Strange Magic [A JUMP fic] Chapter 14: Phone Call
Whether or not someone is still reading this fic, I'm still going to post one chapter per day~
Previously...
Despite tensions getting higher and thicker around Mitsuhiko Diei’s and Yamada Ryosuke’s crowd they had to cut through it, much less their differences, to work out the night’s surprises and figure their next move. Will they be able to find the solution to Chinen’s predicament?
++++++
“And you’re sure this time?” Diei said looking up from the crumpled paper in her hand that was the tag Yamada had discarded carelessly back in their classroom before he pulled the cork off the bottled dust he had assumed were laxative powder, her piercing stare watching Yamada’s resolution.
He forced himself to look back at her without showing too much guilt in his face. “Im not sure with anything at this moment, but that’s the only thing that could explain what happened even in the smallest logical sense.”
“Atashi wa mochiron desu,” Airin answered more firmly than him making Diei shift her eyes to her. “I don’t believe in random magic, but a wish potion is something…”
Diei looked back down to the piece of paper rereading:
Your friend at sundown will give your heart’s desire,
But when the moon smiles it -
When Chinen ate the prank Yamada jokingly wished the transferee was his pet puppy as Aya said she remembered thus the first part came true, but what happens when the moon smiles?
Aya noticed Diei ran her finger on the torn edges so she prompted Yamada, “How did it tore off again?”
“Well, I caught it on my bag’s zipper a few times since I got it in elementary,” Yamada shiftily answered while glaring back at her.
“And you got it as a gift for turning off bullies leeching money from an old mystic that usually had her crystal ball stand near your elementary school’s back alley, you told us back in your classroom,” Airin added eagerly as Diei picked up the small bottle on her lap gauging there is still about one fourth of the potion in it.
“Where - ?” Diei began.
“Kitagawa Elementary,” piped in Yuto who pulled up from talking to his phone but continued to whoever was on the line with a meaningful look to the others, “No, not you, just telling someone about Kitagawa Academy’s new high school who’s hosting the Nationals this season…”
“So all we got to do is go back, find the mystic and ask for the later half of the tag again. I need Airin-chan to feel if we’re going the right way but you don’t have to come; even your brother agreed to leave it to us, or he wouldn’t be alright leaving us the job, right?” Yamada reminded her of Chinen’s message as he relayed his plan inwardly thankful for Yaotome being there to help make sure Diei wouldn’t go anywhere in her current condition at least. “We can hitch a ride with the basketball team.”
“Yeah, and I got an aunt near there, we’ll have somewhere to sleep over,” Airin added.
“But what does a smiling moon mean?” Aya wondered aloud.
“The upward-opening crescent moon,” Diei answered just as Yamada opened his mouth. “The moment the moon shows after sunset tomorrow, something is going to happen again.”
The silence after this was broken only when the clinic door swung open with a bang! making them all jump.
“Time’s up, get dressed,” Yaotome barged in within just three minutes of what he promised Diei with Do looking apologetic behind him. At least she, Jeyn and Arioka looked like they had calmed down. “Pack up whatever last-minute meeting stuff you’re all concerned with, I don’t care, we’re going home. You, go away,” he added pointedly at Yamada.
“Alright,” Yuto finished his conversation over his phone nodding to Diei. “We’re good.”
“What’s good?” Arioka asked.
“I asked the second years to cover the basketball finals for the organ article,” Diei lied swiftly as she went behind drawn curtains with Do and Jeyn helping her back into her uniform.
“I thought Inoo will personally come by the afternoon to cover that?” Jeyn reminded her as they tackle slipping in her hurt arm through the sleeve. “He was pretty excited to go actually.”
The corner of Diei’s mouth twitched. “Yes, that’s why I want another set of eyes there.”
Yuto and Arioka shared a laugh at this stopping short when they realized doing so while the rest of them sniggered and the tension between everyone lifted. When the curtain was pulled back after Diei was decent they caught Arioka wringing hands with Yuto while they apologize to each other.
Do took this opportunity to offer Diei quietly, “You know we can help look for your brother too Diei, you don’t have to keep it with only the second years.”
Diei was about to tell Do some other lie about Chinen going back to his previous home or something when her cellphone rang and her eyes widen at the caller: her stepfather.
“Go,” she told Yuto and the 2nd Years as she pass by Yamada on her way out the door for a little more quiet before pulling open her phone to answer. “Hai, Tou-san?”
“Hey darling, how’s the first day to school with your brother?” Ueda Tatsuya’s end sounded breezy; he was just now checking in from a service car on the way to the resort after his twenty-four hour flight from Tokyo to Rio de Janeiro.
“We’re okay, we’re fine.. So, how was the flight? Please don’t tell me you didn’t eat your in-flight meals again…”
She didn’t notice that the others ran out of things to lightly converse about and was waiting with baited breath like Diei for the moment Chinen’s father asks for him. He had just finished whining about how airline food do not par with either hers, Chinen’s or her mother Janna’s cooking when he found a way to change subject. “You guys home yet?”
“No, I’m.. I’m still out.” Apparently it was harder to lie to the man she already think of as her father; Diei steeled herself to tell him about Chinen missing. “Dad, I -”
“Right here!” Yamada had just grabbed Diei’s phone talking through the line in perfect imitation of Chinen’s voice and jubilance. “We’re still not home ‘cuz my new friends threw me a welcome party making us stay out late, gomene?”
“Ohh.. well if that’s the case then, that’s fine, that’s great!” Whether Chinen’s dad had bad reception on his end or actually believed it was his son who was talking he didn’t seem to doubt. “Just don’t be a burden to your sister okay?”
“Haaaii…”
“Alright, I’ll try to call again later when I get to the hotel,” Ueda replied, sounding relieved. “Whew, it was a long flight.. You two take care, and lay easy on the fizzing drinks; you’re sounding a little sore-throated.”
Yamada faked coughing and cleared his throat a little. “Ah, hai Tou-chan! Jaa ne!”
He had just closed the flip phone when he turned to hand it back to Diei.
Diei stared; everyone else was speechless until Arioka exclaimed, “That was brilliant!”
“No, its not,” said Aya and Yaotome both, the later turning to look at Jeyn obviously waiting for her to oppose as well.
“Well, it could work,” Jeyn admitted.
“Uhh, the bus is here,” Yuto reminded Yamada as it honked across the court.
But Yamada ignored all of them, his eyes resolute on Diei who looked back at him with a calculating look and he knew she was considering.
“Aren’t you supposed to be looking for Chinen-kun?” Do asked confusedly.
Aya said “we are” the same time Yamada said “they are.”
“We think he might have gone with an earlier batch to the basketball overnight, you know, to get away,” Airin covered wildly.
“Wait, why does it have to be you guys anyway?” Arioka wondered fairly. “We can help look for him too -”
“Because we’re the reason he left,” Yamada answered without looking back at him, still holding out Diei’s phone to her. “And I’ll apologize with bent knees when they come back with him but you need me; he said he’d call again later.”
Diei glanced over at Airin who shrugged. “One less sleeping over to explain to my aunt.”
“He is not coming with us Diei,” Yaotome said warningly.
“You know I’m the only one who can do this,” Yamada said advancing towards Diei pressing her phone into her hand to the point she backed on the door frame in his impatience. “You’ve got to take me home with you!”
He was so determined he didn’t realize how that sounded; only when Diei blinked then cracked into a half-suppressed laugh and Do raised her eyebrows at him did he caught on.
“I - that didn’t come out right.” It surprised Yamada how pleased he felt making Diei laugh fully more than the others who joined in, even Yaotome who had to bit his lip from following suit.
They all see to Aya, Airin and Yuto finally boarding the bus before Do suggested they borrow one of the school’s service cars as Diei’s shoulder would tire out too much if they walk all the way so they headed to the garage. Diei was just handing Arioka the keys from its locked key cabinet when she turned to Yaotome. “I think you shouldn’t come over my place tonight -”
“Oh you’re not getting rid of me -”
“- but spend the night over the Hitomoris,” Diei continued before he could go any further. “You know, coz their father’s out starting tonight, and you promised?”
Yaotome’s jaw dropped as he realized the trap Diei caught him in while Do blushed and Jeyn and Arioka looked at each other.
Yamada glanced sideways to Diei who tried to keep a straight face from looking amused at Yaotome’s dilemma. Not wanting to get on the older guy’s bad side even more, he suggested, “We can just all sleep over there..?”
“If my father is calling late at night it would be at the house and not on our cellphone,” Diei indicated hers and Chinen’s in her pocket.
“But, how about you?” Do worried.
“Uhh, hello, we’re staying with her too,” Jeyn pointed at herself and Arioka as they got in the car catching on with Diei; there was no reason to risk putting Yaotome in the same house with Yamada all night.
Arioka clapped Yaotome on the back before jumping in the driver’s seat. “Promise we won’t let her starve. We’ll drive through, what’re you having Yamada-kun?”
“No we’re not, Tegoshi-sensei said a good meal, I’m making pasta,” Jeyn was still saying when Diei slammed the car doors shut in Yaotome’s face and the three started sniggering.
“You’re so cruel to him,” Yamada’s head swiveled behind him in surprise hearing Diei still chortling as they rounded out of the school premises.
“No we’re not,” Arioka snorted from his side driving as Jeyn redoubled over laughing. “Unless you want to get beaten down on Diei’s floor?”
“He’ll need time to get over this accident,” Diei sighed pushing back on her seat to make room for testing her hurt shoulder rolling it around. “How’s your knee?”
“Oh,” Yamada put his eyes back up front fidgeting a little; it was the first time they were talking on normal terms. “I’m not feeling it anymore since running back and forth from my classroom,” he mumbled.
“Why?” Jeyn asked, which Diei readily answered “Ah, right, for Yann’s new pet,” eliciting Yamada to tell them how Yann found a puppy. The two didn’t notice Arioka raising his eyebrows in the rear-view mirror at Jeyn who was suppressing her giggles and pointing out that the two were finishing each others' sentences.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Atashi wa - I’m ; feminine way to refer to self
Mochiron desu - formal way to say ‘Sure’
-chan - suffix used by speaker for younger female names or females close with
Hai - Yes
Tou-san - Father; general way to say ‘Otou-san’
gomene - sorry ; informal way to say ‘gomenasai’
Tou-chan - Dad ; informal/cutesy way to say ‘Otou-san’
Jaa ne - See you later
-kun - suffix used by speaker for younger male names or males close with
-sensei - suffix used by speaker for teacher
Previously...
Despite tensions getting higher and thicker around Mitsuhiko Diei’s and Yamada Ryosuke’s crowd they had to cut through it, much less their differences, to work out the night’s surprises and figure their next move. Will they be able to find the solution to Chinen’s predicament?
++++++
“And you’re sure this time?” Diei said looking up from the crumpled paper in her hand that was the tag Yamada had discarded carelessly back in their classroom before he pulled the cork off the bottled dust he had assumed were laxative powder, her piercing stare watching Yamada’s resolution.
He forced himself to look back at her without showing too much guilt in his face. “Im not sure with anything at this moment, but that’s the only thing that could explain what happened even in the smallest logical sense.”
“Atashi wa mochiron desu,” Airin answered more firmly than him making Diei shift her eyes to her. “I don’t believe in random magic, but a wish potion is something…”
Diei looked back down to the piece of paper rereading:
Your friend at sundown will give your heart’s desire,
But when the moon smiles it -
When Chinen ate the prank Yamada jokingly wished the transferee was his pet puppy as Aya said she remembered thus the first part came true, but what happens when the moon smiles?
Aya noticed Diei ran her finger on the torn edges so she prompted Yamada, “How did it tore off again?”
“Well, I caught it on my bag’s zipper a few times since I got it in elementary,” Yamada shiftily answered while glaring back at her.
“And you got it as a gift for turning off bullies leeching money from an old mystic that usually had her crystal ball stand near your elementary school’s back alley, you told us back in your classroom,” Airin added eagerly as Diei picked up the small bottle on her lap gauging there is still about one fourth of the potion in it.
“Where - ?” Diei began.
“Kitagawa Elementary,” piped in Yuto who pulled up from talking to his phone but continued to whoever was on the line with a meaningful look to the others, “No, not you, just telling someone about Kitagawa Academy’s new high school who’s hosting the Nationals this season…”
“So all we got to do is go back, find the mystic and ask for the later half of the tag again. I need Airin-chan to feel if we’re going the right way but you don’t have to come; even your brother agreed to leave it to us, or he wouldn’t be alright leaving us the job, right?” Yamada reminded her of Chinen’s message as he relayed his plan inwardly thankful for Yaotome being there to help make sure Diei wouldn’t go anywhere in her current condition at least. “We can hitch a ride with the basketball team.”
“Yeah, and I got an aunt near there, we’ll have somewhere to sleep over,” Airin added.
“But what does a smiling moon mean?” Aya wondered aloud.
“The upward-opening crescent moon,” Diei answered just as Yamada opened his mouth. “The moment the moon shows after sunset tomorrow, something is going to happen again.”
The silence after this was broken only when the clinic door swung open with a bang! making them all jump.
“Time’s up, get dressed,” Yaotome barged in within just three minutes of what he promised Diei with Do looking apologetic behind him. At least she, Jeyn and Arioka looked like they had calmed down. “Pack up whatever last-minute meeting stuff you’re all concerned with, I don’t care, we’re going home. You, go away,” he added pointedly at Yamada.
“Alright,” Yuto finished his conversation over his phone nodding to Diei. “We’re good.”
“What’s good?” Arioka asked.
“I asked the second years to cover the basketball finals for the organ article,” Diei lied swiftly as she went behind drawn curtains with Do and Jeyn helping her back into her uniform.
“I thought Inoo will personally come by the afternoon to cover that?” Jeyn reminded her as they tackle slipping in her hurt arm through the sleeve. “He was pretty excited to go actually.”
The corner of Diei’s mouth twitched. “Yes, that’s why I want another set of eyes there.”
Yuto and Arioka shared a laugh at this stopping short when they realized doing so while the rest of them sniggered and the tension between everyone lifted. When the curtain was pulled back after Diei was decent they caught Arioka wringing hands with Yuto while they apologize to each other.
Do took this opportunity to offer Diei quietly, “You know we can help look for your brother too Diei, you don’t have to keep it with only the second years.”
Diei was about to tell Do some other lie about Chinen going back to his previous home or something when her cellphone rang and her eyes widen at the caller: her stepfather.
“Go,” she told Yuto and the 2nd Years as she pass by Yamada on her way out the door for a little more quiet before pulling open her phone to answer. “Hai, Tou-san?”
“Hey darling, how’s the first day to school with your brother?” Ueda Tatsuya’s end sounded breezy; he was just now checking in from a service car on the way to the resort after his twenty-four hour flight from Tokyo to Rio de Janeiro.
“We’re okay, we’re fine.. So, how was the flight? Please don’t tell me you didn’t eat your in-flight meals again…”
She didn’t notice that the others ran out of things to lightly converse about and was waiting with baited breath like Diei for the moment Chinen’s father asks for him. He had just finished whining about how airline food do not par with either hers, Chinen’s or her mother Janna’s cooking when he found a way to change subject. “You guys home yet?”
“No, I’m.. I’m still out.” Apparently it was harder to lie to the man she already think of as her father; Diei steeled herself to tell him about Chinen missing. “Dad, I -”
“Right here!” Yamada had just grabbed Diei’s phone talking through the line in perfect imitation of Chinen’s voice and jubilance. “We’re still not home ‘cuz my new friends threw me a welcome party making us stay out late, gomene?”
“Ohh.. well if that’s the case then, that’s fine, that’s great!” Whether Chinen’s dad had bad reception on his end or actually believed it was his son who was talking he didn’t seem to doubt. “Just don’t be a burden to your sister okay?”
“Haaaii…”
“Alright, I’ll try to call again later when I get to the hotel,” Ueda replied, sounding relieved. “Whew, it was a long flight.. You two take care, and lay easy on the fizzing drinks; you’re sounding a little sore-throated.”
Yamada faked coughing and cleared his throat a little. “Ah, hai Tou-chan! Jaa ne!”
He had just closed the flip phone when he turned to hand it back to Diei.
Diei stared; everyone else was speechless until Arioka exclaimed, “That was brilliant!”
“No, its not,” said Aya and Yaotome both, the later turning to look at Jeyn obviously waiting for her to oppose as well.
“Well, it could work,” Jeyn admitted.
“Uhh, the bus is here,” Yuto reminded Yamada as it honked across the court.
But Yamada ignored all of them, his eyes resolute on Diei who looked back at him with a calculating look and he knew she was considering.
“Aren’t you supposed to be looking for Chinen-kun?” Do asked confusedly.
Aya said “we are” the same time Yamada said “they are.”
“We think he might have gone with an earlier batch to the basketball overnight, you know, to get away,” Airin covered wildly.
“Wait, why does it have to be you guys anyway?” Arioka wondered fairly. “We can help look for him too -”
“Because we’re the reason he left,” Yamada answered without looking back at him, still holding out Diei’s phone to her. “And I’ll apologize with bent knees when they come back with him but you need me; he said he’d call again later.”
Diei glanced over at Airin who shrugged. “One less sleeping over to explain to my aunt.”
“He is not coming with us Diei,” Yaotome said warningly.
“You know I’m the only one who can do this,” Yamada said advancing towards Diei pressing her phone into her hand to the point she backed on the door frame in his impatience. “You’ve got to take me home with you!”
He was so determined he didn’t realize how that sounded; only when Diei blinked then cracked into a half-suppressed laugh and Do raised her eyebrows at him did he caught on.
“I - that didn’t come out right.” It surprised Yamada how pleased he felt making Diei laugh fully more than the others who joined in, even Yaotome who had to bit his lip from following suit.
They all see to Aya, Airin and Yuto finally boarding the bus before Do suggested they borrow one of the school’s service cars as Diei’s shoulder would tire out too much if they walk all the way so they headed to the garage. Diei was just handing Arioka the keys from its locked key cabinet when she turned to Yaotome. “I think you shouldn’t come over my place tonight -”
“Oh you’re not getting rid of me -”
“- but spend the night over the Hitomoris,” Diei continued before he could go any further. “You know, coz their father’s out starting tonight, and you promised?”
Yaotome’s jaw dropped as he realized the trap Diei caught him in while Do blushed and Jeyn and Arioka looked at each other.
Yamada glanced sideways to Diei who tried to keep a straight face from looking amused at Yaotome’s dilemma. Not wanting to get on the older guy’s bad side even more, he suggested, “We can just all sleep over there..?”
“If my father is calling late at night it would be at the house and not on our cellphone,” Diei indicated hers and Chinen’s in her pocket.
“But, how about you?” Do worried.
“Uhh, hello, we’re staying with her too,” Jeyn pointed at herself and Arioka as they got in the car catching on with Diei; there was no reason to risk putting Yaotome in the same house with Yamada all night.
Arioka clapped Yaotome on the back before jumping in the driver’s seat. “Promise we won’t let her starve. We’ll drive through, what’re you having Yamada-kun?”
“No we’re not, Tegoshi-sensei said a good meal, I’m making pasta,” Jeyn was still saying when Diei slammed the car doors shut in Yaotome’s face and the three started sniggering.
“You’re so cruel to him,” Yamada’s head swiveled behind him in surprise hearing Diei still chortling as they rounded out of the school premises.
“No we’re not,” Arioka snorted from his side driving as Jeyn redoubled over laughing. “Unless you want to get beaten down on Diei’s floor?”
“He’ll need time to get over this accident,” Diei sighed pushing back on her seat to make room for testing her hurt shoulder rolling it around. “How’s your knee?”
“Oh,” Yamada put his eyes back up front fidgeting a little; it was the first time they were talking on normal terms. “I’m not feeling it anymore since running back and forth from my classroom,” he mumbled.
“Why?” Jeyn asked, which Diei readily answered “Ah, right, for Yann’s new pet,” eliciting Yamada to tell them how Yann found a puppy. The two didn’t notice Arioka raising his eyebrows in the rear-view mirror at Jeyn who was suppressing her giggles and pointing out that the two were finishing each others' sentences.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Atashi wa - I’m ; feminine way to refer to self
Mochiron desu - formal way to say ‘Sure’
-chan - suffix used by speaker for younger female names or females close with
Hai - Yes
Tou-san - Father; general way to say ‘Otou-san’
gomene - sorry ; informal way to say ‘gomenasai’
Tou-chan - Dad ; informal/cutesy way to say ‘Otou-san’
Jaa ne - See you later
-kun - suffix used by speaker for younger male names or males close with
-sensei - suffix used by speaker for teacher