POV: Ikehara Mirai.
Date: 14 years ago
The last room in the third-floor hallway, is my room, the place where I spend most of my time in.
Usually no one really interrupts my alone-time, but today was different, with father giving us an exam tomorrow, we were having a study session in my room.
And by we, I mean the prettiest girl I have ever seen, Hi-Chan, the coolest girl I have ever met, Azami, the careless boy, Junzo, the animal lover boy, Akira and the most annoying gossip boy, Shinobo.
"Junzo, Mink say you answered the third question wrong," Akira whispered in a clear voice, Junzo quickly grabbed his eraser and started erasing his answer.
"Dude!" Shinobo yelled at Junzo, "don't listen to what a cat tells you! You know better!" he scolded.
"A cat!?" Akira exclaimed, "just letting you know, for the millionth time already! Mink is a lion not a cat! Also, he is really smart!" he yelled.
"How can a lion be this small, you idiot!?" Shinobo yelled back at Akira, and mocked, "Why are you defending it in the first place!? Is it your girlfriend?!"
"Mink is a male, and his size is a taboo subject, he really is sensitive about it," Akira replied to Shinobo with an annoyed tone.
"I don't know if Mink is smart or not, but Junzo really did answer it wrong," Hi-Chan interrupted while peeking at Junzo's paper.
"Hey!" Junzo yelled as he pulled his paper away from Hi-Chan's sight.
"Guys, I really hate to ruin your fun but," I interrupted, "I don't want to spend the whole day stuck with you, can you just finish this already, so I can get free of this nonsense?" I complained.
"It's really unfair, how with your sucky personality you still get good grades," Shinobo complained to me.
"Don't you think that it is actually fair? She lacks the good personality but was blessed with knowledge instead," Akira corrected.
"laugh all you want, jerks," I sarcastically said while grabbing my pen and writing on the paper in front of me ignoring both of them.
"Aw! Don't be mad we were kidding," Shinobo said while heading toward me and as he extended his hand till it touched my head he grinned and mumbled, "knowledge steal."
"Shinobo!" Azami yelled losing her cool, and she quickly went to him and shook him by the shoulders, "don't use your ability without permission!" she yelled at him.
"Chill, I only stole the knowledge of the question she's solving, I didn't steal anything important," Shinobo explained forcing a smile on his face with his hands trembling from the mad expression Azami was showing him.
"It's fine, he's only joking around, I didn't get hurt, plus I can just gain the knowledge again, don't worry about it, Azami," I interrupted and pulled her hands from Shinobo's shoulders.
"I'll help you learn it again," Hi-chan said as she smiled at me and I smiled back at her.
I stood up and started heading toward the door, "I'll be going to the bathroom," I excused myself before leaving the room.
As I went down the hallway my thoughts could only ring in my head saying how I can never fit in, I will always be the person without abilities to them, I knew that already, I knew but… I wanted to fit in that circle of theirs so badly… I wanted to be one of them, I want to have an ability too, I wanted to be like them.
"Are you going in or what?" A voice asked me as I stood in front of the bathroom door, I turned around to see Kenta crossing his hands and staring at me while leaning on a wall.
"I'm not, but this is the girl's bathroom, I don't think it's wise for you to enter it," I responded with confusion about why he is standing there ringing in my head.
Kenta's face turned beet red and yelled, "that's not why I'm here!" he ran up to me and with a wide smile on his face he said, "I came to see you."
"No," I refused and started walking away from him, "but I didn't say anything yet!" he yelled as he ran behind me.
"You're going to pull me into something troublesome, won't you? Even if I only met you yesterday, I already know a lot about you from rumors," I said as I continued to walk toward my room.
"You really are a rude person, huh!" He exclaimed while still walking beside me.
"Shouldn't you be studying like others? Tomorrow we have an exam," I asked him trying to make him leave me alone already.
"Are you going to study?" He asked me as he continued to walk next to me, I looked at him and answered, "yeah, actually I'm studying with my friends now."
Kenta smiled at me and closed his eyes and said, "you really are a pathetic person, so disappointed."
My feet stopped moving and chill ran down my whole body as I turned toward Kenta again to see his smile that covered his face, "pathetic?" I asked him confused about the reason why he called me that, between all the names that I got used to being called, 'pathetic' was not one of them.
Kenta started walking away and told me with his voice fading out, "I thought I felt a similar vibe coming from you, but looks like I was wrong, you're just like them, a fool that doesn't know what is going on."
"What do you mean by that!?" I yelled at him as anger boiled inside of me, he turned around with his eyes closed and said with a grin on his face, "it means that I just lost all interest in you, pathetic loser," then he left without turning back to have a second look at me.
"Why the hell did he even come here for, so annoying," I mumbled as I rushed back toward my room without giving what he said a second thought.
"She's back!" Akira yelled as I opened the door to the room, I closed the door behind me and got back to my seat, "Shinobo has something to say to you," Akira said while poking me.
I turned toward Shinobo, and saw him avoiding my eye contact, he apologized, "I'm sorry for stealing your knowledge, I can't return it, but I can help you relearn it since I have it, it will be easier for me to teach you it again."
"That's very kind of you, thief," I mocked as I went and sat next to him, and he started solving the question in front of me and telling me the things I used to know.
Shinobo's ability allows him to steal a specific knowledge from anyone's head, he gains the knowledge he stole but in exchange the knowledge source can not use that knowledge anymore unless they relearn it again, it is quite a helpful ability that makes everyone jealous, with this ability everyone can get any knowledge they desire without any effort from them, but because it takes the knowledge from the person who owned it without a way to return it to them, Shinobo is not allowed to use it to steal important information from others without a permission from father.
"Are you alright, Chizuru?" Hi-Chan asked as she noticed I didn't pay attention to Shinobo, I nodded and replied, "I just met that Kenta guy, and I'm not in the mood to study anymore."
"Kenta!?" Junzo and Akira yelled, I backed away slowly and asked, "is something the matter?"
Junzo and Akira looked at each other with worried faces and told me, "the thing is, the mouse we rescued yesterday is nowhere to be found, we think it's Kenta's doing since he kept hanging around the workshop even after finishing his laps."
I stood up and pulled a box from on top of my closet, "I took it yesterday, here it is," I said as I handed them the box.
"So, you have it!?" Akira yelled surprised, I nodded and opened the box to show them.
Junzo looked at it with guilt in his eyes, "we thought Kenta took it and we yelled at him," he mumbled.
"But he said he'll give it back to us, like he knew where it was! he is the one who made us misunderstand!" Akira yelled and patted Junzo at the back.
"He was looking for me a minute ago, so this is why?" I asked them as I remembered that Kenta wanted to tell me something but I didn't let him finish, and it surprised me that he didn't tell them I had it.
"It's time for AT, we should get going," Azami said while pointing at the clock, everyone got up and started heading out one by one.
AT is what we call the routinely checkup that ability users go through to see how far their ability progressed and improved, it is also a way to know what side effects it might cause the user's body, but to people without an ability like me, AT means nothing.
As everyone left the room, I sat down and stared at the empty seats that were roaming with noisy people a minute ago.
I lie down on my bed and stare at the ceiling, I mumbled, "I wanted to go too."
The truth is I already know, no matter how close we become, no matter how friendly we are, I will never be the same as them, they are in a different world… They are different.
What interrupted my thoughts was a baseball that dug its way inside the room from the window and towards my face.
"w-what the heck!?" I screamed with the pain covering my face numbing.
"Sorry!!" a voice yelled from the other side of the window, I looked through the window to see a red headed boy with a worried look on his face staring at my swollen cheek, and it only took me a moment to remember that he was the very same boy that Kenta was waiting for yesterday, Izumi.
"Even though you are on the third floor I can see your swollen red cheek from here, I'm so sorry !!" he cried in fear while his body was obviously shivering afraid of what my reaction would be like.
I clearly remember being so mad when that ball hit me but after seeing him like that I could only say words that would reassure him, "i-its ok! It doesn't hurt that much!" but seeing his face not believing what I said and staring at the beet red mark that the ball left on my face, I could only think of offering him to come upstairs, "do you want to have cola or something?"
"um…Kent…my friend tells me not to trust strangers offering you food!" He refused, I reassured him again, "it's fine, I'm only offering a drink not food," he looked puzzled and deep in thoughts then he smiled my way and agreed, "you're right! Cola isn't food!!" and then came running inside.
I opened the door to my room and welcomed the idiot red headed boy inside and warned him, "even if someone offers you cola or a drink in the future don't follow them," he nodded at me without actually listening with his eyes sparkling while looking at the cola.
"you can drink that if you wan-" before I even finished my sentence he already was drinking from the cola can in his hand.
"so, you are Izumi, right?" I started a conversation with him.
"what!? How did you know?!" he yelled while spitting out cola from his mouth.
"you see, I kind of know your friend, Kenta, and we talked about you a little," I stated.
"KENTA TALKED ABOUT ME?!" he said in shock.
"yea…but I said a little," I replied while feeling like I said something I shouldn't have.
"by the way, Izumi-kun, why haven't you gone to the AT?" I asked.
"just Izumi is fine, and my ability is still unknown, so I can't go, what about you?"
"mine hasn't surfaced yet either."
After our not so thrilling conversation, silence covered the mood around us till he finished his drink, he went and put it in the trash can and started heading toward the door.
He turned around at me and stared awkwardly while fidgeting by himself in front of the door, "is something the matter?" I asked after I couldn't handle the unbearable silence.
"I was wondering if you want to come play with me," he answered shocking me by his surprising offer, which actually made me wonder if he is offering as a repayment for the cola or he is just feeling sorry for my current state.
"I'm alright here," I refused, he kept looking nervously at me while frowning and going back and forth toward me and the door, "what is wrong?" I asked again annoyed by his talent to cover the room in a cloud of silence.
"It's just really hard… to play baseball by myself," he answered with his awkward voice fidgeting in his place, which made me finally realize that the reason for his invitation might not be because he is as thoughtful as I thought.
"Why don't you play with your friend, Kenta? He doesn't have an ability either, so he didn't go to AT," I asked him hoping he would get the hint that I don't want to go with him to play.
He came and sat across me and replied, "Kenta… doesn't want to play …" at that moment I wondered, how can that jerk, Kenta, reject this cute adorable little thing, because I couldn't.
"Let's go then," I said in fake excited tone hoping that he would remove that troubled expression from on top of his face, in which he did, and a pure innocent smile covered his tiny face and with beet red cheeks he asked, "then can we play football instead, because I'm not that good at baseball."
"Of course!!!" I said while rushing outside with him.
That was the day, I got to know that I can never go against the will of the adorable Izumi.