Chapter 9: anticipation.

After giving Okimodo a shirt to cover up the wound on his chest Chaiseki led him up to his room and upon entering they were immediately confronted by a wave of smoke that seeped past them into the corridor.

“Let me guess, Stava us here...” Okimodo said waving the smoke away from him.

“Damn right I’m here.” A figure said as they emerged through the smoke to greet Okimodo, revealing themself to be a scrawny boy with messy brown hair and skin that was white, lacking the olive undertone and tall height typical of an Azurai.

Okimodo couldn’t help but immediately begin to lampoon. “How many times have I told you already smoking-“

“Stunts your growth.” Stava sneered, finishing Okimodo’s sentence. “Just shut up and close the door.”

Okimodo chuckled at the visible irritation Stava was displaying. In truth he didn’t actually care about Stava’s smoking habit he just loved poking fun at him and triggering his short man complex.

Chaiseky also couldn’t help but crack a laugh at Stava’s expense.

Okimodo closed the door as Chaiseky and Stava sat down on Chaisaky’s couch. Seated on the bed opposite the couch were Nankei and Shibeki, two other Azurai youths that completed Okimodo’s core friend group.

Okimodo jumped across the room landing in between Nankai and Shibeki much to Chaiseky’s immediate frustration.

“I told you to stop doing that.” Chaiseki scowled. “You’re going to break my bed.”

“Yea Okimodo be more considerate.” Nankai laughed before jumping up and down on the bed to get under Chaiseky’s skin.

“Nankai if you don’t knock it off I swear to Heshea.” Chaiseky was about to blow before Shibeki spoke up.

“Now that everyone’s here let’s discuss my plan for passing the right of passage.” Shibeki said getting straight to the point.

“Nankai it’s time for you to leave the room.” Chaiseky grinned.

Nankai immediately turned to look at Chaiseky with a betrayed expression.

“Chaiseky let her stay, she’s not hurting anyone unless you count your bed frame as a person.” Okimodo protested.

“She’s a girl.” Chaiseky shot back. “She’s not even going to be participating at the right of passage so what’s the point in including her. Plus she’s getting on my nerves. Of course I might change my mind if she stops trying to break my bed.”

“Fine I’ll stop jumping on the bed.” Nankai sighed sitting down next to Okimodo before listening in.

“I don’t understand why we need to discuss a plan.” Okimodo moved back and turned to lie down on Chaiseky’s bed fully. “It’s a pretty simple thing, you get put up against a random kid in a duel and then you beat them up.”

“Except it’s rarely that simple.” Shibeki replied with a sigh. “You know very well how the clan arranges things. They practically rig the right of passage so that first timers like ourselves always lose. Which is why I got these little guys.”

Shibeki reached into his pocket and retrieved something before holding his palm open to reveal what it was.

“What the…” Okimodo immediately frowned deeply when he saw that Shibeki was holding three furry little wingless rainbow butterflies.

They were creatures that produced a gas that once inhaled by another organism allowed the wingless rainbow butterfly to mind control them. Typically for simple life forms like insects, they would be under the control of the butterfly forever. More complex beings like humans couldn’t be permanently controlled but their thoughts and actions could be altered to some degree. People often tamed them for use in battle to disorientate enemies. The gas produced by them could also be manipulated to only affect specific individuals thus making these creatures particularly desirable. They were also extremely easy to tame as it only took about ten minutes to do so.

“You can’t be serious.” Okimodo’s frown deepened. “You’re really going to cheat.”

“It’s not cheating.” Shibeki shot back. “It’s perfectly fair since the system is rigged against us.”

“I don’t exactly like the idea of using these either, but what other options do we have?” Stava spoke up. Next to him Chaiseky remained dead silent.

“You could just fight fairly like everyone else, that’s also an option.” Okimodo scowled. “Shibeki you’ve lost your pride and honour.”

“I assure you I’m just as prideful as ever.” Shibeki laughed.

“Whatever.” Okimodo turned away from the group to face the wall. “I’m not getting involved with this.”

Okimodo found the whole thing stupid. If they got caught then they would be banned from participating in the right of passage ever again. They’d essentially be classed as children for the rest of their life and forced to join the Ionoon school with all of the female clan members. To think that the chance of winning was worth all of that humiliation for Shibeki, it made Okimodo feel sick to his stomach. Shibeki had always been a sketchy character ever since Okimodo first befriended him. He had once challenged one of the older Azurai boys to a duel because his crush had a crash on the older boy. Shibeki being an arrogant brat, ran his mouth to everyone about how he’d whoop the older boys ass and even ran around the clan residence openly insulting the older boy’s family. Naturally Shibeki got his ass kicked to kingdom come and in the end became the laughing stock of the clan for a while. After everything died down he developed a deep grudge against the older boy. This all culminated when Shibeki kidnapped and shaved the hair off of the girl he had been obsessed with and applied a deadly cocktail to her scalp that killed all of her hair follicles permanently. The girl became a shell of her former self and couldn’t face the older boy she had a crush on anymore. At that point Okimodo had cut Shibeki off altogether but was forced to befriend him again because Chaiseky still wanted to stay friends with him. Okimodo hoped that Chaiseky and Stava would reject Shibeki’s plan and let Shibeki ruin his own life on his own.

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“I only brought three anyway so someone would’ve needed to be excluded regardless.” Shibeki sighed before extending his hand towards Chaiseky and Stava. “Here, take one and rub its belly for ten minutes. After that’s done the butterfly should be tamed.”

Stava immediately took one but Chaiseky hesitated.

“What’s the matter?” Stava asked turning to face the green eyed boy.

“I… just need to think this through.” Chaiseky muttered. “If we get busted it’s completely over for us.”

“In life you have to take risk.” Shibeki chuckled, twirling his partially formed teenage moustache. “So what if we get caught? I’ll just leave the clan and move to Ukun or Syrainia. I can make an easy living with my resonance there.”

“Of course you’d disregard your heritage so easily.” Nankai who had been silent throughout the exchange finally spoke up, glaring at Shibeki with judgemental eyes. She sat with her arms folded over her legs that were folded up against her chest. She gave the three boys to her right a judgmental look before giving Okimodo a sad smile who was laying down to her left facing away from her.

“Don’t do it Chaiseky.” Nankai said. “You’re better than this loser. Be like Okimodo.”

“You know what.” Chaiseky got up and walked over to his window where he opened it and threw the wingless butterfly into the blackness of the light. “I’d rather just risk losing. Most people don’t pass on their first attempt anyway.”

“And why do you think that is?” Shibeki asked incredulously. “it’s because they deliberately put up first timers against third timers so the third timers get an easy win.”

“Maybe you’ll be an easy win for them but not me.” Chaiseky said grabbing the wingless butterfly Stava was holding away from him.

Stava didn’t even bother to protest against Chaiseky and just picked up the tobacco pipe on the dresser next to the couch and resumed his smoking.

“I’m glad to see that you still have some sense.” Nankai praised.

“You won’t be an easy win?” Okimodo rolled around and asked.

“For the past year I’ve trained my hand to hand combat on and off.” Chaiseky explained as he threw the second wingless butterfly into the blackness. “Even if I do lose, I think I can still put up a good fight. Even against a third timer…”

“Good.” Okimodo smiled.

Okimodo was proud to see that his friend actually had some common sense. Chaiseky was definitely too good to be friends with someone like Shibeki and so was Okimodo himself. Whenever Shipo would talk down on his friends it was mainly because he associated Chaiseky and the rest with Shibeki due to Shibeki always asking to hang with them. In truth Shipo had a point, it wasn’t a good idea for Okimodo to keep on associating himself with Shibeki. Okimodo knew that if Shibeki didn’t try to better himself soon he would have to start taking a more hostile attitude towards him.

“You guys are so boring.” Shibeki scowled.

Okimodo immediately Changed the subject. “I met this cute Ukunese girl earlier today.”

“WHAT!!!” Kaiya immediately came bursting into Chaiseky’s room. “You and her are just friends right?”

“What the fuck.” Chaiseky immediately flew into a rage, sneering like a trapped fox at his sister. “How long have you been there?”

“I just happened to be walking by.” Kaiya immediately lied.

Even Okimodo was taken aback. Considering that Kaiya had obviously been listening in, it showed a lot about where her mind was for him mentioning Cheadle to be the thing that motivated her to intrude. What about Shibeki’s plan to cheat in the right of passage? Wasn’t that far more important?

Fore the next hour Okimodo, Chaiseky and Stava all discussed their various plans and training methods. Shibeki largely remained out of the conversation while Nankai left to hang out with Kaiya in her room. as the time for the right of passage drew near and everyone started to get ready to leave, putting on their ceremonial robes.

“Watch this.” Okimodo smirked as he stood in the middle of the room while extending out his right hand. At the next moment Okimodo’s ceremonial robe appeared floating in mid air before his hand, much to the amazement of everyone except Shibeki.

“Must be nice being able to resonate so easily.” Shibeki sighed before laughing in a self deprecating manner.

“You just lack piousness Shibeki.” Okimodo chuckled. “Devote yourself to heshea and you’ll be able to resonate effortlessly.”

“Don’t start with another one of your lectures.” Stava whined.

“I’m just saying.” Okimodo shrugged before putting on his ceremonial robe.

“Let’s get out of here.” Chaiseky said opening the door. “Let’s go kick some ass.”

As they all exited Chaiseky’s room and went down the stairs they came across Kaiya and Nankai waiting for them by the front door.

“Kaiya would like to speak with Okimodo privately.” Nankai explained sheepishly. “Can you guys all wait outside while Kaiya talks to him?”

Beside her Kaiya was waring the female equivalent of the clan’s ceremonial robe and blushing aggressively while fidgeting. She was wearing an amount of makeup that far exceeded what was appropriate for the right of passage.

At this point Okimodo wondered why Kaiya even bothered to ask to speak to him privately since it was clear to everyone what her intentions were. She had been crushing on Okimodo for years and everyone knew it.

“Hell the fuck no.” Chaiseky immediately erupted into a protest. “Okimodo doesn’t like you Kaiya. Leave him alone!”

“Shut up.” Kaiya yelled back at him. “You don’t even know why I want to talk to him.”

“Please.” Stava laughed. “A girl asks to speak with a popular pretty boy privately while blushing like a cherry. What the hell do you think we’re gonna assume you want to talk about, Taxes?.”

“I’m not a pretty boy I’m a handsome young man.” Okimodo corrected him, not liking being referred to as pretty as it implicated that he had a feminine appearance.

“It’s not a big deal.” Shibeki said. “Let’s just wait outside for Okimodo to reject her.”

“Fine, I will wait outside for Okimodo to reject her.” Chaiseky said opening the door and letting the rest out before glaring at Okimodo coldly. “And you WILL reject her.” He then slammed the door closed.

“Shut the hell up.” Kaiya sneered under her breath before turning to face Okimodo, immediately going back to blushing. “Umm…”

“Are we going to discuss taxes?” Okimodo smiled warmly, brushing her hair back gently.

“That’s not funny.” She held his hand tightly melting in to its warmth against her face. “You’ve probably heard what I’m about to say many times before.”

“Then why say it?” Okimodo asked getting closer to her until he held her in an embrace.

“Because I have to.” Kaiya said nuzzling herself into his chest. “I can’t control how I feel.”

“I can’t risk ruining my friendship with your brother.” Okimodo said somberly caressing her hair and lower back.

“Fuck him.” Kaiya said bluntly. “Is it because of him that you flirt with every girl except me? You know that drives me up the wall right?”

She slipped her hand under his robe and shirt caressing the skin on his back and shoulders.

“You’re really making this hard for me.” Okimodo felt the devil whispering in his ear, urging him to take Kaiya upstairs to do something devious.

“I love you…” kaiya whispered to him causing his hormones to rage.

“Enough.” Okimodo freed himself and walked up to the door. “I’m out of here.” He said throwing the door open.

“Great.” Chaiseky cheered. “now that the rejection has been done, let’s go to the right of passage.”

Nankai looked at Kaiya with a hint of pity before turning to face the rest of the group.

They all began to march down the bricked road leading to the main road that led to the clan’s central palace. Okimodo looked back and saw Kaiya walking behind him silently, her eyes fixed on him like a tiger eyeing its prey. Okimodo knew he had to figure out a way to avoid her soon.

“Whatever.” Okimodo sighed internally before smiling. Kaiya was a problem for another day, right now his mind was focused on the right of passage.

He ran ahead of the group before turning back to face them. “Are we gonna kick their asses?” He yelled rambunctiously.

“Hell yess.” Chaiseky yelled back at him. “Or at least I’ll come close.”

“Of course I’ll kick their asses.” Stava said. “Just you guys wait.”

Both Nankai and kaiya smiled warmly at the three boys.

At the back of the group Shibeki heaved a heavy sigh while clutching the wingless butterfly in his hand, an ominous light gleamed in his amber eyes.

End of chapter 9.