Part 39 : Erased

Kaze threw Swift at Amaya non-stop. Every weapon Amaya changed from the air turned back to air after coming in contact with Swift, and most of the time when Kaze was near her when this happened, he would shove, kick or push her aside.

Both of them were highly-trained, quick-reaction assassins. Even though Amaya hadn't been doing all this "crap" (as she called it), she still hadn't completely loss her skills and speed. Kaze would have been no match for her if she was in her days as Hana. Now he was just as good as Amaya because of her absence in training.

Meanwhile, all Sora could do was to stare at the too-fast-motion-for-him battle between his two friends and holding up the barrier while boiling with anger inside his heart towards the master.

"Do you know?" the master suddenly spoke. "Your little girl-friend's dying as we speak?"

"Shut up!" Sora yelled, refusing to look at him.
"It's true." the master continued as if Sora didn't say anything.

"Hana can change any amount of air she wants into any sort of weapon. Plus, she is way more expierenced than Kaze. Of course, I wouldn't be so silly as to let her win so easily.

"There was something I gave to Kaze to rub on Swift before this battle began. It's a special powder especially made to control Hana's powers."

"WHAT?!"

"You heard me right, Sora. That powder limits the number of weapons Hana can transform everytime her weapons come in contact with Swift. When it hits Swift, it changes back into air and Hana wouldn't be able to transform air into that weapon for two weeks."

"That's very simple minded of you." Sora smirked. "Has anyone ever told you how big the world is? And how many different weapons there are in it?"

"Ha! You're the one who's simple minded, Sora!" the master roared arogantly. "I've not finished my explaination yet. When the weapon turns back, it doesn't just only turns back into air. It turns into POISON air."

Hearing this, Sora shot his eye back to Amaya and Kaze. Amaya looked terribly green and weak.

It must be the poison!

"Yes, Sora. The poison is killing her." the master said in a rather deceiving tone.

He was confused now. He should keep holding the barrier, but he needed to save Amaya. He just bit his tongue and rush out of the barrier.

"AMAYA!!!!"

"You idiot!" Amaya shouted.

WHOOSSHHH!!!!! BOOOMMM!!!!

A smoke screen was let out by Sora in his attempt to save Amaya.

A minute's silence.

When the smoke started to faded away, there the three friends were. Kaze unconcious but still standing with his hand holding a sword that pierced through Amaya's right upper ribs which came out from her back pointing at Sora which stood with one end of Swift planted nicely into his back.

"At last, I can rest in peace knowing that the three people I trained to erase people who betrayed me have erased each other in more ways than one."

He took his leave and vanished.

Kaze slowly woke up from the master's control. He was himself again. He noticed his hand was stretched out holding on to something.

"Amaya!" he shouted when he saw what he was holding.

"I-I'm g-glad you're bac---" Amaya fell down on her side.

"Akira!!!"

"Why are you so stupid?" Sora said breathlessly and fell forward.

Part 38 : Betray

"Sora and Hana. What a coincidence that you both know each other." the master said as he walked towards them.

He was drapped in a piece of dark red cloak. His eyes were of those that were arrogant. The sight of him pissed Amaya off.

"Don't act dumb, you piece of crap." Amaya yelled angrily.
"If you say I'm a piece of crap, I should be dumb right?" the master answered with a seemingly underestimating look.

Amaya grabbed thin air with her right hand and a sword instantly appeared.

"Hm. Using your transfomative powers against me?" the master smirked.

KA-BOOM!!!!

The bus exploded.

"Oh well." the master said in the smoke. "All that training and to have to kill them. It was all for nothing, I suppose." he started walking away.

"Nothing?"

The master stopped and turned around.

Among the thick grey smoke, a big ball of blue light was shinning. It was a barrier created by Akira. But we must call him Sora now that he's in Sora's clothing. Inside the barrier, all the students on the bus were there, still unconcious of course.

"Ah. I see. It was for something alright. It was for fighting back, fighting against me after all. Wouldn't you say so, Hana?"

"SHUT UP YOU BASTARD!!! I'M NOT HANA ANYMORE!!!" Amaya yelled as she ran out of the barrier and charged towards him.

"Amaya, you idiot! Come back here!!" Sora shouted.

"ARRGHHH!!!" Amaya was hit by something coming her way. She was thrown back in front of the barrier.

"Get inside now!" Sora shouted again.

Amaya stood up. "No."
"What?! Are you crazy? He's not fighting alone! It's like he has someone new to help him!"

"No. He's not new. It's Shiro." Amaya said.
"Kaze?!"

Now all the smoke from the explosion had faded away. True to what Amaya said, next to the master stood a tall boy with his face masked from his nose down. It was Shiro in his assassin uniform. His cold yellow eyes that killed many were staring deadly at the two of them.

"Shiro! What's wrong with you?! Why are you helping that useless person?!" Sora yelled in disbelief.

"There's no point talking to him, Sora." Amaya said as she wiped the blood from her mouth. Kaze hit her hard with his giant boomerang in the face.

"Why?"

"He's been controlled."

"Ah! I see you have a brain that can think after all. Unlike this guy here who, well, isn't that smart. I understand now why you didn't want to stay in the academy last time. I think I might start regretting for giving you the power to change the amount of air you want into weapons." the master laughed.

"Enough!" Amaya said as she changed the sword she was holding into a lance. "Come here Kaze! I'll tear you apart for not using your stupid brain!"

Kaze rubbed the end of his boomerang, Swift with poison adn threw it at Amaya. It flew right on top of her as she bent down. She ran towards Kaze and was about to hit him when Swift appeared flying right behind her. Amaya swung the lance she was holding to detour Swift's direction.

As Swift hit the ground, the lance vanished and turned back into air.

"What?!" Amaya exclaimed. Kaze kicked Amaya aside.

"AMAYA!" Sora shouted.

"Don't you dare come here! Stay where you are and keep that barrier on!" Amaya yelled.

Why did the lance dissappear when it hit Swift?!

"Putting it together?" the master asked. "Better watch your back and get up!"

CRASH!!!!

Part 37 : Crashed

Amaya was half awake by now that it was an hour and a half later when she first fell asleep. Something was shaking her. A guy's voice was calling her name.

"Amaya. Hey Amaya wake up! Amaya!!"

Amaya opened her eyes slowly. After adjusting a while to the light, she noticed her head was lying on something, or more so someone's shoulder. She shot back up to her normal sitting position. Oh man! Shiro's shoulder.

Somehow (Amaya didn'nt know why but most of us do) her face started heating up.

"We," Shiro said, "We're gonna reach the school soon. Teacher said it. Hey-"

"Tell me," Amaya interrupted.
"What?"

"How long did you plan on fooling me?"
"I wasn't fooling you, I was just-" suddenly he stopped.

"What?" Amaya asked. She too suddenly stopped. The master?

Amaya knelt on her seat and looked over at Akira. Just as Akira had eye contact with her, the bus crashed into something all of a sudden and threw Amaya somewhere to the front. The bus rolled over a few times and landed back how a bus' supposed to be.

"Amaya!" Akira called.

Amaya was around the front. She dizzily turned to face up. There was shattered glass all over her. It was all over the floor. She put her arm over her forehead. I promise I sensed the master.
"Amaya!" she heard Akira calling her as she heard him scrambling over to her. "You okay?"

"Kind of, I guess." she said. Now she was in her right mind. "You don't seem hurt at all."

"Neither do you." Akira replied.
"Where's Shiro?"

They both stood up and walked towards the back of the bus while looking for Shiro. Everyone was bloody and unconcious with glass all over them.

Amaya saw Kazuki and Narumi lying on the floor.

Weird, she thought. They're not hurt at all as well!

"Where's Shiro?!" Amaya asked again.
"I don't know! He's not here!" Akira answered.

They both started to panick a little.

"Sora! Hana!"

Akira and Amaya turned towards the front of the bus in horror.

The master!

Part 36 : Struggle

Throughout the camp, Amaya tried very hard to forget what she saw. Somehow Kaze's mask gave her some kind of comfort. It was complicating. She didn't know what was that feeling.

Akira helped her a lot by stopping by her room and accompanying her a while.

Finally, the last day of camp came. The teacher in charge "reappeared".

As they were boarding the bus, Amaya dragged her luggage along the corridor and down the stairs which made out a very disturbing and annoying sound. As she passed by one of the rooms, a door suddenly flew open. For some reason like it was instinct, Amaya tossed her luggage at the door flying towards her.

"Crap! Why did I do that?! Sorry!" Amaya said in a hurry.

Her luggage flew open as well that instant she threw it. Her clothing flew everywhere on the floor. She hurriedly bent down and conviniently tossed her clothes in her luggage again.

"Here. Let me help you." someone stooped down to help her.

Amaya stopped dead again when she heard that voice. It was Shiro. She just grabbed her clothes he picked up and pushed it all inside the bag, zipped it and hurried away.

Shiro stood up. He looked at her figure rushing of towards the lobby. There was a kind of dissapointing look on his face. Suddenly he remembered the time.

"Ah! It's my turn to be late now!" he said under his breath.

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

Boarding the bus.

Amaya took her seat in front of Kazuki and Narumi alone. She kept kneeling on her seat facing them and kept chattering to them. They both just carried on talking with her.

She seems like a different person. Kazuki thought. But he just pushed that thought aside.

Akira sat opposite Kazuki. He kept looking at her. Something went wrong I swear. Akira thought. She's never so quick to change from being so troubled to being so care-free and talkative.

When the teacher took down everyone's name, Shiro wasn't there.

"Shiro. Shiro. Shiro Takumi!" she kept repeating.

"I'M HERE! I'M HERE!" Shiro shouted as he ran up the bus.

"Here's another weird one." Akira whispered to himself.

Shiro looked around for an empty seat. There was one next to Amaya and well, no more else.

"Go on. Put your bag up and go sit." the teacher said. "Amaya sit down. The bus is about to start."

Shiro reluctantly took his seat next to Amaya. Amaya didn't say anything once Shiro sat next to her. She just sat there as stiff as a stone.

"Hey." Shiro whispered to her a long time later, which was when everyone at the back were playing all kinds of bus games and making lots of noise.

"Look. I'm sorry." he continued. No answer. "I don't know what to say, I-"

Something fell on his shoulder. Shiro turned and looked. It was Amaya. She's asleep already.

That face looks ridiculously familiar. Shiro thought.

Part 35 : After-shock

"Hey! What happened?" Shiro said when he reach the group outside Amaya's room.
"Kaze appeared." Narumi replied. He told Shiro everything.

"I'm so sorry, I went to the toilet. Stomach ache." he explained briefly. "Should I go in?"

"Nope. She looks very shaken. Better leave her alone a while." Kazuki said.

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

Amaya sat on her bed. She still couldn't believe what she saw. She held Kaze's bloody mask on her lap.

"Shiro's an assassin too?" she mumbled. There was a complicated feeling. She was very angry at him for hurting her and Kazuki. Then again he went through the same thing as her. No parents, no family, no friends.

Amaya ran her fingers through his black mask. Once upon a time she had one like his. Then she gained a higher level of skill and the master gave her another one. All the memories of being an assassin started pouring in again. Amaya couldn't stand it. Tears started pouring down like rain. She imagined Shiro going through what she went through.

There came a knock at her door.

Amaya hurriedly hid Kaze's mask under her pillow and wiped her eyes. "Come in."

Akira walked in and sat down next to her bed. He looked at her. Amaya just kept her eyes on her hands.

"Amaya." Akira said and put his hand on hers. "I-"

"You wanted to tell me that didn't you?" Amaya cut him.
"Amaya, I'm sorry." Akira said and told her everything he stole away from her memory.

"I felt so bad about what I did," Akira explained. "That's why I came to this camp to try to tell you.

"But when I was about to tell you this part, this happened."

Amaya just sat there quietly. There was yet another long pause. Akira fiddled with his finger. Something he always did when he was nervous.

"Shiro is Kaze huh?" Amaya said in a whisper.
"Please don't tell anyone that I have this." she continued as she took Kaze's mask from under her pillow.

"Wow. You have this?" Akira exclaimed.
"I tore it of his face just now." she answered.

"Okay. Everything's settled. I know it's hard but just try to act as if Shiro has nothing to do with this." he told her.

Part 34 : Shocked

"Kaze here?!" Amaya shouted as the four of them ran towards the building. "Are you very sure?!"

"That's what the rest of them said when we saw him!" the boy yelled back.
"We saw him walk into one of the rooms. Razen said that was a windowless room."

Crap! Of all places to appear here!! Amaya thought.

They took a turn in the block with Amaya leading the way. It seemed like a very quiet building. Amaya and the three boys joined the other group. They took every step very quietly and carefully. The room was located at the end of the main corridor. Between this corridor rows of other smaller corridors stretched through it.

As they were passing the last cross-corridor, suddenly someone grabbed Amaya.

"AMAYA!!!" Kazuki shouted as all of them ran into that corridor.

A teenage boy around their age with a masked face and dark coloured clothing had a katana on his right arm around Amaya's neck. He looked up slowly with his deadly yellow eyes when they came.

"Kaze!" Kazuki yelled. Akira hid back behind the wall. He did not want to have any buisness with Kaze.

"Anyone take a step nearer," Kaze said in his cold voice. "-she'll die."

Kazuki glared at Kaze. Amaya was at Kaze's right, so his left was open. Kazuki grabbed the sharp wooden stick one of the other boys was holding and threw it point blank at Kaze's heart. Kaze pushed Amaya over to his left just in time for the stick to land deeply in between her shoulder and chest.

"YOU-!!!!" Amaya shouted. Kazuki was stunned. Kaze didn't seem to care what he did and what happened. Amaya thought of something.

"Kazuki! Y-you p-poisoned the s-s-stick??!!" Amaya said admist all the pain her nerve signals was sending to her brain.

"What?!"

Kaze straight away pulled the stick out and threw it towards Kazuki. It went right above his heart. Kaze grabbed the weakened Amaya by her waist, put her on his shoulder and ran away.

Amaya was panting terribly. It seemed that she was most of the time the one being hurt and Kaze saving her. This time she was very angry but couldn't care less to show it, now that she was so much in pain and loosing so much blood.

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

Amaya opened her eyes. All she could recall was being carried around by Kaze, going into a room and him putting her down against the wall.

She looked up and saw Kaze. Amaya suddenly remembered what he did.

Kazuki!

"You bastard!!!" Amaya yelled at Kaze, sprang up on him and started hitting him. Kaze was shocked.

"Do you think that just because you can heal me then you can just keep hurting me?! Kazuki never got healed by you!! You can't just hurt my brother like that!!!" Amaya shouted as she punched his face.

By accident, Amaya tore off Kaze's mask. She stopped dead.

"Sh-Shiro?" she mumnled in disbelief. She sat on the floor facing him. His face was all bloody from Amaya's punches.

"Amaya!" They heard Kazuki's voice and footsteps coming nearer with doors opening and closing.

Just as the door of the room they were in opened, Kaze, or Shiro as you may call him, jumped out of the window.

"Amaya! Are you alright?" Kazuki ran in.

Amaya kept looking out the window with a shocked expression on her face as if Kazuki didn't call her.

"Amaya!" Kazuki ran over to her and shock her.
"Kazuki. Your wound?" Amaya responded lightly as she looked at him.

"It healed as soon as I pulled the stick out. There was something rubbed slightly on it." he said.

"Not the poison. There was no poison. I checked." Narumi told Amaya.

"I know. It was fake. I faked it." Amaya said again.

"Are you alright?" Kazuki repeated.
"Yea. Let's just go back to the quarters."

Part 33 : Bored

The camp was in a resort. The school booked the entire one block for the students and it was huge.

First day of camp. Tiresome treasure hunt which the students set up for themselves since it looked as if they came here just to relax. Even the teacher in charge was missing.

"Great. What'll we do now?" Kazuki asked everyone as they sat in a group again for the forth time in that afternoon.

"It's 5 already. Why not let's all go back to our own rooms, freshen up and rest a while. Meet at the cafe at 7." Amaya suggested.

"Okay!" came everyone's reply.

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

KNOCK KNOCK

Amaya stopped folding her clothes and went to answer the door.

"Hey Kazu! Oh I see you came as well." she said. Akira was behind Kazu.
"Can- we come in?" Kazu asked.
"Bored to nearly-death i guess?" Amaya said sheepishly.
"Sadly yes."

The two boys went in. Amaya had the whole room to herself because she was one of the three girls who turned up for the camp.

"Amaya, I wanted to tell you something." Akira said after sitting a long while. Amaya stopped what she was doing and looked up.

Kazuki looked at him too.

"Okay. This may be hard to accept but I have to tell you anyway." Akira continued.

"It's about Shiro."
"Oh."

"Do you remember that day when he was all bloody in your house?"
"Yes."
"Do you remember how he ended up there?"

"Er.. I found him in Kaze's alley and brought him home. Then his phone rang. It was you. I asked you to come. You came and helped him." Amaya said with a curious look. "Why- do you ask?"

"What happened after that?" Akira continued.
"Why are you asking me all this? Have you forgot what happened?" Amaya asked impatiently. "Even if you have why is it so important?"

"I didn't forget. You did." Akira answered.
"HUH?" Amaya and Kazuki exclaimed.
"You'll get it later. Go on."

"Okay.. After you helped him, erm.. We had a chat. And then," Amaya stopped.

"Amaya?" Kazuki asked worriedly.

"'kira, you're right. I think, I did forget." Amaya said frustratedly. "I forgot what we were talking about."

Just as Akira opened his mouth to explain, the door burst opened.

"Guys! It's Kaze at the main block!!" the boy standing at the door yelled in panic.