"KIRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" - a scream followed by a powerful kick that almost tears her bedroom door apart kicks Kira out of bed - "How many times have I told you, you stubborn little child! No late gaming before school!"
"Geezz….My poor eardrums…Mom…can you lower your voice, you will wake our entire neighborhood." - after identifying the source of the scream, Kira slowly retreats into the blanket, wondering if it's a trend nowadays to wake people up by screaming while spontaneously cursing at her brother for snitching to their parents about her outing last night.
".I'm giving you 5 mins," - her Mother's voice changes as smoke appears on top of her head - "If I don't see you downstairs ready for school, I will kill you myself."
And she knows her Mother does not lie.
It takes exactly 5 minutes to brush her teeth and put on the new uniform that was prepared by her Mom yesterday.
Today is Kira's first day as a High School student at Tsuji Private High School in Tokyo.
When she finally arrived at the kitchen, everyone already started eating. Hyuuga Fugaku, her Father, is eating and reading the newspaper in a calm and uninterested manner as always.
Her Father is the Head of the Hyuuga clan, an infamous Assassin Clan originating from Kyoto. He is a rough man, just like his look, and he places tradition above everything. To him, a son is worth a billion times more than a daughter. Hence, his focus has always been on her Brother, Hyuuga Natsume. Although uninterested in Kira, as the Head of the clan, he expects nothing but the best from all of his children, boy or girl. Hence, from an early age, both Kira and her Brother were trained mercilessly so they would become nothing but exceptional and outstanding.
After years and years of training, Natsume not only successfully becomes the youngest assassin in decades but also the most lethal assassin the Hyuuga clan, as well as the Assassin World has ever witnessed. People respectfully give him the nickname "Black Cat" - he is the shadow, you will never know until he is next to you, and you will be dead before you notice anything. The name alone brings fear and amazement whenever it's mentioned, just like yesterday. His sole name scared the thuds away, and he did not even need to show his face, though that was a mistake because he is also lethally handsome. His skills and power even surpass Fugaku's at the peak of his career, and Natsume easily becomes the pride of Fugaku as well as the entire Hyuuga clan. His name will forever go down in history as the greatest assassin in the 21st century.
Kira, on the opposite spectrum, however, is the biggest stain in the Hyuuga clan's history as she cannot kill. To an assassin, if you cannot kill, you are rendered useless, trash, and a burden to society. Fugaku is indifferent and uncaring toward Kira to the point that she thinks she is lesser than air to him. If he could kill her, Kira bet he would do it without any hesitations. Luckily or unfortunately, according to the Hyuuga clan's law, killing between clan members is forbidden.
Although everyone criticizes her, no one has ever asked for the reason why she cannot kill. Maybe it's a good thing because she is confident that they will lock her away in a mental facility once she starts speaking about "things" that stretch beyond the living world.
Though he has not uttered a single word, the aura emitting from Fugaku at the dining table is deadly, making her swallow hard and curse at her Brother yet again for snitching on her. Kira eyes her Mother, Hyuuga Mikoto, for help, but she shakes her head in response and signals her to sit down. If her Father is ignoring her existence, at least her Mother acknowledges Kira and loves her and Natsume equally. However, as a female, Mother's voice is drowned, but at least the blood in her veins is from the Usuba clan, one of the 3 Great clans in the Yakuza World. Hence, in some perspectives, Fugaku does have to yield to Mikoto.
"Sit and have your breakfast." - her Mother pulls the chair and taps on it. Kira swallows and sits cautiously, ready to run at any moment. Her stomach turns as she eyes Father, sitting diagonally from her. He seems pissed, but he always looks pissed. She swallows again and looks down at her breakfast. She would rather not eat than eat and have indigestion.
"Stop bothering your Brother with your uselessness." - Fugaku puts the newspaper down and drops a sentence at her coldly before standing up to head out for work.
"Phew…I thought I died." - Kira flops on the table like melted ice cream after ensuring the front door has closed.
"This child, your hair is in the soup!" - Mikoto yells but quickly stands up to grab the tower - "Tsch…You are starting High School today, why are you still acting like a child, huh?"
"I'm still a child, Mom, hehehehe" - she wraps her hands around Mother's waist, rubbing her cheek against the soft stomach.
"Stop with those disgusting gestures." - Natsume closes his eyes and stands up - "I'm going too, I will be back next weekend, Mom."
"Take the food and store it in the fridge, okay?" - Mikoto points to the two big bags filled with boxes of all sizes.
"Mom, why are you packing him too much food? His place is only 30 minutes from here?"
"Shut it!" - she shushes Kira, then turns to Natsume - "If you need more, let me know, and I will prepare them in advance, okay?"
"Ah" - he nods - "Want a ride kiddo?"
"Yes, please!" - Kira smiles brightly. At least she has a Mother and a Brother who still care about her.
Tsuji High School, Class 10-4, Monday,
"Learn something!" - similar to yesterday, Natsume never takes his helmet off when dropping her off. He ruffles her hair softly before starting the engine and driving off to Tokyo University.
"See you next weekend!" - Kira yells after, coughing and cursing silently at the exceptionally cool departure. No wonder he is popular not just with her parents but also with everyone. She concluded years ago that everyone likes calm, cold, and handsome boys who drive motorbikes.
Truth to be told, Kira is not bad-looking at all. In fact, she inherits many optimal features of both her parents, just like Natsume. She has the typical jet-black hair, still-black round eyes, and an overall proportional face. To the normal Japanese population, she is considered a beauty. As she was trained intensively from a young age, Kira adopts a lean, tall, and athletic body, though boys don't like athletic girls. Boys prefer those with bodies as slim as a twig that will easily be blown away by the wind. They need those weak girls to protect them, and Kira is far too strong for them. That's why, despite sharing similar features, while Natsume is popular among boys and girls, Kira remains more or less painfully invisible.
Once her Brother's motorbike is gone, she stands still a bit longer, cautiously eyeing a black blob with one huge eye hiding at the corner of the street to ensure it won't follow her before dragging her feet toward Tsuji Private High School. She has been mentally preparing to adapt to the Tokyo High School life since they moved to Tokyo 3 months ago from Kyoto. The move was justified very loosely as a "business need," which Kira had no interest in learning what it is. Why? Because her Father would never tell her anything. She is a failure anyway.
In addition to Kira being a failed assassin, another tremendous difference between Kira and Natsume is that she is borderline a horrendous student. Based on her previous records in Kyoto, it's no surprise that she is placed in Class 10-4, the second to last class of her Grade.
"At least it's better than last." - she encourages herself, which she has been doing nonstop ever since she started noticing how big of a gap she is compared to Natsume.
"Good morning" - the classroom door is opened with a loud "bang," and an old grumpy man with heavy glasses walks in. Most students know each other from Middle School, so they already sit in groups. Kira has no choice but to take whatever single seat is left, which, unfortunately, is right in front of the class.
Their homeroom teacher has a very intimidating look which immediately turns the noisy classroom quiet with his sole presence - "My name is Tsuda Kaneki, I will be your homeroom teacher for this school year. Welcome to Tsuji High School. I have only one rule, so please remember well. Whatever you do, don't place last, or I will make sure that every single one of you will suffer the consequences."
Kira hears multiple breaths hitch behind her. "I'm so doomed."
After the daunting first 15 minutes of introduction, Tsuda-sensei announces that their seats will be assigned randomly, earning a wave of protest from students, but he shuts everyone down with a single bullet glare. But everyone's disappointment is Kira's happiness, at least she may have a chance to hide in the back. She hates being called and broadcasted for how bad she is in front of class. True to her wish and even beyond her expectations, Kira gets the last seat next to the hallway, away from the windows. Things always show up and distract her by the windows.
"Hi, I'm Watanuki Kimihiro, nice to meet you! I will be in your care." - a gentle-looking boy with glasses sitting right in front of her turns around to greet, a weird aura radiating from him.
"Hi, I'm Hyuuga Kira, nice to meet you, Watanuki-san. And likewise!" - she smiles, carefully adjusting her position to avoid being so near to him. His aura - it's bad, but it's a different kind of bad, she has never felt anything like that before.
Besides the weird auro from her potentially only friend, the first day of school goes by long-windedly and boringly.
When the bell rings, signaling the end of school, Kira hurriedly says goodbye to Watanuki and others whom she became friends with today during lunch and runs toward the internet cafe.
"Only 1 hour. Only 1, then I'm going home!" - she convinces herself confidently, which she did every freaking time and always ended up in the ditch called CounterStrike until midnight. However, her intention changes as she walks past the small alley. Memories of last night's fight rush back - "Hm…Should I go check on him? To make sure he is still alive? He is a kid anyway, and as an adult, I should be responsible….Yeah, good idea."
With that in mind, she quickly abandons her precious gaming night and heads toward Tokyo Hospital to check on the kid whose she does not even know his name.
"He is yea tall," - Kira points to her ear, trying to describe the kid she is looking for to the nurse - "um….his hair is dark, I think, he came in last night with a stab wound."
"Someone indeed came in with a stab wound last night. But miss, you don't seem to know the person very well. Who are you to him?'" - the nurse asks suspiciously.
"I'm his classmate. He missed the first day of school today, so I want to give him the notes and the seat map. My teacher assigned me to come here." - Kira lies professionally without blinking.
"But miss, you don't seem to know the person very well. I'm sorry, but without familial relationships, I cannot tell you the room number. The family did specify that they prohibit any strangers. I'm sorry." - the nurse apologizes and turns to the next person in line.
Her plan of being a responsible adult is down the toilet.
"Guess I can go back to Counterstrike before going home." - she sighs and contemplates at the hospital entrance when a shiny black car stops and a handsome middle-aged man steps outside. In a split second, her jaw is on the ground.
To this day, she has never, and like never, found any man 10 years older than her attractive. Because all middle-aged men are like Father, and Father is everything but attractive. But this white-hair man approaching her at this moment just proves her strongly-believed theory wrong. She blushes hard and quickly retreats into the shadow, where she can comfortably and shamelessly check out the handsome man without being caught. Her heart pulsates in her ears, a strange sensation that she has not experienced before.
"Damn…? Is he the one from my dream? He must be the one, right? My fated partner?" - she mumbles, eyes glued to the man's back.
"Who is your fated partner?" - a warm whisper right next to her ears.
She startles, jumping slightly as her heart sits tightly in her throat. Two eyes stare at each other.
"You are not a ghost, right?" - her finger touches the boy's arm in slow motion. Her lips vibrate slightly.
A small chuckle - "Am I?"
"Phew, you are definitely not." - she relaxes after realizing it's a real person next to her.
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"AHHH, it's you, the kid from last night."
