Spiral: Bond of Reasoning
Back in High School
Emerging from the corridor of darkness Sora and his friends found themselves in a hall. Sun shone in from one wall of windows and empty classrooms were seen on the other wall. The tiled floor was smooth and clean. They were isolated in the hallway, but a look outside foretold that the students would soon be arriving.
The group was back in their human forms, but they still wore a new wardrobe. The boys were in blue pants and jackets while the girls had white jackets with red pleated skits. Mog was the only one unchanged from the trip. He hovered in the air as content as can be.
“Hm, so what should we do now?” Sora asked.
Kairi tugged at his jacket sleeve, stating, “We should go to class, you boys could use the education.”
Sora pulled back, almost slipping on the waxed floor. He caught the frame of a window and was able to support himself.
“What, we just walk into a random classroom? We’re not even enrolled into this school! Wouldn’t the teachers look at us suspiciously? Shouldn’t we be looking for a way back home?” he rambled. Trying to change the subject, he looked over at Zefferia and continued, “So, uh, seen any ghost cats lately?”
“No,” Zefferia breathed in a meow-like tone.
“Oh, how’s the journal coming along?” Sora searched.
Zefferia shrugged innocently with her hands in the air.
“Non-existent; the thing is that I’m not real enough to touch or affect it, much less write in it,” she sighed.
Zefferia heard a plop to her left while speaking, which she didn’t take notice of until she was done speaking and perceived Sora’s bewildered expression. She glanced to her side to see that the notebook was sitting on her hand.
“You were saying?” Sora pointed out.
“I meant to hit you with it, but your hand got in the way,” said Riku with a shrug.
Zefferia brought the book in front of her and held it with both hands. She shifted it side to side and up and down, observing that it did move with her.
“Well I’ll be,” she said in awe, “I guess the book thinks I’m real now.”
The natural response would be to question how a book could think, but before anyone had a chance to ask such, Riku felt a tug at his sleeve.
“Eyes-kun, what are you doing here?” a small, timid voice asked.
Riku looked down to see a short girl with gray pigtails tied with ribbons. Her bangs were cut over her eyes in the center while the sides grew down to frame her face. Her sleeves covered most of her hands and were significantly wider than her wrists.
Quizzically, Riku replied, “Yes I have eyes, that’s how I see.”
The small girl let go of his sleeve and covered her mouth.
“Oh, you’re not Eyes. I was hoping he had come to bring me a Yubari Melon,” she said to herself.
She then looked at the group starring at her. She raised her other hand and extended a finger. The others followed the direction to where she was pointing. Apparently, she had spotted Mog and Moogles were not native to this world like they were in the last.
“What’s that?” She asked.
The others sweated. Mog inhaled, preparing to explain himself to the young inquisitor, but Kairi sprang over to him and grabbed him out of the air. She held him close with one hand over his mouth and the other keeping his body still.
“Uh, just a new toy I brought to show off. Pretty neat, huh?” Kairi made up.
“Oh.” The girl tilted her head then turned to address Riku with a polite bow, “I’m sorry, I thought you were someone else.”
The girl turned to run off but tripped on her own feet after a few steps. She let out a squeal before her face hit the tile. The others were taken aback, but before they could offer to help her, she got up with a groan and continued on her way.
Mog continued to struggle against Kairi’s grip. When the girl was gone, Kairi let him go. The small, yellow creature huffed and turned.
“What’s the big idea!” the Moogle fumed.
“I’m sorry, Mog,” Kairi apologized, “but we can’t stick out. The best thing to do is for me to carry you and you to be still and quiet so no one suspects.”
Kairi looked at Mog with big, pleading eyes. She held out her arms. Mog’s little wings flapped as he hovered up and down in front of her. He let out a huff and then flew into her open arms.
Just then, the sound of glass shattering resounded down the hall. Everyone turned to face the source then ran to see what had happened.
When they arrived at the scene, they saw a broken window and two teachers arguing with the little pigtailed hair girl in between them. The female teacher was accusing the student of breaking the window while the male teacher claimed she was being charged unfairly. The little girl had her hands together and looked like she was on the verge of tears while she insisted that she didn’t do it.
“The rock came from the outside and broke the window,” the girl timidly claimed.
“Don’t lie to me! If the rock came from the outside, then why is there broken glass on the outside?” the teacher exerted.
The group looked on at the scene, feeling like they should help out, but not knowing how. A broken window did not seem something that the shy little girl was capable of, but the teacher did not seem like she’d be swayed by a testimony of the girl’s character. Still, Sora stepped forward.
“Miss, I don’t think she was the one to do it, she was talking with us down the hall a few minutes ago,” he informed.
“Almost a solid alibis, but she did make it here before the window broke,” snapped the teacher.
“But doesn’t that alibis show she would have a lack of motive?” the other teacher piped in.
As the quad debated, the others heard a sigh beside them. Students had been gathering to see what the commotion was so this was the first they noticed who had taken Sora’s place in the hall as Sora had joined the argument. It was barely a wonder they didn’t notice the change beside them as the boy standing there also had brown spiky hair. His hair seemed to burst out from the right, front side of his scalp in long thin locks. He had an apathetic look on his face, framed by long sideburns.
“Glass is flexible,” the boy said as if it was obvious, “When the rock hit, the glass retracted. It was curved at the time it broke, sending the shattered glass in both directions. That is why there is broken glass inside and outside the window. It’s what they call the ‘blowback phenomenon.’ There’s nothing unnatural about it.”
Everyone stopped to look at the boy and take in the logic he had said. The prosecuting teacher turned red in anger and embarrassment. The other teacher smiled at the boy. Everyone else looked relieved that the debate had been finalized in the little girl’s favor, especially the girl. The boy held up a notebook to rest on his shoulder, tapping it against his head as he resumed his course through the hall.
He continued, “This girl didn’t do it. Now that you get it, you should clean up this mess and apologize to her.”
“See how smart you guys would be by taking your studies seriously?” Kairi whispered to Riku.
“Smart nothing. That one teacher seemed stupid compared the kid’s logic, he’s just brilliant,” Riku defended.
With the problem solved, most the other students moved on to their classes. The girl bowed and thanked the boy before she left, but tripped again as she turned to go. Like before, she got up and ran down the hall before anyone could check on her. The boy shrugged then continued down the hall with Sora and his friends following behind.
Sora exclaimed, “Wow, that was amazing how you figured that out!”
The boy stopped and looked as Sora questioningly with a hint of annoyance.
“It was nothing,” the boy replied.
“Don’t be so modest Narumi-san!” exclaimed a girl with big, brown pigtails that popped out from behind him, “You need to give yourself more credit!”
The boy sighed, “Shouldn’t you guys be going to your classes before you’re late?”
“Narumi-kun, can I speak to you for a moment?” asked the teacher who had defended the girl.
He shrugged and went over to talk with the teacher. The others looked at each other, wondering what they should do next. The girl that had appeared straightened up and pointed at the group, eyeing them suspiciously.
“I haven’t seen any of you around here before!” she accused.
The group looked guilty at the accusation. While Sora was thinking up an excuse, the girl whipped out a notebook and pen and began writing furiously down in her notebook.
“Uh what are you doing?” asked Sora.
“Entering your data,” the girl replied with her pen unwavering, “Those tags on your shirts have your names and homerooms in them.”
The group looked down at their school uniforms and noticed she was right. The boys had gold ovals with their names and a letter-number combination under their left breast pocket while the girls had similar nametags holding their neckties under their collars.
“I am curious as to how you transferred to Tsukiomi Private High without my knowing, but within the week that will change. I’ll know where you live, your blood type, and what you eat for breakfast!” an evil snicker escaped her lips with an accompanying chuckle, “There isn’t a student that gets by the school newspaper president, Yuizaki Hiyono!”
The group sweated under the sudden influence that came over the seemingly innocent girl. She was rather cute when she was smiling before, but now that had melted into malice. The group searched for a way out, or at least to change the subject in hopes of the dark aura passing away.
The girl brightened up with a sweet smile again, singing, “But you can just call me Hiyono-chan!”
“Um, so you know what is going on with that Narumi kid and the teacher?” Sora asked.
“Oh, that’s Narumi Ayumu who is talking with Imazato-sensei, probably about…” Hiyono replied, flipping through her notebook, stopping, and pointing to a page, “…the incident he just solved for Takeuchi Rio, the poor misjudged defendant.”
While the others marveled over how Ayumu had deduced the situation, Zefferia marveled at how Hiyono seemed to have so much information at her fingertips. The What-if jumped towards the reporter, falling to her knees with her head bowed and her journal held above her head.
“Oh sempai! Train me in your ways! Teach me the art of journaling!” she exclaimed.
Hiyono’s brown eyes sparkled at the sight of a fan. Her smile curved almost to resemble a kitten face. She adapted an air of regality as she waved one hand by her ear and picked up the outstretched journal with her other. She tapped the book on Zefferia’s shoulders as if dubbing her an apprentice.
“Fear not,” Hiyono expressed, “From now on, you are under the intense Hiyono-module of journalism, young Zeffy-chan.”
Zefferia jumped up with her hands clenched under her chin, assuming a similar kitten-like expression that Hiyono showed a moment before.
“Ah! She called me ‘-chan!’ That means I’m small and kawaii!” Zefferia squealed, especially high on the foreign word. She then brought a hand to her mouth and whispered to the others, “That means cute.”
“She seems to blend in real well,” Sora whispered to Riku and Kairi, observing how much she could resemble Hiyono in such a short amount of time.
“Well she is very adaptable,” Riku confirmed, having seen how she had adapted to his wants in the past.
Ayumu passed by the group. Hiyono spotted he was done conversing with the teacher so she followed him, continually chattering in his ear while it appeared that he attempted to ignore her. Zefferia trotted behind, eager to learn how she would properly fulfill her appointed task. The others were at a loss so they shrugged and followed.
Ayumu and Hiyono reached a door that was labeled as the newspaper room and went in. The others came in as well. Inside, there was a computer on a desk, shelves of research materials, and a table with four chairs. Hiyono had taken the swivel chair at the computer while Zefferia propped up on the counter beside her and began braiding her hair into pigtails to match Hiyono’s style. Ayumu dropped his stuff on the table and plopped into the nearest chair. Sora, Kairi, and Riku took the three remaining chairs at the table. Kairi set Mog on the table, and signaled for him to remain still.
Ayumu looked questioningly at the new students, but Hiyono introduced them and reminded Ayumu that he couldn’t complain since he shouldn’t be in the office either. In response, Ayumu shrugged and leaned back with a cooking magazine in hand that he began to study.
“So did you have a good talk with Imazato-sensei?” Hiyono winked at Ayumu.
Ayumu scratched his chin with his free hand as his eyes looked away in thought.
“I’m going to meet with him later,” Ayumu explained, “He knows about the Blade Children.”
