Chereads / The Star Above / Chapter 36 - Chapter 5.11: The Teacher And The Student - Appearance Of The Unexpected

Chapter 36 - Chapter 5.11: The Teacher And The Student - Appearance Of The Unexpected

"Alright, now what?" Asked Maki, sitting down on a stone that was lying on the cracked land.

Kaori had brought Yukine back to life as a shinki.

He was surprised when he was able to stand on his feet and be able to see again.

At the time of his eyes landing on Kaori, he looked at her with eyes that looked sad and happy at the same time. And then the latter threw herself in his arms and cried for a second time.

He laughed, giving pats on her back, his eyes were also teary.

The emotional reunion left everyone else with moist eyes, too.

As Kaori sobbed in his arms, she noticed the name 'Yukki' being visible on his chest.

After so many events, Kaori got tired and sat down on the street, leaning her back on a wall. Yukine joined her shortly after and the two fell asleep right there.

Aoi quoted Maki's question, "What 'now what'?"

Maki shrugged his shoulders, "Didn't Yukine inform us that he had already saved everyone in that place? The spirits are all gone now, too. Doesn't that mean that we completed our mission? We've got to go back to the headquarters now."

While the two chattered, Haru bent over and picked up two shuriken from a pile of ashes that was left after the corrupted spirit died.

He ran his fingers through the carves and designs on surface of the sharp blades.

π˜‰π˜¦π˜’π˜Άπ˜΅π˜ͺ𝘧𝘢𝘭.

He pushed them into the pocket of his worn out jacket.

"How?" Gin enquired on the other end, "We can't open a portal, we came here through Kazuma-sensei's."

Haru noticed something in the corner of his eyes and looked ahead.

𝘈 𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘡𝘒𝘭.

He called the others, "It looks like you don't have to worry about going back," He pointed at the fully visible portal, through which figures could be seen to enter the area, "Kazuma-sensei is here."

Everyone had looked around at Haru's words. When they saw Kazuma and three other senior teachers walking out of the portal, they started yelling out of delight.

"Sensei!"

"Headmaster!"

They ran for the newcomers. Though Yamaken and Xeno stood by Kaori and Yukine who were still asleep, they watched everything from the distance.

"Headmaster," Haru greeted courteously, "We have completed our mission."

"Haru!" I asked worriedly, hurrying towards him, "Is everyone alright?"

"Yes," Haru said in confusion, "Why do you ask?"

"Thank God!" All the teachers sighed in relief along with Kazuma.

"Is anything the matter?" Haru asked again.

"I'll tell you later, Haru," I hugged the boy, sighing in relief, "I was so scared."

"Kaori!" I pulled Haru away and looked at him, "Where is she? Is she okay?"

Haru quietly pointed at the girl who was sleeping on the sideway of the cracked street, with her head on the shoulder of an unknown boy to me.

The state of the surroundings took me by surprise. It looked as if a vicious storm had swept everything all over the place. I wondered what could have happened for it to be like this

I let out another sigh of relief when I saw Kaori but I looked back at Haru with questionable eyes the next second.

I nodded as Haru muttered to me that the boy was one of the survivors.

Since I walked towards them, Yamaken must've thought that I wanted to interect with Kaori, so he called her softly.

"Kaori," He gave a few soft pats on Kaori's shoulder, "Wake up. It's Kazuma-sensei."

Kaori opened her eyes, blinking a few times to clear her vision.

When my face came to her clear view, she shakily stood up and smiled weakly.

I was taken aback to see all the dirt on her, her face that had the marks of all the hardships which she must've gone through this short time.

"S𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴 𝘡π˜ͺ𝘳𝘦π˜₯," I thought, reading her face.

The boy that was sleeping beside her was still fast asleep.

Because I took steps forward to her, she tried to walk up to me.

"Sen-sei...." She staggered halfway and started to fall sideways.

"Hey!" Xeno quickly caught her in his arms.

Everyone, including I, ran to her.

"Kaori!" Xeno shook her but she didn't move.

Kaori had lost her consciousness.

**********************************************

Headquarters of Power Clan, inside the infirmary room.

When the doctor looked up after checking Kaori's conditions, he had a glum expression on his face.

Seeing me worried, he called me towards his desk to have a talk.

Haru and I were the only ones who were allowed to stay with Kaori so the others had left in worry.

We had returned to the headquarters as fast as we could and took Kaori to the infirmary.

"She's alright, no?" I asked with extreme anxiousness as I took the seat before the doctor.

He sighed deeply, "You shouldn't have sent her to the mission, Kazuma."

My face turned pale upon hearing his disheartening voice.

"Ooga," I said desperately, "She'll be fine, right? Nothing bad will happen to her, right?"

"The girl," Ooga glanced at Kaori, "She has been drained out of all the stress that she took on the field. Her energy level has gone down all the way to the bottom. If you came any later, her situation would have been the worst."

I gulped.

"Kazuma," Ooga said with disappointment, "Not only did you let her go to a mission even knowing her health status, unintentionally, but yet, you also sent her to the most deadly situation. It could've taken all those children's life!"

I lowered my head in shame.

Ooga shook his head, sighing another time, "I don't know how she exhausted herself to this extentδΈ€"

"Kaori awakened her abilities," Haru spoke up in the middle.

My eyes widened in surprise.

"What?" Both Ooga and I looked at Haru.

He repeated, looking at me, "Kaori awakened her abilities and saved that kid you saw earlier. Some other stuff also happened. The mission actually drained all of us out but I guess Kaori was the one to be affected the most because of her awakening," Haru said in one breath.

Ooga asked slowly, "Why are you using 'abilities' instead of 'ability'?"

A sigh escaped through Haru's nostrils, "That's another long story.. You see, Kaori doesn't have only one ability."

"What?" The two of us asked in shock.

Haru continued casually, "She's a mixed blood."

"A what?" We asked again, a little more curiosity working on us.

"According to Yamaken, the resident of the cursed blood section, a mixed blood is a blood that carries all the abilities this world could ever imagine."

The room fell into pin-drop silence at this.

Haru guessed that the two seniors were processing the words in their heads, thinking what this actually lead to.

"That's quite..." I tried to break the awkward silence, "Unbelievable and extraordinary..."

"Haru," Ooga spoke, "Could you leave us for a moment? You can come back later."

Haru nodded and left the room.

"Kazuma," Ooga called me in a voice that made me think dreadfully.

I looked up at him and he asked me away, "You know what that means, don't you?"

I shook my head, although I knew what he was implying to.

"Kaori," He said slowly, "Has a special meaning for being born."

𝘏𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘢𝘯π˜₯ 𝘰𝘢𝘡..

"That's the only way of defining her large difference among the other descendants," He continued thoughtfully.

I didn't say anything in return.

"Kazuma," He called importantly.

I looked up, my eyebrows also went up in question.

"It isn't the time for you to let her go yet," he told me firmly, "You have to keep an eye on her as she grows."

I gave it a thought. He was indeed saying the right thing.

When I let Kaori go this time, she entered a dangerous mission and ended up facing a lot of challenging things first-hand. Though she had friends with her who could help, it was actually dangerous for all of them. Because the mission they were sent to was a trap of the spirits.

So it only lead to the conclusion that Kaori still had things to learn and I had to be by her side until then.

I looked back at the girl who was lying unconscious on the infirmary bed and then I had decided.

"You're right, Ooga," I said, "It's not the time to let go of her yet. It was wrong of me to think that she was fully ready. I'll have to wait for the right moment."

Hearing my answer, Ooga looked satisfied.

But the next moment, he said something alarming that erased the smile off my face which had appeared after seeing Ooga's satisfaction.

"That's the right decision," he said, "Because if she looses consciousness like this again, I'm not sure if she'll ever wake up."

**********************************************

Day after day passed by but Kaori didn't wake up.

Ooga had forbidden me to worry saying that her health was improving slowly. But nothing could soothe my worries after hearing those dreadful words from Ooga himself the other day. They haunted me like nightmare all the time.

However, Kaori's absence didn't stop the life from going on.

The students had been given a short vacation after the successful examination - everyone had returned safely except Kaori's team.

Most of them left the headquarters to visit their own home. Some teachers also did the same - using their vacation as a chance - while the rest of the residents remained.

Out of boredom, the remaining groups of friends performed different kinds of activities within the headquarters' ground or they would even go out to take a stroll in the town and be back before dusk.

The short vacation was for three weeks and it's already been two weeks since Kaori had been hospitalised in the infirmary.

Ooga tried a lot of ways to assure me that she was fine and would wake up again once she had fully healed. But as more and more time passed by, I started loosing my calm, having a tension about something in the back of my mind.

Kaori was born two months early than the expected date of her birth. Back then, the doctors had announced that she could be a frail child. They had told Kariu and Ren to treat her with extra special care. And the both of them did.

But I, for my determination, I had forgotten about that and put extra pressure on her instead. Without knowing, I almost sent her towards the inescapable door of death.

As I had mentioned before, the mission Kaori's team was sent to was a trap. All the spirits concentrated themselves there because an institution was a perfect place to possess hundreds of people.

Then again, they could have chosen any regular institution. Why choose that one specifically?

I'm guessing that it can be answered by Haru because he seemed to had had a grip on the situation.

The spirits were there for a feed on human feelings but there appeared a feast of human power on their own. And so, they broke into countless numbers of themselves and attacked their preys.

I hadn't gotten any reports in the mission of theirs from that day.

I made a decision, "𝘐 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘢𝘭π˜₯ 𝘡𝘒𝘭𝘬 𝘸π˜ͺ𝘡𝘩 𝘏𝘒𝘳𝘢."

I thought that Haru and I were the only ones visiting Kaori regularly and awaiting her eager return. But I was proven wrong.

Aside from the two of us, the members of her team visited her often. Among them, Xeno and Yamaken came daily.

"It's okay for Xeno to come every day because it's expected from him. But Yamaken's visits are rather questionable," Maki said one day, "Why do you do that?"

Yamaken replied very short and simply, "I'm grateful that she saved us all from that giant spirit and the rest."

However, to the others, it didn't seem like it was so simple.

**********************************************

On the first day after two weeks.

Regaining her consciousness, Kaori's eyes fluttered open, adjusting her sight to the sudden bright light around her.

The first thing she felt was a heavy weight in top of her right hand. She raised her head an inch to see messy locks of jet black hair.

"𝘞𝘩𝘰'𝘴 𝘩𝘦?" Kaori thought as she realized the weight on her hand to be his hand's - he had fallen asleep with his head on the side of the bed while holding her hand.

The moment Kaori flinched was when a gentle voice spoke up on her other side, "He's Yamaken. Looks like he has been waiting for you to wake up as usual. But unfortunately, he fell asleep on the wrong day."

Kaori turned around at her left to see the familiar smile and the familiar figure, "Xeno!"

"It's good to see you healthy and hearty, young miss," he nodded at her courteously, smiling playfully.

Kaori retorted, "Weren't you supposed to call me by my name?"

"Oops, my bad. Kaori," He grinned.

Kaori didn't feel like she had been unconscious for so long. She didn't even feel anything different. It was as any of those days, waking up in the morning to be greeted by your family.

Kaori suddenly remembered and started questioning, "How many day has it been since I was unconscious? Where are the others? Are they all right?"

Xeno looked at the wall-clock. It was 3:21pm. Then he calculated something before saying, "Wait for twenty more minutes. You'll have tons of visitors swarming in soon."

The news of Kaori's waking up somehow spreaded like wildfire. The people who were worried for her came rushing through the doors.

Saki ran to hug Kaori as soon as she entered the room. Everyone made joyous sound, seeing Kaori finally sitting up on the bed.

Kaori was satisfied to get all the praises from everyone regarding the mission after going through everything.

She learned about the mission originally being a trap set by the higher rank corrupted spirits - the giant ones which usually thrive for power. She wasn't much surprised to hear the news because she had thought of it to be the same.

Noise of voices filled the infirmary after a long time. Everyone was talking delightfully with each other, including Kaori.

Heart filled by the warmth of the people she loved, Kaori's eyes teared up in happiness.

**********************************************

Three days later.

Inside the headmaster's room.

"It's good that Kaori's back in her old form," I said, turning around to face Haru who was standing across my desk, "The vacation is also coming to an end."

I stopped for a moment before saying, "Oh right. From now on, lessen the amount of Kaori's trainings in her schedule, please."

Haru did not look so concerned about what I was saying.

He asked me rather straightforwardly, "Sensei, you are hiding something about Kaori from me, aren't you?"

I was taken aback by his sudden question and he took this chance to ambush me with another question that left me silent.

"There's something that I don't know, isn't there?" He asked.

I made eye contact with him before complaining quietly, "I don't know a lot, too, Haru. It's about everything that happened that day on the mission."

I had persuaded him about this matter thousands of times ever since that day but he kept refusing to talk without Kaori's consent.

As I saw Haru lower his head again, I suddenly came up with an idea, "If I tell you about Kaori, will you tell me about that day?"

**********************************************

When I told Haru everything about my disciple, her true identity and the conversation between me and Ooga, he looked quite awestruck.

"So the prophecy was true," was all he muttered before starting his own side of story.

After hearing everything from him, I was sure to look like I had aged ten more years out of fear and worry.

But Haru's disclaimer made me come back to reality.

"I don't know much about her two new shinki," He said, "So I can't really tell you anything regarding them."

"It's okay," I said thoughtfully.

I looked up at him and asked, "Did you meet any of them afterwards?"

Haru replied promptly, "I didn't meet them yet. But I heard Kaori is very fond of them and they are attending the school together with her. But maybe, they aren't in the same year as us."

"I didn't expect that to be either," I smiled, "All of you now became senior students after all."

I put my hand on my chin, " Hmm."

"Is something the matter?" Haru asked in confusion, "You seem too absorbed in thoughts."

I frowned, "It's because I am. I have to meet them and find out if they are worthy of Kaori."

**********************************************

After being discharged by the doctor of the clan, Ooga, Kaori started joining in the classes from the next day.

But in this meantime, rumours had broken out in the headquarters.

Everyone came to know about the mission Kaori's team was sent to. Another team's mission was in that area and they seemed to have had seen everything that happened. That team's members had been telling around the story of that day.

So the news of Kaori's awakening was also all over the place as well as every single details that had happened, broke out.

Again, another rollercoaster in Kaori's life welcomed her on her first day back to school.

**********************************************

On the training class that day, the appointed trainer was Nakagama-sensei.

This man always gave Kaori a bad feeling - as if something bad was going to happen any time soon. And it did, when the class started.

"Today," Nakagama instructed the class loudly, "We'll see every one of your abilities, the powers you are capable of. I won't be training you anything today."

Kaori rolled her eyes.

"𝘞𝘩𝘒𝘡 𝘡𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘭? 𝘞𝘩𝘺 π˜ͺ𝘴 𝘡𝘩π˜ͺ𝘴 𝘒 𝘀𝘭𝘒𝘴𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘡𝘳𝘒π˜ͺ𝘯π˜ͺ𝘯𝘨 𝘡𝘩𝘦𝘯?" She thought.

Nakagama-sensei is one of those teachers who slacks off in the classes, who tries to run away from duties by doing some trivial things for show. This is why Kaori doesn't like attending his training classes.

However, she can't really ditch the class as she had Kazuma breathing right behind her neck.

"Sensei!" A haughty boy said from the back, "You should call the headmaster's disciple first! We heard that she finally awakened."

Some of his friends snickered at his last comment.

Kaori was always looked down on and her classmates always mocked her because she was chosen as the headmaster's disciple but she hadn't awoken her abilities yet. Altough, everyone in her class had done it way earlier than her.

Some students from the first rows of the lines looked over at Kaori who kept her eyes straight ahead, undisturbed by the irritating statements and the whispers that followed it.

However, the boy's suggestion seemed to rise interest in Nakagama.

He called Kaori out, "Is that so? Where is miss Kaori?"

Kaori didn't move from her position, silent annoyance starting to build up in her mind.

Xeno was standing behind her and he gave a gentle push from the back as he whispered into her ear, "If you don't, he might give you detention. Go."

Kaori bitterly walked up to the front and met Nakagama's droopy eyes without the slightest interest.

Nakagama was a resident of the earth section. He looked at the wide lands afar, where there was no one, and raised his hands in the air, making the soil rise and create a maze of earth.

He turned to look at Kaori who had an unbothered expression for his actions.

He pointed at the maze at far, "Destroy that maze by using your power at full strength."

Kaori glanced at the enormous maze that lied ahead and then back at Nakagama, "You really want me to use my full strength?"

He nodded in reply.

As Kaori stood in her position, eyes ahead at the maze; all the students - including Xeno, Yamaken, Haru, Zenna, Saki, Gin, Aoi, Maki - along with the teacher, had their eyes fixed on her and her alone.

She closed her eyes as if she was getting ready to cast her spell.

When her eyes jerked open, she swiped the air forcefully with her hands. As if grabbing the air and pulling it like a string, she moved her fist up in the air.

At this, the maze on the other side had collapsed to solid soil and nothing else.

Xeno muttered in awe, "She used the force of the wind only."

When she looked at Nakagama, still expressionless, he looked back at her with narrow eyes.

"That was smart of you but are you a resident of the wind?" He asked doubtfully, "I heard you were from the water section, though."

This was the disadvantage of paying heeds to rumours. Nobody had seen Kaori to use all of her powers altogether. Though some did, they thought of it be their mistake and told around that Kaori was a resident of a specific section, which she wasn't. Like this, different people knew about a different speciality of her and thus nobody's statement matched.

In reply of Nakagama's question, Kaori aimed her hand at one of the students who was drinking water from his bottle. The pressure of the water molecules that had been increased by Kaori, made it burst loudly, spilling water everywhere. Everyone flinched by the sudden sound.

"Happy?" She asked, raising her eyebrow.

Nakagama was stunned, "You used the power of wind at first. But just now, did you use the power of water?"

"Did it look like something else to you?" Kaori asked bitterly, "Should I show you something else then?"

She had raised her hand as she questioned and a flame ignited on her palm, leaving gasps come out of all the people who were present.

"Multiple powers?" Nakagama whispered in disbelief.

Kaori rolled her eyes for the second time of the day, "If you still have doubts even after seeing it with your own eyes then you can just go and peel your eyes out for all I care. Leave me alone."

She was about to walk away but Nakagama grabbed her wrist.

The students frowned at the sudden change of the atmosphere.

Kaori tried to pull her hand away, "Heyー"

"Your powers," Nakagama said, "They're magnificent!"

Kaori shuddered when she saw the hunger in his eyes.

π˜•π˜° 𝘸𝘒𝘺...

"Let me go!" As Kaori pulled harder this time, the grip on her wrist loosened and she lost her balance, falling on the ground.

A mass of murmur began among the students - they had started judging the situation and where everything was heading to.

Nakagama made a weird facial expression, "Why, miss Kaori? Do you not like to show off these powers? I want to see. I want to see everything that you are capable of."

Kaori started to back away from him, "Iー"

"Won't you show me, Kaori?" He asked, taking steps forward as she moved backwards, "You will show me, right, Kaori?" He said with imaginary drool and stuttered out of excitement, "Your pow-ers,"

Kaori turned pale as soon as she heard his last words. Her eyes widened in horror.

The students caught the situation and started to protest against his behaviour towards Kaori.

"Nakagama-sensei! What are you doing?" The female class president yelled.

Some students agreed with loud voices, "Don't force her, sensei!"

"Shut up! All of you shut up!" Nakagama roared.

The class silenced.

"Don't interrupt our conversation!" Nakagama said with greedy eyes, "Kaori is about to say she will show us all her powers one by one. So we have to be attentive. Right, Kaori?" He loomed on the helpless looking girl.

All the students gulped, seeing their teacher's state. Some students at the back started to sneak their way out of the class - they didn't want to get in any trouble.

Everyone in Kaori's team frowned at his behaviour except Zenna, Haru and Xeno. With their jaw clenched tightly, they were watching everything silently.

"Why aren't you replying to me, Kaori?" As Nakagama reached out for the scared girl, a hand stopped it on the midway.

Kaori had his eyes shut close while Yamaken had his arm around her, Xeno was the one who stopped Nakagama from touching Kaori.

"Don't touch her," He warned, "If you don't want your life to end here."

Nakagama looked at him in surprise, "Why are you stopping me? Don't you see I'm talking to my student?!"

"I wouldn't call that talking," Haru forwarded, "Touching a student physically without any meaningful reason is prohibited inside the headquarters' ground. Furthermore, you don't seem normal, sensei. Are you sure you aren't ill?"

"What are you talking about, you disrespectful brat!" He snapped, "I'll fail all of you in your yearly exams based on the training classes!"

"You aren't in charge of our grades," Maki smiled sideways, "If we're good enough, we'll get way better than the pass marks."

Kaori was surprised by her teammates who were supporting her in this situation.

Yamaken handed her over to Zenna and Saki as he joined the other boys, "If you try anything like this again, we'll personally report you to the headmaster."

Nakagama laughed heartily, "Who do you stupid kids think you are, huh? He won't give you a care in the world if his disciple doesn't speak up. And I'm pretty sure that she won't," A creepy grin appeared on his lips as he eyed her.

Zenna hid Kaori behind her back and shot a glare at him.

Haru scoffed, pushing his fringes back as he ran his fingers through his hair, "You should rethink about that. We're actually in charge of her safety, personally speaking. She's our headmaster's disciple after all."

When Nakagama met the hypnotizing blue eyes, he had this strange feeling of fear rising in him. He looked baffled as he saw the team wrapping their protection around the girl with unusual power.

*Ding! Dong! Dong! Dong!*

The bell rang, making all the students sigh in relief.

Nakagama shot a glare at Kaori's acquaintances before storming out of the place, not announcing the class to be dismissed.

The considerate students came over to check on Kaori, who still looked like she was in a daze.

Haru hugged her, "It's okay, don't be scared."

Kaori argued, "I wasn't scared. I just..."

Haru pulled her away, "What?"

Everyone's attention landed on Kaori as she looked like she wanted to say something.

"Haru, I think," She said hesitantly, "I think Nakagama-sensei is possessed."

**********************************************

Two months later.

A lot had happened within this time.

It turned out that Kaori was right about Nakagama being possessed.

When this news had spreaded among the clan residents, the students were in horror, saying that the headquarters' protection barrier had collapsed for the residents to become possessed by spirits.

According to the report Kaori filed to me, Nakagama had tried numerous ways to attack her or possess her but as she didn't have any solid proof, I couldn't do anything against him.

One day when I had decided to disclose Kaori's true powers to the clan, Nakagama had lost his patience.

At the time of our departure after the meeting with the clan resident, he had attacked us.

As it was a planned move from us to set a trap for him, we caught him easily.

After we performed exorcism on him, Nakagama finally regained his normal personality.

He then kneeled down and apologized to Kaori countless of times and the girl kindly forgave him, not blaming him for the things he had done before.

Nakagama resigned from his job and left the headquarters later, still blaming himself for such embarrassing actions though he was being controlled by a spirit.

Kaori then felt guilty that she always thought of him so lowly and that she got irritated whenever she had his class.

After that incident, Kaori started going to regular missions and became the consternation of the spiritual world.

Even the residents of the clan started to fear her.

Haru in the meantime, became her guide - the shinki that guided her through her missions and not be her weapon. While her two new shinki(s) were the ones who accompanied her in the missions as her weapons.

Kaori was still in the same team and as usual, they were assigned to the missions altogether - aside form Haru, who stayed in the headquarters and guided Kaori through the fields.

When I heard from Haru that Kaori was doing really good job with her new shinki(s), I realized all of a sudden that I was yet to meet them.

One day, I called her in.

That day was the day when everything started to go downfall.

**********************************************

In the headmaster's office room.

At the time Kaori entered the room, I was trying to solve a rubix cube.

Kaori smiled at me and plopped down on the sofa at the opposite.

I looked up at her, "Oh, hey. I'm trying to solve this thing but I feel like it keeps getting more and more confusing."

She quietly stretched out her hand towards me, indicating me to hand it over to her.

Doing so, I felt as if she keeps growing day by day. It was like yesterday when I saw her this small.

Within three minutes, Kaori handed me the fully solved rubix cube, leaving me stunned.

"How did youー?"

The right side of her lip went up to a smile. "It's easy," She claimed softly.

I was taken aback by her voice, too. It sounded different than usual.

π˜‹π˜ͺπ˜₯ 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘩π˜ͺ𝘡 𝘡𝘩𝘒𝘡 𝘒𝘨𝘦 𝘒𝘭𝘳𝘦𝘒π˜₯𝘺?

I slapped myself mentally for thinking weird stuff and cleared my throat, getting ready for what I wanted to talk to Kaori about.

"Kaori, you didn't tell me about your new friends," I spoke with a smile, "I wanted to get to know them better."

Kaori sprung up immediately with a bright smile, "Oh! I totally forgot! Forgive me, sensei."

"It's alright," I smiled, "I heard some things from Haru, though."

Kaori's smile vanished, "What did you hear?"

"Nothing much, actually," I said thoughtfully, "I think it'll be much interesting to hear from you."

She nodded enthusiastically and called her new shinki(s) in.

Two new figures appeared in the room out of thin air, just like the way shinki(s) normally would.

One looked young and small - a year younger than Kaori at most. He had yellow hair which immediately catches attention and orange olour eyes which looked decent and gradient. This boy gave me a positive vibe and I liked him just by seeing him.

"Sensei, this is," Kaori introduced me to the younger looking boy, "Yukine-kun. Yukine Yuuki."

"Oh!" I said understandingly, "You're that boy! I'm so glad you're alive, my son," I hugged him out of the blue.

I really was grateful.

Yukine also seemed to like me as he smiled happily and patted me gently on the back.

When I studied the other shinki, my face turned pale.

π˜žπ˜©γƒΌ 𝘸𝘩𝘒𝘡'𝘴 𝘡𝘩π˜ͺ𝘴?

The other one was tall, surely much elder. He was probably in his twenty-fifth year. He had long silver hair, tied into a low ponytail. His long fringes covered half of his face. He had gray eyes and he had a strong built.

But the thing that scared me wasn't his appearance, it was quite normal, rather handsomely. The thing that scared me was this feeling I got from him. It made me feel so scared that I wanted to run away.

"And this," Kaori introduced me to the elder guy, "Is Fujinuma Hiiro."

When I shook hands with him, we had made eye contact and it was something that I wished I never had done in my life.

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