Then Grandma didn't hit me anymore, didn't yell at me anymore, and just... she was gone from the house.
Yeah, after a week, my horrific burns from the fire just healed.
It's like she just left, couldn't take it anymore.
But I vividly remember the last disgusting thing she said to me: "Monster!"
Well, for a kid who loved the only two people in his life, that hit hard.
Fortunately, I didn't dare ask Dad about the fire, and Grandma didn't seem to tell him.
From then on, the periods of time between flashes of pain started to get shorter and shorter.
Every four days it was like I was in hell. For a few hours or a whole day, it was always different.
Sometimes a fire would appear, but surprisingly, after some willful effort, I could make it go out.
However, though it was painful, I absorbed the knowledge within - the only thing I had left during that time.
...
It was also then that I realized that perhaps I could be something more than just Shinji.
That is, during flashes of pain, I saw fragments of several lives before this one. Not only saw, I tried to check a couple things from there, like languages.
I tried searching for similar characters on my dad's computer when he was asleep. Just typed "all the letters of the world" into the search and found the right one.
Turns out it was something in Cyrillic, not in hieroglyphics like in Japanese, and the language itself was Russian.
Of course, another language was simply unrecognizable. Long but subtle curlicues that looked like something out of Latin, only those words were nowhere to be found.
Well, not that it helped much....
...
It's been two years.
I turned 6! It should have been a joyous occasion, but...no one even remembered my birthday, August 19.
Well, some things have changed. I was turned in to school.
Not an interview, an acceptance, an outfit and a lineup, but my dad brought me in and turned me in.
Of course, he told me to study hard and not to upset him and my mother.
I took it seriously and realized this was my chance to get his praise and attention.
I ended up in a class with 19 other kids.
The things taught were: reading, writing, foreign languages, math and some sort of science.
Living now 2 years since that change, I have grown a lot emotionally.
All these kids around me just seemed like rambunctious animals, like playful cats finding their own fun.
In fact, they were doing anything but learning.
Because of that, I stood out from them and immediately became the teacher's favorite.
I was just trying to get the approval of that cold man who was called my father, while gathering knowledge.
This had a downside, the local gang hated me.
Of course, everything came out in banal, and why his grades are better, why he and not me, why he is so handsome and so on... things that should not be clung to at all.
About the beauty thing... well, I didn't really understand it. Once I got down to the creek, I got a good look at myself: green eyes, silver hair, small round baby face, small nose.
And there didn't seem to be anything wrong with me other than my eyes and hair, but I was unnaturally pale and weak.
It made me an easy target for bullying.
Well, it's not like anyone was seriously interfering with my life or I couldn't do something about it, so... okay.....
I've somewhat comprehended the power of those flames... so I might as well show everyone where the crayfish are... or are they burning? Never mind, though. As someone who had seen many things in images, I knew I couldn't just get away with murder.
As for the possibility of being able to fight back with my physical strength alone... well, when someone runs 2 laps and falls unconscious, and someone can run 3 more, and the first one can't raise that limit... it's hard to say how possible that is, purely from the point of view of stamina.
But the main reason why I didn't do anything violent was that they soon got reprimands from their parents for bad grades in school and from bullies became suck-ups asking for better grades.
That's how they became my "friends." Playing with me, of course, from the bottom of my heart, without any hidden agenda, perhaps, only girls wanted to play with me, and then a few.
When a year passed and I got the maximum in all my grades, I went to brag about it to my father.
How happy I was before that....
But his reaction made me feel cold all over my body.
He took the grade sheet and didn't even bat an eye. He didn't care at all.
Then he reeked of alcohol.
I noticed a couple of small bottles on the table that were sold in vending machines on the street for 100-150 yen. Mostly whiskey, but there was some cheaper alcohol too.
One day I heard him say: "One to remember... two to live."
With those words, he drank then 2 small containers of alcohol.
Haru just put the sheet aside and nodded.
To his son, meaning me, this response seemed unsatisfactory, but I just couldn't get more out of him.
...
And so another four years passed.
During that time, I made one person I could call a friend.
Her name was Kiana.
Golden hair, green eyes, small (half a head shorter than the others) height and a sparkle in her eyes.
These were what caught the eye at first glance.
She was a transfer student, entering her 3rd year.
Perhaps we bonded over the fact that she was simply not accepted by the others.
The girl seemed to be immersed in all things mechanical.
As she said herself, her father was a mechanic, so that's what she was into.
And on the principle of not being useful - useless, she became a white crow.
After talking to her, I realized that she, unlike everyone else, was a very pleasant conversationalist and had a direct character, so we quickly became friends.
But we were the kind of friends that... well, 20 name-calling each other for a day, but a good relationship and tacit understanding between each other.
She was also the only person I told the secret of my frequent headaches to.
Too bad she didn't stay long, literally a year later the girl left with her parents.
When junior high was over, we were automatically transferred to high school.
Well, my name was at the top of the school rankings.
[1st place, Shinji Nakamura]
I had been writing letters to my grandmother on the computer all this time, as I had begged my dad to teach me, but I was beginning to wonder why she never wrote me back.
Upon transferring to middle school... well, a lot of people got scattered to other schools, and eventually the new class was a different class.
All my minions, sycophants and slaves were gone.
It had to be said that among the new classmates, there were a couple of standouts.
Rayo Tanaka is a bright cog who prefers to think first, think very well, before he speaks. His features: dark green hedgehog hair, brown eyes, and blue-rimmed glasses.
Shun Kazami is a quiet and serious child, seeming very withdrawn. He has long black hair gathered in a ponytail and brown eyes with an oblong shape.
Well, that's where the positive characters end... next come those who fit the unremarkable and, of course, those who are better off not being seen....
Runo Misaki is a girl he met before she was even his classmate.
Here was the thing... earlier, he had once walked into a café he couldn't remember the name of on his way home, and sat there for a full 15 minutes before someone deigned to approach him.
This someone had long bright blue straight hair that was gathered in two ponytails, green eyes covered by bangs, a frivolous outfit and an unpleasant shrill voice.
Then, when I complained about the waiting time, the girl's mother apologized, saying she would give me a bun on the house, while Runo herself acted very arrogant.
"Why should I even serve this cretin?!" she blurted out then.
Well, that's all I've decided for myself with this person.
Yes, a normal child would be angry at such a thing, but to me somehow... yes I endure so much pain... what will this altercation give me? Just to speak out... what for? My words won't get through to her anyway.
By the way, I didn't accept the bun either, mentally wishing them to choke on it, for such an attitude. Anyway, I muttered something unpleasant, but not provoking, and left.
And the last, most annoying character I met in class was Daniel Puzo, or rather Kuzo, but it didn't really matter.
In my eyes at least, he only deserves ridicule.
It's just an amazing combination of traits, where dumb merged with arrogant, performing in one person.
When their first day of school started, this fool managed to pick a fight with two guys over a simple trifle.
Of course, Runo had started to help him by breaking them up.
And it's not that he just has a temper, that's exactly the least of the problem.
This guy sleeps through most of his classes, and on the test, well, that's something... well, that's something...
- Don't you dare write better than me," he shivered a little, wagged his index finger under his nose, and laughed embarrassedly.
Of course, he'd managed to fall asleep... on something like this. Totally unreliable type.
Later, when the grades started coming in and everyone got to know each other, Dan asked me for help, saying that if he didn't do well in English, he wouldn't be allowed to play games at home.
In fact, a lot of people approached me and I got along with a lot of people, except for that obnoxious girl Runo, she was too arrogant.
I decided to help. After all, the principle of boomerangs has never been abolished.
After practicing English with him after school at home for 3 hours, I went home, thinking that would be enough.
Surprisingly, but this fool managed to fail the test, and then blame it all on me.
That's when my contact with him was minimized. Well, I mean, I didn't socialize, but he pestered me about everything.
I started thinking about what I wanted to do in the future.
It seemed that even though I didn't have anyone's support, I was doing pretty well for my age. From that year on, there were even opportunities to go to an Olympiad.
I went to one in math in November. Well, winning, which was quite obvious.
After all, even though I was a fourth grader, I had already gotten as far as quadratic equations.
Of course, hard work brings results.
But even though I had won the district and region, the quota of people for "higher" had already been filled. Of course, I was told that there is nothing for your age, but you are good, but I understood it perfectly well in the following way, that, say, there is no origin, there are no connections, so bye-bye.
Why is that? Well, there was probably a TV in every house by now. I perfectly saw with my eyes how a clueless dummy of about eight years old was walking on the red carpet to the very "higher", which for my age is not.
Was I jealous?
Well... it's hard to say.
On the one hand, yes, since this opportunity for me personally, someone who seemed like he could be more deserving if I read everything correctly from that silly facial expression, is simply closed.
On the other hand, it's not critical. So what if it's just some Olympics.....