End of August.
An incredibly bored middle-schooler was lying on his back. His backpack under his head, he stared with a sour expression at the sky going dusky.
He had been like that - on his very own - for quite a while. His head sometimes seemed to remember things past, but most of the time he couldn't make head or tail out of what he saw.
It all seemed absurd. Surreal, even.
Trying to get it all to make sense in his head was a task he worked hard to accomplish, without the best of results. In the great common dormitory which was practically the only home he had known, he was a number among many other numbers.
Yet Odoroki Housuke was indeed a peculiar boy. An average one at that. Short size, but full of self-confidence. Slim weight, but not athletic. Friendly, yet reserved. Rather acerbic, yet also likable. Slackerish in class, yet hard-working. Intelligent, yet not a genius. Not a bullied boy, not a pampered one. A rather independent, preppy one.
He had just turned eleven that year. The mandatory age to leave the shelter was drawing near, and the world outside just looked bleaker and bleaker for him as time passed.
Because he wanted to be a lawyer. A profession met with scorn and contempt in his country. A job no one in their sane mind would flaunt in front of others, in the world he inhabited.
But to Housuke, it meant everything. It was his engine, his reason, his entire self. He had an example to follow, but little more than that. Was he doing that for someone? He felt like it was, but he couldn't make sense who could that be.
After all, he had no one.
Yet, as of now, he was feeling down.
This wasn't giving up, or throwing the towel on hi self-propelled enthusiasm. He just felt... a little tired of holding the fort, nothing much.
By all other accounts, he seemed a normal average kid, with his loud voice being his only distinguishing feature.
By loud... we mean "capable of breaking things".
And by "things" we don't mean windows or glasses... We mean reinforced steel...
One fateful day, he protested in Gym class about not being able to use the crossbars. His yells managed to chip dents on the parallel bars somehow...
But strange things happened to him all the time, and although he was a skeptical by nature... it was difficult to make sense of all.
Every time the kids needed a haircut, try as the barber might to snip off two rebel strands of hair that looked like feathers atop his forehead... they regrew down somehow before he even left the chair. He was oddly proud of them for a reason he himself couldn't explain.
A curious bangle he sported on his left hand... seemed to shrink every time other kids wanted to slip it off him to play with.
Said bracelet had been on him since forever. He couldn't remember where did it come from.
His voice wasn't a, well, 'normal' kid's voice. He could break objects if he yelled loud enough. A ban on hollering indoors was issued for his sole benefit. Sometimes he just had an urge to shout, hence he retreated to yell himself hoarse in the farthest point of the main courtyard.
What did he scream? "I will be fine!"
And another thing. People seemed to materialize out of thin air, and vanish as soon as he wanted to take a closer look. He thought his eyes were playing tricks on him... because no one else around him seemed to notice.
It was a lot for a kid to take in, sure.
These days, he would have appreciated answers, but who was ever going to give him any?
It was getting dark. Scowling, he prepared to pull himself up from the grass and walk inside. Dinner would be ready about an hour after sunset, and he shouldn't miss it...
As soon as his head grudgingly left his backpack, one of the things that Housuke was unwilling to admit that could happen... happened in front of his eyes.
A small figure materialized just next to him.
At first glance, it looked like one of the younger kids playing hide and seek. But looking closely, this child had a travelling cloak pulled over the head, so the face was barely visible.
A big grin materialized on the child's face, as a hand pulled out of the cloak and...
*YOINK*
His schoolbag was snatched in a flash and the figure retreated, big grin still covering the visible part of their face.
"Ex-c-cuse me?" he stammered. "What do you want with my - I have homework I need to do, you know?"
The response was a giggle. If he had to guess, the person underneath the cloak was a young female.
"And what are you doing here? This is a boys school!" He stood up gingerly, as the figure retreated farther into the courtyard.
"Oi, it's not funny, give it ba-!"
Housuke was not the athletic type, and it soon showed to his disadvantage. As he tried to run after the figure - and man, was that little bugger quick! - he tripped over and fell forward. He lifted his head in time to see the child seemingly... vanish from sight...
("My backpack...!")
*POOF*
((YIKES))
IT HAPPENED AGAIN
A MAN MATERIALIZED OUT OF THIN AIR IN FRONT OF HIM.
Before he could yell in surprise, his backpack fell out of seemingly nowhere and landed squarely on the stranger's head.
"OWWW! GEEZ BOY, DON'T ATTACK ME!"
His reaction was automatic, the type of reaction anyone with vocal chords would have, confronted with something this alien...
"BUT I DIDN'T...! AND WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!"
The voice didn't seem to boom through the way he was used to, though.
"Yo, calm down, don't yell! My, you've grown, kiddo!"
"You... you know me?"
"Har har har, these days, who doesn't! But yeah, I know you from way back!"
Housuke's hands were fisted, not taking his eyes off the stranger.
"Dh- oh, someone told me not ta' tell you, but I just had to!
Housuke's alarmed face seemed to finally register with the stranger. "Oh, that's right. You won't know me. Okay. Rewind."
And he puffed out.
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEH?!"
And in again.
"WILL YOU STOP DOING THAT! YOU ARE GIVING ME THE - THE ABSOLUTE COOTIES!"
"Har har har! Scared you much? Yeah, you were a tad scaredy back then, I remember!"
"Sorry? Back when?"
"Oh! Right. Well. This is awkward but - hello, total stranger kid whom I've never seen before or anything! I'm Dattsu Dinigesu!"
"Uh. right. I'm..."
"Har har har! Presentin' yourself? That's rich! As if there ain't a lad in this side of the world who doesn't know you!"
"Oh? Then say my name!"
Defiance to an adult? Yes. Definitely. But as a kid who had no one besides the orphanage, he was rather distrustful of others when he couldn't find a reason to trust.
"But of course! Y'are "THE" Housuke Odoroki!"
"Well yes, that's m- "THE"? What do you mean?!"
"Heh, as in "the famous Odoroki Housuke!" What else could that mean?"
A sour expression covered the boy's entire face.
"This is stupid. I have no idea where you came from, but I've had enough... I'm leaving. Don't follow me or I'll call the principal!"
"Wouldn't do that if it was you. Bet this ain't the first time you see something others don't!"
Good point there. He turned around, frowning.
"So you expect me to listen to you, right?"
Vigorous nod. "Look, this will make no sense, after all. I just came to deliver yer school letter and help you prepare for school, see?"
"What do you mean? Don't you see I am going to school right now?"
"Har har, as if a lackin' Muggle school is where the likes of ya belong!"
Sour turned to sourer. "Will you stop badmouthing the school? It's not useless! And don't dare to go check my grades with the principal, I'll yell if you do!"
"Yell? Seriously? Ya've noticed that yer voice sounds a bit off? That's because I contained it. It's real dangerous to let it out, believe me you!"
("Ulp! Hey, wait a second...")
"But wait, how did you...? You cannot contain a human voice!"
"Not fully, and not yours! But yeah, that's why I say yer education's been' lackin' sorely! Here, yer letter. Open up!"
He pulled a shabby looking envelope, with what seemingly contained a shabbier looking leathery paper. At a glance, it looked like a very elaborate practical joke.
"What's... Wand, quill, parchment? You are pulling my leg, right?"
"Naah, that's standard 'quipment there. I'll go grab it with ya, that's why I came!"
"Wait a minute, you are not my legal guardian! You'll need an order from court...!"
"Har har har, my, how uptight! Yer guardian would be proud! Guess the spell really affected your personality!"
"Spell? What is that supposed to mean?"
The man (Dattsu, was it?) looked at him squarely in the eye. "A'ight, tell me this... remember anything of your life before comin' here?"
"Uh, not much that makes sense..."
"So, what is it ya see? Trees? Mountains? Scared of water an' wary of fire much?"
Oho.
"How do you... Wait. No, you can't be..."
("No way... he's my dad...?!")
"Naaah, I know whatchare thinkin! No, yours truly ain't got no kids yet! just happen to know you from way back, kiddo! And well, you don't remember us for your own protection! See, you can't recall me... cuz you have a spell put on you!"
("A spell? Could the explanation be something other? More... rational?")
"Come to think of that... nothing makes sense... And you speak funny, but I can understand you?"
"Weeeell, we do speak a common language! Would tell ya more, but what's the use of it, innit? And it makes no sense cuz hear, we really had to pull a number on yer brains! If you had gone out and about with yer memories intact, you could have been done for! So here you have it. We even had to put you here with them Muggles..."
"That is the second time you say that..."
"Aye, them are the non magical guys! Couldn't keep ya stayin' with magifolk, 'twas dangerous, mind!"
A little shake. In one swift movement, his head attempted to distribute the load of information. Nothing had prepared him for this, it had no evidence, save for his eyes, and yet...
And still, there was a feeling that the man in front of him wasn't lying.
"Okay, we got stuff ta' shop, so... let me go to the man in change. Principal, you said? You said 'tis not legal? Heh, we have permission ta' give him"
"You are not -thinking to do something to his memory?" Housuke sounded as stiff as an adult.
"Gee, 'f course not! Man, you're uptight! We don't do that! We have permission, an' legit, I said!"
And he took from his pocket another letter. "So, where's this principal? Can ya take me? Crikey, it's not everyday that one can ask The Odoroki Housuke to lead the way!" he exclaimed dramatically, grinning as an overgrown kid.
After a short pause of doubt, and already dreading the outcome, the double-fringed boy lead the way.
("I hope and pray this is a dream!")
Nothing had prepared him for what was to follow.
Never would he imagine, nor forget, the spectacle he would bear witness to.
As the principal denied having a prior meeting with Dattsu (and showed him a completely void agenda page as proof), Housuke saw him take out of his pocket something that resembled a wooden knife... and twirl it in his palm...
("IS HE GOING TO... THIS IS GETTING OUT OF HAND!")
"But we had an appointment, look it over!"
Housuke's mouth opened, but no sound came out. As the principal, frowning, reopened his agenda, there was a slight puff and the next second, there was a sticky note there.
"Oh, so it is you! Funny, I forgot I had that note...!"
One look at Dattsu's smug face and it was clear whose doing was it.
("... How the- what is that knife made of?!")
"See? Yeah, the appointment was fer the legal guardian, but I'm his representative, he can't come over now! Housuke here was accepted on a different school, and I need to take him out to buy the school stuff!" He twirled the knife again idly and the principal buried his eyes in the letter he was offered.
"I see this document is perfectly legal..."
"As it should be! Fer 'twas a lawyer that wrote it!"
("...this guardian of mine... I wonder just who he is...")
"Well, I see no problem. You still need to bring him back tomorrow by dinnertime, as per our rules."
"Oh, an' here I had hoped to stuff you like a turkey, wiry that you are!"
("If magical food is weirder than normal, then I am indebted to life to the principal!")
Once they stepped out, both sighed. Housuke of relief, Dattsu of contentment.
"Okay, then we're set! Only thing, I can't fill ya' in with all details, innit?"
"Right"
("I wasn't expecting to get answers, anyway...")
A wary Housuke, frowning in puzzlement, followed Dattsu into the complete unknown.
Normal, yet special Odoroki Housuke went out into a world that had christened him as The Odoroki Housuke...
...and the wheel of fate, stopped years prior, started to spin once again.