The Peculiars’ Tale Chapter 22

Translated by: whosays25

Edited by: seiji96

/22/ Favor

-Morris-

The sun was gradually overcoming the dark sky, my jacket was not enough to keep me warm from the cold breeze of the daybreak. I’m was leaning over the wall while waiting for someone. It seems that White Knights had just opened when I arrived.

I’m sure that after a short while, the one I’m waiting for will come. And I was right; I could already see her figure from afar. She stopped when she saw me. I think she have guessed I was waiting for her for some time.

“Good morning.” I greeted her.

She answered a nod, then she pa.s.sed by me and I automatically followed. We went to the school garden and sat on one bench. The wind is so cold, especially in the morning.

“I bet you’ll claim the favour now, Morris.”

She’s right.

“I also have to trouble you with an errand.”

“What?”

“Don’t tell it to Jill.”

I smirked. “Yeah, sure.” She’s referring to what I saw from her eyes on that counselling session.

“S-stop.” She closed her eyes while tears were flowing down her cheeks. I won.

I didn’t antic.i.p.ate those tears so when she shut her eyes, the flashes of memories also stopped. I didn’t mean any bad thing from that. I have no bad intentions.

She wiped her tears and she took a deep breath. Maybe it was reflected through my eyes, that’s why she guessed what I saw. Maybe that was the reason she closed her eyes.

“How dare you, Morris.” She’s not mad though. Miss Karen remained compose and calm, even when her eyes were closed. However, I already intruded to her memories… and to her secrets.

 ***

“Jill doesn’t know about this, about our kind.”

I smirked.

“Why? So you could bring her to your a.s.sociation?”

“It’s not about that — “

“You’re part of them. You’re from Memoire.”

“You don’t know everything, Morris.” She stressed. “What you’ve seen from my eyes is not enough and you don’t know the reason behind to what you saw. Don’t talk as if you know everything.”

I remained silent.

“Yes, I’m one of them, and I can’t ever deny it to you. I’m part of that a.s.sociation, but it doesn’t mean that I’m like them.”

“If so, then why did you join them?”

I felt her stares. “Because of my idiocy”  She smiled and for the the first time her face was showing emotion. There’s a hint of bitterness.

I stared back at her. I feel like I was facing a different Miss Italia, maybe the real her. “Would you believe that was my reason why I joined them?”

I have the hunch that she had the same situation like Georgina. They must have the same reason for why they chose to do that.

I couldn’t bring myself to speak. The shock and confusion were transparent from my countenance. I thought I already saw all of her past. It seems I’ve yet to. I realized that there’s a limit to everything.

“Maybe it’s unbelievable. However, through your postcognition, you will easily find out even without me saying it.”

Postcognition, it is my ability to visually perceive information about past events of a particular object, person, or anything in between without any guessing based on deductive reasoning and current knowledge. This is the gift I received when I was born. This came from Georgina’s and my clan.

“So, I hope you’ll do my favour and I’ll do yours.” She got up from her seat. “See you later, Mr. Morris.” And before leaving, she said, “I’m giving you my permission to use your postcognition ability in my cla.s.s. You can even peek to mine.”

Then she walked away.

Seven am, it was still early, the first cla.s.s will not be starting soon and I found it boring to just stay on the garden so I roamed the grounds. There were not many students strolling.

I pa.s.sed by the parking lot near the right wing of the building. A motorbike caught my attention since I know who owns it. I heard some voices and followed where it was coming from.

“T-tamaki, we still can talk about this.” On one alley leading to the back of the right wing building, I spotted a male student who was almost kneeling in front of the motorbike’s owner. He’s Senji, more known as Tamaki, a cla.s.smate of mine.

“Talk?” Tamaki puffed his cigarettes. “Are you making fun of me? I said I need the money and then you promised to give it today but now you’re not fulfilling our agreement? HA!?” He kicked the student.

“I no longer have any money to give you, Tamaki. I’m begging you.”

He chose this. Tamaki chose to be like this, a delinquent.

He grabbed him in the collar and was his steeled pipe was almost hitting him when the student saw me.

“Help!”

Because of that Tamaki glanced my way. He released his hand and the guy who broke away and run. Tamaki threw the steel pipe he was holding to the side and also threw also the cigarette. He put his hands on his pants’ pocket and walked to me.

“Oh, you’re still alive, Morris.”

“I should be saying that to you, Tamaki.”

He laughed.

“Look at you, you still hasn’t changed, huh, Morris. Do you know that whenever I saw you and Ireneo, I want to break your faces?” His eyes are full of resentment. A postcog like me can tell why.

“Well, you knew all the reasons, right? Even the reason why you’re like that now.” He stopped walking. I could feel the hatred he’s feeling towards me intensified.

“I bet, if she’s alive, she won’t want to see you like this.” I’m talking about our cla.s.smate who died a long time ago. Tamaki loves her so much. Even now, he couldn’t accept that she’s already gone.

I suddenly noticed myself sitting on the ground and touched my bleeding lips.

“What rights do you have to tell me that?! Huh? A**ho**! I got up. Tamaki punched me again. I evaded but since he’s good at fighting, the punch still hit me.

I fought back, returning every hit with hits. We always end up like this whenever we cross path. This is no longer new to me. Tamaki always trash talks but I ignored it.

He made me lie on the ground. I attempted to get up but he stepped my hand. I couldn’t stand. I didn’t notice when he had picked up the pipe. He’s already swinging it to me. I couldn’t fight back. I could only let heaven’s will happen.

“Senji!”

“Don’t stop me, Roman!” Tadeo suddenly came and tried to s.n.a.t.c.h the pipe from Tamaki.

“Senji men, I know you’re b.a.s.t.a.r.d and crazy, but I know you’re not a killer. Chill man! Do you want to kill Morris?”  he stopped him and helped me to stand, “Are you okay, Morris men? Awtsu, your jacket now had bloodstains.” He dusted my clothes and tapped my shoulder. “You two are too much!” The guy laughed.

Tamaki left me and Tadeo.

“Sigh, life. Senji didn’t change. His loose screws in the head had  worsened. It seems in the cla.s.sroom, only I can still talk to him. You should be thankful I arrived or else, I will be seeing you inside the coffin.”

“What if… Lucille didn’t pa.s.s away?”

For a moment, Tadeo was silent. Only after a long while did he answer. “I don’t know. Maybe Senji wouldn’t be like that. After all, you know how he loved her…” He inhaled deeply. “Moreover… maybe… our section wouldn’t be like how it is now.”

He patted me again then he left.

“Jill! Look here! Say hi to the camera!”

I heard Mariah’s voice from my right side. I stared at her direction. Mariah was holding a camera and she’s insisting to capture Jill’s photo. I know that Aya loves to pester Jill, but it’s different today. Jill was laughing while trying to hide from the camera. Chris, Stephen and Penelope were with them.

“Aya! Will you stop that!” she said.

“Eeeh! Come on, Morie. Give me even a single wacky pose! Pleaaaase!”

When have they formed this circle of friends? It’s been a while since I saw Jill like this… I want to know what happened…

The door suddenly opened and revealed Miss Karen, a reason for everyone to fix themselves. After the cla.s.s greeted her, she started.

“I would like to inform you that this coming Friday, you will have to attend the  cla.s.s recollection since you’re all seniors now.”

The cla.s.s gave different reactions. Some disliked the idea, the others are excited.

“It will be held out of school, so, I’ll distribute these waivers to inform your parents. You have to return this to me tomorrow.”

While she’s distributing the papers, our eyes met. She nodded. And I know what it means. On Friday, she will fulfill the agreement.

T/N Note: Somewhere in the middle, Tadeo said ‘may topak sa ulo’ and when I searched what is ‘topak sa ulo’, google gave me ‘has soy sauce in the head’. I found it weird so I went ahead to write it as ‘had loose screws in the head’.