The Beginning (3)

     Coming back to why Akihiko was called a cursed child… At the age of eight, people other than his family considered Akihiko. He attended his classmate’s birthday party at their home. He was in middle school back then and studying was the least of his worries since he always stood first in everything.

“Akki~!” says a small Mitsuru.

“Oh! Mitsuru! I’ve come!”

“Welcome. So, you’re the Akki boy that Mitsuru keeps talking about the whole day.”

“Mom~!”

“I’m just joking. Come on in.” says Mitsuru’s mother inviting Akihiko in their house.

      Yes, you all are thinking the right thing. It was Mitsuru’s 8^th birthday. Ayame was there on that day too. Only thing was that she had not awakened yet. Akihiko was way more popular than he was now. He would always find some way to entertain everyone, which was why everyone adored him.

     However, all that ended this very day. That day a ‘Yokai’ strong enough to affect the objects ended up at their house. Akihiko and the others were playing before the party. Akihiko accidently knocked down someone’s glass of juice. The classmate who was drinking the juice was pissed off and started to beat up Akihiko. Akihiko could not back down so he pushes the classmate away. That was when he sees the Yokai on the ceiling with its head having a creepy smile.

      The Yokai on the ceiling grabs onto his arm and points it in the direction of the classmate. The ‘Yokai’ like a doll uses Akihiko who was scared to even move. With its other hand, the ‘Yokai’ grabs the neck of the classmate he was made to point at and makes him float. Since no one could see it, it looked like Akihiko was doing it.

     Suddenly, Akihiko’s mother comes into the room and screams. The ‘Yokai’ on seeing the mother flees after dropping the classmate. Akihiko, who was scared to even talk, looks at his mother in horror, his mother grabs his hands, and they leave immediately.

     After getting out of their apartment, Akihiko stammers-

“I-I-I-I… D-D-Didn’t…”

“I know. I saw it too.”

“R-r-really? Y-you… be-be-believe me?’ ask Akihiko unable to cry because of the horror he faced.

     Ayame who was in the same room as them also saw it. That was her first sign of awakening as a Cast. The ‘Yokai’ hadn’t realised that Ayame could see it too.

Ayame did not tell about it to anyone. And they all left home one by one, and Mitsuru cried himself to sleep that night.

     The rest of the week, Akihiko did not attend school and stayed at home. After the week was over, he went to school acting normally but everyone maintained their distance from him. Nobody came near him. Even the teacher after hearing about what had happened started to treat him differently. Everyone started to fear him since many of them had experienced what happened in that incident at Mitsuru’s house that day.

      After being ostracized by all of them, the first one to open up to him was Ayame. Then, came in Mitsuru. Nevertheless, the others who approached him after that did not have peaceful thoughts like ‘becoming friends’ with him. They bullied him. Since Ayame knew what Akihiko had been going through for all that time she could reason with him like a friend. Mitsuru on the other hand saw this as an opportunity to become popular and stuck close to Akihiko as an act to make people feel that he cares for a ‘cursed’ child. Well, our protagonist Akihiko did not ever know of that.

“Where… is this?” says Akihiko while opening his eyes slowly to find himself under a pink ceiling. He gets up immediately and looks around.

“A… girl’s room?!” says Akihiko with shock.

“Well, technically.” Says Ayame who was playing the RPG that they usually played. She was wearing casual clothes that one would wear at home.

“Is this y-your room?” asks Akihiko while being embarrassed.

“Of course not! We’re at my friend’s house. She’s like an older sister so she let me stay here.”

“Then, where is she?”

“She’s apparently working late at her office so she stays there sometimes. I on the other hand…”

“Hm?”

“Oh, nothing. Well, how does it feel to be back from the dead.”

     Akihiko then says with his thumbs up-

“It feels pretty refreshing!” and Ayame gets up and smacks him on his head.

“Ow! I still feel weak just so you know! Where’s Mitsuru?”

“I was worried…”

“Stop saying pointless things. If I really thought that I was going to die don’t you think I would’ve panicked at least?”

“That’s your problem… Because you were alone for so many years, you don’t care anymore. You don’t realise it, do you?”

“I do care about my health, education, uh… games… and, uh…” says Akihiko while trying to think of things he could say.

     Ayame hugs him tightly and he says-

“Thank you, though. Although you may be just a friend, I’m glad people like you exist.”

“Um… I know.”

“No. I wasn’t complementing you or anything.”

“I know.”

“I got to sleep well too, see?!” says Akihiko while showing his scrawny muscles to Ayame.”

“I… know. So just rest.”

“Also… about Pei… He decided to save me and I couldn’t say anything to him and I couldn’t even meet him and…”

“I think its okay for you to let out the emotions you’ve bottled up for so many years now.” She says while patting his head while hugging him.

     Akihiko starts to cry and laugh at the same time. He says while laughing-

“I… can trust you to still be my friend, right?!”

“Of course. You can count on it.”

“Then can I count on you to do a little something as a friend?”

“Sure. Name it.”

“Let me sleep next to you to…” and Ayame punches him in the gut real hard, knocking him out unconscious.

“You really don’t care what happens to you, do you?” she says while looking at Akihiko’s sleeping face (unconscious face).

     After 2 days,

     Akihiko wakes up from bed and finds himself in bed next to a very pretty woman wearing her pyjamas and snoring.

“Wha… wha… How?” whispers Akihiko very softly.

     The lady grabs onto him and says in her sleep-

“Just give me one more chance Raphael-Chan! I’ll spend more crystals for you.”

“What is this woman whispering in her sleep…? Most of all, if someone sees me like this, all kinds of misunderstandings will be created, I’m sure.” And when he decides to devise a plan, she uses him like a body pillow.

     Akihiko then calmly looks to his left where she was sleeping. Her chest was on his arm and he was enjoying himself after some time. He brings himself back to reality and says-

“Only one way to get up from this mess…” he says and turns over to the girl and says with a fake voice, “Darling… It’s morning. I’ll be late for work. Mind letting go of me?”

“Hm… Sure. We won’t be able to eat then, will we?”

‘What is this woman saying?’ thinks Akihiko and she lets go of him. He stealthily gets off the bed and walks to the door.

     He opens the door and finds Ayame there eavesdropping on what was happening inside the room.

“Ah.”

“Ah. You heard that?”

“Of course not… If I was saying that it would count as lying right?”

    Akihiko gets red and embarrassed and while covering his face says-

“J-just leave me… I tried my best to e-escape.”

“Oh, that’s cute.” Says Ayame with a straight face and then with an evil grin starts to mimic Akihiko, “Darling… It’s morning… HAHAHAHAH! I really wanted to see your face!” and she continues to laugh while Akihiko was feeling oppressed.

     The lady gets up from all the ruckus they were causing and she walks to the door in anger.

“A-YA-ME! I’ve told you many times… TO-STOP-BICKERING!” and she punches both of them on their heads really hard.

     They scream in pain while the lady closes and locks her door to go back to sleep again.

“She’s… a d-demon.”

“I k-know, just put up with it.” Says Ayame with a happy yet sad face.

“Just what kind of hell do you go through every day?”

“This isn’t even the start of it.” She says and gives him his breakfast which she had kept aside to hear what was going on inside.

“Oh, thanks.” Says Akihiko and gulps down everything in one go.

“No manners…”

“Hm? You say something?”

“No. Nothing at all. If you need anymore, I’ve kept the refill downstairs.”

“Sure. I’ll grab em!” says Akihiko and when he tries to run, his legs give away and he falls down.

“Eh? Why aren’t my legs?”

“It’s ‘cause you were in a state of rigor mortis. You’re still recovering, you know.”

“Oh, is that so.”

“How does it feel to have food made by a maiden?”

“It’s the best.” Says Akihiko with a proud smile while Ayame helped him get downstairs. Then he asks her, “Also, did anyone call me or something… Well, there aren’t many like those though.”

“There was an unknown number who called you and asked for you right away. They said something like ‘we would like to recruit you for a program. Don’t worry you can get back at him for taking away your lucky-go life.”

“Lucky-go? Lucky… go? No, of course not. Give me my phone right away please.” Says Akihiko with determined eyes.