Those Above 2

Yuki backed away from the teacher's accusations trying to come up with something that might seem believable.

"I slipped and tripped on the stairs rushing to class," he said laughing trying to brush it all off.

"Tripped?"

"Uh huh!"

"Tripped?"

The teacher leaned in on Yuki make it pretty clear that she was not believing him.

Yuki smiled nervously trying to be as convincing as he could with the pressure of his teacher glaring down on him.

"I tripped and fell back down the stairs. A lot of stairs. I'm sorry!"

The teacher's head tilted down as anyone watching could tell that she was starting to shake vigorously listening to Yuki's lying. Everyone knew that he was lying through his teeth, but saying that he was fighting would not have been any better either.

She reached a point where she stopped shaking and the entire class held cautious at what would happen next with Yuki. They were expecting her to blow up on, just as Yuki was expecting.

"Fine…go to the nurse's office and get yourself fixed up. I don't want you bleeding all over the class."

"Alright! I'll go immediately!"

Saki had been watching the whole thing and tried to keep from standing up the entire time. She knew what had happened and in some way hoped that he might actually do something, but he had taken it all. Saki did not know why she had done it, left him to the bullies.

'Why… I let him, but I wanted to… He deserves it. No, I shouldn't… Seiji… Yuki's changing…'

Yuki and Seiji had gotten back together, even it was briefly, and that was the way that Yuki had wanted it. She knew that she had to let him do what he wanted to do.

Hiroshi looked over at Saki a little confused that Yuki had not been rescued by Saki as he always had been.

'Are they fighting still over that Seiji subject? Yuki didn't look like it, but Saki…'

He was not certain what was going between them, but it had not gone ignored by him that they were acting differently. However, there was something that made him even more confused than the Saki was not coming to his rescue. It was a matter of Yuki and what he had learned.

'If Yuki knows how to fight then why isn't he fighting back? This entire time he hasn't need Saki to save him. And then there's that other matter… I don't have any more doubts that he could or still can fight, but it doesn't explain what I saw. What was that?'

Hiroshi held his chin against his hand supported on the desk watching the scene while trying to keep himself out of it. His eyes turned his eyes back to Ayumi.

'She's another matter completely.'

The images of Ayumi killing that man had replayed through his mind for him. Anyone dying in front of your eyes was a difficult thing to forget, but it was made even more difficult by the fact that he knew the person and it was completely contradictory to who he thought he knew.

The day was slowly pushing forward for everyone. Yuki returned to class with a few bandages on his face and arms and an otherwise cleaned up appearance. The silence between Saki and Yuki continued with Yuki acting like nothing was wrong and Saki being left with a continued sense of uncertainty. Hiroshi held his eyes on Ayumi and Yuki trying to sort through his own problems.

Most of the tension in the class went unseen or known as it sat just under the surface throughout the day. However, when the end of the day came for school and everyone else was leaving the tension snapped.

Saki had to stay behind to clean up in class as the others were leaving. Yuki and Ayumi decided to leave together, though it was more Ayumi telling Yuki and him just nodding in agreement. However, Yuki stopped all of sudden outside holding up Ayumi.

"I've got to go back to class. I-I forgot something I need!"

"What?" Ayumi said turning to follow with him a little annoyed that he had been absentminded.

"No! You don't need to follow me, Ayumi. I'll be fine, it's just school."

She stared at him for a moment reading him and afterwards stopped.

"Fine, just be quick."

"I will, thanks!"

Yuki rushed back into the school looking back at Ayumi one last time before he disappeared around the corner. He ran up the stairs to the third floor and to his class sliding open the door relieved to find that Saki was still there.

"…Saki…"

Saki continued on clearing the blackboard ignoring him. He was only managing to stand in the doorway not entering feeling the unsettling presence of getting any closer would make him freeze up completely.

'What am I doing? I can't move any further.'

Saki moved from the blackboard to the back of the class leaving Yuki to keep standing looking like he was a statue. The lack of progress on his part only continued as Saki moved about the room keeping to herself with Yuki starting to hang his head lower casting a shadow over his eyes.

'Why… This should be easy…'

There was sweat building over him as a massive weight pressed him until it felt like his bones would crush. His feet ached and knees stung unable to relieve the feeling that was covering him unrelenting. He tried to slide his feet back to run away with his will completely depleted in front of him.