He was probably only seven to eight years old that year. His hair a natural dark brown to the point it looked black. His eyes were like the finest obsidian, sharp and beautiful even though he was at such a young age. He was very excited. Why? Of course it was because it would be his first day of school in an entirely new country. He hadn't been in the United States for very long, but he had diligently studied the language used. English was complicated, but he still pursued the language so that he could fit in.
"Oka-chan! Hurry!" He shouted out from the bottom of the stairs. His mother still upstairs and nowhere in sight, making him rather anxious. He didn't want to arrive late to school on his first day. Well it wasn't only his first day, the school year was just beginning so rather it was the first day for the entire school. He was going to a rather nice private school, he got to wear the fancy blazer uniform that he saw the high schoolers back in Japan got to where. And he was sporting the formal wear rather well for a rather baby faced boy at the age of seven-ish. He couldn't wait and was filled with excitement, but at the same time he was dreading it. He was a bit awkward with his english and he was scared that no one would want to be his friend because he talks weirdly.
"You seem excited." His father said as he walked over and ruffled the boys silky black hair.
"Yep!" He shouted. There was a small glint of nervousness that his father managed to recognize, but the older man simply patted his head giving him an encouraging smile. His dad was the best dad, but sometimes he didn't really know what to say. Soon the footsteps of his mother rushing down the stairs could be heard and both the father and son pair looked at the young woman in her mid twenties scatter down the stairs in a hectic manner.
"I'm coming!" she flusteredly blurted as she fixed her appearance and kissed her husband on the cheek and snatched a hand of her little boy to rush him to the car. "By dear! See you tonight." She could be described as a total mess or maybe a hurricane. She swiftly slipped her high heels on and nabbed her son's backpack, then making an effort to bend down and slip her son's shoes on for him. Once again signing to her husband that she was leaving she looked back and waved goodbye and raced to the car parked in the driveway. "Sorry baby, let's get you to school now shall we?" she said with a cheeky smile as she beamed at her adorable son. The boy nodded his head earnestly and allowed her to buckle him into his car seat in the back.
Soon they were off, she drove at a smooth and consistent speed down the freeway. Letting the radio play some english pop songs that she didn't even know the words to, but still hummed along anyway. Takagi who was sitting in the back kicked his chair to the rhythm of the beat and allowed himself to dazedly look outside the window to stare at the scenery. He liked the look of America, but he was a bit homesick for the rural suburbs of Japan. He was a rather slow reader when it came to english and when looking outside he had a hard time reading any of the signs that were posted up everywhere. Because he couldn't read the signs very well he often counted the seconds it took a red light to change to green. Within the short span of ten minutes, which seemed like centuries to him, the car arrived in the parking lot of his private elementary school.
After arriving at the school, Takagi pulled on the sleeve of his mother's jacket. "Can you come inside with me" he whispered softly as if he felt he was a bother and had a lack of confidence and excitement he had back at the house. In a bit of a lost state his mother gave a small awkward smile and nodded her head.
"You'll definitely make friends Taka, Mama believes in you. I'm very proud of you for being so brave. When mama was your age she was also really scared on her first day of school, so much so that I even started to cry when we arrived in front of the school. Taka it's okay. Just be yourself and I'm sure you'll make a friend. You only need one friend, but having many is good too. There are advantages to having both little amounts of friends and many of them." she said as if she was giving an encouraging speech. Although he was young, he could understand sort of what she was talking about. He didn't have to force himself to be friends with everybody. All he needed to do was find someone he could play with, he wasn't particularly greedy and he was often shy when getting attention. His goal was to have one friend. If he got more then that would be fine. If he didn't get any he could always try tomorrow, after all it was only the first day of school.
Oh how wrong he was.
When arriving inside the classroom a young woman a bit older than Takagi's mom walked up to the mother son pair with a bubbly atmosphere, her hair tied to the side and round framed glasses sat on her button like nose. She was spunky and seemed to have pink bubbles floating around her, not literally though.
"Hello! I'm the second grade teacher Ms. Bue!" she smiled brightly, almost as if she were going to out shine the sun.
"Hello, this is my son Takagi. I hope you will take care of him, we had just moved here from Japan so please pardon his english being a bit behind the rest of the students." She humbly replied. She then looked at her son who was currently hiding behind her and peaking at the teacher from behind her. She patted his tuft of hair on the top of his head then turned and squatted down to be leveled. "Why don't you go try talking to one of your classmates to see if you could be friends?" she suggested. "I can only stay for a few minutes and I would like to talk to your teacher for a bit okay?" Takagi nodded his head silently, he was a bit reluctant but he didn't want to cause trouble for his mother.
He turned away and let her talk to his new teacher. He scanned the room rather awkwardly, not knowing who he should attempt to start a conversation with. He saw a rather quite boy sitting in the corner, with a bit of a blank face. The boy's hair was a rather remarkably duplicate of a birds nest, his button up shirt was untucked and his tie nowhere to be found along with the blazer jacket one handedly hanging over one shoulder. The boy had similar black hair and obsidian eyes compared to Takagi's. Takagi took the courage and gulped as he walked nervously towards the other boy. He fidgeted and fiddled with the sleeves of his jacket. Arriving in front of the other boy his head was facing the floor as if it were the most interesting thing, his back was slightly hunched as he twirled his fingers. "Hi, my name is Takagi. What's yours?" he whispered. He was so pitiful looking as if he were on the verge of tears. His voice just then was so soft that it might be a miracle if the other had heard whatever he had just said.
"What?" the boy asked dryly.
"Me… Takagi..What's your name?" he tried to say a bit louder but his voice was quivering replicating his slight tremble.
"What's wrong with you?" the boy said about displeased. Well if any one looked over they might think he was building the other guy. The boy that had just walked up to him was quivering like a little kitten even though he hadn't done anything.
"I want to be friends." he said with a bit more courage, he finally managed to lift his head, but in his eyes was a wave of nervousness. He looked almost anywhere but in front of him. The messily kept boy then let go of his jacket blazer that he hung over his shoulder a used both of his hands to turn Takagi's face so that he had to look forward.
"What's with you? I can be friends with you, but don't do that." he replied seriously.
The next few seconds were sort of a blur for Takagi. His trance of happiness came from the other saying that they could be friends, but in the next second there was loud explosive sounds. As if firecrackers were being set and loud scrolls and screams came from rather close by. Everyone was in a panic frenzy. The teacher that once was bubbly looked paper white as she instructed for the windows to be closed and the blinds to be shut, she busied herself with locking the door and not even bothering to look out side.
The school's microphone released a message of going into lockdown. Takagi and the other boy huddled together quickly and sat together in the corner as instructed. Takagi clung to the other boy gripping him tightly in sheer fear and panic. They had just met but currently they were bonding as if they had known eachother since birth. Takagi felt more secure holding the hand of the other boy. His warmth kept him reassured even though it probably wasn't going to keep him safe it settled his rapidly beating heart. The other boy squeezed his hand in response to the tight grip as if also seeking some sort of comfort. The loud screams and pleas for help never seemed to stop if anything they seemed to be coming closer and louder. In this bizarre situation there was a girl in a blue dress with white frills, in her hair was a blue ribbon that seemed to be what was holding her hair back from messily scattered over her shoulders.
"I'm scared." she whispered softly with big round dough eyes tugging at Takagi's sleeve. Takagi looked at her a bit strangely and she batted her eyelashes in response.
"That's not the school uniform…." he responded rather bluntly, having no trace of the once stuttering figgity idiot he once was being when first talking to the other boy who he was holding hands with. The intimacy they, the two boys were having was rather odd because they had probably only met for a few minutes before this disaster, but their hands were tightly woven together and Takagi was leaning in to the other, and the other seemed to be pulling Takagi towards him himself. The girl huffed and puffed her cheeks like a squirrel causing Takagi to poke one out of curiosity. The other boy trembled as he was trying to hold in his laughter and snuggled into Takagi's shoulder. She swatted his hand and grumbled as she went over to a different group of children.
Now that he realized it, there was a rather tense silence in the air and Takagi could feel that something big was about to happen. And sure enough the door was busted open with a swing of a giant axe, slicing through the back of the teacher's neck causing her head to hang rather unnaturally as her body flopped to the side. Soon screams rang in the air once more as men dressed in all white raided the room. It was rather hard to tell who they where, they all wore the same white bodysuit with their head completely covered by some sort of white helmet. But, the white wasn't exactly just white rather there was red splattered all over the white bodysuits.
Everything happened to fast for Takagi to register, the other adults in the room where killed while the children were all beaten. Soon he himself was hit hard in the back of the head, the last thing he saw was a fluttering blue ribbon and his and the other boy's outstretched hands that never managed to reunite again.