Chapter 3--Escape!! or Revenge..

Three years later…

There were only three souls in classroom 1—Irazumi Natsuki, Hi Kiimaru and their Maths teacher. It was what students of Ninken Secondary School called as “Test Week”. On this week, students of a class were divided into one or two in a group. These groups were put into different classes during this week in order to prevent them from cheating during examination.

Natsuki was struggling over one of her Geography questions:

5. What is the characteristic of the tropical rainforest in Trainer’s Territory?
A. Leaves fall during the dry season.
B. Has a dense canopy.
C. Trees have needle like leaves.
D. Consists of bushes only.

All of the answers sounded correct. But Natsuki lived in the forest, and she knew a lot about it. The forest definitely did not consist of bushes only, and she never had the impression of seeing trees with needle-like leaves. Natsuki had no idea what “Has a dense canopy” was and she knew that leaves in the forest do fall. Natsuki had a hard time deciding the answer of her choice. She was still thinking when—

‘Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing.’ the bell rang, signifying the end of her Geography test.

‘Time’s up. Please stop writing and put down your pencil.’ ordered Natsuki’s Maths teacher and she went forward to collect Hi’s paper. Natsuki became worried, and quickly blackened one of the answers before the teacher collected her answer sheet.

Great, I didn’t get to check my answers. thought Natsuki, and blamed the questions for being so hard, but it’s futile crying over spilt milk.

‘Oi, Irazumi. Please switch off the fans.’ said Hi before leaving the classroom.

‘Alright!’ responded Natsuki. She took her bag which was placed in the cupboard at the back of the classroom and advanced towards the switch for the fan. Natsuki was not in a good mood at that time, and pressed the switch with all the strength she could summoned, then something extraordinary happened…

‘POOF!’ Smoke was escaping from the fan closest to Natsuki, the one that she just switched off. This is not good. thought Natsuki. She backed away from the smoking fan, then ran away from it, as far as her feet could get her.

I haven’t done anything wrong! Why should I run? But when I pressed the switch, the fan kind of exploded…No, it did not, or if not, I would have been hurt. It was all my fault, I shouldn’t have pressed the switch…But what happened? How did it…

‘Watch where you are going you—Oh Natsuki, its you! You looked pale. Did anything happen?’ asked Tsi Inn. She was worried about Natsuki, who bumped into her with an expression as if she was chased by a man-eating ghost. She held out her helping hand and pulled Natsuki up.

‘Um…It was nothing, just a little tired. You know, test.’ said Natsuki and put on a big, fake smile on her paper-white face when Tsi Inn eyed her suspiciously. But then she decided that Natsuki was not hiding something from her and they walked towards the other end of the school building, where Aaron and Yan were taking their test in the second last classroom—classroom 4.

‘BOOM!’

An explosion occurred which shook the whole school, it seemed to occur at the other end of the classroom, where Natsuki and Tsi Inn were heading to.

Natsuki and Tsi Inn exchanged worried glances, because black smoke was escaping from classroom 4, the place where Aaron and Yan were in. They hurried forward to classroom 4 and covered their mouths and noses to prevent inhaling black smoke.

‘What happened?’ asked Tsi Inn when Aaron, Yan and a teacher left classroom 4, coughing. At the same time, Fuyuda arrived at the scene of explosion.

‘What happened? I heard the sound of explosion and my vision was obscured by smoke when I tried to find both of you. What happened?’ asked Fuyuda, looking at Natsuki, then to Tsi Inn, Aaron, Yan and back to Tsi Inn.

Aaron and Yan were trying to catch their breathe, while the teacher went to the school office to call for assistance. Finally, when Aaron’s breathing return to normal, he explained what happened. It seemed that Wai Dan, who was taking his examination in the classroom beside them, had planted a bomb in their classroom. Thinking that by doing so, he could create an incident that would temporarily distract the teachers, so that he could sneak to his bag and find the answers for the test, but this was only an assumption, though. Fortunately, the explosion was minor and Aaron, Yan and their teacher only suffered from temporary breathing difficulty.

‘I am glad that you are all alright.’ said Tsi Inn in a relief.

‘Me too. I wonder whether Wai Dan succeeded in his plan.’ said Natsuki. The five of them peeped into classroom 5, where Wai Dan was sitting in the middle of the classroom, staring at none other than his examiner—Mr. Tunnel, the discipline teacher. 　

‘Oh my. What a terrible explosion, I hoped that Saber and Wan is not hurt.’ Wai Dan looked worried, but the words “HAHA” was prominently written all over his face.

‘I hope that they aren’t hurt too. I also hope that you could explain your actions.’ said Mr. Tunnel in his strict voice. He looked daggers at Wai Dan, who grinned back at him.

‘Oh, I was just answering the questions for Geography test.’ explained Wai Dan as if the explosion just now had not happened. Aaron, Fuyuda, Natsuki, Tsi Inn and Yan retreated their heads after Mr. Tunnel looked at them sternly. They discussed about the test while walking to the school gate. Natsuki’s brother, Kishirou was not to be seen anywhere outside the school compound.

‘Well, time sure flew past quickly. I got to go home. See ya!’ Natsuki was already running halfway towards the school gate, just a few strides and she would be out of the school boundaries. She was going to be free in just a few steps, she was so close to the gate, but then no matter how she moved, she was not going any further. Something was tugging at her pinafore, something big, black and furry, something by the name of—

‘Well done, SyaoInn!’ Tsi Inn congratulated her pet cat for preventing its “prey” from escaping, ‘Natsuki, you shouldn’t set off without waiting for us. Your brother made us promised that we escort you home if he was not around, you know that.’ Tsi Inn was staring at Natsuki, which looked similar to Mr. Tunnel’s glare, especially when he wanted a student to tell the truth, which usually worked.

‘Well, I don’t want to bother you all. All of you stay back with me when I’m home alone, and escort me if my brother’s busy. I’m really grateful, but--’

‘Then don’t run away like that and give us so much trouble. If you are grateful, then don’t let us chase you all around Ninken.’ interrupted Aaron.

‘Your brother is protective about you, after that incident.’ said Fuyuda, and he was right. The murderer hadn’t been caught yet, he left no clue behind, only that Natsuki’s parents’ clothes were drenched in water, and it was said that they were drowned. Everybody tried not to believe that statement, but it was true, but how could they be drowned in a forest, where there was no lake nearby?
***
‘Ah, finally I could be free. Free from school, free from homework, and most of all, free from stress.’ said Aaron in relief and stretched his arms. Aaron, Fuyuda, Natsuki, Tsi Inn and Yan were going to Natsuki’s home, which was situated in the forest. Even though that was where the murder took place, yet Kishirou did not move away, especially when the murderer could still be lurking behind any tree in the forest.

‘Hey, there’s a squirrel behind us, following us.’ said Natsuki, looking at the empty path behind them.

‘Yeah, there is. A pretty annoying one too.’ said Fuyuda without looking to his back.

‘There is? But I don’t see it.’ Yan looked to her back, but still there was nothing except for trees. She felt uneasy about this information, so were the others.

‘I’m sure there is one, behind one of the trees.’ assured Fuyuda. Yan muttered something under her breath. After that, the five continued to walk as if nothing had happened.

Everything happened suddenly, water advancing towards Natsuki from behind, pushed her towards a tree…The others turned to the source of the water… A man appeared from behind a tree…Aaron, Fuyuda, Natsuki, Tsi Inn and Yan disappeared instantly… and then Aaron attacked that man from behind with a sword.

‘Water?’ Aaron’s attack failed. His sword was stuck in a layer of water surrounding Hoi Fong, who turned his head towards Aaron, and Aaron was thrown away. He hit a tree, then fell down unconscious.

‘So, this is an illusion, am I right?’ asked Hoi Fong. He turned towards Fuyuda, Natsuki, Tsi Inn and Yan, who were hiding behind another tree. Yan nodded. Hoi Fong laughed.

‘Not bad. You actually deceived me.’

‘You were the one that murdered my parents.’ said Natsuki, her face was a mixture between horror and anger.

‘How do you know?’

Natsuki did not answer his question. Instead, she lunged at him, but was seized by Fuyuda by her arms.

‘Let me go!’ Natsuki struggled to release her arms.

‘No, I can’t! He would kill if you if I let you—’ Fuyuda, fell to the ground, so did Tsi Inn. They were drenched in water. Natsuki and Yan were the only ones conscious, their faces wore the expression of fear.

‘Don’t you want to take revenge for your parents?’ asked Fong, as if taunting Natsuki to attack him, ‘I’m standing here, ready to be killed.’

Natsuki charged at him at once with her fist ready, she forgot about her promise to her brother, she forgot that she was not supposed to take revenge on the murderer. She was so close to punching him, so close…
Then water caught her hand, and Hoi Fong’s hand tightened around Natsuki’s neck, depriving her from oxygen. She tried to free herself from Hoi Fong’s grasp, but was unsuccessful. Natsuki felt as if her lungs were going to burst, it was agonizing. She was going to die, just like her parents… No, she couldn’t, not until she had managed to kill Hoi Fong. Until then, she must stay alive. She must get rid of the thing constricting her. There had to be a way…

‘Ahhhhhhhhhhh!’ Hoi Fong screamed and let go of Natsuki as if he something bitten his hand. At that very moment, Natsuki felt oxygen traveling down her lungs again, she was not going to die. Natsuki looked at her hands in disbelief. She felt something traveling down her hands towards Hoi Fong’s, that something made Hoi Fong screamed in pain and let go of her. Natsuki was caught in her thoughts, she forgot that her friends and she were in danger, she forgot that she was supposed to run instinctively, until…

‘Natsuki!’ Yan’s call pulled Natsuki back to earth. She ran towards her friends. Hoi Fong who just recovered from that shocked, chased her. Natsuki was so closed to being caught by Hoi Fong’s water when was a flash of light and then darkness descend upon Natsuki.
***
Where am I? Am I dead? No, it couldn’t be. I don’t remember being killed by Hoi Fong. But it was so dark. Could it be that a dead person won’t remember how he died…? Well, there’s only one way to know it…

Natsuki opened her eyes, it was so bright that she could not see anything, was she in heaven? No, it couldn’t be. When Natsuki finally adjust herself to the light, she saw that she was in a room filled with beds, the smell of antiseptic rushing into her nostrils. The first thing that came into Natsuki’s mind was Ninken Hospital. But wait a minute, there was no hospital in Ninken, so where was she?

‘Hey, so you finally wake up.’ said Aaron from the bed opposite Natsuki. Natsuki looked around her. Yan was lying on the bed beside her while Tsi Inn was sitting on her bed on her right, SyaoInn was on her lap, purring. Aaron and Fuyuda were lying on the beds opposite Natsuki.

‘Where are we?’ asked Natsuki.

‘In Mirage Island.’