A/N: Hey, guys! It's been a pretty long time since I posted anything here, but I've come back with multi-chapter fan fiction. This fic deals with a deaf character, so please tell me if I got something wrong.
Disclaimer: World Trigger belongs to Ashihara Daisuke.
Italicised words in quotes ("") - text on phone screen
Bold words in quotes ("") - sign language
Bold and italicised words - ?
The first time that Osamu encountered a Neighbour was with Chika. She stood in front of him. She told him to run. But, they both knew that she was afraid too. Osamu could only shake his head, looking up at the Neighbour. Scared, he pulled and pushed Chika behind him. After all, he promised Rinji to keep her safe. Oh god, he's so afraid. He can't move-.
Would you like me to destroy it~ Osamu?
Can you please be quiet?
To both their surprise, it…
It was a normal day in Osamu's classroom, albeit the homeroom teacher, Mizunuma-sensei was not at the front. Other than that, it was a pretty mundane day. People were talking to each other, desks screeching against the floor, books being haphazardly thrown on desks. He flipped through his book, waiting for the teacher to come by.
"I recorded yesterday's battle from a safe distance," a student told his friend showing the video on his phone to his two friends.
"Wow, what a huge neighbour!" his friend gasped.
A girl whispered to her friend. "Did you know? My boyfriend was scouted by Border," she bragged.
"Ehh? Really? That's awesome!" her friend giggled.
"I'm definitely entering Border too!" Miyoshi claimed, seeming to sparkle. "Trigger on!"
"It'll never happen!" One of his friends told him, seeming tired of all of Miyoshi's Border talk.
"Yeah, it's hopeless." His other friend added.
This was some of the conservation that floated around the room. Not that Osamu could hear it anyway.
He was getting to a climax of the story when he suddenly got hit in the head. Seeing a pencil case on the floor, he picked it up, looking confused. He turned around to see the three main bullies of his class and one of his classmates.
"Haha! I missed your pass, dude!" his friend laughed, looking like he didn't care about not catching it.
"You weren't even close to catching it though," one of the other bullies shot back at him.
The one with the long hair turned toward Osamu while blocking the owner of the case from getting to his property. "Hey, bring it here megane."
One of his friends elbowed him and smirked. "He can't hear, remember?"
"Oh, right." The three laughed mockingly.
"B-R-I-N-G I-T H-E-R-E!" He yelled pronouncing each letter carefully. Osamu sighed inwardly as it looked stupid. They are easy ways to get your message across to someone like him. But he supposes it doesn't matter to them in the end.
He looked at the three idiots and his classmate pointing to himself. He got up, pushing past one of the bullies and returned the pencil case to the classmate, who gave a small thank you, before sitting down back down.
"So cool," one of the three idiots said sarcastically.
"For real, this guy's cool," another agreed.
Osamu slouched down in his seat, trying to make his presence a little less noticeable, hoping he'll be left alone. He'll worry them again if he came home with bruises like those years before. He picked up his book again, trying to find the part he last read.
Aren't you a coward?
"Sensei hasn't arrived yet," a classmate of his announced.
"Isn't she with the transfer student?"
"Yeah," another student confirmed.
"He might an official from Border!" Miyoshi screamed, always excited to fanboy over anything related to Border.
After a few more minutes, two teachers entered the room with the white-haired transfer student. This caused Osamu to look up.
The rather short transfer student wrote his name on the board. Kuga Yuuma.
Osamu then saw the teachers say something to the transfer student as he couldn't read their lips from his seat. Then, they started to fight for something in Kuga's hand. Kuga then proceeded to exit the room. That's when Osamu noticed the ring on his finger.
He stood up which caught the attention of his teacher.
She signed, "What is it?"
"Why can't he keep it? He must have a reason for not giving it away."
The teacher then relayed the message to the other teacher. Then, he seemed to ask Kuga his reason. Suddenly, he looked scared for a moment before covering his face and going out of the room with his teacher following him.
"Take care of him." She signed before she left.
Eh? Kuga went over to him and held out his hand to greet him.
"Nice to meet you, classmate," he addressed Osamu.
Mikumo reluctantly shook it the outstretched hand.
Trying to play hero? That's such a nice goal if you could achieve that. Which I'm not betting anything on it.
Kuga then sat down in his seat next to Osamu as his classmates crowded around Kuga, asking questions about himself.
Osamu looked over at Kuga curiously, before deciding to get ready for the first period, but he noticed the three idiots flicking paper balls at Kuga's head when everyone went back to their seats. Nobody said anything at least that what Osamu thinks as the bullies never let their eyes wander to anybody else.
He was about to get up when Kuga went over to the three and seemed to ask them a question.
Osamu saw that Kuga flicked a paper ball at one of them and he fell over. How did he do that? After the one that was knocked down got up, the three surrounded Kuga. The one that was knocked down grabbed the front of Kuga's shirt, his teeth visibly grinding against each other.
Luckily the teacher came back in to see the problem at the back. "Everyone, homeroom's starting!" The teacher yelled and clapped her hands together which interrupted the incident that was about to begin. He should tell Kuga later to ignore them.
Glad I didn't bet anything. Couldn't even help the new kid.
After school, Kuga and Osamu walked home together. Even though, it was Osamu who quickly grabbed him after the last class ended and led him out of the school to shake off the bullies. Kuga talked to him about the day, but Osamu was busy typing on his phone.
"You're quiet, even though you tried to stand up for me," Kuga said, looking over at Osamu.
Osamu handed over his phone to Kuga and pointed to the screen, so he could read the message.
"Hmm?" Kuga then proceeded to read what he wrote.
"Sorry if I wasn't responding to anything you said, but I'm deaf. So, bear with me for now. Anyway, you shouldn't hang around those guys. If you fight back, you'll have a huge problem. It can go up to a point where you'll be isolated. The best thing to do is to ignore them."
"Deaf?" Yuuma questioned to himself.
Replica whispered in his ear, "That means he can't hear. So, you should type out a response on his phone or let him read your lips."
"Ehh? I'm not that good at writing yet," he whispered back. He turned to Osamu. "This is how Japanese people are? In all the countries I went to, it was normal to fight back."
Fight back? Osamu thought about the times he just let the bullies do whatever they want.
Not a very good job of being a hero, so far, huh? Well, I can't blame you. You're too weak to fight back, anyway.
He noticed that the three bullies were right in front of them along with some of their other friends. Oh no. How did they find him? Osamu should have been more careful and now Kuga was going to suffer the consequences.
"Would you mind keeping us company?" the main bully asked.
"We'll take you along by force by force if we have to," another bully of the main trio added.
"Heh….? I don't want to," Kuga refused. But he still went over to them, contradicting what he just said.
Osamu went to go follow them to make sure Kuga wouldn't be beaten, but they told him to go home. He wasn't needed.
Osamu could just walk away… he could go another day with not being another one of the bullies' victims, but Osamu wouldn't allow that.
What a brave move~! Though, it probably won't help the transfer student at all.
He grabbed the closest person's shoulder to call attention to himself.
Osamu was kicked down after arriving at their destination which they ended up in the Forbidden Zone.
"Megane. Why did you come here? Even though you're so weak," Kuga questioned, squatting next to him.
Osamu knows that, but it doesn't stop from trying.
It'll probably be better for everyone here if you stopped trying. It's not like you'll make a difference in these situations.
He pointed to the sign saying that entry to the forbidden zone is prohibited.
Osamu was kicked by the bully again.
"Do you think we care about writings on the board?" his attacker scoffed. "You're the one who needs help right now."
"Your friend is in a bind, won't you save him?" another person asked Kuga, rather mockingly.
"Why should I? Megane dug his own grave when he came here of his own accord. He has to dig himself out by his own means." Kuga stated bluntly, not seeming to care if it sounded too harsh.
The bullies responded with something, but Osamu was too stunned to read their lips.
Wow! Even this kid himself admitted that he doesn't need you here! So, why are you?
To be honest, it did kind of hurt. He had to admit that.
The main bully then picked up a wooden pole and swung it at Kuga's head. What!? Does he plan to put Kuga in a coma?!
He panicked, but Kuga blocked the swing and stomped on his attacker's foot. The bully fell on his back, clutching his foot. Did Kuga break it?
Osamu got up and saw that Kuga and the bullies exchange words, suddenly their lips stopped moving.
"Yuuma, it's coming," Replica whispered.
"I know," Kuga said.
Osamu saw a gate opening above their heads and a neighbour dropping out of it, breaking the abandoned houses, snapping the electrical wires in half, and causing the dirt to billow up.
At the sight of the neighbour, all of the bullies ran away. Expect the one with the broken foot couldn't get away fast enough as crawling away from it doesn't create a lot of distance. The neighbour saw him too. It lunged and caught him in its mouth. The bully screamed.
Osamu looked up at him, his upper body dangling uselessly out of the mouth. He couldn't just let him be taken away, even if he was bully that most people would rather have gone.
Osamu, ignoring his fear, rushed at the neighbour. He released a little bit of his power.
Can you even do anything by yourself?
"Why are you going to save him for?" Kuga muttered to himself.
But to everyone's surprise, the neighbour reeled back and back away from Osamu, dropping the bully in the process. His friends caught him, luckily.
"Why did it drop him?" One asked, putting the injured bully's arm around his shoulder.
"Who cares about that!? We gotta get out of here!" another one yelled, taking the other arm. They all managed to get of the Forbidden Zone not seeming to connect that it dropped their friend when Osamu came closer.
After making sure they got out, he turned back to face the neighbour. He looked at Kuga who was still there and looking at him, curiously. Osamu had no time to type out a message for him. He walked toward the neighbour and the neighbour turned around as quickly as it Trion body could.
"How's Osamu doing that?" Kuga asked Replica.
"I didn't tell you this before because I thought it wasn't important, but I couldn't sense any Trion in Osamu when we first saw him. I assumed he had a miniscule amount of Trion. Now, I believe it is something else."
Kuga absorbed the information that Replica gave him. "… Can I use the trigger?" he asked.
"I shall decide whether you can or cannot. Permission granted."
He activated his trigger and rushed toward the neighbour and Osamu.
Osamu kept his eyes trained on the neighbour's back. He could keep them away from him and people close to him, but that's pretty much all he could he do. He couldn't destroy them like Border agents do. He guesses that he could leave-.
Kuga, wearing a black sci-fi suit, suddenly kicked the neighbour. It caught Osamu off guard as he fell to the ground. He stared as Kuga came back for a second attack. Kuga punched the neighbour, obliterating it to bits.
"Isn't it calm now megane?" He asked Osamu, his suit vanishing.
How cool~!
"…" Osamu quickly wrote a response on his phone.
"My name is Mikumo Osamu."
"I see. So, it's Osamu?" Kuga smiled as he pulled Osamu up to his feet. "The way you went out to save him was pretty nice even though you didn't do anything after that. Why did you go save him, Osamu?"
"Because it's something I wanted to do. You have a trigger, so it means that you're apart of Border?"
"No, I don't belong to Border." He disclosed to Osamu. "This was the trigger of my father. It's the memento of my dead parent. He said to go to Japan if he dies because he had acquaintances in Border."
"I see. Your father belonged to Border?"
"No, no. He didn't have direct relations with Border."
"But, only people of Border can possess a trigger."
"Is this the story of this side? I came from the world from the other side of the gate. It's the side the thing you call neighbour came from."
"!"
"We should go Yuuma. I sense two people coming here," Replica whispered.
"Anyway, let's go," Kuga said and started to walk away from the scene.
Osamu stood in shock for a few moments. Kuga, a neighbour? Osamu ran after him.