Ayaka Part 2

Attached is a small yet interesting report on the results of running too fast and for too long to school.

Good news: I might have broken a world record of speed (we would have the exact number if I had waited for the patrol car to catch up)!

Bad news: I might have broken something else too.

Good news: My fear of trees made me lose weight; I even feel lighter!

Bad news: According to the last doctor I’ve seen, I should actually gain some weight in order to reach the ideal weight for someone of my height and age. However, I am also not sure if I should trust him, since Dr. Olaf turned out to be a vampire in disguise. He could have been just trying to fatten up his next meal.

Good news: I actually made it to the gates two minutes before they are usually closed, which means I either distorted space and time while running or… no, I think that’s the only explanation I have right now. Space-time distortion, that’s pretty much it. Sounds reasonable enough for my brain, which is currently just as tired as the rest of my body.

Bad news: I don’t think I want to enter those gates, especially because once I do there will be no turning back.

Right, I know I did that whole box burning number yesterday, but that’s just something I did (pardon my non-French ambiguous expression) in the heat of the moment. Just like Kouma said, it was meaningless. It’s easy to act manly when you don’t actually need to and right now I don’t know if it was the exhausting race against the clock or something else, but it sure feels like I spent all of my Special Power on that and now even pressing up-up-down-down-left-right-left-right-B-A-start won’t help me.

That’s it. It’s not even eleven o’ clock and I already had a rough day, or at least what a common high school student as I aspire to be should consider a rough day. I am just going home and…

…

Absolutely nothing happened.

No one came out of nowhere with an interesting teaser sentence. No one decided to spend time with me to get my head out of my personal problems with random stuff. No one stood up, looked straight into my eyes and made me take a decision when I found myself at a turning-point.

Nothing like that happened at all.

Even though I invoked the trope (suspension point included and everything), no one came for me. Even though I really wanted them to, no one showed up. Even though I felt like I really needed them, no one saved my day.

Lifting my briefcase and putting it behind me by passing it over my shoulder, feeling the leather touch my back through the sweaty shirt, I started walking steadily.

Thank you, everyone. I had to break that awful habit of mine on my own, without relying on walking canes.

“Hah!” Feeling very brave after passing the gates, I spun and almost danced with my arms open as if challenging the whole world. Somehow I managed to stop myself before the applied energy was strong enough to send my briefcase flying away, but not without reluctance; laws of Physics work whether you like them or not, and whether you know them or not. “It’s time for me to live the dre...”

As I finished my gracious yet completely manly spin, I noticed that I wasn’t the only one around. By the time it dawned on me, I wasn’t sure if I should be glad or sad that the faces I saw were familiar.

“You’re right. It is very hard to sneak up on him.”

“I know. If it wasn’t for that passionate anime character imitation of his at the café, I think I would never be able to.”

“Now I kind of want to see that, especially after you spending roughly thirty minutes of a phone call talking about it. Do you think he’s going to do it again? I guess I’ll finally have a reason for frequenting that dreadful place.”

“Maybe next time, we can record his despaired impersonation with a cell phone and put it on the Internet.”

“Probably along with that spin, it was very amusing.”

“Indeed.”

Facing that kind of situation, I should feel embarrassed and strange…

“Good morning, girls. What are you up to in this beautiful morning?”

…but I just didn’t want to feel that way.

“Hm.” Kouma raised her eyebrow. “This wasn’t quite the outcome I expected. I have mixed feelings about this.” Did she just say that she has some sort of feelings out loud? “We arrived earlier today to make sure no blank cards or other suspicious objects were placed anywhere in our class.”

Ryo didn’t seem tired; she seemed to sparkle. It was like the cases I was so tired of were exactly what she needed to feel alive, and it showed. “Also, after doing a little research we found out that nothing unusual has happened in the past days except for an unfortunate incident with bananas.”

“Nothing supernatural, though.” I felt relief when Kouma finally stopped staring at me and decided to focus on Ryo. “People often forget how their peels can be dangerous if left on the floor.”

The school chime rang, and then I realized that we have just wasted the two minutes I had to bend time and space to get.

“Let’s go, we’re going to be late! I don’t think Reikoku-sensei will let us…”

“Oh, don’t worry: she will let us in.” Ryo had a good example of her cat-like smiles on her face and she was pointing it at me. “Kouma already told her we could be a little bit late because of a project and Reikoku-sensei said it was okay. We have five minutes of tolerance today.”

“A little project with Koukishin-kun,” hissed the fashionista, her eyes gently rolling up towards the skies. The silent movement of her lips at me added, “Teacher’s pet.”

Sighing sounded like the only reasonable thing to do in such a weird situation.

“Anyway, we should discuss this later. We can be observed by our unknown enemy while in school, and since there’s a good chance he or she is in our classroom, we’ll probably be watched closely.”

“So you did notice.” Kouma grinned like there was no tomorrow, and when looking at her I almost believed it so. “Our school rules are not that strict, but the only ones who could go inside our classroom without being stopped by the inspectors are our own classmates.”

“Actually, no: I saw the exact opposite happening that day. When I entered the building, it was completely empty and no one even showed up to try and stop me from running away like a crazy person. And I’m a transfer student, so no one here knows me. Honestly, I think the security here is very, very lame.”

“That doesn’t sound right.” After seeing her argument discredited, Kouma Yon almost sounded offended. “We’ll have a lot to discuss on our meeting later at my place. For example, why would the staff…”
“Hey…” Ryo interrupted, and surprisingly I wasn’t pleased with that. Kouma sounded like she had a strong hint on something that didn’t fit.

“I don’t want to ruin your party but we have exactly one minute to enter the school building and get into our room.” A small pause was added by Ryo, most likely for comedy effect. We played along with it, despite knowing that we were wasting time we didn’t actually have. “That happens to be located on the third floor.”

The image of Reikoku-sensei making a countdown filled my mind, and by the look on the girls’ faces I wasn’t the only one thinking about what would happen if she said ‘zero’ before we reached the room.

“Don’t worry!” I screamed as we ran towards school. “I can bend time and space!”

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