10th bullet - comfort my tears.

10th bullet – comfort my tears.

When natsume woke up, he was in the room where all the boys were, quite unsure of what had happened. He didn’t even know he had a fever last night so he faithfully dressed and went to the archery fields thinking the club members would already be there. He forgot breakfast and blushed when kumo accompanied him back. Reiko saw him walk in and decided her original idea of putting him back in bed when she saw him fully dressed. Some of the girls were happily gasping and basking in natsume’s aura of a traditional, strong hunter in those clothes. Saya was obviously blushing to reiko’s irritation. Natsume sat beside reiko instead of saya so reiko wasn’t that unhappy though. Saya on the other hand was quite upset… dx so what happened after breakfast was obvious. Natsume released the arrow and it his the hill beside the target. Sighing, he turned to reiko. Reiko didn’t know why he would turn to her, but she replied, “its not ur first time. Concentrate.”
All natsume did was sigh again and try. He got closer… but still far away from the bulls eye… The other club members were either getting training in a room nearby or those with experience (basically seniors who rmb how to handle bows and shoot arrows). This also meant saya was cursing herself for not remembering how to weild a bow.
Natsume was thinking of how reiko knew it wasn’t his first time doing archery but then he realised it was because she knew about DX. Reiko was regretting telling natsume that sentence but she continued to shoot arrows straight at the bulls eye with some arrows going haywire when she thought of natsume. The other club members were too busy themselves to realise anything though ><
Reiko finally got upset with herself with random missings so she went to natsume and solved his wielding problems. Finally shooting the bulls eye, natsume thanks reiko with a smile that makes reiko want to blush but tries hard to refrain from doing so.
“thanks. Really.”
“whats with ‘really’?”
“just… thanks.” Accompanied by one of those sweaty smiles again.
“no problem.” Reiko normally replies with difficulty.
“will you answer my questions later?”
“if you shoot ten bulls eyes in a row right now yes.”
“ill try” replied natsume with a shrug. Sadly, he only managed one.
“too bad. Try again.”
“if I win you in table tennis?”
“okay. At night then.”
In truth, reiko was ready for whatever question natsume would come to her with. After all, she knew she had plenty of things she could tell him without telling him about project T2C and about her father. She was confident about lying her way through their conversation if she had to as well. All she wanted was for natsume to learn to look at the problem directly in front of him instead of the future problems he would face and not solve the problem in front of him. which means, he needs to be able to concentrate on what he was doing or reiko wouldn’t tell him anything. Kekeke.
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As expected, natsume lost the heated battle. What was unexpected, was that he was losing his cool. Hot and fiery, natsume banged the table tennis racket on the table and left the room leaving club members speechless. Reiko showed her speechlessness with a frown and walking slowly out after natsume. Believe me the whole ambience of the club trip was horrible. By the fifth day, the club members were tired of archery and natsume kept failing to meet with reiko’s expectations. Reiko was tired of natsume’s horrid attitude and natsume was upset about himself not being able to do things he normally can do without thinking. Then reiko said something that sparked an idea in his head.
“think you idiot.”
“thinking. Thanks”
Reiko was a little surprised at natsume’s reply but at night, natsume won reiko in table tennis not just once but 5 times In a row, and he also managed to hit bulls eyes exactly ten times before he failed. So reiko told him to come to kumo’s room after washing up at the hotspring or the bath. Excited to gain the information he wanted, natsume washed up real fast and waited impatiently in kumo’s room for reiko to finish bathing. In natsume’s head, about a day passed before reiko entered the room in a yukata clean and fresh which she was hoping to catch natsume’s attention with but he didn’t catch it and went straight to the point.
“So are you part of DX?”
“that’s quite obvious already”
“how do you know my sister?”
“you mean your neighbour. I have the files on you that you gave to DX”
“Why?”
“Simply because I am above you in status. Sadly, I cannot tell you about it until you rise to a level as high as mine.”
“so would you tell me all you can tell me?”
“I would.”
“can you start right now?”
“if u get impatient, no.”
Natsume inhales and exhales slowly before saying, “please start.”
“I am one of the few that know DX in real person. I have free access to him so you can imagine what part I have in the organization. I have little jobs but more administration to do. The shooting club is also to train students and hire them if they have the talent. About the files and information of others in DX, I have access to most of them. Anything you would like to ask?”
“Then you know where my sister is?”
“Yes.”
“would you… tell me?”
“im sorry but that information is top secret and therefore cannot be told.”
Natsume wants to shout at reiko but he clenches his fists and punches the ground before continuing, “How much… do you know about me?”
“your age, birthday, parents, where you used to live, what happened then, how your family died, about everything that happened at that time.”
“okay… then tell me, what do you think of it.”
“Tragic, but normal for many DX members.”
“thank you. What about you?”
“me?... my mother is no longer standing on ground, my dad stands on high levelled ground most of his life, my brother still had a bullet stuck in his head.”
“riddles and truth mixed together?”
“no. purely truths.”
“ok.”
“Are you willing to tell me whats eating you then?”
“I’ve told you once.”
“You have?”
Natsume took one hugeeee longgg breath and said the following in a gradual crescendo in volume…
“yea. I didn’t welcome that revenge. I went against my dads words and I took revenge and I cant take my actions back so I’m upset with myself. I blame myself for not remembering the names of those that killed my father even though my father told me not to and I hate the fact that I was the one who joked around about the mission and even played in an arcade instead of thinking about what I was doing. The whole idea about life and death is killing me!” then he pants and tears roll down his cheeks and he adds in a half muffled shout, “ AND I HATE IT WHEN I CANT STOP THOSE DAMNED FLOODGATES!”
reiko finally understands her father’s words as well as what her father had wanted her to do. She genuinely smiles at both natsume and her father as she once again takes natsume’s head into her palms and rested him on her shoulders. Then she coaxed him again saying, “boys shouldn’t cry you know?” a throaty and coarse “I know” was replied as reiko’s yukata got wet with tears. When natsume once again cries himself to sleep like a baby, reiko rests his head on her lap for a while before putting him on kumo’s futon and going out to shop. Kumo and her brought back bags upon bags of groceries which she placed near a barbecue pit before gathering all the club members with the click of a button. Meaning their necklaces started ringing and all the members were made to move to the larger ringing (coming from where reiko was).
“I SEE ALL OF YOU ARE HERE” reiko shouts.
“NATSUME ISNT!” a random guy shouts back.
“HE GOT SICK IN THE MIDDLE OF TRAINING SO HE IS RESTING AT THE MOMENT.”
After a bit of worried glances around the place as well as murmuring, reiko breaks the noise.
“WE’RE GONNA HAVE A BARBEQUE TODAY FOR DINNER”
The whole club whoops and screams in happiness.
“SPLIT YOURSELVES INTO GROUPS OF 5 AND ILL ASSIGN YOU TO DIFFERENT JOBS!”
After organizing everybody and making sure all went right, she left kumo with the order to help anyone in need or save anyone who chopped or burnt a part of him or herself to go to natsume. Kumo overly happily smiles and accepts his order as he knew that reiko would go to natsume.


END
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not sure if it was short. but ohwells. short and sweet is nice ^^