The First Day (Part 1)

'Awaken'

Souji woke to the sound of someone knocking on his door.

"Breakfast's ready." The muffled voice said through the door.

Groaning, Souji opened his eyes. Glancing at his clock he noticed that it was going to soon be time for him to go to school. Stretching his arms, Souji sat himself up from his futon. Yawning, he looked over towards the door. "I'll be right down!" He called back.

"Ok…" The voice replied, and Souji could hear the footsteps going down the stairs. Forcing himself up, Souji could feel weariness still tugging at his eyelids.

'Way to make a first day impression.' he mused to himself. 'First day of school and I'll already look like I'm falling asleep in class.'

Shrugging off the thoughts of the night before, Souji yawned again. Deciding to get ready, Souji crossed over to his duffel bag and began rummaging around for his clothes.

~O~

With his winter uniform on, Souji came walking down the stairs. Upon entering the living room and the adjoined kitchen/dining room, Souji saw that the kitchen table had been layed out with food already. What appeared to be an egg and some bacon were resting on a plate along with a piece of toast on its own plate next to it. Two glasses of water were also on the table.

From out of the kitchen, Nanako came walking out with her own plate of bacon and eggs gripped between her hands. Upon seeing Souji she greeted him kindly, "Good morning."

Souji nodded at her and smiled. "Good morning." Both of them then started towards the table, Souji sitting at the spot already set and Nanako taking the second chair across from his.

"Okay," Nanako said, still not entirely comfortable or use to someone else around besides her dad. "Let's eat."

Souji nodded and looked down at his plate. He looked back up at Nanako as he reached for a piece of bacon. "Did Dojima go to work already?" He asked, biting into the piece of bacon he had grabbed.

Nanako nodded solemnly. "There was some kind of trouble." She began, her voice taking a less cheery tone. "He won't be back."

"I see." Souji replied, finishing off the last bit of the bacon he held.

"You're starting school today, right?" Souji nodded at Nanako's question. "My school's on the way, so… let's go together."

Souji grinned. "Sure." Nanako seemed happy with his response and went on eating happily.

~O~

It was raining as the pair made their way along Inaba's flood plains. Souji and Nanako had been talking about the weather and how they both found the rain relaxing. After walking and talking for some time, Nanako stopped in the middle of the sidewalk.

"You keep going straight from here." She said, pointing down the street. Turning around, Nanako then pointed in the other direction "My school's this way. Bye." she said with a cheerful smile.

"Bye." Souji replied. "Be safe."

After Nanako left, Souji kept walking down the street as per her directions. It wasn't long before he could see the high school building just ahead of him. A few other students were also walking to school then. Looking around, Souji heard a noise that sounding like squeaking metal coming up behind him. Glancing behind him to see what it was, his reflexes were just fast enough for him to dodge out of the way as a student who was riding a bike came recklessly fast down the street.

"Whoa!" The student riding the bike exclaimed, as his wheels spun out on the slick pavement causing his steering to veer. With a loud crash, he and his bike crashed into a street light.

Souji, who had watched the whole thing happen walked up towards the guy. The student who had nearly crashed into him had medium length orange-brown hair and was dressed in the usual checkered collar, black school jacket. His left arm pinned his red backpack to his side as his hands were pressed to his knee. Souji could hear him groaning in pain.

'Ouch.' Souji almost felt bad for the guy. 'But he did almost crash into me… oh look, morning bell's about to ring. Guess I better hurry to class.'

Carefully walking around the injured student, Souji made his way up the hill and into the school's courtyard. Looking up at the three story classroom building, Souji took a moment to look around at his new surroundings.

'Guess school doesn't change much, no matter where you put it.'

Shrugging again, he made his way into the school.

~O~

Souji had walked from the faculty office with his new homeroom teacher up to the second floor and down the hall to the second classroom. In that small amount of time of a mere five or seven minutes, and with less than a few sentences of greeting spoken from the man, Souji knew one thing: he was going to hate this guy.

Just from how he looked, Souji had a bad feeling from the start. Mr. Morooka, as Souji learned was his name, was by every definition of the word, an unappealing person. Physically, the man's hair was grayed-black and thinning. His misaligned teeth extended out of his mouth in a severe overbite. Even the man's posture was terrible, his legs bowed and back hunched over.

Further, Souji took note of the man's sour disposition. His face, which was already in a perpetual scornful look twisted itself further into a scowl as he approached the new student. When the faculty teacher told him that Souji was from the city, the scowl deepened even further than Souji thought possible. Along with all his wrinkles of bitterness, Mr. Morooka had a massive vein that bulged on his forehead when he was upset, like just then.

But this wasn't the part that convinced Souji of his loathing to be. No, the part that did him in was the string of nasty and obscene remarks he made which stood as his greeting and introduction to the school the moment they left the faculty office. In those few moments of Mr. Morooka's short rant about the pain of transfer students, Souji knew that he was going to have one heck of a time keeping quiet.

Souji braced himself as the two walked into the class room. Inside, everyone was talking loudly and most hadn't noticed them enter. Mr. Morooka cleared his throat:

"Alright, shut your traps!" He barked, taking his spot standing behind the teaching podium. "I'm Kinshiro Morooka, your homeroom teacher from today forward!"

Souji noticed that the man seemed to be only able to talk in a loud demanding tone.

"First things first! Just 'cause it's spring break doesn't mean you can swoon over each other like love-struck baboons. Long as I'm around, you students are going to be pure as the driven snow."

Souji found himself shuffling awkwardly at the implication of Mr. Morooka's words. Taking some solace in the horrified faces of some of his fellow classmates, Souji tried his best to keep his stance firm.

"Now I hate wasting my time, but I'd better introduce this transfer student." Mr. Morooka made a violent gesture with his hand towards Souji. "This sad sack's been thrown from the big city out to the middle of nowhere like yesterday's garbage. Oh, and he's just as much of a loser here as he was there, so you girls better not get any ideas about hitting on him!"

Souji bit his lip at this. 'Look who's talking old man.'

"Tell 'em your name, kid, and make it quick."

Biting back his annoyance, Souji put on a charming smile and addressed the class. "My name is Souji Seta, it's nice to meet you all." As Souji spoke he looked around the classroom making eye contact with a handful of his students. On all their faces, past the looks of horror and resignation, was the gleam of curiosity. This one girl, who sat the back by the window managed to even give him a smile. Souji returned the smile by keeping eye contact with her a little longer before moving on.

"What's that look you're giving that girl back there by the window! You thought I wouldn't notice!" Mr. Morooka's sudden accusation startled Souji who couldn't help but look dumfounded at the man. Meanwhile, the girl in the back who was the second target of Mr. Morooka's accusation blushed brightly and quickly looked down. "Now listen up!" Mr. Morooka started, "This town is miles away from your big city of perverts. You better not even think of getting involved with the girls here, let alone abusing them!"

Mr. Morooka made a disgusted guttural noise. "But what do I know? It's not like the old days. Even here, kids grow up so damn fast." Mr. Morooka was making more violently hand gestures. "Every time I turn my back, your fooling around on those damn phones, checking your life-journals and you're my-places…"

As Mr. Morooka went on and on with his lecture he grew more and more into it. Souji couldn't help but be dumbstruck at the man's blatancy and audacity. Just as he felt himself opening his mouth to say something, a light brown haired girl wearing a green jacket who was sitting in the third row raised her hand.

"Excuse me!" She asked. "Is it okay if the transfer student sits here?"

"…and the only thing worse than all those "anime games" is all this "fan fiction" nonsense. In my day we wrote our own stories and… huh? Yeah, sure." Mr. Morooka stopped mid sentence and glared over at Souji. "Hear that? Your seat's over there." Before Souji could do so much as move a finger, Mr. Morooka chastised him again, "So hurry up and sit down already!"

Biting his tongue one last time, Souji made his way over to his seat next to the short haired girl who had raised her hand. As soon as he sat down, the girl leaned over and whispered to him.

"He's the worst, huh? Rotten luck for you to get stuck in his class." The girls tone changed to more hopeful, "Well, we'll just have to hang in there for a year."

Souji laughed dryly. "Guess so." As the girl leaned back over, he could hear the other students talking.

"Sucks to be the transfer student, ending up in King Moron's class on the first morning here…" A guy's voice said.

"Yeah, he won't think twice about suspending you if you get on his bad side." A whiny girl's voice replied. "Then again," she added, "we're all in the same boat…"

"Shut your traps!" Mr. Morooka's voice cut like a knife through the life in the room. Immediately everyone fell silent again. "I'm taking roll, and I damn well expect you to respond in an orderly manner!"

'Really could use those ear phones…'

~O~

After listening to Mr. Morooka's lectures on how things would work this year for several hours, Souji was nearly at his wits end. When Mr. Morooka had finally finished up and the final bell rang, Souji had never been so happy.

As Souji began collecting his things and other students around him were getting up and leaving the PA sounded.

"Attention, all teachers. Please report immediately to the Faculty Office for a brief staff meeting. All students must return to their classrooms and are not to leave the school until further notice."

Mr. Morooka groaned. "You heard the announcement. Don't go anywhere until you hear otherwise."

Without another word, Mr. Morooka left the room. As soon as the door closed the room broke out in conversation again.

"He's seriously getting on my nerves…" A girl who was standing next to Souji mumbled. Her and her friend continued complaining about Mr. Morooka for a while. Souji was just putting his notebook back in his case when the sound of sirens came from out side. Immediately, several guys ran over to the window.

"Did something happen? Don't those sirens sound really close?"

"Ugh, I can't see a thing. Frickin' fog…"

Souji tuned them out as soon as the conversation turned toward weather and then some announcer lady. In all honestly, he could care less about the weather or their local politics and he was well too use to the sound of sirens in the city. With all his stuff packed up, and nothing better to do, Souji leaned back in his chair and shut his eyes.

'Stupid dreams, interrupting my sleep…'

It wasn't long before the sound of the PA woke him from his dozing. Annoyed, Souji blinked his eyes back open.

"Attention, all students. There has been an incident inside the school district. Police officers have been dispatched around the School Zone. Please stay calm and contact your parents or guardians as soon as possible, and quickly leave the school grounds. Do not disturb the police officer's," the voice emphasized, "head directly home."

Immediately, one of the students excitedly stood up. "Incident!" As he raced out of the room, the students' conversations gradually started growing louder about what could of happened.

Shaking his head and musing at all the commotion, Souji stood up and grabbed his things. 'Guess nothing really does happen in these small towns if one incident causes such an uproar.'

"Hey, are you going home by yourself?" Souji realized the question was directed at him. Turning, he saw the girl who sat next to him and her friend, a girl with long black hair who wore a red cardigan, next to her. "Why don't you come with us?" She asked, putting on a cheerful smile.

Souji nodded. "Sure, why not?"

The girl nodded and seemed ready to start going, and then her eyes widened as she remembered her manners. "Oh, I nearly forgot! I'm Chie Satonaka. You know I sit next to you, right?" She asked carefully.

"Of course, as riveting as Mr. Morooka's lectures were I did have some spare time to notice you."

She laughed at his sarcasm. "Well, I'm glad you had time to look more than just at that girl back by the window." Laughing as Souji awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck, Chie quickly added, "I'm just joking! I seriously don't know what that guy's problem is."

"Ha yeah," Souji laughed. "I'm glad you raised your hand when you did though. If you didn't, who knows, I might've gotten myself expelled the first day." Souji flashed them both a charming smile. "Not the best first impression."

"You certainly would have been memorable. Like a true martial artist or samurai, rather going down than lose your pride." They both laughed. "Well, nice to meet you!" Chie looked towards her friend who had remained quiet the whole time. "Oh, this is Yukiko Amagi."

Yukiko seemed startled at suddenly being introduced. "Oh, nice to meet you… I'm sorry that this is so sudden…" Yukiko talked rather uncomfortably, as though she weren't use to doing much of it.

Chie looked at her friend and shook her head. "C'mon, don't apologize like that. It makes me look like I got no upbringing. I just wanted to ask some stuff." Chie looked back at Souji. "Really, that's all."

Souji laughed, he found the curiosity people had in him, well… curious. "Well I'll certainly try answering what I can, but perhaps we should get going?" With a gesture of his arm toward the door, Chie and Yukiko nodded and the trio started making their way to the door.

Before they even made it out of the aisle, however, a boy came up in front of them. Souji recognized him as the guy who almost crashed his bike into him earlier that morning.

"Uh, um, Miss Satonaka…?" He began, mumbling out his words. Souji saw that he held something that looked like maybe a DVD box in his hands. "This was really awesome. Like, the way they moved was just amazing to see…" Souji looked over at Chie who was eyeing the guy suspiciously. "And… I'm really sorry!" The guy stuck out the case to Chie and bowed his head. "It was an accident! Please just have mercy until my next paycheck!"

Confused, Chie slowly grabbed the box out of his hands. Before she had a chance to do anything with it, the guy quickly spoke again:

"Uh, see ya, thanks!"

Just as he was rushing out to leave, Chie chased him down. "Wait! What did you do to my DVD!"

Souji looked at Yukiko quizzically, but she only returned him the look. A cry of pain from the red haired guy captured Souji's attention and he looked over to see what had happened. The guy was hunched over in pain and Chie was looking inside the DVD case with a horrified look on her face.

"What the! I can't believe this!" Chie sounded both upset and angry. "It is completely cracked… My Trial of the Dragon…!"

"I think mine's cracked too…" The guy groaned. "Critical hit to the nads…"

Souji rolled his eyes and smirked. Yukiko however seemed concerned about him and asked, "A-are you all right?"

The guy seemed to forget about his pain momentarily, looked up with what looked like hope in his eyes. "Oh, Yukiko-san… Are you worried about me?"

Chie turned to Yukiko, still full of bitterness about her DVD. "He's fine, Yukiko. Let's ditch him and go home."

With that, Chie put the case back in her backpack and her and Yukiko both left the room. Souji stayed a moment longer, seeing the other guy writhe in what he could imagine a lot of pain.

"I-I, uh…" Souji licked his lips uncomfortably. Without another word, Souji decided to leave him be and follow the two girls out.