In life, destroying is primordial, it's one of life's motivations. Revenge, manipulation and all those things are the very essence of being human : cruel, horrible and selfish. Honestly, as a child, I didn't think humans were so horrible. I was naive, and I learned from my mistakes.
I made my way to the social aid meeting building (the term "social aid" here is extreme, as it's simply meant to signify a friendly meeting place in real life) then, on the way, I saw that the weather was bad, or at least veiled. Clouds covered the beautiful sun that was trying to squeeze through the openings given by clouds that weren't sufficiently glued together.
I was dressed in a black jacket, black jeans and orange sneakers. I told myself I had to hurry so as not to get wet when I entered the building. It was my first time there, a few days after my birthday, which is September 15. I was now 16 years old, and I thought it would be time to find some friends. It's not that I don't have any, in fact, it's just that I want to meet new people in my village, where nobody I know lives (apart from my parents and sister, of course).
It was only a few more steps before we came to a building that looked abandoned, with lots of signs saying that it was a place where meetings were forged in good mood.
I hope... I said to myself.
So I entered this famous place, and saw that, despite the exterior, the interior was very attractive : it looked like a clinic with a secretariat. I deduced that the secretariat was a registration area, as names were written on a sheet and the secretary was on the phone for a discussion about a child's entry into the clinic, the secretary being the one asking for information about the child. The detail was subtle, as I couldn't hear what the caller was saying, and the noise of the people talking covered some of the words, but it was easy to understand. The place also had a number of popular board games. But in the few seconds I had to analyze everything, a woman called to me from the other side of the room : it was the secretary.
"Sir ! Please come over here !"
I obeyed, then approached the secretariat where a rather pretty woman, medium height, blue eyes and a wavy medium haircut, was staying. I looked around, there were people of all ages in this place. After taking a good look around, the secretary cut me off.
"Hello sir, on principle, you're here for BSA (social welfare building) registration ?"
"Yes, I am."
"Ok, so you need to write your first name, last name here."
With a pen, she showed me a sheet of paper with several boxes where the categories were : first name, last name.
Is that all ?
I was rather surprised that no further information was required, but I didn't protest, telling myself that this would be normal.
So I wrote down my first and last name with the pen she'd handed me, then gave it back to her.
"Shinzo Tanaka, right ?"
"Yes."
I thought for a few seconds, then realized she looked familiar, but said nothing.
"Okay, welcome to the BSA !"
I thanked her with a nod, then turned to go meet new people, people were having fun, they were playing, but I saw through some, surely the most experienced here, that they were scared.
I turned my head one last time to see the secretary : she had a dark, frightened face, staring at the floor, and it was a far cry from the kind secretary who had greeted me before. I finally understood that this building wasn't normal, but that's precisely what kept me here. I made my way towards a small group of people my own age, one of whom must have been 16, another 17 and 2 more, about 15. They were arguing, and it was here that I saw the opportunity to act and make friends within the BSA.
"What's going on here?"
The oldest girl, 16, spoke up.
"There's just these three quarrelling, 2 against 1, about age, group... well I don't really understand, besides, who are you ?"
Her social level surprised me; she didn't seem at all embarrassed to meet a stranger like me.
"Shinzo Tanaka, nice to meet you, and you?"
"Léana Dubois."
Given her social ability, her name, her appearance, I managed to deduce that she was French, but, instead of affirming it, I asked.
"French?"
She held out her hand, a sign of respect when meeting someone.
"Indeed, I'm French by origin, but I've shifted to Japan, because I appreciate this country and these origins so much !"
"Uh... thank you."
She looked at me with pleading eyes and a soft voice.
"Would you like to join our group ?"
Well... I wasn't expecting such vivacity and speed for me to sympathize, but I might as well say so much the better.
"Aight, I'd appreciate it very much."
The argument stopped, then they protested.
"Hey, we didn't need another member!" It was the youngest, who looked to be 15, who spoke.
The nice girl had surprisingly long white hair and beautiful green eyes. She turned and answered the boy.
"Why not ! It's always nice to welcome someone new, it gives us company, and besides, he's bloody handsome !"
The fact that she'd blurted this out without restraint bothered me slightly. Honestly, I wasn't expecting any compliments when I'd only been in the building for 16 minutes. I looked around and saw no clocks.
"Do you have the time ?"
I asked, just in case they had a phone or watch with them.
"Yes, it's 5:19pm."
I was rather surprised, the oldest (17) had never taken out a watch or phone, at least not in the last 10 minutes, and he still managed to guess what time I thought it was.
"Tell me, what are your names?"
Leana took the candle and began to introduce them all.
"So, the oldest..."
She pointed to the tallest and oldest.
"...this is Namjoon Kim, a Korean."
"Next, the youngest, named Shigure Soma, 15 years old, the most difficult."
She pointed to a "young one", at least that's what her fashion and height, reaching 1m70, inspired.
"And then there's the last one, also difficult in character, but she's nice. Her name is Ame Kuna."
Then Léana whispered in my ear.
"Introduce yourself..."
"I'm Shinzo Tanaka, nice to know you, I'm 16, it's a pleasure to meet you."
They didn't answer, they didn't even seem to care about me.
"... What were they fighting about?"
Ame spoke up.
"This kid just needs a life lesson and to respect those elders, that's all, except that apparently he doesn't understand. Afterwards, I don't mind, I love conflict against the weaker."
I see, just for that ? Why not get me into this argument, to settle their... stupid story.
"So already Shigure Soma, you have to respect your elders, that's the basis of the basis, and if you decide to throw a caprice like a kid, then do them somewhere else, you're disturbing the group and breaking the mood, idiot."
Ame looked happy.
"That's it ! Tell him... uh... Shinichi ?"
"Shinzo..."
"Then why don't you make a group ? You jerks."
I kept my cool, violence was not to be prioritized then looked at Leana.
"Okay okay! Please calm down, don't fight!" She said.
Namjoon looked at the kid with a cold, haughty stare.
"Okay, let's make a group, we'll stay in this one, but we'll make another one next door."
Ame validated Namjoon's idea, then turned back to me.
"Shinzo, do you want to come?"
I looked at her, hands in my pockets, thinking for a few seconds, then made up my mind.
"Bet, aight."
So she took the handle and dragged me away, following Namjoon. The corridors were dark and no one was in them since everyone was staying in the main hall.
"So, I have a place for our group, after 5 pm, it's closed, but it's relatively simple to find the code."
The corridors were relatively long, and there were several of them, no lights were on, we just had daylight which illuminated very little.
"How are you going to do it?"
Obviously I ask how he's going to do it even though it's simple....
"Is that supposed to be a question? I'd just watched someone put in the code."
He seemed in a hurry...
We arrived at a double wooden door with a code, Namjoon rushed to it then typed in the code while hiding it, but from the movement of his hand and the noise of the machine, I could believe the code was 1895. He entered, then Ame and I followed, I saw that it was dark but that it was a gym essentially with a basketball court, with a parquet floor for basketball.
"Don't turn on the lights, we're moving to another room."
Namjoon picked up some keys he had in his pocket, then turned to his right, where there seemed to be another room.
"This is the storeroom, with all the sports equipment, it's rather small, but it's good enough, we can easily fit three people in there."
He inserted the key into the hole and opened the door. I was confused.
"How did you get the key?"
"I just took it off an employee, nothing complicated."
He was... strange. This Namjoon was definitely a boy willing to do whatever for anything.
We entered the room, it was rather small and there were balls, rackets, tennis balls, studs... Namjoon turned on the light then seated himself.
"We'll be staying here from now on."
I didn't fully understand what he meant by "We'll stay here". I ignored this detail and sat down quietly on the floor. I saw that there was a heater and... food? On a shelf in front of me among the 3 on either side of the room was food... a lot of food, and as I observed, I saw that it was mostly very average quality food, perishable in a long time. Obviously, by logic, I looked at the door to analyze whether anything suspicious was there, then turned my head towards Namjoon and questioned him.
"Why food?"
He looked at me, not showing a single emotion.
"We're going to live here."
Ame looked at the shelves, then when she saw the food, she was surprised and pleased.
"Ohhh ! Cool ! Food!"
I suspected something was wrong, but continued the discussion.
"What do you mean?"
Namjoon closed his eyes, puzzled.
"To tell you the truth... if we're making a group, it's essential to be able to all live together and sleep together. After a while, we'll have to get to know each other and sometimes make sacrifices."
What did he mean by sacrifice ? I know that tensions in a group are inevitable, but to call it a "sacrifice" is a big word. I looked at Namjoon for a few moments, and I saw, I saw that his intentions were not good. He was planning something, he wanted us to destroy ourselves. Obviously, I wasn't going to let him do that, or at least, I was going to do it differently.