The Enemy Beside Me + The Liar Beside Me (Book 1 and 2)

Chapter 3

IT'S BEEN THREE DAYS since he last saw the pair, and with every passing day, he's losing patience. He has confidence in Eien. Jaxon is another story. The latter is a superficial person, and if there's anyone with whom Noritaka doesn't get along, it's people like Jaxon.

He had sent the blond together with Eien so that no one would question the boy's late enrollment. He may have the upper hand, but Alasdair will never take a chance to exploit it.

Any day now, he tells himself, writing down equations after equations on the whiteboard. Alasdair imagines that Noritaka would barge inside and take his regular seat. He disregards the astonishment and praises in the background, for he has no time to drink it all up. Don't get him wrong. He loves being looked up to, but theories of how Eien Uchiyama would convince Noritaka are currently filling his mind.

It was an experiment. A gamble Alasdair was and is willing to take. If he loses, at least he's tried.

No. That's not how a Yamato should think. If he fails, he should find another way. He's not his mother. She never played chess because she couldn't fathom how to defeat the King. He loves her with all his heart, but his father had been right about her.

As Alasdair scribbles the last number and sets the marker down, he faces his classmates, whose mouths are hanging wide. His intelligence is known to anyone. He can't count how many times he's been featured in news articles; how many times he's been called the boy wonder.

Every time he displays his superiority, they remember the place where they all belong: beneath him.

* * * * * *

It's five in the afternoon again, and empty corridors greet him. Alasdair should be preparing to go home, but he still has papers to sort out. When he was new to this, he thought Kaito was taunting him. Alasdair thought these papers were nothing more than a distraction to help him forget his resentment toward his father. But he'd soon learnt that, for once, Kaito indeed respected and trusted him.

Someone must have missed disinfecting room A-2. It is not his duty to inspect every room, but it has become his habit ever since he saw one cockroach perching on Watanabe's neck. He knew he should've flicked it off, but pointing it at the bespectacled boy was so much more fun. Watanabe screeched and begged him to make it go away. Luckily, it'd been just the four of them (Declan often visited to check out if Noritaka was doing fine.) They all laughed at him, called him The Screeching Bug Lady for a year. Watanabe being afraid of regular insects is an odd case. But he guesses that no matter what you are, a cockroach is still the most disgusting creature.

Now he makes sure there aren't any bugs lurking around. Usually, you would need a device for this task, but Alasdair has his way.

He locks the door and drapes the window.

With his eyes open, he turns his head, locating any energy within the room. Years ago, he had to close his eyes and concentrate until he lost consciousness. His mother would cry and beg his father to stop him and let him rest, but Kaito would only shake him awake and demand he snap a duck's neck.

The Alasdair today doesn't need to close his eyes. He only has to move his muscles barely, and there it is: a bug behind the whiteboard. He tilts his head, and in an instant, it is nothing but a speck of dust.

* * * * * * *

It is the fourth day, and Noritaka, Jaxon, and Eien haven't come back yet.

'I'm not saying that you've made a mistake. But you have to admit it was a big risk, and sometimes, it is not worth it,' Watanabe mutters behind him. Sir Williams doesn't notice them as he reads from a book, overly enunciating each word.

Alasdair calmly shrugs. 'You're wrong.' He can't see Wanatabe, of course, but the confusion is radiating nonetheless. That's one of his gifts. He can't read minds, but he can sense their emotions and energy.

'Why do you trust Uchiyama anyway? He's a child.' The disappointment waving in his voice makes him snicker. Sir Williams unburies his nose from the book. 'Is there anything you find humorous, Mister Yamato?'

He clears his throat, smiling as he says, 'Oh, no, pardon me. I didn't mean to interrupt whatever...you are doing. I was merely laughing at Watanabe's antics.' He and Williams have never been on good terms. He respects him as his homeroom teacher, and the pathetic old man regards him as his student. But that is it. Williams doesn't care if he's a Yamato. It used to upset him, but he now finds it amusing. At least one of the teachers does not easily bow down to him. He loves challenges.

Williams, with his typical curly moustache and dull grey eyes, nods and goes back to his book. Either he doesn't know that nobody cares about Indian literature, or he doesn't mind. He's one of those elderly people who insist they must never overlook the history of the world. The world, however, is moving on. Moving on too fast. Most of the time, they forget that India and the other countries have been closed for years. The last time Alasdair had gone abroad, it'd been in Zone 4, previously known as Germany. Then in Zone 5, previously named Singapore. In other words, only prosperous countries have persevered.

It's a tragic story. However, it isn't Alasdair's problem. Currently, he wants to prove to Watanabe that his judgement is the right choice. He, after all, felt Eien's energy, or to put it more accurately, he did not feel anything from Eien. There was no energy, no heartbeat, no blood rushing through veins, no heat.

Nothing. It's as though the child has been dead for weeks, and yet he saw him walking, breathing, and talking. Eien is alive and dead at the same time.

That, or for the very first time, his gift hasn't worked against someone.