An alarm wakes Arai up from his sleep. He has to wake up at 6:00 am so that he can get Nomura to school and go to school himself. Arai goes to the bathroom and washes his face with a wet rag. He changes to his school clothes and walks into the kitchen, turning on a small portable radio.
*Static*
"Hello? Hello? Yeah such a late broadcast I know but we have some urgent news and is broadcasting this call to the entire world"
"Recently, some sort of debris was hurling towards Earth and crash landed. As we were investigating the situation, We actually found out that the piece of debris entered orbit 3 days prior to discovery"
"As of now, we have no intel on where it has landed but I recommend that everyone now wear a mask going outside. This is all for the broadcast, thank you and good day"
The broadcast ends and all is left is static. Arai thinks hard about this. An hour later, Nomura is waken up by his brother.
"Wake up, get ready for school"
Nomura gets up from bed and washes his face. He changes his clothes before fixing up his bed and waits inside the living room. Arai tosses Nomura an apple.
"This is all I have right now, I promise I'll find a way to make more money okay?"
Nomura nods and walks out the door to get on the school bus. Just before he leaves, Arai tosses Nomura the house key. Nomura makes it just in time as his bus just began to leave, he quickly hops on his bus and sits on one of the seats in the front. The metal on the bus was rusty, some of the seats were ripped open, and the back of the bus was crawling with roaches. And to add, the bus smelled like a dirty sock.
However, Nomura has gotten used to the smell after a while. The bus was incredibly silent. You could only hear the bus moving, someone sneezing once in a while, and the sounds of heavy breathing. Truly almost nobody here had remotely a decent life. If it was trafficking, tragedy, abuse, or starving out in the rain. They were all the same.
Nomura closed his eyes and fell asleep. He had a dream that he was in a dark void and he was stepping onto water. Droplets fell and the sound of the ocean became more louder. He looks behind him, a blood-red wave crashes down onto him and takes him away. Nomura was suddenly in front of a mirror, he looked inside only to see a mirror version of himself but a chunk of his heart is missing. It still beats while blood spurts out from the sides.
Nomura looks in the mirror with emotionless eyes. Words started to appear from behind him, expressing his thoughts.
[Why is this world so cruel...]
[I want to see my mom and dad]
[Why am I still alive]
[WHY AM I NOT DEAD!?]
[....]
[JɄ₴₮ Ɇ₦Đ ₥Ɏ ₥ł₴ɆⱤɎ]
Nomura suddenly teleports again. And in front of him, was a burning car. Screams of help and terror start to shroud his mind, it gets louder and louder, louder, and louder. Nomura couldn't take anymore and picks up a glass shard from the broken windows before slicing himself in the stomach. He pulls out his intestines as they flop on the floor. He suddenly stabs himself in the head and falls to the ground.
Nomura wakes up and jolts from the nightmare. They were about to get off the bus in a few minutes.
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Arai got his stuff from his locker and went to his next class which would be his math class. He makes it to class in time before the bell rings and sits down in his seat.
"You were almost late bro!" ??? said
"Yeah I know Okura Yasushi"
Okura smiles
"You don't have to call me by my full name, just call me Oku"
"Ok fine"
"So uh, little touchy subject but how is at home for you? I heard what happened a few weeks ago"
Arai stared at the ceiling blankly before looking at Okura.
"I don't want to talk about"
"I understand how you feel. If I were in your shoes, I wouldn't want to tell anyone either"
"So. How has it been for you and your dad's company?"
"Not that great, we haven't been getting too much income in the past month. But we do have some good news!"
"What is it?"
"We've got a sponsorship from over-seas"
"Really!? That's great!"
"Yeah I know! So I wanted to give you a gift for our friendship"
Okura reaches into his backpack and takes out a stack of cash.
"Thats-! How much money is that!?"
"Shh! Don't let the teacher hear you"
"Ah sorry"
"It's 500 US Dollars! And I want to give it to you"
"I-I can't accept this amount of money from you!"
"Take it already! Truth be told, you're the only person that didn't become my friend from my father's reputation"
Arai grabs the stack of cash from Okura and drooks. He quickly wipes his mouth and looks back at him.
"I don't know how I'll be able to repay you"
"Don't worry about it, that's what friends is for! Right?"
Arai thanks him once more and puts the stack of cash into his backpack. 6 hours later, Arai exits the school and begins walks to his part-time job. Meanwhile, Nomura powers on their old even player and puts in a movie. This is the routine for Nomura, Get on the bus, go to school, study, go home, watch TV until Arai gets off of his part-timr job. Arai leaves his shift at 9:00 and somebody takes over the shift for the rest of the day.
10 more minutes until he leaves his shift and Arai is preparing to clock out. He takes some soda from the coolers and quenches his thirst. He quietly waits for the 10 minutes to pass and fidgets with his fingers. 10 minutes passed and Arai has never been any happier to leave. He clocks out and begins walking back to his house in the night. When suddenly, he is pulled into an alleyway by a mysterious person and stabbed in the right side of his stomach.
"BLERGH!!" He spits out blood
He falls to the ground and his vision starts to get blurry as the stranger look through his belongings. But thanks to adrenaline, he's able to get your and hit the stranger on the head with a metal pipe. Arai grabs his belongings and quickly runs away. He eventually reaches his house and the adrenaline has already started to fade away.
"NOMURA, OPEN THE DOOR!!"
Nomura unlocks the top and bottom lock before opening the door. Nomura notices the blood and fatigue on his face.
"Are you okay?"
Arai tried to hold himself up in front of his little brother but his consciousness faded into darkness and collapsed.