Chapter 6 - last part

“It’s too late” I replied.

“How do you know about the SA anyway?” he asked.

“I got friends from the SA and they told me.” I looked to the left to hide my face. I didn’t want him to find out that I was hiding something. How could I tell him about the tiger?

“She’s lying.” Abruptly I turned my head to the door where the voice came from, Yu did the same. Sho was standing there, arms crossed, watching us. Did he hear everything? Wasn’t that bad if he heard all that? Not just for me, but for Yu also? When I was searching for a way to cover up for our conversation Yu started talking: “Why are you lying, Nao?” he believed Sho. I was surprised. He didn’t even care that his friend came inside our house without us noticing and on top of that heard what we talked about. It seemed like Sho already knew everything. A person hearing all this the first time wouldn’t react this calmly just by saying that I’m lying. And how did he even know that I was lying? Could it be...? My expression probably exposed what I was thinking so my brother explained: “He was part of the SA in the school he was going to. He’s a wandering lie detector, so don’t even think about lying in front of him.” now they got me speechless. I was learning a lot of new things at once and my brain couldn’t take more. Yu must have noticed. “I would love to tell you to rest first, but I have to know how you know about the SA. Please tell me, tell us.” He said after looking at Sho who on the other hand added: “And don’t even think about lying when I am here.”

I sighed. It was no use hiding everything. I noticed they were worried about me being part of the SA. They didn’t want me to take part in missions. And after seeing Hiro I knew why. After my second sigh I finally answered: “I’m not part of the SA. I met 2 people who are part of it. Remember the guy who saved me in the club when you both couldn’t? He is in the SA. And today when I was talking to him after finding out his ability a teacher saw us, his teacher. He talked in riddles but really suspicious so I didn’t tell him anything. It was like he was questioning me for having a recommendation. Afterwards Ryuu, that guy I was talking about, explained about the recommendation system. Before that I found an injured person, who coincidentally is his best friend. He just came back from one of those missions so they didn’t have a choice but explain to me.”

“YOU HAVE A RECOMMENDATION?!” Yu and Sho yelled at the same time. When I nodded they looked at each other speechlessly. I could see their thoughts popping out of their heads: why didn’t they know? “Do you have an ability?” Yu asked first. I shook my head first. But then I remembered. I looked at Sho because he probably noticed already. Before he could expose me I corrected myself: “Well, supposedly I have an ability. I found out today. Ryuu and Hiro told me. I didn’t believe them but they proofed me wrong.” I stopped here.

Sho asked the next question: “Which ability? And how did they prove it?”

“I’m a tamer.” Before I could say more Sho already asked again: “Which kind of tamer?”

I hesitated. What kind he asked. I didn’t even know what kind. Ryuu just explained that I was the strongest type, but he didn’t name it. I tried to explain it exactly like he did to the both guys in my room. They both listened attentively. The more I said the more shocked they got. It sounded unbelievable to myself so it must be worse for them. But I was wrong. They weren’t shocked because it sounded unbelievable, they were shocked because my ability was one of the strongest.

“You should rest” Yu said and stood up. I could see that they both wanted to ask more and maybe even experiment with my ability, but they needed time to let everything they heard sink in themselves. “Please don’t let yourself be caught by the school. I agree with your ‘friends’ to hide the ability even if you have to stay away from them. It’s all better than being part of the SA.” He begged before leaving the room with Sho. Left behind in my room I had enough time to think about the upcoming day, which was my first training day.

Chapter 6 - Part three

I don’t remember the remaining school day. All day I was lost in thought thinking about everything that I found out on that one day. When school ended I went home in a trance. I walked past my brother without noticing him standing there to greet me. I directly went into my room and lied down on my bed. The SA were ability users. SA standing for special ability, not for the special A-class, better than the real A-class. The school was using its students for missions. What kind of missions? I wondered. For Hiro to come back with those heavy injuries they must have been really dangerous. Did Ryuu join those missions too? Did he ever come back this injured? Why was I worrying about someone I didn’t even know? If the school found out about my ability I would be in those missions too. The school mustn’t find out about it! I made up my mind. Starting from tomorrow I will be trained in my ability, I thought. I was looking forward to it. I was feeling really excited about it. Not everyone could claim about having an ability. I felt special. And the person who will train me would be Ryuu, just the thought of it made my heart beat faster. I didn’t understand myself. It probably was just the excitement of finding out about the abilities. The tiger was definitely one of the most exciting abilities there could have been. I couldn’t imagine any other ability which could compare with it. Hiro’s freezing and liquidizing ability was also thrilling, but in comparison with the tiger it lost, by far. The sensation of controlling it with my thoughts was still lingering in my head. I wanted to try it out more, try out a lot more than just giving directions. Having an ability didn’t seem like a bad thing at all. I couldn’t wait for the next day to come.

I heard someone knocking on my door. Without me having to answer the door opened a little and I saw Yu’s head. “Is everything alright with you?” he asked. When I nodded slightly he came inside and sat down beside me on my bed. “Did something happen today?” he continued. I wasn’t sure if I should tell him everything. I tried to ask him carefully, without telling him too much: “Do you know why there is an SA-class at our school?” he looked perplexed about my sudden question. He wasn’t expecting me to ask about that kind of thing. At first it didn’t seem like he wanted to answer. He was staring at me for a long time. Then he evasively replied: “Do you have a reason for asking? By chance you got interested in someone?” he tried to grin, so I would find him funny, but when I didn’t laugh he sighed. “Well, yeah, I know why. But you will understand when I say that I can’t talk about it and you should find out yourself, right?” he got up. He wanted to avoid talking about a subject, which he can’t help me with, but he knew something. I tried to keep prying about it. I had nothing to lose. If I said too much Yu would definitely keep it for himself. That’s why I loved and respected him so much. “SA – Special ability” when I said it out loud I saw how his eyes widened in shock. “that’s what it stands for, right?”

“How...?” he took a while to complete this sentence. “How did you find out?”

So I was right, he knew! But how come? He wasn’t in Japan for his High School. Now it was my turn to be shocked. When he noticed he calmed himself. “Well, usually no one other than the SA people themselves know about this, and a few chosen in the other classes who are the “pawns” for their missions. I suppose if you know about the SA you heard about the missions too, right?” when I nodded he continued: “How did you find out and why do you want to know?” I hesitated to answer at first. It was weird to talk about oneself and an ability. I lived the past almost 16 years without knowing of it and now I suddenly have an ability? How would I tell him? To make it easier for myself I first wanted an answer from him: “How come you know about them Yu? You were in Germany!”

Now he was the one to hesitate for a moment. I could see how he thought about an answer he could give me. And I was sure he wondered about my secretiveness but he carried it off well. After a long break he started talking: “Japan isn’t the only country which specializes in SA” he didn’t have to continue talking for me to understand. The only question I had in my head after hearing that I blurted out without further thinking: “You have a special ability?” I yelled. His face showed a sad look when he answered. “No” he shook his head “it’s not like that. I was just a pawn.” Just when I wanted to ask more he interrupted: “Let me tell you the whole story.” When I nodded he continued: “The SA isn’t all about their abilities. It’s students who get missions according to their ability, and their pawns who plan out those missions. Usually their pawns don’t have abilities, they just have the brains to make strategies. They are drilled into doing their job right. My training was hard, it started right when I first went to Germany, when I was just 10.” It was back then, I thought. That’s the reason he went to Germany right after our granny died. The training for the ‘pawns’ really started early. It shocked me that something like this happened without people being aware of it. “Anyway Nao, I want you to stay away from the SA!” he started where he left off.

Chapter 6 - Part two

“The faster we start, the saver she is.” Hiro sounded confident with this reasoning. Ryuu already formed fists with his hands and I could see how the bones turned white. He sighed heavily but didn’t say anything. When Hiro continued talking I knew he understood Ryuu’s silent sign to go on with what we were doing, even if he wasn’t happy with it. “Now Nao, try to touch this” he pointed to one of his wounds. Touch it? If I did that wouldn’t it bleed again? He already had lost so much blood. But he seemed sure about what he was saying so I reached out my hand but he caught it midway. “Let me finish. Touch it, without making it bleed! You have to control your ability. When you manage to touch it without the wound defreezing you got control about when to use it!” he let go of my hand. I slowly reached out for his wound again. Just an inch before touching it I stopped. I closed my eyes and concentrated. Not bleeding, not bleeding, not bleeding... I repeated over and over in my head before I touched his wound softly. I felt the cold. I managed to not make it bleed immediately. I softly opened my eyes and looked at the blood. It was still in place. When I wanted to turn around to share my joy with Ryuu I almost bumped my head with his. When I experimented with the wound he came nearer to get a closer look and his head was just behind mine so we almost kissed. I blushed and backed off when Ryuu shouted: “Hey concentrate! The wound!” and grabbed my hand so it would stay on Hiro’s wound. I turned my head to it and saw how the blood got liquid on one corner of it. I got nervous and looked up to Hiro, to see if he felt any pain, but he was just grinning widely and said: “Continue, continue.” I looked back to my hand and saw that Ryuu was still holding onto it. His face got nearer to mine when right beside my ear he softly spoke: “Concentrate. See, Hiro froze it back, try again. Touch it softly and just think about not liquidizing it. It mustn’t bleed. You have to control your ability. Make it your strength.” Hearing him this near to my ear made my heart beat faster. I knew I had to concentrate, they were doing it for me after all, but it was hard with him being this close. I closed my eyes again and tried to calm down. Concentrate, concentrate... I told myself. The wound mustn’t bleed. When I opened my eyes this time the wound was still frozen. I swiped over it a few times but it didn’t start bleeding. I did it! “You did it!” Hiro and Ryuu said at the same time. I looked up to Hiro to see that he still had a really wide grin. First he was looking me in the eyes but then his gaze wandered to my hand. When I followed it I saw that Ryuu was still holding my hand. This was becoming a habit. He must have noticed, because he let go right that moment.  I felt sad about it but right when I felt like that I questioned these feelings. I couldn’t feel sad about someone whom I just met. Ryuu hemmed “Well, that’s it for today. We have to get back to our classes or everyone will be suspicious. Let’s meet up tomorrow at lunch break in front of the stuff room. We’ll continue from there.” I nodded. I couldn’t look them in the eye right now. I was blushing from my own feelings and I felt like I had to go immediately. I turned around to leave the infirmary, but Hiro grabbed my arm. “Thank you a lot for your help.” When I turned around I saw a mischievous grin on his lips. The colour in my face got deeper. He saw through me. I nodded and he let go of my arm. I left the room and returned to the classroom. 

Chapter 6 - Part one

6.

Now that we resolved this, I remembered Hiro’s wounds. I looked at him, but he didn’t seem like he had any problems. I got up from the bed and went towards his bed. During the conversation he had sat up. I could see his wounds even clearer. I attempted to touch one of his wounds, but Ryuu held my hand back. “What are you trying to do?” he asked.

Right, what was I trying to do? If I touch his wounds they will just bleed and Hiro will lose more blood. Now that he looks fine I shouldn’t try doing anything, I thought. But I got curious about his ability and when the curiosity grabs me I just couldn’t withstand.

“Teach me...” I started but interrupted myself. What was I trying to say? He just warned me about people finding out that I had an ability, so why did I want them to teach me how to use it? But this whole matter seemed really interesting. If I knew how to use it, wouldn’t it be easier to hide it? That’s how I negotiated with myself before I continued. “...how to use it.”

“How to use what?” Both asked at the same time, but from their expression I could see that they already understood me.

“How to use my ability!” I replied.

“Didn’t you listen to our conversation?” Ryuu asked angrily. “You shouldn’t provoke the school by training it also! If the school notices you’ll be in the SA!”

Yeah, I understood that part. He was right about it. But knowing about abilities made me so excited I just couldn’t hold myself back. I nodded. “But, knowing how to use it will be an advantage for me, right? It could even help me in hiding the ability!”

I could see the rage in Ryuu’s eyes when he wanted to argue back, but Hiro beat him to it: “She’s kind of right, Ryuu. And there is the other matter: she HAS a recommendation, so if by chance someone senses her ability she will come in the SA anyway. If we help her train it then at least she won’t be completely unprepared.” He winked towards me. I smiled lightly. It was good that someone understood what I was trying to say and he even was on my side.

Ryuu ruffled his hair as if he was lost on what to do. Even his friend who should have understood his point wasn’t agreeing with him. I could see the fight within himself. But he understood that it was important for me to know how to handle the ability. I knew he came to a conclusion when he sighed. “Alright, but we’ll have to do it in secret. No one is allowed to tell anyone outside of this group. We’ll meet up every day after school to train.” He thought about everything he said and added: “And we need Kei’s help.”

Kei? Who was he? Another ability user? When he didn’t want anyone to know, why let him know? Before I could ask Hiro already shouted: “Kei? Really? YAY! That will be so fun!” his grin was really broad but the next moment he flinched. “Ow ow ow... my stomach.” So his injuries still hurt. He saw Ryuu’s and my worried faces and smiled slightly. “Don’t worry, it will heal soon. But now that I think about it... let’s start with the training immediately!” What was he saying? Suddenly starting with the training? Did he lose his mind? But just thinking about it made me excited. I wanted to try it! “What should I do?” I replied. I looked at Ryuu who was staring at his friend. “Do you have a loose screw Hiro?” he shouted. “You shouldn’t do anything but rest!” he had a point. But it wasn’t just Hiro who wanted to do this, though the outburst of Ryuu made me unsure of what to do, so I just stood there silently, waiting for what would happen. 

Chapter 5 - last part

I heard voices. People were talking. What happened? My head was hurting. I felt like I forgot something important. I opened my eyes. The light in the room made my headache feel worse than it was. I was in the infirmary, on one of the beds. Oh right, Hiro! We brought him here, we, Ryuu and me. Ryuu... Right, now I started to remember. He told me about the SA, why such a class existed. And about me having an ability. He wanted to proof to me that I could use it on him too. I was a tamer. Someone who could influence other people’s abilities. And he proofed it to me: I could control the tiger. So the voices I was hearing were of Hiro and Ryuu. Before they notice that I am awake I tried to listen to their conversation.

“... to protect her.” Ryuu said. Protect her? Me? What were they talking about?

“If they find out they will definitely misuse her. We can’t let them do that, you are right.” Hiro answered. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to start listening in the middle of the conversation. It wasn’t making sense at all. Right when I wanted to show that I was awake Hiro continued: “How is your head? Feeling better?” So I wasn’t the only one with a headache.

“Yeah. Luckily she fainted before me. If she withstood just one second more I would have fainted too. Controlling the tiger must have been a heavy burden for her body. She should wake up soon.”

I thought it was time to interrupt them. My curiosity didn’t leave me more space to pretend anyway. “I woke up.” I said simply. The next second Ryuu and Hiro were surrounding me. Both of them looked relieved.

“How are you feeling?” They asked at the same time.

“I am fine” I gave them a light smile to show them it’s true. “My head still hurts, though. Why did I even faint?”

Ryuu was the one to answer: “Without training the attempt to control someone else’s ability is really difficult. The stronger the ability is the more burdens it will bring to the tamer’s body. The tiger is one of the strongest abilities that exist. And you tried to control it while I did it. Because we did it at the same time we both almost fainted from exhaustion. If you had withstood the exhaustion just one second longer I would be the one to faint.” With this explanation he even answered my unasked questions to the conversation I heard before. But not all of my questions were answered yet. Seeing Hiro standing near me I got worried before I could ask the remaining questions. “Are you feeling better? Why don’t you lie down?”

“Thanks for worrying. I am totally fine“ he answered.

“Don’t play the Hero!” Ryuu grinned and tripped him so that he fell backwards to the second bed. I sat up on the bed. They were really good friends to even joke around in this kind of situation. But I couldn’t hold up the questions any longer: “What will happen with me now that you found out about my ability? What were you talking about just then? Misuse my ability? Who would?” all them just spurted out of me. Suddenly the expression on both of their faces changed. It got darker. “You were awake since then?” Hiro sighed. He didn’t seem happy. “Ryuu, we have to explain to her anyway, so how about we tell her everything?”

Ryuu also sighed. “It doesn’t seem like we have another chsoice.” What were they talking about? Was there a really big secret they were keeping? Did that have anything to do with me? I didn’t have to wait long to find out. Ryuu continued: “We won’t tell the school that you have an ability. You keep it a secret too!” At this sentence he pleadingly looked at me. “The SA everyone admires isn’t such a good place. The school is training the special ability students to become useful to them. In the future most of us will be used for the government to do underground work, or we will be sold to other countries. There are almost no chances for us to break free from this system. To train us for that they send us out to missions. Some of those missions are really just training, something set up by the school. But if you have a really useful ability, and if you are a splendid ability user, you will get real missions.” When he said that I instinctively looked at Hiro.

Hiro and Ryuu nodded at the same time. Hiro replied to my unspoken question. “Yeah, you even come back hurt from the mission. The school doesn’t care much about the students’ lifes. You just have to fulfil the operation and you will be granted with something. That’s the system behind SA.”

“We decided that as long as you have a chance, you shouldn’t be part of this. And you have a really strong ability, means they would send you out to missions immediately without training which would risk your life.” I understood what this was about. I never thought that the SA was such a place. The SA everyone admires, that’s how Ryuu referred to them when talking about it. I already wondered why it sounded so sarcastic. Now I knew. I nodded. I would keep this a secret.

Chapter 5 - part five

“You think I have an ability? And then it’s not an ability, it’s even the strongest type? And above all, the greatest of the strongest type? Aren’t you thinking too highly of me?” I asked. I couldn’t believe what I just heard. Alright, I admit that I could kind of influence Hiro’s ability, but isn’t it enough to think that’s a coincidence? Well, maybe not. But I never could see myself as someone special.

“Yes, you definitely have it. You can influence Hiro’s and my ability.” Even his ability? The tiger? I could SEE the tiger, but I definitely couldn’t influence it, or could I? I stared to him speechlessly. He noticed my doubts and continued. “Usually no one would notice my tiger if I don’t want them to notice it. But the notice I am talking about is just physically, no one can actually SEE the tiger other than me, that’s impossible. But you can’t only see it, you can even touch it. And all that without me  ‘allowing’ you to.”

“Allowing? What are you talking about?” Our conversation got weirder by second. If I didn’t proof to him soon that I was perfectly normal, well, what then? Wasn’t it fine to be special? To have an incredible ability? Why am I denying it this much? But he is talking about me having a ‘strong’ ability, not just a regular one, that’s the fact I just couldn’t accept.

“Let me show you.” He said and turned to Hiro. The tiger jumped out of his body and went directly through his friend. I was so stunned my mouth literally opened wide. It was like his tiger being a ghost. I stepped towards it and reached out with my hand. I touched the fur. How was that possible? Ryuu, who was watching me closely and following every of my movements, continued. “I am sure that there is more to it. If we tried you could even control it.”

Control? How was that possible?

“That’s something you should try out.” I heard Hiro’s voice. I immediately turned to him, Ryuu did the same.

“You are awake.” Ryuu and me said almost at the same time. He sounded really relieved. “How are you feeling?”

“The usual. “ He winked. “Which means I am awesome! Thanks to you two I suppose.” The grin on his lips made me smile also. “But, that’s enough about me. How about you demonstrate me what you were talking about just now?”

Demonstrate? What was he talking about? There was no way of me being able to control more than one ability. And definitely not such a strong one. But I didn’t have time to voice my thoughts. Ryuu nodded and already thought about it. “You just close your eyes and listen to what I say. If this works there will be no doubt about your ability alright?” he asked but because it didn’t seem like he wanted an answer I just closed my eyes. I felt something going around me, touching my fingers, striping my legs, it was the tiger, I was sure about that. Ryuu continued instructing me. “Now think about the tiger, if you want touch it when thinking about it. Be one with the tiger.” What did he mean, be one? How should I make that? Should I ride on it? It’s probably not the way he was talking about. Just when I wanted to ask him he grabbed my hand and continued. “I’ll help you a little with this. Because it’s your first time you probably don’t know how to do it. Think about the tigers eyes, you are trying to see what the tiger sees. Do you see anything yet?” he asked.

I concentrated hard, but his hand holding mine made me nervous and I couldn’t fully occupy my mind just with the tiger. He felt my nervousness and started to brush softly over my backhand with his finger. Strangely the hand which made me nervous calmed me down and I gained back my concentration. I wanted to tell him that this won’t work and he should give up, but right at that moment I suddenly got an image in my head. It was Hiro, but I wasn’t looking through my own eyes, it was the tiger’s eyes! I noticed it from the angle in which I was looking at him. “I see it!” I shouted and heard how Hiro and Ryuu giggled over my enthusiasm. “Yes, that’s it Nao!” Ryuu said, when hearing that in surprise I opened my eyes wide. He said out my name. I thought he didn’t know it, and why was he using it so casually? It gave me a prickling feeling inside of me.

“Hey don’t open your eyes so suddenly!” Hiro scolded me. “Concentrate!”

Oh, right, Hiro was here too. In just a few seconds I totally forgot about his presence. I blushed and closed my eyes. As soon as I closed them I saw the vision of the tiger again.

“Now you have to try to send him in any direction. Try to control him with this first. Think of the direction and he will move.”

I thought about right and the tiger turned to the right. I saw the table where the disinfectants were standing on. When I thought about getting closer to there the tiger moved that direction. The more the tiger listened to my orders, the bigger the headache got. “Oh shit” I heard Hiro saying, right before I fainted.  

Chapter 5 - part four

No one was in the infirmary. The nurse was out like always. Ryuu brought Hiro in and laid him down on one of the beds. I closed the door after him and went to get the bandages and disinfectants. I prepared what could be needed. When I heard a ‘click’ I turned towards the sound. Ryuu locked the door and was sticking something on the doors blurry window. “What are you doing?” I asked. The nurse couldn’t come inside like this.

“Do you want people to see Hiro in this state?” he replied. When walking to me to help me carry the needed utensils.

“But the nurse!” I said. “And what did you stick there?”

“Not even the nurse” he answered and took some of the bandages out of my hand. “And it’s better if you don’t know too much.” You know plenty already” he sighed. He bent over Hiro to check his wounds. He especially checked the one bleeding with a frown on this forehead. it was like he couldn’t believe it’s bleeding. I soflty swept over one of his ‘frozen’ wounds. It suddenly started bleeding. “Ryuu! Blood!”

“What are you doing?” He yelled and came around the bed to check the newly bleeding injury. I flinched because of his loud voice. when he noticed he turned around with regret seen in his face. “I’m sorry. It’s just that I’m worried about him. usually his wounds stay frozen until they are dry enough to stop bleeding.” I didn’t know what he was talking about. Freezing blood? But after I saw his tiger it didn’t seem impossible anymore. But Hiro was having a fever, I remembered. I ran to get some cooling bags to stick on his forehead. when I got them a thought came into my mind, which I said out loud. “can’t it be that his wounds are defreezing cause of his fever?” Ryuu shook his head. “It’s his ability” when my eyes widened in shock he continued. “My tiger is my ability, right? His ability is to freeze and liquidize everything, which can be liquidized. No matter how weak he is feeling, his ability doesn’t suddenly stop working, never!” Again his voice became desperate. I could see how important a friend Hiro was. His worry was obvious.

“Then how come his wound is bleeding?” I asked. But then I noticed myself. Just the wounds I touched bled. Ryuu noticed that I came to a conclusion. “You tell me why. I don’t know.” I walked to another of his frozen wounds and turned to Ryuu. “I am not sure but let me try something.” When I reached out with my hand I stopped right before I touched it, because I had another idea. “Help me out please. You softly touch his wound first!” Ryuu did as I told him. Nothing happened. Then I lifted my hand and put it on his wound, softly, without any force. The wound started bleeding.”

“What the...” Ryuu whispered. “It can’t be...”

I looked at my hand, where I could see Hiro’s blood. This was really strange. I didn’t hurt him right? So why did his wound start to bleed? “It can’t be what?” I asked Ryuu in hope that he knew something. He didn’t answer first, he looked at the wounds and re-started bandaging his friend. After some time passed, which seemed like an hour but probably was just a few minutes, he talked again. “You are a tamer.”

“A what?” I asked. I knew what a tamer was, but I don’t remember being one in any zoo or circus for any animal. He was saying really confusing things.

“A tamer is someone with the ability to influence other abilities, means you” Which explains your recommendation bow”. Now it got even more absurd. Me having an ability? I would have laughed if Ryuu didn’t look this serious. “You can’t mean what you just said.” I replied in shock. He didn’t answer, but finished helping his friend in silence. “What does that have to do with my recommendation?”

He looked me straight into my eyes when answering. “The SA everyone admires are a bunch of recommendation students right? You are the only one not in it. SA stands for special ability. You having a recommendation means that there was a scout at your old school, someone who can sense abilities. But he wasn’t 100 % sure about it, that’s why you are in a normal class, not SA.”

He just told me the answer to THE question everyone wonders about. So that’s what the SA was about. A special ability class. So everyone in this school with a recommendation or just in SA classes had one. I wanted to know more about them. What kind of abilities were they? What do they do with them? Does the SA class get trained by the school? What is the school doing with these SA students? But when thinking up all my questions I remembered my own recommendation. I had a special ability too? Me?  That couldn’t be true. I was an ordinary girl. I could never have one. I probably said the last part out loud, because Ryuu shook his head. “You do have one, you are a tamer, one of the strongest types.” He interrupted himself and watched me kind of surprised. “Maybe even the strongest tamer ever”.  Strongest? Me? I giggled hysterically. This guy was regarding me too high. “What’s a tamer anyway?” I asked when I calmed down.“ 

A Tamer is someone who can influence other abilities. Usually he can just ‘tame’ one type of ability, for example the mental types like mind reading. But you can influence more than one type. Maybe even all kinds.”

Chapter 5 - part three

When walking I thought about what Kuro-sensei said. Now I understood why Ryuu warned me specially. I had a feeling that this teacher tried to find out about Ryuu’s tiger. Even if I wasn’t warned I wouldn’t have said anything. The questioning of this teacher made me feel so uncomfortable that I didn’t trust him. He was too dangerous. While going up the stairs I wondered about this tiger phenomena once again, but it didn’t take long for me to get distracted. When I reached the half of the stairs I heard a ‘thump’ sound from the beginning of the stairs. I looked to where the sound came from and saw someone collapse on the edge. I hurriedly ran down towards the person just to see that it was Hiro. He was unconscious and I saw some blood on his leg. When I turned him around I saw that his shirt was torn and he was covered in more than just one major wound. I grasped for air. I felt something cold under my fingers where I was touching a bloody wound. Why was it cold? Isn’t blood supposed to be warm? Or was he already dying? His body becoming cold? But where I was touching him now was warm, almost hot. When I looked closer, none of his wounds leaked blood. All of the places were icy, as if the wounds were frozen so the bleeding was held back.

“Hiro” I whispered. “Can you hear me?” I didn’t want unwanted attention on him. I tried to get him up, put his arm around my shoulder to stabilize him so that I can help him on the 1^st floor to the infirmary. It was hard to keep him on his feet and he didn’t answer me. Slowly his body was getting hotter. He was getting a really high fever” The wounds blood which I touched before started dripping. So I was right. His wounds were strangely frozen so he won’t lose too much blood. Was he getting weaker or was there a time limit to this condition? I didn’t even go up 2 steps when I heard someone running down the stairs from above. Ryuu, I hoped. The moment I realized this thought I gave myself a mental slap. Why did I hope for him? wasn’t it bad if someone saw Hiro? I held my breathe when I saw the shadow coming nearer. It was Ryuu! Despite knowing that it was bad for other people to notice us, I sighed out of relief. “Why are you here?” He asked in an unfriendly way. I didn’t know how to reply. I was too confused of his coldness. Sometimes he was really nice, then he was damn cold again. What a strange guy. Before a decent answer came out of my mouth he started cursing. “He’s bleeding!” He seemed stunned, as if it was unbelievable.

“Well he has some serious injuries” I said.

“Not that!” he seemed desperate this time. He checked the wound which started bleeding again. I wasn’t sure if I should tell him that it was frozen before.

“That’s strange...” he murmured “just one wound started bleeding” I didn’t know what to say. Everything he said sounded strange to me. Slowly Hiro got heavier. I couldn’t really hold on to him anymore. Right when my legs were about to give in, Ryuu grabbed Hiro, so that I wouldn’t take him down on the ground with me. I landed on my butt. “Ouch.” I rubbed my back. Before Ryuu could comment on that, if he even cared about it, I told him “Let’s bring him to the infirmary, his injuries seem serious!” holding Hiro with one arm he grabbed my arm with his other hand and pulled me up. He nodded lightly but didn’t move. When I just wanted to ask why he’s not going, the tiger appeared. It’s size and his majestic appearance made me hold my breath. Ryuu closed his eyes and the tiger dashed forward, up the stairs. For a few seconds he didn’t move at all. Then suddenly he opened his eyes and stared directly at me. “Now we can go. No one will see us.” So that’s why the tiger appeared. Against my will I got excited. Being around Ryuu was really exciting and interesting. I nodded lightly. Now I noticed that he was still holding my arm. It happened a few times already, him holding me somehow, and each time it felt so natural I didn’t notice it. He immediately let go of it and turned to help Hiro.

Chapter 5 - part two

What was wrong with him? Kicking the table, leaving me here with new riddles! He wants me to keep quiet that I can SEE it, but he doesn’t care about the fact that there IS a tiger? It all seemed seriously strange. And then his teacher, Kuro-sensei! I thought he was pretty nice actually, just too flirty and easy-going, but today he seemed so scary! And Ryuu’s reaction to him wasn’t normal either. He didn’t seem violent, so how come he started kicking stuff? What bothered me most was his question to my recommendation. It was his second time noticing that. Why was it important? But thinking about it wouldn’t help me resolving my questions yet. I had to wait for the next day to find out.

I looked around me and saw the handouts on the table. Right, I had to bring those to the staff room and I had almost no time left for the next class. I hurried out of the room and finished what the teacher asked me to do. When I left the staff room to hurry back to my classroom Kuro-sensei was leaning against the wall near the staff room. I looked around and didn’t see anyone else, neither students nor teachers. I bowed and tried passing him but right when I was beside him he suddenly stepped in front of me. “Hi” he grinned with his flirting smile. I was surprised that he even talked to me. he shouldn’t know me and I didn’t even have any of his classes. I didn’t belong to the group of girls who drooled over him. when he noticed my shock he grinned even broader. “I didn’t mean to scare you” he laughed “I just wanted to talk to the girlfriend of my best student.” He winked but his eyes didn’t seem to smile. Something was off with this guy. He didn’t give me a pleasant feeling at all! I had a weird feeling when facing him. I tried to keep my cool, what Ryuu said made me be careful on how to handle people who face me directly about him. “What’s the problem sensei? I thought we talked about it before.” I hoped I appeared calm on the outside. The more I was together with this teacher the more uneasy I felt. Before he started to talk again, for a moment it seemed like he hesitated. But then he replied: “True, but I am sad that he didn’t tell me he had a girlfriend.”

“Why would a teacher care about his student’s private life?”  replied. He wasn’t expecting me to say something like that, I could see his surprise over the way I answered. I was surprised myself. Usually I am a calm person, never trying to provoke people, but with the situation now I just couldn’t hold back. It’s the chills this guy gave me. When he recovered from my answer he continued his questioning. “Ma...Ryuu”, when he corrected himself with the name I got even more suspicious, “never seemed like a person close to anyone. I was always worried about him not getting alone with anyone and then I saw him talk to you. I was surprised when I saw him together with such a beautiful girl. And in that small room. If another teacher saw you maybe he would have misunderstood and would have given you a punishment. I got curious because I never saw the both of you talk: since when are you a couple?” the more he talked with me the more suspicious I got. This teacher was more than he pretended to be, but I didn’t grasp yet what made him seem so. I tried to avoid the answer to how long we were together because it was possible that he also would ask Ryuu. “Well sensei, if we wanted it to be known to people we wouldn’t have to meet up in cramped places, right?” I tried to imitate Mia as much as possible when talking, because this kind of talk just didn’t suit me. “Anyway classes started and now I’ll be too late, if you’ll excuse me?”

He seemed perplexed about this but nodded. The grin on his face which disappeared while we talked was seen again, but this time it seemed forced. “Just be careful when meeting up from now on” he winked. “Tell your teacher that I stopped you on the way.” With this he turned around and went towards the stairs.

I stood there for a bit, because I didn’t want to follow the teacher immediately. After a few minutes passed I went towards the stairs, which led to the classrooms. To reach the teachers’ staff room I had to go down  to the ground floor. The school’s layout was like the letter ‘U’ surrounded with a big yard. The gym was on the one side of the yard, a field on another. The whole yard looked like a square, just that one corner was missing because of the bushes, but thanks to Sho I found out there was a hidden garden. Other than the teachers’ lounge the library and the student council room, as well as the shoe lockers at the entrance were on the ground floor. Other than the ground floor the school building had three floors and the students were distributed in those along to their years, first floor the first years, and so on. The SA classrooms were on one end of the building, separated from all the other classrooms, which were near each other. Empty classrooms and scientific rooms and one stuff room were on each floor, the infirmary was just on the first floor. 

Chapter 5 - part one

5.

Two days passed since I fainted in the garden. I didn’t see Ryuu, nor Hiro at the school grounds. I even went to the garden in my breaks but Ryuu never came around. And I passed by the SA’s classes but both weren’t seen anywhere. How come I never came across them? Considering how special the students of those classes are and how much others fuss over them it was strange that I didn’t get to see them now that I got interested in them. In the past it was obvious why I never paid attention to them, but now that I knew two faces of the special class, and that I knew of such a big secret too, I was kind of curious about them. And I was looking forward to my next meeting with Ryuu. I still had so many questions to ask.

On that day after he went out with Hiro I sat there long in that room and thought about what he told me. When I finally had the strength back to my legs again, I got up and walked out of there. I didn’t even walk 3 meters before Sho came to fetch me. He was looking really worried, which wasn’t really surprising considering that Ryuu actually wanted to carry me to the infirmary but I never reached there. Because I couldn’t explain him all that happened I just told him that someone came to get Ryuu and that’s why I was alone and it took me so long to come towards the infirmary, though I wasn’t really walking there. But at least it calmed him down and he wouldn’t think that anything is wrong. After that I was sent home early.

Now two days later I was on class duty. My homeroom teacher made me carry some handouts to the stuff-room because he forgot to add something to them. When I passed the storage room where I was carried inside last time the door suddenly opened and I was pulled inside. Ryuu was standing in front of me. He closed the door after him.

“What are you doing?” I asked. Suddenly appearing out of nowhere, what was he thinking?

“You kept it to yourself right?” he asked back without answering my question himself.

What was he talking about? That he was controlling an imaginary tiger? No one would believe me and probably I would even get arrested for saying such strange things. Why should I tell that to people?

“I am not talking about the tiger!” he sighed. “Just don’t tell anyone that you can SEE it!” Just when I wanted to ask why he was telling me that, he covered my mouth with his hand. The next moment the door opened. Kuro-sensei, the homeroom teacher of the SA-class, seemed surprise to see us together. Because I was standing so near to Ryuu I felt how he stiffened. Through his expression I could see that he wasn’t that happy to see the person in charge of his class. I wondered why. Kuro-sensei was always really nice to everyone, especially to girls. He loved to flirt despite being a teacher, and he did it really often. “What are you doing here together in a small room?” he winked towards me. “Am I disturbing?”

I blushed and wanted to bring some distance between Ryuu and me, and shook my head at it. Ryuu held me back and replied: “Sensei! I wanted to be alone with my girlfriend. Is that prohibited?” what was he saying? Girlfriend? That was the second time him calling me this. I speechlessly looked up to him. He pinched my arm and I could see in his eyes that he was begging me to shut up and play along. I bit my tongue and nodded softly.

“It’s not prohibited” he said surprised “but people could misunderstand if you behave like this in a small dark room.” He grinned.

“We just didn’t want other people to find out about our relationship. That’s all.” I tried to explain. Something was wrong with this teacher. Even if I thought of him as pretty nice until now, he seemed completely different, almost terrifying.

“Ryuu-kun, don’t you have some tasks which have to be done? You don’t have much time left until...” he hesitated as if he was searching for the right word “the dead line. I think Hiro-kun is waiting for you.”

Ryuus facial features hardened. “Yeah I will tend to it soon.”

“I hope you will do it in time without letting yourself be distracted” when Kuro-sensei said that he looked at me with a really cold expression. But I just saw it for a second before his usual face popped out again and he showed a really stupid grin. Then he turned around and left the room. Right before closing the door I could hear him whisper “I’ll be waiting.” Then the door closed.

Ryuu was standing there for some time without any reaction. Right when I wanted to call out to him he kicked one of the desks and cursed. “DAMN IT ALL”.

I wondered what was wrong with him. “Ryuu-kun?” he looked surprised when I called out his first name, but he didn’t comment on it.

“It’s nothing” he said instead. “Anyway, now that Kuro-sensei saw you together with me you should take care. Whatever happens from now on, whoever asks you questions, you don’t know anything about a tiger, you can’t see it, you can’t feel it, nothing, you hear me?”

When I nodded he continued: “Good. I apologize for everything that could happen to you from now on.” And with these words he turned around and walked towards the door.

“Hey where are you going?” I asked.

“Lessons are about to start again” he simply replied.

“I still have some questions to you!” it felt like he was trying to escape.

“We’ll meet tomorrow, at the break in the garden. I also have a question to you.” He answered.

“What question?”

He opened the door and stepped outside. Then he turned around. “For example: how come you have a recommendation but you aren’t in the SA?” with this he turned left and walked off.

Chapter 4 - last part

“How about we bring her to the infirmary?” He stepped towards me but before I could react “Maru” grasped and lifted me up onto his arms. “I’ll do it.” Shosuke said but Maru put him off. “I already have her. You should run and tell the nurse.”

This guy just lifted me up as if I wasn’t weighing anything!

Silently, step for step, he walked towards the infirmary, taking care not to shake too much. He was behaving as if I was really precious and he had to take care that I won’t break.

At some point I couldn’t take the silence anymore. “Could you please start your explanation” I asked in a gruff voice. Maru looked down at my face and a little grin was seen at his mouth’s corners. I had the feeling that he almost never showed joy in his facial expressions. But it made my heart race.

“No.” he looked away. I was shocked. “What, no?” why was he behaving so proud?

“What do you want to hear?” he sighed. What was he thinking? He knew what I wanted to know! Why was he avoiding my questions? He had something to hide, yeah he did. Not everyone could make an invisible tiger appear. I understood why he had difficulties in telling me, but that was unfair. He owed me an answer. I understood myself how annoying I must have been, it could have happened that the guy would distance himself from me, that I could forfeit a chance with him, that he would think of me as exhausting and would avoid me. Why did I wish that he wouldn’t do anything of that? Why did I find myself being drawn to a stranger? At least it made it more difficult for me to convince him to explain everything. Even if I was convinced that I deserved to know the truth.

“Why was there a tiger?” I said through clenched teeth. He looked around if someone was near, stopped at the nearest door and went inside.

“Hey! What are you doing?” I shouted when I realized that we were in the storage room of the school between unused chairs and desks. Immediately he covered my mouth with his hand to cushion my voice.

“I definitely won’t explain anything which shouldn’t be of anyone’s business, to you if there are people around!” he replied irritated. Aha, I thought, it was a secret and what was more important: I wasn’t crazy! There really was a wild cat! And it didn’t cause a panic. How could that be?

A product of our combined fantasy? We could have been connected through telepathy and for some reason we imagined colourful tigers together. That sounded too strange, I sighed.

Then maybe a magic tiger, which just shows itself to people it liked. I feel flattered, I thought to myself, angered by myself, that I even thought of such idiocy.

I sighed again.

Maru also could have been an alien with his colourful tiger! Maybe I was...

“Heh”, I heard a suppressed laughter and looked at the face of the guy who was still carrying me.

Was he laughing at me? Did he just snort? What was he thinking? When he saw my confusion and how I slowly got mad too, he explained: “Sorry, but I could see that you were going through some weird logics in your mind.” He couldn’t hold back and started to giggle openly. His body was shaking and I shook with him. it was strange that he still held me, but until now I was too distracted to tell him. “You can let me down. I’m feeling fine already.”

He tried to recompose himself and thoughtfully looked down at my face. Wasn’t I getting heavy?

If he didn’t want to let me down then I’ll do it myself, I thought. It was hard to move in the princess-hold. The easiest way down, I thought to be when I put my arms around his neck to get a hold and then put my feet down singly. When he noticed what I tried to do he held onto me tighter. “Stop moving around so much or I’ll drop you!” he complained.

“Then let me down” I replied automatically.

He slowly put me down on my feet and I noticed, with my arms around his neck, how tall he was, at least one head taller. I was standing on my tiptoes to be able to hold onto him. I released his neck but he still held onto my hips with his arm. The moment I felt the ground under my feet again I slightly swayed but still restarted my questioning. “So what’s the business with the tiger?”

When he heard my question he winced. Before I could realize it he already grabbed me and lifted me up on a table where he sat me down. He put his arms right and left beside me and we were now at eye level. “What are you doing?” I asked startled.

“You were swaying and explaining to you while I have to hold you, and without being able to talk to you on eye level makes it kind of hard for me.” He showed me a smile which exposed that he gave in. “Whatever I tell you now, will be a secret. You aren’t allowed to tell anyone, not the guy from before, nor your best friend. Understood?” he asked. When I nodded he continued. “I am harbouring a tiger inside of me. Whenever I can’t control my feelings it bursts out. It feels exactly the same as me, it’s so to say the mirror of my emotions. But it’s not the only way to call it out. When I am in a dangerous situation I can call upon it myself and use it as a weapon. Even if no one is able to see it” he wavered when saying that and directly looked into my eyes “well no one other than you, the damage the tiger causes is still physical” he continued. I thought about what he said carefully. If that was true, and it had to be, I saw the tiger after all, then he was harbouring a supernatural tiger. It was a reflection of his emotions he said, so the changing colours and sizes were probably a part of it also. Every colour had to have a meaning! Right when I wanted to ask he looked at my ribbon. “You have a recommendation but aren’t in the special class?” he asked.

What did that have to do with everything? Weren’t we talking about his tiger? Did he want to change the subject again? I just wanted to remind him why we were talking here when the door opened. “Here you are.” Another person with a black shirt was standing in the door. “Kuro-Sensei is looking for you.”

“Tell him I’ll come soon.”

This new guy looked at me and grinned. “When did you get this aggressive Ryuu?”

So Maru wasn’t his real name. I thought so but Ryuu and Maru didn’t have any similarities. It all seemed confusing.

“Wait outside, Hiro” Ryuu seemed tensed with this Hiro-guys appearance. Without saying anything more Hiro left the room and closed the door after him. Ryuu sighed. Just now I noticed that he was still standing so near to me, leaning towards me with his arms right and left to me. When I finally realized the red colour rushed into my face and made me blush so deeply. His friend must have misunderstood completely. I hoped Ryuu would explain it to him afterwards. “Anyway, I have to leave now, I can’t tell you more right now, and believe me, it’s better like this.” He sounded determined.

“But...” I started but he interrupted me.

“Don’t tell anyone, when you see me somewhere when people are around don’t come to talk to me, just ignore me. I will do the same.” With this he turned around and left the room. 

Chapter 4 - Part two

“Nao!” I heard someone calling me.

“Nao...” another voice muttered, a male one, which I didn’t recognize.

“What happened?” the first voice asked, I recognized that it was Shosuke. “Why did she faint?”

“She just fainted. I don’t know what happened. Maybe anemia or her blood pressure?”

I tried to concentrate on the answer of the second person, who I still didn’t recognize. He sounded seriously worried. But the soft sound of his voice calmed me down.

“For now I wanted to lay her down and wait. If after a short time she doesn’t come to her senses then I’ll carry her to the infirmary. But then you came here.”

With closed eyes I tried to direct my attention to my surroundings. I felt something soft under my head, which was lifted from the ground other than my body, which felt like it was lying on the ground. I felt for the ground and grabbed something cold, grass. I was lying on a meadow, but why? I tried to remember what happened before. I was looking for something behind the school, in the hidden garden. Someone was there when I found it. Yeah, right, I searched for the handkerchief, and he got there, and claimed that it was his, Maru. Now the question was, why was I lying here? In front of my eyes the picture of a big cat appeared. The tiger! I fainted when it appeared out of nowhere. So I was still lying there where I fainted? I tried to open my eyes. The first thing that I saw was a worried face, which in addition was seriously attractive and way too near to my own face. Maru, my inner voice whispered and recognized him before my eyes could. I blinked a few times because I thought I was imagining him, but until the last blink he still was near me. His face showed his relief. I wanted to sit up because I wasn’t feeling comfortable openly lying on the ground, but he grabbed my shoulder and pushed me down, leaned downwards really near to my ear. “Stay” he whispered. I felt his warm breath on my cheek. His closeness made my head spin. In his words I heard the soft voice which I didn’t recognize before. He left his face near mine. Why didn’t he pull back?

To distract myself I started to feel the ground again. Something suddenly nudged against my hand and something cold, wet touched it. I slightly turned my head and saw a grey tiger. I flinched.

“Shh...” Maru softly stroked my shoulder. He probably felt the nervous twitch. Just now I noticed the reason for my head to be slightly lifted from the ground was him. My head was lying on his lap. No wonder that he felt my flinching.

“D...Ti...Tig...” I stuttered.

“Shh...” he repeated. “It won’t do anything.” He spoke really calmly and continued stroking my shoulder, but his face showed that something was wrong. Either he didn’t trust his own words and the tiger was dangerous, but I doubted that because his other hand was on the animal’s back, or something else was making him feel uncomfortable. What could be worse than a tiger? A grey tiger. Wait a moment, grey? Tigers weren’t grey! A hallucination of the both of us? I couldn’t hold back and reached out for the animals head. It was looking pretty sad. I could see the worry in its eyes. I started to ruffle the tiger’s fur. Its colour started to change. From grey to a dark grey tone, and with every passing second and every stroke it turned into a lighter colour, until it was covered in a shining yellow with silver stripes. I couldn’t resist the smile which was showing on my face when I saw the expression in the animal’s eyes. It was relieved – and beautiful, even when the colours seemed odd.

I tilted my head back to look Maru in the eyes and just wanted to ask why the tiger was here when he again interrupted me. He softly put his finger on my lips and slowly bended down towards my ear, he swiped it with his lips, probably by mistake, and muttered “later”. It was clear that he had something to hide, and I will have some explanation for something which seems impossible.

“Ehm..., if I could bother you...” I looked up to the voice. Sho was standing in front of us and watched me. I totally forgot that I also heard his voice. And when I saw how he lifted his eyebrow and looked down to Maru, I realized that I was still using his lap as a pillow. Sho looked like he was about to make a big fuss about it so I tried to sit up once again, but Maru still wouldn’t let me and used his hand on my shoulder to put pressure on it.

“Why did you faint?” Sho asked. “Anemia?”

“Calm down!” I said.

“Didn’t you eat anything today? Yesterday you were so shaken over a simple handkerchief!”

“Don’t worry. I know what I do.” I myself thought that I sounded a little bit harsh so I wanted to defuse my own words: “but thank you.” I seriously was thankful because of his worry. But I just thought it was embarrassing that we had to have this conversation in front of Maru, because of the handkerchief. And it seemed like Maru didn’t want to talk about the tiger anyway, and it didn’t seem like Sho saw the tiger.

When I noticed Sho still looking at us with his lifted eye brow I tried for the last time to sit up and this time Maru allowed me. I turned around to him and noticed for the first time that he was wearing a black shirt. That meant he was in the SA class, which meant he was special. I didn’t know anyone of that class, not in any of the other years either even though everyone saw them as special and wanted to know them. I didn’t even know one of the pupils’ names in those classes. Until now, though Maru didn’t seem to be his real name. When I looked at him I wondered why I never wanted to know anything about them. When I was still caught up in my thoughts Shosuke brought me back to reality. 

Chapter 4 - Part one

4.

On the next day at school I told Mia, that I had to disappear for a while at the lunch break and that she didn’t had to come with me.

“I wouldn’t be able to go with you anyway” she complained. “Our homeroom teacher wants to talk to me.” You could see her regret not being able to come with me.

When it rang for the break I ran out of the classroom, down the stairs and almost fell down if I hadn’t held on to the railing.

I ran directly towards the school-garden and didn’t stop until I reached the bushes. There I looked around if someone was near me who could see me fighting my way through the bushes. When I was sure no one was watching me I went through it and just a few moments after I found myself at the field.

At first I was stunned again by the beauty of this place but I remembered fast why I came here.

“Where is that hanky?” I muttered.

Systematically I combed the field but I didn’t see any sign of my lost item.

“That can’t be true. Did he remember wrong?”

Because I didn’t know what else to do I went to the flowers and knelt down before them to look at them. I really thought they were beautiful. I wanted to pluck one of them so I reached out with my hand when I noticed a white textile under the flowers. I softly pulled on it. It was the handkerchief.

Lucky me, it’s still clean. I thought, but I still wanted to take it home to wash it again.

All that searching just lasted 20 minutes so I still had 40 minutes until the break was over. I knew that I had to get back but this field was so peaceful I just couldn’t leave it yet. Next to the flowers i laid down on the ground, still holding the hanky in my hand. I lifted it in front of my face and inspected it more carefully. It was strange that the incident of how I got to the hanky seemed oddly familiar but I just couldn’t get a hold of the reason why it was. If I had seen the face of the guy who gave it to me then maybe I would know why it was like a Déjà-vu. My gaze met the stitched name. MARU. I really was curious about who MARU was. I thought about it for a while before I got up to leave the field. When I walked towards the bushes someone else came through it. It startled me so much that I stepped back, stumbled over my own feet and fell down on the ground.

When I recognized the person who was standing in front of me I got a fright. It was the guy from the Club. “You!” I said stunned. “So you really go to our school.”

He reached out to help me up.

“Seems like it” I heard his quiet answer. After I got up he let go of me and put some distance between us. I didn’t know what to say but because I had the feeling I had to have a conversation with him I blurted out the first words that came to my mind: “How did you know about this field?”

He smiled. It was such a sweet smile. This guy knew how to make hearts beat faster. “Almost every break you can find me here. All the flowers in this field were planted by me when I was still a kid. Together with my dad.” He shortly looked at me but turned his head away fast. “What are you doing here?”

“I just searched for something I lost here yesterday.” When he heard my words he swung his head around towards me.

“Yesterday? So it was you.”

“You saw us?” I panicked.

He nodded. “You should really take care where to be seen smooching with others.” I think he didn’t want to sound mean, but it seriously was a borderline comment. Why did he sound so harsh?

I blushed by the snappishness this comment was said with. “We weren’t doing anything like that.” I didn’t know why but I felt the urge of clearing the misunderstanding. I shouldn’t care what a stranger thinks right? But I cared! “He’s my brother’s best friend. We aren’t like that. He just tried to calm me down after telling me what happened after... you know in that Club...” He nodded again. Now his face was showing a soft expression. He got a glance at the handkerchief in my hand. “You searched for that?”

Before I could reply he came towards me and took it.

“Hey! That’s not yours!” I rebelled.

“You mean it’s not yours. Believe it or not, it’s mine.”

What did he just say?

“What, You are Maru?” I stared at him stunned.

He didn’t answer. For a moment it seemed like he was absorbed in thought. I wondered what was going on in his head. Before I could ponder on possibilities I remembered what happened two days ago. The way Kento attacked this guy. His frightening eyes. How the opponent slumped to the ground and could just speak in staccato speech. I still could see the cut in front of my eyes. All the blood. The thought made me feel really sick. I was speechless when I saw him standing in front of me. Wasn’t he feeling any pain? I hoped he didn’t, I already blamed myself about this incident, about his injury, about everything. I shouldn’t have overreacted, my brother shouldn’t have overreacted, over a simple kiss!

What now?

I wanted to ask him how he felt, if he even wanted to talk to me. The thought that he wouldn’t want to be involved with me an unpleasant feeling broadened in my stomach.

Hold it. This guy was a stranger!

Why did I have the feeling of not wanting this guy to turn his back on me? Something on him made me feel drawn to him. When I got a better look at him, the dark hair, the green eyes, he seemed vaguely familiar. The more I looked into his eyes, the deeper I was drawn inside their depth. Just when I thought his eyes were showing yellow spots, I heard a blop and a little animal jumped out of nowhere between us. A striped kitten, no, a tiger cub, with a strange colouring. Instead of gold with dark stripes it had light pink colouring with almost non-visible white stripes.

I felt dizzy, a moment after everything went black.

Chapter 3 - last part

“And I wanted to apologize to you” I ended my little speech. By now we were at the hospital to visit the injured person. Kento attacked a young guy in his twenties and left him an ugly cut. At least he was friendly enough to not show me his disgust too openly, he just smiled.

“Apology accepted” he nodded. Sho and Yu came with me but they were waiting outside the room.

After we finished our business in the hospital Yuichi chauffeured us around to fulfil his duty as a slave. During the drive we talked about my upcoming birthday. Not even two weeks to go until the 19^th of July.

“Mom and Dad will probably be back by then too right?” Yu asked. Our parents loved to travel. But it depended on their work also, because their company send the best workers around to help in other branches around the world. But this time it was a normal vacation as a couple, to have their second honeymoon.

“As far as I remember they wanted to come back for your birthday.” Yuichi continued.

“Really?” Shosuke asked. “I’m looking forward to seeing them again! I really missed them!” his joy was contagious. I was really excited about seeing my parents again also.

“So Nao, I suggest this year we’ll plan your birthday and you’ll just lean back and wait. No back talk!” my brother said.

I didn’t have anything to say against that. When I planned things it always made me crazy because nothing goes the way I want it to. So I both of the guys do what they want.

We almost reached home, when I remembered that I wanted to ask Sho about the hanky. But while my brother was there I didn’t want to ask, because I didn’t want him to know. So I waited for an opportunity to ask him. It came fast. “I have to go shopping for dinner. You can go inside already.” My brother said when we reached home. Then he drove away.

“Sho, where is the handkerchief you took before? I want it back so I can give it back to the right owner.”

The hanky.” He brooded over it while searching his pockets. “Damn!” he yelled. “I think I forgot it in the garden. You know. When I wanted to know where you got it from.”

Damn wasn’t the right word to describe this, I thought.

Chapter 3 - Part four

“Probably I am not the only one anymore knowing this place” he winked. I smiled. He managed to make me smile again. A little bit of distraction for me.

“How embarrassing” I muttered when I thought about what I did in this garden the last few minutes. Sho laughed. “Embarrassing? No, cute.” Again he winked. “But I definitely like your smile more.” I blushed again. “Hmm... but this red in your face suits you too.” He laughed louder.

“Well, thanks.” I said tensed. “Please don’t tell Yu, but go to the hospital with me.”

“Alright. But not like this!” he took the handkerchief from my hand and started to wipe my face. “Now you look more or less like a human again. Though it’s still horrible, but well, who cares.”

 “What kind of compliment are you giving a girl!” I complained.

He gave back the handkerchief. “It wasn’t meant like that. Or was it?” he laughed. I just wanted to take the handkerchief back when he pulled it away again. He strongly stared at something which looked like a stain.

Before I understood what he found out he explained. “Who or what is Maru?” his voice sounded strained.

“Ah, that”, I stuttered. Until that point I hadn’t even noticed that I pulled out that hanky, which I got from that boy. The way he asked me about it made me stutter. “I don’t really know either. It’s not mine.”

Something made his eyes shine, if good or bad I couldn’t see because the shining disappeared the moment I noticed, and he started to grin.

“Was this a present? A little bit too early for a birthday present. Maybe that person wanted to go out with you and gave you this, without waiting for your answer he ran away?”

“Nope, that’s not it.” I stuck out my tongue.

“Tell me” he demanded.

“No” I shook my head.

“Then I’ll tickle you until you do.” I ran away and he ran after me. “Wait!” he shouted.

“No!” I replied and laughed. We were behaving like little kids. I remembered how I loved to play stubborn with him just to make him play catch with me. That we did this again after such a long time was a sign that our friendship didn’t die.

“I’ll get you!” we still were running around in a circle but I got slower.

“I got you!” he said and reached out for my top. I couldn’t hold my balance and fell down, he fell on me. “I said I’ll get you!” he sat up and helped me to turn around, because I fell on my stomach, but he didn’t allow me to get up. He let me lie on my back on the ground. He sat down so that I was squeezed between his legs on the ground.

“Now say, how did you get the hanky?”

“It’s not your business.” I had to hold back the urge to stick out my tongue once again.

“Yeah?” he leaned towards me, so that his face came nearer to mine.“ and how it’s my business.”

“No, it’s not.” His closeness made my heart beat faster. I couldn’t concentrate anymore.

“You shouldn’t have said that.” He started to tickle me

“Stop that!” I said while squeaking.

“First you have to answer.”

“Alright, everything you want.” He still was so close. I even forgot the question. So I asked him to repeat it.

“Where did you get the hanky from?” he came even nearer. Our lips were about to touch. I thought about useless stuff like: he’ll hear my heart beat and that made me feel bashful.

But his question made me come down to earth. I turned away from him.

I told him the story of how I got the handkerchief. How I ran into a guy, when I cried, after running away from Kento. “Because I didn’t look up I don’t know who the person was.” My voice was really quiet and just came brokenly out of my lips.

“I see.” He let go of me, got up and stepped a few steps back. Then he looked up to the sky as if he was avoiding my gaze. “I’m sorry” he murmured.

I got up and didn’t know what to do. He was behaving strangely without a reason and it didn’t seem like he’ll tell me anytime soon why he is like that. I thought about a way to make it more comfortable for both of us but just then we heard Mia calling us. Shosuke heard her too and turned to me.

“Fast, we have to go”, I whispered.

“Why that fast? Can’t she know where we are?” he looked confused.

“Not now or she won’t ever disappear from here.” I winked.

I grabbed his arm and pulled him with me towards the bushes.

“Nao?” again Mia’s voice.

Shosuke pulled his arm out of my grip and got the lead, which was the better choice, because I wasn’t sure where we had to go through the bushes. He helped me to go through them. Just in time. Mia just came around the corner and if she saw us there she wouldn’t think we were on the other side of the bushes.

“Ah, here you are.” She sounded relieved.

“Yeah sorry, we forgot about the time over our serious talk.” Shosuke explained to her. I almost forgot what our talk was about but I still nodded and agreed with him. “I’ll tell you later.”

“Alright, and I’ll leave now. We’ll see each other later anyway. Together with Yu we’ll come to get you and do what we talked about.” He waved, turned around and left. He seemed like he had to disappear really fast from here. When he was out of sight Mia asked worried what he wanted to talk about with me.

“Why do you sound so worried?” I asked because I didn’t understand it.

“Your eyes are red!” she told me. “Something serious must have happened. Tell me about it!”

I told her the short summary of what we talked about, about the information about Kento and the guy who was hospitalized. I didn’t tell her about the handkerchief though and what happened because of it.

“Oh Damn!” I muttered when I remembered Sho still having it.

“What happened?” Mia asked.

“Nothing important. We have to go back. Our free time is almost over.” I replied, held onto her arm and pulled her towards the classroom.