The wind was beginning to pick up the pace. Dark clouds were looming over the rooftop as if it was about to explode into something more than a drizzle. It was not surprising since it's a normal occurrence during the summer. However, Chizuru and Seijurou thought that they should've chosen a different spot for lunch as the first droplets of water began to rain on them.
"Should we transfer to another place?..", asked Chizuru as it started to seriously drizzle.
But Seijurou did not respond. It was as if he was in a different dimension. He had been quiet and out of focus since the beginning of the day. Even as he did his work for the Underforge in the second day of the preliminaries, it seemed like he was only able to do mediocre work. That led to him being recommended by the senior alchemists to take the rest of the day off.
Seijurou just took another bite from his lunch with a blank expression as if he was not bothered getting drenched by the rain. However, Chizuru did not worry at all since she could recall that this happens to him every once in a while.
But it was raining, and Chizuru could not let her best friend catch cold. "Oi, Baka-jurou! Time to move!"
Without a moment's hesitation, Chizuru grabbed Seijurou's bento and dragged him towards the shade. For some reason, these kinds of gestures towards him was so deeply ingrained within her. She thought it was probably because they were friends for as long as they could remember, as she recalled her fear of his mother whenever she took him home dirty or hurt.
"Oh, no! Seijurou, what happened to your knee?..", Masako lamented as she saw a knee scrape on her crying four year old son. Then, she shifted her attention towards a scared looking little girl, who brought his son home. "How did he fall, Chi-chan? Was it bad?"
A teary eyed Chizuru was about to burst into sobbing as well. "I'm sorry Masako-ba-chan.. I.. I wasn't looking.."
However, before Chizuru could even complete the sentence, Masako hugged them both with a kiss each on their heads. "It's alright, Chi-chan, Seijurou. I'm glad you're both fine."
There truly was some sort of fear when dealing with such a powerful swordfighter like her aunt Masako, but that was not it, according to Chizuru. At such a young age, she understood how it was to be afraid of worrying the parents of her closest friend. And it was most especially that they were such kindhearted people.
"She didn't come to school today..", there was a certain ache in Chizuru's gut as Seijurou spoke these words, which also brought her back to the present.
The timing was perfect. As soon as they hid under a certain shade in the roof deck grounds, the drizzle turned into a shower. They both proceeded to eat their lunches as the steam rose from the ground drenching them with sweat this time.
"She'd be better in the healing ward..", worried for both Satsuki and Seijurou, Chizuru tried to jest to lighten things up. She giggled a little. "You know, she'll instantly run in the middle of that rainstorm rather than being drenched in sweat here."
"Which will make her catch a cold and whine about it later on..", Seijurou continued Chizuru's sentence, which caused them to chuckle a bit. But he immediately reverted back to his sad state. "I was there when it happened."
Chizuru sighed. "It's not your fault, Sejurou."
"If only I was stronger, she would've been fine."
Thinking that it was not the case since she saw the whole match, Chizuru argued to make her friend feel assured. "She barely lost any HP, Seijurou. And that's all thanks to you."
But the sound of falling rain only silenced them both, as they wrapped up their lunches. There was nothing left to be said to comfort Seijurou. The pain in Chizuru's heart only kept growing as she stared at her inconsolable friend.
Although she still quite never understood why she was feeling that way, Chizuru assumed that she was agonizing about the thing Seijurou was feeling. So, she had one more idea.
"Why don't we visit Satsu-chan later?..", asked Chizuru with all smiles.
Seijurou's eyes widened. "Is that appropriate? What if they don't allow visitors? What if Jax is there?"
Expecting that Seijurou would have been ecstatic about it, he instead sounded like he was complaining, which irked Chizuru a little. "Of course, it's fine. We're her friends, and that would make her happy."
A deep breath, followed by a long sigh came out of Seijurou. However, it seemed that the expression in his face improved by tenfold. "Alright, let's do that. But first, let's figure out how to get through this rain."
An endearingly sweet smile formed on Chizuru's face as Seijurou used his blazer to cover them both from the rain to go to the staircase. There was some relief that she felt as she finally got to lift his spirits up even just by a little.
"Looks like this afternoon's battles are going to be really wet..", Seijurou remarked as they splashed through the puddles on the deck of the topmost floor. "Good thing our preliminaries were yesterday, otherwise my fire spells would be deemed almost useless."
"With that kind of blaze? I don't think so..", Chizuru rebutted while she opened the door of the stairway to finally be safe from the rain. "You nearly burned the stands, Baka-jurou!"
"Really? Sorry..", Seijurou laughed awkwardly while he scratched his head. "I guess fire isn't my element. I can't seem to control it."
A drop of sweat rolled down on Chizuru's head as she recalled how powerful that fire wall was. She chuckled awkwardly with Seijurou's remark, as well. And she was glad that he was finally back to normal, at least based on what she was seeing. But for some reason, the ache that she felt in her insides lingered, and she could not understand why.
The hour long lunch break seemingly did not come to pass as the spectators continued their loud chants within the Octagon stadium. Even if it rained, only quite a few were willing to give their seats up to buy refreshments or meals. Hammering the stands with some continuous and relentless shower, it was only met with makeshift "umbrella like" roofs and "anti-water type magic barriers", however.
The hysterical but gleeful chaos was most likely because of the previous day's spectacle in the preliminaries. It had been years since some energetic youth got to make seasonal fanatics of the Octagon extremely impressed. Word spread like wildfire about the Heiress of the Swordmaiden's and her partner's duel win, which caused the people to come back for more.
"Now this is the kind of atmosphere we live for..", said proudly by Toho Kazuma while him and Jax waited for the first duel after the intermission. "But you seem to be pretty sour about this, friend."
"Friend?..", grumbled Jax and glared as he slightly got irritated more with the word. "Who said we're friends, loser..?"
"Oh, come on. Are you really going to put me on the same level with that otaku?..", Kazuma jested to lighten things up, but it didn't seem to work. "We're teammates in a Trinity now.. means we're friends."
"You weren't even here yesterday..", Jax growled indicating that he was getting more irritated with his current companion. "Teammates my ass."
However, Kazuma was unfazed and just laughed about it. "And where is Taneda now?"
But Toho Kazuma's coolly indifferent personality only irked Jax more. It was most especially that he got reminded that the better of his teammates was most probably with the person he hated the most. So, he just scowled at Toho and did not answer.
The almost overcrowded stadium, combined with the noise of the rain shower, completely blocked the announcer's introduction. Seated near the highest point of the stands, Jax and Kazuma were considerably at the farthest seats to even hear what's going on.
"Oh, it's starting already!..", a surprised Toho squinted to get a better picture of the ongoing duel. "Time to do some homework."
"Speak for yourself. You did nothing yesterday..", Jax grumbled almost inaudibly, which only caused Kazuma to chuckle.
Toho Kazuma somehow found Jax's foul mood very entertaining as Jax continued with his silent tantrum. He usually saw him very pumped up with the thought of battle, but ironically calm about it, like a ticking time bomb. And Kazuma loves anything in relation to explosive obliteration.
For some reason, there was something bothering Jax that his levelheadedness barely kept up. To Kazuma, it looked like a very loud firecracker about to malfunction and implode, and he was enjoying every moment of it.
"Well, I'm sure Taneda's doing her homework now with Erida, and there's nothing to worry about..", Toho teased even more as a battle raged on the octagonal platform. "Oooh.. that's a nice swing!"
However, even if Jax looked on to the highly intense fight, his thoughts were far from it. In fact, the mention of Seijurou's name made his thoughts veer away more to something similar to a violent delusion.
"Why didn't we get to fight them?..", a more sinister, but clear sentence came out of Jax.
But Toho pretended that he did not hear as he switched his attention back and forth to the burning battle and his teammate's hilarious thought pondering. He teased Jax again like blowing wind to a bomb's fuse to make it explode earlier. "Excuse me? What was that?"
Jax gritted his teeth. "Why do we have to pick on our class's easy pickings? We should've drawn a duel against that otaku."
"Am I hearing this right? Are you actually acknowledging that otaku's abilities?!..", once again, Kazuma provoked, and it seemed to be working. "But that also means fighting against your girlfriend."
"You know the stupid rules. I don't even need to touch her to win..", a tiny smirk seemed to have formed on Jax's crumpled expression. "I'll just have to beat that Erida to a pulp."
A droplet of sweat fell from Toho's head as he realized that Jax did not even deny that Kinjou Satsuki is his girlfriend with all that confident air. But jokes aside, he liked what he was seeing. A very pumped up and extremely strong teammate would be a good thing for his preliminaries, which was scheduled the following day. And he did hope that the bomb would explode at the right moment.
Later that afternoon, Chizuru and Seijurou went according to their plan to visit Satsuki in the healing ward. It was nothing that Chizuru thought it would be. She expected to see a lot of injured and sick people, but all she saw was an endless stream of white.
The healing ward is situated at the eastern wing of the Arcane University of Jihon in Fujiishima. From the outside, it looks like a decrepit old building that had been built centuries ago. However, once entered, one would not need to adjust one's pair of eyes if it was in the middle of the day since everything is coated in white. It would even be blinding if he or she decided to visit at night, and it could be one of the reasons why visitation hours are only during the day.
"Even the person behind the front desk is in white..", mumbled Chizuru in amazement as she and Seijurou entered. "It's as if not a single germ can escape undetected."
"They're all 'white mages' specializing in 'Restoration Magic'..", said Seijurou blankly, which led to another one of Chizuru's "you're no fun" glare.
It was of no surprise for Seijurou to be unimpressed with the place since he had been there before. In fact, there were multiple occasions that he needed to be there. His mother had been a regular patient in the healing ward due to battle injuries.
Seijurou had been in the east wing of the Arcane University so many times that he was already able to memorize the place. The end of the seemingly endless corridor to the south is the emergency room, wherein those who needed immediate medical attention were taken. On the other hand, the north side is a stairwell going to other floors. The many white double doors that lined the west side are a mix of operating rooms and medical mages' offices.
However, there was one thing that intrigued Seijurou the most. It was that all the patient's rooms dotted the long white wall of the eastern side, meaning that all the rooms have windows that faced the eastern shore. He thought that whoever thought of the design must have taken into consideration that every sickly individual would see the beautiful sunrise that Jihon is known for, the symbol of hope.
"False hope that is..", whispered Seijurou as grim memories began to haunt him.
"What was that?..", asked Chizuru as she only heard a mumble, while they proceeded towards Satsuki's room.
"Nothing. Just talking to myself."
Chizuru rolled her eyes as she thought that Seijurou was doing his weird thing again. "Baka-jurou.."
Just as Seijurou remembered his mother greeting him while seated on a sickbed, the same picture emerged before him when Chizuru opened the door to Satsuki's room. There was this horrible feeling inside him that made him imagine things. Reminiscing the times when his mother was either just scratched or heavily injured and unconscious on a bed, surged into his thoughts uncontrollably.
Suddenly, Seijurou realized that he was worrying unnecessarily when he heard Satsuki's childish laugh as he felt a familiar kind of pain on his head. Chizuru had knocked him back to reality with her shoe, and a lump began to grow on his head after.
"Should I call you Ero-jurou now, since you've been staring at Satsu-chan perversely since we got here?!..", exclaimed an irritated Chizuru, which surprised Seijurou. "She's been asking you how you've been for quite a while now."
While scratching his somewhat sore head, Seijurou looked more confused. "Was I zoning out that much?"
Satsuki giggled sheepishly. "Yeah, you looked stunned."
"What happened to you?..", Seijurou went straight to the point, which even surprised both Satsuki and Chizuru. "You scared us. You just fainted and was immediately taken here."
A seemingly perfectly normal smile formed on Satsuki's face. "It was just chichiue overreacting. The sensei here said that the duel had little to do with it. It was most probably due to emotional and mental fatigue, and I'll be out in no time."
A memory of his mother, the Swordmaiden, being taken to the emergency room, weeks before the Abyssal Calamity, flooded Seijurou's thoughts. While he looked at Satsuki worriedly, dreadful assumptions began to cloud his mind. The situation's similarity sent a chill down his spine, like it was the same as last time being a prelude to something more devastating.
"Why did she seem like she practiced what she just said?..", Seijurou thought pertaining to what Satsuki told him a while ago. "Please tell me she didn't make that up. Please let this be a fluke and she'll be strong again soon."
But the memory of Erida Masako standing back up almightily every time she took heavy damage did not help Seijurou's train of thought. It was because of the fact that she never even made it back to heal in the ward the last time.
"And please.. let this not be false hope..", Seijurou thought as he drowned in his mother's memories.
A second whack and a second lump right after, brought Seijurou back to his senses. Chizuru hit him again and glared at him.
"What now, Chizuru?!..", Seijurou exclaimed while he massaged his minor head injury.
Chizuru sneered. "Hear that Baka-jurou? Satsu-chan suffered from emotional and mental stress, all thanks to a certain someone, who had to be chased and begged to, the whole day yesterday!"
"Oi! I did fight, didn't I?..", Seijurou begged not to be hit again. "I'm sorry!"
Satsuki laughed out loud. "Yeah, you did! And we were awesome."
A faint smile formed on Seijurou's face even as he helplessly defended against Chizuru's playfully dangerous onslaught. He thought that he was probably overthinking things, and that he was worrying for nothing. At the very least, he was hoping that Satsuki would be discharged soon. But the feeling of dread still lingered as long as they stayed in the ward. And he could not understand why.
Even after a few minutes of friendly banter among the three, the bitter feeling that Seijurou felt remained. It was getting very obvious to Satsuki that there was some uneasiness in him. However, Seijurou awkwardly pretended that everything was fine.
Satsuki suddenly paused with a blank expression, which caused the other two to stop and look at her. At first, a look of a mix of concern and confusion enveloped Chizuru and Seijurou's expressions.
But the moment Satsuki opened her mouth, completely different thoughts swirled around the minds of the two. "You saw it? That victory yesterday? It was a win for the hearts of many, Chizu-chan, Erida-kun. We'll do it again, right?"
For Seijurou, the relief was enormous especially that it came from Satsuki herself. It greatly halved the concern that he was feeling moments ago as Satsuki smiled at him endearingly. The thought of actually working together again somehow inspired him to do something that he did not want to, training.
However, for Chizuru, even if Satsuki was pertaining to the both of them, she could not help but feel that she did not belong to the "we" that Satsuki just said. After that, she hoped that she was able to hide her true feelings under the awkwardly endearing smile she put up. But what disturbed her most was the fact that she was even thinking about such silly things.
Later that evening, something unusual went on. As Seijurou and Chizuru walked towards their respective homes, words did not exchange between them. There was some awkward silence.
It was such an irony that two childhood friends could not stand the silence but still lingered in it. It was much like the sky that day being cloudy and rainy, then suddenly, the stars were out in a clear sky at night. The sound of a passing horse carriage and the occasional blowing summer wind was rarely heard over the usual friendly arguments of Seijurou and Chizuru.
"What the hell are you thinking? They're your closest friends for crying out loud..", Chizuru pondered in her thoughts while she made funny expressions, unbeknownst to Seijurou. "And why the hell are the stars out?!"
Oblivious to the situation, Seijurou walked on and enjoyed the rare silence. It seemed that awkwardness was some sort of a norm for him that he did not feel something was awkward. But he really was somehow, genuinely happy.
"Hey, Chizuru..", Seijurou finally broke the silence, which caught Chizuru off guard and blushed. "I think I'm going to train in the dojo again."
Usually, that real but unusual smile on Seijurou's face would have brightened Chizuru's spirits up. But for some reason, she just gave out a long and tired sigh with a burdened expression to match.
"Seijurou, we're sort of near to your place now..", an exasperated Chizuru turned and walked a different direction. "Is it okay if we split up now? Jax went to Satsuki and delivered her homework, so you're safe anyway. I'm just really tired."
The mention of Jax's name and its connection to Satsuki irked Seijurou a little. "What about that moron? I'm safe to begin with."
Chizuru did not even turn back and say a word. She just waved and continued to walk.
"Was there something I said?..", asked Seijurou as he continued to walk to his house. "All I did was say I'm going to train."
"Oi! Otaku-san!..", an extremely familiar and irritating loud and low voice greeted Seijurou as he arrived in front of his own home. "I think I haven't really made myself clear. Let's have another talk."
Jax and two of his thugs were there for some predictable reason, standing in front of Seijurou's house and waiting for him.
Seijurou sighed as if it was a drag. "Alright, let's head inside. What do you want? Coffee? Tea?"
Jax shoved Seijurou to a stop. "No, let's talk out here."
Translation Notes:
Ero-jurou - a wordplay between the word "ero", which means pervy, and the protagonist's name, Seijurou.
Honorifics Guide:
Ba-chan - an informal way of saying "oba-san", which means auntie (not to be confused with "obaa-san, which means grandmother).