Linked: The War of the Gems - Book 1

by Alexandra Johnson

  “Well, we’re here now,” Tatsuo huffed. “So go about your damn business.”

  “Sure thing, Aniki,” his gang chorused. Together, they got up and went to play games. They knew better than to test their boss when he was like this.

  Seiji, however, didn’t. He hadn’t even realized Tatsuo was talking to him. “Seems Momo-chan’s dear friend is quite well-versed in love.” He turned to Aoi. “Perhaps you should give her some lessons sometime.”

  He stuck out like a sore thumb from the yankii, in their printed shirts and torn jeans. Seiji was dressed almost too nice for the occasion. It suited him.

  Momoka shoved him. “Hey! Don’t say stupid stuff like that to Onee-chan!”

  “Sorry, Momo-chan,” he said immediately. “Won’t happen again.”

  “Better not.”

  “Or we’ll both have a problem with it,” Asagi chimed in.

  “Asa-chan too?” Seiji raised his brows.

  “We don’t need your lechery, Namakabe-kun.”

  His shoulders slumped. He was persistent, but even he knew there were times when it was best to give in. “Of course. I’m sorry.” Seiji stood with a flourish. “If you’ll excuse me, one of Akabori-san’s friends is going to best my high score. A champion needs to defend his title.”

  “Good luck!” Momoka called after him.

  He gave her a slight bow and waltzed away to where Honda was hopping around on one of the retro dance-off machines.

  Aoi settled in to one of the seats near Momoka. Tatsuo sat beside her—closer than necessary, but keeping to himself.

  Aoi helped herself to a slice of pizza, and handed another slice to Tatsuo. “And how are you, Pocahontas-san?” It was safe to speak to the spirit when it was only the Linked around.

  “Just fine. Momo-chan and I have been reading this new manga. It’s super cute!”

  Asagi rolled her eyes. It was odd, Aoi thought, that Pocahontas was the only spirit in their group introduced to everyone. But it was kind of a necessity; she was almost never in her gem, while Mulan and the other spirits spent most of their time there.

  “Hey, can I ask you something?” Aoi asked the spirit. “Sorry but why aren’t you in your gem as much? Don’t you like your inner world?”

  Pocahontas looked down. “Not so much lately. It’s . . . changing.”

  “And super creepy.” Momoka added. “At least, it was the couple of times I visited it.”

  “Changing?” Tatsuo quirked a brow. “How’s that?”

  Pocahontas thought for a moment, then shrugged. “There’s this crack in the forest and sky. It appeared when I linked with Momo-chan, but I thought that was part of getting a holder. Now, though, they’re getting bigger. The one in the forest is now too big for the deer to cross, and the other spirits are worried. It just creeps me out being there—and it’s sooo stressful. You guys are way more fun out here.”

  “That cannot be good,” Mulan said, her voice echoing around Aoi. She remained in the gem, almost as if proving that she wasn’t afraid of her world. “The crack in my world hasn’t grown.”

  Aoi wasn’t sure why, but she got a sinking feeling from all this. It made her anxious. “There’s a crack in Mulan’s gem, too. But she hasn’t noticed any change. I’ve only been in the inner world once. Have any of you been in your worlds?”

  If she’d been able to go there more, she might have been able to investigate the cracks herself, maybe make sense of things. But she couldn’t. It wasn’t up to her when she visited.

  “I only went there once,” Asagi said. “It was boring. I wouldn’t go again.”

  “I would,” Tatsuo said with a smug grin. “I thought it was awesome. I just thought the cracks were part of the whole ‘inner world’ thing. Guess Fukushima-aniki didn’t really pay much attention to it either.”

  He rolled his eyes suddenly. His spirit, Masanori, must have said something.

  “Hey. I’m just telling it like it is,” he said to the air—or, rather, his spirit.

  “What do you think the cracks mean?” Aoi asked.

  “They can’t be anything good,” Mulan said. “Perhaps the closer we are to this world, the less of our spirit world we’ll have. Perhaps soon the only choice we’ll have is to be in the real world with our holders.”

  That would explain why Pocahontas’s world had widening cracks; the spirit and her holder were very close. Aoi repeated what the woman said: “Hua-san thinks the inner world may go away for good.”

  “What? That’d suck!” Tatsuo groaned. “There’s so much to learn there, and it’s a good place for me and Aniki to train.”

  “What if the real world’s coming to us?” Momoka asked, eyes wide. “And all of this is just a dream?”

  Asagi waved her hand dismissively. “Don’t be stupid. This isn’t some dumb manga.”

  Momoka’s shoulders slumped. “It was just an idea . . .”

  “It could be possible,” Aoi said, hoping her encouraging tone hid her skepticism. “Anything could be, with how little we know.”

  “That’s true,” Asagi said with a huff. “We hardly know anything.”

  “But we have time to learn! We’ve gotta!” Momoka bounced in her seat.

  “Gotta? Or what, kid?” Tatsuo asked. Aoi put her hand on his shoulder, and he looked at her. “What?”

  “She has a point,” Aoi said softly. “The inner world is still there, and so long as it is, we have a chance to learn something. Before the cracks keep the spirits from traveling around.”

  “Yeah,” he said. “I guess so.”

  The table fell into a troubled silence. Aoi wondered if Touya’s inner world had cracks in it, too. Maybe he was able to figure out more about his gem on his own, without their interfering. She wondered if he knew anything.

  At that moment, a few girls walked by. They looked familiar. One of them wore a purple blouse and black jeans. Her face was caked in makeup. She snorted as she saw the four sitting at the table.

  “Look, Mei-chan. Yankii. I told you this place was a total dump.”

  Yankii. There was that word again. There was the reason why Touya wasn’t here with them, why she wasn’t even telling the others about him being a Linked. Never before had she been so openly and brutally rejected by someone she thought was her friend. How could she be bad for his image? She was a good girl. Did he really think she was a punk? Was she a punk? . . . Did that really even bother her anymore?

  Aoi’s shoulders slumped, and she slowly stood from the table. She needed to go to the bathroom or play games or something to distract herself from those thoughts.

  Tatsuo’s gaze followed her. He opened his mouth to speak, but she shook her head, as if knowing what he was going to say. No, he didn’t need to pick a fight with Touya.

  Tatsuo gave a tight smile, almost more like a grimace. He stood and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Come on. Let’s play some games.”

  “I’m gonna see if Seiji is still king!” Momoka rushed off, Pocahontas trailing behind her.

  The rest of the afternoon was spent in laughter and friendship. They rocked at dancing and singing games, challenged each other at fighting games, and even played a game of laser tag. All the while, what the girls said was on Aoi’s mind, gnawing away at her.

  Even as Tatsuo walked her home, it still bugged her. She kept her eyes on the ground, not saying much.

  Finally, Tatsuo asked, “Is something wrong? Are you still mad at me for before?”

  Aoi shook her head. “No, of course not. It’s just . . . Something happened with Touya.”

  His eyes narrowed. “What did he do to you?” he asked immediately.

  She held her hands up defensively, as if to block out the possibility. “Nothing. It was something he said, and I probably shouldn’t be so bothered by it. He told me he didn’t want to be seen in public with me, or with us, because we were yankii and that was bad for his reputation.”

  “He said what?” Tatsuo growled, hands balling into fists.

  Aoi
looked up at him in surprise. “But you are kind of a yankii.”

  “I don’t care what he says about me. It’s when he talks crap about you that I’ve got a problem. You’re not a yankii. You’re a good kid.”

  She huffed. “I’m not a kid.”

  “But why’d it bother you?”

  “He’s a Linked, Senpai. I want him to be friends with us. I want everything to work out.”

  “He still shouldn’t have said that. Geez . . .” He shook his head in disgust. “Not like we need a guy like that in our group.”

  She chewed at her lip. “I wonder . . .”

  They were entering her neighborhood now. Aoi was quiet, her shoulders slumped and her head down. The evening air was chilly, and Aoi tried not to shiver from the soft breeze. Every now and then, Tatsuo glanced at her. He didn’t speak, but the worried look on his face told Aoi he wanted to.

  “Senpai?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Did you wanna say something?”

  He sighed heavily. “I just hate seeing you down over something like this. Touya’s the jerk here, not you.”

  Aoi was tired of being told it wasn’t her fault, tired of talking about Touya. She felt down either way, no matter what he said. And there were other problems than just Touya’s reaction.

  “Hey, Senpai? Am I annoying?” She chewed at her lip as she waited for an answer. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know what he thought.

  Tatsuo’s brows furrowed. He was silent for a moment. Why did he hesitate? “Of course not.”

  “But you had to think about it.”

  “Only ’cause I can’t figure out why you’d ask something stupid like that.”

  Oh. That was a relief. But explaining herself was harder.

  “Well,” she stammered. “Do you remember Kimi, Hana, and Kimiko?” Wait a second. He’d never seen them. “I mean, do you remember me talking about them?”

  “Briefly, yeah.” He paused, giving his brain time to connect the dots. Then anger filled his voice. “They say something to you too?”

  “Kind of.” She hesitated. “It’s more like what they didn’t say.”

  Tatsuo was silent, watching Aoi from the corner of his eye. He was giving her the time she needed to speak.

  “Summer’s coming up soon, but they haven’t invited me down for a sleepover. We had sleepovers every year when I was in Tokyo. Maybe they don’t miss me as much as I miss them. Maybe I was too clingy or annoying when we did hang out. I must have really bothered them . . .”

  “Arisawa, that ain’t true,” he said softly.

  Tears welled up in her eyes yet again. Her legs felt heavy, too heavy to keep walking. She really was a crybaby.

  “Is there something wrong with me?” she asked. “Is that why they hate me?”

  “Arisawa-chan, no. That’s not it at all,” Mulan said softly.

  Tatsuo must have heard Mulan too, because he said, “She’s right. You didn’t do nothing bad.”

  “But—” she managed to choke out. “We used to be such close friends.”

  They ate lunch together. They hung out together. They went to the mall together. They were so close. But everything had changed since then.

  The two stopped in front of Aoi’s her house. Neither of them recognized this, however, as their conversation continued.

  “Somehow I doubt they were your friends at all. I bet they just used you.”

  Used her? That was harsh. “What are you saying?”

  “Arisawa, think about it. How did they treat you?”

  Aoi didn’t understand. Kimi, Hana, and Yukiko were definitely her friends. Weren’t they? “They relied on me.”

  “Did they make you pay for everything?”

  “How did you know that?”

  He grimaced, then took her hand and started walking down the street, leaving her house behind. She stumbled at first, but tagged along anyways. “I was in your spot once.”

  “You were?” It was hard to imagine her upperclassman being used by his friends. He was strong and smart. Wouldn’t he have noticed?

  He nodded. “I was.”

  “What was it like?” she asked. She hated herself for it, but she wanted to know more. Even though Tatsuo didn’t like talking about his past. Even though Aoi hated prying.

  They wandered around her neighborhood’s quiet streets, his hand tightly holding onto hers. She could feel his palm start to sweat, despite the chilly evening breeze. He didn’t look at her as he spoke. “Back when Ma was alive, I was actually a pretty nice kid. No rebelling or nothing,” he said. Aoi hadn’t heard him speak about his mother in a long, long time. Not since the first month of knowing him. “I started rebelling when Ma died. I wanted attention, and I got it. I may have lost a lot of friends, but I made new ones. Even if they were afraid of me.”

  She wasn’t sure she understood. “They stayed with you because they were afraid?”

  He nodded. “Too afraid to leave. And I knew it.” Tatsuo sighed heavily. “I went to such great lengths to keep them around. The moment they found that out, they started using me instead.”

  “What happened?”

  He shrugged. “I cut ’em loose. I figured I didn’t need people making me feel bad.”

  “And it got better, right?” He met Reiji and the others, and they became his friends.

  “Yeah. The guys weren’t afraid. They admired me and, somehow, we became friends. True friends.”

  Aoi smiled a little. “And I’m your friend.”

  Finally, he looked at her and smiled. “Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, you are.”

  She thought of his reaction earlier, when he realized it wouldn’t just be the two of them at the arcade. Were they really just friends? She thought about asking but, no, it wasn’t the time. She wasn’t ready for the embarrassment of his answer. She didn’t have the courage. Besides, Aoi still had a problem.

  She removed her hand from his, trying to discreetly wipe the sweat off on her jeans.

  “What should I do, senpai?”

  “About your friends?”

  She nodded.

  “I’d dump ’em,” he said and shoved his hand in his pocket. “But it’s up to you. You just do whatever’ll make you most happy.”

  Whatever would make her happiest? She couldn’t remember the last time someone told her to do that. She’d have to give it some thought.

  “Okay,” was all she said.

  He smiled back at her. They’d arrived back at her house. “See ya tomorrow, Arisawa.”

  Aoi’s room was quiet. Had it not been for the faint music coming from her computer speakers, it would have been silent. Blue eyes stared at the screen. Hands hovered just above the keys.

  What was she thinking? Her old friends hadn’t spoken to her in so long. Was it even a good idea to try and talk to them again? But this was her chance. It was the first time Aoi remembered her old friends all being online at once since she’d moved.

  Still, Tatsuo’s words came to mind. Maybe he was right. May she should “just dump ’em.” But she wanted to believe in them. She wanted give them one last chance at being friends.

  Things had been so quiet in the chat, and it only got quieter as the months went on. She wanted to change that. She wanted to talk to her old friends again. Maybe all they needed was for her to take the first step.

  Blue has started a conversation with Snow, Flower, and Empress.

  Blue: Hey, guys. Long time, no hear. ^^;

  Snow: It certainly has been a long time. I didn’t expect to hear from you.

  Flower: Same here.

  Empress: Me either.

  Oh. Had they been waiting for her to message them? She felt awful, like her chest had suddenly grown tight. She should have started a conversation with them months ago.

  Blue: Sorry about that. I just thought you guys were busy.

  Empress: Well, we have been. Didn’t you know?

  Flower: Yeah. We’ve been shopping, having school, blah blah blah.

  Blue:
Oh, that’s cool. I’ve not been up to much myself.

  “Somehow, I doubt that,” Mulan interrupted.

  Aoi glanced over her shoulder at the woman. She flinched when she saw Mulan peering over her shoulder. She hadn’t realized the woman was that close.

  Mulan laughed. “Sorry. Did I startle you?”

  “A little,” Aoi admitted. She turned back to the screen with a sigh. “But I can’t just say ‘I’ve made friends with yankii and junior high students because we have magical gems’. They’ll think I’ve lost it!”

  “Well, I don’t expect you to say that, but not all your friends have a gem. What about Seiji? Or those yankii boys?”

  Aoi managed a small smile. “They’re exceptions,” she said with a laugh. Still . . .

  There was a new message waiting for her when she looked back at the screen again.

  Snow: And we’re gonna be even busier during break. We made plans to travel Japan, buy tons of cute clothes, and maybe even go to a beach or festival or something.

  Snow: So, just a head’s up, if you can’t get a hold of us, that’s probably why.

  Empress: Yeah. Hope you have fun in that itty, bitty town of yours.

  Empress: What was it called again? Kurokano? Irakira?

  Aoi’s hands shook as she typed the answer.

  Blue: It’s Irokara, actually . . .

  Empress: Close enough.

  Flower: But we’ll totally buy stuff in your memory. You wouldn’t mind some pics from our vacay, right?

  What they were saying really hurt. It felt like she was being replaced, or like she never even had a place in their group to begin with. Weren’t they her friends? They did miss her, right? It brought tears to her eyes. Maybe Tatsuo was right.

  Past her blurry view, she saw her final response as she typed it.

  Blue: Thanks, guys. Hope you have a good time.

  She couldn’t take any more of this. It hurt to know they were having such a good time without her. But that made her even more selfish, didn’t it? They deserved to have fun. But maybe . . . Maybe they just didn’t like her . . .