Chapter 7: Setting The Stage For No RE:Turn-WAR Beyond The Horizon. Part 9

Part 9

The sound of voices broke through the locker room as several students began to enter.

Blue lockers lined the white-tiled wall.

Right now, the time was 11:57 a.m.

With the end of gym class, the next period was lunch.

"We could've beaten the other class in basketball if you played with us, Haruko" a student of the group said.

After a few seconds of silence, the student turned his head back.

Haruko was behind the group with a depressed look on his face as he stared at his hand.

"Yo, earth to Haruko"

The random call out startled the teen, causing him to look up.

"You okay?"

Haruko looked at the student.

"Ye…yeah, I am alright. I am good, no worries" Haruko quickly said he was trying to reassure everyone.

With that statement, he began walking to his locker, sat on the bench, and exhaled before taking his shirt off.

It was almost noon, but so far today has been really stressful for the teen, mainly since that last period.

He found out that even without physically wearing his necklace, he could still use his powers—or rather, they would leak out of him in various emotional states.

It was small sparks that were emitted from his body, but it took all of his willpower not to have the gymnasium and half the school up.

(Somehow I need to find a better way to have control over my powers)

Haruko sat there with his shirt off, wearing his black gym shorts over his black and red compression pants.

"Wavin' at her two crazy, Fugazis, I'm too brazen, three brazes deep" Haruko started rapping the lyrics to a rap song he knew to himself as he started to get dressed.

Haruko kicked off his sneakers and opened his locker.

"We got .380s and P80, .99s, M10s and M1s, and 12 gauges. Shell cases, money put up for jail cases, they'll make it"

The teen moved his phone off his folded shirt and took the shirt out of the locker.

"My momma say, Tuck your chain, son; they'll take it, I hit her with one of them stale faces like, I'll be damned momma, they know who I am momma. I'm still your little boy, but to them, I'm the man momma. Fuck with your boy, man Hollygrove the hood-"

DIIIING

Haruko was cut off as a faint bell sound rang out from the phone.

Placing his shirt on the bench, he grabbed his phone and tapped the screen with his right thumb.

The screen had lit up.

"What the hell?" Haruk whispered to himself.

The first thing he noticed was that there was a message on his phone.

Several messages, actually.

Seventeen in total, all coming from one person.

Alexis Matsumoto.

His little sister

Deciding not to read the message, he opted to call her instead.

As the phone was ringing, he held it between his right ear and his right shoulder as he started taking off his basketball shorts.

There was a quick second pause in the ringing before the call was picked up.

"Hel….hello Haruko I have been trying to reach you for a while….um….what are you doing at this moment?"

It was Alexis's voice, but it sounded shaky and nervous, the same way he did when trying to weasel out of a bad test grade or report card.

"Me, I just got out of gym class and am about to head out to lunch. What's up?" Haruko said as he unfolded his jean pants to put them on.

"Alright" Aoi said.

Haruko could hear a deep exhale coming from her through the phone.

"Haruko I need you to listen to me closely" Now her voice was clearer and more serious in tone. "Aoi has gone missing"

There was a pause from Haruko as he processed the information that was just told to him. The words Aoi and missing were just now used in the sentence.

Haruko wanted to shout out on the phone, but-

"What do you mean missing?" Haruko said in almost a whisper into the phone not to be heard by the other students. "She just left the house and ran away"

"Not quite"

"What do you mean?"

"Well… I sort of took her with me to Third Ave. so that she wouldn't feel lonely in the house. I just left real quick to pick up an order, and why I came back, she was gone"

A dozen thoughts ran through his head.

Was she kidnapped?

By who or by whom?

Did she run off?

Where to.

Was she taken because she was a Crystal Guardian?

Whatever the reason was now for her disappearance, now was no longer the time to sit idly by.

"I'm going to try and find her" Haruko said, taking off his compression pants and leaving him with just his boxers, tank top, and ankle socks.

"How are you going to do that?"

"I'll figure something out" Haruko replied as he was putting on his pants, his shoulder crashing into the locker beside him.

Not even fully pulling his pants up, he quickly set his phone down and grabbed his shirt out of the locker to put it on.

Pulling his shirt down, he grabbed his phone off the bench and placed it in his right ear. Haruko pulled up his pants to let his feet peek through so he could put on his shoes.

"Are you sure that you can find her?" Alexis asked.

"I am not sure to be honest, but I can't sit here and do nothing; you know that I can't"

There was silence from Alexis before he spoke as Haruko grabbed his jacket and backpack out of the locker.

"I know" Alexis said softly. "Just be careful"

Haruko smirked.

"Aren't I always?" Haruko said, putting on his jacket.

Now, as he stood there fully dressed, he was ready to find her.

He was most likely going to cut the rest of his classes, but given what was now at stake, he would have to deal with the consequences later.

Now for the final item.

Haruko opened the zipper to a small pouch in his bag to get the most important item for the teen.

A red, six-sided crystal that proved both his power and title as a Crystal Guardian

With the pouch open, Haruko stuck his hand inside, and after a few seconds, he paused.

Nothing.

He felt nothing inside.

The pouch was empty, and his necklace was missing.

He panicked.

He quickly searched inside and outside the bag, but he was not able to find it.

He has been a Crystal Guardian for a little over a week, and now his crystal necklace is missing.

As he lifted his bag off the bench, he saw a yellow piece of paper stuck to the bottom of the back.

"Huh" Haruko said as he pulled the stick-it note off.

"Haruko, are you alright? You haven't said anything for awhile.

"I'm going to have to call you back" Haruko said before hanging up the phone and reading the yellow paper.

His heart sank as he read the message on the small piece of paper.

Meet us at this location, and nothing will happen to you or the other Crystal Guardian.

"What the hell is going on?"

Chapter 7: END