13 Stimulate your senses

After exiting the room, Akira decided that it was time to go home. Although he knew that his talk with Coach Shirogane was not over, it was a good place to stop. They'll being seeing it other a lot for the next 3 years, so things will naturally come up.

When Akira arrived at the school's entrance, he sighed as he saw a girl standing there and of course, it was Rei.

Rei: "Akira! I've been waiting for you!"

Akira: "...Just going to call me that right off the bat huh."

Rei: "What's wrong with that? You did save me yesterday so we should be considered extremely close. Oh! You can call me Rei in return."

Akira: "...No thank you."

Rei: "What a tease. And so... What took you so long?"

Akira: "I was speaking with my coach after the basketball tryouts. The question is, why are you still here?"

She chuckled.

Rei: "I wanted to observe the first string baseball members after being introduced to my duties as a manager and lost track of time. Then I thought that I might as well wait here for you so we could go home together."

Akira: "...Don't you have someone who could drive you home? You are the 'princess' of the school after all. On second thought, do we even live in the save area?"

That name had already spread around the school and many of the students refer to her now by that nickname.

Her face stiffened for a second. Other's might not be able to notice it, but Akira did.

Rei: "You live near the park where we met right? I also live in that area. I do have someone that could drive me, but I wanted to go home normally like everyone else. And please don't call me 'princess', I don't like that name."

Akira: "...Sure."

They started walking home together and Akira was bombarded with many questions about his personal life: What hobbies does he have? What does he like to eat? Why did he choose to play basketball?

Akira answered each one of them truthfully. He saw no reason to lie or make things up. But eventually he started to get annoyed by her stream of questions, so he tried to change the topic of the conversation to her instead.

Akira: "Since you now know a lot about me, why don't you tell me more about yourself."

Rei: "Look! There's a Maji Burger! I've never actually ate at one before. Let's go in!"

[A/N: "Maji Burger is the anime equivalent to McDonalds. Check it out in episode 2 of the Kuroko no Basket."]

Akira: "Oi!"

She acted like she didn't have a care in the world and walked in, leaving Akira no choice but to follow.

While she was contemplating what to order, Akira just ordered a couple burgers, some fries, and a vanilla milkshake. He tried the shake a few years ago in America and the taste stuck with him. Seeing that he was already finished ordering, Rei panicked a little and chose a random meal on the board.

Soon both of them were sitting down in a booth eating together. Rei was inspecting her tray of food, wondering what to try first before unwrapping the burger.

Rei: "I'm really curious how these will taste. In primary school, I had all my meals pre-made so this is will be new experience for me. I've never even had a piece of gum before."

He had a wry smile from that.

Akira: "...As expected of a rich kid."

She ignored his words and took a bite of the burger and was surprised by the taste.

Rei: "Wow! Although I had my reservations, this is not bad. The bun really complements the meat along with the sauce and the lettuces gives it a good 'crunchy' texture."

She then tried her fries and drinks and commenting how the fries were filling and how she never had soda before. To Akira, she looked like a kid playing with a new toy. Soon, she finished her meal with a satisfied smile.

Rei: "I was surprised. The food here was better than I thought."

Akira: "Well of course. Although it may not be as good or as healthy as what you usually eat, it is still made for normal people so some flavor is there."

Rei: "Indeed, but more importantly..."

She looked towards Akira's tray full of burger wrappers and cups from the fries and drinks.

Rei: "I'm surprised that you can eat that much and that fast. And I can't believe that you actually went to get more."

Akira: "Well... About that. I usually don't eat that much. However if I sweat a lot, I need to eat more to regain my energy."

Akira's Healthy Body ability ensures that he has a high metabolism and that anything that he eats is quickly converted to energy for his body. However to fill up on energy, he has to eat and replenish his reserves. His body can also generate energy by itself, but not enough for any activities other than the basic necessities and if he goes days without any food, his body will begin to break down even with his Healthy Body. That is why he needs to match is intake with his energy output and has to eat a lot before and after a hard day's work. Also eating does provide a miniscule gain to his strength

Rei: "But isn't that really unhealthy?"

Akira: "It should be, but I haven't encountered any problems so far. Since the doctors can't find a reason for why my body behaves like this, I don't really think about it."

Rei: "How envious~. You have something that every woman wants."

Akira gave no response to that and instead just picked up his bag signaling that he was going to leave and Rei followed after him.

After a couple more minutes of walking, they finally reached Rei's home. It was surrounded by high fences and in the distance Akira could see a large mansion with smaller building to the side.

Akira: "So this is your place huh. It's almost as big as I envisioned it to be."

She had a weird smile hearing that.

Rei: "...It is big, but that just means that there is a lot of empty spaces. It's not actually a great place to live in like most people think."

Akira: "Is that so."

There was a moment of silence after that.

Akira: "...Well if that's it, I going home."

Rei: "Huh? Oh! Yea. See you tomorrow."

He started walking home waved his hand above him to her behind him and she just stood there watching him for a while before passing through the gates.

Once she walked inside the house, she was greeted by a butler that seemed to know that she would be coming in at this moment.

Butler: "Welcome home young miss. I was considering informing your father and sending out men to look for you if you stayed out any later."

Rei: "I've returned before curfew so there's no need for that. Also, I've eaten on the way home so apologize to the chef for me."

Butler: "Of course. In that case, would you like the maids to draw your bath? It should be ready within 2 minutes."

She nodded and walked up the stairs heading for her room. It was a very large room, that had a desk, a couch facing a TV on the wall, a walk-in closet, and a king-sized bed. This was the only place within her house where she could just kick back and be herself, where she didn't have to put up a face.

Once inside she dropped her bag by the door and jumped headfirst into her bed.

Rei: "Haaaa~ I'm so tired. I really talked a lot today."

She paused for a moment when she thought about something.

Rei: "...But it was very fulfilling."

After being told that her bath was ready and getting in, she reminisced about how much had happened these past few days.

Her parents were rarely ever home and her upbringing had always been very strict. When she was a few years old her parents had her learn dancing, piano, tea ceremony, and other things like that. It felt like there were trying to mold her into the 'perfect woman'.

The only thing she found joy in doing was watching baseball. She was introduced to it by her grandfather who was also a baseball freak and all she could remember were fond memories playing with him. He passed away a few years ago and her current attraction to baseball was a sort of homage to her memory of him, her grandfather's greatest gift to her. But other than baseball, her life was completely dull.

About a month ago, she started sneaking out of the house for some relief and wanting to experience what it was like outside. She was surprised to find how everything was so full of life. Every night she would go out and explore, see the sights, and take in the atmosphere. But it was only until last night did she encounter some trouble.

In the park on the way home, three young men caught her in their sights and liked what they saw. Rei didn't notice anything wrong until it was too late and they surrounded her. From there, she couldn't shake them off.

And then out of nowhere a man appeared like those you would find in fairy tales. But this was unlike any prince she could imagine because the person who had appeared he was wearing baggy sweats and hold many plastic bags in both of his hands. He looked nothing like a prince and it was at this point where she suspected whether or not this was all a dream. However, after he took care of the three delinquents effortlessly did she realize that had indeed saved her.

When he left, she immediately wanted to find out more about him and gave an order to find out who he is. But never did she expect that she would see again him on the first day of school and in the same grade and class as her.

Her impressions of him were a bit negative when he first ignored her, but that quickly changed when she saw the way he behaved in class and as they walked home together. In class, out of the corner of her eye, she saw that he always paid his attention to the teacher's lecture and would write down notes cleanly and clearly. When they were walking together he would answer every question she asked him. She concluded that he wasn't a bad person, he was just a very serious one and his behavior was just a side effect of that.

But there was one thing that stuck to her: when he was introducing himself to the class and said that 'he wanted to live his life to the fullest'. This seemingly contrasted with his 'serious' nature and rei couldn't get this phrase out of her mind.

She could only sigh while soaking in the bathtub.

Rei: 'It seems like my 'prince' is still quite the mystery.'

The night quickly passed and soon the second day of school was about to begin. Rei arrived in school a bit earlier than most of the other students and slowly watched as the room became more filled. Some people came up to her, continuing their questions from yesterday.

When Akira arrived, he drew the class' attention before they went back to what they were doing before. He could be considered popular, but he was overshadowed by Rei in that aspect. When he went to his seat, he passed by Rei's and left something on her desk.

Akira: "Don't eat it during class."

She took a surprised glance at him before looking down to see what it was. It was a pack of gum.

She smiled fondly, dodging the others' questions about what just happened.