Part 24 : Reconcilation

"OH MY GOODNESS, IS THAT BLOOD?!?!?!" Narumi's voice shook the whole house.

Kazuki ran down from his room to see what was happening.
He stopped when he saw Amaya standing in front of the door wiping away the blood stains on her face.

"Could you stop being so troublesome?" he asked miserably.

Amaya ignored him and went up to her room.

The two boys watch her go up. Narumi stared at Kazuki in disbelief.

"What?" he asked.
"Kazuki, just because I'm blur at times doesn't mean I don't have common sense and all, okay?" Narumi said.

"What's your point?" Kazuki asked.

"Don't you get it? Amaya's been through worse things than anyone coould have been through, okay? She was forced to be an assassin! You heard me? FORCED!!" Narumi said seriously.

"The fact that she could tackle with her past, come and act like nothing happened means a lot to me. I don't what's going through your mind all this while. All you do is think that she betrayed you. In the first place, what did she betray you of, huh? You think it's so nice to kill people out of your right mind??

"Is that all you think about? About yourself? Only about how you feel? Haven't you given it a thought? How does SHE feel?"

Kazuki was dumbfounded by the last question. It struck him so deep inside.

*****************************

"Yiesshh.. This stain isn't coming out?" Amaya said while she kept scrubbing her blood stained shirt.

"Hey." Kazuki said suddenly from behind.
"What?" Amaya asked without turning.

"What happened?"
"Now you care?"
"Look." Kazuki pulled Amaya out of the toilet.

"What?!" Amaya tried to get rid of his grip. "Let go of me you selfish-"
"I'm sorry ok?!" Kazuki cut.
"I don't care!! Just let. go. of. me!!" Amaya yelled struggling to pull her hand away.

Kazuki hugged her.

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU??!!" Amaya shouted. "LET GO OF ME!!!!"
"I wouldn't." Kazuki said frowning. "Not until you calm down and listen to me."

"I don't wanna listen to you.. You're such a.." Amaya couldn't continue. Tears were pouring down her cheeks.

"I havent been a good brother to you, Amaya. I'm sorry." Kazuki said. "I just wanna know what happened to you."

"Let go of me first." Amaya said softly. He did.

Amaya wiped her eyes. Kazuki looked on. I've never seen her soft side before. For the whole 16 years I never thought she could cry.

"Remeber Kenji? Just now, he and his gang beat me up." Amaya explained.
"WHAT?!"
"Anyway, I ran and passed by Kaze. He helped me beat them up."
"Really?"
"I don't really believe it either. But.. that's that."

Kazuki felt very bad. To think that he treated her as his sister and yet he was so mean to her when she got beaten up.

"It's okay, Kazu." Amaya said. "Don't worry."

Part 23 : Bully

"Why did you do it?" Akira asked Amaya while they were walking down the street.
"What?" Amaya asked back inocently.
"Stop being so fake okay?? You took his pain! Why?" Akira asked frowning.

"My choice." she replied. Amaya suddnly stopped. "Oh.. You're jealous.." she said sarcarstically.
"Hah. You wish." Akira said.

"Okay. We'll separate here. I've to go somewhere. Bye." Akira said.
"Bye."

They went separate ways.

"Hm.. Guess I'll be wandering a while alone." Amaya sighed to herself as she walked on slowly.
"Oh.. You wouldn't be alone. We're here to accompany you if you want to." a voice came from behind her.

Amaya turned. Kenji?!

Kenji and his gang were behind her. Not really a big gang, just 5 of them but enough to wreck a shop.

"What'd you want?" Amaya asked, feeling not to good about the situation.
"Oh nothing. Just bored so we thought we should find you to get some fun." Kenji explained grinning.

Fun?!

"We heard you fight well, so why not show it?" Kenji laughed.
"No thanks. I'm off." Amaya said and turned around to continue her walk.

One of the boys went in front of her and kneed her stomach very hardly.

"ARGGHH!!" she yelled and fell to her knees.
"Hahaha.. Come on!!! Show us what you've got!" Kenji laughed.

Blood started flowing out from her mouth.

"I told you I'm not fighting anymore!" Amaya glared at Kenji.
"Does that mean anything to me?" he asked her mockingly.

Amaya wobbled to her feet. Her stomach ached badly. She just recovered from the pain she hold for Kazuki and now this.

Her sight became blur. Come on eyes, not now! If you blur I'll be gone! she told herself.

Suddenly something whacked her on the head.

"Argh!!" she fell to the floor again.

Blood was oozing out from her forehead.

Kenji and his friends laughed at Amaya's state. One of them was holding the metal stick he used to hit her.

Amaya took the chance when they weren't concentrating and started dashing away.

"HEY!!! SHE'S GETTING AWAY!!!" Kenji shouted. They started chasing after her.

She couldn't see quite well and wobbled as she ran. She took a random turn into an alley.

"Crap! This is Kaze's alley!" She wanted to turn back out but the boys were chasing after her.

Suddenly, she had gossebumps. Kaze!! she thought as she passed by a figure. She tripped and fell. Amaya didn't care to open her eyes anymore.

"AAHHHHH!!!"

Yells were heard.

Amaya opened her eyes slowly. "Wha-?"

Kenji and his friends were lying on the floor. There was blood all over. Kenji trembled and ran away with his friends.

"Wh-why help me?" Amaya asked panting hardly. A shiver came on her as she felt Kaze approaching her.

"Do I have any grivances towards you now?" Kaze asked back.

He knelt down next to her. He put his hand on her forehead. His hand started glowing yellow. Amaya could stand the pain because she went through this before.

"Thanks." she said, unsure of what was happening.

Kaze spun upwards to the top of the wrecked building. Amaya kept looking up. That's VERY weird.

Part 22 : Sora

"Jeez.. Why do I have to stay here?" Akira said as he put on his socks getting ready to go out.

RIINNNGGGG!!!!

"Ahh!!" he shouted in shock. "Uhh.. It's only my phone. I'd better change the ringtone. Sounds like an alarm."

He looked at the name. "Huh? Amaya?"

**********************************

Clatch.

"Did I become the family doctor now?" Akira asked sulkingly at the door when Amaya opened it. "First it was Shir-mmrghh!!"

Amaya covered his mouth with her hand. "Don't mention it, okay?? They don't know you were here before." she whispered to him.

They walked up to the room. "He's here."

Narumi looked at him dumbfounded. Akira was wearing a baggy shorts, a jacket over his shirt, a cap worn side ways and sport shoes which, all together made him looked like some gangster high school boy.

"Erh. This guy's an assassin? He doesn't even look like one!" Narumi exclaimed.

"You told them?!" Akira said.
"They already know about me." Amaya replied.
"You didn't have to tell them about me!" he exclaimed.
"How're you gonna hide it when you'll use your powers anyway?!" Amaya said and glanced at him.

"Oh. Right. Good point. Ahha." Akira laughed. "So I guess Kazuki is you?" he pointed at Kazuki.
"Just hurry up and heal me already." Kazuki answered moodily.

Hm.. Moody huh? Akira thought.

"I'll need you to take of your shirt though, if you want me to heal you thouroughly. It'll also hurt a lot more." Akira explained.

Kazuki pulled his shirt out.

"Okay.." Akira said. "One, two, three! Poke!" he said and poked Kazuki's two ticklish sides.
"AHHAAHHA!!! WHAT WAS THAT FOR??!!" Kazuki yelled, face red.
"Hahaha.. Just to get you lighten up. I can't help a stiff person like that. It's gonna hurt even more." Akira said jokingly.

"Mmrrgghh.. Hahaha..." Amaya and Narumi burst into laughter at the same time. Kazuki's red face grew more red.

"You know, Akira. If you didn't do that, I might have already did that to him. I was about to stop your countdown." Amaya laughed.

"So we're all lighten up. Let's get to the real buisness." Akira suddenly turned serious. "Kazu, I need you to try your best not to stiffen up and relax as much as you can."

"Ok." Kazuki said, beginning to feel a little nervous.
"Wait." Amaya said and stuffed a cloth into Kazuki's mouth. She bent over and whispered, "Bite it if you can't stand the pain."

Amaya noded at Akira. He pulled of the tight cloth hand glove from his right hand. It started to glow with a light blue light.

"Whoa." Narumi said softly.

Akira lifted his finger and drew a circle with a pentagon in it and lots and lots of triangles in it. Each Line he drew, Kazuki tried to hold back the pain which stiffened up his body and the pain was more excrutiating than before and he kept shouting through the piece of cloth.

Amaya walked forward and placed her hand on his shoulder. "Relax, Kazu."
Kazuki suddenly felt the pain lessen.

Akira continued. The shape drawn on Kazuki's back started to glow even more and Akira placed his hand on Kazuki's back. The shape began to glow even more. Akira glanced at Amaya. Ahe was sweating like crap and she looked like she was holding back pain.

But pain from where? thought Akira. Her hand!

Amaya's hand was glowing slightly on Kazu's shoulder. She's taking his pain? But why?

Akira took his hand off and the glow slowly faded. Kazuki slowly turned to lie flat on the bed.

"Hey it feels better now!" he exclaimed.
"It's not completely well yet. 10% of it will still hurt a bit if you're not careful. It'll have to heal the rest your own." Akira said while putting back his glove.

"Amaya, why did you-" Amaya stopped Akira from continueing by covering his mouth.
"Ok. Everything's settled. I'll be going out for now, since we three missed class today." Amaya continued.

Part 21 ; Hurt

"No way. No way! No way!!" Kazuki yelled.
"Well, If it was no way, why am I here?" Hana walked towards him with a wicked smile across her face. Kazuki stared fearfully at the katana she was holding in her hand.

"Come on Amaya, stop it. I know you. You wouldn't do this to me!"
"Oh wouldn't she?" A man stepped forward from Hana's back. The master! thought Kazuki.
"Let's just say your little childhood friend here doesn't care about you anymore." he said with a cold smile.

"No! No! Don't do it!" Kazuki stammered as Hana stepped closer to him, raising her katana, obviously getting ready to kill him.
"Don't do it!! I STILL TRUST YOU!!!!"
CRASH!!!

"Huh.. What?" Kazuki looked around rubbing his head. "Only a dream? It looked so real." he said to himself as he picked himself up from the floor. Clearly, he fell of the bed.

"8am. I should be getting ready already- argh!!" he fell onto the floor again, rubbing his back.
"Probaly landed wrongly on the floor.. argh!" Kazuki panted as he struggled to climb himself onto the bed. When he was on it, he couldn't think of anything else but to fall asleep again.

**************************************

"Kazu? Kazu~"

"Erh.. What happened?" Kazuki asked blurly.

"You're not waking up for school, that's what happened."

Kazuki opened his eyes. His eyes grew wider when he saw Amaya. "Get away from me- ARRGGHH!!!" he tried to move but his back hurt more than just now.

"What's wrong with you?" Amaya asked concernly.
"My back hurts like crap. Fell down from the bed." Kazuki panted.

"You wanna go to the hospital?" Narumi asked him.
"No."
"Okay, then how are you gonna get any better?"

Kazuki was caught. He knew that too. If he doesn't get to a hospital and get treatment, he wouldn't get any better.

"Amaya, you assassins know how to cure people right?" he asked, back facing her.
"Yeah."
"Now what are you waiting for?!" Kazuki asked frustrated.
"I can't use my freaking powers anymore, okay?!" Amaya yelled at Kazuki.

"You're so self-centred, you don't even care about what I've been through! All you think is how could I do such a thing as killing people! You don't even give a crap how much I'm trying to tackle down my past!" she shouted.

Narumi looked at her, shocked. Kazuki felt bad.

Amaya realised what she did. What in the world? Why did I have to explode like this?!

"I'll call Sora." she said.
"Will he harm us?" Kazuki asked.
"I can fight him off still if he chooses to." Amaya said as she walked out of the room to get her phone.

Part 20 : Confession

The akward moment.

Kazuki was staring at Amaya. Narumi was trying to figure out what was happening. Amaya was frowning at the floor thinking how to answer Kazuki.

"Well?" Kazuki asked, starting to feel a bit nervous by the situation he caused.

"After that happened, i kept wandering around. So hopeless about what happened. Like a loner wandering around without a home to stay." she said after a long pause.

"The master took me in."
"Master?"
"A man. I don't even know his name."
"What happened?"
"I became-"

Amaya paused, frowning even more, trying to force the sentence out. Her hands were grasping her shorts very hardly.

"I b-became a-an assassin." she said quietly.

There was a sudden shock of silence.

"Hana... was me." Amaya continued without caring what were the other two boys thinking.

"The master trained me to be a stone cold assassin to kill. He brain-washed me to think the world was never fair and made me have a grudge on every other people. He asked me the same question every day during training. 'It happened to you. But why not others? You lost your parents, why you? why not some one else?!'" Amaya blurted out in a breath.

"So I was convinced and went ahead killing of other people. Until that case where you guys know about where I said sorry. After that, I went back and decided to leave the academy. It was an academy but only two of us. Sora and me. The master thought that I would come back. But I didn't. So he decided later on that anyone who joined can never leave. He doesn't want any of us to sell of his secret."

"B-but he doesn't know that I'm here. Trust me." Amaya rushed when she saw Narumi's face rose in shock.

"That's all." Amaya said, frustrated that she couldn't control herself and told everything out to them.

Kazuki stood and walked back up to his room.

"Er.. I'm not sure what's going on.. But, I'm sure all of that wasn't your fault and you did the right thing to quit it." Narumi said confidently.

Amaya glanced at him. "Thanks." she said.

"Come on, let me help you wash the dishes." he said.

Amaya smiled at him gratefully.