"I'll help but hear me out first. I'll look with you once or twice, but I won't do more than that. The reason is that I don't really know her. Perhaps I was partially responsible for her going home alone but that's all. You can't expect me nor anyone else here to help you more than that. Will you accept that?"
"Yes. Then will you come with me now?"
"Sorry, I have an important meeting that I'm late to, but I will come see you as soon as that is over."
Chiho looked at the two students standing outside the meeting room. It was strange that there would be security guards to keep other students from eavesdropping.
'What the… is the secret surprise that big of a deal?' She puzzled over.
"Then I'll wait for you at the school entrance."
"Okay. See you soon." Hikaru said farewell and walked off, ending the ordeal. The crowd dispersed and everyone went home.
"Pft, you're lucky he's so nice" Fumiye said with contempt as she made her exit. Chiho had her hands clenched and stared at Hikaru's back as he disappeared into the meeting room.
***
The two students standing by the meeting room door looked over Hikaru, after looking at his eyes they paid no attention. Hikaru wondered if the two had scouting abilities that could tell if he was human or not. He did not know that the two had simply thought that his eyes held the same kind of "gaze" as them. They had no instructions to screen anyone but to simply guard the door. It was a simple deterrent as people who didn't have an "invitation" would most likely not enter. Such people wouldn't know that there was no invitation letter or anything of that sort.
Hikaru could hear talking on the other side of the door but it was muffled, and he couldn't make out anything. He twisted the doorknob and opened it; immediately his instincts told him that the other side was dangerous.
The meeting room was packed. On Hikaru's left are tables arranged in a U-shape pointing right. There were 5 students on each long table but only one seat at the base of the U. The principal sat there. The seat is reserved there for when the principle oversees the student council during important decisions regarding school activities and service projects. The principle mostly attends the planning phase of projects and decides whether to give the go ahead.
On his right is a long table facing the U that if connected to it would have made a rectangle. There were three students occupying it. In the center sat the president of the student council. Daichi Atsuo. Ironically enough, he was the only member of the student council present today. Currently there are 11 student council members including the big four, the vice president, secretary, enforcer and treasurer were all absent.
All eyes in the room pointed at Hikaru as if everyone were one living organism. Hikaru remained stoic but his body tensed.
"You're late." Daichi pointed out.
"Sorry, I was held up by a student who said her friend went missing."
"Chiho, wasn't it? Kazumi over there told us." Daichi said looking over to the right of the U table.
"Oi." Kazumi hollered with his hand. Hikaru recognised the red hair in the crowd earlier.
"You're having some lady trouble eh?" He chuckled.
"ah" Hikaru answered.
"So. Did you eat her? How she tastes?" Kazumi grinned.
"…"
Daichi assumed by the silence and asked, "did you get rid of the evidence properly?"
"Yea. There's not a trace of her left."
"May I ask your method?"
"… I absorbed the body and blood leftover"
"What?"
Everyone looked to Daichi who was visibly confused.
"You absorbed her?"
"Yes."
"How?"
"Through my skin."
…
'Is this not normal?' Hikaru thought. Seeing that the answer he provided was not adequate, he explained further.
"Anything touches my skin; it sinks into it."
"I see." Said Daichi, dissatisfaction plowed his brow.
Hikaru sensing a lull in the conversation, asked "is that an unusual ability to have?"
"Do you not remember yourself?" Daichi answered.
Hikaru didn't answer. He knew that he had no access to the memories of the parasite and if he told them, they might suspect something.
"Interesting."
Hikaru had planned to escape by jumping out the window in case they attacked him.
"Come, sit." Daichi pointed towards one of the two chairs empty at his table. Hikaru walked over to take a seat. As he got closer, he felt pressure pushing against his skin. It was like his cells wanted to jump ship.
With elbows on the table, Daichi had his two hands clasped together blocking view of his mouth while he thought.
After a moment, he moved from his hands and began to speak.
"Before we go through any other agendas today. I must explain everything I know of our orders. As you all know, I am the officer of this ward. To understand what officers are, I must explain our origins. You must be wondering why you lack memory of before you arrived on Earth. Although many of you guessed it, we're not from this planet. Where we come from is called Xen. A planet far from Earth. Maybe in the same universe. We're not necessarily of the same race either. However, we are all parasites. Please keep all of your questions to the end." Daichi said as he saw Kazumi lift his hand up. Kazumi dropped his hand, still smirking.
"Most of us parasites are from the same genus. We're parasitic worms that prey over stagnant water like swamps, lakes, lagoons or rivers but can attack on land if needed. We were captured by an advanced alien civilization. Some of you might remember bits of being contained and experimented. Some of us might even be clones of our originals. We were experimented for what I assume, reconnaissance work. I don't think it was hard increasing our combative skills. They even manipulated and combined genes from other organisms to enhance our abilities. The difficult part was programming us to follow complex instructions and obey orders. For the most part, you all are genetically programmed to carry out your missions, in the form of instincts. However, depending on individual factors and parasite-host bonding compatibility, the memories, abilities and directives might not carry over fully. Some of us already lack human intelligence…"
Hikaru then realised that some of the doe-eyed parasites in the room reminded him of Genkei who talked slow and behaved strangely.
"Therefore, if you don't remember much of your orders, it's unlikely you remember how to use your abilities. Although, there are a few exceptions. Some have more of those qualities over others. One might remember their directives well but lack ability. However, this is rare."
"For those of you who lack the instinctual feelings of the mission. You can live your own life."
The room dropped a few degrees colder in the silence.