Fishy, fishy, fishy, come swim in my sea.

Chapter 21: It has begun

Yuma walked into his first lesson of the day to find it filled with his classmates. He did find it odd that the teacher wasn't already there. But that was also a good thing for two reasons. That meant that he wasn't going to get into trouble for being a few minutes late to class, and there was a buzz of chatter in the air. Yuma went over to where Mizar, Rio and Shark were sat, and took his place next to his boy friend. He didn't ask why Vector wasn't there. He almost always skipped maths, and Yuma couldn't blame him.

"Yuma, what's with the long face?" Rio asked kindly, noticing that Yuma looked stressed and upset.

"I just lied to Tori." Yuma answered.

"So she had figured everything out?" Mizar asked coldly.

"Not completely, but she was pretty close." Yuma replied as Shark rubbed his arm soothingly, "I had to tell her about the Barian cards. I told they were Shark's way of protecting me, and I got her to swear to keep the secret. But I don't know how much longer I can keep this up."

"If you want to tell everyone, you can." Shark said, "I know this is painful to you. It was for both Rio and I, but we'd have to make them swear to hide it all from Astral."

"I know. Thanks Shark." Yuma smiled at his boy friend, "But its the ease with which I lied to Tori, and how easily I was able to manipulate her that is bothering me. It just feels like I've lost my humanity, along with the trust I had for all my friends."

"We've all got your back." Shark said hugging Yuma as their maths teacher walked into the classroom. "It's up to you what happens."

"I just want this Proteus guy to hurry up so we can end this thing." Yuma said, "Speaking of which, is that why Duman isn't in today."

"Yes," Mizar stated, "he felt compelled to look this guy up. He's currently back on Barian world with Gerag and Alito as back searching the library."

"Hopefully he finds something." Rio said as the teacher called the class to order. He started with usual roll call, barely pausing to hear Rio very begrudgingly explain where Vector was, and Shark taking up the task of explain the absence of the other missing Barians. But from there he looked completely lost.

"Can someone remind me where we were up to in the syllabus." the teacher said. Yuma looked up in shock. Mr Kay wasn't normally forgetful. Not to mention, that Yuma had started feeling something strange since his smartly dressed teacher had entered the room.

"Mr Kay we had just started just started Algebra." Caswell said from the front of the class, sounding as confused as Yuma felt, by Mr Kay's strange question, "Today you were meant to be teaching us how to simplify and solve equations."

"Right." Mr Kay said, and Yuma thought he looked at little worried. Yuma glanced at Shark who shrugged at him, looking as lost as he did. 

"Rio?" Mizar whispered, causing only Yuma and Shark to look at the female Barian, as the rest of the class had their attention focused on their oddly acting teacher. Rio's eyes had gone glassy, and she had gone stiff in her chair. Something was happening, and all Yuma's thoughts from his conversation with Tori earlier were completely gone. Replaced by the single thought wondering if he should not have tempted fate. Shark shook his sister gently, but stopped when his duel gazer buzzed in his pocket.

"Yuma, can you see why my duel gazer's buzzing?" Shark said prioritising his sister. Yuma reached into Shark's trouser pocket as requested, understanding Shark's concerns. He'd be exactly the same if it was Kari. It turned out that Duman had returned from Barian world and had found what he'd been looking for, and had deemed it important enough to text Shark about it.

"It's a text from Duman." Yuma informed Shark, as the rest of the class started to throw worried questions at Mr Kay, "He found an entire book on Proteus."