Читать книгу Revenge of the Akuma Clan - Benjamin Martin - Страница 9

BACK TO SCHOOL

Choices… I had spent my whole life avoiding them. It was always easier to follow, to do what others wanted me to do. Yet it was always there, the nagging feeling that something was wrong, that I could be more than I was…

Although it was a holiday, David did not expect to escape their usual morning training. Most of the time, David and Kou looked forward to the mental and physical challenges of their practices. Still, they were pleasantly surprised when they returned from the mountaintop and Yukiko announced they all had a day off from their usual routines. Natsuki stayed for breakfast before heading home to spend the rest of New Year’s Day with her parents. The Matsumotos and David enjoyed the traditional New Year’s bento lunch boxes called osechi that Yukiko had ordered months in advance, and then relaxed for the day.

David understood a little better all the preparations that had gone on before the holiday. Yukiko had mobilized everyone when not training to clean out the entire house. Instead of spring-cleaning, the Matsumotos wanted to be sure that everything was ready for a new year. David had especially enjoyed helping to make mochi. With the twins and Natsuki, David had helped smash steamed rice into sticky goo. They had filled some of it with sweet beans to make a very tasty treat. Rie had taken three big rounds of mochi, stacked them, and topped them with an orange. The offering was a centerpiece at the Shrine, and David finally understood what all the plastic decorations he had seen in stores were supposed to represent.

With the work done, the entire family was able to relax. Later in the day, the mailman arrived with a stack of postcard greetings for the family. David was surprised to receive a stack of his own from classmates and other students at the school.

‘I’m embarrassed. The only presents and letters I sent were to my father and Jessica. I didn’t send any to our classmates—and I don’t even know half of these people.’

‘It seems you are more popular than you thought,’ Kou growled from within him. ‘I’m sure Jessica will enjoy the picture of you and the twins you sent. I bet she’ll scratch out your face and focus her hunt on Takumi.’ David took the opportunity to growl back.

Though David’s father and Jessica had visited a few weeks before, they were still unaware of his life as a Jitsugen Samurai. It had been easy enough hiding the changes from his oblivious father, but it had been far more difficult to hide them from his sister. David knew his father cared, but also knew that very few things could hold his interest for long. Fortunately, Jess had been more interested in telling David about her friends back home than in prying into David’s life.

It helped that she grew silent whenever she saw Takumi. With secrecy so essential to his and the Matsumotos’ survival, David could not afford to let his family know about Kou. It was safer for them that way. With a sigh, David went to find Takumi so he could ask what to do about his lack of greetings for other students.

Outside the main house, David jogged toward the forge, a low building that bordered the traditional Japanese garden behind the main house. With a burst of speed, David leapt over the small stream that ran through the Estate. The recent snows had frozen the top layers, but he could still see water running below. He had cleared the stream so many times that he was shocked to find himself wet, cold, and gasping for air beneath a layer of ice.

Struggling, he convulsed in the shallow water. His whole body bumped against the rocks as something dragged him closer to the pond in the center of the garden. He twisted against the pull on his leg. His arm caught a tree root and gave him just enough leverage to turn his face, but the ice kept him from getting any air. With a shock of panic, he smashed his head through the ice just long enough to pull in a quick gasp of air.

A strong jerk dragged him back under. David pulled hard with stomach muscles developed by hours of sit-ups. He caught sight of a translucent blue form in the water before his head banged against a rock and he had to straighten out.

‘A little help here?’

‘I did the last one. I will let you have this hunt.’

‘Just cause there’s a little water.’

David growled, and shut his eyes against the water. He moved faster through the water as his body relaxed. He mentally followed the tingling flow of energy to the core of his being. There, he sensed the remaining metal that had impaled his heart so many months before at the Shrine. Calling it forth, his Seikaku appeared in his hands. As they entered the pond, David had enough room to maneuver. Even as the squirming little kappa tried to drag him to the bottom, David lashed out with the wooden form of the Seikaku. The transparent form that had held him dissolved into the surrounding waters.

Free, David swam under the bridge then used his Seikaku to poke through the ice. A hand helped him out of the water. To either side of him, Rie and Takumi sat on the bridge, having watched the whole ordeal.

“Fine. I do the dishes tonight,” Takumi said, his voice grim as he looked to his sister. David knocked water from his ears.

“You two bet on me?”

“Of course,” Rie said with a sweet smile. “Takumi thought it would take you another couple of minutes to get free.”

David shivered in the cold and then punched Takumi.

After only a few days off for the winter holidays, school started back up again. Nakano’s second years faced the busiest semester of their academic calendar. In addition to the usual competitions, tests, and activities, the second years would be going on a school trip to Kyushu in only a few weeks.

With Chul Moo’s disappearance and Misaki’s death, Class 2B was smaller than before. Many of David’s schoolmates were still in shock from the Jeong brothers’ disappearance and the deaths over the past months, including the fire that had raged in the warehouse. When David arrived for the first day of class, their homeroom teacher Mr. Moriyama also told them that Yuuto had transferred to another school. Although he gave no reasons, David, Takumi, Rie, and Natsuki all assumed it had to do with the aftereffects of the ōkami’s domination over him. Both Yuka and Yuuto had become loud and sometimes even obnoxious in class after the Matsumotos and David had freed them the previous semester.

Yuuto especially had been a paradox. Always exhausted in class, he made every teacher’s request seem as if it was a personal affront. Sometimes this came out as a lack of reply, other times as yelling or rude outbursts. The only thing he had kept up with was sports, but even then, he would go on as if directed by some plan no one else could see.

Although disturbed and guilty over Yuuto’s departure, David was still happy to be back at school. Only a few months before, he had felt isolated and lonely, but over time it had become more like a second home. The myriad cultural differences that had kept him off balance were still there, but with the language barrier gone, they no longer kept him from making real connections with his classmates. While he was still far from mastering Japan, Kou had provided him with the tools to improve. Slowly, he was making friends among his classmates and enjoyed spending as much time as possible with them.

David’s classmates and even the Matsumotos had become far more willing to deal with his occasional mistakes and differences since he could explain where he was coming from. It also helped that Kou acted as a check for him. Always present within his mind, Kou could often sense problems coming and help David avoid them.

‘If only random monsters would stop attacking us.’

‘They were all weak. Though I guess it is only a matter of time before Chul Soon sends something worse.’

With their initial preparations and meetings done for the morning, Class 2B began heading for the beginning of semester ceremony. At the beginning of every semester, the entire school met in the gym to listen to speeches from their teachers and fellow students.

Realizing he was zoning out again while talking to Kou, David said, “I’m just glad I haven’t had to give a speech yet.”

“It’s not that bad. You just have to talk about how hard you’re going to try this semester,” Naoto replied.

“Yeah, or talk about what you did during the break,” Shou added. “That’s what I talked about last year when my turn came up.”

“Such an over-achiever,” Naoto said.

‘Naoto acts like you do with Jessica. Is Shou his brother?’ Kou asked.

‘No. Just friends.’

“What did you two end up doing?” Shou asked. David jumped at the question, his head snapping to look at the shorter boy.

“We were at the Estate with everyone else,” Takumi said, covering for David. “Not all of us get to go on ski trips during winter break.”

‘Yikes, I thought he meant us for a minute there. Takumi is getting way too sneaky.’

“Hey! My Dad got a promotion. He wanted to celebrate or something,” Naoto said, rubbing his hair with one hand and looking away. David noticed his shoes and belt were new, and the hand in the hair gesture was one hundred percent embarrassment.

‘Naoto seems to be a bit uncomfortable with his new home life. I think he was used to hating everything.’

‘I bet he’s wishing he had studied more. Now that his parents are loaded they are going to want him to go to a good school!’

Naoto and Shou eyed David as he began laughing. They were used to him zoning out at random, something that had started after Kou had awoken. His friends even ignored the occasional times he finished or started conversations that made sense to no one else. It was the more overt strangeness that still caught his classmates off guard.

All of Class 2B had noticed the odd things, like when he twitched his head at sounds no one else could hear, but they strove to ignore it. Unfortunately for David, they had all met Jessica. The fact his sister had fit in so well, even without speaking any Japanese, had shown them David’s weirdness was not just because he was a gaijin.

David had become good enough at sports, classes, and with his friends, that they overlooked a number of quirks. They were especially accommodating when their own grades improved from his homework help. Only the twins and Natsuki knew that the strangest of his quirks were due to his possession by a kami. Kou shared his mind, an alien presence that never completely faded.

Not all David’s classmates welcomed him and his changes with open arms. A cadre of third years led by a boy named Koji had marked David for humiliation during his first month. Several more run-ins had only stiffened Koji’s resolve to end David’s newfound popularity. The incident had only isolated Koji, making him more dangerous.

David shrugged off thoughts of Koji and returned his focus to walking down the school halls. Kou pulled at David’s attention until he noticed that their group had grown. Natsuki was keeping pace near Takumi as they all walked together. It was the closest he had seen them in public since the previous year.

‘I am just glad we don’t have to deal with Natsuki all the time anymore. She’s so much more civil this way.’

‘You cannot fool me. I know you miss having a partner, even if you pretend to like the freedom more. Do not worry, we will find someone worthy.’

“Here,” Natsuki said, handing David a folded bit of paper.

“What?”

“It’s a list of the best songs right now. Jess wanted to know what music she should download, right?”

“You know, if you’re going to be pen pals maybe you should practice English rather than send everything through me,” David replied.

“She’s your sister,” Natsuki said smiling. “Besides, it’s fun giving you more work.”

With an innocent grin, Natsuki led Takumi and the others into the gym. David sighed and thought of his sister as he waited for the bottleneck at the gym entrance to clear. It took everyone a few minutes to find and change their shoes at the entrance, so he read over the list. At the top was AKB48, an all-girl group with nearly one hundred members. While it was true he had noticed many of his classmates listening to their music, he did not want to point his little sister toward their idea of fashion.

Once everyone was in the gym and had lined up by class and year, the ceremony began with greetings and bowing led by the vice-principal. After about an hour, the ceremony ended and their teachers released them to their normal classes.

Back in the classroom, their homeroom teacher Mr. Moriyama explained that most of the beginning of the semester would be devoted to getting ready for their school trip to Kyushu and the Cultural Festival just after. The rest would be getting ready for finals.

‘Great. Tests, homework, and monsters for who knows how long. Maybe we should just sneak off and go hunt Chul Soon.’

‘If we had done as I suggested, we could have tracked him. By now, he must be too far gone for me to hunt. We will just have to hope the monsters they send do not injure your cub mates.’

Class 2B’s schedule for the next two weeks had them focusing on all things Kyushu. In Social Studies, they learned about the history of the most southern of the four main Japanese islands. They also studied the geography of Kyushu’s Prefectures and the history of Nagasaki and its exposure to Western culture through the Dutch. In science, they covered the region’s unique animals and plants, while in Japanese they studied dialect differences.

After school, David joined with the twins and Natsuki in the gym. David laughed at their shivers and complaints about the cold. Just a few weeks before, the team had sweated through each practice complaining about how hot it was. With the change in weather, the entire team had invested in new Yonex HeatTec clothing to keep in their body heat. Even Takumi muttered as he zipped up a full tracksuit. David’s choice of shorts had most of his teammates wondering again if he was sane.

On the courts, they all worked through their usual warm-ups and drills. Takumi and Natsuki’s constant practices together on the Estate showed most when they played together. Few could challenge them because there was such synchronicity in their movements. Their badminton playing, more than anything else, began the rumors that they were dating, though no one dared whisper such things around either of them.

After badminton, David walked the few kilometers back to the Matsumoto Estate with his friends. He opted for a human dinner, much to Kou’s annoyance, then joined the others for evening practice.

Unlike in the mornings where the focus was on physical martial arts, David spent most of his evening practice time repairing the damage he did to the forest trees while practicing with his Seikaku. It took him nearly double the time to fix or create something than it took for destruction. Masao never smiled when he assigned tasks, but David suspected he enjoyed giving exercises that were ever more intricate.

Since the Matsumoto’s swords were in high demand and with Nakano villagers often seeking Masao’s advice as the local Shinto priest, there was also significant enough traffic on the Estate to require the extra time David spent fixing his accidents. Yukiko reminded him of the fact when she came back with a giant radish that still had a rather large wood shard in it. David fixed the vegetable, then left Rie and Natsuki in the forge so that Kou could run with Reimi through the Estate.

“Don’t forget to write about the kappa,” Yukiko called after. David groaned.

“Yet another page in your own Jitsugen Samurai Diary,” Takumi said. “You can title it ‘My heroic near-drowning.’” David lunged after his host-brother, but he disappeared into a puff of smoke as Reimi took wing. Growling, Kou chased after the gray bird.