“Kind of what?” Aoi didn’t understand.
Brown eyes met Aoi’s blue hues for a second before looking away. “An otaku,’’ she admitted, her voice hardly above a whisper. “Magical girl stuff is my favorite.”
That was what all the concern was over? Being obsessed with anime and manga? Aoi kind of understood the problem. Letting something overtake your life could be a little concerning. But Momoka went to school and came here. She seemed to have a social life. She wasn’t as bad of an otaku as she could have been.
“They’re pretty cool, but I think I prefer slice of life stuff,” Aoi replied with a nod.
Momoka met Aoi’s eyes once more. Her brown hues were wide with shock. “You don’t think I’m weird?”
“Of course not.” Aoi gave the girl a reassuring smile.
Momoka breathed a sigh of relief, before finishing off her second slice of cake. “Thanks for saving me,” she said.
“It’s nothing, really. You needed my help, so I helped.”
“You saved me,” the girl insisted.
Aoi shrugged. “That’s what Hua-san said we should do.” If it hadn’t been for her encouragement, Aoi probably would have put her tail between her legs and ran for the hills. But she hadn’t. She didn’t regret it.
But now Momoka was confused. “Hua-san? Is that your spirit’s name?”
She nodded. “Yeah. Hua Mulan of the Chinese ballad.” Not Disney. Aoi had learned better by now.
A quiet “Thank you” was whispered in her head. Mulan appreciated her learning.
Momoka smiled all the more. “I have a Disney princess too.”
Oh no. That was exactly what Momoka shouldn’t have said. Aoi could already feel Mulan’s seething annoyance. It sent shivers down her spine.
“A Disney princess, huh?” Aoi asked, laughing nervously.
“Mm-hmm. Betcha can’t guess who it is.”
Didn’t mean Aoi wouldn’t try. But there were so many princesses now. She could try Belle maybe. Or maybe it was Alice? Did Wonderland’s favorite blonde even count as a Disney princess? Aoi wouldn’t take the risk.
“Is it Jasmine?” Jasmine was adventurous, creative, and a bit out of her element at first. So maybe it was her . . .
“Wrong! It’s Pocahontas.”
She was right. Aoi never would have guessed that. “Really? I thought they were only Eastern spirits?”
“What do you mean?” Momoka asked.
She gave a small shrug. “Well, I’ve only met one other Linked, besides you. My spirit is from China, and his is from Japan. So I just kinda thought that . . .”
Momoka’s eyes widened. “There are other Linked?” Before Aoi had time to reply, Momoka added, “She’s not a whole lot like the Disney version, though.”
“I didn’t think so.” Aoi waited to hear more, but Momoka said nothing. “Is that all you’re gonna tell me?”
“Well, I’d show you Po-chan, but it’d be really weird if you touched my neck here.”
That was a very good point actually. Aoi hadn’t thought about that.
“Later, though.” Momoka finished her third and final slice and wiped her hands clean with a napkin. Then she took Aoi’s bandaged hand in both of hers, carefully slipping a thumb under the bandage. “I promise.”
Aoi knew just what Momoka wanted without her even saying it. “I’d like you to meet Hua-san.”
And, just like before, Mulan appeared behind Aoi. Her arms were folded over her chest.
“She looks angry,” Momoka noted.
“I am angry,” Mulan said. “I understand that these Disney movies are popular these days, but I would like to remind you this Disney fellow did not give birth to us or imagine us up. We had lives.”
Momoka bowed slightly from where she sat. Any more would have drawn attention to them. “My sincerest apologies, Hua-san. I’ll try my best not to make that mistake in the future.”
Her politeness took Mulan a bit by surprise. “No. It’s quite alright.”
“So,” Momoka said, rising from her bow with a smile. “Is it okay if I start helping you, Onee-chan?”
“Help me? With what?” Aoi asked, her blonde brows furrowing.
“You know, protecting people.”
Oh. “I don’t know. You’re . . . small.” That was the first excuse she could think of. Come to think of it, they hadn’t really protected anyone yet. Sure, Tatsuo saved her, but she’d done nothing herself. And Mr. Yamamoto was still missing. It must have been hard on Tatsuo to have his teacher missing. Aoi couldn’t imagine.
“I’m taller than you actually.” Momoka was right, but only by a little bit.
“And younger.”
Momoka couldn’t argue with that.
“I’m scared you’ll get hurt, Nishihara-chan,” Aoi said.
“But I could get better at fighting,” she pleaded. “I could help!”
“I really don’t know.” Aoi stood. “It’s not just up to me.”
Momoka’s mouth fell open slightly, before shutting it again. “The other Linked?”
Aoi nodded. “Yeah. His name’s Tatsuo Akabori.”
Her smile faltered. “You mean, the Akabori-san?”
Aoi couldn’t help but laugh. “Seems everybody knows him.” She held the door open for Momoka.
“Yeah. I heard a lot about him. But if you think he’s a good person, then he must be.”
Well, she certainly agreed fairly quickly. At least that saved her the trouble of having to try and convince Momoka that Tatsuo wasn’t an awful person.
“Should I walk you home?”
Momoka shook her head. “No need. I live right there.”
She pointed across the street. The two-story ramen shop. So she was the owner’s daughter.
“One thing before I go, though.” Without so much as a warning, Momoka took Aoi’s arm and wrapped it around her shoulders. “I want you to meet Po-chan.”
Aoi recoiled her hand as soon as the younger girl let her. She looked around. “Where is she?”
“Behind you!” sang a young voice.
Aoi turned around to see something rather unexpected. Instead of the Native American beauty Disney imagined, there was a girl there, younger than Aoi expected. She was dressed in brown with red details. Feathers were woven into her hair.
“You’re Pocahontas?”
She wasn’t at all what Aoi had been expecting.
The girl smiled and nodded. “Mm-hmm. That’s me.”
Mulan appeared beside Aoi and bowed. “Pleasure to meet you.”
The young spirit grinned even wider. “Cool dress!” She glanced up at the sky, focusing on the sun’s position, before looking back at Momoka. “Momo-chan, if we don’t hurry, we’ll miss the newest episode of that cute show.”
“Oh!” Looked like Momoka had forgotten. “You’re right.”
Aoi couldn’t help but laugh. Looked like that was her cue to leave. “Well, I’ll see you later, then.”
“Yeah. Definitely.” Momoka smiled. “I hope you can give me an answer soon.”
“If anything, I’ll have to give it to you after midterms.”
Momoka pouted. That hadn’t been the answer she was looking for. But then she gave in, smiled, and nodded. “Aw, okay. Well, see ya, Onee-chan.”
Aoi awkwardly raised a hand as the girl dashed into the ramen shop. “Yeah. See ya.”
Mulan shook her head. “They are very young to be heroes.”
Aoi was training with Tatsuo in her backyard. It had been hard to convince him, but it seemed repeatedly asking was a good way to wear him down. Plus, once she mentioned seeing each other’s strengths and weaknesses and wanting to protect Tatsuo if things came down to it, he agreed pretty quickly. She was a little annoyed that he wouldn’t summon his true weapon for their sparring—he just used his wooden bokken for practice—but another part of her was grateful for the easier match. He was already so much better than her.
“Arisawa, pay attention, why don’tcha?” Tatsuo growled, lea
ning his bokken against his shoulder. “You’ve been out of it all day.”
“Have I?” She laughed nervously, then offered a hesitant smile. She guessed she was a little out of it.
He just rolled his eyes. “Actually, you’ve been like this for a couple days now. What’s on your mind?”
Aoi let her ring vanish. She needed a break from training anyways. “Well . . .”
“Well, what?”
“I met someone like us a few days ago.”
“There are others like us?” He thought for a moment then huffed in frustration. “I mean, of course there are. Just . . . Why didn’t you say something sooner?”
“I would have, but you haven’t been coming to school.” She shook her head and put her hands on her hips. “Akabori-senpai, it’s gonna be time for midterms soon. You should really go.”
He rolled his eyes. “Not this again, Arisawa.”
Aoi had brought this up a few times. She didn’t blame him for being annoyed, but she couldn’t back down either. “But, Senpai . . .”
“I have to get stronger. Y’know, so I can protect you. Gotta keep you safe.”
“I’ll be fine,” she insisted. She was stronger now and she’d keep getting stronger.
“Yeah? And what happens if you get kidnapped again? What if you’re the next one to disappear?”
“It won’t happen again.” Her voice wavered.
“But you can’t be sure, can you? Not with that new gang showing up.”
Of course not. Still . . . “You don’t know much about them either.”
“Which is exactly why I need to get stronger. You don’t know what we’re up against.”
“And do you?” Aoi pressed.
“I know there’s been more muggings, more theft, and that someone went missing. Did you know all that?”
Aoi hesitated. No, not entirely. “But it doesn’t mean you can just skip school.”
“Doesn’t really matter, does it?” he asked, getting back into a stance. It was time to spar again.
Aoi followed suit. “Of course it matters. You might get held back if you don’t come to school at least every now and then.”
He shrugged. Seemed he really didn’t care. “Maybe they could put us in the same class if I get held back.” He looked up at the sky. “Wouldn’t be so bad.”
What was he saying? Aoi couldn’t understand why anyone would want to be stay stuck in school one more year than they had to. “Don’t you want to graduate next year?”
“Who cares when I graduate?” His gaze fell on her once more.
“I do.”
“And why’s that?” He walked towards her and effortlessly swung his bokken at her.
Aoi couldn’t reply until she’d rolled under the wood sword and stood behind him. She moved to give him a playful strike, but he got to her first. He tapped her forehead lightly with his weapon.
“I win again.”
“I know.” She sighed. She wasn’t very good at this training thing at all. Try as she might, she just couldn’t seem to beat Tatsuo.
“Don’t get so down about it. I’ve been at this for years. You’ve been practicing for—what—a couple of weeks now?”
She shrugged. It was more like a couple months. Still not as long as him though.
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“I did too,” she said. “You asked how long I’ve been practicing. A shrug counts.”
“I also asked why you cared.”
She hesitated. Why did she care? “Well, don’t you have big plans after graduation?”
The moment she finished her question, she lunged for Tatsuo, ducking under his sword. She tapped his leg with her ring as she rolled behind him.
Tatsuo dropped down to one knee as if his leg had been disabled. Maybe it was him trying to give her an actual shot. She’d take it.
“Not really, no. Figure I’ll fix stuff. Maybe get into carpentry.”
“That’s so stereotypical!” Aoi huffed, back-stepping just in time to avoid his bokken.
“Stereotypical?”
“A yankii who decides to go into carpentry—isn’t that what happens in every manga?” She hoped he’d have bigger plans, maybe some hidden dreams or something.
A laugh escaped him just as Aoi tapped his head. “I guess you’re right,” he said, taking a seat on the grass. “And I guess you win.”
A huge smile spread across Aoi’s face. She didn’t win very often.
She took a seat beside him. “But, you know, if that’s really what you wanna do, I won’t stop you.”
He grinned. “You couldn’t even if you wanted to.”
She shrugged. “I could try.”
“I guess you could.” He paused, then changed the subject. “But you said there was someone else like us?”
Oh. She guessed she had mentioned that earlier. “Yeah. A middle-schooler named Momoka Nishihara. Mulan and I met her the other day.”
“She was quite energetic,” the female warrior chimed in. “Innocent. Childish. But she has a good heart.”
Masanori stood. He had been sitting quietly in the corner watching the match, leaving the instructions to Mulan. He huffed. “Battle is no place for children.”
“I don’t know if having her around is such a good idea.” Aoi hated the way that sounded. It came out so mean. It didn’t feel right.
Tatsuo laid back in the grass. “And why’s that?”
“I don’t want her to get hurt. I’m not even sure if she can fight.”
“Hasn’t her spirit been training her?” Fukushima asked.
“I can’t say,” Mulan said. “This Po-chan of hers looks like a child.”
Seemed Mulan hadn’t remembered the spirit girl’s name. Aoi didn’t blame her. Momoka had called Pocahontas that more than her real name.
“Her name isn’t really Po-chan,” Aoi said. It’s Pocahontas. You know, the Native American girl.” That there was a Disney movie about. Aoi didn’t want to risk upsetting Mulan again.
It was enough to make Tatsuo nod. “Is that right? Ya think this girl’d be learning somethin’ by now. Archery maybe.”
Aoi shrugged. “Maybe she is. I don’t really know.” She hadn’t asked. But then she smiled. She had an idea. “But, you know, if she could prove she can hold her own, I don’t think having her around would be so bad.”
Tatsuo frowned. “I dunno. If she’s calling her spirit something like that, she’s gotta be just a kid. Is she as small as you?”
Aoi grimaced. “A bit taller,” she admitted with a huff.
“Still young though. Probably can’t fight and would just end up getting herself hurt.” He groaned and ran a hand through his raven locks. “I don’t wanna have to teach two kids how to fight.”
She thought he was past calling her that. It kind of hurt that he wasn’t. “I’m not a kid, Senpai. I’m just a year younger than you.”
Fukushima said, “But you still can’t fight well.”
She bit her lip, then sighed. “I’m getting better,” she said.
Tatsuo nodded. “That you are. But you had someone training you first. If her spirit ain’t teaching her, what makes you think I can?”
Now he was just assuming things. He didn’t know she couldn’t fight. Still, he was making his view on things fairly clear. “Then she shouldn’t join us?”
“Not until she can hold her own. Then I’ll think about it.”
Aoi supposed that was a little more reasonable. Still not what she wanted to hear. “If that’s what you want to do.”
“Yeah, that’s what I wanna do.”
Chapter 16
Aoi’s heart thumped in her chest as she stared up at the large building before her. She hoped she had the right place. She hoped this was Irokara Junior High.
She was too nervous to go in. Even with the big, black gates wide open, the school was the least welcoming it could be. Classes were over, and masses of students swarmed the courtyard as they hurried to leave. She didn’t want t
o deal with that rush; she’d rushed just to try to get here before it started, but her efforts failed her. She hadn’t even had time to chat with Sagawa. She’d have to apologize for that later.
Right now, she was trying to calm her racing heart. The students were not going to approach her. They were not going to talk to her. They’d walk right past her, and she’d be just fine.
“Just breathe, Arisawa-chan,” Mulan said softly. “There’s nothing to be afraid of. I’m here with you.”
Aoi nodded to herself. That’s right. Hua-san was here with her. She was going to be just fine.
Mulan took form and pointed to their left. “There she is.”
Aoi searched the crowd, then found her. Momoka kept her head down and her pace quick as she left the school. She was alone. Just like Aoi had been.
“Hey!” Aoi had to work up the courage to call out to her. “Nishihara-chan!”
Almost instantly, Momoka perked up. Her gaze rose and a smile spread across her face.
“Onee-chan! Mulan-san!”
Her Native American spirit followed close behind. “Ms. Arisawa and Ms. Hua! Good to see you!”
Mulan gave a polite bow to the younger Linked couple. Momoka rushed to get past the other students and gave Aoi a quick hug.
Aoi pulled away too quickly to be polite. She hardly knew the girl, and being hugged by a stranger made her uncomfortable.
“Hey, Nishihara-chan?” she stammered. She was a little worried she’d hurt Momoka’s feelings with how quickly she pulled away. “I wanted to talk to you about something.”
“Yeah?” Momoka shifted her weight.
“Well, I talked with Akabori-senpai and—”
Momoka cut her off. “Let me guess. He doesn’t want some dumb otaku kid hanging around.” She chewed at her lip, disappointment clear on her face. “I don’t blame him . . .”
“That’s not . . . entirely what he said,” Aoi said gently. “He didn’t mind that you were an otaku at all. He just thinks you need some training.”
Her expression quickly lightened. “Training? Is that all?”
Aoi nodded. Pocahontas sighed, but Aoi didn’t quite understand why. A group of chattering students walked past them, and Aoi lowered her voice. “Yeah. We’re both a little worried about what might happen if you have to fight.” Not that they knew when that might happen. But there was still an upside to this. “So, I thought maybe we could train together sometime.”
Linked: The War of the Gems - Book 1 Page 13
