Voltiana

Marachii came out of the bathroom, and he found his brother missing. He looked around everywhere for him: down the halls, in classrooms, around the cafeteria, and yet no trace of him was seen. Ms. Michiko had noticed this and stopped Marachii when he came back around her way. "Marachii, dear? What's wrong?"

He pointed to the bench he left Dachii on. "My brother disappeared! Did you see where he went?"

Ms. Michiko immediately felt concerned.

"Oh my! I'm sorry. I haven't seen him. I'll call the office right away!" She immediately pulled out her phone.

Marachii looked around some more as Ms. Michiko spoke again, a bit more anxious now. "He isn't able to just get up and move on his own...can he?" Marachii shook his head. "No. No, he can't."

As she called the office, Mr. Kitoharo came over to them, his face a twisted mask of fury.

"Marachii Jones!" Marachii tensed up. "Yes, sir?"

The math teacher sized Marachii up. "Where's your friend? He stole gum from my classroom!" Marachii started to sweat. "Who?" The man almost looked ready to kill. "One of the jokester kids! The one with short black hair, not the one with blonde hair." Marachii nervously scratched his head.

"Chiho?"

"Yes! Where is he?" Mr. Kitoharo dropped his teacher bags, and kids started to watch the scene, but Ms. Michiko stepped in. "Seta, please calm down. Marachii's brother is missing; we are trying to find him."

"Oh..." His face shifted to whole-hearted embarrassment. "Sorry, then. I'll leave you be."

Marachii instantly relaxed. "Thanks, sir."

But as Ms. Michiko continued her attempts to call the office and let them know of the situation, the farther Dachii got from them. And unbeknownst to them...

...he was far.

Dachii was still being carried by his two friends as they hopped out of the bathroom behind Okuda into an alley behind the school. The guy was fast, but Dachii didn't know if he was running that fast due to his naturally gifted athleticism, or if he just badly wanted his girl back.

Either way, it infuriated Dachii, whose body was about to give out even though he wasn't the one doing all the running. He had to say something. "Where are we going? Sheesh!"

Okuda kept his pace. "She had to go this way!

Yeah, sure. Dachii wasn't buying that he had "Mihina-Senses."

He was sure the guy was just trying to be a pain. The guys cut through more alleys and streets and before long, they made it miles away from the school, right in front of a nightclub. Zentaruo looked it up and down. "A club! That's what's up! Why are we here?"

Okuda walked to the door.

"She's a party girl, I traced her footsteps here."

He pointed behind them to the numerous faint footsteps on the ground. "See." He was the first to walk into the nightclub, with the others slowly following. Dachii noticed what was going on as soon as he stepped into the area. "Woah. All these kids."

Lots of teens were partying, drinking, and dancing with each other. As Okuda pushed through the crowd to try and find his girl, Dachii and the twins just took it all in.

"Well, damn, lot of fine ladies in here, you know---" Zenaturo gave a slight chuckle, but it was clear he was nervous. Dachii, however, was feeling the exact same thing. He wondered to himself if any of these ladies would give a guy like him any attention.

He scouted the area but couldn't find any trace of his best friend. The twins took him to the bar and sat him on a chair. Zentauro went deep into the mass of dancing teenagers, while Chiho patted Dachii on the back.

"Here bro, just chill here, and we'll be right back."

"Oh, okay."

Dachii let him go on, as he scanned the room for any more signs of Mihina. He did see a couple of girls that caught his eye, but a voice made him fall out of his chair.

"Yo kid, you want a shot?"

He looked up to find the bartender holding some very suspicious bottles with a creepy smile on his face. Despite Dachii's struggle to get up, he looked at the guy and immediately said:

"No. No. Hell. NO."

As he crawled away, he heard a comforting voice for once.

"Dachii? How did you get here?"

Sure enough, there she was, standing over him with worry. He found her to be a sight for sore eyes. "There you are, sheesh, why'd you ditch school, girl?"

She helped him up. "Oh, um, you weren't supposed to come here, it was just a little party my friend was throwing for her--"

But they weren't alone for very long.

"Bae! There you are!"

Of course, HE had to ruin things.

Mihina used her free arm to hug Okuda. "Hey! What are YOU doing here too? You're supposed to be in class!" He stroked her face. "You know you're more important than any class. Had to come and find you." Dachii almost passed out.

"Aww, that's sweet!" She gave him a kiss, and Dachii had enough. "Okay, well, now that you've been found, I think I should go back to school now, my brother is---"

But to his annoyance, the clowns found them. "Yo, Mihina!" They both gave her a hug. "What's up with ya?" She gave them a confused look, but she hugged them back.

"You're ALL here? Wow, I wasn't even gone that long—-"

Zentaruo cut her off. "Ahh, blame the jock here."

He pointed at Okura, who grunted and rolled his eyes. "Speaking of, maybe we should head back before we're considering skipping—-"

Then he looked at how lit and active the party was. "Ehh, screw it. We can party." And party they did. Mihina took Okuda to the dance floor, while Zentaruo and Chiho began to play beer pong. The DJ kept trying to make the party more and more live.

"Come on everybody! Let me hear you MAKE SOME NOISE!"

Mihina's friend, Haruta, jogged over to her while she was in the middle of dancing with Okuda. "Hey, bestie! Thanks for coming to the party!"

Mihina briefly stopped dancing and they gave each other excited hugs and jumped up and down. "Hey, happy birthday!" Okuda put his hands on his hips and impatiently waited for her to finish catching up with her friend. "Here, I got you a birthday gift!"

She went to grab her purse, pulling out an elegant diamond necklace to give to Haruta, which earned a slight eyebrow raise from Okuda.

"Thanks so much, bestie!" She had a big smile on her face. Zentaruo and Chiho gathered around, admiring the expensive necklace.

"Ooh, shiny thing!"

Mihina wrapped the necklace around her friend, and they shared another tender hug. While this happened, people began crowding the middle in preparation to say happy birthday. They began to sing "Happy Birthday" to her, and some kids brought forth cakes of various flavors: chocolate, vanilla, and coconut.

In the middle of singing, a single voice rang through the area.

"Where is my brother?"

Mihina, Zentaruo, and Chiho all tensed up. They turned around, and they found the last member of their friend group…

…Marachii.

Zentaruo took the lead. "Oh, hey Marachii! Dachii should be right—-" He whirled around to the bar, and…saw that it was empty.

"—-over there…"

Marachii crossed his arms and tapped his foot. "Hmm, over there you say?"

Mihina had an awkward look on her face. "Wait, I thought I had set him down…" Chiho looked around the area. "Wait, come to think of it, I haven't seen him since we came from the bar…" Marachii shook his head. "Some friends you are." They all had guilty looks on their faces, and the entire party was now invested in the drama. The DJ tried to play more music…

"Well guys, seems a bit of MYSTERY is in the air—-"

But a look from Mihina quieted him down.

"—or never mind."

She walked over to Marachii, who began searching left and right for Dachii, pushing through people who got in the way. Zentaruo and Chiho strolled after them, and Okuda just stood in the middle, confused. "Huh. What a weird Monday."

"Marachii, we'll help find him—-" She had lots of worry on her face, as Marachii began to walk up the stairs to look for his brother. "Yeah, sure, where did he go then?"

They all shrugged, clueless…

…but Dachii was not in the building.

Dachii Jones had ended up outside, having crawled into an alleyway a few blocks away, leaning on a wall.

"Glad they didn't notice. Had to get out of that place."

He was wondering how he would get back to school when a mysterious hooded figure walked past him. "Aye, what---?" The figure was shrouded in darkness, Dachii couldn't see their face, or even their hands, since they wore gloves.

The figure seemed to be trying to open a nearby door, and when it failed, they ran off.

Dachii just watched in silent confusion. He looked down the alley where the person ran off, and then he crawled back to his spot.

"Not my problem."

He got hungry and decided to get some food before attempting to make it back to school, so he called an Uber to his location. With lots of assistance from the driver, he got into the back of the car, and the Uber took him to a nearby McDonald's before dropping him off back at the school.

Dachii thanked him and got out with his help, attempting to sneak in through the back of the school.

But before he could even manage to move an inch, he saw what he thought was the same mysterious person from the alley, standing on the roof, staring at him. He blinked and the figure was gone again, so he thought he was hallucinating.

"I'm tripping, I think I need rest."

The school was so close, so within reach, all he had to do was sneak in undisturbed. He crawled ever so slowly, trying his best to make it through those back doors. He inched closer and closer, and once he got to those doors and opened them, he found:

"What the HELL?"

...The teacher's lounge.

Sadly, there were in fact teachers in it. Ms. Michiko, Mr. Kitoharo, the P.E. teacher, Mr. Kohaku, the Art teacher, Ms. Askua, and even the principal. Mrs. Ryoko. They all stared in complete shock at Dachii as he dragged himself into the room.

"Oh...hey?"

10 minutes later, he was seated in the principal's office. Mrs. Ryoko paced back and forth in front of him. "Well, Mr. Jones, why did I just see you crawl into the teacher's lounge?"

He coughed violently, which prompted her to give him a bottle of water. "Well...you see..." He coughed again.

"So, tell me, who took you off school grounds? I know you need assistance to leave. Who was it?"

He started to vomit, and she gave him a trash can to do it in. He appreciated her generosity but was a bit uncomfortable with her directness. "Uh, no one. I...walked?"

She sat down and gave a long sigh. "Dachii. Dear. I'm not stupid. I'm the principal for a reason, you know." She made a simple call, and another ten minutes of awkward silence passed before the door opened and Marachii, Mihina, Okuda, and the twins walked in.

Mrs. Ryoko gave Dachii a disappointed look as he nervously shifted.

"…Oh."

"Yes. Oh."

His friends all ran over to him, clearly worried. Mihina reached him first and hugged him, nearly crying.

"Dachii, what happened? I was so worried!"

While her hug felt welcoming to Dachii, both the tension from the earlier events of the day and her boyfriend's presence made the moment sour for Dachii. "Oh. Nothing. I'm fine. Just went out for a walk."

This confused her and the others, and Marachii looked him over. "Are you okay? Are you hurt or anything?"

"Yeah, I'm okay, see…?"

He held out his arms, which took visible effort to do. "Every piece of me is intact." Mrs. Ryoko cleared her throat and towered over the kids. "Well now, Ms. Minyana, Mr. Hanshiro, and the Tsukiko boys, you have a LOT of explaining to do. Mr. Jones, I'll give you a pass since you had permission to leave and find your brother."

She rounded back on the guilty three. "So how did your friend end up outside of the school during SCHOOL hours?"

Everyone looked at each other, and Mihina raised her hand. "Sorry, it was me, ma'am. I left to go to my friend's secret birthday party, and they followed me out of concern."

Ms. Ryoko sighed and put her hand on her head.

"Leaving class is against the rules, Ms. Minyana. I'll have to punish you."

As Mihina hung her head and was held by Okuda, Ms. Ryoko looked at Dachii and Marachii. "And as for you two, come with me." Marachii gently grabbed Dachii and the two started off after the principal, who led them to the front office.

Dachii took one last look at Mihina with Okuda and thought to himself:

"Ugh, she even looks amazing when she's crying. One day, Dachii, one day."

They made it into the office and saw their mother waiting for them. She got up and gave her children a hug when they got in the room. "Hey, my babies! Are you two alright?"

The scene was a little awkward, but Dachii managed to speak up. "Oh, we're okay, mother." Dachii noticed she had been crying, even before Marachii did., but he decided to wait to ask her about it. The principal stepped forward.

"Your mother has asked me to withdraw you from school today."

The boys looked shocked. "Huh? Why?"

Kia hugged them even tighter. "Come. I'll tell you guys outside."

As Dachii was helped to the car outside, he saw one last glimpse of his friends, and he saw Okuda give Mihina a ring to cheer her up. This day was just getting worse and worse. As he sunk back in the front seat, he thought the day couldn't get any more terrible.

Kia got in the car, and Marachii got in the backseat. As she gripped the steering wheel, she delivered the news that would change all three of their lives.

"Children, we've...been evicted."

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