Why did we all collapse on the floor? What happened here earlier today? Why can't I, or anyone else, remember? These three questions circle my mind up until lunch. I follow Kazuki and Kei to the roof, where we always sit. We usually just gaze at the afternoon sky and relax; but today, we end up watching a live news broadcast on the Lightning Assassin from my phone. It projects a holographic screen so we that we can all see it.

"We're here right now at the LA Detention Facility, where a prisoner named Jean Black demolished his cell wall and escaped," the reporter announces. "The suspect has darted towards a nearby bank, where he is currently threatening the employees to 'hand him the money.'" As the reporter continues to explain the situation, they show a live video of the incident.

 I ignore the reporter and focus all of my attention at the video. The video shows a high school girl, no older than me, with long, beautiful pink hair. She's dressed in a black hoodie over a pink crew neck shirt and blue jeans, with a scarf wrapped around the lower half of her face. She slices up a gasoline truck with a long katana and walks through the flames of the fire. I stare in awe at the girl. The video shows a close up of her face, which is partially covered with her scarf. I pause the video.

"Hey, why did you pause it?" Kazuki asks.

I don't answer. I zoom in on her face to get the clearest image as possible. The first thing I notice is her eyes. They're blue, like mine, but they couldn't be any more different. Her eyes have a cold and ruthless aura surrounding them, giving me the chills.

Suddenly, I feel my heart racing. "That face...I've seen it before," I mumble. I grasp my head. Fragments of my lost memory comes together piece by piece.

"Hey, Hikari-chan, what's the matter?" Kazuki asks.

The pieces all make sense now. "I remember."

The two stare at me. 

"Remember when we woke up in the middle of the classroom, and we wondered what happened? I know why. I also know why our memories are a bit hazy."

"We're all ears," Kei says.

"This morning, Sensei passed back our tests, remember? Fukudo-kun came in 10 or 15 minutes late. Sensei scolded him, and then Fukudo pulled out a gun and pointed it at him. The whole class was terrified. We all hid under the desks. Right before he pulled the trigger, 'she' busted through the window."

"Who?" Kazuki asks.

"The Lightning Assassin."

They gasp.

"Then, Fukudo-kun tried to take me hostage after running out of bullets in the gun. She was able to deflect them all. I took my eyes off of her for one second, and she was gone. She cut him cleanly in half with her sword. She killed him," I whisper.

Their eyes widen and their jaws drop. 

"That can't be true, right, Kazuki-kun? I mean, you said she busted through the the window. But if that was the case, why isn't there any broken glass or blood on the floor from the fight?" Kei asks.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

"I don't know. But I saw her pull out a small metal rod from her pocket. She even said to me, 'Don't worry, you'll forget all of this.' I'm assuming it's a memory wiper or something. That's when we all collpased. That leaves me to believe that while we were unconscious, they fixed up the classroom to make it look like nothing happened," I hypothesize.

"What about the teachers and students from the other classrooms? Firing a gun would definitely catch the attention of someone," Kei argues.

"I'm not sure. That's a hole I can't seem to fill," I admit.

"Is it possible the other teachers and students wanted him to die?" Kazuki asks, tilting her head down.

"What do you mean?" I ask. "There's no way they would-"

"I heard some rumors," he interrupts. "Fukudo-kun was like the number 1 most hated guy in this school.I heard he was posting some threats on the Internet against Sensei. He used to do that to a lot of other people, too. But, the police traced the posts back to the school. He was apparently using the school Internet to cyber bully many students and teachers so they couldn't trace it back to his devices. However, everyone knew it was him. If they were to secretly tell each and every person on campus to not interfere, it's possible to pretend his death never occurred, thus keeping the attention away from the police," she explains.

"Are you saying that everyone in the school cooperated with the Lightning Assassin?" she exclaims.

"I didn't say that. I'm just saying it's possible they turned a blind eye to the situation for a reason," he admits.

"But, how did they know he was going to die? And how did he know when he would die?" I ask.

"There are two possibilities. It's not impossible for them to predict if and when the Lightning Assassin would strike. They could've simply said to each other, 'If the Lightning Assassin ever shows up, don't make a fuss about it and pretend nothing is going on,' or something. The other is they planned to kill him and decided to ignore the murder. But she appeared and did the dirty work for them," he hypothesizes.

Kei and I slowly take in what Kazuki said. I don't even know what to say about this.

The bell rings, indicating the end of lunch.

"We better get going," Kei says.

Kazuki nods.

As we head off back to class, I call out to them, "Did you guys end up remember the incident at all?" I needed to clarify.

They shake their heads.

"I don't know why. I believe the entire story, Hikari-chan. You have no reason to lie. It just won't come back to me," Kei says.

"Me neither," Kazuki says.

"I see," I reply.