"I seeing you burnt in my dream."
Ken was silent, but his face could not cover his surprise. Chikara who was listening silently seems frowning. Confused, at the same time incredulous. His eyes glanced at Ken who was sitting next to him.
Suddenly, the sound of footsteps rumbling loudly, heard by the three young men in the bedroom. The direction is towards Yasuhiro's room. The three of them who were in the room were silent and stared at the front hallway of the room which was clearly displayed due to the perfectly open door. From some point, a black shadow darting rapidly, as the sound of clattering footsteps were heard getting closer.
"Yasuhiro! Don't die yet! Here I bring you some rice cakes—"
The loud exclamation suddenly stopped. Kazuhiko with his hair that always looked like a bird's nest appeared so excitedly, and then widened his eyes. The lunchbox he was proffered swayed slowly, almost falling if Chikara not immediately caught it, then he passed on to Yasuhiro.
"Oh ... thank you. Take a seat."
Kazuhiko gasped, awakened by his reverie. He walked up to his friends with wide steps, then stood right in front of Ken. Ken looked back at Kazuhiko with a question mark in his head.
"You still alive?!"
Yasuhiro dropped his jaw in disbelief as he didn't expect with the question coming out of Kazuhiko's mouth. Chikara choked by his own saliva. The reason is the same as Yasuhiro. Meanwhile, Ken just blinked his eyes. His expression didn't change at all.
"Gosh, Kazu ... you were the only one who asked me how I was doing with that concernful sentence. And also, with the different question I've ever had 'till today."
Kazuhiko did not heed Ken's reaction. He was busy observing Ken's face and body, before his attention was competely distracted towards Ken's hair. While his hands ruffling Ken's hair, Kazuhiko backed up his face with a grin and glanced at his friends.
"I wonder, how Taniguchi-sensei will react when he sees this when we back to school at the beginning of the school year."
Ken shook off Kazuhiko's hand. Chikara kicked Kazuhiko's head, while glancing at him sharply, coding him not to joke in that way. Yasuhiro said nothing, focusing his eyes towards Ken's hair, which he just realized was different from before.
Kazuhiko's presence in the middle of them made the atmosphere turn warmer, and of course more alive. Even more, the rice cakes he brought. The four of them chatted while eating the snacks present in their small circle. Since the previous conversation they have is quite burdensomely serious, Kazuhiko turned the bow as smoothly as possible so that they did not drag on in an awkward atmosphere that was not pleasant.
In their next conversation, Ken finally got a complete picture of the situation in the rink arena yesterday. When the energy in Ken's body exploded out, Kazuhiko who was right next to his arena confessed that the titanium* barrier that separated his rink to Ken's rink melted. Melted as like an ice cream put outside in the summer. As a result, the barrier was hollowed out. From the hole, Kazuhiko could see a scene that he thought was beyond common sense when Ken seemed to be enveloped by flames, from head to toe. If Chikara and Yasuhiro who were still in the participant lounge saw the incident through the LCD, Kazuhiko saw it directly with his own eyes. Kazuhiko stared at the scene between believing and not believing, until finally a woman in a lab robe approached Ken and took him out of the rink arena.
"Liar!" commented Ken.
"Why should I lied to you?!" Kazuhiko, Chikara, and Yasuhiro's response, almost snapping.
"You don't know how confused I felt that time when I saw you like that Ken!" said Kazuhiko with widened eyes. "I saw you with my own eyes and I really afraid when I saw you as like you already in the death door!"
"Right, Ken," add Yasuhiro. "We really taken aback that time and can't believing with what our eyes caught."
Ken give them a faint smile. "Well, now y'all can see me in a good condition, right?"
In addition to that information, Ken was also finally able to find out the elemental energy obtained by his three friends. Kazuhiko recounts the complete chronology when he felt the energy in his body flowing as he put his hand into the inscribed stone niche. The flow of energy made Kazuhiko feel weak and lulled to close his eyes. But before he was completely absorbed, Kazuhiko suddenly felt the movement of the rink arena he stepped on. When he lowered his head, he blinked in disbelief as the ground around his shoes formed cracks. In fact, Kazuhiko remembered very well when he entered the rink arena and placed his hand on the stone, the ground he stepped on was still stable and there was not the slightest crack. After he observed it again, the cracks slowly spread out. Not finished until then, the cracks which were originally just shaped like a line inscribed on the ground, gradually widened, gaping, as if they had a mouth. Before the cracks grew wider, scattered, and made him feel like standing at the top of an abyss, Kazuhiko retracted his hand from the stone niche and immediately ran back leaving the arena.
"But when you leave the arena, the ground in your former rink is back to the way it was," Yasuhiro commented.
"Is that so?!"
Yasuhiro nodded. Kazuhiko repeated the point of his conversation and expressed his fear when he saw the phenomenon. He could barely even believe his own vision. First, because he saw the consequences of his energy released. And second because he saw, with his own eyes without intermediatery, the moment when Ken was devoured by fire.
Kazuhiko then continues his story when he sees Chikara and Yasuhiro in the rink arena. From Chikara's rink, which he saw from the LCD screen, the spot was seen bringing up a dazzling beam before slowly dimming and the CCTV's camera captured a phenomenon when a flash of light gathered over Chikara's palm. The thunder then sounded when the flash of light touched Chikara's hand.
"You see it that way?" asked Chikara. His tone cast doubt on Kazuhiko's story. But what Ken see, Chikara looks a bit confused by what Kazuhiko saw from the LCD. "What I felt was that when that blinding light appeared, my right hand felt like it was electrocuted, but only in that one hand! I can't feel or even move my finger! After that, I could barely feel my hand."
"What about that thunder sound?" Kazuhiko asked curiously.
"If that, I heard it too." Chikara folded both hands over his chest. "It happened shortly before I pulled my hand off the stone. But if I think it again, the sound probably late 'cause we all know that the light move faster than the sound."
With a curious twinkle in his eyes, Kazuhiko pulled Chikara's right hand to be able seeing the scar that stretched out from his palm to elbow. Starting to feel uncomfortable, Chikara pulled his hand and folded it back over his chest along with his left hand.
Although he was not satisfied, Kazuhiko surrendered and chose to continue the story to Yasuhiro's part.
From the LCD zooming towards Yasuhiro's rink, Kazuhiko saw almost nothing but a roll of strong wind swirling around covering the camera. The whirlwind was completely impenetrable as if Yasuhiro was devoured by it.
Therefore, Kazuhiko turned to look at Yasuhiro who was sitting quietly on his bed, giving him a demanding look to tell his experience from his own perspective.
"My state at that time was not much different from Ken's," Yasuhiro said. "When I put my hand on the stone, my stomach felt like I wanted to vomit. My head feels so dizzy. My eyes were sore. My body bathed in sweat. One thing I could feel clearly was just the wind that was all around me. After that, my vision turned white, and then I fainted."
Ken pondered. Yasuhiro's condition is almost the same as his own. At that moment, he felt that his head was very dizzy and almost broke. He felt like throwing up his entire food in his stomach. Cold sweat poured down all over his body.
"You two," Kazuhiko muttered referring to Ken and Yasuhiro. They were waiting for Kazuhiko's next sentence. "I don't know how to respond to this fate of yours with congratulations or anything. But at least, I'm grateful that you guys are still alive, seating together with me and Chikara."
Ken snort, remembering the first sentence his friend said when he entered the room.
"You're too much."
Yasuhiro chuckled. Chikara and Kazuhiko snort along.
"Oh right, Ken! Yesterday I met someone who said he knew you, but I don't know if it just a nonsense or what. He's in the same group as me in Jikai. It's just that. He's two years above us."
Ken is interested and feels that he knows about someone Kazuhiko is referring to. Therefore, Ken lured his friend to give more details about the person Kazuhiko was talking about.
"Hm ... Shou! Morita Shou. You know him?"
Of course, Ken replied inwardly.
The corners of Ken's lips were raised. He only nodded his head in answer to Kazuhiko's question.
***
On the way home, Ken couldn't help but rush to go home. There is something to look for and dig deeper. Something that might add and complement the information he has as well as remove the big question marks in his head.
"There's something I wanna talk to him about."
"For what? What's that got to do with you?"
Ken braked his steps and hid behind a stone wall fence belonging to the neighbor opposite his house. He sharpened his vision when he saw Suzume, his dearest older sister, talking to a young man. Unfortunately, Ken couldn't see the young man's face clearly because of his position standing behind the railing, turning his back to Ken. Looking around again, that young man was a kind of guest that Suzume really didn't expect, judging by his sister's expression and the gate she left locked.
Who?
Curious, Ken came out from his hiding place.
"Suzume."
His older sister, who was tying her hair perfunctorily at that time, immediately glance at him and opened the railing for her little brother. However, Ken didn't go straight in. He looked at Suzume's unexpected guest with a judgmental look. Ken look him from his head to toe, then land his gaze to his eyes.
"See, right? He wasn't at home just now. And since you've seen him, now go!"
The short black-haired young man retracted his gaze from Ken for a moment, glancing at Suzume with narrowed eyes and a tiny grin.
"As you wish," he said in a low and amused voice. His eyes turned towards Ken. "You, follow me."
Ken was confused.
"Hey! I told you to go home! Not kidnapping my brother!"
The young man turned his head again towards Suzume who no longer covering up her anger. "Who said I wanted to kidnap him? I told you many times before, I just wanted to talk to him. You know ... little advice from a caring senpai."
Ken caught the meaningful gaze in the eyes that the young man directed at him. Without thinking twice, Ken immediately cut off eye contact with him and turned to look at his sister.
"I'll be in before six," Ken said. Suzume seems disapproving, but Ken immediately handed her a white plastic with the convenience store logo near his house. "Here, I bought snacks. But don't eat it all!"
The two young men watched Suzume until she completely disappeared and entered the house. Even so, Ken realizes that his sister still watching them from behind the window's curtain. However, Ken didn't mind it because from such a distance she wouldn't be able to hear their voice clearly from behind the fence.
"Yo," said the black-haired young man first. He seems so relaxed as he placed his elbow on the fence. "Judging from your whims, it seems that I don't need to introduce myself to you. Am I right?"
"Yeah," Ken nodded. Indeed, is such a 'fate' that he come to him as soon as this possible. Ken returned the smirk engraved on his interlocutor's face with a smirk as well. "Nice to meet you, Morita Shou-san."