Aisuru

Chapter 3: Changing Day

Chapter 3: Changing Day

Chattering students filled the halls of Saigonohi High School after the final bell, eager to escape campus before the heavy gray clouds above carried out their implicit threat. In each classroom, pairs of students assigned clean-up duties[14] for the day worked quickly to get their chores done.

From the second floor in class 3-A,[15] Sakura watched the boy assigned to work with her greet his friends by the school gate. He pointed back toward the school, sending the group into a laughing fit as they headed down the street. Had he told them that she’d bought his lie about needing to go medicate his cat? As if she were that stupid. She knew he was lying before he even finished spinning the tale.

Of course, she wasn’t supposed to be there either, but apparently no one had told Mimomo-sensei not to assign her duties. It happened sometimes, usually with new or substitute teachers. She could complain and refuse to do it, but in an odd way, she liked it. It helped her feel more normal, if only for a little while.

Besides, her assigned partners always found reasons to skip out. A doctor’s appointment, a dying relative, a pet needing care, some young sibling they had to pick up. Same old stories. They could at least try to be more creative. Though why they bothered, she didn’t know. It wasn’t as if they apologized or showed any shame if they were caught in the lie. Like the boy whose supposedly dead grandmother attended the school’s athletic festival a week later looking quite spry and healthy.

Sakura would nod, straight-faced, and let them excuse themselves. But she stayed and did what she could. Ito-san would be disappointed in her if she just did nothing and left the class suffering at the work going undone. At least with her “partner” gone, she could work alone. It was easier than working with someone else; after all, it is significantly easier to snub someone who isn’t there.

It was exhausting pretending she didn’t hear their pathetic attempts at engaging in social-obligation chit-chat with her. Though after three years together, most of her classmates knew her as an ice queen and didn’t bother talking to her at all.

She washed the chalkboard with a damp cloth, straightened the desks, and then finished writing the entries into the class log. The chalk erasers she left on the windowsill and the sweeping would have to be done by someone else. She was not going to risk a coughing fit from the flying dust. With the room as clean as she could manage, she carried the trash to the outside incinerator. Steel-gray clouds hung low in sky and the smell of pending rain saturated the air.

Few students loitered in the halls as she made her way to the teacher’s lounge to turn in the log book. When she reached for the door, it suddenly slid open. The vice principal stormed out, forcing her to take a few steps back to avoid getting bowled over. Damn. She’d almost made it a whole week without seeing Koga.

He smiled down at her, an expression as bogus as the cheap toupee he used to cover his balding head. “Good afternoon, Takeshi-san. I’ve addressed the situation regarding your being assigned duties. It won’t happen again.”

“Thank you, Koga-sensei. Your efforts are appreciated, as always.” Sakura’s response was as insincere as his concern, and they both knew it. He’d been the first, the last, and the loudest to try to deny her entrance into Saigonohi, arguing that they shouldn’t waste school resources educating someone who had no future. It was only the disclosure of her considerable financial assets with subtle hints at a future bequest that had won her admittance.

“If you’ll excuse me, sir, I’ll turn this in so I can go home.”

“Of course. If you’ve missed the tram, with the rain, you should take a cab. Use the phone inside to call for one.”

She waited until he was well down the hall before entering the room. Mimomo-sensei, normally cheerful and positive to excess, was hunched at a desk. Tears streamed down her face despite her best efforts. Two other teachers in the room were doing a pathetic job of pretending they hadn’t watched her get chewed out by Koga. It was the young woman’s first year at the school, and it would be like Koga to “forget” to tell her about Sakura’s situation. In fact, she was certain he had done it on purpose. How else had he already known that she’d been assigned clean-up duty? He’d probably been keeping an eye on their room, checking the board daily until it happened.

As Sakura approached, the young woman jerked to her feet and bowed deeply.

“I…I’m so sorry, Takeshi-san. I had no idea. Is there anything…” Her brown eyes settled on Sakura, her pretty face heavy with sorrow.

Sakura forced down her own feelings and slid the book onto the desk. “Here is the log. I didn’t clean the erasers or sweep.”

Turning on her heel, she walked out. There was little value in trying to ease the woman’s discomfort now. Perhaps her having to endure one of Koga’s infamous tirades might put an end to her constant attempts at reaching out to Sakura. Despite her liking toward the teacher, it would be better for them both if Mimomo-sensei just followed the example of other teachers and ignored her presence beyond grading her work. More than likely, the other two in the room were advising her to do just that. Because of their “hands-off” policy, the teachers tended to give her a ridiculous amount of leeway. If she’d been inclined, she could act like a world-class brat and make their teaching lives hell. Fortunately for them, she was a “good girl,” and all she wanted was to get through school with little incident.

After exchanging her school slippers for her street shoes, Sakura headed outside. A heavy sheet of cold rain bordered the entry overhang. She debated calling a cab after all, but the idea of doing something Koga suggested grated on her nerves. Nor was she in the mood to wait around another hour. She had a well-made umbrella to shield her from most of the rain. Combined with the thick black scarf wrapped around her neck and her matching, long, waterproof coat, she should be able to stay warm and dry enough.

In good weather, she enjoyed the half-mile walk home with Mount Hakodate dominating the view along the way. Though she couldn’t see the bay, she usually could catch its sweet salty smell on the breezes that normally accompanied her. Today there was nothing but the wet smell of rain riding on a chilly wind.

She pulled her coat tighter as she turned into a small park of trees. The barren branches of the apricot and plum trees lent a sinister air to the day’s monotone scene. The delicate blossoms of a few late-blooming cherry trees plastered to their branches, desperately holding on, when in nicer weather they would drift around like white-and-pink snow.

Just past the park, a large house with flower gardens in the front graced the end of the block. Its green-thumbed owner kept it in full color year round, much to Sakura’s envy, though cloaked in the dull gray shroud of rain, even the cheery autumnal orange and yellow flowers looked morose and dull.

Some students from her school ran by her as she passed the corner store. A girl with blond pigtails looked back, probably questioning her sanity. If she were healthy, she would be running to get out of the rain too, but that would be even more dangerous than deciding to walk in the rain because of that piss-ant Koga. She should just duck into the store, or the café beside it, and wait out the rain, but there were only two more blocks to go.

Kazuki,

I wish to talk. Please, meet me by mother’s grave tonight after dinner.

I miss you, big brother.

Yuji

Kazuki read the note one last time. A servant had handed it to him just after lunch. Having to wait so many hours had nearly driven him crazy. Yuji was finally ready to work things out! His brother was a gentle soul, kind and generous, selfless to a fault. Kazuki knew he must have done something truly despicable to his brother, but what? No matter what his grievances were, Kazuki resolved to carefully hear them out and properly apologize.

“Master Kazuki?” Karasu sat on his bed beside him, staring at the wrinkled paper in Kazuki’s hand. “Do you think you’ll be able to mend things?”

“I hope so. I will give it my best, to be sure. This foolishness has gone on long enough! It’s time for Yuji to return home where he belongs.”

“You know, I’ve been thinking. Maybe he misunderstood about Princess Aya somehow?”

Most knew Yuji was in love with her, and as such, Kazuki had already sworn he would never accept her for his mate. But maybe Yuji had started to wonder. The advisers had been adamant that the formal refusal not happen until the king returned, so it could come from him rather than Kazuki. Otherwise, it might be seen as a disgrace for Aya. But had Yuji thought he’d been stalling somehow or that he had changed his mind?

“Maybe you’re right. He doesn’t always think clearly when it comes to her; she is perfection in his eyes. If Aya repeated her claims of loving me to him, combined with her repeated insistence that I visit with her, he might think I would have no choice but to fall in love with her. It may not be that he is angry, but heart broken and thinking I’ve betrayed him. This just won’t do, not at all. I must set him right. I’d die before I’d take his love from him! And adviser demands or not, as soon as I get back, we are sending the formal rejection of the mating proposal so there is no more question.”

“Good idea! Then Master Yuji can propose instead. I’m sure once Princess Aya sees how much he loves her, she’ll accept.”

“Exactly.” Kazuki glanced out the window. The orange and red glow of the setting sun had disappeared. The first stars had already appeared to dot the darkened sky. “Well, it’s about time. I’ll be back soon.”

“Can’t I come with you?” The boy pleaded as he gripped Kazuki’s sleeve.

“Not this time, old friend. I wouldn’t want you to get pulled between us, and I suspect we’ll say some harsh words before we can make amends. Don’t worry, we’ll be home soon, both of us.”

Kazuki ruffled the boy’s hair affectionately then stood and retrieved the lakmanine stone from his dresser. He glanced at the sword that hung on the wall, cradled in its ornately carved, wooden frame. When leaving the castle, he would be expected to take it with him, but even as he considered it he laughed to himself. This was Yuji. Weapons were not needed tonight.

He gave Karasu one last reassuring smile before picturing the flower-filled area where his mother had been entombed.

“Stone of water, stone of air, take me hence to the place I desire.” His vision filled with rays of white-and-blue light that blinded him to the world around him. A strong whoosh of air flowed over him as he felt the ground disappear beneath him. Moments later, it returned again and the lights faded.

Like silhouetted sentries, the trees surrounding the glad seemed to guard the square tomb housing his mother’s ashes. A pair of torches burned at the entrance, but in such darkness, their faint light was more unnerving than uplifting, the sliver of moon above barely brightening the area.

“Yuji?” When no reply came, Kazuki walked forward to stand between the torches and bow. “Mother, I hope you will smile down on your foolish children so that we can resolve things tonight. We’ll bring a proper gift to apologize for making you worry as soon as we do. You have my word.”

A noise emerged from the edge of the forest a few meters behind him. There, a pale figure stood, made only paler by the loose-fitting white outfit he wore and the long white hair flowing down his back.

“Ah, Yuji, there you are! I’m so glad you called for us to meet.”

Kazuki stepped into the darkness toward his brother. Yuji remained where he was, letting Kazuki make the first move. The wind shifted, carrying his brother’s scent to his nose. How long had it been since he’d smelled that familiar fragrance? But was it familiar?

It was his brother’s scent, to be sure, but it seemed a little off. He hesitated a moment, then continued forward. After weeks away from the castle and his nightly scented baths, of course Yuji would smell a little different.

“My brother, please! Tell me what has led to this, to you leaving us and your anger with me.” It was all he’d intended to say at first, but his pain at their separation overwhelmed him and he was unable to stop himself. “Whatever I have done, I will make amends! If it is about Aya, I’ll send the rejection this very night and beg forgiveness for making you worry. Just please tell me what I can say or do to heal this rift.”

Yuji stood there, only meters from him, but said nothing. No smile, no shrug, not even a scoff to acknowledge Kazuki’s passionate plea. He just continued to stare at him. At least, Kazuki presumed he was staring, as he could only just make out his eyes in the low light.

The silence stretched on until it became too much to bear. “Yuji? Please, say something, anything.”

Finally, Yuji shrugged then pointed behind him. At the same time, he heard a rock shifting near the grave. Had Karasu followed him? He turned toward the sound, but saw nothing moving in the dim lights.

A second later, he felt movement beside him. Instinctively he dodged to the side as a sword sliced the air. Before he could fully react, Yuji’s claws had ripped into his shoulder as he whirled back around to face his attacker, his brother.

“Yuji?” As if he were standing outside his own body, Kazuki watched as Yuji brought his sword back up, intent on running him through with it. His body reacted on its own, blocking the blow with his wrist and knocking the sword away. He shoved Yuji back, but his brother growled and came at him with claws and teeth bared.

They wrestled there on the ground in front of their mother’s grave, Kazuki trying to defend himself even as his sluggish mind refused to accept that his brother seemed intent on killing him.

“Yuji, please, stop this!”

Yuji managed to pin him down with one hand as he raised the other above them. Where had that knife come from? Had he hidden it in his sleeve?

“Die.” The first word his brother said was not the one he’d ever thought it’d be.

From the corner of his eye, he spotted something sparkling near his hand. The lakmanine stone. Wrapping his fingers around it, he quickly said the chant in his mind while mentally picturing his room in the castle. Just as the lights enveloped him, he thought he heard a voice call to him. Kazuki, this way.

The rain had slowed to a light mist by the time Sakura reached the white picket fence enclosing her yard. In some ways, it was worse than the heavier rain, as it was more easily pushed by the wind, enabling it to get past her umbrella and coat that much faster. She would be glad to get out of it and into dry clothes. A warm bath before dinner wouldn’t be a bad idea either.

In the approaching dusk, her gardens were a mix of shadowed, darkened shapes. The pale stone paths seemed to glow in the waning light as she opened the gate and walked in. Having stepped in a mud puddle on the way, she’d decided to enter through the side door so she could leave her shoes outside rather than track the dirt and mud into the foyer.

As she passed the cherry tree, she paused and laid her hand against it. Despite the chill in the air, its trunk felt warm, almost as if it were pulsing with life. She hoped whoever bought her house took good care of it. Perhaps she would leave them a letter, explaining its meaning to the new owners and telling them the joys of waking up to find it awash in a seemingly endless supply of purplish-pink blossoms in the spring. The blossoms sometimes got in the house as they drifted around, but it wasn’t too much of a bother. She hoped to see it bloom one last time, at least. A final memory of it to take with her to the afterlife.

“Maybe you’ll bloom early for me this year.”

She stroked the trunk then turned to head inside. She’d been out in this weather long enough. Halfway down the path to the side porch, something, a sound perhaps, made her look back toward the tree. In the spot she’d stood moments before lay a large, unmoving mound.