Ichigo stood outside Jian Park, leaning against the black painted fence that surrounded the large area. She was scrolling through her text messages on her phone as she waited for some of her friends to meet up with on their way to Fantasy High School that Monday morning. It was a bright day, but somewhat cloudy.
"Hey."
She looked up from her phone to see Goro. She was already short, but he towered over her and their friends.
"Any sign of Hiro yet?" she asked him.
"Nope, not yet." He stood beside her. No sooner had he done so, she was back to looking through her messages. He could tell she was anxious about something. "Is everything alright?"
"Goro, it's been a year."
"A year?" He repeated what she said. "A year since…" It dawned on him what she was referring to. "Oh. That's right. His grandfather's passing."
"We mustn't bring it up." She sharply looked up from her phone, her expression stern. "Ever since he died, Hiro has changed. His grandfather's passing has made him so reclusive and depressive. He hardly talks anymore."
"That's not the only thing."
They were both surprised to being met by Zorome, who was accompanied by Futoshi. As usual, the larger member of the duo was eating a small bread roll.
"His grades aren't what they used to be. There he was, an A+ student, now a B-."
"Not that you had much competition to begin with," Futoshi told him. "You're on a D anyway."
"Well… well, that's beside the point!" Zorome hesitated before exploding back in defence. "He's not what he used to be. He was often talking about how adventurous his grandfather was and how they would go places together. With him gone, it's sucked out his enthusiasm for everything else."
"As true as that is, we've got to show him he can still do those things without his grandfather." Ichigo was determined. "Once he becomes more positive, then perhaps his grades will do better too."
"Wait!" Goro suddenly caught everyone's attention, his voice sharp but hushed. He pointed into the distance. "Here he comes."
Hiro slowly approached the quartet outside the park. He could tell they had been speaking about him, but he did not really care at this point. To him, it had been a year since the most tragic occurrence in recent memory had affected his life and he still felt sore from it.
"Morning guys." The teenager with the short black hair reached the group. He seemed laid back. "Are we waiting for anyone else?"
"Nope. Just us," Ichigo replied, a smile on her face. "We better make our way to school since it starts in the next quarter of an hour."
"Yeah. Yeah." He nodded back at this, seemingly lost in thought. "Better get there before Ms. Matsumoto does."
"Have you seen the latest episode of Strelizia?" Zorome asked him. He was referring to the animated television series Strelizia and the Protectors.
"Oh, yeah," Hiro plainly responded. He did not seem fazed. "It was fine."
"What about the latest video from CODE390?" Futoshi eagerly asked him, referring to a person on the internet. "They're really good at those stop-motion animations with action figures, aren't they?"
"If only we knew who they really are," Zorome added. "No one knows what they even look like."
"They could be a girl," Futoshi told him, only for Zorome to laugh at the idea.
"Girls would rather play with dolls than action figures, plus most of these animators are male anyway."
"That shouldn't stop them from animating if they want to," Ichigo simply stated.
Hiro's homeroom was a typical small classroom. It had white walls and large windows that looked out into the school's grounds, with the walls being covered in various displays and posters which taught numerous writing and mathematical techniques that were strongly advised to be used regularly. Hiro and all of his friends were divided into two classes: he, along with Ichigo, Goro, and Ikuno, had Ms. Nana Matsumoto for their homeroom teacher, while Zorome, Futoshi, Naomi, Miku, Kokoro, and Mitsuru had Mr. Hachi Kato. They all arrived five minutes before their homerooms started at 8:45.
Interestingly, the homeroom's members all noticed Nana had arrived early as well – mere minutes before homeroom started – but she stood outside the room, seemingly waiting for someone to arrive. Just before the clock reached 8:45, they all saw that she was talking to somebody outside. When the bell rang, she decided to enter the classroom with the person she had been conversing with.
"Good morning, class!" the tall woman with long brown-red hair smiled at her homeroom group. "We have a new member of our school and our homeroom with us today." She beckoned the student in with her hand. "Meet Angella Ashida."
A tall female student who was around Hiro's age entered the classroom, wearing the same smart grey uniform that the other students wore. What stood out to everyone looking at her was her pale skin, cyan eyes and long pink hair, the latter of which held a white hairband with small horns on it that had been painted red. She made a quick flex of her right hand to give the impression she had waved to her peers.
"Hey," she said, giving a small smile. "I prefer going by the name Angel."
"'Angel'?" Nana sharply looked at her. She was not angered, but was certainly surprised by what she had just heard. "I've never heard of a nickname like that."
"How did you get it?" a student from the back of the room called out, but the new student only just stared at him. She never replied.
"Right." Nana remembered what they were originally doing. "Angella—I mean, Angel." She walked up to an empty desk, which was two ahead of where Hiro was seated. "This is going to be your desk during homeroom. It's really fortunate that we had this one spare for you."
"Certainly," Angel nodded back.
As Nana made her way to her teacher's desk at the front of the classroom, Hiro watched as the new student seated themselves at their desk. There was something about this person which caught his attention. He was not sure if it was her hair, her skin or even her height – which he immediately realised made her an inch or two taller than he was – but she had caught his eye. Could they have met before? She did not seem to recognise him. Perhaps not, he guessed. Maybe it was someone else entirely.
The first lesson of that day for Hiro was science, which was taught by Mr. Kenneth Imazu. Inside his science lab were four rows of wooden benches, all of which had four gas taps built into them for when Bunsen burners were required for experiments. With Hiro were his friends Kokoro, Miku, Goro, and Futoshi, as well as the new and elusive Angel. Imazu was seated at his small desk at the front of the classroom, managing the presentation slide for that day's lesson which was projected onto the whiteboard.
"Alright class, settle down." Imazu's class quietened in seconds. He was a fairly short man with balding hair and a small beard. "For today's experiment, we're going to do something a little fun. Have any of you wanted to hear sweets scream?"
He appeared beaming, trying to spark joy, but the class was entirely quiet. No one raised their hand or even cracked a smile. A single cough was heard.
"Well, that joke didn't go down well," Imazu quietly told himself as he straightened himself. "Today, we'll be taking a little jelly man, sticking him inside a boiling tube with Potassium Chlorate and listen to him scream once you put a Bunsen burner's flame under it."
He then pressed a button on his keyboard to change the slide. It revealed a diagram of how to perform the experiment, as well as how to prepare it.
"It's all up on the projection," he informed his class. "Please move all down to the front of the classroom to watch as I perform the experiment. The bag of jelly men will be right here." He placed a crumpled yellow bag on the table. "However, I'll require some assistance. Hiro. Goro." He pointed to the two students. "Please help me set up the equipment."
Hiro wanted to stand next to Angel, but due to his required assistance, he was unable to. Elsewhere, Futoshi was keen to stand next to Kokoro, who stood alongside Miku and Angel. The class all donned safety goggles – Goro even had to wear his on top of his glasses – while the students that had longer hair had to tie theirs back. However, one student did not follow the safety rules and this did not go unnoticed.
"Angella." Imazu walked up to Angel with a distinct pace. "You are violating safety standards in this classroom."
"Well, you didn't say what they are," she plainly replied.
"Look at that poster over there."
He pointed to a large white poster with blue font printed upon it with images of the same colour. It depicted the 'how to' and 'how not to' of science classroom safety, showcasing how goggles were absolutely required and long hair needed to be tied back.
"The entire class can see it and so can you. Do as it says or you're going to be outside."
As he turned away, she rolled her eyes and chose to unwillingly obey. Hiro had been watching the entire time, almost to the point that he had hardly set up the equipment required for the practical. He had the stand, the clamp and the boiling tubes on hand, but they had not been organised as demonstrated on the presentation slide.
"Hiro, come on." He became alert when he heard Goro's voice. "I've got the other pieces ready."
"Oh, sorry."
He quickly arranged them, the Bunsen burner plugged into the gas tap and standing beneath the hanging boiling tube. Imazu soon noticed they had organised themselves, so lit a match so that the burner was active. Hiro chose to make his way to where the sweet bag was, dirty metallic tongs in hand, ready to grab one of the jelly men. As he reached the spot where the bag was, he was stopped by Miku in passing.
"Hey, Hiro." Her voice was hushed and she leaned over to him. "You see that new girl?" She gestured to her. The girl with the pink hair was still standing next to Kokoro.
"Yeah, she's in my homeroom," he replied. "She likes to be called Angel."
"Why?"
"I don't know."
"I have a bad feeling about her. I don't know why, I just do."
Hiro gently slipped the sweet into the boiling tube, the mixture of the liquid already inside of it and the intense heat of the burner's flame – which had since been removed from underneath it – caused it to create what looked almost like the jet of a rocket with a loud gurgling blowing sound.
"It's not much of a scream," Goro remarked. "But still, you can't deny that was pretty cool."
"What the hell do you think you're doing!?"
The focus of all the students suddenly switched to Imazu again, who stormed up to where Angel was standing. She had taken the bag of sweets and had eaten one, as evidenced by the movement of her jaws.
"Just because we have food in the classroom does not mean we are going to be using it for a picnic! Read the sign!" He sharply pointed to another poster which was just as large as the other one. "Under no circumstances is food or drink to be consumed in this classroom!"
"Then why bother bringing some into it in the first place?" Her composure was calm, almost as if she was not being yelled at. Imazu's eye twitched at her apathy.
"Get out!" Imazu barked at her. "Get! Out!"
The quiet class all watched as Angel began to make her way to the door. Goro's attention was soon drawn to Hiro, who he watched knock a nearby pen onto the floor and duck down to grab it. When he bent down, he did not stand up immediately, his spectacled friend noticing how he was actually grinning and trying his best not to laugh behind the hand covering his mouth. Once Angel was outside and the same level of volume continued, he stood back up and hid away his amusement. Goro did not know what to make of it, so chose not to bring it up in conversation.