Edge - Prologue

Inevitability. Hitsuzen. Whatever.

I've never been one to look very deeply into the future, anyway. So Watanuki's concept of 'no such thing as a coincidence' really wasn't something I ever considered too deeply either way. Things happened. We move on. Simple. If everything happened to be connected in one big array of interwoven destinies, then who was I to argue?

It had seemed a little silly, sure, that no matter what you did, you were going to end up in the same place anyway. Shouldn't we have a little bit of choice in the matter after all?

Lately I'd had a bit of a new perspective on the whole 'inevitable' situation, though. A bit of insight, so to speak. And I understood then, I think, what exactly hitsuzen might really have been about. In as much as a person could understand a concept like that, anyway.

I still believed in coincidences. I mean, some things just were right?

Yet another opinion that soon altered itself.

For instance: our new school year. With the new school year comes a new homeroom. Subsequently, with this new homeroom came new classmates. Seating arrangements are randomly selected and whomever you end up sitting next to is always just the luck of the draw really.

But somehow, I couldn't quite bring myself to believe it was just "luck" when the seat directly across the aisle from me was at that very moment occupied by none other than the boy at the very top of my shit list. Actually, he was the only person on that particular list. So I guess, technically, it was made just for him.

Kazahari Hisao.

Lucky guy.

Bastard extraordinaire.

Oh, I'm sure his mother loved him well enough. And it wasn't like he was some kind of dysfunctional juvenile delinquent. Truth be told, he was a pretty normal guy. Average. Kind of nice.

Did that keep me from wanting to punch his face in?

Not particularly.

As the boy next to me settled his books and whatnot onto his desk, with the faint echoes of 'Hitsuzen' whispering past my ears in a voice that sounded eerily like Yuuko's, something stirred inside me. An... idea. A plan almost. But not really. Not yet.

Watanuki would never have accused this boy beside me of doing anything wrong. Would probably have been more than a little pissed at me for carrying a grudge of my own. The overly forgiving moron.

But I knew better.

I knew you didn't give over fellow classmates to monsters like the one that had attacked Watanuki. I knew you didn't hand over another human life and then come back to school like nothing had ever happened and pretend it was all just a bad dream.

I was going to make sure Kazahari knew that too.

Make sure he never forgot it either.

"Good morning, Doumeki-kun. I guess we'll be neighbors for now."

He even had the nerve to smile at me.

"Yeah." And I had to grit my teeth to even get that much out. I'm pretty sure the look I was giving him wasn't the friendliest, but hey. He was lucky I wasn't reaching across the two feet that separated our desks and choking him to death. A cold look was the least of his worries right now.

"Ah, well." Now he looked uncomfortable with me staring at him. The teacher had stepped out for a minute and Kazahari glanced anxiously to the door, probably hoping she would get back soon so he could escape scrutiny.

I was making him nervous.

Interesting, that.

Another minute of silence passed while all around us students chatted with each other. He and I were seated in the back of the room, near the far left and away from the only exit aside from the windows. Usually I like sitting near the front, but this seating arrangement might actually come in handy.

"So..." The nervousness was increasing, but he still felt the need to converse with me. One of those types I guess. I can honestly say I've never felt the urge to fill a silence.

"You're, um, friends with Watanuki-kun, right?"

Was this kid stupid or something?

"That's right." I managed to keep my voice level enough, but something must have leaked through anyway, since he then started darting glances at the doorway every other second.

"He's looking a lot better." It could have been my imagination, but I thought I heard something that may have equated to genuine concern, had I felt charitable enough to give him credit for it.

I didn't.

"Yeah."

"Th-that's good," he stuttered, and I could almost see the words in his head forming. Something along the lines of, "Where the hell is the teacher?"

"Mm-hmm." I wondered if this kid had any idea just how lucky he was that Watanuki had got better.

And then he slipped up.

"I was worried, you know. When he missed so much school last month." Concern was prominent in his words.

Genuine.

Annoying.

And anyone else listening might have missed it, the tiny hint of guilt well masked beneath all that concern, but I knew it was there. Because it should have been there, and I had been listening for it.

But what he said wasn't quite right.

He wasn't friends with Watanuki, barely knew him in fact. What reason did Kazahari have to worry over him? I jumped on his mistake, fully intending to exploit it and force an admission from him.

"I didn't realize you two were friends." I managed to drop some of the chill from my voice, an effort I almost wished I didn't have to bother with, and tried instead for a more approachable curiosity.

Kazahari blinked in surprise, caught in his words. "Oh, well, not so much really. We were in the same homeroom last year is all."

"But you were worried about him?" Still casual, but the edge of anger was threatening to creep out again.

"Well, he was my classmate…" There was definitely guilt now. In both his words and the tight pull of his mouth.

Feeling bad Kazahari? I hope so.

"Yeah, classmates should look out for one another." I tried to look him in the eye as I said that, but for some reason he wouldn't quite meet my gaze and a very weak, "Ah" was the only agreement I got.

I probably would have kept going, poking at him until he finally snapped or confessed or maybe until I made him cry (Watanuki's right, I can be a real bastard sometimes), but our teacher chose that moment to return. It was okay, though. I could be patient.

I knew how to wait.

Thus ends the prologue. Yes, this one is going to be chaptered too... ;;

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