Happy Birthday, Hana

"Hana Ajikawa, you are a witch. As one who has been blessed by the Eternal Mistress, you will be able to cast spells. This is your greatest secret. As such, a curse has been placed on your heart. If you try to tell anyone, your heart will stop."
"What did you just say, Mom?"
As Mio Ajikawa and Kenji Ajikawa, Hana's parents, turned to look at her, they had a look of confusion on their faces. "I didn't say anything, sweetheart. Did you say something, Kenji?" "No, Mio. Hana, I'm sure you just heard one of the neighbors." "Oh, that's probably right, these walls are pretty thin. Anyways, sweetheart, go ahead and blow out the candles!"
As Hana stood there, at her family's dinner table, she blew out the candles. Hana was now 15. Her only wish? That she wasn't a witch.

"Hey, Hanaji!" Running to catch up with Hana as she walked to school the next day was Hana's childhood friend, Mina Mizukami. Hana, who was fairly plain with her straight brown hair and school uniform worn entirely properly, couldn't compare to Mina, who was easily the prettiest girl in school. Mina had bouncy pink pigtails, a cute pink sweater, and had tons of pins and buttons of all her favorite characters. Since grade school, they'd always been in the same class, outside of school, they always spent time together, and they even lived close to each other. Whenever Hana and Mina walked together, boys always tried to get between them to talk to Mina, but Mina would always send them running with her signature death glare.

"Hello, Mina." Hana knew she couldn't tell anyone about the fact that she was a witch, but she wanted to tell Mina so badly.
"Do we have gym today?" Mina seemed to sense Hana's nerves, so she changed the subject.
"No, but we have history with Demon Sensei." Both girls knew what they were going to be dealing with that day.

"Now, who can tell me when the first Witch Trials took place?" Mr. Akumata, or Demon Sensei, as his students called him, was an old man who never seemed to let his students forget who was in charge. No one could stand being around him, but no one could avoid him. Even his hair seemed to hate being near him, given how far his hairline had receded.
"Yes, Ms. Takamiya?" The girl who answered his question was Mashiro Takamiya. She was the typical smart, pretty, athletic, and rich girl. She never had to work for anything, but she still did, and she was perfect. No matter what she did, she succeeded. If she was just good at everything, that would be one thing that Hana could deal with, but Mashiro was also incredibly smug about everything. Whenever she did better than someone, she made sure to let them know.

"Mr. Akumata, the first Witch Trials took place on the first of June in 2031. The Bounty Hunters were deployed later that same year, on November 26th."

"You are correct, Ms. Takamiya. And you already answered my next question. I hope that the rest of the class is learning from your example." As the lesson continued, Hana was paying much closer attention than normal. Now that she was a witch, she needed to know these things to keep herself safe.

"Mr. Akumata? I had a few more questions for you about the Witch Law."
"Ms. Ajikawa? I'm glad to see that you are applying yourself more in class. What were your questions?"
"In the Witch Trials, how can they tell who's a witch and who isn't? I- um... I heard that witches can't reveal themselves, so how do they know?"

"You are correct, Ms. Ajikawa. Witches cannot reveal themselves willingly to a non-witch. This is a curse put on all witches by the original witch. However, this curse also reveals all witches. With a specialized tool, the judges can listen to a witch's heart. A witch's heart beats slightly differently than a normal person's heart. If you remember when you did your physical at the beginning of the year, the nurse checked your heartbeat. That was both to check your health and to determine if you were a witch. That information goes to the Bureau of Witch Hunters. However, Witch Hunters only arrest witches that the Bureau has evidence on. Bounty Hunters perform most arrests of witches."

"Then how can Bounty Hunters tell who's a witch and who isn't? Can they listen to every person's heartbeat?"
"No, but there are scientists working on tools to make that possible. Instead, Bounty Hunters work off of tips and information that they receive from people around the witch. They don't have the same regulations as Witch Hunters, so they are much more effective at their jobs. Eventually, every witch reveals herself."

Eventually, every witch reveals herself. Those words echoed through Hana's mind for the rest of the day.

"Hey, Hanaji." The next morning, as Mina caught up to Hana on their way to school, Hana was still thinking about when she would be caught. If someone ever listened to her heartbeat, they would immediately know that she was a witch.
"Hanaji?"
"Oh, hello, Mina."
"Are you okay? Do you have a fever?" Mina suddenly pressed her forehead to Hana's, making Hana instantly panic.
"Oh, no, I'm fine. I just- I was..." Hana trailed off, trying to think of an excuse. "I was thinking about whether or not we have gym today."

In fact, the two did have gym that day. It was the day that everyone dreaded: running laps. Hana was decently athletic, but even she would get tired after running that many laps. Mina was a different situation, she could hardly handle running a single lap, so she tried to walk as many of the laps as she could before she got caught and was told to run. Though neither of them compared to Miss Perfect, Mashiro. Mashiro was always at the front of the pack, even competing with the track team. After four laps around the track, Mashiro was barely winded, even though she was sprinting the full distance. She was finished in four and a half minutes, while it took Hana closer to six and Mina was at the back of the group, finishing in close to ten minutes.

As Hana finished, she sat down beneath a tree to get some shade, only to find Mina slumping down beside her.
"Did you finish already?"
"No, I skipped the last lap. I'll just use my time from the last semester."
"You know the teachers aren't going to like that."

Mina rested her head on Hana's back. "It's fine. I couldn't finish that lap, even if I tried. I mean, you're so much better at this than me, and even your heart is pounding."

Hana froze. Could Mina hear her heartbeat? Would she be able to tell that her heartbeat was wrong? If she could hear it, would she report her to the Bounty Hunters? Eventually, every witch reveals herself. Was this Hana's moment?

"I'm going to go get some water." Hana quickly stood up and ran off, causing Mina to fall backwards to the ground.
"What's going on with you, Hanaji?"

"Now, we're going to be taking a class trip to the Bureau of Witch Hunters. Make sure you get your permission slips signed. Class dismissed." As Demon Sensei walked out of the classroom, Hana grabbed her things to leave school for the day, but Mina slammed her bag down on Hana's desk. It had been a few days since the two had talked. They hadn't met up over the weekend like they normally did, Hana had gone to school earlier than normal, and she even hid away in a corner of a stairwell during lunch, all to avoid Mina.
"Hana, what's wrong with you?!" This sudden outburst made the classroom go silent. Students who'd normally be going home suddenly turned and looked directly at Hana. She could feel all the eyes of the class watching her. She felt like they all knew that she was a witch, but they were just waiting for Hana to slip up and get caught. This was the moment. This was when Hana was going to slip up.

"Nothing, I'm just not feeling well." Hana couldn't meet Mina's eyes.

"Yeah, right. And you didn't tell me? Don't lie to me. Something's going on." As Mina kept talking, Hana felt like she'd suddenly say it out loud, that she was a witch. With every word that Mina said, Hana could feel her heartbeat growing faster and faster, louder and louder. Panic began rising in her chest. "I know what's happening." Hana knew it. This was the moment. She'd be revealed, then she'd be turned in to the Bureau of Witch Hunters, then who knew what would happen to her after that. She could feel tears forming in the corners of her eyes. She looked desperately at Mina, trying to get her to stop talking.
Mina stopped suddenly, then said, "You've been planning a surprise party for me. You know that you're terrible at hiding things from me." The rest of the class went back to packing their things and going home. Suddenly, the weight of everyone's eyes was gone. "Come on. We're going to the mall and getting food. Then, you're going to tell me all about this surprise."

A half-hour's walk away from their school, there was a mall where the two girls often went on the weekends. Today, they were sitting in the food court, where Mina was enjoying a burger and Hana was eating the fries.
"Honestly, I can't believe you. I'm your best friend, so you know you can tell me anything, but you're keeping something secret from me."
"Yeah... That surprise party. I shouldn't have-"

"I know there's no surprise party. I just made something up because I saw the way you looked at me, Hanaji. You were looking at me like I was about to hit you."

"Wha- What? No, that was my secret. That surprise party. You sure caught me."

Mina suddenly grabbed Hana by the sides of her face. "You don't have to lie to me. You can tell me the truth."
Hana looked away from Mina. "I- I am."

Mina let go of Hana's face. Hana went to look at Mina again, but when she turned to her, Mina was tearing up. "I thought I was your best friend... I thought we could tell each other anything... I guess I was wrong." Mina stood up and started to walk away, but Hana grabbed her friend's sleeve.
"Wait! I- If I tell you, will you believe me?" The panic that was on Hana's face was no longer the panic of being caught, but the panic of losing her best friend.

"No matter what, I would always believe you."

"Listen to what I say and believe me when I say it. I want to tell you what's wrong."

"Okay, so tell me."
"I can't."

Mina started to walk away again, but then she looked at Hana. Her eyes were pleading, trying to explain everything she could to her best friend, even though she couldn't say it out loud.
"Hanaji. If I say what I think this is, will you be okay?"
"I don't know. I just don't want to lose my best friend."
Mina lowered her voice to a whisper. "Are you a witch?"
"I don't know if I can answer you."

"I'm so sorry, Hanaji." Mina had a look of pity on her face. When Hana saw that look, she knew her best friend cared about her, but it still hurt to be seen like that.