I drift through the starry sky without a care in the world. I close my eyes and a small, almost unnoticeable smile forms on my face. For the first time I finally feel at peace. I open them and see the festivities below me. The ground below seems just as far away as the stars as I see people roughly the size of gnats wandering about, playing games and eating food and spending time with their friends. I feel a tinge of happiness for the people on Earth just as I feel just as content flying above them. In my own plane of reality living my own way of life the way I want to live it. By myself.

Away from the troubles of all the incessant droning of Yamaku High School pressuring me to become a proper functioning member of whatever society expects of me. All of the seemingly endless responsibilities that will decide the fate of my future. That will decide whether I will have a successful life like a well paying job, a beautiful wife and the monotony of an average individuals life. Not really troublesome I suppose. Just monotonous and tedious. Then there are the friends that I would otherwise have to be required to keep happy and content just so I can have the opportunity to see them and spend time with them before I inevitably never see them again. Either due to their path that leads their monotonous life responsibilities. Something will drift my acquaintances apart from me.

But all of that doesn't matter anymore. It's just me now, alone with only the company of the sky. The noise of the festival below soft and barely audible growing further distinct the more I drift away.
A perfect end to a perfect day.

I close my eyes for the last time as the sky and the wind continue to carry me further and further away. Away from my troubles. Away from Yamaku. Away from my condition.

Further away into nothing.

An unbearably unwelcome rapping at my door startles me awake from my heavenly slumber. I groan to myself and wrap the pillow around my head. Out of curiosity I glance at my clock to get a good estimate of how much longer I can sleep in. Eleven o' clock on the dot.

I sigh and mutter in a hushed tone, "It's not even noon yet." I roll over and stare at the door dreading another knock that will wake the dead and sure enough not a moment later a deafening bang at my door invades my ears. I know they're going to give up eventually but I don't know what I'd do if I hear that banging one more time. I muster what energy I have to slide out of my bed and stand up. I trudge up to the door, eyes struggling to stay open and reach for the handle to begrudgingly creak it open.

"Who is it?" My words slur as I survey the hallway. I hear the familiar sarcastic tone of a certain paraplegic I've come to associate myself with.

"Down here, lazy-ass." I don't glance down at first but after hearing that stinging remark I notice Hibiki in my peripherals donning the school uniform on a Sunday for some reason. He grips onto his wheelchair wheels as he further degrades me, "C'mon man, are you seriously THAT lazy that you'd sleep in on the day of the big festival." I look down, mildly intrigued. He flares his button nose, "And I'm not even that fucking short in this chair! C'mon get dressed already, Hideki. You said you'd hang out with me during this thing and it's already almost noon for Christ's sake!"

I let out a small whimper, "I did promise that, didn't I?" He makes a smartass gesture that unnecessarily answered my rhetorical question, "Alright give me about fifteen minutes to get ready ok, small fry? I'll meet you outside the dorm." He ignores my childish name-calling and simply nods and pushes himself toward the elevator. I close my door and commence my morning ritual of bathing, grooming, dressing myself and downing enough pills to drop an elephant.

Hibiki is seated outside staring at all the fun people are having. Festivals and any other kind of big event like this is really not my kind of thing. No one could possibly imagine what I would give to go back to my room. Or to the library. Or anywhere where there isn't anybody within at least a twenty to thirty foot radius of me. But this really means a lot to the guy. Maybe not the festival itself but I mean getting to hang out with me. Excuse me if I seemed like I was tooting my own horn, it's nothing like that. What I mean is that we're not really the most popular or the most active or the most social or the most anything at all kinda guys on campus. We both made plenty of acquaintances in class, but never long term friends. It was just a happy coincidence that we share the same kind of social problem. We met last year in class 2-3 and we just happened to get grouped together in a two man project. One conversation led to another and we became best friends for life with whatever that entails.

I eventually walk up behind Hibiki and give him a playful slap on the shoulder, "Quit staring, short stack, it looks weird."

Hibiki, once again, ignores my quip at his height and asks me, "So where do you wanna go first, man?"

I shrug and start pushing him into the foray of snack stands, "I dunno about you but I need some breakfast?"

"It's lunch, idiot. I don't know if you know this but breakfast is served usually in the morning." Hibiki snorts

I look down at my watch. 11:28, "It IS still morning, Hibiki." I roll my eyes, "Breakfast is what you make of it, even if it's lunch food. Remember that." A smug expression creeps on my face, "Stick with me kid and you'll be rolling down easy street." We both exchange laughs as we enjoy the merriment of the day.

The, I'll admit, beautiful day turned to a beautiful night as Hibiki and I continue to peruse the fairgrounds. Hibiki's smile has been locked like that all day as we spent what time we had enjoying unhealthy fried festival cuisine and played cheap (and obviously rigged) booth games. I'm glad Hibiki enjoyed himself today and I'll be even more glad when I get back to my dorm and plop myself back down in my bed for the rest of the night. I rest on the staircase leading to the main building to rest with Hibiki next to me. Primo spots for the scheduled fireworks

Hibiki leans back and sets his arms on the armrests, "Thanks for coming out, man. This woulda sucked if it weren't for you." He laughs, "Even if I did have to pry your lazy ass away from your bed."

I smirk, "Well I'll just have to be more resilient next year I guess, huh?"

"You're such an asshole, Hideki." He chortles. We both lean back and wait in silence for the fireworks when suddenly a mind-curdling scream comes from behind us.

We both shoot our gazes backward as a crowd of students crowd around whatever triggered the banshee screech. Curiosity got the best of me as I get up to go join the mob. I look back at Hibiki knowing I have no time to push him up the handicap ramp before more people show up and congest whatever it is further, "I'm gonna go check it out, I'll be right back, ok?" Hibiki nods as I advance toward the crowd.

I'm on the outer edge of the sea of people. This kind of contact makes me very uncomfortable but my curiosity beats my claustrophobia. At least in this case. I shove myself in between two students and begin my descent into the crowd. As I'm digging through every one I can hear murmurs and whatnot that only spike my curiosity further.

"What's going on?"

"I can't believe he did that."

"Are you serious? No way. He's crazy."

I'm almost completely through. I peek my head over two smaller schoolmates and I couldn't believe my eyes. There laying bloody and broken on the sidewalk was the body of my classmate from 3-3. Mutou's class.

It's Hisao Nakai.