Chapter 11

Wednesday - Lunch April 22nd

I spent the first two hours of class studying my notes from the night before. I wished I could compare Yukiko's translation to the original text in the black book, but it would be too risky. The last thing I wanted was to be caught by the professor and have it confiscated. Not to mention the possibility that Saeki might notice and become overly curious. If she discovered the truth, that I was in possession of the legendary Bible Black, who knows what she might do? At the very least she would demand that I share it with her, but the possibility that she might try to take it from me couldn't be ignored.

That's not to say that my feelings had changed for her. Even as I worked diligently to memorize various spells and incantations, I couldn't help but glance at her every now and again. Saeki wasn't ignoring me either. Our brief skirmish over Murai had been aggravating, but necessary. Saeki had made it clear that she respected nothing so much as strength, an independence of thought and free will. Or so I believed, and I didn't think I was very far off the mark.

I'd annoyed her, certainly, and surprised her as well. Her natural dominance had been threatened, but she seemed to appreciate my disobedience. I admired her beauty, if nothing else, and the girl looked amazing as she basked in the warm sunlight pouring through the windows behind her. When she caught my eyes, Saeki smiled and by the time the first hour had passed, I'd noticed something else.

She had her hands in her lap, pressing down on her skirt as she massaged her sex. The subtle motion of her hands drew my attention, As Saeki probably intended. She glanced around the classroom and seeing everyone else focused on the professor, she pulled the hem of her skirt upward. Not very far, but as she shifted in her seat and turned slightly in my direction, I could see the insides of her pale thighs glistening.

Saeki turned again, straightening her body and smoothing her skirt. I pouted silently and she hid a tiny laugh, pretending to cough. My cock strained for release, but all I could do was sit there uncomfortably and squeeze the growing bulge in my trousers. Standing up to Saeki, it seemed, had made her horny.

At mid-morning, we were allowed our usual break to use the bathrooms or have a snack from the vending machines downstairs. Normally, I spent my break with Imari and already she was looking at me with expectation in her eyes. I wanted to talk to Saeki, but she remained sitting at her desk, watching me with an inviting smile.

"Do you want to get some fresh air?" Imari asked, trapping me in my seat. "We could go up to the roof."

"Yeah..." I gave Saeki a lingering look. "Let's go outside."

I didn't really have a choice if I planned on skipping the Art Club for a second day in a row. Actually, I always planned on skipping it, but Imari was making it more difficult as she learned my tricks. She wouldn't expect me to do everything I could to put her in a good mood, though. Like going to the roof? I wanted to stay in the classroom and talk to Saeki, but if it made Imari happy ... By the end of the day, she'd be putty in my hands!

Besides, I really want to ask her about Doctor Kitami.

"It's a beautiful day, isn't it?" she sighed, taking a seat on the short wall extending around the flat roof.

"Careful you don't fall off," I told her, leaning over the edge to look at the school grounds. We were three stories up and I'd never cared for heights that much.

"You always say that," Imari reminded me with a grin. "Sit down. We're not going to fall off."

"Yeah. Whatever," I said. "I like to stand ... Hey, what did Kitami want this morning?"

"What? Oh, nothing important," she said, grabbing her hair as a cool breeze blew it into her face.

"Well, what did say? Did she do anything?"

"Like what?" Imari narrowed her eyes. "I just had to answer some questions."

"That's all?" I frowned, but maybe I should have been relieved.

"You look disappointed," she said. "Why? What did you think we were doing?"

"I don't know."

"Awww ... Were you worried about me?"

"Huh?"

"I'm not sick, Minase," she said. "I'm perfectly healthy. You don't have to worry."

"Oh. Right," I said, nodding. If Imari wanted to think I was worried about her, so much the better. She was even smiling as she reassured me.

"She asked me about you."

"Me?"

"Well, she asked me if I had a boyfriend, and..."

"You told Kitami that I'm your boyfriend?" I stared at the girl as her smile melted away.

"No!" she snapped. "I told her I don't have one."

"Then why were you talking about me?"

"Oh! Forget it!" Imari scowled, shooing me away as she turned her head.

"How can I forget it?" I asked, reasonably. "Half the school thinks we're going out together."

"So?" Imari offered me a petulant smile. "Does that embarrass you?"

"No, it's just ... I don't know," I answered truthfully. "But it makes it awfully hard for me to get a real girlfriend!"

"Maybe you're not asking out the right girl," she said. "Did you ever think of that?"

"What? You think I should ask you out?"

"I didn't say that!"

"You did say that!" I protested. "Fine! I'll do it. Do you want to go out with me, Imari?"

"That's how you're going to ask me?" she snorted. "No! I don't want to go out with a jerk like you!"

"Well, I don't want to go out with an annoying brat like you!"

"Good!"

"Good!"

We stared at each other for a few quick heart beats.

"I think we should go back downstairs," I suggested, being extra polite about it.

"Yeah," Imari agreed. "I'm so glad we could get some fresh air together."

So much for putty in my hands, I thought with a frown. She obviously wanted to go out with me, but had to go out of her way to make it as difficult as possible. It was Imari's fault anyway, so I didn't feel bad about calling her a brat. She'd started it.

At least I had an excuse to talk to Saeki for a minute or two. Murai had left the classroom like a shot as soon as we'd started our break. Doubtlessly, the excited girl wanted to find the guy she liked and see if the spell had worked or not. I didn't have complete confidence in it myself. Just because the spell on Ito had worked, it didn't mean that this one would. I wasn't going to be anything except confident in front of Saeki, though.

"So? What did you think of my magic?" I asked, looking down as she still sat in her chair. "Pretty impressive, huh?"

"Where did you learn to cast a spell like that?" she wondered. "Not from any of the books in the library. I've read all of them."

"Oh, I don't know." I shrugged. "You know how it is. Pick up a little here and a little there."

"Hmph ... And two days ago you didn't believe in magic at all," she persisted. "Now you think you're some kind of sorcerer?"

"I've always been a fast learner," I told her. "Magic's just a diversion. I get bored easily, ask anyone."

"Well, you can't expect to get results by casting a spell you don't even understand," Saeki informed me. "Magic isn't that simple. There are complex rituals to follow, protocols and patterns. If you don't perform them just right, you'll never accomplish anything."

"Aren't you saying that because you're just a beginner?" I asked, getting a frown in reply.

The professor was ready to start so I had to return to my desk, but I left the girl practically biting her lip with annoyance. Man! That felt good too. I'd never seen the cool-as-a-cucumber Saeki looking so frustrated. It might have been a mistake being so smug with her, but now she knew how I'd felt after she'd left me standing alone outside the library. She wanted something more, something intimate and personal from me, but I'd pretended not to care.

And if the spell worked? That would be the coup-de-grace!

Murai returned, entering the classroom with much more reluctance than when she'd left. She didn't seem particularly unhappy, but definitely not ecstatic. Either she hadn't found that Asada guy, or she had found him and gotten no reaction. I tried not to worry about it either way. The spell I'd cast on Ito had taken several hours to affect her, after all.

"You've really gotten her hopes up with that stunt you pulled," Imari said. "Don't come running to me if Murai decides to trash you later on."

She'd snuck up on me and I just waved her away as I sat down at my desk.

"It wasn't a stunt," I said. "Wait and see what happens."

"She's going to be embarrassed and angry," Imari sniffed. "Just like every other girl you know!"

"What do you have to be embarrassed about?" I wondered, but she'd already turned around. Stupid Imari! What did she want from me?

We had two more hours of boring class until lunch and I spent it puzzling over the protection spells. There were four of them, but except for a few different words, the incantations were basically identical. For all of them, the caster was supposed to draw a pentagram on the palm of his hand -- A five pointed star turned upside down. In the center was drawn a particular symbol to ward off danger by earth, air, fire, or water.

That didn't make much sense to me. Most of the other spells I'd seen in the black book were pretty straightforward. Make a girl dance naked, or make someone fall in love. But the protection spells couldn't be literal, could they? Being protected against fire would be nice. That could actually come in handy if I was a fireman or something. But what about the others? Earthquakes, tsunami, a typhoon? It would take more than a spell to protect anyone against catastrophes like those!

I reminded myself that the spells had probably been written a thousand years ago, maybe even more than that, when people didn't know anything about science. It probably made sense for some primitive culture to believe that the devil was responsible for something like a volcano. Heck, didn't they used to think a thunderstorm meant the gods were angry?

It wasn't easy believing in magic, but I didn't have much choice anymore. After everything I'd said to Saeki and Imari, most of it right in front of our classmates, I'd put my reputation on the line! If Murai's love spell didn't work, I'd be the laughing stock of the school and Saeki would surely find some way to rub salt into my wounded pride. Imari would just say, "I told you so!" and that might be the worst part of all. I hated it the way she was always right about everything.

Hmmm ... I remembered my lighter was still in my bag. It didn't work very well, barely enough to light a candle in the basement, but all I needed was enough flame to test a spell. It wasn't like I had anything better to do, I thought, glancing at the professor as he droned along in his monotonous voice.

I drew a pentagram on my palm, hunched over and doing my best to conceal what I was doing. Saeki might have been a little miffed at me, but that would only make a girl like her even more curious. After drawing the pentagram, I turned my head to see her eyes narrowed like a snake's as she tried to figure out what I was up to. I smiled to myself and drew the symbol for fire in the center of my palm. This, I decided, would be a definitive test of the book's power ... and mine!

After pretending to need a new pen and pulling out my lighter instead, I made a loose fist of my hand. I whispered the incantation through the hole between my fingers and palm, but I didn't feel any different. I looked around the classroom and brought my hands beneath my desk. The ratcheting sound as I tried to produce a flame seemed very loud, but nobody else noticed. The professor kept talking and nobody even looked at me, except for Saeki.

I jerked in pain as I burned my hand. "Ouch!"

"Is there something wrong, Mr. Minase?" the teacher asked, and of course, everyone else was staring at me.

"No sir," I replied. "Sorry."

Fuck! I'd burned my hand. Not badly or anything, but obviously the spell hadn't worked. I double checked my notebook and so far as I could tell, I'd done everything correctly. That didn't bode well for Murai, or for me if that love spell didn't work. Maybe the spell I'd cast on Ito hadn't worked either. I still couldn't rule out coincidence, after all. I'd assumed my spell must have worked, because the Bible Black was in the encyclopedia. It was real, but did that mean its magic was real as well? Probably not and I'd left myself wide open for some serious humiliation in the near future.

Needless to say, I felt very disappointed, even chagrined at my stupidity. Just like I'd told Saeki a few days before, magic was all superstitious nonsense. I glanced over at her and she smiled as if she knew exactly what I'd been trying to do and enjoyed my failure. She'd say that magic was too powerful for a total amateur like me. The stuck-up girl could be right, too. What if I'd screwed it up somehow? Maybe I'd missed some silly detail and I suddenly wished I hadn't told my sister to ignore the footnotes!

I nursed my tender hand until lunchtime, but the burn wasn't anything serious. It only felt worse than it really was, for obvious reasons.

"Where's your lunch today?" Imari asked. "Aren't you hungry?"

"Yukiko didn't have time to make me one this morning," I reminded her. "She overslept, remember?"

"Well, that's okay," she said. "I don't mind sharing mine!"

"Thanks, but I'm not very hungry anyway."

"You have to eat," Imari insisted, pulling a chair close to my desk. "You're too thin as it is, Minase."

"You're one to talk?" I teased her. "What kind of sandwich is that?"

"Egg salad. You're lucky I brought two of them."

It was nice having lunch with her, although we did it nearly everyday. I tended to take things like that for granted, but not always. I appreciated her generosity and Imari always managed to have an extra sandwich that she didn't mind sharing. Sometimes it almost seemed as if she'd deliberately packed a lunch big enough for the both of us.

"Eat the rest of my rice for me," she said. "I can't eat too much."

"Why not?" I wondered. "Are you okay?"

"It's Wednesday," Imari reminded me. "We've got physical education right after lunch."

"So?"

"We're going to swim today," she said. "If I eat too much, I'll sink like a stone."

"No volleyball?" I asked, frowning.

"Don't look so disappointed," she chided me with a giggle. "You might get to exercise more than your imagination for a change."

I rolled my eyes, but she did have a valid point. I hadn't forgotten it was Wednesday. Like most of my male classmates, I'd been looking forward to seeing the girls jumping around in their shorts and t-shirts. Especially Rika Shiraki, everyone wanted to see as much of her awesome body as possible. Unfortunately, the girls physical education teacher liked to keep the class interesting and the pool would be off limits to the boys, largely because we'd be in the gymnasium playing basketball or something.

Just the thought of getting a look at Shiraki, or even Saeki, in their swimsuits was enough to give me a serious erection. Would they be wearing their own? Or did the school provide those conservative one-piece suits that the swim team wore? I looked at Imari, trying to imagine her in a string bikini, but she'd never wear anything so sexy as that.

Saeki, on the other hand...

We'd been on our lunch break for almost fifteen minutes already and I'd been ignoring her, but not anymore. The failure of my protection from fire spell had really shaken my confidence and the last thing I needed was a confrontation. Saeki always made me feel as if she could see right through me. Imari did too, but being my best friend, I was used to it and she posed far less of a threat to my ego.

Saeki in a skimpy bikini, a black one with cups that barely covered her nipples and a wisp of nylon trying to cover her pussy, what a sight that would be! She wasn't nearly as introverted as I'd first believed. Even sitting there at her desk, reading poetry by Yeats as she picked at her lunch, I knew she wasn't shy or reclusive. Saeki just didn't like to waste her time. The girl had a purpose, I thought, unlike most of the other girls in our class. I just didn't know what that purpose might be yet.

"Minase!"

Murai rushed into the classroom, pink-faced and breathless, and wearing a smile entirely too large for her pretty face. We all stared at her, Imari and me, Saeki and a few other students taking their lunches at their desks.

"Minase! It worked! Thank you!" she gushed, skidding to a stop in front of me. "It was unbelievable! Thank you!"

"What? Calm down!" I told her. "What are you talking about?"

Being excitable by nature, we were used to Murai's irrational outbursts of joy or disappointment, but the girl was positively elated as she thanked me over and over. Any second, I thought, she was going to throw her arms around me and start kissing my face. Imari stared at her, but I caught Saeki blinking her wide lavender eyes at me.

"Just listen," Murai said. "It's incredible! Thanks to you, everything with Asada has turned out great!"