Mika couldn’t help but chuckle to herself as Ayako and Kana both gaped at the apartment complex. “Pretty incredible, isn’t it?” Mika asked.

“It is,” Kana agreed. “I knew that they had been working on the building, but didn’t realize they had finished it already, or that it was so high-class.”

“I still think this is a bad idea,” Ayako announced. “Girls following a monster guy home to his apartment? There’s all sorts of things wrong with this. And the fact that he can afford such a place just makes him even more of a monster. I bet he’s a criminal on top of being a beast!”

However, Ayako’s rant fell on deaf ears. She’d been complaining non-stop since the beginning of their trip down the street. Kana and Mika had tried to persuade her that everything would be fine to little avail, and at this point, the babble had become something of background noise. However, Mika did acknowledge Ayako long enough to send her a small smile that she hoped was reassuring.

“Just sit wherever,” Kaito said as he opened the door to the apartment.

After sizing up the room, Ayako made a beeline for the couch, but Kana and Mika paused in the short entryway.

“What about your wound Kaito?” Mika questioned, voice soft with concern. He had his back to her as he took off his shoes, which gave her a clear view of the blood on his shirt.

“It’s fine,” he answered shortly as he moved past them into the living room.

Mika drew a breath to respond, but Kana beat her to it. “How can it be fine? The entire back of your shirt is covered in blood! We should’ve called for the ambulance!”

Under the intense gaze of the two, Kaito gave a sigh and crossed over to the kitchen sink. He acquired a hand towel from the drawer to the right, and ran it under the faucet. Kaito unbuttoned and pulled off his shirt, and once he’d wiped off the majority of the dried blood, turned his back to Kana and Mika. “See, it’s fine right?”

“The wound… it’s gone?” Mika questioned, moving a few steps closer to get a better look.

“That’s incredible,” Kana breathed.

“The only real regret I have is that I’ve ruined part of the school uniform,” Kaito said. “It is a bit of a shame since I liked that shirt, but I guess I'm lucky that it didn’t get on my pants. I’d hate to have to order a completely new uniform.”

He turned around to face them once again, and flung his now ruined shirt over his shoulder. In that moment, Mika caught herself staring and hastily averted her attention to the floor as her face begun to turn red. She didn’t mean to look, but with his shirt off, it was impossible not to notice how each one of the muscles around his torso was nicely contoured.

“Umpf!”

The muffled noise snapped Mika’s attention back to Kaito. A square pillow, wish she presumed had hit him in the face, was falling to the ground. Turning around, she found Ayako leaning over the back of the couch with the second pillow in her hand ready to throw.

Kaito too, had now focused on the girl. “What the heck is wrong with you now?!”

“You shouldn’t be walking around half-naked in front of three high school girls even if it is your apartment!” She replied as she threw the second pillow. “Put your shirt back on!”

With Ayako’s antics, Mika found that the sense of tension that had been hanging over all of them broke instantaneously. Unable to help herself, she broke out laughing, and Kana’s chuckles followed suit.

Kaito glanced at each one of them in turn with one eyebrow raised. “And the lot of you think I’m the weird one here.”

“Hurry up… and put your shirt on… already!” With no other small, convenient pillows to throw, Ayako had grabbed up the entire couch cushion and was once again poised to toss it.

“Alright! Alright!” Kaito exclaimed waving his hands in a downward manner. “Just put that down already. Geez.” Rolling his eyes, Kaito headed up the stairs.

The moment Ayako heard the bedroom door close, she turned to Mika. “So? What’s actually up with this guy? He is a monster right?”

“I don’t really think I’m at liberty to say,” Mika said slowly as she took a seat at the table.

“But you knew about all this weirdness before now, right?”

Mika nodded. “A lot of things happened.”

“What kind of things?” Ayako pressed.

“Isn’t it a bit rude to interrogate your friend?”

Ayako whirled around as Kaito’s voice sounded from the stairs. She hadn’t even heard the bedroom door open, or the sound of him coming back down the stairs. Silence followed as Kaito crossed the living room and sat down opposite Mika at the table. Kana joined them while Ayako remained leaning over the back of the couch.

“Would you like me to make tea this time?” Mika offered, breaking the intense silence. She had hoped that the tension between them had dissipated once and for all, but the moment Kaito had reappeared, it had returned in full force.

“If you’d like to, sure” he replied, accepting her offer with a nod of his head.

Grateful for something to do, Mika took to the kitchen. She’d been paying attention the two times that he’d made tea, so she knew already that the bags were in the cabinet to the upper right of the stove and that the cups could be found in the one adjacent to it. The teapot was already sitting ready on the stove.

“You seem right at home,” Ayako remarked, narrowing her eyes on Mika.

“That’s… a lot of things happened over the weekend…” Mika repeated slowly.

“And how come you never told us about any of it?” Ayako demanded. Though she still had a brash tone, Mika could hear the underlying sorrow in it.

“I couldn’t,” she admitted. “I couldn’t talk about it without bringing up… everything.”

“I’m still waiting to hear what this ‘everything’ is exactly,” Kana remarked, setting her eyes on Kaito.

“Ah, it’s somewhat complicated,” Kaito said.

“Surely you didn’t bring us all the way here for an explanation such as that?”

“It would be great though if you would just accept that as an explanation.”

“Kaito? Is there some trick to making the stove work?” Mika broke into their conversation as she tried and failed several times to turn the device on. She had turned every knob for every eye, hit all of the buttons and switches but the stove remained as cold as ever.

Latching onto the distraction, Kaito jumped up and shuffled over to the stove. “Sort of,” he said as he set his left hand on the side of the stove. Meanwhile, his right hand worked the knob of the eye. This time, the flame roared to life.

“Was your hand… sparking just now?” Mika bent over to stare at his left hand.

“Yeah.”

He held it up, and this time Mika could more clearly see the thin bolts of electricity that were dancing between his fingers. “Wow,” she breathed in astonishment.

“Just what are you doing to Mika over there?” Ayako spoke. She couldn’t quite make out what they were whispering to each other, but their closeness made her uncomfortable.

“I’m not doing anything,” Kaito replied, narrowing his eyes on the girl who looked ready to start throwing pillows again.

“And are you actually going to talk or what? Isn’t that why we came?”

“You make it sound like this should be so casual, but it’s not a subject that’s all that easy to breech,” Kaito replied as he brought the cups of tea that Mika had poured over to the table.

“Even so, the matter needs to be settled soon. Tomorrow is a school day and it’s already rather late,” Kana spoke.

“Why don’t you tell me your own thoughts on it first?” Kaito’s eyes settled on Kana, and under his gaze, her eyes fell to her cup of tea.

“Well, to be honest, I don’t think Ayako is too far off from hitting the mark. I’ve never been inclined to think that monsters or the like exist, but it seems that the events of today can only be explained by such a theory.”

“Right to the heart of the matter, huh?” Kaito muttered to himself. He swirled the tea in his cup twice and took a long sip before continuing. “Mika, go ahead and tell them the details of the past weekend.”

With a nod, Mika launched into the story, and her friends listened with rapt attention. She paused only when reaching the discussion she and Kaito had had in this very spot several days ago.

“Go on,” he encouraged with a wave of his hand. “Might as well tell them what I told you. They’re not going to leave without hearing it anyway.”

And so Mika repeated the conversation. The room was silent for a long time after she concluded the tale.

“See… I told you he was a monster. I was right on the mark,” Ayako said after some time.

No one commented on her remark. Kana seemed deep in thought, and Mika was busy trying to read any expression that Kaito showed. But he was swirling his tea around with a vacant look.

“I had never intended for anyone to find out about this,” he finally said, without bothering to look up. Mika already knew that this was a serious matter, but his grave tone sent a chill down her spine. “It might be best now if my fun little adventures ceased here.”

“You’re…leaving?” Mika asked.

“I don’t know how much of a choice I have. The whole world can’t know about this. I thought it would be easy enough to keep it hidden but…” Kaito paused with a shake of his head. “If it were just Mika, I could’ve enforced silence either by persuasion or force, but that gets exponentially harder with increasing people.”

“I appreciate your telling us all of this,” Kana spoke, “and I certainly don’t intend to let anyone else know provided you aren’t a danger to the general public.”

“And I’ll still stay true to my promise!” Mika added.

Kana and Mika both turned to look at Ayako waiting for her to echo their responses.

“Whatever,” she said snorted. “No one would believe me anyway.”

Mika beamed, and even Kana looked pleased with the turn of events.

“Kaito? Won’t you stay?” Mika prompted when he still hadn’t moved

“I don’t know…” he replied, releasing a breath with his words. “It’s true I’d rather not leave yet, but a verbal promise is rather fragile. Even if you intend not to ever say anything, blurting it out in the spur of the moment isn’t difficult.”

He looked at each one of them in turn. Mika could already be trusted, she’d proven that over the course of the past week. Kana he trusted as well; with her logical mind, she’d never carelessly say anything. Then, his eyes settled on Ayako. She was the greatest threat, and he certainly didn’t put it past her to shout everything she knew on impulse.

“Quit staring at me!” she shouted when she could stand his intense gaze no longer.

Kaito slowly shifted his attention back to the table. Could he believe her? How big of a risk would her presence be to him? His thoughts chased each other around in a circle, and he couldn’t think up a sufficient answer.

“I think you can trust her, Kaito,” Kana spoke, immediately drawing Kaito’s attention. “It would be a great loss for Ayako to lose her only true competitor, right?” She directed the question to Ayako who huffed and disappeared behind the edge of the couch.

“I’ll consider it,” he said at last. “The lot of you can go home if you wish.” He waved his hand carelessly toward the door and the three slowly stood up and headed towards it.

“Oh! I have a question before you leave forever,” Ayako said, spinning back around to face Kaito. “What was up with the races today, huh?”

“Firstly, I haven’t decided if I am leaving yet. Secondly, you’re still upset about that? Is your brain so one-track that you can’t think of anything else?”

“You watch it!” Ayako hissed. “I can still run out of this apartment and scream your little secret to all of the neighbors.”

“I should’ve known it was a bad idea to give you such leverage. Fine, if you must know, it’s difficult for me to tell how fast is too fast if I don’t have a reference point. So I watch you all during activities in order to stay within the realm of what’s humanly possible. Satisfied?”

“No!” Ayako shouted, but she turned around, slipped on her shoes and headed out of the door.

Kaito couldn’t help but sigh in relief as the halls remained quiet throughout her departure.