“This isn’t necessary,” Mitsue said. “It is just a flesh wound.”

  “She jammed a pen an inch deep into your upper arm!” James protested. “That’s a serious injury!”

  “In the muscles of my arm, hence the term flesh wound,” Mitsue countered.

  “Now, now,” Nanamori said as she carefully unwrapped Mitsue’s field dressing. “Any injury on campus is my concern and responsibility. Who did this to you?”

  Mitsue glanced away. “I would rather not say.”

  “So soon with the code of silence? At least tell me it wasn’t my oh-so-cute but oh-so-troublesome niece. I’ll twist her ears if she’s been stabbing students on her first day.”

  “It wasn’t,” James assured her. “It was… I guess I shouldn’t say if Mitsue doesn’t want to tell.”

  “Hmmph.” Nanamori started smearing a green paste on the wound. Mitsue hissed with pain but didn’t move. “Well, it’s none of my concern. You’ll find that, as long as you don’t report the incident, the Administration won’t care overly much about fights between students.”

  “They won’t stop—or, um punish— bullies?” James asked. He felt a queasy feeling in his stomach.

  Nanamori shrugged and started bandaging Mitsue’s arm. “Some of the students can take it,” she said. “Learning which ones can, and which ones will go running to the teacher is part of the learning process. They come down quite hard on any reported incident.”

  “Then this matter should not go any further,” Mitsue said. “I doubt O— she is going to report anything.”

  Nanamori chuckled. “As long as you don’t include any further developments between the two of you.”

  Mitsue’s face trembled with supressed emotion. “I assure you, Nanamori-sensei, that I do not intend to break any further school rules.”

  “Uh huh,” Nanamori said sceptically. “Well, we’re almost done here. Get down off the bed and I’ll check your temperature.”

  “My temperature?” Mitsue inquired as he obeyed. “I’m not sure why— ulp!”

  Nanamori had come in close—very close— to Mitsue and rested her forehead on his. With their heads touching, the rest of her was… far too close.

  “All done!” Nanamori announced to the two blushing boys. “You can go now.”

  “What—why—” Mitsue stuttered. Nanamori responded by tapping her own shoulder.

  “The pain! It’s gone…” Mitsue realised. “How did you do that?”

  “Just a trick,” Nanamori explained. “I gave you something else to think about.”

  Both boys were a fiery shade of red when they left the office.

  “We shouldn’t mention this to the girls,” Mitsue said. “Or anyone.”

  “Agreed,” James replied. “But… Harue knows what her aunt is like.”

  Mitsue winced. “That might be a problem.”

  As it turned out, everyone was far too interested in the current gossip to bother the boys about their infirmary visit.

  “She kissed you?” Matsuri exclaimed. “That’s not— does she like you or something?”

  “I do not know,” Mitsue said. “We were fighting and then…”

  “Maybe that explains it,” Matsuri said. “She likes fighting, but she mostly fights with girls.”

  “You know her?” Mitsue asked.

  “Yeah. She and her sister are one of the ones who stayed here over the break. I don’t think they have homes to go back to.”

  “She sounds like fun!” Harue said. “I wish I’d been there.”

  “Someone who dyes their hair would probably find her good company,” Matsuri agreed. “She’s not… polite, but she does have her good points.”

  “Are you talking about me?” Harue asked. She touched her orange-red hair. “This is all natural!”

  “A red-headed Japanese?” Matsuri said scornfully. “You expect me to believe that?”

  Harue shrugged. “It’s part of being a shrine maiden,” she said. “All our clan has hair like this.”

  “Her aunt is blonde,” James pointed out.

  “You’re right… she could be dyeing it as well, though,” Matsuri said. “What, is it supposed to be the blessing of the god?”

  “Something like that,” Harue said. “Want to check my roots?”

  Matsuri shook her head. “I don’t care if you dye or not,” she said. “My point was, you’d probably get along with Shion-san… once one of you beats the other to a pulp.”

  “Sounds fun!” Harue said. “I don’t know if she’d be much of a challenge, though, not if she’s stabbing people with stationery.”

  “She’s strong,” Mitsue said thoughtfully. “Stronger than she appears. I had her in a lock… There are ways to get out of it, but doing it by force—as she did— should have resulted in a broken arm.”

  “Hmm. Maybe I’ll check her out.” Harue grinned. “Of course, I’ll clear anything through you first, Mitsue. I wouldn’t want her boyfriend thinking I was going behind his back.”

  “She’s not my girlfriend!” Mitsue protested. Somehow, he managed to keep his voice down.

  The rest of the meal was filled with laughter, jokes and teasing. It was fun. At the end of it, Mitsue took James aside.

  “There is something I’d like to show you,” he said. “Before you head back to the room, can I get you to meet me at the north side of the mechanical workshop?”

  It took James a moment to recall the school’s layout and remember his directions.

  “That’s… at the edge of the school grounds?” he asked.

  “The school grounds extend some way into the forest,” Mitsue replied.

  “But that’s where we’ll be going— into the forest. At night.”

  “It won’t be a problem. There is a moon, and I’ll be able to guide you.”

  James looked back at where the girls were heading off to their own dorm.

  “Is this going to involve… explanations?” he asked.

  “I can explain… a few things, perhaps,” Mitsue agreed. “I need to collect my equipment, but I will meet you there shortly.”

  “Fine,” James agreed. He turned to leave, but Mitsue stopped him.

  “It should not need saying,” he said. “But make sure you aren’t followed.”

  James rolled his eyes. “I’ll do my best,” he said. “But I doubt I’m up to foiling magic or ninjas or whatever else this school has.”

  “That is all I can ask for, James-san.”

  James didn’t have to wait long before Mitsue’s voice came out of the darkness.

  “Over here,”

  James obediently wandered over. There wasn’t a fence separating the forest from the school grounds, just a sudden transition to wilderness. Mitsue was waiting for him under a tree.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “You’re going to guide me… through that?” James asked.

  “I misspoke. It would take too long for you to walk there in the darkness. I will carry you.” Mitsue turned around. “On my back.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” James said. “I’m bigger than you.”

  “I work out,” Mitsue replied. “Please, get on.”

  Grumbling, James climbed onto Mitsue’s back for a piggyback ride. Once he was settled, Mitsue leaned forward, adjusting his balance.

  “Please refrain from screaming,” he said. “It will give away our position.”

  Then he jumped into the darkness.

  James focused on not screaming. It was something he could do, the only thing he had to do. He clung onto Mitsue’s back with a death grip, and Mitsue had a firm grip on his legs. He wasn’t going to fall. Mitsue was taking care of moving them, leaping like a deranged jackrabbit. Branches whipped by, but none of them hit him. Mitsue was in the lead, so anything they ran into, he would run into first, right? He wasn’t going to crash into anything…

  The worst part was not being able to see.

  Finally. Finally, they crashed into a cleared area, about halfway up the mountain, and the jumping stopped.

  “We’re here,” Mitsue announced. He let go of James’s legs, and James let himself fall to the ground. It took a moment for him to catch his breath.

  “Where’s… here?” he managed to ask.

  “Our hideout,” Mitsue replied.

  “Our… what?”

  “It’s important to have a fallback position, a place that your enemies do not know of. To retreat to, to recuperate, and to plan. I’ve been working on this one since I came here.”

  “With the shovel,” James realised. “You’ve been digging a cave?”

  “Not a cave,” Mitsue said. He took James by the hand and dragged him to his feet. He led James behind a rocky outcropping.

  “A hot spring,” Mitsue explained. “It is not finished, but it is bathable.”

  “Is that… a ninja power?” James asked. “Can you just… dig… a hot spring?”

  “Here, we can,” Mitsue explained. “In much of Japan. This island is volcanic in origin, and there is water trapped underground that can be found.”

  He paused. “Dowsing is a ninja skill,” he admitted. “It is sometimes useful for finding underground passageways or water sources.”

  “That all makes perfect sense,” James lied. “And now, I suppose, you want me to strip naked and sit in the boiling water.”

  “Only if you wish to,” Mitsue said, smiling. “I think you could do with some relaxation.”

  “So. Answers?” James asked. The hot water felt really good. Better than any bath he’d had, which Mitsue had put down to the ‘healthful minerals’ that the water contained. Mitsue hadn’t joined him, pointing out that his dressing was not waterproof. Instead, he seemed to be indulging in some calligraphy.

  “I still do not know what danger Harue-san and Kana-sama represent,” Mitsue said. “Harue-san… disappeared while we were shopping.”

  “Invisibility or teleportation?” James asked. It helped if he pretended they were talking about a TV show.

  Mitsue frowned with concentration. “She went somewhere to get that bottle, so perhaps teleportation.”

  “If she can just teleport to her favourite store, why not do it from the dorms?” James asked.

  “To disguise the fact that she can? No, she has made no real attempt at hiding what she can do.” Mitsue shook his head. “She is a mystery.”

  “What about you?” James asked. “You were pretty cagey about whether you could do magic or not.”

  “I can do a few things,” Mitsue admitted. “What I am doing now is the most… obvious magic that I know.”

  Curious, James swam over to look. Now he could see that while there were kanji involved in Mitsue’s artwork, there were also lines, curves and squiggles that didn’t match any kanji he knew.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “Taking my revenge on Ozu-san,” Mitsue said grimly. “This shiki will torment her with nightmarish visions.”

  “That sounds… kind of evil?” James said, looking at the strip of paper. It didn’t seem like much.

  “She did stab me,” Mitsue reminded him. “I may have seemed calm, but I am not going to let her have the last word on this.”

  “I don’t think it’s too late to report her. Casting magic on her seems… unsporting?”

  “That is how I was trained to fight,” Mitsue said. “Hide and strike from the shadows. Poison would be more effective, but this… is more likely to be overlooked.”

  “Poison? Like, lethal poison?” James asked. The sick feeling was back in his stomach again.

  “Yes… but no. I wouldn’t want to risk killing a student. There would surely be consequences. Since I have no backing, the consequences would fall only on me, but that would be bad enough.”

  “Backing?”

  “Many of the… special students here are supported by some power or faction in the Japanese magical world. My village has sent people here before. Harue-san’s temple is probably another. How the student behaves can reflect badly on the supporting faction.”

  “So they wouldn’t be able to send students here?”

  “That, and…” Mitsue paused. “I don’t know the details, but the administration of this school is influential. Attracting their ire would not result in a happy outcome.”

  James thought back to the airport, how the official had bowed to Professor Toei, a history teacher here.

  “There. It is done,” Mitsue said proudly.

  “It doesn’t look magical,” James said doubtfully.

  “Now, I must imbue it with my essence and summon a spirit into it,” Mitsue explained. “One moment.”

  He took a deep breath and started chanting something in a low voice, over and over. Slowly, the writing on the paper began to glow. As James watched, fascinated, the glow increased in intensity. Then, with a flicker of lightning, it disappeared. Mitsue slumped, his chest heaving.

  “It burned up?” James asked.

  “No… it has assumed its gaseous form,” Mitsue said, with some effort. “It has already left, seeking its target.”

  “Right.” James stood up, grabbing for the towel Mitsue had brought and left for him. “I think I’ve had enough hot water for now. Do we have to go back the same way we arrived?”

  “No,” Mitsue said. “Down is easier. I will show you the way, so that you can make it here without me.”

  Easier, James reminded himself, was a relative term. Mitsue hadn’t been wrong; James had just assumed that easier meant very, very hard. One step down from impossible.

  “I needed a shower to recover from getting back from the bath,” he complained to Mitsue.

  “It will get easier,” Mitsue replied. “As you become more physically conditioned.”

  “There’s that word again,” James muttered darkly. He sank down on his bed, exhausted. Under his head, he heard the crinkle of paper.

  “What’s that?” he asked.

  “What is what?” Mitsue replied.

  “Did you put something under my pillow?” James asked. He reached under his head and pulled out a magazine.

  “Is that—” Mitsue asked in a shocked tone. James was frozen for a second, transfixed by the picture of naked breasts that was in front of him. Then he threw the pornographic mag across the room.

  “I didn’t! I never…”

  Mitsue frowned and then stepped over to his bed. Carefully lifting the pillow revealed his own magazine underneath. He carefully lowered it again.

  “Harue,” James said bitterly. “She said she was going to look for dirty mags, and when she didn’t find them—”

  “She left some as a gift,” Mitsue finished. “Hold on.”

  He moved over to the sliding glass door that gave access to the balcony and examined the frame closely.

  “She did not come through either door,” he said. “I checked the front door when we came in as a matter of course, but the threads I left here are undisturbed as well.”

  James decided that his flatmate’s paranoia was about ninth on his list of things to worry about. After all, it’s not paranoia if they really are out to get you.

  “Teleportation, then?” he asked.

  “Perhaps… but I still have questions. Where did she buy the magazines? It is illegal here for people of our age to buy such.”

  “Illegal?” James exclaimed, his voice rising slightly in pitch.

  “We did not buy them,” Mitsue reminded him. “Nor did she, at least while I was in the newsagency.”

  “She had a bag from that newsagency; she must have purchased something,” James pointed out.

  Mitsue frowned. “She had it when she reappeared… did she steal a plastic bag as well as the magazines?”

  James snorted at the incongruity of it. “Truly, her criminality knows no bounds,” he joked. Mitsue gave him a small smile.

  “Yes, well, perhaps we should focus on something else. Namely, what reaction from us will convince her to refrain from doing it again.”

  “She wouldn’t…” James breathed, all amusement gone. Mitsue didn’t bother contradicting him.

  “I fear that confronting her with her actions would only convince her to repeat the prank. Or worse… escalate,” he mused.

  “Wait, wait. First, we have to figure out what we want to do with these…” James objected.

  “You do not want to… peruse them?” Mitsue asked.

  James glanced anxiously at the magazine on the floor. The two girls were clearly visible. He looked away quickly.

  “I mean… I sort of… might…” he trailed off. “It’s dangerous, though! Do they do dorm checks here?”

  “I am not sure,” Mitsue admitted. “I could move them to the hot springs, and we could read them there.”

  James felt his face grow warm. Reading… those magazines while he was already naked… He heard a thudding sound, getting louder.

  Is that my heart? he wondered. No, it’s coming from outside—

  There was a sudden crash as the front door was smashed open.

  Frozen in surprise, James could only marvel as Mitsue, with one smooth motion, stepped forward and kicked the magazine under James’s bed. It was out of sight before the intruder could even right herself and stomp into the apartment.

  “All right,” Ozu Shion demanded. “Which one of you dead guys did… that?”

  How Mitsue kept his composure, James would never know. James was still freaking out at his broken door while Mitsue bowed and addressed the very angry girl.

  Is that steam coming off her? Jack wondered.

  “Ah, Ozu-san, I see that you enjoyed my gift,” he said.

  “You are going to die,” Shion promised him. “I’ll try to make it slow, but no promises.”

  Mitsue spread his feet wider and bent his knees slightly. Shion drew back her fist.

  The sound of a throat being cleared, coming from the doorway, attracted everyone’s attention. Honda Fujitaka was looming in the doorway.

  Had he always been this tall? Or this muscular? James wondered. The aura of menace that the floor supervisor radiated made him almost unrecognisable from when they met him yesterday.

  “No fighting in the rooms, Shion-chan,” he said with a calm belied entirely by the look on his face.

  Shion turned slowly to face him. “I’m not afraid of you… Honda-senpai.”

  “That is a mistake that can be easily corrected,” Fujitaka told her. “But, the conditions of your presence are more important than my ability to beat you to a pulp.”

  Shion pointed at Mitsue. “He started it!”

  “Irrelevant,” Fujitaka stated. “If you have a legitimate grievance, take it up with the student council.”

  “As if,” Shion muttered. Then she jerked as if an idea had just struck her. “I challenge you!” she shouted at Mitsue. “Three days! On the cafeteria rooftop!”

  Mitsue bowed. “Very well, my choice of weapons is unarmed.”

  “I don’t need a weapon to kill you,” Shion sneered. Then she turned to leave.

  Fujitaka nodded and stepped back out of the way. “Nothing to see here!” he called out. There was a sudden shuffling of footsteps.

  Shion left, calling out “Three days!” as her parting shot. Fujitaka popped his head in after the noise outside had settled down.

  “I will report your door to maintenance for you,” he said. “It should be fixed tomorrow.”

  Then he was gone.

  Then Harue stepped out of the bathroom.

  “She seems like a lot of fun!” she said brightly. “Have you decided if she’s your girlfriend or not?”