Selfishness - Prologue

The world can be a very unfair place. Not every person is treated equally. This can include how much money a person has, or if someone has a higher status than someone else. Everywhere you look, there is inequality everywhere. People struggle more than others, and those people who struggle are often put in the worse situations. Not necessarily in physical situations; more so emotionally.

People in struggling situations often feel helpless, gasping for breath in an ocean of total despair. Sadly, most of the time, no one is there to assist them. Human beings can be very selfish, and care only for themselves and their own desires. Eventually, they drown under the stress and pressure of life's burdens.

To combat their own struggles, they take it out on others. This gives them a feeling of elation and adrenaline. Finally, they feel like they are better than something or someone. 

However, this has a knock-on effect of the person they take their frustration out on. That person now gets knocked into their old position. Feeling helpless. Both parties will lose out eventually. Even though the original person now feels good about themselves, they still hide a massive burden they just can’t shake. That, and along with the guilt of making someone else feel bad, puts them further into a path of despair. So, they make fun of more people and make them feel small. It’s a short-term solution, but in the long run, the darkness swallows them whole.

Every single person on the planet hates to feel small and confined. It’s in human nature to want to be happy and with people you love. However, what if you had no one in your life to comfort you through the bad times? You would always feel small. Claustrophobic. Angry. That’s the exact situation Hiroshi Akuma was in.

He was only seventeen years old and was a very bright child in school. He always scored the top grades in every single one of his classes. He often prided himself in being very academic and watching his hard work paying off. Unfortunately, the reason he was so invested in his studies was because he had nothing else in his life to live for.

Just like every single Monday, he was flung hard into the metal school lockers. He grunted loudly, face planting the ground. He staggered to his feet, blood seeping from his forehead. He wearily looked ahead of him. The three-school bullies that he despised so much laughed at him with pity. Hiroshi slicked back his spikey, black hair and narrowed his bright blue eyes. He was determined to defend himself. For once.

“I told you once, dumbass. You should leave that woman alone. She's mine,” one of the bullies spat at him. A crowd gathered around the four young men. This happened all the time in the school Hiroshi attended. It was the perfect example of what his ideology of human beings was.

The bully in question had been harassing one of Hiroshi's classmates to date him, but she keep refusing. He had her pinned up against a locker. Hiroshi rushed to help, and pulled the man off her. However, now that there was danger, no one wanted to help him. They were there for the spectacle. Something to entertain their boring lives. Well, if that’s what they wanted...

“Come get it then,” Hiroshi snarled and ushered the bullies towards him with a single finger. The bullies became aggravated and charged at Hiroshi.

They simply were no match for him.

Hiroshi never liked getting beaten up. He understood that these young men weren’t bad people at all. They were just misunderstood. The leader of the three bullies lost his mother to a horrible accident a couple of years back, and he was never the same ever since. Although he was forceful, he wasn't trying to make the girl uncomfortable. He wanted to have the feeling of being loved by a woman his age. A feeling of gratitude. The woman would later forgive the bully and understood his situation. The school supported him, and he had a great friend group to help him get through such a tough time. 

Hiroshi had nothing.

He lived in a care home, which was just a couple of minutes walk away from the school. He had been abandoned when he was just a newborn baby. Despite this, not a single person wanted to become friends with the young man at all. He was always left to defend himself alone. However, if there was one person in the school who should take the harsh realities of life, Hiroshi didn’t mind taking that role. The bullies were hurt on the inside and needed someone to take their frustrations on. The crowd watched on, clearly bored with the education system, and life in general. Maybe, just maybe, they also had their own struggles.

Although Hiroshi hated it, he wanted to be the one everyone walked over. To save everyone else the shame of being included in that situation.

That was usually the case. Not today.

Something inside Hiroshi snapped, and he lashed out at the bullies. Making a woman uncomfortable like that; he just couldn't let it slide. He had been training himself into martial arts and easily took care of the three men. This led to a meeting being called between Hiroshi’s representative from the care home and the school principal. The woman that got pushed by the bully never came back to thank Hiroshi. Just typical. 

“I have had three mothers ring me about their children’s broken noses! How do you explain this! I’m sorry, ma’am, but even though his grades are magnificent, this requires a suspension at least!” the principal jabbered on and on. Hiroshi wasn’t listening. He looked outside, a cherry blossom tree blowing lightly in the breeze. He loved nature. Nature was so beautiful. It never made anyone else look bad, or made every species look down upon one another, or had any wars.

It was bliss.

Humans were always the problems. Hiroshi hated them. They ruined everything. No one wanted to save or help him when he needed it. He just had to save himself. Hiroshi ran from the room. His carer called after him, but she was never going to catch him, so she saved her breath. Once again, Hiroshi’s point was proved once more.

He got in trouble for defending himself. It was stupid. Humans were stupid. That’s what Hiroshi was thinking to himself as he ran down the road. He had no idea where to go or run to. Just anywhere but this stupid town full of stupid, selfish people.

His wish was instantaneously granted. The world almost swallowed him whole. It was a strange sensation that caused the hair on Hiroshi’s arm to stand up. One world morphed into another, and suddenly, instead of running down a paved road, he was falling through the clouds. With a yell, he plummeted to the ground.

He had somehow been transported into a new world.