"Hmm, Which one do you think looks better on me?" Kazuizawa asked, pointing at two different dresses on the display.
"The pink one has a much cuter appeal, but the blue one is more lady-like." Matsushita said.
"Why don't you try that one over there," Mori pointed towards a high-end dress priced 44,000 private points. "In my opinion that's the best one here in this store."
"You're right about that but that one's a tad bit too expensive for me, I only have about 20,000 private points left."
This has been going on for the last 30 minutes; these girls seem to have endless energy when it came to buying clothes at least.
Ocassionaly they'll ask for Hirata's opinion on the matter but it doesn't really felt like they gave it much weight.
"This school is really amazing no? Kazama-kun." Hirata said, trying to start a conversation with Akira. "100,000 private points every month as an allowance, liberty to choose any collelge or workplace upon graduation, and this overly lieninet enviornment, I sometimes find it hard to believe that such a place exist."
"It is a dream come true for most students, such extravagance will cause us to become complacent in no time. Once you lose your sense of money management it gets harder to pull it back up. It'll be endearing back to our previous lives once we get used to such extravagance." Akira said.
The ever so cheerful Hirata turned quite at the mention of his previous life, the word stung him in his weak spot. Which is exactly what Akira had wanted from the boy.
"What happened?" Akira feigned ignorance "It's as if a dark cloud's glooming atop of your head."
"No, it's nothing" Hirata waved him off "Some memories I recalled of middle school."
A minute of silence lingered between the two of them, Akira using mind's gate was well aware of the inner turmoil going in Hirata's head.
"Hey, Hirata, do you mind if I ask you something?"
"Yeah, sure. Anything I can help with."
"Before that, promise me that you'll never mention this conversation with anyone else in the school, not even Karuizawa."
Hirata taken aback by the sudden request, nonetheless agreed. Most people would've, prying into other's life is the second best source of human entertainment; first one being sex of course.
"I wanted to know," Akira said. "What's it like going to middle school? Is it very much different than high-school?"
Hirata chuckled awkwardly at Akira's question, and replied "You speak of it as if you've never been to middle school."
"I haven't", Akira said. "Due to an unfortunate accident 2 years ago I spent most of my rosy middle-school days in coma, luckily managing to wake up near the end of last year."
"Uh… Sorry about that… About your question, middle school is actually not that much different than high school. They're pretty much identical it's just that you're in a different grade." Hirata said.
"Hmm… What was your middle-school life like Hirata?"
"Nothing much, just the usual…"
"Did you have a girlfriend? Or perhaps some unwanted love?"
"No… nothing of that sort?"
"What about clubs? You were in the soccer club if I recall correctly, was that fun?"
"Yeah, I enjoyed it."
Akira asked a few other questions but kept getting dull, half-hearty responses from Hirata. Clearly something was troubling him, keeping his mind occupied elsewhere. Akira knew that this conversation has bought up the guilt of abandoning his friend Sugimura back up to his mind again.
He had many questions he wanted to ask but he just wasn't brave enough to. After a brief moment of silence between them, Akira used Mind's Gate to give the cowardly boy a bit of courage he so lacked.
"Um… Kazama, Not to be rude or anything, but can you tell me what it's like to be… in Coma."
Only Hirata knew how hard was it for someone like him to ask such a question, his eyes locked onto Akira, any signs of unease he shows and Hirata was ready to apologize. But Akira ever so calm, just smiled lightly at him.
"No-No, by all means, I don't mind, The human heart's such that it can't ignore every curiosity." Although I know damn well it isn't just curiosity to you. "Coma, to me is a state of limbo, it's a condition where a part of you dies and a part of you lives. I couldn't see, taste or smell anything, but I could very well hear and feel everything around me."
"It isn't painful, is it?"
"It could've been; if I wanted it to, fortunately I am no sadist."
Hirata, confused by Akira's answer chose not to say anything. He had already stepped past his personal boundaries, it isn't polite to pester someone about their critical medical condition. At least he thought as much.
"Who?"
"?"
"Who are you asking these questions for? Hirata," Akira said. "If you were really curious you would've first asked about what kind of accident got me into Coma in the first place. Not about 'how it feels to be in one' or 'if it's painful or not', is it perhaps a sibling of yours?"
Sweat trickled from Hirata's temple and blood rushed to his face, he was feeling an odd pressure looking into Akira's eyes at the same time he was genuinely surprised how he came to that conclusion, yet his reasoning made perfect sense to him.
"You're very perceptive Kazama-kun."
Akira shrugged in response to Hirata's praise, he wasn't drawing conclusion from conversation, instead just faking it. It wasn't something to be proud of.
"It was a friend of mine… a guy named Sugimura. I was together with him for six years, in the same class, not to mention, we were neighbors too! I walked together with him to school every day."
For a split second Akira felt like Hirata was genuinely happy, only for him to drop that enthusiasm seconds later.
"But things took a turn for the worst when we entered junior-high. Me and Sugimura were separated for the first time, I still remember vividly, he was placed in Class C, and I was placed in Class A. I made new friends, I still walked with him to and fro from school every day, but even that gradually decreased."
"But you see, while I had my new friends, Sugimura was getting bullied." Hirata's hand curled up into a fist. "Sugimura sent me SOSs over and over. He'd show up with cuts on his face, or with bruises. But I cared more about hanging out with my friends, and never took him seriously. Sugimura was always headstrong, quick to get into fights. I didn't think too deeply about what was happening. But when we entered our second year, we reunited. By then, Sugimura's spirit had shattered. His bright, cheerful personality was gone. That was only natural after being beaten down so much. He'd been punched and kicked so many times. They hounded him so much that he couldn't even go the bathroom; he ended up having accidents during class."
Akira doubted that, it isn't that easy to break someone's fighting spirit, He had Johan's skills and experience. Once a person learns to stand up for themselves, they can go through much more than they'd imagine. Sugimura must've been weak willed, only putting up a strong facade. Or there might be more elements in the story than what Hirata knows.
"I didn't do anything. I couldn't. I was afraid I'd become their next target. I was afraid that my new, fun life would be destroyed. So I pretended not to see Sugimura , my oldest friend. I came up with convenient excuses for myself. I thought someday the bullies would just stop. Maybe once Sugimura stopped going to school, they'd leave him alone. Or maybe someone else would step in to help him."
Akira was also once a Japanese junior high student… well he is one now as well, but never in his school had he ever witnessed 'bullying', nor did he saw any school gangs who would do such a thing. Not to mention bullying on such a severe and targeted basis. To him, such things only existed in Anime & Media, now this was his reality.
A 9mm seems like the perfect solution.
"So, what happened next?" he asked Hirata.
"That day's burned into my memory, even now. After morning soccer practice, I returned to the classroom. When I got near the room, I saw that Sugimura was already there, his face swollen. I decided to wait a bit before going in. To be honest, I felt uncomfortable. We'd been friends who played together ever since we were little, but right then, it felt like were complete strangers. I thought, 'If I get involved with him, I'll get bullied, too.' Perhaps Sugimura saw how ugly my heart was. He didn't say a word, but it was almost like he was sending out a plea for help. That day, he jumped out of the classroom window," said Hirata.
Man what a coward, you have to back your homie up in such cases, bullying 2 people is considerably harder than bullying one.
"He was declared brain dead. But even now, Sugimura's parents believe he'll recover. They're waiting for him. That day was so surreal, I still wonder if it was a hallucination. I couldn't believe it. When Sugimura jumped, I realized something. By selfishly focusing so much on my own desires, I helped drive a treasured friend to his death."
His parents should've showed that consideration towards him when he was alive.
"I don't think Sugimura can be saved, but I wanted to atone. I figure the only way for me to do that is to save others," Hirata said.
Yousuke Hirata, a coward he is, well Akira had gotten everything he wanted, now it was showtime.
"Hey Hirata, Why don't we take a walk to change the mood?"