The Ripples of Unrest
The humid atmosphere of the boys' locker room was teemed with steam, sweat, mildew, jubilant laughter, and raucous chatter. It was aglow with victory and the young men bathed in it, under the showerheads caked with calcium and in a room with puddles that trailed behind feet. Akihiko let himself join in the merrymaking so that he could quietly get out. He accepted the hearty pats on the back and the shout-outs from across the room as he headed towards the showers to wash away any residue of his last match, and contributed a bit in the conversations here and there while he changed into his school uniform. It was only enough so that he could be amongst the first out the double doors with about as minimal protest from his teammates for him to wait up as he could manage. Once he was out, he could breathe.
The slightly chilly air was crisp and clear and he filled his lungs with it. He breathed in the sense of accomplishment of trouncing the rival school's boxing captain, and sighed out the flat feeling of shoes walking in an empty hallway. Thankfully, there were no screaming girls lurking in the vicinity to extol their appreciation of him, thinking that maybe both he and they somehow missed each other.
He turned the corner heading towards the school main gate and walked right into a smart gathering of school girls.
The collective gasp was like the blaring headlights that blinded the deer before his demise.
He didn't hold back, he let loose all available ammunition at his disposal. He gave a small smile as they circled around him, cornering him and trapping him. He graciously received their adulations, but at every effort to move away from his spot, they moved with him so he felt like he was on a treadmill with a rotating background that's sometimes seen in amusement parks. He made excuses, such as "I'll be late for my bus" and "I'm kind of tired from my fight, so I really had to go," but to no avail were his protests heeded as they bombard him with questions and comments amidst squealing and chatter. He could feel the pressure slowly building on his head and the tension forming on temples. He really needed to leave, and he cursed his passiveness at the idea of being rough to the fairer sex.
"Heeyyyyyy… Akihiko-senpai!" The lone male voice was a beacon through the high pitch cacophony, one which Akihiko's ears gratefully latched on to. Diving through the car wreck that makes up the crowd of excited girls, the owner of the voice grabbed onto Akihiko's wrist and fished him out, making them walk briskly away from the group and out the school gates.
"If you don't hurry, you'll be late for the bus, right senpai?" Akihiko got a good look at the boy, but from the jovial tone of his voice, he knew that it was none other than underclassman and fellow boxing teammate Hiro Yamato. Hiro let go of his senpai and both relaxed into a calm stroll on the sidewalk.
"Thanks, Hiro. I don't think I could last much longer with them. I was pretty close to snapping."
"No problem. It would be big trouble for the team if those people start, I don't know, mauling you or tearing at your clothes in ecstasy. How would it look to all of us if our champ was bested by happy girls?" Akihiko scoffed, rolling off the joke like a wind blowing through tree branches.
"But in all seriousness, though. It did look like torture back there. I can tell you this, the only guys who are jealous of the attention you're getting are the knuckleheads. All those blows to the head knocked out their required brain cells to process danger."
They chatted amiably, with Hiro doing most of the talking, up the hills and crossing streets. They past by men in three-piece suits with their minds firmly on their wristwatches, and paused for preschoolers playing in their path. Hiro was known to many as a very friendly person who seems to have an infallible ability to talk just about anything and nothing with anyone, despite their seniority or what should be the proper act of address to an adult. He is frank and doesn't pretend to be anyone otherwise. Since his induction at middle school, his classmates and anyone whom he shares remote affiliation to have either love-hate opinions on him. His personality, which also revealed his flaws and weaknesses, while sometimes refreshing, is a grievous faux pas to anyone who doesn't like to be reminded that they too share the same annoying traits as this person. Some people can claim outright that they hate him because they don't really find anything about him to hate except himself.
They arrived at the bus stop and loitered around the bench waiting for their chariot to arrive. Akihiko sat patiently while Hiro leaned against the bus pole, checking the time with his cell and texting in silence.
"Hey, Akihiko-san," he said after a great deal of silence. "I just realized that I don't really have your cell phone number in my address book."
"I don't have one," replied Akihiko. "And besides, why do you want my phone number to begin with?"
"In case if there's an emergency," exclaimed Hiro like it was the most obvious reason in the world. "What if for whatever reason you're not here for practice and everyone's all 'Where's Sanada? Where's Sanada? Did something happen?' And the next thing you know, it's the next day and you showed up bleeding all over the carpet because some crazy stalker jumped you."
Akihiko glanced at Hiro incredulously. "You've got some imagination, Hiro. Like I'd let anyone hurt me or make me late for practice. Even if I did get a cell phone, I wouldn't give my number to just anybody. I don't want to get weird text messages or something."
"Aw… but I was going to show you dumb videos," pouted Hiro. "Why can't you get a cell phone?"
"Too expensive for me. I've gotten through almost fifteen years of my life without one, and I still don't see the use in me having one now."
"Are you kidding? It's so useful! Like, take my phone for instance. I got it because my mom wants to check up on me and makes sure that I don't get lost or something, since I'm a flaky kind of guy. Then she starts calling me during all hours of the day, and even during school. It drives me nuts! And it drives my teacher nuts, too, because I always have to answer my phone whenever it's mom calling, because if I don't respond she'll get on my case about it when I get home. So I can't answer the phone because it gets me trouble with my teachers, and I can't not answer the phone because my mom would kill me if I don't. Such a Catch-22," he sighed.
"…So how's a cell phone useful, again?"
"I just told you! It's so that I can let people know what I'm doing and not worry them. What if there's an earthquake and I'm trapped under rubble? Who'll know that I'm trapped under rubble, with my arms broken and my innards caving?"
Akihiko was going to ask how he's going to contact anyone when trapped under rubble and with various degrees of dire injury, but he doesn't so he's going to let it go and nod in agreement.
"Oh yeah, Akihiko-san. Were you in a bad mood or something today?"
Akihiko stared at Hiro questioningly. "Did I do something back there or what?"
Hiro shrugged. "No, it's just… recently you seem kind of aloof. You don't always joke around like you sometimes do or that you're not… zippy." He made a vague gesture with his hands.
"Zippy?" Akihiko repeated distastefully.
"Like, you win, you get a high, and you feel like it's the best day ever," explained Hiro. "Nowadays, you're kinda like… meh?" He made a so-so gesture with his hand. "What, did you not get a good score with your high school entrance exams or something? I hear those could make people crack under pressure. Good thing I'm not a 9th grader."
"No, I scored high enough to get into all the schools I wanted. The ones that have great boxing programs."
Hiro whistled low. "Wow, great job Senpai. An achiever in both books and boxing. So then, what's up?"
Akihiko sighed, mulling over what to say to him. He hoped that his mood went unnoticed by the team, but if someone like Hiro picked up on it, who else had known? But, even he couldn't quite put it under his finger as to why he doesn't always feel elated whenever he overcame another hurdle in boxing, whenever he would advance up another step in the ladder of a student athlete. He had thought it over during lectures and rolled it around in his mind on his way to practice or when walking away from school back to the dorm. He sometimes talked about it to Shinji, who did notice in the beginning, but even his longtime best friend's given examples could satisfy what the cause could be for this swirling, moving feeling that rests between his heart and stomach.
That was it.
He was not satisfied.
His life was on a track that didn't feel right for him, like somehow he missed something essential to his life. All that a normal teenager has strived for is already attained: the top boxer in his school, perfectly capable of beating even high school students; academic excellence; the enviable, horrifying way he attracts girls to his side. Aside from that hungry feeling for having a real family, he thinks he's capable of coping with being a ward of the state without much of the emotional problems that long-time orphans sometimes have. At least Shinji will be there for him, who may as well be family.
He has a respectable identity that he can live with.
But he needs more to live for.
The very reason why he wants to be the best in anything, whether it is at school, in the ring, or the various challenges that society and life forced onto him. He had promised so hard when he was a child to be strong, stronger than anybody, strong enough to protect the people that matter most. Strong enough so that he could fight off anyone who locked their hands on his shoulders and pulling him away from the person who needed him the most.
It was a strong, vague idea, like an epiphany, that led him to this way of life. It was as diaphanous as dark clouds and powerful enough to drive him. But the brief glimpse of his goal was as clear as the murky feelings of unrest inside him. No answer was provided to calm him, just as there was no answer as to what he should be strong enough for. For now, he was at the apex of his potential, with no ladder to climb higher and his sights focused back down on the steps that led him to this position.
Hiro waved a hand in front of Akihiko's face, jarring him from his thoughts.
"Earth to Senpai. You ok?"
"Oh. Yeah."
"Good. So then, back to earlier: are you ok?"
"…I'm fine."
Hiro looked doubtful. "Okaaay, but if you need someone to talk to, I'm always available. But it's fine if you don't need to."
"Thanks for the offer."
Hiro looked behind him at the sound of engines, and stuffed his hand into his backpack for his wallet as the bus came rumbling to the bus stop. Both he and Akihiko sat in the middle of the bus, with Akihiko looking out the window and Hiro whiling away the miles by texting. Akihiko stared dumbly out the window, thinking of many things and of nothing, and when he saw a vibrant red shirt flapping on a clothes line in someone's terrace, he thought he saw something similar earlier today but that memory became just another blurred image in his head.
There was a sudden screeching of the brakes, and the force of the stop shoved the two boys forward into the back of the chairs in front of them. Hiro cursed and rubbed his forehead tenderly, and exclaimed, "What happened? An accident?"
Hiro leaned his head out into the aisle, and other passengers craned their necks towards the large windshield to look for the source of the sudden stopping.
"Crap!" cursed the driver. "Crazy kid- is he drunk or something?!"
Akihiko raised himself up from his seat a little, and saw a partial body of someone standing in the middle of the road, looking up at the sky without a care in the world. He scowled. Something wasn't right with that kid. His arms dangled on his sides like limp noodles and his knees bent awkwardly together, as though his subconscious body was making an extreme attempt to feebly stand up. The driver honked his horn, but to no avail. The cars behind the bus turned and passed by the large vehicle, slowing down so they, too, could see the source of the obstruction.
"Hey," said Hiro. "That looks like Apathy Syndrome. My neighbor's kid has it, too, and he looks just like that guy over there."
Hiro settled back down into his seat and sighed.
"Guess this is the world we live in," he remarked as he texted his mother. "People just suddenly stop in the middle of the street and lost their minds."
Akihiko said nothing and looked out of the window. It was a quiet, late afternoon, with a mostly clear sky with a smattering of clouds. Birds chirped, and people walk on the sidewalk with appointments, friends, meetings and nothing on their minds.
And in all this peace, there was a ripple of unrest in this feeble, shell of a person blocking the road.
…You know, looking back at all this right now, I wonder if I made Akihiko too OOC. Like he's depressed or too thoughtful or something. Not that I don't think he's thoughtful, but I'm sure he's not the person who thinks that a business man has a wristwatch in his mind. This is my first OC with speaking lines, and I assure you all that he's only a plot device with little merit as a whole except as a person Akihiko can talk to and who's there in one point in the plot. His character came from when I was reading Catch-22 just recently. So many paradoxes… I do kind of take care to add a certain motif in my descriptions that are relevant to the characters, like symbolically, so I hope that it's somewhat noticed. At least that there's a certain theme in the chapters… So, please judge me harshly and give constructive criticism. Shinji will come up next chapter. And mentions of Mitsuru.
Ciao!
P. S. I'm thinking of having the service of a beta. Can any recommend me one?
