5 years before...
"I would like everyone to welcome our new student, Rin Tezuka, to the class. she has just transferred from Yamaku, and I'll be expecting everyone to…" The teacher droned on. These introductions are always the same. introduce the student, have them talk about themselves, Bla bla bla. At first I simply ignored it, but I quickly realized just how quiet it had become, and this caught my attention. I looked up to see that the girl was just standing there, everyone focusing on her. It was obvious she was suppose to say something about herself, it's customary after all, but she just stood there. That's when I noticed that she had no arms. I was shocked. Was this why everyone fell silent? Did they just not know how to react? While I thought this over, the teacher continued.
"Tezuka, there must be something about yourself you'd like to tell us." The girl remained silent for what seemed like an eternity in this drearily quiet room before responding.
"Yes. No. I don't know. I can't think. It's all fuzzy, like fuzzy dice, but not as square." Her words, mixed with the way she said them, were both comical and disturbing. Noticing only the first, the class burst out into a fit of laughter, consuming the classroom like a stormcloud. All, except one. Kouta, who kept looking at that strange girl, with a very distraught expression on his face.
"Everyone settle down!" The teacher said with an agitated, slightly raised voice.
He quickly looked at the girl, poised to provide some form of comfort, but stopped when he saw her. She had no expression, no indication of even having acknowledged the class at all. The only sign that she was even conscious were her eyes, darting around the room in a hazy and imprecise manner, she stayed like this for some time, until the teacher decided to break the new found silence.
"Well Tezuka, please take a seat next to Atsuko for the time being." She walked over and sat down next to me, getting a closer look at her, I noticed she looked tired and incredibly fragile, like she would shatter upon contact with anything. Could this be what was worrying Kouta? It definitely made me concerned, and he has always been one to care about people, even people he never met before, but I decided to let it rest for the time being.
When the bell rang, I quickly packed my things and prepared to leave, stopping at the door to glance at Kouta's seat, but he wasn't there. I needed to talk to him, turning back to leave the room in search of him, I almost ran right into him.
"Eek!"
I squeaked out a cry, and visibly flinched at his sudden appearance.
"I hate it when you do that!"
With a smirk, he simply shrugged off my comment.
"Ready to get something to eat?"
He said this in his usual calm, yet impatient tone, but something in it gave off that he was focussed on more than just food.
"Yeah, I was just about to find you actually."
He raised an eyebrow at my comment, not surprising, I rarely went looking for him during lunch, and when I did it was usually to get something from him, but he doesn't continue the topic any further.
"Well, let's get going then."
He says this as he quickly walks towards the lunch room, with me right behind him. It's not unusual for him to be so impatient, but he seemed distracted by something. I planned on asking him what it was after we had gotten our lunches, but only half way to the lunch room, he stopped walking and spoke, but in a soft, sullen tone, that made me uncomfortable to hear.
"Let's go to the art room, I have something I need to get from there."
As we walked up the stairs to the second floor, all I heard was the echo of our foot steps. becoming louder amongst the thick silence growing between us. As we opened the door to room 226, we were frozen in place by a an odd sight. The new girl who was introduced to the class just this morning, was sitting on a table, fork between her toes, ready to eat whatever it was that she was in her lunch bag. There was no look of surprise, no expression at all really, she just stared at us, but her stare didn't feel expectant, like a stare usually does. It felt like I was invisible, and she was simply looking through me towards something else that caught her attention. Some time passed before the strange girl broke the silence.
"Hello." Kouta, barely seeming surprised at these turn of events, quickly replied to the girls greeting.
"Hello, you found this place quickly, didn't you?"
The girl seemed to give this statement some thought, which once again surprised me, seeing as how it was just a simple question. After a few moments, she replied.
"I wouldn't know. It's a place. And I found it. But I don't know when. What day is it?"
This caught both me and Kouta off guard. Was she serious? She sure seemed like it. Not knowing how to react, I decided to answer her question.
"It's Wednesday."
Still no acknowledgement that I even said a word. It was unnerving, how she seemed to be unaware of the world around her, and how she spoke as if only partially existent.
After saying this, I looked over to Kouta, noticing that he had the same distraught look on his face that he had during class. What was he so worried about? As if sensing my unease, he decided to speak up.
"Well, I'm Kouta, and this is Atsuko. We're in your class, it's nice to finally talk to you."
The girl looked at us for a while with her dreamlike gaze before replying.
"I'm rin."
That was it, no small talk, no attempt at conversation at all. Kouta grabbed a painting he had been working on, and we gave a farewell as we exited the room.
"So what do you think of her?" I ask, trying to clear the air of whatever awkwardness had accumulated from that room. His reply, however, Struck me like lightning.
"Broken".