Chapter Three: Everybody's Fool
Fire spread through the doors of a local school. The bright red tide of rampaging destruction burst in and traveled in a straight path at Touji Suzuhara. It stopped for nothing; Touji knew this as well as anyone could and stared on in terror as the mouth below the flames opened up.
"What are you looking at, you pervert!?"
Touji wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, but he still knew when to keep away from Asuka. She had a pretty short fuse, almost as if her red hair was burning down to its base to make her explode and take out the entire school. As appealing as that thought was to Touji (the no school part, not the no Touji part), he knew that a blast of another kind was coming soon.
"Oh, hey, Asuka!" he said, backing up hastily. "And how are you?"
"Don't talk to me, you idiots!" she yelled to everyone (and no one, really). Asuka was like that. Her mind would be spoken, her opinion would be heard, and if you were near her, you would be deaf soon after.
"That good, huh?" he mumbled as he slid into the desk next to a friend. "Hey, you hear that?"
Kensuke nodded, chuckling to himself. "Everyone heard that. Part of her charm, I suppose."
"Her charm?" scoffed Touji. "She doesn't even know the meaning of the word."
"Then how is she always surrounded by her adoring public?" Kensuke pointed out the usual crowd of students milling busily around their Queen. "Look at that. Fans everywhere. The girls want to be like her, the guys just want her. And you say she has no charm?" He smiled and shook his head in mock disappointment. "For shame."
Perfect by nature
Icons of self-indulgence
Just what we all need
More lies about a world that
Never was and never will be
Have you no shame, don't you see me?
You know you've got everybody fooled
"Whoa there," chided Touji. "You almost sound like you're impressed. You aren't going for her, are you?"
"Yes, Touji," deadpanned Kensuke. "I'm madly in love with Asuka. We're going to get married and start a family in the suburbs. I'm buying a minivan."
"Take it back!" yelled Touji, almost in pain at this point. "My ears! They burn!"
Kensuke smacked his cringing coworker upside the head. "Hey, cut that out. You know I'd never fall for someone like that. Sure she's a babe. Sure I could go for it at any time. But come on, we've both seen her during her more evil days, and that is not the sort of thing I'd want to have to deal with all the time. Poor Shinji...he can never get away from her. Then again, he lives near her bedroom..."
Whack. "Kensuke? Don't smack me."
Look here she comes now
Bow down and stare in wonder
Oh, how we love you
No flaws when you're pretending
A shadow fell over their desks. "What are you two morons doing?" sighed Asuka.
"Talking about you. Now beat it," replied Touji.
The fuse smoldered.
"Um, Touji?" said Kensuke. "Run."
Ignition.
"And stay out!" yelled Asuka, slamming the classroom door behind them. She ran her fingers through her hair, restoring it to its natural non-flammable state, and returned to the group of her friends. Ah, friends, she thought. Where would I be without them? Probably out in the hallway with those social rejects. But that's not for me. I have everything. And that's just the way I like it.
A glass-framed eye peered through a crack in the door and, along with its look-alike friend, rolled furiously.
But now I know she
Never was and never will be
You don't know how you've betrayed me
And somehow you've got everybody fooled
The rest of the day passed without further incident. As their parrot stopped earning his name (for how could he be a teacher if all he did was repeat what he had heard before, blindly and without question?) and the harshly soothing tones of the bell rang out, the horde quickly gathered around its precious ruby and escorted her out the door. They met the street and scattered; all except for a few of those wonderful friends left her for the comfort of their own homes. Eventually the last of them departed and Asuka the Great was left to close the distance between herself and her home alone.
Both the door and her eyes opened; both the door and her eyes closed. Only the latter began to flood. Her pace quickened toward her room, her refuge. As that final barrier clicked into place behind her she collapsed on to her bed and sobbed.
Outside, in the hallway, the ever-quiet Shinji stood and listened to the other half of the fresh tears staining the carpet.
Without the mask
Where will you hide?
Can't find yourself
Lost in your lie
A feeling of revulsion swept through the Third Child, incomparable to anything except what had happened that afternoon. Then it hit him too; the two waves of nauseating pain urged him to seek relief in the usual place. Moments later his head hit the pillow, but instead of emptying into his accustomed nothingness, it filled with the dull throb of feeling that which you wish you didn't. His housemate was a disgusting fraud, the mother of all fakes, and she couldn't admit it even to herself; meanwhile, the only person he had ever harbored real emotion for had left in tears. So much pain. And for what?
I know the truth now
I know who you are
And I don't love you anymore
It never was and never will be
You don't know how you've betrayed me
And somehow you've got everybody fooled
Asuka's face burrowed deeper into her pillow. Trying to shut out the loneliness by keeping everyone that could remind her of it away...it couldn't work, and she knew that; nonetheless, in her mind it was the only way to survive.
You call this survival? she asked no one. I'm drowning in my own tears, terrified of what the world holds for me and too scared to face the reality I've created for myself. This isn't survival. I'm not even alive. I shouldn't be. I should end it all and just escape. That's the only way out. But I can't. I just can't. Dammit.
She choked back another wave of sorrow and burrowed deeper, deeper into the darkness of her soul.
Never was and never will be
Not for real and you can't save me
And somehow now you're everybody's fool.