"Hey, are you okay?"
Turning to Akira with a happy grin, Nobara asked while extending a hand for a handshake. Akira looked at the hand, and he froze for a second due to the unfamiliar action before coming to his senses.
With a sneer, he slapped the hand away from him, causing Nobara to raise an eyebrow at him in confusion and annoyance.
"What?! Do you think you're too cool for a handshake with me?!" Nobara asked with a scowl, leaning close to Akira, who backed up with a dark face due to her closeness.
"I did not need your help or anything. From now on, stay away from me. I can handle my own troubles." Turning away from Nobara, Akira walked away without another word, leaving Nobara behind with an annoyed expression.
"Tch! If you think you can get away from me so easily, then you are mistaken!" Nobara shouted at him.
Akira paused at Nobara's words, turning to her with a raised eyebrow before shrugging.
"Not my problem, do as you wish," Akira muttered to himself.
[Time Skip.]
Time passed, and the days were flowing faster than Akira thought it was possible... and it was all thanks to a certain someone who intruded into his monotone and miserable life.
Nobara Kugisaki... An extremely outgoing and fun girl who's sometimes a loudmouth and more of a tomboy than a girl at all, which Akira liked if being honest. For some reason, she was glued to Akira like flies to shit.
Ever since Akira entered the school, she always made sure to find him during break and lunch, and she wouldn't leave him no matter what he said to her.
At first, Akira was extremely annoyed by someone so loudly mumbling in his ears nonstop every day. He already had a mother who brought home strangers and fucked them next door every day; he doesn't need another loudmouth in his ears.
He had grown up with a whore mother, seeing a new man in his home every day since he could remember, and had to teach himself since his own mother couldn't.
He was not going to start making friends or being friendly with other kids who don't have it as bad as he does. He survived fine by himself, so he sees no reason to start being friendly all of a sudden.
As time continued to pass and the first year flew by since Akira entered this particular school, Nobara and Akira were no longer just Nobara talking and Akira ignoring her.
Akira started talking back to her, even if it was just a quiet hum, or a shake and nod of his head. Nobara was overjoyed since then, too overjoyed in Akira's opinion.
She was always handsy and trying to play with him in rough ways, unlike anything a girl should do. Running around the school yard, jumping over thigns or even fighting boys... All of it surprised Akira.
Akira had never seen someone so strong as a child; she was the strongest child he had ever seen besides himself, because Akira knew he could defeat every adult he had ever seen without a struggle.
Akira noticed that Nobara was much stronger than boys her age, and faster. Even her endurance was a notch above that of boys her age, with the sole exception being Akira himself.
One day, Akira decided to finally see why, and he used his x-ray vision to see into Nobara's stomach, where he discovered a condensed energy balloon full of malice and negative emotions; even her brain had a part that did not exist in a normal human's brain.
But it seemed dormant and untouched.
After that, Akira checked his own body, but he had no such thing in his body... Well, he did, but it was tens of times smaller than Nobara, similar to everyone else around him.
Finding this out, Akira was not bothered or jealous in the least. He doesn't need that thing for himself, because even Nobara, who has it, could not touch a corner of his clothes.
In the second year of school, Akira had turned 9 years old and moved up a grade with Nobara. In the new grade, things had changed in terms of Hierarchy.
The kids are now more mature, but it also means that those bullies were also worse since they were smarter. Akira was constantly targeted by them since he never fought back, not wanting to be expelled from school.
It's not because he doesn't or couldn't fight back, but it was because Akira knew himself best, and when he gets into a fight, he won't stop until he knocks his opponents out or draws blood.
If he did that, even with the dirt on him, the principal would have no choice but to kick him out, and Akira did not want to trouble his... Mother, especially if they have to move to a different location.
So he endured...
[Towards the end of the year, about to turn 10 years old...]
Moving down the silent street, Akira's hands were in his hoodie pockets, a school bag slung over one shoulder, while his head was down, watching the road as his feet moved.
Akira's eyes were in a daze as multiple thoughts ran through his mind, ones connected to his special body.
"Am I wasting this talent?... I could be training, making it stronger and better... But instead, I sit and do nothing," Akira questioned himself as he took a hand out of his pocket, looking at the soft and durable skin.
Boom!
"Hmm?"
Akira paused when he heard a loud bang coming from a nearby alley. He turned to look and saw seven people, dressed in punk attire, gathered in a circle around a burning fire pit.
They were smoking and drinking, adding to the chaotic atmosphere of the dimly lit alley.
On the ground not far from them was a trembling woman, bruises on her face and her hands clutching an empty purse, with all the money inside it gone.
"It's not my problem..." Akira muttered before continuing on his walk, not paying it any more attention. In his mind, the only one to blame is the woman for being so weak.
In the alley...
"Please... That's all the money I had to buy food for my child..." The battered woman on the ground sobbed, her dead eyes looking at the seven people who paid her no mind.
Except for one.
"You have a kid, ey? Well, how about this, then? If you crawl over like a btich and give me head, I'll give you some money back~," The gang member spoke with a lust-filled grin, and the mother froze in fear.
"P-Please... N-No. I will be going now..." The woman tried to get up, turning towards the alley's exit.
But the man was not going to let her leave so easily.
Bang!
"Argh!" The woman spat out saliva as a foot struck her side, making her roll on the ground in pain, clutching her side as the man stood above her.
Why?
"Get on your knees and unbuckle my belt, now~,"
Why did he stop?
"P-Please! I don't want to!"
Why did he turn around?
"Or would you rather involve your kid? I don't mind if he took your place~,"
And why are his hands trembling in blind rage?
"Hey,"
Akira spoke, standing in the alley's entrance now.
"Hmm? Who is that kid? Is this your child?"
All seven people looked at the end of the alley, where Akira was standing, his hand out of his pockets, and his hair hiding his eyes.
"What do you want, kid? Scram before I decide to give you a beating," The man standing above the women said wiht a sneer, spitting out the cigarette onto the ground before squashing it with his foot.
Akira looked up, murder in his eyes.
_________________________________________
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