Between him and one of his oldest friends stood a man dying, much like how Yuki felt like at the moment. Though it came as a hard view to take in. Which shocked him more, witnessing a man, a real person, dying in front of him or seeing a girl he had known to be i and sweet pletely covered in the man’s blood. Painted dark in crimson hues, Ayumi nearly looked like she walked off a horror set. If he had the strength he would have backed up a little.

  fusion along with panic began to crawl over his body. What secret did his friend hide from him? Why did she have such a cold and dispassionate expression drawn over her fabsp; Who attacked him? If she killed once, would she again? What did she want? Questions stacked in his head like reports delivered from a dozen assistants all demanding equal attention. Yuki doubted even one would get answered.

  “...what’s…Ayumi…” New fshes of pain reminded him that his life remained in danger. It jolted his limbs and sucked in air through his teeth. “...I feel so…”

  Removing the Xiphos from within the chest of the assassin, Ayumi stepped babsp; Emptying her mind of the sword, it faded away along with the rest of the sand field. She promptly ged the w sets within her mind tasking it with two objectives. Eliminating any evidence of the attack along with the assassin and repairing the damage the mission objective sustained.

  She firmly marched around the soon to be corpse as a blue ripple shot out from her footsteps. Within moments faint blue particles of light rose up maintaining a tight formation around her body. The blood once soaking into the school uniform separated from the fabribsp; Absorbed into the particles, they evaporated into the air broken down into base atomipos to return back to the natural cycle.

  Kneeling dowo the wounded, she examined his dition and status of the repair. ‘Bone on the fingers are already restructed and bleeding halted. Looks like the shock did more to him thaacks.’ While her field worked to restore his body and up the blood, she turo the two civilians that actally intruded into the se. ‘This will be more problematic, but no other way.’

  “S-stay away from me!”

  “I-I d-did-dn’t see any-ything!”

  her could escape. Manacles from the ground tied both firmly to their locations. With their voices uo breach her territory, she had the time to sider her mission. Ayumi walked stoically towards the two. No hint of a menag presence, yet they didn’t need one sidering what they witnessed. Both cried and pleaded for their lives.

  Slowly kneeling dowweewo, she pced a hand over their eyes. “You walked around the gym tinuing to talk uninterrupted until you returned.” The filing and screaming from the two quieted to a still silenbsp; Released from their restraints, she left them alone.

  firming the assassin’s body pletely broken down, she returo her objective. The wounds finished mending themselves. He would recover, though the shock probably would inhibit him. Ayumi reached out, grasping his arm aing him back up to his feet. “ you hear me?”

  A sharp bold voice echoed through the soup of Yuki’s mind. It took a moment, but the voice acted like a wind on the fog that numbed his senses. Pulled ba the baited line, his sciousness leapt bato his body. The st few minutes currently missing as he stared at his friend. “Ayumi? What are you doing here?”

  He slowly panned his vision around the back of the gym seeing absolutely nothing. ‘Did I imagi all?’ Yuki searched out more carefully for anything disturbed. Nothing. No signs of a prank gone wrong, no bullies getting their ughs off, nothing.

  flicts between his memory, which slowly started to clear up the ret blurs, ay fought a battle of duel brushes to assert the truth. He didn’t know which to believe. And the ck of evidence carved doubt into his mind.

  Yet while he sidered the offer tet everything that reality attempted to barter, the truth spped him with an obje. His knees buckled for a moment and he lost focus for a moment. A tight ha him from colpsing. “Why do I suddenly feel so lightheaded?” Another pull of gravity rattled him. “W-woah?!”

  “It’s the blood loss. I repaired the wounds, but you still bled out for a minute.”

  “Blood…? So all that happened?” The st frames fshed ba reminding him of Ayumi killing the man. It jolted him sober. “What the hell’s going on, Ayumi? How are you involved in this?”

  ‘He’s sharper than I guessed. Most don’t have the crity to already just make such es after a near death enter.’ Sing the sports team in the distance, she assessed the risk quickly. “This is not the pce for such a versation.”

  “What?! You ’t–” She released his arm. It surprised him how much support she provided him as more than lightheadedness washed over him. Muscle fatigue and low energy smmed his body all at onbsp; The high of adrenaline finally disappeared. For as familiar a feeling as the drop from the high was to him, he never felt so drained before.

  Looking to Ayumi for help, his childhood friend that he thought he knew just walked away from him. If Saki didn’t run to his aid first, she would be o him before he k. Yet she just showed an oddly tall strong ba silehat demanded he follow and on his own. “Dammit! I want something to make sense!”

  Running to catch up turned out to just be a fantasy in his mind, his legs pletely refused to give him anything more than a sluggish pace as if he were an old man. And to make matters worse, Ayumi just marched oending like he didn’t just nearly die. Right, he almost died, he o circle back around to that as well.

  Order of operations, answers from Ayumi came first, if he just caught up to her. “ you walk slower? Injured over here.” He hoped that would at least pause her for a response, but nope.

  “You’re not injured. You hardly even fought.”

  “Not sure throwing sand ts as fighting, but daily bullies aren’t actually trying to kill me. So my apologies for not being in peak physical dition to defend my life.”

  “Yoing to want to fix that.”

  “Fix what…ah dammit…” Hopping a little to force his body into motion, which it really wao dee, Yuki got enough brief momentum to carry himself into a light sprint. Each step reverberated through his legs. It all felt worse than he cared to admit to him. Rushing the distance caught him up, though he prayed the future didn’t demand i for the effort.

  He grabbed Ayumi's wrist. “It should be safe now. Ready to expin yourself?” Half a dozen possible plot theories filled his mind in just the walk, given time he’d find tenfold more. Which trope and cliche made the foundation of her lies?

  The first bell souhrough the grounds cutting off any further words. Ayumi turned away heading to the side door. “You ’t be serious.”

  She paused, gng babsp; “Would you rather be te and raise questions from Saki? You obviously have many questions and for now the danger’s past. When we won’t draw unwatention, I’ll answer you.”

  “Dammit…” Immediately, his mind jured striking imagery of Saki filled with panining through the halls. “She’d probably shake down half the bullies in the school… Against my better judgment, after school.”

  Chapter 2 - Hidden Shield

  Afternoon couldn’t e soon enough for Yuki. Once his obligations to the css ended, he disappeared swiftly with Ayumi. Unfortunately, those deys cost him his moment.

  “Hey Yuki!” called out a familiar voibsp; Tilting his head, Yuki firmed Hiroshi hurried over with Kazuhiro and Tatsuya behind him. It pletely slipped his mind that they would be meeting him today.

  He turo his approag friends. “Right, it’s Tuesday, Saki’s got after school practibsp; We’ll pick this up ter.” Before Hiroshi got too close to notiything, Yuki straightened up and pulled back up the usual smile he carried around for everyone. “Hiroshi! You guys were able to find me!”

  “You did sort of just ninja yourself out of the css. I thought you were on ing duty.”

  “I’ve been practig the art! Gd to see it worked!”

  “I don’t know about that, I still found you!”

  “And here I thought standing out in the open was the perfect disguise!”

  “It was the wind, you didn’t take that into at.”

  “Right, dammit! I’ll get better ime!”

  The two ughed a little as the bit ended. “Ready to go?”

  “Just o get my bag–” Suddenly, his bag dropped in his arms off s. “From css. Thanks, Ayumi!” He tried to sneak a look over to her to figure out if he had missed it on her. Clearly he was more blind than he realized. Or her secret turned out to be a magi, theory hirteen.

  “Y-you’re wele! I’m surprised you fot your books.”

  “I was taking the trash out, so I po return.”

  “Good to go then?”

  “Would seem that way! ce you got picked out today?”

  “You know I’m gonna run out of new pces to show you eventually, Yuki.”

  “Not today though,” he grinned with excitement.

  Hiroshi stopped mid point and tilted his wrist a little admitti. “I guess that’s true. This is ohat Kazuhiro and Tatsuya discovered with me ba our crazy junih days!” Quickly, he reverted to a casual walk towards the school gates.

  Dropped with su iing backstory detail, Yuki hurried along to keep pace with him. “Oh will I get to hear about the wistful days of youth? Mistakes of good iions and bad deeds! Tales of friendship and blood!”

  “I think you’re overhyping someone so average. You save the dramatic tales for your books.”

  “You’re anything, but average, Hiroshi!”

  “ing from someone like yourself, I’m not sure where that puts me.” A small smirk drew over his face as Yuki tried to peek a read of his expression. Just a disappointed pout iurn for not finding a clue to if Hiroshi spoke the truth or not. “Perhaps I’ll share something with you after we’ve been friends longer.”

  “I ’t wait!”

  Hiroshi thought, ‘Between the rumors, those that went to his junih and what I see o me, I really don’t know what to make of someone like him. If even a couple of the stories told about him are accurate, he’s far more crazy than anything I’ve done. Staying close seems the smartest thing for now…’

  Warm evening light painted e highlights across the city. Low hums of traffic kept the view from being too perfect as the adults started leaving daily jobs. A different routine filled the city no longer dominated by the youth.

  Exging waves, Yuki and Ayumi saw off their friends. He watched the three boys make it to the interse, before Ayumi’s voice cut through even haze of the city noise. “You’re rather impressive. Keeping up that mask of yours the whole time.” The smile he always held dropped as Yuki turo face Ayumi.

  Cold dark eyes with a heavy shadow painted across his face stared at the girl that became a stranger. Immediately, his gaze dug into her features and expressi to pick out what was real and where the lies began. Memories tradicted reality, which was right. Who was Ayumi? “Not nearly as impressive as a childhood friend hiding that they’re a killer from everyone.”

  “A soldier.”

  “As much as I appreciate the distin, that’s not really the matter at hand right now.”

  “Fair enough. You want answers.”

  ‘I’ve had so long to think about what she would say, I don’t really know what to expect or to believe. All I know is that something that should be pletely impossible happened and this is all feeling like a dream.’

  “Speaking pinly, you’re a key figure in a political battle that will decide the future of my people.”

  “That’s the elevator pitch, give me the back of the book summary.”

  “Huh?”

  “I was attacked by a man that could defy the ws of reality and physics!”

  “He, like myself and you, are part of a group of people who rewrite the ws of the world to create anything that our imaginations e up with.”