There's a boy who always sits in the back of the classroom a few desks behind Satoko Hōjō.

For some reason, she'll see him lots of places but never approaches him. Maybe because he's never the first one she notices on the playground, maybe because even after several years of learning English, the language still feels thick on her tongue.

But he's always quiet and unassuming, a bit like a shadow.

That doesn't bother Satoko. She certainly misses her dear childhood friend, Rika Furude, but along the way she's made friends with some of the other children here. It was her Nii-nii's wish to go travel with his fiancé Shion, and having the both of them in the house together borders having a real set of parents.

But it's a household where she's loved.

The first day of school in America, when Shion and Satoshi walked her out of the house towards her new school (Satoko insists nowadays that she wants to walk the rest of the way by herself, she's almost eleven after all) she pointed out a house that's rather different from the other tidy houses on Elm Street. This house was (and still is) already starting to crumble, looking slightly battered with its chipped roof and badly cracked windows.

"You see that house?" Shion insisted. "Do not go near it. The man who lives there is not a kind man, nor a completely sane one. Please, Satoko, please tell me you're not going to go near that house— I don't want to see you getting hurt, alright?"

And the naive little girl nodded at the time and embraced the young, green-haired woman she's come to call her 'Nee-nee'.

"Now have a good first day of school, Satoko. We both love you."

She took turns accepting hugs from Shion and Satoshi before running towards the building she would come to call her school.

Nowadays, she'll sometimes see the shadow boy come out of the house as he walks to school. He has this worn-down look about him, as if he's sick and tired of his life as he knows it. Sometimes she'll see him sporting some sort of bruises or welts against his face— those features are becoming alarmingly common. Sometimes the boy will walk with a strange sort of gait.

She wonders what goes on in that house Shion and her Nii-nii told her to never enter. What happens in there that gives the boy such injuries?

But for the longest time, he's just a shadow in the back of her mind that is quickly forgotten. Someone who barely exists in Satoko's world as she goes about her own daily life.

Satoko can infer that he's getting some sort of abuse inflicted upon him. She knows exactly what it's like to live in a broken household, where the people who are supposed to care for you hate you when you don't do something the way they want you to. At least, she reflects, during that time she had Satoshi to cling onto.

And then he left, taking away the pain of her aunt's death with him.

At least he's returned from that drug induced coma, waking up to his precious little sister and the girl who's promised to care for her weeping in relief.

But does that boy, Satoko wonders, have anyone to rely on?

Maybe not.

But it makes her mind throb with anger to see someone else possibly have to go through the same kind of unjust treatment.

So she'll have to change that in some way.

But first things first.

Introductions…

yes, with me being the procrastinator i am, had to start yet another story.

this takes place during freddy's childhood. and if the text hasn't made it that clear, this is in a world where satoshi wakes up, falls in love with shion, and the two decide to explore the world with satoko by living in the U.S.