Changing Winds

April 8th arrives. The start of Hakuryu Academy's schoolwide training camp! Toshiko groggily awakens from his sleep, his messy hair resembling a bird's nest. He leaves the upstairs room as Emi opens the bedroom from downstairs, wearing an oversized white t-shirt falling off of her left shoulder. The two cross paths almost immediately. 

"Mornin' Emi.." Toshiko says. "Good morning, Toshiko..." Emi responds. They both walk to the bathroom together and grab their respective toothbrushes. "Pass me the toothpaste, will ya?" Toshiko asks. "Eh, not much left.. here you go." Emi replies, passing Toshiko the tube. 

Once they wrap up, the hunt for their clothes begin. While looking for their school uniforms, they turn to each other to ask. But as they do, the sleepiness disappears and they're returned to their senses. Toshiko looks confused. 

"Did you SLEEP here?!" Emi knocks on her skull, thinking. "I GUESS SO??? I don't remember anything besides us playing Super Clash Champions Ultimax.. and then after that was a blur..." Toshiko sighs. He looks up thinking about Hiroshi and Kazuki. "I bet Kazuki was all like "Leave her here, it'd be really funny!" And Hiroshi was like "That's a very good point." and that's probably how we ended up here.." Emi nods. "...Damn, you got them spot on..." 

Suddenly, the front door to the house opens up as Renjiro tosses a shirt on his shoulder. He immediately makes eye contact with the two of them. Everyone pauses, not moving an inch. The world stays frozen for a few seconds as Renjiro slowly starts closing the door. 

"Please excuse me..." He whispers. "IT'S NOT WHAT YOU THINK!!!" Toshiko and Emi yell in unison. Renjiro sits down across from Toshiko. Emi bows. "I-i apologize for the intrusion, Kimura-san! Please give me a second!" She runs off to the downstairs room. Renjiro looks at Toshiko with a smirk. "...In MY room?" Toshiko flushes red and waves his arms wildly. "I told you it's NOT like that! She just fell asleep IN A SEPARATE BED, and forgot to leave!" 

Renjiro looks at him with a raised eyebrow. "Listen, kid. I know you have something for this girl. I might not know how deep it is, but you guys have SOMETHING going on. Maybe it's worth trying out?" Toshiko sighs and goes deep into thought. "...I mean, she did cover for me that one time.. she is kind of... nice..? I don't know.." Renjiro chuckles a little before standing up and ruffling Toshiko's hair. "Don't think about it too hard, huh? Just be smart about how you go about it. And hey, I'll be with ya for awhile. You got this, man."

 Toshiko nods happily. "Hmm... Right! Thanks, Uncle!" Renjiro brushes it aside. "Just call me Renjiro, way too formal for me." Emi exits the room in a hurry. "I'll try and leave now, I'm so sorry for the trouble!" Renjiro looks at her shocked. "Why would you leave now? You're already here, I'll let you eat before leave." Emi bows once again. "T-thank you very much, I appreciate it." Renjiro sighs. "Jeez, you're wound up tight. Just relax, I'm not mad! A friend of my nephew is welcome here anytime." 

Emi smiles a bit and nods. "Hey, Toshi. Can you fix up that room pretty fast? Considering you owe me." Renjiro asks. Toshiko rubs the back of neck. "I got it.." He walks into the downstairs bedroom, going to the left side of the bed in the middle of the room. He fixes the bedsheets, but before he can move on something makes a loud crunch sound underneath his foot. He backs up, looking at the broken golden locket. 

A woman smiles warmly, her extremely long chestnut brown hair cascading past her shoulders as her amber eyes pierce through the broken glass. His heart sinks as he suddenly realizes the damage he caused. Toshiko stumbles around the room in a panic. "Shit. Shit, shit shit, she's gonna kill me. I can't just.." Multiple knocks ring through the door, snapping Toshiko out of his pace. "Hey, are you okay in there? Still cleaning, aren't you?" Emi ponders. 

"Y-yeah. I'm alright! Don't... worry about me." Toshiko grabs the locket and shoves it into his pocket before opening the door. "Hey, looks like you're done. C'mon, sit with us." Renjiro says. "No time, today's the training camp right? We have to go, Emi!" Toshiko yells. "That's right, I'm already dressed for the occasion! Thank you for the food, we'll be leaving now!" Emi exclaims. "Alright, guess I'm eating Toshiko's portion! But uh, Emi-chan. Don't forget anything over here before you go!" Renjiro proclaims. Toshiko's heart skips a beat. 

Emi checks around, and immediately notices something wrong. "Ah! My locket, it's gone?! I had it with me yesterday!" Emi yells, distressed. "Well, I gotta run to school so I hope you find it! Okay, goodbye!" Toshiko shouts, heading off with his school clothes in hand. "...Weird. didn't take him for the kind of guy to bail." Renjiro says, as Emi looks at the door to the bedroom suspiciously.

 Toshiko arrives a little while later, near the front entrance to Hakuryu Academy. Approximately 30 minutes left until departure. He takes out the destroyed locket in fear. "Fuck.. I can fix this.. I can FIX this! I can't let it happen again, I don't want this.." Toshiko says in desperation. He quickly hears footsteps behind him and shoves the locket into his pocket again. Emi stands behind him, confused and saddened. 

"Ah.. you couldn't find it, could you? I'm really sorry to hear-" Toshiko says, before Emi clenches her fist. In her other hand, she shows him the broken glass. "Toshiko... Do you know what happened? Please, just tell me.." She says. Toshiko's heart pounds harder as the worry, fear, and panic swirl like an unending storm. He looks at her, sincerely. "I'm sorry, I really don't know." He replies. "I see... I'm sorry to have bothered you." Emi replies, walking next to him. In the split second she does this, her hand reaches into Toshiko's pocket and she grabs the locket. 

"H-hey! Wait, don't-!" He yells. She looks at the destroyed locket, the picture of her mother disfigured. Tears start to well up in her eyes. "You broke it.. and kept it from me?" She says with pain in her voice. "i-i just stepped on it, it was an accident! You don't like your parents though, so I just thought-" Toshiko is shut down immediately, as the tears began to flow for Emi. "You don't know anything! I just wanted to see her when things were better.. you took that from me, and had the nerve to HIDE it?! Maybe I was wrong about you. I don't want to see you EVER again." Emi walks away, solemnly. 

"E-emi.. I didn't.." Toshiko clutches his face, beating himself up. Toshiko slams the ground with his fist, angered by his own stupidity. His tears already hitting the ground. "Stupid, so FUCKING stupid! I just didn't want her to.. I just.. I don't KNOW what I wanted.. I ruined it, just like I always do." He sits down, looking up at the sky rubbing his teary-eyes. "Not the first time, definitely won't be the last.. I just CAN'T do anything right." A pair of footsteps walk up to Toshiko, crouching to his side. Kazuki and Hiroshi sit next to him as Toshiko hides his face in his arms. 

"What's going on, man? It's weirdly unlike you to be this.. down." Kazuki asks. Toshiko sighs heavily. "I fucked up with Emi. I did something bad and I freaked out and tried to cover it up out of fear.. It just spiraled down so fast." Hiroshi looks at him, sympathetically. "I think.. maybe you should open up a bit more." Hiroshi suggests. Toshiko looks up at them. 

"You know about us. We have our lives and our pasts and our own detriments. But we don't know anything about you. And I'm cool with that, so I don't doubt Hiroshi is either. But Emi is someone you need to talk to. We haven't known each other all that long, but I consider you my brother. And as your brother, you gotta say something." Kazuki advises. "Not right now though. I think you're great Toshiko, she's just probably insanely angry.." Hiroshi adds. "Oh, absolutely. She's gonna be pissed. But you gotta do your best anyway." Kazuki continues. 

Toshiko weakly stands up and sighs, relaxing his body. "Okay.. okay. I got it. I appreciate it guys, seriously." Toshiko responds. "No problem man! What're brothers for?" Kazuki shouts. "Now that that's over with, we have to get on the bus! We are NOT getting left behind!" Hiroshi shouts. The group rushes to two buses next to each other, and hurry on. 

As he's about to step onto the bus, Toshiko catches a glimpse of Emi. He looks away, dejected. The bus door slowly closes, as Emi and Toshiko stare out of the bus window.

Chapter 10 - The End.