Chapter 1:Faulty Wiring
I've always had a thing for wanting to know the way that things work, and how to explain the things that happen in our world. It was mostly a hobby though, not something to really chat to people about it. I used to live in Tokyo. That was what I now call, "The Good Times." Those were over about a year ago.
I was in and out of the hospital, sometimes staying for months at a time. Those days passed slowly but effortlessly, as I couldn't move for a while after it happened. Days slipped into weeks, and weeks slipped into months. After 4 months of being confined to the hospital I was finally allowed to visit my parents. I visited them for just a day, and said goodbye after. I gave them flowers.
I went back to the hospital for more tests and physical therapy. It was slow going, but it had to be because of my back. Still, I made progress, and 7 months later I could walk, but that's about what its ever going to be. I can still bend it a bit though without too much pain.
In the next month, the doctor came less and less often. I assumed this was a good thing. The next week, he came into my room. He said that I was looking better and better each day and that I was to be discharged soon. And I was impassive about. There was no emotion in my voice when I said," And then what?" He said that given my current situation, where I had to be properly taken care of, or I would get hurt, that I was to attend a school in the countryside. The fee was being paid with my parents' money, I presumed. The next day he gave me some medication, and I was on my own again, lost in the city. I got directions to the train station from someone, and boarded the 11:14 AM train, and around three hours later I was there.
I walked from the train station to the bus, and got to the town at 2 PM. I saw the school at the top of the hill, and walked there, back brace on, luggage with me, thinking to myself, "What's it going to be like there? People like me, struggling to do even basic things? Do they talk openly about their disabilities, or hide them away?" These were just some of the questions I was asking myself as I trudged up the hill.
Rounding the final bend, I saw the school in all its glory. The brick wall, and the big, iron, gate, gave me the impression that the school was quite old. A disheveled man was standing near the entrance, hopefully waiting for me. When I got to the front of the gate, he greeted me, "Hello, I presume you are Ichoro?" I said, "Yes it is, nice to meet you. You are…" He responded, " I am Mutou, I'm going to be your new teacher. Shall I show you your dorm," he asked. I said, "Of course, thank your sir."
He chatted with me and told about what the school had to offer: 24-hour medical staff, physical therapy (which I had to take part in); the works. He took me to the dorms, which looked fairly new and modern, and gave me the key to my room: 143. He said to put my stuff in my room, and then come back down to introduce myself to his class. I went up the stairs as quick as I could do, which wasn't very fast. I finally made it to the corridor with my room in it, and made my way to my room. Inserting the key into the door, turning twice, I was in. My first thought when I entered my room is how plain it was. Beige walls, a desk, and a cabinet, and of course a bed. Not much time to worry about this now, I thought to myself.
After putting my bags down on my bed, I made my way downstairs. Thank god he didn't leave without me. "We should hurry, the class is waiting," he said when I got downstairs, I responded," Yeah we probably should." Without another word we went outside onto the path.
While I was walking, I was also worrying about what to say to my new classmates. "Probably should stick with the basics", I thought. "Name, hobbies, age? Sounds good to me". What struck me about the school grounds was how green everything was. Maybe it had to do with the fact that apparently green is calming color, that's what they told me in the hospital anyway. But that still didn't detract from the fields and trees that were all so magnificently green. It did calm me down, and I stopped worrying about introducing myself to the class.
The school building was quite new, but I heard that the school was getting a lot of money, so it wasn't really quite surprising when I saw elevators. "Most likely for kids who couldn't walk." Those were the unlucky ones. Mutou and I walked up three flights of stairs to the third floor. He led me to his classroom, 3-3, and we walked in.
The thing that hit me first about the class was how diverse the disabilities in the class were. I saw a girl with a hand missing; a guy with a cane (I presumed it was to support himself, as it was quite a sturdy specimen), the list went on and on. While I was looking at the people in the class, Mutou was introducing me to the class. "… ou have anything to say about yourself, Ichoro?" "Hello my name is Ichoro, I am 17 years old, and my hobbies include basketball and writing." I did the customary bow as my classmates applauded me. Some of the girls in the back were chatting about me, so it couldn't have gone all that bad. "You can go sit next to Hisao." As I stood there unmoving, cause I had no idea who this Hisao was, a guy waved me over, presumably Hisao. He looked like one of the most normal people in the class, so I guessed that his problem was on the inside.
"Hi, nice to meet you, I'm Hisao," he said to me. He was sitting in front of two girls who were signing to each other quite rapidly. One was dark-haired and looked quite serious, while the other girl was almost the opposite. Pink hair, weird hairstyle (were they supposed to resemble drills?), and she looked quite happy. While signing to her friend, she introduced herself. "My name is Misha! My friend here is Shizune, and we're part of the Student Council!" She seemed genuinely happy to meet me, Shizune on the other hand, looked like she was observing me and after a once over, smiled a bit. She signed something to Misha, who said," Nice to meet another new student, you're the second new one in this class this year!" I think she was trying to sound like Shizune, but Misha was basically incapable of doing that. It was quite funny actually, because she kept switching between a serious face, and a childish funny face. It was like seeing one of those comedy/tragedy masks. Except a lot more confusing. They seemed like nice girls. Shizune signed to Misha, and she translated, "How do you like the place so far?" I said that it was very nice, and that the garden was breathtaking.
During this time Mutou was still talking about some equations and how to solve them. He then gave us some questions to do in our notebooks. Luckily I had come prepared, and 'The Group' started to work. Even though it was only a couple of questions, Shizune kept making sure that we were working our hardest. Shizune and Hisao were probably the most capable in our group, then it being I, and finally Misha struggling with the questions. I wasn't the smartest, but not by a huge margin, so I could finish the questions relatively quickly. I was finishing up while Hisao, who said, "All you've been doing for the past minute is drawing cats! Come on it's just one more question," to Misha. Misha responded, saying, "I just don't get it." But still, only 5 minutes later, she got it, and finished the question.
So we were all done and, about 10 minutes later, the bell rang, signaling the end of the lesson. "Remember kids, I want that in by Friday!" Mutou said as everyone was rushing out of the class. Groans erupted from the kids, but still they went out of the class, spilling into the hall. Kids were also coming out of the other classes, so it was a chaotic scene. "I'm surprised someone hasn't run into someone else yet," I thought to myself. I was next to Hisao at the time, and we were talking about sports, when suddenly, out of nowhere, a girl on prosthetics sprinted down the hall, and crashed into Hisao's chest. He went down on the floor, clutching at his chest. Maybe he got the wind knocked out of him. He started to slide further along the floor. Or maybe something worse. The prosthetics girl was trying to get him to get up, and was apologizing profusely. "Are you okay," she asked. After a few seconds, Hisao said "Yeah I'll be fine." Are you sure," she said, not sounding very convinced. You could hear the worry in her voice. He got up, finally.
"Yeah, I'm good." She said sorry again, said her name was Emi, and said she was late. But not before Shizune got in a jab at her, "No running in the halls! It's not safe for the students! Look what you've done!" But by then she was already gone. Shizune looked pissed. But Misha couldn't take the situation seriously. "~Wahahahaha!" Shizune signed, to Misha, "You really shouldn't be laughing, Hisao might have gotten hurt!" Well, at least someone cared about Hisao, I thought. For the time being though, I went back to my dorm, without Hisao, who agreed to help the girls with some student council work. Apparently they were trying to get him to join. From the little I know about Shizune, she doesn't seem like she was going to play fair.
Well, at least in my room I can listen to music away from the sounds of other people. Playing on some music, I put in my earphones and blanked out for a while. Only about an hour though, because someone was knocking on my door all of a sudden. It was now dark outside. At least its cooler, I thought. I got up and answered the door. I wasn't expecting anyone, so I was wondering who it could be. I opened the door. It was Hisao. "What's up," I asked him. "I just want to get away from my neighbor, he's freaking me out." "Who's your roommate and why is he scaring you so much?" Hisao did look quite pissed off, so I guessed that he had one of those nosy neighbor types. "He keeps telling me to stay away from girls, and that they'll stab me in the back. I mean how weird is he?" I was at least half right. I invited him into my room. He sat on the chair, me on the bed. The talk went in this direction for a while. Finally he changed the subject, "So how are you liking the school so far?" I said that it seems like it is a good place to go to school. "Yeah, I like it too. Besides the fact that I always get asked to join the Student Council." "Yeah, Shizune seems like she would do something like that."
He said, about half an hour later, that he had to go finish up some work. "Bye, I guess I'll see you tomorrow," he said as he left. "Yeah I guess, see you later." Hisao seemed like a genuinely nice guy, but it seemed like he had his own problems to deal with, most notably being the two girls that made him go everywhere with them. I wish I could find someone, I thought. I hated being alone. But there's always tomorrow, I reasoned. Maybe I'll meet some new people.
I had no idea how right I was.