Chapter 25: Back To School Day

After a nap that turned into a whole night of sleep, Taichi woke up to his arm being hugged by Asumi as if it were a stuffed animal – so tightly he couldn’t slip free.

Taichi smiled slightly.

Carefully, he tapped her shoulder.

“Asumi… can you let go?” he whispered.

Her arms tightened in response.

“Asumi, please?” he asked once more.

“Don’t wanna…” she mumbled, still asleep. “Idiot Taichi…”

He sighed, amused, and gently shook her. “Asumi. Wake up.”

Her eyes slowly fluttered open.

The first sight that she saw was Taichi. In bed. With her. She then looked down at her arms… and then realized that his arm was wrapped by them.

Color flooded her face so fast it felt supernatural, mana crackling faintly in the air as heat bled into the room. She recoiled instantly, quickly letting go of Taichi’s arm and scrambling backward until she hit the opposite side of the bed.

“I—I didn’t! I mean—I wasn’t—!” Her voice tangled over itself, eyes shimmering. “It wasn’t like that!”

“It’s okay, Asumi. I’m not mad,” Taichi said quickly, raising his free hand in surrender. “It’s already 5:00 AM… wanna train?”

Asumi’s blush didn’t fade, but she forced herself upright.

“Jeez, you’re really such an idiot…” Asumi muttered. “I’ll go get ready now.”

Asumi quickly scurried out of the room.

Right outside, Meguri was leaning casually against the wall.

“Well, look at our resident tomato – guess somebody had a nice night,” Meguri teased.

“I… I-”

“What, you hate me?” Meguri asked.

“I- no…”

“You’re welcome,” Meguri smirked.

“I’m not thanking you for that!” Asumi yelled.

“I know,” Meguri said softly, going onto her tiptoes to pat Asumi’s head. “And you’ll never have to.”

Asumi clenched her fist.

“Anyway,” Meguri continued, eyes sharpening just slightly. “You’re training soon, right? Before that, there’s something I want to show you and Taichi.”

“...okay,” Asumi nodded.

After everybody got ready, they followed Meguri.

“Before aspects existed, the type of weaponry used was primarily guns,” Meguri explained, walking them to the location. “But once people began to harness aspects, those weapons became useless in the face of our powers. That’s when the sword industry, which was starting to become obsolete because of superior weaponry, began thriving again.”

“Yes, we all know that,” Asumi nodded.

“Actually, I didn’t know that,” Taichi interjected.

“Anyway,” Asumi said, ignoring the statement. “Why is that important?”

“Well… my family, the Isshiki family, is the single largest player in the sword industry currently,” Meguri said, wearing a smug smile.

“Good for you,” Asumi replied, deadpan.

“Come on now, Asumi… you should be a little more enthused – after all, I’m gonna give you and Taichi some presents!”

Meguri stopped in front of a door.

“This is one of my dad’s workshops – I think you’ll likely find something to your liking here.”

Meguri slid the door open, revealing rows of steel lining the wall. They were confronted by shelves each holding swords of different lengths and styles with beautifully ornate sheaths.

“Huh…” Taichi looked up at them. “These are nice.”

“Pick one,” Meguri said.

“Wait, actually?” Asumi asked. “Come on now, these swords sell for a fortune!”

“Yeah, I know, but…” Meguri paused, looking across the shelves. “I just have a feeling that with what we’re about to do… shinais aren’t gonna be good enough. In an ideal world, we can get through without much fighting, but if we have to…”

Taichi nodded.

“We need to be prepared for anything,” he said, pulling a sword from the shelf and out of its sheath. “It’s beautiful.”

Asumi hesitantly went up to the shelf and picked a sword of her own, the weight feeling perfect in her hand.

“Thank you, Meguri.”

Before Meguri could reply, all three phones buzzed at once.

Asumi checked hers, stomach tightening. “‘We need to meet. Your place of training. Now.’”

“Kodaka-sensei,” Taichi muttered.

“Well,” Meguri said, forcing a laugh, “that’s not ominous at all.”

“Well, guess we’ve gotta go, right?” Taichi asked.

“Obviously,” Asumi agreed.

“Wait,” Meguri interrupted. “What if it’s a trap?”

“Kodaka Sensei wouldn’t flip so easily – he’s trying to rescue his daughter,” Asumi argued. “And if it is a trap, that means they have to be threatening him with something awful for him to betray the mission.”

Asumi put her new sword in a bag and swung it onto her back.

“We’re going,” Asumi concluded.

The trio left the house, quickly running to the train station and hopping onto the earliest train they could catch.

“When he said ‘your place of training.’ Does he mean a training ground?” Asumi asked.

“The aerobic gym,” Meguri answered. “Probably – he’s being cryptic.”

Once arriving at campus, the three headed for the edge as quickly as they could, opening the doors to the dark but familiar training spot they had shared. From the entrance, they heard a groan of pain echoing across the hall. They quickly ran all the way inside, seeing Kodaka propped up against the wall.

“Oh my god-” Asumi muttered, kneeling next to Kodaka. “What happened?”

“I…” Kodaka muttered in a raspy voice, coughing his way through his sentence. “I was an idiot… the phones…”

“The phones?” Taichi asked.

“The phones… of course!” Asumi exclaimed. “These damn phones… they’re from the school.”

“You mean…” Meguri started. “The headmaster’s been stalking our messages? So that means that he knows…”

“Yeah, he knows we still have our memories, but more importantly…”

“That I helped you,” Kodaka finished, coughing again. “I barely escaped the suits. I was dumb to think the phones were safe. Break them.”

Without hesitation, the students dropped their phones on the floor and stomped on them, shattering them.

“Now what do we do, Sensei?” Asumi asked.

Kodaka’s eyes closed in resignation.

“...we need to run. It’s not safe here for any of us. I can’t move right now…”

“Kodaka Sensei, we can’t just run away from the school – you have a plan, right?” Meguri said. “We’ve got things to do.”

“Yeah… but… for now, you need to help me ru-”

A loud clack reverberated through the hall, interrupting Kodaka as the door to the gym was opened once again. A shadowy figure began walking toward them.

“Well well well, if it isn’t the Snow Princess and the Transfer Student, back at it again,” the voice echoed.

A shiver rolled down all their spines as they turned toward the entrance. The door closed behind the figure, the sound booming down the hall. Asumi swiftly drew her sword, confronting the shadow.

“Who are you?” Asumi asked loudly.

“As uptight as ever I see,” the voice echoed once again, each slow step getting louder against the ground as the figure approached closer. “You know who I am.”

“You aren’t who you’re trying to make me think you are,” Asumi said, gripping her sword tightly. “He died. In front of my eyes.”

“Yuki…” Kodaka muttered, shaking his head.

“No… it can’t be…” Asumi protested.

The figure finally stepped into the light of the gym, revealing a completely unfamiliar face to the group – short white hair with a scar on his neck.

“It isn’t him,” Taichi muttered.

“Oh, but it is!” the figure smirked. “Unless you need me to strike you with lightning again to prove it, Transfer Student. I have to pay you back for yesterday now, don’t I?!”

“You can’t be Natsu…”

“But I am,” he smirked, raising his hand as the static of his familiarly hot fiery lightning radiated through the gym. “In the flesh.”

Mana oozed from his body, radiating a familiarly hot static filling the air that the three had only ever felt from one person. This mana was the real deal.

“Natsu…”

“The big man wants to have a chat, so unfortunately…”

Natsu pulled out a sword of his own, completely different from the shinais they’d been using in the past. His smile sharpened with malice.

“I can’t be playing nice with you all anymore.”