[WBoon]

Chapter Six: Betrayal!

12 years ago, unknown kindergarten

"Haha! You have pretty hair!" a hair-banded little girl shouted to her brunette friend as she hopped beside her table. The brunette, especially embarrassed when her other classmates noticed her friend's shouting, covered up her fringes immediately.

But that was not what made Mio the Mio today.

"Really? I don't think so." a voice remarked. But when the brunette attempted to see from whom it was from, a dark, blurry, ominous visage appeared before her instead…

"…Mio…"

"…Mio…"

"Wake up, Mio."

The brunette woke up from the dream. She was thankful that the nightmare was over before it even started, but its residue was enough to leave a dirty feeling in her mind.

"Class is over."

She looked up. It was that childhood friend of hers, Tainaka Ritsu, with her yellow hair-band and her cheerful smile. Standing by Ritsu were her other friends, and her boyfriend, Flare, watching with concern at her dreamy state as they waited for her to walk home with them.

Ritsu recognized that frightful expression of Mio's. Cold sweat beading her forehead. Tiny quivers across her hands.

"Sorry, guys," began Mio, standing up weakly, barely able to hold her own weight. Her navy-blue coat, part of her uniform, was not of much help with its heat. "I think I'm going to head home early today."

Flare noticed her trembling body. Something was wrong. Quickly, he rushed forward to try and grab her. "Are you alright, Mio-"

"I said I could handle myself!" she yelled before he could get close to her.

Her other classmates that were just leaving passed by her with stares and glares. As she gradually realized what she had done to herself, taking another bite out of her already bitten reputation, she landed her palm on her face, to both smack herself for the idiotic action and to rest her feverish head on her her hand.

"I'm sorry…" she slowly muttered, "I… I didn't mean to yell…"

"Oh, no, no, it's alright," stammered Flare, pivoting his hands before him. "You need to be alone to rest yourself, I understand."

With force, Mio turned around frailly to look at his face, just so she could smile at him.

"Thank you."

And with that, she made her departure from the room., leaving two regretful souls to repent over their actions.

"Looks like Mio-senpai really caught that rain yesterday," noted Azusa.

"Yeah. I thought she wasn't looking too good in the morning, too," Tsumugi stated.

"Maybe we should go visit her later on, after we finished practic-"

"Don't do that!" Ritsu cut Yui off before she could finish in a reprimanding tone.

"Ritsu…" murmured Yui, still not used to seeing Ritsu's angry side.

Momentarily, however, Ritsu realized the harshness of her tone, and quickly turned around to her friend and smiled nervously. "Oh, sorry, Yui! I meant, it might not be good to disturb Mio when she's this feverish."

"Yeah, you're right, Ritsu," Yui bowed apologetically. "I'm sorry I made such a silly remark."

"It's alright, Yui!" Ritsu quickly rushed by her side to raise her head back up.

From the side, it occurred to Flare that the tables had turned. Ritsu was hiding something from the others, from him.

As each of the members of After School Teatime made their departure, Flare gradually joined them in exiting the room, but made sure he walked fast enough to catch up with Ritsu.

"Hey, Ritsu," he called out, grabbing her by the shoulder.

"What is it, Flare?" she turned to answer with an annoyed look, being more offended by the force he used than him calling her out all of the sudden.

Flare lightened his grip and softened his stern expression, knowing that he didn't have the right to be hostile, especially not towards Ritsu.

"Sorry…" he began, removing his hand from her shoulder. "And about yesterday, too… I didn't mean to be so hard on you…"

She sighed, turning her head away. "It's alright… I have to thank you for dragging Mio away, too…"

Being left behind from the others by a short distance, the pair brisk-walked to catch up with the waiting party.

"She said that, huh?" answered Ritsu, after learning about what Mio said to Flare in the rain.

"Yeah… It's exactly like you said - she's attaining her true strength on her own now."

"Seems like we shouldn't have interfered in the first place, huh…?"

"No, what we did wasn't entirely bad. I had the same thought as you, too, yesterday. But, it seems that she was appreciative of our actions."

"What are you talking about?"

"Didn't you see just now? She was feverish enough as it is to even walk… let alone smile. She was exerting herself in order to assure us that she was happy - that we were there for her…"

Ritsu frowned at Flare's explanation. "You mean…"

"Yeah, she was glad that we chose to protect her, even if it meant it would do her no good. The thought itself was good, and if we had chose to do nothing, it would've been more cruel than what we did."

"Who's more cruel?" inquired Yui, whom Flare and Ritsu had arrived beside without knowing, while they were focused on their conversation.

"Uh, no one really," replied Flare nervously, putting his hands before him just like before. "Just some really ignorant people, that's all…"

Ritsu didn't quite understand Flare's words in regards to her actions dealt to Mio, but she had a feeling that he might have more humanity in him than she had thought… that he was not just a being of pure hatred."

'Guess it's fine to tell him…' she thought to herself as the group began to walk again.

"…There's something I need to tell you guys, about Mio… particularly you, Flare."

The others stopped, looking at Ritsu with utmost curiosity, with Flare looking more concerned than intrigued.

"Actually…"

Just as Ritsu was about to confide in Flare, however, she once again saw that same disturbing face he had while he was making those hateful comments yesterday.

"…Flare?" murmured Ritsu with fear in her heart, that she was wrong about him.

"Those voices… I recognized them…"

"Voices?" queried Ritsu as she scanned her eyes through the area with the others, trying to see what Flare was talking about.

Then she heard them, and soon, the others, too. They were coming from in front of the group, increasing in volume with each second.

That's when they noticed Tsumugi's constant shivering beside them.

"Mugi-senpai, what's wrong?" asked Azusa, gently shaking the arm of her trembling senior.

"Those voices…" mumbled Tsumugi, "they are… they're…"

"The same voices we heard yesterday," stated Ritsu, completing both their sentences, "am I right?"

And that was when the two voices arrived beside them.

"Oh, it's Ritsu!"

Ritsu couldn't believe her eyes. The same tremble that caught Mio and Tsumugi haunted her, too.

"Are you alright, Ritsu? You look terrible."

"What the…" she murmured, so softly even the ones directly beside her couldn't catch it properly.

"Eh? What did you say?" the voice inquired.

"What the heck… It must be a joke…"

"Ritsu, are you alright?" the person voiced her concern once again, reaching out to grab her shoulder. "Let me take you ho-"

However, the moment her touch contacted with Ritsu, Ritsu immediately slapped her hand away out of instinct. "Get away!"

"Ritsu!" the person reprimanded, being shocked and appalled.

After a few more moments of breathing, Ritsu composed herself, trying to recover from the shock of learning the face that went with that voice. When she finally became calm enough, she looked up at the person's offended expression and gave a friendly smile.

"I'm sorry, Nodoka! I'm just not feeling very well today."

'That's right,' the other girls thought. 'there's no way someone as kind as Nodoka would say something as horrible as that.'

Flare, however, glared fiercely at their glass-eyed friend.

"Do you know these people, Nodoka?" inquired the friend who was with Nodoka. She looked like an intellectual being, one of a much higher class of standard than most human beings.

"Yeah. They are my friends," Nodoka replied, averting her eyes from Ritsu for a while. "Hirasawa Yui, Tainaka Ritsu, Kotobuki Tsumugi, Nakano Azusa, and, erm, this is…"

"Mosugi Tenjiru," noted Flare with a forced smile, reaching his hand out towards Nodoka. "Nice to meet you."

"Nice to make your acquaintance," replied Nodoka, giving a little bow before the new addition to the group.

"So," Nodoka's well-dressed friend cut in between the introduction, "she is drummer you were talking about yesterday."

'Yesterday?'

They five of them had the same thought. That one word triggered something inside all of them. Something that's about to explode.

"Yep. Despite their looks, they are quite a talented band."

Azusa looked up and down her body. 'What's wrong with the way we look?'

"Hey, Nodoka… what were you doing yesterday?"

Ritsu's sudden question seemed a little imposing to Nodoka, even if she was a close friend to her. Nevertheless, she ignored the suspicions and answered.

"I was in the class of my friend over here, talking about the band… Why?"

"Lemme guess," Flare voiced out all the sudden from the side, "class 3-A, is that right?"

"Wh-wh-what are you trying to imply, Tenjiru?" she questioned defensively, disliking the way this conversation was going.

"Unforgivable… unforgivable…"

This time, Ritsu's murmurs were slightly louder, enough to make Nodoka feel disturbed, especially after seeing the overflowing tears across the other girls' faces.

"Wha-what's going on?" stuttered Nodoka, her fear towards the perturbing scene increasing. "What is this?"

"HOW COULD YOU SAY SUCH A THING ABOUT MIO?!"

Ritsu's accusation was thunderous, spreading through the hallway, catching the attention of every student around the corridor.

"…Excuse me?"

"Quit acting innocent, Manabe!" Ritsu continued her berating. "How could you… Mio trusted you… so much… she thought of you as her most dependable friend… and yet you stabbed her on the back like so…"

"I don't understand what you are talking about, Tainaka."

"It was yesterday, when you called Mio a hypocrite!" shouted Ritsu when Nodoka attempted to leave with her friend. "WHEN YOU SAID THAT SHE FLASHED HER PANTIES ON PURPOSE!"

Then the memories came back to her mind, the remembrance about the conversation they had about Mio the day before. Then came the shock of learning that the others had knowledge about this, and a horrified expression appeared on Nodoka's face.

"You were eavesdropping?" accused Nodoka's friend, her face blunt and emotionless.

"We were passing through," defended Ritsu instantly. "Mio and us walked past your class, and you were so loud that we could hear you from outside!"

"Nodoka… how could you…?" cried Yui, tears flooding down her cheeks. She looked away from the monster she had once called a friend - her childhood friend. "…Mio is such a nice person… WHY WOULD YOU DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT?!"

"Yui… you guys… you got it all wrong! I didn't-"

"And you called her a hypocrite…" Azusa added, also shying away from Nodoka's face, "yet you put up a false image as her friend while making stuff up behind her back…"

"That's not it! I didn't mean that comment in an offensive way, Azusa!"

"Oh, I'm sure," replied Ritsu with her arms folded against her chest, "calling her a slut sure wasn't offensive at all!"

And as if the fire hadn't rose high enough, Flare noticed something that was gonna make it all the more worse.

"Hey, Ritsu, stop it!" he warned Ritsu immediately, but she was already too agitated to stop.

"How could Mio be so dumb as to think of you as a better friend than me?!"

Then she saw it, the ominous sign Flare was referring to. All of them stared at her, choking at the horrified feeling they had when they saw that person. Ritsu, in particular, felt a dirty feeling going down her back, as if she was the filth of a traitor she had accused Nodoka to be.

"Mio…"

Standing before them, still feverish and quivering, a sobbing brunette felt that her world had came to an end, and that she would just like to fall and never get up. Her cold had deprived her of all the strength she needed to be angry, or sad, or express just any appropriate emotions at all. Heck, she wasn't even able to stand properly.

Instead, she was only able to utter a few words while leaning against the wall, before blacking out.

"Ho… how could you…"

"Mio!"

"Hey, hang in there, Mio!"

"Someone get help!"

The movements of Flare and the others were blurry to Nodoka. While they rushed in to help the unconscious Mio, she tried desperately to get ahold of her own sanity, trying to realize what had just happened.

However, something was able to snap her out of her trance, the glare of an infuriated demon knight, whose eyes told her that he would do anything to get his revenge.

"There's an infirmary up downstairs!" informed Tsumugi, stretching Mio's left arm over her neck.

"Let's hurry," remarked Flare with Mio's right arm over him, taking one last, long look at Nodoka as he briskly but carefully carried Mio down the steps.

The silence left when the commotion was gone was more deafening to Nodoka than anything else. It felt like a nightmarish judiciary, passing its long period of judgment over her sins.

Her friend, however, saw nothing to this nonsense. It was just a silly episode of melodrama.

"Let's go, Nodoka," she said, turning away from the myopic girl.

Snapped back into reality by her friend, Nodoka began walking away as well. "Yeah… let's go."

As she left, she looked back at the shadowy stairs once more. She could almost hear the faint echos of whimpers and cries below.