I hum to myself a little to pass the time. We have chosen one of the nondescript classrooms at the end of the corridor and kept the lights off, so if Mr. Kojima or anyone else who has evil intentions happen to pass by they might not notice us in here. We've also locked the door—teachers probably still have ways to open them, but the rattling sound of the key in the knob would at least buy me some time to react.

I keep one eye on the door, clutching my weapon of choice (I've picked the taser; it looks more badass than the hatchet and the knives and I simply suck at shooting guns), while simultaneously checking Katsuki and Shun's stats on their respective monitors. They seem peaceful, stable, which is quite weird considering Katsuki is supposed to be in his own specialized nightmare land.

Those nightmares. How do they work? How do the teachers just turn on one machine and automatically put everyone face to face with their respective fears? Can a machine do that? Is that really science?

I have no idea, but then I've never been good at figuring out how things work. It took me two days to figure out how to pick up calls when I got a new phone last summer. Yeah, laugh all you want.

Besides, if I really want to go all science-y and think about the recent happenings really seriously, I think my brain might just explode. There are too many strange things going on. Heck, the fact that the school is built on a system that enables us to hack into people's heads is strange enough in itself. I'm almost surprised that I've never questioned that, but then kids in more traditional Japanese families, at least ones like mine, are brought up to believe that children should be seen and not heard, and that what the teachers say are the gospel truth.

Or maybe that's an excuse, blaming it on our education system. The real reason could be I'm just too lazy to think. That's right. Too lazy. I can feel it now, the familiar haziness of a truly relaxing Sunday afternoon. But I must not sleep. Not now, not when the sanity of my classmates are at stake.

Only now that I have time to relax somewhat do I feel the full force of my exhaustion kicking in. I'm heck tired. I haven't slept a wink last night and besides I've been running lot of places plus watching people die, so my tiredness is perfectly justified.

Shun must be really tired too. I study him from where I sit. Compared to Katsuki who's really tall and has striking eyebrows and a unique sort of good looks, Shun seems small, plain, and simply worn out. I have never seen him this spent, and that's saying a lot as I've known him since I was like seven.

When this is over, if  this could ever be over, perhaps I would tell him. Perhaps I would tell him how I feel, how I've felt for so many years—

A sudden urgent beeping from Shun's monitor interrupts the trainwreck that is my thoughts, signaling abnormality in Shun's status, precisely his heartbeat rate. Usually we give it about one minute to see if it re-stabilizes (just in case, you know, the subject in question is winning a fight and we pull them out before they can deal the final blow), and react accordingly if it does not. I count down the time anxiously, wondering why Katsuki's heart rate appears to still be quite calm and stable. But after one minute Shun's heart rate shows no signs of slowing, and in fact seems to be getting even higher. I can feel my own heart rate increasing with nervousness and fear in response.

That's it, I think. I walk over and carefully unhook Shun from the machine, praying hard that nothing went wrong. Relief washes over me when his eyes flicker open and clearly show no indication of any distress.

"Are you all right?" I ask concernedly. "Your heart rate was getting a bit high back there."

Shun chuckles and sits up. "Sorry about that. Katsuki's mind is crazy huge—gigantic desert, can't see its end, walking until I find out exactly where or what his worst nightmare is would take like days. So I decided I wanted out and started sprinting around in circles to signal to you to unhook me—man, let me tell you, running at full speed for a minute is really tiring."

I don't know whether to laugh or act cross. But Shun looks really amused for some reason and I can't get mad at him when he's sitting there like that with that goddamn smile like melting cream.

So I quickly move on to more pressing matters. "Okay, if Katsuki's mind is a way too large desert, how do you propose we do this?"

Shun snaps his fingers. "Riri. She flies, so we rescue her first and ride her flying shawl or whatever through the desert. Would save so much time, can't believe we didn't think of that earlier."

Even though I'm still kind of mad at Shun for making me worry, I have to agree.

–

Ririka is sweet and adorable and so small even I could carry her. And I could barely carry my grandparents' shiba inu.

We decide that going to and fro between the mindhacking classrooms and our dorm once for each person is too big a hassle so we end up doing two people at a time, me hoisting Ririka on my back and Shun carrying Yukiya. Yukiya is also smallish for a guy, but his huge presence makes up for it. He is very tan, very vocal, and can get very intense at times, with thick eyebrows and gigantic eyes and lips. Even in sleep he is still the loudest of them all, alternating between whimpering and high-pitched sobbing.

It feels kind of strange to be walking through the morning school grounds, almost like any normal school day, except the grounds are completely empty save for the unconscious bodies on the ground. We debated whether we should, you know, move them to slightly less uncomfortable positions, but decided that there just really wasn't the time for  that.

Like any normal school day, we chat as we walk. It is still early morning, but the stifling summer heat is already getting a bit annoying and I pray to the heavens that I don't smell like sweat.

Yeah true, there are much more urgent things to pray for, but if you were walking under the sun carrying an unconscious classmate and talking to your crush who is carrying another unconscious classmate, you would be worrying too.

It was nice, to be making small talk. Despite being in the same class for all those years Shun and I haven't really talked. He is friends with everyone, from the jocks to the nerds. I hang out with some of the prettier, more popular girls in school, but I myself have never been especially pretty or popular. I'm too skinny, too pale, there are too many lines and angles on my face and my nose is but a little onion bulb. And I suppose I never venture outside my comfort zone. I talk to my friends, and that's it.

"It's almost like we're back in Fukuoka, yeah?" Shun says. "If we ignore the fact that there are like two people on our backs and bodies all over the place, of course."

I laugh, but it sounds thinner and weedier than I would have liked it to. "Mmmhmm, almost like that."

"Except we never talked," Shun continues. "That's weird, I thought I talked to everyone? Why didn't we talk?"

I have no answer to that.

Well I actually do have an answer, but "I didn't trust my face to not betray me so I kind of hid whenever I saw you" doesn't seem to be a very appropriate and unembarrassing thing to say at the moment. In Japanese we call that kurorekishi, like a dark history. Like embarrassing stuff in the past that you'd much rather forget and hope no one ever digs up.

"So weird, all those years, we should have at least crossed paths sometime or another... hell, either way, it's not too late to start being friends now, right?" Shun suggests. He seems to be in good spirits.

"Uh...I guess?" I reply, uncertainly, even though my heart is thumping like no tomorrow.

"Great, I'll start with telling you all about myself. I have a little sister and a dog, yeah? And believe it or not, I actually like to watch the Discovery Channel, those documentaries about sharks, man... oh, and I've been to Disneyland twice."

"I know that," I point out. "I was there both times, they were our elementary school and junior high school graduation trips."

"Oh, right," Shun says, crestfallen. "Forgot you already knew that."

I already know all the other facts too from excessive amounts of stalking, but I don't tell him that. Creepy. Ew.

"Tell me all about you then," Shun says, humming.

This is hard. Telling people about myself has always been difficult, but telling Shun about myself is especially difficult. I rack my brains for something that doesn't sound abominably stupid.

"I'm an only child, I also have a dog, I like... uh, dancing? Like,watching, not actually dancing myself. Oh and I go to wrestling matches and baseball games with my cousins."

"Hm," Shun says thoughtfully, "I already know about all that too. Tell me something I don't know."

I'm torn between being ecstatic that Shun has apparently been paying enough attention to me to have picked up the things I like and being embarrassed from the very same reason.

"Something you don't know..." I frown. "Um, I'm scared of clowns?"

Shun chuckles. "Okay, I didn't know that. But clowns are pretty great though, think about it. They're basically sacrificing themselves,hiding what they really are, just to make you happy. I think that's cool."

"But they're ugly," I counter, like this settled the issue.

I still find myself thinking a little more than necessary about clowns and their sacrifices as we step into the classroom that is our safe haven and begin to fix the wires around little Ririka.