CH. 1 - A New Life and New Friends

People of this world are uncaring, unforgiving. They all strive to achieve their selfish desires and cast aside anyone they deem unworthy of their time.

      It’s a cloudy day outside. Not quite raining, but the air feels damp, with a cool breeze blowing through. It’s almost like the sky is ready to cry. A little girl, not much older than six, is shoved down to her side on a school blacktop. Three older kids walk around her with evil little smiles across their faces. The little girl sits up angrily, with tears on the verge of collapsing .

      ‘It doesn’t matter how close you are or how hard you try. Sooner or later, everyone shows who they truly are, cold, cruel and selfish.’

      “Aw, is she gonna cry?”

      “Like a wittle baby?”

      “What a freak.”

      They start laughing at her, mocking her. She growls and yells as she throws herself up at them.

Everything goes black for a moment, just before a splash of blood flies through the air. Two of the kids cower in fear, stumbling over one another, falling backwards. The other is on the ground, unconscious. Shiori stands over them, her left eye now covered by her hair and blood rolling down her face.

      “Keep your filthy hands off me, got it?” She says with sharp, intimidating eyes.

      “You freak!”

      They run away in fear, grabbing their friend. The girl then looks up to the sky with a soft look. Suddenly, she’s completely cleaned up, sitting, legs crossed, in a place that is just infinite flat white sand with blurry mountains in the distance. The sky is full of storm clouds, blocking out any sign of a clear sky. It begins to rain heavily on her as she sits looking at the clouds.

      ‘Why are they running? They’re the ones who attacked me.’ She thinks as she stares at the clouds, dirty and bloody again, standing on the blacktop.

      ‘That’s why I’ll keep everyone as far away from me as possible. It’ll be so much easier that way.’

Many years have passed since that day. Now in her room, Shiori Inabi is 13 years old. She’s now wearing an eyepatch and is just laying on her bed. It’s currently summer vacation with her first year of high school not too far away. She sighs, then sits up as there’s a knock at her door.

“Yes?” She answers.

“Sweetie, look what came in the mail!” Her mom comes through the door holding up an envelope with the highschool name, Iris High, on it addressed to her and her parents. She smiles a bit as Takanou, her dad, steps in from behind her mom.

“I’d expect nothing less from our little girl.”

“The best high school in the District! Such a big brain she has!” Hamasaki starts squeezing Shiori in her arms, which only makes her a little embarrassed.

“Okay, okay mama.” She smiles a bit. Takanou opens the envelope and begins to read the letter inside. Soon, his smile turns to confusion. Hamasaki notices and looks at him.

“What is it, dear?” She asks, curious.

He doesn’t respond as he finishes reading the letter. Shiori notices and looks at him, intrigued. He sighs and shakes his head a bit while smiling softly.

“Oh, nothing. We’ll talk about it later. How about we get started on what the kids need for school?” He offers while motioning towards the door. Hamasaki looks just a bit concerned but agrees and soon the family gets ready to head out.

As this is happening, a young boy, around Shiori’s same age, steps through the door of his apartment. Hikigaya Oshiro, 13 years old. He takes his shoes off in a home that looks remarkably similar to Shiori's, disregarding the decorations and furniture.

"Mom, I'm home." His mom, Asami, pokes her head out from the kitchen.

"Oh? So soon?"

"Would you rather me be gone all day?.." He asks with a slightly upset look. Asami doesn’t appreciate his attitude and wraps her arm around his neck, choking him a bit.

"No, of course not! I'm just messing with you, ya big goof ball!" She laughs as he struggles to pull her off, obviously enjoying the attention. "How’d it go? You get everything you’ll need?"

"I think so. There’s only so much I can get before actually knowing what school I got into."

"Well, you’re a smart boy. I’m sure you got into your first choice school." She heads back into the kitchen as Hikigaya sits down at a counter bar connected to it. He begins going through the mail as his mom starts talking to him.

“Have you heard of those vigilantes on the loose? Heard they’ve been going around stopping robberies and catching thieves. People don’t take vigilantes too lightly around here, though.”

“Mhm.” He hums in response.

Hikigaya is hardly listening to his mom as he is focused on looking through the mail. He eventually stops when he finds a letter from Iris High addressed to him and his mother. He smiles as he opens it, only to find a letter as well as the normal packet of papers. He begins to read the letter as his eyes widen and his smile turns to shock, but before he can get too invested into it, his mom comes over and wraps her arm around his neck again.

“You’re not even listening to me, are you?!” She starts rubbing her knuckles into the top of his head before catching a glimpse of the paper he was looking at. She lets him go, gasping, causing him to fall over. She grabs the paper and brings it closer to read. “You made it into Iris High?! I knew you could do it!” She looks back over her shoulder at him on the ground with eyes spinning from the fall. She giggles, then looks back at the paper and begins reading. As she reads, she progressively gets a confused look on her face.

“Well, that’s interesting…”

“What is it?” Hikigaya sits up, rubbing his head.

She turns and looks at Hikigaya with a sigh, shaking her head slightly in playful disappointment.

Soon the first day of school comes. Shiori stands outside of the front entrance, waiting for a moment. She takes a breath in.

'Okay. First day of high school. How hard can it be?'

She goes to take a step but is immediately startled by Hikigaya calling her name loudly, causing her to almost fall over.

"Hey Shiori! There you are! Finally found yo-"

"Do you mind!?!" She snaps back quickly. He looks kind of confused why she is so mad.

"Oh? I didn't realize you didn't like your name so much.." He smiles awkwardly.

"That's not my problem! My problem is you yelling my name, getting everyone's attention!"

She stops, realizing her yelling is causing more of a commotion than Hikigaya was. She looks around at the few other students staring at her, sweating a bit, embarrassed by what is happening. She slumps over as everyone goes back to what they were doing.

"Why is this happening to me?.."

"Jeez, you really like attention, don’t you?" He says with a laugh, sort of unaware of the situation. Shiori, who was slumped over herself defeated, begins to growl and shake in anger.

"What are you, some kind of moron?..” She says under her breath before she pounces at Hikigaya angrily. “I'll show you attention!" She starts yelling and assaulting Hikigaya in anger while their tussle fades to the background. Just a bit away, a young girl watches them. She has grey-ish hair with a strand of it popping up from the middle of her head like a stem from an apple. It perks up as she notices them. She smiles excitedly.

"I want to be friends with that girl!"

Eventually, Hikigaya and Shiori make their way to their homeroom class with plenty of time to spare. They notice their seats are marked right next to each other in the front middle of the class by nametags, and sigh in frustration. As Hikigaya takes a seat, Shiori simply places her bag down on her desk and heads for the entrance of the classroom.

"Class is gonna start soon." He warns.

"I'm just going to get a drink, get off my back about it!" She yells back. Hikigaya closes his eyes in defeat as she leaves.

‘I can't believe this. First class hasn't even started, and he's already ruined the day.’ She thinks angrily as she marches down the hall.

She approaches a vending machine corner with a few different types of vending machines. She picks one with juice and waits for it to be dispensed. As she stares at the machine, she notices the girl from earlier nervously approach her.

"H-hi!" Shiori ignores her. "I see you're all alone.. And I was wondering if maybe you wanted to-"

"And I see you don't seem to get the hint. I'm ignoring you to make you go away, but perhaps you're too stupid to get that." Shiori snaps back quickly with the sharp remark. Chizuru is caught completely off guard.

"I just thought..."

"Here's a thought: leave. Before I make you."

The girl looks a bit hurt by her words as she turns and runs away. Shiori stares as she leaves, looking down for only a second before reaching down and grabbing her drink. As she grabs her cold apple juice, she stands and stares at the top of the can.

'She wouldn't have really wanted to be my friend anyway...'

Right as she finishes the thought, she hears a slight commotion. She looks up, surprised to see Chizuru coming back, pulling another girl by the wrist. The girl doesn’t seem to want to come along.

"Chizuru, would you stop! I don't want to!"

"But you have to! She needs us!" They argue, but Chizuru still succeeds in pulling her to Shiori.

"Hey." She calls to them. They stop abruptly, and Chizuru jumps behind Lucy, using her as a shield to hide behind. "What are you doing back here? I thought I told you-"

"If I had known you were this lonely, I would have come with Lucy the first time." Chizuru interrupts her, still holding onto the back of Lucy's shirt with her head pressed against it. This statement shakes Shiori hard, and she looks very surprised, unsure of what to do next. After a moment, Shiori shakes her head.

"What, are you stupid or something?-"

"Oi." Lucy gives Shiori a death glare for insulting her friend in front of her. "That's my friend you're talking to. I'd be careful what you call her."

Shiori gets chills of intimidation from her. This is not something that happens often, if ever. Shiori looks down, slight regret and disappointment on her face.

"Y-yeah... sorry. I'm not used to talking to someone for this long..."

They look at her for a moment. Lucy, now concerned and Chizuru, out from behind Lucy. Chizuru looks at Lucy.

"See? I told you, she needs us!"

"Really? The first thing this girl did was insult you. Are you sure you want to be friends with someone like that?"

Shiori looks down to the side, almost ashamed and hurt by the words. Chizuru smiles softly. She approaches Shiori and bows to her.

"Hi, my name is Chizuru Saito, and this is my friend Lucy Kagen. We are very happy to meet you!" She grabs Shiori's hand and smiles warmly at her, causing Shiori to blush a little. Suddenly, the bell to start class rings.

"Ah! I am not gonna be late on the first day! C'mon!" Lucy grabs both Shiori's and Chizuru's wrists and begins running down the hallway back to class. Shiori looks very concerned.

"Wait! How do you know what class I'm in?"

"We have the same homeroom! We saw you leave, then Chizuru decided to follow." Lucy says back with a smile. Shiori looks at Chizuru as she giggles about it.

Eventually, they make it back to class before the final starting bell rings. Out of breath, they take their seats. Lucy sits right behind Shiori and Chizuru sits on her left. Shiori is surprised by this as they just smile at her. Hikigaya is leaning on his hand in his seat, staring and smiling at Shiori smugly.

"I told you, didn't I? Class was starting soon?"

"Oh, shut up..."

He giggles at her. The teacher then starts class with a smile.

"Good morning everyone! My name is Ms. Samuel. I hope you all had a wonderful summer vacation but get all those daydreams out of your head now because we are going to hop right into your new life as highschool students. I want you to look around the class and meet your new peers. You will be spending lots of time together, so introduce yourselves and get to know one another. And if you would like to move seats, this is the last chance you’ll get for the whole year. Now go on."

She waves her hand at them, sending them off to do their own thing. The class gets excited and energetic as everyone begins to move around. Ms. Samuel, a young, new teacher fresh out of her schooling, excited to start her first year being a highschool teacher, the grade of her choice. As they begin, she looks down and sees a letter on her desk she hadn’t noticed yet. She picks it up and reads it.

‘Ms. Samuel, Please be aware that the special case will be placed in your class for homeroom. They already have pre-seating at the front of the class. Keep a close eye on them and let faculty know immediately if they step out of line. - Principal Ai’

She gets a hollowed look reading the letter, realizing that she has to deal with Shiori and Hikigaya.

‘They told us in the teacher meeting that there was going to be a “special case” this year with two delinquent students but… why did it have to be me?..’ She closes her eyes and sighs briefly before looking up at Shiori and Hikigaya. "Oh, except you two. You stay." She points at Shiori and Hikigaya, who began to get up. They fall back down immediately, upset. Shiori slumped back in her chair, pouting about not being able to get away from everyone, more importantly, Hikigaya. She looks around at the other students gathering in little groups, chatting happily.

‘Of course, like every year, the groups were already decided. Not giving me a second glance. To them, I could simply disappear and no one would have a care in the world…’ Shiori crosses her arms and leans deeper into her chair as it seems like everything and everyone around her begins to disappear into darkness, leaving her consumed by it.‘Not like that matters to me, though. Soon, each of them will see what their friends are truly like…’

Before she can sink deeper into this thought, Chizuru taps her shoulder, breaking her out of the swelling darkness.

“I’m glad you were placed at the front of the class. It’s my favorite place to sit!” She giggles softly at her. Shiori’s eye is wide, surprised at Chizuru’s kindness. She blushes softly and turns her head away, embarrassed. When she does, however, she notices Hikigaya sitting with his head down on the desk. Not talking to anyone around him, either.

'Could Hikigaya not have any friends like me?..’ Shiori thinks to herself with a soft tone, fighting with her own thoughts to offer up a hand and talk to him, but before she can do anything, she is interrupted by Lucy.

“Hey Shiori, check this out.” She crumples up a piece of paper into a ball. Shiori watches, confused, but starts to get what is going to happen.

“Hey, wait. Don’t-” Before she could finish, Lucy throws the paper ball at the side of Hikigaya’s head. “What did you do that for?!” Shiori gets infuriated with Lucy. ‘Of course she is a bully, too. Why wouldn’t she be?! She’s just like everyone else!’ She thinks angrily. Before she could react upon her thoughts, however, Lucy speaks.

“Hey, Hiki. C’mon, don’t ignore us. It’s not our fault you suck at videogames.”

“Don’t speak to me, heathen. I tried to beat that level for months and you come and beat it first try…” Hikigaya hides his face even more in his arms, depressed at Lucy’s impressive video game skills.

“Cheer up, Hiki! I’m sure there’s some game out there that Lucy can’t beat you on.” Chizuru tries to cheer him up.

“No, there isn’t. I truly demolish him in every game we play.”

Chizuru smiles awkwardly as Lucy playfully pokes fun, not sugar coating her gaming superiority in the slightest. Shiori looks around confused, realizing that they already know each other and Lucy wasn’t being mean. Well, not entirely. 

‘I guess... he’s not like me at all…’ Shiori thinks softly. Suddenly, Hikigaya sits up and sniffs a bit of the air. Shiori looks at him, confused.

“They’re here…” He says in almost a whisper. Shiori stares at him before getting startled by a loud voice.

“Hiki! I knew that large grey hair belonged to you!” Someone slaps Hikigaya on the back with a big open hand. He’s startled by this and turns around quickly to look who hit him. His eyes widened with surprise and joy.

“Haru! Ryuji! I knew it was you!” He shouts with a big smile. A cool-looking boy, Ryuji Sato, stands behind the tall ball of sunshine, Haru Tanaka. Hikigaya stands up happily and hugs Haru, who happily hugs him back. Shiori stares, almost in awe that Hikigaya has friends. She then notices Ryuji specifically. She stares at him as he shines brightly in her eyes.

'So cute!’ She shakes her head, hard. ‘Wait no! What am I thinking? He’s just a boy, like all the others.’ She thinks defiantly before gently looking back at Ryuji, who’s chatting with Hikigaya. She blushes as she covers her face with her hands. 'But he’s so… pretty…’ She thinks as the others continue talking.

“We knew Lucy and Chizuru were in this class, but we weren’t sure about you.” Ryuji teases casually.

“What? Think I’m not smart enough to make it?” Hikigaya responds. Ryuji side smiles a bit and shrugs. Hikigaya droops a little with an awkward side smile. “Gee, thanks for believing in me…”

“Can you blame us? Your test scores were always just below mine and we all know how well I study.” Lucy chimes in. They laugh a bit while Hikigaya gets embarrassed about the topic. He then notices Shiori just sitting there, looking at them occasionally, deep in her thoughts. He stares at her softly for a moment before speaking up.

“Ryuji, Haru, meet Shiori. She’s the girl I’ve been assigned to." He says, pointing their attention to her. Haru smiles.

“Hi! I’m Haru Tanaka! Hiki has told us lots about you already! Well, what he’s seen, anyway. I hope we get to know you better, though!”

Haru says in rapid succession as he smiles at her brightly and waves energetically. Ryuji takes a step forward to introduce himself.

“My name is Ryuji Sato. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

He leans a little closer to her and puts his hand out for a shake. She blushes, thinking about how attractive he is. She snaps out of it quickly though and shakes his hand, looking away and blushing from embarrassment this time.

“Shiori Inabi…” She says softly. Ryuji was smiling at her but stopped and gets a surprised look on his face. She notices and looks at him. “What is it?” He shakes his head a bit and smiles again, letting go of her hand.

“Oh nothing. I just remembered something, that's all.”

With the seating now concluded, Shiori and Hikigaya are both still at the front two desks of the classroom. Hikigaya has Ryuji to his left and Haru right behind him. Shiori has Chizuru to her right and Lucy behind her. Ms. Samuel then regains the class's attention.

“Okay, now that you have all decided your seats, it’s time to get started. My name is Ms. Samuel, and I am your homeroom teacher. In your desk, you will find a packet with all the information you’ll need.”

All the students reach into their desks and pull out the packet full of papers. They begin reading the papers and everyone starts getting excited about the year to come, filled with school events, field trips and classroom activities. Ms. Samuel pauses for a moment, letting them get interested. She smirks and rubs her finger under her nose smugly.

‘That’s right kids, be impressed. I made the curriculum extra fun for my first year. Aren’t I the best new teacher you’ve ever had?’ She straightens out a bit, still smiling, and continues talking, breaking down the new year.

“This place really knows how to make an eventful year.” Hikigaya says.

“Of course. This is the best school in the District.” Shiori says with her eyes closed and looking up, almost as if she is talking down to him. Hikigaya gets a bit annoyed.

“Well then, how did you end up here, hm? Being a delinquent and all.”

“I don’t need to explain myself to you.” She responds defiantly.

“Oh ho, so a super genius, I see.” He pokes her on the shoulder teasingly. She rolls her eye and pushes his hand away. He smiles at her obvious annoyance. Suddenly, Ms. Samuel slams her hand on her podium at the front of the class.

“Inabi, Oshiro! Shut it while I’m talking!” She shouts, not super loud, but enough to startle everyone. The entire class goes dead silent after her outburst. Coming across to the class as kind and laid back, this hard, loud outburst catches them all by surprise. She composes herself, clearing her throat. “Ahem. As I was saying. Our class will have a fairly strict schedule to keep and rules to follow due to 'special circumstances', so follow the rules. Understood?”

She looks at Shiori and Hikigaya specifically as they lower in their desks a bit. The class all answers back quickly and efficiently, fearing another outburst. Shiori pouts a bit in her seat as Ms. Samuel continues talking to the class. She sits and thinks about everything going on around her right now and how truly different it is from what her life once was. A subtle smile, one so discreet that even searching for it, you might not find it, spreads across her lips, brought about by a thrilling feeling somewhere deep within her chest.