Chapter 7 - Akirou Hiro

The sun rose, shining upon the world. At a certain apartment building, lights streamed into a room; illuminating the slightly chubby face of a young high school boy. He was still sleeping despite the fact that today is supposed to be the start of his first year in high school.

His alarm clock rang out when it hit 6:30 am, however, he just smacked the snooze button and went back to sleep; he will be late if he doesn't get up soon. Fortunately, someone was coming to wake him up; his childhood friend.

The door to his room swings opened and in came a small figure that swiftly went through the messy room before shadowing over the sleeping boy. The figure pulled on his bed sheet until he fell off the bed.

"Ugh! What the-!" The boy, Akirou Hiro, grunted at the sudden pain he felt from falling off his bed. Hiro managed to open his eyes slightly to see who it was that pulled him off of the bed.

"Hito-kun, why did you do that?" Hiro asked his little brother, who is his only friend.

"Don't you have school today, Nii-san? You're going to be late if you don't get ready" Hito said, pointing at the clock on the bedside drawer, it reads 6:35 am.

"Crap! I'm gonna be late!" Hiro jumped up before bolting towards the bathroom.

"Sigh… Sometimes I wonder if we really are brothers" Hito mumbled before heading towards the living room.

15 minutes later; Hiro, in Kurimo Academy uniform, came running into the living room a school bag slung on his shoulder. He grabbed a jelly-filled dou- I mean onigiri, said goodbye to Hito and his mother before rushing out the front door.

Hiro sped-walked the entire trip to school and arrived at the front gate; he saw an attractive guy not in Kurimo uniform standing next to the gate but it was none of his business so he walked past the guy.

He arrived at the auditorium 10 minutes before the ceremony starts and got a seat near the edge of the third roll. Surprisingly, he wasn't drenched in sweat even though he practically ran here; he relaxed in his seat and tried to take out his phone but realized he had left it at home.

Now, he has some free time on his hand but doesn't have a way to pass it. Hiro looked around and observed the auditorium; as his eyes wander around, it landed upon the notebook of someone seated in front of him in the second row. He was fascinated by the sketches on that book, it appeared to be very well drawn, and there wasn't any trace of mistakes in those sketches at all.

What fascinated him, even more, was the fact that he was witnessing the creation of these sketches with his own two dark purplish eyes. Hiro just watched on with great astonishment as one perfect sketch of a magic circle after another gets developed at an inhuman level of haste.

Before he realized it, 5 minutes passed by in mere moments. Hiro only snapped out of it when the person with the sketchbook put it away, he was about to start a conversation with the person in question but stopped when he saw two incredible beauties approached the book holder. It was then that he finally saw the appearance of the black-haired boy in front of him; the person was attractive and seemed to exude an air of wisdom around him. A person like this would not pay him any mind even if he tried to strike up a conversation, is the feeling he got from seeing the boy chat leisurely with the two beauties.

Hiro turned his attentions elsewhere because of the tinge of pain he felt in his heart when watching the three riajuu interact. He spaced out, thinking about other stuff in his mind instead of facing the painful reality of his non-existent social life. He completely blanked for the entirety of the ceremony, missing the Headmaster's and Ren's speech.

He snapped back to reality when everyone was getting up and leaving the auditorium to head to their classes. He walked with his head slightly lowered and a slightly hunched back; he arrived at Class 1-B and sat at his desk near the window. Hiro looked out the window and started to deeply contemplate his life choices up till now.

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Dun-don-dun-don

The school bell rang, marking the end of Homeroom. The Class Rep, Miyako Atsuka, takes the lead in standing up and bowing while we all followed suit.

"Stand! Bow!" Miyako said strongly, compelling us to do as she commanded.

Osuji-sensei nodded, satisfied, before walking out the classroom. We all sat down at our desk and chatters started between our classmates; namely, the girls have flocked to Hina's desk and blocked my path to her. Well, it's fine since the other boys are blocked from approaching her as well so I'm not gonna impede on their social advances.

I stood up and started heading out of the classroom.

"Ishia-kun, where are you going?" The boy that sat behind me asked while tilting his head; his voice was quite feminine, topped with his small stature and pretty-boy face, older girls would love him.

"I'm going for a walk, wanna tag along?" I asked out of courtesy as I turned to look at him; he looks like a halfling-elf minus the long ears. He talked to me in Homeroom and got a marker cap thrown at his head, and yes it did hit.

"Yeah! Let's g-" Monoa agreed but was cut off by someone pulling him and because of his small stature he got dragged into the embrace of a girl with bountiful bosom.

"Niji-kun! You really did come after me to Kurimo! Oh, I've fallen for you all over again" The girl with extra firepower, blushed red while burying Monoa's face in her chest, quite easily I might add.

The scene of a brown-haired girl intensely pulling the innocent pale-blonde-haired child into her mountains attracted the attention of everyone in the class. The girls were red in embarrassment while the boys had bloodshot eyes glaring at shouta boy Monoa very enviously. The perpetrator was oblivious of the attention while the powerless victim wasn't able to speak for obvious reasons but still tried to get help in the form of his new friend.

Unfortunately for him, I was already out the door. I didn't bother helping because I couldn't. What was I supposed to do? Pry him off of her? She would just take that as a "challenge" and grew more aggressive, at that point the situation would escalate and become way worse. Hence, deal with it yourself buddy.

I headed towards the stairs; I wanted to check out the rooftop. As a scholarship student, I have access to almost every place on campus so I figured I'd check out the rooftop first since it's supposed to be a restricted area for the first week of school.

I walked up the stairs with a mind filled with clarity, having pushed the situation from before to the back of my mind. I passed by a few senpais and I greeted a few out of courtesy, they were all quite friendly, this just shows you the kind of students Kurimo Academy would accept as their students.

After passing by the second and third year's floor, I ascended further. However, I heard something; it was the sound of light sobbing. Someone was crying, and the sound came from up the stairs.

'Everywhere I go is just full of troubles' I sighed inwardly, but still continued my way up the stairs.

Every step I take, the sobbing just gets a bit clearer. Before I couldn't discern if the person was a boy or a girl, but after going up a flight of stairs I could tell which of the two they were. I didn't know who they were or their reason for crying but I wanted to help.

The way that person was sobbing is the same as those children from back then; they're sad and emotional but crying loudly would alert other people, so they chose to suppress it. It just makes my blood boil thinking about what happened back then, but I managed to calm myself.

'The situation is not the same: I'm on Earth right now not Mirkaz, something like that wouldn't happen here' This thought calmed my nerves.

I arrived at the final set of stairs before the rooftop's door and saw him, sitting there with his arms wrapped around his knees and his head lowered. The way he was sitting, aroused a scene from my past to flash momentarily before disappearing. I didn't react this time and just continued to ascend up the steps.

When I was in front of him, I called out.

"Hey, what's got you so upset?" I spoke gently with a smile on to try to make him open up.

The boy lifted his head and droplets of tears trickled down his slightly plump cheeks; his eyes held a tinge of regret. He doesn't appear to have registered the fact that someone is watching bawl his eyes out yet, it looks like he has come to grip with reality yet either so I'll just wait for him to calm down a bit.

His eyes widen a little as he realized the situation he was in, and proceeded to blocked his face from my view while stuttering out "D-do-don't lo-look at m-me" with his hands trembling. Seeing this I felt my heart tremble and ached; a boy his age shouldn't be experiencing something as painful as deep regret, but I guess life here on Earth isn't all sunshine and rainbow either.

I walked up and placed my hand on his head, I then proceeded to pat him while fully activating all of the skills in [Perfect Mind] and released a gentle and soothing aura into the surrounding.

"It's alright, you can talk to me about anything. I'll lend you an ear and listen to your problems when you're ready, talking about your problems will make you feel better about it" I spoke in a gentle and reassuring tone, coupled with the soothing atmosphere this should help him calm down and be willing to speak his guts out.

I didn't use any mind spell because it wouldn't help in getting him to open up, and careless use of it can have side effects on a normal human's mind; especially in their adolescent years. I don't like to affect someone's mind when it isn't necessary, but I would do so without hesitation if push comes to shove.

I kept comforting him until he calmed down enough to be embarrassed about being patted on the head by a guy around his age, he asked me to stop with a slight tint of red on his cheeks. I took my hand off and sat down next to him and waited for him to begin.

He started off by telling me about his experience in elementary school; back then the other kids made fun of him for being plump and bullied him, every day was difficult for him and at one point he stopped going to school. He didn't go to school for weeks until someone from his class came to bring him back; that someone was a kind girl with shoulder-length black hair and orange-colored eyes.

"Come on, Akirou-kun. Let's go to school together" She invited him with a bright and cheery smile; at that time he was so charmed by her, he just went along with her. After that, he attended school like normal and the two spent plenty of time together. Everything was looking good for him, the pair went through elementary school together and into middle school.

That was, until one day in the summer of their first year of middle school, she called him to hang out. They met up, had fun, and were heading home when she suddenly dropped a piece of news that left him stunned.

"Hiro-kun, I'm going to be moving tomorrow…" She said out of the blue.

"Whaat!? You're moving!? Why didn't tell me sooner!?" He exclaimed out of shock.

"I-I di-didn't get the chance t-" She stuttered.

"You wanted to leave and not tell me right?" He cut her off and formed his own wild conclusion.

"N-no, that's no-" She tried to explain but was cut off again.

"If so then you shouldn't have told me and just leave!" He shouted and ran off home alone, he completely overreacted that time.

He didn't even look back and just ran home. After getting home, he locked himself in his room for three days. Even when she tried to come and say goodbye, he didn't come out and just secluded himself. It was only the day after that he came to realize what he had done and tried to ask his mom about her, but she didn't leave any way to get in contact with her.

Thus, the years of friendship they built were gone in an instant. He regretted it so much that he fell into depression, isolated himself from the other students, and never tried to reach out to others. He only got out of his depression slump the next school year, and by that point, he was all alone once again; no one at school would even try to talk to him so he stayed friendless for the rest of middle school.

He had all but repressed those memories deep down already but they resurfaced when he witnessed the interaction between a boy and a girl in the auditorium this morning and that made him think deeply about what he had done after losing his childhood friend due to his own immaturity. After some deep deliberations, he realized he had been running away from reality and felt anxious about taking the first step in moving on.

"I was stupid for abandoning my one and only friend, and I regret it. But, I just can't seem to move on and forget about her; I'm afraid that I'll just ruin another friendship and hurt that person as I did her." Akirou started to clench his hand tightly making it tremble, his voice sounded choked.

I patted his shoulder a few times before speaking my mind.

"Here's my honest opinion, I also think you were dumb and immature for handling it like that. I don't blame her for not wanting to see you again" I gave my criticism as someone who also has a childhood friend and I would never do something like that.

Akirou trembled even more as he lowered his head and wept in regret; he must be beating himself up inside right now after hearing my opinion. I patted his shoulder some more to get his attention before continuing.

"I'm not done yet, although you're shitty for what you did. You regret it, right? That's enough for now. What else is there to do if you can't apologize to her face to face? I think you should learn from your mistakes and grow, you're not gonna get anywhere by feeling down in dump about it all the time; stand up and move forward, that's how you prove that you've truly accepted your fault. You never know, maybe you'll get to apologize to her in the future; for the meantime, just work on yourself so you can look her in the eyes and ask for forgiveness" I, this time, gave advice as an adult, as someone who has seen his processors' life experience.

'Time is precious; you never know when yours will run out so live to the best of your ability. I still have around a thousand years before I kick the bucket, but you humans only have 70+ years, some even shorter so don't waste it hopelessly worrying about every little thing'

"'Life is too short to be worrying about every little thing' I heard this quote from an Oji-san a while back and I've live by it ever since. I personally think that we shouldn't worry about things that are out of our control and just face whatever life throws at us as they come" I said while getting back up on my feet after seeing that Akirou has calmed down and is processing my words. I unlocked the door to the rooftop by flashing my ID on the scan pad and opened it, letting wind gust through the open door. I held it open before turning to Akirou and spoke.

"Think about what I've said and decide what you'll do next. The door will be unlocked so come to me if you want help; if you can't decide in a short time, come see me in Class 1-A whenever you like, my door will stay open for you to come. Later Akirou-kun" I said invitingly with a friendly smile before walking through and shutting the door behind me. It'll be up to him if he wants help; I can't help someone who doesn't want it.

I walked up to the railing and gazed upon the backside of the academy ground while enjoying the slightly cool breeze and the sight of other students roaming around the fields for all kinds of sports. There were fields for every common sport you could think of off the top of your head; the school campus was huge. Speaking of huge, on a slightly elevated hill stood a huge sakura tree with vibrant petals; something like that looks like a popular confession spot with some kind of romantic legend about it or something.

I continued admiring the great scenery from a high vantage point; I can't naturally fly with my avatar body unless I used magic so I can only enjoy a view like this from atop a building.

'Those rows of evenly spaced trees beside the concrete pathway probably make for a soothing atmosphere if viewed from ground level in the evening; I'll have to confirm it for myself though, preferably with Hina'

With such thoughts running through my mind, minutes passed by just like the flitting wind; Akirou has not shown up yet. I sighed and moved over to the mini garden located on the left side of the door; I passed by some flower beds and made my way to a bench under the shade of a tree. I sat there and leaned back before closing my eyes and resting there.

Since it's the first day, we got the entire morning off to explore the academy to familiarize ourselves with the layout; at 12 we have to be back in class for a final attendance check before we can head on off home. I know Akirou hasn't moved from his spot near the door so I'll just wait for him to come or leave; in the meantime, I'll just sleep.

'Whether he chooses to move on or stay held up by the past will be up to him, and if he does choose to move on, he'll either have to go through it alone or find someone to help him. With me laying out the options for him, he should be able to decide for himself the path he believes to be the right one. We all have to make decisions for ourselves; we can't let others decide for us. What's the point in life if you can't decide how you'll live it?'

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Time ticked by bit by bit, seconds turned into minutes, and those minutes added up to turn to an hour. one and a half hours passed before the door to the rooftop opened, stepping out was a chubby boy in Kurimo Academy uniform; his black hair swept up by the wind revealing his dark purplish eyes that flared with determination.

He stepped in front of the handsome boy resting on the bench and spoke with great conviction.

"I want to improve myself and move on from the past, you said I can come to you for help anytime so here I am. Please help me; I don't know where to start!" He bowed before straightening himself.

The eyes of the resting boy fluttered open and a satisfied smile float on his face. He proceeded to sit up straight and lifted his hand to point at the determined boy.

"Then start by talking with someone from your class, a girl would be great but a guy will do just fine. Get it done before noon, we'll discuss this further over lunch" His voice was commanding yet gentle, it made the boy with dark purplish eyes nod and walked off back through the door.

Several seconds later, he returned once more and asked a bitter smile on his face.

"Um... How do I do that?"