35 Do You Remember? When it began?

As Jack grumbled and groaned about the bullies lackluster art skills, he couldn't help but think of what Kiyo had said to him time and time again.

'The day of huh...'

As he dropped his phone to his side, he stopped walking for a brief moment, turning his head to look out the window to his left, at the gleaming sunset.

'Yea, I guess when you have a day that rough you're bound to stick up for yourself....'

Now dropping his face, he stared once again at his reflection in his phone's black screen. Before whispering to himself;

"I guess I am just a coward huh."

"Damn right you are Caterpillar boy!"

A loud, annoying voice startled Jack as a large man now also appeared on his phone's screen, looming over him as if he was a mere bug on the floor blocking his path.

"Hey now bro, careful callin' him that! You know it hurts his feelings!"

"Don't tell me what to do you rat! Who do you think you are hah?!"

"hey hey... I don't think Paul meant it like that Logan, calm down would y-"

"OH NOW YOU'RE AGAINST ME TOO?! YOU WANNA TUSSLE?!"

'What idiots...'

Bustling back and forth it's as if the group of bullies had completely forgotten about Jack. As the big man named Logan pushed his other two smaller 'companions' around, their victim could only sit there and watch.

'Is this really what I'm getting bullied by? Two scrawny nerds that look like they could be blown over by some wind or be put into submission by a single crack in their glasses, and a big guy who's stupid enough to make you think he's only that size cause he failed a few grades.'

Looking out the window once again, he closed his eyes to bask in the sun for a moment. Opening his eyes, he then saw their reflections, clouded and transparent, backlight by a light that would soon disappear till tomorrow.

'It'll keep happening. This big idiot will wake up in the morning and do the same things he did today, just like this stupid ball of explosions in the sky.'

Dropping his open bag, he took a step forward. His legs shook and his eyes were clouded, but it seemed his patience had finally run thin.

'I'm fuckin sick of it! I'll end it now, I'll stick up for myself like they do in the books! I'll get beat to a pulp, but what's new!?'

"HAha! Look at this Caterpillar getting all brave! Hey hey, you remember how you got that name right?!"

With his attention back on Jack, the beefy man leant towards him. Not taking a step forwards, his height alone closed the gap between them, making them face to face as he lowered his tone and raised his voice to a disgusting pitch that would make any parent tremble for their child's sake.

"It's cause I sent you flying with one punch! Then when you landed... you remember what you did?"

Sweating from his forehead, Jack couldn't answer, couldn't move. It was as if all of the motivation he had built up, all of the patience he had lost over the years, were instantly reset to zero.

"YOU REMEMBER DON'T YA?!"

"Y- yes..."

He mumbled an answer, trembling as he barely managed to produce a sound. His anxiety raised and raised, only to plateau when a small crowd started to form. It was as if he was drowning in fear.

"Tell us why don't you?! My memory sucks y'know?!"

The air in the room was so heavy, it was as if he was in a tank of water. Breathing was next to impossible, let alone standing up for himself.

"I-"

Forcing out as much of an answer as he could, his knees grew weak. Logan's gaze was staring into his soul, he knew the answer but it still felt like his eyes were pulling the memory out from his body's core unwillingly.

"I... crawled... and twitched like a cater..."

"LIKE A CATERPILLAR RIGHT?? HAHAHA!!"

'They're... they're all laughing...'

The crowd who's faces began to fade into black figures with the faces of demons that kept giggling and laughing at the man who could do nothing. They pointed and teased with a hunched back from their hysteria in what they said.

'It's pointless... What's the point...'

"Shut up would ya?!"

Breaking through the stiff wall the crowd had formed, a slim woman came running through, dispelling the demonic faces in her path.

"Ooh~ Your mom's here to save you again! Oh wait... heheheee~ Ya don't have one huuuuhhh~?"

"You bastard. You're first on my list if I ever meet Harpocrates."

"Who the fuck is that?"

"He's... He's the god of silence.... never mind! Let's go Jack."

With one arm around his waste, and the other holding his bag, they slowly walked away from the scene behind them while having slurs and insults thrown at them in waves.

--

-

"Here, take it."

Now outside, Kiyo handed a a cold iced tea from a vending machine to the defeated Jack that sat against a wall curled up into his legs.

*sigh* "Listen... Jack..."

" 'Stand up for myself...' Right?"

"N- no, that's not what I was gonna say this time."

"Good, cause I tried that this time. I was really gonna try it this time, but its useless."

Now bent down on her tip toes beside him, Kiyo sat the drink on her thighs and sighed while looking at the lights of the bus that stopped in front of them.

"I know you did, and that's all I could've ask for. But nothing happens on the first try unless you're in a book or myth. All you can do is keep trying and promise you'll keep trying till you get to Valhalla."

"There you go again with your stupid mythology. No one knows what you're talking about you know!?"

Standing up, he quickly grabbed his bag and took a few quick steps towards the busses' door, pausing for a second to look back at the shocked girl who still sat crouched with a drink in each hand, staring at him.

"If you don't shut up about that stuff soon, then people will stop going easy on you. Then you wont have a chance to fight back, just like me."

Hearing honking and traffic sounds, everything seemed to go quiet around them as she could only sit there in silence, hoping he would take back what he said.

"People and this world alike suck, I refuse to fight back in this crooked place! If I got isekai'd- No, when I get isekai'd! That's when I'll really start to try, that's when It'll be worth it to try. But until then..."

Stepping inside the bus, he looked back a the girl one more time while putting up his hoodie. He scanned his card and muttered once more before the doors closed behind him.

"Until then, I give up... I'm done."

Walking to the back of the bus, he bumped shoulders with multiple people like a drunkard in a crowded area till he got to the back of the bus. Sitting slouched and silently, cursing the world as he pleased in his head, until finally, it was his stop.

*Bading!*

"Next stop Young and..."

Ah, it's my stop.

'God, just hurry up and isekai me, any of you would do, any condition would do. Just please, please stop wasting my time in this stupid world.'