The classroom hums with worthless, unrelenting chatter, I'm in my usual spot, dead center, because the thought of someone else assuming the best seat made me sick to my stomach. Glasses slide down my nose as I fix my stare on a chattering girl a few desks away, watching her first notice, then try to ignore, and then squirm under my gaze until she is flustered is gratifying. She is the fourth one this week, one of the many who have felt the itch and anxiety inducing nature of my gaze, I savor unsettling others, my only real pleasure in this prison of a high school, but the din is so intolerable, that I find myself unable to appreciate this small triumph.
The door slides to the side, Sensei, and right behind him a girl makes entrance, making no commotion, without Sensei having to call attention to himself, the numerous conversations taking place change their topic smoothly to this new character that has been brought in, I don't recognize her, and nor does anyone else seems to and, Sensei speaks, voice cutting through the noise. "Class, settle down. We have a new exchange student. This is Yumi Tanaka, just arrived from overseas. Tanaka-san, please introduce yourself." She is hesitant.
Enthused, underneath my desk, I grab my notebook, I fling it open, passing pages of indecipherably tiny writings, and medical illustrations until I arrive at a suitable space, my right hand hovering over the blank slate, I am now observing, diligently. She steps forward, but her stride being so short, I conclude she should have moved forth more. My medical analysis follows suit, Scrawny, sickly pale, her loose uniform hangs off her like it's of a scarecrow. Her dark hair being hit by the gentle morning sun, betrays a great deal of grease, and an unfortunate amount of dandruff. Acne localized to the left cheek. Her eyes sharp, darting, like mine when I'm sizing up a prey, she scans the room and everyone therein comprehensively before she has uttered a single word. "I'm Yumi," she rasps, voice low and jagged, my pen, hard at work, transient hoarseness, I end that observation with a question mark. "Pleased to be here." The class shifts uneasily, it is not hard to see why, she's creepy, wrong, demonstrably ill. My pulse quickens, I had been looking at her, eyes fixed ever since she came in, and embarassing for me to admit, but some affection had stirred in me when she returned my gaze, I feel my grin turning into a smile, I look down at my notebook, and ferociously write, as the concluding remark, virgin!
She is seated right next to me, and as soon as the class ends, I rouse myself from my seat, and I extend my right hand in friendship, and introduce myself, "My name is Hiro Hanazawa, it is a pleasure to meet you." she adjusts herself in her seat to turn towards me, and extends her left hand in return. I awkardly twist my hand to grab hers, I feel her hand to be unusually cold. I turn my back towards her, pull the pen I had tucked in my pocket, and write it down. I hear her, in an intimidating tone "Show me what you are writing.", I turn back to face her again, and confidently hand over the notebook, no one who had gotten their hands on this besides me, understood a lick of it, due to the intentionally obscure hand writing. But after she opens it, she immediately finds the page involving her, and looks at it as if she is able to read every word therein. I now, feel like I made a great mistake, and was expecting her to tear the page out, call me a creep, and toss the crumpled paper into the trashcan. But to my surprise, she didn't seem to mind what she had just read, or did she just pretended to read and comprehend what was written? I don't know, either way, she handed over me the notebook back and said, "It is rude to turn your back to a person you were just talking to, without having given proper parting.". A wave of relief washes over me, I was being scolded on the grounds of being rude, not the contents of the page! Dodging her gaze, I say, "Sorry! I couldn't help myself." And I retreat to my seat, feeling defeated.
Lunch break arrives, and I try my luck again, this time bluntly declaring my intentions, "Would you like to have lunch together? I know a really pleasant and quiet place.", she is surprised, her flustered face betrays that, trying to escape my gaze she says "Sure." And grabs her bag hanging next to her desk.
We walk, mostly silent, I try to break the ice between us, trying to talk about the weather, the school and the various bizarre students attending it, politics, but she gives me either one word answers, or no answers at all, I feel stumped, and frustration begins to weigh in on me, as our footsteps sound through the dirt ground, we arrive at where I usually eat, a pristine patch of trimmed grass, with ants and various other small insects moving to and fro, covered by a soothing shade of an old tree.
I sit down cross legged, and Yumi, without any hesitation kneels down, putting her butt down, and then stretches herself out on the grass. She breathes a deep sigh of relaxation, "This place sure is nice, I had been seeing it every schoolday, but resting here feels better than I had anticipated.", I inquire, "Ah, Have you been enrolled here before? ", she relaxes both her hands, "Not quite, I hate school."
I remove the lid from the lunchbox I had been carrying since we left the classroom, inside there is the chicken breast I prepared laid bare, not really appetizing. She says, staring at the sky "The same meal everyday, don't you find it boring?", I am stunned, but I don't betray it, "I like it, and besides, I haven't seen your lunchbox, is it in your bag?", she responds, "Not really", I check the ground next to her, but I couldn't see her lunch, "Ah, I see you forgot to bring lunch, we can share, I have here a meal for one person, but I don't mind sharing. If I knew, I would have brought more... You know you should be eating more.".
"I appreciate your concern, I won't be having any, I suggest you savor it yourself.", I begin eating my meal, lingering in my mind, her past remarks, when I had finished, Yumi was crouched in front of her bag. From which she takes out a bruised paper of unusual black color, goes prone, and crawls her way towards me.
"Sign it." she orders, I pry the paper out from her two thumbs and index fingers holding onto it, and I read it, better put, I try to make out the words, but to no avail.
"I can't read it.",
"Good, you aren't supposed to.",
"You have to read it for me, I won't sign something that I don't understand."
"I don't know how to read."
"That is settled then, I won't be signing it."
She raises her head that was submerged in grass, and looks at me.
"The agreement intends to make the two of us inseperable."
"I don't like the way you are looking at me. It is unsettling, and also, what kind of paper even is this, my hands holding onto it are covered in soot."
"Don't you want to be inseperable?"
Using her arms, she pushes her body up, she never blinks.
With her now so near, I can feel her exhalations against my chest.
"No, I don't." I stand up, and march back to class, with haste I forget to grab my lunchbox. But something is off, there is no noise, or any sound for that matter, except for my footsteps, I stop in my path, and try to listen, but there is nothing. I wait, and my ears catch, a subtle rythmic sound, the gentle pounding of the dirt, and when I turn towards the direction of the sound, I see her, approaching me. On her face, an unmistakable frown, from her two eyes, tear flowing down her cheeks, she is holding onto, hugging that piece of paper, and her uniform is smeared in that soot. An overwhelming sense of pity, washes over me, and a subsequent dread upon the realization that I am the one responsible for her disappointment. But I am too prideful to apologize.
I flee, without looking back, I enter the school building, and run through the alleyways, shooting quick glances inside classrooms, hoping to spy a person, but each and every one is empty. I finally arrive at my own class, I grab my bag, scramble its insides, and take my cell phone out, but there is no signal. And with the excitement initially caused by my print, finally wearing off, and the eeriness of the situation setting in, and I find myself paralyzed, drawing in and pushing out breath loudly, I imagine that this is a dream, and hope it is a dream, or maybe a prank, or, or...
Arms wrap themselves around me, I feel their warmth, and subsequently, a woman's chest presses behind my back, I feel its warmth. I try to jerk myself out of her grasp, but I find it to be impossible, with each attempt, her grip around my waist tightens. And then she buries her face on my back, and she rubs her nose up and down in my spine. I feel such great elation at that, that the jolt makes me instinctively arch my back, and wanting to get rid of her, I move backwards in a rush, slamming her to the wall. Her grip comes loose, and tripping over my own steps, I drag myself out of the room.
I find myself, climbing each flight of stairs, two steps each, three steps each, Rushing out to the rooftop, I feel the afternoon orange sun, even though, it feels like no time has elapsed since I left my usual place under the tree, have the celestial bodies picked up their pace? And, on the horizon, the white tilings of the rooftop, seem to stretch on and on, with no end in sight. I nonetheless, try to run, and find its end, but no matter what, I make no progress, I can't change that oppressive scenery. My body falters, after my spirit, I slow down, and to catch my breath I stop. My arms reaching down to my knees, and my gaze directed downwards, I find there a brown envelope. From the surface of which bulging out a cylindrical shape. I open the envelope, and inside, there is a vial, and underneath that a note.
"Will help save you from the predicament you are in. Made with love." I look around, and I look back towards where I think I came from, but nowhere do I see anything, it is just the white ground, and it is the nude sky with a red-orange hue, we must be kilometers up in the sky, given that I cannot even see any buildings.
With some hesitation, I weigh the vial in my hand, hold it up against the sun, and turn it on its head, and see it is quite viscuous, this won't go down so easily, would it have hurt to dilute it with water? I drink it. And having drank it, I hit the ground, and I lose consciousness.
As soon as I return to myself, I find my head resting on the lap of Yumi, and I feel her hand gently caressing my hair. With a neutral expression on her face, she is looking down on me. I try to raise my hand, move my leg, but I cannot move, her expression turns into a smile. She grabs my hand, but I do not feel her touch there, everything below my head, is devoid of feeling.
She plays with my hand, as if its a doll hand, stretching the fingers, and then letting them relax. She takes out that charred paper again, and presses my index finger against it, guiding it, making some sort of scribble. And as soon as she pulls out, the paper burns to ashes, wind blows it away. She licks my soot covered finger clean.
With no care for the comfort of my head, she stands up, and declares, one hand grabbing her own waist, the other pointing at the sun. "Sun is my witness, we have become inseperable.", I protest, "Contracts signed under coercion are legally null.". She laughs, "With that you only betray that you are unknowledgeable about the law.". It must be either from exhaustion, or the liquid I ingested, but I feel my eyelids getting heavier, and she croucing down, closes them shut.
If only I could have known, that this would be the beginning of a life of servitude and unending struggle! The truth is, this contract, that was to render the two us inseperable, wasn't as romantic as I had imagined, given that what it entailed, and also seeing others who have agreed, or better put, forced to agree to the contract. The shipping container which I find myself in, is filled to the brim with men, they all have leaned their backs towards the cold metal walls of the box, I have no idea as to where we are headed, nor how I was brought here. They shoot quick cold glances at me, I find myself unable to return the favor, I stare at the ground, my head between my two hands. The man besides me, playfully pokes me with his elbow, he looks like an ordinary middle-aged salaryman, I couldn't find anything remarkable about his appearance, except his belly protruding into his shirt.
"You are the new boy? You are so young. Such a pity, life taken out in its bloom, condemned to servitude!"
"I have agreed to no such thing, believe me, she forced me to sign it. She used my fingers as if they were her pen!"
"She? Who are you alluding to?"
"Her name is Yumi Tanaka, she forced me to sign it, she is some sort of evil spirit."
"I know no such person, but, I did sign a contract, willingly. I couldn't imagine they would stoop so low as to force people sign it. We really are in dark times."
I found it hard to reason with someone, who had no idea what I had gone through, so I explained to him, what had took place, given that we were in a tiny enclosed space, everyone else had heard the story as well, though I didn't intend that. There were a faint expression of pity in the faces of some, the rest kept their rock like expression unchanged. The man beside me listened to it very closely, he was interested with each detail, and asked various questions. Afterwards there was a clear expression of his understanding.
"Would you humor me, and listen to how I found myself here, like you did, like everyone here else has? OK? To begin, I am an unattractive man, and I am very much aware of that, I tend to keep it to myself, in regards to women, I have only had a brief relationship when I was your age. But nonetheless I am a virgin. So one day, during my usual commute from work to home, in a train packed with people, with hardly any breathing room, and I feel on my crotch, an unusual sensation, a great arousal. And when the train had stopped, and when I managed to pry myself out of the crowd. I felt the creamy sensation in my underwear. And the culprit, was namely a girl standing right behind me, she didn't give a name, nor talk much, but she followed me to my home, and afterwards, forced her way in. She started give me a blowjob, but before she was about to get the job done, she gave me a paper that appeared to be made out of some sort of charcoal, and asked me to sign it, and I was on the brink of explosion, in the heat of the moment, I regrettably signed."
With a smile, he concludes "Though I don't regret the orgasm that arrived afterwards."
I bash my fist to the wall, it doesn't make a dent, and it hurts like hell. Damn this old fart! What is with this, all I got was a lousy lap pillow, and a hug, that could hardly be called a hug, and now, I am a servant for life! As I was lamenting my condition, the container door yawned open with some ear grating screeching. Everyone stepped outside. My eyes were in pain, and I could hardly bear the light, as they had adapted to the dark, but gradually I saw a mysterious figure, unmistakably of a woman, sitting on top of another container, that was in front of the one we had emerged from. She rose up, from the sitting position, and spoke, we could all see her panties.
"Welcome! I have been challenged by a fellow witch, a tiny annoying brat, that goes by the name 'Ecke Von Dreizehn', to a game, the loser will have her pride wounded greatly. It will be you lot and me, versus her, needless to say, she loves showing off. This very place will be the place many of you die, but if you survive..." She winks, playfully, while reaching down her skirt, visibly rubbing the surface of her panties. An uproar rises from the crowd.
This is my chance, I sprint off, but with every turn it is the same daunting scenery containers stacked on top of one another, and I realize, that I am in a container ship.
Trying to find a place to hide in, I move across one alley, and another alley, but I find no suitable place to sit down and catch my breath. And as I make another turn, I find the same girl, Yumi, staring at me, her arms crossed. Last time, I ran away, instead of apologizing, or even facing her, having learnt my lesson this time, I sheepishly stand there, as she comes towards me. Once she is at arms away distance, she untangles her arms, and pulls out, underneath her skirt, a tiny knife. And hands it over to me.
"Do you know how much of a pain in the ass you are? Are you trying to get yourself killed?" Does she expect an answer? "Not that I'd care but it would be too boring, if you dropped dead now it would be too boring. Please die in a spectacular fashion for me." She bows, and leaves, turning her back. I feel slighted, after hearing the story of the salaryman, my blood is boiling in envy. I wrap my fingers around the knife's handle, I extend my arms out, as if to form a human spear, I roar "Give me your pussy, you bitch!" and charge forward, aiming towards her back, with unusual speed, as soon as my blade's tip touches her back the tip bends and I am knocked back. Eager for another assault my darting eyes search for her, but she had disappeared already, before I could bring myself back on foot. I inspect my knife, gripping it on two respective sides, I try to correct it, and surprisingly it is repaired, as easily it is damaged.
With my shoddy weapon in my pocket, I decide to search for the salaryman. But it is eerily quiet, and I have no idea, as to where I should go, I have lost all sense of direction long since. So I am aimlessly wandering around. Until, I hear the voices of a struggle, metal clanking, and I see a tower of containers vibrating ahead. I rush there, but before I could witness what had took place there, it is already over, stretched over the ground, his entrails pouring out, with blank eyes, it is the man I sought revenge from. With that my malice evaporates.
He is already dead, with his lower half severed, cut clean, but the other half, and its arms is holding onto something, I pry open his arms, I see that he is holding a knife, namely the same one I received from Yumi. But on its surface, there are cracks, it seems like it can scatter to its pieces if I poked at it, I leave it by itself. There is no trace of the witch that did this to him.
As I inspect the mangled body resting on the wide side of a container covered in blood, I hear panicked footsteps, I turn left as I feel that the voice is coming from there, and from the darkness into the alley, a man comes into view, holding tightly his neck trying to suspend the flow of blood outside from his griveous wound. Before I can attract attention to myself, he notices me, raises his hand, shouts mustering up his final remaining strength "Finally someone!" He quickens his pace, but I am still, completely observant. Even if he arrives here, with no medicine, or surgical tools, his case is hopeless, I declare him to be dead, even though he is grasping at life in a primal fashion.
As he is running towards me, in the intersection of two alleyways, something unusual happens, a shape, something approximating a white ball, hits him, and his body scatters into red mist, various parts scattered everywhere. And I hear the sound of something slamming into metal, it resounds all throughout, and it even makes the ship tilt towards the side the of the impact. I cannot help contain my excitement, it is Ecke Von Dreizehn. She is fast, hits like a train, can slice a a man in half, so cleanly, that it would make a surgeon blush. And those are the abilities she has revealed thus far, I don't want to be in the receiving end of what else she has up her sleeve.
I go towards the place where the impact must have happened, taking an elaborate route, so as to not stumble into her. And my eyes see a tiny girl, wearing a white frilly dress, right at the center of the path, walking, looking straight ahead. I spy her from the sides, as she continues to move, and I decide to strike from behind.
I continue to stalk her from the sides, and I feel eventually courage welling up inside me, that I start running towards her with great enthusiasm. As there is two arm's length between us, she moves her head, to look behind, I am met with a face completely unfazed. My spirit is not broken, I try to stab her, but before I can notice what has happened, the blade is knocked out of my hand, and I am disarmed. She pins me with great force against the container. The pain is hard to bear, my face twists in agony. I try to wrestle myself out of her grasp, like a worm in the grasp of a child.
"You are his last minion, I suppose? They say quality of the slave betrays the quality of the master." She lets go of her grasp of me, I wriggle on the ground, gasping for breath. She shouts, "I finally got your final slave. Present yourself!". She was getting impatient, tapping with her one foot on the floor, with her arms crossed. She turns her back to me. And I seize the opportunity, I slowly, making minimal noise, manage to barely stand up, and while Ecke is making proclamations of victory, and taunting Yumi, I grab hold of her breasts from behind, and she squirms, and with her elbow hits me so hard that I find myself back where I intially picked myself up.
With great indignation, and stuttering she manages to put out a few words, "Y-You, I will make you pay for that.", and as soon as she took a step towards me, to deliver on that promise, suddenly, Yumi struck her from behind, beheading Ecke in one hit. Her body fell over like a doll, and her head rolled over the ground. And, extending her left hand out in compassion to me, is Yumi, with a childish smile on her face.