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.