The same day in the afternoon.
As planned, the team met up at the entrance gate of the headquarters. When Kaori arrived at the meeting place with her friends, she found out that her old friends had already been standing there.
"Hey, guys!" She waved at them happily.
"You are late," Yamaken scoffed.
But Saki disagreed instantly. Taking Kaori's side, she stated, "They're not really late, we came too early."
Xeno was looking at the unknown faces who were with Kaori. He smiled gently and tried to greet them.
"Hi, are you new here?" He asked them casually, "Freshmen? I haven't seen you guys around before."
Kaori smiled at him, "Xeno, they came here with me."
Xeno looked at Kaori in confusion, "Came here with you? What do you mean? Where did you come from again?"
And Kaori finally thought that it was time to introduce her new friends officially to her two old friends who had returned after 11 years and has no clue of what had happened throughout the past years.
"Meet my friends from America," She said brightly indicating the friends who were awkwardly standing beside her.
"America?" Both Xeno and Zenna caught the word sharply, "What's that supposed to mean?" They demanded.
Kaori calmly explained everything in short, "After graduating as Kazuma-sensei's disciple, I left Power Clan and went abroad. America is the country I stay in now and I attend an usual high school there. They are," She pointed at Wood, Willia and the others, "My closest friends in school. After numerous events and stuffs, I had to expose my true identity to them – well, they had caught on that something wasn't right anyways. And here we are!"
She quickly added before anyone could speak, "But I didn't bring them here intentionally. Things happened and the result ended up being like this. Since Kazuma-sensei had no objection, I thought that it was okay for them to be here for some time."
Zenna couldn't help whining, "We did miss out a lot after all."
Kaori smiled helplessly before starting to introduce her friends one by one, "This is Wood," She pointed at the named boy. "This is Robin," She pointed the brown haired one. "Then Melissa, Dylanthy, Tom and Willia," She named the last four one by one, pinting them out at the same time.
Xeno nodded approvingly while Zenna beamed.
Kaori smiled at her friends before gesturing at Xeno and Zenna, "You know them already," She laughed, "I told you details about them last night."
Xeno reacted, "Really? Then why didn't you mention them to us even a single time?"
Zenna strongly agreed with him, "Yeah! Why didn't you?"
Xeno began to frown because he was expecting more agreements. He glanced at the other friends – Gin, Saki, Aoi, Yamaken and Maki.
"Why aren't you guys saying anything?" He demanded strongly.
Yamaken laughed, "Well, I'm part of them—"
"What?" Zenna and Xeno said in unison, "You left the headquarters, too?"
Saki nodded, "Yamaken and Kaori both live in America now. They also go to the same school and they are all friends," She gestured the new group along with Kaori and Yamaken.
As both of the two – Zenna and Xeno – glared back at Kaori, she started to laugh nervously, "I guess I didn't tell you about them because I wanted to give you all a surprise? But I didn't even have enough time to tell you everything that happened over here so don't blame me for that. 11 years is too long!"
A huge discussion followed her answer wrapped in confusion. Laughter and yells back and forth filled the ears. To Kaori, it felt like finally, the headquarters was lively again.
************************************************
After waiting at the station for a while, they took the bus to go to the town at noon.
The bus was packed today because it was the weekend. However, when they saw some empty seats at the back, everyone hurried towards the end.
Kaori took a seat beside a window and Saki slipped in beside her. When Kaori looked at her, the other grinned cheerfully that she ended up smiling.
When they all took seats, the bus started for its destination. The inside of the bus became lively again when the people sitting at the back started to gossip among themselves again.
While Kaori silently watched the streets they passed by fast, Saki layed back on her seat, letting herself find comfort.
Something came to the short haired one's mind that she suddenly stated a question.
"How is Mabuchi doing?"
Saki's attention was caught by the enquiry. Sitting back in normal position, she replied, "I don't know. I didn't visit him. Why do you ask?"
"Why didn't you visit?" Kaori asked back.
Saki started to hesitate and fiddle with her fingers.
Kaori sighed, "Saki, no matter what he did or what has happened, you still hold the name he gave you. Go visit him sometime, okay?"
Saki nodded obediently.
Kaori nodded back and looked outside the window again.
************************************************
Reaching the busy town, they got down from the bus on their stop. The bustling street and the sunny day made the travellers pace up their movements.
Maki spoke, squinting hard to see everyone in the sunny daylight, "Let's have lunch somewhere first! Then we can look around!" He said loudly so that everyone could hear despite all the noises.
Since it was the weekend, people living outside the town also came to visit just like the group itself. Hence, it had gotten more crowdy than usual.
The group entered a restaurant near the busy street. The tables were full, so they were about to walk out but Yamaken pulled Saki and Wood's arms from both their sides.
"Look," He indicated at a group getting up as they had finished eating. Yamaken patted their arms softly before gesturing them to follow him.
Saki pulled half of the group while Wood pulled the rest of the half back in to the restaurant with them.
Yamaken walked over to the counter and talked to a waiter there. Then he came back and told his friends to take the empty table while another waiter came and cleaned everything away, leaving things as good as new.
After a hearty meal, the group came out of the restaurant and decided to wander around and have fun for the rest of the day.
Kaiori laughed proudly and boasted, "Do not worry about money and enjoy to all your heart! I'll spoil you guys today!"
Yamaken raised an eyebrow, "Where'd you get all the money to spend?"
"I said it's not a big deal," Kaori snapped lightly, "It's all on me today."
"Are you that rich?" Gin asked bluntly.
"Well," Kaori mumbled, "It's not really my money."
Everyone asked at the same time, "Then who...?"
"It's actually Kazuma-sensei who's spending for us today," Kaori sighed, "I wanted to keep it a secret, but there you go."
"Good that you told us," Xeno said truthfully, "It wouldn't be nice if you kept it a secret."
And the others agreed with him.
Tom asked quietly, "But he's not here with us... If we get short on money, what happens then?"
Kaori smirked. As she moved her hand in a specific way, a small card came out of her sleeves to her palm. She took it up using two of her fingers and held her nose high in self-pride. "He gave me his credit card," She winked.
"You 𝘢𝘳𝘦 his disciple, huh," Yamaken mumbled.
On the other hand, Maki muttered, "Kaori, get your act together, you're freaking me out."
She laughed loudly, "Okay, guys, let's go!"
************************************************
They went to the amusement park first. The water park had caught the attention of the maximum so they entered it head-on. But people who didn't want to get wet, avoided it and those people were Wood and Maki. There were special games that could be played in the water park and they had great time playing all those short games while Maki and Wood had fun time watching their friends and laughing.
After coming out of the water park, they walked back to the main park. Most of them wanted to get on the rides there. As nobody could pick a single ride, they agreed to the decision to ride them all. Soon, they divided themselves into small groups and got on the Rollercoaster, Bumping cars, Ferris wheel, Priate ship, Flume ride, Carousel, Skycoaster and entered the haunted house one by one. It was already late at noon by then, so a break time was up.
The team ran over to a snack bar in hurry. Xeno got an ice-cream and looked around for a seat. He spotted Yamaken eating a parfait all alone on a laid out bench. Xeno watched him for a moment before confirming to walk towards him.
"Hey," Xeno said as he sat down beside Yamaken.
Yamaken just nodded and took a big bite out of his parfait.
Xeno licked his ice-cream, "Is everything okay with you?"
Yamaken stopped eating and looked sideways, "Why?"
Xeno shrugged, "You seem a little off, that's all."
Since Yamaken didn't say anything and stayed motionless, Xeno kept on feeding himself on the ice-cream.
"Xeno," Yamaken called after a long moment of silence, "Should I tell you something?"
Xeno stopped after hearing this, too, however, he shrugged again the next second, "If you think you want to then I'm all ears. But if you aren't fully okay with it, then don't."
After another long moment of silence on Yamaken's part, he muttered, "I think I'm really catching feelings for her."
Xeno's tongue stopped licking on the midway, "What?"
Yamaken looked fully at Xeno this time, "Apparently, I fell for Kaori. I actually like her."
Xeno's eyes widened in surprise. He sat immobilized for a moment.
"You can't believe it, too, can you?" Yamaken chuckled, "I think I'm crazy, too."
"Yamaken," Xeno called dryly, "What makes you think that? What makes you think that you like her?"
Yamaken ran his fingers through his hair, "You know, you should actually be asking what doesn't make me think that I like her. Because it's been so obvious recently that whenever I think about it, I'm embarrassed of my stupidity."
Xeno gulped, "Yamaken, you know the rules. This is—"
"I know," Yamaken sighed, "That's why I'm scolding myself. Why did I loose my grip on me like this? I feel so helpless."
"Yamaken..."
"You know, I had joked about this before to my friends," Yamaken laughed nervously, "I was being half serious, saying that I had feelings for her but I wasn't really sure...."
He suddenly smiled sadly, "Do you know something? The reason I came back after staying traceless for years?"
"For Kaori?" Xeno guessed.
"Yeah," Yamaken laughed lightly, "The day she had asked me to stay with her in the headquarters is still visible to me as if it was yesterday. The day after Haru died.."
Xeno remained silent to let Yamaken talk.
"I wanted to stay," Yamaken said quietly, "I wanted so badly to. Maybe I would have if she had asked me a little more softly, a little more genuinely. When she stated her wish like that made her sound so ruthless. And I was fed up that she had treated everyone like that, I wanted her to feel the same.. Being left out all alone, I wanted her to feel that... Overall, it all went downhill – my mind."
Xeno let out a short sigh, "I guess her actions towards everyone before Haru's death made her pay a great deal afterwards."
Yamaken tilted his head down.
"It's okay," Xeno put a comforting hand on Yamaken's back, "You have already corrected everything you had done wrong, right? So it's all over now. Kaori looks happy to me now, and so are everyone else including you. Am I right about that?"
Yamaken smiled shyly and nodded.
Xeno chuckled, "Then that's it. Don't put a leash on yourself just being based on the past, okay? And about the current situation... I'll suggest that you think a little more before deciding on your answer. Who knows, it mightn't be what you think it is."
Yamaken nodded obediently yet again.
************************************************
Later on the day, the friends went to skating and shopping. They bought stuff to wear and stuff to eat – whatever they felt like buying.
They visited a circus camp, too – where they got to do a whole lot more fun stuffs to do. They watched the circus games. Kaori signed up for a shooting challenge there and won the first prize – a combo box of raw beef – which she handed gladly over to Dylanthy because her showcase of interest in the prize made Kaori play the game.
Aoi and Saki laughed with Tom and Melissa at this point joking that people would normally see handsome boys playing games to win prizes which they give as gifts to the beautiful girls, whereas, it happens the other way to Kaori – she's the one winning prizes for her friends.
Kaori just shrugged the jokes off and went over to another stall.
After the circus, they visited the zoo. It was a total chaos in there as Kaori, the eternal animal lover, became the source of allurement for all the zoo animals. She tamed all the mammals and birds as she passed by the cages of theirs. Even the fierce tigers and lions bowed their head to her while she patted them on the head. The dolphins had been continuously jumping out of the water when the group went over to their tanks.
After having visited every animals in the zoo, they entered the underground tunnel to visit the tanks of the sharks, and when they did, the whole world seemed to have had turned blue.
Kaori had touched the thick glass to feel the cold body of the gigantic tank filled with water and countless adult and baby sharks swiming among. A sudden scream made everyone notice that when Kaori had touched the glass with her hand and lowered her head alongside, a creature as big as a mountain had appeared inside through the mists of the underground water. It had touched the glass on the other side with its head, which basically meant that Kaori had her hand on the shark's head right now.
Kaori had looked up upon hearing the yell to see the scene. A gentle smile grew on her lips. "Hey there," She said in a soft tone.
When Wood captured the magnificent moment in the camera, the shark seemed to lower its head to Kaori before turning around and swimming away.
They finally left the place in awe and came out to the outer world once again.
"Let's go to a gaming arcade now," Tom proposed, "It'll be loads of fun!"
The others didn't show any objection so it was decided. Maki suggested that after playing in the arcade, they should grab something to eat and return for the day since it was getting late.
The afternoon had already rolled in. The day seemed to have flown by to the group.
Entering the arcade in downtown, they realized something. An arcade was something that the new generation was fond of much.
'But oh, well, whatever. It was gaming time now' – was what went over to all of their heads.
Challenges were starting to be thrown out randomly on any games. Shooting basketball, bowling pins, racing games, dancing to a song to score, table soccer, table tennis, archery, shooting, computer games, claw machine games, dart, karaoke, photo booth– what wasn't there? Every games and things you could ever ask for! And thus, the kids lost themselves in the gaming arcade.
************************************************
"Whew!" Saki fanned herself with her hands, walking out of the arcade, "That was wild!"
Kaori checked her wristwatch, "We lost the track of time. It's already evening."
"Let's go eat something on our way," Maki urged.
Zenna giggled, "Aren't you really conscious of eating? You never loose the track of meals and snacks. Though it's not like you eat a lot, either."
"Don't pick on the healthy guy, Zenna," Saki sang to which Zenna snickered.
"I want coffee," Tom muttered. "Oh by the way, Zenna, I love to eat," He grinned at the girl.
Zenna laughed, "I can tell, you have good taste buds. I knew it when you were ordering for lunch."
Tom got shy at this but Willia joined the laughter, "Yeah, you're right about that one!"
The air became much lighter after this. Truth to be told, at first it felt like the two groups couldn't become one for some reason but now it looked like the members of one huge group of friends were out to have the tour of their life.
They went to a cafe nearby to have some drinks and snacks for the evening.
Yamaken sat down on Kaori's left while she pulled Saki to take a seat to her right. He became a little disappointed that she didn't notice him and he decided to slip away to another seat. All this happened with a pair of stunning blue eyes watching them.
As soon as Yamaken stood up to go make the orders, Xeno followed him along.
Kaori raised her eyebrow at this, "I thought they didn't get along well?" She looked at her friends.
Most of them shrugged but Maki smiled, "Maybe they reconciled or something. Who cares, it's good to see them not fighting over something silly once in a while."
"You're right about that, though," Kaori laughed. She then started gossiping with the girls surrounding her.
On other side, Xeno pinched Yamaken, "Are you okay?"
"Why do you keep asking me that?"
"I saw it all," Xeno blurted.
Yamaken rolled his eyes, "Well done."
"I'm serious, dude!" Xeno got impatient, "Seeing all your reactions, I can't help but think that you did fall for her."
"I already know that," Yamaken sighed.
"What are you going to do now then?" Xeno said worriedly.
Suddenly, Yamaken stopped in his footsteps, "Xeno?"
"Yeah?"
"Why in the world are you helping me out?" Yamaken demanded straightforwardly.
"What?" Xeno asked back, dumbfounded.
"Aren't you worried in the least bit? I fell for Kaori," Yamaken stated bluntly.
"I know," Xeno said back, "You don't need to say it so directly like that. It'd be better for you to keep it quiet."
"No!" Yamaken suddenly pulled Xeno away to a corner to talk properly, "falling for Kaori means that I've become your rival. Why are you helping your rival?"
"Okay, first off," Xeno replied calmly, "Rival? I don't consider you as one," He said strongly, "Second, why wouldn't I help a friend knowing that he's in a tough spot? This is not something to take lightly as. Besides. I'm not doing much help anyways. And third, even if we both like Kaori and were to consider each other rivals, you wouldn't be able to do much harm to me since you are caught up in that so called tough spot whereas I'm completely free."
Yamaken let out a calm sigh, "You don't know how much I want you as my punching bag right at this moment—"
Xeno cut in honestly, "I think I'd like to skip out on that one."
************************************************
Power Clan headquarters.
A portal opened on the grounds and sixteen friends walked out of it.
After having another round of conversation on how the day had gone by and how much they had enjoyed follow, they had the final dismissal of their meeting for the day.
Kaori informed her friends that she needed to report back to Kazuma so that he wouldn't worry about them any longer. So she bid goodbye and left first – everyone had told her to thank Kazuma-sensei for everything he has done for today on their behalf and she smiled, saying that she would.
The others left for their seperate ways one by one as well. In the end, Yamaken was the one to lead the new friends back to the dormitory flat of the Mixed Blood section. They walked while gossiping, so it didn't feel like much long of a walk.
The next day morning would be the day they will be leaving for America. It was a good thing to have had such a tour with all of your friends all together before leaving. Who knows when you'd get another chance like this one?
************************************************
The next day in the morning.
Kaori's sensei and all of her friends were waiting for her and her other friends to come out.
The expected figures finally walked out of the dormitory to be greeted by the ones who were waiting for them.
Robin laughed, patting the back of Gin, "It feels like we're some kind of celebrities, waiting to be received with grandeur."
"Where's Kaori?" Xeno asked.
Robin nodded at another direction and here stood the black short haired girl. She had wrapped herself warm because it had started to feel cold at that time.
She approached the group and asked, looking here to there as if searching for something, "Where's Touma?"
Kazuma replied, "He's not in the headquarters. He went home for some days."
"Ah," Kaori said, "I wanted to check up on him.. Anyways," She shrugged.
The time to seperate had arrived. All of them hugged each other and some even sniffled.
"When are you coming back again, Kaori?" Zenna asked sadly.
Kaori smiled, "Don't worry, I might have to come back soon."
"Yukine-kun," She looked at the yellow haired boy, "Remember to take care of Haruhi."
Yukine smiled, "Always."
She hugged everyone again, including her teacher one last time before smiling brightly and nodding at them, "See you guys later!"
Wood spoke up, "Thank you for letting us stay here and thank you all for everything."
Melissa added, "Yeah, we enjoyed a lot! It was so much fun to be with you all."
Aoi, Saki and Zenna waved at them, "Let's meet again, guys! We'll miss you!"
Another round of hugging followed this statement.
And then finally, Kaori turned around and spreaded her hand to thin air, "𝙋𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙖𝙡, 𝙩𝙤 𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙨𝙚𝙨 𝙞𝙣 𝘼𝙢𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙖."
A purplish black colour portal emerged.
The eight friends took one last glance over their shoulders before entering the door back to America.
⭐❤❤⭐🌟❤🌟⭐❤❤⭐🌟❤🌟⭐❤❤⭐