Chapter 4: Emotions Running High

            Kosuke exited the men’s washroom. He had taken his uniform’s jacket off to sleep, though, he was still uncomfortable in his dress pants, he longed for his pajamas desperately, hoping to will them to the hideout. “Ugh,” he sighed, “I’m going back to bed.” He then heard sobs. “Hm?” He squinted his eyes to try seeing in the dark. Someone was sitting on the couch. He approached to find Kotone hugging her knees. “Ah, Kotone-chan, are you alright?”

Kotone was startled, making a small jump before looking up at him. “Oh, sorry, did I wake you?” She asked as she wiped her tears.

“No, no. Don’t be sorry, you have every right to be upset. Do you want to talk about it?” Kosuke sat next to her, ready to listen.

“Um,” Kotone couldn’t look at him, “alright, well, I’m worried about my parents. Not only that, my future, everything I worked for, it’s meaningless.”

“What do you mean by ‘meaningless’?” Kosuke asked.

“I wanted a boyfriend and to become a world-famous popstar, but now the world has been turned upside down. All I can hope for is to become a demon’s songbird. A slave, not a star.” She began to sob again. “And I will never find love!”

Kosuke’s heart broke seeing her so upset. “Kotone-chan.” Kosuke took her hands in his so she would look at him. “I will do everything in my power to make your dreams come true. If we work together, we can take our world back. When all of this is over, I will be at every single concert, and I’ll drag Shingo-kun and Kana-kun along with me.”

“Really?” Kotone stared into his eyes. “I guess three fans is a good starting place, but you haven’t even heard me sing yet.”

“If your singing anything like your guitar playing, you have the greatest voice of our generation.” Kosuke smiled warmly.

Kotone giggled. “You’re silly, and kind of cute. Kosuke-kun, will you be my boyfriend?”

Kosuke stared at her for a moment, blushing. “Um, yes, but we have to take things slow. I’m okay with holding hands for now, but no kissing.”

“Yay!” Kotone gave him a hug.

Shingo and Kanako popped their heads up from behind the couch. “Aww, you two are such a cute couple.” They put their hands on their cheeks as they cooed in unison.

“How long have you been there?” Kosuke questioned.

“Doesn’t matter. When is the wedding?” Shingo jokingly pried.

“We literally just started dating less then a minute ago.” Kosuke then playfully hit Shingo on the head with his fist. “Cool your jets, don’t get so excited.”

“Well, I’m excited that you now have a distraction from your studies. You will never out rank me again! Ke ke ke.” Kanako laughed.

Unbothered by what was going on, Yuzuru walked into the men’s toilets. He suddenly burst out coughing. “What the heck died in there!?” He screeched.

“Kosuke-kun did it!” Kanako and Shingo snitched simultaneously while pointing at him. Kosuke then bolted towards the library with Yuzuru in pursuit.

Hisakawa stumbled out of the room she was sleeping in. “You all are a bunch of early birds.” She muttered from atop the balcony.

Yuzuru ended up tackling Kosuke and punched him a couple times as Kosuke laughed. A few hours passed, the teens trained while Hisakawa worked on the real swords. Everyone had gathered around a dinner table adjacent to the kitchen for a lunch break. Shingo poked at his noodles with his chopsticks. “Did you only stock up on instant ramen? We had this for lunch and supper yesterday.” He tried his best to not sound rude.

“Eh, mostly.” Hisakawa shrugged. “I do have some other supplies, there are some canned soups we can have for supper tonight. I didn’t know when the attack would happen, so I only had stuff that wouldn’t go bad for a while.”

Kotone changed the conversation, asking an open question. “What do you all want to be when you grow up?”

Shingo was the first to answer. “I want to be a firefighter. On Kosuke’s fifth birthday, when he first got his element, he ended up catching the building on fire, luckily, we were all outside in the yard. Some firefighters came and saved the building from burning down, and ever since then, I wanted to be a one.”

“Neat, you have water powers, right?” Kotone asked. Shingo nodded, so Kotone continued to speak. “Ah, then you should be an excellent firefighter.” She then turned to Kosuke. “What do you want to be?”

Kosuke leaned back, pointing at his face with his thumb. “I’m going to be the emperor of Earth!” He declared triumphantly.

“I’m dating a crazy man.” Kotone stated. “Please tell me you aren’t serious.”

“Oh, he is serious alright!” Kanako cawed. “I want to be something much more realistic, Prime Minister!”

“At least that’s a real job.” Hisakawa sighed.

“If she becomes Prime Minister, I’ll eat my shoes.” Yuzuru joked.

“Don’t be so cocky, senpai. If anyone can, Kanako-kun can.” Shingo grinned.

Yuzuru finished his ramen and stood up. He walked over to Kosuke, handing him the empty container. “Burn this for me.”

“Uh, only if you say please.” Kosuke growled.

Yuzuru leaned in. “Please.” He uttered insincerely.

Kosuke lit the cup on fire. The flames were so large that Yuzuru had to take a step back as to not get burned himself. Yuzuru marched across the room to the exit wall. “Alright, Hisakawa-sensei, let me out.”

“Um, yeah no.” Hisakawa shook her head while gliding over to him. “You need to stay here, I can’t go with you, the young ones’ swords aren’t ready yet, and I’ll be damned if I let you wander around out there on your own.”

“I can take care of myself!” Yuzuru snapped.

Hisakawa became stern. “Maybe in the old world, where there weren’t demons trying to kill you. You may be our most competent fighter, but you still need someone watching your six.” Yuzuru scowled as Hisakawa spoke. “The answer is no. I am the adult here, so don’t give me that look!” She fought hard to keep her anger in check.

Yuzuru pushed her with one hand. “Whatever.” He murmured as he slunk off.

Hisakawa turned to the younger teens. “I’d go with him so he can blow off some stream, but I need to focus on making your blades. We can save more people if we stand together.”

“Safety in numbers.” Kosuke nodded, agreeing with her.

Yuzuru was extremely tough during the afternoon training session. His students were exhausted. “My arms are as limp as the ramen we had for lunch.” Kotone whined.

“We will finish today off with a little tournament.” Yuzuru growled with his arms crossed. “First up will be Kotone-chan versus Kosuke-kun, don’t hold back because your lovebirds!” He commanded.

Kotone had enough of his behavior, so she called him out. “When we first met, I thought you were a respectable young man, but now I see you’re just a bully.”

Yuzuru scowled, grabbing a training sword. “Maybe I should just beat you to a pulp myself.” He snarled.

Kosuke got in between Yuzuru and Kotone as he approached her. “You are only proving her right. Why the heck are you treating us like crap!?” Yuzuru scoffed at Kosuke’s words, which made Kosuke doubled down. “I want the truth; we are going to get to the bottom of whatever is going on with you.”

“You’re not my mom!” Yuzuru shouted as he slapped Kosuke with the back of his hand.

Kosuke didn’t fall, only bent over, he straightened back up, staring Yuzuru in the eyes. “So, that’s where your anger is coming from.” Yuzuru went in for another attack, this time with the sword he was holding, Kosuke tilted his head down, “Don’t.” He warned.

Suddenly Shingo and Kanako grabbed each one of Yuzuru’s arms. They lifted him up into the air. Shingo then shouted at him. “Stop acting like this, if you think you can just start hitting us around without coincidence, you’re wrong!” He and Kanako flipped Yuzuru over their heads, letting him fly behind them.

The older teen was able to recover easily. He got into a low stance as the others surrounded him. “You all are whimps.” Yuzuru growled as he launched towards Shingo. His target and Kanako blocked his attack. “You can’t do anything on your own!”

“We don’t have to.” Kosuke shot back. “And you don’t either.”

Yuzuru turned his attention to him. “You’re the little ringleader.” He lunged at him. When he was able to swing his sword at him, his foot never touched the floor, he stepped in water instead.

Shingo used his element powers to trap Yuzuru in a whirlpool. He lifted him up in the air. The group relaxed now that Yuzuru was incapacitated. Kosuke sat cross legged in front of Yuzuru. He looked up at him like a disappointed parent. “You’re the oldest, act like it. Shingo-kun won’t let you go until you start confessing. I’ll ask a different question, why did you take up swordsmanship?”

“Huh? What?” Yuzuru questioned, still angry and struggling.

“I’m not asking why you are fighting us, your allies, or why you take up arms against demons. The first one I know you won’t give a honest answer, I don’t think you know the answer yourself, the second one is obvious, so, why did you become a swordsman?”

“Why?” Yuzuru forced himself to stare at the ceiling. “No, I don’t-“ he began to cry. “Fine.” He sniffed. “When dad left, me and mom started going to the dojo together, something to bond over, something to help us forget him and get our anger out. I’m just not ready, not ready to take her place, I thought I had more time, before I had young people to take care of. Whenever I train you four, it’s like how mom would train the junior back when she was still alive. I’m standing where she should be, and I don’t want to.” Yuzuru let his head fall as he balled. “She wouldn’t want me to be acting like this. It’s not your fault, it’s not my fault, no one is to blame, not even my good for nothing father. At least you have an enemy you can fight, a chance you can stop others from getting hurt by fighting, but I can’t fight what killed my mom.”

“Even when we win, my dad won’t come back. He will still be dead. Now, are you going to play nice?” Kosuke’s eyes met Yuzuru’s as he asked.

“Yeah, I think I just needed a good cry.” Yuzuru nodded. Shingo released him. “I needed to tell someone how I was feeling.”

Kosuke stood up as Yuzuru’s feet touched the ground, they stood face to face, Kosuke looking up at him, like a kid looking at his older brother. “Sometimes that’s all we need.” Kosuke smiled.