Illusion Vs. Reality - Chapter 3 She was not feeling too well at the moment. A splitting headache was torturing her, making her feel queasy and disoriented. Furthermore, her body seemed to be on fire; she guessed she must be running a temperature. Funny, but she was fine before coming to school. It must be that guy who had ruined her violets just now, that jinx who had brought all this ‘bad luck’ on her. Little did she realise that there was much more ‘bad luck’ in store for her later. “You’re the exchange student?” A tough-looking girl, with brown tinted hair, called out, behind her. “Pardon?” She turned around to find two girls staring at her intently. “No harm intended, if you can give us what we want.” The second girl, who was of a smaller built, snickered and pulled her by the collar towards her. She could smell the garlic in the girl’s breath and she winced slightly for it aggravated her headache further. “What is... is it that... that you want?” She wanted to fight the second girl off her but her hands felt like jelly, unable to perform the designated tasks she had for them. “What’s it we want?” The girl, with brown tinted hair, spoke again, laughing at the foolish question posed, “Of course but the usual, 50 000 yen.” “Fi... fifty thousand? Wh... what for?” “Don’t you need some protection? There’re lots of bad people out there who might try to take advantage of weak, sweet girls like you. Isn’t that right, Miyuki?” The smaller-sized girl called Miyuki nodded her head in agreement. “I don’t need any protection from people like you...” Before she could complete the sentence, Miyuki pushed her roughly against the wall and gave her a tight slap. She recoiled in fear and terror. “Do you foreigners talk so much all the time? Oh look Ray, her hair’s dyed, not a natural redhead,” Miyuki remarked sarcastically as she clutched her hair roughly, “You an Asian? Acting all different and everything and after the entire facade, you’re just an Asian like us. People like you remind us once again how false this world is. ” The duo scoffed at her and broke out in fits of laughter over the irony of it. After that, they started to pinch and kick her when they suddenly heard a noise. This was the ultimate deciding factor in clinching the district championship trophy. Would he be able to do it in a matter of seconds? Dribbling the ball fluently, he stopped abruptly at the line that marked half of the court and leapt high up in the air, ball in this hand. Flying across the other half of the court, he dunked it successfully into the net above his opponents’ astonished faces. He waited to hear cheers and wolf-whistles acknowledging his spectacular dunk but surprisingly, he heard nothing. Not that he minded, of course... Loud distant noises filtered into his mind, noises that did not fit into the scene he was in now. Harsh voices... thudding... banging... where were all these coming from? He scanned the entire basketball court quickly. But no, all he could see were the audience cheering at his brilliant shot at the basket, banners bearing his name being waved from left to right and vice versa continuously, his teammates raising their hands in triumph at that winning shot, his fans chanting his name fervently. BANG! There it was again. Didn’t anybody in the stadium hear that? It was as if the spectators were in a world of their own and he, another dimension; he could not hear them except for those peculiar noises. On some strange impulse, he left the court and slowly approached in the direction of the noises, towards the roof. He appeared to be walking in the right direction as they were getting nearer and clearer. So intent were him on finding the source of the noises that he failed to see a box in front of him and he kicked right into it. Ouch, it really hurt! The duo looked up at once. Upon seeing the distraction, she tried to scream out loud for help but Miyuki foiled her attempts. A hand clamped over her mouth tightly, she was brought to the rooftop. It was empty and silent. Beads of perspiration trickled down her forehead as she wetted her lips nervously, in dread of what was to come later. She was feeling worse than before, her sense of perception was failing her badly, she could no longer see the duo clearly; many images appeared in front of her. She absentmindedly wiped the blood from her nose with her hand. “Get away from me.” She backed away from them. “Tsk, tsk,” Ray sneered in disgust, “You’re bleeding.” “Help! Help! Ahhhhhhh… ” “Pathetic! I thought you might have more spunk in you, honey!” Miyuki gave a mocking laugh. Her feeble cries for help went unheard. They approached her like a predator closing on a prey. Someone pulled her hair back violently while another kicked and slapped her repeatedly. This continued for a relatively short time, but it seemed an eternity to her and nearly rendered her unconscious. “Have we killed her? How come she’s not moving? I don’t... ” “What are you doing?!” The girls whirled around quickly, fear written all over their faces, they had thought there would be no one at the rooftop since it was lesson time. Apparently it was not so as a shadow appeared in front of them. “Help! Help!” Suddenly there was a loud scream and he could hear a girl’s voice in Japanese. It was muffled and he could not hear clearly what she was saying. He turned the knob of the door leading to the roof, which opened at once. A girl was standing by the railing, her hand outstretched over it, as if trying desperately to maintain her hold onto something. He could distinctly make out an outline of a person hanging precariously by the edge of the railing in the open air. “What are you doing?!” He woke up with a start. He glanced at the surroundings but soon his woolly mind cleared and he realised where he was. ‘Why am I on the floor? I thought I was sleeping on the bench.’ Nonplused, he scratched his head while he yawned widely, ‘Is it lesson time already?’ Picking himself up from the floor, he lumbered drowsily towards the door and it was then that he saw them. In fact, the duo had a rather notorious reputation in the school that everyone knew them and would go to great lengths to avoid them, but Rukawa being Rukawa, he had no head for names or people for that matter, except basketball. In short, he hardly knew anyone in school. A badly beaten up girl lay unconscious on the floor. Seizing up the situation right away, he eyed them warily, his hands in his pockets. A moment’s silence ensued before he finally spoke, “The way I see it, you’ve two options, one you scram right now or two, we march straight down to the principal’s office.” He had not seriously meant to carry out the latter should they choose it. No way was he going to the principal’s office. That would be a declaration he had skipped his classes earlier and that was absolutely suicidal. However, they relieved him of that burden and scuttled off like a couple of scared rabbits. No way can they fight a guy as big-sized as him, not even when they both were to take him on. They had heard of how he could single-handedly defeat four huge, muscular guys when they disturbed his sleep the last time. But they forgot he seldom strikes girls, much as he detests them sometimes. After they left, he stepped quickly over to the much bruised, unconscious girl, contemplating whether he should take her to the school nurse or Ayako. Maybe he should call Ayako out of her class. He did not want to explain to the school nurse how he had chanced upon her. A soft moan escaped her lips. He lifted her in his arms and proceeded to find Ayako. Besides, it would be better if there was someone taking care of her while he was gone in case she should meet up with them again. “Ogenki-desuka?” She slowly opened her eyes, adjusting them to the bright flash of light, which was hurting her eyes. The voice continued kindly, “Don’t worry, you’re in safe hands.” A girl, with long curly hair tied up in a ponytail, was smiling gently at her while a guy was dozing away on a chair at the far end of the room. She looked at the lively girl with a dazed and bewildered expression on her face for she could not comprehend the situation she was in now. “You’re running a slight fever and bruised too but you’ll be all right soon.” She remained silent. “Do you know your name... your name?” A trace of understanding crossed her pale face and she mouthed her name, “Faith.” “You must be the student everyone’s talking about,” She babbled away in excitement, “I’m Ayako and the guy over there, he’s rescued...” Faith had fallen into a deep sleep. To be Continued... **Previous ** Next **