Chapter 2: A Walking Paradox
Another glorious morning had passed as Tsukino Scott arrived at the school gates. With her bag firmly in her hand, she waved at the servant she'd arrived with, and walked in to the schoolyard. She caught sight of her usual clique slowly walking in the middle of the yard. She jogged with her shoes clacking against the chiseled ground as her skirt flipped lightly up and down on her thighs, slowly making her way to her destination. With a wide smile, lips covered in pink lipstick, she greeted them
"Good morning! Kaori, Asano, and Onata."
They turned around and answered with the same warmth.
With their shoes clacking against the chiseled ground walking towards the entrance, Asano, who had red hair and a petite nose, asked
"Did you guys watch the awards yesterday, Nabuno was so dreamy!"
Kaori nodded and responded
"Yeah, his performance was so captivating. I caught myself staring at his face too much when he sang."
Tsukino slowed down quickly as something caught her eyes. A boy with blond, dyed, hair, jeans with a chain that reached his knee, and an indigo purple colored suit with decals on it. It was the person she'd seen yesterday outside of the classroom, she was surprised to see him there. Tsukino felt compelled to approach him and say something, but she'd been taught to not interact with problem children. Not only that, he was completely unapproachable as well, walking broadly with his hands in his pockets and a grim look on his face. Maybe he was actually going to attend school that day.
The thought disappeared from Tsukino's mind though as she got occupied with talking with her friends and walking to class in time.
Like the exit of a major music event, the classroom quickly filled up with people flocking in.
Kaharu unintentionally entered lastly as everybody sat down. His presence quickly drew people's attention as they started bickering. A lot of the things they were saying were untrue rumors that had spread around. Kaharu almost saw himself as a celebrity at the school, he had the same mythology to his name. Rumors were being made, and the attention was rampant. But the key difference being in the attitude. A celebrity was celebrated, Kaharu Kahari was antagonized. But like he usually did, a smile cracked up at it. He always thought to himself that he didn't care, since it was so impersonal. It was only natural for talk like that to happen when you did the things Kaharu did.
- They're talking about me, like usual. I don't care though, but they sure have nerves to do it in front of me. If I get the opportunity, I'll have some fun with it. -
He took his seat in the very back, at the same time as the math teacher entered the room. With the same face as the students, The teacher looked with surprise at Kaharu. But his expression was replaced with a smile as he started writing on the blackboard behind him.
…
The math lesson had started and the students were doing individual practice in the textbook. As the sound of chalk traveling around the blackboard was heard, Kaharu sat bored at his desk writing the answers slowly. The teacher took notice and interrupted class with a complicated question written on the board.
The class looked at it strangely, some of them realized that the math topic hadn't even been discussed yet in class, it was several chapters ahead in the book. The teacher smiled smugly as he said
"When you have math class, you should always be prepared for it. Now, is there anyone willing to answer this?"
Silence erupted in the class as everybody got nervous about being picked. As everybody sat under insane pressure, one black-haired girl sitting in the top-right corner in the second-to-last row, named Naomi Shirazawa, stared at the question for a bit.
Suddenly, an armed was raised and the teacher instantly shifted his perception to it.
"Well, go ahead Naomi. Come up to the board and write your answer."
She complied, walking up to the board and writing down the answer she thought was correct. Kaharu looked at the answer for a moment, raising his eyebrows but returned to looking at his table in peace. Without checking the board, the teacher nodded and caught sight of a bored Kaharu staring at his notebook.
Another smile flashed, and he said
"Kaharu Kahari, do you have anything to add?"
The point of focus quickly shifted to the unknowing Kaharu. With everybody's stares locked at him, Kaharu sighed and said
"Well, the answer is wrong."
The teacher said
"That's what I thoug--- Wait, what?"
Kaharu slowly stood up, making onlookers like Kaori, Tsukino and Naomi uncertain about what was to follow. He slowly made his way through the line of seats and arrived at the blackboard, where he greeted a confused and slightly scared teacher.
- I see everybody here is underestimating me. -
He took the chalk and wrote his answer under Naomi's.
-Well, jokes on you idiots. Because math is one of two subjects I'm actually good at! -
He dropped the chalk on the floor as he started to slowly make his way back to his seat.
"C-Correct..."
The teacher stood shocked after he checked the blackboard. The same reaction was had by Naomi, who thought she was the best student in the class. Especially at math. Who was that delinquent to come up here and correct her? She reasoned to herself that she must've made a mistake because of the lack of sleep lately because of her recent hobbies.
While walking right in front of the first row of desk, one of the students sitting there, usually seen as one of the tough kids in class named Akamu Rin, whispered quietly to his neighbour
"Must've been a fluke, right?"
Kaharu took note and immediately stopped in front of his desk. He chuckled lightly, creating an ominous feeling to appear.
*KICK*
Kaharu kicked the front of Akamu's desk, which made it rumble a bit, which immediately drew Akamu's attention. He quickly turned his head and noticed how near his foe was. Kaharu quickly drew closer to him and said
"You sure have nerves to insult me right in front of me. Do you like playing with fire?"
Akamu suddenly turned flustered as he realized his blunder, it'd been a while since he displayed such insecurity. The usually cocky Akamu had, for a brief moment, turned into a confused and embarrassed student. He froze as he stared into Kaharu's hazel brown eyes. Kaharu noticed the continued silence in the room, and had the feeling of that about to break as the teacher probably wanted to get involved. He dodged the hassle of a potential verbal confrontation by walking away after a cocky exhale, displaying his satisfied smile as he sat down broadly at his desk.
"Well, then… Let's continue with the lesson."
The teacher was left in confusion as he quickly erased the writing on the blackboard.
Tsukino Scott quickly checked Kaharu's casual pose as she thought
- I'm split. He seems to be good in school, but he behaves like a brute. How does that combination go together? He really does seem like trouble. -
Her thoughts were partly shared with Kaori, who had some history with Kaharu. Although, her perspective was slightly different.
…
"Do you know what I said to her after?"
The outsiders drew closer as their curiosity peeked, with the guy in center smiling. Peaceful was a word that you used to be able to associate with the roof, but that was different now. It had started to become the spot for a group of students to hang out. It was also occasionally used as the battle grounds for delinquents.
The student standing in the center, with a dark red school uniform with stylish angles to its corners to it, light red pants that were personally designed and a red hair cut that violently pointed forth, smiled brightly as he prepared himself for the final words.
" 'We're done for today, see you later.' "
The 3 outsiders got a glow in their eyes as they gripped their hands and exclaimed
"You're so cool, Amatsuyu! To just ditch a girl like that after making her interested! You're such a playboy!"
Amatsuyu raised his chin a little to the praise and responded
"It's only natural. That is the fate of all people."
The group of students, skipping class like they often did, stood on the roof excitedly talking about different things: Amatsuyu being the center of focus during it.
Koutaro, one of the outsiders, got a question and asked
"But, how do you do it? For not so long ago, you used to always complain about how you never got anything."
Amatsuyu instantly got irritated at the comment that was made, but calmly answered the question as he walked towards the railing at the direction pointing directly north of the school. As he stared at the largely urban town, he focused in on a largely green spot north of the town and said
"I can't tell you. But I might be able to tell you all at a later point."
Tatsumi, another outsider, commented
"Lame!"
Amatsuyu lashed out and responded
"Shut up! You don't have the right to say that, you can't even pick up girls: Period."
Tatsumi stomped the ground lightly as he said
"I'm trying my best!"
The conversation was supposed to continue, but the door opening behind them changed the priorities. Out came Kaharu Kahari, who usually sat on the roof for his lunches to avoid annoying chatter. Amatsuyu said slowly to his friends while staring at Kaharu
"So it's lunch time already?"
They walked menacingly towards the entrance, as Kaharu and Amatsuyu exchanged looks. Amatsuyu made a passing comment as their shoes hit the ground
"I see you're still taking care of that jacket."
Kaharu averted his serious look back to his lunch and responded with an unspecific grunt. As Amatsuyu and his group walked down the stairs, Tatsumi asked
"You know Kaharu?"
Amatsuyu responded with the outmost serious face, staring forward focused
"In a way. We don't talk much anymore, but we had a lot of contact in junior high."
…
'The mystery of the grey-black apartment complex in the southwest' The cover read.
Asano put down the tabloid-like newspaper onto the desk in front of her. The newspaper saw itself as a regular newspaper, but its contents reminded more of a tabloid: Often indulging in the mysticism of certain aspects of the city. That perspective drew in a lot of high school girls, including Asano who expressed her interest
"Have you read this article? It's so mysterious!"
Kaori stuffed in a mouthful of rice into her mouth as she looked at the cover.
She responded
"Yeah, I've read it. It's about that apartment complex with the zombie-like residents, right?"
Asano nodded frantically with a wide smile. Tsukino lowered her chopsticks and commented
"Do you really indulge in such untrue journalism? It's nothing but speculation with no connection to reality."
Asano bumped Tsukino's arm as to wake her up from her seriousness and said
"Come on! It's interesting and appealing."
Tsukino, seemingly in deep thought, shrugged lightly as she continued her meal
Silence prevailed as they continued to eat, Kaori picked up on it and wryly smiled. As an attempt to lighten the joint-together tables' mood, Kaori said
"More importantly, Have you guys ever heard of Occam's razor?"
Asano quietly shook her head as she supported her movements by saying "No, I haven't"
Tsukino looked up and said
"I've heard of it. 'Out of two options, the simplest one is most often correct' or something of that sort, right?"
Kaori pointed with her chopsticks at Tsukino, winking at her, and said
"You knew it, Tsukino. As I expected."
She brought her chopsticks down to her rice and sat them down in it with them pointing up. She continued
"Last night, I thought I saw a ghost in the night walking towards the attic. I was a hundred percent sure of it, well, I still kind of am. But, my sister explained Occam's razor to me and assured me that it was my imagination or something. It got me thinking, like, why do we scare ourselves like that then? Why would we imagine something like that, just to get a thrill?"
Tsukino leaned back in her chair and stretched her hands into the air: A habit she'd developed in times of uncertainty. Elbows returning to the table, Tsukino said
"Maybe. Perhaps our brains want to keep us safe, making us imagine stuff to keep us aware of our surroundings."
They continued their lunch with the same energy remaining.
…
Kaharu Kahari was the name being discussed in the student council room as their lunch break was also nearing its end. The current student council president, Amaimono Korotsu, aggressively slammed a group of photos onto the table, in the middle of everybody's lunches. The members drew their attention to whom was featured in the photos. They pictured a man with blond hair, and a detailed purple school uniform. Two of the members instantly recognized the man, and the vice-president Melliacci Tratto made a comment
"Kaharu Kahari… Him again?"
Amaimono answered Melliaci's indirect question
"Yeah, we've gotten more reports of him causing trouble around the school. He's barely even showed up at school, but when he's been here, he's been in fights and such. We need to get in contact with him."
Melliacci pitched in again and commented
"I see, I'll do it. It won't be hard to find him, when he's here, he usually spends time on the roof. We'll get him to change, for sure."
Amaimono affirmed Melliacci's notion and continued with some announcement as they continued eating. Melliacci stopped his eating though, he had to search for Kaharu. As he walked towards the door, with a straight posture, he fixed his tie and twisted his neck.
…
"So you were here."
Kaharu looked to his left and saw an equally blond person with blue glasses resting on his nose-bridge. He could already notice the difference between them from resting positions alone, the successful and fault free vice president versus the ostracized delinquent. But he wasn't complaining, he had walked down the road of delinquency on his own accord. The vice president walked a couple of steps forward, adjusting his glasses, and said
"I assume you to be Kaharu Kahari."
Kaharu smiled and said
"How cold. Like you don't remember our last meeting."
The vice president flashed a pretty rare smile as he said
"I didn't know if you remembered or not. So I take it as you already know why I'm here?"
Kaharu stood up, gathering the trash from his lunch, and faced Melliacci. He said
"I can guess, but it doesn't matter because I'm leaving now."
Melliacci took a step to his left to stop Kaharu in his tracks and said
"You have to change, Kaharu. This isn't a proper way to live."
Kaharu nodded slowly as he thought, and then decided to enter the conversation and said
"I don't care what you decide is the proper way to live. I'll live however I want."
Melliaci took his glasses off to polish them with a handkerchief and said
"You see, the thing I don't understand about you is why you went down the path of delinquency. Most people do it because it's cool, and you win respect in your circle of friends. Some people do it because they get attention. It could be that you belong to that second group, but doesn't that feel bad? Maybe it feels satisfying in the moment as everybody pays attention to you, but it's all negative, so it has to take some mental toll on you. So what's the point? You don't have any friends from what I can see, Kaharu! There's no respect to win, because you push everybody away! At the end of the day, what are you left with?"
Kaharu snapped. He didn't go into a violent mode, but the rant riled him up as it hit him personally. Kaharu walked up to Melliaci, who stood still menacingly.
Kaharu said loudly
"Then how does it feel do be a sheep, Melliacci!? How does it feel to be a mindless sheep who follows everybody else and what they want? Not being allowed to be yourself because it's not normal or it doesn't fit the box, is that what you stand for!? I simply want to live my life being myself, but it's people like you who force your version of perfect into everybody who prevent me from doing that!"
Melliacci paused for a moment, gathering his thoughts and then responding
"Order creates a minimum standard for morals in our student body, which only benefits people. Also, I wouldn't reject anybody because of who they are. But is this who you are, Kaharu? Your behaviour is destructive and only ruins it for both you and the people around you. Is this shallow collection of anger really you and your potential, Kaharu?"
Kaharu quickly stormed off after staring quietly at Melliacci for a moment. Whilst walking away, Kaharu kicked the ground in frustration and yelled
"I don't know! Leave me alone!"
The delinquent by choice named Kaharu Kahari continued towards the small box that led down to the stairs. He blew out a gust of wind, stopped in front of the box, and said
"Must be nice to be you.
To be born with such a personality, that you can strive to improve within the system. That you can just be yourself and success will follow.
You have everything, Melliacci, the personality, the talent, the money.
You wouldn't understand my position."
At that moment, Melliacci made a mental note of Kaharu's expression. It was one of pure melancholy, pitiful in its core but pure in its message. Without being able to say a single thing, or move for that matter, he let Kaharu continue his way down the stairs.
As Melliacci looked down, he saw nothing but darkness below him. A darkness Kaharu Kahari had walked deeper into, or perhaps he was the one who'd colored it.
Melliacci didn't know, he was left with nothing but confusion as he stared at the stairs.
…
-Everyone has to mess with me! Just leave me alone!
No matter where I go, there's someone who has to pick a fight with me, someone who has to play with fire. I'm about to really burn something, with the size of my current fire.
I have no place to relax at.
Did I do this to myself...?
To hell with that!
Everything…!
Everything is their fault!-
Kaharu kicked the ground as he walked down the street. With class cleared for the day, barely, he was now forced to attend a local shrine. It was one of many in that area, where there were a surprising amount of shrines in that area. Historians usually suspected that people though that place had a concentration of spiritual power thanks to the main local god there, and psychics verified that, but with doubtful reception from the general populace.
Even though Kaharu was not aware of it, one of his classmates was walking on the opposite sidewalk.
Tsukino Scott had decided to immediately head towards her afternoon activities, which laid towards the same direction as Kaharu's.
She took notice of him quickly, as she had a weird interest in him, having noticed him every time he entered her field of vision.
As it was at that moment, She saw him as a walking paradox. A series of cogs that weren't supposed to work, but still managed to turn and cooperate. And behind that series of cogs that made up his body laid something, something inside of him. Something that had a shine that shone through the cogs. Her interest was piqued as she observed it.
She looked towards the park and saw bunch of kids play around. But she also noticed something else to the side of the playground.
As Kaharu look over to the park, and towards a large oak tree that resided there.
A boy around the age of 9 sat by a bench, completely alone. With black hair and brown eyes, he sat quietly and stared out towards the playground. His eyes were deserted, filled only with a sad quietness.
Kaharu felt as if an arrow struck his heart as he took in the sight, a strange feeling swelled from within as he dramatically paused his walking.
He heard some slightly older boys, running around the playground, shout to the boy
"Hey, Yusuke! Let's play!"
Kaharu got a smile on his face, as did the boy named Yusuke by the tree with a hopeful glimmer shimmering from him. Before they said
"Just kidding…! Like we'd ever play with you, you disgusting nerd! HAHA."
Kaharu tied his hand to a fist as he observed the boys make ugly faces towards Yusuke, who'd gotten an even more somber look on him. He had expected that to happen, but his heart had wanted to believe. He sat there quietly as the faces were displayed in front of him, and as Kaharu waited for something to happen. He waited, but Yusuke's position remained the same. Tsukino held her hand in front of her mouth as she commented quielty
"How awful..."
Kaharu took up an even more wide pose as he observed with an anxious feeling attacking him from inside. The comments continued, and Kaharu decided he'd had enough.
"Ey, You bastards!"
The boys slowly turned to their left, just to find a tall high-schooler wearing a strange uniform and with blonde hair staring down at them with a spiteful glare. He continued
"Why're you pickin' on him!? Are you guys low-tier scum or what!?"
They instantly turned around and tried to run away, screaming as they sprinted.
Kaharu, being in a bad mood, chased after one of them and grabbed his collar. As he was hunched over, He continued
"You didn't answer my question! I hate people like you the most, you insult and make fun of people for your own amusement but as soon as you're confronted, you run away with your tail and tears in your eyes. You don't even have the courage to stick up with what you believe i----"
Kaharu was interrupted by Yusuke, calmly saying
"It's okay, just let him go."
Having heard that, Kaharu slowly let him go as he looked at Yusuke. The boy quickly ran away, yelling 'Sorry!' repeatedly as he ran.
Kaharu stood up and faced Yusuke, pointing at him and saying
"And you!
Why the hell didn't you do anything?"
Yusuke leaned backwards as the wind carried his hair into the wind, and said
"There was no point in doing anything. Anything I'd do would just worsen the situation."
Kaharu felt his heart burn as he said
"You need to stand up for yourself and be strong! Otherwise, stuff like this will happen."
Yusuke shook his head and said
"Why? I don't wanna be like that, it sounds painful.
I just wanna do what I wanna do."
Kaharu stood in shock as he said
"B-But-----"
He thought to himself immediately after
-Wait, why am I so passionate about this? Why do I care so much…? -
At that moment, he realized.
He realized why he felt such a strange emotion while glancing at him.
He realized why he looked so familiar to him.
He realized why he found his heart stinging, and why he was trying to convince him so hard.
Yusuke, the boy he'd just met in that playground, resembled himself exactly when he was younger.
He was trying to save his former self, from what he'd experience later on.
As painful memories were revived in his head, Kaharu grabbed his forehead.
Yusuke, quietly observing, slowly said
"Had a bad day?
You seemed weirdly riled up before… You even helped me out of the blue."
Kaharu Kahari made his way to the bench and sat down, taking as much space as he usually did, put his arms up on the bench's armrest and backrest, and said slowly
"I guess…
I've had it weirdly tough recently."
Kaharu smiled as he took in the fresh breeze gently pushing his hair, he knew a response would take a couple of seconds to come after all.
A couple of seconds of silence passed, until Yusuke said
"I see, I guess we both have some issues then."
Kaharu smiled as he looked ahead again.
He then got an idea, and took out a small piece of paper and a pen, which drew Yusuke's attention. Kaharu said
"You said you don't wanna fight, right?"
Kaharu finished writing as Yusuke nodded and pushed out a
"Mmh"
He presented the note to Yusuke and said
"Take this number, and use it when you're in trouble.
I'll fight for you.
You go ahead and be whatever you want to be, I'll protect you and be your bodyguard."
Yusuke lit up, losing the sadness in his eyes as he looked up with a smile. He asked
"Really…? For someone like me?"
Kaharu smiled as he gave a thumbs-up and said
"Yeah, of course."
- I don't want anyone to feel like I did ever again, after all. -
"Thanks, old guy!"
Kaharu laughed loudly as he retorted
"Who're you calling old!?"
The laughing continued as Tsukino observed
Right in front of her eyes were the cogs, making up Kaharu's body, falling down to the ground.
- That was nice of him, except for the part where he chased the other kid.
I think I see it, his true self…!
Wait…
There's another set of cogs around his core!
Are you telling me he has another mystery wrapped around his heart?
I'm intrigued now, as I've seen this side of him…
But there's no way for me to get close to him as to inspect him and find out his other mystery, so it's a dead end I suppose. -
Kaharu suddenly realized where he had to be and quickly stood up, and said
"Crap, I forgot! I need to be somewhere"
Yusuke tilted his head and said
"Where?"
Kaharu answered
"To something my parents forced upon me, relatable right?
Anyway, I need to go. See yah."
As Kaharu ran away, back to the street he stood upon 5 minutes earlier and down the road, Yusuke raised his hand and said
"Y-yeah… later."
As he ran, he thought to himself
-Yusuke, you may not know it. But you're both the weakest, strongest, most cowardly and most brave person I know. -
Tsukino also realized what the time was and started hurrying down the road, as she thought about the amount of tutoring she'd have to give Kaori in English later.
It wasn't a fun thought.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone