↳ CHAPTER SEVEN :

OLD FRIENDS ↲

???, ??? | ???

KAORI'S EYES FLUTTERED OPEN.

She stared at the dark ceiling above her, it didn't look like her bedroom ceiling.

Now that she thought about it it was cooler than when she went to sleep, the bed was way harder, her blanket was gone and something was bound around her wrists.

Kaori sat up on the bed in confusion and curiosity and looked down on herself. Her hands were in chains, not only that but she was dressed in tattered black and white stripped prison clothing.

She looked around the room in confusion. It wasn't a room, more like a prison cell.

It was dark, the only light came through the bars of her cell. Two persons where also standing outside of it, presumably guarding her.

Was she really in prison? No, this has to be a dream. Maybe the two guards could tell her what was going on.

Kaori slowly stood up and carefully walked towards the bars, she was relieved that her feet weren't chained too.

She walked up to the bars and held on to them. She looked at the two identical girls, who seem to be ignoring her, and was about to open her mouth to ask them where she was, when a deep raspy chuckle came from in front of her.

Kaori turned her attention to the source of the chuckle and saw a strange man sitting at a desk in front of her. He wore a nice suit, had grey hair and a freakishly long nose. He was very creepy looking, and in Kaori's opinion kinda resembled a gremlin.

The man continued to laugh at Kaori's confused and terrified face and started to talk, "Trickster... Welcome to my Velvet Room." 

"So you've come to, Inmate," One of the girls in front of Kaori's cell spoke in a harsh tone.

"The you, in reality, is currently fast asleep. You are only experiencing this as a dream," The other girl said calmer than her twin.

Kaori breathes out in relief after hearing that, she was still confused and worried, but knowing that she'd probably be okay no matter what happens in here is a relief.

"You're in the presence of our master. Stand up straight !" The meaner twin yelled at Kaori and slammed her stick on the the bars of the door.

The brunette took a step backwards out of fear and turned her attention back to the old man, who apparently was the 'master' here. 

"Welcome. I am delighted to make your acquaintance. This place exists between dream and reality, mind and matter. It is a room that only those who are bound by a 'contract' may enter."

"Contract?" Kaori asked out loud, but he simply ignored her.

"I am Igor, the master of this place. Remember it well. I summoned you to speak of important matters. It involves the life of someone very important to you."

"Important to me? What are you-" Kaori began but was quickly cut off by Igor.

"This room must be a surprise to you, it was after all for me. To think a prisoner would appear as such," Igor let out another chuckle, "He truly is a 'prisoner' of fate. In the near future, there is no mistake that ruin awaits him and you." 

"He? Who's he? And what ruin?" Kaori asked more confused than ever. Why did this day have to be so dang confusing? First Kamoshida's weird castle, then her powers and now this.

"I speak of the end to everything. However, there is a means to oppose such a fate. You must be 'rehabilitated' along with him, rehabilitated to freedom... that is your only mean to avoid ruin..." 

"I'm sorry, sir, but I don't think I understand what you're saying," Kaori said hesitantly.

"You will in time. For now allow me to observe the path of your rehabilitation."

The small brunette nodded, as for now she just needed to accept that her life was going to be not normal from this day forward.

"Ah, pardon me for not introducing the others. To your right is Caroline; to your left, Justine. They serve as wardens here," Igor added, mentioning to the light haired twins in front of Kaori.

She looked at them curiously as they turned to face her.

They looked strange, they wore adorable blue guard uniforms with matching hats. They both had white hair and eye patches over their yellow eyes, one on the right eye and one on the left for each girl.

"Hmph, try and struggle as hard as you like," Caroline said with a frown.

"The duty of wardens is to protect inmates. We are also your collaborators... That is if you remain obedient," Justine said with a rather neutral expression.

The twins turned around again and Igor continued to talk, "I shall explain the roles of these two at another occasion. Now then, it seems the night is waning... it is almost time. Take your time to slowly come to understand this place. We will surely meet again, eventually..." 

Just as Kaori wanted to respond a shrill bell rang, catching her by surprise.

"Time's up. Now hurry up and go back to sleep."

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WEDNESDAY,13 APRIL|AFTERNOON

KAORI SAT AT THE SIDELINES, WATCHING THE GAME IN FRONT OF HER WITH LITTLE INTEREST. The Volleyball rally was full in session and as she expected Kamoshida wasn't exactly going easy on the students that played.

Kaori sighed and looked around the gym, not wanting to look at this tragedy of a match any longer, as the teacher team totally destroyed the student team.

The rest of the students were scattered around the gym, just chatting around. Most people were cheering, everyone else was a bit bummed out, being bored of the game or simply tired.

Kaori continued to look around the room and noticed Ann twirling her hair around in disinterested, sitting on one of the chairs next to the field.

Ryuji next to her must have noticed Ann too and mumbled, "Still sticks out... Hasn't changed a bit."

Both Ren and Kaori, who was sandwiched between the two boys, turned their attention towards their blond friend.

Ryuji noticing the two staring, and quickly tried to brushed his previous statement off by yawning, "Pretty boring, right ?" He said stretching his arms over his head.

"Beats having class," Kaori mumbled, hugging her legs closer to herself and continuing to watch this tragedy of a match.

This velvet room thing from her dreams was still on her mind. Igor kept mentioning this mysterious He, who apparently is the reason why she was even there in the first place.

Kaori doesn't even know a lot of guys, and even so it had to be either Ren, Ryuji or someone else who she had yet to meet, who made a contract and can enter that other world.

BANG !

Kaori was cut out of her thoughts as aloud noise made her jump and turn her attention back to the game.

She opened her mouth in shock and cupped her hands over it.

One of her classmates, Mishima, laid motionless on the floor. He was hit by a volleyball straight in the face by Kamoshida.

Kamoshida looked at the boy for a second until he runs to the other side of the field, to the unconscious boy.

"Sorry! Hey, are you alright!?" He asked worried, "Someone! Take him to the nurse's office!"

He then started to pick up the poor boy and handed him over to another student, who began bringing him to the nurses office.

"He'll pay soon enough..." Ryuji said while grabbing the ball and tossing it back to the court. 

Kaori stayed silent and dropped her hands from her mouth after the initial shock. She glared at Kamoshida grimly, if looks could kill he would already be dead multiple times.

"All right, let's resume the match!" Kamoshida exclaimed walking back at the side of the court.

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After the incident in the gym, students were allowed to take a small break.

Ryuji, Ren and Kaori took this as their perfect opportunity to ask around about the rumours. But this turned out to be a tragedy also, seeing as nobody wanted to talk.

Kaori kind of expect it, seeing as the three of them might just be the most undesirable people at school at the moment.

"Dammit! Nobody's willing to talk!"
Ryuji said in frustration, punching the wall next to them in anger.

"They're all afraid of Kamoshida," Ren said.

Kaori nodded in agreement, just as two girls walked passed them.

"Hey, is that the new kid everyone's talking about?" One of them asked.

"Yeah, and I even heard he carries a knife around." The other girl replied.

Ren frowned after hearing the girls mumbling, while Kaori rolled her eyes at them.

She then turned her attention back to the boys, "I hate to say this, but I don't think Kamoshida is the only one people are scared of..."

"Yeah, it seems like we're the ones people are scared of," Ryuji said, "They don't know anything.... But if the guys won't talk, why not ask the girls?"

Kaori blinked in surprise, while Ren only frowned at the blonds idea. Before she could object to the idea, she notice a very familiar person walking past them with a glare.

Kaori squinted her eyes together suspiciously, "Yeah, you do that," she then muttered all of the sudden, making both boys look weirdly at her.

Her eyes widened as she realised she said that out loud, and a faint blush spread itself on her cheeks, as she noticed the two boys looking at her, "I-I have another thing I need to check out. It may help us."

"Then let us help you," Ryuji said.

She shook her head, "No, we have better chances if we split up..."

"She has a point," Ren commented.

Ryuji looked betrayed at him, while Kaori smiled triumphantly.

"Ugh, fine. We'll text you if anything happens. You better do the same!"

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Kaori aimlessly wandered around school looking for the light brunette. Kaori knew she saw Riko, ever since Nozomi transferred schools and Kaori supposedly was at fault for that, Riko has been holding a grudge against the brunette.

Kaori continued to walk fast and pushed up the sleeves of her red sports jacket. No matter how many times she wanted to explain her situation, Riko refused to listen. She only believes what she wants to believe. She always has been stubborn like that.

"What are you up to, Watanabe-san?" The familiar voice asked Kaori.

She turned around and saw Riko standing in front of her with a judgemental glare.

"What ever could you be talking about?" Kaori asked back with fake ignorance in her voice.

"You, Sakamoto-kun and the transfer student. You're planning something, Aren't you?"

"Why would you think that?"

"I saw you three trying to interrogate members of the volleyball team, you aren't trying to get dirt on Kamoshida again, are you? Are you really that desperate to prove your point? Why can't you just leave this alone for once and for all?" She said with her hands on her hips.

"What I do or don't do is really none of your concern," Kaori replied through gritted teeth.

Riko raised her hands up in defence, "Hey, I'm just trying to be a good friend and stop you from possibly being expelled."

Kaori scoffed, "Who are we kidding? You stopped being my friend once I published that article. You wouldn't even hear me out! Because if you did you'd know that I wasn't lying!"

"If you weren't lying, why hasn't Nozomi mentioned anything about this to me?"

"Because she was afraid of Kamoshida."

Riko rolled her eyes and shook her head in disbelief. She turned around to leave, "Whatever, do what you want. I'm done with you. Have fun with your two... delinquent friends."

Kaori wanted to yell something back to her in responds, but before she could  her phone vibrated. She took it out of her pocket and saw a message from the boys.

R⃣y⃣u⃣j⃣i⃣: We didn't get anything, any luck on your end?

K⃣a⃣o⃣r⃣i⃣: Nope, also a dead end

R⃣y⃣u⃣j⃣i⃣: Damnit!

R⃣y⃣u⃣j⃣i⃣: Schools almost over, we are out of time today. Wanna hang out after?

K⃣a⃣o⃣r⃣i⃣: Sure

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WEDNESDAY,13 APRIL|AFTER SCHOOL

After school has ended and everybody changed back to their normal school uniforms, Ryuji and Kaori bid goodbye to Ren and then went to walk around town a little bit.

Kaori tried to forget about her encounter with Riko, and focused on her favourite boy in the world. Which wasn't exactly hard, considering that Ryuji made her smile with every single thing he does.

The two had a lot of catching up to do, Kaori laughed and nodded along as Ryuji enthusiastically told her about what happened in the past year they stopped talking.

It was crazy to her how much happened in one year. In middle school the two of them used to be good friends, what had happened?

Once the blond was done talking it was Kaori's turn. She didn't like talking about her family and private life, it still was a complete mystery to her on how she managed to tell Ren about it.

She decided to talk about it nonetheless, not to elaborate and in detail as he did, but so that he could have a general overview about her life.

Lastly the two friends decided to go eat some Ramen together and talk about their current situation. Ryuji caught her all up on what happened while she was busy dealing with Riko.

"I still can't believe that Takamaki-san gets all bothered about us snooping around!" He said angrily.

"Yeah, well to be fair we are getting involved in other people's business..." Kaori said poking around in her noodles sadly.

Ryuji simply shrugged, " Yeah, but still why does it bother her what we do?" He sighed frustratedly, "Still, that ain't the only thing that pisses me off."

"Is it your crush on her?" Kaori asked nonchalantly. She remembered about how Ryuji embarrassingly confessed his crush to her, asking her how he should act. To bad that Kaori doesn't have any knowledge on theses kinds of things. She might know a lot of things but she's completely clueless in the relationship department.

Ryuji blushes in embarrassment, "W-W-What? No! That has nothing to do with it! Besides I don't like her like that anymore."

Kaori smiled quietly at the reaction and decided to drop the topic. She didn't believe him, but she decided that she didn't want to push him.

"Okay then, what then makes you so angry?"

"Apparently everyone knows about the abuse and ain't doing shit about it! It just pisses me off!" He said punching the table.

"Calm down Ryuji," she said placing her own hand on his fist. The blond went to look at her softly.

Nobody but Kaori can really calm him down, it was a talent a lot of teachers and other adults praised about her. It seems that the vulgar boy changes in her presence.

Kaori sighed, "Look, I don't like it either, but together we'll find a solution sooner and later."

Ryuji nodded, "Right, we won't give up!" He said with new found motivation in his voice and a big smile.

Kaori smiled brightly at the sight of her friend. She nodded, "Right, I have your back, just like you have mine! "

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???, ??? | ???

After hanging out with Ryuji and coming back home, Kaori went straight to bed. She was tired after the long day and just wanted a little bit of rest before her stressful life continued.

Unfortunately for her when Kaori opened her eyes again she wasn't in her familiar pastel coloured room, but instead back in the so callled Velvet Room.

She quietly groaned in annoyance and got up, she walked towards the bars of her cell and came face to face again with the twins and Igor.

The twins ignore her once again, while Igor grinned at the brunette.

"Welcome back to the Velvet Room," He spoke calmly in his deep and raspy voice.

Kaori smiled awkwardly and rubbed her arm uncomfortably.

"I thought about resuming our previous conversation from last night, I assume you still have some questions you would like answered."

Kaori nodded and shortly looked at Caroline and Justine, who still just stared up ahead.

"But first, are you coming accustomed to this place?"

"Yeah, I guess," Kaori answered unsure.

Igor let out a chuckle at that answer, "No worry, in due time you will get used to it. Just like he is."

There it was again, the mysterious he. Who could it possibly be? Well, she is going to find out sooner or later. But her curiosity is killing her, she is a journalist after all and if there is one thing a good journalist can't leave alone than it's a mystery.

"Now, where were we?"

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