Chapter 2: Smiles, Rivalry, Tears, And More Tears Part 2: Boy's Locker Room

As soon as he stepped into the hall people were talking with their friends or girlfriends. He didn’t like all this noise and decided to muffle it with some good ole anime music. He decided to put on the Garuto Opening 7, one of his favorite anime openings. He simultaneously did this as he walked through the halls with his head down ignoring everyone. He let out a sigh as a bunch of thoughts began to fill his head, he remembered that he had to go to the gym today. He didn’t mind going there but he wasn’t good at anything physical. The only good thing about this class is that he didn’t have to think and his athletic popular friend Daizen was there so it could be quite fun for them to compete as they did previously. He always lost to Diazen in basketball, so he came to accept it.

“I swear Daizen is too good at basketball, no wonder all the girls like him.”

Alex continued walking as he had things on his mind, the events of time stopping around him. This event was traumatic, He didn’t know why it was happening or why he felt like he was being choked. The only good thing that came from this was that his eye color changed like one of those cool Shonen protagonists. He decided to accept those events even if they weren’t possible in the slightest. He then realized something else, Alex had watched a bunch of anime in his time, usually, when the main character gets a new ability, they typically name it. As he simultaneously walked throughout the halls, he rambled a bunch of ideas in his head of what he could name this weird ability. In the meantime, he was also heading to the gym that was only a few steps away and he was walking for some time now.

“Hmmm, The World? No, too generic. Hmmm what about… I got it! World’s Laziness? Yeah, that’s good? Wait no! Where’d I get these powers from?”

Alex looked down with a smile on his face. He thought he was quite clever with his naming even if he stole it from an anime, but his real goal was to find out where this power comes from. Suddenly he bumped into something or someone that brought him out of his train of thought. He wasn’t paying attention and was rambling on and on about a bunch of simple and complicated things. He looked up immediately in shock; he didn’t expect to bump into someone; he saw a familiar face that he saw before, and earlier today it was his good friend Daizen Sansui. A smile came onto Daizen’s face that also made Alex smile. Alex grabs Daizen by the shoulders and shakes him violently, he did this because he was excited to play basketball with him.

“I want a rematch in basketball, you might have won but you got lucky you were just too fast man!”

“Nah, I’m just better. Let’s just do dodgeball today, you might have a chance.”

Daizen said with a condensing tone in his voice.

“Alright, we’ll see then. I’m gonna kick your ass!”

A loud noise rang throughout the school; it was a sound that some students, if not all students feared. It was the school bell. It rang very loud and indicated that everyone needed to get to class before they became tardy. A mix of girls and boys walked past the two of them heading inside of the gym.

Alex took his hands off of Daizen, as he pointed towards the gymnasium door. He watched as more and more students went inside the gym. He then walked up

“The bell rang, we should probably get going. I wanna change quickly.”

“Alright, Alex.”

Alex opened the door, once he opened the door a full-sized indoor gymnasium would have been revealed. The gym had basketball hoops and was fairly large, the gymnasium also had a locker room for both genders. The gymnasium also had aluminum bleachers that people could sit on the right and left sides of the gym. There was also a backdoor that connected to an outside field that could be used to play soccer or football. People of their respective gender were heading inside.

An older man with an athletic build looked at Daizen as he walked in. The older man had black hair; he wasn’t wearing a school uniform and was wearing a blue shirt and blue pants with an orange jacket on. The old man was a gym teacher and also had a whistle around his neck. Daizen looked up with a smile and an excited look, Alex looked away as he let the two interact. He wasn’t too good at sports so he didn’t have a good relationship with the older gym teacher.

“Sensei Jinsoku! What are we gonna do today?”

“Nothing too much today, we are just gonna have the normal practice then you can play or do whatever you want. Go to the locker and change into your gym clothes.”

“Alright Sensei.”

“.......”

Alex averted his eyes, he knew Daizen had a good relationship with the gym teacher because he was basically in every sport in school. He didn’t want to speak up or even talk to the man, he just hoped he didn’t notice him, but as soon as that thought entered his head. He felt a hand on the right side of his shoulder. He looked up seeing Mr.Jinsoku. He called him Mr.Jinsoku, he never got rid of calling people Mr and Ms he did come from America and that’s how he addressed his teachers.

“You should get changed as well Mr. Zuki and don’t try to get out of the exercise like you do every time.”

“Alright…”

Mr. Jinsoku then walked away heading to the middle of the gym as he waited for all of his students to come out of the locker room. Alex looked towards Daizen as he shrugged as he had a bit of a disappointed face. He was quite embarrassed. He didn't know that Mr.Jinsoku was gonna remember when he tried to get out of the gym exercises even though he tried it all the time. Alex wasn’t good at physical or mental workouts. Flashbacks of him failing to do simple push-ups and sit-ups caused him to draw back as he looked at Daizen.

“Well, we should get changed right?”

“Yeah, we should”

Daizen laughed, Alex looked at him awkwardly as they both headed to the boy’s locker room. Alex opened the locker room door with Daizen closely following behind him.

As soon as the locker room door opened multiple yells could be heard from within the room. Alex’s eyes eventually looked around the gym locker room, the locker room was filled with boys, very loud boys. Some boys were hitting each other with towels and yelling for no reason, in their underwear. The rest of the boys were either sitting down freaked out or the other boys being idiots. The normal boys changed quickly and left quickly.

A sigh came from Alex’s mouth, it wasn’t anything surprising boys will boys he wasn’t any different from them except no one liked him. He wanted to join but everyone in the school had already put a “Weird otaku, Hikimori annoying kid” role on him so every other student besides his friends either made fun of him or ignored him completely, not taking him seriously in the slightest. All the boys in the locker room looked towards the entrance as a normal reaction, the door made a creaking sound as it was opened. Normally they’d just continue hitting each other with towels and fooling around but since it was Daizen they all started yelling chants as they came running towards Daizen completely disregarding Alex.

A boy with black short hair and black eyes in his underwear and gym shirt walked up to Daizen and he was also on the basketball team.

“Daizen did a good job on the defense yesterday, in the court, we kicked Kurafuto High’s ass!”

“You kicked ass too man!”

Another boy with circular glasses and a bowl cut talked loudly after the first boy pushed up his glasses with three of his fingers in a cliche nerdy way as he spoke.

“Your defense and offense on the court were amazing. Kurafuto High had no chance.”

“Thanks, Itsuki!”

Daizen said blushing, His face was very red, his blue hair covered his eyes as he looked down in embarrassment.

Alex was pushed to the side as everyone in the boy’s locker room ignored him and bombarded Daizen and gave him a bunch of compliments. Alex scratched the back of his head full of white hair. This wasn’t new but he couldn’t help being a bit jealous of him and other popular kids. He knew it wasn’t right to feel jealousy and envy but he couldn’t help it. He pretended he was cool with being ignored, he laughed walking to the back of the locker room to change.

“Well, He is popular and is in almost every sport in the school. Of course, they wouldn’t notice me. I'm just the “weird kid”.

Alex thought to himself as he looked down, he took off his book bag as he sat on the floor. He opened it quickly, he reached into his back pocket and put his phone into his bookbag. He then took off his regular school uniform. He then looked at his gym uniform which was just an all-black shirt and school-designed shorts with a pink flower on a black background. He looked around hoping no one saw him change. He put his gym clothes on quickly as he grabbed his book bag and looked towards the locker room entrance.

“You're a loser…. Even your friends ignore you..”

The same voice lingering in his head from before, Alex had forgotten there was still a voice in his head. This was one of the things that forced him to question his sanity; he wondered and thought of a response as he spoke back to the voice quietly making sure not to draw any attention to himself.

“What is this voice, shut up damn it…. I must be insane..”

The word insane was deep in Alex’s subconscious ever since yesterday he wondered if any of this was real. But it was real, he tried to lie to himself as an escapism technique but he couldn’t escape what was right in front of him.

“You are not insane, you are mine.”

This reply shocked him, the voice always talked to him and most of the time Alex wouldn’t reply but something inside him wanted to reply. The voice sounded different; it had a demonic but at the same time pleasant and holy tone to it. The reason he was shocked was that he never thought it would reply. He stood there in fear for a few seconds as he tried not to listen to the voice. He ignored and only heard muffles of talking in his head.

“I’m insane…”

“I said you're not, pain.”

As soon as the word pain was said, a sharp pain could be felt in Alex’s brain causing him to almost lose his balance but he caught himself at the last moment, but the way the voice said the pain had a change in tone it was more deep and demonic.

“Fine…”

He picked up his book bag in a hurry and headed to the entrance of the gym. He puts his hand on the gym entrance door but before he leaves he turns to Daizen to try to talk to him even though all the other boys are talking to him. He knew it was a high chance that he would reply but even so he tried with the sharp pain and voice in his head it was hard to act normal.

“We're still down to play right?”

Daizen was surrounded by boys, Due to that fact alone he couldn’t hear Alex asking the question. Alex tried saying it louder but the boys were talking over him, he didn’t want to yell to bring even more attention to himself so he decided to leave.

“He doesn’t care for you, you are nothing. You are mine..”

The voice said to Alex as Alex began to pretend to not hear whatever the voice was. He also noticed that the voice had more of a demonic tone instead of both demonic and angelic. Once he stopped listening to the voice the pain lessened. It hurt him, he didn’t like to be ignored but Alex also didn’t like to show his weaknesses. Alex opened the door to the gymnasium and he wondered if the voice in his head was a demon or something. He was confused about why this was happening to him. He also wondered why he wasn’t happy with it. He gained an ability just like his Otaku heart wanted but he didn’t like it. He looked at the people in the gymnasium and mostly everyone was out except the boys in the gym. All of the girls were in a straight line in one spot on the left side of the gym, the boys were supposed to be on the opposite side but since they were still playing around in the gym they weren’t there.

Alex walked out of the boy’s locker room seeing everyone in the gym look towards him and the boy's locker room. Mr. Jinsoku was also looking towards the boy’s locker room and Alex. Jinsoku slowly walked over to Alex, Alex slowly averted his eyes to the ground in a bit of fear wondering if he was in trouble. Mr.Jinsoku spoke to Alex in a loud tone.

“Are all the other boy’s still in there?”

Alex nods his head as he scratches the back of his head, he then begins to speak back at him with a stuttered and scared tone.

“Y-Yes, sir!”

Mr.Jinsoku then walked past Alex heading over to the boy’s locker room door, opening it. He saw all the boys in the gym hitting each other with towels yelling and just playing around. Mr. Jinsoku started to speak to all of them trying not to be loud and be a mean and uncool teacher.

“Can you guys hurry up? You’ve been in here for over ten minutes”

The boys in the locker room didn’t hear him, they continued to fool around in their underwear as they yelled and kept hitting each other with towels.

Mr.Jinsoku repeated himself in the same tone but eventually got aggravated and annoyed that the boys were either ignoring him completely or that they couldn’t hear him. He took a deep breath as he began to speak loudly towards all the boys in the locker room.

“If you guys aren’t out here in zero point two seconds I will make everyone run the four-mile track all class for the next two weeks!”

Suddenly the yelling stopped and so did the boys in their movement, the locker room was completely quiet. Suddenly it was loud again but not with voices but with movement as they fast and urgently got changed and rushed out of the bathroom in over a second. Some of the males were shirtless, pantless, and still trying to put on their clothes they eventually got them on. The boys, including Daizen, headed on the right side of the gym. Alex headed behind the rest of the boys in an attempt to fit in with the other boys. He also put his book bag onto the bleacher seats.

Mr.Jinsoku then grabbed a chair and sat down in front of the boys and girls. He had a laptop in his hands and opened it. He then spoke towards all the students as his voice echoed off the gymnasium walls.

“I’ll be taking attendance now, make sure to raise your hand and say your name when I call for you!”

Mr.Jinsoku went down the list of students. Each student raised their hand and said their name, but something happened once he got to Daizen’s name he suddenly got up from his seat as a smile grew on his face. Mr.Jinsoku then walked up to Daizen as he then began to speak to him and everyone else in the gym.

“Attention everyone.”

Mr.Jinsoku said those words as the students weirdly looked on and confused. Alex was also confused; he had no idea what was going on so he continued to pay attention to Mr.Jinsoku and Daizen.

A grin on Mr.Jinsoku’s face as he suddenly grabbed Daizen by the neck and swiftly put him into a playful headlock as he laughed. He then spoke to everyone in the gym as he laughed, still holding Daizen in a headlock. Daizen laughed as he struggled to push Mr.Jinsoku off of him.

“Everyone congratulate this brat on winning last night's game. We all know he did great!”

The students clapped loudly as the boys also began to scream Daizen’s name. Daizen’s face slowly got red as the whole class began to clap their hands. Alex also clapped his hands as he looked down and envied how much people liked him. He stood there knowing people would never like him that way. He kept repeating the word envy over and over in his head, that’s what he felt when he saw someone who was liked. He always felt that every time something good happened to Daizen, he was happy for him but at the same time, he was mad and jealous.

While Alex was in his head wondering about envy repeating the same words in his head which was envy. Daizen and Mr.Jinsoku began to talk to each other personally as the class began to converse with each other.

“Daizen, you remind me of my daughter, you’re both so similar. He used to go here and play every sport too.”

“What’s your daughter’s name?”

“Subarashīi, Jinsoku”

Daizen’s eyes widened as his eyebrows went up as he was surprised by Mr.Jinsoku’s answer.

“Wait, Subarashii?, the first girl to beat Insane Bolt’s record for the fastest person in the world? That’s your daughter?!”

Mr.Jinsoku laughed as he saw Daizen’s shocked face, he slapped Daizen’s back as tears of laughter dropped from his eyes. He wiped the tears as he began to speak once more.

“Yeah that’s her, she used to go here, after she became famous a few years ago, I decided to come to teach here. You remind me of him, he played every sport and was very athletic”

“That’s so cool, Sensei Jinsoku. I heard she used to go here, that's why I decided to come here. I wanna be just like him!”

“Well, if you try hard enough you can do it, Daizen. What you do is very impressive. If you try hard you can be even better than her. You have a lot of potential Daizen.”

Daizen smiled, he never knew that Mr.Jinsoku’s daughter was Subarashii Jinsoku. Even though they had the same last name he never would have guessed a celebrity's father would teach here. This just inspired Daizen even more as he nodded.

“Thanks, I’ll do my best!”

Mr.Jinsoku tapped his chin as he suddenly got an idea. He was in a good mood and wanted to relax and not do too much work today. He decided to give his students a break today. He reached for his whistle around his neck as he blew it to get everyone’s attention as spoke loudly.

“Everyone, we don’t have to do a test today. You guys can do anything you want if you need me. I'll be in the bleachers.”

The whistling noise knocked Alex out of his mini trance, he realized he was just standing there thinking about how no one liked him. Mr.Jinsoku walked off, going to sit in the bleachers. He looked around at all the students and eventually looked at Daizen remembering the situation that just transpired. Alex had then got an idea, he already knew Daizen was gonna invite him to dodgeball so if he thought maybe just maybe if he beat everyone and was good at sports everyone would think he’s cool.

Eventually, a few seconds after Mr.Jinsoku sat down Daizen being the leader and cool guy and most trusted amongst the other students began to do a mini announcement. He spoke loudly as he used his right hand to move his bangs over his eyes.

“We should play dodgeball guys!”

All the students looked towards each other and then eventually looked back at Daizen. Everyone smiled and nodded as they spoke towards Daizen. All of the girls agreed with Daizen since all of the girls in school had a crush on him. All of the boys including Alex agreed to play because they were excited. Alex wanted to be cool so he agreed to this. He thought if he beat Daizen and everyone else in dodgeball he could be considered a “Cool Kid.”

Daizen then smiled as he was happy that everyone agreed to play dodgeball, he looked towards Alex with a cocky look as he then looked back at everyone else.

“Alright then!”

Daizen said quickly as he looked around at everyone, he moved his index finger as pointed at every student in the gym counting inside his head how many students were in the gym.

“There are forty of us, so we should have two teams”

“I'm calling to be on Daizen’s team!”

A boy loudly said as he went to the sides of Daizen.

Another boy quickly ran up, He had a bowl cut and glasses and was in the locker room earlier with Daizen. His name was Itsuki Hisashi.

A bunch of people ran up to Daizen hoping to be on his team, Daizen was embarrassed he understood why people wanted to be on his team. But he knew they all couldn’t be on his team so he decided to take charge of the situation.

Alex stood there, he was the only one left on the opposite side of the gym. This just made him more jealous of Daizen.

Daizen shook his head as he spoke towards mostly everyone that was bombarding him.

“Alright well, you can’t all be on my team.”

Daizen looked at Alex as he smiled, Daizen just got the idea that he had gotten before. He has been playing sports for a long time, in sports, there are usually captains that pick their teammates by going turns. It works like this, one captain picks a person, then the other captain does, then they continue going until everyone is picked or when the teams have the same amount of people on it.

“Yo Alex come here!”

Alex slowly walked up to the students and Daizen as he wondered what he wanted.

“You're gonna be a captain and so am I. You pick people and then I will you can go first”

Alex understood, he nodded as he looked at most of the students there. He thought of who could carry him to victory. He needed people with smarts and physical strength and speed. He looked at his options and firstly picked the nerdiest-looking kid out of the group.

“I’ll take Itsuki”

Itsuki looked at Alex as he was somewhat disappointed and confused on why he was picked by Alex. But he couldn’t help it or have a choice so he went to the side of Alex.

Daizen then spoke as he pointed at another athletic kid on his basketball team.

“I’ll take Dōryoku”

Alex facepalmed himself hard as he then realized that he maybe should have picked Dōryoku. Dōryoku is one of the most popular athletes in the school and is on the same level as Daizen in terms of sports. Alex’s eyes wandered around the rest of the students, he picked another athletic kid there and said his name.

“I’ll take Hazuki”

The boy unwillingly went behind Alex, he nodded as he did.

Alex and Daizen continuously picked off students of all kinds, even the girls were participating in this dodgeball twenty vs twenty war zone. He let out a sigh as he picked the last person on his team. Alex’s team consisted of mostly nerdy and unpopular kids like himself but also had a few semi-popular athletes in there.

Daizen’s team consisted of pure athletes and popular kids. Most of them were friends with Daizen but others weren’t. Daizen was smirking at Alex with a condescending look as he suddenly stuck his middle finger at him as a little joke.

A smile emerged on Daizen’s face once more as he stepped into the middle of everyone. Alex went into the middle also as he stared Daizen in his eyes with intense furry. It wasn’t just furry though, It was furry mixed in with Jealousy, Rivalry, and Envy. Alex and Daizen were having a staredown as they stared into each other's eyes with anger and with a desire of wanting to be better than the other. Daizen then spoke aloud, finishing their little five-second staredown.

“We should get started.”

Daizen said as he then looked around, he looked at a person on his team and called for them.

“Yua, can you get ten dodgeballs and set them up in the middle?”

Yua was a white Japanese girl with short white hair, she then nodded as she went away into the gym storage room and in a few seconds, she was holding a large bag with around ten dodgeballs in it. She placed all the dodge balls in the middle of the gym as both teams stepped back. Daizen then spoke aloud again as Yua came back to his side of the gym.

“Alright well, let’s go over the rules one more time if you're not familiar. If you get hit you don't matter where it hits you if it hits you you’re out. If you catch a ball that person threw they are out. You may only be on your team's side of the gym, you may not go on the opposite side. Whoever has the last people standing wins! Are you ready?”

“Yeah.”

Daizen’s team and Alex’s team said as they moved backward on their separate parts of the gym.

“We’ll start in three, two, one, and NOW!”