Puppet Skin [OHSHC]

Chapter 12

At first, Iiyo wasn't sure what to think about Kageru. Because he kept getting close, she was scared; she didn't want to shove him away, but it was uncomfortable in more than just physical ways. In the club room, the candles kept refracting against his aura, so it was hard to distinguish one color from the other, but when they first exited the club room, she could see a strong dark green-blue with a dirty red and white that looked like TV snow intermixing in patches along with a black spot focused over his chest. It wasn't good. She knew that the green-blue was depression, and the bloody red color was anger; she knew because she and her mother were sharing those colors, but she wasn't sure about the snow and black colors. During the time she had suddenly developed this ability, she had never seen anyone with a heavy black spot in their aura. After a while, she had figured out that the black shroud over Umehito wasn't an aura. He had learned enough about black magic and had enough spiritual awareness that he had unconsciously pulled a veil over him. Kageru, however, didn't have a veil; his black spot was a part of his aura, and it honestly scared her that he had it.

Over the next week and a half, Umehito had been keeping a close eye on Kageru and Iiyo outside and inside the club room. Iiyo stayed by Umehito's side during school hours, and acted normally, but in the classes that they all had together, she kept looking over at Kageru. Sometimes, after looking at him, she would look down and start shaking, clenching and unclenching her hands. When they were in the club room, Umehito was always being asked of something, so was constantly distracted. They never had any time alone together, so they hardly talked anymore. More than anything he wanted to make sure that she was fine, but every time he asked if there was something wrong, she always replied that there wasn't anything wrong, or that she was stressing over her family or school.

Meanwhile, during after school club hours, Iiyo and Kageru would chat, and Iiyo would practice with the playing cards. She finally figured out what the Lenormand card method was when she and Kageru went to the library to use the computer a few days before, and was currently drawing on one of the decks of playing cards to jog her memory of which card was which: a cross on the six of clubs, a book on the ten of diamonds, the symbol for Mars on the ace of hearts, and so on and so forth, from the sixth card to the ace in each suit. Iiyo was just happy that she didn't have to memorize two entire decks of fifty-two card meanings, and for the most part, it looked like she could use the card spreads interchangeably, so that was another good thing.

Over time, Kageru's aura shifted some. He was still predominantly dark green-blue, but the red became brighter and there were thin streams of turquoise. The white snow and the black spot didn't change. If anything, the white snow seemed to get thicker instead of looking watered down like it had before. It still held her concern.

"You seem to be in a better mood," Iiyo commented, drawing another symbol on a card.

"Yeah, I guess. Well, I'm having fun here," Kageru replied. "I can hardly wait for the festival." He smiled, but Iiyo only sensed it was half genuine.

Did he know?

"Hey, Fukuda-san, you OK?"

It was harder hiding her concern, both from him and Umehito, so she may as well at least ask him about it, since she didn't seem to have control of her facial muscles anymore.

. . . . .

Umehito had started testing the volunteers to see how far along they were. Sasa grasped the concept of the mahjong tiles quite well and even knew to have him grab another tile when the season and flower tiles came up. Sakura had the dice down, but needed to work with dominoes more. When he got to Wazuka and Sayoko's table they were a tad distracted. Wazuka had a grandmother who was a seer, so she had no problems with intermediate level tarot, and that was perfect for a high school festival. Sayoko was getting the hang of palm reading, but was complaining about the fainter lines being too hard to see or identify in the dark, but during the testing, Wazuka and Sayoko kept gossiping. Eventually, when a certain subject was brought up, he gave up trying to stay focused.

"It seems like Fukuda-chan is getting along with Minoshita-kun," Wazuka stated, much to the annoyance of Umehito.

"I noticed. I guess they would make a cute couple, but neither of them is really sociable, huh."

"Not really. Fukuda-chan is a little weird, but at least I expected that, but Minoshita-kun isn't really friendly. I heard he got kicked out of his last school for fighting some guy."

"Really?" Sayoko raised her voice in surprise. "Do you know why?"

"From what I heard, he was abusive to his girlfriend, so when she cheated on him with another guy, he flipped and fought the guy."

Sayoko's mouth fell open with her eyes wide. "Are you sure? Where did you hear this?"

Wazuka started waving her hand, putting emphasis to her story. "Well, I was talking to one of my girl friends, and I mentioned Minoshita-kun, and she started flipping out, right? So then when I asked her what was wrong, she told me that her best friend's sister's neighbor's friend who went to Hagetaka High School told her what happened. She also said that his dad's the chief of police so got away with it due to 'mishandled evidence,' or something."

"Shouldn't we warn her?" Sayoko asked looking over at the couple they were talking about. "What should we do?"

Umehito knew not to believe every rumor, after all, it was rumors that falsified black magic, but it was still enough to make him extremely worried. "We won't say anything to them."

Sayoko couldn't believe her ears. Before Kageru came into the picture, she could have sworn that Iiyo and Umehito were an item—aside from no handholding, hugging, or kissing, they looked like they were together—but when that was proven to be just close friendship behavior, she was slightly disappointed. Even so, together or not, friends wouldn't let each other get hurt, right?

"We'll keep this between us, and keep a close watch on her. If his abusive behavior stands true, there will be signs, so if and when one of us sees these signs, we'll intervene."

When Umehito came over to Iiyo's and Kageru's table to test them, Iiyo had a serious expression and she and he were discussing something in a low whisper. Umehito cleared his throat startling both of them.

"I would like to test what you've learned thus far for the Samhain festival, and give you any last-minute advice."

"Yeah, of course Nekozawa-san," Iiyo ushered, nodding. She was hiding something.