"Bye Mom!", I shouted as I walked out the front door. It's Tuesday morning. The birds are singing and the flowers are blooming, especially in our garden. Walking towards school, I could already see my friends from afar running towards me. My house wasn't far away from the school.
"Kenny! You got the Homework? None of us has it and we need to copy it from someone!". Someone tapped my shoulder from behind. "Oh, it's you Hinata..". Hinata has been my best friend since first grade. At first, we didn't really like each other, but then he approached me and demanded that we become friends.
Sometimes I wish I could return to that time.
"To be honest, I didn't even know we had homework until now..", I replied, scratching the back of my head and smiling. "Of course, you don't even know about your homework.. Let's just get to class, the bell is about to ring.", he replied.
"Sooo.. Hinata.. Did you... finally ask your crush out?", I asked him with a smirk on my face. "What?! Of course not! Why the hell should I ask my crush out? Are you out of your mind? I mean what if-", "Just do it man, the worst she can say is no, right?" I cut him off mid-sentence. Ugh, fine..", he answered.
Walking into my classroom, I realized no one was there. It was just an empty room. "Am I too early?", I thought to myself. I sat down on my chair and looked outside the window. After a couple of minutes I felt dizzy and started to slowly drift away.
I was woken up by a man screaming my name "Ichiken! Stop sleeping in my lessons!", a familiar voice shouted. "Yes, sorry, teach! Very sorry! Won't happen again!", I nervously stuttered.
My class wasn't too big. There were only about 20 people, including me and Hinata. In front of me sat this one girl whose name I can't remember. She moved here from France and has a strong accent.
If I'm being for real here, I do kinda have a crush on her. I mean, her eyes are as beautiful as the stars and her hair as perfect as it could be. She also smells very nice. She always covered her right eye with her hair, which everyone thought was weird. But I liked it. I liked her. I loved her. I couldn't explain why, I just did. I praised her.
"Don't stare at her like that dude.. That's giving me the creeps!" Hinata looked at me weirdly. I looked down on my sheet of paper again. It was just some basic math.. Nothing too crazy.
A couple of minutes passed by and I heard an oddly familiar voice calling my name: "Ichiken? Can I ask you something?", a feminine voice asked me nervously. I looked up and to my surprise, I saw the French girl in front of me. "Yeah sure. What's up?"; I replied, trying to act all cool.
"How dare you stare at me like that??! Do you even know who I am? I should beat up you here and now! Have you never heard about privacy before? You're a disgusting pervert Ichiken!", she angrily screamed at me with her head turning as red as a tomato.
I could already feel the air getting warmer around me because of all that hatred.. "What are you talking about? Are you sure you're talking to the right guy right now?", I worryingly asked, but then it hit me like a truck. I slowly turned my head to the right, seeing Hinata and the "cool" kids from class laugh while staring deep into my soul. "You little..", I thought to myself.
"Look at me when I'm talking to you!", she angrily lifted her right arm into the air, ready to hit me at any time. "Look, it's not what it looks like, I swear! I can explain myse-", she hit me mid-sentence, causing my head to hit the window next to me.
For a short second, I thought I saw a house down the road burning, so I quickly stood up to look out the window again. "What the.. That's my House!", I worryingly shouted as I ran out of the school, onto the schoolyard.
As I was running down the road I could identify a rather familiar face sitting on top of the house, waiting for someone. "Took ya long enough, dipshit.", the man screamed with a smirk on his face.
There was no doubt. That white hair shining in the sunlight and reflecting the hot fire. The scar across the left side of his face and his white pupil on that side. "Anthony! What the fuck are you doing?!", I screamed with disbelief. "Are you out of your damn mind? Why the hell would you burn down our house? What happened to mom? And dad?", I nervously stuttered.
"What happened to our family? WE are family, Anthony!" I tried everything to get him to listen to me, but he looked like he didn't even care.
"Family? My family is already dead, Ichiken. You are not my brother. There's no way in hell that we are both blood related brothers. You're a mere insect compared to me. I could crush you like an ant. And Mom and Dad? Don't even get me started on them. They are both ju-",
"Shut up. Call me whatever you want. Talk to me however you want. But you better keep Mom and Dad out of this.", I interrupted him, my fists clenching. "Or what? Are you seriously challenging me?", he said with the same smirk on his face then before. "Get down here and find out.", I said, not knowing what I had done.
He jumped down and approached me menacingly. Walking slowly, keeping track of every of my movements. "Here I come!" he laughed as he ran towards me quickly. He threw a punch at me, which I countered with a punch to his chin. Looking back at me, I realized he had tears in his eyes, with an even angrier expression than before.
"I'll kill you, you shithead!". His voice was shaky. "You were always our parents' favorite child! Why you!? Just because you weren't born with these "Powers"? I hate you! I hate Mom! I hate Dad! I hate all of you!".
He kept repeating these sentences all over again while we exchanged punches. Hitting each other in the face, stomach, everywhere that would hurt the most. "Fine.. If you don't want to die, then I'll make you beg for me to end your suffering!", he said as he entered a low stance, pulling both his arms back.
"Azure Flame Manipulation.. Devil's Footprint!". His feet started to shoot out a continuous beam of concentrated blue fire as he rushed towards me like a jet engine. "I'll kill you here and now!", he cheered, grabbing me with his arms and pushing me against a wall.
I could feel the wall behind me starting to crack as he kept pushing with his fire powers, I could barely fight back. I closed my eyes and accepted my fate, but suddenly he stopped.
Why did he stop? I slowly opened my eyes and was greeted by a fist to my face, breaking my nose. "Aaah! You asshole!" I screamed in pain. It was bleeding like hell. He suddenly grabbed me by the collar and threw me against a tree behind him. "This is it, Ken. This is your final breath. Any last words?".
He looked down on me with a disappointed face. I started to feel dizzy again because of all the blood loss and hits I endured. Pointing his fingers at me like a finger pistol, I could feel the air getting warmer around us. It felt like my insides were burning and melting. "Azure Flame Manipulation..". He never finished his sentence.
All I remember was a huge beam erasing the upper half of his body. I could see a silhouette of a man in the distance. He was wearing some kind of lab coat and missing his left arm. He also wore glasses I think. "Sup, Kenny. Long time no see, huh?" the strange voice calmly whispered.
That's the last thing I heard before falling unconscious and waking up in this strange apartment again. "Is that really all you remember?" the French girl asked. "Yeah. That's all I remember.
Now, say. Why did you save me exactly? And how?", I nervously asked. "Well uh.. The weird man got a call and turned around to answer it. So I kinda just, you know, kidnapped you while he wasn't looking.", she replied with a smile on her face.
"You.. what?". I had a big question mark above my head. "That doesn't matter now, you have to take a break, you're badly hurt. I'll bring you some tea, and you better not move an inch. Understood?".
Her voice was so soft. And calming. It was like each time she spoke, my heart skipped a beat. I closed my eyes again and slowly drifted away.