Hey guys!

Well, here we have the 'pre-story' to The Legend of Zelda: Time Gate. Now, I'm just going to be working on this while I work on Adult Chapters, so bear with me if it takes long to update. Also, until Time Gate is over, there may not be a lot of action either (because I don't want to keep you all waiting anxiously for the next chapter because I'm working on Time Gate more than this). This is the story of Uzuki, Yashiro, Shuto, and Mitsuhiro's lives before they died; it even follows their Reaper lives until they meet Link, and then, well, that leads into Time Gate.

So I hope you all enjoy the first chapter of Time Gate: Reaper!

Uzuki Cheverie

Reaper

Chapter 1: They Call Him Mitsuhiro

Mitsuhiro Minamimoto.

There's a strange student at every school, but Mitsuhiro beats every single one of me and my friends – and we're too weird for the human beings at our school to comprehend.

It's not that he's ugly. Quite far from it in fact. He's the average twelfth-grader, a little taller than most, with a thin figure and pale skin that looks even paler when contrasted with black, especially with his long black hair. Even his eyes appear to be a sharp, hateful black.

It's not that he's untalented. So far he can play guitar at a very advanced level, can read, write and speak in Hyrulean, Zorean and Occaean, solve long mathematical problems in his head, and of course, whoo the ladies with his cool-guy charm.

It's disgusting.

Not his talents or anything, I have nothing against that. It's the fact that he has so many girls swarming behind him like a pack of hungry wolves and actually allows them to waste their time doing so. It's like he's treating them like a bunch of unused puppets.

When I think about it, not as disgusting as I thought. Kind of amusing when it comes down to it.

But the guy is popular, no doubt about that. But something tells me he doesn't enjoy all the extra attention. He spends his time either hidden behind the door of his locker, or sitting behind the lounge chair in the lobby where nobody sees.

But enough about Mitsuhiro, he's not important right now. You're probably wondering who I am.

My name is Uzuki Kasahara. And I am at the bottom of the foodchain, far far away from Mitsuhiro. I'm the average eleventh-grader, at a sometimes-questionable height, with long, dark, curly brown hair and a tan skin color and dark brown eyes. I'm a bit on the thin side, but I still have a bit of chubbyness left to grow off.

As for my talents, I don`t have as many as Mitsuhiro. I love to draw and have gotten quite good at it over the years. I can play piano, flute and ocarina, and I`m pretty good at handling knives in battle. But I`ve never even been in a real fight before either, so that`s an exaggerated fact.

So that`s basically it. I don`t measure up to any of the students at our school, especially the high-and-mighty Mitsuhiro Minamimoto. But I do an okay job of knowing and staying in my place. I don`t have to be alone either; I have an entourage of fellow freaks, nerds, and weirdos to keep me company. I`d introduce you to each one of them individually, but I don`t want to swarm you with the names. They are all my lifelong friends, and I wouldn`t trade them for anything.

Ugh, sappy talk.

Back to my day.

Anyways, because of Mitsuhiro`s `hiding` spots, I end up running into him one way or another each and every day. When we do see each other, the first thing we do is stare, our eyes locked in a sort of death-gaze, which only lasts a split second, and then we continue our day like nothing happened.

So, when I enter the door of our school, the first person I lock eyes with is Mitsuhiro, who`s sitting behind the big comfy chair of the lounging area. Our eyes lock, his black eyes staring back into my own brown eyes, and then when the second is over, we`ve broken our gaze and I`m walking away from him. I feel like I heard him snicker at me though. His problem. If he thinks I`m funny, good for him, he`s not the only one.

I shake off the cold feeling he had drilled into my head and walk through the double doors that lead to the large cafeteria, where everyone in the school is arranged into their own social groups and hanging out until the first bell rings. Everyone has their own table to sit at; I have my own table too. It`s way at the back of the cafeteria, across from the doors, and it`s just two tables. But even though we`re at the back and the least paid-attention to, we are probably the loudest.If everyone left the cafeteria except us, we`d be enough to make it sound like the cafeteria was filled up to the brim. It`s not something we`re exceptionally proud of; but it has gotten us quite the reputation. You only have to be a new student for a day to learn about us, the loudest group in the high school.

When I step into the cafeteria, Yashiro instantly spots me and waves. I wave back as I start to run towards the table. Once I'm at the table, I sit down between Yashiro and Saichi, setting my shoulder bag underneath the seat of the table.

"Hey Uzuki, what's up?" Yashiro asks me.

"Oh, the same as usual," I sigh. "I'm tired and I don't want to put up with school."

"Cheer up, you," Saichi snickers as he pats my head. "You should be happy, it's a beautiful day out and you're doing good in school."

"I'm tired. . ." I groan as I lay my head down on the table. There are a few moments of silence, until I feel someone poke my head. I look up to see Mikumi, who's just arrived at the table.

"Is you dead?" he asks in a childish manner. He has a way of switching words to make it into a joke.

"No, I'm fine," I snicker under my breath. "Like I said before, I'm tired."

"Better wake up soon, they're giving out the teams for the training classes today," Yashiro tells me. "Unfortunately, you can't choose which team you're in. I'm happy with anyone. . . as long as I don't get stuck with any weirdos like Shuto or Takuma."

"Hey, I'm sitting right here!" Takuma growls at her.

"Which is why I said it," Yashiro laughs.

"I don't really care who I'm with either," I add. "It's just training, it'll be done and over with within a few short weeks. I'm just worried about totally making a complete idiot out of myself. I'm not a hand-to-hand fighter, I'm a sadist that can cause a person's mental sanity to crumble into nothing and then go completely insane."

"Well, I am a hand-to-hand fighter!" Yashiro declares. "I can't wait to get out on the field and punch a few things!" She holds up both her fists, a wide grin growing on her face.

"You'll both do fine," Saichi sighs. "I actually have weapons though. It's going to be fun."

"What, you think I don't have weapons?" I challenge. "Don't get me angry when I'm carrying a few knives; I guarantee you won't see the next morning with all your arms and legs intact."

Saichi stares at her for a second, then looks away.

"What about you, Mikumi?" I ask. "How do you feel about this?"

"I can't wait to see how other people fight!" he laughs. "It's going to be like one big mess of people trying to fight and hold a sword mixed with a whole lot of fail!"

The table bursts into laughter at that. Mikumi is the best for making jokes.

I guess I better get to describe these guys, shouldn't I?

First, I'll start with Yashiro Takahashi. One of my table buddies, and a childhood friend, she's quite the violent kind of girl. She's tall, with short black hair and blue-green eyes, and she's always wearing these pair of goggles on her head. Because she was always hanging out with her two older brothers while growing up – Higashizawa and Makoto – she tends to act violent in regular situations, but she's really fun to hang out with too.

Now here comes Saichi Durami. I've been friends with him even longer than Yashiro, probably since the toddler days. He's a big guy, with brown hair that's streaked with hints of blonde, and he's got dark eyes that change when he gets into a fight (don't ask me how that happens, I really have no clue). He's always wearing this fur jacket around, and it makes everyone super jealous during the winter when we're all freezing our asses off and he's nice and toasty inside his jacket.

Next, there's Mikumi Jishiru. I've only been friends with him since the eighth grade, so I've only known him for three years, but so far, he's a pretty awesome dude. He's like Saichi, pretty big, but much taller, with dark eyes, and he's got long black hair that's always paired up with a jazz hat. Now, this particular jazz hat has these red eyes sewn onto both sides of the hat, almost like a sort of mask, and I swear on the Goddesses' graves, I have seen those eyes blink more than once on occasion. I am not joking you, it is true. Nobody else believes me, but I'm not going to admit that I'm going crazy either, because I've seen them blink.

Finally, there's Takuma Eiji. He's not like Mikumi or Saichi; he's much skinner, but he's almost the same height as Mikumi. He's really tan, with dark black hair and brown eyes like the rest of us. There's not much else to say about him, because he's a pretty ordinary guy, but he's got some awesome jokes. He's also got his moments when he totally humiliates himself and we all crap ourselves laughing.

So those are the 'basic' friends. There are more to come though. But back to our conversation for now.

Because the eleventh grade just started for me, I still have to get used to my new classes. I'm in Art, Math, English, and Strategics & Defense. In fact, everyone in tenth through twelfth grade is in Strategics & Defense this year. The students are divided in half, so one half of the school is in the class for one semester, and then it switches and the other half is in the class for the last semester. It gives us all an even and fair amount of time to totally humiliate ourselves. Coincidentally, me, Saichi, Mikumi, Yashiro, Takuma and all the rest of my friends are together in one class. Like Mikumi said, it's going to be a whole lot of fail.

Before we can get into a deeper conversation about the Strategics class, the high school bell rings, which means we have to head off to our classes. Because Saichi, Mikumi and Takuma are in twelfth grade, they're never in the same class as Yashiro and I, who are in eleventh grade.

We get up from the table and part ways, Yashiro and I heading upstairs to the second floor behind Saichi and Mikumi. We have to take the grand journey all the way up to the third floor of the school; unfortunately, the art room is basically the only room on the third floor. It's sad, and annoying to have to walk all the way up there. Saichi and Mikumi are going to their Math classroom, so we don't have to say goodbye to them just yet.

Five seconds later, we do.

"See you at break, Saichi, Mikumi," I mutter, giving both of them high-fives.

"See you two later," Yashiro says, giving them knuckle-touches. The two boys head inside the classroom, leaving me and Yashiro behind to walk all the way up the stairs to the third floor. We head down the hallway, towards the door that leads to the staircase.

"Hey Uzuki, check it out," Yashiro says, pulling on my arm and pointing to the guy hiding behind the locker door.

"Oh great, it's Mitsuhiro," I sigh. "Come on, let's just walk by him."

Yashiro and I pay no mind to him as we walk by. I feel a strange presence as I walk by him though; it's a cold, evil sort of presence.

I forgot to mention that earlier.

I'm an aura reader. I can read the emotional level of a human being just by looking at them. It's an ability that I learned how to utilize all on my own. Basically, I can see a person's energy by looking at them. It surrounds their body like a sphere, and even the sphere takes on its own shape of what the person's personality is. It just changes colors with their emotions; and sometimes it changes shapes with the mood as well, if the emotion is strong enough.

So when I walk by Mitsuhiro, I don't like the feeling of the aura very much. I can't see it right now, but I can feel the emotions coming off of it, like a strong scent. And it's not a very good one, I can tell you that. It's cold and evil, and uncaring. I don't like the empty feeling it leaves me with.

I'm relieved when we finally make it to the staircase and close the door behind us so I don't have to feel that aura any longer. But a small trace of the cold evil aura still lingers in my head. I have to shake it off.

When we make it up the stairs, we walk down the shorter hallway and then enter the classroom, the rest of the students already having taken their seats. The long trip up here usually leaves Yashiro and I as the last ones to arrive.

We take our seats at the front table with one other student from our class. The teacher, already sitting at her desk, stands up and starts to hand out sheets of paper and pencils for us to draw on.

"Now class, today we will be working on perspective," she begins. She's a really artistic type of person, but she has a tendency to talk in a really wispy, dramatic sort of way. "Perspective can be drawn in one of three ways: one-point, two-point, and three-point. We will be starting at one-point."

Yay, perspective! I think happily. I've been waiting forever for us to start working on perspective. It's one of my favourite things to draw.

"Here, we have an example of a one-point perspective drawing that Len from twelfth grade was kind enough to draw for us," the teacher says as she lifts up a very nicely drawn one-point perspective drawing. It shows a person standing on the street, and then the street slowly goes down and meets at one point, and there's another person, a very small person, standing at the end. Leave it to Len to draw something melodramatic and sensible like that.

"Now, I'm going to show you how to do one-point perspective," the teacher continues.

Yay, one-point perspective. . . I think, getting more bored by the second. I so totally didn't do that four years ago. I feel like I'm getting held back in art class.

During the class, I end up doing a much more advanced drawing than what everyone else is doing, but I still follow along with the lesson so that the teacher doesn't get mad. That's the last thing I want to happen.

When the art class is done, Yashiro and I stand up from our chairs and leave our table, grabbing our schoolbags as we head back downstairs.

When we make it downstairs, I'm happy to see that Mitsuhiro is not at his locker yet. But I don't know if he was already here earlier or if he's coming, so I make sure to walk down the hallway a little quicker to avoid any encounters.

As we walk through the hallway, we pass by Saichi and Mikumi, who are rooting through their lockers for their books for next class.

"Hey guys," Yashiro greets them. "What class do you have next?"

"Uh, I think you mean what class do 'we' have next," Saichi laughs. "It's our first Strategics and Defense class, remember?"

Yashiro groans. "I totally forgot. . . that's not good. . ."

I sigh. "I tried to forgot, but thank you Saichi for reminding me." I make a fist and pretend to punch him in the stomach. He smiles and pats my head.

"Hey."

I don't really recognize the voice, so I turn around to see who it is.

It's Mitsuhiro.

"Huh? Mitsuhiro Minamimoto, right?" I ask. Of course, it's a stupid question.

"Yes."

"What do you want?" Yashiro, Saichi and Mikumi are staring contently at him, although they don't seem very happy. I can tell by their auras.

"We have S&D next. Strategics and Defense."

"I know what S&D stands for."

"Well, we have it next."

"Yes, I'm fully aware of that. Is that all you wanted to tell me?"

". . . Yes."

"Why did you bother? I already knew."

". . . Just keep an eye out for something for me. I don't want any . . . unexpected events to happen and catch you off guard."

What the hell? I think, confused by his words. I decide to end the conversation with something brief. It's hard to think of something though because of his one-word responses.

"Look, I have to go get ready. If that's all you had to say, then I have to go." I give a nod to Saichi and Mikumi, gesturing a goodbye; thanks to my little ending, now I really have to go for real. Yashiro follows me as I walk off down the hallway, leaving behind Mitsuhiro, Saichi and Mikumi by their lockers.

"You really can't stand that guy!" Yashiro laughs when we're walking down the stairs to the first floor.

"It's not like I can't stand him . . . he just . . ."

"Yes . . .?"

"I don't know the word for it! But he just gets to me."

"Ohhh . . ."

"W-What?" I stammer.

"Oh, nothing," she giggles.

Aura-reading time. I stare at Yashiro for a few seconds, and she gives me a strange look. She can tell that I'm reading her. When I realize what she's thinking, I glare at her.

"Yashiro-chan, how could you?" I yell.

Yashiro bursts into laughter. "I-I'm sorry, but it's so funny!"

"You'd better shut up! It's not like that! I hate him!"

"Uh-huh, sure you do!"

I shake my head at Yashiro, and then I leave her behind, heading towards my locker at the very end of the hallway. I hate this spot, where my locker is. I've been stuck in this general area since the ninth grade, and it annoys the crap out of me because of the other people that hang around here.

I have one word to describe my ninth grade class from two years ago.

Retarded.

My class was the dumbest, most disrespectful class in the entire existence of human kind. And of course, because they were in my grade, I ended up getting stuck with them. Even some of the students who should be in jail are still allowed to come to school. They're big suck-ups to the teachers, so the teachers become blinded by their kindness and don't do a single thing about them.

Enough of my rambling. I was talking about my locker, right? Yeah, my locker. So because I'm still in my locker from the ninth grade area, I'm still stuck in the same spot as a few other ninth graders, some of which are the ninth graders that I used to and still despise with all my heart.

I grab the lock on my locker as quickly as possible, fumbling with the combination so I can get out of there as quickly as possible before the annoying once-ninth-graders-now-eleventh-graders show up. I don't need to be insulted today, and I don't need to be threatened either. I don't like having to get mad, not one bit.

I end up messing up my combination from all my fumbling the first time, but I manage to get it the second time. I pull open my locker and grab the weapons that I had been given by my teacher at the beginning of the year. At least if the students threaten me I have weapons. But they're better at fighting than I am; I just know it. . .

When I pull out the sword that's held inside its own sheath, I slam my locker shut and close my lock as fast as lightning, my heart racing from my fear and nervousness of getting found. I look around as I close the lock, and when I'm done, I take off down the hallway, leaving behind that terrible place. I hate going to my locker. It's the worst time of the day for me. I try to avoid having to create situations in which I must go to my locker to get things. I carry all my books in my bag. I always keep a million pencils on me so I don't have to get any from my locker.

But I always get drawn back there for something. I always miscalculate and make a mistake.

I start to hear people whispering as I pass by them, some of them laughing.

I hate hearing that.

Because I know that half of them are making fun of me.

But I just ignore it. There's nothing I can do about it right now; when I get the skills, I'll take care of them personally, and then they'll regret making fun of Uzuki Kasahara.

I meet up with Yashiro in the lobby, who's having a conversation with Len.

Len is another one of my friends, who just happens to be in my Strategics and Defense class this half of the year. In fact, I think all my friends are in my S&D class during this half. It's odd, but it makes the class fun and easier to endure.

Anyways, Len is a girl whom I befriended at the beginning of ninth grade. It's actually my mom who had introduced me to her. My mom is, believe it or not, a staff member of the school. And because of that, she knows every single student and which ones I'd get along with. So she started to tell me about Len, and said she was going to introduce me to her sometime. My mother finally introduced me to Len at one of the town festivals. Len was hanging out with her sister, Haku, at the time, along with Sheena and Torii. They're all best friends and hang out together, but the thing is, Haku and Len aren't in school with Sheena and Torii, because they're both home-schooled. So we only get to hang out weekends when we can make the trip out to Kakariko; that's where Torii and Sheena live.

"I'm so excited!" Len cheers. "I mean, I'm nervous and everything, but I'm excited to see who I'm paired up with!"

"I'm probably going to be paired with Uzuki," Yashiro laughs. "They always stick us together because they know we get along."

"I hope I'm paired up with either Luma or Haku," Len answers. "I wish Sheena and Torii went to our school; then I'd have a chance of pairing up with them."

"You may still end up with them," I suggest. They give me a confused look. "W-Well, because both of them are practically home-schooled, they need someone to teach them how to fight; so they may end up coming over here to be taught by our school."

Len jumps happily, letting out a cheer. "That would be so cool!"

"Well, we won't know until class starts, so don't get too excited," I laugh.

"Sorry, I'm hyper today. . ."

Saichi, Mikumi, Takuma, Luma, and Victoria all walk by.

Wow, even Victoria is with them, I think. She's a real townie, but she only likes to hang out with me because she actually knows me. I remember back to the day when Victoria met Saichi and the gang; not a fond memory of mine. Let me just say, for the record, she likes to speak her mind. A little too much.

Saichi stops to greet us. "Hey, we're all heading off to class together," he tells us. "Want to come with us? We feel less nervous if we're all walking together." He laughs.

"Um, sure thing," I snicker. I grab Len's wrist and pull her along with us, Yashiro and Haku following close behind in the huge group of friends we have. Even my sister, Chiyo, is with us. It's her first year at the Academy, so she tends to follow us everywhere so she doesn't get lost; or attacked by bullies. Of course, Chiyo isn't the kind of person to get ransacked by verbal insults. She's like her own lamp of popularity; people swarm to her like moths to a flame. I think it's because she's a lot more approachable than I am. She's always smiling, and she can be really funny. I smile a lot too, but it's my sometimes-depressing personality and weird hobbies that turns everyone away. My friends, the group that sits with me at the cafeteria table every day, are the only friends I have. They understand me. Because, besides the depression, they're all like me.

The place where the S&D class takes place is in the 'backyard' of the Academy. It's basically a gigantic field - and when I say gigantic, I literally mean about the same size as Hyrule Castle Town itself - that's split into a bunch of other fields, each one with a different 'theme'. For example, one field would be purely consisted of a grassy meadow, another would have several lakes spread out, another would be like the landscape of Death Mountain; that sort of stuff. At least, that's what I've been told. Makoto and Higashizawa, who took the class once together before they graduated, told Yashiro and I about the fields they had and what they had to go through. There are two classes for S&D: General and Advanced. Everyone in high school takes the General class, but the Advanced class is optional; it's because they only have S&D class every two years, because it's such a complex class. Because I'm in eleventh grade and this is my General class - my first year in S&D - I'm only going to be taking it once. Had I been in tenth grade for my first S&D class, I would have had the option in twelfth grade to take it again, as the Advanced class. It's a confusing setup, but I heard from Higashizawa that the classes are actually quite fun. Makoto and Higashizawa, before I forget to mention, are Yashiro's older brothers; Makoto is her step-brother, to be more exact. But they're siblings either way. My brothers, Taishou and Mikoshi, took the class as well, years before when they graduated. Taishou took the class once, and Mikoshi took it twice; Taishou was offered to take it twice, but he refused because he wanted to have an extra class to study history (the only reason they were both offered was because there's a two year difference between them).

So that's S&D in a very confusing nutshell. My brothers took it, and Yashiro's brothers took it, so at least we each have two mentors to give us advice on how to survive it. And we have the entire group from our table in the cafeteria to help us survive as well.

I'm just not looking forward to having to deal with Mitsuhiro Minamimoto.


So far, the only person I hate in Strategics & Defense is our friggin' teacher.

I've only had him for five minutes, and he's already a complete jackass.

How do I know?

Somebody is already bleeding.

Okay, so let me recap what happened in the past five minutes for you.

First, our teacher came outside to join us. We're in the meadow area of the Strategics & Defense field right now, just to let you know. Our teacher is this real buff guy, with short spiky hair that reminds me of my brother Taishou, and a daring smirk that's always on his face. He's got this wheat strand clenched between his teeth, and tan skin that looks like it's been through a few tough battles. Not to mention the gigantic scar that's right on his face, across the bridge of his nose. Oh, and I forgot to mention; his name is Bruno Ruin.

Ruin.

As in, he's going to ruin our faces by the end of this class.

Second, he asked a simple little question:

"Who here doesn't want to be in this class today?"

Almost everyone raised their hand; I was one of teh few that didn't. I knew it was a trick question; I wasn't that stupid to fall for it.

So, the teacher picked on one of the students; a short, awkward, nerdy teenager named Russell. Then he asked Russell why he didn't want to be in this class.

"Well, I could be doing so much better things," Russell replied in his I-know-everything voice.

"Like?" Ruin asked.

"Like. . . researching our environment's current stability so we can learn how to sustain a better climate and better living conditions for other-"

Bruno didn't even let him finish. Which I'm thankful for; his words were making my eyes glaze over. Before poor Russell could finish his scientific speech, Bruno nailed him right in the face. And don't get me wrong, Bruno is a pretty big guy, and he's really fit too; he's like a buff version of my brother Taishou, only even more aggressive and head-strong.

Poor, poor Russell. You can bet that he didn't say another word after that; nobody else did. Everyone who had raised their hands lowered them immediately, no more questions asked.

So now we have the teacher from hell.

At least I know now that all the positive energy I built up is going to be worth nothing at all.

"Alright, now what to do with all you weaklings. . ." Bruno begins as he starts to crack his over-sized knuckles. Despite the fact that he just gave Russell the world's greatest nose-bleed, his knuckles don't have a single trace of blood on them.

"You know, we're not all weaklings. . . I bet I'm stronger than you." a voice says. A very familiar voice.

Whoever it was, they're dead. I mean, they just challenged Bruno Ruin to a fight.

"Who just challenged me?" Bruno asks, a smile growing on his face. He must be loooking forward to beating the living crap out of whoever it was that talked back to him.

"I did." Someone in the long line of students raises their hand.

I look down to see who it is that's raising their hand.

It's Mitsuhiro.

"Step forward, kid," Bruno orders. Mitsuhiro doesn't disobey, doesn't even say a word as he walks forward, releasing himself from the line of students that are watching him with shock and admiration. Mikumi is trying to stifle a laugh; then I see him exchange a yellow rupee with Saichi behind their backs. Are they betting on the fight?

"What's your name, kid?" Bruno asks him, folding his arms. I notice a snake tattoo on his shoulder that wraps in a circle.

"Mitsuhiro Minamimoto," he replies, his words practically floating from his mouth like he had rehearsed everything the previous night. The comparison between Mitsuhiro and Bruno comes to a point of weirdness that's just plain silly; Bruno is tall and buff, Mitsuhiro is taller and barely has a visible muscle on him; Bruno is head-strong and yells a lot, Mitsuhiro is quiet and may not even speak if talked to; Bruno looks like he's been in hundreds of fights, maybe even in the Great War, and Mitsuhiro doesn't even look like he's been in one single fight in his life.

"That's quite a mouthful of a name," Bruno chuckles. "You know, you've got quite a scary look to yourself; are you an albino, or is that look just a fashion statement?"

I actually have to agree with Bruno on this one; Mitsuhiro is a pretty pale person, especially with his black hair contrasting the color of his skin, not to mention his dark eyes that resemble black holes. He probably is an albino, but he's still got a bit of normal human color to himself, if you look really closely.

"Not a fashion statement," Mitsuhiro mumbles; it almost sounds like a low, held-back chuckle. "I'm just. . . different."

Bruno lets out a loud laugh, the wheat strand that was in his mouth falling to the ground next to his sandaled feet.

"Haha, I like you already, kid!" he laughs. "Alright, so you wanna battle, huh? You think you're stronger than me?"

". . . Yes," Mitsuhiro mutters.

Saichi, Mikumi, Yashiro, Takuma, and I chuckle under our breath. Almost everyone laughs in fact. I gotta admit, it was pretty funny. Mitsuhiro looks back at us, and smirks a little. Is he glad we laughed?

"Alright, wise guy, let's get this battle on!" Bruno declares, bashing his fists together. He charges at Mitsuhiro, a fire growing in his brown eyes, his fists tightening as he brings one up to swing at Mitsuhiro, who's just standing there casually with his hands in his pockets. But before his punch can make a hit, Mitsuhiro ducks, bringing one of his hands out from his pockets, and driving his fist straight into Bruno's stomach, twisting it like a drill as he does it. Bruno seems caught off-guard at first, but he regains himself before falling to the ground, sliding backwards through the dirt and still managing to stay on his feet. By now, everyone is watching intently, to see who will win.

"Wow, you sure got a lot of fighting power in ya!" Bruno laughs, his voice a little hoarse from getting struck; I don't know how hard Mitsuhiro punched him, but it must have been hard enough, because almost all the air's been knocked out of the poor guy. Bruno takes another swing, but this time, out of nowhere, Mitsuhiro falls onto his back like a possum playing dead. Before Bruno can figure out what he's doing, he shoots his leg straight up and nails Bruno right in the face with his foot, knocking the surprised teacher to the dirt ground.

By now, the entire line of students are silent. And then, all at once like a fire blowing up from dead ashes, they all start cheering and clapping. Even I can't help but clap a little for Mitsuhiro's amazing performance. I look over at Saichi, who's handing two yellow rupees to Mikumi, which includes the one that Mikumi had given to Saichi earlier; I guess Saichi bet on Bruno to win.

When Bruno gets back up, we all see that his nose is bleeding; there's also a spot on his face that looks like it's going to bruise later. He wipes his face, the blood coming off onto his gloved hand, and then he bends down to pick up the wheat strand that's still sitting in the same place from when it fell. He puts it back between his teeth, and smiles at Mitsuhiro.

"Wow, I haven't seen such talent in any of my first year students in years," Bruno sighs. "I'm glad to have met you, kid. Hey, how about I make you a little deal? Everyone in the class is required to have a partner. You're not supposed to be able to choose, but I figure it won't hurt just this once; no one will be able to tell, you know? So go ahead and pick someone, anyone you think you'll get along with and fight well with."

Mitsuhiro turns to the line of students standing in front of him. He's got plenty of people to choose from; but then again, Mitsuhiro doesn't get along with very many people either. I bet that at least half the class is praying that he doesn't choose them. And one of them just so happens to be me.

"Hmm. . ." Mitsuhiro mutters under his breath, eyeing each student like he's picking a fish from the market. When he looks at me, I glare at him with hatred in my eyes; I don't want him to like me, I want him to hate me so that he doesn't pick me.

"Alright, I've decided," he finally says.

And then he says the name that I had been dreading to hear.

"I pick Uzuki-chan."