1 The Six - Our Gang

1
The Six - Our Gang

 

The boy’s name was Mikage Kasumi. He was seventeen. An outcast. He’d been expelled from school a year before, and done nothing much since. There was little point in going home, as nobody but he lived there anymore. He’d never bothered to get a job. Instead, he just spent his days wandering the town, hanging out with friends. He was part of a gang of six--four boys and two girls. Kasumi had no idea where they lived, or what schools they went to. All he knew was what they could do. He had a ‘talent’ himself, and the only people who knew it were the six of them.

 

***

 

There are twelve karaoke joints within a block of the main road alone. They’re clustered in the high-traffic areas—the farther you go from the station, the fewer there are. But there’s still over a hundred of them dotted across the city. Not that I’ve ever actually counted, but since we started using the private rooms of karaoke joints to do our thing, we’ve changed venues every time without ever needing to visit the same place twice.

“Room for one, sir?”

I requested a room for six for three hours. The part-time clerk didn’t look any older than me, and when he looked confused, I explained, “The rest are coming later. We’re meeting up here.”

“Fine, but…if they don’t show, you’re paying for them.”

“I know. I got money.”

He snorted. I didn’t blame him. I was wearing a school uniform and didn’t look like I had that kind of cash at all.

“You meeting some girls?” he leered.

“Some of them.”

He cackled.

“Hope they don’t stand you up!”

That was no way to treat a customer. This was not a well-run business. We’d been hitting a lot of those lately.

But…places like this were better for us. The ideal location for us to gather.

“Sure,” I said, and headed for the room he indicated.

I didn’t start singing when I got to the room. I’ve always hated karaoke. But karaoke rooms were the ideal location for a group of teenagers to hang out for hours on end without arousing suspicion.

I sat doing nothing, just staring up at the cheap lighting on the low ceiling.

I could hear muted singing from the room next to mine, and the room next to that. The more into it they were, the better for us.

 

I undid the front of my uniform. I’d taken off the buttons with the name of my school, and replaced them with new ones. I didn’t know why I was still wearing the thing this long after being done with the place. I guess I just didn't care what I wore, and with the uniform, I didn’t have to think about it. Or maybe because it was black? Like funeral clothes.

I’d added a large pocket to the inside of it. There was a metal lump the size of my palm inside.

A small gun. Loaded.

“Oh, Kasumi-kun. Lookin’ gloomy as ever.”

The door opened and one of the six, Nanane Kyoko, poked her head in.

She was… well, she was tall. Like 170 centimeters. About the same height as me. Despite that, she had a baby face, so she didn’t look grown up, but also didn’t look like a kid. I had no idea how old she was. She insisted she wasn't twenty yet. She was wearing a man’s jeans and jacket.

“I ain’t gloomy.”

I closed my uniform back up.

“Then don’t sit there staring at your weapon all pleased with yourself! You look like a total psychopath. Hehe.”

Nanane had a large gym bag slung over her shoulder, and she heaved it off onto the floor.

I knew what was in it, so I shook my head at her sheer nerve. How could she be so cavalier about carrying that around?

“You oughta be more careful with how you handle that shit.”

“Whatever. You keep worrying about everything, you’ll look even gloomier, Kasumi-kun.”

She brushed me off, which just made me mad.

“I said, knock it off with the ‘gloomy’ thing. And don't use my name! I hate it—it’s a girl’s name.”

Nanane just laughed. “You know, Kasumi-kun, I’ve been thinking… No, never mind.”

“Wh-what?”

I couldn’t just let her leave it unsaid. She shot me a sort of sexy smile, and said, “Nah, I thought better of it. Don't want to be mean, do I?”

She sure looked awful grown-up for such a baby face.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I said, frowning.

“Yo, you two fighting already?”

A man about my age came in, looking worried. Koumoto Kouji.

He had chiseled features, with angular cheeks and sharp corners, but his eyes were on the large side, which made him look strong-willed. He was technically our gang’s leader.

Of course, that was mostly because the rest of us had no interest in trying to wrangle the group.

“It’s nothing,” I said.

“I tried seducing him, but he shot me down,” Nanane chuckled. Koumoto was not the sort of dude to pick up on jokes like that, and he looked at me, alarmed.

“Y-yo, Mikage! We can’t have trouble like that…”

He sounded serious, so I quickly cut him off.

“Sh-she’s kidding! Nanane’s yanking your chain.”

Nanane laughed harder. “How can I resist?! Look at you!”

Koumoto just glared at her.

“Look, Nanane Kyoko-san.”

“What?”

“Do you even see yourself as part of our team?”

“I do! Totally. I mean, I’m only this upbeat when I’m with you. Not like I have other friends. The rest of the time I’m, well…gloomy.”

“Yet you keep yelling at me for calling you that?” My voice was louder than I intended.

“Keep it down. I could hear you outside.” Another member from our group, Kazumiya Mitsuo, chided us as he walked in. A big, muscle-bound dude, he was built like a tough guy, but had a sweet, gentle face and curly hair. Mitsuo reminded me of a dumb prince from some old animated movie.

“Tch,” I scowled, but let it drop.

“Sorry,” Nanane said, and bowed her head. I’d gotten used to these rapid switches in attitude with her.

“F-forget it,” I said.

Mitsuo gaped at us. “Lover’s quarrel? You two dating now?”

This clown always oversimplified things.

None of us bothered answering, so he looked at Koumoto.

“Kouji, are they?”

“I dunno,” Koumoto said. Still grumpy.

“Look, I’m not saying them going out is a bad thing!” Mitsuo said, totally meaning it.

“We aren’t, okay?” I said. Again, a little too loud.

“What? What’s going on?” asked the fifth member, our other girl, poking her head out from behind the door. Tsuji Nozomi was unremarkable. She was cute enough—on the small side—the sort of girl you found anywhere.

“Apparently Kasumi-kun and I are getting it on,” Nanane said.

“God damn it,” I said.

“Oh, that explains it,” Tsuji said, closing the door behind her. She put her sketchbook on the table.

“You’re just…cool with it?” Mitsuo asked.

“It’s none of my business. None of our business,” she said, shrugging. “They can do what they like. Not like they’ll be able to get any useful data, just the two of them, so they can’t exactly split off on their own.”

“I guess that’s true,” Mitsuo nodded, gravely.

“That’s not the point,” Koumoto said, completely fed up with the whole thing. “First of all, Mikage and Nanane aren’t actually dating. And let’s not just offhandedly talk about people leaving the group. Tsuji, you have a bad habit of malicious speculation.”

“Just the way I am.”

“Yeah, well, it’s a bad influence.”

Nanane grinned. “I don't mind.” She winked at me. “Do you, Kasumi-kun?”

I was too tired to bother responding.

“Well, I do mind,” Koumoto snapped.

“Argh, Kouji hates me again,” Tsuji groaned. She flopped down, staring at the ceiling, as I had been a minute ago. I felt a momentary connection.

The six of us weren’t from the same neighborhoods. Koumoto and Tsuji were the only two who’d already known each other—they’d gone to the same elementary school. But the rest of us never had anything to do with each other until we started gathering like this, in secret.

Sometimes I thought about how strange that was. It felt so natural for us to be like this, like everything else was just bullshit.

Koumoto protested, “See? You always have to act like—”

Thud.

The door slammed open, and the last member sauntered in.

Everyone turned to stare at him.

Tenjiki Yuu.

It sounded like a girl's name, but like me, he was a guy. But he was cute in a way that got him mistaken for a girl a lot. He was rail-thin, impossibly skinny.

“H-hey, everyone. Um… Am I last?”

He always spoke hesitantly, but with a smile. Yuu’s right arm was immobilized in a sling, which explained his dramatic entrance and difficulties with the door. There were bandages wrapped all the way to his wrist.

“Is it there today?” Tsuji asked.

“Oh, no, this isn’t that. I just fell over. This time—”

“Close the door first,” Koumoto said. He stood up, reached past Yuu, and shut the door.

“S-sorry, Koumoto-kun.”

“Don’t apologize! We’re friends.”

He said that so easily. That's why he was the leader.

Mitsuo clapped his hands, once. Something he always did when he wanted to get fired up. It had become our cue.

“Let’s get this rolling. Mikage, how long do we have the room for?”

“Three hours.”

“Can you extend that?”

“We doin’ this all day?” Nanane asked. “I’m down, I looove hanging out with you all.”

“We can ask for an extension if we go over,” Tsuji said, rationally. She opened her sketchbook.

Our two girls could not be more different.

“True,” Koumoto nodded, and turned on the karaoke machine. He punched in a bunch of random numbers and music started playing. But Koumoto wasn’t going to sing. This was just camouflage.

We set the volume low, so from outside it might sound like we were just singing quietly. The room next door was super loud, so anyone passing by wouldn't notice we weren't singing.

“Okay, then. Tenjiki, whatcha got for us?”

Yuu nodded and began taking off his clothes. With his delicate frame, it was like watching a striptease. The guys in the room shifted uncomfortably, but the girls both looked like they weren’t interested. Neither was at all embarrassed. You’d think they’d at least squeal a little! Or maybe they just didn’t even consider Yuu a guy.

Or maybe it was just that none of us were human, including them.

“See? Right here.”

Yuu pointed to his left side. There was a mark on his beautiful, pale skin, like a welt… only it was in the shape of the kanji for ‘east.’

This was Tenjiki Yuu's ‘talent.’ We called it Stigma.

“What’s it mean?”

“There’s something to the east? Something’ll happen, or something’ll come from the east?”

“Or maybe someone named ‘Higashi’?” Tsuji said, her eyes fixed on a blank page in her sketchbook.

There was a pencil in her hand, the tip hovering just off the page.

“East… East…”

Her fingers moved and began drawing something on the page.

“Is Automatic starting up?” Koumoto asked.

She shook her head. “No. I’m drawing this myself,” she said. She was drawing Yuu, standing there with his shirt pulled up, looking faintly ridiculous. Her hand moved incredibly fast. Whatever she drew ended up looking angelic, like an object of worship.

“D-don’t, this isn’t…” Yuu spluttered.

“Look, it’s sexy, don’t worry,” Tsuji said. “You’re a beautiful man.”

Yuu had dropped the pose, but the picture was already nearing completion.

“Maan, your art and your personality couldn’t be more different," Mitsuo said, looking over her shoulder at the drawing. “You’re downright cold-blooded, but your art has a real warmth to it.”

“Is your Baby Talk active?” Tsuji asked. “Or did those words just seriously come out of that face?”

When she mocked people, it was always calmly and never with any heat behind it.

“What’s my face got to do with it?” Mitsuo had a face like a tough guy, but blushed rather easily. It never looked right.

“Hey, Kasumi-kun, can Into Eyes see anything in my eyes?” Nanane said, peering into my face. I hated meeting people’s gazes, but I steeled myself and looked into her eyes.

For someone who had trouble with eye contact, it was totally unfair that I had a ‘talent’ that required doing just that.

I glared at Nanane, searching for signs of anything in her eyes.

She was grinning at me. We must have looked very strange: a guy glaring, a girl smiling back, and everyone around them quietly watching their staring contest.

I tried to focus.

All I could see in her eyes was my own face scowling back at me.

Two years ago, I’d been going out with a girl. She ended up dumping me, but she once said, “Mikage-kun, you’ve got a gentle face, but sometimes you look really angry. It's kinda scary.” That was the face that was staring back at me now.

I didn’t look like this by choice. I didn’t really like the way I looked at all.

As I kept staring, Nanane said, “You were thinking about a girl, weren’t you?”

“No,” I said.

“C’mon, take this seriously,” Koumoto said.

“I am! Wait…” I tried to protest, but then I saw a change. My face vanished from Nanane’s eyes, and someone else’s face appeared instead. “A girl. Some kid. She’s like…nine or ten? Chin’s a little pointy. Big eyes like a foreigner or a French doll…”

As I described what I was seeing, I heard the scritch of Tsuji’s pencil over the karaoke background music.

“Long hair, down past her shoulders. Gold hairband. Well-combed hair, she takes care of it. Red and black checked clothes with a white collar. Upscale, looks expensive. Oh, she’s gone.”

My own face was back in Nanane’s eyes.

I could only keep my power active for like, ten seconds.

“Mikage-kun, this look right?” Tsuji said, showing me a picture of a girl. I nodded. She always nailed it. She could totally work as a police sketch artist. Without her to draw for me, the visions I saw would be of no use to any of us.

“She’s pretty cute…but I don’t know her,” Nanane said, shaking her head. “Which means she must be someone I’m going to know.”

Yeah.

I had the ability to see who someone was going to meet. We called this talent Into Eyes.

It was a prophetic ability, I guess. But I couldn’t see faces for people I was going to meet, and it took me the longest time to realize it was anything more than my reflection becoming distorted somehow. I never told anyone, assuming they’d think it was creepy.

Until I met the other five people in this room… none of us told anyone.

 

This all started about six months ago.

I’d just quit school for a bullshit reason and had no idea how to fill my days. A friend of mine had done some bad drugs in school and started swinging a knife around. He didn’t have any real family, just some distant relatives, so I took a week off to take him to a rehab facility way up in the mountains, and when I got back…they expelled me.

Guess they thought I was the same as him.

Though I hadn’t done any drugs, I’d definitely been close to him. So I just decided the whole thing was stupid and let them kick me out.

I told my parents I’d take the University Entrance Qualification Exam, but I hadn’t made the slightest attempt to study for it.

Then in mid-February, I was wandering around the station, idly wondering if there were any decent part-time jobs, when I ran into a friend from junior high.

“Yo, Takeda,” I said.

Takeda Keiji.

Keiji jumped and turned towards me, but relaxed when he saw who it was.

“O-oh, Mikage! Haven’t seen you around.”

“You meeting someone?”

“Y-yeah.”

“For work? Or a girl?”

Keiji had been working as extra staff at some design agency since junior high. He was a good dude, but a little uptight, so I was joking about the girl.

But he shuffled awkwardly and admitted, “A girl.”

I whistled.

“Yeah? You finally ready for that sort of thing? Well, that’s good.”

“First time meeting her today.”

“Whoa… what, did you get Valentine chocolate from her? A letter in your shoebox?”

I was joking again, but he looked surprised.

“How’d you know?”

“It’s classic, man,” I laughed. How like Keiji to go old-school like that. “What’s she like?”

“Her name’s Miyashita Touka. But…I don’t think I’ve ever heard that name before…”

“Hmm?”

Curious, I met Keiji’s gaze and held it.

My reflection in his eyes changed, shifting into the face of a girl. She looked back at me with an earnest gaze, a little worried about meeting Keiji, a little hopeful. She was pretty cute.

Looks like a good kid, I thought.

I thought Keiji would probably like her.

“You should say yes, man. I’m sure it’ll work out.”

“I dunno.” Keiji looked lost, and not because he was embarrassed. “I just can’t make up my mind.”

“About what?”

“Mikage, what happens when you quit school?”

Where’d that come from? “Absolutely nothing.” I shrugged.

“Someone like me? Go to school, don’t go to school, it doesn’t matter. I just keep on living.”

“I’ve been thinking about dropping out,” Keiji said. This didn’t really surprise me. Anyone who got on well with me was probably at least considering it.

“Aren’t you going to Shinyo Academy? General Studies division?”

“I’ll be a third-year in April. Everyone else’ll be cramming for entrance exams. What’s the point of me being there?”

“Hmm… Yeah, you’ve got a different path in life.”

“But if I say that, I dunno if this Miyashita girl will understand.”

He was serious. He was always serious.

“I doubt she’s asking you out that lightly,” I muttered. The girl I’d seen looked like she meant it.

“You think?” Keiji cricked his neck.

“So, when you meeting her?”

Keiji glanced at his watch.

“Um… in like, fifteen minutes.”

He was here first? Of course he was. If he and Miyashita started going out, he was going to spend a lot of time waiting for her.

“Then I’d better vanish. You hang in there!”

I slapped him on the shoulder and started moving away.

“Um… Mikage!” he called after me.

“Mm?”

“Minegishi…I heard he died?”

“Yeah. Didn’t even have a proper funeral. Heard about it too late.”

“Shit.”

“I’m never there when it matters most,” I said.

I must have made a face, because Keiji spluttered, “No, I… I think you really handled that well. I was impressed. Getting yourself expelled trying to help a friend… I couldn’t have done it. So…”

“Thanks. But it didn’t mean anything, in the end.”

I sighed.

“Maybe you should stay in school for Miyashita’s sake?” I said.

“Huh?”

“Memories of school with her wouldn’t be the worst thing to have.”

I waved a hand over my shoulder and walked away.

I hadn’t gone far when I saw a girl in uniform trotting toward me. I dunno if she’d come here straight from school or what, but she had a Spalding sports bag over her shoulder.

It was the girl I’d just seen--Miyashita Touka.

I was suddenly very amused. I fought down the smile and stepped aside to let this girl go to her first date.

But I bumped into another girl in the process.

“What the hell?” she said, clearly pissed off. She was really tall and wore big round sunglasses.

“My bad,” I said. I watched Miyashita Touka go past, looking nervous, a little flushed. Only when she was gone did I step back and take a good look at the new girl. “Sorry,” I said.

“What… Who was that girl?”

She took her sunglasses off. She was younger than I’d thought.

“Oh, I don't know her. But she’s gonna know a friend of mine.” I told the truth, expecting her to take it as a joke.

But she looked suspicious. “What’s that mean?”

I wasn’t sure why she was taking this seriously, but I couldn’t be bothered, so I just said, “Eh, I was just trying to pick you up.”

I expected her to say, “Don’t be stupid,” and stalk off angrily.

But instead she said, “Hmm…” and frowned at me.

Then she leaned in and sniffed.

“Are you wearing any cologne?” she asked.

“No?”

“Then you ought to be careful. I smell blood on you. Soon.”

“Huh?”

I froze. Suddenly, I had the feeling that she was like me.

That was how my Into Eyes met Nanane Kyoko's Aroma.

At the time, neither of us imagined we’d end up in a gang together. Our abilities might be prophetic, but we never thought they’d be of any use.

 

In time, there were six of us. A gathering of people trying to catch a glimpse of the future. Our powers weren’t much good on their own, but with the six of us, we could come up with an accurate prediction from time to time.

We never really talked about what to do when we managed to predict something. I guess Koumoto was pretty serious about trying to use our powers to help people. Once, he’d predicted a pregnant lady’s water was gonna break unexpectedly, and was there to catch her when she collapsed on the sidewalk.

But that sort of situation was rare. Most of the time, we were just trying to find a way to use the powers we had.

Like how karaoke places exist because you can't sing as loud as you want anywhere else.

“But who’s this kid you drew?”

Our meeting dawdled on, accompanied by the muted karaoke music.

“She looks rich.”

“Bet she’s a little stuck up, too.”

“If she’s rich, then maybe someone’s after her money?”

Nanane folded her arms, thinking. “We don’t really need any more money.”

She picked the sports bag off the floor and set it on the table, unzipping it.

At a glance, you’d think it was just stuffed with random scraps of paper, but if you looked closer, you’d realize they were actually 10,000 yen notes. Not bound or anything—just a loose pile of bills.

Worth more than 10,000,000 yen, all told.

“Damn, I can’t believe you walk around with all that,” Mitsuo said.

“Well, I can’t exactly leave it at home. What would I say if my parents found it?”

“I stuck mine in a coin locker at the station.”

“Oh, good idea. Didn’t think of that. I’ll do that, then.”

“Hehe… I’m smart, see.”

“Neither idea’s all that great,” Koumoto snickered.

“Then what are you doing, Koumoto-kun?”

“I live alone. It’s in the eaves above the closet.”

“You’re lucky. Kasumi-kun?”

“Desk drawer.”

“Parents won’t find it?”

“They ain’t the type to look,” I muttered. They were never home. My mother had another family and my father slept in his mistress’s apartment.

“Hmm,” Nanane said, then stuck her finger out right under my nose. “You’ve gone gloomy again!”

“Gimme a break!”

“I mean…the six of us have been at this for months now, yet I’ve never seen you smile! Not for real, anyway.”

“You just smile too much.”

Mitsuo cracked up laughing. “Hahaha! He’s got you there!”

“You’re one to talk,” Nanane said, glaring at Mitsuo.

He just kept laughing.

Then, suddenly…

“What is it?” Tsuji cried out.

We all looked at her. She was staring at Yuu, so we all turned to look at him, too.

“Ah…”

Yuu had Tsuji’s drawing of the girl I’d seen. He looked back at Tsuji, confused. “Wh-what?” he asked.

“Tenjiki-kun, you were just staring at that picture, looking very serious,” Tsuji said, pointing at the drawing. “I thought maybe you recognized her.”

“N-no, that’s not it… I just thought…she was pretty.”

“So Tenjiki’s a pedophile,” Mitsuo chuckled.

“Okay, let me have a look,” Koumoto said, taking the picture.

He frowned at it for a moment.

“Hmm…”

A few seconds later, his eyes went unfocused.

His head sagged and he began shaking.

“There he goes.”

“Shh!” Mitsuo shushed Nanane.

Koumoto’s mouth pursed, then opened. A sound like the wind rushing through a crack emerged.

This was how Koumoto Kouji's ‘talent,’ Whispering, always started.

“Ffffwwww… huhhhhhhh…”

It was the damnedest noise. I could never believe it was a sound the human voice could make.

“Ghhhhhhaaaaaa, then…”

Words.

We held our breath, trying to catch the words.

That voice wasn’t Koumoto’s. It was someone else’s entirely.

Like the images my Into Eyes saw, this was a voice from the future. Something somebody, somewhere, was going to say.

“…rld, the world… If you want the world, then…”

A girl’s voice. A beautiful soprano, like in a choir.

“Then you can have it. If you kill me.”

We all gaped.

Kill?

To have the world?

What?

But that was all he said. Koumoto’s body thrashed, he blinked…and he was himself again.

“Uunh.” His eyes focused back on us. “Did it activate? What did I say?”

 

Koumoto never knew what he said. He always had to ask.

But none of us knew what to say. We just sat there, stunned.