Hollow Chapter 13: 時代（These days)

School was as boring as ever, I was counting down the days till our break and now there's only one week left.

"Oh, class don't dress out for gym today, were doing health classes instead." Our gym teacher told us.

We're doing what now? We all filed in and sat on the floor I sat on the floor next to Lish and Ruki came over relatively close to us. He's such a quite wallflower without the guys around.

"Today were go to talk about..." She started, but by then I had already zoned out and went off into my own world. An excuse for me to daydream.

I don't know exactly how long it was, but whatever the case I must have missed some pretty important stuff, because I was not going to like what I was about to hear.

"Moka Ito and Takanori Matsumoto." The teacher says and both our heads rise.

"You two are partners." What? What did I miss? I guess he wasn't paying attention either (not that that surprises me) because he was looking just as confused as I was. It was weird to have people call him Takanori because, more or less everyone calls him Ruki.

"Next week you two will start together." She says.

The one time I don't pay attention, I miss something important. Then the bell rings. I thought about asking him if he knew what the hell was going on, but I knew better.

"Yes!" Lish says beside me.

"What are you so happy about?" I ask.

"Uruha is my partner!" She cheers.

"Ok this is really bugging me." I say.

"What? That you're with Ruki? I think that's ironic." She giggles.

I give her my "I'm lost." Look.

"Were you paying attention at all?" She finally asks.

"Maybe..." I say.

"Well, were doing that thing were you have to carry around the fake baby and pretend it's real." She says casually.

"... WHAT?" I yell.

"Calm down its only one day." She says.

"I have to be with the last person on earth who I think could be a responsible father for this stupid project." I whine.

"Oh I'm sure it's will be fine." She says.

"Yeah, but he's as clueless as I am." I say.

Great. My grade is in the trash.

"Hey, Moka that means that me and Uruha are married!" she says happily joking.

"Good for you two." I groan.

"And you and Ruki-" She starts.

"Don't even bring it up." I cut her off.

"Why do you hate him so much?" She asks.

"I don't exactly like him after all the hell he's put me through." I say.

"I get that, but you don't act like you hate him either. Why the grudge in the first place?" She says.

"My first day of school he came up and stole my first kiss." I state bluntly.

"Your point?" She says stone faced.

"My point!?" I ask. What does she mean by that?

"Yeah, so what. It's just a kiss, besides I think you two would be the cutest couple!" She says smiling.

"When hell freezes over." I say.

"Maybe it will." She says.

"Lish, if I go out with Ruki, I'll take you and Uruha to dinner at a fancy restaurant. On my life" I promise.

"I'm willing to take that bet!" She says all too eagerly.

"Well it's not gonna happen. So you're gonna be waiting on that dinner forever." I say.

"We'll see about that." She says.

"So, when do we have to take care of this baby thing?" I ask.

"Well, next week one of you two will get the baby and if it cries, no matter what you are doing, you have to put keys in its back till it stops crying. Oh and you can't hurt it or turn it off either. You have to treat it like a real baby or the abuse or tamper light will come on and you'll both fail." She explains.

"Wonderful." I say sighing.

When I was done with school for the day. I walked home and thought about how this whole thing was going down. Whether we fail or... we're going to fail. I guess I didn't have confidence in him, but has he given me any reason to?

"Moka!" I hear.

"What?" I respond.

"Come here for a minute." Shinji asks and I walk to Shinji's room.

"What?" I ask.

"You should help me with this homework." He says.

It was going to be long weekend. I kinda thought at some point he would ask me what the hell is going on, but I don't really except him to care one way or another. Not like he's taken his grades much into consideration before now. It was finally Monday, my last week of school before Christmas Break and the worst Monday of my life. I was paranoid about gym. I arrived at the school and when I got there, it began.

Sepaker: Will Moka Ito and Takanori Matsumoto please come to the equipment room at this time please?

Oh god here we go. I felt like I was on a roller coaster just waiting for it to fall. I stared to walks that way I saw Lish give me that "You'll be fine, but this will be funny for me" look before turning her attention back to Uruha. I looked around to see Ruki lagging behind with his headphones on and his hands in his pockets. His light blonde hair with his usual dark apparel. Black sneakers, pants and a red and black shirt. If I didn't know better I'd say he was a lonely anti social guy.

I got there and saw that damned baby that had no realistic representation to it at all.

"Here's your for the day." She says handing me the keys and adds,

"The other one of you will watch it tomorrow."

And with that we left. We sat in the hallway.

"So you watch Ruki Jr. Today and I'll do it tomorrow." He says.

"We are not naming the baby Ruki Jr." I state.

"Why not? I think it's perfectly fitting." He says with a smirk.

I glare at him. Then I see Reita come up in my vision.

"So you and Moka have that thing. I knew it was bound to happen Ruki is just too damn persistent." He says shrugging.

"Fuck you man, you'll have to do it too." Ruki snarls.

"Poor Moka-chan. Did he pay you child support yet?" Reita teases.

"Fuck off Reita." He says again.

I just shake my head. The bell rings for class and I begin walking with this big heavy edition to my usual backpack load. First period nothing. Second period nothing. I was just waiting for this thing to go off. Lish was sitting by me in third period or art. I was busy drawing a picture of a mask lying on the ground, finally I cried. I was so glad that Ruki wasn't in that class with me or I would have died. It's so embarrassing. I see Lish smile at me. I couldn't tell if it was out of sympathy or a "haha take it in" look. I picked up the "baby" and began to put the key's in its back one at a time. The third key worked. It made gurgling noised witch just creeped me out even more. I set it back in it's carrier.

"See Ruki Jr. is a good baby." Lish says smiling.

"Not you too Lish." I whine.

"What?" She asks.

"How'd you know about that? The name?" I ask.

"Ruki and me have second period together. And I was bored so I talked to him." She says.

"I see." I say.

"I really think he likes you." She says.

"Drop it already. I'm just ready for this day to be over. He likes annoying me is what he likes." I say.

The baby cried 5 more times the rest of the day. Not terrible tomorrow was what I was interested to see. I just hope he doesn't fail us both. I finally got rid of that damn thing and went home. Ruki decided to tag along with me when I walked home.

"So, how was our little bundle of joy today?" He asks,

"Ok." I say.

"Good, Maybe it did all the crying today and won't tomorrow." He says.

"Don't bet on it." I say.

"It's unfortunate." I say as he kept walking with him following me.

"If we had a baby it'd be a lot cuter then that thing." He blurts out.

I paused for a moment.

"I honestly think that any baby would be cuter then that devil child." I say.

I don't know what was so darn funny, but he just find's it hilarious. He was busting up laughing.

"What's so funny?" I ask.

"Nothing." He says catching his breath.

Just then my phone starts going off. I see that it's Lish calling.

"Moka! Can I talk to Ruki?" She asks.

"What makes you just automatically think I'm with him?" I say.

"I saw you two walk off together." She says.

"Fine here he is." I hand the phone to him and say,

"Lish wants to talk to you." He takes my phone and puts it up to his ear. A few minutes later he hands the phone back to me.

"I hate to leave you alone baby, but I got to go." He says pulling out a cigarette.

"Don't call me baby, and go where?" I say.

"Oh just somewhere to do something." He pats my head and adds,

"Don't miss me too much." He smirks at me then starts walking the other way.

IWell my babysitting days were over, but I can't help but wonder, why did Lish wanna talk to Ruki, and what did they go to do?

RUKI'S POV

I walked back to Uruha's house. And found him and Lish in his room.

"So what the fuck is this important thing you want to discuss with me?" I say.

"I'm gonna hook you and Moka up!" Lish says.

"What makes you think I want her to be my girl friend any way?" I ask.

They both glare at me.

"Fine, only because I'm trying to score with her anyways. So you got any ideas because my usual methods aren't working." I say.

"Well, I got a couple ideas. Because I think I have figured out Moka's type." Lish says.

"Well what is it?" I ask.

"My take on it is that she wants someone to sweep her off her feet. Someone who is kinda, how do you say... Like a guardian." Lish says.

"I see... Do girls really like that stuff?" I question.

"I might have a plan. Have you considered anything for Christmas?" She asks.

"Yes, in fact I just got it today." I say pulling the small box out of my pocket. And opening it to show Lish. It's a blue pearl necklace.

"Wow you really do have good taste." Lish says.

"Glad she won't hate it." I say.

"No I'm sure she'll love it." She says with a smile.

"So now just how to give it is the question." I say.

"Leave that to me." She says.

"Ok then." I say unconvinced.

With that, all I could do was wait. The next morning, Uruha drove us to school as always and I saw Moka and her brother walk as always. I take another deep breath of my cigarette before I got rid of it. I walk into the school with my hands in my pockets. I went and got the baby and this thing was really freaking the hell out of me.

"So your day of being a father begins." I hear someone say. I look back to see its Moka.

"Yeah, time to get it over with." I say.

"Hey." I hear her say. I look back at her.

"If you want help or anything don't be afraid to ask me ok?" She says honestly.

"I can handle this." I say.

I take myself the other way. I hear many other people talking around me, but I don't really care. I decided that I'm done girl hopping. It's just not fun anymore. Not since Moka came into the picture. Moka is the only one I think about anymore. She changed me somehow.

The day was normal. Did my duties as a father then turned in back in. Nothing major. It only cried twice. I was just curious about what Lish had in store for us. Whatever it was I hoped it worked.

End of Chapter: 13

Next Chapter: 14 臨む