What the hell has been going on this morning. First, my parents yell at me for trying to pursue what I want to do in life. Then, I inexplicably run out of gas and have the hottest lady I have ever seen help me refuel my car and she turns out to be some nutcase. And now we have traffic that appears out of nowhere? What kind of nonsense is this? I brake and come to a stop as I approached the jumble of cars ahead. "You gotta be fucking kidding me!", I yelled, waving my hands wildly toward the traffic jam. I slump over and lay my head on the wheel of the car, moaning loudly.
After moping for a few minutes, I lift my head up and take a look around. The traffic jam seems to have just started a few minutes ago and doesn't seem to be getting any less crowded anytime soon. Perhaps the amount of people driving clogged the road, trying to go get lunch? However, it's eleven and most usually eat lunch at their workplaces. This isn't America or China with its insane traffic jams. Frustrated with this turn of events, I moan. Kyodai is about less than half an hour away and I'm stuck in a ridiculous traffic jam which basically appeared out of nowhere! At least I can listen to some doujin music to pass the time, otherwise I would probably have the shit bored out of me by the time that this traffic jam ends. Thank God.
I listened to several tracks of my music collection as the traffic slowly crawled toward my destination. It was surprisingly hot now even though it's only late March, not quite spring yet. Up in the lower twenties. The monotony of the traffic is infuriating. Being angry about it isn't going to help me get out of this traffic and I need to contemplate more important issues such as what should I do when I arrive at the apartment. Everything big has been moved in, I can thank God also for that. I set up the appliances already when I was helping out with the movers so everything is already set up. Internet is definitely needed. Heaven forbid that a computer science student and gamer would have no internet. With no dank memes, Civ V, or the amazing powers of Google, how could one like me survive. As I was pondering my plan on how to arrange the apartment furniture, the traffic started to subside and the cars were making actual progress again. That's unusually fast. I mean, it just came about and now it's starting to settle? Well whatever. I'm not going to complain. Accelerating the car, I was making progress again on the road with a smile on my face.
After driving for nearly about half an hour, I have finally arrived at my new home for the next few years. This apartment building in Kyoto. It isn't really interesting or visually appealing in any way. Rather, it looks like another generic apartment building that you would see main characters in anime live in. It was four stories high with the look of a motel. As I approached the building in the car, I saw that the parking lots outside were mostly empty of cars with one or two scattered about. Probably most of the apartment residents are at work or something. I pulled into one of the vacant lots and parked. The hum of the engine became silence, and then I open the door. Heading out into the comparatively cooler air, I took my keys and went to the rear of the car. Putting the key into the keyhole, I opened the trunk. Taking out the handcart, I put the boxes of books and school supplies on it first. Then, I take my suitcase out and put it on top of the two boxes. Great. I start heading across the asphalt blacktop of the parking lot toward the elevator that led up to my room. Knowing where to go due to being there recently to oversee the movers, I found the elevator quickly. After all, making multiple trips to bring my furniture would have just been a plain hassle. The costs of the gas, the time wasted… I stop in front of the gray, steel elevator doors. Tapping the top, circular button on the small panel on the right, I heard the elevator slowly go down. The numbers on the panel on the top started glowing in descending order. One, and then G. G for ground floor of the apartment building. So I probably should have said number and then letter. Whatever.
The doors slowly open. A tall girl dressed in jeans and a shirt raced out, her brown hair flowing. Her huge, red hair ribbon with frills and the red tubes on her sidelocks made an instant impression on me as she raced out of the elevator and bumped straight into me.
Her body slammed straight into me and we both fell down into a heap in front of the elevator. I almost fell on the back of my head, but I turned my body around, face forward with my right arm in front. It painfully throbbed as I struggled to hoist myself up from the floor. I experimentally turn it to see if any bones were broken. Luckily, nothing was broken. The girl trembled as she tried to get herself up. Reaching out with my left arm to help her up, she accepts my gesture by hoisting herself up violently. My left arm felt pushed down as she propelled herself forward, running off through the parking lot and through the road where I came from in the car. Once I saw her disappear, I wince. "What the hell just happened?", I commented aloud.
A loud shout in a female voice rings out. "Are you okay?" I looked around to see where the voice is coming from, but I couldn't see where. The voice probably came from above then. I shouted back, "Yeah, I'm all right!" I backpedal under the ceiling to the outside of the apartment. On the first floor pathway in front of some doors, I saw a brown-haired girl wearing a black hat adorned with a white ribbon. She appeared about my age. Her hat contrasted nicely with her frilled, dark brown dress and the red tie on her white shirt. Her side tail dangling from her messy hair was also tied with a white ribbon. I couldn't stop staring at her. She looked at me quizzically. "Are you sure you are all right?" I snap out of my momentary trance and replied, "I'm all right. My right arm's throbbing a bit. That's all."
Her eyes bulged and she quickly ran off. I stood there trying to ignore the pain of my throbbing arm. It felt like it was swollen. Growing hot and throbbing with blood rushing to the area. Hearing the sounds of footsteps echoing on concrete from the stairwell, I waited. She quickly exited the flight of stairs and headed straight toward me. Before I could say anything, she quickly grabbed me by the left arm and ran toward the stairs with me dangling behind.
Author's Note: Throughout this chapter, you might have been slightly confused by some of the conventions I'm using. This is Japan so I'm using Celsius. Therefore, Kaito's comment about the temperature won't be so bizarre anymore. I'm also using the ground floor, first floor convention which I'm pretty sure is the norm in Japan based on my experiences in Taiwan but I could be wrong. I could probably have some fallacies with the way I've described the floors. Other than that, I feel that I did a pretty good job with this chapter. I hope you enjoyed the story so far and I can't wait to see where writing this fanfiction will take me! Please rate and review so I can improve my writing.
-Kaito Sekozawa