"Amaterasu turn that racket down!"

I rolled my eyes as I heard my mother's voice yelling from downstairs. I ignored her and continued my revision for the To-Oh University exams I was due to sit the next day. She didn't understand that I needed my music loud to compete with the racket my brother Sora was making in the room adjacent to mine. I wouldn't have minded so much but he was 27 years old and supposed to have a house of his own. I blamed the Kira case entirely. After the deaths of those twelve FBI agents Mum had actually begged him to quit the case and come home until it was over. She was terrified and who was he to say no to free meals?

"Amaterasu!"

I sighed with exasperation as I heard my Mum's voice outside my door, her fist banging against it. "What?" I cried impatiently as I reluctantly paused the music. "I'm trying to revise!"

The door swung open to reveal a tiny dark haired woman with chocolate brown eyes that were glaring down at me, arms folded across her chest. "How many times do I have to tell you?"

"Keep the music down. We have neighbours," I recited along side her as I rolled my eyes. She must have told me a hundred times. "I know Mum. But I have it loud to block out that," I said nodding to the wall. On the other side, you could hear the sound of my brother's voice as he was talking on his phone. I say talking; it was actually more like yelling. I felt for the pour soul on the other end but he always got so defensive whenever I asked him about it. I assumed 'girlfriend.' Not for much longer if he carried on yelling to her down the phone. She would probably finish him if I didn't kill him first.

"Just ask him to stop shouting," Mum suggested.

"I have. Like a million times. He insists that he's not shouting. One of these days I'm gonna record him."

"Don't be silly Amate. Just put some headphones in. It's only to stop the neighbours complaining."

"Fine," I sighed as I got to my feet and went to rifle through my 'electric cupboard' as I liked to call it, eventually finding a pair of big, black headphones that hadn't seen daylight for at least a decade. I plugged them into my stereo and was about to put them on when I noticed that my mother hadn't left. "What now?"

"Do you ever use your desk?" She asked eyeing the wooden object stuck in the corner of my room, a pile of books and papers steadily building up on top of it.

"Of course I do. Just not a lot," I replied as I clamped the headphones over my ears and returned to my spot on the floor where I was comfortably hunched over my textbook. I heard my mum mutter something as she left the room before the music drowned her out. It sounded like 'strange child' and 'damage your back' but I wasn't really listening to her; I was too busy concentrating on the information before me. I wasn't naturally very intelligent so I knew I couldn't just 'wing it' in the morning. I had to work for my brains and my family didn't make that easy to do with the constant distractions for an already distracted mind. I would need all the luck I could get tomorrow.

Bang! Bang!

I shot up; eyes wide open as someone pounded on my bedroom door. "Amaterasu!"

I furrowed my brow. I recognised that voice and it didn't belong to any member of my family. I slipped out of bed and opened the door to reveal the petite figure of my best friend Aoi Himitsu.

"What are you doing here?"

She slapped me round the face (a normal occurrence when she was annoyed)

"Why do you always feel the need to abuse me?" I asked rubbing my cheek where I could still feel the sting of her hand.

"You idiot! The entrance exams start in half an hour. You've got 5 minutes to get your ass ready or I'm dragging you out as you are!" She was tapping her foot with her arms folded across her chest. She reminded me a little bit of my mother and I had to admit I was a little scared.

"I'll be ready," I whimpered which was her cue to smile and leave to wait downstairs satisfied in terrifying me to get what she wanted.

As soon as she disappeared, I literally flew to the bathroom and jumped in the shower. No time for that bath I was planning to have to help with my nerves. In fact, there was no time to be nervous at all. I was out of the shower in about a minute and was throwing my clothes on so fast I didn't know what was what. There was no time to dry my hair as I checked my reflection. It would probably dry on the way to the entrance exams with the speed we'd be travelling. It takes about 45 minutes to get there from where I live if we take a steady walk. This time we'd have to run.

Which is exactly what we did. As soon as I had my shoes fitted to my feet and I ensured the door was locked (my parents had already left for work and Sora probably wouldn't wake until the afternoon) we took off at high speed down the street, people diving out of the way to avoid harm. I couldn't believe I'd overlaid.

________

At last our destination was in sight. We had about two minutes left before the exams began and we weren't going to take our chances and relax. Instead we picked up speed and rocketed past the man at the gate, only slowing when we reached the door that lead to the examination room. We took a second to compose ourselves before entering to take our seats. That was when I first saw him. He had his toes curled around the edge of the desk, his knees practically round his ears as he sat on his chair. He was wearing a pair of blue jeans and a plain white, long sleeved T-shirt. I slid into my seat at the desk beside him as Aoi hurried down to hers at the front, never taking my eyes off this stranger. He seemed so odd compared to everyone else in the room, as if he didn't belong amongst civilisation. Of course I was only going on his appearance but his actions belonged to that of a solitary being. The way he sat. The delicate way he held his pen. He had clearly never had to worry about what people thought of him. These thoughts then led me to wonder why he was applying to University, as he clearly preferred keeping himself to himself.

Of course I could have been completely wrong in my assumptions. He probably just genuinely didn't care what people thought of him and had plenty of friends who didn't care about his unusual behaviour.

I was still watching him when he suddenly turned his head and I snapped my own away at a guilty speed but not before I saw his eyes. Dark, dull with circles underneath and pupils about the size of his irises, which told me he was probably high on something. However that's all his eyes told me. There was no emotion at all displayed in those lacklustre orbs of his and I found myself immediately intrigued. He was certainly an odd creature and I couldn't work him out. Everyone else was easy to figure. Either they were biting their nails, shaking their legs, heaving huge sighs or had their heads held in their hands, pushing their hair back as they tried to finish the paper. There was only one other who stood out to me, though not in the same way. This one wasn't as interesting. I had seen him flicking through the paper, his chin resting in his hand as if he was bored. I got a glimpse of his face when he turned at the sound of my other subject being told to sit in his seat properly. Unsurprisingly, he was good looking. From his behaviour I gathered he was intelligent and I wouldn't have been surprised if he even turned out to be good at sports. He was perfect, incredibly boring and I hadn't even spoken to him yet. Mum always said I shouldn't judge people based on first impressions but I couldn't help it. It was in my nature and my judgements were usually pretty accurate.

'But this guy.' I glanced across at my new subject who was still sat in his odd position. 'What is he doing here?'

"Ahh. Fresh air."

Aoi and I exited the building, arms wide open and our heads back as we welcomed the outdoors.

"So how do you think you did?" She asked me as we finally began the trek home.

"I dunno. Good enough to get in I hope," I replied, but she wasn't looking at me anymore. She was staring at something directly ahead of us. "What is it?" However, I didn't need for her to point it out before I saw it. It was a black, shiny expensive looking car parked just outside the gates. "Whoa. Who do ya reckon that belongs to?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "Whoever it is must have some serious money."

"No kidding."

I suddenly stopped short, almost colliding with a body that appeared in my path. It was him. He was wearing a pair of old trainers on his feet, laces untied and he stood hunched over with his hands in his pockets Despite this he was still a good 5 inches taller than I was. His eyes were watching me with that same bored expression on his face. "Erm...hello," I said, taken aback by his sudden appearance.

"I thought you might like to know that you have your T-shirt on back-to-front."