"Why can't you play such an easy piece properly!?" My mother's hysterical sobs resounded around the room, haunting my ears. My father just stood in the corner, disappointment plain in his blue eyes.
"Are you listening to me? You're a genius. So why can't you play this? Do you want to bring shame to us?" Her cries were now unbearable.
"No, mother," was my conditioned response.
"Take a break. Practise again once you've cooled your head," my father finally spoke up, but here was no warmth in his voice, though. Just cold calculation and expectation.
"Yes, Father." I traipsed to my room, closing the door careful not to make a sound. I felt rising anger in my chest as I considered his words. 'After you've cooled your head,' he had said. I didn't need to cool my head. My mother did.
I was hailed a child prodigy at a young age by those around me, and my parents tried to keep up the appearances. I was never allowed to have freedom. When I saw children play from my window, I would be practising musical instruments and doing paperwork the whole day.
It was when I was 8, I realised I truly wouldn't have any freedom; I was bound by the chains that came along with the labels 'genius' and 'child prodigy'.
"I'm so sick of this!" I heard my mother yell from downstairs, snapping me out of my thoughts. Curiosity piqued, I opened the door a crack to hear clearly. But little did I know that this would be the act that would cause my world to crumble.
"Why can't he do anything correctly? I'm sick of having to put up with this! I treated him like the genius he is, but all he gave us was despair! We should have never had him!" I heard her yell to Father.
"Calm down! What if the neighbours hear us? Our reputation would plummet," he hissed to Mother.
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I didn't choose to be different. I wanted to play in the mud like all the other children my age. I felt my anger rise once again.
You should have never had him!' Those were the words that clung to my mind the most, like barbs I couldn't get rid of. Clenching my hand into fists, I let my rage consume me. I didn't want to bottle it up anymore. I let my anger take form and do whatever it wanted.
"Does he even appreciate what we do for him? That ungrateful-"her words were cut off with a gurgle. She screamed.
Something was wrong. Mother's screams sounded like it was muffled by water.
Flinging open my door, I raced downstairs, were my parents were. To my shock, I saw two bubbles of water, one enclosing their heads each, cutting of their air supply. To my right, my mother was clawing wildly at the water encasing her head, leaving nasty gashes where nails came in contact with skin. To my left, my father had his eyes closed, resignation set in his face.
A good one and a half minutes had passed, and I knew they weren't going to last much longer. Is this my fault? Was this caused by me? Out of the corner of my eye I caught Father's lips move.
"I'm sorry." Reading the movements of his lips, I made out the words.
'I wasn't able to fulfil the role of a father to you.'
Each word he shaped seemed to require a great amount of effort, but he kept going.
"Whatever happens, I don't blame you."
My lips began to tremble with every word I made out.
'I love you, my son.'
"...I love you, too...dad." I answered, my eyes burning with the effort of keeping tears at bay.
His eyes widened and I caught a glimpse of a smile appear on his lips before the last lights of life disappeared from his eyes. Hot tears threatened to spill from my eyes as I watched my dad's last moments.
I turned to my mother, who was still thrashing wildly, her face torn and a bloody mess. Her eyes bulged, giving me a furious look before she screamed something incoherent. Finally, her body went limp.
Any remaining anger I had at that point was turned to grief as I finally processed what had happened; my parents were no longer in this world. As if following my emotions, the water around their heads lost their formation and poured on the floor, like a cruel mockery of blood.
I finally realised that this was entirely my fault. I did this to them. I killed my parents. I didn't know how I did it, but I had managed to murder them.
You killed them, you murderer, my mind taunted me. I couldn't take anymore.
Let the water wash it away. Let it wash everything away.
As if heeding my command, torrents of water came crashing into the house, conjured from thin air. Within seconds, the house was flooded up to the roof, and that was the last thing I saw before my vision turned black.
My sleep was plagued by endless nightmares, each progressively worse than the one before it, but one thing was always the same.
"Murderer."
I bolted upright, my sweat matted black hair plastered to my face. Brushing it aside, I examined my surroundings. I was in a room grander than I had ever seen before. Where the heck was I?
Click.
The door unlocked and a man walked in. I surveyed his appearance with distaste; he kept his blonde locks long and wore a fair amount of jewellery.
My muscles tensed. If he showed any signs of hostility I was ready to incapacitate him and make a break for the door. However, no such intention came from this mystery man and I relaxed. "Who are you?"
He flashed a smile. "Me? Call me 'Narumi-sensei'."
I grimaced. "Like hell I will."
"Now, now. Don't be like that. I'm guessing that you want to know where you are and why you're here?"
"Enlighten me." I flopped back onto the sofa and listened to him talk.
"You're in Gakuen Alice; an institute for those who are born with Alices."
"Hmm. Tell me something I don't already know."
This 'Narumi' person arched an eyebrow. "Oh, you're a hard one to satisfy, aren't you? Your Alice is water. You can manipulate and conjure water at will," he explained.
"I already know; that's obvious," I replied curtly, disregarding all forms of manners my parents had taught me. I really wasn't in the mood to deal with someone so cheerful at this time.
"Oh, really? Tell me how you found out." Narumi-sensei looked genuinely surprised, and that ticked me off.
"Most people would realize after murdering their parents with water. Don't take me for an idiot."
He looked at me with an amused smile. "Are you sure you should be telling me this?"
This teacher really was trying to test my patience, wasn't he? "Why not? After all, the fact I'm here in this…institute and not in juvenile prison explains everything. You guys probably covered everything up by writing this off as a freak accident didn't you? After all, I'm sure the government didn't want to deal with anything 'beyond the scope of ordinary'. In short, anything regarding Alices is covered up by your organization, with permission from the government, and that is exactly why I'm here at this very moment. Why ask questions when you already know the answer to them? Oh, wait—I already know the answer to that."
"Everything you said is true. That makes thing easier then. I'm sure I don't need to explain anything further. Everything else you'll need to know about how the school works will be explained by your classmates. But first, put on that uniform." He gestured to the uniform draped over the back of a chair.
I pick it up and promptly begin to undress, but I stop when I see Narumi stare at me strangely. "What do you want now?"
"I'm just shocked to see you undressing so openly in front of me."
The sides of my mouth twitch. "We're both male and I want to get out these clothes from yesterday as soon as possible," I state and resume putting on the uniform.
After I'm done, he resumes his talk. "Make the most of these two months we're giving you to settle in. I really don't want to say this, but you'll never get the normal life of a student here. You'll need to live your life working for this place.
"Any shot I could have had at a normal life was gone by the time I was born, and I'm sure working for this institute couldn't be worse than what has already happened," I retorted.
Sympathy was clear on his face as he looked at me. "Well, let me show you to your class then." With that, he ushered me out of the room and steered me into the hallways and corridors of Gakuen Alice.
Pandemonium. That was the only word that could be used to describe the state of class B, elementary division. Pure pandemonium. Random objects whirled around the room, as if freed from the constraints of gravity. Children were levitating around the classroom, and strange...things were chasing girls around the room. Every few seconds or so, explosions would set off around the room, blowing books into the air.
An unidentified object strayed from its path of orbit and hit Narumi square in the face.
Ouch.
This was not going to go down well with him. One thing I learnt about the man through conversations with him, if you could even call them that, was that he really prized his looks.
My suspicions proved to be correct as he plastered on a smile and walked into the classroom. A timid looking teacher ran up to him and stared whispering. Narumi nodded every once in a while as he listened to the other man talk. Once they had finished, he walked up to the front of the class, catching everybody's attention. Then he spoke.
"Feel free to continue if you wish to experience my Alice. Oh, and whoever hit me in the face just then, please come out to the front."
The entire class shut up, and one lone person made his walk of shame up to the front of the class.
I winced at what happened next. Narumi had swept the poor guy into his embrace-and kissed him. Almost immediately, his victim had fainted.
I made a mental note to keep well away from Narumi unless absolutely necessary; I truly didn't want to even expose myself to the chance of becoming a victim of his pheromones. He was a truly dangerous pervert.
Having accomplished what he set off to do, Narumi exited the class room, leaving the flustered teacher to fend for himself.
I decided to save him the trouble and introduce myself. "Kitsumi Kai, 10 years old." The teacher looked even more confused at my lack of courtesy, but chose not to comment on it. Instead he just directed me to my seat. "Your seat is over there, next to Natsume..." He pointed at the desk and I headed over and sat down next to a raven haired male student with his feet propped up on the table, looking disinterested by the whole business.
Once again, class B was turned into a lawless zone, and I was attacked by a barrage of questions.
"What's your Alice?" A voice piped up from my left.
"It's none of your business."
"Oh, but it is," a girl with black, permed hair spoke up. "This school is only for Alices, isn't that right, Natsume?"
To my right, Natsume only flipped a page of his manga in response, and I snicker.
"Looks like Natsume doesn't care so much, huh? Anyway, the fact that I have an Alice is the only thing you need to know." I throw my words at her rudely and the girl with the permed hair frowns.
"Tell me what his Alice is," she commands the boy next to her.
"I can't read his mind," he admits to her, and I'm not surprised. I like to make sure my thoughts are well guarded, especially in situations like this.
"Let's end this useless chatter already. New student, tell us what kind of Alice you have." Natsume stood up and finally decides to speak.
I felt annoyed; I didn't take kindly to being ordered around. "Take one step closer and you'll find out," I threatened.
Disregarding my words, Natsume took a step closer to me and I lashed out, sending fast, powerful bursts of water at him. They hit their target, and my raven haired enemy is now drenched from head to toe. He retaliates, firing off orbs of fire towards me, which I extinguished by raising a wall of water.
We were only a minute into the fight when a voice rang into the air.
"What are you two doing?"
Oh crap. Narumi. Natsume and I immediately stopped and slid back into our seats as the pervert teacher headed over to our desks, shaking his head.
"Really, I leave you two alone awhile and you start fighting," he began. "Well, luckily for you two, as you get along so well, you'll be partners for the rest of the year." He beamed, as if he thought he was a genius for coming up with such an idea. I thought he was touched in the head, and judging from the look on Natsume's face, he agreed with me as well.
"I refuse to be partnered up with the likes of him," I objected.
"I couldn't have said it better."
"It's already decided. Natsume, show Kai-kun the ropes, will you?" Narumi then turned to me. "You'll be rooming with Natsume until you get your star rank, okay? Any problems?"
"Whatever. It's not like we can change your mind. I have one problem though. Don't stick a 'kun' at the end of my name; it sounds disgusting coming from your mouth," I said bitterly.
"Haha, sorry, Kai. You'll get your star rank in two months' time, so you'll need put up with Natsume for a while." That having been said, Narumi spun on his heel, heading back out of the classroom, once again abandoning the timid teacher who was clinging to him.
His optimism really was endless, wasn't it? Nothing seemed to upset him. That irritated me slightly. I wasn't really good at dealing with his type.
Placing my thoughts aside, I focused on the problem at hand. I had to spend two months with Natsume, and the only time we could get away from each other would be mealtimes. It didn't take a genius to figure out that I didn't like him, and it also didn't take one to figure out that he held the same feelings towards me.