"Oi Nobita, c'mere" an old memory flashed by "Oi Nobita, up for a booze?" another one followed. "Nobita.....run...quick.." without me even knowing tears started flowing down my cheeks.
"1,2,1,2,1,...." A girl with black shoulder length hairs was stretching in the park with the old people with a smile on her face. She was wearing a black track-suit which contrasted with her pale skin. F*#*, those damn old geezers were staring at her too intently.
I still remember that voice, the voice I can never get more familiar with, the voice I will never forget. She was our strategist, medic, a strong ally and....my long time crush.
Seina Midorikawa but during the apocalypse our co-workers referred to her with another name behind her back The "Witch Doctor". Why? Well because of her proficiency in medical arts and High-leveled magic, I mean she was terrific in both. Her talent was terrifying even to the high ranked players in our guild.
In my last life no one paid any attention to me because I was a low ranked player without much presence. But she used to talk to me, I often used to get hurt because of my low level skills and she used to heal me and get mad at me but never abandoned me. There were sometimes when I almost became a food for monsters because of my incompetence but she always came to my rescue, although she used to give me a punch on my head as her compensation.
Whenever I was down she came to me to cheer me up and used to tease me a bit. She was a bit tomboyish, her physique was good too and she knew martial arts. I can say that she was better than some of the men in our team in terms of physique but her main strength was magic.
She used to always joke around and take care of other people so well that I forgot that she was also a human and can feel pain too. She can be sad too, it's just that she never showed it. It was when our team was off duty.
We went to a hot spring to take a few days off. I tried to refuse but they said it was mandatory and to build team spirit. Although it was a team retreat, I was not much appreciated by my team. So, I just stayed on the sidelines, surprisingly Seina was not there either. So, when everyone were staring to go to sleep, I went out to look for Seina and saw it..... She was crying.....so bad.
As she was the team leader, she had to do so much work. I heared from someone that her parents also died few months prior to that date. She must be going through so much. Although she always showed her tough side to us, at that moment I saw how hurt she was.
Normally she would've felt my presence easily with her superior senses. Maybe she was too drunk that day.
At that date, along with respect I had pity for her, who had to bear so much responsibility but can't show her pain to anyone. After that day everything went normal she was back to her original playful self and after some time we got closer.....too close.
I thought it will go on like this forever, but...."that" happened....
[Back to present]
I kept watching her. After some stretching she went for calisthenics, and.....SHE WAS SO GOOD AT IT! DAMN! She looked like a real pro at it. No lying.
Our eyes met at some point and I was about to react when I heard someone call my name from behind "Hey Nobita, good morning!" I thought inside 'Damn! I was too engrossed in Seina that I didn't even feel someone was behind me.' I looked back and saw a girl with fair skin and two pig-tails. She was Shizuka Minamoto, she was wearing a pink tracksuit and there were beads of sweat in her forehead.
She continued looking at me and asked " What are doing here so early in a morning?" I replied coldly "Can't I be here? It's a public place!" She got flustered and said hurriedly "No! Nobita that's not what I meant! I was just asking why you are here so early, were you working out?" I replied in a nonchalant tone "Yes, I was!" She looked a bit upset by my cold behaviour and said "Nobita, I just wanted to talk to you. You don't to be so cold! I don't know how but after the incident in classroom yesterday you have changed so much. You are trying to Shut Off everyone and are behaving so coldly. And that incident afternoon too...."
I asked in confusion "What are you talking about?" She stopped for some time and said "Nobita, last day afternoon when I was returning from my piano lessons I saw you beating Gian and Suneo, they were on the ground shuddering in fear. I wondered why they were acting like that but when I looked at your eyes....you looked like a demon...."
"..." I stayed silent, thought inside 'She was there? The f***? I didn't even notice. As I thought, this body is shit!' and said in a now gentle tone "It's not like what you think. They were the one who started it not the other way around. It was self defence and I was just too angry that day. So, my face looked like that. About me shutting you all off, I just have lot in my mind to think and am too busy to talk."
"Nobita, can you tell me what you are so worried about? Maybe I can help you." she asked in worry. I just replied "It's okay Shizuka, you don't have to worry about it! It's not something I can't do." I said in a warm tone and laughed.
She looked at me in confusion, maybe because of my 180° turn in behaviour. She stayed silent for some time and her expression eased after some time. 'Maybe she took in what I said!' I thought inside. She asked " By the way, Nobita, why did you start working out all of a sudden?" I replied "Nothing, I just felt like I should do something about my physique to avoid getting bullied and live a "long life"...." and laughed.
She looked at me for some time with a bewildered look and said laughing " Hahaha Nobita, what are you talking about. A "long life", we're still too young for something to happen and we live in a civilized society, hehehe."
"Hahaha...yeah, maybe you are right....." I said while laughing but inside 'Shizuka, sorry to break it to you but in just a few weeks your world will turn to something so bizzare that you would wish you were never born.'
"Okay then, Nobita, I'll be going my way now. I have to get ready for class now. You should go too or do you want to be late for class?" She said. I replied "Nah, Don't wanna. Bye" She also bid her farewell "Bye, Nobita!"
I turned behind to look for Seina, but she was not there. Maybe she returned home. I muttered "hah....Bad luck." and went my way for home