I recommend first finishing: s/6172213/1/Yuki-Noyouni-Shiroi

"Joshie, Joshie, old gray lady, kick him where it hurts or catch his crazy!"

The kindergartner endured the punches and kicks with his best efforts to mask his pain.

He couldn't remember how this started, actually. One day they were all shy new five-year-olds; the next, everyone had made friends while Joshua was left alone. He spent his recesses by the forest edge-a shady area far beyond the playground and fields. Every day was a race-could Joshua sneak past his classmates to his corner without them noticing? Sometimes.

Today was not one of those days.

Joshua dug his teeth into his lower lip to stop the tears that threatened his pride, but the added pain only released them.

"He's crying again?"

"What a baby."

"Maybe if he cries loud enough his ghosts will come save him."

This brought a new chorus of laughs from the children.

"Leave him alone." Joshua looked through his tear-blurred vision to see his savior.

Oh. It was just the quiet kid from Class C.

"What'd you say?" All the bullies turned to look at the kid.

The boy looked for a moment as if he had lost his nerve, then he glared at them and took a step forward. "Leave. Him. Alone."

The other kids laughed again.

It was quite a noble attempt, but the boy was just scrawny as Joshua. And, for some reason, beating up Joshua was an equal-opportunity activity. Much older kids, kids who didn't even know Joshua other than as a recess punching bag, had been joining in since Day One. This new kid didn't stand a chance.

Two kindergartners went home with bloody noses and black eyes that day.

"My hero. Not." Joshua brushed the dust off his miniature suit once the whistle summoned the bullies back inside.

Blood dripped from the boy's face as his disbelief faded into cold resentment. He shakily rose to his feet and limped away. Joshua wanted to apologize, but the boy wouldn't even acknowledge Joshua anymore and stayed away for recesses long after.

At least, until the mural appeared.

Joshua discovered it while hiding from his nanny. She would never think to check somewhere as shabby as the back streets of Udagawa, so he'd hoped.

He wasn't a frequent visitor to the parts, but his five years were enough experience to signal that the giant wall of vibrant graffiti had not been there before.

It was mesmerizing.

Joshua felt that he could spend hours alone in front this mural, noticing different scenes and colors and how they all played together beautifully. But he wasn't alone.

"Did you do this?" He said to that quiet boy from Class C.

The shake of the boy's head was almost imperceptible as he crept closer to admire the wall. "I wish." He said softly. He slowly reached out a hand to touch the mural, as if he was afraid his touch what cause it to disappear. The boy didn't seem too keen on talking to Joshua as usual, so the silver-haired boy stared at the mural in silence.

The next day, Joshua seized his chance to apologize: "I'm sorry about those jerks, and that I was so rude." It was hard for Joshua to even muster up the courage to say such words, but the little stinker kept his gaze straight ahead.

"I did it because I thought we could be friends." The boy said, now choosing to stare at the ground.

The boys said nothing else to each other that day, but the next day, Joshua awaited him with a grin. "Very well, I accept your offer. You now have the honor of being friends with the mighty and awesome Joshua Kiryu."

The boy gaped at him for a few moments, then unleashed the first smile Joshua had ever seen from him. It was nice, this boy's smile.

"You don't know how to make friends, do you?"

Take it back. That smile is evil.

"Don't be dumb. Of course I do."

"Friendship isn't some offer or deal you make."

Joshua glared with his hands on his hips. "It can be whatever I want it to be." This only earned a laugh from the other boy, who failed to mention his only source of friendship knowledge stemmed from cartoons. "Well, if you're so smart, how do you make friends?" Joshua said with a pout.

The boy thought hard. "You do stuff together. Fun stuff you both like. And you help each other out, and do nice things for each other."

"Well, you did try to help me, AND we know we both like the mural. Looks like we're going to be great friends."

"Yeah." The boy plopped down on the curb, and though his eyes never left the vivid paint, a smile still graced his lips. "It's Neku, by the way. Neku Sakuraba."

The Kiryu's quickly expressed their disapproval of Neku, who was too poor, too dirty, too… Artsy? Joshua knew his parents were just making excuses, but they soon made him switch schools in an attempt to separate the boys. Yet, Joshua continued to meet up with Neku multiple times a week.

To make matters worse, Joshua continued to be a target at every school he was sent to. His parents were understandably flummoxed at teacher's insistence "he makes it so easy, he's just a creepy child."

Well that didn't cut it for this family, and soon they hired a private tutor for their boy.

Meanwhile, Joshua listened to his friend's insistence that friends do nice things for each other. When his parents bought him one of those new MP3 players for his birthday, it went straight into Neku's eager hands. He was thrilled, he couldn't even believe all of his tapes could be gathered into one tiny machine.

Neku treasured the gift, often bringing his music along with him to the mural. There the boys would sit, watching the paint dance before their eyes with one earbud per child.

But today, Neku's music was particularly loud and obnoxious. When Joshua asked him turn it down, Neku instead tried out a new feature in which he could play two songs at one time. But the two tracks didn't really layer well, and Joshua wanted it to stop. Instead, Neku added another song, and turned up the volume even higher. Joshua ripped the earbud from his head, scolded Neku for teasing him. Instead, his comments were drowned by the sound of Neku adding another and another and still more… Joshua stared dumbfounded at the useless bud in his hand until the pain forced him to drop it and tear at his hair. Why was Neku adding more songs?

Could he not hear Joshua over this racket? Wasn't it bothering Neku? And how was this music inside Joshua's mind? How, ow, why?

Now he was screaming, demanding Neku to stop, stop, please stop Neku, Neku, no stop-

"Someone shut that screamer up."

"Oh, that's the new guy, right? The one who came in with Pi- Face?"

"If he's always this broken, he won't last long as a reaper. I hope not, anyway."