The Red Hand

Chapter 125 – History Class.

"Hmmmm." Mika thought as she chewed on her lunch. "Doesn't this mean that Kana really is a Yokai?" They'd been teasing her about this for a while, but now it seemed to be a reality.

"I'd like to retort, and say no, but..." Kana sighed.

{I guess I'm not human anymore...} (Kana)

"Now we know why you do so well with the cold." Naomi had an ah-ha moment.

"Yeah, shadows don't care at all!" Mika laughed

{I'm going to hit both of you after school...} (Kana)

"If anything, she's more like a quarter Yokai." Akagi said. "She's definitely not a full Yokai, and to my eyes, she's still human." She was referring to her soul specifically.

"Joy, I'm only part monster." Kana rolled her eyes.

"Sorry, Kana." Akagi apologized. She felt responsible for this whole thing.

"I'm not mad at you or anything, and this isn't your fault. You had no control over this, so don't blame yourself and get all pouty." Kana immediately moved to assure her sister that she wasn't upset with her.

"I know, but still. I feel like I've slowly taken away your normal life this last half year." Akagi said.

{First her parents, now this...} (Akagi)

"It is what it is." Kana shrugged. "Nothing we can do about it now, and I still say things are for the best."

{Though I could have lived without the Demon powers.} (Kana)

“I mean, I think it's kind of cool. You're like one of those special kids in a school anime that has magic powers from their bloodline!” Mika smiled.

{She's not wrong... and that's what's so annoying.} (Kana)

As they sat and chatted, a group of students from the class came over, included in them were Miyako and Hito.

"What do you guys want?" Mika asked. They figured this wasn't just some kind of social call.

{I can see this going sideways really quickly with our resident overprotective older sister lurking in the literal shadows...} (Mika)

"What do we want?" A male student was surprised that she even asked that question. "We want to see if Kana is dangerous?!? Why else would we be over here?"

"I'm no more than usual." Kana answered without looking at them.

{Not exactly the best answer Kana...} (Naomi)

"You think this is funny?!?" A female student exclaimed. "We already deal with that monster of a sister you have, and now we have to be worried that you're some kind of freak too!"

{Oh boy...} (Kana)

"Hey, come on guys, that wasn't-" Miyako tried to stop them, but was cut off when Hito interrupted her.

"You need to leave this place, all three of you!" His eyes showed contempt. "We don't want a freak like you running around here, so how about you go stay with your monster of a sister and leave us alone!" He turned to Mika and Naomi. "And you two need to go with her, since you're no better being friends with that thing!" (Hito)

{Thing...} (Akagi)

"Knock it off!" Naomi yelled, causing the entire cafeteria to go silent. "Where do you get off calling Kana a freak?!?"

“Yeah, that's an awful thing to say about her!” Mika agreed.

"Look at her eye!" Hito pointed at Kana. "She's just like her sister, a monster! I bet she's hiding her real appearance too!" A few other students agreed. “I don't doubt that she would kill us like how her sister killed my brother!”

Akagi stayed silent, waiting to see what would happen. She would let Kana handle this on her own, at least unless it got too bad.

"I hate to disappoint you, but no, I cannot change my form. Nor will I be eating anyone." Kana sighed. "What happened to me is a result of my sister being near me when I was a child. I just found out today that some of her power bled into me, hence my sudden changes."

"So that monster is responsible! And your lack of knowledge means nothing!" Hito scoffed. "You're no different than that monster! You're a freak who shouldn't be around normal people, so pack your things and leave. We don't want to be around someone like you, and we shouldn't be forced to live in fear just to accommodate you!"

"Make me." Kana looked directly at the students.

{Guess we gotta do this the hard way.} (Kana)

"Wha- what?" Hito was taken aback. "What'd you just say to me!" He took a step forward.

"I said make me." Kana stood up, ready to fight. "If you want me gone, then be a man and throw me out yourself. Or are you too scared?" Kana smirked.

{Oh boy, Scary Kana is here.} (Mika x Naomi)

Hito thought for a moment before looking back at the other students, all of who shook their heads.

"You'll regret this." Hito said as he walked away.

{What a cliché line.) (Akagi x Kana)

"Wow, what a big man." Mika growled. “Guess he's all bark and no bite, even with that posse of his.”

"What a prick." Naomi sighed. "Where do they get off acting like that?!? The nerve of these people."

"They're scared." Akagi answered. "People have been on edge since I attacked Camp Katsura, and Libra only made the public's anxiety about returnees worse. I've had Birdy going around and taking the temperature, and people are even going after FWO survivors who didn't keep their powers."

"Yeah, and thank you for not jumping out and splatting him." Kana gave a wry smile. “I was worried that you might pop out.”

"If he touched you, I would have done to him what I did to-" Akagi cut herself off. "You don't need to hear that."

{Lets not go spilling the beans on my fun last night.} (Akagi)

"I can only imagine what you did to our family this morning, and I'm grateful to not know." Kana sat back down.

"Wait, that fire was you?" Mika asked. She hadn't been told anything.

{Oh... that's right Mika didn't know.} (Naomi)

"Yeah, I had some family business to take care of this morning." Akagi chuckled as she recalled her fun last night.

"Was that really necessary?" Mika asked. She looked sad.

"They tried to kill Naomi". Akagi said. "They wanted to sacrifice her to get access to a weapon to kill me. So yea, exterminating them was very necessary."

"What?!?" Mika looked at Naomi. "Why didn't you say anything?!?"

Naomi shrugged. "I would've gotten around to it eventually.”

"Don't start acting like nearly dying is normal!" Mika exclaimed. "Because it's not!"

"No point in letting it get to you though." Kana shrugged while chewing. "I mean at this point we've been kidnapped and nearly exploded, yet we just go on like normal. No reason to start getting all uppity about it now."

Mika wanted to say something but realized Kana was right. "That still doesn't mean we should normalize almost dying!"

{Why am I the only one who sees the problem here?!? I'm usually the one who doesn't care? What's with this role reversal?!?} (Mika)

"So what happened this morning anyway?" Naomi asked. "There was a bunch of contradictory news, and its hard to get any concrete information."

"You don't wanna know what happened last night, Naomi." Akagi replied. "My advice is just to forget about it and don't look into it on the internet. Otherwise you might no like what you find..."

{That's ominous...} (Mika x Naomi)

"That bad, huh?" Kana sighed. "That leaves me with what? An aunt and three cousins left?"

"Shima and Taichi are very much alive too." Akagi pointed out that her parents were alive. "But yes, Airi, Masako, Chisato, and your Aunt Nana and her husband are all that remains."

"Aren't you sad, Kana?" Naomi looked at her with some pity.

"Not really." Kana shook her head. "Our family sucks, and most of them were... let's just say quite... awful people, Naomi. They tried to kill you and Onee-chan, so as far as I'm concerned they got what was coming to them." She couldn't deny that she felt a bit sad at seeing parts of her family die, but she'd steeled her heart this.

"Is it just me, or is a sixteen-year-old girl talking about the death of her family like it's not that important very strange?" Mika asked.

"I mean, I guess." Naomi said. "But then again, Kana's not exactly normal." She continued. "Also, you don't seem all too perturbed by it."

"Yeah but this is me we're talking about. It's normal that I don't care." Mika replied. "But yeah, you're right. I guess we're all weird."

"She won't be sixteen much longer anyway." Akagi pointed out that her birthday was in March. "We need to have a party for that."

"Absolutely!" Mika smiled. "Birthdays are always fun."

{I hope we don't do something strange like have my birthday on Mars...} (Kana)

The girls continued to chat for a bit more until it was time to go back to class. Up next was history, Kana's least favorite subject. The teacher decided to make today's class a kind of history trivia game so that they could do a review before the exam that would be next week. The girls grouped into a team, and the teacher posted a bunch of categories on the board. A group could choose one and try to answer, and each question was worth different points with the high-point total ones being harder. If you didn't get it right, other teams got to answer.

"Alright, just listen to me, and you'll win this thing easily." Akagi chuckled silently.

"We've contracted a Demon to help us win the history game." Mika silently laughed.

"I'll take it! We get bonus points!" Kana readily Akagi's help.

"Alright, Ms. Tomogawa's team, you may choose first." (Teacher)

"Choose 19th Century Europe for 500." Akagi whispered her suggestion, and Kana did exactly that.

"This is a tricky one." The teacher said as he put up a graphic. "Name the naval battle during the Greek War of Independence in which ships of the British, French, and Russian combined fleet destroyed over 50 Turkish and Egyptian ships." He continued. "For extra points, please give me the exact date of the battle."

The moment he finished, you could just feel the dread in the room as it seemed no one knew the answer. Not like that was unexpected, that was a question very few people would know the answer to.

"I've got nothing." Naomi whispered, and Mika shook her head. Naturally, Kana had no clue either.

"Battle of Navarino October 20th, 1827," Akagi whispered an answer, and Kana decided to trust her and repeated it.

"Yes, you're correct." The teacher smiled. "For a correct date, you get double points."

Kana looked down at her shadow. "How did you know that?" She whispered.

"I love history, Kana. I know a lot." Akagi chuckled. This was how the rest of the trivia match went. The girls tried to answer the ones they did know since this was a good review for them. But Akagi was always willing to pop in and answer the hard ones. In the end, Kana's team ran away with it. Mostly because of their resident history buff, and they ended up winning the maximum bonus points on the history exam.

"Yeah!" Mika was excited. "Now I can study less hard!"

"No." Kana sighed. "It means you're going to study just as hard as before so you can get an extra high score."

As they talked, they caught bits and pieces of other students' conversations.

"Of course, the monster would win." (Student 1)

"Yeah, she probably cheated with her monster power." (Student 2)

"I bet she killed her family this morning. Probably went all crazy like her sister. She came to school and acted all normal. What kind of person is like that?" (Student 3)

"Don't listen to them, Kana." Mika said. "They're just idiots."

"I know but..." Kana seemed to be ok. But Akagi could tell she was holding back tears.

"Grrrrr." Akagi started growling. Kana was quite a strong girl, but even she had her limits. Just as she was bout to leap out and scream at the other students a student spoke out.

"That's enough!" Miyako spoke up. "There's no reason for you all to act like this!"