be alone. They’d all be searching for more answers. Hopefully they could find some before it was too late.
Chapter 26
Aoi didn’t know what to do. Mulan had searched her inner world for the legend and found nothing. Aoi found nothing on the Internet either. She’d thought of going to a library, but when they’d found all their answers in the inner world, it just sounded silly.
The final bell of the day rang, startling Aoi out of her thoughts. She started to pack her things to go home. “So what are we gonna do?” Aoi mumbled, mostly to herself.
A part of her hoped that Tatsuo would be waiting for her. He’d been at lunch that day, but he wasn’t waiting for her outside her classroom. He must have gone home already.
However, someone was waiting for her in the hall. In his place was a beautiful girl. She seemed almost otherworldly with her silver hair and shocking blue eyes. Aoi had never seen her before.
“Hello,” Aoi said hesitantly. “Are you looking for someone?”
The girl didn’t answer at first. She looked down at Aoi’s bandaged hand and gave a little nod to herself. “I am,” she said at last. “And I’ve found her.”
Aoi looked over her shoulder, but no one was close enough behind her. That meant . . . “You were looking for me?”
The stranger gave a pleasant smile that did nothing to soothe Aoi’s nerves. This was too weird. And yet the silver-haired girl acted like she was doing nothing out of the ordinary. “I was. Will you come with me?”
Come with her? And where were they supposed to go? Why should she even trust this stranger? And what made Aoi so interesting to the girl? Perhaps it was a crush? It was the only explanation Aoi could think of.
Mulan spoke from the gem. “Be careful, Aoi-san.”
She had so many questions, so Aoi started with the easiest. “Who are you?”
“How rude of me.” The stranger bowed deeply. “I am Shiroyama Kiyoko, heir to the Shiroyama Shrine.”
Aoi returned her bow. “I’m Arisawa Aoi, and, uh, my dad sells vegetables.” There wasn’t much else interesting about her, save for being a Linked, but she couldn’t tell the stranger that. “Um, your hair is really pretty.”
“Thank you.” Kiyoko rose from her bow. “I dyed it so I could have something that truly belonged to me.” She pointed at Aoi’s bandaged hand. “I’m also a Linked. I have my suspicions you are as well.”
Aoi’s face went pale. No one was supposed to know that, not if she didn’t tell them. How did Kiyoko know?
“Don’t worry, Arisawa-chan. I’m not going to hurt you.” Her pleasant smile didn’t falter. “So, will you come with me?”
Aoi hesitated. “How do I know I can trust you?”
“How can you know I’m Linked, you mean?”
Aoi nodded. Linked were the good guys, right? So that would be proof enough . . .
“Because I have a gem.” Kiyoko glanced around to make sure the coast was clear before lifting her bangs. Centered on her forehead was a shining, milky white gem. “Is this proof enough?”
Aoi bit her lip. Anyone could glue a gem to their forehead. Referring to it as being Linked, however, was another matter. Aoi didn’t know how else Kiyoko could have learned of that, unless she’d talked to one of Aoi’s friends.
She must know something at least, she thought. It’s worth a shot.
“Is it?” Mulan asked. “What if she’s just pretending?”
Why would she do something of the sort?
“Why wouldn’t she? Just stay on your guard, but see what you can find out.”
Point made. And it was enough to get Aoi to agree. She nodded. “Alright,” Aoi said. “Where would you like to go?”
“My family’s shrine, if that’s fine by you.”
Should I? She had to make sure her spirit was fine with this, especially in a situation as strange as this one.
“I see no problem with it. If things get bad, you can run.”
Alright. Aoi smiled. “That’s fine.”
“Let’s go.” Kiyoko led Aoi from the school to her shrine, talking as they walked together.
“How did you know I was Linked?” Aoi asked.
“Well, to be honest, I didn’t. Before recently, I didn’t even know there were other Linked. But when I read about that boy in the paper—Azuki-san, was it?—I knew I wasn’t the only one. After that, I started looking for others.”
Kiyoko had a magnetic aspect to her personality. People turned to watch her pass as they made their way through town. It made Aoi uncomfortable. She’d never had so many people turn in her direction before, even if they weren’t technically looking at her.
“I heard about a first year with a bandaged hand,” Kiyoko continued, “and I found you.”
It wasn’t long before they made their way inside the Shiroyama estate. Aoi had never been here before. The grounds of the estate stretched as far as Aoi could see, spotted with beautiful gardens, koi ponds, gazebos, and of course the shrine itself. To the left was a large mansion, somehow exuding humility in its architecture despite its elegance. Kiyoko led Aoi off the main road and onto a small gravel path that wandered through a garden near one of the koi ponds.
“It’s a beautiful shrine,” Aoi commented, as if she had to. Not only was it polite, it was also true.
“Thank you. My ancestors built this shrine in honor of the valley this town is in.”
“Sounds fancy.”
“It kind of is,” she said with a laugh. Kiyoko folded her hands before her as she walked. “How long have you been Linked, Arisawa-chan?”
“Since April. You?”
“Since I was a child,” Kiyoko replied.
Aoi’s eyes went wide. “The gems have been around that long?”
Kiyoko laughed as if Aoi had asked some silly question. “They’ve been around for a lot longer than that. Hundreds of years, in fact. How do you think our spirits found their way inside the gems, after all?”
“I don’t know,” Aoi admitted. “I never really thought about it.”
“I suppose most people wouldn’t know a whole lot . . . I can’t imagine becoming Linked without anyone to tell me what was going on.”
Aoi wasn’t sure what to say. She wasn’t even sure if she was supposed to know more. The path led to a small gated garden connected to the main house. They rounded a corner and Aoi found herself surrounded by white flowers. It was unsurprising. Shiro meant white, after all.
“I know a lot more than the averaged Linked too, I’d say, seeing as I’m in one of the founding families.”
“What do you mean?”
But Kiyoko didn’t respond. She just motioned to a gazebo painted—surprise!—white. A porcelain platter rested on a bench in the gazebo, fitted with a steaming tea pot and two cups. Kiyoko took a seat beside the tea tray.
“Tea?” she offered.
Aoi sat and politely shook her head. “No, thank you.”
Kiyoko poured herself a cup and took a dainty sip. “You must be so confused about why you’re Linked, and what you should do now. My family has been passing on the ways of the gem for generations now. I can help you and your spirit work together, to learn how to work as a team.”
Aoi gave a small smile. “I’m not as new as all that. Actually, me and my friends have figured out quite a bit about our purpose already.”
“Aoi-san, careful,” Mulan warned. “Remember the legend. We should not grow our group so long as Touya’s words may be true.”
Aoi’s smile faded. You’re right. I’m sorry.
“Friends?” Kiyoko asked. “You’ve met more Linked? That’s incredible!” She hesitated, as if noting the change in Aoi’s expression. “What’s wrong?”
Aoi grimaced. She wasn’t very good at hiding her thoughts. “I . . . don’t want to introduce you to them. I’m sorry. But we heard a legend re
cently, and until we find out if it’s true or not, we don’t want to risk gathering too many Linked.”
It was Kiyoko’s turn to frown. She put her tea down. “A legend to keep us apart? That doesn’t sound right.”
“I know. We’ve been looking for answers, but none of us can find anything. I wish I could help my spirit search, but what can I do? There won’t be any books on this in the library.”
Kiyoko’s face lit up. “A library! Maria has one of those.”
“Who?”
“My spirit. Maria Theresa was a great scholar of sorts. Her inner world is a library.”
“I guess I don’t know who that is.”
“The mother of Marie Antoinette. She founded an academy of science and literature, and supported medical research.”
“Oh, that’s cool.”
“Very.” Kiyoko patted Aoi’s arm. “Don’t worry, Arisawa-san. We’ll find the answers to your riddle. Maria says she’ll start searching immediately. I will help her as soon as my duties for the day are finished.”
“You mean like go into the inner world?”
Kiyoko cocked her head. “Of course. What else would I mean? Like you said, there won’t be any books here in town on the Linked.”
“How exactly do you get into the inner world?”
“Meditate before you sleep,” Kiyoko said simply. “Meditation is the key to growing close to your spirit. The closer you are, the easier it will be to enter their world.
Like I did when I first summoned my weapon.
“Sounds about right,” Mulan said.
Aoi stood. “Thank you for showing me your beautiful home, Shiroyama-san. I hope we can meet again soon.”
“Are you leaving?” After Aoi nodded, Kiyoko stood as well. “I need to get ready to help with the shrine anyway. Let me show you the way out.”
“Thanks,” Aoi said. “I really appreciate that.”
That night, Aoi did as Kiyoko suggested. She sat on her bed and meditated for what felt like hours until her eyelids grew heavy and she couldn’t focus. Then she turned in for the night.
Surprisingly, even with how focused she had been moments before, she fell asleep easily. Perhaps the meditation even helped with that. Aoi wasn’t sure. All she knew was that one moment she was awake and dozing off. The next, she was back in Mulan’s inner world.
Linked: The War of the Gems - Book 1 Page 25