So it was that Shinji became acquainted with the Sanada siblings. Because he had saved her that day, Miki immediately deemed him worthy of her praise and cheer, breaking down the shy barrier that existed between her and all the other children; Akihiko accustomed himself to the brunette just as well, while Shinji returned his own rough, awkward, albeit well-meant friendship. He was different from what they were used to. Getting to know him, they both realized that he hadn't been taught the first thing about etiquette, didn't understand some of the day-to-day words that they had known, and learned that he was more of a loner type than either of them were. Even so, he stuck with them. He still left their company to wander into the kitchen from time to time, which Riyeko grew to welcome and made use of whatever he could do to help, but it became that he was enlisted as a friend of the Sanadas and was often seen with them.
He quickly adopted playing their games with them, and he taught them how to - efficiently, and thus avoid an issue like the one that brought them together - climb trees. Even being no more than a month older than Akihiko, he was often seen as a big brother figure to both siblings who was constantly trying to look out for them. Miki, then, became pampered between the two males. The two siblings had always been closely attached, but Miki and her infectious happiness, her cheer and outgoing, inquisitive nature, quickly grew on Shinji, and he regarded her with just as much protectiveness as her older brother.
But the sad day came where they were forced apart. Three years later, both boys had grown to the age of six, whereas Miki remained five, a year behind them. The two males she had grown so reliant upon were enlisted and forced off to school.
Natsuo, in eighth grade himself that year, had helped Akihiko and Shinji each pack their own backpacks full of whatever supplies they could dig up from the orphanage. That mainly consisted of a few pencils, an eraser each, a few folders, and a pack of lined paper; whatever else they needed would surely be supplied by the school. Shinji, though he had familiarized himself with the orphanage, was more calm about leaving it for the day to attend a public setting. But Akihiko, who had next to never left the orphanage's premises, was just as terrified and panic-striken as his hysterical sister.
"I don't want him to go!" Miki complained in sobbing to Natsuo, who was typically in charge of getting the newest children in his faction safely off to school for the first time.
"But he has to go," The black-brunette tried to explain. "All children go to school when they're old enough. They meet new people, and start learning."
He tried to stand up, but she grabbed his sleeve. "Why can't I go?"
"You're not old enough yet, Miki."
Akihiko lingered in the corner of the room with his backpack, his eyes downcast on the new set of shoes that were received by the orphanage from the school. He had been dressed appropriately in the uniform dress, something that was... odd for him, considering he had grown up mostly wearing a set of clothes that were old, worn, and often too large for him. These were pristine and fit him well; a neat white shirt, over which he was told to wear this short-sleeved black jacket, with black shorts and uniform shoes. Getting so many things was an odd, almost bizarre experience for him, not wholly pleasant or unpleasant. But the thought of being taken from Miki was enough in itself to put him in a state of silent disarray.
But above all, it hurt him to see Miki so upset.
"I promise everything will be okay. He'll be back this evening." He heard Natsuo's words vaguely behind him as he departed the room past Shinji, who glanced after him, but remained lingering in his place. Akihiko beelined for the sleeping room that he had been in just thirty minutes ago; once there, he made his way over to the bed that he and his little sister shared, still mildly warm from their presence there earlier. Unable to think of any other means of consolance, he pulled the blanket from the bed and ran back into the entrance hall where he had been, his backpack and supplies rattling behind him as he moved, and made his way up to his precious sister whom he wanted nothing more than to see happy.
"Don't be sad, Miki," He smiled and held out the blanket toward her. She sniffled and took hold of it, at first unsure, but afterwards spreading it with her fingers and hugging it against herself. The boy pried one end of it from her fingers to wrap it around her shoulders and better comfort her within its warm confines. "Smile for me?"
"I don't want you to go." She parroted her earlier words, refusing to meet his eyes.
"I'll bring something back for you," He offered hopefully.
Miki still looked up, unhappy, but seeing the concern on her brother's face made her feel like she had to smile. She stepped forward to close the short distance between them and hugged him, an action he quickly reciprocated.
When she released him and stepped back, her whole body enrobed in the blanket he had gotten, brushed gently by her shoulder-length platinum hair, she frowned and held up a hand from which she extended her pinky finger. "You promise?"
He caught her pinky with his own. "Promise."
"Well, we're going to be late if we wait much longer," Natsuo beckoned Shinji to follow him and waited until he caught Akihiko's attention to do the same, "I shall bring your brother back to you soon, young Miki!" He swayed dramatically out the door, only after Shinji and Akihiko had both done the same. "Fare thee well!"
They all smiled back and Natsuo gently closed the door on her soft giggling.
۞
The train ride there was long. Or, at least, Akihiko felt like it was. Everything was so alien to him! He stuck close to Shinji and Natsuo at all times, his eyes constantly fleeting around to try and take in everything around him. He had never been so far away from the orphanage before, nor had he ever seen a train. Most of the time, any attempts to go near the city usually warranted people shooing them off back from where they came. Satoru always told him that it was because the kids at the orphanage weren't the same as the other kids they saw in Iwatodai; it wasn't their fault, but all they could do about it was make sure to avoid those people and keep out from under their feet. Coming near a train, then, was something Akihiko would never have done of his own volition.
But today was... different. No one looked at him as anything less than normal. Was it because he was dressed in these fancy clothes? But so many people on the train were dressed even fancier than he was! He recognized just a few people wearing the same uniform that he and Shinji had been garbed in, too... were they like him?
"Did the walk tire you out? It is a distance away," Natsuo sat down in one of the many vacant places, so Akihiko and Shinji both did the same near him. "The train ride will be a while, too. If you look out the window, you can watch the ocean pass by."
Akihiko brightened immediately and got up onto his knees, looking over the back of his seat out the window. All he saw right now were rows and rows of people bustling around in the station; no oceans yet. He frowned again.
"Your first day of school shouldn't be hard. I'll help you find your school and from there, you just walk into your classroom and listen to your teacher. You can try making a few friends in your class, too." Shinji lowered his eyes from Natsuo's then. Akihiko was still engrossed in locating the ocean, beaming when the train started to move. He had never been inside of a moving vehicle before! It felt so... weird! "But just make sure to be nice and follow instructions, okay? I think Satoru already set you both up accounts in the school's cafeteria system, so pick whatever you want for lunch."
This sparked Shinji's interest. "What do they have?"
"Rice, tofu, fried eggs and noodles, fruit, soup... it changes every day."
"They have something new every day?"
"Yeah! Here, um," Natsuo slipped his backpack from his shoulders and pulled it between his legs, where he unzipped it just enough to fit his hand in and retrieve from it a folded piece of paper. It looked old, ruffled like any worn-down paper was, but the print on it was still quite legible. "...I think Mondays are 'tofu hamburger day'. They have boiled butter potatoes and miso soup, too. And you can always get some milk or juice with your meal."
Akihiko was in awe. "I've never had half of that stuff before!"
"Be careful with how much you get, though. You get a set amount of money for food for each semester. If you run out, you won't be able to buy anything."
The boy sank, slightly disappointed. The orphanage often did their best to provide a variety of foods - though by 'variety' he meant 'different kinds of soup' - but Akihiko, like many children in the orphanage, found that the meals left a lot to wish for. All of them had learned to deal with hunger, but the prospect of more food was something none of them would turn down; school lunches sounded like a welcome break from that.
Natsuo went on in his attempts to cover everything. "I'll have to go a separate way when we get off at the station, but I'll point you in the direction of your school. It's Terukazu Elementary School, 'kay? You should see a few big signs if you're going the right way..." Little did he know, though Shinji remained quiet and attentive to his words, Akihiko had lost interest in the matter and was sitting upright, backwards, in his seat again to peer out the window. Looking through his faint reflection, his soft smile slowly transformed into a full beaming grin, his heart skipping at the sight of the land giving way to the ocean beneath. It was so amazing! There was water everywhere, all swaying in the light of day, dancing with sparkles of sunshine and rimmed with the white foam it spit out onto the sandy shores. He had heard a lot about the ocean. A lot of the older children in the orphanage had visited it, actually, and talked about it, but he had never seen it for himself. It was too far for him to travel without an adult. But all the same, seeing this, the joy it filled him with... he couldn't help but remember Miki and how much she had wanted to see it, too. But she wasn't with him. It made him so sad to think that he had shared so much with his sister - everything he had, anything that might bring a smile to her face, make her happy and warm and cheerful like she always was - but now, he couldn't share this moment with her.
He turned back around and slumped in his seat, his eyes downcast.
"Oh! And I know we don't do it a whole lot at the orphanage, but it's really important that you call everyone by '-san' at school, okay?"
Even if it was only for a day, he already missed her.
۞
Later, once they got off the train, he never recalled feeling so lost in his life. It must have been obvious how fidgety he was by his expression, for Natsuo kept telling him to calm down, that everything would be fine. What baffled Akihiko most was how calm Shinji could be about everything. Granted, he was next to always calm - like 'calm' and 'angry' were Shinji's only two moods - but they were in a completely new place, full of people they didn't know! What if they got lost, or messed something up, or...?
"You know Hania, don't you? She's in our faction."
The boy held his breath in hoping it might calm his racing thoughts. He and Shinji both followed Natsuo's extended finger as he pointed after a raven-haired female that both of them recognized, merely because her face was a part of their daily life.
"She goes to Terukazu, too. Follow her." He pat Akihiko on the back. "I gotta go."
The silver-maned boy grimaced in a clear display of nervousness, but when Shinji started off with his pace as unfaltering as always, Akihiko ran back up next to him. He cast a look or two in the brunette's direction, but his companion always kept his eyes forward. He didn't even seem too concerned with keeping Hania within view, either, but instead followed the paved road that was lined with children dressed just like them. Well... he seemed to know where he was going. If all these kids were dressed like them, then they must be going to the same place. That was only common sense, right? Right.
He'd be all right. He'd get back to the orphanage after school ended and be able to tell Miki all about it. I'll be here for her when she joins next year, too. He smiled; that thought consoled him a little. He liked being there for his little sister.
As they walked, Akihiko continued to take an express interest in their surroundings. The walkway was almost flooded with children... he had never seen so many people around at one time. They were all chatting amongst each other, accompanied by adults that led them to their assigned destinations. ...In fact, he thought that was odd. No kid that was his or Shinji's age was out by themselves, without an adult. He knew that everyone at the orphanage lacked parents - that was why they were there in the first place - but were parents really so common? Was he really that much different from everyone else? He tried to shake the thought from his mind. Instead, he kept his eyes open and tried to make out where all the other children his age were going, so that he and Shinji knew where to go.
The building was... fancy, for lack of a better word. Just like this uniform he was supposed to wear. Akihiko decided that school must be prohibited to unfancy people.
"Welcome, welcome!" The gust of cold air that burst against him and Shinji when they scaled the concrete staircase outside, entering through the row of many doors that led into the building, made Akihiko shiver in his place. Shinji, unsurprisingly, remained stoic. "It's so nice to see so many of you today! Your first day of school, aren't you excited?"
Both boys followed the pressing line of children, leading into the left branch of the main hallway, where this woman was beckoning them.
"If you're new, make sure you stop by the office, okay?"
Akihiko stopped immediately.
"W-Wait," He reached forward and grabbed Shinji's sleeve, who stopped and looked back at him, rather stiff and blank. "We're new. Should we go to the office?"
The brunette looked from Akihiko's scared face to the continuous flow of peers, who had begun walking around them. He narrowed his eyes, confused, unable to answer. The woman that had been greeting them earlier started to approach when seeing the puzzlement on their faces. "Are you two new? ...Where are your parents?"
Shinji turned that glare onto the woman. "We don't have any."
She recoiled just barely in her surprise. "...Oh," She swallowed nervously and glanced around before resting her eyes on them, "You're from Kawatani, then, aren't you?"
Akihiko tried to speak up to compensate for his friend's lack of courtesy. "Y-Yeah, we are. We're new. Um... first grade? Should we go to the office?"
The woman nodded. "Come with me." They did this without argument. While they walked, the younger of the two took to examining his surroundings again; the floor beneath them was cold, a sheer and polished tile that extended all throughout the building where Akihiko could see. The hallway was huge, bigger than anywhere inside of the orphanage. The ceiling extended so high up, and the width of the hallway was immense... in the middle of it, in front of the doors that led inside, too, there was a large circular area where tons of plants were growing. That was so weird! Why did they grow plants inside of the building? Did they eat them? Those plants must be used to cold environments. Akihiko frowned and neared Shinji, subconsciously seeking him out for warmth, as he started to tremble from the intensity of the building's freezing temperature.
They walked through another large door into a room with a desk so tall that Akihiko had to strain to look over it. There were some more adults behind it.
"I have two first graders from Kawatani here. I guess they weren't mailed print-outs."
A few of the adults stopped and glanced over at him and Shinji. The brunette refused to meet their eyes, remaining stiff and quiet. Akihiko fidgeted.
"I think I heard that the new Kawatani children were going to be in Nakamura's class this year, but I can double-check." One of the women shuffled around with some papers on her desk behind the counter. "Let me see... what are their names?"
The woman was about to prompt them, but Akihiko had heard the question before, and so tried to politely take initiative. "I-I'm Akihiko. Um, Sanada?" When Shinji stayed quiet, he hesitated and tried to speak for him, "This is Shinji."
After a silence, they prompted further, "Shinji what?"
Ah, crap. He didn't know his last name. "A-Ara..."
The brunette saved him from his stammering fit. "Shinjiro Aragaki."
Some few minutes later, during which Akihiko quietly thanked his friend for speaking up, the woman behind the desk handed two papers to the one that had led the two boys into the office. She turned around and handed these to the boys, giving them both their respective papers. Akihiko immediately looked at it, excited to find out what was on it - was it a ticket? A picture? - but... instead, all it had were little scribbles on it.
What good was that? Was this one of those things you had to read? He squinted at it and held it back a little further from his face just to make sure it wasn't a picture. It wasn't.
"Oh, you can't tell what it says?" The guide lady walked back up, pointing a finger to a particular scribble on the paper. Akihiko tried to decipher it, with little luck. "That's the name of your teacher - Nakamura. You and Shinjiro are in her class."
The boy asked a question more pertinent to him. "Shinji's in my class?"
"Yes, you both are together in Nakamura's class."
Akihiko bounced at this, smiling. "Yay!"
Shinji didn't look so enthused, although for different reasons.
۞
That morning was full of new experiences. After he and Shinji had been led into their assigned classroom, they were seated at one of the many small tables that dotted the room, along with many other children their age. There was yet another woman inside - their "teacher", who they were told to refer to as "Nakamura-san" or "Sensei". Akihiko theorized that she must be like Satoru for the kids in this class, so he always made sure to give her his undivided attention when she spoke. A loud bell went off a few minutes after they arrived, and then Sensei went to the front of the room, where she addressed all of the children and reminded them that today was their first day of first grade. They would be learning how to read, differentiate colors, names for the days of the weeks, months, and so on - and, "Most of all," she said, "we're going to have fun!"
The entire time, Shinji was unexciteable.
Akihiko was extremely nervous, but Sensei told him that their first assignment for the day would be to make friends with the people at his table. There were only four of them, himself and Shinji included. So he extended a friendly hand in greeting, shaking it with the black-brunette across from him, who was named Kobee Kumaki, and then looked to the only girl in their presence. He just had to do the same thing with her, right?
He froze. He wasn't used to talking to girls other than Miki.
For the first time since they sat down, Shinji spoke up, reaching his hand toward her instead. "I'm Shinji," he introduced himself, and was given the same courtesy.
Akihiko frowned and forced himself to do the same. If Shinji could do it, he could do it. Just, he never understood the other girls at the orphanage, so...
Once he introduced himself, the girl customarily did the same. "I-I'm Irie." The stammer of the little brunette's voice betrayed her nervousness, too. Akihiko just did his best to smile and remembered to say, "Nice to meet you."
All the children turned their attentions back to Sensei when she began to speak again. She told them that, now that they were all acquainted, they would all help each other in the next activity of learning how to read their very first book. A few students claimed that they already knew how to read books; most others, like Akihiko and Shinji, hadn't the faintest idea. They didn't have books at the orphanage. He knew how to read the orphanage's sign - it read, plainly, 'Kawatani Orphanage' - and several other signs in the area, but otherwise, lack of print to read meant that he had simply never learned.
Regardless, he followed along the best he could. He and Shinji both, though lost, picked up rather quickly on most of the premises and could read several short words by the end of the lesson. It was almost fun! Nakamura chose him to try reading the last sentence of the book they were practicing with, and though he was afraid of speaking in front of so many people, he stuck with it and did his best, and made only a few mistakes.
"Good job, Akihiko!" The teacher walked up to his table, where he looked up nervously to meet her until she bestowed him with a small slip of paper. Curiously, he took it; it wasn't covered in scribbles - er, writing - this time, but instead was a little picture of a puppy. He looked back up at his sensei. What did this mean?
She noted his confusion and told him, "It's a sticker."
A sticker? ...Well, it looked kinda cute. He smiled and slipped it into his pocket.
"All right, students! We'll be going to lunch in just a minute."
۞
Lunch was something that Akihiko could get excited about. Though he had first been under the impression that all he had to do was run off to the dining room - wherever it was - he was later informed that they had to "form a line" before leaving. He did so with Shinji, with Kobee having rushed ahead of them, and Irie finding herself comfortable at the back with several other girls. With the whole classroom arranged this way, they started off down the hallways in a uniform fashion, Akihiko doing his best the entire time to quell the hungry rumbling of his stomach. They usually ate lunch earlier at the orphanage.
Contrary to Akihiko's expectations, though, the "cafeteria" was nothing like the dining room at the orphanage. It was much larger, for one thing. It was lined with rows and rows of tables, all of which were occupied by different students of different grades, most of them older than himself, and it was filled with the warm scent of various foods.
The boy's heart raced with glee and excitement at seeing it all. He'd never seen so much food before! But, then, just as quickly as he was excited, he stopped and sank again, wondering what Miki was doing back at home. She had probably already eaten what small amount of soup for lunch that was offered to her every day. Maybe if he brought her some food back, then, that would make up for it. He couldn't stand to imagine her going hungry.
"Everyone keep an eye on the time, all right? Yoshida-san will be staying with his class during lunch. When they start to leave, make sure to follow him back to my class!"
The class was filed through a door that led into a line where the children were served their lunches one-by-one. Akihiko swallowed the excess saliva that gathered in his mouth in anticipation for food, and brought his eyes back to Shinji; the brunette looked the most perky he had all day. Akihiko smiled. At least something still interested him.
When it was his turn, the boy was unsure as to whether he was supposed to request which meal he got, or if he just waited until it was handed to him. It turned out that he was supposed to take what was given to him, which was fine with him, and he stood nearby in line until Shinji got his, too. Both of them selected a carton of milk to drink and wandered to the end of the line where they had to stay until they purchased their food. At the cashier, they were told to hand over the papers given to them earlier that day, the same one their teacher's name was on. "Your ID number is on it," The cashier had told them, pointing to a particular spot on the paper. "Type in the numbers on the keypad in the order they're in on here in order to pay for your lunch."
They swiftly did as they were told, encouraged by the reward of food. They headed straight for their class' table afterwards, seating themselves amongst their peers and digging ravenously into their meal, making sure to maintain some degree of the manners taught to them - though Shinji had a more difficult time - about proper etiquette at the orphanage.
Only mid-way through his plate of food, Akihiko heard the lively chatter and amiable atmosphere broken by several rising voices.
"No! Please, that's all I have to eat!"
"Ooo, what're you going to do? Tell your parents?" The mocking voice came in reply. Both boys looked up. "Oh, that's right! You don't have any!"
Akihiko nearly jumped out of his skin at the intensity of Shinji's reaction. The brunette threw himself out of his seat and immediately darted off around the table toward the scuffle; his younger companion chased him soon after, noticing that the encounter was between two older male students and the familiar sixth grader, Hania. But almost as soon as they came within earshot of the three older students, they took notice of the newcoming boys and started up laughing again. "Oh, look! Hania-chan's little bodyguards! What are they in, kindergarten?" Akihiko stopped then, hesitating when he saw how much bigger these children were in comparison to him. How could they possibly help? But Shinji never paused in stride, stealing a tray off the closest table, much to the protest of the student who's lunch was on it. "Watch out, everyone! It's the Orphan Brigade!"
Shinji clocked the boy right in the jaw with that metal tray. "Fuck off!"
"Hey!" One of the teachers nearby stood up, and the commotion attracted two more teachers from tables across the cafeteria. "What did you just say?"
Akihiko reeled. ...What? What did he say? He'd never heard that word before.
The boy who had been struck by the lunch tray lifted a fist in preparation to retaliate, but looked back and saw the adults were beginning to take note of the situation, sprinting toward them before things could further escalate. Still, Akihiko remained glued to his place, eyes wide in a dumbfounded shock while Hania degenerated to a crying fit, and the two offending boys tried darting off to escape the approaching punishment from their teachers. Only one of the adults came up toward him and Shinji. "I don't want to hear that language!"
The brunette spat, "But that son of bitch-!"
"Quiet! Not another word!" The man grabbed roughly at Shinji's wrist, who jerked back in protest, gritting his teeth and glaring venom at the older male. Akihiko panicked again and reached a hand toward his friend, but could do nothing as he was dragged off; he ran after them, even when the teacher noticed this and started to demand that he go back to his class table. He was too shocked to find the words to argue, but he stayed closely at Shinji's side the entire time, his fretting eyes locked onto the brunette as his struggles grew weaker and weaker. What had just happened? Why were those kids making fun of Hania? Why was this man so angry that Shinji was trying to protect her?
For whatever reason, the adult took Shinji into the boy's bathroom. Akihiko tread after them, fidgeting with his hands, a nervous tic of his.
The man squeezed Shinji's wrist, making the boy grit his teeth again. "I don't know where you learned those things, but I never want to hear them again, you understand?"
The brunette jerked his body against the adult's hold. "Go to hell!"
Akihiko held his breath when the man shoved Shinji over the rim of the communal sink, presumably where children washed their hands, and retrieved a glob of hand soap that he forced into the brunette's mouth. While the child spat in protest to this, struggling all the while, the adult only forced more past his lips and then clamped his mouth shut.
The youngest boy was indignant. Why were they doing that to Shinji? "S-Stop!"
"Get back!" The adult shoved his body between Akihiko and the child he was disciplining, who was forcibly retching into the sink, coughing and sputtering out soap suds. Another adult - one that he hadn't noticed previously - grabbed the younger boy's arm, starting to drag him out of the bathroom away from Shinji and the disciplinary teacher. "You kids from Kawatani need to learn that we don't tolerate such foul language in this school! I'll wash your mouth out with soap every time I hear you swear until you know better, all right?"
Shinji tried to hiss something else out. Whether or not it was a 'bad word', Akihiko didn't know, nor could he hear when he was being pulled further away, but it was smothered by another flood of saliva and hand soap from within his mouth. His last glimpse of Shinji saw to it that the man finally stepped back to let him cough out the rest of the vile substance.
"Stop struggling," The woman who had grabbed Akihiko spoke the command with a scorn to her voice that he had never heard before with Satoru or anyone else in the orphanage. What was wrong with these people? Shinji hadn't been the one to do anything wrong, and neither had he! "Whose class are you in? Nakamura's?"
He wanted to repeat what Shinji had said. Whatever it was, it clearly offended the adults! But fear of undergoing the same treatment as the brunette made him keep his mouth shut. He reserved his right to rebel instead by saying nothing, and refusing to tell the woman any of the things that she tried continuously to pry out of him. She must have assumed he was in Nakamura's class, anyway. The woman arrived at the classroom door, still squeezing his arm in her grip, and knocked roughly on it; when it opened, Sensei was there, and past her he could spot the many bewildered faces of his classmates all back in their original places. Lunch must have been over. He realized with a growl that he hadn't been able to finish eating. "This boy is in your class, right? He got involved with a scuffle in the cafeteria."
Nakamura stepped out of the room into the hallway, ushering the woman's hand off of Akihiko's arm. The boy jolted back away from her, his eyes watering, glaring venom at her and bringing his own sweating palm onto the red marks that the adult's squeezing fingers had imprinted on him. "He got involved in the fight? Are you sure? Where's Shinjiro?"
"I didn't see much for myself, but I heard him and that Shinjiro boy ran up and started attacking a pair of sixth graders. The older students were picking on another girl in their class. I took him because Yoshida-san was punishing Shinjiro for using terrible language."
"You shouldn't be so hard on them." Her voice quieted, "They're from Kawatani."
Akihiko recoiled at the implication. So what if they were from Kawatani?
"Oh... I see," The woman shook her head. "That must be why. That doesn't excuse their behavior, though. That only means the school should take more authoritive action."
The approach of the man from before - Yoshida, he must have been - was marked by Shinji's coughing, which carried after him all down the hallway. He tried to jerk his wrist from the adult's hand several times, each time failing because it was expected, and he was far weaker than his older counterpart. "Here. I've told him that I'll punish him again the next time I hear him use foul language." Finally, he released the brunette, who thereafter ran back from the man and hid his eyes from all of them. Akihiko naturally gravitated towards his friend, shaking, wondering what he could do to comfort him. "Keep an eye on them, and bring that boy back to me if you hear him curse again."
Nakamura frowned and shook her head. "That won't be necessary, Yoshida-san."
Akihiko let his hand rest on Shinji's shoulder. "A-Are you okay, Shinji?"
The brunette refused to speak, his eyes rimmed with red.
۞
The rest of the day was painstakingly quiet. Shinji refused to speak a word, even when prompted to in class - Sensei must have realized his upset, and so excused his refusal to speak. Akihiko spent the rest of the day dreary in the aftermath of the incident and withdrew even more from his peers, who all seemed shocked and timid around both him and Shinji after the scuffle. What a great way to start school, he thought dryly.
What frustrated him most was the adults' refusal to listen to their reasoning. Shinji had only been trying to help out Hania! The two boys who had been bullying her had been 'adequately dealt with', he was told, but that didn't make a difference about how Shinji had been so wrongly punished! Now he was even more quiet than usual, and Akihiko could tell that he was upset, however little he showed it. It saddened him, really. Shinji was a great friend. So he was a little rough sometimes, and he didn't know how to talk to people, nor did he always know the best way to express himself... but he was a good person, and it frustrated Akihiko to no end that the adults were treating him this way. And not just Shinji, but himself, too! He hadn't even done anything! Yet the adults had been whispering among themselves, "It's because they're from Kawatani. They don't have parents. They don't know any better."
What did being an orphan have anything to do with it?
Now the other kids were frightened of them. Kobee would glare at them if either of them - well, Akihiko, since Shinji refused to speak or do much of anything - spoke without exaggerated politeness, and Irie flinched any time they looked in her direction.
Did they really seem so different...? Especially for such a misinformed reason?
The train ride back was just as uncomfortable.
Shinji had set his backpack up in the seat next to him, and lied down on it, shutting his eyes to mimic sleeping. Akihiko was seated next to him with his own backpack between his legs, examining the sticker that he had earlier been rewarded with for what he thought might be for 'being a good kid'. So much for that. What good a 'sticker' did him now.
But despite all that, Akihiko felt as though something needed to be said. "Shinji?"
The brunette didn't move for some time. But perhaps he realized that ignoring his friend would be unfair, and he sat up, letting his bangs fall from his eyes just enough to look at Akihiko. The fair-maned boy shook his head and spoke, "I wish I could be like you."
"Why the..." He paused bitterly. "...Why would you say that?"
"Hania was being picked on, and you didn't hesitate to help her at all." He frowned and felt the faint sting of oncoming tears. "I wish I could be like that."
Shinji closed his eyes again. "You would have done it for Miki."
...He would have, wouldn't he? If someone had been picking on Miki... Akihiko shuddered against the thought, if only for all the anger it brought about in him. Shinji was right. He would have done it a thousand times over for her. They could have choked him with all the soap they had, and he would never have regretted it.
But... Hania wasn't Miki. Why had Shinji done it for her?
While his mind was far elsewhere, his eyes lingering on the view of the ocean outside, the train began to roll into movement. Natsuo must have seen them just before, and walked up to seat himself nearby. "Hey, you guys!" He was all smiles until seeing how downcast the two boys were. "You look worn out. How was your first day of school?"
Akihiko kicked his foot against the floor. "It sucked."
"Really, now? It couldn't have been that bad."
"I still can't taste anything but soap," Shinji retorted.
Akihiko elaborated before Natsuo had time to ask. "There were some kids picking on Hania in lunch today. Shinji went up to protect her, but one of the adults got angry with what he said and took him to the bathroom and stuck a bunch of soap in his mouth."
Natsuo grimaced with sympathy. "It was Yoshida-san, wasn't it?"
The boy nodded solemnly. "I think so."
"He's always been a dick. I told you to be careful about cursing in school, Shinji; Yoshida-san's always been really hard on the kids from Kawatani, because he thinks they need 'extra guidance'. I think it's been an issue for some time."
The boy folded his arms and turned over onto his back, shutting his eyes against the light pouring in from the windows. "I should be able to say whatever the fuck I want!" At that, some of the other children on the bus looked over. A few adults gave the brunette dirty looks. Akihiko frowned; so it was 'fuck' that they didn't like?
"What does 'fuck' mean?" Natsuo made something of a frantic gesture that made the boy think perhaps he shouldn't say the word again. "Why don't people like it?"
"It's a bad word. A curse word," The black-brunette sighed. "Shinji was in a bad neighborhood before he was taken into the orphanage, as you know, and he picked up your typical language from the area. Satoru trained him out of it for the most part, but the orphanage is pretty relaxed about politeness and all... lots of us - the older kids, and the adults - are bad about swearing. But the school is a bunch of stiffs about it."
Ah, right. He had heard the word before, he just never knew what it meant.
Akihiko leaned back in his seat. "Why is it a bad word?"
"It just... is. It's considered vulgar. Or, er, impolite. People say it when they're mad."
"So it means, 'I'm really mad'?"
Natsuo shrugged, seemingly uncomfortable with the subject. "Uh... sort of."
The little fair-maned boy nodded his comprehension. He thought, in that case, that Shinji was completely justified in saying it... but Natsuo had called Yoshida-san a 'dick', which sounded kinda bad, and so maybe that was just the unfairness of it.
"...So, Natsuo, what's a dick?"
"Ah, Aki, let's not go there."
۞
When the train stopped, Natsuo ushered Akihiko and Shinji both off the train after him. They made it out of the station without much difficulty, and Natsuo lingered around just outside of it to catch Hania, as well as the other school-age children in their faction. Some children had come and gone throughout the years, but there were always about eight or nine to a faction. Of the ones in Akihiko's faction, he personally knew three of them, not counting himself; in addition, there was Hania, and two others that attended Natsuo's middle school. Someone just barely older than Natsuo, Reiji, had fled the orphanage last year. Coming in to fill his place had been Ozora, who was practically an adult. All in all, the children returning to the orphanage from school tended to stick together as they traveled.
They all began to start on the long walk back to the orphanage, their tired and calloused feet thirsting for the opportunity to discard their shoes and touch the grass.
Natsuo tried to chat up the others. "How was your first day of school, Hania-chan?"
Her reply was what anyone would have expected, lamenting the discrimination of her classmates against her because she was an orphan. Akihiko was just beginning to wonder why having parents carried so much importance, and why lacking them made them so different. ...But he had better things to think about right now. Speeding up his footsteps, he came back to Shinji's side, where he retrieved his sticker from his pocket and held it in front of himself. It was slightly bent now, but it was still bright, cute, cheery.
He asked the brunette, "Do you think Miki will like this?"
"Huh?" Shinji glanced over aimlessly. "...Oh, that? Well, if you give it to her, she will."
Akihiko smiled, clearly satisfied. He hoped she would smile when he gave it to her. It wouldn't make up for all the time he was gone, but it was a start.
When they came to the outskirts of Iwatodai, the small group of children branched off into the grassy plains outside of the slum-like residential area that existed there. From here, they could see part of the dip in the plain where the river ran through; beyond it, they could see the humble building perched some distance away from the riverbed, the place that their weary footsteps directed them to. Home. To them, it always would be. Natsuo remarked when he saw it and challenged the group to a race to see who could reach the riverbed the fastest, to which Akihiko and Shinji responded by taking off at a sprint. The black-brunette never picked up his pace from a walk, but watched as the platinum boy of their group ran as fast as he could to outspeed his brunette friend.
Akihiko was faster - just barely. They collapsed in a heap near the bubbling waters, the grass damp with flecks of moisture that the current sprayed onto it.
"All right, you two," Natsuo helped them up when the group caught up, and Akihiko stuck his tongue out at Shinji, which the older retaliated by swinging a playful fist over his head. When that missed, he tackled the younger back into the ground, rubbing his knuckles furiously over Akihiko's head. He laughed and shoved at Shinji in his attempts to push him off, which were mostly unsuccessful until Natsuo had to turn back around and calm them down enough to start back on a productive path to the orphanage.
Once he finally faltered through those entry doors to the building, Akihiko realized he had never been so tired. Perhaps once or twice on chore days, but nothing had tired him out quite like today had. Miki flew out of the sleeping room to greet her big brother and Shinji, both of whom met her presence with smiles and pleasant chatter. "Oh!" The silver-haired boy whipped the sticker again from his pocket, "I got this for you."
Miki took it immediately into her hands, eyes wide. She took one glimpse at the little puppy printed on it and crooned in a happy, adoring fashion. "Aw, thank you, Akinii-chan!"
"My sensei called it a sticker. I'm not sure why, but I think-"
The girl gasped dramatically and darted back into the sleeping room.
"See?" Shinji plopped his backpack down against the wall, hardly bothering to edge it closer to the faction's sleeping room doorway. The children never had very many personal belongings, but what they did was usually arranged in the divided cubbies that existed in every faction's sleeping room. "I told you she'd be happy to get it."
Akihiko just smiled, tossing his backpack down as well, and flopping onto his back atop the floor. I'm so tired I could fall asleep right here.
"Akinii!" Miki returned after a few minutes, crouching next to her fallen brother and flattening a blank book next to him. He sat up, bringing his eyes onto the object she had retrieved. "Remember this? Chichi bought me this book and some stickers for Christmas."
Oh, yeah! That was right! He had totally forgotten. But the sticker that Sensei had given him... it didn't stick. His brow furrowed with disapproval. So it wasn't a sticker, right?
"I wanna fill it all up with stickers!" The little female used her short but defined fingernails, under which there was the tiniest bit of dirt as a result of her outdoor play, to part the sticker from a thin piece of waxy paper that had protected its sticky interior. Akihiko made a thoughtful sound in realizing that his sister had successfully discovered a better use for the sticker than he had in mind anyway, and watched as she pasted it onto the first page in her little scrapbook, along with four other stickers she had gotten before.
Two stars, a moon, a rainbow, and a dog. Hah.
"Will you bring me home another sticker tomorrow, Akinii-chan?"
He got one for being a good student. After today, would he get another one?
He would for Miki.
"You bet!"
۞
From that day forward, Akihiko and Shinji adjusted to life in school. Neither of them were very outgoing, so neither of them made many friends, but slowly their classmates came to know them better and judged them more for who they were and the character they enacted rather than the label of 'orphan'. Their teacher, Nakamura, took a very sympathetic approach toward them, as opposed to several of the other teachers - of them, Yoshida-san, who always kept a stern eye on them. Their favor in their teacher's eyes saw to it that Akihiko and Shinji both got the occasional sticker for 'good behavior' and for doing a great job 'learning and having fun'. When Akihiko told Sensei that he was collecting them for his little sister, she gave him the additional opportunity to help her clean up after-class, for which he would get two extra stickers for the day. And Miki, every day when he came home to the orphanage, would take the stickers and paste them in her book.
It came to the point that Akihiko thought school wasn't that bad. Shinji even enjoyed it from time to time; he caught the brunette practicing how to read one of Satoru's books or trying to write his name in the dirt of the forest they so often visited. Though Akihiko greatly missed his constant interaction with Miki, and she missed him just as much, it only encouraged them to enjoy their time together even more when he wasn't in school.
Once, she tried to sneak after him and Shinji, and managed to get as far as the front gate before one of them caught her. Akihiko had been in favor of smuggling her into class. Natsuo immediately refuted the idea, knowing that it wouldn't work, but had to take her to the office because he couldn't afford to miss class, nor did they have any means of communicating with Satoru back at the orphanage. Satoru then had to come all the way up to the school just to take her back home, all the while explaining that she couldn't go to school until next year. But Miki, as sweet and as loved by the orphanage staff as she was, managed to convince them to suit her up for school - kindergarten, an optional grade level that Akihiko nor Shinji had attended - and send her to it when summer break ended.
Akihiko was excited for it. He knew that Shinji probably was, too. The day before, they both helped her pack her supplies and fitted her into her brand new uniform. Miki stayed up an hour past her bedtime, just running at the mouth about how excited she was to go to school with nii-chan for the first time tomorrow. He'd show her everything, they'd ride the train and see the ocean just like he said, they'd eat lunch together, they'd come home...
Most of all, she'd even get her own stickers!
But, she reassured Akihiko, she would still generously take his off of his hands.
Miki's first day of school was much more successful than Akihiko's own. He made sure of it by telling Nakamura that he couldn't stay after class to help her today; his sister had been enrolled in school and he had to make sure she had gotten through the day safely. She sent him off with a sticker for being 'extra cute'. He didn't think that he could get stickers for being cute, because he never had before, but a sticker was a sticker. He didn't complain.
"Miki!" He had darted up, breathless, with Shinji walking not far behind him. His eyes searched for any distress on her dollish face. "How was your first day of school?"
"It was amazing!" She bounced around him, taking hold of his hands and thereafter detailing the fantastic events of the day. She learned how to read a few words, just like her big brother! She had the best lunch ever, better than anything the orphanage had ever given her - except maybe on Christmas, when they had a special, but small, dinner - and she had even gotten a sticker from her teacher! "Itoh-sensei is so nice!"
That day, they all went home in good spirits. In fact, the rest of the week played out that way. Miki was still shy, and so she didn't make any new friends, but she was happy eating her lunches with her brother and Shinji, and learning things from her new teacher.
It was around that next Saturday that Miki came to him after school, solemn-faced.
"Nii-chan, can we go on a walk?"
They were just walking down the steps out in front of Terukaru elementary when she asked. Akihiko turned back to look at her, frowning, as did Shinji. "What's wrong, Miki?"
She shook her head, refusing to say. "Did you get any stickers today?"
The boy nodded and dug into his backpack momentarily. Sensei had slipped the sticker into an envelope he had colored for a class project today, using his 'favorite colors'. Well, really, he only had one favorite color, which was red. But Kobee had stolen the red crayon. He colored his envelope blue until the red one was free, after which he had tried to color over the blue, only to get a resulting purple color. He decided to leave the rest of the blue be and just stuck with coloring the rest of it red. Sensei had given him a sticker for 'creative use of blending colors' as a result - even if it was, well, an accident.
Shinji had gotten one today, too. He had answered a question correctly in class. He never raised his hand to answer questions, but on the rare occasion that Nakamura picked on him to answer it, he always knew it. This impressed her, and warranted a sticker.
But really, everything warranted stickers these days.
Miki smiled and took both of them with profuse thank yous to both boys, stopping for a moment to plop herself and her backpack down, slipping her sticker sketchbook out from within it and pasting the two new additions to her sixth page before returning it into her bag and taking a few quick steps after them. They had just then reached the fork in the road, where they had to turn in order to reach the train station; Akihiko and Shinji turned from habit, but when Miki didn't, both of them stopped and again turned toward her.
"You said we were going on a walk," She objected.
Akihiko reasoned with her. "But we gotta go home, don't we?"
"We'll be okay. We can still make it back before the sun goes down. Chichi will wait."
Natsuo, Hania, and the others had gone ahead of them today. Deciding to submit with his sister's demands, Akihiko tread after her, and Shinji followed.
None of them had ever gone this way. Well, Akihiko reasoned, perhaps Shinji had. He wasn't sure where the brunette had been specifically prior to his arrival to the orphanage, but he might have been so young at the time that he didn't remember it very well, either. The paths leading away from the school were all lined with trees, middle-aged as they weren't too small, like saplings, nor too big; the area was covered by a thin shade through which golden-red rays of afternoon sun slipped through. Cars passed by them. They heard the monorail start up in the distance, taking off to hoist its many passengers off to Iwatodai.
Tatsumi Port Island was lively, he thought. People bustled about everywhere. He saw teens, he saw salesmen, he saw children his age walking home from Terukazu with their parents. Oh, but some of them weren't with their parents. In fact, he could pick out one or two that were accompanied by their older brothers or sisters, instead.
He looked at Miki, who was always close by his side. He knew how much she depended on him; it always filled him with warmth to think of it.
He held out a hand when he asked, "So, who else sits at your table, Miki?"
The girl took him up on his offer, pressing her palm to his and squeezing her fingers around his pale hand. "Um... Ryuhei-kun, and Naomi-chan. Sachi-chan has been sick lately."
"Have you made friends with any of them?"
Miki lowered her eyes. "...Ryuhei-kun let me borrow his crayons."
Shinji picked up on the female's melancholic mood and spoke up, "Hey, Miki," He smiled a little - something Akihiko could never get out of him, sheesh - and crouched down, beckoning her over to his side of the sidewalk. "I'll give you a piggy-back ride."
"H-Hey!" Akihiko immediately protested. "It's my turn to give her one!"
But his younger kinsman, with a giggle, had already betrayed him for his slightly-older friend. Shinji stuck his tongue out and stood up straight as soon as the little girl had her legs against his waist, where he could easily support them, and her arms around his neck. "Too late!" Akihiko threw himself after the brunette in a fit, but since Shinji sprinted away just then, his tackle missed. "Carry my backpack, would you?"
The platinum boy sighed and bent over to lift Shinji's backpack from the ground, pulling one strap from his own backpack off of his shoulder to replace it with one of Shinji's. It was that way that he found himself walking down the cement path with two over his shoulder, his own weight nearly doubled as he walked after his two friends.
"I won't forget this, Miki!"
۞
Neither of the males had ever asked where Miki intended to take them. When they finally asked, she told them that she didn't know - she just wanted to go on a walk. So they kept walking, trekking onward, until they could no longer. They came to a beach, beyond which was an ocean that they could not cross with footsteps.
Shinji, who had carried the girl the entire way there, lowered her onto the sand and collapsed, showered by puffs of grain on impact; Miki squealed and ran out toward the seashore, weaving excitedly back and forth on the cold line of sand where the shoreline ended. The sea water lapped up toward her, soaking her feet with every strong but gentle wave that crashed up near her. Akihiko, too, abandoned both backpacks next to the fallen brunette and ran forward, his laughter mingling with that of his sister as they permitted their happiness for seeing the ocean so up-close to make them giddy.
"You'll never catch me, ocean!" Miki started to chase the waves back as far as they went, squealing when the tide turned and running back up the beach to safety. Each time it sprinkled at her feet - for it never truly 'caught' her - she giggled and pouted, as if lamenting her disappointment at the ocean's successful tag. Akihiko watched her for some time, laughing himself, looking back to Shinji; the brunette had propped himself upright by now and took to watching them while he caught his breath, but he did stand up once he saw that he had Akihiko's attention. Miki gasped, "...Hey, nii-chan, the ocean's gonna get you!"
Shinji slipped his jacket off of his shoulders, his shoes and his socks off his feet, and then unfastened and shed his shirt. "Not if I get you first!"
Miki let out a mock scream, fleeing off down the shoreline. Akihiko gave his best imitation 'rawr' at the oncoming brunette, but jumped aside to avoid him at the last minute, leaving him to tumble into the waters; both fair-maned children giggled with one another, though Akihiko turned on his sister and caught her, subjecting her to a barrage of tickles. She writhed and struggled to escape his clutches, which Akihiko eventually let her do with a mock growl of defeat - just after, Shinji burst from underneath the water, completely soaked, and roared while collapsing on Akihiko's sister. She screamed again, but degenerated into giggles; her older kinsman had wandered onto the beach to shed his extra clothes, too, but came back running at the sight of Shinji. "I'll save you!" He called, tackling into the brunette to knock him off-balance, away from the fit of laughter that was Miki.
They all jumped and ran and played with one another until they were exhausted. Once they were, they each seated themselves up further on the shoreline, where the water couldn't touch them, soaked in water and sand - both boys moreso than Miki was, who had managed to avoid being pulled into the water, perhaps because they were both soft on her - and the little female took to digging her fingers into the sand in search of shells.
"What're you doing, Miki?" Akihiko had prompted her, breathless.
"Seashells," was her definitive response. She held up one she had already found of a beautiful white shade, coated in a prism sheen that flashed rainbow in the sunlight.
He held out a hand, an unspoken request to see it. Miki immediately handed it over to him and continued to dig in a patch of sand near her foot for another shell she had spotted, while the silver-haired boy turned the tiny shell back and forth in his hand.
Shinji reached toward him. "Can I see?" Without any protest, Akihiko passed the shell to the brunette, who also inspected it. "This is a nice one, Miki."
"Thanks, Shinji-chan!" He handed it back to her and she dropped it into one of the pockets of her damp, sandy uniform skirt, just beginning to unearth another conch. Both boys watched her do this for a minute, their eyes afterward lingering off to the horizon, where the line of the ocean met the sun to swallow it up for the night.
Despite the beauty of it, Akihiko frowned. So much time had passed since they left school, and yet... "Hey, Miki... why did you want to go on a walk?"
She fell quiet. She put the second seashell in her pocket, and entwined her hands.
"...Akinii, where did Momma and Dad go?"
The question hurt like a prick in his chest. So that was why.
"We were talking about parents today. Naomi-chan asked me about mine, and I... I told her I didn't have any. She called me weird and started teasing me about being an orphan. Itoh-sensei even pulled me aside and asked me if I really was one." When he was quiet, and Shinji had just as little to say, she continued, "Why does it matter that I'm an orphan? ...Where did Momma and Dad go? Did they not love us? Why aren't they here?"
Akihiko had asked himself the same questions so many times. But yet, now that Miki had turned to him for the answers, he hadn't the faintest idea what to tell her.
"...I don't think it matters that we're orphans, Miki."
"Then why does everyone treat us different? Like we're not the same?" Her voice wavered a little, "Is it because, the only reason you don't have parents is because they didn't want you? Are you only an orphan if you can't be loved?"
Akihiko turned to look upon his sister's face, overshadowed by her silvery bangs, her glassy eyes and cheeks illuminated to radiance by the sun. "I love you."
The girl submitted a whimper and held her hands to her face, her tears escaping.
He twinged inside at the sight. He hated it when she cried. It happened, he knew that - sometimes she stubbed her foot, sometimes she had a bad dream, and so sometimes she cried - but when it did, it hurt him so that his own eyes filled with tears, and he knew that the last thing to make her feel better would be to see her brother crying. He reached over and hugged the female against him, his hands trembling all the while as he, too, became upset for her, and gently used one of them to swipe the tears away from her face.
"I don't know where Momma and Dad are, but I'll always be here for you, Miki."
She trembled in his arms, but there was no mistaking the way she smiled, however crooked as her lips fought the urge to express a sob. "I l-love you, Akinii..." She sniffled to restrain her tears, although they always managed to find their way down her cheeks; any time they dared stain her face, illuminated like currents of liquid glass by the setting sun, Akihiko raised his hand yet against to wipe them away, all the while holding her close. Her tremoring started to calm itself again before long.
...He meant that. He would always be there. If there was anything he could do to ensure he never had to see her cry, ever again... he would do it in a heartbeat.
But then her eyes, rather than meet those of her brother, sought out Shinji. She turned her head to look at him, the brunette who remained by his lonesome aside from the two siblings, and reached out a hand, her squinting eyes freeing more tears. He saw this, but for a few lingering moments, he only watched her; her fragile smile faltered, but the instant it did, the brunette lifted his own hand and cupped it around the one she had outstretched.
Finally, he smiled. But there was a sadness to it. "I'll... be here for you, too, Miki."
She squeezed his hand in her grip, dark in comparison to her fair skin. "Shinji-chan."