Wood anemone
木材 ア ネ モ ネ

Chapter 1:
Nightfall
夕 闇

A mild summer wind blew across the vast meadows of Duel Island and gently gripped Tenjouin Asuka's golden shimmering hair. She was leaning lightly against a tree and had enjoyed the cooler shade before falling asleep over her book. Sleep had simply grabbed her and pulled her gently into the land of dreams, but the reason for this was by no means the storybook she was reading, it was much more the warmth of summer.
A slight tickling of the nose annoyed her and gently pulled her out of her sleep. She slowly opened her still heavy eyes and saw something red that was still rather blurred. Asuka rubbed her eyes to see more precisely what it was, she only knew one thing, it felt comfortable. Soft and it had tickled her nose slightly, but still it hadn't been uncomfortable. Her eyes sharpened and before her she saw a red flower. She looked into a bright red flower that smelled pleasantly, then heard a deep but gentle voice:"Wake up, Asuka. The day is nice, you don't want to sleep through it, do you?"
Asuka looked up into dark turquoise eyes that looked at her kindly. She sat up in surprise, a soft pink touch on her cheeks as she realized how close Ryou had come to her. At first, Asuka could hardly answer him. She was surprised to see him here. She had suspected he was still with her older brother Fubuki. But before she lost herself in endless babbling, the older pupil gave her the geranium blossom, which she accepted with a friendly smile and then smelled it.
"You slept soundly. Did you dream something?", Ryou wanted to know and sat down next to Asuka at the tree. He only looked at her out of the corner of his eye, but he could see the quiet joy in her eyes.
Asuka nodded slightly, of course she had dreamed something. It seemed to be because of this book that she kept dreaming and it was not uncommon for Ryou and Fubuki to appear in it.Finally she replied softly, it was still a bit toneless, but meant warmly: "Yes, it was a beautiful dream. Aren't you at Fubuki Niisan's at all?"
"No," he replied calmly and now looked directly at Asuka, who returned his gaze with a gentle smile, "your brother is busy at the moment."
Again she nodded as a sign that she understood what Ryou meant. It was unnecessary to use too many words when he was with her. They got along very well even without words.
"You haven't forgotten, have you?" He finally asked.
"Of course not. Tonight at the lighthouse, as always!" Asuka answered smiling and got up from the ground. Ryou did the same and checked his watch. His year class still had a lesson at Chronos, so he almost had to hurry.
Ryou said goodbye with a small nod, a slight hint of a smile gracing his face before he turned his back on Asuka and slowly returned to the Academy. Asuka stayed there for a while next to the tree and looked longingly after the older student.The fairy tale book held her book tightly while the wind came up again and played with her golden hair. Asuka didn't know exactly why, but it didn't seem like she would see him again anytime soon. It was utter nonsense, in just a few hours she would see him again at the lighthouse. But she didn't want to let go of this dark premonition until evening ...

While Asuka and Ryou were hanging out together, Fubuki was very busy. He didn't have time for his best friend because he tried his hand at maths tutoring. His students were pretty desperate at the moment, they were about to take a math test with Daitokuji Sensei and both Momoe and Junko as well as Manjoume did not understand what the last chapter was about at all.
Manjoume pulled his hair: "What do you mean by the crap?"
"Oh, what do you have Manjoume-kun?", Momoe teased, "Could it be that you don't understand a word of what you are reading?""Stop it, Momoe-chan, you can't do better either," Fubuki tried to avoid an escalation of the situation. Momoe was very bright and quickly handed out tough arguments before you could even get ready for them; Manjoume was just very convinced of himself and had to be brought down from his high horse more often, but basically these two good-hearted people and very good friends had become.
Junko held up a checked sheet of paper and showed it to Fubuki: "Say, Tenjouin Senpai, is that correct?"
Fubuki took the sheet of paper with a smile and looked at it. Slowly he looked at the solution, nodded silently, and then handed it back to her.
"Right. Well done, you learned a lot today. But if you are constantly taking care of other things than math, then that can't work," answered the older student with a grin and immediately caught a venomous look from Momoe one. She generally didn't like it when he paid too much attention to Junko.He should immediately regret playing like that again.
"What's that supposed to mean, Tenjouin Fubuki?", She snapped at him.
"Well, well, Momoe-chan, you don't have to feel so attacked right away. It's true that you like to take care of other things! What Manjoume-kun does wrong, you see immediately, but you never recognize your own mistakes. No matter what it is about, Momoe-chan! ", Fubuki replied calmly, remained friendly and only spoke facts. Of course he knew he could be prepared for a thunderstorm.
"That of all people would like to be a rock star like you !? In contrast to you, I don't look after skirts at every opportunity that presents itself to me! If I were you, I wouldn't pretend to be so big!" Arms in front of the chest.
Manjoume looked at the scene in annoyance, how many times had they chewed this topic through? At almost each end of a tutoring session, Fubuki and Momoe sat across from each other and argued.Junko looked at them both helplessly. It was uncomfortable for her to be indirectly the trigger for this argument. Maybe she could appease both of them, if not then she had to come up with something.
"Momoe-chan ... I don't think that ...", Junko started shyly and at least got Momoe's attention.
"What !?", the dark-haired girl asked a little brusquely and frightened her friend a little.
"N-well," she began to explain, "I don't think Tenjouin Senpai meant that badly. He just wants to encourage you."
"Now it's getting to be Christmas! Now you're turning against me too? That's the height, maybe the next time I should go to Misawa-kun and get tutoring!", Momoe grumbled to himself.
Junko tried again to calm her down: "But it wasn't meant that way!"
"Junko-chan, don't bother, you know that it always ends like this and next time Momoe-chan will be back here.I just wonder why Fubuki-san always puts up with it! ", Manjoume now interfered in the argument and acted as cool as it could. Momoe had the feeling to burst with anger, but before she could make one of her sharp comments again, Fubuki replied with a cheeky smile:" That is but it's very simple, Manjoume-kun, I'm always there when a girl asks me for help! "
"Something like that had to be repeated ...", Momoe began with a hateful tone, but was interrupted by Junko's low voice: "Tenjouin Senpai don't you have another hour at Chronos Sensei?"
Fubuki looked at his watch, startled. Junko was right, he had to hurry otherwise he would be late for class. With one jump he got up from his white bed, slipped into his black shoes and ran out of the room without saying goodbye to his tutors. Momoe got up with a thoughtful grin and called after him: "In an emergency you can tell Chronos Sensei that you had to save girls in distress!""You can't stop, can you !?", asked Manjoume annoyed and looked at the clock again, "Well, I have something to do before it gets dark."
Junko nodded, bowed politely to Manjoume before he disappeared and then turned to her friend: "We should also slowly go back to the dorm."
Momoe nodded and followed her friend.

Asuka didn't meet her friends until evening when they were having dinner together. It was already dark outside and it seemed to be a beautiful, starry night. In just a few minutes, Asuka would meet Ryou at the lighthouse. She liked the quiet moments with the older student. Maybe because she felt connected to him, she didn't need to say anything near him, it was enough to stand next to him and feel his warmth. But it wasn't as if the two just kept quiet while they looked at the sea. There were also conversations about insignificance and importance, and they could talk everything off their hearts.To Asuka, Ryou meant more - much more. But how was it for him? After all, this was his last year of school, he would soon not be here anymore and in his eyes she was certainly still a small child.
Momoe looked at Asuka questioningly, she kept very quiet more and more often and she always had her latest reading with her. All of this seemed a little strange to her and so she broke the silence: "Tell me Asuka, is something wrong?"
"What?", Asuka looked at her friend confused, "How do you get that, Momoe-chan? Everything is fine with me!"
"You're so quiet, that's why I ask. And what's so great about this book?" Momoe quickly took it from the table and weighed it in her hand, it was heavy, quite thick and looked worn out, the red-brown one Leather was already worn out and the old pages of the book were yellowed, "Busch ...- what?"
"Wood anemone. That's the name of the book!" Asuka replied with a smile.
"What kind of language is that?", Junko wanted to know, who also had problems pronouncing this word.Asuka shrugged her shoulders: "I don't know myself. But it's a very nice book. A fairy tale!"
"Well, wonderful. As if we hadn't enough enchanted frogs here at the Academy, who could now pretend to be prince charming. And in the end, both of them live happily ever after, Asuka, you know that. Fairy tales are far from reality, you you already know the outcome of the story, "said Momoe in a dessintress and put the thick book back on the table," that would be absolutely nothing for me. "
"It's not such a fairy