"Why couldn't they fix this blasted air conditioner? It's sweltering hot in here.." I complained, sweat drops dripping down my face as the sun filtered into the windows of the classroom. The young man with blonde dark hair sat at the front of the class on his desk, blue eyes staring at the surface of his desk.
He wore slate-colored coat over the main uniform of the school, and long slate jeans underneath. Foaming glasses at his face from the humidity in the air. "I'm pretty sure it's not the air conditioner, mate. It's the fact that they force us to wear this long coat atop of our uniform, how ridiculous is that?"
To the young man's right is another classmate, yet taller than anybody else in the classroom. Crumpled coat as he sat atop the desk, he wore no glasses and atop of his head a dark grey hair that sets him apart from everyone in the class. However, his amber eyes strikes close and seems cheerful enough and yet he is what his hair resembles.
"I think it's both, Caesar." mumbled the shorter young man, rubbing at his eyes as he waited for the break to end and get back to studying. Caesar rolled his eyes, exasperated, "Have you ever thrown away that coat in class anyway? That's how I know."
The young man rolled his eyes back at his clear friend, Caesar, and said, "If I did that, I would probably get suspended for a week. I have no intention to miss out any knowledge." The lips of Caesar twitched, as it is unsurprising for his friend to say that. "Always the searcher of knowledge, are you?"
"Obviously." He remarked.
"Oi, you two." A soft voice sounded from the midst and we turned our heads that way, seeing the ever-familiar face of our friend. The face that would resemble aristocracy back in the middle age, but as ever, he is our friend. Dark straight hair, brown eyes wearing glasses, an average height and just above the short young man. As expected, he seems to be as sweating as we do.
"Have you heard of Touhou 18 coming out next week?" And our steadfast weeb in our group, but the short young man would not say it as he would be accused to be a hypocrite. He is much worse after all. "Really? Any sneakpics of the playable characters?" said the young man with interest to his friend.
"Sheesh, still a weeb, are you, Michael?"
"What was that, closet man?!"
I stared bemused at their growing argument, throwing insults each turn and yet never hurting each other. It was no secret to my friend, that I would be called a hypocrite as I admire the fictional lady of the story that will never exist. Remilia Scarlet. Call me a simpleton, if you wish to.
At my friends insistence to go out and eat, I finally gave in and stood near a stand eating meatballs from small-sized bowls mixed with noodle. I am no expert in cuisine, but that is what I would say upon seeing it. I took a swig from the cold water bottle from the table, letting the cold cover my throat.
"Speaking of assignment, have you finished yours yet?" The both voices of my friends came filtering into my ears as I leaned back onto the chair, I looked up at their curious eyes. "Which one?" I inquired, closing the water bottle with the cap.
"The database program?" My lips quirked, if you had asked anyone that question — they would look away in shame and say that they have not finished it yet. Call it a brag, but I am the smartest person in the school to ever stumble upon computer programming. "Yeah, but I haven't uploaded It yet. I needed to complete a few bugs from the program." My friend, Michael, sighed in admiration as he laid his head down onto the table.
"That much under four days..?"
"I'm sure you will get faster in time, Michael."
"When hell freezes, I'm sure." said Caesar sarcastically. In a specialized school like this, it's a sure-fire for a student to be expelled when their score drops below what is needed to graduate. Despite being enrolled to computer studies, both of my friends are quite capable in a way and they work hard to keep their score above seventy-five in programming.
Michael is specialized in strategy and political word-play, as much as expected from an aristocratic face that he wears on his face. My other friend, Caesar, is specialized in the physical world and social studies. By physical world, it means that he is incredibly interested in the arts of fencing, sports, and other stuffs related to physicality of the human body.
On the other hand, I reach one-hundred percent in language — both in computer and socially, I find it somewhat easy to imagine the words working in my imagination, the programs that I build… It's like being a real-life debugger or at least a compiler. I have no love for sports and would rather relax in a forest somewhere.
The bell rung loudly, and I snapped out of my thoughts and paid the man the required amount to buy the food. Suddenly I felt nauseous, as if something tugged at my heart and told me not to go that way. Normally, I would trust my gut that something would happen nearby..
But this time, I made an exception. Not that I am an idiot looking for danger, but every teenager my age will have that thought to forge on thinking that they will beat any foes in their way. Looking at my friends, it seems that they do not feel that tug in their heart to not go that way.
"By the way.." Suddenly, something rather ridiculous happened.
Explosions rattled the entirety of the school, shattered debris flew into the yard of the school and I was forced to hold myself standing while my friends stumbled onto the floor. Most of the wanderers in the school could stand by themselves and some did not.
"What was that?!" Michael both shouted and coughed, waving the dust from the explosions away. Two— no, four men came out of the remnant smoke of the explosion and each wielding weapons of death. Firearms, which should be impossible to get unless they did steal them?
"Shit! They're terrorists!" One of my classmates hissed, horrified of what he is witnessing and taking apart in this mess. The so-called terrorists gestured something to the troops, or rather comrades and they spread out, approaching us. "Fuck.. Fuck, no!" Caesar started to rapidly crawl backwards, struggling to stand.
The man gestured something as he stopped in front of us, pointing downwards and realization quickly came to me. He was demanding us to kneel and offer our hands, possibly to be bound.. Are we being ransomed or rather held as hostage? "What's he's saying?" Michael hissed to me, and I looked at him desperately.
"Kneel, he said." I said as I bent my knees slowly to the ground as to not aggravate the man, on the corner of my eyes I see somebody planning to recklessly do something. I inhaled sharply through my teeth, normally, I would not be this reckless and suicidal.
But for this once, I think I would draw their attention away from my struggling classmates. With newfound determination and energy, I stood up immediately and startling my friends behind me as I punched the man in front of me in the face with my right hand and the next to his neck with my left hand. Naturally, it hurts so much that I wonder how Caesar did it.
Surprisingly, the man stumbled backwards with his eyes widened in surprise. From his belt, I snatched out a knife and immediately drove the knife forward to his throat. The man tried to dodge out of the way, but it was too late and blood gurgled out of his mouth as he fell backwards.
Satisfaction and shock fills my entire being, shattered by the fact that I successfully killed a man — despite the fact that he is an enemy and would have done it anyway to me. But this was not the time to feel guilty. I grabbed the handgun from his hand, and aimed it towards the men from across the yard.
A flash of white and agonizing pain ripped the gun away from my hands, throwing itself away from me several meters away. I looked down and saw the spreading blood around my chest, "W-what.." I fell backwards to the ground, trying to breath slowly and not panic.
Definitely not panicking at all. "You fucking idiot! What the hell were you doing?" A sharp pain jolted from my head as I saw my friend above me with his fist raised, and to my right my other friend with a shocked expression.
The upcoming death in my life is unstoppable, I felt blood being drained out of the wound in my chest. It clearly has punctured my vital organ but fortunately not the lungs, only the blood vessels perhaps. I could hear the terrorists laughing in the background, while I was here trying not to die and failing.
"Fucking hell, Caesar, could you make something with your cloth!?" hissed Michael desperately, his hands clutched in mine to be more painful than I thought it would be. The other friend glared in despair, both self and to myself. "If it was a limb wound, yes!"
"I don't think it's possible with our knowledge, Michael.." I hoarsely said, trying to not move my body to conserve energy from depleting and leading to the inevitable death. "There's not even a single professional in medicals in this school.." Caesar gulped, tears seemed to come out unwillingly despite forcing it to not.
"Why would you do that, mate?" Caesar sighed, wiping his eyes as his hands comes loose from the sleeves of his uniform. Knowing that it will be impossible to even try to heal the wound on my chest. "Had to redirect attention, you know?" I chuckled, and ended up regretting it. It hurts, more than anything.
"Hey, Chris?" asked Michael with a gritted teeth, his eyes glaring at the captors in the yard who were cuffing each person from our school with their stolen goods. "Yeah?" I answered, tilting my head to look at him.
"If the afterlife is real, what would you wish for?" The words that made the realization of death even more terrible and peaceful at the same time, such cruel words… making me wish that I would not have struggled. But my wish is somewhere else though.
"Isn't it obvious, though? I want to be reincarnated." Michael snickered at the fact even in death, I will be the same as Michael. "Heh, let's hope that it won't be a monkey's paw, eh?" he said teasingly. A terrible thought slipped into my mind, what if the country declined the ransom or even ignored us as hostages?
I shook my head mentally, don't linger on the what-ifs yet when you haven't seen how bad it is on the outside. "I haven't tried that Touhou game even.." I mumbled, as if I was pouting and not at the edge of death. "Chris, you're an idiot." groaned Caesar as he wiped his eyes with his sleeves.
My life is not that fancy honestly, I was born into peaceful times as much others did. Fed and with a roof atop my head, it's almost lucky that I get to experience the world of technology. In another universe somewhere, perhaps, there is one that did not get born lucky.
I closed my eyes. Death is lulling me to eternal sleep, and I couldn't really ignore it any longer. The voice of frantic voices faded from the sea of blackness. But in the midst of that blackness, a scarlet flash enveloped my eyes and faded slowly.