Innocent Insanity

Back to Normal? No? Okay then.

         I made a time to meet with Denver, Tokyo and Paris next week. We'd be meeting by the cherry blossom tree at midnight, on Sunday. That gave me some time to work through some things before I met with them. First of all, I needed to take off suspicion of me. I had been receiving sly looks and outright questioning from the braver students, about who the girls were, and how I was so good at fighting. Luckily, someone had made rounds to the teachers' pets kids and told them not to snitch, so the teachers were still unaware. Meanwhile, I had some explaining to do to some of my friends. Kokona had left me a note in my locker practically exploding with expletives telling me to meet her after school in the red Japanese garden outside of the main building. As soon as I had finished my cleaning duties, I was heading to meet her.

         "Spill It Ayano. Where the hell have you been sneaking off to and how the hell do you know how to do that?" Kokona asks. I sigh. Time to make up a story. "And if you give me some bullshit lies, I swear to god I will tell Musume about your manga collection. Don't test me, girl, I will," She says. Crap. I really don't want Musume to know about that.

         "Kokona! Chill!" I say. I clap my hands over her mouth to keep her from saying anything else until I know there are no students around us.

         "Okay look. I have been sneaking out of the house to go to a martial arts club, okay?" That's probably not the best excuse. But as we were talking, I saw Budo walking with shin out of the boys locker room a few yards away. He's in a martial arts club, so why couldn't I be?

         "A Martial arts club? Really?" Kokona doesn't look convinced.

         "Ever since the incident that landed me in the hospital, I've been telling myself that I would never be weak or defenseless again. Ever. The last time I had to leave school early it was for a family emergency. People saw Osoro and I walking out of school together and got the wrong idea." Yeah, apparently, Hana Daidaiyama saw us walking out of the school together. And of course, she decided to tell all of her friends that Osoro and I were sneaking out of school to go do, well, stuff. So far, most people who knew me had disregarded it, and people had been so scared of Osoro that they hadn't really brought it up. Anyone who had asked, I had simply told them that nothing had happened. The weird thing, people believed me over the bullies. It was strange. I hadn't really made many friends, but people had been willing to stand up for me against some of the most powerful girls in the school. It was, spirit lifting.

         "Oh. I-I'm sorry Ayano. I didn't know." Kokona looks to the ground apologetically. I take a step towards her and hug her. She wraps her arms around me in response. We stand like that for a moment.

         "If you ever need anything, please tell me. I want to help you Ayano." She says. It feels, nice to know that someone's on your side. It makes me feel like I can take on anything.

         "Thanks Kokona."

Amao POV:

         Well that was interesting. I didn't know Ayano was interested in Martial arts. Although her answer seemed legit, the way her friend was speaking to her made me angry. I wasn't particularly close with Ayano, not yet anyway, but I care about her. I don't want to see her or anyone else sad. It's just not in my nature. 

         I waited until the two girls broke their embrace to walk out from behind the corner with my tray of snacks.

         "Hello girls!" I say to them cheerfully. The two girls jump at the sound of my voice, but relax when they see it's just me.

         "Oh! Hello Amao! How are you?" Kokona asks me.

         "I'm doing well, and you?" Kokona and I have been friends for a while. Before she switched to the drama club, she was a member of the cooking club. Even though the clubs aren't supposed to allow people to re-join once they've quit, I told her that if she ever wanted back in, she'd be welcome.