Daisuke here. Last time we met I joined a secret organization of exorcists who hunt down evil monsters which are disguised as regular animals. My training was going great until a super powerful fox monster attacked and my teacher tried to kill me. Now my friends and the organization are accusing me of being a monster in human form, but that can’t be possible, can it?
Chapter 8
Thanks to Shuro's tutoring I managed to scrape by with a C on my next math test. Sis stuck it on the refrigerator next to Hikaru's finger painting in an attempt to encourage me. She used to do the same thing when I was in elementary school.
"And look, Dai-chan got a C on his math test, isn't that amazing," she announced to everyone during dinner in the same babyish voice she used when talking to Hikaru.
I stared at her blankly and then returned to eating my food. Sometimes I suspected that Sis hadn't fully comprehended that I wasn't seven anymore.
My school sports day was a few days later. Akito warned me not to use my new found powers at school. He said that I might draw unnecessary attention to myself which could be difficult to hide from the organization.
Whatever. It was the perfect opportunity to look cool. I was only going to be in high school once, so the last thing I wanted was to regret not making the most of it. Unfortunately Sis also knew what I was thinking and banned me from participating in any of the events.
"Come on Sis, javelin, please let me enter the javelin," I begged the day before.
"No," she said while shaking her head.
"How about discus? It's like throwing a frisbee."
"No."
"Shot put, just let me enter the shot put. I promise to throw it only a little bit."
"I'm sure you would, but it wouldn't be long before you'd get carried away and start showing off."
"Showing off? As if I would ever show off."
"But you've never won a race before. Wouldn't everyone think it was strange if you suddenly started winning at something?"
"But it's my first year! I've never been in a race in high school before!"
"No! All you have to do is sit there and watch until the end of the day and we won't have any problems."
"But everyone will get mad at me if I don't participate in any of the events. We have houses you see for sports, and we get points for participating in events even if we don't win. The red house has apparently won for the past three years just because they force everyone to enter everything. Everyone calls them The Red Terror."
"That doesn't mean anything. All they're doing is tricking you into exercising by competing you off against each other. You don't even get anything if you win."
"That's not true! The teachers at my school would never be able to trick me into doing anything."
Our school didn't have any houses except for sports, but my school hadn't been original enough to think up any good names, so they were just called the Blue Team, Red Team, Yellow Team and Green Team. Apparently the students used to vote for their favourite team names a few years ago, but it got out of hand when the blue team decided to call themselves Yellow Looks Like Urine, so now we were stuck with boring names. We also had to wear different coloured clothes to tell our teams apart, so I left the house dressed from head to toe in green like it was St Patrick's day.
Sports day was held at our school's sports ground every year. All the teams had to sit on tarps on the outskirts of the field while different events took place. There was also a grandstand, but it was just for parents, teachers, and the guy in my grade who broke his leg sliding down the stair banister.
All the exorcists and I had been split up when it came to teams. Taisei, Mana, Souta and I were in the green team, Kurumi and Kiyori were in the yellow team, Nina was in the blue, and Itsuki was in the red team. Keira was also in the blue team so the two of us had to part ways at the beginning of the day. I saw him talking with a few of our classmates at lunch time. I was a little sad that we couldn't be together, but it meant that there was nothing standing between Mana and I.
"Here Mana, you can sit here," I said while indicating towards the tarp that I was sitting on. I forgot to pack a tarp that morning, but luckily Souta remembered to bring his. I even managed to convince him to enter most of the events so that Mana and I would have plenty of time together.
Taisei was also there, but he spent most of his time over at the yellow team attempting to talk to Kurumi. The school principal caught him and tried to send him away, but Taisei just borrowed someone's yellow T-shirt and was back there straight away. Most of my team members called it betrayal, but I was just thankful that Mana and I didn't have to go through the anguish of being separated.
Parents were also allowed to come watch. I could see a few of them wandering around the outskirts of the field and sitting in the grandstand. I was certain that Sis would have been there if she could, but luckily for me it was parents' day at Hikaru's kindergarten so she couldn't make it. All my fellow exorcist's parents lived too far away to come, so the only person who made it was Nina's brother. Most kids would have been overjoyed that their family came to watch, but Nina didn't look very happy.
"Why are you here?" I heard Nina ask her brother from the team next to mine. "And what's with the camera?"
"Why, I'm here to take pictures for father of course," said Nina's brother.
"If father wanted photos then why doesn't he just come here and take them himself?" Asked Nina.
"Now, now Nina, father is a busy man," said Nina's brother as he started snapping away at his surroundings with a digital camera. "He has plenty of very important exorcist events and meetings to attend to. He's way too busy to drive three hours to come here, so he asked me to watch instead. Now please be a good younger sister and win all your races, and remember to tell father that I was the one who trained you up to win. Maybe he'll even think of letting me come home this Christmas."
"I understand that," said Nina. "But why did he have to come too?" She asked while pointing to Hugo who was standing behind him with a large camera. It looked at least twenty years old, and he must have fished it out from Akito's storage cupboard.
"Hugo is my assistant for the day," said Nina's brother. "And Kurumi told him that your science teacher just broke up with her boyfriend, and I promised him a date, so if you could please point me in the direction of Miss. Kawasaki when you get the chance."
Hugo was the happiest I'd ever seen him, but I think Kurumi must have forgotten to tell him that Miss. Kawasaki was about fifty years old and had thirty cats.
Nina crossed her arms and didn't look impressed. As kind as Nina was, she was unmotivated when it came to exercise and training. She spent most of her time staring off into space and reading romance novels. Luckily (or unluckily) for her, her brother had decided to become her personal coach ever since I went back to school, so she had improved recently. Akito had even stopped talking to her like she was going to die every time we went on patrol.
Taisei on the other hand was the exact opposite towards his younger sister, and decided to take it upon himself to make Mana his personal photographer for the day.
"And you need to get a shot of me doing the javelin," said Taisei to Mana as he handed her his phone. "And make sure you take it from the right, I've been working out more on that side."
"Why don't you ask the principal to take it for you? He's already standing over there," said Mana as a joke.
"Really? Do you think he'd do that for me?" Asked Taisei who hadn't noticed the sarcasm in her voice. "Even after he threatened to give me detention if I was ever caught taking photos at school again?"
After a two hour argument at home, I eventually managed to convince Sis to let me participate in the high jump, if I didn't jump. I spent over twenty minutes waiting for my turn just to run into the bar three times. It was pretty embarrassing and I could have sworn that I heard Kiyori laughing, but at least no one in my house could accuse me of not trying.
Fortunately for me, it turned out that most of my teammates were even more unmotivated than I was. There were plenty of kids who were good at sports but none of them were in my house. Most of my teammates just spent the day sun baking or playing on their phones. I even saw a guy start studying in an attempt to get out of joining the relay.
Eventually my frustrated homeroom teacher decided to drag me in front of everyone and use me as an example.
"Daisuke should be an inspiration to you all," he said. "Even though he almost died from Ebola and can't do any sports, he still entered the high jump and won points for our house. It's that sort of dedication that I expect from the rest of you."
"What's the point?" Asked one of my classmates. "Itsuki from the red team is just going to win again."
"Yeah!" Said another guy. "Just the way he won the one hundred, the six hundred, the long jump and the shot put,"
"If Daisuke can run into the bar, then can't he just walk the three hundred meter?" Said someone in the crowd.
"Yeah, if Daisuke's so great you should make him do it!" Cried a girl behind me.
Before I knew it, all the guys in my house had started chanting Daisukel, Daisuke, Daisuke while waving their hands in the air.
"What do you say Daisuke?" Asked my homeroom teacher while looking at me hopefully. "Do you think you can do it?"
I wanted to say that my over controlling sister had banned me from entering so that I wouldn't be exposed as a super human, but I was also banned from saying that. I stood there staring blankly at my homeroom teacher until I could no longer take his desperate glare, and I nodded my head. I decided that I could just casually stroll down the field while everyone else dashed to the finish line. Yuto did that for the eight hundred meter (and even stopped to talk to a friend) until the teachers kicked him off the field. Sis would probably never find out anyway.
I jogged over to the track. I thought there would be lots of events going on at the same time, but it was the last event of the day so the entire school was watching.
"Crap, crap, crap," I muttered as I anxiously lined up at the start line. I didn't want to be seen walking down the field for ten minutes after everyone else had finished. They would tease me until graduation and I'd forever be known as the kid who walked the race.
I had no choice but to jog it. I knew that running was outside of my sister's rules, but as long as I jogged along with the pack, I was certain that no one would notice me.
I gazed up and down the row of guys at the start line. Most of them were pretty athletic looking, so I probably couldn't beat them even if I tried.
I looked towards Mana and sent a cool wink in her direction, but to my surprise she didn't wave or respond. I kept winking frantically until I noticed that she was staring at someone else behind me.
I curiously turned to see what caught her attention, and that's when I saw Itsuki lining up at the end of the start line.
Itsuki.
I clenched my fist. I couldn't explain why, but the way Mana looked at him was a thousand times more irritating than anything he had ever said or done to me. It was like she actually wanted him to win.
A dark and terrible thought which Sis would have hated entered my head.
What if my new super exorcist powers were enough to beat Itsuki at the race?
All of a sudden there was nothing that I wanted more than to crush my rival. It was a feeling that I couldn't suppress, and I found myself willing to disobey my sister and risk everything just to make him eat my dust. If I were to make Itsuki look like a loser in front of the whole school, then Mana would finally acknowledge me as a fantastic love interest, and Itsuki for the stupid loser that he had been all along. I had always wanted to beat Itsuki at something, anything, from the very first moment that we met at the beginning of the year, and maybe, just maybe, I finally had the power to make it happen.
"Take your mark!" Yelled my sports teacher as he raised his starting pistol into the air. "Go!" He yelled as he fired it.
I sprung from my starting position and dashed down the running track after my classmates. My pace became quicker like a god of speed had possessed my feet. It felt like I was flying across the track and I had never run so fast in my life. I ran past the slow kids in my grade, the guys who played sports, and a guy who beat me at the egg and spoon race in kindergarten.
Finally my only opponent was Itsuki who was meters a head of me. I could hear his house cheering his name as he dashed around the corner and towards the finish line. It felt like there was nothing I could do to close the gap between us.
"Itsuki, Itsuki, Itsuki!" Cheered the red house, but I thought I could faintly hear my teammates chanting my name as well.
I had always known that Itsuki was fast, but the guy could have been in the Olympics with that sort of speed.
My lungs began to burn like they were on fire, but I refused to give up. I put every ounce of energy I had into just trying to overtake him.
Just a little further. My thoughts screamed as I pushed myself to catch up.
My effort began to pay off when his back slowly began appearing closer and closer, until the two of us were finally neck and neck.
Itsuki was probably too smug to think that anyone could beat him, but when he noticed me running beside him his eyes almost popped out of their sockets. The temporary loss in his concentration was all I needed. I pushed myself ahead of him and passed the finish line first.
"First place, Daisuke Matsumoto!" Boomed my school principal on the loud speaker.
I jumped in the air with joy and there was a roar of applause from the green house across the field. Strangely enough I didn't feel tired at all, but I turned to see that Itsuki had collapsed at the finish line and was frantically gasping for breath. He raised his head and looked at me like I was some kind of freak. It was a look that he used a lot, so I wasn't surprised anymore.
"What... the.. hell... are you?" He managed to gasp between breaths.
"I'm the guy who just beat you!" I said proudly before I was surrounded by my fellow house members who ran onto the track to congratulate me.
"Daisuke that was amazing!" Said one of the guys who forced me to run. I was unaware that we were friends.
"And just to think that you were on life support a few weeks ago!" Called a girl from within the crowd.
Keira was also there trying to give me a hi-five, but the crowd of students kept pushing him back, and he was almost knocked over by one guy who insisted on throwing me into the air while the rest of my house chanted my name.
"Green house! Green house! We finally beat the red house!" Chanted all the students around me.
I expected Mana to come rushing out to praise me on my spectacular victory, but I couldn't see her amongst my smiling classmates. I got the students to put me down, and I gradually pushed my way through a bunch of guys who wanted to shake my hand. I couldn't wait to brag, and I was certain that she was dying to see me.
I searched the spectators and caught sight of Mana's short black hair across the field. I confidently strolled over with a grin plastered across my face.
"Hey Mana!" I called out, but she was already preoccupied with talking to someone else. I started jogging towards her, but I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw who she was chatting with.
She was talking to Itsuki.
I froze and stared at them both with my mouth hanging open in shock like a goldfish. I shouldn't have been surprised. Knowing Mana's strange Itsuki complex I should have seen it coming.
She didn't appear as confident around Itsuki as before, but she gently handed him one of her pink towels. Itsuki nodded his head in gratitude before he used it to wipe the sweat from his forehead. I couldn't hear what they were talking about, but Mana looked far happier being with him than when we were together. It was like my victory meant nothing to her and I didn't exist.
I felt utterly mortified. I couldn't believe that I had disobeyed my sister and used my special powers for my own benefit and she was still interested in that stupid guy.
I couldn't stand watching them for a moment longer. I had to get away.
I pushed away my classmates and homeroom teacher (who was trying to take my picture for the school paper) and stormed off as far away from the field as possible.
All the students and teachers had to participate in sports day so the school building was silent and empty. I trudged past the school gymnasium and wandered into the courtyard where the fox monster had tried to attack me. There was still a burnt patch on the wall where Itsuki hit the monster with a lightning charm to save me, but luckily for us the school assumed it must have been students trying to burn down the gym. It was a reminder of how our friendship had crumbled to pieces.
It seemed hard to believe how much things had changed. Back then Itsuki had been an awesome friend who'd been willing to defend me from bloodthirsty monsters. But now he'd turned all strange and hostile, and I couldn't believe that Mana cared more about him than me!
I was clearly the victim of the awful situation! Itsuki may have been popular at school, and had plenty of friends, but couldn't she see how terrible he was?
I kicked over one of the school pot plants in rage. The clay pot cracked and soil went spilling all over the cement. My anger and frustration couldn't be explained in words, and I was tormented by images of Mana and Itsuki looking happy together in my mind. They were probably already holding hands and making out behind the grandstand at that very moment.
I inhaled sharply and walked over to my favourite bench, only to have my feelings crushed when I discovered there was a girl already sitting there. She was furiously applying makeup with a small compact mirror without any consideration for me. I huffed and turned to walk away, but then I realised the girl was Kurumi.
She was so busy reapplying her foundation that she didn't notice my presence. Kurumi normally resembled her cousin Nina without make-up, but heavy eyeliner and dark eye shadow transformed her appearance into a completely different person. I couldn't help but think that she looked more like a punk artist than a seventeen year old high school student.
I didn't usually ask Kurumi for advice, but she was the only girl I knew who had a boyfriend, so that had to be enough to make her a romance expert. I spent over ten minutes spilling my heart out about Itsuki and Mana as Kurumi calmly sat there and fixed her eye shadow.
"I don't get it," I said as I paced back and forth in front of her while furiously waving my arms around in the air. "No matter how hard I try, or how cool I am, all she seems to care about is that guy! I clearly won that race and she didn't even walk over to say hello."
"All I can say is that you should just give up and find someone else," said Kurumi. "Mana is obviously too into Itsuki to notice you, and you're just wasting your time on this one sided relationship."
"But I'm not interested in anyone else!" I protested. "You're a girl! Tell me how to make her like me. You managed to do it for Taisei."
"You can't just force someone to like you," she said. "It doesn't work that way. Besides, you can't compare yourself to other couples, and that doesn't mean that Taisei and I will be together forever."
"But it makes no sense! She doesn't even talk to him that much anymore, and she keeps avoiding him all the time. How can she like him so much when she doesn't even want to hang out with him?"
Kurumi sighed and closed her make up mirror. She placed it back in a small make-up bag and began sorting through her other products.
"Don't tell anyone that I told you this," she said while looking around nervously in case anyone was listening. "But Mana's face was badly cut by the fox monster. The hospital did all they could, but they said it will never heal completely. She wants to have more surgery to fix it, but Mana's family might not have enough money."
"What!" I exclaimed. My mouth opened and closed as I searched for something to say. "But we're best friends, why didn't she tell me that?"
"You didn't grow up with us so I guess you might not have realised it, but it's no secret that Mana has liked Itsuki for as long as I can remember. She's probably afraid that he won't like her anymore once he sees her scar, so I think she's been avoiding him until her face gets better. After that she plans to admit her feelings or something. Even I don't know what's going on in her head."
"No way," I muttered. I wanted to protest, but I had to admit that part of me had always known that Mana liked Itsuki and that things were going to be this way.
"I'm sorry Daisuke," said Kurumi as she took one look at my disappointed face. "I know it might be hard, but I think it's time that you gave up on Mana. There are hundreds of girls at this school, so I'm sure it won't be difficult for you to find a better girlfriend."
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