Interchangeable

Kozikye had been transferring in and out of different boys home around the country because he would always either break the rules of the house or the laws of the country. He had never expected staying in one for any more than a week. His personal best was seven days without being kicked out. 

As punishment, the owners of the house did not agree to feed him until he had learnt a lesson. This, of course, backfired Kozikye could just sneak out of the house and get food for himself.

The question still stands, the only question that Kozikye wanted to find out the answer to.

"How many more times?"

Kozikye looked up and stared at his new home. 

He knew that the chances were low, but he still hopes that this would be the last time he would have to transfer.

Upon entering, he could sense a different energy that was eminating from this place.

It felt more comfortable.

"Welcome home, Kozikye!"

"Hey."

"We've been waiting all morning for your arrival."

"O-oh, have you? Sorry for keeping you waiting."

"It's alright, my name is Gaku. I'm the Warden. Here, let me show you to your room."

He took my bag and pulled my hands. 

"W-wait, rea-really, I can carry my bag on my own."

"Ah, it's no worries."

The man, who was the owner of the home, led him to the room Kozikye would be staying.

"Thanks."

"Alright, this is room Form Five. I'll leave you to get to know your bunkmates."

As Kozikye walked through the door, the sounds of chatter had suddenly stopped as he surveyed his new bunkmates.

There weren't many faces that stood out, they all just stared at him, except for the only one that had a face of disapproval.

Kozikye got to his bed and leaned his bag against the cabinet. He sat on the side of his bed and looked out at the window. After feeling like he was the only one looking out the window, he turned around to look at his spectators.

Realizing they had been caught, they turned back around to their pairs and continued their conversations. However, he could hear that they were gossipping about him. Seeing as they all knew who he were, he did not have to introduce himself to the others. They needed to introduce themselves to him, but Kozikye felt that they weren't willing to do that.

After all, everyone in that room feared him, except for one.

He saw that a group of kids, similar to his age were approaching him and braced himself for a conflict. 

"Oi, look at me."

Kozikye did as he asked and looked up at him.

"What's your name?"

"Kozikye."

"Haha, that's funny. Really, what's your real name?"

"I just told you, it's Kozikye."

"You expect me to believe that? Get up"

Kozikye stood up.

The kid pointed at him "Are you poor? Your name sounds weird."

"Aren't you poor too?" The kid looked flabbergasted by his question.

"Judging by your face, you are." Kozikye added.

The kid's fists start clenching and his body started trembling out of anger.

"What's your name, then?"

"This punk- it's Hiro. You only get to ask that question once, so-"

"Pffft—" Kozikye tried to hold in his laugher. The audacity of this 'Hiro' character was hilarious to him.

"You're saying I'm poor because of my name? Please, yours sounds even more poor!"

Hiro was taken aback, not once had anyone ever talked back to him before. Not even his own lackeys who were the closest to him. Even they couldn't bring themselevs to disagree with him, as that would result in them getting their jaw dropped with a punch to the face.

Hiro was the strongest among Kozikye's bunkmates. Before Kozikye had arrived, Hiro acted as the tyrant that ruled over the entirity of the boys home. Along with his two lackeys, Ren and Kaito, would pick on the weakest members of the delinquent house.

Everybody knew to fear him and his body guards, knowing that they were the most loyal and would do anything he asked without question. His command was rule, if you denied to diligently follow it, you would lose half of your teeth.

Now, a new delinquent had shown up that even his own minions feared. Hiro felt insulted and even jealous that he could gain power without even saying a word. All the minions knew was that Kozikye was someone not to be played with.

The stories of him transferring from one boys home to another was already terrifying enough, but now that he was in the same room as them. It was like a nightmare had come true.

From one delinquent to another, the disrespect could go only go so far, Hiro thought. He doesn't even seem to feel any fear or remorse for blatantly making fun of him in front of his minions.

Feeling embarrassed, Hiro couldn't let it slide.

He felt like he had to teach his new minion a lesson.

He clenched his fists even tighter and threw a swift punch to Kozikye's face.

Crash!

Everybody was thrown back from the impact that caused a huge gust of wind to form and lift them off the ground and fall back to it. 

With a regretful look on Kozikye's face, he looked back to witness the damage he had caused.

Hiro had been thrown back by Kozikye's counter and had crashed into the wall on the other side of the room. As the dust cleared, Hiro could be seen with a bleeding wound on his abdomen.

Kozikye saw the attack coming and easily dodged it but had forgotten about his Auto-Counter skill and jabbed Hiro in the gut. Thankfully, Kozikye was able to pull back his strength and make his hit as light as possible.

Still, even with pulling his strength back as much as he could, that 'light' had left Hiro with a concussion and possibly scoliosis.

Kozikye immediately started apologising and begged for Hiro's forgiveness.

"ughh…-"

"Oh shit, uhm- you!"

"M-me?"

"Yes, you! Is there an infirmary around here?"

"erh-" His voice trembling, he couldn't muster up the courage to say anything.

"Y-yes, the infirmary's along the hallway, it's in front of the locker rooms."

Without anymore needing to be said, he grabbed Hiro, carried him on his back and ran out of the room in search of medical aid.

He bursted into the infirmary, breaking the door of its hinges in the process.

"What!? What are the hell are you doing you deliquent!?"

"Nurse, you need to help Hiro! He's is seriously injured!" The nurse, a tall woman with long red hair, looks at the rotting corpse on his back. Blood was dripping from Kozikye's shirt his entire back was drenched in the liquid.

The nurse hurriedly helped Kozikye to put Hiro on a bed and carefully bandaged up the wound as her hands were getting painted with red.

"Is he going to be okay?" Kozikye nervously asked. "It's a very severe injury, so there's no saying how long its going to take for him to recover." she answered.

"Here, take this towel to wipe off the blood and wear this shirt" The nurse took a plain white shirt and towel out of the drawers and threw them to Kozikye. He caught them both and started taking off his bloody shirt, "Where should I put this?"

"Just put it in the basket beside you, I'll wash it for you." The nurse replied while Kozikye was wiping his back with his eyes widened, brimming with gratitude.

Normally, if he did something like this in his previous homes, he would be severely punished and abused. Not only did he injure his bunkmate, he also broke the door to the infirmary. 

After transferring the blood to the towel, he put on the new shirt. "Thank you." 

The nurse nodded with a stoic expression.

"What even happened to him for him to end up like this?" she asked, her voice laced with confusion.

Kozikye then nervously told her about the whole story. Leaving out some minor details along the way, like the fact that it was he who had hit him.

Hiro, half-asleep, heard Kozikye's retelling of the backstory and felt like he needed to fill in the missing parts.

"Ghaa… Nooo, th..that's not what ha happened…"

The nurse gasped "Hiro, are you awake?"

"Nnyeess.. Kozikye's a layarrr.."His hands trying to reach out for someone to comfort him. After all, he was probably about to die.

"How is this possible, you're hurt so bad but you're still able to form words." her eyebrows furrowed.

And before they realized,

"d-dank kyuu…"

Hiro's eyes rolled back in their sockets and his mouth drooling, he was knocked out again.

"Oh- uhm.. so how did you say you hit him?"

"Erhh…" He could feel his own sweat crawling on his back as an awkward silence filled the room.