Chaoskouji

Arc 4 Chapter 2 - A New Exam

Going back to my cabin hadn't been any better than wandering around.

Hirata's gloom still permeated the air, and even Kouenji was avoiding it, finding Hirata's attitude to be damaging to his wellbeing. Even just trying to rest, there was a stifling, crippling feeling to the room, one which made conversation uncomfortable, and resting tense.

In other words, I would be better off hanging my hammock off the rail of the boat and sleeping there.

Actually, that wasn't such a bad idea. Perhaps I should find a spot on the deck where I could sleep.

So that's how I found myself relaxing on one of the deck chairs near the back of the ship, a sickeningly sweet drink in hand, enjoying the ocean breeze.

"Oh, Kiyotaka-kun, I didn't realise you were here."

And here came my partner in crime, Kushida Kikyou. One of the kindest and friendliest people in the grade, someone willing to go out of her way to help anyone, with a cute smile and a warm attitude.

There was no one in the grade I relied upon more than her.

"Kikyou."

A rather neutral greeting, but I wasn't known as someone who interacted with people often, and not without good reason. This didn't perturb her at all, the kindness of Kikyou an unstoppable force being forced into existence by herself.

"I haven't seen you in days! You haven't been avoiding me, have you?"

"Not at all. I know you have a lot of friends who want to catch up with you, and I didn't want to get in the way of that."

At my words, her face broke into a brilliant smile, although if one looked past that you could just discern a hint of glee in her eyes. Kikyou had many friends, all of which loved her and wanted to spend every second with their very own angel. In the words of my classmates, there was no one nicer, no one more reliable, no better friend than Kushida Kikyou. Yes, when it came to being nice, she truly was the best.

All the efforts she had put into this act had paid off.

"You're one of my friends too. Besides, who else are you gonna play with? It's not like you have any other friends."

It wasn't strictly true, as there were people I could hang out with, but most of those wouldn't be for fun. Kikyou was the only person I could somewhat relax around, a rather sad fact.

She took a seat on the chair beside me, stealing my drink and taking a sip. The resulting face she made was worth having a second person steal my stuff today. I could only hope this wouldn't become a recurring theme.

"Euughh! How can you drink that, it's disgusting?"

"Try going 15 years with barely any sugar, and there isn't any amount that could be too much."

"Huh?"

She gave me a quizzical look at my statement. It was true, while in the White Room, I was on a heavily controlled diet my entire life, designed to be optimally nutritious with nothing harmful at all. Obviously, while I was still given a small amount of sugar in my meals, it was virtually non-existent compared to the sugar in most foods at school.

This wasn't something that Kikyou knew about, however, and I wasn't going to be explaining any further.

"Never mind."

I laid back down on my chair, content to humour her for a while. Before I could properly relax however, both our cell phones started ringing at the same time. There was a loud, dinging sound that meant we'd received a message from the school. Usually, it was a message with new instructions to follow, or some kind of modification to an event. Your phone would make a sound even if you had it on silent. Clearly, it was a message of high importance.