Chapter 6 – Toshiro the School Kid

"We're done, I think," Akiko said. "Unless you want to take a stroll, Mom."

"I do want to take a stroll but… I'll make it extravagant," she winked. "How far have you gone in honing your new abilities, Akiko?"

"Weeeeeeeeellllll…" Akiko mused. "I did train a bit since I was "made" a goddess… What do you have in mind, Mom?"

"Ehhhh…" Yoshika sighed. "It feels weird that I, a clone, am already treated like I'm the original…"

"Oh come on…" Akiko embraced her with one hand. "If the original you has merged with another entity, then you are the Yoshika that has to fill the void that was left after it. Since you're indistinguishable from the original, you're Mom, and that's that! I think my two knucklehead brothers think the same."

Yoshika hugged her back tightly and whispered, "Thank you… It means a lot to me…"

"Don't think of yourself as somebody, or something, inferior…"

"I won't…"

"Then to keep your mind off this topic, how about that walk?"

"Ah, yes!" Yoshika cheered. "Look!"

Yoshika separated herself from Akiko and she jumped onto the surface of the water, not manifesting any magic visibly.

"Oooooh, are you a ninja?" Akiko snickered. "I think I can pull that off…"

With a face radiating with conviction, Akiko followed Yoshika in her footsteps, and she proudly stood at her side.

"As expected from my daughter," Yoshika smiled. "Let's go back to our family, okay?"

"Yup!"

"Dude, are there even any fish here?" Conrad asked, looking at his brother.

"None as far as I can sense, why do you ask?"

"No fish? Then why the hell are we even sitting here?!"

"To relax, right, Dad?"

"Fishing without catching fish is a timeless tradition," he snickered. "Escaping from all your troubles just to gawk at the water for the whole day – that's the point of it."

"Dad through and through," Andrew smiled. "You're really the same."

"If I'm supposed to be a stand it for the sake of the people my original self loves, then I can't half-ass my job, right? It's not school that I can get F's for the whole term straight and then shrug it all off with perfectly written exams, right?"

"Prolly not," Conrad grinned. "And hey, you're just as good as the real deal, it's okay, right, Bro?"

"Indeed, Brother. I never saw Dad in his "original" form, so this iteration is closer to the man that brought me up."

"Oh stop guys…" Toshiro mumbled. "I'm gonna cry…"

"Instead of crying, you could tell me a story," Akiko's voice rang near them suddenly, and the three saw her and Yoshika coming to them.

"Water walking… How cliché…" Toshiro sighed. "Okay, I have a story for you all!"

Akiko suddenly found herself near Toshiro, sitting on the ground impatiently.

"Now that's nice," he snickered. "Okay, here's a story about the daily life of a middle school boy."

As you may know, and if I forgot to tell you, I will remind you – my school life wasn't exactly a path paved with gold. Sure, my smarts were prevalent at young age, but that was a double-edged sword. The teachers liked me because they had no problems with regarding my grades, but I was a natural magnet for trouble.

The thing is that my mixed racial descent was rather ill viewed by the kids. In a homogenous and traditional society like the one in Fuso, I was worse than just a foreigner was. As you can see, only my hair is somewhat Fusojin-like, the rest – not so much. But I have to tell you that since kindergarten the kids were first intrigued with me, but then, they slowly started drifting away from me. Now I know how it really is thanks to my godhood – it was a mixture of both their parents talking shit about me, and another thing, namely my sharp wits.

Aya, as you know, had a similar problem – she was simply too good for the public education system. However, I was a bit dumber in comparison, and I was a guy, so that made things a bit less frustrating, since the girls would just run away if I looked at them crookedly. The guys were a bit harder to convince, since wasn't as lean as I am now back in my childhood. I wasn't fat, or even chubby, more like in the middle of the weight scale. But yeah, I looked way different than the kids in Yokosuka.

My whole school life was a lonesome road. The only time I was approached by somebody of my colleagues, was only when they wanted to mock me or have a fight. I heard it all; you have your own imagination, so I won't be enumerating everything. As for the fights… Hmmm… You lose some, you win some, you draw some because of interventions. But after my father died and I pulled myself together, the balance of power slowly tipped in my favor. It was middle school, so in first class I could only compete with my year, but in second class, I progressed enough to be respected by some of the third years. But mind you, that respect was just for my fighting skills, not for me as a whole. In my third year, I was a gray eminence. The teachers knew of my reputation, but my grades were unwavering, as was my respect towards the teaching staff, so I was on a metaphorical teeter-totter all the time. My Mom also knew about it, since I was perfectly honest with everything towards her. She was at a loss somehow, but I only did it in self-defense, or if the other party agreed for a spar, so she wasn't breathing down my neck. Aaaand the first circumstance was evoked one sunny day…

First Yokosuka Public Middle School

3rd Year Graduation Ceremony

That day, the sun shone brightly and warmly. Not one cloud marred the perfectness of the blue sky… You could say it was almost like it is here now, in Ami's realm. When the time came, we all gathered in the gym, where the graduation ceremony took place. Singing "Aogeba Totoshi" really brought a tear to my eye, since middle school was actually kinda fun, despite my weird social status. After that, we sat and Hideo Anno, the student council president form class 3-A, held a traditional speech. Usually composed, he held the speech in a manner we wouldn't think would be possible for him. It was a real surprise for everyone.

But anywho, after the diploma's were presented, with me being mentioned as the top student, at least according to test scores. Mom was invited as a guest, so when I looked at her, she was all in tears, surrounded by some of the mothers cheering her up. But I had an appointment after the ceremony. I of course told Mom I had some business to tend to, but I kept her in the dark about the core of it.

I walked behind the gym, surrounded by the members of our fight club. When we stopped, the one that invited me stepped forward. His name was Tetsuya Uchida, and he was a second grader.

"Senpai, good that you showed up," he said confidently.

"Your cryptic invitation kind of dissuaded me from showing up. What's the purpose of this peculiar meeting?"

"I'll be brief with my explanation, Senpai. You have an uninterrupted winning streak in all the fights you were challenged to since second grade, and some of us don't like that. You are graduating now, so this is the best time for us to claim the trophy of your first loss since two years."

I glanced around, and saw all of the guys grinning and smirking towards me.

"All of you at once?" I asked calmly.

"If push comes to shove, we won't hesitate. But for now, you can warm up on Hiroshi," he said as he stepped back, and a circle was formed around me. Hiroshi Kawamata, a first-year, stepped out of the human mass and stood before me.

"It's an honor to fight you, Senpai!" he shouted and bowed, preparing himself for battle.

"So a warm-up…" I sighed. "Let's get this over with!"

Hiroshi just blindly rushed forward, but I had enough time to think. I already saw what he was capable of, and I had a physical advantage over him in many ways, so I used one of them, and when he was in range, I simply kicked him straight in the solar plexus. He fell back a bit onto his back and just crawled back into the crowd.

"I got one leg warmed up, who's next?"

The guys from the first grade attacked me singlehandedly, but when they got expended, the second graders teamed up in pairs. Their plan was already obvious for me – weaken me up with mooks, soften me up with second graders, and then pummel me with my classmen.

But you know, that which differentiates us from animals is the fact that we can gather, organize, and process information with our brains. I used all the info I gathered during my battles with all of them, and… well… I can't say it was a flawless victory, since my shirt was torn apart and my face got a bit dirty, but they got what they deserved, and as such, I left this school undefeated.

"Well ain't that some shit? Dad was a regular delinquent!" Conrad laughed.

"But I bet he wasn't exactly proud of that fact, right?" Mom asked.

"Kinda. It wasn't something glorious, but at least it was better than elementary," Toshiro shrugged. "Okay, now the final of my story as a delinquent."

When the last one of them fell to my knees, I said, "You should have just ganged up on me from the beginning."

"Yesh, Shenpai…" Satoru Arihyoshi, a second-year mumbled from the ground.

"Have a nice day, guys. I hope we won't have to engage in such child play if we meet in another school?"

Hiroshi managed to sit and said, "I don't know, Senpai… I might want to have a rematch."

"You're free to wish so," I grinned and turned around. "Find me when you think you're ready, but don't take too long or you won't live long enough to close the gap, hahaha!"

"Yeah, whatever now. Bye, Senpai!"

I vaulted the fence of the school and walked towards home, creeping around since I didn't want to be the talk of all the hags around because of how I looked at the moment. When I opened the door to the apartment, Mom was already waiting for me. Once she had a good look at me, she frowned and asked, "So this was your business? Another fight?"

"Well… It was the fight to end all fights…" I laughed shyly.

Mom just grabbed a book in hard cover that was lying around and smacked me straight on the head with it three times.

"I thought we agreed that you would stop fighting, Toshiro, didn't we?"

"Yes, Mom…"

"Regardless of the cause."

"Yes, Mom…"

"And you ripped your best shirt."

"Yes, Mom…"

"What do you have for your defense?"

"Nothing, Mom… I'm sorry to disappoint you."

Mom sighed and said, "I'm glad that you graduated, Toshiro, and I do hope that you won't pick unnecessary fights in high school, right?"

"Yes, Mom, I'll try to, but you know that our wishes aren't exactly Word of God, are they?"

"Indeed," she smiled. "Come on, change your clothes and we're going for some ramen."

"Woah, thanks, Mom!"

"You sounded like a manga character, Dad…" Akiko sighed. "It really played out like that?"

"Yeah, totally," Toshiro grinned. "Even the fact that Mom smacked me with a book. As some trivia, I'll tell you that she would never hit me without a purpose. That was justified."

"You never hit us," Conrad smirked.

"Maybe he should have…" Akiko mumbled.

"Oh come on, Toshiro would never hit you," Yoshika wrapped herself around Akiko. "A wise man can make you feel more miserable with the right choice of words, heheh…"

"That's the truth revealed…" Andrew sighed. "Even though my numbskull brother was the troublemaker, I always got caught in the crossfire somehow. Dad, I commend your iron will not to slap us silly after all the mishaps we've conducted."

"Violence is never the answer," Toshiro nodded. "Even my drill instructor knew that."

"Oh, right, Dad, you never told us about your service in the IFN before you met Mio!" Akiko noted vividly.

"I held out many details of my life," Toshiro shrugged. "Some were boring, some brutal, other were… explicit, heheh… But if you really want to know…"

"Come on, Dad, we have all eternity," Akiko giggled.

"Well then…"

If you feel like it, please leave a review. However, I have only one request – if you want to leave something the size of a short story, please consider discussing your points over PM. If you want to leave an anonymous review, I respect your decision to do so, but if you sign in, I can actually discuss anything with you, dear reader. Thanks for reading, and I hope the next chapter will also garner your attention!