“Raijin…. huh?”,
Like a fleeting memory that refused to go away..He could still hear it.. The unfamiliar voices in his head. He suffered from brain damage as a child. Neither minor nor critical, but was the apparent cause of his constantly jumbled memories.Like faint clouds, they were everywhere. An absolute mess.Trying to trigger his memories could have various effects. From constant head throbs to fevers to difficulty in breathing. Even seizures were a possibility. Unfortunately for him, his immune system was weak, so the severity would have been worse. He looked at the alarm clock once again.Realizing how much time he had wasted; he rushed out of his room and dashed into the bathroom.
“SHIROUUUUU!!!!!!”
“ ‘I heard you’ for the tenth time.”
As he rushed downstairs,Yuuki, his little Sister, successfully hid the irritated look she had on her face.
“We can’t afford to be late.”
“I’m out..Happy now?”
“You always take forever to get ready.”
Remembering he forgot to check the mirror before walking downstairs, he stood his ground. At first glance, she might have seemed like one who loved being punctual, but she had her own reasons so in a sense, she was not that different from him. They both hated school to a certain degree.
“Yuuki, please could you help me bring out the plates for breakfast?”
Yato Lisara, Shirou’s mother sensed a bit of tension in the air and felt the need to dissolve it.
“Mom, thanks for setting some time aside to make breakfast. You’re really amazing.”
Being weak from birth put him in a corner where he had less duties than the typical first born from a family of similar financial background so he never wasted the opportunity to slide in a compliment as a form of both appreciation and self responsibility. Whether or not the whole gesture was shallow or not was not clear to him but this was something necessary.This was his way of saying “I’m sorry for being so useless.”
“That’s so sweet. Would you care for some sandwiches???”
Lisara sat down and smiled softly with the words, “What are you waiting for”, written all over her face.
---Haaa…Sometimes I wish things could stay like this a bit longer.
He looked at Yuuki who seemed to be staring at him too, patiently waiting for his response. If he had said yes, he knew he would have been done for.
“No mum, uhh we would be late if we do.”
He said those words frantically, hoping the red flag in front of him had disappeared but he was wrong.
“He’s right.Hmmm.”
Yuuki pointed this out while placing her hand on her chin, her ponytail moving along as she shook her head.
“Can I at least pack it up for you???”
“Yeah.”
Lisara seemed rather disappointed by his decision but didn’t say another word.
“I know.”
She snapped her fingers with so much enthusiasm that it looked like she sprung up a brilliant idea but instead, she suddenly stuffed the sandwiches in his mouth while placing him in a headlock.
---Really?That was your plan?
“We can eat it on the way.”
---Then why exactly are you choking me??
“Yuuki stop, he’s choking.”
Lisara,noticing his helplessness, hurriedly got him a glass of water. Yuuki finally released him from the headlock and made a “Tsk” sound. The red flag didn’t vanish after all but this was quite unexpected.
---She’s usually violent but not this violent. Did I do anything?
“We really need to get going now.”
“Yeah, I agree.”
She grabbed his left hand firmly and bolted through the front door in her usual style.
“Let’s hurry or we’ll miss the train.”
Before he could ask her to let go, she was already getting ready to do her signature jump out the front door. This was a normal day in the lives of the Yatos.
---Moments like these make me wish I have a less energetic sister that wouldn’t rush me all the time, it drains me an awful lot. I couldn’t give two shits about school or being punctual or tardy so giving up precious sleep for the sake of punctuality is even more annoying.
“We could always use the bus.”
“That won’t do.”
She shoved his suggestion aside like it was nothing and continued running till they reached the train station. Shirou started to wonder if she could realistically improve her cooking skills if she spent this much energy on it. A truly energetic and passionate girl, just like her mother. Shirou didn’t have any of these traits..It’ll be more accurate to say he had the opposite. They got on the train on time..Shirou paused to take a look at everyone on it and as usual, the multiple gazes made it difficult for him to relax.
“That is him,right. The psychotic murderer on the news???”
“Yeah. He got a haircut but that disgusting face is still the same. At least you should have done plastic surgery or something.”
---I should have kept the length of my hair on the same level?
“He has some nerve using the train. Why isn’t he banned from using public transportation?”
“If he wants to kill himself, he should go ahead. I don’t want that lunatic anywhere near me.”
He simply sat quietly alongside Yuuki as the noise slowly increased.With the scornful look on their faces, it was as though a demon had hopped on the train. Loud noises would have usually been prevented in consideration of everyone on the train but in this case, some people had thrown away their pride to ensure safety which was understandable.
---The media is the cause of all this.Feeding people with lies. Normally I wouldn’t bother myself with such trifle matters but my current situation is as a result of the media searching for something ‘news worthy’. That’s the only reason I am here taking so many insults from strangers without having the right to fight back.
“Great, it seems like someone or something else caught their attention.”
Shirou had to squint his eyes as he noticed something rather strange the second time. There were three men in black suits. They each entered the train using different doors and a girl with long, beautiful black hair walked in. Yuuki was right, something caught their attention. “So elegant” were the words he let out without knowing and Yuuki heard him.
“Ohhh are you checking her out???”
“Of course not.”
She chuckled as he frantically denied the accusation.
“She must be related to someone really important, don’t you think??Look, that is our school logo.She must be from our school.”
She swung her long hair from the black collar with light red traces in between. The little gold lines on her black skirt shone even brighter. The school logo was a star with the abbreviation “A.H.S” stylishly written. For a moment, it made the siblings wonder if they were wearing the same uniform because it looked so good on her. It was like the uniform was specially made to fit her. She certainly did shine with elegance.
“Isn’t that Akate Misaka??”
“The daughter of Akate Sho??”
“What is she doing here?”
People began to whisper, and he started asking himself the same questions.
---Is this the right place to meet someone of high status like her??? Shouldn’t she be in her fancy car with her chauffeur and some body guards??? Well the body guards are clearly visible but then back to my question, why is she here??
He began thinking of possible reasons for something as bizarre as this.. It was his nature.. He gave everything extra thought. Anything that made little sense to him was bothersome.. More bothersome than the energy he put in his attempts of uncovering the mystery itself.
“She’s really pretty.Isn’t she??”
---She is….
“I guess.”
As she slowly walked towards their direction, the people opposite them got off their seats as she gently sat down in front of the both of them and crossed her legs.They did it of their own volition so there was no need to give much thought to any of that. Rather, it was her overwhelming presence that was note worthy. Similar to that of a goddess, keeping the demon in the shadow. For a brief moment, their eyes met. He looked the other way and urged himself not to look her way again. That strange moment when the eyes of two strangers met was extremely embarrassing for him. Desperately avoiding eye contact and then failing was on another level of embarrassing. He could not get a proper look at her expression but it didn’t seem like that of someone mocking another. It was probably a gentle smile.
“Shirou, look at the guy at the left.”
“Yeah, I’ve been waiting for you to notice it..”
“You could have said something since.”
“I wasn’t completely sure.”
He folded his arms as his gaze rested on the middle-aged man at the far corner. He had been up-skirting for the past 5 minutes with no one knowing. With his shades on, it would have been difficult to notice but the movement of his phone gave him away. His victim didn’t even notice. She had her earplugs on and was currently pre occupied with her phone. The ideal victim in this sort of situation.
---Darn those short skirts.
While waiting for someone else to notice, he thought of what to do with this information. He wasn’t exactly the hero type.. Time and time again, his sense of justice had done nothing but slap him right in the face. Enough to loosen his conviction. Enough to question it. Why give a powerless person such convictions??No powerless person could bring forth justice. No matter the desire, that was just the general rule. Being a by-passer wasn’t much of a choice for him now but he didn’t exactly want to leave it to Yuuki.A rather weak dilemma but there was nothing he could do about it.
“Maybe I should..”
Before she was done talking, he had already gone over to the girl with caution. The motion of the train was more of a reason to avoid closeness to anyone as he was still a target for the public.
---I already have a bad feeling about this.
“Uhh excuse me. There is a free seat over there.You can have it if you are tired of standing.”
With a brief glance, she ignored him and looked the other way..She didn’t even take off her earplugs or pause the music. She acknowledged his presence and moved away in disgust. With her bag pushing him slightly, he nearly lost his balance.
---I feel like…Utter garbage..At least I got what I wanted. The guy with the shades changed his sitting position to prevent suspicion, but I’m sure he got the message. I’m glad we have a goddess on board, I feel more comfortable that few people saw this embarrassing moment that I’ll try to forget. Being the hero never works well for me..That’s why I’ll rather be a shadow..The non-existent pillar that shapes history..Doesn’t sound so bad. On second thought, it sounds really weird. I’m glad I didn’t say that out loud.
He took a quick glance at Yuuki, with a forced smile, signifying the odd effectiveness of the thoughtless action that controlled him. However, Misaka was in his field of vision so he undoubtedly saw her too and that grin she had on put him off. Perhaps he was looking too deep into it.They eventually got off the train and his sister seemed rather irked, but her reluctance to speak made things more difficult for him.
“The nerve of that girl. I had a feeling that something wrong was going to happen..She looks like the unappreciative type. We should have left her.”
Yuuki always got upset on his behalf over things like this and there was no way of calming her down unless she chose to.
“It wasn’t entirely wrong.”
“So it was worth it?”
“I’m not saying that.Don’t worry.You can forget about it.”
“I won’t. It’s absolutely not fair. You tried your best to help her and she ignored you. Pushing you???After everything??”
“Well to her I seemed like a weirdo whose intentions were not clear.”
---That’s right..She had no idea she was being saved.
“Ughhhhh…As for you, what was that?”
“That was all I could come up with..”
“You should have let me handle it.Anyway, let’s go”
She checked the time on her watch and nodded to herself while grabbing his hand again.She set her right leg in front of her left, ready to sprint through just like a refuelled car or a toy with a new set of batteries.They arrived at the school with some minutes to spare.
“So exhilarating”
---No..None of it was exhilarating, just exhausting. I’m already tired and school hasn’t even started yet.
“I guess I’ll see you later.”
She went her separate way but he was still in front of the school gate, just staring at it. That was when he actually noticed he was unable to move. Akate high school.. One of the most(if not the most) prestigious schools in Tokyo..With a very low acceptance rate…The owner was a man too rich to care about quantity. Quality over quantity. That was the only reason he was specially selected and given a full scholarship along with his sister despite his messy reputation.
---I still wouldn’t call myself “Lucky” or anything..Am I truly lucky??.. Say that to my face and I wouldn’t find it funny…
Luck has always been an unfamiliar word for him. “You are lucky to have survived those flames.” The first time those words struck his cords were a few months back when the tactlessness of a certain doctor spurred on nothing but uncertainty in his head. As he tried walking, he realized that something was holding him back. It was fear. What could be causing this sudden fear? Almost instantly, he regained composure and started walking again.
“Who is that guy??”
“He’s that new transfer student.”
“The one on the news right??”
“Yeah, I’ve seen his face before.”
“Eww. Gross.”
---It has begun.My first day of school.
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