“What in the living world...”

Unable to even form thoughts, I walked with an empty mind as the wind blew past me. The trees shook, their green leaves falling slowly to the ground.

GIRUS. CHK. Abilities. Energy.

There was so much my parents told me about. GIRUS is dangerous, stay away from GIRUS, and all that nonsense. But it seems me and Kazane could still go to school and outside for now, at least. Just in time to catch the volunteering event. I felt like ghosting, but Kazane insisted on going. Something about “spending last normal days valuable”.

Last normal days.

A laughter built in my stomach.

“Ahahaha! Ayato Hinode has special powers! Exhire! You see? There goes a bunch of bad guys!”

I pointed to the trees and recoiled my finger gun, pretending to be shooting.

Kazane glanced at the people around us, before turning back to me. “Why do you always think like that... Please don't be that cringe, at least not when I'm near you.”

“Well you see,” I puffed out my chest. “I'm always cringe so it seems you have to go- owowowow, okay, I'll stop!”

Kazane sighed as she stepped off my foot. Her eyebrows furrowed in irritation as she ran her hand through her brown hair.

“I know last night was a shock but you're too young to go senile” Kazane said, turning away.

“Actually, if anything, it means that I'm young. Afterall, it just means I am young like an 8th grader with a poor case of chuunibyou.”

“You realize you are in 11th grade right?”

“Perhaps. But then again, I have spec- Owow, ok, I'll keep my mouth shut!”

Our banters were the usual, with some extra references to CHK and GIRUS. Though it did refresh my mind, knowing that some things just never change, no matter what the situation was.

...

We arrived at the park. It was a walking trail with vast grass plains. The fresh air. The peaceful sway of green tree leaves. Our volunteer club group sat smack dab in the center. There was a pile of tree saplings, and around the large field, there were poles already set up.

“Ayaka...” Kazane murmured, as she uneasily shifted her weight.

It was strangely nerve-racking to meet them again, knowing that somehow, we would have to leave them if GIRUS attacked. Kazane found them before me, looking at Ayaka and Rei. They sat on the ground, talking to each other. Wow, they must have arrived a lot earlier than us.

“Sorry to keep you guys waiting,” Kazane said, gently stroking the tip of her hair as we got to them.

“It’s no problem,” Rei said, adjusting his collar. He glanced around. “We arrived pretty early anyways.”

“I see...” Kazane looked down, as if she ran out of things to say.

I coughed at the strange silence that clouded our group again.

“Thank you for coming! It’s a wonderful day to contribute back to the Earth” Kim-sensei announced. “So, we will provide a demonstration on how to plant the trees.”

We watched as Kim-sensei held the tree in place while some volunteers poured some mulch around it and poured water in the tree. Somehow, watching it made it seem fun. Though maybe, a lot more fun was waiting for me.

“Alright, everyone go ahead and plant some trees!” Saitou-sensei announced.

We ended up picking whatever utensil was closest. I picked up a shovel. Rei picked up the tree. Ayaka was carrying the mulch. Kazane was carrying the water bucket. And on, our pod went to plant the trees.  

...

“Somehow, watering the tree is surprisingly boring,” Kazane said with a slight laugh. She became very interested in her fingernails as Ayaka poured mulch around the fourth tree.

Rei and I were prepping the last shrub to be planted, but there was no sound beside the chatter of Ayaka and Kazane. The groups were pretty spread out.

“I mean, everyone seems to think that their own role is boring,” Ayaka said, staring at the mulch bag. “I guess that’s why people exchange things.”

“That’s true. You want to exchange roles?”

“Huh? Oh, I wouldn’t mind.”

There was a moment of silence between the two. They seemed pretty close. I wonder how it would affect Kazane if she had to leave Ayaka and Rei on a sudden note.

Just then, Rei spoke up, shifting my concentration.

“Well,” Rei said, wiping sweat off his forehead. “It looks like the final tree is ready to be planted.” He glanced at Kazane and Ayaka, to which Kazane was trying to tell Ayaka where to water. “Well, they should be done soon enough.”

The last tree took longer than it should. Somehow, there was a rock that made it difficult to balance the tree, and we ended up having to try to remove it.

“That tree was a piece of work,” Kazane said, sighing. “It had to be the last one too.”

Rei nodded. “Well, let’s take a look around the other groups, see if they’re done.”

There was some soreness in my legs. Too much energy spent trying to lift the rock I suppose. If I actually knew how to use my ability, maybe not! But then again, I wasn't supposed to use it with normal people around.

I stared at my hand. Starting at the age of 17 seemed to be very late to get skilled to a meaningful level, considering I didn't even know how to activate it.

“Uh, my legs don’t feel the best from that shovel.” I said, “Is it okay if I just take a break here?”

“Yeah, that’s perfectly okay,” Rei said. “It’s just a walk after all. Nothing important.”

Ayaka gripped the bottom of her trousers. There was some mud around her knees. “I’m going to clean this up, if that’s fine with you,” she said.

Rei nodded. “That’s fine too. I’m going to take a look around, see where everyone’s at.” He turned around and started walking off.

Kazane looked at Rei, before looking back at me and Ayaka. “Well, I’m going to go with Rei a bit to check out the progress of the other groups.” She turned and followed Rei, leaving me and Ayaka by the tree.

I took a seat on the grass. Ayaka took a piece of fabric from her pocket and put it into the bucket of water. She started wiping off her knees with the wet piece of fabric.

As there was an awkward silence, I turned around and stared at the horizon. It was the morning, yet the sun was already so high. Trees blocked the blue sky, their branches shaking ever so slightly as the wind blew across them. I heard a cough.

“Ayato, right?”

I turned to see Ayaka holding her knee. She seemed to have gotten most of the mud off, though her eyes were still locked to the ground.

“Yeah, that’s me.”

“Are you still in the chemistry club?” she asked, her eyes locking with mine. “The high school had a meeting last week.”

“Well... I haven’t been going to it all that frequently the past year. Maybe a few times.”

Our conversation gave me some flashbacks of my last year of junior high. After flunking many chemistry competitions, I pushed it all on my last year, only to get third place in the Kobe region, behind Rei and some other person. Not enough to make it to the next round. Then my first year of high school, I pretty much gave up after losing everything. The only thing left was my advanced chemistry classes. Yet I clung on to the belief that I, Ayato Hinode, was something special in this world. Well surprisingly, it seemed my belief was true.

“Oh...?” Ayaka asked, furrowing her eyebrows. She seemed a bit stunned to talk.

She seemed to have been surprised by the fact that I quit the chemistry club. Maybe she knew me or something. Come to think about it, I recalled the days my sister would talk about her friends. There was a chemistry genius girl that Kazane always talked about. Maybe it was Ayaka.

“Are you in the chemistry club?” I asked, my hands slipping into my pocket.

Ayaka nodded. Her face still seemed to carry some sort of weight, as if she was hit hard by my last statement. “I mean,” she said. “At least for junior high. They’ve only met once for high school so far.”

“I see...” I said, turning my head away. Somehow, the idea of chemistry club did not really appeal to me anymore.

“Are you still taking chemistry classes?” Ayaka asked.

“Just physical chemistry,” I replied, my gaze still looking towards the horizon.

“Huh... So you are taking the same class as Rei?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

Yet another moment of silence surrounded us. So silent, the sound of the wind blowing lightly could be heard.

I closed my eyes.

Rei and Ayaka were still in the chemistry club. The club that I quitted, in fear of the suffering from losing that would come again. What an irony, we would meet in the club for volunteering. What a pity, that even if I wanted to, with all the GIRUS CHK stuff, there was no way I could.

As that thought entered my mind, a slight chill made its way down my spine.

Then again maybe it's that I didn't want to go to the club. These CHK stuff made me special. Why did I have to sacrifice more?

I opened my hand and stared at it.

If I could somehow train myself to be strong, if I could somehow build my character to be cool, wouldn't that be it? It seemed much funner and prospective than chasing a hopeless chemistry dream. Though it did make me interested in the chemistry behind all this CHK stuff.

I blinked.

Weirdly, it was colder than a few seconds ago. The wind seems to have died down too. Not even the tree leaves were moving.

Ayaka stood in front of me, her face turned away from me, observing the environment.

“Impossible... How could they...” she said.

It wasn't anything particularly strange. Her words didn't make any sense.

“Is... something wrong?” I asked, scratching my chin.

I heard the inward suck of a breath.

“Uh...”

Maybe she was just disturbed by something, that's all. I looked away. It was always so awkward when you asked people something and then they didn't respond.

But as I was observing the sunset, something sharp pressed against my throat. When I glanced back, my eyes widened.

“You're the one behind this, aren't you?” Ayaka asked, her eyes narrowed as she glared at me with a gaze that would kill me.