9 Blood

9
Blood

 

It started, like everything that came after, in a room at a karaoke place.

“Dark and quiet, long and far,” Mitsuo-kun said. As nonsensical as ever.

“What the heck?! Does that even mean anything?!” I said. I swear I’d already said this to him more times than I could count. We’d all decided to try and find out more about the smell of blood I’d predicted.

“That’s what it is, I can’t help it,” Mitsuo-kun shrugged.

“Now, now, let’s think this through,” Tenjiki-kun said, patting Mitsuo-kun on the shoulder.

“Maybe a tunnel?” Nozomi-chan said. “Seems about right.”

Her hand was already moving across her notebook, drawing lots of tunnel-like things.

“Like this?”

“Mm… bigger than that.”

“A big tunnel,” Koumoto-kun said, spreading out a map. “There aren’t that many tunnels around. Anything like a tunnel, but different?”

“Like a subway?” Kasumi-kun said. Both of them had already given up using their powers this time, saying they just weren’t working. It happened.

“Nobody around. At night, the subway should be deserted.”

“True… but is that the same as ‘quiet’?”

“Hmm, good point… no, no, wait. The reason Into Eyes won’t work is because there’s nobody there. Because we don’t run into anyone.”

“Makes sense. Explains why mine won’t work either… no words for me to catch.”

“That wouldn’t matter, Kouji,” Nozomi said in level tones. “You could just catch something one of us says. You always blame your failings on something else.”

Koumoto scowled.

“Now, now, let him be.” Tenjiki-kun again.

I was just laughing at all of this.

Then Kasumi-kun said, “You think, too, Nanane. This is your thing!”

But it was funny, so I just kept laughing.

By this point Mitsuo-kun had started laughing, too. He was easily influenced like that; always the first to join in. Koumoto-kun’s scowl relaxed a bit, and he chuckled, too. Even Nozomi-chan managed a grin. Tenjiki-kun was always smiling. Only Kasumi-kun was left. He just rolled his eyes at us. But there was a trace of a smile there.

“Okay, let’s try and straighten this out,” Koumoto-kun said, and we all sat up.

Eventually we narrowed it down to the underground areas beneath this development site, and the next day we sneaked in.

But we explored and explored and found nothing. No big bags of money like that one time; not even any rats.

“What’s going on?” Mitsuo-kun said.

“This was your prediction!” Koumoto-kun said, frustrated.

Before long, we were lost. We’d taken precautions, but got lost anyway. We were done exploring; now we were just trying to find our way out. However, our road was blocked by overgrown weeds and we felt even more like explorers. We slipped through rusted cracks in the iron framework, and tiptoed along narrow paths with seawater splashing down through cracks above our heads.

It took us four hours to find our way out. We were all completely exhausted.

“Argh… what was the point of all that?!” Kasumi-kun roared, flopping down on the grass, arms flung out.

“Never…again…” Nozomi-chan said, sinking to the ground.

“I dunno… it was pretty fun,” Koumoto said, stubbornly.

“Ahaha, it sure was,” Mitsuo-kun agreed.

“And whose fault is this?” I yelled.

“I need a shower!” Nozomi-kun said, inspecting herself. “I’m covered in dirt.”

“Yeah, I smell weird,” I said, sniffing my shoulder.

Then I yelped aloud.

“Wh-what?”

“What’s up?”

Everyone looked at me. I just flapped my lips uselessly.

“Th-th-th-this is it! This smell…”

“Huh?”

“What?”

Everyone started sniffing. They blinked.

“Rusty metal… salt water… and the harsh smell of those weeds… wait, Nanane, you mean…”

Kasumi-kun glared at me.

“Ah… ahaha… um…”

“This is the scent of ‘blood’? You know, it does sort of smell like it…” Mitsuo-kun said.

“True… we all smell the same,” Tenjiki-kun said, smiling.

“Jesus…” Koumoto-kun said, shaking his head.

“S-sorry…” I said.

“Well, shit happens, I guess,” Nozomi-chan said. Even though she was the most worn out. “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”

“Yeah, don’t worry about it, Nanane,” Koumoto-kun said.

“Not the first time!” Kasumi-kun yelled, laughing. “How many more dumb things are we gonna do?”

“I hope we never stop,” Nozomi-chan said, laughing, too.

Koumoto-kun and Tenjiki-kun started laughing, but Mitsuo-kun frowned. “Can we really call this a failure, though?” he said.

I was, weirdly, on the verge of tears. I started laughing just to try and hide that.

“Yeah, let’s do this forever! Let’s never learn a thing! Waaaay into the future, no matter how many predictions we make!”

As if matching our mood, the sky was clear and blue, with not a cloud in sight.

 

***

 

Kasumi-kun and I followed Kit-chan and Kirima-san out of the tunnels to find the sky every bit as blue.

I had nothing to say, so I said nothing.

Kasumi-kun stood next to me, looking as grim as I felt.

Kirima-san had a cell phone, and was calling somewhere. Kit-chan was sound asleep on her back. Couldn’t blame her. She’d gone all out.

“Mm, yeah. I’m fine… huh? Already? Okay, got it. Yeah, you be careful too, Kentaro. Yeah, the usual spot. Bye.”

She hung up and turned back to us.

“The cops are on their way. Make sure neither of you go anywhere you’ve ever been before. Ditch your pagers, anything like that.”

She was used to this sort of thing. Her instructions were clear and precise.

“Yeah, got it,” Kasumi-kun nodded.

“You got anywhere to go?”

“We’ll get by. You take care.”

“Same to you. And you, Nanane-san.”

“Mm…” I said. I brushed Kit-chan’s sleeping cheek and softly said, “Goodbye.”

Kirima-san used a belt to secure Kit-chan to her back, then got on her motorcycle and sped away. We watched them until they were out of sight.

“So… what should we do now?” Kasumi-kun sighed.

“Kasumi-kun…” I said, at last. “I’ve been lying to you.”

“Huh?”

“I ran away from home. I haven’t been to school. I’ve just been crashing in one place or another.”

Everything I’d been hiding just came pouring out of me. I didn’t know why. I just felt like I had to tell him.

“Oh,” he said. That was all.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have lied. I’m awful.”

“So what now?”

“I’m going back home. Back to school. I don’t know how that’ll turn out… I doubt I’ll ever get on with my mom. But I’ll talk to her, at least. If we really need to break things off, then… that’s fine. If I have to quit school, then I’ll quit.”

I hadn’t really thought this through. I was just saying it.

Kasumi-kun said nothing.

“Ahaha, it won’t be that easy, will it?”

I forced a smile, and he smiled back.

“You’re amazing, you know,” he said.

There was a real warmth behind his words, spoken from the heart. I hadn’t expected anything like this from him, and I felt my heart skip a beat.

“I should be more like you,” he added.

“Wh-what…are you an idiot? I’m not… I’m nothing to…” I couldn’t find the words to finish that thought.

But Kasumi-kun just looked at me, smiling gently.

I saw myself in his eyes.

“You see yourself in my eyes?” Kasumi-kun asked.

I nodded.

“Then you’re seeing the future. You and I will meet again. I’m sure,” he said.

I almost burst into tears right there, but I made myself say, “So, how do you smell?”

“Like blood, I guess? Same as you,” he said, raising an eyebrow.

“Then that smell tells our future. You and I will get ourselves in some deep shit again someday!” I said, pointing dramatically, like a teacher in an anime.

We both laughed.

Our laughter wasn’t the pure, unbridled joy it once was, but…there was a warmth there still, one more precious than anything in the world.

“See you later!”

“Yeah!”

We shouted, raised our arms, and slapped our hands together, hard.

The sound echoed across the blue skies and we went our separate ways, once and for all.