The raw stinging and pulsing lingered long after the sp. False memories struggled with her emotional rea. It felt so out of character for Ayumi to even be bold enough. That’s how it should be. Yet Saki knew better. Yuki’s expnation revealed the former friend’s secret.

  Pulling herself out of her head, Saki looked over at Ayumi. “Ayumi… I-I…” All of the thoughts on Yuki had been shattered and she finally realized that she was in a restaurant as she looked around.

  Ayumi gred back at Saki making sure that Saki was really awake this time. The ge in demeanor from Ayumi had the boys at a loss for words. “Yuki’s allowed to do what he wants, Saki. You ’t be proteg him his entire life.”

  Words failed her for the moment. Saki stared at the mid distaween Hiroshi and the entrance of the restaurant. Repeated memories of Yuki flipped through her mind. “I…I’m aware of that. That’s not what this is about…”

  “It’s about this friend, Seiji? What’s his deal?”

  “Yeah…Seiji’s got history with Yuki. He’s…problematic.”

  “The guy sorta looks like a deli, but he’s a priest in training? What’s going on there?”

  Chapter 25 - Faded Echoes

  She had to think about the answer. It had been a year sihe st time she even saw him and her iions with him were limited even before. “I mostly kept my distance when Seiji’s involved. But Yuki mentioned something about Seiji’s rebelling.”

  “Ah the image thing he mentioned before. It does seem a little odd to have someone e be training to be a priest. Sounds really old fashioned. I ’t imagioo many would want that sort of life.”

  “That whole thing is besides the point.”

  “Right, you’ve got a beef with Seiji. What’s the issue?”

  His question closed Saki back up. Her mind turned back to the school gate and Seiji. Different alternatives pyed out what could have been done differently. A better solution, the right answer had to be there.

  Saki exhaled, notig herself caught in the loop. The mistake already left her behind. Acceptance would be the only option now. ‘...Yuki…I thought you didn’t want anything to do with your past…’

  In her return to silence, Ayumi leaned over once more. She received a cautious gnce from those oher side of the table. “Saki? What’s wrong?”

  Some relief rexed Hiroshi as he returo his seat. “What happened back during junih between you three?”

  “Junih?” School popped up ihoughts. Quick fshes of Yuki and Seiji sprihrough. “That was merely the time when Seiji appeared. He didn’t even attend our school. It was all just lubsp; An act.”

  Hiroshi became curious already knowing some of the pieces of Yuki past first hand from Yuki, but it still left a lot of bnks in his past. He had many friends, but Yuki definitely surpassed them all for his mystery and uuation. It holy just made him want to ask a dozeions. He kept to one. “What was this act that brought them together?”

  For being so o her, it seemed such a distant memory. Saki tried to recall the day and the events. Nothing came to her. The image of Seiji just always being stuck as her answer. Then she remembered why. “He just sort of appeared one day with Yuki as though it was the most natural thing in the world. Seiji was always an aggressive guy, ready to fight, but there’s something about him that I just ’t expin. If I had to find a word for it, he knows how to fit in.”

  “Fit in? That doesn’t really make a lot of sense.”

  She sighed thinking more about Seiji. Her pressure increased a little. “It’s just something you have to see and then you uand it. He makes sense as much as he doesn’t.”

  “Err…right. I guess you would know better than me.” He gave up trying to his head around the riddle. “Let’s move past that, si’s not as important I’m guessing to the subject matter.”

  “Yea…” Saki looked around at everyo the table. She he moment and to remember who sat with her. It was more than just Ayumi and Hiroshi, Tatsuya and Kazuhiro joihem as well. They were about as much of an outsider as Hiroshi in this matter. And she couldn’t fet about Ayumi either.

  “I don’t think Yuki’s said anything about this past to any of you.”

  “He expined a little bit of it to me.”

  That bit made her pause. ‘I’m surprised he was willing…’ Part of her wao remain quiet as it wasn’t her right to expin, but it seemed he wasn’t keeping it a secret. “The brief expnation is, trary to how Yuki asks now, he used to fight, a lot.”

  “So all those rumors?” Tatsuya said, leaning in oable.

  “A few are accurate, the rest are blown out of proportion. Though he wasn’t always that way.”

  “Ok, that was something I wao know, but he didn’t expin. And giveime, I didn’t feel it was right to push for a better answer.”

  “You probably won't get an answer. He keeps quiet about it.”

  The waitress suddenly appeared to che them. Everyone leaned bad went quiet. For those left hanging, each sed the woman interrupted them felt like an hour. Even their stomachs held their urges.

  Ohey left them in privacy again, Hiroshi ignored his food. “So what was it? What’s caused these ges?”

  “Before junih, Yuki fought only to protect me. Both Momo and him took lessons at a local dojo. It was something their father insisted on. But when his father died, he stopped going to the dojo. That’s when things ged. And once he reached junih it steadily became worse until Seiji appeared.”

  “His dad’s dead? I guess I didn’t see him around the house, just the two brothers.”

  “His mother died as well about a year ago, which is when the Yuki you know noeared.”

  “Damn, both parents. How’d it happen?”

  “His father died in a car act and his mother to illness and overw.”

  “How is he so positive and cheerful? What caused that?”

  “I don’t know. He mostly acts like his past never happened, but he remembers. And Seiji is a of that. O kept buried.”

  “That doesn’t sound like a healthy answer, Saki.”

  Saki’s fist tightened up, recalling it all. “You weren’t there! You don’t know the Yuki I do! He ’t ever go back to the child he was, but you don’t want the alternative either. None of us want that.”

  “He needs help.”

  “He went for a while, but he’s learo hide it very well. He o be able to move forward and he ime. That’s why Seiji’s nothing, but trouble for him. It’s a past he o move past if he’s going to heal.”

  Hiroshi paused listening to Saki's perspective. With a better picture, her reaade sense now. Though he didn’t know if she made the right call. ‘I’m not sure what I would have done in her shoes…’ For an after school snack, this turned out far heavier than he pnned. “The two seem pretty friendly, minus the whole fist to the face greeting.”

  “The type of friendship ung other people. And before that each other.”

  “Yuki fought that guy?” He recalled how small Yuki looked pared to Seiji. Picturing the two fighting each other felt impossible to imagine, like a mouse fighting a cat.

  “That’s how they met. Seiji came looking for a fight and Yuki gave it to him. Despite his size, Yuki’s never lost to Seiji.”

  “Now you’re joking with me.”

  “Size isn’t the most important thing in a fight. Yuki knew how to use his body and people have been uimating because of his size his whole life.”

  “...right…” Just more added to the growing pile that was Yuki’s mystery. Hiroshi leaned ba the booth realizing that he hadn’t started on his food at all. Saki’s pte looked much the same. “You’ve given me a lot to think about.”

  “Now you know.” Saki returo her silend started in on the food in front of her. A clear message that she finished reting what she knew. It left the others to ponder what they would do with the information.

  The sun lowered enough to start ing into the window by the time they were ready to leave. Awkwardness filled the air between them. It persisted as they walked out and at Hiroshi’s departure. Saki and Ayumi remained alone, first Saki reminded herself.

  They began walking bae. The dead versation carried over with Saki lost withihoughts. Though rather than Yuki on the mind, she focused on Hiroshi and his friends. She only told them so much because Yuki seemed to trust him with it before. Yet she still wondered what he would do. ‘He didn’t seem to reject Yuki…so maybe it will work out.’

  “Saki. What’s this Seiji like?”

  “Huh? He’s like I said before. It’s been a year so he might have ged, but he appeared the same as I remember him. Are you wanting something more specific?”

  “I don’t think this is the first time I’ve seen him.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I spotted someohat looks like him several times outside the school. The most ret today from the roof during lunch.”

  Saki turo look ba the dire of the school. She tried to recall if she saw the same thing, but missed it. Seiji wasn’t someohat she could easily miss. The guy stood out clearly o alone and his presenbsp; No, she never saw him.

  She thought back the first time they met. “He’s always had his sights on Yuki for as long as I’ve known him. I don’t really get the e.”

  “They both like to fight.”

  “In the past, that’s not Yuki anymore.”

  “Are you afraid of Yuki fighting? Is that why you protect him?”

  “I made him a promise! We promised…” Her hands tensed up with the risiions. A little lean and pressure towards Ayumi reacted instinctually. Nothing happehough. Ayumi wasn’t like Hiroshi or the others. She wasn’t like that fake image of a friend that would have started g immediately. This was a stranger.

  She didn’t know this stranger. None of them knew her. She wanted Yuki. Everythiold her about the situation Ayumi firmed, yet it was just a story. The powers, they had proof, she couldn’t reject it. The rest so far was just perspective. The assassins had an agenda. So many pieces and a puzzle that didn’t fit the way she felt it should. “Why are you here? What do you want?”