Author's Note: I couldn't find any information on the exact times Japanese children go to school; I only had websites to go by, sorry if it isn't accurate. I've tried to remain as realistic to Japan as possible, though I didn't include every single one of their cultural attitudes; rather, I included most. I apologize if this agitates or upsets any of you, but I assure you that my story is not inaccurate, just not 100 percent faithful.

Disclaimer: I do not own Dot Hack, or any of it's concepts, ideas, or characters. I also do not own the concepts or characters created or owned by anyone affiliated with the Dot Hack project.

Warnings: This story contains Male x Male romance. If this genre of story offends you, do not read any further, or risk being offended. You have been warned.

This story contains some scenes which are either highly violent or contain a high amount of swearing and offensive language. If this bothers you, please do not read on.

Guardian:

Chapter 1: Secrets

Misery…The perfect description of Elk's life, or more correctly, Elk's average school day. And today hadn't been any different. Just the same old miserable day, the same old bullying, and the same old wishing he didn't have to go to his damn school. It was like he had 'Bully Me!' written in bright pink neon letters over his head; people had always picked on him at school, and it hadn't got any better since that 'incident'. Elk mulled over this in his head while he ascended the stairway to the second floor of his house, the dark banisters and dirty magnolia coloured walls not helping his mood. He proceeded to walk across the cold wooden floor towards his bedroom door, his feet making small pad noises as they hit the floorboards, bringing him closer and closer to his bedroom with each step. Elk grasped the doorknob, feeling its cool, smooth metallic surface with which he had become so familiar. He turned it, opened the door, and entered his bedroom, shutting the door behind him with a deft movement of his foot.

Elk swiftly took off his backpack and chucked it onto his bed, then after a moment of thought, headed over to his computer desk -in front of the bedroom window- and sat down in his mildly uncomfortable desk chair, school uniform still on.

'So cold…' Elk thought as he gazed out of the large window.

He looked at the snow-covered rooftops of his neighbour's houses, noticing the icicles growing downward in front of his window, attached to the overhang of his roof. The sky was a dull grey as far as the eye could see. The clouds drifted outward toward the north, the wind made loud whistling noises as it blew down the streets and through the trees, shifting the snow from the road and blowing it into the air, where it twisted and turned for a little while before settling down somewhere else. Elk hugged himself in a feeble attempt to remain warm; he could head down to the living room to sit by the heater and warm up, but he didn't want his parents to find out that he was upset. He was probably going to cry soon, he knew it; he wouldn't be able to hold the stress and sadness in for too much longer. It had happened before; he had just lost all control on one of his bad days and cried for nearly half an hour non-stop… luckily he had been in his room at the time. But what if he went downstairs and broke down? His parents would want to know 'What's wrong Elk?' is what, and Elk wasn't prepared to tell them the truth… He could lie, but why go through the bother when he could just stay here? No, he wasn't going to risk breaking down in front of his parents by going downstairs.

'I'm such a crybaby! Why am I so weak? Why can't I just stand up to those bullies for once?'

Tears began to sting Elk's eyes, and he felt a pang of shame…

'No, I've got to get a hold of myself, I mustn't start crying… there aren't any locks on my door… if someone came into my room and saw me…'

Elk didn't think there was anything he could do at this moment to stop himself from crying the tears were inevitable… but then an idea entered his mind, 'The World! I'll log in and hopefully someone I know will be online today, preferably Mia… or even Kite! That'll help cheer me up!'

Elk couldn't believe he hadn't thought of it earlier, The World had been on his desk the whole time and he hadn't noticed it! With a small amount of hope in his heart, Elk carefully lifted his FMD goggles (Face Mounted Display goggles) off of the desk, held them at the ready, activated The World, and initiated the Log In process:

Please enter your username and password:

Username: Elk

Password: 51211

Activating…

…

Logging in…

The main screen, or desktop, appeared on his computer screen. Elk ignored his main screen and quickly clicked on the icon that said The World. At this moment not caring about the news or e-mail messages.

Processing…

Elk placed his FMD over his face.

…

Welcome to The World Elk!

Elk began to appear in front of the Chaos Gate in Mac Anu. Elk watched as the root town slowly came into focus; a blur of colours gradually becoming coherent shapes and forms, then becoming crystal clear. Elk looked around him, taking in the realistic splendour that this virtual world accomplished so effortlessly. The warm colours of Mac Anu's buildings: tan, orange, red, yellow and many more colours. It was as if Elk had walked into a spectacular sunset of colour, topped off by the serene blue of its gently flowing rivers. The beauty of the root town temporarily raised Elk's mood, his mind distracted from his problems, as would normally happen when he played The World. It was as if he were a different person in here, even though how he behaved in The World was similar to how he behaved in real life, he even had the same name in The World as he did in real life. This was because Elk hadn't been happy with the way he was when he had bought The World, and had decided that he wanted to change and be more confident. So he had used his real name, to make the 'changed him' seem more real.

Mac Anu was the wavemaster's favourite root town. It was very busy, Elk had expected no less. It was the town for beginner players, and with so many joining The World every day, it was always full to the brim with people on weekends, weekdays after school, in fact any period when people had free time to spend. It was only ever quiet at early mornings or very, very late evenings, but even then, it was far from empty, as you sometimes had people from other -western usually- nations playing on the Japanese version of The World. And of course Japan's night would usually be their Day/Afternoon, which meant that the small minority of westerners who played on the Japanese server both stayed up late into their evenings and played it with the Japanese people, and played it in their mornings – or Japanese evenings.

But it was now the early period after school, it's busiest time, and the streets were full of beginners and veteran players alike. Some buying items at the stores, some chatting, and others just heading straight past Elk into the Chaos Gate, probably wanting to adventure deep into dungeons in an attempt to find rare items, or gain experience points by killing monsters. Elk used to be totally overwhelmed by the sheer amount of people who frequented Mac Anu each day, but he had gradually attuned to its bustle, and now it hardly bothered him at all. The wavemaster walked through Mac Anu's cobbled streets towards the arched main bridge -dodging between the crowds of people- and carefully sat down on the flattest part of its edge, his legs dangling a fair distance above the water. Elk looked down at the river, making random shapes above the water with his staff, his mind drifting away, and then he remembered Kite and Mia. Elk sat there for a moment, afraid to look in his 'contacts list' and find that they –Kite and Mia- were offline.

'They probably will be. And if they are online they won't want to waste their time with you.' his mind intruded.

'That's not true!' the wavemaster retorted, ineffectively trying to break the negative chain of thought that he often adopted when he was feeling down. He couldn't afford his thoughts pulling him deeper into sadness, like they normally would.

'Isn't it? Are you so sure it isn't true?'

Elk tried to ignore those thoughts, but deep down, a part of him believed them, believed that he was useless, and that he was a waste of people's time. He hastily opened up his 'contacts list', sending a flash-mail to Mia as he located her name. A message appeared saying that she couldn't be reached by flash-mail because he/she was offline. The disappointment hit Elk like a bucket of icy water, washing away his hope.

'Maybe Kite will be online.' He thought without much conviction. Demoralised, he desperately sought out Kite's name in his friends' list. He located Kite's name, sent him a flash-mail and… received the same message. The spiteful voice that seemed to enjoy Elk's misery returned again, taunting him in it's sardonic tone.

'See? I told you they wouldn't be online! But would you listen? Noooo, you were stubborn and stupid, and now you're alone too! Ha! You were always pathetic and useless! Even when you were a child! All the kids at school knew it! Weakling crybaby! A constant nuisance to everyone! It's no surprise that everyone hates-'

Elk's face screwed up in his fury, and he slammed his fist down on the computer desk viciously, hurting his hand.

'SHUT UP! SHUT YOUR GODDAMN MOUTH! YOU, YOU…!'

Elk's sudden burst of angry energy left him, along with the voice. And like the cold flowing tides, his sadness came back in and enveloped him completely. He could feel the tears again and struggled – but succeeded- in controlling them and stopping himself from crying, but he was certain he wouldn't be able to do it again. Next time he was likely to just totally drown in his sadness. Today was turning out to be a bad day, a very bad day indeed.

Elk's avatar sat there in Mac Anu, his controller's sadness reflected upon his digital face…

'What do I do now?' he asked his shimmering reflection silently, he could almost hear it saying, 'How am I supposed to know?'

'Think Elk, Think…'

He didn't think he'd be able to appreciate the flowery fields in this mood; in fact it would probably make him feel worse, so he wouldn't be doing that. He could go on a dungeon adventure with a total stranger, but who would want him in their party? Even if they did he would probably end up feeling inadequate anyway. So what else could he do? What did he want?

'I want to be somewhere that isn't full of people or monsters, where I can calm down. Somewhere where I can forget about school and think of something else, that's what I want, and I know just the place to go to.'

He hadn't wanted to return to there ever again, he had been to there more than enough times during the period after Kite had destroyed Mia. Kite had shown him the area one day, -before Mia had started acting strange- and Elk still remembered its co-ordinates.

'Hidden, Forbidden, Holy Ground.'

Elk shuddered; he didn't have any pleasant memories of that field. He had spent many a day sitting in there feeling angry, depressed or worrying about Mia, knowing that no-one was likely to bother him there. But he had been bothered on one occasion… he had been forced to hide on a day when Kite had come into there alone.

Elk had been standing on the left side of the building, close to the statue, when he'd heard footsteps behind him; he'd turned his head briefly and seen the twin blade in the doorway. The wavemaster had then dashed to his left and hidden in the shadows, hiding behind an object that he hadn't taken time to examine. He had hidden there; hoping that Kite hadn't heard or seen him, his heart thumping so loudly he thought the twin blade would hear it. Elk had eventually decided to carefully peek around the side of the object to see what Kite was doing. The twin blade hadn't seen him; Kite must've been too wrapped up in his own thoughts to notice the wavemaster, because he had just kept walking forward, staring at the statue.

When Kite had finally reached the statue of the girl he'd leant on the railings in front of her, and after a pause had said something to her –this had made Elk jump a little, but he'd still remained hidden luckily. The wavemaster hadn't been able to hear him properly though; it had sounded like Kite had said, "Who are you?" but the wavemaster hadn't been -and still wasn't- sure. And he hadn't really been sure who the twin blade had been addressing either, because Elk had stopped peeking the minute Kite had started speaking. He had been far too nervous to continue looking in case the twin blade turned around, or worse, in case the twin blade had actually been talking to him rather than the statue. Anyway, the twin blade had left the area about 10 minutes after that. And soon after Kite had left, Elk had decided to leave too, the feeling of security gone from there. Instead replaced by worry, 'What if someone comes in?' a constant thought whilst he was there.

Even with the threat of the data bugs gone it still made him uncomfortable being there. But at least it was peaceful; he could be assured that not many people -if any- were going to bother him there, as few still knew its exact keywords. Elk turned whilst sitting down so that his feet were above the solid stone of the bridge, before slowly getting down off of the bridge's edge. The wavemaster began to head over to the Chaos Gate, becoming slightly apprehensive. The crowds stifled the wavemaster now, their happy smiling faces seeming to mock him, laughing at his misery.

'What a stupid thing to think, they are not laughing at your misery, idiot!'

Elk paused for a moment at that… and then continued to dodge in-between the people as fast as he could, before finally reaching the Chaos Gate, then stopping and standing totally still. He just stood there staring at the Chaos Gate's blue, rippling surface. The golden edge around the gate reflected the sunlight from Mac Anu's cloudless sky. The gate span slowly, making entire 360-degree turns, a humming noise emanating from it as it span.

Elk felt a sudden despondency, why go anyway? He would still be alone, still have to suffer the bullying. Why bother with anything anymore? What was the point?

'If you log off now you'll never get to know if Kite or Mia will be able to be contacted today, you might as well wait it out in that field…besides… Would your friends want you to give up so easily?'

'…No…'

'Exactly.'

'But that still doesn't solve the bullying!'

The voice remained silent. Some people stared at Elk, their thoughts and whispers echoing the same message: Why the hell was he just standing there? The wavemaster was oblivious to their comments.

After a long pause, Elk decided that he had nothing better to do, and that he might as well go to the field if it can help him forget his troubles for even a little while. He hesitantly selected the three keywords for the area: Hidden… Forbidden… (His finger hesitated for a while above this last word, then selected it) Holy Ground. Three golden rings enveloped him, and he was warped out of Mac Anu…

A thin wavemaster appeared in Hidden, Forbidden, Holy Ground. He was wearing a blue shirt-skirt combination; it looked like a gown. Its upper part was similar to a T-shirt with extra-short sleeves; it had a scoop neckline that revealed a slight portion of his chest area. The neckline had white fabric around it's perimeter, the T-shirt also had a big white stripe going down its front, with a gold button at the top of the stripe, at the very tip of the front of the neckline. He wore a grey garment underneath his blue T-shirt, it's sleeves going through the opening in the T-shirt's sleeves and stopping about 2 inches short of his wrists. The grey garment's upper part went through the head hole and covered the edge of the neckline, folding over it; it rested in a type of circular bundle around his head, although it did not obscure his face or neck. A turtleneck top, this one red, was underneath that. He was also wearing large, brown, fingerless gloves that covered the area between his wrists and his sleeve endings. A dark-green rope was tied around his waist, to keep the shirt (and skirt) properly in place.

His skirt was a shade of blue a bit lighter than the T-shirt's shade of blue; it stopped just below his knees. Under his skirt he wore brown trousers, which stopped midway down his shins. He also had dark-brown boots on. He wore a dark-blue hat that wasn't unlike a woolly hat; it was a darker blue than both the shirt and the skirt. It had white diamond pattern sewn into its front, with 3 red diamonds placed inside of the three diamonds in the pattern. The hat also had a rather large triangle shaped piece of blue fabric on either side of it, with a golden button attached to the centre of each triangle. He had aqua coloured hair. There was a shock of hair down the centre of his face that was long enough to cover his eyes, even though it was in between them. The hair to the left and right of his eyes was long enough to obscure his vision as well. And at the back, the hair was long enough to reach halfway down his neck. But he had parted his hair at the front so that the spaces directly in front of his eyes weren't blocked; instead, his hair lay in-between his eyes and to the left and right of his eyes. His eyes were a deep crimson; they reflected their controller's great wisdom and sadness. Green symbols were painted on his cheeks in designs that were similar to slightly tilted letter Fs.

Finally, he was holding a staff. The staff itself was a silver rod, with a golden object shaped like a turnip on its bottom. At the top of the rod was a white C shaped shell, four points protruded out of it, each with many littler grooves along their bases. And in between the two end points of the C shape of the shell (or in the centre of the shell, if you like), floating in mid air was a perfect sphere. It was a light-blue colour, a mix of blue and green, like the sea. A long red ribbon was tied to the top of the rod, just below the shell. It lay limp, lacking any wind to give it movement. The holder of the staff was Elk.

The boy looked around him, taking in the breathtaking view. He was standing at the end of a massive stone bridge; short brick walls lined its sides. The bridge-cobbles were old and faded, yet they were all still perfectly neat and parallel. They stretched out regally before him, leading up to the Sanctuary. The building itself was a magnificent and imposing structure. It had massive, intricate designs on parts of its grey walls, their incredible detail and magical appearance adding to the mysterious and ominous look of the Sanctuary. Its spires reached high into the air and seemed to pierce the sky itself. The whole building rested upon a very tall, tiny island, with many large pylons holding up the bridge that extended away from the island and into the immense lake. The lake resembled a mirror; its water was clean, and absolutely still, reflecting everything with perfect clarity. Mountains surrounded the lake, black and craggy, like enormous, upended, rotting teeth. The sky was a perpetual orange, red and deep purple. As if caught at end of a sunset and the beginning of a sunrise simultaneously, in a state of perpetual twilight. But…the field lacked one thing, sound. It was completely silent. That was the single most unsettling thing about the entire field, as well as one of its greatest assets. Over much time, Elk had become less and less unnerved by the lack of noise in the field, but he hadn't been able to become totally comfortable here, and didn't think he would ever be able to.

He looked towards the structure, staring at it's disproportionately small door, hesitating, then finally walking, towards the entrance to the Sanctuary, forcing his feet to move forward, assuring himself that there wasn't anything there, that it was 'Just a game you wimp'. It seemed to grow as it loomed closer and closer, the colossal walls that stretched out in front of the entryway towering above him; the walls were so high that the spires on top of them were now barely visible to Elk. The building was like a giant demon, watching him, inviting him to come in, appearing welcoming on the outside but secretly wanting to eat him when he went inside. The walls were its arms, the door it's open, hungry mouth. He could almost hear it saying 'Come in little pig, come in.'

'I'm not making myself more comfortable by thinking that, I've been here before and nothing has happened, why would something happen now?'

Elk's logical reasoning calmed him down a little, of course nothing would happen, all the data bugs were gone. The worst thing that could happen would be to find a normal monster inside, and that wouldn't hurt him in real-life anyway.

But still…

The wavemaster tentatively entered the doorway, scanned the dark room for any monsters, found none, and relaxed.

'See? No monsters'

But a part of him thought -and believed- that they were hiding in the shadows, waiting for him to enter.

'Stop being silly, how many times have you been here? Exactly, loads of times. Stop worrying you pathetic weasel, grow a backbone!'

That didn't make him feel any better; it only made him feel even worse. He scanned the room again, his feet unwilling to move, unwilling to enter the Sanctuary.

'Look… There is no reason to fear something in a game; you're being paranoid. Calm down.' 'Yeah… why am I being so silly today anyway?'

After a long pause, Elk cautiously walked toward the statue of the girl, noticing again the melancholy expression upon her face. It reminded him of his own sadness, and the sad times he had spent in here. Her face gradually became clearer as he drew closer to her, his steps clapping against the floor of the Sanctuary, echoing eerily as if a giant were walking around instead of a teen boy. As he passed the pews a disturbing thought came to his head. What if something were hiding behind one of those, waiting for him to pass by so it could-

'Stop right there, stop it now. You're being ridiculous!'

But Elk didn't stop, he only walked faster and faster, wanting to get away from the pews, knowing that something was waiting there to get him. He was sprinting now, sprinting away from the pews. He turned his head around to see if there was anything there. For a moment he actually thought he could see something, he thought he could see the thing that plagued his nightmares, it was coming. It had been waiting here all along! It-… wasn't really there… there wasn't anything there… nothing there…

'What is it with me today? It's only a game! Why am I scared of a game?'

He stood there panting, not daring to take his eyes off of the pews, a part of him still believing that the thing had hidden when it realised he had seen it, and was still waiting there even now… he let out a long sigh, relaxing ever so slightly. He turned his head briefly. He was in front of the statue now, right where he wanted to be; he could see the entire Sanctuary from here… He stood there for a while, just doing nothing, his paranoia gradually ebbing away. Then he turned around so that he was facing the statue of Aura. She was so beautiful, but she looked so sad, she looked like she was in pain, the eight chains that were binding her added to the disturbing atmosphere of the statue.

'But,' Elk noticed, 'the chains look really rusty, and some of them have actually broken in places. All of them look old, even though I am sure that when I first saw her, only two of those chains looked old... strange. And I'm sure that when I came here when Mia was destroyed, six of those chains looked old.'

At that thought his mind returned to Mia, or more specifically, the fact that she wasn't online.

'I'm so lonely, I wish I had someone to talk to, it's so hard dealing with all of these problems alone…'

The wavemaster turned around to face the pews slowly, afraid of finding the thing there. Having successfully turned around, he started to try to draw his mind away from his sadness and fear by looking at the building's interior. It looked like an old church: high arched ceiling and walls, the former appearing to be made out of some dark-grey stone, and the latter appearing to be made out of a normal grey stone. It also had criss-cross designs on the floor, which to Elk, appeared to be made of marble -white marble, but the wavemaster couldn't really tell. He looked at the golden Orbs that were dangling from the ceiling by some sort of rope, seeing that they too had patterns on them. They gently swung backwards and forwards whilst they dangled above the pews and near the entrance to the Sanctuary. It was very dark, the only light in the room entered through the massive main window. The light from which shot outward and lit up the statue of Aura, the light creating a shining halo, surrounding her with its elegance. It also sprayed onto the floor and into the middle of the room, the shadow of Aura's statue and the intricate window being added to the complex patterns on the floor.

For a little while he stood there, just standing in total silence, calming down a little bit, when suddenly he felt the pang of loneliness return; he desperately wanted to tell someone about the bullying, about how sad he seemed to be all the time now. But he didn't dare tell anyone, for fear of rejection or ridicule. Because he wasn't being bullied for just anything oh no… And if he told anyone why he was being bullied it could have negative consequences. So he would just have to try and deal with it on his own… but he didn't want to… if only he could tell someone…

His plan was backfiring; he was starting to feel depressed again, only this time he knew he wouldn't be able to control it. He felt trapped, like a bear caught in a bear trap. Slowly bleeding to death, wanting to call out, but afraid of what he may draw to him. He was about to just give in and cry when he heard a voice behind him.

"Elk? Is that you?"

'Kite?' The wavemaster thought, the loneliness leaving his mind, being replaced by surprise. He turned around and saw it was indeed Kite, who was now no more than a few meters away from him. "Kite? W-What are you doing here?" Elk blurted out.

"I could ask you the same thing!" The twin blade replied playfully, walking a bit closer to the wavemaster, his gaze drifting to the stone statue as he spoke "I just came here to think for a little while…"

"Oh." Elk said, tilting his face downwards, disappointed, "I'll leave then, to give you some privacy."

"No-No-No! It's fine, it'll be much more fun to spend time with you, anyway." Kite uttered swiftly, placing his hand on Elk's shoulder, causing the wavemaster to look up towards his face. But the wavemaster couldn't look into the twin blade's eyes; Elk focused upon his lips instead. There was a pause, and then Kite added, "Are you okay? You look upset."

The question shocked the meek wavemaster, he hadn't expected that, was it really that obvious that he was sad? The question brought up all of the feelings he'd been having before he had seen the twin blade, and this time Elk just let them do what they want, he couldn't hold them in any longer, and, against his better judgement, told Kite the honest answer to his question. "N-N-No, I…I…" Then he burst into tears, dropping his staff to the floor. He felt a pair of arms wrap around him, and he wrapped his arms around Kite, sobbing into his chest. He cried heavily into the twin blade's chest for a while, the twin blade's shock being replaced with concern as he stood there silently embracing the wavemaster. After about eight minutes Elk's weeping eased up slightly, and Kite decided to ask, "Elk, what caused you to be this upset?"

The wavemaster lifted his head up off of Kite's chest; this time looking into the twin blade's eyes "S-School… I'm A-A-Alw-ways b-being b-b-b-bullied at s-school." He replied through his sobs; tears were streaming down his cheeks and his eyes were red. Kite also noticed that the wavemaster was shaking quite violently.

"Bullied? Have you told anyone about this Elk?" Kite enquired, concern in his voice.

"N-N-N-No, I can't t-t-tell anyone because-…" Elk turned his head away, focusing his eyes on Kite's arm.

A pause, Kite waited for Elk to continue, but saw he wasn't, and asked him quietly "Because what?"

"B-Because they… they b-bully m-me because I-" Elk abruptly stopped himself from finishing the sentence, snapping his mouth shut in horror at what he had nearly divulged to Kite.

'You nearly told him about the incident at school! He might never have spoken to you again! Do you realise how close you were to possibly ruining one of the few friendships you have? Do you?!' Elk's mind yelled.

"Elk? Why do they bully you?" Kite asked quietly, wondering why the wavemaster had stopped talking. The twin blade looked at Elk, and saw that his face was very tense, his eyes were closed very tightly, and that his arms were in front of him, clinging on to the fabric of the twin blade's shirt with an intense grip. Then suddenly the wavemaster pushed himself out of Kite's embrace and ran away from the twin blade, towards the door that led out of the Sanctuary. "Elk!" Kite called, totally shocked at the other boy's actions; he had never seen the wavemaster do such a thing before. Seeing that Elk wasn't stopping, Kite ran after him, easily catching up to him. But the wavemaster was still far enough from the twin blade to be out of his reach. The whole world seemed to be moving at turbo speed, Kite's surroundings seeming to all blur together as he ran after Elk. They were running down the bridge outside of the building now, coming closer and closer to the dead end.

'Nearly there, then we'll have nowhere else to run.' Kite thought grimly.

Elk finally reached the dead end, and with nowhere left to run, stood still for a second in bewilderment, then came to his senses and deftly climbed over the small wall, leaping off of the bridge in desperation. He fell through the air like skydiver might do when skydiving, in an almost star-like position, and gated out just before he hit the lake. Kite came to a halt at the dead end, panting a little, totally amazed at what he had just witnessed.

'What the hell just happened… Did he just jump off of…?'

The shocked twin blade stared silently at the lake for a little while, before tilting his head upwards. Everything seemed unreal, as if it were all some strange dream that he would wake up out of soon, but Kite knew this wasn't true. His mind was reeling with confusion, and his thoughts were all revolving around Elk.

'Whatever it was… it must have been pretty bad for him to do something that crazy. He acted like a lunatic.'

Kite gazed at the dark, almost starless sky for a moment, then gated out, and logged out onto his main screen, removing his FMD.

'Right, I'll send him an e-mail, I don't think he will respond to it, but it doesn't hurt to try'

He clicked on his e-mail panel, selected the user who he wanted to send e-mail to, and began to type out his message to Elk:

Elk, I...

'What should I put next…? Ahh, I know!'

Elk, I understand that you probably don't want to talk about whatever it is you don't want to talk about but…

Kite typed away for about half an hour, trying to word it just right so that Elk wouldn't ignore it or avoid him afterward.

'And… Done!'

Kite read through the e-mail that he had just typed out to Elk.

Elk, I understand that you probably don't want to talk about whatever it is that you don't want to talk about, but… I'm really worried about you, and I just want to help you, even though I may not be able to help much.

If you feel like talking about it tomorrow morning, or afternoon, I promise you that I won't laugh at you or spread rumours about anything you choose to tell me. You can trust me. I'll be in Unsuspecting, Mage's, Twin-Flame in Carmina Gadelica root town if you want to talk about it, ok?

Kite.

It wasn't a very good way to persuade Elk to come but it was the best he could do. Kite felt sorry for Elk, it was always those who were gentle or quiet that got picked on. Elk didn't deserve bullying, he was lacking in confidence in the first place, and he definitely wasn't going to improve on that until whatever jackasses were bullying him stopped picking on him. The twin blade clicked 'Send!' and sent his message to Elk, hoping that the wavemaster would come to Unsuspecting, Mage's, Twin-Flame and talk to him, even though his gut feelings told him that he wouldn't.

'Please Elk… talk to me…'

Then he turned off his PC, walked over to his bed and laid down on it, his mind pondering over Elk. What amount of bullying did it take to make someone cry like that? Kite didn't want to think about it; the mere idea that someone could be doing something like that to Elk made the boy's stomach turn. But not only that, it really annoyed Kite; it really pissed him off that someone could be that sick, if he could only get his hands on them-

'Hey-Hey! They probably just called him names and-'

'Yes, but it's obvious that it really upsets him! Just because they're only using words doesn't make what they're doing right! Or any less hurtful!'

'No, it doesn't, but does that justify revenge?'

'…I guess not… no, no it…it doesn't. It's just that… I hate the idea of Elk suffering like that, it really makes my blood boil!'

The boy curled his hand into a fist and struck his bed in frustration, he couldn't do anything to help Elk. Even if Elk did say why he was bullied, he -Kite- still wouldn't be able to go and physically help the wavemaster in the real world, in the flesh, as it were. Kite thought about the way Elk had actually fled from him, just so the wavemaster didn't have to say why he was bullied, could it really be that bad?

'Maybe it's because he got bad grades… Or because he did badly at sports… No, he would tell me if it were one of those… Maybe it's a family problem that has leaked to the bullies…? Maybe… but I'm not so sure… what else could it be I wonder?'

Kite kept replaying the image of Elk just before he ran away over and over again in his head.

'He looked so tense, like he wanted to tell me and not tell me at the same time, as if he were struggling against his fear of telling me… which he probably was. Well, unfortunately that was a fight he lost this time. Maybe he will tell me tomorrow, maybe…'

The boy turned over onto his side and looked out of his window at the houses across the street, glancing at the snow covering their roofs.

'Oh Elk, what do they do to you? What can't you tell me?'

Kite saw Elk at school in his mind's eye. He saw some big brawny guys pushing him around, punching him, kicking him, calling him names. He saw Elk falling to the floor, remaining totally silent, lying there letting them do whatever they want, having long lost the will to fight back. His face blank, except when they delivered another hard punch or kick, then his face would screw up tightly in pain, before returning to that tired, blank stare…He saw the bully lifting his foot up, bringing it over Elk's head and-

Kite shook his head side to side, trying to block out the mental images of his friend suffering. It would be dinner soon, and he hadn't eaten for most of the day, but he had suddenly lost his appetite.

Elk lay on his bed, sobbing into his pillow to stifle the noise, the utter frustration and desolation at not being able to say anything about the bullying, -or his secret- to Kite being released through the boy's tears. He had kept this secret to himself for too many years, he so desperately wanted to tell someone, he thought he would go insane if he had to bottle it up inside of him a day longer.

'Why didn't I tell him back in The World? He's my friend, I can trust him, so why did I run?'

Elk regretted running from Kite, he probably could have told him. He was going to go to the twin blade tomorrow to apologise, and then he would tell Kite everything… if he had the courage to. He would ignore his feelings and his rational thoughts, even if they started crying out 'No don't tell him!' he would just blurt it out, he had decided he couldn't keep it in any longer, look at what it was doing to him! He was a wreck! He had to tell someone, and that someone was going to be Kite.

'He'll never speak to you again. You're being foolish and you know it.'

Elk knew that, he knew that a big part of him was absolutely terrified of telling Kite anything. But he also knew what a great friend Kite was, and how kind he had been before, even when He -Elk- had done something horrible and selfish.

'I'll do it… I must do it. Before I totally lose my mind.'

He sighed heavily, it was getting late now, Elk could see that the clouds had become a much darker shade of grey, the sky would be pitch black soon, as it usually would be on a cold January evening in Japan. The boy didn't think he would be likely to cry any more today; he had actually begun to feel a little better. Elk rubbed his eyes, swiftly got off of his bed, and went over to his wardrobe, getting out a clean change of clothes - his mother would kill him if he sat down to eat dinner in his school uniform. He quickly and quietly removed his school uniform, putting it neatly on his bed, and put on a dark blue jumper and black trousers. He even changed out of the socks he wore to school and into another pair, just in case. Having changed into the appropriate apparel, Elk left his bedroom and entered the dimly lit hallway, closing the door slowly to make sure it didn't make too much sound.

He could smell his dinner, and it smelled delicious, he tried to guess what it was, but wasn't totally sure, it smelled like eels… and pickles… He could hear something cooking, what was cooking? And there was something else he could smell too, something he couldn't identify by its smell, but liked nonetheless…

'Soup? Is that soup my mother is making?' He thought with interest.

And so, allowing his curiosity to get the better of him, Elk went downstairs to wait for his dinner, the previous events going to the back of his mind with the same ease that kept them so fresh and dismal, and made him so depressed.

Kite was lying in his bed. He had eaten his dinner, even though he hadn't been hungry, and then he had taken a bath after his father. Now, he was lying here, trying to get asleep…and failing miserably. He didn't seem to be able to get comfortable. Now this wasn't totally strange in itself, even though Kite normally slept easily. What was strange was that he couldn't get Elk out of his mind. He couldn't do anything to help Elk until tomorrow - if the wavemaster came that is. But he went on worrying all the same, and it was hindering his sleep. He hadn't worried this much about anything since the incident with The Wave.

'Look, if you get to sleep now, you can be up extra early tomorrow morning to make sure you don't miss Elk!'

'Yes, I know that mister point-out-the-obvious. But even with that knowledge, I'm still uncomfortable.'

Kite stared out of his window, looking down the street. It was as if someone had taken a can of white paint and splashed it everywhere. Snow covered almost everything. Miniature snow tornadoes span down the roads then died. Snow rained down upon the streets and houses of Kichijōji in Musashino City, almost burying them in its ferocity. The weatherman had predicted snow, but Kite wasn't sure if the weatherman had known that the snowstorm would be this intense.

The boy was nice and snug under his thick, warm, bed covers, his old pillow still soft after all of its years of use. Why couldn't he get asleep? His mattress itself was fairly new, it had been comfortable all week, but today… today it could have been 10-years old and rotting for all the comfort it had. Kite turned onto his back. He lay there for what seemed like hours, watching the clock tick, or staring at the ceiling, the sound of the wind whistling outside soothing and relaxing to his ears.

'I've got to go to sleep, I need to be up for school tomorrow!'

Kite tossed over to his right side, looking out of his window again, watching the cars travel down the streets, watching the snow swirl and make patterns in the air, noticing the amount of snow that covered the sidewalks. The snow building up so much that in some places it had formed to create Miniature Mountains.

'Wow! That one looks bigger than me!' Kite thought, as he noticed a huge mound of snow resting between two cars.

And slowly, as he began to get more and more tired, his eyelids began to droop -and without him realising- close.

A single thought crossed his mind before he finally fell asleep.

'Elk…'

Elk was fast asleep in bed, dreaming…

He saw himself talking to Kite, as if watching from afar; they were in a sunny, flowery field, so full of life! Elk's favourite type of field! He said something to Kite, Elk knew what it was, but he couldn't hear anything. Kite looked angry… he started to shout something, and then Elk was cowering, cowering from Kite's wrath. Elk started to be able to hear bits of what the twin blade was saying… "You disgusting… I can't believe… associated with you!" Then Kite pushed Elk over, walking over to him with his blades held high. Elk could hear what they were saying more clearly now.

"Please K-Kite! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Please…" Elk sobbed, holding his hands up to his face.

"Sorry isn't good enough!" Kite grabbed Elk by the neck, then threw him across the field, causing Elk's hat to fall off of his head. The twin blade ran after the wavemaster like a rabid dog might run after someone that had just kicked its head. "I'll kill you! You disgusting wretch!" Now Kite was kicking him, ignoring Elk's pleads for mercy; he didn't care anymore…

Now he was seeing it from Elk's eyes, His eyes. He was seeing it in first person perspective, watching -feeling- Kite kick him and beat him. Kite smirked and looked at his blades, slowly letting the light shine on them, and then rubbing the knives against each other like a butcher might do before he cuts up some tender meat. He bent down and grabbed Elk by the hair, forcing him to his feet. Then he spat in Elk's face, and forced the wavemaster's face into the dirt, pounding it into the green grass and hard earth as viciously as he could. "Do you like that you little shit? Huh?" Kite snarled, ignoring Elk's weeping. Kite stopped hitting the wavemaster's face into the ground and began cutting off all of Elk's clothes, revealing Elk's pale skin. After cutting most of his clothes off, the twin blade wrenched the wavemaster's trousers off, leaving Elk totally naked. Elk turned over so that he was on his back, and started to shuffle backwards on his bottom.

"Please Kite…! I'm sorry, p-please… oh please Kite!" Elk begged, holding up his hands again.

"No! It's too late for sorry!" Kite yelled, and Elk realised that he had an erection. Kite noticed too, and his facial expression darkened considerably.

"You little shit! I'll fucking kill you!" Kite dived down and started head butting Elk, driving his skull into the wavemaster's. Forcing him flat onto the dirt and pounding his head into the ground. Elk started to bleed, the blood gushing out of his -now broken- nose.

Kite lifted his head up, and stopped head butting Elk, the blood covering his face like war paint, the sunny sky a travesty of the misery and suffering going on below it. Kite brandished his blades menacingly.

"No K-Kite! Please-!"

Now Kite was stabbing Elk, finishing him off, Elk could feel the cold blades tearing through his tender flesh. Kite was yelling, "I hate you! I hate you… You fucking Faggot!" He moved the knife to Elk's face; he pulled his elbow back, and quickly brought the blade forward-

Elk stifled his scream with his pillow, he couldn't wake his parents up, they wouldn't be happy at being woken up at… what was the time? He turned his head to look at the digital clock resting on the small table next to his bed.

'It's five O'clock in the morning… It could have been worse, I could have woken up at two.'

Elk's thoughts drifted to his dream, and he noticed that he was covered in sweat.

'Gosh… what the hell made me dream that?'

'Maybe the fact that today you're going to tell Kite that you're-' (A Faggot) '-being bullied because you're Gay.'

'Yeah, that must be why I dreamed that… It frightened me so much… what if Kite really does lose his temper at me?'

'I don't think he will, it takes a lot to make Kite lose his cool.'

'Yeah, I guess you're right.'

'Well, you are right, because I'm you, idiot!'

Elk giggled at that, of course it was him, who else could it be?

(You fucking Faggot!)

Elk shuddered and drew his covers up a bit higher, so that they were covering his neck and part of his cheek. He still felt uneasy, even if it was just a dream.

'Maybe I should log in to The World and wait for him.'

The malicious voice piped up, 'No, don't, it'll end in tears. You'll lose a close friend!'

'But I have to tell him!'

'He probably isn't even online yet! And even if he was, you shouldn't tell him!'

'I need to! I can't live with this secret anymore; I need to tell someone! And the only person I'm close to -other than Mia- is Kite. I'm going to tell Kite…'

'Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you…'

A part of Elk believed that it was way too early for Kite to be online, and another part of him said it never hurt to be a bit early. He wasn't even sure if he had the courage to tell the twin blade. What if Kite took it badly and stopped being his friend because he was Gay? It's not like he -Elk- was a nice person; Kite was probably only staying friends with him out of pity.

'Exactly, so just forget the whole thing and avoid him totally, stop playing The World if you must! If you bump into him at all he'll ask you why you ran and you know it. Do you really need that fuss?'

No, not really. But neither did he want to suffer in silence anymore, and he definitely didn't want to stop seeing Mia. He would just have to force himself to tell Kite… and that was likely to be very hard.

'But I've got to do it. And since I have nothing better to do, and I don't think I'll be getting to sleep again today, I'll log in to The World and send him a message asking him to meet me in some field.'

It sounded like a good plan to Elk, so, knowing that hesitation would be likely to result in doubt, and possibly lead to him changing his mind. He got out of bed as fast as possible, and in the almost complete darkness, crept toward his computer desk, making no noise whilst doing so. This was partially because of the fact that he weighed so little, partially because of his incredible grace. The ability to move silently, effortlessly and quickly -all at the same time, was something Elk had never practised; it just came to him naturally, like breathing would. He stretched his arms out, feeling around for his desk.

'This wooden floor is so cold… my feet are freezing.'

He eventually reached his desk, and with great care, sat down in his desk chair – he didn't want to miss it, fall over, and possibly wake his parents. He cautiously reached out for his FMD (Face Mounted Display), felt it's cool metallic surface, grabbed it, and placed it in his lap. Finally, he felt along the CPU of The World, and eventually found the button that turned it on. He pushed it once, activating The World.

Please enter your username and password:

'Don't do it, stop now while you have the chance! The bullies will be leaving school soon! You won't have to deal with them for much longer, so for god's sake don't tell Kite that nasty little secret!'

Username: Elk

'Don't! What if your dream comes true huh? What if it actually happens?'

Elk hesitated at that, then ignored all of his emotions telling him to stop, and began to force himself with great difficulty to type in the password. His fingers felt incredibly heavy, as if they had suddenly started to weigh 10 tons, the keys on the keyboard seemed so far away… Elk forced his hands to move towards the keyboard, gradually typed out the password, and pressed Log in.

Password: 51211

Processing…

…

Logging in…

He was on his main screen; there was a flashing message on the screen saying that he had mail.

'Mail? From Kite…?'

He clicked on his mail icon to open up his list of received Mail; he saw Kite's message, 'New!' was written underneath it to signify that it was unread. Elk hesitated, afraid of what it's contents could be, afraid that Kite was going to say something like "I'm not your friend anymore" Or be angry at him for not saying why he was bullied. With enormous effort, he forced himself to open it.

It said:

"Elk, I understand that you probably don't want to talk about whatever it is that you don't want to talk about, but… I'm really worried about you, and I just want to help you, even though I may not be able to help much.

If you feel like talking about it tomorrow morning, or afternoon, I promise you that I won't laugh at you or spread rumours about anything you choose to tell me. You can trust me. I'll be in Unsuspecting, Mage's, Twin-Flamein Carmina Gadelica root town if you want to talk about it, ok?

Kite."

Elk was surprised at the letter's content, he had expected Kite to ask him 'what couldn't you say' in the e-mail, but he hadn't, he had instead offered Elk total freedom of choice and had demanded nothing. He had just asked Elk to come, in a concerned manner.

'Well, I had sort of planned on asking him to do something like that anyway, so…'

Elk had doubts, he didn't know if he had the courage to go and wait in that field, knowing what he was about to tell Kite.

'Then turn back now! You still have a chance to turn back! You haven't logged in to the actual game yet, so just leave!'

But Elk knew he couldn't do that either.

'I'll just have to take my chances with going to the field, I can't turn back now, I mustn't… I…'

He could feel tears stinging his eyes; the stress was too much for him. He wanted to tell Kite, yet knew he couldn't. He could turn back, but he knew he couldn't really do that either, as that would mean abandoning Mia, which was simply unthinkable.

'I must tell him; I'll force myself. I have no other choice.'

The tears rolled down his cheeks silently, hitting his keyboard with a light dripping noise. He clicked on the icon that said The World, placing his FMD on his head.

Processing…

'You're making a mistake that you'll regret…'

…

Welcome to The World Elk!

Mac Anu slowly became visible around Elk, the stars and the moons shining down upon the root town, bathing it in their pale glow, the previously warm and happy colours now cold and foreboding. He noticed that the root town had hardly anyone in it at all, maybe 1 or 2 people at most. The wavemaster walked towards the river, looking at the shimmering reflection of the moon upon the clear surface of the water. He sat down, and dangled his staff into the river listlessly, disrupting the reflection and sending out ripples across the surface of the water.

He was very anxious. He wanted to go into the field, just in case Kite was really there; he didn't want to miss him. After all, he had come this far; he had to see the twin blade. But another part of him wanted to just sit here and forget about telling Kite anything, the fear of rejection freezing him to the spot as if he had been covered up to his head in ice. Elk sat there for a while, a miniature civil war going on inside his head; one half of him egging him on, screaming that he should tell Kite. The other half warning him that he would forever regret telling Kite if he did tell him, and that he should be careful or his nightmare would come true. After about 15 minutes of this mental battle, Elk finally forced himself onto his feet again. He began to walk towards the chaos gate, the distance between him and it seeming to be a million miles long. The buildings stared at him mockingly; he could almost hear an NPC (non-player character) laughing at him right now, saying:

"Haha, Elk, do something brave like that? Bwahaha! You must be joking, Elk is nothing but a measly cowardly Faggot!"

The wavemaster began to walk faster, his paranoia getting worse, everything had eyes, and they were all staring at him. Laughing at him, mocking him, wanting to see him fail.

'That's because you will fail wimp!' his mind mocked.

Elk reached the Chaos Gate, selected Carmina Gadelica as fast as possible, and warped to the root town.

He appeared in Carmina Gadelica, it's seawater made light sloshing noises as it hit against the pylons that held up the bridge that stretched away from the main buildings. The buildings' lights were like a million tiny stars, and the colourful ribbons attached to the buildings floated gracefully in the light wind. Elk was right next to the Chaos Gate, on the bridge, a fair distance from the shops, but fairly close to a grunty farm. He looked around once more, and upon seeing a dozen or so players standing by the magic shop, realised that the root town was slightly more populated than Mac Anu.

'They're probably all Westerners.' He thought, 'Luckily I know at least some English. Still, I'll avoid them for now. Just in case I make a fool of myself and say the wrong words.'

He returned to the task at hand, and turned to face the Chaos Gate. He opened up the menu for selecting keywords, and selected Unsuspecting. He paused for a moment, fighting against the fear of telling Kite, the fear he had built as a defence but was now a massive hindrance. He slowly selected Mage's. He had a sudden feeling, a feeling that the people way behind him were staring at him and laughing. Laughing at him and saying to each other

"Hahaha, he is such a fucking coward! He probably couldn't go into a level 1 field without shitting himself over it! Hahahaha!"

Even the water was laughing; he could hear it… it was laughing at him. The whole World was mocking him.

'You are totally fucking nuts. The only person laughing at you is me, you foolish little Cock Sucker.'

Elk hastily searched for the last keyword, what was the last keyword…?

'I've forgotten the last keyword! I'm sure it was something like… twin blade, or twin…something.'

'Now I am definitely laughing at you! Hahaha! You've forgotten a keyword you only looked at 20 minutes ago? Hahahaha!'

Now Elk could hear the people laughing behind him, laughing at his stupidity, laughing at the fact that he had forgotten the keyword. He could hear them saying,

"He's forgotten a keyword he looked at only moments ago? Hahahaha! He is such a fucking idiot! He is a shame upon his entire family, idiotic Faggot!"

Elk became even more frantic; he desperately tried to remember the last keyword, what the hell was it?

'Twin Flame! Twinflame-twinflame-twinflame! Twin Flame is the keyword! I remember now!'

The wavemaster hurried to find the keyword. When he found it, he selected it, completing the field name: Unsuspecting, Mage's, Twin-Flame. He warped out of Carmina Gadelica, and with tremendous effort, stopped himself from screaming a cry of joy and relief.

Elk appeared in Unsuspecting, Mage's, Twin-Flame, falling to the floor and landing on his hands and knees, kneeling in an all fours position. His eyes were closed and he was panting. He could feel something wet and fairly smooth underneath his hands; it was also quite sharp at certain points.

'Grass… I'm in a grassy Field.'

Elk slowly and cautiously opened his eyes, seeing now that he was indeed kneeling on grass, it was green and very healthy he noticed. He hesitantly raised his head, afraid of what he might see if he did. But nonetheless he raised it enough to see the ground and the horizon, noticing that the Field was both very dark and full of plants. The fields of grass stretched for what seemed like miles, trees and bushes were scattered about the Field in an unordered fashion. There were very few Magic Portals within view, which meant that there weren't likely to be many of them in the Field. Elk was glad, he didn't really think he could go around fighting loads of monsters at the moment.

The wavemaster tentatively got to his feet, taking another look at his surroundings. The Field looked almost menacing in the darkness; the two moons in the starry sky were like massive malign eyes, watching him with twisted black cheer. The wind blowing through the trees made a sound that was eerily similar to laughter. Elk shivered, he had never felt so uncomfortable in a game before.

'Why am I so paranoid?'

He didn't know the answer to that question, he only knew that he was having a hard time shaking off his uneasiness, and that his fear of the darkness was getting the better of him.

'Damn phobias… I'm so pathetically weak! Why can't I be stronger? Like Kite… or Mia… so carefree and happy…'

Elk sighed; he didn't know the answer to that either. He didn't know the answers to anything; he was such a useless person.

'See? I knew you would come around to my way of thinking. Now, turn around and leave the field, stop being so selfish about telling people these secrets. Do you know the shame you could bring upon your family if new spread? What about Mia, how would she feel about this?'

'I don't know… I… I just wish I knew how she would react…'

'Well you don't. So stop bothering and leave. Don't make her or Kite angry at, or ashamed of you. That would bring them down just because of your selfish desire to relieve your own miseries upon someone else.'

'But…'

'No buts, leave now, it's not like anyone would like you if they knew who you really were anyway.'

Elk contemplated leaving the Field… contemplated not telling Kite. But that would mean either totally avoiding Kite for the rest of his time playing the game, or never going on the game again. And he didn't think he would be able to do either of those, he was too clumsy to hide well, and he couldn't stop playing The World, what about Mia's feelings? He couldn't just leave her all alone.

'No, it's in the best interests of everyone for Kite to know.'

'Not Kite's interests.'

'Yes it is, he wants to know, so I'd be fulfilling his wishes by telling him. The only person I'll harm by telling someone is myself. Kite probably doesn't live nearby, so my family will never have shame brought upon them either. And even if he did live near me, I don't have to tell him my home address, so word is very unlikely to spread.'

The voice remained silent, the negative thoughts unable to combat Elk's logic. The only other problem now was, did Elk have the courage to actually say to the twin blade Kite what he planned to say?

'I have no idea, I'll just have to force myself to say it.'

He could picture it now "Kite… I'm gay!" He had absolutely no idea how Kite would react; hopefully he'd react well. But he might not, he might call Elk disgusting and stop being his friend…

'I hope not.'

But the wavemaster wasn't sure…

'I'll do something to pass the time, to take my mind off of telling Kite my secret.'

But what could he do?

'…I'll take a walk…that's what I'll do…'

He started to pad across the field, his paranoia returning. He kept checking behind him to make sure no one was there, and glancing to his left and to his right to assure himself that there were no monsters or enemies hiding. Then a thought occurred to him, if he moved away from where he entered the field, how would Kite find him, and how would he find Kite?

'What if Kite is already here, but I just haven't seen him yet?'

Now Elk was panicking, if Kite was already here, how on earth would Elk be able to find him?

'Calm down… How about you go and wait by the Dungeon entrance, he will pass it soon enough whilst looking for you, so go and wait by it. Then you will be likely to be found by Kite, or Visa versa.'

Yes, of course, go and wait by the Dungeon entrance… That's what he'd do. The meek wavemaster used a fairies orb, consulted his map, and then made for the Dungeon entrance, carefully walking around the Magic Portals, afraid to find a Magic Tolerant monster. He looked around him, staring into the dark, starry sky, feeling small and humble under the two massive moons floating in it. The grass made rustling and crunching noises as he walked over it, the smells of the many flowers gracing his nose as he walked through the Field.

'The plants are so pretty, and smell so nice. This is a wonderful field, even if it is slightly frightening when dark.'

The Dungeon entrance was in view now. Elk started to jog towards it, his legs moving faster and faster, his heart rate increasing. He was almost there now, getting closer and closer… He stopped; he was directly in front of the Dungeon entrance now. Its style was that of some kind of burial ground or medieval dungeon entrance. It was made of large, light-grey stones, runes of many different colours were painted on them, some were blue, some were green, and others were yellow. There was a stairway leading downwards into the Dungeon, 3 light-grey stone walls flanked it on all sides except the stairway itself. Two stone columns stood to the left and right of the stairway, flames were lit upon them, their flickering light making disturbing shadows and projecting them onto the grass.

'I guess I'll have to wait here for Kite…'

Elk walked toward one of the columns and stared at its flame; so realistic for a virtual world… you could be fooled into believing it was a real fire. The wavemaster could feel the warmth of the fire on his face, could feel the cold hard stone under his hands, he noticed the contrast. He definitely preferred the warm fire. Elk sat down in front of the column, leaning against it -thanking the programmers and admins for not putting snow in this field today, and prepared for a long wait.

Kite tossed and turned in his bed, dreaming. He had been having a dream about The World, but it had started to turn into a horrible nightmare…

The twin blade, Kite, was in Dun Loireag, next to the Chaos Gate. The clouds swirled around the hills and mountains, the strong winds blowing over barrels and nearly making Kite's hat come off of his head. The twin blade took off his hat and held it in his hands as he walked up to Blackrose and asked her, "Have you seen Elk lately?"

"No, I haven't, why?" Blackrose inquired.

"Well, he was acting strangely last night and I'm worried about him…" Kite replied.

"I'm sorry Kite, I'll ask Mistral and Mia if they have seen him."

"Thanks Blackrose."

The twin blade said goodbye to Blackrose, walked up to the Chaos Gate, and warped to Mac Anu.

He looked around, and saw that there was nobody there except for a person standing on the main bridge, looking towards the bell tower. Even the sound seemed to have disappeared. The sunset lit all of the buildings up in warm, relaxing colours, and caused the person to appear to be nothing but a shadowy form where the light was striking him from dead in front. But the twin blade was somehow sure that the person was a boy. Kite carefully walked towards the boy, a sudden fear gripping him, something was wrong here, yet he didn't know what, exactly, was wrong. He was getting closer and closer, the sense of unease growing stronger as he drew nearer.

He was on the bridge now, and he noticed that the boy was Elk! Thank god he was okay, maybe he would be able to talk about that bullying now… Kite reached out towards Elk, saying cheerfully "Elk, you worried me for a minute there, I couldn't find you around The World!"

Elk slowly turned around, his head was tilted downwards. His hair was covering his face slightly, shadows making his face barely visible.

"Elk… Are you okay? You look upset." Kite asked, the concern clear in his voice.

The wavemaster lifted his head, and the twin blade nearly screamed at what he saw. Elk's face was several shades of purple, his nose was bleeding and swollen, like some kind of rotten vegetable, and one of his eyes were black. The twin blade also noticed the wavemaster was missing some teeth.

Kite slowly raised his hand in shock, moving it towards Elk's face, "Elk… who did this to you?"

The wavemaster suddenly looked afraid, he cried, "No, I won't tell you! I mustn't tell you!" Then swiftly turned and ran away from Kite, sprinting towards the bell tower.

"No Elk! Wait!" The twin blade yelled, running after the wavemaster.

Elk was running at an inhuman speed, he was already three-quarters of the way towards the bell tower. Kite ran after him as fast as he could, his legs pumping as fast as possible. The twin blade saw Elk turn left, and committed it to memory… Kite was now at the point where Elk had turned left, the twin blade turned left to follow him. He saw an alleyway there, which he was sure hadn't been there yesterday. It didn't matter; Elk must have gone that way. Kite sprinted down the alleyway, noticing how dark it seemed to be all of a sudden, why was that? He assured himself that it must be because of the high buildings around the alleyway and kept on running.

They were in Carmina Gadelica now, exiting the alleyway and coming out right where the weapon shop was meant to be, strangely. The twin blade found this peculiar but was so focused on catching up to Elk that he didn't think any more about it. Elk was running dead ahead, towards what looked like a bridge. Hadn't there been a Recorder there before? Kite couldn't remember, but it didn't matter now, he had to catch up to Elk.

As the twin blade ran down the pathway, he realised that there was no sound, nor any people here, just like in Mac Anu. Elk was barely visible; he was running down what seemed to be a never-ending bridge under the night sky. But hadn't it been early sunset only moments ago?

The twin blade was starting to get frightened now, something was definitely wrong. He ran and ran… the bridge seeming to extend forever into what looked like an ocean. Suddenly a small, dark object came into view and Kite started to gain on Elk. The twin blade realised that the dark object was a Dungeon entrance.

Elk turned his head and saw that Kite was gaining ground on him. He hastily ran into the Dungeon entrance that had suddenly appeared on the end of the bridge. The entrance was the sort you would find in a grassy field; it was made of stone, with two massive pillars in front of it on either side. Kite ran into the entrance without hesitation, a dank, organic smell hitting his nose as he descended the stairs.

He ran down the stairs and into the centre of a very dark room. It's walls were the type you would find in a darkness field, flesh. It pulsed and expanded to a beat, the noise of a thousand drums echoing throughout the room.

Buh-Boom! Buh-Boom!

He looked around slowly, where was Elk? Kite was starting to feel uncomfortable; he looked around again, this time noticing that there were no doors in the entire room, not even the one he entered the room by was visible. The walls abruptly stopped pulsing… the room was silent.

What was happening?

Suddenly, Kite heard a scream that chilled him to the bone, a scream filled with agony. The voice was Elk's. He couldn't find Elk, where was he? Why was he screaming?

"Please… don't…"

That was Elk again, where was he?

"ELK! Where are you!?"

All he could hear was sobbing, he couldn't help Elk… it was driving him insane. Without warning, the room went black, and he couldn't see. He turned his head around side to side quickly in disorientation.

He could see Elk now; he was standing right in front of him, smiling… Oh thank god.

Kite reached out to Elk, but his hand went through the wavemaster and the image of Elk disappeared, revealing a cold, dead skeleton, it's face eternally frozen in an expression of pure agony.

Kite screamed.

Kite suddenly sat up in his bed, holding back a scream of terror. What a horrid dream he had just had.

He let himself fall back onto his bed, closing his eyes and calming down slightly, what was the time? He strained his eyes to see where the hands rested on the clock on his wall.

'Six O' clock. Not too early at least.'

Kite quickly scanned over all the things he had to do this morning in his head.

'Breakfast, get ready for school, wash and… Elk, I've got to wait for Elk of course. And there is no better time than the present… better be as quiet as possible though'

Kite slowly got out of bed, carefully putting on his slippers to prevent his feet from getting cold, as he always went to sleep barefooted. Luckily his slippers were right next to his bed, as always, because it was still pitch-black even at 6:00 am during the winter season, which made finding slippers a rather more difficult task than usual. He nervously crept towards his PC, the dream still niggling at him in the back of his mind.

Tap! Tap! Tap! His feet went across the floor, the tapping echoing slightly in his room. He kept looking side-to-side, afraid that he would find Elk's skeleton. He knew that was ridiculous, but he couldn't shake off that niggling unease. He nervously stretched his arm out, trying to find his desk. He found it finally, then carefully located his chair and sat down in it. Kite felt along his desk for The World, he felt something smooth and metallic, and identified that as the machine that allowed him to play The World. He felt along the machine, and felt a small dip in the machine's normally smooth surface; he pushed into this dip -or button, and activated The World. All he had to do was find his FMD, which should have been right next to The World. He felt around again, found his FMD, and held it in his hand ready for use. He looked at his PC monitor and was greeted by the Log In screen.

Please enter your username and password:

Kite entered the necessary details.

Username: Kite

Password: 119205

Activating…

…

Logging in…

The main screen appeared on Kite's PC monitor.

'Elk hasn't replied to my e-mail, maybe he isn't awake yet.'

'Or maybe he decided to avoid you forever.'

That's what Kite feared may have happened, he would hate to have scared Elk off. But he knew how very difficult it was for Elk to do a thing like tell someone something so guarded, or confront someone.

'He could have read it, decided not to reply, but went to wait in the field instead.'

'Maybe, I didn't exactly ask for a reply in my e-mail did I?'

Kite clicked on The World icon, the tiniest amount of hope driving him on; maybe Elk would be there… maybe.

Processing…

…

Kite placed his FMD over his eyes.

Welcome to The World Kite!

Kite appeared in Mac Anu; it was much darker than and as deserted as in his dream, which disconcerted him slightly. Luckily, he was right next to the Chaos Gate; he turned around so he was facing it. He heard footsteps behind him and turned around quickly, only to find that no one was there…

'You're panicking, calm down, Elk is hardly going to come and kill you is he?'

'Of course not… I must stop being so stupid. It was just a dream… What is it with me today? It's so unlike me to get spooked by a dream…'

Kite selected Carmina Gadelica in the Chaos Gate and warped to the root town.

The twin blade appeared in Carmina Gadelica. He was clad in orange, yellow and white. He wore a dark-orange, military-style piece of apparel that stopped just short of his waist and had very short sleeves, as well as rather high neck that came just under his Adams apple. The jacket also had three large fasteners stretching between its left and right sides, holding it closed. Underneath that he was wearing a white garment, it's sleeves slipped through the sleeves of his orange jacket, and stopped right at his gloves. He also wore a white, kind of scarf-like object; it rested on his shoulders in a circular shape around his head, obscuring most of his neck. His gloves were thick and brown, and had large pieces of brown material wrapped around the edges of their openings, with a line of grey fabric attached to each of those.

His trousers/pants were orange as well, with mystical yellow designs all over them. They were rather baggy, and stopped a few inches below his knees, where he had a cord on each leg tying the ends of his trousers/pants to his shins. He was also wearing a pair of long, dark-blue socks that went underneath his trousers. His shoes were brown and made of leather; they also had small blue gems set into their uppers. He had a large brown belt on; its buckle was circular and made of bronze. Two other leather straps were attached to this belt by its buckle; both curved downward and behind the twin blade, attaching to the back of his belt. He also had a large strap attached to his torso, which wrapped around his upper body from left to right (bottom to top,) and had a medium sized, rectangular case or backpack of some sort attached on it's back. He had two massive knives sheathed and attached to his belt, their hilts made of iron and their blades sharpened.

He had wild, Christmas green hair, and had red triangular symbols painted onto his cheeks. He was wearing a large red hat, it had flaps that fell over his ears and had a large star-like symbol on it's top, as well as a metallic symbol on it's front that resembled a U with a small 0 in it. His eyes were sky blue, usually they would be bright and reflect his normal cheerful mood, but today, his eyes looked far more sombre than was usual as he prepared himself to enter the field.

'Time to go and wait for Elk.'

'He could be there waiting for me though.'

'True.'

He selected the keywords to the field one by one:

Unsuspecting,

…

Mage's,

…

Twin-Flame.

'Please talk to me Elk...'

Several golden rings enveloped Kite, and he was warped to the field.

The twin blade appeared in Unsuspecting, Mage's, Twin-Flame, landing on his feet solidly and unsheathing his blades. He looked around the field, checking for any Magic Portals. Finding none within range, he used a fairies orb and consulted his map. There were only 5 portals in the entire field if his map was anything to go by.

'Good, not too many, which means it is more likely that Elk would stay here for a while if he decides to come.'

Kite walked through the foliage and into the moonlit fields, pausing for a moment to watch the virtual wind make the equally virtual grass and trees sway back and forth.

'So very realistic, that's what makes this virtual world so beautiful and appealing. A reality away from reality.'

Kite smiled, and then continued to walk across the fields.

'Where should I wait so that Elk can find me?'

'The Dungeon entrance, he would eventually look there if he was looking for you, also, there are no Magic Portals near it, which makes it a likely place for him to look.'

The idea was very appealing… Kite thought about this for a few more seconds, then turned and headed towards the Dungeon entrance. As he walked towards it he noticed the many colourful flowers that were in the field.

'Boy, Elk is going to love this field.'

The twin blade chuckled a little at that, how lucky he had been when he had chosen those random keywords, Elk's dream field. The Dungeon entrance was coming into view now, he could see the two torches and the stone blocks, and it reminded him of his dream.

'Well, you don't have to go into the Dungeon anyway, so stop thinking such crazy thoughts.'

He could see a small form slumped under the column to his right.

'Who is that? Is that Elk?'

As Kite moved a bit closer, he saw the figure was holding a staff, he recognised it as Elk's. He started to feel much more hopeful, his emotions rising, as well as his nerves. As he moved closer, he thought he could see purple on Elk's face… and was that blood? Now he was panicking again, he rushed over to Elk and knelt next to him, he moved his face closer to Elk's and saw… that his eyes were closed, and that there wasn't any blood there at all, Elk was fine.

'So stop worrying, you fool. I can't believe you let a dream scare you so much.'

Kite could hear a slight snore… Elk was asleep.

'Should I wake him?'

'If he came this far you might as well make use of valuable time. I don't think he will mind much if you wake him up.'

Kite gently shook Elk, saying softly "Elk, wake up. It's me, Kite."

The wavemaster opened his eyes slightly.

"Huh? Mhmhuh?" Elk mumbled incoherently, shaking his head in his disorientation. "Uh, w-what? Kite? Huh…?"

Kite smiled, Elk looked rather cute, all confused like that.

'That's a rather odd thing of me to think.'

There was a pause, and then Kite realised that he was kneeling in silence, staring at Elk, so he said, "I asked you to come here if you wanted to talk about that thing you couldn't talk about yesterday, remember?"

Elk looked shocked and confused for a moment, then he sighed and nodded "O-oh y-yeah… that's right… I remember now. I've been waiting here since about 5:30, I guess I was more tired than I thought."

"What made you wake up that early?" Kite asked amiably.

"I had a nightmare…" Elk answered honestly.

"Me too. I'm sorry to have worried you so much that you had a nightmare Elk."

"No, no, it was nothing to do with the…uh… incident in Hidden, Forbidden, Holy Ground." Elk lied.

"Oh okay then… You know… Elk, it was very brave of you to come here." Kite said, smiling, "I'm… Proud of you."

Elk felt warm at that comment, he felt… happy, that Kite was proud of him. "Well I'm not so brave really…" he began.

But Kite interrupted, "No, you are very brave. It must have been so difficult to make yourself wait here."

"Well…" Elk conceded.

"See? You are at least a little brave… …May I sit down?" Kite asked with a smile, pointing towards a space next to Elk. The wavemaster nodded, mulling over the situation in his mind.

'I'm going to tell him, I must tell him. It's too late to turn back now… If I run now… I would be helping no one. And if I ran, Kite would be ashamed of me… I don't want him to be ashamed of me…'

'But he will dislike you if you tell him who you really are anyway! Why bring shame to yourself one way and not the other? At least if you run you won't be giving yourself the label of 'Gay', and everyone knows you are a coward anyway.'

'But I'm not a coward…'

'Says the boy who thought a building was laughing at him…'

Elk felt embarrassed just thinking about that.

'…What do I do? How do I tell him?'

'Just don't tell him, simple as that.'

Elk was shivering with nervousness, he had nearly forgotten about how he had planned on telling Kite that 'secret' today. But there was no getting out of it now; he would have to tell Kite the 'secret'. The twin blade sat down next to Elk, leaning against a rock that was sitting right next to the pylon.

'Oh no… what do I say? What do I say if he asks me about the bullies, about the 'secret'?'

"Elk…" Kite started, his gaze falling upon the wavemaster. Elk turned his head towards Kite in recognition, the anxiety etched on his face. "What was it that you couldn't tell me in Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground? Are you ready to talk about it? Or have you changed your mind?"

Elk gripped his staff tightly, "Uhm, I…" the wavemaster stood up, and walked a few paces away from the Dungeon entrance. He turned to face Kite again, and saw that Kite too, was standing. "I… what I wanted to say was… uh… I…" He was shaking quite badly; he held his staff close to his chest and tried again. Kite waited silently and patiently, next to the Dungeon entrance.

'Tell him you have changed your mind! The perfect opportunity!'

'No, I told him I'd tell him if I came here. He really will think I'm a coward if I turn back now…'

Elk forced his mouth to form the words he needed to say, "Kite… this I-I-incident h-happened at s-school… I was in a r-r-r-r-relationship with s-someone… and… uh… the bullies… fuh-found out… and… bullied us…"

"That was all? You know I would never-" Kite started, but Elk interrupted with:

"N-N-N-No, thuh-there is more… The reason they bullied us was because… b-b-b-b-because…uh…um…because… I was in a… r-r-r-relationship with…"

'Say it goddamn you! Say it! Tell him!'

'No! Don't you dare! He will laugh at you! You will be forever known as Elk the gay boy! Everyone will laugh at you!'

"Uh… a Boy! I w-was with a b-b-boy… I'm…" Elk tried to force himself to say it, but the words wouldn't come out, why wouldn't they come out? "…Uh…Gay."

Elk felt a sudden relief, mixed with horror. Did he just say that? Did he really just tell Kite about him being… gay?

"I can understand if you don't want to speak to me again…" Elk continued; his face turned towards the floor. "Just tell me t-to go away and I'll go if you want."

Elk couldn't hear Kite; he must have gated out in disgust. The wavemaster's heart was broken, Kite was one of his only friends, and he lost him due to his stupidity, due to him being gay… He knew something like this would happen, but at least he tried… he would have to make sure Mia didn't find out though.

"Elk… I never would have guessed."

'Kite is still here?'

'He wants to insult you probably.'

"And there is no way I am going to stop talking to you. Thank you for telling me something that must have been so hard to say."

Elk looked up in shock, and saw that Kite was smiling and walking towards him.

Elk started to cry, the tears silently rolling down his cheeks.

"Elk, why are you crying?" Kite asked, his face reflecting his care and concern.

"I don't know, it's just such a relief to finally tell someone, to finally know someone likes the real me…" Elk wrapped his arms around Kite and hugged him, smiling into the twin blades chest. Kite embraced the wavemaster, the total surprise settling in and becoming a dull shock.

'Wow,' Kite thought, 'I can't believe it, I never would have guessed that Elk was Gay.'

The wavemaster released Kite and looked into his eyes, a genuine smile appearing on his face, something that hadn't happened in a long time. Kite smiled back, forcing himself to move away from the shock and focus on more important things.

'So, the bullies are bullying him over something like that, now, let's ask him how the hell they ever found out that he was Gay.'

'No, don't, it'll spoil this happy moment, ask him later…'

'You're right. That reminds me, I wonder what school he goes to…'

"Elk, what school do you go to anyway?" The twin blade asked.

Elk's expression went from happy to neutral, and then he smiled again, replying, "I go to Musashino Jyoshi Gakuin middle school. You?'

Kite was amazed; Elk went to the very same school he went to. He had not expected that. To say the least, Kite was astounded.

Elk noticed the shock on Kite's face, and inquired, "K-Kite, why do you look so shocked?"

"You go… to the exact… the exact same school as me…"

Now it was Elk's turn to be astonished. The wavemaster felt almost weightless, he felt a kind of happiness he hadn't experienced before. One of his few good friends actually goes to his school? Elk's expression was one of total glee as he said "R-R-Really? You go to Musashino Jyoshi Gakuin middle school?"

"Yes, I… I do, I never realised we went to the same school. What's your name in real life?" Kite replied.

Elk blushed; he didn't want Kite to think he was lazy or unimaginative for having the same name in The World as in real life. But if he didn't tell him his real name Kite could mistake him for someone else in real life.

"Uh… it's…Elk. I know, I'm lazy for not thinking up another name…"

"If you're lazy for using your real name, does that make me lazy?" Kite quipped.

"N-no I didn't mean-"

Kite laughed and patted Elk on the shoulder, "I was just kidding Elk, I wasn't offended. But Kite actually is my name in real life."

Elk relaxed and let out a small sigh, chuckling a little at the same time.

'What do I say now? What do I do?' The wavemaster thought.

"Uh… sort of funny that we both have the same names in real life as we do in The World." Elk remarked.

"Yeah," Kite giggled, then continued, "…It is almost time for me to get ready for school… sorry Elk." The twin blade noted the time as he briefly took off his FMD to look at his bedroom clock.

"It's okay, y-you'll uh… t-talk to me in school won't you?" Elk replied.

'He won't, and if he does it will only be because he has to. Hanging out in a virtual world is one thing, but spoiling his reputation in real life will be out of the question.'

"Of course! I couldn't make us both go through all of this for nothing now could I? And it will be fun too, seeing you in real life." The twin blade smiled at Elk, which calmed the wavemaster down, and assured him of the twin blade's honest intent to talk to him in real life.

Elk smiled back, "O-Okay, b-but, uh, how will I know who you are?"

"Oh yeah… Tell you what; I'll wait just outside the school gates, to the left of them, okay? Just say 'Do you like the colour red?' to me, and I'll reply, 'Yes, do you like the colour blue?' okay? It may seem a little bit too simple, but it should work. Are you okay with the plan?" Kite suggested.

"S-sure! It's a great idea! …I guess I'll see you there then." Elk replied.

"You will, don't worry about that." Kite said, winking at the wavemaster.

The twin blade gated out, leaving Elk all alone in the field, the sun barely rising above the horizon. The trees looked like they were watching Elk. He could almost see their eyes…

The wavemaster shivered.

'I'd better get ready too.'

'Kite will want to vomit when he sees your disgusting face. He'll stay with you for ten seconds then he'll leave you alone. He won't want to ruin his good image by hanging around with weirdo's like you.'

'Stop it, just stop it!'

Elk shook his head, trying to block out the negative thoughts. He sighed, then gated out, and was in Mac Anu briefly before logging out, removing his FMD and turning off The World.

Chapter 2: Realisation

He got up and out of his chair, noticing that the sky was a midnight blue now, rather than the pitch black it was earlier. The sun would have risen by 8:00, and Elk would have to be at school by 8:30.

'What's the time?'

Elk slowly walked over to his bed, he looked at his digital clock and saw that it was 6:45.

'Wow, I really did wait a long time for Kite… And now I'm finally going to meet him in real life!'

Elk grinned with joy, he had so very few friends, and now, one of his best online friends was actually going to see him in real life!

'Concentrate, I need to have washed, eaten, prepared any lunch I might need during school time if my mother can't do it, then I have to put any items I might need in my backpack, then I have to change into my school uniform. Finally, I have to be at school by 8:30.'

He sobered, thinking, 'Right, might as well start now.'

Elk knew that his parents wouldn't be awake till 7:00, when his father would get ready to go off to eastern Tokyo to do his job; he was a manager in a big company. His mother would then awake and prepare any food he may need for school, as well as making breakfast for his father.

'Well, I'll wash once my father has left, in case he needs to use the shower first, and I'll change into my uniform last of all. But I'll make myself a sandwich; I'm not that hungry, but I'll probably need the energy later on. Then I'll sort out my backpack whilst my mother makes breakfast for my father, then makes lunch for me. Once he has left, I'll put the lunch in the backpack and take a shower, then put on my uniform and leave. Right, let's do it!'

Elk swiftly turned around and began to walk towards his bedroom door; his bedroom was lit enough for him to see the rough outlines of objects, thanks to the light from the rising sun. He carefully opened the door, tiptoeing into the hallway, before tentatively closing the door again. He crept down the stairs; holding onto the banister for support, until he eventually reached the ground floor. It was very dark, so he flipped the light switch and turned on the lights. He was right in front of the front door, between the kitchen on his left and the Shoji (traditional room, with tatami mats) on his right. Most of the building around him was wooden. He saw his pair of slippers near the door, so he walked off of the elevated house floor and into the genkan where the door was. He picked up his slippers, put them on, and walked back onto the main floor.

'There was no way I was going to walk on that freezing kitchen floor with my bare feet.'

Elk padded into the kitchen; the entrance was simply a doorframe, most doors in houses seemed to be built that way recently. The light from the lobby shone into the kitchen through the doorway, lighting up the worktop. Elk stood still in front of the worktop, next to the sink, looking up at the wooden wall units above the worktop and counting them in his mind.

'…3…4…5!'

Elk pulled the wall unit's door open; revealing -amongst other assorted jars of things- a jar of jam, and some butter. He pulled them out one by one and placed them upon the worktop, then took the lid off of his bread bin. He felt around for a second, and then found a loaf of bread. He pulled it out of the bread bin and placed it onto the worktop.

He looked around the kitchen, noticing all of the different utensils and kitchen equipment: coffee machine, toaster, wok, a spatula, and various other kitchen paraphernalia. He pulled open another, smaller drawer -this one below the sink, revealing the spoons, forks, and knives. He pulled out a knife, placed it next to the loaf of bread, the jar of jam, and the butter.

'Right, now that's done, I better get started on that sandwich.'

Elk cut the appropriate sized slices out of the bread; quickly spread butter on one of them, then carefully spread jam over that. He placed the two slices of bread over one another, and was finished.

'And in only a few minutes too.'

The boy put the items back in the places he got them from, and exited the kitchen. He saw the Shoji, walked towards it, and turned left, heading down a hallway. The hallway was also quite dark; the only light in the hallway came through the window. Elk slowly walked down the hallway, using his memory to navigate through the darkness and decide which door was which. He went around the corner; he was starting to feel uneasy, he felt like something was creeping up on him, as if it was breathing down his neck this very instant. Elk suddenly turned around, panting, rapidly scanning the hallway, checking to see if anyone –anything, was there.

'Nothing there… it is times like these that I wish I didn't wake up so early all the time.'

He turned back around; facing the direction he wanted to go in, he walked a little further down the hall, feeling along the wall with his right hand. He felt a hard protrusion, then thin air; it was a doorway.

He entered the room, walked forward for about 7 paces, stretched his arms and hands out downward, and felt something smooth.

'The lamp.'

Elk pushed a button and suddenly the lamp came on, lighting up the living room.

'For something so small it is quite powerful.'

The lamp consisted of a ceramic base, and an ornate glass covering over its glass bulb. The bulb was quite large; the base was fairly small. The ceramic base had paintings of dragons and mythical creatures on it, the glass covering was the shape of a flower, and had small golden- (or what appeared to be gold anyway, Elk's father may have earned a lot, but his family were far from rich) -symbols on it. It was resting on a small wooden table that shone as if recently polished.

'Mother really does love her housework.'

Elk smiled at that, his mother was a housework fanatic, she loved to get things for the house, and she especially loved cleaning things… he loved his mother, such a kind woman…

Elk looked around the room briefly, then headed to his right and sat down in the armchair he usually sat in, taking a bite out of his sandwich. The armchair was black and made of some kind of synthetic fabric, the walls of the room were a beige colour, and a carpet that was big and soft covered the floor. It was mostly grey, but it had a design of a pair of dragons on it. The room was completely silent and still, the light from the lamp cast a warm glow over the walls; it was as if the very room itself were resting peacefully. He sat there for a while, thinking about what he would say to Kite, about whether they would be in the same class or not. After about 15 minutes of this (and after finishing his sandwich), he finally realised something.

'What about the bullies? If Kite hangs around with me he will get bullied too!'

'Then explain that to him when you meet him. If he decides not to hang around with you it won't make much of a difference. He wouldn't have stayed with you for very long anyway, who would want to? Let's be honest here, you really are the most boring, spineless person on earth! And you expect him to be your friend in real life? I laugh.'

Elk clamped his hands over his ears; he didn't want to hear it. He knew that the constant name-calling could put Kite off being seen with him, he knew it. He just didn't want to accept it. He desperately wanted it not to be true.

'What am I going to do?'

He heard footsteps coming down the stairs.

'I'll have to think of that later… I'd better get started on sorting out that backpack.'

Elk reluctantly walked out of the living room, and into the hallway, noticing that the sky was slightly less dark than it had been 15 minutes ago. He continued to walk down the hallway and into the lobby, seeing his mother in the kitchen. She was slicing some vegetables.

"Good morning mother." Elk said, pausing in his stride and giving his mother a small wave.

"Good morning Elk, have you eaten? Do you need me to make you some breakfast? It's the most important meal of the day!"

"Don't worry, I've already eaten." Elk replied, smiling.

"What did you have?" She asked.

'If I say what I really ate she'll tell me that I need to eat more or that a sandwich isn't healthy enough, then she'll make me something else to eat.'

"Uh… I had a bowl of cereal, with no sugar." Elk lied.

"Oh good. You can have a shower once your father's done in there. And don't forget to put your school books in your backpack."

"I won't." Elk said, before heading up the staircase, noticing the sound of rushing water coming from down the hall as he entered his bedroom.

The bedroom was much lighter now than it had been 20 minutes ago Elk noticed. He walked towards his bed -which lay opposite his window; it was a plain bed, the duvet cover was white, light blue, and cream. The wooden part of the bed that supported the mattress was white. Elk crouched down to look underneath it; he had placed his bag under there last night. He reached under his bed, and felt what he thought was fabric, he grasped the object, and pulled it out.

'Right, that's the bag sorted. Now to check and see if all the appropriate books are in there.'

Elk checked through his bag; all the books were in there. He had to bring a particular piece of homework to school today; it was an essay on beehives. He had been studying beehives all day last Monday (today was Wednesday) and he had written out the essay only yesterday morning, he was going to hand it in today.

'I hope it's good enough.'

Elk placed his bag on top of his bed, ready for later, when he would put his lunch in it.

'Right, now to wait for my father to finish showering.'

The boy waited there for about 10 minutes. Then he heard his father exit the shower, walk past his bedroom door and say "The shower is free now Elk."

Elk opened his bedroom door and entered the hallway, seeing that his father had left almost invisible wet footprints on the floor. He walked over them, one of his slippers getting wetter each time one of his feet landed on a wet footprint. He reached the door that led into the room that contained the shower. He walked past it, and entered the room next to it.

This room contained a sink and a table. It had a red carpet, and the walls were wooden, and varnished. Elk's father had come into here to change in and out of his clothes, now Elk did the same; he quickly removed his pyjamas (and slippers) and tossed them onto the floor. Then, nude, he ran into the shower room, closing the open door with his left foot.

The shower room was decorated almost identically to the room with the sink in it, except that it had a shower and a bath -as well as some towels, a table, and a basket- but no sink. Elk walked into the shower stall, closed the door behind him, and turned on the shower; it was an electric shower. Luckily, the heat level his father normally had the water at was very close to how Elk liked it, so he didn't have to mess around with the knob that adjusted the temperature. Warm water jetted out of the showerhead, running down Elk's pale body. Elk grabbed the shower-gel he would normally use; he opened it, squirting bright green goo onto his hand. He rubbed that onto his chest and stomach. Then he squirted some more onto his hand, this time rubbing it onto his leg. He then passed the bottle over to his other hand, before squirting some more shower-gel into his –now free- hand, and rubbing that onto his other leg. Things went on like this for a few minutes, until all of his body had had gel applied to it and rinsed off once. Then, he put the shower-gel back, and picked up the shampoo. He squirted some of that into his free hand, and thoroughly rubbed it into his hair, before letting it all wash out. He pushed a button under the heat-adjusting dial, the water gradually stopped coming out of the showerhead.

He was done.

Elk exited the shower stall, grabbing a towel off of the table near the shower stall. He dried himself off as best he could, dropping the towel into the basket of used towels that lay just inside the room before he left. Elk was just in time to hear his father say 'Goodbye!' to his mother before he left for work. He heard the front door close as he went into his bedroom to put on his school uniform.

'I'm so cold! That's what I get for having a warm shower in January!'

Elk opened his closet, taking out all of the necessary items: his underwear, a pair of grey socks, he also took out a white shirt, his black trousers, a black navy-style jacket and his belt. He laid the clothes down on his bed. Then, he began to put the pieces of clothing on one by one. First he put on his underwear; then he sat on his bed, and pulled his socks on. After that, he stood up again and put on his trousers, zipping them up and buttoning them, then putting his belt on. He then put on his shirt, buttoning it up with the speed of someone whom has done it a many times before. Finally, he put on his jacket; it had a standing collar, and was pitch black. All of its buttons were decorated with the school emblem. He buttoned the jacket up. Then Elk picked his backpack up off of his bed and left his bedroom.

He walked towards the stairs, but abruptly stopped, his hand resting upon the stair banister.

'My hair is still wet, I'd better dry it before I go.'

'How much time do I have?'

'Let's check your clock.'

'Okay'

Elk dropped the backpack, turned around, and re-entered his bedroom, running over to his bed and checking the time on his digital clock. It was: 7:30.

'I've got time. I think mother keeps the hair dryer in her room. I'll ask her.'

Elk pivoted on one socked foot and ran towards the bedroom door, he couldn't afford to waste any time. He rushed out of the bedroom, turning around so that he was facing the staircase. He headed for the stairs, and slowed down slightly as he descended them -forgetting to take his backpack down with him. When he reached the ground floor, he saw that his mother had already finished preparing his lunch –she had left it wrapped up in a paper bag and put it on the worktop- and was now making herself some food.

"Mother," he began, "where do you keep the hair dryer?"

"Oh, I normally keep it on our bedroom table, it should still be there." She replied.

"Thank you." Elk said, expressing his gratitude with a bow.

"You're welcome." She tried to say, but Elk had already rushed back up the stairs; forgetting to take his lunch with him, his mother noted.

Elk entered his parents' bedroom, and saw that the hair dryer was lying on the bed, not on his parents' desk. Elk quickly looked for, and located the plug, before plugging in the hairdryer. Elk sat down on the bed, picked it up, and pressed the button that would turn it on. Hot air blasted out of it and into his face. Elk quickly moved it so that it was blowing air onto his hair, instead of his eyes. He slowly moved the hairdryer around his head, trying to dry his hair the best he could before 8:00. After about 15 minutes, Elk felt his hair, and turned off the hair dryer, deciding that his hair was satisfactorily dry. He pulled the hairdryer's plug out of the plug-socket, put the hair dryer on his parents' desk, and left his parents' bedroom. He briefly went into his bedroom to check the time: 7:47, the clock read. He left his bedroom, went downstairs, said goodbye to his mother and went to leave the house then-

"Elk, where is your backpack? And you've forgotten your lunch too." His mother called.

'I forgot my backpack!? And my lunch!?'

"Uh… I f-forgot I guess. S-Sorry, I'll go get them now." Elk replied.

"Well here is your lunch sweetie, make sure you eat during lunch time okay?" His mother held out his lunch bag.

"I will mother." Elk said, taking the lunch bag from his mother and walking back up the stairs again.

'Today isn't going well so far. Complete chaos, I can't believe I forgot my backpack.'

'It's because you were thinking of Kite. That's what I don't get about you. You build your hopes up, just to get them crushed. Why not just accept that Kite will hate you?'

'Because… because I know he won't…'

'You don't believe that. I can feel it; I know when you are lying. I am you for crying out loud!'

Elk reached the top of the stairs. He unzipped a section of his backpack, putting his lunch bag inside of it. He picked up the backpack, put it on his back, and walked back downstairs.

'All I've got to do now is put on my school sneakers then I can leave.'

"Bye mother!" Elk said, giving his mother a hug.

"Have a nice day at school." She replied with a smile.

Elk smiled back at her, before stepping into the genkan, putting on his sneakers, opening the door, and finally, leaving.

The cool morning air blew down the street, causing Elk's normally neat dark-red hair to fly all over the place. The snow reflected the bright light of the sun. Few people were outside on Elk's street; and it was filled with a serene silence as Elk walked towards his school. He walked onward, looking up towards the sky, it was clear now, even though only hours ago it had been filled with black clouds, raining hail and snow down upon Musashino city. He made a right turn, and continued down another street, this one had a fair few more people on it, 10 or 12 that Elk could see.

'What if he doesn't like the real-life me?'

'Then tough shit.'

Elk was normally nervous when he went to school, he always put on an act at home, but inside he was afraid of school. But today he was even more nervous, yet excited at the same time.

'What if we don't notice each other? And I ask the question to the wrong guy?'

'Tough shit again. You're going to lose out no matter what you do. Deal with it.'

Elk stopped, the traffic was getting much busier as he got closer to his school. He waited for a car to go by; then he ran across the road, before continuing straight ahead, down the street. As he walked down the street, Elk noticed the way that the sun reflected off of the house windows.

'So pretty, I love outside. Especially plants.'

Elk deliberately took a particular route that allowed him to go close to all the gardens and plants. He would go down to Inokashira Park more often if he could. But he couldn't bring himself to be away from his friends in The World that long; they were the only friends he had.

'But now, now I can finally meet one of them in real life!'

Elk couldn't stop himself from smiling. He was so happy!

'Don't get your hopes up yet stupid. Or have you forgotten that Yamada is still there?'

'Oh yeah… Oh what am I going to do?'

Yamada… Zenko Yamada… He was the person who made Elk's life so miserable. Elk had almost forgotten about him, almost. And now, upon remembering that Yamada was still going to bully him, even though Kite was there, Elk's mood dropped. The red-haired boy stopped walking as he came up to a road, he would need to cross the road here, but the traffic was really starting to get heavy.

'Okay… I'll wait until I get a chance to run across… wait… nearly… okay, now!'

Elk sprinted across the road, just avoiding an oncoming stream of cars. The cars slowed down, and got stuck in the traffic jam. Elk turned right, he was nearly at the school, what was the time? What if he was late?

'I am not late… no way… I even left earlier than usual… I can't be late… I can't be.'

Elk walked down the crowded road, flitting in between the people like a bird might flit between trees in a forest. Some of the people were businessmen, some looked like chefs, others were carrying bags, and some were even carrying boxes. Elk was coming up to a right corner; he turned around it and saw Kichijōji train station.

'Not far to go now.' He thought, the excitement and the fear increasing, making Elk feel very odd.

'I may even get there slightly earlier than usual! Why was I worried that I would be late?'

He strolled past the train station, noticing the birds flying from rooftop to rooftop. Travelling through the air gracefully, and landing on the top of a rooftop, only to launch off again 20 seconds later.

Elk smiled, then he looked ahead; he was nearly at the final corner, the corner that would bring him to his school. He was very nervous, but it was a different kind of nervous than the kind he usually had. It was almost… a nice type of nervous. Fear mixed with eagerness. Elk went around the corner, and saw his school; it was only a few feet away. Small groups of students walked passed the school perimeter fencing and into the school, chattering about what they watched on TV last night, or even about some TV girl's breasts, in the case of some the Boys, whereas the Girls seemed to always be talking about someone else's fashion sense, or lack of it; that, or about 'Cute' guys. Elk always felt guilty when he heard people talking about men being attractive, it always made him feel like some kind of covert criminal or spy. Elk forced his feet to move forward; he hated school, but he knew he had to go. Plus, this time he had an incentive; Kite would be waiting there for him, and he didn't want to let Kite down…

Elk drew closer and closer to his school; his eyes darted backwards and forwards, scanning the area for any form of threat; bullies mainly. He was at the outer fencing that separated the school building from the street. He looked at the gate in the fencing that students entered through, and to the left of the gate, Elk saw a boy. He had messy, dark-brown hair, his skin wasn't pale, but it wasn't overly tanned either. He was holding his black backpack in his hand, and was looking around, as if waiting for someone. Elk gulped, and drawing upon his last reserves of courage (and his strong desire to actually meet Kite) walked up to the boy and asked, "Excuse me…" -the boy turned to face Elk, "but… uhm… uh… d-d-do you, uh, l-like the colour r-r-red?"

'Oh I'm so stupid! I bet I look like a total fool!'

The brown-haired boy's expression went from one of puzzlement to one of surprise and happiness. The boy smiled, and Elk instantly recognised the smile; it was Kite's.

"Yes," The boy replied, "do you like the colour blue?"

Elk was astonished; it was really Kite! The red-haired boy was overcome with euphoria, he was totally lost for words.

"K-…K-…Kite?"

The brown-haired boy nodded, saying, "That's right. Elk?"

Elk nodded, a massive grin appearing on his face.

"I never imagined you with red hair." Kite said with a grin, "And for some reason I imagined you would be taller too… Am I as you imagined I would be?"

Elk was about 4 inches shorter than Kite was. And Kite stood at about 5 foot 9 inches in height.

"Yes… except I thought your hair would be a lighter brown." Elk replied.

Kite chuckled, patting Elk on the shoulder; "Your imagination is smarter than mine." The brown-haired boy quipped. Elk smiled, his mind, for the moment, distracted from Yamada.

Elk looked at the large clock on the side of the school building. "Oh, we'd better go into the school, otherwise we're going to miss our Reading session!" Elk advised.

Kite looked at the clock, "Hm? Don't worry, we still have time to get there." Kite remarked. "Shall we go?" He asked, motioning towards the school.

"Yes, better safe than sorry!"

Kite smiled at Elk's comment, before walking with him towards the school.

'The Dirty faggot's got a friend now eh?' Zenko Yamada thought, as he watched Kite and Elk walk into the school hallway.

Yamada was leaning against a wall just next to their homeroom classroom. He knew that Elk would have to enter the classroom by that one door, as there weren't any others that led into his class. So he was waiting there, waiting for his chance to take another dig at weak little Elk Hashimoto.

'Here comes the little shit now. I'll make sure to scare off his friend… then he'll be all alone again.'

Yamada laughed a little at that; it was people like Hashimoto the faggot-boy that made life so much more fun for him. Most people just annoyed Yamada, annoyed him with their weakness, their pathetic 'kindness' as they called it. They stopped themselves from getting the things they wanted, just because some spineless prick might get upset. Well 'Boo-Hoo' to the bastards. It wasn't his fault that some people -like his pathetic mother, were so weak. His father had fought in the army, but he eventually got locked up for killing a man who had stolen his wallet and called him a faggot.

'I don't blame him for killing the bastard. Men like my father are doing this country a favour by getting rid of little shits like the ones that stole his wallet.'

Now, despite how violent Yamada was, he always remembered never to hit a woman. His father had once said to him, "Son, if you gotta beat the shit out of someone, you gotta do it. But, don't you ever let me catch you hitting a woman, or I'll show you what it means to be hit. You get me son?"

"Yes Father, I get you one hundred percent." He had replied. And so, he had never allowed himself to hit a woman back then, for fear of his father's wrath, and he had continued to refrain from hitting women into his teenage years. But sometimes it was hard… his mother pissed him off so much sometimes… he just wanted to beat her black and fucking blue!

Yamada was a brawny young man; he was 6 foot 3 inches, had fairly short jet-black hair, and was built like a pro wrestler. His one passion in life was fitness; and he sure as hell went all the way. If that meant taking steroids then it meant taking steroids. Yamada didn't really give a shit whether it was illegal or not.

'Anything that doesn't kill me can only make me stronger.'

Yamada laughed.

"So, Kite, d-do you go to Inokashira Park often?" Elk inquired.

"No, I normally go home and play The World." Kite replied.

"Oh, so you d-d-don't like parks?"

"I wouldn't say I didn't like them. I'm just not extremely keen on them." Kite explained.

"Oh… Okay."

"But, Elk, we could always go to the park after school if you'd like to. It would be much better talking to you in real life than in The World." Kite suggested.

"Really?" Elk asked, his eagerness unhidden in his voice.

"Yeah, sure! After school, we'll head straight to the park. I know my parents won't worry. Will yours?" Kite asked.

"I don't know… I could always call them to say I'm going to the park… yes, I could do that…" Elk uttered.

"So it's all set then? We're going to the park after school!" Kite exclaimed, looking at Elk and grinning.

"Yeah… Yeah." Elk said, nodding and smiling. He was slightly unsure about how he was going to tell his parents, but happy nonetheless. Besides, he wasn't going to miss out on a chance to do something with Kite in real life. As they walked down the halls, Elk noticed that most of the students were collecting their various books and pieces of equipment out of their lockers; but Elk always kept his in his bag. That way Yamada wouldn't be able to break open his locker and get his things without him realising. Elk guessed that Kite did the same, as he wasn't walking up to any particular locker either.

They were coming up to the door where Elk's classroom was, Elk noticed that Yamada was standing there.

"So Elk," Kite asked, "I'm in that class just there," Kite pointed towards the door Yamada was standing near, "what class are you in?"

"Th-…That o-one." Elk said quietly, pointing towards the door Kite pointed at.

They were right next to the door now.

"Cool! Then we're in the same class!" Kite exclaimed, realising all too late that Elk was looking rather paler than usual, and that he seemed to be shaking too.

"Oh look at who's here!" Zenko Yamada taunted, "It's ass-licker Hashimoto! And he's brought a little friend with him! Do you lick his ass Hashimoto? Huh? Do you?"

Kite immediately realised that this was Elk's tormentor, and was suddenly filled with a deep hatred for the bully.

"Shut your mouth and leave us alone." Kite growled.

"Oh sorry! Did I upset you? Aww, poor wittle baby! Don't cwy!" Yamada jeered.

'Ignore him Kite, Ignore him, If you get detention for hitting him then Elk will be left alone with this idiot after school.'

"Come on Elk, we don't need to waste our time with people like him" Kite said, adding particular venom and emphasis to the word 'him'.

Kite looked to his side, and saw that Elk was just standing there, looking very afraid. He was shaking, and he was pale. And as Kite grabbed his hand, the brown-haired boy felt the sweat that was covering Elk's hands. Kite half-dragged Elk into the classroom, feeling guilty for pulling his friend along like that, but knowing that it was the right thing to do.

'Hmph, so he runs from me eh? Well, I'll show him what it feels like to really run at lunchtime. Oh yes…' Yamada thought, chuckling to himself as he strolled down the hall towards his classroom.

While the teacher waited for everyone to be seated so that she could take register, Elk detached his hand from Kite's and walked towards the back of the classroom. Kite watched him in puzzlement.

'He gets a lot of insults because of his Homosexuality. So any sort of hand holding with a boy could cause people to insult him. I hope it's that… and not that he is angry with me.' Kite thought.

Elk was still shaking slightly from that encounter with Yamada, that could have turned into a fight, and if it had… what would have happened to Kite? Elk was looking down at the desk, but when he heard someone sit down next to him, he turned his head in the direction of the sound.

It was Kite.

Kite even sat next to him? How could he not have realised when he had first seen Kite?

'That's because you hardly talk to anyone at school, you're so blind you didn't even recognise your desk mate.' Elk mused.

Kite was instantly cheered up upon realising that Elk actually sat next to him. A massive grin appeared on his face. He lived in the same town as Elk did, he went to the same school, and he even sat next to Elk too? What next! Would Elk turn out to be his long lost brother? He tried to restrain a spout of giggles, half failing to do so, making him look like he was holding his breath while trying to whistle.

'So the kid who hardly ever talks to me is actually Elk? I can't believe I didn't notice earlier! He's the only kid in class with red hair, and I didn't even realise that Elk could have been 'him'. Even after I saw that Elk had neat, red hair.'

Elk blushed, Kite was drawing attention to them both; the idea of an entire classroom, plus a teacher, staring at them made Elk cringe. Kite noticed Elk's blushing, and forced his giggles to stop, covering his mouth with his hands and grinning wildly instead. After a few seconds, the student's eyes wandered to the other students that were entering the classroom. A few minutes later, Kite, his giggles having subsided, looked around the room, noticing that all the desk places were filled.

"Okay class, time to take register, in alphabetical order as usual…" The teacher uttered in her harsh voice. She had black hair, and almost claw-like hands. She sat perfectly upright, her stern eyes scanning the room for any misbehaviour. Normally, the students would get to take register, but for some reason, Ms. Fukushima was doing it today. She looked at her register, and began calling out students' names, "Aida Choshi?"

At the back of the class, Kite heard Choshi say, "Present!"

Kite looked at Elk; he looked so embarrassed and nervous…

'That's your fault for giggling so loudly.'

'I couldn't help it, it was just so funny at the time.'

'You should still apologise.'

'Yeah… Yeah, you're right.'

The brown haired boy leaned towards the red haired one, whispering, "I'm sorry I embarrassed you Elk… I know that I can be a bit silly sometimes, and that I sometimes draw attention to myself… I'm sorry, I didn't mean to embarrass you."

"Elk Hashimoto?" The teacher orated, taking Elk by surprise.

"Uh, Present!" Elk said quickly. Then, the red-haired looked downward as he whispered to Kite, "It's okay Kite… I know you didn't mean to… I shouldn't get so embarrassed in the first place."

"No Elk, it's not your fault for feeling embarrassed." Kite reassured with a smile, gently rubbing Elk's hands as they rested on the desk. Elk blushed, but this time he smiled at Kite, before slowly drawing his hands away, and resting them on his lap.

'I mustn't let someone see me touching Kite's hands, or he'll get bullied too…'

"Kite Osagawa?" The teacher said again, her voice less monotonous than when she had called out Elk's name.

"Present!" Kite confirmed.

'Why did touching Elk's skin feel so… nice? Why did it make me feel so nice?' Kite mused.

'But he drew his hands away from mine…'

Kite was so absorbed in thought that he hardly heard the teacher calling out the other student's names.

'Oh well… I guess Elk is uncomfortable with people seeing him touch another boy… I can see why.'

'You know why! So why did you still touch his hands? You could have caused him hell!'

'I know… I just didn't think. Why am I acting so weirdly today? I feel… funny, when I'm around Elk. And I'm acting strangely.'

Elk leant towards Kite, "Kite I… I d-didn't m-mean to…"

Kite knew what Elk was going to say before he even said it, "It is okay Elk," the brown haired boy whispered, "I understand, you don't need to apologise."

"R-really…? You aren't mad at me?" Elk asked.

"Not at all." Kite replied, smiling yet again. He knew how Elk reacted to him smiling, so he made sure to do it often. Anything that made Elk comfortable was a good thing.

"Right, now that the register has been taken, you may begin reading. Reading will finish at 8:45." The teacher declared.

Kite winked playfully at Elk, before taking his book out of his backpack and reading it. Elk looked at the other boy with a half-amused half-relieved look for a few seconds; then he searched through his backpack, pulled out his book and began to read it.

Zenko Yamada sat there, looking at his book but not really reading it.

'What should I do to that idiot that hangs around with Faggot-Boy?'

'Maybe I could drag him into the bathroom and make him eat toilet water… Or I could catch him during lunchtime and call him the Faggot's Boyfriend. He'll fuck off soon enough if I do that… which would be even more painful for little Hashimoto than if I had beaten his friend up myself.'

'Or I could do both… hmm.'

Yamada smiled… today was going to be more fun than he had expected; what a fucking pain that he'd have to wait through four periods till he could even start to get at Hashimoto and his little friend.

'Good things come to those who wait, my friend, good things come to those who wait…' Yamada mused.

Having finished reading; cleaned up their homeroom, and then given in all of their homework (Elk did outstandingly, Kite performed above average), Kite and Elk sat down, and prepared to start their Language class.

'The one subject I'm really bad at.' Kite thought, 'But, funnily, it's Elk's best subject…' The brown haired boy smiled a little in amusement.

The English teacher entered the room. She was from England, but she was very fluent in Japanese.

"Hello class. Now, we have already covered a multitude of different English words and short phrases. So, today, I will be teaching you how to have a short conversation in English, as well as some more complex English words and sentences. Now, if you could all please take out your textbooks, then we can begin." The teacher said; her pronunciation of the Japanese words slightly less than perfect. Her voice was very clear, her teeth were all pearly white as well, Elk noticed.

The class took out their textbooks, and the teacher began to write out various English words on the whiteboard. Once she was done, she said, "Now, could you please copy these into your work books."

There was a collective sigh in the classroom, and then they all began to write down the various words that were on the board in their textbooks. Elk was one of the few students actually smiling as he did this; his eagerness for learning languages was greater than his eagerness to learn any other subject. That was what made him so good at learning English.

Once the students had all stopped writing, the teacher began to utter the words and their different meanings.

'Ugh, something tells me that today's language lesson is going to seem very, very long. And twice as boring.' Kite thought, as he settled into a comfortable sitting position. He turned his head to look at Elk; the red haired boy was staring raptly at the teacher.

'If I didn't know that he was Gay, I would have said that it looks like he has a thing for that teacher.' Kite thought, restraining a grin that wanted to appear on his face.

'But I know better. He just likes English a lot. That's sort of sweet, really.'

'Sweet? You're calling him sweet? That seems rather odd to me 'Old Chap'!'

'What do you mean?'

'I mean that you are starting to really like Elk.'

'So what? He's my friend. That's all he is… right?'

The teacher's words didn't register with Kite's brain as she taught the class some English sentences. He felt confused; he only liked Elk as a friend right? That was all wasn't it?

'Yes… Yes, I'm just being stupid. I just like Elk a lot that's all… that's all it is…'

Yamada didn't have language today; he had P.E instead, which he thoroughly enjoyed. It was the only class in which he was actually a model student. He was top of his class in every aspect of Physical Education. Whether it was Soccer, Wrestling (which he particularly liked) or even Gymnastics. He loved them all. And anyone who dared call him a pansy or a Gay Boy for being particularly graceful in Gymnastics got their nose broken –if they were lucky. Otherwise he would devise something far more humiliating to do to them.

Today they were practising Wrestling. And Yamada was completely psyched up. He would be demonstrating new moves with the coach. Because he was in his last year of Middle School, and was the only person in his school to get top marks for all aspects of P.E; for which he got privileges, such as training man to man with the school coach. Which, for Yamada, was an honour. He respected his coach as much as he respected his father, and he never once gave the Coach any hassle.

'The Coach' was built like a brick wall. His arms were massive and covered in muscles; his legs were like logs of wood. Short, hard, and thick. His entire torso was muscular and big; he was like some kind of fitness machine, built for raw power. His hair was fairly short, but it was long enough to be visible, and it was grey. So was his big, bushy moustache. His face was harsh, masculine and rugged; he was missing some teeth, probably from fights he had been in.

Yamada stood there in the large Gymnasium, in front of his coach: Akira Yamazaki, waiting to start the demonstration. The Gymnasium floor was made of wood, and it had been worked on to make sure it was smooth enough to walk on barefooted. The brick walls stretched up high, at least 30 ft, if not higher. The ceiling resembled the shape of half of a hexagon. Yamada could smell the wood; he could also smell the Coaches sweat.

'The smells of exercise my friend. That's a good thing.' Yamada mused.

"Right," Coach Yamazaki began in his gruff voice; "Me and Yamada here are going to demonstrate some basic wrestling moves to you. After we have demonstrated them, you come up here, and you can try doing it yourself, with our young advanced wrestler, Ukya Takagi." The Coach motioned towards a young boy who was standing just to the side of him and Yamada.

"Now, one of the most basic moves a wrestler must know, other than how to punch and kick your opponent properly, is a headlock. Now, Yamada and I will demonstrate." The Coach said.

He moved closer to Yamada, and then wrapped his massive arms around Yamada's neck. Yamada didn't even flinch.

"This is a headlock. It is an important part of any wrestling match, because you can perform other, more damaging moves from it. There are many similar, yet more complex moves you can use in its place, but, for now, we'll stick with the headlock." Yamazaki explained, releasing Yamada. "Now you try. Come up onto this mat and when I say go, perform the move on Takagi."

They had already organised who was going first before the coach had begun to demonstrate. A young, thin boy –Bunjiro Igarashi- came up onto the large safety mat that Ukya Takagi was standing on. They both stood a reasonable distance from one another, waiting for the Coach to say 'Go'.

"Okay, are you both ready?" The Coach began –the boys both nodded- "All right then, Go!"

Igarashi grabbed Takagi and performed a headlock on him.

"Well done. You'll learn how to perfect that and use it to your advantage later on. Now Igarashi, release Takagi and go sit back down." The Coach orated. "Now, since getting you all to take it in turns will waste too much time, I want you all to come and stand on this mat, then, select a partner."

The children stood up then walked onto the mat, each trying to find a partner. Eventually, they all found partners; The Coach began to speak again, "Right, now, you'll each take turns to perform the headlock on each other. When I say Go, perform the headlock on your partner. When I say Red, release the partner that is in the headlock, and allow them to perform it on you. Now, go!"

Yamada watched them practice, feeling smug about his superior skill to theirs, but mostly… mostly he was feeling very eager to try out some of his wrestling moves on Elk's friend…

'What is his name? I've seen him before…' Yamada mused. 'I think it's… Osagawa… Koot? Kit…? Kite…? Kite Osagawa. That's it! Aha! Kite Osagawa, the kid who never seemed to get in anyone's way, yet at the same time, stood out from everyone else.'

Yamada was beginning to get agitated, just thinking about how Osagawa had said 'him' earlier on.

'That kid should watch his mouth! He's never crossed me before, but now, now he'll get to have a first hand experience of what happens to those who cross me… I'll teach him not to annoy me!'

Yamada's face did not betray his anger, but if someone had looked deep into his eyes at that moment, they would have seen the incredible darkness and fury that was Yamada's soul.

Elk was very satisfied with the day's English class. The teacher taught them some slightly more complex sentences, conversations and English words. Including,

' "Hello, how are you?"

"I'm fine thanks, you?"

"Yes I am well thank you, what do you think of today's weather?"

"Oh, it is nice isn't it?"

"Yes, very nice indeed! I love a good, sunny day."

"I love mountains and hills… you?"

"Oh yes, hills are lovely! Though I have to admit that I prefer the sea to the land."

"Yes, the sea is quite beautiful… Look at the time! I will be late for school! Excuse my brevity but I have to go."

"No it is quite alright. Have a nice day!"

"You too!" ' And

' "Which way is it to (destination)?"

"Oh it is down (road name) road, then to the left, head straight down that road until you pass by the Cemetery, then turn right and it should be there." (But they learned 4 variations of that sentence.)

"Thank you! Goodbye!" '

They also learnt that the English bow far less than they in Japan did, and that it may be inappropriate to bow as much there as they did here. The entire class were given a book of English phrases that they were told to study for the next fortnight. They would be working on even more complex sentences tomorrow.

'Kill me…' Kite thought. 'Any lesson except English... Give me complex physics instead! Please! Anything!'

The brown-haired boy turned his head towards his red-haired desk mate.

'He looks so eager. Is that a good or bad thing? I've forgotten what our next lesson is going to be...'

"Elk…" Kite whispered, "Do you know what our next lesson is going to be?"

"Yes, we're doing Art next. We're going to be designing small statues." Elk replied.

'Cool! This should be fun then!' Kite thought, noticing a short, plump, and rather messy looking person enter the classroom. He was wearing dark sunglasses and had very little hair; though what little he did have was very messy. He was wearing a black blazer and with a white shirt underneath it. His white shirt had several blots of colour on it, including red, blue, and orange.

"Hello Class! Today, we will be creating clay statues; then on Friday we will be painting them. Once the paint has dried, you may come and collect your statue from the teachers lounge." The small man –Mr. Yamamoto- declared.

'I wonder what statue I should make…' Elk pondered.

The teacher began to hand out all of the necessary tools and blobs of clay to each pupil. Elk stared at his clay blob with fascination, before focusing his gaze on the teacher once more. The teacher began to instruct them on how to mould clay properly, writing down notes on the board so the students would not forget what he was saying.

Then, the students began to mould their clay blobs into shapes. Kite's was starting to look like a four-legged-thing of some kind. And Elk's blob seemed to have sprouted two large ears.

'I wonder what Elk is making…' Kite mused, looking at Elk's clay shape.

Elk fastidiously moulded his clay, constantly correcting it and re-correcting it.

'It doesn't look anything like her!' Elk thought with agitation, 'But at least I still have lots of time left until I have to stop.'

'It will still look terrible.' His mind jeered, 'You're just a terrible artist.'

'That's not true!'

'Yes it is. You know it is.'

Elk frowned, trying to ignore his own thoughts.

'Kite wouldn't say it sucks.'

'Because he is your friend, they always lie.'

'No, Kite is honest.'

'He's more honest than you'll ever be. You dirty lying faggot.'

Elk almost winced, why wouldn't his wretched mind leave him alone?

The teacher watched his students with glee; fascinated by the many different things they were moulding. The class was filled with a low hum of comments being exchanged between desk mates, but Mr. Yamamoto didn't mind too much, as long as they weren't making derogatory comments about each other's artwork of course. He listened carefully to the many different things the students were saying, for little did the students know, Mr. Yamamoto had once trained in the army, and had been taught the art of 'Selective Hearing' by one of his comrades. Most people could pick up the low blabbering hum of chatter, some could even discern many words from it, but Mr. Yamamoto had taught himself how to discern Keywords out of chatter and babble in a crowd, so that he could pick up on any insult being passed around.

'Someone is going to ask their desk mate what they think of their art eventually, it's simply a matter of making sure they don't respond in a nasty manner.'

Mr. Yamamoto closed his eyes, and 'listened' to the class, it didn't take long for him to hear what he had expected to hear.

"W-What does this l-look like to you Kite?"

'Aha, I thought so.' Mr. Yamamoto mused, listening carefully for the response to the boy's question.

"It looks like a… a cat with a round head. Is that what it is?"

'Wait for it.' The Art teacher thought.

"Yes, thank you for being honest Kite."

Mr. Yamamoto grinned, and continued to covertly listen to his class.

"Elk," Kite inquired, "are you making your ball of clay into Mia's head?"

"Y-Yes… uh, it, it looks like her right?" Elk asked timidly.

"Absolutely, much better than my version of a Grunty." Kite reassured, motioning towards his Grunty.

"No way Kite, that looks just like a Grunty!" Elk whispered, amazed at the realistic appearance of Kite's clay grunty.

"Thank you." Kite said, smiling at Elk. The red-haired boy smiled back, which caused Kite to feel an odd, warm feeling.

'Why do I feel this way around Elk?'

'It's nothing, that's just a feeling you get from making someone happy, nothing particularly unique or special about it.' Kite reassured himself.

Mr. Yamamoto looked around the classroom. It had white walls, and where there weren't windows; there were posters or timetables. It's ceiling was white and plain. Its floor was wooden. The classroom was cluttered with drawers and paper, or drawers full of paper. It looked like some kind of busy office room. Mr. Yamamoto giggled.

'I do love the feeling of a thriving workplace. And this class is particularly eager to learn and create.' The Art teacher thought, smiling.

After fifteen more minutes, Mr. Yamamoto asked the class to stop what they were doing so that he could collect their clay objects. Most of the pupils had finished, but some quickly made the necessary corrections before they walked up to his desk and placed their models on a tray that was there.

"Right," the Art teacher began, "I'll take these to my office, where they shall dry and harden, I'll give them back to you on Friday. Now, take your seats, and get out your textbooks for your Maths lesson."

The students sat down and took out their textbooks. As Kite was doing this, he remembered the bully.

'That idiot is going to be bothering us all day. Elk is probably worrying about it right now…'

'But if he isn't, mentioning it will only cause him to start to worry.'

'Yes… I'll just have to hope he isn't worrying.'

Yamada had bullied Elk for so long that Elk had been forced to learn how to ignore reality. He had to totally focus on his work. Needless to say, it was hard. And Elk's concentration was beginning to slip.

'It's nearly lunchtime… then Yamada will come again. Except… this time, he may not use words… he might beat Kite and me up. I should never have allowed myself to drag Kite into this… The longer I hang around with him, the more likely Yamada is to bully Kite…'

Elk held back his tears, desperately hoping that Kite wouldn't notice.

'Why does Yamada do this to me, and any of my friends?'

'Why?'

When Yamada was angry, he could do nothing but get angrier and angrier until he had punished or destroyed the object of his agitation.

'He talked back to me as if I was nothing but shit! Does he realise who I am? Does he think he is stronger than I am? I'll show him! The dirty little shit! He probably sucks off Hashimoto all fucking day! Couple of Faggots!'

Zenko Yamada was finding it very difficult to concentrate in his Japanese lesson. He couldn't care less about what the teacher was saying. Whether the teacher was telling him to write a report or whether she was telling him to fuck off, he wasn't listening. All he could think about was Kite Osagawa, Kite Osagawa, and Kite Osagawa.

It had started out as a little bit of fun. Messing with Elk Hashimoto's head and planning to beat up his friend. But now, now it was much more than that, now he was angry. Now it was no longer about fun, it was about revenge.

Kite and Elk finished their Maths lesson around the same time that Yamada finished his Japanese lesson. And now they were half way through a Japanese lesson themselves.

Elk was finding it hard to concentrate on his work. He felt worried, he felt guilty, and he felt horrible, the same as he did every school day. Except this time it was worse, because he had dragged his best friend into his troubles, and now Yamada was going to terrorise them both.

'All I ever do is cause people trouble, Kite would be better off without me… I'm only going to cause him more trouble with every second I'm near him…' Elk thought sadly.

The only option left would be to run off and avoid Kite, which would upset Kite… But if he stayed with Kite, Kite would be bullied.

'He will be bullied anyway… it's too late, I've already messed things up for him… I should apologise... I'll apologise… I'll apologise during lunchtime.'

Kite looked over at Elk, but Elk gave Kite an embarrassed look and swiftly turned his head away.

'Something is upsetting Elk. And I bet I know what it is… I only wish I could talk to him…'

'I'll try my best to avoid that bully during lunchtime, for Elk's sake. The poor guy must go through a living hell every day at school…'

Kite felt a pang of sadness, mixed with anger. Seeing Elk upset deeply hurt Kite. Kite hated to see his friend upset like that. Elk's misery was all thanks to that bully. What was his name?

'I recognise his face. The teachers are always talking about him… Zenko… Zenko… what?'

'Zenko Yamazaki? No, Yamazaki is the Gym teacher's name…'

'Zenko Yamamoto? No, Art teachers name…'

'They kept saying Yama- something… Yamada…'

'His name is Zenko Yamada… of course! The notorious school bully, how could I not have guessed?'

'It's probably because you haven't suffered much bullying from him before. He's not like normal bullies either… He does his bullying all by himself. He hates to have people help him. He always ends up beating up his own gang…'

'Yes, I remember him now… it's been so long since I've heard his name… Most of my friends hardly get any trouble from him… I thought he had left school. But I guess he stayed on a bit longer…'

'I'd better get back to work.'

Kite returned to his Maths, and just barely managed to finish it before the period ended. He checked to see how Elk was doing as he waited for the teacher to collect his work.

Elk was scribbling away; rushing to finish it before the teacher reached him.

"Hashimoto," She began, "please give me your work."

Elk reluctantly handed his work over, having hardly finished it in time. His face was red with embarrassment; he looked utterly despondent.

"Thank you." The teacher said, collecting Elk's work and picking Kite's work up off of the desk.

"Elk, what's wrong?" Kite asked in a whisper, turning towards his desk mate.

"Yamada is going to torment you… and it's all my fault. I…" Elk uttered quietly, looking at Kite with the eyes of a boy who has been suffering for many years.

"No Elk, it is no one's fault but his. I won't let him hurt you… you have nothing to worry about." Kite reassured.

"Class dismissed!" The teacher declared.

All of the students around Kite and Elk rose, and began to head towards the class exit.

"I will protect you Elk. I promise, I won't let him harm you." Kite said quietly, putting his hand on Elk's shoulder.

"I'm not worth the trouble." Elk said; the tears running silently down his cheeks.

"You are to me." Kite replied, brushing a tear off of Elk's cheek with his thumb.

"Thank you f-for s-standing up for me K-Kite. Thank you f-for everything… I only wish I c-could repay you…" Elk uttered.

"You can repay me by simply being yourself. Don't ever change Elk, you're great the way you are."

"R-Really? I thought I was annoying…" Elk said, looking downward at the desk.

"You're not annoying at all." Kite reassured with a smile. "Now, are you hungry?"

"Yeah… a little." Elk replied, looking up at Kite and returning the brown-haired boy's smile with a smile of his own.

"Well, since everyone is so keen on eating in the hall, shall we eat our lunches in here?" Kite suggested, looking around the classroom and seeing that it was now empty.

"O-Okay, good idea Kite."

They both took out their lunch bags, and, after about 2 minutes of eating in silence, Elk asked, "Kite, where are your other friends? D-Do you have any…?" Then quickly added, "I mean, not that you're not likeable or anything. I shouldn't have asked… sorry"

"There's no need to apologise. But, in truth, I only have one other friend in this school, and he's out sick." Kite replied.

Elk felt a pang of jealousy.

"Are you good friends?" Elk inquired.

"Yes, you've heard of him, Orca of the Azure Sea. Or Yasuhiko, which is his real name." Kite responded.

"O-Of course, I'm so stupid." Elk replied, blushing and placing a hand over his face in embarrassment.

'How could I have forgotten Orca? I'm such an idiot, I look like a total fool…' Elk thought, agitated that he hadn't realised.

"You aren't stupid Elk." Kite reassured, touching Elk's arm lightly.

'Poor guy, his self esteem must be so low… It's probably all because of Yamada.'

'Wait, Yamada, he'll be looking for us. Rats! What do I do? Should I warn Elk?'

'Warn Elk and send him into a panic? I don't think so!'

'But I have to do something.'

Elk noticed that Kite's face was pale, and that he suddenly looked very worried.

The red-haired boy uttered, "Kite… what's wrong?"

"Nothing, I just felt a little bit dizzy." The brown-haired boy explained.

"Maybe you should go to the nurse." Elk suggested sincerely.

"No it's okay, I'm just tired." Kite lied.

'That is a terrible lie… but it's the best I could come up with… I just hope Yamada doesn't find us in here anytime soon.'

Zenko Yamada strode down the school hall, his hands clenched into fists, grinding his large white teeth.

'I'm gonna get that little shit!'

Yamada barged past all in his way, in some cases pushing people over with a "Get out of my way, shit head!" added in for good measure.

He had looked around the school hallways, but not all of them, doing that would waste time. Instead, he had threatened Osagawa's classmates and demanded information, and information is what they had all given him. In fact, they had all said the same thing, "I think he is still in the classroom with Hashimoto." At which point Yamada would release them, he had no time to waste on those weaklings today.

'Why am I so annoyed at this guy? Why should I waste my time being angry when I could have some fun with this?'

'It's because… It's because he wasn't afraid of me, not one bit… I need to correct his little point of view. How dare he not respect me!'

He stormed around a corner, he was getting closer to Hashimoto's class now, all he had to do was go straight down the hallway, turn right, walk a few yards, and there it would be! Yamada turned right, and saw Kite Osagawa's classroom.

'Now he's mine.'

Zenko Yamada burst into the classroom, and saw that it was completely empty, except for someone's lunch on a desk near the back of the classroom.

"He's fucking gone?" Yamada thought out loud, "Little shit head! The coward's ran off!" Yamada kicked a desk viciously, sending it crashing into the desk behind it. By the time the teachers came to investigate the noise, Yamada had already left.

"Sorry to drag you out of the classroom just because I needed to use the bathroom Kite." Elk said in his usual quiet voice.

"It's okay, I needed to go anyway." Kite responded. The brown haired boy watched Elk wash his hands in the sink inside the school lavatory.

'Yamada is probably out there looking for us right now…'

'You know what you have to do if he sees you.'

Kite knew exactly what he would have to do. Because there was no way he was going to let Zenko Yamada get to Elk. Kite heard the water stop running out of the sink's tap.

"Kite… I just remembered about Yamada…" Elk uttered slowly.

"Yes, Elk, I'll be honest with you, he's probably out in the hall right now waiting for-" Kite was interrupted by a loud banging noise, the lavatory door flew open, and standing in the doorway was Zenko Yamada himself.

He was baring his teeth in a half-grin half-snarl. His eyes were wide open and staring directly at Kite. For a moment, Yamada looked shocked, but then he just grinned, his face a portrait of dark malicious cheer.

Yamada laughed.

"You can't run anymore smart-ass! Thought you could hide from me?" Yamada began to walk forward. He looked like a massive wolf; his black hair was in his eyes, his hands and fingers curled like the paws of an animal. His eyes looked like the eyes of a tiger that was only inches away from its prey, they looked hungry. "Now I'll show you the meaning of pain." He growled.

"Elk, run into a toilet stall and lock the door, now!" Kite yelled.

Elk, still in shock, ran into the stall and locked the door, unsure of what was happening. The red-haired boy leant against the toilet stall wall, shivering and crying in fear.

Yamada thought he'd try some wrestling out on the little shit. He didn't even have to run far because the cocksucker was standing only a few meters away from him. He charged at Kite, preparing to give the boy a clothesline right in his mouth, arm outstretched, teeth bared, legs pumping.

"Say goodnight cock sucker!" Yamada screamed, but then, just as he thought his clothesline would hit Kite, the boy just managed dodged his attack. Yamada was running too fast to stop; he turned to one side to make sure that he didn't punch the bathroom wall and smashed his shoulder into the wall instead.

"SHIT!" Yamada yelled, clutching his shoulder in agony.

"I'M GOING TO MAKE YOU PAY FOR THAT!"

Yamada rushed towards Kite, his fists were raised above his head, and saliva was dribbling down his chin. He roared like a wild animal as he rushed towards Kite, his eyes filled with black rage. As he threw his fists towards Kite, the boy ducked and stuck his leg out, causing Yamada to go completely off-balance.

Zenko Yamada normally had the reflexes to stop himself from falling. But he had been so blinded by rage, so pumped up by adrenalin that he had shifted all of his weight into one place, which had left him with very little balance. He fell face down onto the floor, his nose making a loud crunch noise as it shattered into little pieces from its impact with the hard concrete. Yamada's blood gushed out of the mush that used to be his nose, making a small puddle of blood under his face.

Kite stared at Yamada, feeling a mix of horror and relief.

'…He isn't moving… please don't say I've killed him…'

The brown haired boy tentatively walked closer to Yamada; Zenko remained still.

'Okay, I'll go and check his pulse… I hope he isn't tricking me…'

Kite carefully walked closer to Yamada, crouching down to grab his arm… Yamada remained still. Kite checked his pulse, as he did this, Yamada uttered a small groaning noise.

The brown-haired boy backed away swiftly, he wasn't taking any chances. He did not want to be around when Yamada woke up.

'… He must be unconscious… did his nose make that crunching noise?'

The brown haired boy stood around for a moment in shock and disgust, desperately fighting the urge to vomit, and then he heard a sobbing noise coming from the toilets.

'Elk! Of course!'

Elk sat, curled up in a small ball, in the corner of the toilet stall, near to the toilet, sobbing and fearing the worst.

'Yamada hit Kite so hard that he broke his nose… I can see the blood on the floor… I heard the crunch…'

Elk was shaking; he knew that Yamada was going to do something pretty serious to him this time.

'Why me? Why won't he leave me alone?'

Elk heard someone knock on the toilet stall door, causing him to jump. He began to panic.

"P-Please, Yamada! Please don't h-h-h-hurt me!" Elk begged.

"Elk, it's me, Kite, I knocked Yamada out and I'm probably going to be in big trouble for it… but at least he didn't hurt either of us…"

Elk sat in silence for a minute, afraid that Yamada was playing tricks on him.

'But it sounds just like Kite's voice… Is it really Kite?'

"H-How do I know it's really you?" Elk inquired.

"Because I know that one of your best friends is Mia, a digital cat-woman in The World, and that you both love aromatic grass."

"O-Okay… b-but… if you are really Kite… w-what is the name of the f-field I told you my… uh… s-s-secret… in?" Elk asked, noticing that his hands were coated in sweat. The red-haired boy could feel his heart beating rapidly, the frantic thumping noise echoing in his head.

"Unsuspecting, Mage's, Twin-Flame."

'It really is Kite…'

Elk slowly got to his feet, both of his legs felt weak, he had a headache, and he was shaking in nervousness. Elk tentatively opened the door a little bit, and for a split second, he thought he saw Yamada there, laughing at him, smug at the fact that he'd tricked Elk so easily. But then Elk came back to his senses, and saw Kite's concerned face staring at him. Elk opened the toilet door completely and stepped just outside of the cubicle.

The brown-haired boy looked at his friend, he could see that Elk had been crying. Kite tried to resist the strong urge to rush up to the red-haired boy and embrace him, tried to resist the urge to protect Elk; he didn't want to make Elk feel embarrassed by hugging him.

'He needs you. I don't think a hug is going to be on his worry list right now, do you?'

He moved closer to Elk and gently wrapped his arms around the red-haired boy. Elk returned Kite's embrace, and rested his head on the taller boy's shoulder, crying silently into Kite's chest.

Having Elk lean on him like that made Kite feel… odd… in a good way. He really liked holding Elk like this... He wanted to protect Elk, to make him happy, to comfort him… he hated to see Elk so sad…

Kite stroked Elk's hair softly; "Let's get out of this bathroom, before Yamada wakes up."

Elk looked up into Kite's face; the red-haired boy's eyes conveyed his shock and sorrow. It was apparent to Kite that the situation had severely affected Elk.

"O-Okay Kite…" The boy replied, as he slowly removed himself from Kite's embrace.

The bathroom door abruptly swung open; followed by a pause… then several shocked gasps.

"Who did this?"

"What has happened here?"

"Hashimoto, Osagawa, what did you both do to Yamada?" The Japanese teacher for Yamada's class asked.

Elk tried to say something, but Kite held up a hand and spoke instead, "I did it. He was chasing us, he charged at me as if to attack me, so I tripped him up. I didn't intend it to turn out like it did…"

"…I'm shocked… in all the years I have been a teacher I have never seen anything as bloody as this in a school… you should be ashamed of yourselves." The Japanese teacher scolded.

"I had to defend my friend Sir." Kite stated calmly, his face perfectly emotionless.

The teacher stared at Kite in silence, and then he glanced at Elk, before requesting that someone get the nurse. Another teacher swiftly turned away from the bathroom and ran down the hall, presumably to get the nurse, though she may have been looking for a toilet to vomit in.

Dozens of faces stared at them through the open bathroom door… as if they were freaks or criminals of some kind. Some of them looked shocked, others disgusted, but all of them looked interested. More and more people rushed towards the door, wanting to know what all the fuss was about, staring at Yamada with a kind of morbid curiosity.

'What have I done…? What have I got Elk in to…?'

Kite felt light headed… his knees felt weak.

'Damn you Yamada…'

'…Pain… my nose… why does my nose feel so big?' The young man thought.

The boy opened his eyes, and then quickly closed them again after he looked directly into a large fluorescent light.

'Argh! Goddamn it! Where am I? All I can remember is going into that fucking bathroom and then… Osagawa… I ran after him… then what?'

The boy opened his eyes slightly, allowed them to adjust to the light, and then opened them fully. He scanned his surroundings. He was lying on a white bed that had white sheets, the walls were white, and even the curtains next to his bed were white. He noticed that they had taken off some of his school uniform, as he only had black trousers and a white shirt on. The rest were on a chair next to his bed, he observed. Yamada moved into an upright position, leaning against his bed pillow.

'I'm in the Nurses room?'

Yamada carefully moved his hands towards his nose, when he touched it, felt the bandages covering it; it flared up in pain, causing him to curse under his breath.

'Osagawa did this… I know it. I fucking remember now, the little shit tripped me up. And now he's fucked up my goddamn nose! The little shit!'

Yamada slammed his fist down onto his bed.

'I didn't think he would react so goddamn quickly. That was a mistake on my part, a mistake I won't make again.'

Yamada couldn't see the nurse nearby.

'The Nurse isn't here… Good, that means I won't get anyone try to stop me from leaving this piece-of-shit building.'

He got out of bed, and as his feet touched the cold, tiled floor, pain flared up in his knee, causing him to grab it with both hands reflexively.

"Shit! -…"

Yamada clamped a hand over his mouth; he couldn't afford to alert anyone to his movement.

'The little motherfucker has hurt my knee too. I'll make him suffer for this!'

Zenko half-limped towards the door that led into the school hallway. He didn't bother to get the rest of his uniform; he had more important matters to attend to. He reached the brown door, clasped the handle, turned it, and exited the nurse's office through the opened door.

'The idiotic bitch forgot to wait in her office to keep an eye on me. Good, now I can leave…'

He limped down the dark, half-empty hallways of Musashino Jyoshi Gakuin middle school, snarling or lunging at anyone who decided to cry out his name, stare, or point their fingers at him.

'Just my luck, I've woken up right when everyone is cleaning up the goddamn school; that means Osagawa is probably out here somewhere too… But I'll be patient… he deserves a very painful punishment for fucking up my nose and my knee…'

As he approached a corner, he heard a deep mumbling noise; he could also hear the thump of a person's footsteps on the cold stone floor.

'Shit! It's probably a Teacher! I've gotta hide!'

Yamada scanned his surroundings in vain; there was nowhere to hide.

'Shit! What the fuck am I gonna do?'

Yamada knew that he only had a few more corridors left before he reached the school exit.

'Fuck my knee, I'm getting out of this shit hole once and for fucking all!'

Yamada ran right in front of Mr. Yamamoto, nearly knocking him over.

"Hey! Don't run in the school halls!" The teacher yelled down the hall. But by the time he had finished yelling, Yamada was already out of sight.

"Fucking knee… Fucking knee… Fucking knee" Yamada growled.

Pain pierced Yamada's leg like large, sharp knives carving into tender flesh. He fell to the floor, clutching his knee in agony.

'No! I've got to get up, I have got to get up!'

Yamada tried to get up, succeeded for a moment, then he fell to the floor again. His knee wouldn't stay still, wouldn't hold up the rest of his body.

'Now he's fucking messed up my knee too! He is going to pay!'

Students stood and stared at him from a reasonable distance.

"Fuck off! Before I beat the shit out of you!" Zenko roared.

The students backed off slightly, but continued to stare at Yamada.

"I said FUCK OFF!"

This time they all scattered, leaving Yamada to lie in pain on the floor.

'I've gotta get out of here before some asshole teacher sees me…'

Yamada moved himself into a sitting position.

'Right… now, I am going to fucking stand up…'

Yamada grabbed hold of a pipe on the wall, and heaved himself onto his feet. Yamada's knee began to ache intensely. He let go of the bar, and slowly limped down the hall, pain stabbing at his knee with every step he took.

'I'm almost at the door… just one more corner…'

Yamada went around the corner, and saw 2 teachers talking to each other right next to the school exit.

'Goddamn! …Fuck it! I'll just barge past them.'

Yamada broke into a sprint, his senses a blazing inferno of pain and fury. He barged past the shocked teachers, wrenched the door open, and ran down the street.

'My knee won't last much longer… I've got to get home, and quick…'

Zenko Yamada desperately raced down the street, scanning the rows of houses in an attempt to find his address.

'25…36…17…20!'

He ran up to his door (door number 20) and leant against it. Panting and covered in sweat, he carefully moved his hand towards the doorbell and pressed it, hearing the doorbell's chiming through the wooden door.

'Mother-fucking knee… It hurts so damn much!'

Yamada grimaced as he moved off of his door. He could faintly hear the teachers calling out to him, wondering where he was, wondering who he was.

'Ha… it doesn't matter anymore… tomorrow… tomorrow will be the last time I go to that school… or any school for that matter. I hate the fucking things, I only went because Father would punish me if I didn't…'

Zenko Yamada's Mother opened the door, the expression of curiosity on her face becoming one of shock and fear instead.

"What happened to your nose Zenko?!" She cried, not realising that he was also missing some of his school uniform.

"There's no need to scream woman, I got into a fight, and the mother-fucker busted up my nose. Simple." Zenko uttered, his voice filled with bitter anger. Yamada barged past his mother, then stormed down the hall and up the staircase, not hearing his mother close the front door.

Yamada opened the door to his room and went inside. His small bedroom had white walls, a dark grey carpet, and one plain bed. His bedroom didn't have a window, but it had a set of drawers, on top of which rested a lamp with a rather decrepit lampshade. Yamada turned on his lamp, illuminating the entire room in a dirty yellow colour. He then closed his old, wooden bedroom door. On the walls of his bedroom were several pictures of his father; many of them pictured him in his Army uniform, with his fellow soldiers. Yamada also had various posters of bands and slogans on his walls.

Zenko lay down on his bed, and began to think about how he would punish Kite Osagawa and Elk Hashimoto…

"I'm gonna make those shit-heads pay!" He thought aloud, slamming his fist down onto his bed.

"Mother-fuckers!" He screamed, this time ramming his foot against his bedroom wall instead.

"I'm, Gonna, Make, Them, Pay!" He roared; every word punctuated by a violent punch or kick to his bed.

He relaxed and sighed deeply… before mumbling, "I'm gonna to make them pay…"

Kite and Elk slowly walked side-by-side down the street, heading towards Inokashira Park. Elk had called his parents' on Kite's mobile phone only moments ago, when Kite had asked him if he still wanted to go to the park. The day had been a hard one for both of them. They had been taken to the head teacher's office after Yamada had been moved to the Nurse's room, the head teacher had told them how disgraceful both they, and Yamada had been. The head teacher had said that he would be telling everyone's parents about the incident by letter, and that he would request them all to meet in his office next week, on Monday.

'I don't mind my parents punishing me, because I chose to trip Yamada up, and I had to, to defend Elk… but… if Elk gets punished, it will be my fault…'

As they walked down the street, several of their schoolmates stared at them, as if they were freaks of some kind. He could hear the ones that were close to him whispering about him. Some whispered about him being a kind of vicious, aggressive psychopath, others were saying that him and Elk were Gay lovers.

Kite clenched his fists and tried to ignore them, resisting the urge to tell them all to shut their mouths and get a life. He and Elk went around a corner, and continued to walk down the street. The snow had almost disappeared off of the sidewalk; all that was left were some small patches of snow and a bunch of footprints. This street was busy, so Kite asked Elk to follow him as he dodged in-between the many groups of people. He made sure to stop and wait for Elk often, just to make sure they didn't lose one-another. Eventually, after some more walking, they reached the park. The park was surrounded by a fairly high metal fence; the type that consisted of several uniform bars. Kite pushed open the gate of similar design, and both he and Elk entered the park.

The fields of snow-covered grass stretched out for many, many yards, the leafless trees and plants swayed gently in the breeze, the entire sky was orange in the light of the sunset, the clouds were like massive, white mountains, floating effortlessly through the air.

Elk loved Inokashira Park, it always made him feel relaxed and at peace. He liked it even more in spring, when all the flowers and trees were blossoming. Today, more than ever, he needed to relax; Elk was glad that he had a chance to rest in the park today. He had been in a constant state of panic and fear since he and Kite had left the school. Even now, he worried that Yamada would find them and get his revenge.

Elk was disturbed from his cogitation by Kite.

"Hey Elk, let's sit on that bench there!" The brown-haired boy suggested, pointing towards a bench very close to some trees.

"O-Okay K-Kite…" Elk agreed, not really looking at the bench, too focused on his own worried thoughts.

Nonetheless, Elk was conscious enough to follow Kite to the bench, and he would have sat down on the snow if Kite hadn't grabbed his arm first.

"Let me wipe the snow off first. Or else you'll get all wet." The brown-haired boy said softly, as he wiped off the snow with his bare hands.

"Thuh-thank you K-Kite." Elk responded, as he sat down.

They sat there in awkward silence for a few minutes, before Kite finally said, "Elk… I'm sorry for getting you into this mess…"

Elk swiftly turned to face the brown-haired boy, "It's not your fault Kite… if it weren't for me you wouldn't be in trouble right now…" he replied despondently.

"No Elk… it isn't really anyone's fault… it's not like you asked to be bullied, and I had to defend you… Yamada is the only one to blame for all this." Kite explained.

"He's g-g-going to want r-r-revenge Kite…" Elk uttered quietly, tears welling up in his eyes.

Kite put an arm around his friends shoulder, "Don't worry, I'll protect you, I won't let him hurt you."

"But what about you Kite? What if he hurts you?" Elk sobbed, unable to hold back his sadness and worry any longer.

Kite sat in silence for a moment, unsure of how to reply.

'Should I lie and say that I'll be fine? Or should I tell him the truth?'

The brown-haired boy looked directly into Elk's teary eyes and said: "I'll do whatever I can to ensure both your safety and mine. I promise."

The brown-haired boy then embraced the red-haired boy fully, holding Elk's small form against his chest in the empty park.

"I'll be your guardian Elk, I will protect you for as long as you want me to." Kite whispered.

They sat like that for a long while, listening to the wind blow through the trees, their rustling and whistling noises echoing over the desolate snow. Making the two boys seem even more alone in the quiet park. Then, Elk looked at the sky, and remembered that he had to be home before nightfall.

The red-haired boy gently extricated himself from Kite's embrace, before quietly saying, "Kite, I n-need to go home before it gets too late… I'm s-sorry…"

"There's nothing to apologise for. Would you mind if I walked with you?" Kite asked.

"No, I wouldn't mind at all." Elk replied, smiling.

They walked together down the many roads of Musashino City; the incident with Yamada was still fresh in their minds, and although they tried to forget about it by talking of happier things, neither of them could get it off of their minds.

When they eventually reached Elk's house, the orange in the sky was just beginning to turn into purple.

Elk turned to face his friend, "Thank you for walking with me Kite."

"It was my pleasure Elk." The brown haired boy replied.

"And… thank you for defending me…" Elk added quietly, quickly turning towards his house and walking up to the door. Kite just smiled, glad that Elk was safe at home. As the brown haired boy was walking away, Elk briefly turned his head towards Kite, before entering his warm home.

The wind had become stronger since Kite had dropped Elk off at his house. The wind howled down the dark road, blowing leaves, small rocks, and small clumps of snow everywhere. The sky was almost half-purple now, and the near-emptiness of the streets was unnerving Kite. He hadn't felt this uneasy since The Wave incident. And he had never felt so threatened by a human being before now. Yamada was unpredictable; he could attack at any moment.

'Stop panicking yourself. Panicking won't help anyone.'

'You're right. If he attacks, I'll be able to handle him.'

Kite was very close to his home now, only one corner left and he'd be there. As Kite turned the corner he thought he saw something move in the darkness out of the corner of his eye. He immediately turned to face the shadows (and possibly whatever was hiding in it,) but after staring at the shadowy spot for a few minutes, he realised that there wasn't anything there.

'Calm down'

"Okay… Okay… Calm down…" Kite mumbled to himself, cautiously turning away from the shadowed spot.

He continued to walk down the street, noticing the half-moon floating in the cloudy sky. His footsteps made clacking noises as they hit the stone paving, the sounds of his footsteps echoed eerily down the empty street. Kite eventually reached his house, and he hastily knocked on the front door. His father opened it, saying "You're lucky, you've got here just in time for dinner."

Kite smiled and entered his house, "Sorry I'm so late."

"Not a problem, you're only 10 minutes late. Any later though and you'd be in trouble." His father replied.

Kite waved a greeting to his mother (who was in the kitchen) before running up the stairs towards his bedroom, rushing to get changed out of his school uniform before dinner was ready.

Having finished his dinner, Elk was taking a bath to help him relax. The situation with Yamada was worrying him greatly; he knew how unpredictable and vicious Yamada could be. As long as Yamada was free Elk wouldn't be able to relax.

'What can we do…?' He thought despondently.

'Why won't he leave me and my friends alone…?'

Elk wished he could be with Kite right now. His friend always made him feel better, more comfortable. The reason he was embarrassed when Kite hugged him was because he had enjoyed his hugs so much.

'I shouldn't enjoy Kite touching me like that… he's my friend… only my friend… I'm not meant to like my friends doing that so much…'

Elk felt so frustrated. Not only did he have Yamada constantly bullying him, now he was feeling things for his friends too.

'I'm so stupid… Why do I do such stupid things?'

Elk leant back in his bath and cried silently.

'I wish all of this trouble would just end…' Elk thought with sadness.

Kite had never been so glad to be in his bed; the day's events had worn him out.

'Tomorrow is going to be a long day…' He mused miserably.

'Yamada really is an angry lunatic…'

Kite listened to his clock ticking on the wall; it was something he did often when he couldn't sleep, such as tonight.

'I've been feeling really weird today… really weird around Elk… why?'

'Maybe it's because we're really great friends…'

'Don't fool yourself, you don't feel that way around people whom you're just "good friends" with'

'What are you saying?'

'I'm saying that you like Elk more than you would a friend.'

'No… that… that can't…'

'Oh can't it?'

'But…'

'Oh come on, you've liked both men and women for a long time now.'

'…I… But… that can't mean that I'm…'

'I'm right, and you know it.'

Kite lay on his back in silence for some time as the information sank in. He hadn't truly accepted that he was Bisexual, but now that he had realised that he loved Elk, he could no longer deny it.

'I… but…'

Kite exhaled deeply.

'… How do I explain my feelings to Elk?'

'Tell him at a less stressful time.'

'You're right… If I tell him now, he'll be so uncomfortable that he'll avoid me, and then he's just a sitting duck for Yamada to attack…'

Kite frowned then turned onto his side, slightly surprised at what he had realised.

'…I…I love Elk… I really do…'

Kite turned onto his other side, closed his eyes, and after about half an hour, fell into uneasy sleep.

Chapter 3: Guardian

Elk opened his eyes slightly; then he rubbed them and turned to face his digital clock; it read 6:30.

'I'd better get up… or else I'll be late for school.'

As much as he didn't want to go to school, Elk didn't want to anger his parents by not going to school, and he knew Kite would worry if he didn't turn up. He slowly got out of his bed, the feeling of the cold floor on his feet instantly awaking him from groggy, his half-asleep state.

'I've got to: Eat…then shower…then get dressed… get my backpack and items…and finally, go to school. Right.'

Elk walked towards his bedroom door, carefully opening it, then quietly entering his hallway. The hallway was very dark, as usual. Elk felt his way along the corridor, holding onto the banisters of the stairs as he descended them. When he reached the ground floor, he flipped the light switch, lighting up both the front door and most of the kitchen.

'I'd better get my slippers, or my feet will turn into ice cubes.'

Elk walked off of the elevated floor, picked up and put on his slippers, then walked back onto the main floor again. He looked at the kitchen, and decided that he didn't feel much like eating right now. Elk instead turned around and walked down a hallway near the Shoji. He felt his way along it, as the hallway was pitch-black and he didn't feel like getting a candle. He eventually felt a doorframe, then a large gap.

'Phew, I hate being alone in the dark.'

Elk carefully moved into the room, tentatively walking towards what he thought was its centre.

'I don't like winter… it's always so dark in the early mornings.'

He slowly stretched out his hands, carefully trying to find what he was looking for. After a few more footsteps, Elk's hand brushed something smooth and round.

'Found it!'

Elk felt along the smooth object, eventually finding the switch that he was looking for. He pushed the button and the ornate lamp lit up, illuminating the entire room in it's warm light. Elk walked towards his favourite armchair and sat down, relaxing and sighing deeply.

'So soft and comfy…'

Elk enjoyed sitting in this room, on an early morning like this one he could relax alone, in his comfortable chair, and think. But today he didn't want to think, the things on his mind hurt and upset him, he wanted to just forget about Yamada, to never be bullied or worry again. But that wasn't going to happen anytime soon…

'There's no escape now…' Elk thought, tears welling up in his eyes, 'No matter where I go, he could get me or Kite at any time… and who knows how far he will go to get his revenge…'

Elk felt so helpless, so weak. Yamada was out there waiting for him and there was nothing he could do about it.

'And now I've dragged Kite into this too… I'm so stupid…'

Tears ran down Elk's cheeks, he restrained himself from actually sobbing, or else someone would hear him, and then see him crying. He had never felt so wretched, so afraid, so depressed before. Yamada was no longer going to just beat him up, he was sure of it. He was going to try and seriously injure both him and Kite.

'And it's all my fault for being Gay… if I weren't Gay I wouldn't have been bullied…'

Elk heard someone walking down the stairs, the footsteps sounded like his mother's.

'Oh no, I've got to stop crying, she mustn't find out.'

Elk fervently rubbed his eyes, desperate to remove all signs of crying. He could hear his mother's footsteps echoing down the hall, getting closer and closer.

'Oh no! She mustn't realise that I have been crying!'

"Good morning Elk, have you eaten today?" His mother asked, entering the room.

Elk forced himself to smile and replied, "Yes, I had sandwich. Though I didn't put it on a plate, I ate it in here. Sorry."

"It's okay Elk, you don't appear to have made a mess." His Mother said, smiling. "I'll go and get your Father's lunch ready."

"Okay Mother."

'Phew. I'm glad she believed me, I have absolutely no appetite, there is no way that I'm eating anything this morning.'

'I should go upstairs and check my school bag before I have my shower.'

Elk slowly walked left the room, walked down the hallway, and up the stairs towards his bedroom. Elk hastily opened the bedroom door, and then rushed inside. The red-haired boy held his hands over his face.

'That was too close…'

Elk got onto his hands and knees and reached under his bed. He eventually located his backpack, and pulled it out on to his bed. The red-haired boy sat down next to his backpack; unzipping it and checking to see if all of the necessary equipment was in there.

'Books… Pencils…' Elk mentally ticked off the list of items he would need, from a drink to some pencils.

'Okay, now all I need to do is put my lunch in there, and take a shower.'

Elk zipped up his backpack and moved it onto his lap. After a few seconds, Elk began idly playing with the backpack's straps.

'It didn't snow any more last night…' He thought as he looked out of his bedroom window and down at the streets.

'Hopefully today will be sunny… I hope it doesn't take too long for spring to get here…'

The sun was partially risen, illuminating Musashino city in serene twilight. Elk found his thoughts drifting back to Kite.

'Why do I feel so… odd… when I think of Kite? I… feel funny, when I'm near him. I enjoyed him touching me… why…?'

'You're a faggotfaggots like other guys.'

'Surely I don't… No…'

'But Kite isn't Gay… I shouldn't love him… I shouldn't…'

'But I do… That must be what it is… things can't get any worse… not only do I have Yamada to worry about, I've fallen in love with my friend… I'm so stupid…'

'No, I mustn't think about that, or I'll make myself cry. I mustn't…'

Elk suddenly got up off of his bed and began to pace around his bedroom.

'I mustn't cry. I mustn't…'

"Elk! You can use the shower now." His Father called, knocking on Elk's bedroom door at the same time.

'I must remain calm…' Elk thought, walking out of his bedroom and down the hallway.

Elk walked into the changing room, quickly got changed, then rushed into the shower room, closing the door behind him with his foot.

Kite almost jogged down the street, rushing to get to Elk's house before Elk left it. Kite had left his house early to make sure he could get to Elk's house and walk him to school, he couldn't afford to leave his friend alone while Yamada was on the streets.

'Please say he hasn't left yet, please.'

Kite broke into a sprint, desperate to reach Elk's house in time.

'Come on, run faster!'

He went into a busy commercial street, but that didn't stop him running, he deftly dodged between the people and objects, sometimes crossing the road riskily just because one side of the street was so busy. He passed Sushi Bars, general supermarkets, music stores, bookstores and various other stores.

'Goddamn this busy street!'

Kite turned around the corner sharply, hardly reducing his speed. The wind rushed through his hair, his legs were aching, and the sun was in his eyes, but he didn't care, all that mattered was Elk's safety. He had to get to Elk's house in time. The brown haired boy gritted his teeth and almost roared as he rocketed down the street.

'Don't worry Elk, I'll be there in time.'

Elk was putting on his shoes and preparing to leave.

Elk was mentally making sure he had everything he needed, 'I've got my: Bag, Uniform, Schoolbooks, and my lunch. Okay, time to go…'

Kite was breathing very heavily, he only had to go around the next corner and he would be on Elk's street.

'Just a little bit further… nearly there… nearly…'

Kite shot around the corner and raced down the street towards Elk's house.

'…Yes…nearly…there!'

Kite ran up to Elk's house door and knocked on it rapidly and repeatedly.

After a few seconds, a woman opened it; it was Elk's mother.

"Oh hello, who are you?" she asked.

"Kite, a friend of Elk's, is Elk there?"

"No I'm sorry, he left for school about 5 minutes ago." She replied.

Kite suddenly felt ice cold, he felt numb, as if all of his nerves had suddenly turned off.

"Oh okay… well, have a nice day Mrs. Hashimoto." Kite said, his voice almost monotonous.

Kite waved a goodbye, then turned and walked away from Elk's house.

'I've got to find Elk. I've got to find Elk!'

The very second Kite heard Mrs. Hashimoto close her front door he began to run. He ran as fast as he possibly could, pumping his knees at the speed of a professional athlete.

'I've got to find him, where would he go?'

'The park, he walks by the park.'

Kite made a hairpin turn around a corner, the wind rushing through his hair, and continued to sprint after Elk.

'If Yamada has done anything to Elk I will make that bully suffer!'

Kite continued to run down street after busy street, and still he could not find Elk. No matter where he looked, he couldn't see his friend in the surrounding area.

'Where is he?'

The brown-haired boy was really starting to worry about his friend; surely Elk wouldn't walk that fast to school?

'I mustn't panic, or else I might miss Elk.'

Kite passed Inokashira Park, and there was no sign of Elk. The brown-haired boy's deepest fears were starting to look more real.

'Has Yamada already found Elk…?'

Suddenly, a voice called out from behind he brown-haired boy, "Kite! What are you r-running for?"

Kite wheeled around, and saw the owner of the voice; it was Elk. The brown haired-boy sighed in relief; Elk was safe. The red-haired boy was standing on the other side of the road from the park, Kite ran over to him.

"I was… looking for you…" Kite panted.

"Kite, why were you running…?" Elk asked, genuinely concerned about his friend.

'If I say that I was worried, Elk might feel guilty…' Kite mused.

"I wanted to make… sure I'd catch up to you." The brown haired boy explained in-between pants, resting against a building wall.

"Oh… I'm sorry Kite, I never realised… I-I didn't know whether we were going to walk to school together or not… so I left at my usual time…" Elk explained.

"There's no need to apologise," Kite began, "I should have told you that I wanted us to walk together beforehand."

Elk shifted his weight from foot to foot for a moment, and then said, "Well… we'd better get going, or we'll be late for school."

"Okay, lets go." Kite agreed, winking playfully at his red-haired friend.

The two boys strolled swiftly towards the school. It was a very cool, windless morning, with little cloud. Kite continued to check their surroundings, to make sure that anyone who tried to attack them wouldn't have the element of surprise. Whereas Elk was worrying about what might happen at school. But they were both uneasy as they approached the school gates.

'If we see Yamada… I will be prepared to defend Elk…' Kite thought, psyching himself up.

The school students converged and flowed into the school gates like a lake converging into a river. Some students were shoving their fellow students out of the way; others were waiting meekly for the flow of students to subside into a mere trickle. Kite stood still and scanned the area; there was no Yamada in sight.

'Yamada isn't outside…is he inside…?' Kite pondered.

'If he isn't inside, that means he is waiting somewhere else for us…'

Elk was waiting next to Kite, as if waiting for approval to enter the school.

"Let's go, before we're late for the register." Kite said, trying to look calm, trying to hide his inner-paranoia.

Elk gave a small nod in reply before heading into the swarm of students, Kite close behind him.

As he and Elk walked down the hallway, Kite was very wary and alert; Yamada could be waiting in some hallway for them. Even though they got to their class without incident, Kite didn't want to underestimate Yamada's ability to be devious and sneaky.

'I will not let my guard down.'

Reading, Maths, Japanese, English and Science all passed by, and when Lunch came, Kite was expecting some kind of surprise attack.

Kite turned to his desk mate, "Elk, would you rather we stayed in here, or went into the hallway?"

"I… I don't know…" Elk whispered, "P-please don't leave me Kite… I'm afraid."

"I won't leave you Elk, I promise, I will be here for you." Kite replied, resisting the urge to kiss Elk and tell the red-haired boy that he loved him too much to let him get hurt.

'Oh how I love you Elk… I only wish I could tell you…'

Kite gently put his arm around Elk, "Let's wait here, that way we will only have to keep an eye on the doors."

"O-o-ok-kay K-kite."

They waited in the classroom -Elk resting his head against Kite's chest, for the whole lunch period without any commotion. When the pupils began to come back in Elk abruptly moved off of Kite, looking at his friend apologetically.

"It's okay Elk." Kite quietly reassured with a smile, "I understand."

Once everyone was seated, the Gym Teacher and Ex-army man, Akira Yamazaki entered the classroom.

"Right! We are all going to be practising self-defence today! What you learn in my class is not to be used to attack random classmates! Am I understood?" The teacher bellowed.

The class all nodded and spoke their affirmation.

"Good, now get off of your butts and follow me to the gym!" Akira commanded.

The entire class marched down the hallway, the murmur of their chattering echoed down the hall, like the low hum of a fluorescent light. Kite and Elk were near the back of the group of about 20 students. When they eventually reached the gym, Mr. Yamazaki wrenched the gym doors open, and then ordered the students to march into the room behind him as he walked towards the centre of the massive gymnasium.

When Akira Yamazaki eventually reached the centre, he held up a hand and yelled, "Halt!"

The teacher turned around to face his class, "Now! I want you all to separate into partners; anyone who hasn't got a partner can be my partner."

After a couple of seconds, Elk looked at Kite questioningly.

"C-can we… uh… be…?" The red-haired boy asked.

"Of course we can." Kite responded with a small, but strained grin.

A few moments passed by, then the teacher began to speak again, "Now that you all have partners, I want you all to spread out into your pairs and give each pair some space!"

The entire class scrambled around, each pair trying to find their spot. Kite and Elk moved away from Yamazaki slightly, but kept their distance from the gym door.

"Okay, now, normally, I would have Zenko Yamada here with me to demonstrate, but he hasn't turned up to school today, so I will be demonstrating with one of you. Then afterwards you can practice with your own partners.

Yamazaki taught them many different moves that day, Kite made sure to commit the moves to memory.

'How lucky… we got taught self-defence right when we need it most.' Kite thought with slight, if rather bitter amusement as he walked back to his classroom.

'Yamada didn't turn up for school today… odd… I guess he doesn't feel up to it… But still, I won't let my guard down; I must remain alert at all times…'

Kite glanced at Elk; his friend's face didn't betray any particular emotion.

'I wish I could tell him how I felt… But I can't… he'll avoid me… and then Yamada will be able to hurt him.'

Both he and Elk entered their classroom and sat down, ready for their ICT lesson. No matter how calm Elk appeared to be, no matter how safe they may have been at that moment, Kite could not relax.

'What are you up to Yamada?'

Yamada checked the old clock in his hallway: it was 1:45 PM.

'One forty-five… it's time to get the stuff.'

Yamada walked further down his pale coloured hallway (white walls and a beige carpet) stopping outside his mother's bedroom door. Yamada quickly and quietly entered her bedroom, his mother was downstairs watching television at the moment, so if he was fast, he could be in and out of her bedroom before she even realised he had left his own one.

The bedroom had a large window on one side, which made it very well lit. It had beige walls and a light brown carpet; his mother's bed was a cream colour. The bedroom also had several drawers and a wardrobe, as well as potted plants.

'If I remember what father said correctly… then…'

Yamada got into a prone position next to his mother's bed. Then, carefully, he crawled underneath her bed, thankful that there was enough space between him and her mattress.

'Right…' Yamada thought, feeling the carpet with his hands.

'Where is that broken floorboard my father talked about? It's gotta be here somewhere…'

Yamada lightly punched the floor in several places, eventually causing a floorboard to tilt.

'I've found it!' Zenko thought with excitement, attempting to tear a hole in the carpet with his bare hands.

'Goddamn it! I can't get the fucking thing…'

But then Yamada had an idea. He pushed on the broken floorboard viciously, attempting to push a hole in the carpet from underneath it.

'Come on you little shit!'

Yamada gave one final ferocious push, and a hole was torn in the old carpet. The floorboard was almost vertical now, but that didn't matter to Yamada, what mattered was what was underneath the floorboard. He remembered the day his father had told him about it: "Son," he had said, "if you ever have some shitbag or hippy on your case, I've hidden my most trusted weapon under me and your mother's bed. She has no idea it's there, and don't you go tellin' her either!"

And now, Yamada held the weapon in his hand, it was finally his to use. Yamada crawled out from under the bed, grinning wildly; he had never felt so powerful.

Zenko stood up and hastily exited the bedroom, before stuffing the weapon in his pocket.

'Now to get the final thing I'll need.'

Yamada swiftly walked down the staircase and down the hallway (this one was white and beige too) until he reached the kitchen.

'That bitch better not ask any stupid questions…'

The kitchen was fairly small, but it had many, many drawers. The walls were a light blue colour and the drawers were white. A shiny steel oven rested to one side of the kitchen (near to where the kitchen entrance was), whilst a sink lay just opposite it. There was a knife rack near the oven, on a worktop, it had several knives in it, but Yamada already had a good idea of which one he wanted.

He walked forward a few paces, and when he reached the rack, without hesitation, he pulled out the longest and sharpest knife and held it out in front of him. It glinted in the sunlight that was entering through the window; its edge was sharpened to perfection. Yamada placed the knife in his pocket.

'Time to leave.'

Yamada strode out of the kitchen and down the hallway, grabbing his coat off of the stair banister. As he opened the door his mother asked him where he was going. He simply told her he was going 'out', before abruptly closing the door. The air outside was crisp and cool. There was very little wind, and there were only a few grey clouds in the sky.

As Yamada stood outside his door, he swiftly moved the knife from his trouser pocket to his coat pocket, which was deeper and concealed it better.

'Osagawa and Hashimoto should be cleaning up the school soon…'

Yamada felt both joy and anger at that. Joy because he could pay them back, and anger because it was they who broke his nose and injured his knee. But his knee wasn't even half as painful now as it was when he left the school. It had only been a minor injury, luckily.

'No matter how fast he runs… I'll be able to catch up to him. And if I can't, well, I'll just introduce him to my father's revolver.'

Zenko Yamada laughed as he walked towards Musashino Jyoshi Gakuin School.

Kite was tenser than ever before as he and Elk cleaned up the school. Yamada could be waiting outside for them right now…

'Calm down, you're sweating like a pig. Panicking won't protect Elk, remain calm and vigilant.'

'You're right…'

"Kite…Are you okay?" Elk asked quietly.

"Y-yeah… I'm fine…" Kite mumbled, listlessly picking up some litter and putting it into a school bin.

"Are you sure…?" Elk said cautiously.

Kite restrained himself from sighing in agitation, instead he replied, "I've just got a headache, a bad one, that's why I'm a bit quiet."

"Oh, okay. I hope it goes away soon, for your sake." Elk responded.

They cleaned together for a while, mostly in silence, but sometimes they talked about their ICT class or The World.

"You're already level 90? That's a very high level Elk!" Kite exclaimed, trying to sound interested. He was finding it hard to be happy or enthusiastic while he was still unsure about Yamada.

"Thank you! Although I wouldn't have been able to go to all of those high level dungeons without you Kite." Elk uttered. "Mia and I have collected a lot of aromatic grass recently, it was in almost every dungeon, sometimes on several levels!"

Kite smiled, his mind drifting ever so slightly from Yamada as he and Elk talked of The World.

Eventually, the students were dismissed and allowed to leave the school. Kite became paranoid and alert once more, prepared to face any threat.

"Let's walk together Elk." Kite suggested, trying to put on a convincing smile but failing miserably.

"S-sure Kite." Elk agreed, detecting Kite's stress.

Kite and Elk walked from the back of the school to the front exit. Some corridors were filled with the lively chatter of students and teachers; others had fewer people, and were relatively silent. When they reached the front exit, Kite could see small clumps of students flocking towards the school exit like metal filings to a magnet. The many groups became one massive crowd, slowly drifting out of the exit. Kite pondered whether he and Elk should join the crowd for safety in numbers; or exit after them all and have the ability to see the surroundings better.

Kite decided upon the former, and lightly held Elk's hand as they both joined the massive crowd, but unfortunately they joined near it's back rather than it's centre. Both he and Elk gradually moved out of the school, and Kite tried his best to scan his surroundings, but to no avail, as the crowd was too large for him to see anything.

'Luckily, it's also too large for Yamada to launch a surprise attack at me or Elk.'

But the rest of the crowd were moving ahead of them, Kite and Elk were getting left behind.

'Better pick up the pace.' Kite thought, moving faster, going so far as to barge past other students. Eventually, the rest of the crowd left the gates before Kite and Elk did, dissipating into smaller groups of people. The people behind Kite and Elk swiftly moved past them in small groups.

'Oh well, at least now we can leave this school.' Kite thought, half-relieved yet half-uneasy.

As they were walking past the school gates, Kite felt Elk's hand suddenly pull out of his, the brown-haired boy turned around to see why Elk had done that, and was horrified by what saw.

Yamada was pulling Elk towards the school, into an area with some trees.

"Hey! Yamada! Get the fuck BACK HERE!" Kite yelled in rage, charging towards Yamada.

When Kite was close, Zenko Yamada threw Elk to the side and plunged his knife into Kite's stomach. Kite stared down at the knife in shock. Blood began to seep out of the wound, staining his white shirt.

"Never fuck with me again you little shit." Yamada growled, pulling the knife out of Kite.

Kite staggered backwards, then, pulling himself out of the shock, he yelled as loud as he possibly could, "ELK! RUN! RUN NOW!"

Yamada turned towards Elk, who was crawling away from him on all fours. Yamada began to move towards Elk, but Kite ran up to Yamada and gave him a vicious strike to his nose. Zenko Yamada clasped his nose in agony; his screams were cracked and harsh. Blood was trickling between his fingers, and he had dropped his knife.

Kite was starting to feel dizzy. "Elk… please… run…"

Elk looked at Kite, tears streaming down his face, "But Kite… I can't leave you."

"Please Elk…" Kite begged, the sorrow in his voice broke Elk's heart, how could Yamada do this to them?

Elk reluctantly got onto his feet and fled, running as fast as he possibly could.

Kite hadn't felt as angry as he did now in a long time. His stomach felt oddly cold due to the exposed wound. The grey clouds were beginning to cover up the setting sun, casting the whole grassy area in front of the school in shadow.

'I'll… get you Yamada…'

'…I'm dizzy… I must get his knife…'

Kite limped over to where Yamada was now leaning, pain flaring in his stomach.

'He must have hit a fucking organ…' Kite thought, too focused on Yamada to worry about that just yet.

The brown-haired boy didn't reach the knife in time; Yamada had stopped clasping his nose, and was now staring directly into Kite's eyes. Zenko's face was rugged, harsh, and covered in stubble, his hair was long, like an animal's, except it was very greasy and unwashed. He was bearing his wolf-like teeth in a menacing snarl. His nose was a red lump of flesh, blood poured out of it and down his face, when he breathed through it, tiny bits of flesh would flap, and more blood would come out of his nose. His eyes were filled with hatred and anger, like black windows into oblivion. Yamada struck Kite's face brutally with his elbow, knocking him down onto the floor.

"Now you're dead you son of a bitch!" Yamada roared, his voice odd and different due to his squashed nose.

He bent down to pick up the knife, walked over to where Kite was lying, and then swiftly dropped down, knife pointed towards Kite. But the brown haired boy managed to roll out of the way just in time; only sustaining cuts to his side rather than holes in his stomach. Kite crawled forwards a few meters, trying to get to his feet before Yamada could try to kill him again. But when he got to his feet and turned around, he saw that Yamada was pointing his gun at him.

"Don't move if you know what's good for you." Zenko ordered.

Several people were gathered around them now, one woman cried, "Hey, you! You aren't allowed to own a gun! Don't make me have to call the police!"

Yamada wheeled around and pointed his gun at them, "Don't make me have to kill you, you stupid bitch!"

The crowd fell silent.

"I thought so." Yamada uttered. But before he could turn to face Kite, the other boy smashed Yamada in the face with both of his hands clamped together, sending Zenko to the floor.

"Don't… even…think about it." Kite growled.

Yamada was writhing in pain, clasping his face where Kite had hit it.

'Hopefully I dislocated his jaw.'

Police sirens echoed down the street, but Kite could only faintly hear them, everything was becoming a blur, drifting away… merging together like a whirlpool of colours… twisting and swirling as if seen through a kaleidoscope, then everything became black, and Kite fell to the floor.

Yamada recognised the siren, and panicked.

'There is no fucking way I'm getting arrested, no fucking way!'

Yamada moved his hand off of his broken jaw, and for a moment, simply stared up at the large crowd of people, stared up at the blue sky. But then he came back to his senses, and, seeing that the police (and an ambulance) were outside the school gate, decided that the only course of action would be to climb over the fence to his far left. The school fence went around the entire perimeter of the school.

Zenko felt around for his gun, quickly found it, then shoved it in his jean pocket. Yamada deftly got to his feet in a single motion, and then he ran towards the fence, leaping onto it like an Olympic athlete might do the long jump. Yamada grabbed the very top of the fence, swiftly hauling himself on top of it. He sat on top of it like a gargoyle for a mere second, and then he jumped off of the fence, landing on both of his feet and jarring his knees. Causing immense pain in his knees.

'Shit!'

But his half-victory was short-lived, no sooner had he landed on the ground than two police officers were running after him.

'No way am I getting caught. No-fucking-way.'

Yamada sprinted down the street, ignoring the pain in his knees, desperately trying to lose the police. He turned around a corner and into a busy street.

'Fuck yeah, now they can't shoot me.'

Yamada dodged between the crowds and sometimes barged through them in his desperation to escape the police. He made another turning, this time onto a commercial street; it was full of shops, and was just as busy as the previous street. Yamada ran as fast as he could, past bookstores, music stores, food stores, and even stores dedicated to physical sports. Noticing that his knee was beginning to fail again.

'I can't hide, they'll just question all of the shopkeepers…'

A police car suddenly came down the road; it's sirens blaring.

'SHIT!'

Yamada ran into the nearest shop but it was too late, the police had already moved in on foot from both sides of the street, no matter where he ran now, he would be seen.

The store Yamada ran into was a large clothes department store; he had ran up the single staircase onto the second level, frenziedly searching for a hiding place, but in vain, there was nothing which would protect him.

'I am NOT getting caught! Never!'

He ran to the left, crouching near the shop windows (hidden from the view of those outside by some clothes racks), so that anyone coming up the stairs would only be able to see him once they reached the very top. The cashiers looked at Yamada with curiosity. But when he shot an angry glare at them they soon turned away.

'If the mother-fuckers find out I'm in here they'll lock me in…'

Zenko could hear people coming up the staircase in a steady march, and for one rare moment, actually felt fear. He didn't want to die; he didn't want to go to prison either.

'I am not going to prison… never… no way.'

A policewoman ran onto the second floor, spotting Yamada and pointing her rifle at him. The cashiers looked very afraid, one of them ducked behind the kiosk.

"Sir, put your gun down and come quietly, you are under arrest for attempted murder." The policewoman ordered.

"No." Yamada replied with snarl, rising to his feet at the same time, "No fucking way."

Then he raised his pistol and both he and the policewoman fired their weapons within a second of each other. Yamada's bullet hit the policewoman in the chest, causing her to fall backwards and onto the stairs. The policewoman's bullet hit Yamada directly in the lung. Yamada was flung into the clothes rack, bending backwards over the rack and then falling forwards, off of the rack and onto his hands and knees.

'…I'm going to die…'

Yamada forced himself onto his feet, several police officers pointed their guns at him and told him not to move, but it didn't matter to Yamada any more. He randomly fired his bullets at the officers, hitting many of them and instantly killing one. The officers fired back, filling Yamada with lead, but miraculously, not killing him.

Yamada felt light-headed and weak… he couldn't stand any more, his legs felt like jelly. Zenko fell to his knees, and then fell face down onto the floor, pain flaring up in his nose. Yamada lay there and cried; everything had gone so wrong… why did it have to end like this? The floor was so cold… so very cold…

His eyes closed, he drew his last breath… and then, Zenko Yamada, aged 17, died.

When Kite had told him to run, Elk knew that he had to help. He had run home as fast as he possibly could, and then, hardly answering his mother's questions, had called the police on his home-phone, and then an ambulance. He had then tried to get back to the school in time to see if Kite was okay, and he got there, luckily for him, just seconds before the ambulance was going to leave, and managed to hop on the ambulance to sit next to Kite.

They were travelling to the nearest hospital now, Elk wasn't sure which one it was, and neither did he care, he just wanted his friend to be okay. Elk looked at Kite's pale face and wept, had he lost that much blood?

'I hope that Kite will be okay…'

In the small ambulance windows the outside world sped by, nothing but a bunch of blurred colours. The siren wailed miserably, and the ambulance machines beeped, buzzed, or merely hummed. Elk hoped they would get to a hospital soon, so that Kite could get the care he needed.

'This is all my fault… if only I hadn't been Gay none of this would have happened…'

Elk's eyes were red where he had cried so much, and he was shaking.

'Please don't die Kite… I… love you… I… I don't want you to die…'

After 8 minutes more travel, they finally reached the hospital. It was a large, dark-grey building, but it was also very sterile in appearance. The paramedics moved Kite out of the ambulance on a stretcher, quickly transporting him through an automated door and into the hospital. One paramedic broke off from the team and alerted the secretaries to Kite's need for immediate attention. Elk ran alongside Kite's stretcher, through the many white hallways and automated doors. Sometimes turning left, other times turning right. Elk was only dimly aware of the nurses and people around him, he was almost totally focused on Kite, and on where his friend was going. The paramedics eventually asked Elk to wait whilst they took Kite into the room ahead, presumably so that the doctor could see to him.

Elk sat down on a bench that was next to a wall, and waited. To pass the time, Elk looked at the various different paintings that were on the walls, some were of fields, others of people, some were abstract paintings. Almost all of them had bright colours. But no matter how hard Elk tried, he couldn't stop himself from worrying about Kite, his mind constantly returned to the brown-haired boy.

'I hope he's okay… Please say that they can help him…'

It was warm in the hospital, Elk noticed, but not uncomfortably warm. He looked around him, to his side two other hallways branched out in opposite directions, their walls were white and their floors were light-grey. Large fluorescent lights were placed regularly along the ceilings of the halls.

It was several hours before they brought Kite out of the room, he was bandaged up in several places, including his stomach and chest, and he had a tube inserted into his arm, the tube was attached to a bag of red fluid.

'Kite must have lost a lot of blood…'

Elk walked up to the two male nurses that were wheeling Kite out of the room and asked, "I-I-Is K-Kite okay?"

The male nurse nodded, and, still pushing Kite along, said, "Yes, the attacker nearly pierced his stomach, but he missed by about an inch luckily. Your friend has lost a lot of blood, but don't worry, he will eventually regain consciousness. But… he may have lost some of his memory, though we can't be sure until he wakes up."

"He may have sustained no damage at all." The Nurse added hastily.

Elk was horrified, Kite may have forgotten about all of the things they did, their friendship… The nurses continued to wheel Kite along, and Elk followed them, he wanted to wait with Kite in whatever ward he was in. They walked down a hallway and turned right, passing some doctors, who were presumably heading towards some patients. They then walked a long way down the fairly busy, white corridor before pausing outside a light-grey door. The door had the number 112 on it.

"Right, this is where your friend will be staying until he is well enough to leave." The nurse explained. "Has he got any other family?"

Elk gave the nurse a bemused look, "I'm not his family. B-b-but he has got two parents, I d-don't know exactly where they l-live…sorry. But I do know that his name is Kite Osagawa, and that he lives in theKichijôji neighbourhood in Musashino city."

"It's okay, we'll try to contact the Osagawa family inKichijôji as soon as possible, as they will have to pay for Kite's treatment." The nurse stated.

They then opened the door, and, manoeuvring the stretcher carefully into position, moved Kite into the ward. Inside the ward were 4 beds, each bed's headboard was touching one of the room's sidewalls, they were all empty, and the room's lights were off. The nurses moved Kite towards the closest bed on the right hand side, and then one of them flipped the light switch on the wall, near to the door. They then tentatively lifted Kite off of the stretcher with a joint grunt, before slowly lowering him onto the hospital bed, moving his bag of blood and his tube with him. One nurse began to put various circular pads and their wires on Kite; the other began to activate the machines that the wires were attached to. Eventually, the nurses left, and only Kite and Elk were left in the quiet, empty room.

The only sounds in the room were Kite's slow, steady breathing, and the beeping of the machine that monitored Kite's bodily functions. Elk sat down in a blue, soft chair next to Kite's bed, the chair was facing the doorway, and was on the side of Kite's bed furthest from the door. Elk looked out of the medium-sized window at the side of the room, opposite to Kite's bed. Noticing the shadowy semi-darkness covering the sombre, grey hospital walls.

'It's dark outside now… I'm sure I told my parents I was going to the ambulance…'

Elk looked at Kite, and felt a pang of sadness.

'He might have forgotten all about me… All of the things we've done… my secret… he might have forgotten it all…'

Elk broke down and began to sob into his hands. He didn't want Kite to forget him, he wanted things to be how they were before, why did Yamada do this?

'Yamada! What happened to him?'

'He wasn't in front of the school when I got there, maybe the police took him away…'

Elk rubbed his eyes, trying to calm himself down.

'Kite may still remember… he might…'

Elk shook his head from side to side despondently.

'One of my only friends… and he may have forgotten me… I should have told him I loved him…while I still had the chance…'

Elk began weep heavily again, overcome by the desolation of the situation.

'Why did you fight Yamada Kite…? Why? I didn't deserve to be protected… all I do is cause other people pain. And now… now I've caused you pain… my selfishness… I'm so selfish…'

Elk waited by Kite's side for several hours, and later during the evening, Kite's parents entered the ward. His parents looked distraught and haggard, their eyes expressed their distress.

"Kite…?" Mrs. Osagawa sobbed as she saw her son's pale, bandaged body. She ran forwards and leant on the bed for support, her arms were shaking. Kite's father slowly drew closer to his son's bed, his face barely concealing his misery.

"Who did… did this to him…?" She wailed, placing her right hand on Kite's face.

Elk sat there in silence, listening to Kite's mother's lamentations, wondering whether he should say that it was a school bully or not.

'I shouldn't interfere… I'll only upset or anger them…'

Elk wanted to tell her, but was too afraid to say anything. He sat there in almost complete silence for the entire length of Kite's parents' visit, merely nodding, shaking his head, or saying 'yes' or 'no' when spoken to. Feeling more uncomfortable with every second they were there. They eventually left; Mr. Osagawa had work tomorrow, and Mrs. Osagawa was going to tell the rest of Kite's family about the situation.

Elk was alone with Kite again… Sitting under the fluorescent lights, inside the hospital, late at night.

The nurse would be coming to ask visitors to leave soon, Elk knew it, but he didn't want to leave…

'I've got to hide…'

Elk got off of the chair, then crawled on all fours underneath Kite's bed, the large blankets we so long that they fell past the mattress, allowing Elk to remain hidden under Kite's bed.

There was a clunking noise; Elk heard footsteps walk towards him.

'Please don't look under the bed, please don't look under the bed…'

The footsteps passed him, then stopped.

'Oh no… has she seen me?'

Elk tried to hold his breath, desperate to remain hidden.

The nurse walked back towards Elk, then the footsteps went past him. There was a clicking noise; then suddenly it was pitch black under Kite's bed. Finally, the ward door was closed with a loud clunk, a following rattle and click, and then there was silence.

Elk waited under the bed for a few more moments, and then slowly crept out from underneath it. He quickly scanned the dark room, checking for nurses, as far as he could tell, there were none. Elk sighed in relief.

Elk stood upright again, carefully walking towards what he thought was his chair. Elk carefully lowered himself down into the chair, sitting in it once more. Kite was visible due to the glow of the machines around him; a mix of white, green, red and blue colours lit up his face. The red haired boy gazed at his friend, the emotional pain ached; he couldn't bear to think that his good friend may have forgotten him. Elk reached out and gently held Kite's hand in his own, rubbing it gently.

"I love you Kite…"

…Beep…

The machine's monotonous chant filled the room.

…Beep…

…Beep…

Elk couldn't sleep, didn't want to sleep, until Kite had awoken. He would wait for weeks if that were how long it would take.

"You are my best friend Kite… Thank you for everything." Elk whispered.

'At least he isn't dying. We can rebuild our memories… even if that may be painful for me…'

The wind had begun to blow outside, its sorrowful noise howled outside of the hospital. As if it were in as much pain as the people in the hospital were. Kite's hand was warm, Elk noticed, and soft as well.

The red-haired boy squeezed Kite's hand slightly, "I love you Kite… I love you… please don't forget me…"

Elk tried to stop himself from sobbing; he didn't want to alert the nurses to his presence. The tears flowed down Elk's face, falling onto his lap as they dropped off of his chin, or his nose.

Minutes passed by, then hours. Elk stayed awake all night, crying, smiling, or holding Kite's hand. Sometimes Elk just sat in silence and thought, or merely vegetated, listening to Kite's machine beep again, and again, and again.

At 4:00 AM, the red haired boy was incredibly fatigued, he felt weak and tired.

'I will not sleep.'

It was still pitch black, and it was cooler in the ward now than it had been at 7:00 PM, Elk noticed.

'I will not sleep.'

Elk was holding Kite's hand and staring into space. He thought he could hear some birds outside, the serene and beautiful music of the birds…

Elk closed his eyes and slowly lay back against the chair. But, suddenly, he felt something squeeze his hand. He jolted, pulled his hand away from Kite's, and had to consciously stop himself from screaming.

'Did Kite just…?'

Elk stared in amazement; under the dim glow of the hospital machinery, Kite was blinking and rubbing his eyes. Elk's amazement was then replaced with fear.

'What if he's forgotten me…? Oh no… please don't say he's forgotten about meeting me in real life…'

Kite yawned, then opened his eyes fully. His expression changed to one of shock.

"Where am I?" He asked Elk, turning his head side to side.

"H-hospital… You got injured." Elk replied.

"Injured…? Who said that…?" Kite uttered with confusion, twisting his head towards the sound of Elk's voice.

'Oh no… he's forgotten…' Elk thought sadly, feeling the tears in his eyes.

Elk began to cry, sobbing uncontrollably.

"Hey… why are you crying?" Kite responded, staring in Elk's general direction. The red-haired boy was so covered in shadow that Kite could only barely discern his head in the darkness.

"B-B-Because… You prob-…p-p-probably don't r-r-r-remember me… d-do you?"

Kite looked towards Elk with confusion.

'He's forgotten me…' Elk thought despondently.

Kite slowly sat up, and then, gradually stretching his arm out into the blackness, gently placed one hand on Elk's shoulder.

"I could never forget you Elk, you mean far too much to me." Kite reassured.

"You…you… remember…?"

Kite smiled, "Yes, I remember now. I remember everything…"

Elk's face lit up with joy, relieved laughter replacing his sobs, "Oh Kite, I'm so glad you're okay!"

"So am I." Kite replied, grinning in the darkness.

Elk became serious once more, and asked, "Kite… why did you fight Yamada like that…? Why did you defend me, even though it put your life at risk…?"

'Go for it. Tell him now.' Kite mused.

"Because… Elk… I…" Kite removed his hand from Elk's shoulder and turned his whole body around so that he was facing the red-haired boy, his legs dangling off of his bed, "…I love you…"

Elk was astounded, he stared at Kite, trying to absorb what he had just heard.

"You… love me?" Elk repeated, his expression a mix of surprise and happiness.

Kite tentatively got off of his bed, "Yes."

Elk stood up, "Kite, you shouldn't be out of bed."

"I know, but if I was sitting in bed, I wouldn't be able to do this." Kite gently wrapped his arms around Elk's waist, and slowly moved his face closer to the red haired boy's

Elk was blushing intensely, but he didn't stop Kite, he leant into the other boy's embrace. Kite's warm breath blew against Elk's face as their lips drew closer together. Finally, their lips connected, and they shared a soft, tender kiss. After a few seconds Kite pulled his lips away, and then brought them back again for a final kiss.

They looked into each other's eyes, "Elk…" Kite began, "You look so tired. Even in this darkness."

"I couldn't sleep last night, I was so worried about you…"

"Thank you for waiting for me Elk. But I'm fine now, you have nothing to worry about any more, so go and have a nice rest. I'll be here when you wake up, I promise." Kite whispered.

"Okay, I will…" Elk said, kissing Kite once more. "I love you…"

Elk gently pulled himself out of Kite's arms, and sat down in the chair, "…Are you s-sure you don't mind?"

"No, not at all, do whatever you like." Kite replied honestly, carefully getting back into his bed, but remaining in an upright position.

Elk smiled, the feeling of joyful relief spreading through every inch of his body. Then, he lay back in the chair… He blinked once, then twice, before finally falling into peaceful sleep.

Kite looked at Elk from his bed, smiling sincerely, 'Sleep well my angel… sleep well.'