Dust Collected Below the Blackboard

Damp cold laboratory room, hidden from anyone worry at night like this. Perfect cookout of gang trade. Two skinny man in less than appropriate clothing. Such tirade happen in short notices. Is there more to say?

"Hey, you got something on your neck."

"Ah, sorry." he wipes the gurgling liquid on the bare nape of his before any gas was let out. Then made a stand on the desk. "Here's the stone, as requested," he said, proffered a small dimly lit stone.

The other man cupped his hand, allowing the stone to fall into his palm, and muttered a thank-you. He pinched and scrutinized the stone to its better degree. Walked toward the window where sky is visible. Shining the stone through the moon, which cast then a brilliant reddish hue. For a moment; it glow faintly, purporting the red brighter.

"As expected," he said, letting it fall into a swiping motion of his hand. Then he pressed the index and middle finger to let a salute and while showing an indescribable smile. His figure quickly disappeared out of the window. Where the almond sky shines so effervescent against the downtown skyline of the city.

---§---

And today, the sun shone where a teenage puts most of their day studying. Ishikawa Yuuki, Yuu as in gentle and Ki as in hope; has made this school their base of operation. Fitting where he needs to be — either as detective, janitor, president, or teenager studying.
The reality is, he among the Liminal being stuck in this world, surviving as not a being of human by their characteristics. And not much is known about their past, not even himself as one of them. Though, he rather not dwelt in those facts.

"Yuuki…, Please buy me something~!" A sound like seagull tweeted, imminent footfall echoed behind as Yuuki prepared for—

Arm wrapped behind his back, the body lurched forward, locking his step. He groaned, "get off!" But it was in vain, as she anchored herself.

"Buy me something please, I need it, my stomach is kinda hungry!!!" she cried and whimpered, a stomach growl confirming her earlier statement. She somehow produced tears that suffused behind his back. Wet and cold bear into his skin. Ticklish and then;

"I will, I will, but let me off!"

He looks around, the commotion definitely draws attention. His mind working to solve the problem, and that's where he patted her head.

"There, there."

He wasn't sure what's up with his mind. But for sure, he worked his way to pry loose the hand that locked him tight. Yet she protested again and bawled like a child.

"Bahhh! Help me!"

Without detailing too much, it had been earning him quite a look. It's rather quite a nuisance so he is forced to use force to force him out of her grasp.

"Hey, Yuuki," called a voice from the other side of the hallway, drawing Yuuki attention. "Oh, I suppose Miss Hakura is rather timely," the man with bright small face perched a thin wellington glasses peeped once again.

"Help me…, dude!" Yuuki cried, trying to get away from her death grip.

Glasses-decked man shrugged. He worked his way around Yuuki back and pinched his chin. Then he grabbed the girl by her shoes and put it in the air, eliciting a reaction as she gripped even tighter: "Ohto, stop!"

She dug her nail into Yuuki's flesh, causing a yelp of cries. "What are you trying to do?" Yuuki shouted to none others than Ohto as he bears the pain. Who hasn't fixed the situation at all, rather he was—

"Run!"

And so Yuuki ran, trusting what Ohto had just said. He paced his feet and found it weightless. Must have been when Ohto take her feet off the ground. While Ohto trailing behind the duo, trying to keep the wiggling one from getting off. People who were trying not to mind their business soon found themselves caught in their wake.

"Dude!"

"Ouch!"

"Hey, watch where you are going!"

"Kids these days."

Then, Yuuki got to his destination and pressed an order to the kind auntie: "fetch me an onigiri." He smiled, while behind him a feminine growl. Those growl that'd comes from a stomach.

"Get me a cream bun!" Ohto shouted behind, still not letting her feet go. She comes to the nigh of conclusion. Naturally, the only way to escape is to scream,

"Wahhh! Wahhh!" intoned a Wario scream which comes out of her mouth.

As if, she was put down, but not only that, she was shoved down an onigiri up her mouth. Stopping from the terror that comes from it. Then Yuuki man-grab her hair and her chin and start working to chomp it down. With much pain from being grabbed by the hair, that she whimpered.

"Is it good?" questioned Yuuki, letting her go.

She munched the rest through and gulped, harrumphed and said, "that is not how you treat a lady!"

"You're not a lady to begin with," he quipped.

Another munching sound distracted them both: "Yuuki, will you come with me to the science lab?"

---§---

"Ohto," Yuuki called, after closing the lab so that no one, but they, can hear. Only the rustling sound of branches outside and the bustling sound of recess inside.

Ohto faced his back to Yuuki, sighed heavily and his hand moved. A glow, an incantation made of golden sigil appeared and by that everything goes silent, only the beating of their frail heart echoed.

"How is the progress, sir?"

"Poorly, the sky isn't helping on the case," he grimaced, bruxing the pristine white.

Stone imbuement required a lot of arcane energy, sadly the weather did not help.

"Should I get rid of Miss?" Ohto said, hinting at the interaction earlier.

"No, let's not make ourselves known," Yuuki responded while shaking his head.

"She will make for a good scapegoat," he lamented.

"Well then, for scapegoat…" Ohto trailed watching the gate outside where student stand their ground. "How's the other group fared?"

"Still oblivious, I don't think we need to take any action necessary," Yuuki reported.

Suddenly the knob of the door behind them is moving aggressively, despite the spell any physical action can still pass through, including the shaking knob.

Ohto exhaled, then flick his hand to remove the spell. Then came the shouting of Haruka outside: "Are you in there?"

"Yes, yes," Yuuki groaned, looking toward the door, "but please knock on the door first," he continued.

"I came to fetch you guys, teacher is already in the classroom."

Look like we've spent our due time, they thought. Then they leave the matter for later time and goes to the classroom together with Haruka.

---§---

The after-recess sun slanted through the classroom windows, casting long shadows across the desks. Yuuki settled into his seat with practiced nonchalance, though his mind remained fixed on the incomplete stone in the lab. Knowing it has been three days behind schedule. The client is for certain wouldn't be pleased.

"Yuuki, Ohto, please listen when the bell rings, okay? I don't want to wait for you both," the Kanji teacher and home room teacher asked of them both. His name is Mizuno, a stubble-faced man in his midfourties with frayed hair unbefitting of a figure of authority, yet his gaze and personality cause a shiver among student and teacher alike

"Yes, sir," Ohto and Yuuki groaned as they slumped back to their respective desk. The teacher just growled, agape, but continued on his teaching.

Yuuki gaze was fixated on the classmate's back, while the teacher doodled kanji to be dosed at. Scritch, scratch, sound of the marker creased across the board, definitely trying to make such an annoying sound.

Today material is yet another radical which Yuuki has to learn many. Yuuki hand besought the writing, leisurely. He didn't find it useful to him; barely used the knowledge and has enough of it already.

Such monotony let his mind wander to his earlier experiment of stone imbuement. How it was not making progress at all.

He managed to polished to the degree it is translucent like cloudy damask, sort of muted mauve. Now it holds an arcane energy and would glow if someone were to absorb it. Yet something amiss, it wasn't as pure as he thought.

The client, they are certainly not having any of it. Their smiles will cause discord to him every time. Especially since he just claimed to be able to get it more pure than its current state. They also pay a plenty and are powerful entity.

He gazed toward the nearing dusk of the horizon, marking the time at 14 o'clock. The sky, they seemed not to cooperate, he thought. He needed a catalyser, one that could let the ritual reach its potential peak.

Yet caught in the thought. Something else hook him out. Clear crystal of unclear origin hooked into his neck. A gurgling liquid splurged out, but stopped by his quick sleight.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Hakura yipped, the lowest growl of a yip as she is half awake. Evidently she didn't give much care to it as she goes back prowling on her desk.

Yet, at great distress, the cusped neck bled some more. Blood, not of human origin, gurgling, reacting to let a miasma. Invisible to human eyes, but cause mass hysteria if exposed.

No, he mumbled.

Yuuki's fingers pressed harder against his neck, feeling the hot, viscous liquid trying to seep between his fingers. His other hand fumbled in his pocket for the emergency seal — a small paper talisman he kept for situations exactly like this.

The miasma was already beginning to form, a sicklish green air only visible to liminal.
‎
‎"Yuuki?" The teacher's voice cut through his panic. "Is something wrong?"

"Bathroom," Yuuki managed to grunt, already rising from his seat. He kept his hand clamped to his neck, tilting his head at an awkward angle that he hoped looked like he was simply holding a sore muscle.
‎
‎"You just got back from recess," Mizuno intoned, his eyes narrowing with suspicion. But then his gaze shifted to Yuuki's pallor and slight tremor in his movements, signalling he was… human. "Fine. Be quick about it."
‎
‎Yuuki didn't wait for further permission. He stumbled toward the door, aware of twenty-some pairs of eyes tracking his movement. Hakura had lifted her head again, her drowsy expression sharpening into something more alert. Their eyes met for a fraction of a second, and Yuuki saw something flicker there, recognition? Concern? He couldn't afford to analyse it now.

And so the praetor of the school made his exit.

---§---

A heavy breathing as a bite of cherry. Hallway, empty, mercifully empty. No student or teacher, it's in the middle of the period, so most of them in classroom or teacher's lounge. PE instructor who usually roam the hallway would be busy with cataloguing the equipment after teaching.
‎
Yuuki broke into a run the moment he rounded the corner. Footsteps echoing off the linoleum floors and PVC ceiling. The science lab was two floors up and at the opposite end of the building. Too far. The miasma was building pressure against his palm, trying to force its way out.
‎
‎"Stupid, stupid, stupid," he hissed. He admitted he'd been careless. The crystal, from where had it even come from? Someone had thrown it, but he'd been too lost in thought to see who.
‎
‎His vision swam slightly, turning like spilt milk — his eyes too, turning white, like cataract. The miasma was beginning to affect him, seeping back into his system through the wound. He needed to secure it, contain it, and at last purge the symptoms. A procedure that required space, privacy, and time he didn't have.
A nonhuman like himself unlikely get a help, one must fend itself to stay alive.
‎
‎The bathroom. It would have to do.
‎
‎Yuuki slammed through the door of the third-floor boys' bathroom, grateful to find it empty. He locked himself in the middle stall and finally removed his hand from his neck. The liquid immediately began to pour out, thick and gross, the colour turned oil slicks and bruised plums. It hissed as it made contact with the air, and purple smoke curled upward.
‎
‎"Seal, seal, seal," Yuuki chanted under his breath, pressing the talisman against the wound. The paper began to glow with golden light, the same colour as Ohto's incantations. The flowing liquid slowed, then stopped, then began to recede back into the wound. The miasma dissipated, absorbed back into the talisman which blackened and crumbled to ash in his fingers.
‎
‎The wound itself remained. A small puncture, now sealed over with what looked like ordinary dried blood. Yuuki dabbed at it with toilet paper, checking his reflection in the stall's metal toilet paper holder. The wound was barely visible now, just a small red mark that could be explained away as a bug bite or a pimple.
‎
‎His hands were shaking. That had been too close. If the miasma had fully manifested, if someone had seen the liquid's true colour, if Mizuno had decided to follow him instead of letting him go—
‎
‎The bathroom door creaked open.
‎
‎Yuuki froze, controlling his breathing. He could sense a figure approaching. The footsteps were too light to be a teacher's, but they moved with purpose, not the casual shuffle of a student skipping class.
‎
‎"I know you're in here."
‎
A voice, deep yet loud chords of voices, they proclaimed. Yuuki's blood ran cold.
Has he been compromised comes into his minds. Calculating every way to squash such be riled information from spreading.

"No need to escape, it is locked tight."

Who's that man, damn it. Damn it. Damn it!

The man tutted a striking suspend. Laughing off-kilter, all the while his foot pace
off rhythm. Like a drunk man who hasn't sobered up. Indeed, he can smell the alcohol.

Thwack!

A sound of bathroom stall knocked open. His arm raised on end, hitching for breath he doesn't need.

A jingle hummed, "strike one, Whoo!" Bat raised in celebratory pose. Then the small pinkish pallor hand curled on the rim, "2 more to go, 2 more stall to be busted!"

He cursed to himself and everything that just happened.

The bat twirled in the air, collecting swish sound.

"And here comes the second batting, will Momiji—"

Suddenly the door clack open revealing a barging Yuuki. He grabbed him by the stomach and push toward the tiled basin. Mirror fogged and wiped by their struggle. Cold and damp entered both back as they overpower each other.

Both breath heavily. Eventually, Yuuki clamped her on the wet floor. She was,

"Ichiha?!?"

The girl in haggard uniform, still with the blue alma mater's blazer. Her purple sheen hair is short, not long wavy like she has been.

She just took a late breath and scoffed an air at him with pinch of umbrage. She, Momiji Ichiha, a Council President with name that which uncommon, a hard-working dependable woman. Yet a girl at heart, she is shy and can be scandalous at times.

A black marker marked her neck

"Knew it vice prez! You're just part of them!"

"Why are you batting at boy's bathroom?" He asked, leaving details out, trying not to put much more strange hold he was in.

She didn't answer, or rather answer with aggression as she tried to bite the hand that keep her hand in check.

His arm hiked at the pain. She dug further than the flesh and into the nerve, almost splaying it open. He thrashed his arm around, yet her bite locked her in the air. Pain lanced through the shoulder, weakening its muscle. In instinct he bear hug her and smack her to the ground, losing from her rages.

What comes out was not gurgling liquid, but a blood. Human blood, theory racing on his mind. But it must be her gum epithelial sealing the wound.

He looks up to her, head cusped in her hand as she whimpered, then cry comes out. A large quantity of tears stream down to the already wet ceramic floor.

"I can't, I can't believe— I can't, just— please" she pleaded, clearly in shock.

"Why?!" She shouted, while Yuuki rounded off any sign of fray from his article, looking in a mirror with a sneer. His hair is unfrilly as always, lip parted as teeth painted red, sign of bite mark still visible within the gum of his own making and his hand of hers.

How would I justify this? He thought, while playing with the cuff of his hand.
The girl cowered her head further, "I mustn't. Please, why the betrayal…"

"I did not or will betray anyone and anything that comes out of their mouth."

Without Yuuki notice, she charged again, shouting cry, bat already in hand. And splashed another human blood from his skin. She was quick on her heels, he lamented. But lack energy, must be from the shock that absorb her. She took another swing, but being prepared, he managed to grab her wrist mid-arc and let loose of the bat. Letting it fall clattering to the ground, making a loud, uncontrollable noises. He jerked his head, butting with her head. She goes unconscious and the tendon on her hand relaxed.

She limped to the ground, almost pierced by the bat, but it rolled before doing damages.

He inspected the hand where the blunt object was swung at him. A blunt welt is visible, throbbing, blood sapping from its abrasion. He groaned, letting out all he wanted to scream. There is no hiding any more, about the fact there was assault. He reasoned that it is less difficult to explain it as a mere tryst. Especially with how the situation turned out. Particularly since there is rumour of them floating around.

Convenient, he thought.

So he picked her and placed it on her shoulder. Leaving the scene while holding the bat. They exited the boy's bathroom, no seeing eyes thankfully, but still to make it convincing he tried collecting dirt from pot and dust it to her and his uniform. He sets toward the nurse's room, while the period is still early.