Chapter 1 ~ Cynical Views

I never liked my life. But you know, you really don't know what you have until it gets taken away from you.

The name's Ino Koubuki. I'm one of those geeky high-school students that no one likes. I have exceptional grades in fact, I'm number 1 in every single class. I suck up all the teachers properly just like a student should, not that I cared about what they thought of me.

Friend count: 0. There's not a single person in this world that cares about me in the slightest, again, not that I cared what they thought of me. Idiots, the lot of them.

Family matters have always been troublesome for me. My mom and dad argue constantly, and when I suggest having a divorce, they both look at me like I'm an idiot and stop talking for a week. I honestly don't know why, I mean, I think it's a rather good option, really. I'd rather get rid of both my parents then have them argue daily and then direct their anger on to me because I "forgot to turn on the TV for my dad" or I "forgot to wash the dishes for my mom." You'd think I would go insane. Oh, hold that thought, I am.

I also have a sister, but I couldn't possibly compare to her. (I'm being sarcastic by the way.) She's one of those complete airheads who couldn't tell a yellow balloon apart from a banana. Of course, she's the most popular girl at school, student council president and all that, but her position's just for show. She comes home all the time and says "Ino! I need you to work out budgeting for the student council." I open my mouth to refuse, but then my mom gives me one of those "if you don't help your sister, I'll hurt you" looks. So, I play the part and help her do her stupid finance work. I hand it back to her and she says, "Good job," and tells me to throw it out in the garbage for her because she's got someone else on it. No "thank you." No "I'll buy you an ice cream for your hard work." In fact, when she doesn't need me, she pretends I don't exist. Her friends at school ask her how come her sister is so uncool and she responds "Sister? What sister?" I'll give her that much, she excels at being a complete idiot.

You could say the whole world is against me most of the time, and you're wondering why I haven't committed suicide yet. Ah, and that is the crux of the matter. I don't want to die. Period. It's that simple. Since I'm like a thorn in their sides for everyone, we might as well keep it that way. No point in killing myself just to make life easier for everyone else. I'm not one of those honorable people who tend to sacrifice themselves for the greater good. No, no. In fact, it'd be better if the greater good sacrificed itself for me.

Like I said, life isn't fair. If I had the power, or was given the chance to, I would murder everyone in my life, parents and siblings included. Unfortunately, I'm extraordinarily weak for my age, but that's alright. Brains over brawn, right?

Lies. All lies. Even in the mafia, brute force was superior to a well thought out plan.

But life continued on, day after day. Little by little, time seemed to slow down around me; seconds felt like minutes, minutes felt like hours, and hours felt like days. One day, I couldn't take it anymore and I let out a huge scream in the middle of my math class. Time stopped. The whole class turned to took at me.

"Are...you okay?" the teacher asked slowly.

I paused for a moment, incredulous at what I had just done. I took a deep breath.

"Yah," I answered dumbly.

But the truth was, no...no I wasn't alright.

That day, I had to stay after school to help my science teacher clean up the classroom. He had said it was my reward for being his prized student. I laughed sarcastically. Reward, eh? More like punishment.

It was around 6:00 p.m. when my science teacher decided to stop torturing me for the day. The sun was setting and the sky was a nice shade of burnt orange. The shadows of the trees were distinctly outlined. You'd think it was one of those scary holidays if you didn't know better.

I glanced around the parking lot of our school. There were only 2 cars left at this point in time; one belonged to my science teacher obviously, and the other one was parked in the very corner. As I got closer, I noticed a man in a light blue dress shirt and tie leaning on it. His hair was a mixture of different hues of blue draped on either side of him. Strange. I could've sworn just a few seconds ago he didn't exist. It was even stranger that a man had long hair and blue highlights these days. I dismissed the thought.

I decided that it was pointless to continue worrying about a stranger. Quickly and quietly as usual, I started walking towards my house. A few minutes later, it started to rain. I felt the first couple of raindrops on my head when I stopped and felt the need to turn around and look at the car again. The man was still standing there. My eyes locked with his as I passed. I shuddered from the thought. That's when I realized that I should probably hurry up and get my butt back home before my father ran out of people to give commands to. There wasn't anything abnormal on a man leaning on a car anyways. I could picture the news headlines: "Man leaning on a car in school parking lot." I laughed at the thought and shook it out of my head.

About half way home, I suddenly had the strange feeling that I was being watched. I've always trusted my intuition to a certain extent, but by this time, I was getting a bit scared. I had no way of guessing what was bothering me. It didn't feel like one of those normal high school boys that stalked their girlfriends. There was a presence behind me that almost felt a bit sinister. Yet, even the existence of a human being near me was questionable. Just because I felt like I was being watched didn't mean I actually was.

Slowly, I mustered up the courage to turn around.

No one in sight. Nothing out of the ordinary. It was still raining, and I couldn't hear anything over the pitter-patter of the cold water droplets.

I sighed and continued walking. There was a feeling of relief in my heart, knowing that I had been worried over nothing, yet there was another part of me that felt a sudden build-up of anxiety.

Step. Step.

I froze. This time I was 100% sure I'd heard something over the rain, a pair of footsteps behind me, stalking me quietly like a predator hunting his prey. Judging by the sound, I estimated that there was someone about 10 m or so from me.

I started walking again, not daring to look back. I quickened my pace and slowly broke into a run when I heard that the footsteps behind me had quickened as well. I fell into a state of panic. My vision blurred in the rain as I started running out of breath. My lungs finally gave in and I stopped. Panting. In the rain.

I felt a strange mix of emotions overcome me. Anger. Desperation. Fear. I gave in to them.

"Alright, WHO THE HELL IS FOLLOWING ME?" I yelled, turning around.

And who did I see?

Absolutely no one. Not a single living soul in sight.

I kept breathing heavily, laughing inside about my own naivete. Who could possibly be stalking a failure in life like me? I was just being paranoid. The rain and cold can make people paranoid, did you know that?

That's when I turned around, and fear took over completely. I collapsed on the cold ground.

The blue-haired man was standing directly in front of me, calmly flipping through an ancient lexicon of some sorts. It took a couple of seconds for him to notice that I was staring at him, and when he did, he closed his book and turned to look at the sky.

"The weather's beautiful today, isn't it?" he asked with a graceful tone.

I could think of a lot of things to blurt out at that moment, like "Who the heck are you?", "What do you want with me?", "Why are you following me?" or "Are you some kind of pedophile or something?" I scratched out that last question because he looked much younger up close. In fact, he was just a couple of years older than me. But in the end, all I could do was sit there and gawk at him like some kind of idiot.

He was beautiful. An angel on Earth, . He's the kind of man my sister would've fallen for easily. (Well, except for the fact that his hair looks like something from the 70's mixed with the 21st century. A rather bad combination at that, mind you.)

Slowly shifting his gaze to me, he opened his mouth. I froze again, all the fear within me dissolved by his gentle demeanor.

"We've been waiting for you," he said calmly.

I paused for a minute, and then broke out laughing.

"You're joking right? This is all some kind of screwed up dream?" I asked, half-crazed.

He chuckled, and apparently, that was all I was going to get out of him.