A FATEFUL BUMP?
Beep-Beep-Beep!
... ... ...
"Urgh ..." He murmured to himself, trying to fight the urge to sleep for five more minutes.
"Why do these things have to make sound right when the dream reaches its full peak?!" He complained about the situation in his mind. "I was having so much fun with Obama on that Chevrolet Impala in the middle of the pacific ocean!"
Taking great care not to destroy his cell phone as a result of that, he turned off his alarm, - the part of the song Rap God where the rapping goes zoom - being awakened by it, he immediately jumps out of bed, organizing the place and right away making his way down the stairs, as he did every day.
But when he finally reached the bottom floor, he realized a reality that was not considered until then ... It was as if an epiphany had hit him. He pressed his right hand against the forehead, his palm hitting the skull hard as his eyes widened.
"I'm in Japan ...! Oh my God...! I'm in the other side of the world...!" He spoke a little too loudly.
Realizing that he had raised his tone unnecessarily, young Michael (aka Mike) tried to cover his mouth with extreme speed. He feared he woke up one of the residents.
"Did I screw up everything already ...? Are they going to kick me out right away?" He wondered, trying to get rid of his epiphany.
Taking quick breaths and with little space between them, he tried to calm himself down until reaching a heartbeat pace closer to normal. The boy stayed there for a few more seconds, until ...
"Michael-san ...? What are you doing?" A voice from the hall called out to him. Instinctively, Mike turned around, noticing the person there, looking at him in a somewhat questioning way.
"Oh ... Raiha-san ... I ... I was just thinking for a bit ..." He replied, trying to straighten his posture. "Good Morning."
She respectfully returned the greeting, lowering her head slightly, keeping a small smile, which Mike could tell was a little forced. Fake smiles make use of a different set of muscles - he could identify it due to the lack of eye wrinkles.
"Good morning, Michael-san ... What were you thinking about?" She asked.
"Ah ... I ... I just hadn't absorbed the information that I'm on the other side of the globe ... I was a little scared when I 'found out' that I was in Japan. That was it ... Sorry if I was scared you."
She just smiles again, lovingly. But, he could feel the negative weight on that gesture. Raiha was strongly forcing that emotion display.
"I know it's not good to press that kind of thing ... Maybe I can discover something with time and subtlety." Mike thought, looking at the girl with the broken smile.
That image still did not escape his head - Raiha looking so sadly at a piece of paper that she soon hid when discovered ...
"What would be in that thing?" The boy asked himself.
To break the silence that had been there, Mike looked around, taking a deep breath, to adopt a more positive and smiling posture.
"Where's Mr. Isanari at? Hasn't he woken up yet? " He asked, trying to change the focus of the dialogue.
Raiha seemed to walk back a little and find it difficult to answer, stuttering slightly, but soon spoke about her father.
"Dad is asleep, but he'll wake up in not too long."
"Got it ... So, what were you doing up so early? Is it that you are the house cook?"
With a quiet nod, she proceeded to walk towards the place.
Mike decided to follow Raiha to the kitchen. On the way, however, he kept an eye on the architecture of the house and its decoration, noting that it was a very beautiful and comfortable place. There was an unknown kanji on a kind of panel over there, one that he couldn't read.
But the biggest surprise was the observation he made when looking more carefully at a corner of the living room. There, there was a kind of photo collection, all of which seemed to belong to the Uesugi family.
In addition to Raiha and Isanari, there were two other people to be seen, a woman and a child, who grew up to become a quasi-man as seen in the different photos.
A writing could be read there. Underneath one of the photos, there was a white inscription, which read Uesugi Fuutarou in hiragana.
"Who would this Fuutarou be?" That detail caught the attention of Mike, who asked himself, mentally.
The boy named Fuutarou was in most of the photos. A messy-haired teenager who should have been about the same age as Mike. His brown eyes were partly covered by the haircut, but still, vibrantly visible.
Just by looking at him, Michael concluded that the atmosphere given by the images was that of a highly responsible and committed person.
However, there was that one detail ...
"This boy ... He is not in the composition of the Uesugi family ... Why?"
He was absent from the photos and records provided by the staff of the exchange program for some reason. Uesugi Fuutarou had been completely forgotten in the process.
... Or is it that...?
"What happened to this guy ...?"
Raiha realized that Mike had stopped to look at Fuutarou's portraits. She quietly approached him, and coming to his side, said.
"My brother looks amazing, doesn't he?"
Somewhat surprised by the sudden voice, he was slightly startled, but soon recovered from that shock, asking.
"Is that your brother, Raiha-san? Why isn't he here? " He asked, without taking his eyes off the pictures.
... Only to be answered with several seconds of pure silence ... That made him understand the meaning of the words so possibly painful that he let slip.
"I ... I'm sorry, Raiha-san ...! I ... I don't know what I was thinking when I asked that in such a way ...! " He tried to apologize, seeing the little girl's slightly drooping face.
... and received another broken smile in return ...
"That's okay ... You didn't know, Michael-san ..." She took a large amount of breath, as if she were about to cry, but wanted to contain the feeling deep inside.
Raiha stopped for a few seconds, looking at the direction of her brother's photos. Mike only managed to watch in surprise as the little girl's eyes filled with a nostalgic light.
"My brother was amazing ... The best big brother any girl could ever have! He always told me about the fun stories he lived, about the things he saw and learned, about the people he appreciated ... My brother was second to none ...! He has been my main pillar of support since our mother died. "
She took a few seconds to stare at the room, eyes almost dancing while exploring.
"We even bought this house with the money he made as a tutor! Now we have much more space and comfort!"
"So he was a tutor, huh? That can only mean he was very inteligent. To be able to buy this house..." He stated, thoughtful of her situation.
"Yes, he was... My brother was the best...! ... But then..."
She took some more air as her voice started to crack. Mike knew what was coming, and soon tried to intervene.
"Raiha-san ... You don't have to tell me what happened if you don't want to. I just got here, I'm still a stranger, so you don't have an obligation to do that. " He tried his best to make her understand that she was not being coerced into saying anything.
Raiha shook her head sideways, smiling a little more genuinely. Two trails of tears streamed down the little girl's face.
"Daijoubu ... You don't have to worry about that." She said. "My brother ... He was killed ..." She stopped talking, giving in to a few tears.
At that moment, Mike's curiosity became greater than his care about Raiha's condition, and he found himself compelled to keep revolving around the topic.
"Killed..." He unconsciously repeated the words, staring at the floor.
"It was during a trip to Kyoto six months ago, one that he was so happy about... But apparently..." She became a little more emotional with each word. "Apparently some irresponsible driver decided that it would be a good day to drink too much and kill him...!"
Noticing how heavily she started crying, he quickly tried to help somehow.
"I ... I'm sorry, Raiha ... I shouldn't have even asked in the first place."
That was ugly, terrible, unforgivable. The act of taking someone's life... It was the most absolute cruelty one could ever commit... The act of killing someone can bring true disgust to his soul. No one has the right to decide who is to live or die.
"I hope you are in a better place now, Uesugi Fuutarou."
"But ... Your brother really was amazing, huh?" Something led him to say that. Changing of focus is what that conversation needed.
"Yes. He was ... "She smiled. "Thanks for understanding how amazing he was, Michael-san."
"She is ... Thanking me ...?" Mike thought, thinking about the situation a little oddly.
Mike thought that Raiha might just be being a good person, and for that she thanked him. But now, he could see ... A wider and more genuine smile has made its way through the little girl's tears.
"I guess that's a win." He smiled to himself, thinking.
Mike turned forward, admiring the various pictures that were there, and taking a breath, raised a hand to his chin, saying.
"I don't know what it's like to have a brother ... I mean, I have one, but he doesn't live with me ... But I always imagined that having someone to help, protect and serve as a model of life must be something incredible. . "
"Do you have a brother, Michael-san?" Raiha asked, a little more fearlessly.
"Yeah. He's ten years older than me ... A nice guy and all, but in the long run, he's not much more than a distant relative in terms of familiarity ... So, I don't know exactly what that means. " He said. "But, I think I can empathize with that feeling, Raiha-san. Everyone needs a hero, and it is extremely fortunate to find that in a brother. Someone to protect you, to serve as the best example ... That must be something very beautiful. "
... ... ...
"... Yes...!" For the first time, a real smile took over Raiha's face.
/
It was quite early, so Mike proposed to use the place's kitchen to make lunch. He didn't like the idea of having to rely on the cafeteria food, so the master chef decided to make his own portion. Amid the pots and pans, with the sounds of water and oil heating, the two made the kitchen their space.
"Hey, Raiha-san ... Want to see something cool?" Michael asked, looking at the little girl who was placing plates on the table, anticipating the arrangement for breakfast.
"What is it?" She questioned him, shifting the focus of his attention.
"... This!"
He tries to turn the pancake he was making in mid-air. A risky maneuver, which does not give an exactly positive result ... For very little, Mike does not let the dough escape from the pan when it is time to get it back it.
"Okay ... That almost went very poorly. But it's done! I'm the pancake king ... In making! " He flashed a silly, awkward smile. "Although, let's not get too ahead of ourselves..."
Raiha laughed at that almost gaffe. Her laughter was intense enough to force the young girl to cover her mouth with the right hand. Mike celebrated that victory, as talking about Fuutarou apparently made her feel a little better with the whole situation.
Mike would never even plan to try something to replace Fuutarou in the heart of Raiha, but he would live with these people for two years, so it would be much better to forge the best possible relationship with them.
"That was pretty silly ...!" She replied, still laughing a little. "My brother would be yelling at you for trying!"
"I assume so ...!"
From what he heard, Fuutarou appeared to be the serious and diligent type. He was studious, responsible and always thought about the future of his family.
"I would never match this guy ...!" Contrary to what it might seem, Mike was actually happy to be a different person from Fuutarou.
Although he is still one of the best students in his class in Brazil, Michael was still a long way from being highly committed to his studies. The fact is, he was just given an IQ high enough to make it possible for him to remember anything with only a few readings and some skimming. A pure result of luck in the genetic lottery.
In fact, he was somewhere between the "sage" and the "joker" in the group of friends, sometimes acting mature and wise as an old man, but in other moments being playful as a child - most of the time, the halfway between both, just like in the moment.
Diligent when he had to be, but not always. Playful when he had to be, but not always.
"Balanced, as all things should be." He thought, keeping "sage" and "joker" at equal possession of his mental pizza graph.
"I better stop trying to do that, though. This could have gone downhill very quickly ... " The thought of having to clean the entire place of sticky pancake dough was terrifying.
"I agree with that ...!"
In the end, they had breakfast and Mike ended up leaving just before Isanari woke up. The uniform was happily thick enough to protect him from the merciless Japanese cold ... Actually, it wasn't that cold - it was just his habit of living in a tropical land that made him feel that way.
Leaving through the door, he was greeted by the calm and peaceful neighborhood roads ...
"This place is really beautiful ... It will take me a while to get used to a view like this ...!"
He looked up, noticing the sun rising a little higher on the horizon every second. In all his life, Michael had never seen such a beautiful sunrise.
"Well, time to start walking ...!"
He knew the direction to the school, since they passed there on the way back from the airport. Isanari indicated the great building on the right side of the path they took during the short trip. It wasn't far enough for him to forget that.
Immediately, he started walking through the streets, enjoying every single detail, from the different trees - which by the way were close to blooming - to the architecture of each building ... Everything was new and mesmerizing, and by every moment the realization that he was really in Japan hit him with a little more force.
"Oh ...! A real ramen store ...! " He pointed, saying a little too enthusiastically.
... And with that, he received several stares from the people who were walking down the street at that moment ... making him extremely embarrassed with the development of the situation.
"Yeah ... I gotta tone all that suprise down for a bit ..."
For the rest of the walk, Mike tried not to make any comments about the things he saw, instead, he just watched.
In a short time, he arrived at the school. But the lack of amazement comments wasn't enough to stop the stares ... Japanese students looked at him constantly, and Mike soon realized that there was not much to do but ignore.
"Eh ... All this attention ... Maybe I'll start to feel slightly agoraphobic ..."
Not realizing where he was going, he ended up feeling an impact hitting his body laterally ... Mike almost fell with that, but managed to maintain stability, just dropping some of his things, which he carried in a plastic folder. The same could not be said of the person who bumped into him, however ...
"Ow, ow, ouch..." She said, holding her head as she looked down.
"I'm terribly sorry for that ...! Are you okay? Did you happen to get hurt? " He immediately tried to kneel to help the girl to get up.
"Ah ... I'm okay ... I didn't get hurt. Thanks for your concern! " She said, looking him in the eye.
Absurdly beautiful. There was no other term to describe her. Light-colored, red hair that ran in a short cut to the sides of her head, forming a cut that denoted supreme innocence and childishness. She wore a green ribbon with two ends up, which held the strands of hair together.
Blue eyes like a summer's day sky, and a presence that in itself would make anyone feel supernaturally compelled to worship her as a deity.
"I didn't mean to bump into you. Sorry again, I wasn't being attentive to my surroundings. " Mike politely extended a hand towards the girl, trying to be as formal as possible and not stutter.
She accepted the help, and in one strong move, she was elevated by the exchange student. With that, she took a more appropriate view of his face.
"That's okay! ... Uhm ... Are you one of the exchange students, mister?"
"I guess that's easy to see, huh? Yeah. All this Japan stuff is still strange to me ... If you see me walking around like i'm drunk, it's because of that ... My head is spinning like a disco ball! " Mike said, as he kneed to pick up the stuff that was dropped. Paper went everywhere with their impact.
She laughed a little at that, pressing her bag against her chest to suppress the light laughs. In said bag, there were the numbers "428" in large size. Shortly thereafter, she also kneeled down to help gather documents and papers.
"Thank you. It feels like I'm just causing you trouble today ... I think I better go now. Thanks for the help, and again, I'm sorry for any inconvenience."
Michael prepared to head towards the place where there will be a meeting to receive students from the exchange program. In such a meeting, they will learn how the school itself works, the schedules of everything, and the like. Attendance was absolutely important, as such documents would be delivered there.
Not to mention that the time when this would happen was close ...
"Let's go now, huh?"
"Wait!" Said the girl, drawing his attention completely. "You forgot this!"
She held out a characteristic sheet of paper in her direction. Such a sheet was his school record, which contained all the compiled grades he had taken in all his years as a student. Most of his grades were something in the between of 9s and 10s - which count directly as their 90 and 100 counterparts in Japan.
"Oh! Thank you!" Not knowing what to say, Mike just thanked her.
"Your welcome!" She smiled brightly. "And by the way ... You are quite the smart one, Silva-san! You must be very proud of your grades!"
He immediately assumed that she should have read his name on that document, but before Michael could say anything else, she was already far away, waving back as she ran.
"Ah ... Damn ... I couldn't ask her name ...!" The boy regretted, arranging his hair a little and removing a few droplets of "nervous sweat" from his forehead. "But this..."
He crouched down, picking up a small object that she had possibly dropped at some point, a kind of red tube with kanji characters.
"I will have to hand this back to her ... But what class will she be attending?"
At the moment, it didn't matter ... Most of all because he was supposed to attend the reception meeting. Seeing that there was not enough time to continue thinking, he started walking, putting the unknown girl's object in his pocket.
"Ahh ... I am really looking forward to hearing a guy talk in Japanese for one hour straight about boring stuff ..." He tried to expel the tiredness of the trip, which was still over his entire being, somehow. "Is it now that my life as an anime protagonist begins?"
Saying this as a joke, Michael Silva entered the meeting room. Entering there, he realized that there was really only his empty seat there, and that all the other students in the exchange program had already arrived.
"Eh ... It looks like I'm really the last ..."
Trying to expel the embarrassment of being the last to arrive, the Brazilian student walked with his head down to the space between two students, sitting there. Each chair had a flag in small size, and that should be occupied by the student who came from the country indicated by it.
Taking the Brazilian flag, Mike sat between the students who represented the United States and the Netherlands, two boys just like him, who smiled, each in his own way, also equally unprepared to attend this meeting.
AUTHOR NOTES
Six Months Before - Uesugi Fuutarou died after being ran over by a bus in Kyoto. The driver was drunk and lost control over the vehicle, killing other two and gravely wounding four people, causing immense damage to nearby commercial properties in the process.