My Name is K-koi Nikumu
My Name is Koi Nikumu.
Solid. I love the feel. Solid.
The thoughts in my head are like liquid.
I'll Solidify.
Okay…I'm sorry, I'm back. I had to take a pill to counteract the shot some fucker stabbed me with earlier.
Our thoughts are more solid now, more or less. As solid as they were before. Right Koi? Of course.
Anyway, I'll speak now. Who long knows… who knows how long we've got 'til our brain turns back to shit. 'Til they finally drown Koi and leave me suffocating on his dead carcass.
We can't start from the start, since we aren't sure where it started. And how 'bout we start from an interesting day we remember and just blurt out the memories that come, so you can decide where it started?
I'm more focused on where it'll end.
And Koi's more focused on where it'll end.
And my name is Koi too, isn't it? I wonder where it'll all end...
And we should stay focused on where it'll all end.
Break the mirror, Adam…
Koi sat on the hard metal bleachers, pretty much alone with himself. Reading the prose he'd stapled into his personal journal earlier. His hair was long, blue, and shiny. It fell all around his pale face and swooped and swooshed in the soft fall breeze.
Over yonder on the tennis court, one match had ended, and another was about to begin. The Menzai high court was gorgeous and nearly pristine, as was everything, and always had been at this high school. It wasn't completely sunny, though; drifting clouds blocked out the sun and cast a light shade on all the shiny things and people down below him. The effect put Koi in a sorta dreamy mood, as if it wasn't hard enough to concentrate.
A new player comes out onto the court. The stadium wasn't too packed; a handful of students and faculty sprinkled the benches. Koi spotted Carrot up front. She began whooping, hollering, and cheering as a familiar student took the court.
"Yeah, Adam, sweety! Get him!" She yelled, jumping around all dorky like.
"Carrot!" Koi called out barely audible. "Carrot, back here!"
She turns at the sound of her name. She waves to Koi and turns back to further embarrass Adam by winking and blowing him a kiss. Adam, being a genuine gentleman, pulls the kiss out of the air and pretends to fasten it to his crotch.
As Carrot trots up the bleachers, she whaps a junior sitting back and leaning against a boom box blasting reggae in the face with the white frills of her baby doll dress. She really was a rare one, especially today. Koi's magenta colored eyes widened, trying to take her all in. She was about 15 or 16, but she dressed and often acted like a 7 or 8-year-old. Green baby doll dress with heavy under ruffles, Mary Jane shoes paired with the socks little girls wore, which always came with more ruffles. Her long, pretty hair had two big green bows in it and curled so it cascaded down her shoulders and back.
It's a shame, really. If she weren't so 'regressive,' she could be the hottest girl in school.
"Hey, hey, hey, Koi, Koi!" She squeeled as she plopped down next to him. Them…him as she squeezed his arm.
"Do you see mah man out there? Isn't he K-UTE!" She squeals again.
Koi looked over at Adam, who had his usual irritated glare, waiting for his opponent. Koi doesn't own a memory where this brunette isn't picking on, screaming at, or making life general hell for someone.
"Cute as a button," Koi says, looking back down at his journal.
"Homework?"
"Kinda."
She nods and smiles, undaunted by Koi's lack of a response.
"Adams is gonna win, no doubt! Few people know this, but my darling is really good at tennis. He had his own tennis court back home!"
"His own tennis court?" A boy behind them says with a sorta snorting laugh.
"Mr. Hardcore gangsta owns his own tennis court?" The other boy says, shaking his head.
"Yeah, he's one of those badassed, Palm Beach, tennis thugs. I knew he was phony!"
"Hump!" Carrot chimed, turning back to Rasberry the mean boys. Not noticing Koi's head bowed, reading the phrase from his journal, which was cutting into him like a katana blade.
"Any day now, Frenchy!" Adam shouts across the court.
Leaning against the fence (looking good, as his rule) with a bunch of girls on the other side of it, giggling and cooing, was Ethan Robesquierre. The green-eyed blond turns and shoots a look at Adam, pulls a roll of Mentos out of his long black leather jacket's pocket, and pops one of the small white candies into his mouth. Then he gums a sly, toothy one, showing the rows of perfectly white, commercial-ready teeth.
Adam looks Ethan up and down, staring at his Leather pants, jacket, and silk shirt.
"So much pleather, in this ungodly weather?" Adam snorts when Ethan comes within earshot.
"What's the rush, Kirage?" You anxious for your date with Miss Ditty Bop?" He uses his racket to motion over to Carrot in the stands.
Adam glances over at the carrot, looking a bit afraid, then he composes himself, letting his almond eyes narrow and fall on Ethan.
There was a murmur among the crowd, along with giggles. The stands were slowly filling up. An Adam, Ethan tennis match wasn't expected, but it was promised to be very entertaining.
"What does he mean by ditty bop?…" She shakes her head. "Ethan's gorgeous though, ain't he? Beyond gorgeous!"
Koi speaks, but his eyes do not stray from the duo on the field.
"Aren't we fickle? I thought Adam was he only one for you?"
"We? Who's we koi? There's only one me!" She smiles and explains.
"Amen for that," one of the boys behind them mutters. Carrot's lips stick out into another pout.
"At least Carrots not the STD farm you've got hanging all over you all the time," Adam motions to Ethan's fan club still watching and coo-ing over him by the gate.
"Ha, ha, ha, very funny, Kirage. Just hit the damn ball. I'm losing cool points talking to you." Ethan says, taking a position with his racket.
"And I'm losing IQ points talking to you!" Adam retorts with an eye roll. He fixes his white headband and bounces the ball. When it gets up to a level he can work with, he whacks it hard, leaving a forceful echo through the stands.
It really started as a pretty close game. Adam and Ethan were well matched. At one point, Adam was ahead, but only by a couple of points.
Ethan had the ball in his court now, and those piercing bright green eyes of his sliced through the strands of blonde hair to look at the stands, and hit the strangely girlish content of Koi Nikumu.
He smiles that slight grin again, and after he bounced the ball, he holds it behind his back like a baseball pitcher. Koi notices a slight glow coming from the hand clutching the ball.
"Erm?" Koi raises an eyebrow, watching.
Carrot pats his back. "Gas?"
Ethan serves the enchanted ball. It flips towards a seemingly unsuspecting Adam. It bounces once just fine. Koi and any other sharp-eyed spellcasters watch as Adam positions himself with the racket. He swings hard at the ball and it connects, but on contact, the ball explodes in a pulsating burst of light.