1 The Beginning of an Unthinkable Journey

Like a lunatic, Keigo was running back and forth in the school hall as many eyes of annoyance laid upon him. His slightly high pitched voice resonated throughout the school as Keigo yelled

"Ichigo!~ Where are yo- gah!" Keigo was stopped dead in his tracks as his neck hit a muscular arm making him fall to the ground. Keigo opened his eyes to look at the culprit who made him fall to the floor painfully and sure enough, it was the man he was seeking.

"Ichigo! How could you hit your best friend?! I knew it, you don't want me as a friend anymore do you?!" Crocodile tears began to pour out of Keigo's eyes "I'm just little old Keigo who hasn't seen the person he thought was his best friend all through summer vacation and when I do see you, i'm greeted with violence!"

A tick mark appeared on the orange haired boy's forehead "You're too loud! Can't you see that your disturbing the others?!" Ichigo exclaimed while gesturing towards the many eyes that were looking at them.

"Hahahaha! Those are the eyes of woman who are in love and men who are envious of my gracious looks!"

Before Ichigo could say anything else, they heard the school's bell ring indicating that class was about to start.

Ichigo clicked his tongue making a "Tch" sound as he headed back to his seat without continuing the fight with Keigo.

Keigo sat down on his chair which was located in the middle of the classroom making him seemingly the center of attention. Keigo almost instantly began to daydream after the attendance was called. He made a stupid face with his eyes slightly closed and zoned out with drool dripping out of his mouth. It wasn't hard to realize Keigo was thinking of something perverted. 'I wonder what colored panties Orihime is wearing today..' but of course Keigo wouldn't dare say that out loud lest he truly wanted to be despised by the class.

Just as the bell rung indicating that it was break, Ichigo, Chad, and even the four eyed Uryu seemed to become alert as they perked up as they all exchanged glances.

Keigo approached Ichigo and Chad who were currently together whispering "Hey what's going on?"

"I-it's nothing, we gotta go." Ichigo replied as he and Chad left the classroom in a hurry. 'What's up with them?'

'...Oh well at least my beloved Orihime is still her-' as Keigo turned around and searched for Orihime, he widened his eyes in surprise to find her following Chad and Ichigo in a hurry.

'Oh I see how it is! They must have some sort of secret they don't want to share with me!' Keigo thought as another stream of fake tears drowned him hoping to gain some sort of pity but was only met with another wack to the head

"Oww~ Tatsuki why did you hit me in the head?" Keigo said turning to the beautiful black haired girl.

"Has it ever occurred to you that your so annoying that they might actually be avoiding you in order to avoid unwanted attention?" Tatsuki said slightly annoyed of the brown haired boy in front of her.

"What~? Come on, they aren't like that! They must have had something important to do.. Besides..." Keigo leaned in towards Tatsuki trying to embrace her in a hug but failed to do so as he was punched in the face making him back away until he hit the classroom's wall.

"Everyone just loves to bully little old me don't they" Keigo said as he laid on the ground in pain.

Tatsuki began to feel bad about punching him so hard in the face and wanted to apologize to him but immediately prevented herself from doing so as it would just feed Keigo's odd ego.

Ichigo, Chad, and Orihime returned to class just before the bell rung signifying the end of lunch. Nothing else particularly happened as Keigo just zoned out and began thinking perverted thoughts again.

When school ended, Keigo got up from his seat and quickly went home, not waiting for anyone. Many of his friends found this weird but didn't give it a second thought as they already knew what this phase of his was. It was a phase in hopes of them feeling bad for him and give him more attention just like a little kid would do. And they were exactly right.

'Maybe if I begin to ignore them, Ichigo will tell me his secret and then we can be best friends again! After all, best friends don't hide any secrets from one another!"

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"Sis i'm home!" Keigo yelled out to his sister Mizuho Asano telling her that he returned home. Currently they were both living in a house by themselves as their parents passed away when they were younger. Too young for Keigo to remember.

"Ah, Keigo welcome back! Before you take off your shoes could you do me a favor and get us some milk from the convenience store? We ran out of it."

Keigo happily obliged to the task as he knew he couldn't sit still at home anyways so letting off some more steam would always be nice. Just as he was about to head out, Keigo felt a shiver run down his back as he thought 'Why's sis asking so nicely?' but temporarily put off the thought as he left the house.

....

Keigo just finished buying milk from the convenient store. Near his house was a park with a fairly big playground and a few sets of swings, right now the park was completely empty. Keigo sat down on one of the swings and began to lightly push himself back and forth just high enough to feel a gentle breeze. Despite how Keigo acts, he was actually pretty lonely. He didn't have a large range of friends and could actually call one person his true best friend, which was Mizuiro. While he did have great friends like Ichigo, Chad and Orihime, he felt like they were hiding a deep secret from him. If they were truly his best friend they wouldn't hesitate to tell him which could only mean they just didn't trust him enough.

Under all the smiles he put up, Keigo felt nothing but loneliness. His parents died before he could even remember a single memory of them. His sister had to raise him by herself despite her not being much older than himself. Keigo just wanted a sense of belonging, something that he could protect or cherish with all his being without ever letting go but every time he felt like he found that something, it was as if it would slip away and disappear.

A single tear escaped from his right eye. "Eh?" Keigo let out a sound of confusion as he quickly wiped the tear that fell out of his eye. "Seems like I was getting to emotion haha..." Keigo said as he got up from the swing.

Just as Keigo stood up, what felt like hundreds of pounds pushing against him, sent him flying several meters before he even began to slow down but even that didn't stop him as a tree had to break his fall.

"What the hell was that?" Keigo said out loud in fear. He looked at his arm which looked like it had two bloody claw marks from the top of his shoulder down to his hands.

Keigo began looking around left and right, up and down but there was no sign of anything that could possibly of pushed him so far. Again, Keigo was pushed once more but this time his wounds were much more fatal. Instead of claw marks, their were two baseball sized puncture wounds through his stomach. Keigo laid on the ground, unable to speak let alone move.

'What's going on? I can't feel anything... Maybe I should sleep? Yeah that sounds good... My eyes feel pretty heavy. Maybe after a short nap I can bring the milk to sis. She wouldn't mind me being a little bit late right?..'

'𝑯𝒂𝒉𝒂𝒉𝒂! 𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕'𝒔 𝒊𝒕?! 𝑰 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒎𝒚 𝑲𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅'𝒗𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒍𝒆𝒅 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒊𝒕 𝒔𝒆𝒆𝒎𝒔 𝒘𝒆 𝒈𝒐𝒕 𝒎𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒐!'