Chapter 21:

Chapter 21. Daybreak

Shadow of the Crimson Moon

"Good luck with the play! I know it's going to be awesome!"

She hands me an amulet. For the first time in forever, Uzuki Hoshino, the girl I used to bully back in elementary school and saved my life, is now giving me a good luck gift.

"You bet it will! You’re going to be thrilled, I assure you! "

"Well, I must keep going now, I need to sort some documents quickly so, gotta go! "

She storms out of the classroom and runs away. I keep sitting on my chair.

"Everything will be great, I'm sure..."

Of course, I hear steps coming in my direction. Nozomi Katsuya basically rips the door.

"Okay this is the last time you-!"

She storms up to me and hugs me. I struggle, and just as I'm about to lose my breath...

"Nozomi, stop"

I turned around. It's none other than newspaper club leader, Hikari Houraiji.

"She saved your life! Can't I do something right for once?! That's a load of-"

"Watch your tone, Nozomi"

Katsuya goes silent and clicks her tongue. She goes to the corner

"So... 'The guy dies, the end' is now the most awaited event at school, huh?"

She sits across the table and takes out a recorder. Besides her a tumbler with coffee.

"Houraiji Hikari speaking. I'm here with 2nd-year student, Hibana Ai. Most of the school knows her as "that bully that stole my lunch" or "the girl that punched a teacher in first year". But you may also know her as "The girl that reunited funds for the reconstruction of the campus" and "The most popular performer in all Setagaya". Now, tell us, Hibana. What did you do this time?"

"Well... we're doing a play. Hamlet. But this time, we gave it a little twist. Something for people to get pumped and enjoy what we got. Right, Sayuri?"

Sayuri comes to the table and spreads on top of it

"Right! You know, theater is like, an amazing thing. I used to have this friend in my old school; her name was Chika. She used to be all gloomy with future and all but one day, she had the chance to change everything by becoming an i-"

She takes the recorder, removes the tape, and stores it back into a box, then puts the recorder back in her bag.

"I think that's enough; I guess I'll have a lot of material to work with."

She starts looking at the entire room without moving.

"I see... so I assume you got plans for the afternoon? That's fine. I guess we can hang out some time later. In the meantime, I believe Nozomi and I will do some preparations for the club."

Class finishes, and I go to Sayuri's house. His father opens the door. Tall, imponent. A real diplomat aura around him.

"Sayuri, you're back. I think we have a big surprise for you. Go upstairs to your room, you’ll love it."

"Hey Mr., my name is Hibana Ai. Sakurayama High, I just-"

"Sakurayama?! That's a name I haven't heard in a while. I used to be the school representative there and-"

"OH. MY. GOD."

Sayuri comes down from her room, pulling someone out.

"Makima?!"

"That's Makima Akaza for you, Hibana. How are you?"

"Your mother is Makima?!"

"Surprised to see me? "

"Well, you told me you were dead! "

"I did? Well... sorry, I’m a bit over-dramatic sometimes. I guess Sayuri got my acting skills."

"I mean, yeah, but you didn’t have to phrase it like that!"

"Surely you won’t be mad if I told you that I also knew my girl was in good hands, right? "

"So, you knew she was safe?! Who did you trust so much to hand your daughter’s life to?! "

She smirks at me, looking directly into my eyes.

"…oh. Well, I’m flattered… "

Sayuri grabs me by the arm.

"Well, what are we waiting for? We have so much to talk about! "

She is super excited to have her here, so she jumps around the house and yaps as she usually does. We share a meal and Makima sings for us. After the day is over, I go back to my house.

Sliding the door carefully, a squeak sounds.

I step into the house, carefully taking my shoes off

In the living room, and in the middle of a perfectly, neatly arranged room, my mother, an 18-year-old sleeps, tired. I get right next to her, and she wakes up slowly.

"Huh.... is it night already?"

"Mom, you won't believe this, Makima is-"

"Sayuri's mom? Yeah, I went to school with her"

"You did what?!"

"Yeah, I thought I'd tell you some day, but I didn't knew if I should scare you with something like that. You know, she's kind of gloomy and likes to pretend she's dead and all that. She used to work in a magic cafe. Creepy, right?"

She stands up and pours a bowl full of soup. Then some fish.

"Well, here's today's meal. I made it in about... ten minutes. Copy paper can be pretty handy when used on inanimate stuff!"

She laughs. We both have dinner.

"Well, I guess it's time for us to sleep. Little disadvantage of being a high schooler, I must pretend to be one as well so... yeah"

My room is awesome. I got a big mirror, a vanity, and it's full of posters of my favorite plays.

I stare at the door. A big, decoration covers a hole my head made months ago.

I don't care anymore. And I'm glad I don't.

My eyes slowly close, drifting off to sleep.

I wake up, brush my teeth, comb my hair, and while I'm at it, trim it a bit. The scissors are sharp and nice, but I never learnt how to trim my hair properly, so, with the right side shorter than the left, I get to school.

After class, I head out to the theater club and sit down at the table. There is absolutely no one here.

A gentle knock sounds on the door; it's Houraiji, Uzuki, Sayuri, and Nozomi.

Uzuki puts two binders on the table

"So, we have a bunch of unusual activities now. Thousands of items have been reported all over the world and sadly, the society doesn't have too much reach. The only agent overseas is Diana, and she's having a tough time getting things in control. She's good enough to take care of herself, so she will be fine if she keeps being good. The other areas are unprotected. However, we can deal with the local area and their surroundings. So, we will."

She puts four folders on the table. Each one with a bunny drawn on it.

"Houraiji and Katsuya, you too will go and reach a dog that stole a baton pass for some reason. We recovered it but lost it on that event."

"Great, leave it to us!"

Nozomi hugs Hikari from the back, Hikari smiles.

"Akaza and Hibana, you are going to go and recover a pendant. Seems easy."

"Yay! I'll pair with Ai again!"

"Not quite, you're doing this job with her mom."

"Oh, that's good as well! We will have so much fun! Mom told me so much about it, they-"

We all look at her, she laughs.

“Okay, I’ll tell you all about it later.”

Uzuki looks at me

"And... Hibana and I will track some unknown activity around the area"

"What, really? Us? Well, that's awesome, just awesome!"