Treasure Hunt

[Sonohara Chitose]

April 24 2003 - 3:20 PM

A certain delinquent found himself laying face-up on a stack of gym mats in a room of mostly darkness. Only recently did he find himself actually looking up at the ceiling. Why was he laying in the gym storage room? Because he was sleeping, of course. Sleeping away the last few classes away. He'd decided to dip out after lunch and decided to get himself some rest instead. The gym was a safer option to not get caught as even some of the empty classrooms occasionally became occupied by other delinquents or weirdos.

Not that he had any room to complain.

Chitose yawned as he looked towards the ventilation windows located high up near one of the outer walls of the room. Windows so small only the smallest of people could squeeze through. Granted, he wasn't locked in and didn't have to worry about it. He'd have to worry about being interrupted by hormone-driven couples and people who belonged to clubs, however. His sanctuary wasn't mean to last forever, but the blonde-haired delinquent found himself struggling to get up.

The mats were by far not the most comfortable place to lay down but were much better than the floor in comparison. A weary body made it much easier to accept the hard-plush mats as a means of comfort.

Despite how much he wanted to stay, he knew that soon enough a sport's club member or some other student would enter and he'd need to get up anyway. The last thing he needed was for somebody to report him to a teacher. No way a delinquent like him would be a part of a sports team. Wrong blonde with a four-syllable name starting with an "S".

Chitose rolled over to his side and reached over the edge of the mats for his shoes. Nothing... He continued to sweep the area without his fingers finding purchase. His brows furrowed as he leaned over to look at the area himself. At first, he'd thought that he must've just pushed his shoes further back or to the side than he'd expected when he kicked them off, but when he scanned the floor to the side of the mat... his shoes were GONE.

The delinquent grit his teeth together in irritation. Somebody had already been here... and they took his shoes!

He sat up and reached back onto the mat for his jacket to which he'd been using as a pillow... it too, was gone. He double-checked by searching all around each side of the mats he'd been laying on. Somebody took his shoes AND his jacket.

His heart was racing... His lighter was in the breast pocket of that jacket! He had a clasp on that jacket! The shoes he could live with and perhaps just steal another kid's pair, but his jacket was far less replaceable, especially for somebody as tall and large as he was. His irritation was quickly escalating towards anger.

He began to turn the storage area upside down, hoping that whoever took his stuff just hid it nearby. Time to look in the ball baskets, under cones, behind shelves...

"Grrrr! This freakin' sucks!" He slammed a fist against a shelf, slamming it against the wall, "Dammit!"

The shelf collapsed, causing an avalanche of sports equipment and tools to fall over the top of him... not to mention the shelf itself toppling over onto him as well.

[Inoue Kohaku]

Classes were over. Kohaku could feel the gravity of her sleepiness tugging at her mind, trying to force its way into her consciousness. She knew that she would feel sleepy until she returned home, where her parents would keep her mind occupied over dinner. Until then she would do her best to stay alert. She wanted to avoid doing something silly in her drowsy state, such as walking into someone.

As Kohaku was getting ready to leave, one of her classmates approached. Her classmate bowed her head respectfully, and a couple of her friends behind her snickered. What was so funny? Kohaku tilted her head, assessing her classmate silently. Her classmate raised her head, looking her in the eye with a touch of shame in her eyes, and requested that Kohaku retrieve her jacket for her from the gym.

“Eh?” Taken aback by the request, she could only stare in confusion.

Her classmate avoided her eyes. “I have to go to the music club, so I don't have time to check, but I'm sure I left it there...”

“A-alright,” Kohaku agreed, never one to turn down a request. She glanced to one of her classmate's friends, who was watching her with a predatory grin. She took an instinctive step back, feeling anxious just from seeing the expression, but she forced her attention back to her classmate, whose entire face had lit up at Kohaku's acceptance.

With a small wave to Yasuda and Miyahara, Kohaku set out toward the gym.

~ ~ ~

Classes were just beginning to end, and clubs had yet to begin, casting the entire school in a mysterious, invisible fog. Despite the fact that most students were still in their classrooms, tidying up or getting ready to leave, the school felt empty and alien to Kohaku. She moved quickly, but cautiously, as if the ground itself would crack open beneath her if she moved too rambunctiously. She could hear the echoes of voices as she passed each classroom, but could not make out words or intent, which only served to further the alienation that she felt.

Despite the anxiety of her overactive imaginings, Kohaku reached the gym without incident. As she expected, there was no one here, either. With a small, tired sigh, she began to search for her classmate's jacket. After a couple of minutes of fruitless inquiry, she heard a masculine voice shout something, followed by a loud crash in the gym storage room. Despite the fact that she was not doing anything wrong, the sound filled her with a sense of guilt and dread. Guilt? Why guilt? She questioned herself, but could not determine the answer at this time; her curiosity had taken hold, and before long, she was standing in front of the gym storage door.

She waited for several long, agonizing seconds, but no further sound came from the other side. With a deep breath, she slid open the door and was greeted by a disarray pile of sports equipment and an empty shelf leaning over the pile.

Oh, and a person.

Her heart spiked with concern as she noticed the boy half-submerged in the pile. Her body moved on its own, rushing forward and grabbing onto the shelf. She tried with all of her might to pull it back to its proper orientation, but she was too weak, and simply struggled against it uselessly for a moment. Stopping to take a deep breath, she turned down to the stranger.

“Hold on, maybe I can get someone!”

[Sonohara Chitose]

Chitose could feel the weight of the avalanche of equipment bearing down on him. He pushed and pushed, attempting to lift it even the slightest. His arms were mostly trapped to his sides giving him little to no room for gaining any momentum or leverage. It was even more impossible for him to clear away any of the debris to make the deed any easier. This was going to be a LONG night... especially if nobody needed to use any of the equipment he was buried under.

He stopped struggling for a moment to catch his breath after attempting a good push... Silence. There was nothing. Nobody in the gym. Nobody using or in need of sports equipment. No squeaking shoes, no bouncing balls, no sounds of people crying out in heated passion as they work towards some sort of shounen-esque sports tournament... just nothing. This was going to be a long night.

Chitose's breathing was becoming more and more labored. He was pinned pretty tightly and the weight only seemed to increase with time. Not literally, but with the loss of stamina and moral definitely made it harder to push against it. It wasn’t enough to suffocate the brute of a boy, but it was more than enough to make it tough. Really tough.

That’s when he felt a slight shifting of the shelf. It wasn’t his own effort that had done it, however. There was someone else here! There was somebody in the room trying to help him! Help! A weakling, but help nonetheless! But…

She said she was going to get help! No! She might end up grabbing a teacher and they might question why he was here! No… they WOULD. They would grill him to why he was here, why he’d been tearing through the room and tossing things everywhere, and then they’d lecture him late into the evening. Heck! They might even suspend him… oR WoRSe.

"NonoNONOO!" Chitose struggled to shout after her, “You’se more’n enough!”

He attempted to shake his head, grinding it against the floor to get the right box to move ever so slightly. He had no idea what was in it, but it was especially heavy. He could only imagine… a box of tennis rackets, spare uniforms, or if it was crammed with packages of chalk. Whatever it was, it was slowly giving him a headache.

”Jus’ clear ‘way some of th’pile first! Like this box on my freakin’ head!”

[Inoue Kohaku]

Kohaku stepped back a few paces, ready to sprint across the gym, down the hallways, and into the nearest classroom to get the boy some help. The thought of doing so was daunting, because she knew she would have to explain the situation to a stranger and convince them to come help her. It would require a lot of social energy from one tired Kohaku. She stared at the boy for a moment, unconsciously waiting for his permission to go find someone. She didn't want to abandon him, but she was sure that her strength alone would not be enough to help him. If he at least agreed with that sentiment, she could justify leaving to herself.

“NonoNONOO!”

Kohaku flinched at his sudden shout. The urgency in his voice caused her to start to panic internally. The boy struggled under the weight bearing down upon him, begging her to stay. More than enough? Her? She was petite and had no muscle on her! She glanced behind her hesitantly, then back at the boy. He had caught her eye. After seeing the look of desperation in his face, she knew that there was no way she could him leave now.

“Jus’ clear ‘way some of th’pile first! Like this box on my freakin’ head!”

“O-okay!” she said, relieved to have some direction. If he wanted her to stay, then she'd stay, even if... even if it was fruitless.

She stepped closer, grabbing onto the box. It was heavy, to her, and she wondered how it hadn't outright crushed his head. Human heads weren't too fragile, she supposed, but the thought of this very same box landing on her was frightening. Taking a deep breath, she lifted with all of her might. She couldn't lift the box into the air, but she had just enough strength to drag the box off of him. As the weight shifted in her grasp, she lost her balance, and dropped the box to keep from falling over herself. The box fell onto the ground on its side. She flinched again, startled by the loudness of it, but thankfully, the lid on the box remained closed.

Kohaku turned back to the boy, some part of her mind noting his unusual hair colour, but rather than stop and stare she grabbed onto the next object in the pile. Little by little, she pulled objects off of the boy. The shelf leered over the two of them dangerously as each piece from the pile was removed.

As she worked, she wondered what he was thinking. Surely he wouldn't be upset that she was helping him, right? Of course not, of course not! He had asked her to stay and help, after all. His manner of speaking was rough, but she was doing something helpful. Why was he even here, anyway? Her mind swarmed with questions about the strange boy under a pile of equipment in the gym storage room. It must have been some kind of accident.

“How did this happen?” she asked absentmindedly, not realizing that she had spoken out loud.

[Sonohara Chitose]

Chitose breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the girl agree to help. Or more accurately, he would if his chest wasn't already being strained and compressed by the pressure he was under. It was relief either way, even if this girl seemed to be more on the weak side of things based on how little she could lift the box off of his melon.

Then it became apparent that she couldn't lift it. Chitose began to ponder what to do next, but then the girl began dragging the box off of his head. The sensation of the container being pulled across his head and against his hair was terrible. The friction wasn't too bad, though. He could feel that she managed to muster up enough strength to keep it somewhat elevated. Even if this was a slow process and somewhat painful, it was much better than a lengthy lecture.

Chitose struggled with each item the girl lifted off of him after each object was moved off him. Each item removed felt like they relieved so much pressure. Like the weight of the world was lifted from him.

Then he heard the girl speak once more, though this time seemed to be with much less panic in her voice.

Chitose didn't answer for a few seconds as he attempted to turn his head to look at her, but only managed to catch a faint glimpse of green.

"Shoddy construction." He spat.

His ire wasn't directed at the girl, but at the situation and the shelf.

"Someone jacked m'stuff. Was tearin' through th'room too quick or somethin'...."

He clenched his fists tightly and attempted to push up to escape. He was getting closer to being able to move. This "one pebble at a time" approach was working even if it was taking a while. He stopped pushing and huffed with frustration, allowing himself to gather himself for his next push. The next one he'd probably have enough strength and rage to push through the pressure and pain.

"I want my jacket back... or at least need that clasp.

[Inoue Kohaku]

The boy reminded her of a wild animal, like a tiger, that had gotten caught in a hunter's trap. Here he was, laying serenely, constricted by ropes or netting that she was unravelling, piece-by-piece. He could easily overpower her in a normal circumstance, but in his helpless state, he let her approach and help him. She could feel him tensing up as she worked the pile, but he did not lash out or fuss. He trusted her.

His response to her question was vague, but there was enough detail for her to piece together a rough estimation of what had happened. It seemed that someone had taken his belongings, and he had searched the room in a frenzy. As a result, he accidentally knocked the shelf down. That must've been the noise she had heard while she was in the gym. She wondered how so many items could have landed on him from one shelf falling over, but she didn't question his story.

Then the tiger tensed up again, trying to pull himself out of the pile. Several objects slid off of him in response, but the combined weight of what was left kept him from escaping. He relaxed again, exhaling exasperatedly. She could detect a distinct fury in him that was just bubbling under the surface, waiting to be released. While she was usually one to shy away from such strong emotions, she could tell that his fury was not directed at her, but at his situation. That thought made him seem less scary to her.

Wait a minute.

“You're missing a jacket?” she said incredulously. His story had reminded her of her own reason for being here in the first place. “So... so am I. My classmate asked me to retrieve her jacket for her from the gym, and I can't find it either.” Could it be that a jacket thief was on the loose? What motive would such a person have for stealing jackets, anyway? Ah, but she couldn't get sidetracked. The tiger was counting on her, and so was her classmate. She needed to hurry and find that jacket!

With some effort, she manage to lift another particularly heavy box off of his chest. She was sure that this would be the final box he needed to be freed. Delighted at the prospect, she put forth extra fervour in lifting the box! Unfortunately, in her eagerness she lost her balance, falling onto her rump with a surprised squeak. With a small sigh, she looked up toward the tiger, earnestly anticipating his escape from his confines once and for all.

[Sonohara Chitose]

Chitose kept attempting to turn his head to watch the girl who'd begun to help him to the best of his ability. It wasn't much. He only managed to catch glimpses of green from her hair and the yellow and blue of the uniform. He rested to the best of his ability and focused on catching his breath despite the massive strain on his chest by the ever-decreasing weight. It was slowly becoming easier and easier.

He could feel the soreness of his ribcage as the continual weight compressed it to the floor in tandem with the slight aching of his head from where the box had landed. It wasn't like these pains were unfamiliar to him, but it was another thing entirely to have such a constant strain against him. He was aching more from the loss of mobility, but he patiently waited for the girl to remove more and more.

Chitose's anger was only raising with the prospect that his jacket could be moving further and further away from him. His special chain and clasp. HIS belongings. In this state, before this girl, he felt so weak. It was embarrassing. It infuriated him to be placed in a situation like this.

Was it his own fault? Sure. But who was it that caused him to get angry and start tearing through boxes and shelves and kicking things in the first place? Whoever jacked his stuff! Yeah! It was ultimately the cause of the culprit and they deserved every bit of anger that was welling up in the delinquent.

Chitose could feel the rage filling him along with fresh air as box after box was removed. With every box, every tool, and every piece slowly excavated from over the top of his nearly limp body he could feel instant relief until it happened. He could feel the weight of so much being lifted from his spine, from his shoulders. Literally. The girl managed to move something that let the blonde-haired powerhouse intake a large breath, so he did. He inhaled sharply before roaring with the pent up anger of being trapped for what felt like decades under the helpful eyes of some girl.

"Rrrraaaagh!!!"

Chitose's movement was sharp at first as he stood, managing to get to his knees from the initial push. He continued to force air from his lungs afterward, beginning to grunt as he slowly got fully to his feet. As soon as he was able to he threw the shelf to the side, away from where he now saw the girl who'd helped him. Whatever was still clinging to the shelf was now on the floor around him and the shelf itself lay bent and dented to the other side of the room.

The delinquent breathed raggedly, able to finally take in oxygen to his fullest extent. It was AMAZING to finally be free. He felt like some sort of mystic genie who'd been trapped for eons. The rushing adrenaline made him feel like he could take on the world, though it was quickly running out with that last sudden outburst of energy.

The young boy stood fully erect to straighten his spine out. His body was sore from both the impact and his multiple attempts to free himself. He needed to assume a more natural posture to lessen the strain on his body. Chitose rolled his shoulders individually in an attempt to work out some fo the soreness and kinks he felt before quickly turning to the girl, his savior. She appeared to have fallen with the lifting of that last box beside her.

"Thanks for th'help, Greenie."

Chitose extended a hand to help her back onto her feet.

"Yeah, looks like we'se in the same boat, so we might as well search together."

This with both in benefit for himself as for her. He could use the second pair of eyes, as for her... well, if somebody took both his and her friend's jackets, she might need the extra muscle to get them back. He was so ready to pound somebody's face in for all of this.

[Inoue Kohaku]

Sensing the last of his shackles breaking, the tiger roared and climbed to his feet. He grabbed the shelf that had caused his predicament in the first place. In a harsh display of his rage and frustration, he lifted the shelf and threw it across the room opposite to Kohaku. She shielded herself with her arms, startled by the sound of metal clanging and snapping as the shelf landed. As it leaned against its fellow shelf, parts of it broken and bent beyond repair, she felt a twinge of sadness and guilt for the shelf's destructive end.

Looking around at the utter mess that had befallen the gym storage room, it crossed her mind that they should probably clean up, but the thought was interrupted by the tiger's voice.

He thanked her for her help, and used a nickname to refer to her. Greenie. Because of her hair, she supposed. That's right, they hadn't exchanged names yet!

“Yeah, looks like we'se in the same boat, so we might as well search together,” he continued, extending his hand toward her.

He looked so fierce. He was taller than anyone she had met at this school, and his unusual blonde hair was long enough to be pulled into a ponytail. His shirt was unbuttoned, revealing a plain red shirt beneath. His entire appearance was outlandish and intimidating, and had she encountered him at random in one of the hallways of the school, she might have been struck with fear. After the circumstances here, however, not an iota of fear stirred in her chest. Considering his outstretched hand, his patience as she moved things off of him, and his offer to search together... Kohaku felt that his actions betrayed his rough appearance. Whether it was because he felt indebted to her or he was just moved by their similar predicament, she could not say for sure, but she felt that she could trust him. He would not hurt her.

She raised her hand to meet his, and with no seeming effort on his part, he pulled her to her feet. She smiled at him. Now that the immediate danger had passed, she could introduce herself. “Thank you,” she said, bowing her head. “I am Inoue Kohaku, class 1-A.”

Meeting his gaze again, she tilted her head slightly. “Where do you think we should search?” She assumed he had already turned this gym storage upside-down in his own search, and her search of the gym was fairly thorough, she thought. If there was a jacket thief on the loose, where would they have gone? She hoped that he had better intuition than her in this regard.

[Sonohara Chitose]

"Sonohara Chitose, class 2-B." Chitose responded without a thought on reaction to Inoue's introduction.

He scanned the gym storage room carefully. Yeah... he'd torn through the entire storage space pretty feverously. Even though it was done in anger with haste it wasn't as though he wasn't thorough in his wave of dishevelment. Every nook and cranny available had been searched and torn through. Boxes tipped over and thrown about, ball bins overturned, shelves emptied, equipment tossed to the side, and even the air-vent grate popped off. There was literally no sign of his jacket or that of Inoue's friend within sight.

"What a pain..."

Chitose rubbed the back of his head above his ponytail in frustration. Their jackets could be long gone by now. Even further away than before due to the mess he'd gotten himself into. Thankfully Inoue was nearby to help, though that didn't solve their missing jacket situation. He'd hoped with all his might that it was less of a "thief" and more of a prankster. Though... that thought only made him even angrier.

He began to grit his teeth and growled at the prospect of being the subject of some stupid prank. Chitose turned his eyes toward the doorway to the gym to avoid glaring down at his green-haired savior and to refocus his irritation where it was needed. There wasn't much out there that could keep their stuff hidden. It was a gym. Not even a big fancy gym with bleachers or stands. Just an upper level... Inoue would have had to come from there to help him. They couldn't be there...

"Locker rooms? Maybe they got stashed into a locker or tossed in the dirty towel bin..." Chitose suggested through grinding teeth.

His eyes sharpened even further as he escalated the possibilities, all of which were negative.

"-or drenched in th'showers or worse..." His jaw was tightly clenched as he growled these final suggestions.

He'd known people juvenile enough to do something so stupid. He'd hope that those kinda people didn't have brains enough to pass the entrance exams for Hikarizaka. He PRAYED that was the case and at most they might find it on a high shelf or under the stairs somewhere. This was the first time he'd been the subject of a prank before having a chance to stop it...

[Inoue Kohaku]

She smiled and nodded at his introduction, carefully making note of the tiger's name. He looked around the room, taking in the chaos he had wrought upon it in his search earlier. Kohaku sympathetically mirrored his surveillance. Then he growled and grit his teeth toward the door. Like a spooked butterfly, she spun on her heel and hopped to the side, fully expecting another majestic beast to storm into the room. He stood there, grinding his teeth, and then began to speak, answering the question she forgot she had uttered only moments ago.

In his answer, he began listing off places where the jackets could be, each suggestion worse than the last. She shivered, feeling overwhelmed by the possibilities. Were people at this school really so mean as to steal jackets and carry them off somewhere to hide or ruin them? She couldn't accept that someone would do this out of spite. Surely there was a detail they were missing. Together, they could figure this out!

Together...

With that stray thought, it dawned upon her that she had, probably, maybe? just made a friend. A juvenile giddiness rose in her chest, pushing away all that remained of her skittishness.

“Let's hurry, Tiger-senpai!” she suddenly exclaimed, not realizing in her excitement that she had used her imaginative nickname for him instead of his actual name. She eagerly stepped toward the door, grasping the handle, and threw it open. Predictably, the gym had not changed since she last entered it, but that would be no problem! Turning back toward her upperclassman, she held up one finger, smiled, and furrowed her brow, her demeanor full of determination.

“We're going to find those jackets before they get even more lost!” She turned away and leaving the storage room before even waiting to hear his response. This was it! Together, they'd find those jackets! Keeping Sonohara-senpai's earlier suggestions in mind, she made a beeline toward the locker rooms.

[Sonohara Chitose]

Chitose watched the strange girl energetically waft towards the door and throw it open ahead of him. She'd flinched away from it, and perhaps himself as well, mere moments before the exaggerated motion. It left the delinquent slightly shocked by how excited she was to attempt to track down the jackets. There was so much energy, so much vigor... it was almost unsettling, though in a good way. Perhaps.

He followed after her, his steps heavier and sluggish in comparison to how his kohai almost seemed to be so filled with a vim that almost made her seem weightless. Like she was simply drifting through the air. There was something almost comforting about how much energy and good vibes she was giving off. A butterfly floating on the wind, moving from place to place, thought to thought, all the while colorful and shedding positivity.

"Th'hell? More lost?"

Chitose furrowed his brow at the concept of something missing that couldn't be found become even more unfindable. An impossibility as things were either found, missing, or destroyed. Granted, the energy the green-haired butterfly almost made him feel as though the possibility existed fro their jackets to be lost to even the concept of being found. If he were a more positive-minded person he might even be swept into her pace. Correction: even more swept into her pace. He'd already responded.

The tone he'd responded in wasn't fully scolding or irritated at the impossible being suggested, rather it was almost joking.

"Just how lost can something become?" Chitose jokingly challenged her mindset.

The delinquent didn't even realize it, but he wasn't nearly as pissed as he'd been when they first started out. It took him nearly twice the time it took his kohai to reach the locker rooms due to his more grounded pace. This time he moved to push the door open and entered.