“Hey! Rikai!”

Shitto waved down Rikai as she began to walk home from school at the end of the day. Turning to see who was calling her, Rikai sighed as she saw it was just Shitto.

“Hey, Shitto. What’s up?”

Finally done running to catch up to her, Shitto slowed down to a walking pace as they continued their journey to their homes.

“Nothing, really. I haven’t talked to you in a minute, so I figured I’d see how you were.”

“I haven’t done much of anything. Just been keeping up with my studies. What about you?”

Shitto rubbed the back of his neck.

“Eh, that’s a good question. I’ve been preparing for a test that’s coming up.”

Rikai looked confused.

“What test? I don’t recall any tests coming up.”

“It’s for an extracurricular activity. It’s more of a test of courage for my group than anything, I guess you could say.”

“‘A test of courage’? Sounds pretty lame. How would you even prepare for that?”

“I suppose it’s more of me just fretting over it than me actually doing something. How did homecoming go for you? I guess I missed you leaving.”

Remembering their previous discussion, as well as the events that transpired afterwards, Rikai adapted to a more deprived tone.

“It was fine.”

“Doesn’t sound like it,” Shitto thought to himself.

“Oh, by the way, Rikai?”

“What is it?”

“Have you seen Yami recently? He hasn’t been showing up in the mornings, and I only ever see him while class is ongoing.”

Rikai shook her head.

“I’m afraid I haven’t. I haven’t seen him since…”

“I should probably stay away of Yami as a topic.”

“No matter. I would just text him, but it looks like his phone is off most of the time.”

“That’s strange.”

“Oh well. He’s a big boy. I’m sure he has his reasonings.”

“Yami! Why don’t you let me walk with you just a little bit longer?”

Shinkai clung to Yami’s arm with her right hand’s fingers entwined with Yami’s left fingers.

“I have stuff I have to do, Shinki. I promise we’ll hang out more, but I’m really busy right now. In a few weeks, We’ll have all the time in the world.”

“Huh? A few weeks? Why’s that?”

“I just have some stuff coming up with my family that I need to attend to in the meantime. Besides, doesn't your family worry about you being with a teenage boy all the time?”

“Not in the slightest. Granted, I believe it’s because YOU are the teenage boy, Yami. So they have no need to worry!”

Getting a fuzzy feeling in his stomach, Yami kept walking with Shinkai down the sidewalk.

“All I’ve ever wanted was a kind, loving family. And here it is, right in front of me.”

A tear rolled down the right side of Yami’s face that Shinkai couldn’t see.

“Just to your house. But I really need to go after that.”

“Okay!”

Posche hit enter on his keyboard. Looking at the time, Posche noticed that it was December 5th at 1:20 a.m., which was a Monday. Becoming relieved and letting out a sigh, Posche closed his browser and shutdown his computer.

“With a week of my work as a teacher completed, I have time to focus on my work as an echo.”

Walking down to the door in his basement, Posche strained his right arm and yelled “Heya Tatsujin: Sento! Yasumi!”

The door slamming his hand onto the door, it swung open into a large communal room. Walking into the room, Posche examined it thoroughly.

“The main area appears to have enough space for the majority of the school. Worst comes to worst, the excess population can reside inside of the war room for the duration of our transport.”

Continuing his expedition, Posche entered a bamboo door, allowing himself to be met with a large oval table, a whiteboard, and walls coated in various weapons, from swords to assault rifles.

“Looking at this room more carefully, maybe I should only allow the adults into this room.”

Closing the door behind him, Posche walked to the opposite side of the room to a white door made of metal. Sliding it open, Posche unveiled a room, nearly the same size of the main hall, yet the majority of the floor was covered in medical comfort mattresses. In contrast with the war room, the medical bay’s walls were aligned with cupboards full of medical supplies.

“This should suffice. I can only hold this room for about 30 minutes. If I attempt to transport this whole room to a separate gateway, then I have about 15 minutes. If I add into all of the people in here, I’ll only have a third of that time, at most.”

Walking out of the room, Posche closed the door behind him.

“I should be fine, but as for Yami…”

Wiping the sweat off of his forehead, Yami walked over to his backpack. He was in the meadow, and the torn dirt and cracked trees were proof of his training efforts. Withdrawing a bottle of water, he began to gulp down nearly the entire bottle. Feeling his phone buzz, he reached into his pocket and withdrew his phone, seeing a notification from Shitto. Unlocking his phone by pressing a button with his thumb, Yami opened the message that Shitto had sent.

Yami, Phil is setting up a meeting. Get to his house asap.

“Ugh.”

Placing his phone back in his pocket, Yami zipped up his backpack and finished the water in his bottle. Crumpling it up and placing it into a pocket on the side of his backpack, Yami walked through the door into his room.

“I’ve done enough talking with him for a while. Besides, I’ve trained my ass off this past month. He has nothing to say to me.”

I’m like here we go, I did my part for the squad, now we in it tho-

Yami slammed his alarm clock with his fist. Getting dressed in his typical clothes, Yami hid his two knives in his pants, which, if he removed his shirt, would be easily accessible. Jogging down the stairs to his front door, he slipped his shoes on and ran out the door. As he shut the door, he noticed a strange sight. His father was sitting on the swing in front of his house. Noticing Yami exit the house, his father turned to him.

“Hey, Yami.”

“H-Hi.”

Pulling a cigarette out of his shirt pocket, his father started to smoke.

“I’m taking the day off. My shoulder hurts.”

“Okay.”

“So get the fuck out of here. I don’t want to see you near this house until tomorrow.”

Yami walked down the stairs of his porch. Turning to walk down the sidewalk, Yami departed from his house. His father sat on the swing in silence.

Jogging down the sidewalk, Yami finally saw two familiar backs.

“Hey! Rikai! Shitto!”

Turning to face him, Rikai and Shitto looked at him with equally cold eyes. They spoke simultaneously.

“Yami! Where have you been?!”

Rubbing his neck and catching up to his friends, Yami began to muster up an explanation.

“I have been busy with schoolwork, I guess…”

“Yami, I told you we had a group meeting last night!”

“And I haven’t seen you in almost months!”

Once again synchronized, they continued to pummel Yami with words.

“You were with that girl all this time, weren’t you?!?!”

Looking frustrated, Yami denied them.

“No! Shinki doesn’t have anything to do with why I haven’t seen you two!”

“Then what is it, Yami,” Rikai said, sounding defeated?

Yami shook his head.

“It doesn’t matter what it is. Even if it was Shinki, I’d never say that it was her fault, and it’s asinine for you to even assume that.”

Yami walked ahead of his two friends.

“I’m going to school. You two can bicker amongst yourselves back there.”

Rikai became frustrated. She threw down her bag and began to scream at Yami.

“And you can go on living your pathetic life! You have no one you can talk to anymore, and your only ‘friend’ is that bitch!”

Yami bit his lip. Shitto grabbed Rikai’s arm.

“Hey, Rikai, knock it off. He gets it.”

Yami kept walking towards the school.

“Why will he never answer me? I just want to understand him, but he just pushes me farther away!”

“Yami,” Shitto thought to himself. “What is running through your head right now? You completely missed the meeting. Don’t tell me you forgot that today is December 7th, the day of the threat.”

“Yami Shinpai to the office, Yami Shinpai to the office. Thank you.”

“You heard them,” Yami’s teacher said. Looking at the clock, he turned back to Yami. “You may as well take your things, too. This period is about to end.”

“Right.”

Grabbing his belongings off of the floor, Yami walked out of the classroom and down the hallway towards the office.

“What do they want with me now, and today of all days?”

Opening the office door and entering, he saw Posche sitting in a chair.

“Yami, we need to talk. Now.”

Walking into an empty office and shutting the door, Posche began to converse with Yami.

“What is your problem, Yami? We had a meeting last night. We haven’t been in contact since we confirmed the date of the threat, which if you have forgotten, is today! What have you been doing all this time, Yami? Playing video games? Watching TV? Or bonding with the daughter of the mayor?”

“What does it matter to you? And for your information, I’ve been training my ass off this whole time. You haven’t seen me, so how could you tell I was slacking off? What evidence do you have?”

“I can tell by looking at you.”

Yami bit his lip.

“Regardless, I’m done scolding you for today. The rest comes AFTER today. I need to show you something.”

Sliding his hand down the door, Posche opened into the evacuation room that he had been testing earlier in the week.

“This is the room that either you or I will be evacuating everyone to. Chances are that I’ll be the one evacuating people into the room, and with hope, bringing them out. But if something goes ary, I may need you to pull everyone out of this room.”

“Do I just open it like any other gateway?”

“Essentially, but keep in mind you have only opened one specific type of gateway: Sensei. This is a combination of Sento and Yasumi, and with other souls inside of it. It will take a large amount of life essence to successfully open the gateway. Fortunately, there are enough supplies for everyone inside to sustain themselves for about a day, so if need be, you can rest.”

“Understood. I assume you don’t have anymore information on the threat?”

“Unfortunately, no.”

“I’ll take my leave.”

As Yami opened the door back into the office where Posche and he had their discussion, he noticed his phone got reception again. It began to buzz. Pulling it out of his pocket, he saw that it was Shippai.

“Hello?”

“Yami, where the hell are you?”

“At the office, why?”

“Did you not here that explosion?”

“What?”

“I think it’s the threat that was brought to our attention. The school is panicking right now, but nothing has happened inside of the school.”

“Got it. I’ll tell Mr. P right away.”

Putting his phone back in his pocket, Yami stuck his head inside of the door and yelled for Posche.

“Hey! Mr. P! The threat is happening! Get out here, quick!”

Posche ran to the door and undid the gateway, opening the door into the office. He turned to question an office lady.

“What is going on?”

“We aren’t sure! We heard an explosion, and on the camera feed outside of the school, a lot of people are beginning to swarm the school!”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m not entirely sure myself, but it looks like they plan on invading the building!”

Posche turned back to Yami.

“We need to get everyone ready.”

“Right.”

Posche ran over to the microphone.

“Attention students: We are currently doing an evacuation drill. Please remain in your classroom until a representative has opened your door. I repeat: This is a drill. Please remain in your classroom.”

Setting the microphone back onto the table, Posche turned to Yami.

“Nows your time to practice opening that gateway. Good luck.”

“You too.”

Posche turned back to the lady.

“Please come with me. I’ll guide you to safety.”

Grabbing her hand, Posche ran off into the direction of the West Hall. Yami ran toward the South Hall.

Opening classroom after classroom, Yami ushered students and faculty alike into the evacuation room. The students seemed to see through the lie that this was all a drill, as many were in a panic.

“I’m just over halfway done. Only a dozen more classrooms and we can focus on bringing the fight to these attackers.”

Opening the door to a classroom and beginning to herd the people into the evacuation room, both Yami and the students were frozen in shock as a brick was sent flying through a window, smashing it and hitting the tile floor. Yami began to yell at the crowd.

“Move it! NOW!”

“Shit. There’s no way I can clear every other classroom before they reach us. It’s only a matter of time before they begin to harm the civilians.”

“Yami!”

Looking down the hall, Yami saw Shitto leading a large pack of civilians down the hall.

“Sounds like we’re about to get swamped, so I figured I may as well try to get as many students out as I could. Will this work?”

“Hell yes! Thank you so much, Shitto!”

Yami and Shitto herded every civilian into the doorway as fast as they could. As the final teacher walked in, Yami shut the door and undid the gateway.

“Well, Shitto? Are you ready?”

“What forget about us?”

Yami turned to see Posche and Shippai standing behind them.

“Good. We’re all here.”

Shitto peeked out of a blind in a classroom.

“Guys, we have our work cut out for us.”

On the front lawn, and surrounding the entire school, were over one thousand strangers preparing to storm the school. Yami gulped.

“If you guys get injured,” Yami began, “just run. I’ll take care of myself.”

Shitto started laughing.

“You know Yami, you never cease to amaze me. You are such a joker!”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“What he means,” Posche said, “is that we’re in this together. If one of us falls, we all fall.”

Yami took off his shirt, leaving himself in a white T-shirt. His knives were visible.

“Let’s do this.”