Hiroshi Shimizu, 17 years old and part of the Shimizu Clan. Black hair, black eyes, black clothes. No, I am not black. I always wear black things. Don't have a reason for it. If I had to come up with one, I'd just say it looks destined on me.
When I was born, my striking features contradicted that of the Shimizu Clan. With a family full of silver hair, I looked like an adopted child. Growing up, one of my characteristics stood out in particular. My eyes. Every single time I looked at someone, they would either avoid me or run away.
Due to my black style, I have never completed the daily routine for Shimizu members. What was this routine you ask? Well, it goes like this; The creator of the Shimizu clan was abandoned on the road, left to starve to death as an orphan. One day, a group of lumberjacks stumbled upon his frail and cold body. They carried him to their lodge, and fed him. He grew up healthy and strong, marrying a woman and having two kids. When the founder established the clan, he decided to set a daily routine. It was to do ten "good deeds" every day. The headmaster has to keep track of these deeds whenever a clan member turns a paper in with ten signatures. Obviously, this was a burden to many clan members. So instead of actually doing ten good things, they decided to just buy them out using money.
Having never completed this routine, I was shamed by my fellow clan members. A big part of it was the way I looked. But, it gave me tolerance to domestic abuse, and strengthened my mental fortitude.
Because of my eyes and non-existent "good" deeds, I was also nicknamed "Demon". Regarding my nickname, it gave me a famous reputation as a delinquent. Although I have never done anything that relates to being a delinquent, my eyes and nickname basically made up for it.
Growing up with all these good deed shenanigans has made me always try and do good things. Obviously, I can't show my self to the person I am doing the good thing to. Otherwise, they will just run away. The good thing is, animals don't really care about how I look. So, I mostly walk dogs and cats. Anonymously, that is. Why don't I just use a disguise? Well, as a pretty tall person, standing at 6'4", a lot of disguises, if not all, make me look suspicious. I normally only wear sunglasses, and that is when I walk the animals.
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Bdddddddring! The bell rang, signifying the end of school and the start of summer. Nearly all of the students rushed out of the school, stampede-like. It wasn't a problem for me to move around, since everyone just avoids me.
What am I going to do now? Do I enroll in the army? How will I earn money?
All of these question plagued my mind as I walked on the pavement. My mind was like a eternal fog.
"Kyaaa!"
Startled by the scream, I turned my head quickly toward an alleyway.
Someone might be in trouble, I thought.
Running towards the alleyway, I saw a group of scrawny gang members cornering a girl.
"HEY! GET AWAY FROM HER!"
Yelling at the group, I sprinted to tackle one of them. Decisively, the person I was going to tackle pulled out a gun. He aimed at my head and fired.
I tried to dodge the bullet. But a human can't dodge a bullet heading to your head at 4 feet length.
It felt like taking a sledgehammer to the skull. I dropped instantly and my vision faded to black. All I heard was laughing.
I never expected him to pull out a gun. It was so absurd. I died in a span of seconds.
Would I see my soul ascend to Heaven? I was honestly really curious to see what the answer would be to a forever unsolved question. But my vision stayed black. I didn't feel, hear, or taste anything. It was extremely hard to describe. All I saw was an ominous black. It stayed like this for a long time. I had no idea how much time has passed. Seconds, minutes, hours, or even years. It was really confusing.
Thinking rationally, I thought the belief of Heaven and Hell was fake. If it wasn't what would explain this void that fills my vision? I couldn't believe that whenever someone died, all they would see is just black. It was extremely disappointing. But, my disappointment only lasted for a while. I opened my eyes to a court. Looking up, I saw a completely black figure with a gavel.
"Hiroshi Shimizu, do you know why you are here?" the figure questioned me.
"Yes, I believe I have died. Is this Heaven? Why am I in a court?"
When I finished talking, the person froze. And then it said something.
"BAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Why is he laughing...?
"Hey, why are you laughing?" I questioned.
Abruptly stopping, the person replied, "Boy, do you think this is Heaven or Hell?"
"Well, how do I know? This doesn't look like the Heaven or Hell I thought of! It's just a court!" I said.
"I'll just get straight to the point. This is Hell."
What the HELL? Why am I in Hell?
"It seems like you have been mistakenly sent here to Hell. I don't know what is wrong with the Demon Reviewer's, but it seems like they have regarded you as evil. They might have gotten the wrong person, I don't know."
Tch, it must have been my eyes.
"If it was a mistake, can't you send me to Heaven instead?" I said.
"The thing is, that would be directly defying the Demon King, so no. Anyways, I guess you aren't evil at all, so I am just going to send you on your way."
Banging the gavel on the desk, my vision swirled, and next thing I saw was a world with a red sky.
Holy sh*t, why am I in hell...
I looked around. The underworld didn't really appear the way it did as depicted on Earth. It was kind of like Earth on it's own, if you take out the red sky and replace it with a blue one. The sky also had no clouds. Looks apocalyptic if you ask me. My sight-seeing stopped abruptly when I heard a deafening voice.
"GET TO WORK YOU MAGGOTS!"
Work? Maggots? Wait a minute...
Looking at my tattered clothes and the ball and chain on my leg, I realized something.
Am I a slave?