"Imaginary Friend"

Characters: 'Mr. Koro'; Unknown child

--

In one of the darkest slums in an unknown country, there was a little boy.

He was a poor little kid, with messy raven hair that reaches his nape, dark sunken eyes, and thin frame due to malnutrition. He was shorter that kids his age, and he was very dirty. He was wearing tattered clothes, and no slippers.

He never knew his real name and birthday, for he was already abandoned by his parents when he was still a toddler. He was currently staying in dark alleys with his 'friends', who were street children like him.

He is living in a world where food is scarce, but corruption and poverty run rampant.

Trust and love never existed here, betrayal and survival is.

After all of what he had experienced, he is still happy because he had a friend that he could trust even terms of struggle. What's weird about his friend is it was actually non-human and imaginary.

"You know, little child, you must know that stealing is not a good idea," his imaginary strange friend had said in the child's native language, his tentacles slithering as he walked with the poor child, who was eating bread he stole from a bakery.

"I am already hungry, Mr. Koro, and besides I needed to collect money so I could buy some food later," the child replied, stomach rumbling as if to agree with him. It seems that the bread wasn't enough for him, so he looked around for possible victims to steal.

His imaginary friend, Mr. Koro, sighed and shook his round head as he looked around the place. It was a terrible world for a child, but Koro can't even help the little kid, even though he is considered 'unkillable' by anyone. He can't interfere, he can't even touch anything. He was like a disembodied spirit still stuck on the living plane. All he had only to do is to guide the poor child in front of him.

"Well, if you say so..."

--

The child, now on his preteens, had killed his first victim, because he was tasked by a rich man to kill someone.

He had looked at his hands, and it was dripping blood.

It was the blood from his first victim.

Mr. Koro just looked at him with wistful and sad eyes as he saw the teen wiped the blood from the knife on his hands, "You know, you could stop it now. Killing a person is not worth it."

The teen just laughed maniacally and looked at his friend, "But killing makes me earn more money, Mr. Koro! And besides...the blood, the murder...it was enjoyable!"

Mr. Koro never approved of what the teen had said, "No, it is not. It was worse, and even you can earn money in that kind of business, you will be hunted by the rest of your life? Don't you want that?!" he exclaimed, face starting to turn purple.

"This world is cruel, Mr. Koro, and I would rather be involved in this than to be hungry and poor once again. Besides, if you are killed, you die. It is a logic that I learned in this horrible place I had called home. So just be proud of me! You are just a figment of my imagination!" the teen screamed, trying to swipe the knife on Mr. Koro.

Mr. Koro warned him about the future of the teen's job of being an assassin, and his dark fate, but the stubborn teen wouldn't listen and just screamed for Mr. Koro to get out of his life.

He was busy basking on the luxury of wealth using bloody means.

Mr. Koro just looked at the teen with a regretful stare, before fading away, forever.

--

Many years after, Koro-sensei thought of his childhood days. He had remembered his imaginary friend who guided him, but he never appreciated and listened.

After being betrayed by his apprentice did he realized his imaginary friend's warning about his future.

And when he saw himself for the first time after the tentacles grant his wishes to be weak, and Kaede Kayano had given him his current name did he realize this one fact.

"I...was warned by...myself..."

Koro-sensei paled at the thought.

"Mr. Koro...was me all along."

--

Prompt:

You are your younger self's imaginary friend.

--

A/N: Yo! Here is the ninth drabble in this series!Well, I kinda narrate about some of Koro-sensei's childhood in here, using some snippets of canon-based facts. I just made a plot story, using the prompt as a base, then this drabble was born!Yes, Mr. Koro was Koro-sensei's spirit, who came from the future to be his younger self's 'guardian angel'. But considering how stubborn the young Sensei was in the story, he have a hard time convincing his younger self.So do you like it? Leave a review on the review section, and don't forget to favorite and follow for more updates!