“Aha! What an eyesore.” Someone said among a group of boys all wearing the same uniform. They stood surrounding a figure curled in on itself on the ground, showering the person with a sequence of alternating punches and kicks. A pained cough and gurgling sounds escaped from within the circle of boys.

The sky was greying, it was about to rain, and the smell of moist soil filled the air.

Hiro would have to hide these bruises too somehow. He was getting used to the beatings which happened almost weekly.They started a few months after he transferred to the school and he outperformed everyone in everything.

He wasn’t even trying to show off or anything as ambitious as that, he just couldn’t fail no matter how hard he tried. School work was not hard, he caught languages easily, when he was asked to read english out loud for the class he didn’t stutter and his pronunciation was always perfect.

When it came to sports he excelled at them all, basketball, football, baseball, archery, and racket sports. Every club wanted him on their team but he declined everyone, eventually they all took it the wrong way and thought he was being cocky.

It wasn’t that way for Hiro, he knew why nothing was hard for him, his powers made him stand out whether he wanted to or not and he didn’t think it was fair for him to be on any team, since they would win just because he was there.

In a few months everything changed, from him being adored by everyone to everyone hating him and most recently getting bullied. They would beat him after school, bruising him, his powers would come in handy at this point you’d think but you’d be wrong.

Hiro knew if he let anger get the better of him he could kill every last one of them, so he let it happen to keep them safe from himself.

Another kick came with a force Hiro couldn’t comprehend and he coughed up blood, he shuddered.

He vibrated on the ground with a sense of rage he couldn’t act on, he held himself close trying to shield any and every vulnerable part of his body yet they just kept going.

When they got tired they started to walk away laughing with one another, clapping each other's backs.

Hiro sat up, his shoulders couldn’t stop shaking, he couldn’t catch a single breath panting and wheezing until he dug his hands into the ground, stones cutting into his flesh, he shut his eyes and let out an inaudible scream.

Beneath his hands the ground was scorched black. He couldn’t see clearly for a moment, his vision blurring and then clearing back up.

He pushed himself up to lean his back against the school wall. He was dirty, bloody and tired. 

A pair of hands touched his shoulder patting him softly, he opened his eyes to see Maya Yukimura looking worriedly over him.

 She dusted off his blazer, then started to pick up the books that had fallen from his bag, handing them to him when she was done. 

He hesitated to take them and she looked at them, she began to dust the books off but he roughly snatched them away from her.

“You’ll get dirty.” He said and stood up off the ground, A pang of pain shot through his leg and he stumbled, Yuki irregardless of her smaller frame rushed to hold him up.

Yuki was Hiro’s classmate, she was 14 and just a year younger than him. She was very popular second only to Mikoto Harumi, the girl who parted crowds with only her looks. Maya had short light blue hair that she wore parted in the middle with a black headband. Her eyes were a shade of blue Hiro had never seen on anyone before, they looked like clear water.

 Her face was calming and made him feel at ease, different from Mikoto who was almost exaggeratedly beautiful with rusty long brown hair and skirts so short they could not have been approved by the school.

“How you look, you’d think you'd put up more of a fight.” Yuki said teasingly.

Hiro didn’t respond and just groaned at the pain in his chest when he took a breath. 

When Yuki did not say another word Hiro walked away. Accurately, what he did was stumble away.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shizuko looked at him and gasped, “You’re bleeding.” Shizuko got a little closer and knelt down in front of him.

She tried to pick a pen that had fallen from his pocket but it kept on passing right through her fingers. 

The boy said nothing, picked up the pen and started to leave, Shizuko stayed where she was kneeling not wanting to frighten the boy again.

“Can you actually see me?” Shizuko whispered desperately into the quiet of the night and a soft gust of wind pushed the leaves around their feet.

 The boy’s shoulders rose as though putting up a shield between them but didn’t stop. If anything, his pace quickened and then he was out of sight of the bridge. Shizuko sighed, she pushed off her knees and returned to Aimi’s side.

Days went by and she started to notice the boy crossing the bridge more often, she only saw him in the evenings and he’d always ignore her. She’d walk on the other side of the bridge as he stayed far away from her. Shizuko randomly shouted questions in his direction to which he would not respond but she knew he could hear her.

She found it odd how he always hid his face, if he didn’t have a mask on, it was a scarf wrapping his features into obscurity. She thought she would quite like to see his face more often but then recalled the swelling and bruises. Maybe that’s what he was hiding.

It was evening again and Shizuko waited for him at the entrance to the bridge.

She heard footsteps, the closer they got the higher she jumped on the balls of her feet, and her long dark brown hair waded about as she did; The boy appeared, to her surprise he wasn’t alone. He was walking beside a girl with blue hair.

 They were on the other side of the bridge and wore the same uniform. Shizuko drew closer, testing to see if the girl was like the boy.

Once in the middle of the gravel road of the bridge she realised who it was. She’d seen this girl with her friends many times on this bridge. Yuki-chan was what her friends called her, but she never used the bridge at night. 

Shizuko ran up in front of them and then stopped a few paces ahead of them, the boy noticed but pretended to not be distracted. Yuki clearly couldn’t see Shizuko.

“If you keep ignoring me, then I'll just have to…!”  Shizuko shouted to the boy, using all the energy she could, she ran full force towards Yuki.

The boy’s eyes widened comically.

At full speed she barrelled towards Yuki knowing full well she would go right through her. Before she could reach her however, the boy stepped in front of Yuki and spread his arms in front of her yelling, “Stop!” 

Shizuko couldn’t and rammed into the boy's torso falling backwards into an uncomfortable sitting position. She didn’t pass through the boy and that caused a smile to spread on her face as she looked up at him.

Yuki flinched harshly at the boy’s outburst; she gasped and clutched at her shirt trying to control the racing of her heart.

“Tanaka-san!” Yuki choked out, physically holding herself together, “Did you think it would be funny to scare me just because I confided in you about my fear of this bridge? You’re no different from all those boys!” She brushed past him and ran off on her own.

When Yuki was out of sight the boy turned his attention to Shizuko who had just watched everything unfold and was embarrassed for him, as well as somewhat sorry.

 He seethed for a few seconds about to offload months of pent up frustration but looked at the guilty way she looked up at him and lost the fight he was about to put up. Like a cold wind in winter he blew right past her with a frigid expression on his face.

In that moment she realised he wasn’t hiding his face, did he fancy that girl so much that he was comfortable to reveal his almost healing injuries to her. She thought curiously.

Shizuko jumped up, ran ahead of him and said, “You didn’t say anything.”

“What do you want me to say?” He asked her. It was a cold response but it was the first one he had ever given her and she was elated.

“Were you on a date? I’m sorry,” Shizuko replied, with a guilty look on her face. “It’s just that I’ve been trying to talk to you for days, and you keep ignoring me.”

“Me? Ignore you?” He replied in an exaggerated tone.

 “Yes! that’s why I tried to get your attention.” Shizuko replied.

The boy raised his brows at her but said nothing.

“What do you want?” The boy asked rudely, his expression neutralising.

“I need your help.” Shizuko rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet. The boy looked down at her and she got on her tiptoes looking him in the eye.

“Why would I want to help you?” The boy replied and continued walking, almost at the end of the bridge.

“Why? You didn’t even ask me what I need help with.”

“I don’t care?!” He shrugged his shoulders exasperatedly. “I don’t care. It’s none of my business anyway, I don’t care.”

Shizuko nodded and hummed, scratching her chin, “Are you scared of me? You don’t have to be, I'm harmless.”

“Why would I be scared of a short little ghost like you?” The boy replied, snorting.

Shizuko looked surprised for a second then became extremely offended, “This is probably the reason you have no friends. Tell you what, if you help me, maybe I'll tolerate being friends with you.”

 The boy stopped in his tracks and asked confusedly “Why do you think I have no friends?” 

Shizuko replied expertly, “Well for one, you were trying to kill yourself the other day, most students jump because they are terribly lonely.”

Shizuko then gave him a pointed look, yet he had a look of total disbelief on his face, “When was I trying to kill myself?!”

“The day we met!”

The boy instantly remembered what she was referring to, looked her dead in the eye, prepared to argue, then sighed and decided to let it go.

“Whatever, think what you want.” the boy said, continuing on his way.

“You don’t need to be lonely anymore, this arrangement can benefit us both, come on, stop walking so fast.” Shizuko said her short legs were working at maximum to try and match his pace.

Shizuko heard the boy snort again and she huffed. 

“Say, what’s your name?” Shizuko asked the boy.

He did not reply.

“Come on, I’ll tell you my name? It’s…”

“I don’t care.”

“You’re so rude.” Shizuko huffed a frustrated sigh.

They walked quietly until he reached the end of the bridge and saw Shizuko didn’t follow him. Shizuko smiled and waved him goodbye.

The boy stopped, “Are you Shizuko the bridge ghost?” he asked with his back to her.

Shizuko’s eyes widened and then she nodded, “Yes! how did you know?”

“ I guessed.”

“Have you always been able to see spirits?” she asked.

“Yes.” He replied soberly, still not turning to face her, Shizuko sighed and responded, “Thank goodness.”

The boy turned to look at her in surprise, “Are you joking?” He was clearly irritated.

“No, I’ve never met anyone like you before. Priests and shamans have come to the bridge claiming they could set the spirits here free but not a single one of them could see us, they just scammed poor unsuspecting people.” She said, “I was always disappointed too, I always hoped that they could set me free.”

“That's where you’re wrong. If you think I’m here to help you, you’re wrong.” The boy replied.

He tightened his grip around his shoulder strap and left without another word.