So I decided I wanted to write a story, I'm kinda new here but I wanted to post this somewhere for tips, inspiration and other motivation. I used to be active on other forums but none were anime based like this so I decided I'd make an account here finally (after using this site for a long time). So, hi guys! So this is a story based on quite a few anime idea's kind of compiled, they'll start to shine through later on, I'll try and update this regularly depending on how many kind comments I get! :) OK, so here it goes.
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“I will grant you the powers, and in return, you must prove your worth.”
“Now now, settle down class, we have a new student with us today.” The teacher smiled as he looked over his class then gestured to his left,
“This is Subaru, he'll be starting this term, he's just moved to London from up North so I hope you all help him fit in.”
The embarrassed student never looked up as he walked to the one free desk at the back of the room, in his head he was silently wishing that everybody would just forget about him now. There was no need for the teacher to make him stand at the front, this happened at every school he moved too, and it never got less embarrassing. As he sat down and looked around he started his analysis of the class, most of them had forgotten about him already, it was a largish class, about 25 students or so. He noticed a few of the “stereotype” students already, the 'nerds' sitting near the front, already asking questions and answering the ones the teacher asked, he also noticed the one's that were likely to give him trouble. Again this always happened when he went to a new school, the couple of people that think they have to show the new guy who the boss was, it was normally entertaining to say the least. He picked out the two people he thought were most likely to gang up on him at break, both were relatively large and broad but he would bet his savings that they had no proper training. Not like he did anyway.
The metal chains rang out as he was pushed back into the fencing, just like he had thought, the two people that he had picked out in class had ganged up on him whilst he was walking to lunch. They had pushed him against a metal fence and were speaking in a very deep tone, trying to threaten him probably, not that Subaru was listening to a single word they were saying. The kid on the right is putting too much weight on his right foot, and the kid on the left doesn't look like he'll be that quick to respond, probably never had anyone fight back before. Scanning the area quickly, checking for other potential threats, Subaru noticed that there was a small crowd gathering, quite a lot he noticed were from his class, so maybe this was a relatively normal occurrence. Looking back up at the two kids, Subaru pushed some of his hair out of the way of his left eye, he then raised an eyebrow and looked up at the two bullies, “Excuse me, but what are your favourite football teams?” It was something he was used to doing and he wanted to ask it in as normal tone as possible, but with a crowd this large watching he barely managed to stutter it out. However it did its' damage, the two bullies looked away from him a second, confused at the seemingly random question, the moments hesitation was all that was needed. As they looked away Subaru performed a long sweeping kick, knocking the bully's right foot and as such knocking him off of his feet, serves him right, as the first guy fell to the floor with a grunt Subaru aimed at the other one, grabbing his shirt with his right hand to pull him in then aiming an elbow with his left hand straight to his nose, smashing him twice. The bully hit the floor like a sack of bricks whilst the other one was still moaning, it seems that he had fallen to the floor and landed straight on his face, there was a bit of bleeding there. The crowd stood there stunned as they stared at the new kid, then slowly they started to frown at him and move away. Subaru sighed, thinking as he walked back to class about how much trouble he'd probably get in, even though there was witnesses that showed that they started it.
The rest of the day was rather uneventful, there was no more fights, nothing interesting happened in lessons, he didn't rescue a damsel in distress and he didn't talk to anyone. The rumour had already spread about how the new Asian kid knew 'kung fu' the thought of it made him smile, however he was getting quite a few glares, maybe the bullies were actually liked for some reason. Subaru sighed then looked back at his notepad, he hadn't written down one thing that the teacher had gone through today, again he'd resorted to doodling, filling the first 4 pages of his notepad with drawings of swords, axes and other weapons. It was a bad habit of his but he couldn't help it, ever since he could remember he had the biggest obsession with swords. It had caused his first family to abandon him, and had caused him to have kendo training for many years. Kendo training gyms weren't exactly common in London, so for a long time he had to improvise, however when he was adopted by another family by some stroke of fate his new father had actually been a large fan of kendo practices. When they both found out about this mutual interest they started training every day, and Subaru was a natural. Subaru also enrolled in boxing, and after a few years at his local gym his trainer had encouraged him to work up to mixed martial arts. He had loved it, nowhere near as much as he loved kendo but between them both he had no needs for any other hobbies. One of the reasons he had decided to move to this school, was due to the fact that it had a sword fighting club, which was based heavily on kendo. He couldn't wait to join it at the end of the day and he wondered what it would be like. As his thoughts trailed off as to what this club might be like time quickly passed by and soon the teacher was telling them they were allowed to leave for the day. Teenagers started to pile out of the room as he packed up his books and he noticed one person staring at him, a small girl in the corner of the room. He didn't look back at her as he left however, he was too embarrassed.
“I'm home.”
Although Subaru spoke quietly his words seemed to ring around the house, he was sure his father would hear it. This wasn't his real father he was living with, his real parents had abandoned him at six, but he could barely remember them now, his real parents had been abusive, then again who wouldn't be abusive towards a child like him? As his thoughts started to sour he heard the sound of sizzling coming from the kitchen, walking through the small apartment he smiled as he smelt it,
“We're having steak tonight son, happy birthday!” said Subaru's father, he was a nice man, his wife had passed away about 6 years ago, not really that long after they adopted Subaru, she had seemed a nice woman for the short time Subaru had known her. His father had changed quite a lot after her death, whilst before he was utterly dependant on her to do everything, now he does everything himself, never asking for help, and rarely accepting it. Subaru sat down at the table, his father had become an amazing cook over the last few years and it was a rare but joyous occasion when he did. His father was often out working at a relatively popular solicitors. His job was very demanding and he seemed to enjoy it, the pay was also good. When his wife had died he and his son had decided to downgrade to a much smaller apartment, the lower living costs meant that they could save much more money, often going for short holidays or so he could buy his son nice things, this was a prime example. As he finished cooking the steaks and placed it out on two plates, along with some chips he smiled, “Voilà!” He laughed as he placed one in front of his son, and one for himself.
They ate mostly in silence, Subaru made no attempt to break it and his father just enjoyed the peace. They were both a bit socially awkward but they also both realised it, as such they did enjoy each others' company even if they weren't raving about the new craze. There was one thing in particular that they did have in common however,
“Son, my birthday present for you is in your room...” He trailed off as he finished the sentence, neither of them was great with emotion either, he had done both of them a favour by leaving it in his room, last time he had given his son a present he didn't say anything and had to walk out due to embarrassment. He wasn't entirely sure of how to express himself as he gave the gift, and Subaru wasn't entirely sure about how to express himself upon receiving a gift.
Polishing off the dinner Subaru looked at his father, “Thanks, dad.” His father just nodded as Subaru got up and started scraping the plates in the bin, before running upstairs to see what his present was. His father had dropped him hints, but he didn't have a clue what it could be. Upon arriving in his room he saw it almost straight away, on his bed was a long black box. He ran over and opened it eagerly, and almost shouted in shock when he saw what it was. Inside the box was a katana, not some fake crappy one however, it was an authentic katana. Subaru didn't say anything, he stood staring at it, the ornate white handle, black guard and the engraved wooden sheath that had his name carved into it. He didn't dare take it out of the sheath, not wanting to ruin the beauty of the weapon but of course he had to eventually. Picking it up by the sheath he slowly pulled out the sword, the silver blade shining in the light of his room. Carefully placing it back he attached it to the rack of swords, it was his first real swords the other spaces taken up by his wooden bokken. He smiled happily at the weapon then turned around looking at his desk. He opened his journal and scanned the last few pages, and his smile vanished. His objective had been to at least talk to someone at school, maybe make a friend if it was possible. But instead he hadn't spoken to anyone all day, he had managed to scare them all off probably when he fought the bullies. Who would associate themselves with him at the risk of incurring the bullies' wrath? Sighing he lay on his bed, reading through and checking, then eventually writing down the days occurrence. Objective for tomorrow, make a friend, he thought, smiling, he knew he could do it if he just tried.
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Part 2:
Subaru yawned, his dreams had been full of the same old nightmare, recurring over and over, it was of him back when he was with his parents...
“We can't keep him Mark, look what he brought home today!” The woman practically shouted the words at him, she turned the picture to show it to them. It was a picture of themselves, quite a nice happy drawing, until you saw the small silver thing in the middle of their bodies. Without an explanation you could assume it was a picture from a six year old, a nice cute one of the kid with his parents. However Subaru had explained the silver 'thing' to be a sword, a sword protruding from his parents chests. Subaru claimed that he stabbed them, through the heart. When his mother had seen the painting she had shouted at the child, sending him to his room and refusing to feed him. His dad had a bit more self control, but you could see it had disturbed him quite a bit. They had always had money issues, living in a smallish apartment, his dad working at a supermarket and his mum as a housewife. It was a wonder that they could feed themselves at all, but there was constant arguments in their household about what to do. Subaru was effectively an unwanted child, this picture only made his parents more sure of their course of action.
This is where the nightmare changes. In the nightmare his parents would end up looming over him, shouting at him, calling him an unwanted child. Then near the end they wouldn't hit him, they would just go silent and walk away, forgetting about their only child, Subaru. The dream pretty much encompassed his worst nightmare, being abandoned. This nightmare was the only thing linking him to his old parents, and even in the dream their face was blurry. He had no clue how to get hold of them again, not that he wanted to.
As he turned the corner, head looking at the floor and deep in thought he bumped into someone. “Sorry..” He mumbled, trying to move past the person so he could carry on towards his school, he didn't need to be late for his second day of school, nor did he want to start a fight.
“Hey, aren't you erm, Subaru isn't it?”
At hearing his name he looked up, almost instantly he recognises who it is, there in front of him was the small girl who had been staring at him as he left class. She was quite small standing at about 5 foot 3 and has light brown hair, falling just past her shoulders. Subaru's response comes out more as a mumble than coherent words, “Oh erm, yes I am..” Again with the awkward silence, if there was one thing he was good at, it was definitely creating awkward silence. Then she spoke again, before the awkward silence could settle in she spoke, it seemed to shock him and he had to try his hardest not to show his shock,
“Do you live around here then? We could walk to school together or something!”
She beams up at him and he can't help but smile, how could she even tell what he was saying when he was mumbling and stuttering so bad, he didn't care though, he was grateful that she could.
“Yeah, I live about 5 minutes that way... And sure.. I guess.”
He points back where he had come from to show where abouts he lives and she looks down the road eagerly,
“Oooh OK! Well I live down that way, but not far!”
She points down another road, a road that led to what Subaru knew as one of the more higher ends of the area. It was the area his dad, his mum and himself used to live, in a nice large house, before she had died anyway. Yet there wasn't many kids in that neighbourhood, he couldn't remember the girl in front of him anyway.
Suddenly she sticks her hand out, “Well my names Leah, nice to meet you!” Again she's smiling, why is she always smiling? Subaru looked slightly confused as he thought about that but shook her hand. Who was he to question another persons' happiness? As he started to get into another argument in his head he heard her speak again,
“Hurry up or we'll be late to school!”
He followed after her, kind of shocked at what had happened, they were walking to school together? Really? He didn't even know her, not really anyway, sure he knew her name but nothing else. He found himself wondering if that's what it was meant to be like, he'd never really talked to many people, sure he had his few friends at the local gyms and his dad but never at his school.
“I saw you beat them bullies up! It was really cool! Do you like, do kung fu or something?”
He smiled as she mentioned kung fu, the amount of time he had been asked whether he did kung fu, “No I don't do kung fu, I used to do boxing but now I've kind of moved to MMA training..” He trailed off, this wasn't something he had told many people, nor was it something he wanted lots of people to know. When lots of people know that you've had training in 'how to fight' suddenly people want to fight you.
“What club you going to join?”
She had already moved on to a different topic? Wow that was quick he thought. The sudden shift had taken him off balance but he already knew what he wanted to do, “I want to join the kendo club.” He said smiling again, today he could finally join it and see what the people there are like. Today he decided he'd just watch some of them spar, then maybe next time he'd challenge a few, test them out, see how good they are.
“You want to join the kendo club?” She actually sounded slightly taken back when she spoke, then suddenly she perks up again, “I'm in the kendo club! Yay!” She claps her hands together as they walk and finally the school comes into vision.
“Hey Subaru! You should sit next to me in class!” She shouts back to him as she runs to catch up to a few other girls. He just stands there blinking, confused as to what just happened and also why. Why was she so open? So, well so trusting? He could only think that she was doing it for a dare or something from her friends. He started shaking his head as he walks up to the classroom, “Well it's going to be a long day..”
So that's it for now, please leave constructive criticism, it's something I'd like to seriously work on. |
