===== Chapter 10 (Daiki’s Arc) =====

“Bring your element out.” Daiki repeated.

Ayaka could see the sadness in Daiki’s eyes. Since she saw the scene with Inoo, she knew how Daiki had felt of losing a friendship. However, Ayaka hesitated to let her elemental-side out. She had no control of it whatsoever, so who knows what it’ll do to Daiki.

Daiki lifted up a huge ball of water and threw it at Ayaka. He really meant business and Ayaka had no choice.

“You’ve asked for it now.” Ice-Ayaka smiled. She used the surrounding water and transformed into ice that would cut the ropes. She slowly stood up. “So, liar-san, are you sure you want to face the true terror of ice?”

Daiki prepared himself with more water.

Ice-Ayaka straightened up. “Well, you go first. After all, I can freeze any water that you throw at me.”

“Oh!” Daiki totally forgot about this point. I’ll have to think strategically. He thought to himself. However, that was not Daiki’s strong point. He began with sending three streams of water towards Ayaka in different directions.

Ice-Ayaka crossed her hands. “Is this all you can think of?” A few seconds before the water could reach her, she froze the streams of water. She continued to freeze the streams, leading the ice right towards Daiki. He had no choice but to split the streams so that the ice could not freeze the water in the pool. It would be hard for him to find another source of water if Ayaka froze the water.

“I hope that you have better ideas than that.” Ice-Ayaka detached the ice streams and drove them into the pool. The instant they reached the top of the water, the pool began to freeze.

This might be harder than I thought. Daiki slowly walked backwards.

Ice-Ayaka did not waste any time. She sent more spikes of ice at Daiki. Daiki dashed towards the storage room doors to grab a few items to help him get away from the ice spikes. Instead of opening the door to the storage room, he held the door to the sauna.

When the door opened, a huge waft of steam came rushing out, melting the ice spikes.

“Oh…” Daiki blinked at the sight. Since the ice spikes were now water again, he had control over the puddle. He quickly sent the water back over to Ayaka. However, the speed of the water quickly cooled it down. By the time it reached Ayaka, she could re-freeze the water.

“I’m getting a little tired playing around with you.” Ice-Ayaka muttered. “I better just finish this off quickly.”

After a split second, Daiki finally noticed that Ayaka’s ice shards could only travel in straight lines. Ice was more rigid than water, so it had more predictable movements. As Daiki got used to following the ice shard movements, he led them into the sauna, which melted the ice. This frustrated Ayaka and she had to move closer.

“Just a little more…” Daiki muttered to himself.

Ayaka rushed towards Daiki and in a split second, Daiki ducked under her and Ayaka landed herself into the sauna room. He quickly closed the door and held it firmly.

“Let me out of here!” Ice-Ayaka shouted and pounded on the door.

Daiki kept pushing against the door until there was no sound coming out from behind. He slowly turned the doorknob and peeked inside to find Ayaka unconscious on the ground.

What should I do? Daiki began to panic. Dragging her back out doesn’t seem to be a good idea…what if she wakes up in berserk mode again? He remembered his gloves that the student council president gave him as a punishment. That’s it!

=====

Ayaka woke up with a big headache. She found herself lying on top of a gym mattress beside the pool. Last night’s events were completely hazy, but she knew she was in a fight as her entire body was aching. She noticed that her hands were heavier than usual. When she looked down, she saw that she was wearing the same gloves that Daiki had worn previously. Examining the gloves closer, she saw that they had a keyhole in them. Ayaka struggled for a moment to try to take them off, but to no avail. Wait…don’t these gloves prevent you from using your element? She was trying to fit the pieces of the puzzle together.

Daiki… Her memory was starting to come back to her. Well, at least up to some point. She remembered a faint whisper:

“Hmph. There. Don’t say I didn’t help you.”

Was that Daiki that spoke? Ayaka rubbed her head.

Now that she wore the gloves, she knew for sure that her “other half” will not be able to come out until she took them off. Technically, she couldn’t take them off even if she wanted to since the key was missing. She was almost certain that these gloves belonged to Daiki, as they did not fit her hands perfectly.

Ayaka had no intention of heading back to the classroom though. Was she afraid? Perhaps so, but it was more because she had to go through the trouble of the two guys trying to befriend her. Nevertheless, she went back anyway.

=====

As she expected, her desk was still missing from her place. The only place she could sit was on top of the bookshelves at the back of the room. The distance was not a burden to her, since her desk would have been just a couple of steps away from t back anyway.

“Ah! Ayaka!”

Ayaka turned around and her shoulders slumped. It was the two guys once again.

Yuto approached Ayaka first. “Good morning Ayaka! How are you feeling today?”

Chinen followed quickly behind Yuto. “I hope everything is going okay for you.”

Ayaka could tell that the two of them were indeed worried about her, but she held back her response. She was worried that her “other half” would come out if she shows any sort of emotion or speak out. She strictly taught herself not to show emotions nor could she open herself up to others. The only thing she could have done was to avoid their eye contact.

A few minutes later, Daiki popped in with a frenzy of girls. He too noticed that Ayaka did not have a desk right beside his own.

“Say Dai-chan,” one girl piped, “what did you do last night with that girl over there? She seems to be more depressed than usual.”

Ayaka and Daiki caught a quick glance at each other. While Daiki immediately looked away, Ayaka moved her eyes towards his hands. They were bare. She looked back at hers and confirmed. These must have been the same ones. But, why?

Daiki turned back to the girls. “Ah, it was nothing special. I just warned her about if they harm you guys in any way, I would treat her the same way as she did to you.”

“Aw Daiki, you’re so sweet!” Another girl squealed.

Both Chinen and Yuto heard the conversation and wanted to confirm with Ayaka.

“Did he really say that to you?” Chinen asked quietly.

How can I even answer that when I don’t remember it at all? Ayaka thought to herself.

“Yeah, don’t worry. Just tell us.” Yuto pulled up his sleeves. “We’ll teach him a thing or two.”

Chinen tilted his head. “How can we face him? You don’t even have an element of your own!”

Yuto nudged Chinen. “That’s fine! We have yours, right?”

Ayaka was confused at what the two were saying.

Yuto continued. “Besides, he can’t use his element here anyway!”

Ayaka wanted to interrupt, since she knew that Daiki could now use his element as his gloves were removed. How could she tell them that without saying a word? Her fists clenched.

Yuto turned to Chinen. “Come on, let’s get him.”

As he was about to move away, an arm grabbed him to a halt.

===== End of Chapter 10 =====