Kiro Kanato's Story

The sharp sound of his alarm clock sent Kiro sprawling to the floor, head first. "Damn it." He cursed under his breath, getting up and paying his headache no mind. He had a very persistent urge to throw the still ringing clock against the wall, but he turned it off and placed it back on his bedside table instead. It was still early in the morning, and pulling back his curtains just a little, cold air started biting at his skin.

He growled, then went straight to the bathroom to take a quick shower before heading off to his so-called "grave", the Academy. He hated interacting with the rest of the world, he would be much better sitting at a computer or in his room than in a crowd of people. Plus he found it annoying since no one could notice him anyway. Walking out he just pulled on his uniform, but hid it under an iPod hoodie and a red jersey.

Grabbing his phone from his table and shoving it into his pocket, he went downstairs, grabbing a single apple and his bag before leaving without a word. Besides, his parents were getting ready to go to work, so again, he wasn't noticed. On the way there- he only walked- he had finished off the apple and threw it into a trash can somewhere on the road. Coming to the gates of the academy he scowled again.

Walking in he headed to his classroom, some other students bumping into him in the hallways. He gritted his teeth and went to his seat, checking his bag if he had missed anything important.

After seeing that he didn't leave anything at home, he sighed and folded his arms over his desk, lowering his head and closing his eyes.

"I think I lost too much valuable sleeping time..."

A tap on his shoulder made Kiro look up. A random student was there, asking him if he knew yesterday's assignment. "Right, they only remember that I exist when it comes to schoolwork." He thought to himself before lying, shaking his head no. The student thanked him and left, asking more people.

"Screw the world." He muttered before deciding to get out of the room and get sleep out of his eyes before class started so he wouldn't fall asleep on the teacher's lecture. Taking his earphones and plugging one bud into his right ear- as he usually did so he would still be aware of his surroundings and not bump into anything, most especially the wall- he just set his music on shuffle and let anything play.

Passing by the nurse's office and despite his efforts to still be aware of the surrounding area, someone bumped into him. He was about to apologize, but seeing that familiar face- Those doe green eyes and that auburn hair, no doubt, it was the only person who really knew that he was alive, Ai Mochizuki.

"Again, screw the world." He thought glumly. He hated interacting, and she usually annoyed him to no end on the rare times they were together so he sealed his lips shut and just stared at her with his usual dark glare.

As soon as Ai stepped out of the nurse's office she felt someone bump into her, sending her tiny frame flying back into the door. Turning her head up to glare at the person she realized with a start that it none other then Kiro Kanato. Ai felt her face brighten and her frown instantly turned into a grin, she liked to personally consider Kiro a friend of hers even though she knew he most likely hated her. He was just so fun to tease!

Brushing a strand of her hair out of her eyes, Ai grinned happily up at the boy and felt her face flush a little as she playfully pushed him. "Hey! I'm supposed to be the one sneaking up on you, not the other way around!" She rambled well looking at the death glare Kiro was giving her. He must not be having a good day... Ai thought sadly as she started to play with the Band-Aid once again. Considering that Ai almost always got cuts due to her clumsiness, messing with her Band-Aids had become a sort of nervous habit for her. That and rocking on her heels which she found herself doing next. Looking up at the boy again she pointed at his earphones and asked curiously, "What are you listening to?" How she'd do anything to see him smile for once.

Ai could still remember the first time she'd saw Kiro. There had just been something about him that drew her to him. She'd realized pretty fast that he was practically invisible to everyone but her, but then again, maybe he just draws them away with his constant glare. Ai was sure that if he smiled more and showed people he was capable of being happy that more people would talk to him. She knew how harsh that sounded but honestly people were harsh, it's just how the world is. Ai still didn't understand how she didn't mind his constant glare and his obvious hate towards her. She didn't understand how whenever she saw him she felt the need to tease him or the way her heart would flutter when he looked at her. The world was a mystery, for now she'd just try and get this boy to smile. One step at a time.

He winced as she playfully pushed him, but of course, due to his stronger body frame he easily remained steadfast on his spot. "She got another cut today, huh?" Kiro thought, having spotted a band-aid on her elbow. "How clumsy." He muttered under his breath, keeping his dark glare up. He unlocked his phone- which had locked itself while he was walking- and simply flashed the title of the song he was listening to.

He averted his eyes as he did, though. He usually didn't like showing his music to anyone, most especially her. But since she asked nicely, and not in that usual teasing matter he decided to show just one. "Ah, it's a Wonderful Cat Life!" was printed on the screen in flashing white letters. He quickly locked it again and shoved it back into his pocket. He glanced at the clock in the office. Still 1 more hour until the bell rang for classes to start.

Kiro wasn't sure how this girl found him and how his aura of invisibility to other people didn't affect her. No, she wasn't insane of course. He always thought that insane men could only think of meat, blood, more meat, and even more meat- "No, those are cannibals." he corrected himself mentally.

Shrugging his thoughts of her off, he finally decided to speak.

"What are you doing here?"

Ai chose to ignore Kiro's comment on her clumsiness and pretend like she didn't hear it. That was one conversation she didn't want to go into. Not really expecting him to answer her question about what he was listening to, Ai was surprised when Kiro reached into his pocket and unlocked his phone to show her. Seeing how the boy averted his eyes as he showed her what song he was listening to Ai tried to hold her comments on the title in as much as possible. Nodding her head Ai looked up at Kiro with a friendly smile and said, "Sounds interesting, you'll have to let me hear it sometime. But between you and me, cats have always sort of scared me." She couldn't help but shiver as she imagined the cold black eyes of cats, they just always looked like they wanted to kill you!

Ai hadn't realized she'd been dozing off until she was startled back into reality when Kiro asked, "What are you doing here?" Although she was elated that Kiro was actually talking to her Ai couldn't help but roll her eyes at the question, "I'm here for school, silly!" She giggled before continuing, "And if you mean why I'm outside the nurse's office...well lets just say I fell down the stairs today..." She finished gesturing to her patched up elbow. She was sure there was no need to go into why she'd fallen down since Kiro most likely wouldn't care and everyone knew she was clumsy anyways.

Sighing Ai pushed a piece of hair out of her eyes and looked up at Kiro once again. "So what about you? Why are you out here?" She smirked a little and added, "Cause I doubt you came out here just to bump into me." Realizing what she said Ai felt herself flush red and wished she could take that last part back. Sighing internally Ai knew that Kiro was probably done talking to her now and wouldn't be talking to her any time soon. You idiot... Ai chided herself as she helplessly pulled on her Band-Aid.

"Cats are scary to you, huh..." Kiro found himself noting it down in his head for some reason. He stared back at her when she asked why he was out of the classroom. He sighed. "I woke up a bit too early this morning, and to prevent myself from dozing off on the lecture later I decided to get out of that place." Then he looked down, murmuring, "Plus, no one sees me in the class, except when it's about schoolwork."

He thought over her statement that cats had scared her. "I think I had a friend back then....she had cat-like eyes, didn't she?" he recalled. "Better not mention her." He still took precautions when he tried to shake her off of him. He was cold to the rest of the world but like all other humans- who he declared he hated- he still had a heart and he could still feel even just a slight twinge of guilt and pain when he acted too cold.

Kiro still hid the fact that aside from wanting to get sleep out of his eyes, he also wanted to find Ai and have at least a short chat with her.

"I woke up a bit too early this morning, and to prevent myself from dozing off on the lecture later I decided to get out of that place." Ai nodded, she had days were coming to school seemed better then staying home to, plus, she didn't even know how many times she'd almost fallen asleep during a lecture. "Plus, no one sees me in the class, except when it's about schoolwork." The way Kiro looked down when he said that broke her heart. Smiling reassuringly at him she softly said, "Don't worry about it, you'll always have me! Whether you like it or not I'll always be here for you. Chuckling a bit Ai couldn't help but be happy that Kiro was being honest with her. This was quite honestly probably the longest conversation they'd ever had, and if anything Ai hoped that Kiro would hate her a little less after this. He has to know someone's going to be there for him or else he's going to crumble under all the pressure. Ai had pretty much made it her duty to help Kiro out since the first day she'd seen him, it was time she started upholding that promise.

Sighing Ai looked up at Kiro and standing on her tiptoes reached up and tried to poke his check, although with their height difference she failed miserably. "You know, if you want me to go away all you have to do is ask," Ai said tauntingly as she grinned evilly and continued trying to poke Kiro's check, yet when she failed every time her smile turned into a pout. "Curse you shortness..." She grumbled as she crossed her arms and glared up at Kiro. Guess she'd have to find another way to force him to smile. Sighing once again, Ai leaned back against the wall behind her and checked her phone for the time acting as if nothing had happened. Who cares if he thinks I'm crazy? Ai asked herself as she tried to convince herself she didn't care. Quickly looking up, Ai met Kiro's eyes for a second before mumbling, "Sorry," and looking down again. So she was crazy, big deal.

Kiro wasn't sure if he finally felt at least a twinge of happiness because of Ai's reassuring words. He still had his straight face and blank expression, but the glare had softened and his gaze seemed more of a blank stare now. He closed his eyes and thought, "Huh...maybe she isn't that annoying as I thought." A part of his mind was telling him to stay away and still be invisible to the public, but a stronger part told him that he should try reinforcing his bond with Ai. He wasn't even sure which part was he going to trust.

He blinked when he found the girl trying to poke his cheek. However, with the height difference she still couldn't reach him. His eyes glinted with amusement, and he even found himself smirking at her triumphantly. Then his body started moving on its own and he drew a hand out of his pocket, letting it rest on her head. "Shorty." He chuckled mockingly.

"Shorty." Kiro mocked as one of his hands came down on Ai's head. Turning to glare up at the boy, Ai's breathe hitched when she realized that Kiro wasn't glaring at her for once. The amusement shining in his eyes and triumphant smirk where something that the girl had never seen on him before. Ai felt her face growing scarlet again and wasn't sure if it was because of his smirk or the fact that his hand was still on her head. Looking down at the ground to hide her face, Ai stuffed her phone back in her pocket and said, "Ether I'm short or you're a giant." Grinning, Ai looked back up at Kiro as a idea formed in her head. Quickly pulling out her phone once more, Ai quickly snapped a picture of Kiro before he could go back to his usual glare and squealed happily. "Got it!" She shouted as she giggled mischievously and stuffed the phone in her backpack. "Never know when I might need blackmail." Ai teased as she grinned slyly up at Kiro with her hands on her hips.

"You're just short." Kiro stated coldly but still with a tone of mockery. A flash of light blinded him for a second before Ai grinned slyly up at him. He rolled his eyes. "Blackmail? If you circulate that picture around the school no one would know who the hell the person in the picture is, anyway." He removed his hand from Ai's head and shoved it into his pocket again. "And even if the school knew me they'd only think that you're a stalker or something, taking pictures of a guy who rarely smiles smiling." He presented a hard fact.

One of the perks of being the most unnoticed person in class was that he was free to observe people without getting chewed out or getting called a stalker. And he watched as students came and go, changing personalities but staying the same. He had returned to his straight face again and he stared at her, daring her to give him a reply.

"Blackmail? If you circulate that picture around the school no one would know who the hell the person in the picture is, anyway." When Kiro removed his hand from Ai's head she felt a pang of sadness in her heart. "And even if the school knew me they'd only think that you're a stalker or something, taking pictures of a guy who rarely smiles smiling." After those words Ai looked up to notice that Kiro's face had lost all sense of amusement, and after a second she felt herself do the same. Staring up at Kiro with a straight face she looked him straight in the eye and emotionlessly said, "It was a joke Kiro. And if you think about it, you'd realize that you're my only friend at this school as well."

Ai wasn't sure if she had ever been so serious around Kiro before, she'd just always felt comfortable enough around him to let her true self out. But of course, Ai wouldn't be Ai if she didn't show some emotion. Which is why with the same straight face yet a twinkle of mischief in her eyes, Ai added to her previous statement, "Plus, who says I'm not a stalker?" Slowly reaching back into her backpack, Ai toke out her phone once more and found the picture she'd taken of Kiro. It was a good picture to her. Turning the phone to allow Kiro to see it, she held it up and simply said, "I can delete it if you want." Now it was her turn to stare at the boy daring him to answer.

Kiro shrugged, sighing. "Do whatever you want with the picture. I won't stop you anyway." He turned around. "We better get to class. The number of students are increasing in here and I don't want to bump into any more people." Without another word he started walking off and once he reached the classroom, he went back to his seat and plugged his earphones in, crossing his arms on his desk and laying his head down on them, though he really wasn't sleepy anymore. Well, not anymore since the talk with Ai. He thought back on her statement that cats were scary again.

"Hey, Kana-kun! Do you like cats?" "Eh? Why bring that up?" He saw the girl shrug, the easy smile not gone from her face. "I don't know. I just thought of it."

He blinked again. "Damn, I'm getting those flashbacks again..."

"We better get to class. The number of students are increasing in here and I don't want to bump into any more people." Ai sighed as she watched Kiro walk away without another word. She couldn't help but roll her eyes as she slowly walked to homeroom. Looking down at her phone and the picture of the boy Ai grinned mischievously as she made the picture her wallpaper. Kiro had said she could do whatever she wanted with it. After that was done with, Ai stuffed her phone back in her backpack and turned her head down as she trudged through the crowd of ever growing students.

Opening the door to homeroom, Ai made sure to make eye contact with nobody as she sat down in her usual spot in the back of the classroom. Sitting down Ai did a quick glance around the room to see that besides herself there were three others in the room. Two girls sitting next to each other, a boy with red eyes, and Kiro. Ai couldn't help but roll her eyes yet again at the sight of him, he could have at least walked here with me, she thought. But then again, Kiro didn't exactly seem like the type to walk to class with friends, even less someone he disliked.

Digging thru her backpack to find everything she needed, Ai pulled out some paper and dug around some more for her pencil. When two minutes passed by and Ai still couldn't find a pencil she started to panic a little. Cursing her disorganization, Ai pulled out a pen from the bottom of her backpack only to find it didn't work. Looking around the room Ai wondered what she was going to do. She could ask Kiro for a pencil but judging by how he'd walked away from her so fast Ai would say it was safe to bet he didn't want to talk to her anymore. Looking at the other boy Ai instantly ruled him out, she just didn't feel comfortable talking to any guys other then Kiro. That only left the two girls. Standing up on shaking legs, Ai slowly made her way over to the two. Not noticing the girl with purple hair's anxiety she lightly tapped the girl with silver hair's shoulder. "Um, e-excuse me..." she murmured. Looking down at the girl's shoes Ai felt her face grow tomato red and she started playing with her bandage before stuttering, "Uh, d-do you have a pencil I could borrow?"

Ciel still couldn't understand what had just happened. She was still making heads and tails of it when she realized that another girl had already walked up to her, asking to borrow her pencil. She looked up at the girl for a while to check her out before taking out her pencil case which she keeps on a different compartment for ease of access. She took out a fairly new and sharpened 2B pencil and handed it to the girl. "Here you go."

Misato, on the other hand, was reading the student handbook. He checked out the seat assignments, where their positions and names were listed. "So her name is Mikuru Takano..." He said as he checked out the name of the person sitting beside Ciel. "Did I offend or frighten her in some way?" He wondered as he scanned the page for more familiar names, at least to him. He glanced at all the other students. It was the usual scene that he always witness for the first day of classes. Ciel was, interestingly enough, conversing with someone else. Kiro was spacing out again, as usual. His thoughts were cut short as he heard the front doors open, and their homeroom teacher walks into view.

Mikuru eventually poked her head out from behind Ciel and sat down in her seat beside Ciel. She then looked around and studied every one of her classmates one by one. She had just met Ciel and she was friendly enough. She then saw the boy Ciel said was the one who helped assist with cleaning. He had short messy hair and didn't dress in the uniform like some of the other students. However, his red eyes were beautiful... Mikuru found herself smiling before shaking her head. She probably made a bad first impression with him already. She made a note to herself to try and talk to him after class to apologize. She then turned to see a man with green hair and red eyes. He was in his seat with his head in his arms. He didn't seem like he would want to be friends with Mikuru. If anything, he'd coldly shut her out. She made a mental note to herself and then saw the last girl. She had curly auburn hair and deep green eyes. Mikuru had wondered if she could be approachable. She decided she would have to find out later.

Elsewhere

The alarm clock rang off in Misato's bedroom. He woke up with a start and shut off the alarm. "Augh, shut up!" he shouted, still tired. He then turned to look at the clock itself. The time was... "6:50?! Crap, I need to get going soon!!" He quickly pulled on his trusty white coat, pants and shoes before getting ready to run out the door. He stopped as he felt he was missing something. Then he remembered. "Right, the phones!" He picked up his headphones, put each in one ear and ran out the door. He approached the gate by 7:00 and by then, no other student was entering the building. "Shoot... I can still make it."

Back with Mikuru

The homeroom teacher walked inside and sweetly smiled at everyone. "Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Miss Nanao and I will be your homeroom teacher. Now then, since it's the first day of class and most of you are new, I think it would be great if you could introduce yourselves. Just so you know, we're going in alphabetical order based on last name and I would appreciate you saying one thing you like while saying your name. So first up is... Amane-kun!" Nothing happened. "Amane-kun...?" No one still showed up. Mikuru wondered to herself what could have happened to him. 'Maybe he's sick?' Miss Nanao sighed and said "Well, I guess he's absent-"
"HERE!!!!!!" Misato opened the door as quickly as he could, still breathing heavily from running. He stopped, collected himself and approached the front of the class. Miss Nanao smiled and said "Glad you could finally join us. Now then, why don't you introduce yourself?"
Misato smiled and said "Yeah, sure thing. What's up, guys? I'm Misato Amane and I like sunshine. Nice to meet you all~" Miss Nanao said "Nice to meet you, Misato-kun. Why don't you sit down next to those two girls over there...?" Misato followed where Miss Nanao was pointing and saw two of the most beautiful girls he's ever seen in his life. The first one had silver haired pigtails and was obviously foreign. The second was a local who had short purple hair. He felt a smile creep up as he muttered to himself "With pleasure~" He sat down in the seat next to Ciel, trying not to stare at the two girls.

"Aokigahara Misato but you can just call me Misato." Misato calmly introduced himself. "I transferred here from Hokkaido around four years ago, so if there's any problem feel free to consult me. I'll see what I can do." He took a simple bow and went back to his seat. "Thank you Aokigahara-kun. Okay, who's next?" Their homeroom teacher went over the list of names.

"Ciel Khulaz le Faye, from England, nice to meet you all." Ciel gave a simple and quick introduction when she was called before heading back to her seat beside Mikuru. She seemed a little emotionless when she introduced herself but this didn't bother her one bit. "I don't really intend to give an excellent first impression so that's okay." She thought to herself.

(OOC: This takes place after Kiro and Ai make their introductions.)
Mikuru then shivered a bit as she stood up. She started to speak but no words would come out. She noticed that she was starting to tremble and started to calm herself down. Mikuru cleared her throat and finally spoke. "U-Um... My na-name is Mikuru Takan-no... I-I... I love bo-books..." She sat down quickly after that. She felt very nervous.
Misato looked over at Mikuru and silently cheered in his head. 'Must have taken a lot for her to stand up. I'll talk to her after school.'
Miss Nanao smiled and said "Well, you all seem very likeable in your own way. If that's everyone, let's get started on your first assignment. Open your English books to page 15."
Misato groaned but opened his book. 'Dammit... why'd it have to be English? I can barely get every Japanese thing down, why do I have to learn about English?!'
Mikuru opened up her book diligently and looked through the pages.
Miss Nanao explained "Well, for this, I want to put you in groups of two and analyze the following proverb and translate it back into Japanese. Let's see... Amane-kun, you'll be paired up with Faye-chan. Kanato-kun will be with Mochizuki-chan and Aokigahara-kun, you can get Takano-chan. Work hard you guys~"
Misato did a happy dance inside his head. 'Score! I get to work with one of the hot chicks!!' He put on his best looking smile and walked over to Ciel. "Hey there~ So, which part of England did you come from?"
Mikuru on the other hand started to tremble. She slowly stood up and walked over to the other Misato. She sat down across from his table. They at first worked silently but Mikuru decided to break the ice. "U-Um... I'm so-sorry about this morni-ning... I-I was just n-not familiar with y-you and... I got bu-bullied a lot in mi-middle school so I'm aprehen-hensive towards men... and women... b-but you seem nice... So... I'm so sorry!" Mikuru finished her awkward apology with as deep of a bow as she could make while still sitting in her chair.

The teacher had instructed them to do a paired activity that requires students to translate some proverbs into native Japanese. Ciel was paired with the guy who came in late: Misato Amane. Before starting, he asked her what part of England did she come from.

"I'm from the city of Carlisle, around Northwest." She replied without looking up from her textbook as she continued working on the given set of exercises. It's not like she found him annoying, it's just that she hasn't interacted much with other people let alone boys in real life before.

"Don't mind it too much, I'm quite used to people having that impression. Haha." Misato cheers Mikuru up. He glanced at all the other pairs who were either working silently or chatting with their partner. "Do I really seem like a bad guy?" He wondered at this realization. He turned back to his partner who still had her head bowed down. "It's all right, really. Plus there's also my last name to consider...so I can completely understand why." Misato leans his head back by his chair. "God, why must I be named after that place?"

"Translations, huh." Kiro absentmindedly spun a ballpen in his hand with ease. He sighed. "Well, at least I'm paired with Ai, probably the only one who can see me in the place. Oh well." He had noticed then that people had come in- Aokigahara, a voluntary cleaner, their homeroom teacher, and another student named Misato.

"And Tadakatsu's still not here." He sighed to himself. "Where could that guy be anyway?" Then he stopped spinning his pen, sighing again. Lazily flipping through his book with a hand he just began translating mentally, gathering what knowledge he had of English and translating.

Running around clumsily trying to put on his clothes while also preparing for the rest of the day, Tadakatsu was only slowing himself down. “Okay, okay.” Tadakatsu spoke to himself. “This was yesterday's assignment. And this was... Actually, I have no clue what this is.” Shrugging his shoulders, the boy crumpled up the paper and threw it toward the trash bin without looking up. The paper didn't even come close to the trash bin and instead hit a pile of books stacked next to the boy's television. The books fell and scattered all over his room. “N-no way.” Tadakatsu began to lament as he reluctantly picked up the fallen books.

If you knew Tadakatsu, these books would seem like a strange thing for the idiotic boy to have. They're way too scientific that even I, the intelligent narrator, would have a hard time understanding a lot of them. They're books on different science theories ranging from common ones you probably know to things I'd never heard of. I guess it makes sense when you think about it. Oh, you don't think it does? Well I guess you'd have to know Tadakatsu a bit better to understand, so you'll probably learn later. Unlike that kid, I'm not really into spilling my guts on the tip of a hat. But anyway, let's get back to this idiot being late.

“All right. That should do it.” Tadakatsu concluded with a smile on his face. He looked around the floor for any more books that might have gotten away from him, but instead found a Polaroid picture face down on the floor. He bent down to pick up the picture, turning it around while getting back up from the ground. A strew of emotions could be seen on his face looking at the picture. Sadness, regret, and a bit of anger. Toward whom? Probably himself. All of these things kept Tadakatsu from really connecting with anyone.

Tadakatsu is a popular guy nowadays, but he doesn't think anything of it. He treats his relationships with others as nothing more than routine. And he's completely fine with that, unfortunately. Tadakatsu treats all his relationships as “face-value friendships”. What this means is that he is fine with hanging out with these people and is even happier to help them out, but that's just it. These relationships are just one-sided. Tadakatsu only gives, but never takes. So people think he is a great friend, which he might be and would be happy to hear anyone call him as such, but that's all it is. Tadakatsu may be a great friend to others, but he doesn't have anyone he can truly call a great friend. That's why these friendships are “face-value friendships”; they never reach beyond the surface.

“Okay, time to get to school, I suppose.” Shaking off the lingering emotions he had held a few moments ago, the boy moves forward. Tadakatsu picks up his bag from beside his bed and walks out into the living room. “Oi, Kei! Are you ready to go?” The only response Tadakatsu received was silence. “Um... Kei? Uh-oh.

You probably understand what happened, but this poor fool is still trying to piece it together. So the boy runs to the doorway to see a pair of shoes missing with a pair of slippers replacing them. Sighing to himself, Tadakatsu spoke. “So she left me behind, huh? How late am I, anywa-” Blankly staring at his watch, this boy began to feel his legs shake. “N-no waaayyyy!” Screaming at the top of his lungs, Tadakatsu jumped into this shoes and sprinted through the front door.

Keep it down you idiot! The neighbors are going to watch us closely again. Remember last time the neighbors avoided you to even the point of taking their garbage out at different times than you? We can't trouble Kei to mediate things for us everyday, you idiot!

Running down the stairs of the apartment building, Tadakatsu made it to the bike rack outside at a speed that would put the track team to shame. But there were visibly no bikes to be found. “Wait, don't tell me that Kei...” Tadakatsu shoved his hand into his pants pocket quickly, but couldn't find the key to his bike's padlock. “Kei!!!” The idiot screamed toward the sky.

“I guess there's no way around it,” Tadakatsu concluded while rolling up his sleeves, “Time to put my nickname, Mach-Speed-Machine to the test!” No one actually calls him that, by the way.

At School

Footsteps echoed throughout the halls as Tadakatsu approached the classroom. Sliding to a halt in front of the classroom door, the boy brashly pulls the door to the side. “Yo Teach', what's-,” Tadakatsu stopped mid-sentence seeing all the students working in pairs quietly, “Up?" He finished his sentence meekly. “Bad timing, huh?”