Ohgi and I were one year apart, with Ohgi being older. He was in a grade higher then me so it wouldn't be surprising if we had different classes and schedules.
The two of us, to no one's suprise, where two different people. Age, color, race, family and especially personality. If a third party was to glance over our basic profile of our character they would assume that it would be improbable for us to be friends.
And even if it did it would result in a clashing introvert x extrovert relationship. To those who assumed that.....your not too far off the mark.
The type of person that Oghi is mainly centered around an upbeat, and active personality. A majority of his interests lied in outdoor activites, some games, excersices.....or cars.
Me on the other hand..... well I didn't have much interests in anything. I tend to keep my hobbies or rather habits, if I have any, to myself. As for personality, I have heard Judy and others who I will not name say I'm near emotionless when it comes to interaction. Regardless of what the not so public opinion perfers, I intend to be kept to myself and maintain a high profile of secrecy. Suppose some of the old habits die hard. If there was one word people would love to call me, my best guess would probably be...Kuudere.
Regardless for almost four or five long years, the two of us had built a decent foundation for our friendship to grow. Besides after going through our fair share of fights, both against each other and others, we did managed to build a bond to last awhile.
Atleast I could say I wouldn't forget about him even through the passage of time. He was the only person I know who was so persistant in keeping me company.
Through the passage of time, eventually we became molded to be "brothers from different mothers", or so how Ohgi would try to put it I guess? However the term 'brothers' isn't exactly a proper word to use yet. For right now we was no more then "two mishapen peas accustomed to a familiar pod".
"Opposites attract." Something an old saying used to say. At any case I already know we are two halves of a whole. The thing is I wasn't expecting to eventually come to learn that despite how different the two of us are... one way or another we WILL walk down parallel pathways into the future.
It was just a matter of how much we planned to rely on each other when that that time would come.
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I was practically laid out, hunched over in a slouching posistion by a wall. My eye bags a bit darker then yesterday, and without prompt a single groan escaped my lips.
"God you look awful dude." Ohgi came closer to observe me. "Your one to talk." In my daze, I looked towards my friend, only to notice he too seemed sluggish and being slightly out of it. The two of us exchanged half assed glances. Seems like we realized the other went through their own taste of problems around last night, but neither of us went into proper detail.
Right now we was standing, or sitting I suppose, outside of the school in front of the front field campus. Since we both arrived a little bit too early there was no immediate need to rush inside and get to class.
So instead we simply came to the conclusion to chill by some brick wall and just relax for a few minutes. Atleast the sun felt warm.....perhaps a bit too warm. Ohgi popped a squat near me, maintaing some distance between our hands. He took a small gander at his phone.
[ 8:15 ] said his digital clock. Class usually starts around eight forty five, according to the schedule papers I obtained on my first tour here. So I would assume the teachers would expect us to be situated five to ten minutes early in advance. Well not like many of the students here cared too much about being late. Some of the boys here rather just skip out altogether and go smash some skevy chick behind a dark alley.....God I hope that isn't a thing.
"What happened to you? You look like you seen a ghost." I asked sluggishly to my friend. Ohgi's senses was still in a bit of a daze. He kept smacking and picking his right ear as if it was waterlogged.
[ A/N; this is the ringing in Ohgi's ear that was caused by the gunshot. ]
"Seen a ghost.....man I could have became one that day." My eyebrow raised slightly out of curiosity but I had a feeling he wouldn't answer any more questions so I let it be.
Ohgi rubbed his face and tried to relax any bit of tension he had. "Did you do the homework from last night?" he eventually asked me. My eyes widen with surprise. "No wonder I felt like I was forgetting something."
Last night I was lost adrift in a cloud of some thoughts and by gone memories. Dealing with Judy and trying to merely relax already made me forget some important things. Besides I still felt the mysterious gaze following me all the way back home. In other words.....alot of shit happened and I couldn't rest easy.
Ohgi sighed and scratched his head. "You can't be slipping like this on your first week dude."-----"Leave me be. Besides its better then slipping up later down the line right?"----"I guess, but it doesn't matter. Besides it helped me remember something useful you might like.."-----"What are you talking about?"
I, slightly irritated by the thought that my friend assumed my brain isn't capable on its own, threw him a narrowed eye gaze.
"Extracurricularim."----"Thanks but no. I don't plan on taking any extra classes."
"Not classes man. I'm talking clubs."-----"Huh?"-----"Yeah. If you apply to one of the active ones you can accumulate extra credit to distribute to any one of the subjects you feel you may be lacking at. This is how most of our dumbass atheletes managed to graduate here."
"That a normal thing in schools?"----"More or less. The idea got warped a tad bit but less skin off our back right?"
If I asked this question to any other 'normal' person, the glances they would throw me would most likely ask 'Is this guy seriously asking me such an obvious question?'
Well it wasn't my fault to be honest. For as long as I can remember, and perhaps even longer, I was raised and learned in a more sheltered enviroment. Well sheltered wasn't exactly the most accurate word. The homes me and my sister lived in was extremely secluded from the public. It usually consisted of a chain of safehouses located deep in the mountains, forests or other private land adjacent to goverment controlled territory. In fact the house I live right now is one of those.
This was my first time personally attending an actual public highschool.
"Sounds good, but that also sounds like a pain."-----"I guess, but you going to have to deal with it if your looking for an edge here."
"You in one?"----"Nope."-----"Yeaaaaaah!? Why you telling me to get one then?"----"Because atleast your ass can get some friends."-----"Eh. Don't need 'em." I didn't say that just to sound edgy or cool. I legitmately think that having friends here could infringe on the progress I could be making. Plus I couldn't give two shits about making 'special memories' here that I can 'look back upon' when I'm older. Even still Ohgi seemed to be strangely persistant on this idea.
"I ain't joking around dude."
His tone grew more serious. Like he said, he didn't seem to be joking around. "You could use some friends....especially in a place like this man."-----"What are you talking about?"
Ohgi sighed at the fact that his thoughts was going over my head. Meanwhile I was more concerned with the feeling that my friend was subtlely poking fun to me.
"This place is filled with people who are just ready to snap. Roughousing is practically commonplace as you could have guessed yesterday. If you don't got people to watch your back and help fend for you then you be no different then throwing yourself to the dogs." Ohgi didn't point forward exactly but his eyes darted back and forth as if signalling to me to look in the intended direction.
Towards the front pavement by the gates there was a couple of familiar looking faces climbing up some stairs. One party had three of the five bozos who tried to get the drop on Ohgi at the lounge. Seems like their eyes made contact so it wasn't surprising when I felt glares come our way like homing missiles.
"You know I can handle myself." I crossed my arms, allowing my eyebrows to tighten slightly. Unconciously my body language expressed annoyance.
"I'm not saying that you aren't, but having somebody to watch your back during a fight....or hell even a study partner can keep you afloat. Besides why are you so afraid to get to know some people? "
For a moment, I let these words sink into my head. Whatever working cogs left in my brain went into overtime. "In other words you want me to get my own personal set of connections."
Oghi scratched the back of his neck and sighed before muttering aloud. "I'm that obvious huh...."
When I warped my perspective of Ohgi's words, I kinda understood where he was getting at. Obtaining relationships with people is one of the efficent ways to obtain infomation. If a person could understand the patterns of the student's habits he would be able to discern which people is okay to hang around, and which others he should worry for.
Having such details whether big or small, like that Vicious Two business from the other day, can help avoid getting ensnared into a possible unending cycle of trouble. Such is the power of information.
Recalling that train of thought I didn't notice my eyes had subconciously closed. By the time I realized it, I was reliving in a forgotten memory of the past.
~~~
[ Time; 2:58 PM ]
[ Location: Major Safehouse Manor (???) ]
The sounds of punching and kicking softly echoed through the empty training grounds. The smell of air was awfully tainted with the taste of salt. The ocean breeze came in to lightly blow away the stench of effort and labor of the outside dojo but the smell of iron still hung on by a thread. Seems like God wanted to play salt bae in this specific location.
Normally there would be other children of various ages out here training to the brink of exhaustion however the training camp seemed to be empty. Not a lot of recruits come by around this time of year so it was just me and my ten year old self.
My grunts was low pitched and eventually I found a way to make my attacks more swift without exerting too much effort to make a sound. If I remember correctly I was training in some close combat assasination techniques that required aboslute silence.
Father was sitting on a lower stairwell outside the range of the cold air conditonded interior. While overseeing my training he was reading a thin book of overly complicated political topics.
Every now and then, I noticed he would steal some glances at his son who trained with a sense of pride. A thought seemed to linger around his head for awhile. Eventually he managed to put that thought into words and before I knew it he closed the book and asked me one question that stuck out the most in my memory.
[ "What do you think is the most strongest weapon?" ]
It was a very random question to ask a child out of nowhere. When you do ask a child who has even the tinniest amount of weaponry knowledge, nine times out of ten they would answer something along the synonyms of 'grenade' or 'bomb'. I, of course was no exception.
I pondered for a minute or two before answering. "A nuclear warhead?" replying in a tone as if the answer was obvious.
Only to my surprise, Father gave off a hearty laughter. "Too some degree your not wrong." I answered off of reflex, not taking his question seriously, but after that reply I became geuinely curious to what he thought was the answer.
"Nukes make seem all big and grand, having the potential and lethality to just get rid of any source of your problems, but in reality....they are actually the biggest setbacks know to mankind." He paused before readjusting his posture into a more relaxed position.
"The cost it takes to make one from scratch can reach numbers taller then skyscrapers, and thats excluding weekly to yearly maintence. Then you also have to concern yourself with secruity of its secrecy and even maintain that. The risks highly outweighs the benefits on its one time usage. America is a good example. Too put it simply, nukes are just one big pain in the ass." he said pausing again.
"Elighten me then Father. If they are truly such....incoventional weapons... what exactly is better then that?" I asked him curious to see what he could come up with.
It was in that moment I could see in face that he came up with the perfect answer to reply with. His eyes narrowed slightly, complimenting the smirk that appeared on his face.
"An intelligence network." If this was a world of anime a visible question mark would have levitated above my cranium.
"Connections kid. If you have that then you can get your hands on all sorts of sweet supplies for quite a deal. The deeper one takes the time and trust to deepening those relationships, the sweeter the benefits you can come to reap." At the time I was only ten. The only people I talked with was either family members or highly loyal and/or kiss ass subjects, and since I didn't need the usage of the internet I never really cared for making friends or contacting others.
Due to these facts, any other words he may have had afterwards seemed to fade in and out of my ears as I resumed training.
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Before I realized it I had snapped back to reality. My senses was slightly dull due to many events happening all at once but from what my ears picked up, the school bell seemed to be ringing.
I checked my own phone. [ 8:39 ] Damn just how long was that flashback? Regardless I looked towards my pal next to me. Ohgi seemed to be drifiting in and out the realm of sleep. It would have logical to wake him up and get going, but a cold yet amusing thought snuck its way into my brain.
Before I knew it a small grin peered through my lips.