School Girls' Stories

Chapter 29 – Kiseki Shinwa

“Shai!” The world slowed down around them. Three sets of feet went running
to the buildings edge. They could not get there fast enough, and at the same
time they weren’t trying their hardest. There was no way to stop her from
falling, no matter how fast they ran they never would have caught her in time.
Now running to the edge meant seeing her body broken upon the pavement below.

Fuji and Yuki grabbed to the railing, both fearful of what they would see
over the edge. Tears were already streaming down their faces. The looked over
the edge and their eyes widened, the world suddenly frozen. Screams were heard
from below, but Shai never hit the ground. She actually seemed to be floating
in midair, but that was wrong. Something was around her waist.

It was hard to fathom, but then they saw it. Someone had leaned out of a
second floor window and reached out, catching her in his arms and pulling her
back towards the window. It appeared that Shai had passed out while going down
as well, and she now slept peacefully like Sleeping Beauty in the arms of her
prince.

Fuji and Yuki ran across the roof to the staircase, pushing teachers and
students rudely out of their way as they went. Everyone had seemed to gather
around the stairs, trying to go up and save the girl, while the other half of
the school was outside watching her nearly jump. Had only one person in the
whole school been as smart as that man with the golden arms? Only one person
had thought to just catch her?

Fuji and Yuki ran onto the second floor of the school, screaming Shai’s
name, sliding across the newly waxed floor, trying to find the classroom that
would have been directly under her jump.

In the classroom surrounded by two teachers and a miscellaneous amount of
students were Shai and her hero, crumpled onto the floor. She was cradled in
her prince’s arms, tightly against his chest, as if he was afraid to lose her.
She looked so fragile, and more like Snow White now than Sleeping Beauty, though
her eyes were still closed from passing out. Fear had gotten to her. She had
not wanted to jump; she had just seen no other alternative.

Mr. Tennison stood behind the girls in the doorway, looking in with fear and
trepidation. He wanted to push the girls aside and go to Shai, but he also knew
they were barring him off still, keeping him away from her. He suddenly felt
even more confused than he had before.

“She’s all right,” her prince said. Fuji and Yuki both could not mull over
where they had seen him before, because he definitely had not always been a
student of the school. He looked too gorgeous and too perfect to be someone
they would have missed so easily, with his golden skin and beautiful blonde
locks. He had eyes that were unforgettable, an unnatural shade of violet that
normally would have made a man with his dashing looks seem on the queer side,
and yet here he was, gorgeous.

Their admiration wore off quickly as Shai’s eyes fluttered opened to the
world, her dark lashes hooding those eyes even when wide. She looked around
about the classroom and began to push away from the man who had saved her,
scrambling across the floor to stand. Fuji and Yuki ran over to her and
gathered her in their arms though she fought them they held tight.

“Come on,” Fuji said quietly, “let’s go to the nurse’s office and call your
dad. We’ll think then.”

Shai walked by slowly, her eyes down and on the floor while Mr. Tennison
walked into the classroom the try to make everyone go back to class and forget
what had just happened, though the school day was ruined. No one would
concentrate now, and all eyes and thoughts would be on Shai, though it wouldn’t
be thinking of how sorry they were for her, there would rarely be a sympathetic
heart. Instead the rumors would start, wondering what would make a girl like
Shai jump from the school’s roof.

Yuki stood outside of the nurse’s office while Fuji and Shai were inside,
drying tears and calling everywhere that her father might be. He traveled all
over the country sometimes, and sometimes he was only in hotels two blocks down.
Yuki did not have the patience to sit in the room while Fuji called and Shai
cried. She was too scared herself, and though she had never smoked in her life
she began to realize why people had a cigarette when their nerves were broken.
They just needed something to do to get their mind off of the pain.

Yuki’s eyes saw him before he even became visible, walking down the hall.
For a moment she thought it was Kago coming to check on how things were going
with her best friend, but instead it was the man whom had saved her, walking
slowly down the hall, his tie from his uniform abandoned so he could unbutton
the shirt mostly down to his belly button. Yuki recognized him now, now that
her head was clearing and the thoughts were swarming over her brain.

“You are Kiseki Shinwa!” she cried out, her legs shaky. “You are the lead
singer of Velvet Wrappings!”

The man gave her a small smile and stepped up beside her. “I am,” he said
with a thick English accent. “Today was my first day at this school, I had
decided I wanted to see the country through the eyes of a student, plus our band
is about to break up.”

Yuki’s eyes went wide, and she offered him a smile. “Any other time this
would be devastating to me,” she admitted to him. “However, under the
circumstances, your news is less dramatic.”

Kiseki Shinwa smiled at her, and looked through the crack in the door. “How
is your friend doing?” he asked empathetically.

Yuki smiled. At least one person, the person who had never even met her,
was concerned about Shai. “I don’t know,” she said honestly. “I don’t know how
to handle this.”

“It’s hard to deal with it,” Shinwa admitted. “You don’t know how to treat
that person, and if getting help is really the right answer. There is no right
way to deal with it because every case is different.”

“Have you dealt with this before?” Yuki asked him.

Shinwa laughed. “I am the lead singer of a band, of course I’ve dealt with
suicide before,” he told her. “The band, the fans, everyone has contemplated it,
or told you about it, at some point. It is very depressing, but it is also something that you slowly learn to overcome, as your friend will.”

Yuki hesitated, her mind still tripping over all of the facts that happened today. “Why did you save her?” she asked. When he looked at her funny she waved her hands in front of her body, waving off the idea she wasn’t grateful. “I mean, thank you, you saved my best friend’s life. I will not even say I am not grateful; however I just want to know why. Why did you save her, why did you risk more damage to yourself by reaching out that window? You know it’s possible she would have hit you wrong, she could have landed on your head, a bit comical, but life threatening.”

Shinwa nodded and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a pack of cigarettes and seemed to remember where he was, shoving them back in. Yuki could still feel the need on her lips to balance the stick there. “I heard the voices from inside of the classroom, a mixed amount of voices. I heard the voices of the people from down on the ground, and I heard the screams of three helpless girls from on the roof,” Shinwa explained in a quiet, slow, way. “I looked out the window and saw beneath a skirt, saw pale legs and black shoes. I then saw black hair floating up by the wind and all I could think was that girl was a fallen angel, perhaps a bit romantic, but I’m a singer, and songwriter, what do you expect? When she began to fall my only instinct was to keep that angel on earth. I reached out my arms, readying them for the strength they would need to hold her, and felt her slipping through as I tried to stop her. I caught her just beneath her arms, and I think if she had been awake I might not have been able to stop her. I felt her in my arms and my strength was slipping, but I had at least slowed her down. I knew if she fell now she would probably only break a leg. Then there were arms around mine and everyone was pulling her in, saving her from what had happened to her.”

“Thank you,” Yuki said, hearing Fuji’s constant voice from inside the office finally quiet.

Fuji popped her head out a few moments later. “The nurse had some pills that put Shai to sleep for a while,” Fuji sighed. “It might be dangerous to the… Kiseki… thank you,” Fuji spotted the lead singer, already having recognized him. “I’m going to stay with her for a while longer. Are you going to stay?”

Yuki shook her head. “I think, right now, I need to walk away, especially if you are going to stay,” she said. “I need to think of how we are going to help her through this.”

Fuji nodded, and without another word she went back into the office. Fuji was taking care of the girl whom had been left by her lover for the other girl’s mom. It made a stronger bond between the two of them than they had had before, and Yuki needed time to think.

“Thank you, Kiseki,” Yuki told Shinwa. “I think tomorrow I will be able to thank you better, but today I just want to go home.”

Shinwa nodded and pointed to the door. “Do you think they would mind if I waited for her to leave before I walked away? I don’t want to harass her, or expect a thank you because I am sure she was not happy about it, but I want to know what kind of shape she is in,” he sighed. “Please.”

Yuki nodded. “I think she will appreciate it one day,” she added. “Maybe not today, but one day she will thank you for saving her life.”

Yuki was at home curled up on the couch, crying to the television, when the news came on to announce the break-up of Velvet Wrappings, due to the death of bassist Yuuwaku Kyouteki from suicide the night they played at the club. Yuki curled in on herself and cried harder, for Shai’s angel was someone who had just lost his own.