Solitude & Shadows - Back To Normal? II

They were at the front of the school now, and Ariyama saw a lot more people piling into the main courtyard. 

Genichirou stuffed his hands into his pockets. Ariyama noticed that he had no bag or anything with him. Not a good first impression for a new transfer student.

"Well, here we are. That was a nice chat we had, you and I. Sheesh, this place is crowded. How many students are there? Actually, scratch that, I don't care."

Genichirou stopped him and turned to face him, hands on his shoulders.

"In other news, I'm a third year student, and you absolutely stink of a second year, so I don't think we'll see each other again today. In that case, good luck today, rich kid. I wish you peace and prosperity for the rest of your week."

Ariyama bristled at the words 'rich kid', but stayed nonchalant as Genichirou flashed him a dazzling smile, gave him a wink, and disappeared amongst the incoming wave of students heading to homeroom.

Ariyama stood there, slowly being swarmed by the crowd of students too, a little dumbfounded.

Ariyama had never been to Kyoto before, but did people there really act like that?

Genichirou seemed… weirdly enthusiastic. If it was Ariyama, for example, he'd be kind to anyone he met, sure, but he wouldn't be gallivanting around and chatting with people he didn't know on his first day in a new school.

That didn't mean Genichirou had anything wrong with him, it just was a bit of a shock to Ariyama.

Replacing his thoughts of Genichirou with his thoughts of school, Ariyama swallowed thickly, his chest aching with nerves as he tried to slip into the wave of students, trying to stay incognito.

But that lasted a grand total of twenty seconds, when he heard a very familiar – and aggravating – voice, call out his name.

"Oh my God, Ariyama? Dude, it's been ages!"

Ariyama gritted his teeth and covered his mouth with his hand in annoyance.

"You've got to me kidd–"

Just then, like a flash of lightning, the accurately-named 'Idiot Trio' appeared right in front of Ariyama.

Kajima was out of breath, as always, a look of greed and fake joy on his face. He was flanked by the other two members of the Idiot Trio squad, Machira and Sudo.

"Yo, dude, it's been, what, two weeks?"

"Three…"

Ariyama still had his gaze downcast, his voice gruff coming from his clenched teeth.

"Ah, right, three weeks. Man, that's even crazier."

Sudo idly flexed his pecs.

"So crazy."

Machira grinned like a fool.

"Definitely crazy."

They were the ones who were crazy. Like, what was this? Were they three parts of a hivemind or what? Just thinking of them made Ariyama usually angry. They were really the last people he wanted to see.

"Don't think about that. So, Ariyama, I heard what happened, we all did."

Kajima's stupid plain face put on a fabricated look of pity. 

"It really sucks what happened back then. To that little guy, Takemichi. Not as much sympathy for Jack and Yasami, though. They were a-holes, aren't I right? Proper jerks. Oh, and your bro, too. Yaranagi, right?"

Damn it all, why was he mentioning them? Ariyama couldn't… He couldn't keep focus.

The memories came flooding back like a physical attack on his mind.

Shrine.

Booby traps.

The knight.

Takemichi 

"But we have to move on, yeah?"

Yasami.

The tentacle.

The locusts.

Jack.

"Isn't that the healthy thing to do in a situation like this?"

Shit, it wouldn't stop.

Matsune.

The sword.

Idolseus.

Yasuke…

"So, anyway, you remember that console we mentioned some time back? Well, we're still looking to buy it, so if you'd be a dear and let us borrow some yen–"

Don't let him speak any further.

Ariyama snapped and lunged at Kajima, dropping his bag at the same time. He grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him in close to his face.

Up close, Ariyama saw the fear striking through Kajima's eyes.

"Listen up, you son of a bitch. I've spent God-knows how long trying to satisfy you and your gang here. At the start, I even agreed and lent you some money. But now? You've pushed your luck too far."

Machira, sweating from the intensity of the situation, approached slowly.

"Dude, chill out. You're so damn rich, I don't see why you have to be so selfish as to not give us a penny–"

Ariyama grunted as he threw Kajima at him, and they both went down in a heap.

Despite his rippling muscles, Sudo made a scared sound and stayed where he was, staring in astonishment at his two friends, flailing about on the floor.

Ariyama bore holes through them with his glare, and stuck out a finger to point at them.

"I'm sick of being nice, OK? You three have no idea what I've witnessed, and never will. So no, I'm not buying you your fucking console. Not now, not ever. Go and try scamming someone else out of their yen, why don't you? Actually, forget that. If I catch that happening, I'll beat the hell out of all of you, you understand?"

Luckily, most of the other students had already filed into the corridors, heading to class, leaving the courtyard clear, save for the four of them.

Kajima wrinkled his nose in disgust as he pushed the still-flailing Machira off him and sat up, glaring daggers at Ariyama.

"You've made a big mistake, dude. Kirameki's already on the fence about you, but once he hears about this, you're dead meat. You hear me? Dead meat!"

With his outburst concluded, Kajima stumbled to his feet, face scratched up from getting face-planted onto concrete, and wobbled off. Machira scrambled after him, and so did Sudo, his head hung low in defeat.

And then they were gone.

Ariyama struggled to put his breathing back at a steady pace, his fists clenching and unclenching. He'd never gotten as angry at other people at school before. And apart from his beatdown of Jack while trapped in the Shrine, he never got that angry at people full stop.

But damn did it feel good.

But he did wonder what that small voice in the back of his head was. The one that had told him to shut Kajima up. And who was that Kirameki they mentioned? Ariyama thought he recognised that name from somewhere, maybe someone from another class, but he wasn't sure.

"That was some display, Ariyama-kun."

Ariyama hadn't realized he was staring down at his feet the whole time, and that distinct voice was the thing that broke him from his daze.

He knew it was Matsune, before he even looked up at her pretty face as she approached him.

Upon closer inspection, she had a weird expression on her face. On one hand, she had a look of relief from seeing the Idiot Trio get put down, but also looked sad for some reason.

Ariyama wondered why.

Matsune's eyes shifted, and she raised an eyebrow.

"That streak of white in your hair…"

"Oh! Yeah, I used my mom's hair dye to cover it. I don't want people thinking I'm going gray at seventeen."

Matsune chuckled at that one, her shoulders quaking slightly. As she stopped in front of him and crossed her arms, a small smile broke out on her face.

"I abide by the school rules, and so I don't condone violence like that, but that was satisfying."

Ariyama couldn't help but return her smile.

"That's what I was thinking."

"But it's much more than you think, Ariyama-kun. It's bad enough they kept pestering you about getting loans of yen, but they're also total creeps. Once, they got caught trying to peek at the girls in their changing room during P.E. As I said, total creeps."

Ariyama nodded happily, another wave of temporary warm washing over him.

But that warmth froze over as Matsune's face suddenly switched like a light, her features flipping and a frown appearing out of nowhere.

"But on the other hand, I hate seeing you like this, Ariyama-kun. I know we barely talked before what happened, but I know you were always so kind and nice to everyone, even to people who were less fortunate than you."

Ariyama knew what she was saying, but it didn't stop a vein from stretching across his neck in anger.

"So, what, you're saying I'm not like that now? Well, I'm sorry for not being completely fine, less than a month after…"

Matsune nodded understandingly, holding up her hands to ease the situation. 

"I know, Ariyama-kun, I know. It may not seem like I'm affected by them being gone, but I am, trust me. It's just that – and I mean this in the nicest way – they were more your friends than they were mine." 

The way Ariyama was currently feeling, he was inclined to argue, but managed to restrain himself. She wasn't wrong on that front. Ariyama knew she had her own friend group, even if she called everyone in the school her 'friends' – which was one reason why she was so popular.

She probably didn't care much for Jack or Yasami, barely ever talked to Takemichi, and only interacted briefly with Yaranagi.

Ariyama suddenly felt the energy drain from him like a tap, all of it rushing from his system unbelievably fast. Within a few moments, his knees wobbled and he found it hard to stand straight. Matsune approached with concern and placed a helpful hand on his arm. The touch brought Ariyama back to that night again, when she touched him and tried to calm his nerves. A shiver running through his body, Ariyama was about to flinch and move away from her, but her aura of pure warmth won him over. There was something about her, something kind and protective that emanated from her.

Was this another of her powers? 

Ariyama knew she could use that bracelet on her wrist to summon a chain of energy with a kunai attached to use like a whip, but was that the extent of it, or did she have other abilities he wasn't aware of.

He had been staring absentmindedly, and Matsune gave him a small shake.

"Are you OK? Listen, I'm here if you ever want to… talk about it, alright? I'm the only one who knows what happened, so you can rely on me, OK?"

Ariyama gave her a nod, his mouth set in a hard line.

"Sure. Anyways, let's just cut to the chase. Why did you tell me to come back to school today?"

"I just thought you were out of school for so long… I thought it would be helpful if you got back into the swing of things as soon as possible. I did it, and it's… helped, a lot. Some bit of a distraction, you know, from reality?"

So Ariyama had been right about his previous ideas of what Matsune had been up to. Still, he agreed with her to an extent. On paper, it did make sense to not dwell in his misery, but in practice, he just couldn't make himself do it. After all, it had taken every ounce of strength he had to get to school that day, and that was after three weeks of isolation.

Ariyama had to respect Matsune's strength in returning to normal life after such an experience.

Ariyama cracked his knuckles as he looked around the empty courtyard, then back to Matsune.

"So, what's the truth?"

"Hm?"

"Let's be real here, Matsune. We both know there's something you want me for, because that's the main reason you told me to come in today. I was wondering before as to why you came to see me at such a random time, but now it makes sense. My theory is that you've been doing something – I have no clue what – and now is the time you need some help. You gave me some time to recover, but now that I've been exposed to this world of magic and monsters, I can help you out somehow."

Matsune blinked incredulously at him for a moment.

Uh oh, was he too on the nose?

But then her look of shock was replaced with a humorous smile.

"Wow, I'm impressed."

It was Ariyama's turn to stare.

"Wait, was I right?"

"Basically, yes."

"Oh, wow."

"You seem so shocked, yet you were so confident in yourself just then."

"Yeah, well, I wasn't being serious. I just pulled all that out of nowhere."

"Oh, really? Well, lucky for you, you were just about spot on."

"Well, that certainly makes me feel good." 

"As it should, Ariyama-kun. As it should."

Matsune then sighed, retracting her hand from his arm and motioning for him to follow. Wordlessly, she turned and began to walk off.

Apprehension swirling in his stomach, Ariyama hesitated but then quickly went to follow.

They headed through the empty corridors, the distant chatter of the classrooms. Ariyama was worried, continuously glancing up and down the hallways to check for any teacher who could catch them.

He could only imagine if someone like Ijichi-sensei caught them. Ariyama knew he'd get mad, obviously, but he wondered just how mad he would get. Matsune always had him basically wrapped around her finger, as she was probably the only student he actively liked. 

Maybe she'd get by, but Ariyama? Not a chance.

He didn't exactly feel as confident as she did, walking through an empty hallway while class was in session. On the one hand, he was kinda glad he didn't have to sit at his desk for any classes and actually interact with other people.

But what if people found them together?

The thought made Ariyama blush uncomfortably. He was glad Matsune was a few strides ahead of him and didn't look back to see his red face. 

That was probably the last thing he wanted to happen today.

He continued to follow Matsune, until they were just about to round a corner, when there was the sudden sound of quickly approaching footsteps.

Matsune cursed under her breath – Ariyama had never heard her curse before – and moved like a bullet. She grabbed him and twisted, shouldering the door next to them open as quietly as possible, and pulling him in with her, pushing him up against the wall with her body as the door gently shut.

They stood there, pressed against each other, for a few seconds, listening as the footsteps got closer, then eventually faded away.

They remained for another few moments, ensuring there wouldn't be any more visitors. At this time, Ariyama looked down at Matsune. She was keeping him pushed against the wall of the janitor closet, and no matter how much he tried to ignore it, he felt her on him. Her slight curves and noticeable definition in her arms and stomach shifted against his less-than-impressive physique. He was fit enough, thanks to his sword training, but Matsune clearly had some regiment that was far better than his.

Ariyama, being the age he was, had an image flash in his mind. An image of this exact scene, except Matsune had a noticeable lack of anything to cover her naked body.

Ariyama gulped, gritting his teeth slightly to keep control of his own body. She was still pressed against him, and if anything unwarranted appeared, it wouldn't bode well for this new relationship they had.

But luckily, Matsune was off of him after another moment, giving the cramped closet one look around.

"Hm. Cozy."

Then she turned and slowly eased the door open, waving her hand behind her for Ariyama to follow. Righting himself and busying himself with fixing his tie, he took a breath before following her out. 

That was intense.

After that, there were no more close encounters, and they reached the location Matsune wanted without resistance.

The location itself happened to be some empty room in the Easternmost part of the school, where there was seemingly no one around. Ariyama wondered if he'd ever even seen this place before. He wasn't exactly one to go exploring the premises.

The room itself was fairly chilly and was gray all over, from the tables to the floor to the walls. It looked like it had once been a classroom, but had been cleared out to be renovated into a storage room. 

Shelves and boxes lined the room in rows, and there were tons of electrical components too, from some kill switch and a generator in the back right corner. As another plus, the two rectangular windows that were on the opposite wall to the door were covered with black sheets, leaving the place drenched in darkness, except for the soft glow of the generator and a single light bulb high on the ceiling, which looked to be on its last legs.

Making sure the door was shut behind them, Matsune let out a sigh of relief, then turned to face Ariyama.

"Alright, we should be hidden in here, for the time being."

Ariyama scratched the back of his head.

"Just wondering, but why go through the trouble to have our chat here? Wasn't there an easier place to talk about this."

"Easier, absolutely. But not safer. What we need to discuss… It needs to be done in a spot where there's absolutely no chance of anyone catching us."

"Why? I mean, everyone will just probably think we're talking about some TV show or something. It's not like they'd think we were telling the truth when talking about magic and stuff."

But to Ariyama's surprise, Matsune shook her head.

"That's where you're wrong, I'm afraid. This is the integral part of my so-called mission here."

Ariyama paused for a moment.

"Wait, are you saying you went to this school, only to act as some undercover agent for that Pilgrims' Society group?"

Matsune just chuckled.

"You're so funny when you jump to conclusions, Ariyama-kun. No, I didn't. After all, I've only had Violetta Eterniella here for two years."

She pulled up her sleeve to show off her glittering silver bracelet. Ariyama just blinked at it, then up at her.

"Sorry, Violet Enterna-what?"

"Violetta Eterniella. That's the name of my Enchanted Tool here. Well, really, that's its name when it looks like a glowing purple chain and kunai, but most Tributes call it by their name, even when it's sealed."

"So the Tools have names?"

"Indeed. Even your sword does."

"Is that so? You know what it is?"

"I'm afraid not. You only learn the weapons name from the Pilgrim you're contracted with. For me, it took me nearly a whole year just to figure out the name of mine."

Ariyama nodded understandingly. So that meant it would be Idolseus who would tell him the sword's true name? But how would he talk to him again after making the contract? Was he supposed to tell him the name when they first made the deal?

Matsune crossed her arms and leaned back against the wall.

"But we've been skipping over the main point of this for long enough, so it's about time I explain. Essentially, I am conducting a sort of investigation in this school."

This piqued Ariyama's curiosity, and he leaned forward a little.

"Huh. And what're you investigating?"

Matsune took out her phone, tapped a couple times, then showed the screen to Ariyama. He frowned.

"Uh, what exactly am I looking at?"

"This is a picture I took five weeks ago. It's what I'm investigating, because I believe this picture is proof of there being an unregistered Tribute either working or studying in this school."

That came as a shock to Ariyama, but his focus was still on the picture. It was an image of what seemed to be a stone wall, and on its surface seemed to be a dark patch of something, like an ink stain on paper.

"So what? It looks like some stone that's been through a bit of weather damage."

"From an outsider's viewpoint, it would seem unassuming. But it wasn't the physical changes in the rock that gave me my theory, but instead the aura I felt around it. It was the aura of energy, mana, of an Enchanted Tool. I knew I never deployed Violetta Eterniella in that vicinity, so, through the process of elimination, I came to the conclusion it was an unregistered Tribute."

"And why's it an unregistered one in particular?"

"Simple. In the Pilgrims' Society, you can check the rate of activity of all registered Tributes, and sure enough, I was the only registered one in this area."

Ariyama let out a breath he'd been keeping in. That was some intense detective work, and he still didn't understand what she meant by 'mana', but he figured it was a question for later on.

"I see. Well, what can I do?

Matsune took her phone back and tapped at the screen again. When she showed Ariyama the screen, this time it showed a gray-scale top-down map of the school and its premises. There were distinct red Xs marked at sporadic points across the map.

"As you'd guess, I've spent the last five weeks putting my head down and focusing on this investigation, as well as balancing my public life. It hasn't been easy, but I've made some progress. Here are all the spots where I've felt the presence of an Enchanted Tool. There were more, but I filtered out all the ones that pertained to my own Enchanted Tool. And this–"

She swiped the screen and a huge list of names popped up on a spreadsheet, also with some marked with an X. 

"– are the names of all staff members and pupils. I've been slowly making my way through the list over the past month and a bit, but I've come up short every time."

Ariyama tapped his chin thoughtfully as he surveyed the list. There had been about ten or so red Xs on the map, and on the spreadsheet, he counted a hundred or so names with Xs. That, unfortunately, meant there were still around three hundred people left to check.

This was going to be tough work.

"Ah, gotcha. So, with me, it'll be double the speed."

Matsune nodded with an air of excitement. Ariyama found an issue with it, however.

"That's cool and all, but what do I have to do exactly? I know I need to do a bit of questioning or whatever, but I'm not very confident in checking for auras or whatever."

Matsune shook her head.

"You've got it wrong, Ariyama-kun. I didn't do any interrogations with these people, instead just checking their aura levels. I need to find the person with an aura that matches the frequency of the residual mana I found. A Tribute's power comes solely from their Tool, so if I can find the wielder, it'll be a match."

"And I'll repeat what I said: I don't know the first thing about searching for auras and matching them."

Matsune walked up to him and put a reassuring hand on his arm, like she'd done before.

"And that's perfectly fine, Ariyama-kun. It took me some practice to get it down myself, so we can do the same for you. We don't need to work on this together straight away. I can help you harness that technique, then we can get to work at twice the proficiency."

Her warm smile washed away the creeping worry building in Ariyama's chest. She just had that effect on people, he supposed.

"So, just to confirm – because I haven't properly asked yet – do you want to help me?"

Ariyama gave her a look that said, "What do you think I'm going to say?" Ariyama smiled and was about to agree, but suddenly something caught his voice.

Of course he wanted to help. Right?

But then again, did helping her out just mean more chances to experience death and devastation? 

Ariyama wasn't even sure if those creatures were specific to the Shrines, or if they were the types of demons – like from the manga he read – who manifested from the shadows at night as well.

If that was the case, he would hesitate.

Maybe Matsune was doing this in order to distract him from his depression, to give him something to focus on.

"Matsune…"

"Yes?"

"Am I… If I do this, am I going to be hurt again?"

Ariyama hated how feeble and weak he sounded in that moment but he couldn't help the shaking in his voice.

At his vulnerable body language, Matsune's face softened as she rested a hand on his shoulder, giving it a soft squeeze. Even though they were the same age, or maybe she was older by a few months, it still felt like Matsune was his mother, soothing him of his troubles. It was a weird feeling, to be coddled by someone your own age.

"Ariyama-kun, I am going to protect you, OK?" 

Ariyama saw her eyes were shining with unshed tears.

"I… couldn't protect anyone down in the Shrine. I wasn't strong enough…"

Her breath hitched, as she wiped a tear from her cheek.

"But I will protect you, OK? I promise you."

She stared deeply into his eyes, and a chill ran down his spine. She looked like she meant it, and since this was Matsune Sasya, she definitely did.

Ariyama bit the inside of his cheek to keep himself level, then held out a hand.

"OK then. I trust you… First, you can teach me all about auras, then we can find this unregistered Tribute and bring them to justice or kill them or something…"

He gave Matsune a questioning look, just as she took his hand. She returned his gaze with a small smile.

"We bring them to justice.

"OK, we'll bring them to justice."

They shook on it, and that was that.