The GATE Academy [Please read description]

Chapter 21: Kane's Friends

I thought we were going to go to the cafeteria, but instead Kane led me outside of the school to the bleachers of the football field, where the team's football team was practicing on the field and the track team was practicing on the track around them. I actually spotted Iris amongst them.

Kane led me to the top of the bleachers underneath the announcer's box where two other males sat waiting for us. Both were pale and black-haired, like Kane. If it weren't for their different facial structures and body builds, they could've passed as brothers. Though pale, one of the students, with shorter hair than the other, had a sort of brightness to him that was shown through a smile, which seemed to be both kind and mischievous, as if he had something he wanted to say right away. The other, with longer hair, had two-toned eyes, one blue, one green, that added to the mysterious air around him, he definitely didn't seem like a talker and quite frankly looked like he'd rather be somewhere else. Surprisingly, he was the one to talk first.

"Hey Kane," he said to Kane, despite the fact that he had his eyes on my the whole time the two of us ascended the bleachers.

Kane nodded to the male and grinned, "Satsujin," he said in acknowledgement of him. He then looked up at the other male, who was still smiling. "Kaze," he said, nodding once more.

Kaze responded with a polite "Hello," stood up from his seat in the bleachers, and took a step down from his row to join Kane's and mine, extending a hand towards me to greet me.

"Hello there, I'm Kaze! I recognize your face from somewhere, hold up..." I took his hand and began to shake it while he thought, returning to me shortly after his pause, "... Ah yes! How could I forget YOU? Shizuo Akiro, the man! The hero of legends! The fabled warrior with such a humb-"

"That's enough," Satsujin interrupted, "He need not to hear the empty praise in which you flatter him with."

Kaze looked back at Satsujin and smiled politely, looking back at me, "My bad, it seems like I lost my manners for a bit there!"

Kaze returned to his spot in the row of bleachers one up from mine and sat back down. Kane looked at me expectantly, perhaps to see my impression of the two. I broke the small silence between the four of us with a clearing of my throat before I spoke. Mainly addressing Kaze because of the feeling of distance from Satsujin.

"Well, my name is Shizuo Akiro and, well, Kane invited me to come hangout with you guys after class. We have the same teacher," I said. Satsujin looked at Kane, as if expecting him to say something to me.

"Shizuo's alright, Satsujin, you don't need to stare him down like that," Kane told Satsujin, who then wordlessly leaned back onto the bleachers behind him and looked away from the group, seemingly uninterested.

"Ah, I see, I didn't know that what we did here was some party that you can just invite people to, Kane! If I had known, I would've asked you to bring some drinks!" Kaze said lightheartedly, laughing as he said it. His comments made me laugh a bit and raised a chuckle from Kane.

"No no, Kaze, this isn't a party, but Shizuo has been kind enough to set some time aside for us out of his very busy schedule, so I decided to take advantage of such a time. It's not often that we get to talk to our class president after all," Kane said, looking to me with a grin on his face, not exactly a kind one either. I was beginning to wonder why I accepted his invitation again.

I laughed a bit at Kane's comment, unsure if he was being sarcastic or genuine, hoping for the latter, and replied, "Well, I thought it would be interesting to see what you did after class got out, speaking of which, what do you guys normally do?" I asked, directing paths question more to Kaze than Kane.

"Well wouldn't you like to know?" Kaze replied with attitude, which didn't actually have a rude tone to it, but behind his words, you knew there was some hint of arrogance that wasn't shown in his facial expression.