POV: Ikehara Mirai.
Date: 14 years ago
The world doesn't change, it is us who change, our way of looking at it changes.
That is why, the once was a beautiful warm scenery, can seem this terrifying right now.
The world didn't change, but now I know… but now I know the unpleasant truth.
And now, the proof lies within me, as I have certainly changed.
If we change by knowing the truth, then I wish I had never known.
I wish I had stayed oblivious to it, that way I would have lived in that paradise instead of this hell.
"Chizuru! Are you going to eat!?" Hi-Chan asked me with a huge smile on her face, "yeah, why do you seem overly happy today?" I questioned her unusual enthusiasm, she peeked in all directions then came closer to me and whispered, "I made the food today."
"That's great news," I happily exclaimed as I extended my hands hugging her over her thick clothes, "I haven't had a satisfying meal in a while, the food has been so disappointing lately!" I said with happiness covering my face, she blushed and smiled creepily toward me and mumbled, "that doesn't make me happy at all~"
"But you sure seem happy by it," I opposed to her contradiction between actions and words, she quickly rushed toward the cafeteria ignoring my remark.
I continued to walk till I reached it as well, when I got inside laughter was filling the room with pleasant noise, I looked over to see everyone sitting exchanging words and laughter with food in front of them.
I went to get my portion of food and headed toward one of the tables, as I sat down I got greeted by series of questions, "it's Chizuru! Where have you been? Did you see Akira? He was looking for you!"
"Yeah, I'm doing great thanks for asking," I answered Shinobo while giving him annoyed expression, Hi-Chan came and sat next to me, "it seems Aki and Jun healed an injured mouse and got in trouble with the father!" she informed me.
I raised one eyebrow and faced her and asked, "healed? Don't tell me Junzo used his ability again!?" Shinobo got closer and whispered, "they aren't the only ones who caused trouble, there is Kenta and Izumi too, Azami told me that they tried to sneak outside again!"
Hi-Chan raised her voice and scolded Shinobo, "why did Izumi get in trouble!? It's probably Kenta that dragged him into it again!" I giggled while sipping some of the soup in front of me, "why are you yelling at me?" Shinobo asked while being shocked by the sudden scolding.
Azami quietly came and sat next to Shinobo, "guys, I just saw the four of them being punished by running twenty laps around the workshop," she said, Shinobo laughed, "They will never finish today!"
"This is bad, the food will get cold," Hi-Chan worryingly stated, "let them be, they don't even deserve it," I comforted her.
"You're as heartless as always," Shinobo said while giving me the looks, Azami asked me, "Chizuru, today you're going to the workshop for checkup, right?"
I nodded and said, "yeah, I have a good feeling this time, I feel like something will be different!" and started heading out of the cafeteria, Hi-Chan ran after me and with worried eyes she asked me, "aren't you afraid?" I paused and looked at her, "why would I be? I'm actually excited to see what kind of ability it is," I answered her.
"I hope it's a good one," Hi-Chan told me with a smile on her face and returned inside.
Hi-Chan's ability enabled her of seeing a person's death when she has a skin contact with them, that is why she is always heavily clothed even in summer, to prevent any contact, moreover, she can't even see her own death, so it is pretty useless, I hope my ability is nothing like that.
I resumed my walking and headed toward the workshop, as I got there, three boys rushed toward me while catching their breath.
"Chizuru!" Junzo yelled as he saw me, Akira started looking in all direction and brought a box from a bush and gave it to me, "this is a baby mouse, father told us to get rid of it but that's cruel!" Akira exclaimed.
"But why are you giving it to me?" I asked confused by their actions, "everyone else refused," Junzo stated while showing disappointment on his face.
"What makes you think I agree? I refuse too, I don't want to get in trouble because of a mouse," I said, Junzo and Akira were shocked and couldn't mutter a word, I don't know what made them think I'll agree to this.
"Idiots, I told you to get rid of it," a boy said from behind them, I looked over at him to see a boy with a dark black hair, "who is that?" I asked them, "you never met him? It's Kenta, he's being punished as well," Akira answered.
"Kenta? You mean that rumored troublemaker?" I reaffirmed, he yelled and protested, "don't put me in the same levels as these guys! I'm being punished because Izumi was slow!"
"Are you blaming Izumi for being caught!?" Junzo yelled at him, "but he does have a point, we already finished five laps, but Izumi is still in the second one!" Akira added.
"I'm glad all the troublemakers are getting along just fine," I said sarcastically, after pushing the box back to Akira, I started heading toward the workshop again.
Kenta followed me and asked, "why are you here? Are you being punished as well?" I shook my head and corrected him, "I came for checkup."
"You, too, didn't get your ability yet?" he asked me with an innocent bright smile surfacing on his face, I nodded, he said excitedly, "I can't wait to see mine! I hope you get an interesting ability! Don't let it be a lame one like Akira!"
"Talking to animals isn't that lame," I opposed, "but if I can choose I would want an ability that's not too flashy," I continued.
"That's what I mean by lame!" He continued with his point, "as for me, I would want an ability that will let me live for a long time, long enough to experience everything!"
"experience everything?" I questioned his unnatural explanation, he smiled at me with his eyes gleaming with enthusiasm, "won't it be more fun that way?!"
"How childish," I remarked and entered the workshop leaving him behind.
As I entered the long white hallway, I was greeted by men who wore lab coats and had their face covered in white masks.
I ran up to the only man who was dressed in black and excitedly said, "father! I came as you told me."
The man softly patted my head and kindly whispered his words, "I have a good feeling this time, I hope you get a helpful ability."
Father is a man, who always been kind to all of us, he helped us and taught us many stuff that made us who we are today. Always scolding us when we do bad stuff, encouraging us when we do the right thing, and he always showed us a kind smile that made going against him hard. He is the person we all decided to trust unconditionally, he is our precious person that we can't hate.
"Sir, we'll start now," the men behind him whispered in his ear, and started guiding me inside a room, the room was filled with unknown machines, but in the middle of it, there was a chair, one of the men dressed in white pointed at me to sit on it, I moved my body and sat on top of the chair without asking a question.
"Subject 345?" one of them confirmed with the other one whispering in low volume, the other nodded and they started heading toward me with papers in their hands.
"Hello, little girl? Would you mind answering few questions?" a man of them asked as he sat across me, I nodded and waited nervously for the questions to come.
This is a routinely checkup, every kid here goes through, it decides the possibility of their ability surfacing any time soon, what their ability is? And what triggers it? by answering the questions I am going to be asked, I will come to find out my ability.
"Let's start then," the man said behind the mask he wore, I gulped and got ready.
After asking me a few questions, they took a blood sample from me and made me wait in the chair alone in the room by myself.
"They're taking long," I mumbled as I got off the chair, I went toward the table, and saw a lot of papers lying on top of it, on the header of each paper, there was a big title, "Subject 326, Subject 369, Subject 786?" I questioned the titles I read as I moved my eyes toward the content to see more details, "Subject 326 is now able of transferring injuries completely, and it doesn't range from humans, but the subject was able of transferring animal's injuries as well. Subject 326 seem to have side effect of a strong stomachache whenever the ability is used, no medication works on nulling out the effect, so we detected that the subject is not physically able of transferring more than five injuries a day," I frowned as I read the details out loud.
I knew while reading the details that Subject 326 probably referred to Junzo, I never thought they kept records of our abilities, they must have been so proud of us.
I returned the files to the table and sat back on the chair waiting for my results to come, soon the door of the room opened and from it rushed few men with disappointed look on their faces, "the results came out negative, it looks like your ability is yet to surface, looks like you'll have to keep coming for checkup once a week, little girl," they told me with their back facing me, as if they lost interest in me.
I quietly got down the chair again and left the room, I guess today wasn't my day, I'm sure it will come but it's so amazing that it is taking a longer time to surface, yeah, I'm sure.
With the disappointing news, and the false encouragement I kept giving myself, I left the workshop and ran back to the building without looking back.
As I was running, I tripped over something and fell, I turned my head toward it to see the box Akira tried to give me before, I turned my head in every direction looking for people nearby, but as I didn't see anyone, I peeked inside the box.
Inside was a grey-colored mouse shivering in the corner of the box, "I'm sorry, I must have scared you," I apologized as I opened the box completely.
"What are you doing?" a boy's voice asked from behind me, I turned and saw Kenta giving me confused looks.
"I tripped on it, so I was making sure I didn't kill the mouse inside," I justified my actions, he came closer and peeked inside the box with me.
"Seeing your face, did the results not turn out the way you thought?" he asked while not looking at me trying to be polite.
"Yeah, it seems like my ability won't surface any time soon," I said disappointed in myself for not showing results.
"Rather than caring for an ability that is yet to come," he said as he got closer to me and pointed at my arm, "take care of yourself now, you're bleeding," he continued.
I shifted my eyes at the place he pointed at and saw my skin scratched and blood rushing from the surface, "did I get this when I tripped?" I mumbled surprised by the injury I didn't notice up till now.
"Man, that guy is still running," Kenta complained as he looked toward the workshop, "I thought everyone finished their laps already, why are you still here?" I asked him.
"Because Izumi is still running," he answered me, I looked at the workshop and saw a boy with red hair running at a low speed.
"If he stays at that speed he will take forever!" I exclaimed shocked by the slow speed he was running in, Kenta started laughing, I looked at Kenta and asked him, "why are you waiting for him though?"
Kenta tiled his head sideway and mumbled, "I wonder?"
Kenta didn't answer my question but part of me knew the answer, Junzo mentioned that the red hair boy is being punished because he got caught running with Kenta, is he waiting for him because he's his friend?
"You're really loyal, huh?" I mumbled as I took the box and headed inside the building leaving Kenta outside.
Little did I know back then, that what seemed like a simple friendship was more complicated than it seemed.