Seiran Academy

Chapter 32

Two months later Thomas Evans came back to the school after winter break to the haunting chill of winter’s breeze. He looked up and down the hallways that had been empty ever since the presence of the four of them had disappeared from the school. He only knew the whereabouts of one of them, Sage. He was now fodder for the ocean’s fish, the ashes of his body thrown from a mountaintop by a girl with flowing dark hair who looked like what Sage would have been if he had been a girl. Thomas could only guess they were related, he was told no more of the story than that.

First and second chair had been given to a new set of violinists, the two of them looking almost reluctant to take the seat of the girl they had tried to drive out and the boy she had done it all for.

No, he corrected himself as he gazed out the frosted window, she had done it all for herself. She had found the will to be stronger in the end, even if it had not come soon enough to save any of them.

What kept bothering Thomas was how Bartholomew Rose had come into contact with a gun. Sage, and all his gadgets, had thoroughly checked the room several times. Draco and Nemesis had been out of the room several times themselves and never found a gun. Thomas would like to have believed the kids never would have done the risky gesture they had done knowing there was a gun in the room that Mr. Rose would readily use.

“Thomas.” Thomas turned to the sound of the voice he recognized, he heard her every night in his dreams, and sometimes in his nightmares. He had been lucky enough that she had never mentioned his name, or his involvement with her, but he still looked at her sadly though something in his heart leapt at the sight of her.

Her cheek had an ugly gash along the side and she still wore a bandage of her earlobe, which he knew most was missing of. Her hair had been cut stylishly short so that it covered the ear with little wisps of hair and was not too heavy that it began to drag away from her face. Thomas believed she had turned just the right way so he could see the damage that had been done to her, but not as a sort of badge of honor, but as her own private disgrace.

“Minako,” he smiled, making no move to step any closer to her. She did not begrudge him the lack of gesture. “It is good to see you.”

“Do you have a minute?” she asked of him. He nodded and she went to sit amongst the chairs that were ready to play in the orchestra. She readily chose the first chair for a violinist and looked longingly at the other instruments scattered across the room. “My foster parents had hidden my violin,” she said sadly, though she did not sound as if she begrudged them that decision. “I cry every time I see it. I do not know why the sounds that should remind me of Nemesis always remind me of Sage.” Even now her eyes filled with tears.

“Do you like your foster family?” Thomas asked carefully. He leaned himself on the edge of his desk, looking down on the superbly dressed fashion icon who dressed like a conservative businesswoman instead of a school girl.

Minako shrugged her shoulders in a Gallic way that said everything and nothing. “Between school and therapy sessions and homework I really rarely see them,” Minako admitted. “They are nice; I’m the only one in their care right now. The government thinks it best that I be by myself since I may be potentially dangerous, or just traumatized.”

“What does your therapist say?” Thomas inquired.

Minako looked up at Thomas with a smile on her face that was not as whole as it once had been. Even when she had been faking her smiles in the end the smile had appeared to reach her eyes. This was a sad smile from a girl who had broken something. “She just has me talk a lot,” Minako admitted. “We talk about why we wanted revenge, of the plans, I’m always telling her the same thing, the same thing I told the police. I don’t know what else to say and they keep pushing for a real answer. Thomas… Mr. Evans… I have no answer for what I did. The police leave me alone because they caught him for what I did; I just have to go to therapy, but Nemesis… Draco… they have to pay for their lies by being put into some juvenile delinquent building until they reach twenty-one…”

“Minako, what the three of you did-” at her sharp look Thomas amended his sentence, “the four of you did left one boy dead and one prominent society figure dead. Yes, he was found guilty for his crimes, but in that he never suffered as much as you had wanted because death was the only way to stop him from killing you and Sage and Nemesis and Draco.

“Minako, every night I feel sorry for you, for what you became. But, you all made this choice, and you seem to be unable to live with making that choice, and I understand that. In a way. I understand the hardships you will go through…”

“Have you seen Fatima?” she was changing the subject deliberately. Thomas nodded his head and accepted this.

“No,” he admitted. “I was willing to give her up for someone else; I didn’t love her enough to go back to her.”

“I should have gone with you,” Minako said with a bit of hysterical laughter coating her voice. Her smile was wilted and ironic. “If I had just run…”

“You would have saved yourself,” Thomas agreed, “but you would not have saved the other three.”

Minako stood up and walked over to Thomas, giving her hands to him. He took them and held them in his own. His own pulse jumped at having the frail hands in his own, the hands that had once held a violin so brilliantly, that had allowed sounds that only the muse’s ever could have given, to flow about the room. He would never forget the determination on her face to perfectly beat out Nemesis, to prove she was worthy of first chair, and Nemesis’s face, the triumph and pride, when she managed to keep up with him. Two teenagers at the prime of their lives had watched it all shatter. Why? Because of some warped vision. Worse, though, they had good reasons to be so angry with the world around them. All of them.

“Good luck, Thomas,” Minako smiled. “Good luck with everything.”

“You know that Mariko is back, don’t you?” Thomas asked, not ready for her to leave just yet. He wanted to hold her slipping hands just for a few moments longer. He wanted to watch his illusion become reality before she disappeared. He wanted to hold on to that reality.

“She contacted me,” Minako admitted. “I didn’t have the heart to answer her. I’m glad she has had a fortune of good luck recently. I hear her grades are even doing much better.”

“She misses you, though,” Thomas told his ex-student. Her hands had left his and she was heading towards the door. Why had she come? Had she come to trample over him, to remind him of his own mistakes? No, she had come to absolve some of her guilt to apologize to those she had wronged.

“I know,” Minako nodded. “I just… I’m not ready for that step yet. Thank you, Mr. Evans, Thomas, for everything. I’m sorry.”

She fled. Thomas knew it was the last time he would ever see her. At least face to face. He could only hope that she was on to great things in her future.

Mariko stepped into Mr. Evans’ room after Minako had fled. She rubbed a hand over her belly and looked at Minako’s retreating back. “Did you tell her you are pregnant?” Mr. Evans asked of the girl.

Mariko shook her head. “No,” she said sweetly, “I just couldn’t bring myself to tell her. She would take it as miserable news when I am joyous of it all.”

Thomas nodded and stepped away, walking Mariko out of the building. “Will you ever tell me who the father is?” Thomas asked of Mariko as the two walked side by side through the courtyard.

“You may be my confidant now, Mr. Evans, but I will never reveal to anyone who the father is. I’m sorry.”

Mr. Evans just smiled at her. Something in Mariko had grown and changed since she had come back to the school, looking for the best friend who had fled only days before. Mariko was confident, she was radiant, and she emulated some of Minako’s best qualities into herself. She was even studying the violin, adding to her new repertoire of skills.

Mr. Evans would keep Mariko’s confidante and never reveal the secrets she had whispered to him in the nurse’s office, as he had never revealed Minako’s secrets. Mariko would one day see her friend again, and it would be on that day that things would turn full circle.