One year ago, before the ruin came...
4/11 After school
Haru Okumura... Third year... Good grades, beautiful, crazy rich, and very kind. The sort of girl that any guy would want to date, and I am no exception. But it wouldn't surprise me if she doesn't even know I exist, we aren't exactly on speaking terms. Not that I'd be fine with being a watcher from afar, but I don't just watch her, I listen in on a lot of people. Not just in the school either, but everywhere I go. I actually wouldn't mind being friends with her, and from the things I have heard about her and bits n' pieces of her home life, I can only wish for her happiness. Guess wealth doesn't help in that area, huh?
"I'll see you tomorrow, Haru!" One of her friends said as she ran out the front doors.
"Later, Saki!" Haru called while waving from her locker.
Mine wasn't too far away, so I could hear her clearly. Out of my peripheral vision, I could see Haru frowning. Maybe I should probably try to talk to her.
"What's on your mind? Friend troubles?" I asked.
Haru looked over at me with a confused look, she doesn't know me, but she then gave a small smile as she pulled her stuff from her locker and tucked it in her bag before walking over to me.
"I'm sorry, but I don't believe we've met." Haru said.
I turned my eyes over, "Yeah, I get that sometimes."
Haru smiled a bit more, I don't know why, did she think I was telling a joke or something? She walked outside, I quickly grabbed the rest of my things and followed her.
"Yeah..." She said under her breath.
"'Yeah' what?" I replied.
"I might be having friend troubles." Haru answered.
I looked back into my bag and reached for my phone, replying to a text from mom and putting it back.
"What kind of trouble? Not serious, I hope." I said, dramatically stretching my voice.
Haru giggled and kept walking, as we made our way to the train station, I figured that now would be as good a time to make some decent small talk. Might as well, she sat right next to me.
"Sooo, what kind of music do you listen to?" I asked.
Haru looked up at me, then looked in front of her with a finger on her chin.
"I listen to some classic rock stuff, one of my favorite songs is Strawberry fields forever." She said. "What about you?"
"Well, I've been listening to a lot of acid and funk jazz. A little bit of alternative rock every now and then. I'd have to say Pink polyester by The Boston Horns would be my favorite." I replied.
The train soon stopped and we both got up, central street Shibuya was our next stop. She pointed to a diner and invited me to spend some more time with her, an invitation I gladly excepted. We entered and found a seat, and a waitress came up to us after a while, Haru ordered a hot tea and I ordered a latte.
"I'm sorry..." Haru said after taking a sip from her drink. "I don't know your name."
Ah, the one thing I was hoping she'd never ask. I already get enough crap from being related to a nut job, I don't want to ruin my reputation with her. But still...
"Shiro Adachi." I quickly said before taking a sip of coffee.
She pondered the name for a bit before smiling brightly.
"Well, nice to meet you, Shiro-kun!" She said while extending a hand.
I slowly reached and shook, her skin is really soft... and now I notice how creepy that sounds, the hell is wrong with me!? But what made me happy is that she doesn't know that my uncle is a serial killer. Unfortunately, I don't know how long it'll be until she finds out.
"Please, no honorifics. We're all friends here, aren't we?" I joked, taking another sip of coffee.
"I guess that's fair. I have another question for you." She said, suddenly making her tone change to serious.
And another thing I was expecting, most of the 'friends' she has don't see Haru the way actual friends would. I found that these people who treat her nicely are handsomely rewarded, but that's not why I'm here...
"Is it the one where you ask if I have an ulterior motivation and I start sputtering like an idiot?" I asked with a smirk on my face.
"So you've heard?" Haru replied. "Why are you hanging out with me, then?"
I scoffed and leaned back, "Because I like you..."
She started blushing, just the reaction I was looking for. But I'm not confessing, not even close.
"I'd like you to be my friend. I don't have a lot of those..." I said, actually putting a serious face on.
She noticed my words and nodded, putting a 500¥ tip on the table. Asked me for my number, and we both headed home.
And from that day forward, I had found my first friend.
As time passed, the jester and his empress continued their year together as friends, but in the coming year, their relationship will be pushed to the ultimate test
4/9 Evening
I had dinner with my mother and her boyfriend before taking off to bed, brushed my teeth and put on something more comfortable. After staring out my window for a few minutes, I slipped under the covers and fell asleep. As my consciousness left me, I felt myself falling into a large body of water, slowly sinking towards the bottom. My eyes became heavy as ocean life surrounded me...
A calm woman's voice called to me, "Welcome, dearest patient."
My eyes shot open and the color blue flooded my eyes, everywhere I looked was blue padded walls, floor, and ceiling. I looked down at myself and noticed that I was wearing a white straitjacket and sweatpants. The loud clang of a metal door closing could be heard as I tried to pick myself up off the floor. Turning my head towards the noise, I saw four figures, three of them wearing outfits that made them look like a stewardess, waiter, and business woman respectively, and the fourth wore a more casual but equally refined outfit, wearing a short sleeved blue shirt with a black tie, black skirt, black and white striped stockings, grey arm warmers, blue paper-boy hat, and black leather half boots. The running theme seems to be blue clothes, white hair, and yellow eyes.
"Welcome to the Velvet Penitentiary, Patient Adachi." The one in the mail-girl outfit said.
"We are delighted to have you as our first guest, my name is Margaret, and these are my brother and sister, Theodore and Elizabeth." The one in the business suit said.
"Pleased to meet you." Said Elizabeth.
"Pleasure to make your acquaintance." Theodore said.
"Charmed..." I simply replied.
Elizabeth opened the large book she had with her and started reading from it.
"Shiro Adachi... Born July 17th... Blood type B-... And as for his physical dimensions..." Elizabeth started having a slightly suspect look on her face as everyone leaned in to see what the fuss was about.
"What the-? No, quit it!" I yelled.
"Only kidding... mostly. You might be wondering what this place is and who we are?" Theodore asked.
I nodded as Margaret looked at her clipboard and explained. Not that I could properly understand anything, something about them being 'patrons of the Velvet Room' and 'Shadows' and other crap that sounds like it was taken from a terrible shounen anime. I only pretended to listen, but what struck me as a important thing went something like... 'As you are our guest, we will provide what we can to support you on your journey.'
The paper-girl cleared her throat and the others introduced her as Marie, I'm way out of it now, so I just went back to sleep.
*pip pip*
My phone started ringing, I looked over at it and the time read 10:34 PM, and the caller was Haru. I pressed pressed the call button and put the phone up to my ear.
"Hey, did you just wake up?" Haru asked.
"Yeah, you just got me out of dream town. What's up?" I replied.
"Sorry to call you at this hour, but I thought I should tell you about the transfer student." She said.
"We're getting a transfer student? Guy or girl?" I asked.
"A boy, supposedly he's here because of probation, so some of the other students may start rumors about him." Haru said after sneezing a couple times.
"Are you alright?" I asked, "Can't have you getting sick, I'd miss your cute face."
"Shiro! Don't say things like that!" She raised her voice, "Anyway, we should give him a warm welcome."
"Sure, anything I should be on the lookout for?" I asked.
"Yeah, he is tall, thin, wears glasses, has black, frizzy hair." She said.
"Okaaay~... See you tomorrow, have a good night." I said.
"Good night, Shiro." Haru said.
I hung up and went back to sleep.
4/10
I met with Haru on the train to school and we discussed what we should do with the transfer guy.
"Maybe we should have confetti and cake?" Haru pondered.
"I'll go with confetti poppers if you supply the cake." I answered.
After we dropped off in Aoyama-Itchome, Haru and I ran over to a bakery near the station. She ordered a chocolate cheesecake, enough slices for three people(2x3). But the guy never showed, so Haru and I just sat around during lunch, eating that cake. When fifth period rolled around, Ms. Kawakami's class for the deaf/blind, he finally did show up. Akira Kurusu, lucky for you, I've got a couple of confetti poppers with your name on them. He sat in front of me and took out a small notebook, writing something in it and quickly retreating it in his pocket. I put that in memory.
After school, I immediately went home. As soon as I reached the door, mom's boyfriend pushed his way past me, nearly knocking me over. I ran inside and saw mom slouched over the coffee table.
"Mom? Mom!" I shouted, running over to her.
She started coughing, so I walked her to her room, had her lay on the bed, and ran down to make her some tea. After I finished, I ran back to give her the drink and went to fetch a hot towel. The hell did he do to her?! She has bruises all over! I'll kill him!
4/11
Finally met up with this guy and showered him with confetti, in response he gave me a half-smile before walking off. Then everyone around started whispering to each other.
'Maybe he's planning on how many toes he should remove?'
'How many teeth you think he'll lose?'
'That guy's so dead...'
Should've seen that coming, but as the hours pass, I slowly start to take notice of the kind of stuff this guy does, he's already friends with Sakamoto (not really a bad point, now that I think about it), and in hot water with Kamoshida. Point being that I'm sure nobody likes that guy anyway, it's very obvious in his treatment of the volleyball team that he is a complete bastard. Not that they'd ever admit that, but I'm sure glad I'm not on any of the sports teams, still have gym class...
Anyways, the day went on as any other, aside the feeling of someone watching my back every so often. I walked up to the second floor of the school, opening a door on the far east side of the hall. Inside were a few tables and two chairs, someone stood in the room, slouched over a piece of paper and writing a few sentences before reaching over for another piece of paper, putting the last paper on a small pile.
"You keep doing that and I'll need to suspend your privileges here." I said.
The person chuckled as they picked themselves up, walking into the light revealing that the person is Haru.
"Who told you about this place?" I asked.
"I just saw the sign and became interested, anyway, are you the only one who goes here?" She asked.
I nodded in response, "I just asked to make my own club, but I really wanted my own private room. No one really comes around, you're free to share it with me, but you do need to sign up for this club."
4/19
I think Kurusu started bringing a cat to school, I keep hearing meowing from his desk. I also heard that he, Sakamoto, and another student named Mishima are going to be expelled in two weeks.
4/20
Okay, I think something's going on with those three, Kurusu, Sakamoto, and Takamaki. They've be hanging out a lot recently, especially today, when somebody noticed a series of red post-it notes on the school notification board. Targeted towards Kamoshida, and when he noticed it, he started threatening the students.
4/21
Kamoshida didn't show up today, so we had Kawakami's as a study hall during forth hour.