After the meeting with Hero and Kenta Hibiki and decided to spend the school day as normal. Miss Yuuko introduced her to the class and even made her sit right next to me since we were supposed to know each other. By the time recess came, I noticed Akane walking by the corridors even though she hadn't come to class today.
"Where are you going?" Asked Hibiki, all tensed up from being in an unfamiliar environment.
"Stay put, I have something of my own to deal with," since I still hadn't found Sakura, I reached into my bag and handed Hibiki the lunch box Saki had prepared for us. "Eat up, I'll be back in a bit."
Laying the box in front of her, I headed straight out to catch up with Akane. Looking through the corridor, I caught a glimpse of her turning around for the straight. Making sure not to seem suspicious, I only walked at a brisk pace while following her around. After getting to the straight I climbed up them and then saw her headed for the girl's restroom.
'Probably not a good idea to go any further.' Moving to the open corridor walls onlooking the campus, I leaned on over to them while waiting for her to get out. 'Oi, Mizuki, what should we do? Approach her the moment she gets out or something that seems more coincidental?'
"The latter, obviously," Mizuki answered, staying invisible throughout.
'Yeah, let's just hope this doesn't piss her off.' Moving away from the open walls, I stationed myself on the stairs. Keeping my ears perked up for any footsteps, I relied on my senses as well as Mizuki to tell me when to come rushing up to run into Akane.
"She's out…" Mizuki told me, I could hear her footsteps as well.
Right as the footsteps grew around the corners, I took a deep breath and rushed upstairs. Just as planned, Akane and I ran into each other, however, this time it was only her who fell down, I managed to keep myself from falling.
"I-I'm so sorry, I wasn't looking!" I exclaimed with a facade of worry.
"Yeah, no shit idiot!" She yelled, caressing her forehead.
"Oh wait…" Offering her my hand to help her get up, I added. "Akane, right? Sorry I didn't see you there."
"Wh-what?" Opening her eyes finally, she noticed who I was as well. "You again?"
Still struggling from the hurt, she took my hand and helped herself get up.
"Next time just say hello like a normal person please," she grunted, visibly upset.
Although taking a breather, she suddenly gave me a look of shock. Perhaps finally realizing that I was a student at the same school, she stared at me in confusion.
"Wait, what grade are you in?" She asked, her sharp nail pointed at my chin.
"Final year," hearing my reply, she frowned even deeper.
"What? How? I've never seen you in clas-" Stopping herself from finishing the sentence, she shook her head before speaking again. "Ugh…I guess I missed a lot while skipping the month. Also, uhm, about last time, I'm sorry about leaving you in the hospital without a face-to-face apology."
"It's okay, but if you don't mind me asking, why did I see you in class today?" There it was, the question I wanted answered for so long.
Tapping her feet anxiously to my question, Akane began jogging on the spot as if in a hurry. Washing the sour expression off her face, she forced a weak smile before replying.
"Sorry, but I have to be on the field, track practice, and all that," giving me a gentle nod, she breezed past me down the stairs. "Talk to you later, and again, I'm sorry about what happened."
"It's alr–right?" By the time I turned to look at her, she was already off to the lower flights of stairs. Without turning around to look at me or even saying another word, she quickly disappeared as if we'd never run into each other at all.
"If you're done checking that gal's butt, there's something here," whispering in my ears again, Mizuki pulled me out of my thoughts.
"What is it?" As I turned around to look at the spot where Akane had fallen after running into me, I noticed a camera half the size of Pinky.
"Almost crushed the little thing with her butt that girl," revealing herself out of the invisibility, Mizuki stepped on the ground and grabbed the camera off the floor. "A true mystery how she didn't feel such a hard piece of plastic under her. Could be a testament to how stacked her muscles are under that skirt."
"Mizuki…Enough," Giving her a dead serious stare, I wanted her to know that she could not talk about my friend like that.
Coiling her fist around the camera, Mizuki placed it inside her jeans pocket.
"Fine, you're even less fun than the guy who…Fuck it, never mind," she huffed out before turning invisible once again.
'Keep that camera safe, we should take a look at what's inside when we get the chance.' I tried telling her through my thoughts, and even though I'm certain she heard me, I got no response from her at all. 'No deception, that's our deal, remember that.'
With that dealt with, I joined Hibiki back in the classroom. The rest of the day was as uneventful as it could've been, and thankfully we didn't have to deal with Hero and Kenta while leaving either. If anything on our way out of there, both of them seemed quite friendly on the surface.
"Ignore them, let's keep going," forcing a smile on my face while looking at the two, I grabbed Hibiki's hand and kept walking away.
'It's probably time to work on the revenge against Hero and his goons. Maybe that would even help me figure out more about Kimura and how he had managed to stay in the shadows despite being the main person beyond the whole operation.'
"Akira, that girl…" Tugging on my hand, Hibiki pointed outwards towards something.
Following the direction of her finger, I saw a girl from our school staring mindlessly down a walking bridge that went across the road.
"Hakumi?" it was none other than one of the female bullies, and the girlfriend of Sato, the third person in Hero's group who ditched school after the suicides. "What the hell is she doing up there?"
"You really have to ask?" Hibiki muttered as she finally freed her hand from my grasp.
"I suppose you're right," the lifeless look in her eyes while she stared at passing traffic was enough of a tell as to what was about to happen. "Let's go introduce ourselves, shall we?"
Both the voices of Mizuki and Ifrit were howling at me not to interrupt what Hakumi had in mind, yet I couldn't care less for a pair of demons treating human life as their entertainment.
"You go ahead, I'm beat as is," without another word, Hibiki parted ways.
"Suit yourself," ignoring everyone, I made my way up the bridge.