Made of Water

Chapter 2, Unescapable Secrets

        Ruka reluctantly stomped out of the room, glancing back a few times into the classroom. Kaoru noticed his eyes focusing on a single figure in the classroom at every glance.

        "So you like... what's her name..." Kaoru paused, stopping to think. He recalled the girl having a peculiar name... but soon gave up because remembering was a waste of his efforts and energy. But he did remember the face. The face of a girl in pigtails that was absolutely horrible at giving insults. It was almost pitiful. "The girl with the pigtails. I forgot her name." Ruka stopped dead in his tracks. Kaoru could see Ruka's ears turning pink below his blonde hair.

        "So I was right," he said in a defiant tone.

        Ruka said, still with his back facing Kaoru, "I'm giving you a tour. I think asking me who I like is a pretty bold question to ask someone who's doing you a favour. Let's just keep walking." They continued walking past the next few classrooms, until Ruka asked in a quiet and whispered voice, "is it that obvious?"

        Kaoru smiled from under his hood, "if you don't want it to be obvious, try not staring at her while they're introducing the new kid. Besides, I think she's the only one in the classroom who doesn't know."

        "And here's the cafeteria... this is where we... well... uh... eat..." Ruka said. Nice segway, thought Kaoru.

        "Is the food here good?" asked Kaoru. He was genuinely terrified for the answer, because if the food wasn't all that good, he didn't know what he would do.

        Ruka responded, nonchalantly, "I'd say so... well depending on your star level." He noticed Kaoru's confused face, "so basically, at the academy, your life's luxury level is decided based off of your star level. That goes for rooms, food, allowance, and some other stuff. If you have one star, your life is... livable. You get a little bit of food, a nice small room and about 30 dollars for payment. Two stars you get a pretty good lifestyle. You get more food than a one star, a bigger room, and 50 dollars. Three stars is a little more luxurious, I guess you can say. You get a whole lot of food, a big room, no chores, and 100 dollars. Then there's special stars. If you have that then you get more food than you can need, a giant room, no chores and 300 dollars. And of course there's the no stars, where your life just sucks. You get an unbearable room, hardly any food, extra chores, and 5 dollars."

        "What kind of people get special stars?" 

        "Well," Ruka looked down, clearly a little uncomfortable about the question, "special people get special stars."

        Kaoru leaned forward, "what do you mean special people? Who here is considered more special than others?"

        Ruka said in a tone, that was clearly telling Kaoru to stray from the subject, "there are a select few at this school who get special stars. One of them is Natsume."

        "And what makes Natsume so special? He seemed like a jerk to me-"

        "Don't you dare say anything against Natsume. You wouldn't know a good person if they hit you in the head," Ruka said in a cold and angry tone. Kaoru backed away and looked down apologetically. Ruka exhaled and said in a softer tone, "don't feel bad. Natsume gives off a bad impression. But he's really a good guy. Trust me." Kaoru nodded. "Also, what makes the special people well... special is generally none of our business. It's just the way the teachers rank them, and we have to accept it. No questions asked." 

        "So students are just ranked? How the hell do you rank a student?" Kaoru asked, disapproval staining his voice.

        "Nothing that evil," Ruka assured him, "it's just to encourage good behaviour. So I guess the more a teacher likes you, the better your life will be. Sometimes it's worth sucking up to horrible teachers like Narumi." Ruka shuddered at the thought of the strange teacher.

        "And what rank are you?" Kaoru asked, concerned for his own wellbeing. He wondered how the teachers would perceive him. Ruka pointed towards his uniform, and Kaoru saw three small stars on the top left corner of his uniform. He exhaled in relief. At least his partner wasn't a total jerk during class.

        "You must be real great," Kaoru said, a little bit astonished.

        "No, not really. Maybe it's just because I'm friends with Natsume. Sometimes, the school's reasoning is hard to see. When you're a kid with an alice, you just learn to go along with things, because asking to many questions can end up hurting you instead," Ruka replied, looking off to the side, clearly thinking about it more that he wanted to.

       Ruka continued guiding Kaoru through the hallways of the academy. They passed by a huge room where people were setting up for the upcoming dance. They walked by the staffroom, and by a bunch more classes. The academy was so big it was starting to overwhelm Kaoru. Every room seemed just the same as the next, and his feet started to feel numb. They went headed outside toward the fields, and the sun beating down wasn't helping Kaoru at all. His forehead dripped with sweat. He started to slow down behind Ruka and his steps became heavy. Ruka turned around at the sound of uneven footsteps and noticed Kaoru's pail face.

        "Hey are you-" Ruka began to ask, out of genuine concern, but his voice was drowned out, and Kaoru could only hear his own heart beat. The world started to look as if it was covered in some sort of mist, and was swirling around, until it turned black.

        At that point Kaoru fell.

        Ruka bent down to help him up, but stared blankly at him and at the hood that fell away. After getting over the little surprise that lay under Kaoru's hood, he tried to help him up on to his feet, but knew he wouldn't be able to do it alone. He closed his eyes and pictured a horse, a brown horse with a dark brown mane. As he opened his eyes, that horse that he imagined was galloping towards them. Once the horse was near enough, he put Kaoru on the back of the horse.

        "Hey Shadow, can you bring Kaoru to the hospital wing?" the horse neighed in understanding, and set off towards the building.

        Ruka muttered to himself, "of all the things he... no, she... could have been hiding, that's a pretty lame secret."