Mitsui opened his eyes slowly and as his vision begun to work he was aware of a presence before he could see Kuwata hovering beside him, the boy's brown eyes wet with tears.

"Sempai!" the boy exclaimed, hurriedly rubbing his eyes before his tears could escape, "I thought you'd never wake up!"

Where am I? wondered Mitsui as he groggily took in his surroundings. He looked at where he was laying on and saw that it was a couch. A familiar looking couch. He knew he have seen it before, only he had never been in a position where he could see the colour and crease of the material up so close...

"I've made dinner, sempai," Kuwata rambled on as he stood up from his kneeling position on the floor, "If you're not up to it, I can bring the food to you and we can eat together."

Mitsui was stunned when he realised where he was. He was reclining on Kuwata's couch, pillows propped under his head and a blanket covering half of his body. Kuwata's house? How did he bring me here? What happened- "Kuwata!" the third year called before the boy could disappear into the kitchen, "What happened to the guys at the building?"

Kuwata turned his head around and regarded Mitsui thoughtfully, looking a little petulant, before he continued his way to the kitchen.
"They've been taken care of."

"What-?" Mitsui tried to sit up but he was doing it too quickly that his head swam.

Kuwata yelped in agitation and was beside him again in an instant. "Are you alright? You shouldn't try to get up! They hit your head badly. I told you I'd bring to food to you."

"No..." Mitsui gasped, rubbing at his temples to help him get rid of the dizziness, "I'm okay."

"Why don't you stay here, sempai?" Kuwata suggested, suddenly perky, "Your parents aren't home so we can accompany each other!"

"Iie..." Mitsui said, slowly getting up, "I need to go home. Outosan and Okaasan will be back tomorrow night. I have to clean up the house or they'll be pissed."

"But..."

"Good night, Kuwata," said Mitsui, going out of the house as quickly as he could, grabbing his bag and shoes along the way.

Kuwata's shoulders drooped as the sudden silence magnified the emptiness of the house. In the kitchen, the dinner prepared for two was already luke warm, sitting on the table as laid waste.


~~~~

As soon as Mitsui safely reached the inner walls of his house, he slid down on the floor, panting, his legs aching and his head pounding. Slowly, he made himself stand and with lethargic steps, walked towards the living room where he sat heavily on the couch before switching on the tv. Carefully, he scanned the channel and when no important news came on, he leaned back on the backrest closed his eyes. Mitsui saw with his own eyes that more than three college boys died by Kuwata's powers and he wondered why the police have not found their bodies yet.

"They've been taken care of."

Mitsui opened his eyes and stared at the white ceiling, his blue eyes showing weariness and anxiety. The calm words from Kuwata did little to ease Mitsui's worry and only made him become more aware of the lack of compassion in Kuwata's real self. He shivered, wrapping his arms around himself as he leaned forward to rest his forehead on his knees. Kuwata has never lost control before but seeing it for himself what the lapse in control did to people who encountered the boy's wrath and power was a frightening thing to witness. Remembering the screams and the empty looks of the dead boys made Mitsui curl his body in tighter.

Suddenly, the phone rang and Mitsui jumped in his seat in startlement. Afraid that it was Kuwata calling to check up on him, he hesitated for a few more rings before he made himself pick up the phone.

The feminine voice on the other side of the line made him breath a silent sigh of relief.

"Mitsui-sempai?"

"Ah. Ayako. What's up?"

"Just calling to ask when your parents will be back home," the girl replied jovially.

"Tomorrow night," Mitsui told her, smiling slightly at the thought, "So tomorrow will be your last chance to feed me."

"Ha~i," the girl said, laughing, "How about Kuwata-kun? You think I should pack him some lunch as well?"

Mitsui stiffened at the name. "I don't know."

"Maybe I should," Ayako said distractedly.
"Hey, Miyagi wants to talk to you," the manageress suddenly said.

"Now?"

Mitsui blinked when he heard Miyagi's incredulous voice before a series of scuffling noise began at the end of the line. Before long, Miyagi's gruff voice reached his ears and in Mitsui's opinion sounding a little awkward,
"Hey."

"Hey," Mitsui said, twiddling with the phone's wire, "What's up?"

"Nothing much. Just wondering what're you up to," Miyagi said non-chalantly.

Mitsui arched an eyebrow. "Same old stuff."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Coz I was wondering, y'know, if the two of us could hang around sometimes and just... y'know.... talk."

"You and I never hang out just to... talk," Mitsui said dryly.

"Well, we can start anytime, baka!" Miyagi snapped before the guard suddenly yelped.

"You know what I mean," Miyagi grumbled after a while. Mitsui grinned, guessing that Ayako must have whacked the guard with her paper fan and the boy was at that moment rubbing his bruised head.

"Yeah, I know," Mitsui said, touched.

"Ok. So... I'll hand you over back to Ayako...."

Suddenly, there a click on the phone and instead of his friends' voice, all Mitsui heard was the drone of a non-dial.

Mitsui blinked, wondering if Miyagi had accidentally put down the phone and after half a minute of waiting he dialed the number to Ayako's house and waited. After a few moments, the ringing stopped and answering it was neither Ayako or Miyagi but Ayako's mother.

"Is Ayako there?" Mitsui asked.

"She just went out with Miyagi-kun to take Shi-chan out for a walk," the woman replied, "I don't think they'll be out long. It's already late."

"Ah, hai," Mitsui said, "Thank you."
After Ayako's mother hung up, the third-year placed the phone back on the receiver and frowned.


~~~~


Two teenagers waited by the road, standing still as their empty eyes stared ahead into the dark night. Suddenly their feet moved and they ran towards the road, stopping right in front of an oncoming truck that they heard rumbling heavily in the distance. When the heavy vehicle was not able to stop in time, the two teenager did not even flinch as it struck them before they flew across the street, their bodies manggled and lifeless. Someone screamed and the truck driver ran out, pale-faced, after calling for an ambulance with his radio. The road was spattered with blood and other unidentifiable things and all the driver could make out was that one of the victims was a girl with long curly hair before he ran to the side of the road to vomit.

"What?"

"Miyagi and Ayako were killed in a road accident last night," Anta said somberly. It was clear from the rough tone of the boy's voice that he was trying hard not to cry, "Anzai-sensei called me this morning. He said practice is cancelled today but we should all be at the gym to talk."

"H-How... How did it happen?" Mitsui demanded hoarsely.

"A witness said that they just ran up to the road when the truck was coming. The driver didn't have time to stop... " Anta's breath suddenly hitched and after a few moments of gathering himself together, the boy shook his head. "That's all I know."

Mitsui was still speechless before Anta spoke again. "Where's Kuwata? We need to tell him, too."

"I-I don't know..." Mitsui said hollowly, "I'll drop by his house later."

The meeting with the basketball team was quiet and short and everyone was silent and gloomy despite a touching speech from Anzai-sensei. After they were dismissed, Mitsui headed towards Kuwata's house, wondering how he would tell the boy of the news. After Mitsui, the closest friends that Kuwata has ever had was the two and he knew that the tragedy would strike the boy as hard as it did to him. The nagging thought that Kuwata would care about Miyagi and Ayako's death as much as his mother's cotatonic state was pushed fiercely away.

When he reached Kuwata's doorstep, he rang the doorbell and a few moments later Kuwata answered with a cheery smile on the boy's youthful face. Mitsui stared, not at Kuwata but at what the boy was holding in his arms.

"Mitsui-sempai!" Kuwata exclaimed, "Come in."

Mitsui dazedly walked inside, his eyes boring at the boy's back as Kuwata walked in front of him.

"She just went out with Miyagi-kun to take Shi-chan out for a walk."

"How was school?"

"Miyagi and Ayako died in a road accident."

Kuwata stopped and turned towards Mitsui with an unreadable look on his face.
"Oh."

"Where did you get the dog?" Mitsui said quietly.

"Shi-chan is mine," Kuwata said defensively, stroking the puppy's soft fur.

"Did Ayako and Miyagi come over last night?" Mitsui asked lowly.

"Yes," Kuwata said, "To give Shi-chan back to me. He is mine, after all."

"What did you do to them?!" growled Mitsui advancing towards the boy, "Did you make them kill themselves?!"

Kuwata bit his lip, hugging the puppy to his chest who whimpered at Mitsui's outburst. "Stop it. You're scaring Shi-chan."

"Answer me Kuwata," Mitsui growled.

Kuwata stepped back before he turned his face away, looking guilty but not morose.
"So what if I did?" Kuwata said huffily.

Mitsui stared at the younger boy in aghast.

"But then that means that you can come over more often, ne?" Kuwata said cheerfully, "You don't need to do any more of that revision that you hate so much."

The scarred-face boy stepped back, horrified, as he slowly digested Kuwata's reasoning. He now understood the workings of the boy's mind. Mitsui had thought that it was just a matter of making the junior safe to keep the deadly powers at bay but now he saw that what escaped Kuwata's mother's psychic prison were not the mind powers but Kuwata's monstruous side - the volatile, childish and dangerous boy who has no qualms of using the powers that he was gifted with.

Kuwata, oblivious of Mitsui's terror, kept on talking, "Ne, do you want to stay over tonight?"

/This is not the Kuwata that I know... He is still the same... but he's also different ...

"I- Iie," Mitsui said quickly, "I need to go home. My parents will be back tonight. The house is still a mess-"

Suddenly, there was a click from the other side of the room and the tv sitting quietly on the long wooden cabinet came to life.

"-this has just came in. The flight number 421 from New York was reported to have crashed into the Pacific two hours ago. All the passengers have died in that crash-"

Mitsui stared in shock at the plane wreckage on the tv screen, seeing the little debris floating along the waters while the heavier parts lay in the ocean, outlining the shape of whatever was left of the plane.

421....? That flight... outosan.... okaasan...

"See?" Kuwata said, happily nuzzling the puppy's head with his smooth chin, "Now you don't have to worry about going home and being scolded again."





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