[@chukklehed][@Mistress Dizzy][@demonspade64][@Suku][@banjoanjo]

[B]School Side (Saturday Morning - 11am) - NPC: Kaede Yamamoto[/B]

Three firm declarations of support, one reluctant, and one outright refusal. The haggard boy took in a deep breath, closing his eyes briefly as he did so. There were people willing to join his quest to rescue his friends, people willing to shoulder a burden that should have been his and his alone. Maybe it should have made him feel something like happiness or fulfilment or guilt or anything, but there was none of that. There was only hollow relief settling into the bleak, uncomfortable pit of his stomach. They would be following him into that ... that [i]hell[/i] again, all because he asked.

Kaede opened his eyes once more, their blue clouded with emotions. "Thanks," he said, the ghost of a smile flitting onto his pale, pallid skin.

The possibility of rescuing his friends had grown. With their combined power, they could take out the obstacles in their path.

They had to. He needed to make sure that his friends could all be saved, no matter what.

He needed to.

His bespectacled gaze found its way to Akihito. Kaede didn't know the other boy that well, so it didn't really surprise him that much that there was a refusal. He could understand why. It was his responsibility, after all, not the other's. There was no obligation for Akihito to care for his friends at all.

But he needed the power his classmate possessed.

"Is it impossible for you to reconsider?" was his quiet question. It hung in the air between them, waiting.