Generation 11

Chapter 5

Five

WARNING! THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS A BIT OF GORE/SCENES SUGGESTING VIOLENCE HAS OCCURRED. PLEASE DO NOT READ THIS CHAPTER IF YOU ARE UNCOMFORTABLE WITH IT. WE WILL GIVE A RECAP IN THE NEXT CHAPTER.

IF YOU WISH TO CONTINUE TO READ, WE WILL GIVE A GORE WARNING BEFORE THE SCENE HAPPENS

Akane stared out of the window, head in her hands. Staring out, Akane watched the blurred hills pass. The trees were stretched and only the sun looked perfectly normal, stalking every single one of them as always, telling them that there is always someone watching. Akane had just decided to drift off into slumber when Yoritomo interrupted her.

"Oi, chibi. You want any?" He held a box of sushi to her from across the table they were sitting at. Akane reached across the small table on the train and took one without much thinking. Yoritomo sat facing her and Karina was beside her, next to the aisle. Umira was staring at her phone, seated beside the boring Yoritomo. The only boy in their group looked a lot better after looking so sick on the airplane they took to Fukuoka.

"Thanks, and don't call me chibi," she muttered half heartedly. They had been through this so many times.

Kari suddenly swerved her head around like a hawk and grinned cheekily. "You two lovebirds are so close, you're already sharing food!" She took a sushi from Yoritomo and gulped it down. "Besides, you didn't care if he called you 'chibi' when we were small, now, did you? Are you cheating on your boyfriend? Hmm?" She said teasingly, though mouth stuffed.

Akane turned red while Yoritomo just shrugged ever-so-lightly, as always. “N-no! Besides, that was when we were in elementary school, and I was shorter than most of you then, but now I’m about the same height! And Yori-kun’s sharing food with you, too!”

“About. I’m still a few centimeters taller than you, and I’m younger,” Karina mused, eyeing Akane maliciously. She ignored Akane’s last comment.

“So!? A few centimeters doesn’t make me chibi to you!”

“I didn’t know that Akane-san and Yoritomo-san were an item,” Umira, who sat across Karina, said, joining the conversation. She pushed up her glasses, and took the whole box of sushi when Yori offered her some. “Do you have a ship name?”

“We’re not an item!”

“Hush, Aka-chan. You mean one of those couple name things?” Kari asked, a bit unfamiliar with the term. The class president nodded.

“What’s a ship name?” Akane asked curiously, completely unfamiliar with the term.

Umira and Karina turned to face Akane and Yoritomo with evil smiles and glinting eyes. They laughed like evil maniacs, causing chills to be sent up and down Akane’s spine. She clutched her gray beanie in her hands tightly, regretting that she had asked. Yori, on the other hand, was leaning against the back of his seat with a bored look, as usual. He ran his right hand through his hair, his left against the windowsill, glancing at the two plotting girls with an unconcerned look. He didn’t exactly care what they said; it was just rumors anyway. But though he didn’t act like it, he always listened to what his friends said. It was only polite and respectful to do so. Though Hitobi Yoritomo didn’t know what a ship name was, through their conversation, he could guess, just like Akane.

“Akatomo?” Kari asked.

“Yorine?” Umira suggested, cheeks getting red from excitement.

“Hitoma?”

“Nemo?”

“Akayori?”

“Tomone?”

“Chirumaakane-hitobiyoritomo?”