Ishiki (Consciousness)

3 - Akira (Part 1 of 5)

Chapter Three

Akira

“Hey, get up!” yelled Yusuke.  “Show some sign of life, man.”

Ripping open my curtains, I shot out of bed.  The room was spinning, and I was covered in a layer of cold sweat.  But sunlight poured in from the bedroom window and made everything hot.  There were vague images in my head from another spectre nightmare, but I couldn’t remember the specifics.

“What time is it?” I asked.

Yusuke grinned.  “Time to come get breakfast with us,” he said.  “We’ve all been waiting up for you.  But my stomach just can’t take it anymore.  Thought you were never gonna wake up.”

“Sorry,” I said.  “I just had a bad night.”  I was still trying to remember the dream.

“Oh, yeah?”  Yusuke shouted into the other room that I was finally awake.  “Apparently Kuwabara had a bad night, too.  But I slept like a little baby.  What kept you up?”

“I had this terrible nightmare,” I told him.  “About this awful, ugly monster.”

When I got to the word ‘monster,’ Yusuke snickered.  “Yo, Kuwabara!  Jyaki had a dream about you last night.”

“Shut up, Akiyama,” Ken’ichi shouted back.

Quickly, I went to the bathroom to wash up and change into my school uniform.  I filled my knapsack with textbooks, and grabbed my course schedule from the nightstand.  

“Let’s go,” I said.  “I’m ready.”

“Kuwabara had best sit by himself though,” Kohei teased.  “Because if he’s in smelling distance of me, I’m bound to lose my appetite.”

“Shut up, Kohei,” Ken’ichi said.  “I would have showered this morning if you two hadn’t used up all the hot water before I could get in.”

“That’s a lame excuse,” said Kohei, reaching for our front door.

Ken’ichi bolted toward the elevator, jamming buttons so that we couldn’t follow him.  Guess we got to him.  Yet somehow, we all managed to squeeze in.  Ken’ichi was muttering something to himself, but our laughter drowned him out.

The North Building’s dining hall was just as nice as the one we had eaten in the day before.  The breakfast lined up at the buffet was more than I could look at in one glance.  I took four pieces of thick toast and arranged them in a perfect square on my tray, pouring steaming condensed milk over them.  Scooping up a pile of fried eggs, I heaped them on top of my toasts, wondering how it would taste.  It still astounded me that I could have all of it for free.

“Man, you have a bigger appetite than all of us combined,” Kohei remarked, just like he did the day before.  “Now, where should we sit?”

But when we saw Mai Murakami sitting by herself, the decision was made.  Ken’ichi seemed displeased with the idea of having breakfast with her.  Clearly, he hadn’t forgotten yesterday’s events.  But after Kohei shot him a look, I think he realized that he would either be sitting with Mai or sitting by himself.

“Finally, you guys show up,” Mai said.  “I’ve been down here since six.  It’s been boring.”

Kohei looked at his watch.  “Since six?” he said.  “You’ve been down here for two hours?  Why didn’t you just go back up to your room or something?”

“Well, I’m already pretty sick of my roommates,” she said.  “I was hoping you’d be down here earlier.”  

Mai scratched her head and gave us all a sheepish grin.  She had pretty short hair for a girl -- it was only a bit longer than mine.  I hadn’t really noticed it before.  And her fingernails were painted a pumpkin shade of orange.  She didn’t seem like the type who could just get along with any other girl.  Or maybe it was the other way around.

“So, lemme look at your course schedules,” she continued.  “I wanna see what classes we have together.”

The five of us pulled out our schedules and pooled them in the center of the table.  My first class was biology lecture, followed immediately by biology lab.  I was happy to find out that Kohei and Mai were in both those classes with me.

“Nice!” Mai said, loud enough for half of the dining hall to hear.  “I’m so excited to have class with you guys!”

From across the room, I thought I heard a whisper or two about me.  Something mean.  But I decided that it was just in my imagination.

****

Author's Note: Sorry about such a long delay!! I just graduated college, moved, did the whole job search thing... but now I'm all settled so hopefully you'll hear a lot more from me now :) I know this part is short, but next part will be quite a bit longer. Hope you enjoy :)