While seated in class, Akito wondered why his older brother would suddenly join the club he wanted to form.
"It can't be for that girl, Rikka? The one that Kazuto mentioned, can it now?"
…
While in class, the thoughts of his brother's surprise to join the club never left his mind. Too focused on one problem, he forgets about another
*Ding*
As the bell rang to indicate the end of the day, he finally noticed the other problem. He hasn't taken any notes for the upcoming quiz.
"Ahh! Why the hell is time going by so hasty!" he roared inside his head, all while holding his head tightly with both of his hands.
*Grrr*
His stomach rumbled to indicate that he was hungry, yet, he did not know if he had a single bite to eat all day; before Akito could get off his desk to head home, he noticed Yui and Kazuto waiting for him outside the homeroom door.
As the friends unite at the exit Kazuto had something on his mind, he wanted to ask his friend about what was up with him today as he seemed very distant.
"Dude, are you okay? I mean, all day today, the only two things you have done are stay quiet and look down. You didn't even speak to us all day apart from this morning. During lunch, you didn't take one bite. You only sat there pondering away. Now during class, I watched you do nothing for notes? Tell us the truth, Akito, what is on your mind?"
As the friend carried away with his worries for his distant friend, Akito, he looked up to his friends, said nothing, and walked away. As he sped away to get some distance, he muttered. "Anyways, how's the establishment of this club going guys," he said to avoid the questions that Kazuto threw at him. "Don't you skip past my worries now, Ak…" tried saying Kazuto before Akito's scary glare cut him off. "I will tell you later," he said with a cold tone. "But…" said Yui with her hands by her chest. Akito, lost in his thoughts, turns around back to his friends and shouts, "But! Nothing, Yui! I am trying to figure out what's happening inside my head right now. As I said, I would tell you later when I figure it out myself." To avoid further escalation of the mood, Kazuto changed the subject. "Yeah, the club is going along like we would want it to. Right now, the only thing that's left is going to see our new club room."
"Anyway, wasn't this your idea Akito, why don't you follow through with it?" pointed Yui with tears in her eyes.
"Because… I don't know myself, and I'm sorry that I put all this pressure on you and Kazuto. I mean, I should've known what I was getting myself into. So I won't rely on you guys too much again, sorry," He said with a burst of nervous laughter. "No, Akito, that's not it. We want you to keep relying on us," both of them said with recurrence. "I'm sorry I didn't mean it that way Akito, I just wanted to know if you were up to it," said Yui with worry in her tone. "It's ok, and I understand, Yui" as the conversation faded down and the mood suddenly reversed to normal. Making their way to the office to pick up the club room key, they stumbled across Satoshi and that one girl "Rikka."
"Hey! Satoshi, what are you doing here?" said Akito smiling and waving to his brother, but with no response, he glanced over to Rikka and figured out what was going on between the two. Watching his brother, interested, lost in his conversation with Rikka. The two walked by without even noticing that the three were standing there. "That was weird," pointed out Yui. "Yeah, tell me about it," replied Akito. "Anyways, let's get going before we're too late!" Kazuto said to remind the two confused friends.
Filled with excitement, the look on Akito's face was completely different from today's morning face. Instead, he looked bright and genuinely happy. It took no time for both Yui and Kazuto to notice the sudden change. The change that the boys needed to move past the petrifying situation that they confronted. They spoke to their advisor at the office, and with a warm congratulations message from her, the three made their way to their new club room.
"Oh my Dango!, it's huge" as Yui looked around the newly established club room. "Yeah, your right! Yui, come here! Check this out. There is a magical circle on the floor here." Said Akito as he stumbled across a drawn magical circle. "Is it LED lights or hand-drawn?" she asked Akito. "LED? No, it's hand-drawn, but for just a drawing, this is amazingly good!." he said as he kept staring at it with a childish look. "You two! Come check out the view from this window!" Said Kazuto.
"Oooo, this could be like our watchtower, you know? Like if something were to happen, we could see it!" Said Akito in excitement over becoming a hero. "Mmm, I don't… I think anything is possible nowadays, you know," said Kazuto, doubting that everything will be normal after what they had gone through. "Anyways, you two, let's get going, it's getting dark, and I need to be home by then," said Yui. "Mhm!" nodded Akito. "I will walk you home if you want, Yui," said Akito to comfort her.
As the night befell upon Akito, he and his brother spent the night gaming away. The boys seemed lost on the screen, not saying a word until their mother called out that dinner was ready. "Okay, mom, I'm coming," said Satoshi, but Akito seemed unconcerned and did not reply to his mother. Then, finally, Satoshi realized and asked him: "Are you not hungry?" Akito nodded and said: "yeah, I'm just not hungry," but something seemed to bother him; it was as if he was lost in a mindscape. Unfocused, Akito appears not to realize that he is hungry and has not eaten all day.
Akito then gets up, walks over to the dining room, and tells his parents that he is heading to sleep. "Goodnight," the three replied. In his room, Akito seemed frustrated. The thought of the Shadow Devil was still onto him. His face still sent shivers down the boy's spine. Uneasy, he gets into his bed and throws his covers on top of his head. Feeling exhausted from not having a single bite all day long, it didn't take much effort for him to fall asleep.
Akito also skips out on breakfast in the morning, saying that he will grab a bite at the convenience store, but that also was a bitter lie. As he walks past the store, he glares inside and seems not to mind that he was hungry.
"I'm just not going to eat today too? Am I?" he says to himself. "I know what I'm doing to myself. I realize that I truly haven't had a real bite since the first day in the hospital, but I can't get myself to eat," he thought to himself, walking in the silence.
Thud*
As he falls on the solid concrete ground, realizing what had happened, he looks up to a man reaching over to him. "Are you okay? I'm sorry, I was lost in my phone," he said as the random man reached out to Akito to help him up.
slap*
Akito slaps the man's hand away. Akito was lost in his mind. Now seeing the man, he thought back to Fujel, and suddenly the man stared to shape-shift and represented Fujel holding a blade to his neck. Akito's breathing becomes irregular. He starts to take deep long breaths, and he soon thought that Fujel was after him. He then lays down and covers his face. "This can't be," he says. "Can't be what? Are you okay, dude?" the random man said. As Akito slowly came back to his senses. As everything cleared out around him, he could make out that it wasn't Fujel after him, but instead, he had been bumped into and had fallen to the ground. The man reaches his arm out once again, and this time Akito holds onto it and gets up. "Thanks," said Akito and rushed to school with no other words. The man left in confusion gave it no further thought. He shook his shoulders and minded his business.
Akito catches up to his friends at school, and suddenly, the gloominess and heavyweight he was carrying all day long just fell apart. It was as if Akito was another man as if he reverted to his past self.
"Good Morning, besties," he said with a smile to his friends.
"Good Morning, Akito," replied Kazuto.
Yui then runs up to Akito and shoves a whole dango down his throat, and says, "Dumbass; you think I didn't notice, look! How pale you look!" she said as she shoved a second dango down his throat. "Why did you not eat Akito?" she said as a tear came down running from her face. Kazuto's laughter came to an end as he realized how dire the situation was. "I can tell how much you hurt Akito, but please don't do this" as she hugged him. "My arms can fit around you," she said with her face buried into his chest. Akito was standing there, surprised at what happened and a little happy that a girl had hugged him. Blushing, he says, "I'm fine, Yui, believe me, I went down 13.7 kgs, it's great, I mean, I do eat, but not as much as I use to." He said to comfort her. "Liar!" Yui then replied. Not believing him, she grabs his hand and tells him that if he were to continue doing this to himself, she would then be the one to feed and take care of him.
In a moment of silence, the two stood face-to-face, blushing, staring each other in the eyes.
The two finally broke eye contact and looked away at the ground.
*Continuous hand clapping*
Kazuto wipes the tear-off from his face, and keeps on clapping, and says with a proud grandfather tone, "you two! What a performance! What a confession, I'm moved!" The two looked over to him with a flustered look, and they both, at the same time, shouted, "Shut up!"
*Footsteps approaching*
As Rias walked by, Akito immediately stopped holding hands with Yui and looked up to her. Yui, in realization, shoved another dango down his throat, saying that if he does not eat another, this time she'll shove two down his throat.
"Fine, fine, I will eat them. Anyway, I didn't even pick up my lunch today. I just walked off the door, I...I didn't even say goodbye to my mother nor father. I'm a terrible son!" Said Akito in a moment of his thoughts. "Yeah, but luckily I somehow had a feeling this would happen, and so, I packed you some healthy lunch, Akito, my friend, you thought that I also wouldn't realize. Anyways, kid, today I will not be able to make it to the park, but I asked Satoshi to fill in for me, so you and Satoshi will run at the park. Make sure to bring some water. I'm heading to speak to our advisor about starting the first day of the club today." Said Kazuto as he handed the packed lunch to Akito. Inside was a bowl of warm-packed rice with steamed vegetables. The food didn't reach the boy's heart, but what did was the emotion his friend Kazuto shared with him.
"Truly, thank you guys" as Akito held up the packed lunch up to his face and smiled a bright and warm smile. A smile that hasn't been on his face for the past months. A smile that for so long has been a blessing upon the boy's face, as if the smile is a welcoming sign to any person, a sign that peace will wage, and its flag will fly into the sky.
…
During lunch, Yui made sure that Akito had his total share of the packed lunch. She made sure that he'd swallowed every bit of rice grain on that tray. As he forced the last bit of steamed broccoli down his throat, he looked over to his friend's packed lunch and what he had seen drove him mad. "Dude! Yours is full of meat!" he arrogantly said, then goes on to point out the meat included in his bento. "Chicken! What? Not fair!" he said as he toned down and took a seat. "Yes, it is fair because you're trying to lose weight, but I, on the other hand, I'm trying to gain muscle, but apart from that, check underneath that tray," said Kazuto to Akito. As he lifted the previous tray, a second appeared and awaited a beautifully cooked piece of chicken breast. Marinated in teriyaki sauce cooked to perfection, he couldn't handle but drool all over it. "Eww, just eat it!" said Yui grossed out from Akito. "Good idea," He replied as he picked up a piece of the chicken and lifted it to his mouth. He then took his first bite, and at that moment, when he slowly chewed on the amount of chicken, he started to see that he no longer was on earth but relatively an alternate planet filled with flowers, teriyaki sauce, and dancing chicken breasts.
As the three finished eating, they decided to hold their first club activity with only three. Thinking of what to do for plans and what they should invest the club's budget on. The three decided to spend the budget on buying books of magical spells. The three books they settled on were "The History of Magic," "The Ancient Magic-Users," and "The Book of Magic." As they drifted away from reality, a ring had knocked them back into it. Realizing it was the bell for the next period, the three rushed to their homerooms in hopes of making it on time.
After school, the three rushed to their club room to finish up the budget spending. They had more stuff in mind to buy for the club but soon realized the club had only been left with a couple more yen to spend. "I would suggest buying us some foam couch and a table for us to hold our meetings and activities around. It will also provide a comfortable spot for us to chat and share ideas, maybe even drink tea,'' suggested Akito to the two. "Yeah, he's right," agreed Kazuto. "Mhm! Good thinking Akito '' replied Yui. As the door slid open, it caught the attention of the three, immediately turning their heads over to see who just walked in, "Satoshi, Rikka. Welcome to your club," said Yui as she pointed to the two to have a seat. "I came across them while making it here and decided to invite them, '' explained Yui to Akito and Kazuto. "Oh, so that's why you were late, '' said the two while scratching their chins. "We just thought you got held up by your boyfriend or something that you're hiding from us." Said the pair at the same time. "Will you both just shut it for a moment?" She said with a flustered look.
"Anyways, hi, I'm Rikka Suzuki. I'm 17 years old, and I am a third-year" She introduced herself to the now seated three. "Hey, I'm Satoshi…" when suddenly he is shut in his tracks by the four. "We already know!" as three cut off Satoshi's introduction. "Ooh," he expressed his sadness. As the three and the two new club members spoke away about their identities and opinions on the new items, it was already time to head home. On their usual path to home, the two brothers had another member again to their walk back. "Yui, Do you like her" whispered Akito to Yui as they were only feet behind his brother. "Mmm… Yeah, but she seems unbothered as if she has no care in this world," she said. "Yeah, I agree. I had sensed this negative aura coming from her when she first entered the room." Said Aktio.
As he dropped off Yui alone at her house, he decided to head home, drop off his stuff, and head to the park to meet up with Satoshi for their run on the path for the first time with his brother.