Chapter 7: Some Schooling and Everything Else in Between

Benjamin couldn't believe what he was hearing when he finally recovered from his "beat down". Kazuya had proposed that he go back to the orphanage with Benjamin so then he could take advantage of the schooling there. When asked what had brought this decision on, Kazuya simply stated that it was necessary. As for Benjamin, he hadn't known any child who would willingly want to sit through school—then again, Kazuya wasn't exactly normal. Even Benjamin was certain of that.

They went early in the morning and Benjamin had not once stopped mentioning how this was a bad idea, but he was certainly not the one to stop Kazuya once he decided on something.

"Are you…sure you're alright with this?" Benjamin asked. It seemed he had quickly picked up on a new way of speaking which was slow and steady. Somehow the thought of getting pounded in the face again was just the right kind of motivation

"I've already told you a thousand times," Kazuya responded

"What about…back there…when you tried to kill me. I mean, you can't just go around doing that stuff…"

"The only liability here is you. I trust you won't open your big mouth about anything. Other than that, it won't be a problem."

"But—

"Benjamin! One more word about this…I don't want to talk about it anymore. End of conversation."

Kazuya had never once divulged any details about or tried to explain what had happened that night and Benjamin had not asked. He supposed it was something he shouldn't have seen in the first place. Even then, Benjamin didn't fully understand why it is he would stay around a person like that. When he wasn't talking there was always a cold silence and his eyes always lacked emotion—they were virtually unreadable at all times. Could it be that he was some type of demon? If that were true, Benjamin would rather stay on his good side or what little of it was left.

Benjamin could sense when a person was lonely perhaps this is because that had always been his predicament since the day he was born. Having terrible eyesight and speech problems guaranteed that he would be the butt of everyone's jokes. Kazuya might have been violent and even evil, but there was one thing he hadn't done yet: point and laugh. Kazuya wasn't actually concerned about him; Benjamin could at least admit this. In fact, Kazuya seemed so narrow-minded that something as petty as joking around seemed beneath him. That was probably the only reason Benjamin decided to stay by his side despite the obvious danger.

When Kazuya was first introduced to the orphanage he was forced to do the same thing as other newcomers; introduce himself to the others. The caretaker who was in charge of overseeing their age-group took Kazuya to the front of the room and suddenly all eyes were on him. Strangely, the caretaker, Ms. Ando, didn't have to tell everyone to quiet down; the way his eyes passed over almost everyone, they were silenced immediately.

"Now, Kazuya, tell us a little about yourself," the woman asked with a kind voice.

"Like what?" Kazuya questioned with obvious agitation.

"Like your hobbies, what you like to do."

"I don't have any hobbies and I don't like to do anything." Then Kazuya turned to the masses, "The only thing you need to know about me is my name. The rest is pointless."

"A-Alright then. Well children, Kazuya is a newcomer so make him feel welcomed, alright? I'll be back in a little while to begin our lesson."

But everyone kept their distance except for Benjamin. Kazuya wasn't bothered by any of these things and would have been content to find some quiet place to sit and wait, but Benjamin was nagging. He wanted to "play" with everything he could get his hands on—cards, puzzles, board games—all the things he was unable to do because no one would want to play with him. In order to shut him up, Kazuya agreed to one card game which Benjamin had to teach him how to play. At some point, a child finally decided to approach the two since it seemed that Kazuya was harmless.

"Hey, Benjamin, where did you find this guy?" came the sneering voice of one of Benjamin's regular bullies.

The look that Kazuya gave Benjamin warned him that his next words would decide if he would live or die.

"Oh, we just met by chance…he was lost or something so I brought him here."

"You think this changes anything, four eyes? You think you're safe now 'cus you made friends with some weirdo?"

Kazuya, who was growing bored with this entire conversation, finally put down his cards. "Would you mind? You're interrupting a card game."

The youth was caught off-guard by his nonchalant tone and only stared. Kazuya continued with his turn and waited for Benjamin to play.

"Hey, weirdo! You can't just ignore me."

"Why not?"

"Because…umm…because…"

Kazuya was glad when Ms. Ando came in again to begin the lesson. The cards were forgotten and he was all ears. From the beginning, he didn't understand what she was talking about and Benjamin knew that they had a long road ahead of them. It was odd really, how much he wanted to learn as if he had taken all the intensity he had towards training and transferred it to education.

Benjamin found that he was nothing more than a question-answer machine—Benjamin never had real conversations with Kazuya. It began to occur to him that the only thing Kazuya did know was fighting; everything else was an utter mystery. The main thing that a five year old would be learning is how to read and Benjamin wasn't the best at this—at least he wasn't knowledgeable enough to be teaching someone else. Eventually, Kazuya went straight to the horse's mouth—Ms. Ando—who was more than happy to spend hours upon hours instructing him.

Of course, any teacher would become excited about a person who genuinely wanted to listen to what they had to say so that was the main reason she was willing to volunteer so much of her time. The other reason was that she was concerned about him. The only reason he had been accepted into the orphanage was because he had claimed "that he didn't know who his family was"; essentially amnesia. Also, that meant that he didn't have a last name to give so that they could check up on him. The only thing one could assume was the fact that he was Japanese. The orphanage being located in the Yamaguchi Prefecture, most of its children were Japanese, but there were a handful who hailed from other countries besides—Benjamin being one of these few (a fact that contributes to his "outcast" status).

Amnesia wasn't something that came from out of the clear blue; there had to be some cause to it. The convenient thing about amnesia was that one could claim "they have no idea how it happened" and the half-ass excuse could be accepted at face value. Ms. Ando, however, suspected that he had been the victim of constant abuse—she mistook his dark aura for despondency or depression; something along those lines—and that he simply didn't want to talk about it. That was why she went out of her way to be friendly to him—he never really reciprocated, however. Every day, he'd come to her with the same perpetual frown and enigmatic eyes and ask—though sometimes it sounded more like a demand—that she teach him further and she would acquiesce.

Ms. Ando also noticed that Benjamin always hung around him even if he was in excess of. She had seen them talking on several occasions so she supposed that they were friends—interesting friendship. The more time Benjamin spent with Kazuya the less time he had to spend being picked on. Kids generally stayed away from Kazuya so Benjamin was practically using him as a shield. Kazuya was more or less unconcerned about that. Then again, he was unconcerned about most things in his surroundings. He was not interested in making new friends or being accepted into their world. His mind was quite one-track and only ever bothered to communicate with Benjamin and Ms. Ando—that was all. Other kids sensed that he wanted to be left alone and they did.

"Now, Kazuya," Ms. Ando said to him when it was getting rather late, "I have to go in a few. You just keep practicing on that book and show me that you really know how to read it tomorrow after class."

She only received a nod from him.

"And, Kazuya, you know I am always here to listen to you. So if you ever feel like you really have something to say, don't hesitate."

She received another nod from him and she wondered if he really understood what she was offering to do for him. Benjamin wasn't too far away from them as he sat patiently waiting for Kazuya to finally be done with Ms. Ando. She smiled gently to him and then took her leave.

"Wow, she really wants to get personal, doesn't she?" Benjamin asked Kazuya just as he got down from the seat he was sitting at.

"Doesn't matter," he said simply, "I have nothing to say to her. As long as she continues to be useful, I'll just ignore the other parts."

"Can we play one last game for the night?"

Benjamin shrank back when Kazuya glared at the other. "Fine, one last game."

"Oh! Alright. This time, it's a board game."

"Scrabble," Kazuya said without hesitation.

"Scrabble? But I don't know how to keep score on that game."

"Does there always have to be a winner? I just want to play it."

It wasn't as if Benjamin could simply say "no" so he promptly got said game out and they played it for hours on end. Benjamin grew bored with it quickly since he really didn't know a lot of words, but Kazuya seemed very concentrated on it despite also not knowing a lot of words. They played right up to the time when they had to go to bed. Because they were in an orphanage that had more kids than they had space for, children were paired up.

Previous to Kazuya, Benjamin had not had a bed and was forced to sleep on the floor. However, Kazuya had not wanted to sleep on the floor when there were beds so he basically took one for himself. Benjamin remembered their first night there like it was yesterday.

"Umm…we're going to have to sleep on the floor; there's no room for us," Benjamin said nervously to Kazuya.

"And why do we have to be the ones to do that? I really hate sleeping on the floor and if I don't have to, I won't."

"Wait…but…"

Kazuya was already stalking over to one of the beds which two boys had just gotten into.

"You two will be the ones sleeping on the floor," Kazuya said to them.

The entire room dropped several decibels as Kazuya spoke. The entire day he had not spoken to anyone besides Benjamin.

"What?" one of the boys questioned, "You're the new kid. You don't get a bed 'cus we were here first."

"I don't feel like sleeping on the floor. Now get up."

The boy frowned at the other, "You think you're such a bigshot. You don't scare me. I'm not giving up my bed to you."

"That's too bad for you," Kazuya replied.

The children gasped when Kazuya grabbed his entire front shirt and dumped him on the ground—obviously, fights were not common; this was probably the most violence that they had ever seen. The boy started crying instantly with the sudden impact.

"Stop crying or I'll do worse," Kazuya ordered.

There was something about crying that Kazuya always found disturbing. He hated crying himself and he certainly didn't want to be the one watching another person do that.

The boy quieted quickly thanks to the fear that Kazuya had managed to get through to him. Now the room was completely silent.

Kazuya turned to the other boy in the bed who seemed frozen. "Well, did I not make myself clear?"

The frozen boy then scampered out of bed all on his own leaving an entire bed for Kazuya. The two boys could do nothing more but skulk away. This was possibly the reason why there were no more attempts made on trying to "get to know Kazuya" nor did anyone even attempt to sleep in that bed. After that day, everyone knew to stay out of Kazuya's way.

Kazuya might have had the entire bed to himself had Benjamin not decide that he too would join, but Kazuya was not the sharing, caring type. He took all the covers for himself and never shared the pillow. Benjamin was rather an afterthought.

"Hey, Kazuya," Benjamin whispered to Kazuya one night. "How long do you plan to stay here?"

When Kazuya didn't respond immediately, Benjamin wondered if he had already fallen asleep, but apparently he hadn't. "For as long as it takes."

"To do what?"

"To read and write."

"But…that isn't the only thing people go to school for."

"I'm not interested in anything else."

"What about Math? History? Science?"

"I don't know."

"I just think it'd be wrong to stop at just reading and writing."

"I can't stand this place. I wouldn't be able to stay here for that long."

Benjamin sighed when he said this, "Too many people?"

"If it were just me and teacher, I'd be content."

"What about me?"

"What about you?"

"Well, you wouldn't mind it if I were with you."

"I also wouldn't mind it if you weren't with me."

At first Benjamin had been turned towards Kazuya's back now he turned the other way. "We're friends, right?"

"I don't have friends. What would I do with them?"

"You'd do what you're doing now. Maybe share a bit more, though," Benjamin said referring to the covers.

Benjamin could suddenly feel Kazuya's eyes on him and Benjamin then turned back to him.

"I…had a friend once before—but things ended pretty quickly. After that, I knew I had no business with people like that; people who I would soon either take advantage of or screw over. So no, we are not friends and you should count yourself lucky."

"But…I want to go with you. I hate this place too."

"You can't," Kazuya said with an exasperated sigh, "You just can't."

Kazuya didn't know how he would ever explain this point any better to Benjamin. For now he was tired of talking about it and turned away again. This time he really did fall asleep.

/

"So, Kazuya, what are your plans?" Ms. Ando asked Kazuya one day as he was steadily trying to write the alphabets.

Kazuya glanced up at her with one raised eyebrow, but then continued with his endeavor which he seemed completely concentrated on. Was it him or were people just a little too concerned about his plans? "What do you mean?"

"Surely, you have some dream you want to accomplish. Maybe you want to be a writer?"

"No," he responded as he finished another letter.

"An editor perhaps?"

"No," Kazuya repeated.

"Don't tell me you have no plans. The way you work hard every day, I think you have something in mind."

"Knowing how to read and write is just something I have to do."

"Sure, but there's another reason, isn't there? It's, alright, you don't have to be so secretive."

Kazuya knew that if he didn't think of something convincing to say, she would continue to badger him. "Sure, yes, I want to be a writer."

"Ah, so you do. But what would you write about?"

"Whatever comes to mind."

"You have any ideas now? Maybe I could help you write this story of yours."

"It's personal, if you don't mind."

"Alright," Ms. Ando said with a smile. "Fair enough."

Kazuya was glad that they had put an end to the conversation, but he couldn't help but notice her prying eyes. Every little thing that he did seemed to be monitored by her. This was the kind of thing that Kazuya would be forced to sit through whenever he wanted to get something done and soon Kazuya had come up with a selection of responses he could say to her whenever she started doing anything other than teaching. He couldn't wait until he was through with her, but that seemed like it would take longer than Kazuya had bargained for.