Free, David swam under the bridge then used his Seikaku to poke through the ice. A hand helped him out of the water. To either side of him, Rie and Takumi sat on the bridge, having watched the whole ordeal.
“Fine. I do the dishes tonight,” Takumi said, his voice grim as he looked to his sister. David knocked water from his ears.
“You two bet on me?”
“Of course,” Rie said with a sweet smile. “Takumi thought it would take you another couple of minutes to get free.”
David shivered in the cold and then punched Takumi.
After only a few days off for the winter holidays, school started back up again. Nakano’s second years faced the busiest semester of their academic calendar. In addition to the usual competitions, tests, and activities, the second years would be going on a school trip to Kyushu in only a few weeks.
With Chul Moo’s disappearance and Misaki’s death, Class 2B was smaller than before. Many of David’s schoolmates were still in shock from the Jeong brothers’ disappearance and the deaths over the past months, including the fire that had raged in the warehouse. When David arrived for the first day of class, their homeroom teacher Mr. Moriyama also told them that Yuuto had transferred to another school. Although he gave no reasons, David, Takumi, Rie, and Natsuki all assumed it had to do with the aftereffects of the ōkami’s domination over him. Both Yuka and Yuuto had become loud and sometimes even obnoxious in class after the Matsumotos and David had freed them the previous semester.
Yuuto especially had been a paradox. Always exhausted in class, he made every teacher’s request seem as if it was a personal affront. Sometimes this came out as a lack of reply, other times as yelling or rude outbursts. The only thing he had kept up with was sports, but even then, he would go on as if directed by some plan no one else could see.
Although disturbed and guilty over Yuuto’s departure, David was still happy to be back at school. Only a few months before, he had felt isolated and lonely, but over time it had become more like a second home. The myriad cultural differences that had kept him off balance were still there, but with the language barrier gone, they no longer kept him from making real connections with his classmates. While he was still far from mastering Japan, Kou had provided him with the tools to improve. Slowly, he was making friends among his classmates and enjoyed spending as much time as possible with them.
David’s classmates and even the Matsumotos had become far more willing to deal with his occasional mistakes and differences since he could explain where he was coming from. It also helped that Kou acted as a check for him. Always present within his mind, Kou could often sense problems coming and help David avoid them.
‘If only random monsters would stop attacking us.’
‘They were all weak. Though I guess it is only a matter of time before Chul Soon sends something worse.’
With their initial preparations and meetings done for the morning, Class 2B began heading for the beginning of semester ceremony. At the beginning of every semester, the entire school met in the gym to listen to speeches from their teachers and fellow students.
Realizing he was zoning out again while talking to Kou, David said, “I’m just glad I haven’t had to give a speech yet.”
“It’s not that bad. You just have to talk about how hard you’re going to try this semester,” Naoto replied.
“Yeah, or talk about what you did during the break,” Shou added. “That’s what I talked about last year when my turn came up.”
“Such an over-achiever,” Naoto said.
‘Naoto acts like you do with Jessica. Is Shou his brother?’ Kou asked.
‘No. Just friends.’
“What did you two end up doing?” Shou asked. David jumped at the question, his head snapping to look at the shorter boy.
“We were at the Estate with everyone else,” Takumi said, covering for David. “Not all of us get to go on ski trips during winter break.”
‘Yikes, I thought he meant us for a minute there. Takumi is getting way too sneaky.’
“Hey! My Dad got a promotion. He wanted to celebrate or something,” Naoto said, rubbing his hair with one hand and looking away. David noticed his shoes and belt were new, and the hand in the hair gesture was one hundred percent embarrassment.
‘Naoto seems to be a bit uncomfortable with his new home life. I think he was used to hating everything.’
‘I bet he’s wishing he had studied more. Now that his parents are loaded they are going to want him to go to a good school!’
Naoto and Shou eyed David as he began laughing. They were used to him zoning out at random, something that had started after Kou had awoken. His friends even ignored the occasional times he finished or started conversations that made sense to no one else. It was the more overt strangeness that still caught his classmates off guard.
All of Class 2B had noticed the odd things, like when he twitched his head at sounds no one else could hear, but they strove to ignore it. Unfortunately for David, they had all met Jessica. The fact his sister had fit in so well, even without speaking any Japanese, had shown them David’s weirdness was not just because he was a gaijin.
David had become good enough at sports, classes, and with his friends, that they overlooked a number of quirks. They were especially accommodating when their own grades improved from his homework help. Only the twins and Natsuki knew that the strangest of his quirks were due to his possession by a kami. Kou shared his mind, an alien presence that never completely faded.
Not all David’s classmates welcomed him and his changes with open arms. A cadre of third years led by a boy named Koji had marked David for humiliation during his first month. Several more run-ins had only stiffened Koji’s resolve to end David’s newfound popularity. The incident had only isolated Koji, making him more dangerous.
David shrugged off thoughts of Koji and returned his focus to walking down the school halls. Kou pulled at David’s attention until he noticed that their group had grown. Natsuki was keeping pace near Takumi as they all walked together. It was the closest he had seen them in public since the previous year.
‘I am just glad we don’t have to deal with Natsuki all the time anymore. She’s so much more civil this way.’
‘You cannot fool me. I know you miss having a partner, even if you pretend to like the freedom more. Do not worry, we will find someone worthy.’
“Here,” Natsuki said, handing David a folded bit of paper.
“What?”
“It’s a list of the best songs right now. Jess wanted to know what music she should download, right?”
“You know, if you’re going to be pen pals maybe you should practice English rather than send everything through me,” David replied.
“She’s your sister,” Natsuki said smiling. “Besides, it’s fun giving you more work.”
With an innocent grin, Natsuki led Takumi and the others into the gym. David sighed and thought of his sister as he waited for the bottleneck at the gym entrance to clear. It took everyone a few minutes to find and change their shoes at the entrance, so he read over the list. At the top was AKB48, an all-girl group with nearly one hundred members. While it was true he had noticed many of his classmates listening to their music, he did not want to point his little sister toward their idea of fashion.
Once everyone was in the gym and had lined up by class and year, the ceremony began with greetings and bowing led by the vice-principal. After about an hour, the ceremony ended and their teachers released them to their normal classes.
Back in the classroom, their homeroom teacher Mr. Moriyama explained that most of the beginning of the semester would be devoted to getting ready for their school trip to Kyushu and the Cultural Festival just after. The rest would be getting ready for finals.
‘Great. Tests, homework, and monsters for who knows how long. Maybe we should just sneak off and go hunt Chul Soon.’
‘If we had done as I suggested, we could have tracked him. By now, he must be too far gone fo
r me to hunt. We will just have to hope the monsters they send do not injure your cub mates.’
Class 2B’s schedule for the next two weeks had them focusing on all things Kyushu. In Social Studies, they learned about the history of the most southern of the four main Japanese islands. They also studied the geography of Kyushu’s Prefectures and the history of Nagasaki and its exposure to Western culture through the Dutch. In science, they covered the region’s unique animals and plants, while in Japanese they studied dialect differences.
After school, David joined with the twins and Natsuki in the gym. David laughed at their shivers and complaints about the cold. Just a few weeks before, the team had sweated through each practice complaining about how hot it was. With the change in weather, the entire team had invested in new Yonex HeatTec clothing to keep in their body heat. Even Takumi muttered as he zipped up a full tracksuit. David’s choice of shorts had most of his teammates wondering again if he was sane.
On the courts, they all worked through their usual warm-ups and drills. Takumi and Natsuki’s constant practices together on the Estate showed most when they played together. Few could challenge them because there was such synchronicity in their movements. Their badminton playing, more than anything else, began the rumors that they were dating, though no one dared whisper such things around either of them.
After badminton, David walked the few kilometers back to the Matsumoto Estate with his friends. He opted for a human dinner, much to Kou’s annoyance, then joined the others for evening practice.
Unlike in the mornings where the focus was on physical martial arts, David spent most of his evening practice time repairing the damage he did to the forest trees while practicing with his Seikaku. It took him nearly double the time to fix or create something than it took for destruction. Masao never smiled when he assigned tasks, but David suspected he enjoyed giving exercises that were ever more intricate.
Since the Matsumoto’s swords were in high demand and with Nakano villagers often seeking Masao’s advice as the local Shinto priest, there was also significant enough traffic on the Estate to require the extra time David spent fixing his accidents. Yukiko reminded him of the fact when she came back with a giant radish that still had a rather large wood shard in it. David fixed the vegetable, then left Rie and Natsuki in the forge so that Kou could run with Reimi through the Estate.
“Don’t forget to write about the kappa,” Yukiko called after. David groaned.
“Yet another page in your own Jitsugen Samurai Diary,” Takumi said. “You can title it ‘My heroic near-drowning.’” David lunged after his host-brother, but he disappeared into a puff of smoke as Reimi took wing. Growling, Kou chased after the gray bird.
A TRIP TO KYUSHU
Of course, every time my thoughts strayed, every time I thought I could be more, he was always there to remind me of what I was. His only concern was revenge. I wanted to suggest following, but I was silenced as if dead…
As school and the Estate settled into routine, David almost felt like a regular student again. Excitement for the school trip built up among the second years. The worries about being unable to locate Chul Soon, the monsters that kept attacking, and the statue that the police had found were constant but distant concerns. If only Koji would graduate, David would love being at school.
The next few weeks sped by. David and Kou eliminated two more weak monsters during their usual patrols around the Nakano valley, but caught no scent of the one enemy they most wanted. With a mix of reluctance and excitement, David gave up the responsibility of protecting the valley as his classmates headed north.
David woke up half way through the flight. Getting onto the plane had not been a problem. Unlike when he tried to enter the ocean, no sense of unease or distress had overcome them on boarding the plane at Kansai International Airport.
“Damn, it wasn’t enough,” Rie said, cursing David’s ability to heal so fast. She rummaged through her bag. The sense of otherness and fear that had hit them when the wheels left the ground came back to him as a kind of echo of the initial assault. He vaguely remembered Rie pouring a handful of pills down his throat as Kou convulsed in their shared mind.
Beside him, Takumi sat smiling and watching the clouds outside his window. Reimi, daughter of fire and wind, seemed to have had no problems leaving the ground. Kou on the other hand was a tiger, and was bound to the earth.
David’s throat was coarse and dry, but he managed enough head movement to see Rie struggling to get her bag from under the seat.
“It’s alright,” David said, choking on his words a little. “The panic is gone… I can’t hear Kou.” He sat up straighter as his throat and mind cleared, his strangled senses struggling to take in the other passengers. Their classmates sat arrayed around them in their regular winter uniforms. David shuddered. ‘It’s been months since I’ve been without him. I… I’m alone.’ It took David several minutes to compose himself enough to ask, “What happened?”
“As soon as we left the ground you started panicking so I gave you mom’s pills. It should have been enough to knock out a normal person for a few days. Are you sure you’re okay?” she asked.
“The feeling is there, but I think I can handle it,” David said, frowning at the stale cabin air. “I think that’s why Kou is keeping himself separated, so I won’t feel his full panic. What’s worse is the itch. It’s this drive to get back to land.”
“That’s probably why I didn’t have a problem,” Takumi whispered. “Reimi is cut off from my mind, so I wouldn’t be able to feel her panic even if she did. I do feel the itch though. It peaked a while ago but now it’s fading a little.”
“We must be getting close to Fukuoka,” Rie said. Ahead the monitors changed to a map with a little airplane showing that they were over the ocean. David sighed and sat back, trying not to think about the distance between him and land.
The instant their plane touched down at Fukuoka International Airport, David relaxed in his seat. Around him, the rest of Nakano’s second grade chattered about the rest of the trip. Moving an entire grade was such a logistical nightmare that David was surprised they made it onto the plane, let alone all the way to Kyushu.
Fukuoka was at the northern part of the huge island of Kyushu, one of the four main Japanese islands. As they got off the plane, all the students had to squeeze into narrow lines to keep the terminal walkway clear for the bustle of passengers moving between gates. David looked around at the few shops. He could see the security gate in the distance.
‘Wow, this is almost as big as Phoenix’s airport,’ he thought.
‘I wouldn’t know… but I’m glad we are back on land. I’d prefer never to go through that again,’ Kou mumbled as he peeked back into David’s mind.
‘Well, there’s still the return trip.’ Kou growled and withdrew again to sulk.
Nakano Junior High’s teachers checked the line of students to ensure everyone was present, and to quell bits of restlessness after the flight. In addition to their homeroom teachers, Principal Yogi, three tour guides, and the school nurse were also present. After the rest of the passengers finished debarking, David followed along with everyone else as they wound their way to the baggage claim. They had all packed lightly, but the cold weather necessitated larger bags than they could carry on.
A rumble washed through the female students as they moved past automatic doors and chill wind blew in. It was colder than it had been back on the mainland. Since skirts were still part of their winter uniform, several of the girls started hunting through their bags for extra jackets to wear over their uniforms.
“Glad we don’t have to wear skirts too,” Naoto murmured.
The boys around him nodded their agreement. They were all warm in their usual black slacks, but with the added warmth of heavy uniform jackets. Unlike their summer uniform, the winter uniform jacket was all black with buttons in the middle and a high flat collar, similar to a naval dress uniform. The girls on the other hand wore their usual blue s
ummer skirts with thick blue shirts and white sailor scarves.
Once everyone made it outside, their flag toting tour guides headed down a set of stairs to the subway. Their teachers watched as everyone gathered around the automatic ticket machines. Though his abilities allowed him to read Japanese, it was the first time David had ever attempted to buy his own train ticket.
“Come here,” Rie pulled at the corner of his sleeve. “You look just like the first time you got off the plane from America.”
“Sorry, those route maps were not made to be easily understood,” he replied. “Who designed this thing anyway? There are a million buttons. Besides, I never rode trains back in the States.” With Naoto telling everyone nearby about David’s dilemma, Rie helped him sort through the process before the class moved on without him.
While waiting for the train, students and teachers took pictures for the school album and for the projects they would all have to do on their return. Then, to make sure everyone got on, each class lined up in front of a mark on the ground denoting where the doors would open. When their train came, David hurried on with the twins and Natsuki.
Just as the doors shut, David caught a glimpse of something out the doors. Rie too, looked at the same place, and then turned her gaze on him. He shook his head as the train picked up speed. Whatever he had seen disappeared as advertisements outside the windows began blurring into a stream of bright color.
“I can’t wait to get to the hotel. It is supposed to be really nice,” Natsuki said.
“Yeah, it’s too bad we had to go to school this morning, then spend the afternoon traveling. It’s like we’re losing a whole day!” Naoto complained.
Revenge of the Akuma Clan Page 3