Free, David swam under the bridge then used his Seikaku to poke through the ice. A hand helped him out of the water. To either side of him, Rie and Takumi sat on the bridge, having watched the whole ordeal.
“Fine. I do the dishes tonight,” Takumi said, his voice grim as he looked to his sister. David knocked water from his ears.
“You two bet on me?”
“Of course,” Rie said with a sweet smile. “Takumi thought it would take you another couple of minutes to get free.”
David shivered in the cold and then punched Takumi.
After only a few days off for the winter holidays, school started back up again. Nakano’s second years faced the busiest semester of their academic calendar. In addition to the usual competitions, tests, and activities, the second years would be going on a school trip to Kyushu in only a few weeks.
With Chul Moo’s disappearance and Misaki’s death, Class 2B was smaller than before. Many of David’s schoolmates were still in shock from the Jeong brothers’ disappearance and the deaths over the past months, including the fire that had raged in the warehouse. When David arrived for the first day of class, their homeroom teacher Mr. Moriyama also told them that Yuuto had transferred to another school. Although he gave no reasons, David, Takumi, Rie, and Natsuki all assumed it had to do with the aftereffects of the ōkami’s domination over him. Both Yuka and Yuuto had become loud and sometimes even obnoxious in class after the Matsumotos and David had freed them the previous semester.
Yuuto especially had been a paradox. Always exhausted in class, he made every teacher’s request seem as if it was a personal affront. Sometimes this came out as a lack of reply, other times as yelling or rude outbursts. The only thing he had kept up with was sports, but even then, he would go on as if directed by some plan no one else could see.
Although disturbed and guilty over Yuuto’s departure, David was still happy to be back at school. Only a few months before, he had felt isolated and lonely, but over time it had become more like a second home. The myriad cultural differences that had kept him off balance were still there, but with the language barrier gone, they no longer kept him from making real connections with his classmates. While he was still far from mastering Japan, Kou had provided him with the tools to improve. Slowly, he was making friends among his classmates and enjoyed spending as much time as possible with them.
David’s classmates and even the Matsumotos had become far more willing to deal with his occasional mistakes and differences since he could explain where he was coming from. It also helped that Kou acted as a check for him. Always present within his mind, Kou could often sense problems coming and help David avoid them.
‘If only random monsters would stop attacking us.’
‘They were all weak. Though I guess it is only a matter of time before Chul Soon sends something worse.’
With their initial preparations and meetings done for the morning, Class 2B began heading for the beginning of semester ceremony. At the beginning of every semester, the entire school met in the gym to listen to speeches from their teachers and fellow students.
Realizing he was zoning out again while talking to Kou, David said, “I’m just glad I haven’t had to give a speech yet.”
“It’s not that bad. You just have to talk about how hard you’re going to try this semester,” Naoto replied.
“Yeah, or talk about what you did during the break,” Shou added. “That’s what I talked about last year when my turn came up.”
“Such an over-achiever,” Naoto said.
‘Naoto acts like you do with Jessica. Is Shou his brother?’ Kou asked.
‘No. Just friends.’
“What did you two end up doing?” Shou asked. David jumped at the question, his head snapping to look at the shorter boy.
“We were at the Estate with everyone else,” Takumi said, covering for David. “Not all of us get to go on ski trips during winter break.”
‘Yikes, I thought he meant us for a minute there. Takumi is getting way too sneaky.’
“Hey! My Dad got a promotion. He wanted to celebrate or something,” Naoto said, rubbing his hair with one hand and looking away. David noticed his shoes and belt were new, and the hand in the hair gesture was one hundred percent embarrassment.
‘Naoto seems to be a bit uncomfortable with his new home life. I think he was used to hating everything.’
‘I bet he’s wishing he had studied more. Now that his parents are loaded they are going to want him to go to a good school!’
Naoto and Shou eyed David as he began laughing. They were used to him zoning out at random, something that had started after Kou had awoken. His friends even ignored the occasional times he finished or started conversations that made sense to no one else. It was the more overt strangeness that still caught his classmates off guard.
All of Class 2B had noticed the odd things, like when he twitched his head at sounds no one else could hear, but they strove to ignore it. Unfortunately for David, they had all met Jessica. The fact his sister had fit in so well, even without speaking any Japanese, had shown them David’s weirdness was not just because he was a gaijin.
David had become good enough at sports, classes, and with his friends, that they overlooked a number of quirks. They were especially accommodating when their own grades improved from his homework help. Only the twins and Natsuki knew that the strangest of his quirks were due to his possession by a kami. Kou shared his mind, an alien presence that never completely faded.
Not all David’s classmates welcomed him and his changes with open arms. A cadre of third years led by a boy named Koji had marked David for humiliation during his first month. Several more run-ins had only stiffened Koji’s resolve to end David’s newfound popularity. The incident had only isolated Koji, making him more dangerous.
David shrugged off thoughts of Koji and returned his focus to walking down the school halls. Kou pulled at David’s attention until he noticed that their group had grown. Natsuki was keeping pace near Takumi as they all walked together. It was the closest he had seen them in public since the previous year.
‘I am just glad we don’t have to deal with Natsuki all the time anymore. She’s so much more civil this way.’
‘You cannot fool me. I know you miss having a partner, even if you pretend to like the freedom more. Do not worry, we will find someone worthy.’
“Here,” Natsuki said, handing David a folded bit of paper.
“What?”
“It’s a list of the best songs right now. Jess wanted to know what music she should download, right?”
“You know, if you’re going to be pen pals maybe you should practice English rather than send everything through me,” David replied.
“She’s your sister,” Natsuki said smiling. “Besides, it’s fun giving you more work.”
With an innocent grin, Natsuki led Takumi and the others into the gym. David sighed and thought of his sister as he waited for the bottleneck at the gym entrance to clear. It took everyone a few minutes to find and change their shoes at the entrance, so he read over the list. At the top was AKB48, an all-girl group with nearly one hundred members. While it was true he had noticed many of his classmates listening to their music, he did not want to point his little sister toward their idea of fashion.
Once everyone was in the gym and had lined up by class and year, the ceremony began with greetings and bowing led by the vice-principal. After about an hour, the ceremony ended and their teachers released them to their normal classes.
Back in the classroom, their homeroom teacher Mr. Moriyama explained that most of the beginning of the semester would be devoted to getting ready for their school trip to