Ch. 1 Of Intros and Flashbacks

My name is Hiromasa. But, I ask everyone to call me Hiro. I live in Tokyo, Japan but like the quiet life of Kyoto. Ever since I started school, all the girls would pick on me, so naturally I’ve kept away from everyone and would be alone most of the time. I developed a fear of women. It wasn’t until high school that I got to talk to other guys and become friends with them. So, now I have mostly guy friends and even a few girl friends- which are my guy friends’ girlfriends. And that took a while to get used to. Recently, I’ve been training so I can become stronger. Reason? Girls keep picking on me for how scrawny I look. I’ll show them one day and hopefully I can find at least one girl who is nice to me. Hopefully...

Anyway, this is my story.

* * * * *

It was a bright, summer day, around noon to be exact. The birds were flying around chirping, the cicadas were letting out their loud annoying chirps and everyone was running around, grabbing lunch or hanging out at the park. No one at the park noticed the boy sleeping in the middle of a field. Except for one.

“Sleeping outside again, eh Hiro-kun?” A tall dark brown haired man stands over a sleeping figure. He stood about 5"9', blue eyed, and slimly built. Dawned in a blue shirt with the sleeves ripped off and old jeans, he seemed friendly.

“Huh? Oh…Hey Miki-kun.” Says the figure, rubbing his eye and yawning, looking up at the brunette. “Yeah… Again…Over-worked myself, I guess.”

“You need to stop and give your body time to rest. I’m not always going to be here to wake you up.” Miki said sternly with his hands on his hips.

“Ugh…I know, I know…It’s just that…” Hiromasa wanders, getting up.

“You keep getting your ass kicked by girls.” Miki finished, trying not to laugh. “Oh well, c’mon, Kei-kun told me to get you and meet him at Kyuubei for sushi…”

A glinting stare. “His treat.”

Hiromasa stood up; only an inch shorter than Miki, he had eyes so black that he had no clear pupils, and pure similarly black hair. However, he would dye the tips red and his body looked skinny enough that he didn’t seem like a guy that worked out at all. He was dressed in a black skin-tight shirt and black skinny jeans that just showed off how skinny his body actually was.

Instantly, Hiromasa grabbed Miki’s arm and made a mad dash towards Kyuubei, screaming ‘sushi!’ like a war cry the entire way. After five minutes of running, Hiromasa and Miki finally made it-

“Oi oi, you run too much! God…Could’ve died…Or lost my arm...” Miki said, retaining his balance after being dragged by only his arm for five full minutes. “Well, we’re here…Where’s Kei-kun?”

“Hmmm…Sushi! … I mean Kei-kun!!!” Hiromasa started yelling, calling for the supposed treater of raw fish.

“Hey, shut up- I’m here, I’m here!” Kei calls, turning the corner. “You’re so loud, Hiromasa-kun.”

Keitaro was shorter than the others by three or four inches, blonde haired and green eyed. His arms and legs had a slim build to them, while he was fat in the torso from over-eating, which he occasionally did when cramming for a test or anything for school. He always would wear a suit or something close to it for charm.

“How many times have I told you to call me Hiro, Keitaro-kun!” Hiromasa spat at him.

“I will once you stop being so loud!” Keitaro spat back.

“Well, you know what; you should join me when I workout because maybe you wouldn’t have that fat stomach and you would be more active! You would know why I’m always loud!” Hiromasa huffs, agitated.

“How dare you?! I’ll kick yer ass!”

“Bring it on!”

Hiromasa and Keitaro both had their fists raised and were about to throw a punch when...

“Ok that’s enough! Both of you are acting like children; Miki-san, why didn’t you stop them?” Said a girl suddenly with both of her hands on either boy, holding them back far enough to keep punches off-contact, and staring at Miki who was leaning against the wall of the place.

The girl was 6’ 3”- easily the tallest out of all Hiromasa’s friends, with her long brown hair, hazel eyes, and her slim, feminine build- the complete opposite of Keitaro.

“Because it’s funny to watch them go at it, Emiko-chan.” Miki chuckled. “Besides Kei-kun is your boyfriend, so why do I have to watch him for you?”

“Hmph! Miki-san, you’re mean.”

“Yeah I know. So...” Miki said, staring at her breasts, even going so far as to point- “Have they gotten bigger?”

“Shut up!!” Emiko screamed, attempting to slap him hard in the face with a miss.

“I take it then that they’re still A‘s.” He said, leaning back, dodging her easily, letting her hit Hiromasa instead.

“Ow~” Hiromasa said, falling like paper to the ground.

“Ohmygosh! Hiro, are you okay?” She wibbles worriedly, leaning to see.

“Bad luck strikes Hiro-kun once again. He’s used to it by now... Come on, Hiro-kun.” Miki said, dragging his friend up.

“Ugh, thanks…“ The recently wounded Hiromasa thrusts his fist into the air. “Let's get food!”

One hour later~

“Man, Hiro-kun… You eat too much.” Keitaro complains as they walked away from the building, filled up.

“No. I only had thirty pieces. I usually have forty… at least.” Hiromasa said, yawning.

“Ewww! I agree with Kei-kun. That’s way too much sushi for one person to eat!” Emiko says, disgusted.

“Hey Hiro-kun, I see you tomorrow, okay?” Miki said, already running off.

“Yeah. Emi-chan and I have to go too.” Keitaro said, heading in the other direction with the girl in hand.

“Alright...See ya ...” Hiromasa says darkly, producing an iPod from his pocket and pushing the buds into his ears, mumbling. “I guess.”

The entire walk home, Hiromasa began to think about how much fun he had when it was just him, Miki, and Keitaro. But ever since the others found those people just for them, he felt alone.

“Just like old times, I guess...” He mutters to the air.

Opening the gate and shoving the music player away, he swiftly unlocks each lock and heads inside the house.

“Hey, sorry I didn’t come home last night…”

He looked around, the house quiet, to find a parental note citing that they were out for the weekend on a trip. As usual. His mother earned free flights as a travel agent, and with a construction worker for a dad, it was easy for him to get time off. Not too much work there.
His cat greeted him by rubbing herself up against his legs and weaving between them. That was a cue that meant she needed food. So, he ventures into the kitchen, grabs an obvious bag of cat food off the counter and filled her bowl to the brim.

“Ah, Neko-chan... At least you like me.” Hiromasa purrs, petting Neko-chan between the ears and receiving a grateful mew in return.

Looking over at the sink, which was filled with dishes, Hiromasa let out a long sigh knowing his parents forgot to clean them again. Running the water so it could warm, he bent down to the cupboard underneath the sink and grabbed a half-used bottle of dish soap. He started to sing to himself to make washing the dishes go by quicker.

“Ready steady can’t hold me back~ Ready steady give me good luck~ Ready steady never look back~ Let’s get started ready, steady, go…”

A few minutes later~

“Ah, finally finished.” Hiromasa purrs, putting the last of the dishes away. “Now, I can relax….”

He lay down on the couch and turned on the TV to see what was on. Flipping channel after channel, Hiromasa quickly grew bored of passing the same channel ten times and decided to go on the internet, to see if any of his friends were online. Getting off the couch, he headed towards his room, opened his door, and left it open for Neko-chan, whose bed was his room. He opened up his laptop and turned it on, letting it boot up. A couple of minutes later and the laptop was ready- he opened up the internet browser and Windows Live Messenger, an instant messaging system that most of his friends used. He signed in and looked through the contacts to see who was on-
No one.

All eight of the contacts on screen showed they were offline.

“Pfft, probably all busy…Well I know four or maybe six of them are…Wonder what Vet-san and Taku-kun are up to…” Hiromasa said to himself and partly Neko-chan as she walked in to keep him company.

Thinking on which site to wander to, Hiromasa decided to check his messages on a favorite website- DeviantArt.com. Typing in the web address, he watched it load, logged in, and checked messages. There were two deviations from Ayame3000, also known as Emiko, five journals, and one reply. He looked closely at the previews for the two deviations; one picture of what looked like her and Keitaro and another of what looked like the entire gang. He clicked on that and saw it was everyone from the Cherry Blossom Festival that took place a few weeks before.

Down where the author’s comments appeared, she listed everyone:
“Everyone in our ‘gang’ from left to right: Keitaro-kun, me, Vet-san, Takumi-kun, Miki-kun, Amy-chan, Yasuo-kun, Hoshiko-chan, and, in the corner, is Hiro-kun.”

“Jeez. Have to mention I’m in the corner don’t ya, Emi-chan?” Hiromasa said, frustrated. “Oh well. I’m always in the corner, so whatever...”

Staring at the picture, Hiromasa scanned his eyes over it, looking upon every person and every detail, one by one.

Keitaro in his usual suit, Emiko in a blue kimono with koi all over it, Vet hunched over, making him look shorter than Keitaro despite being taller, trying not to fall asleep in the picture and ultimately failing. He wore his white lab coat, and next to him was Takumi, nearly as tall as Emiko, who wore a skin-tight black shirt and pants and had spiked wristbands on; he was holding up his middle finger with a pissed off expression on his face.


“Typical, Vet-san never gets sleep; always wearing that lab coat… he needs to get some real clothes. And Taku-kun always liked those spiked wristbands for some reason; don’t know why…God why did he have to flip off the camera…” Hiromasa rambles with a sigh.

There was Miki, striking a generic anime pose where he leaned in close to the camera, wearing a nice tuxedo that Amy picked out for him. It looked odd on him, seeing as he was never the type to dress so nicely. While Amy had her head in her hand as she sighed, watching Miki make a fool of himself- but that was why she liked him. She had a kimono blue enough to match Emiko‘s but smothered with cherry blossoms instead. She had blonde hair and blue eyes, which is unusual in Japan but she was a foreigner from America, tall as Hiromasa, and had at least a C-cup.

“Miki-kun always liked foreigners… always wanted a girlfriend with at least a B cup or bigger.” Hiromasa commented to Neko-chan, chuckling.

Tasuo and Hoshiko were hugging each other in the picture. They were the same height, but nearly the opposite of each other in every other way. Tasuo was wearing dark, almost Goth clothing and Hoshiko was wearing a bright yellow dress. He was skinny, almost anorexic, had a small nose piercing on his left nostril, black spiked hair like Hiromasa, and always wore red contacts; no one except for Hoshiko knew his true eye color. Hoshiko, on the other hand, was slightly chubby, not nearly as fat as Keitaro, had no piercings, bright green-blue eyes, and dyed blonde hair.

“Hmph, opposites do attract, huh?” Hiromasa commented once again about the third couple in the picture.

His eyes shifted to himself in the picture. He was squatting, turned more away from the camera with most of his back showing, but Hiromasa could still see the right side of his face, wearing a blue yukata with the kanji for spirit sewn on the back, his hair was slicked back that showed off his red tips more than usual. He was staring straight ahead, not even acknowledging that a photo was taken; he didn’t smile. He had a serious face and had his elbows resting on his knees with his fingers overlapping each other and the index finger closest to his face, resting on his mouth.

“…Stupid festival…” Hiromasa muttered as the memories of the festival flooded his mind.

A few weeks earlier, day of the festival~

“Ok, smile everyone!” A woman’s voice said as she snapped the picture.

There was a flash.

“Thank you.” Emiko said, bowing.

“You’re welcome.” The woman said, bowing as well.

“Ok now we have your damn picture. Now where?” Takumi said rudely.

“How about you shut up Taku-kun, but yeah, now where?” Miki asked, looking around at everyone.

“Well I’m going back home. I was up late yesterday saving someone’s dog.” Vet yawned as he walked away, waving his goodbyes.

“Well, let’s go to the park, we can see the fireworks better from there.” Keitaro said. “They’re about to start anyways.”

“Actually I got summer homework to do.” Hiromasa said, standing up and beginning to walk away.

“Wait wha-” Hoshiko started before she was cut off by Miki.

“Okay, see you later.” Miki knew well that Hiromasa always did well in school and didn’t have any summer homework but also knew that was his excuse when he wanted to leave and be alone.

“Huh? Miki-san? I didn’t know Hiro-san had summer homework.”

“Yeah. That’s the thing, Hoshiko-chan- he doesn’t.” Miki said, looking up at the night sky, as a tear began to well up in his eyes, a tear for his closest friend. “He never has summer homework.”

Hiromasa was walking through the busy festival area alone. Pushing his way through the mothers in their kimonos, who were watching the little children playing a goldfish catching game, to the old men showing their grandchildren how to throw a ball and knock down milk bottles, to even the young couples that were busy hugging or kissing in the middle of everything. It felt like forever before he finally found an entrance to a temple.

“So, this is the Sakura Temple. It seems so peaceful.” Hiromasa said climbing the hundreds and hundreds of steps to the main temple. “I mean with the festival going on, it’s not unusual….”

He got to the top without breaking a sweat. Entering the main temple, he went to the giant statue of one of the many gods and prayed.

“Ah, it’s not common there is someone who can climb the five-hundred steps of Sakura temple.” An old man said, seemingly appearing beside to Hiromasa.

The boy sighs. “Yeah…I’ve heard of a legend that whoever can climb the stairs without breaking a sweat or getting tired what-so-ever will get a ‘wish’ from the gods for their strength. That’s why I’ve been coming here for almost a year. Haven’t broken a sweat or even got tired in the slightest every time I came here, but none of my ‘wishes’ have come true. Actually, just the opposite.”

“Hmmm, come with me.” The old man said, as he walked towards a hallway with a rope across it with a sign saying, ‘Do not enter.’

“Ummm…I don’t think we can…” Hiromasa started.

“I’m a monk here, and I need help making sure the temple is clean before I leave for the night. Will you help?”

Hiromasa shrugged and followed the old man down the hallway. It was dark, barely lit by candles that lined the walls. Soon, they came to a clearing outside with smaller temples around the outer edges and a large bell in the middle.

“So…I have to clean up the temple?” Hiromasa wondered aloud, a little puzzled.

“Well. Yes. That would be great.” The monk stated.

“Ok!” Hiromasa chimed excitedly.

“Alright then let’s get started.”

Soon Hiromasa helped the monk clean the small temples, and was beginning to polish the bell-

“Like this?” Hiromasa called down from the ladder.

“Yes, yes. Just like that, in circles.” The monk said nodding at Hiromasa’s good work.

“Circles, circles, circles~” Hiromasa reminded himself as he rubbed the rag on the bell in circles, stopping from time to time to reapply the polish to the rag.

After a couple of minutes, Hiromasa was done with the bell and waited for the monk near the entrance of the temple. The monk appeared, finished closing up the temple and was surprised to see Hiromasa waiting there for him.

“Huh? I thought you would’ve gone home by now.” Said the monk.

“Nah. I just was standing around. Besides, if anything happened to you when going down the stairs I couldn’t forgive myself.” Hiromasa said.

“Oh well, aren’t you nice. Too bad there are many teenage boys like you around. I bet the ladies are all over you; nice personality, in excellent shape, and smart. Those are great qualities, don’t ya know?” The monk says, laughing whole-heartedly.

“…I wish…” Hiromasa mutters.

“Hmmm? What was that? I can’t hear like I used to anymore.” The monk questioned, putting his hand behind his ear and pushing it towards Hiromasa.

“I said, yeah, yeah you’re right.” Hiromasa lied, refusing to let the monk down.

They began to walk down the stairs of Sakura Temple, talking about anything that came to mind. Hiromasa was finding harder and harder to suppress his ‘dark’ side but manage to pull through after reaching the bottom of the stairs and going the opposite way of the monk. As he said his goodbyes, he walked home.

On the way home, Hiromasa’s eye caught a cute girl around his height in a black kimono smothered with patterned red lilies. She was alone and looking a little worried. As Hiromasa approached her to ask what was wrong, she jumped a bit and started to back away from him.

“Wait wait, its okay.” Hiromasa said, holding both of his arms in the air showing that he means no harm. “You look worried. Is everything okay?”

“Ummm…Well, you see…I was supposed to meet my friend here so she could take me home…”

“Oh, well, do you want me to help you find her? Or even walk you-”

“Hiromasa-teme, what are you doing to poor Tori-chan?”

“Hiromasa…Teme…? What the…?” The girl, now identified as Tori wondered, looking at Hiromasa.

“Jeez, it’s Michiko-baka.” Hiromasa said turning around to see another girl, namely Michiko, behind him.

“Hmph. Don’t talk to him, Tori-chan. That guy is no good. He’ll only want to have sex and he wouldn’t be able to protect you. He’s weak as fuck.” Michiko explains bluntly Tori, flipping off Hiromasa as she passed him, standing between him and Tori.

“What’s that supposed to mean? I’m stronger than you and I’ll prove it one day.” Hiromasa said holding his left arm with his right hand as he flexed it.

“Really now? Well let’s go!” Michiko said as she rushed Hiromasa.

Even though Hiromasa could’ve blocked the oncoming attack, he didn’t. Michiko threw a punch at Hiromasa, an uppercut, forcing his head upward and leaving his stomach open. She proceeded to throw jab after jab, punch after punch into the boy’s stomach with no mercy or real fight.

“Stop…Michiko-chan…Please stop…I don’t know why you have to attack him but still…Please stop…” Tori pleads, trying to hold her friend back after Michiko threw a strong right, finally sending Hiromasa backwards into a wall.

“Hmph, fine. You’re lucky you go to private school. You’ll never meet this weak pervert again.” Michiko growls proudly as they walked home, leaving Hiromasa on the ground leaning against the wall in numbing pain.

“…Stupid bitch…” Hiromasa cursed as he struggled to get up, slowly limping home.


Present time~

“Damn, Michiko-chan... It’s not like I was going to ask her out.” Hiromasa mutters to himself at the memory.

Snapping back into the present, Hiromasa looked at the screensaver of the computer for a while before banishing it with a twitch of his finger. Closing the web page, he proceeded to sign off everything and shut down his computer. Looking at his clock, it only showed 4:36 pm.

‘Crap. It’s only been about three and a half hours. Wonder if anyone can hang yet.’ He wondered, leaning his chair back a bit. Grabbing his cell phone off the desk, he started to send a text to every one of his friends, asking if anyone wanted to hang out. He waited- after a while the replies piled in-
“Can’t hang out.”
“Busy.”
“Sorry I can’t.”

But one text stood out. It was from Takumi;
“You. Me. Spar. Park. Now.”

“God dammit Taku-kun. You want to spar again? Fine.” Hiromasa said as he got up and headed towards the door. Destination: the park.