1 Something wrong

"Hiro! "

"What the hell happened to yer face, huh? "

My name is Takaoka Sakushin. Right now, I'm a high school freshman in Fukuoka Academy. 'Hiro' (aka Sakamoto Hiroyuki) is my childhood friend.

"Okazaki's cat scratched it up. "

" Him again! He's scratched up almost all of our faces in Class 3, damn it! "

I sighed.

"Now, now why aren't we goin' back to class, Saku? " said Hiroyuki, picking at his scar (also delivered by Okazaki's cat)

"I should be asking that! Aren't ya sitting 'round picking at yer scar?!"

Hiroyuki jumped off the fence and we both raced back to class.

"Hey Hiro, I guess Teach's already here.. "

" Damn that old fart! We're gonna sneak in."

I hesitated. I grabbed Hiro's arm and entered.

"We're sorry, Teacher!"

The teacher, Mr. Kamiya, did not react. He merely adjusted his ancient glasses and went back to writing the kanji for 'spirit' on the blackboard.

"Saku, look. "

My daze was broken by Hiroyuki.

"Huh? What's wrong? "

"Why isn't the old fart reacting when the whole class is strainin' their vocal chords and screamin' their lungs out? "

Hiroyuki was right. The classroom was a total mess, and yet Mr. Kamiya, the teacher who'd probably done a Phd on swear words to use on students, behaved as if the whole class was in silence mode, not even vibration.

I didn't say anything. I just grabbed Hiroyuki's arm again and sat down on Seat 14. Hiroyuki sat down beside me.

On Seat 16 sat Okazaki Hanzo. He was kinda aloof from the rest of us of class 1-3. He was in the same middle school as me, but in those days he was totally different. Puberty, I guess.

Now he just sat at a corner of the room talking to his cat. None of us ever bullied him and tried to include him in our daily activities, but he always smiled and refused.

I sat there, bored. Hiroyuki played video games, and the rest of the class made a din, and probably even indulged in 'illegal activities', right in the classroom, not once did Mr. Kamiya look back and throw a duster at someone's nose.

I realised something was off.

The only ones who weren't doing anything were Seat 13 Usui Yukito, Okazaki and me. For some reason, I couldn't see Okazaki's face even though he was sitting only about a metre away from me. He wasn't bending down, nor he was covering his face with anything. The only known fact was that his face could not be seen, but the cause of his hidden countenance was unknown.

Realising that the secret of the abnormalcy of the classroom could not be retrieved from him, I turned to Usui.

" Hey Usui... "

"Yeah, what? "

"Ya know why the classroom is like this and Kamiya isn't making a fuss about it? Normally we'd get our faces rearranged by the principal by now. "

" Ya think I'm not thinking that right now? I went to the dude with my copy a dozen times by now and he didn't even bat an eyelid, as if I never existed! Just a week ago he kicked my ass threatening to get me expelled, and now?! I don't know what's happening 'round here. "

Just then, I thought something was seriously wrong. Mr. Kamiya was teaching the same lesson over and over again and he wrote one word all over the blackboard.

It was "spirit".

What the hell is happening?!