Shirou Yukimura − The (Second) Day Everything Changed

5 Years Later... 

"Why do I have to get up?" Shirou Yukimura thought to himself as he heard the sound of his alarm clock. He twisted and turned in his bed. He could hear the bustling sound of morning from outside the window, and every time he turned to the windows, the golden rays of sunshine peeking past the curtains stung his eyes. He shouldn't have stayed up last night. But it's not like he could help it. ? There's not much else worth doing around here; at least, nothing worth doing for him.

He could hear the sound of footsteps approaching. His comfortable stay in bed was suddenly threatened as the door to his room was slammed open. 
"Wake up, Shirou! Mom wants to give us some breakfast before we go to school today." Shirou turned back towards the covered windows to face Kazuya. As he looked at his twin brother, a commonly recurring thought ran past his tired mind,
"If we're twins, why does he look so much better than me?" They never looked exactly the same, but the differences had become more apparent recently. Kazuya had not only become taller and more muscular, but he simply looked much more handsome. They looked even more different now that Shirou had dyed white highlights into his hair. His mom still complained about it, constantly bringing up his senior's "bad influence". 

Almost as if in indignation, he turned away from his brother and threw his covers over his head.
"Five more minutes. Then I'll get up." Shirou mumbled.
Shirou heard Kazuya's sigh as he walked away from him. Maybe he would actually let him return to his relaxing slumber this time. 
The sound of the curtains opening caught him off guard as his room was bathed in the bright light of the morning. Before Shirou could brace himself for what he knew was coming, Kazuya ripped his covers off and dragged him off the bed. Shirou couldn't even react to the bright light from his window before he fell to the floor.

"OW! Can you stop doing that!" he yelled as he turned up to face Kazuya, standing above him with a smirk.
Kazuya extended his hand to his brother. Shirou sighed as he took Kazuya's hand and pulled himself up. Honestly, it was probably more Kazuya pulling up Shirou than any effort on his part. He was always the stronger brother, even when they were kids.

As Shirou found his footing, Kazuya walked towards the door. "Hurry up, your girlfriend will be here soon," he smiled.
"Shut up. She's not my girlfriend," Shirou responded as he reached for a slipper to throw at Kazuya. Kazuya chuckled before he ran down to the kitchen. Shirou dropped the slipper as he sat down on his bed. He looked at the window and slowly walked towards it. Looking out the window, he could see the street, and looking down, he saw her. Her black hair really stood out today, the sun shining down from the clear sky.  He saw her as she waited patiently outside the door, in her spotless school uniform. Even from the second floor, he could clearly see her face, that same soft, beautiful face that came to greet him every morning for school. As he turned away from the window to get changed into his uniform, her expression stuck in his mind; a calmness that conveyed patience with a small bit of anticipation. Sometimes, he almost forgot what she had said to him when they first met.

As he headed down the stairs fully dressed, Shirou walked through the kitchen and picked up the toast his mother had made for him from its plate. As he sat down to put on his shoes, she walked up to him. 
"Good morning, Shirou. Do you have enough money for today's lunch?" she asked as Shirou finished tying up his shoes. Shirou took a bite from his toast before patting his pocket, "Got it right here, Mom. Don't worry." 

She looked at him, slightly disheartened,
"Well... if you ever change your mind, just tell me. Anyway, your father wanted me to let you know that he wants you to dye your hair black before we go to Kazuya's baseball game tomorrow. We'll be representing him while he plays, so he wants you to look presentable. It'll be the first time we've all been together in a while."

Shirou looked up and tried forcing a small smile, "Okay, Mom. I'll go do it after school today," he replied halfheartedly. 
"Thank you," she said with a smile before turning to Kazuya, who walked past her and Shirou towards the front door,

" Make sure you finish your lunch, Kazuya! You'll want to be fully energized for practice!"
Kazuya turned back as he opened the door, "I know, Mom! Thanks for the lunch!" he yelled back as he ran out. 
"Have a good day!" she yelled out the door. Shirou got up and turned towards the open door to follow his brother.
"Have a good day, Shirou. I love you," she said with her arms out for a hug.
Shirou walked towards her unenthusiastically and gave her a one-armed hug, "See you later, Mom". 

Shirou closed the door behind him and walked onto the street. Before he could take another bite of his toast, he saw her. She stood there in her school uniform with all the poise of a princess, waiting to walk to school with Shirou as she did every day. It was a change that still surprised him sometimes.
"Morning, Shirou. Did you sleep well last night?" Mayumi asked with a smile. Shirou looked towards her and took another bite of his toast before replying, "Not a lot. I stayed up all night playing games." 
Mayumi's smile became a frown as she started to walk with Shirou to school,
"That's not good, Shirou. If you keep doing this, your grades will suffer more than they already have. If you gave up a bit of game time for studying, you might have been able to catch up to my grades. Oh well."

Shirou sighed as they walked side-by-side before he started to smile a bit. She was the one who had originally told him to prioritize what made him happy when they first met, so he found this change in her attitude regarding his grades pretty ironic. He did question why she started caring halfway through their second year in high school, but then again she had changed in ways beyond concerning herself with how well he was doing academically? Gone was the young girl with her bold words and radical ideas, replaced with a more mature, polite Mayumi Aikawa. The only part of her that seemed to remain constant was her wit, which she would often employ with effective precision against Shirou during their conversations. Sometimes, Shirou wished he could have changed just like her. Maybe things would have been better if he hadn't stayed the same, or as he thinks it, gotten worse.

"It's not like they were ever gonna be particularly good," he remarked, "I might as well spend my time doing what I like and let them keep going down." He motioned his hand slowly down like a rocket before making a small explosion sound.

Mayumi scoffed at his reply, "Just because you care more about games than grades doesn't mean you should ignore them outright. I'd be willing to help you if you asked. Despite all we've talked about, it's not a terrible idea to think about your future, you know."

"I am thinking about my future, my immediate future. In fact, I can vividly see it now: myself and my game console, sitting in bed playing a brand new game while thinking about how much my childhood friend is disappointed in me," Shirou said while finishing his toast, "besides, it's not like there's much else worth thinking about when it comes to my future."

Mayumi rolled her eyes at his answer, "You know, I think you may be taking 'prioritizing what makes you happy' a bit far. You have to be realistic now about your future. Just because you're not doing what Kazuya is doing doesn't mean its' not worth considering. We all have our own paths, you just still need to find yours."
Shirou chuckled at her response. They were making jokes but to him, that couldn't be further from the truth. Compared to his smart, overachieving athlete brother, no one really cared about what he was doing. What's the point of caring about the future of a nobody when right next to them is a shining star?
"What's there to consider for my future? There's never been much for me to care about, especially when it comes to my life beyond the here and now. It's not like I was gonna go anywhere with the grades I've had all my life," he said blankly.

Mayumi walked in front of Shirou to face him directly, "That's not true," she scoffed,
"Just because your grades haven't been that great doesn't mean your future is decided on that. Besides, there are way more important things than grades to care about when it comes to your future."
Shirou scoffed as he walked around her, "Really. Like what?" he asked.
"Well.. you know," she fidgeted with her hair as she followed him, "The people around you, for one. The people you surround yourself with are much more important to your future than grades. The people you choose to befriend and... cherish."

Shirou looked at Mayumi before giving a little smile, "Yeah, I guess you're right. All right, I concede. That's definitely more important than grades, but I'm still not sure if that's more important than using my precious time to imagining how disappointed you would be?" he jokingly added.
Mayumi chuckled and joined his side as they continued their walk. Even without looking at her, Shirou could imagine the look on her face. Sure, he enjoyed their conversations and their witticisms, but that smile she made when they hung out together was always what he enjoyed most. That smile she put on when she was with him exuded such a comforting presence, from the beginning of their friendship to the present. Even when he felt like his life moved more and more into mundanity, he could always rely on her to be there with him and make his day a little brighter. Whether that was through an act of kindness or a verbal bout was a gamble, but it was still kind of her to be with him. She had been kind to him since that day they met. Sometimes he thought about how lucky he was to have such an amazing friend. And sometimes he wondered if he'd done anything to even deserve it.

As they neared the school gate, Shirou looked up to see the sign above the gate. Shin Shiten International Academy was a bit of a unique school. It was supposedly founded to offer a higher level of competitiveness for students when it came to sports, the arts, etc., all while giving students resources from all over the world. As he walked past the gates, Shirou turned towards the baseball field next to the school building. A group of students in baseball outfits started to pick up their equipment and walk towards a side entrance. Kazuya was probably with them. He always ran to school ahead of Shirou and Mayumi to help set up the field for the day. Shirou usually saw him practicing while he was in class, always committed to the game. He had really come a long way in the past 5 years. 

As they got closer to the building entrance, Mayumi turned to Shirou. 
"Well, I'm off. See you later Shirou," she said as she headed off to meet her friends. 
It was always a bit funny to Shirou how Mayumi became friends with some of the most popular people at school. Before entering Shin Shiten, Mayumi was much less a "popular girl" and more the rebel while they were in middle school. It makes sense that she would have mellowed out in high school, but it still felt weird to see his childhood friend held in such high regard within the school's hierarchy. Not because she doesn't deserve it, but more so that she was friends with him, a complete nobody. 
He still remembers how during the first year at this high school, people were confused why such a pretty, smart girl was hanging out with such a bland, quiet boy. Of course, that was before most people found out Shirou was both not particularly sociable and quite blunt. As Mayumi's social standing got better, Shirou's got a bit worse as rumors of his rudeness and supposed lack of social awareness spread. It arguably got worse after people started spreading rumors about just the kind of horrible, blunt things he had supposedly said to some of the more popular kids, only some of which were true. But he didn't mind much what they said. He had always felt a disconnect between how other people felt, especially when it came to how people acted in social situations. He wasn't antisocial or such and he never felt particularly anxious; he just didn't feel the need to follow to the letter how people expected him to act around them. It was the bullying that really irked him, but that had fortunately stopped recently.

Shirou made his way into his homeroom and sat at his desk, back row and closest to the window. Shirou had actually requested to be sat in the back; it helped when he dozed off for a nap. It's not like his homeroom teacher cared much where he sat; she was much more concerned with his lack of concern over his grades. 
Eventually, the other students started to walk into the homeroom. Among them was Mayumi and her friends, Satomi and Hoshi. They were some of the most popular girls in their grade. Satomi was probably the smartest student in their grade and Hoshi was the daughter of a rich CEO as well as a part time model for some magazines. People talked wherever people like them went and the second they came into the classroom, most of the class followed to take their seats or talk with their friends. Shirou had no reason to leave his seat. He didn't talk to Mayumi during class because he didn't want to bother her while she was around her friends. When she had first started becoming popular, it ended up causing a bit of trouble when they kept hanging out. There was no animosity or anything; they just stopped talking much during school time. 
As the start of the school day came closer, most students found their way to their chairs. Finally, Shirou heard running as a boy with orange dyed hair ran into the room and sat down at the chair next to Shirou.
"Wow, you made it in time," Shirou said to his seat neighbor. The breathless, orange-haired student turned to face Shirou, "I thought for sure Ms. Fujiwara would berate you again for being late."
"C'mon, man. Don't treat me like that. Put 'em there." He held out his hand to Shirou expectantly. Shirou rolled his eyes as he reached out and performed a little special handshake with the student, "I never know why you keep asking to do this Jun. It's silly."
"It's a sign, dude. A symbol of our friendship," Jun replied. Shirou allowed a smile to form as he settled into talking to his friend. Junsuke had been the first person to be friendly to Shirou when he came to Shin Shiten and, even though it took a while, they had become close friends. Shirou always appreciated how positive Jun managed to be no matter what. It was nice to have such a confidently, optimistic friend besides him throughout their classes.
"So did you see the new Defender Heart episode? Jun asked, "I saw it while it was airing and stayed on a call with some friends for hours last night talking about it. It got so bad that my mom had to yell at me to go to bed." 
Shirou smile faded slightly at Jun's question, "Yeah. I saw it, but I kinda got distracted after the beginning and had to move away from the TV."
"Aw man, dude, that sucks! Well, I recorded in if you wanna come over some time to watch it?"
Shirou smiled at Jun, " That would be nice..."
"Hey, quiet down ya damn nerds!" shouted a student from across the room.
Neither Shirou or Jun had recognized that Jun had gotten a little loud. A couple of students started snickering and others even had some audible laughs come out. Shirou leaned back away from Jun into his chair and Jun gave a sad sigh.
"Hey man," Shirou leaned his head towards him, "Don't pay attention to them. It's not worth caring what they think."
Jun gave a weak smile at what Shirou said, "Easy for you to say. When have you ever cared what other people think of you.
Shirou didn't answer as he turned away to stare at the blackboard at the front of the classroom. It was true what he had said after all: it's not the same for him to tell Jun not to care when he's actively tried not to for so long. 

Eventually, the homeroom teacher walked into the class.
"Alright everyone," Mayumi said as she stood up, "Attention!"
The class rose from their seats together before bowing following Mayumi's, "Bow!" 
"Alright everyone take a seat," conclude Mayumi as she and everyone else sits back down in their seats. 
The teacher walked to the center of the room before addressing the class.
"Thank you Mayumi," she said, "You've been an excellent class representative this year so far."
Mayumi gave a quick bow, "Thank you, Ms. Fujiwara. Hopefully, I continue being a good class rep for the rest of the year."
"Are you planning to quit next year. I don't think your classmates will survive without you," Ms. Fujiwara joked. Some of the students laughed a bit before settling down.

Ms. Fujiwara took a folder out of her bag and opened it up. 
"Not to remind any of you of something you should be paying attention to, but I hope you've all been preparing for your entrance exams next year. It's a big step going from high school to college or university so I'd like to emphasize the importance of putting all your concentration into this. It does matter." Shirou couldn't help but smirk at that last line. Who knows, it might have been targeted at him.
"Now, I'd like to return something to you all. You may remember how on your very first day at Shin Shiten, you were given a form to fill out. This form had one question on it: What do you think your future entails? I'm sure most of you have forgotten about it, especially with all the work you've been doing, but I thought it would be nice to see what you wrote on these form over a year ago to remind you why you're all working so hard."
She handed the stack of paper over to Mayumi who proceeded to hand them out to every student in the class. Shirou was the last person to get his form back. He looked at the paper and the answer he had written on his first day of high school. He had never forgotten what he wrote down.

"Hopefully a year is enough to come up with a good answer"

Shirou sat through his morning classes only paying half attention. Not only did he find the subjects generally uninteresting, his mind could only focus on his answer. In over a year he had come no closer to seeing any future he wanted. For as much as he joked about it with Mayumi, or how much he ignored it with anything, he couldn't avoid it. The future was approaching and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

The lunch bell rang and Shirou walked with Jun to the cafeteria. Fortunately, there were still some Katsu sandwiches left by the time Shirou had gotten there. Now with lunch in hand, the two made their way outside into the courtyard. It was such a beautiful, sunny day so most people decided to eat lunch outside. Shirou and Jun sat down on the grass, under the shade of a large tree. This was the spot they usually ate lunch at when it was nice outside. 
Shirou unwrapped his sandwich and took a bite while Jun opened his lunchbox. The sandwich tasted pretty good, and it was enough to make Shirou full for the rest of the day. 
"You sure you don't want any of my food? My mom packed plenty," asked Jun as he offered his box to Shirou.
"It's okay dude, I'll be fine with this," replied Shirou before taking another bite of the sandwich.
"Suit yourself," said Jun as he started to dig into his food.
Shirou thought back to what his mom had said that morning. She seemed so dispirited because he rejected her offer to cook him lunches to take to school. It made him feel bad to make her sad, but he didn't want to make her work more. She was already having a difficult time after the divorce.

As they ate their lunches, two students came up to them under the tree. One of them looked like an athlete, while the other looked had sharp, mean eyes
"Yo nerds, why don't 'cha make some room for us under the shade?" said the athletic student.
"How about we just take the spot from these losers?" said the other, mean-looking student.
Shirou sighed as he re-wrapped the sandwich. 
"Sorry, but this is our spot and quite frankly, we'd rather not have you sit down with us," Shiro replied to the students.
The mean-looking student walked up to Shiro, "You gonna stop us, loser?" Jun immediately stood up and walked between Shiro and the student.
"Don't threaten my friend," said Jun sternly. The mean-looking student stepped back from Jun only for the Athletic one to step forward and put his hand on Jun's shoulder.
"You don't want to do this," said the athletic student, "C'mon, just get outta here before something happens that we'd all regret." 
Jun looked a bit panicked but didn't back down. As the athletic student's grip seemed to grow tighter as a grin spread across his face. 
"Suit yourse..."

Before he could finish the word, he fell back with force, letting go of Jun in surprise. 
"What the hell?" he asked as he looked up. There, standing before him, was a tall girl dressed like a delinquent with short hair, a hoodie wrapped around her waist, and her arms crossed.
"You were threatening my friends, so I pulled you off," answered the girl before turning to the mean-looking student, "I can show you again using your friend if you'd like."
The mean-looking student backed up as the athletic student stood up.
"Who the hell do you think you are?" he angrily asked as he walked up to the girl.
The girl looked at him and just smirked, "Hi, I'm Ichika. I'm friends with these two losers over here." She gestured to Shirou and Jun, "I saw you were bothering them so I thought knocking you down may cool off your head a bit."
The athletic student stared at Ichika, embarrassed and now very angry. Ichika didn't even flinch as he clenched his fist tight. As he raised his arm, another hand grabbed onto it. He quickly turned his head to see a pair of piercing, blue eyes. They belonged to a senior, wearing a leather biker jacket over his uniform with long, tousled hair and a pair of round sunglasses, with a guitar hanging on his back.
"You know who I am?" asked the senior. The athletic student's demeanor changed almost immediately from anger to unease. 
"Yeah, I know who you are," he said as he pulled his arm away.
The senior smiled, "Good. Then get out of the shade so I can eat lunch with my friends." He gave the athletic student a little tap on the face before sitting down next to Shirou and putting his guitar on his lap. The two students scurried away from the tree as Ichika sat down next to them. 

"God damn assholes," Ichika said as she looked at the students walking away. She turned back to look at Jun before punching his arm. 
"That was stupid, there's no way you could have beaten that guy in a fight," she said to Jun.
"I thought it was brave," replied Jun as he rubbed the arm she punched.
"I think it was both," Shiro interjected as he unwrapped his sandwich again. The senior started chuckling as he tuned his guitar.
"That's Junsuke. Brave and stupid," he joked. Ichika turned from Jun to him.
"You could say there isn't much difference between the two," she muttered, "By the way, I didn't need your help, Tommy." Tommy laughed as he got the guitar in tune. 
"I know, Ichika. But let's not try to get into more fights this year, right?" He started strumming to a rhythm while the others continued eating their lunches. 

Shirou looked around at his friends while he finished up his sandwich. Tommy had transferred late into Shin Shiten last year. He was a half-English student who had been sent to the school to study Japanese music. But with how he dressed and his attitude, rumors started to spread around him pretty quickly after he transferred. People started saying that he had gotten into multiple fights while he was living in London, and that was why he moved all the way to Japan. Shirou had asked Tommy a couple times if the rumors were true, but he never gave a clear answer.
Meanwhile, Ichika had entered the school with the express purpose of becoming a better martial artists and get good enough to apply for a scholarship and/or compete in big tournaments. Naturally, especially with her choice of dress, people started to assume she was a delinquent and rumors spread about how she would get into street fights with gangs. The first time Shirou had asked her, before they had become friends, she had hit him hard in the face and knocked him to the ground. Later, she clarified that she hit him not because he asked, but because he was so blunt when asking.
Through some strange circumstances, Tommy became the leader of a group of students that most people ignored, spread rumors about, or just bullied; for Shirou, he had been the subject of all three. It also helped when Ichika, one of the better martial arts athletes at the school, started hanging out with them more. Of course, the bullying never really goes away, but being surrounded by friends helps out a lot. 

As Tommy continued to play music on his guitar, Shirou saw two students walking towards them. The students, a boy with long, curly hair wearing a jacket over his uniform was carrying a long, rectangular case and a girl with shoulder-length hair wearing an oversized cardigan over her uniform, seemed to be engaged in a conversation they were enjoying. As they got closer, he could hear their lively conversation. 
"I just think the movie was a bit... uninspired," the boy with long hair added to their conversation, "It's an idea we've seen hundreds of times over and you can tell that any interesting or unique idea was being constricted by it's genre conventions."
"I mean, I still think it managed to be pretty interesting." softly replied the girl with the cardigan, "I kind of liked how even though the story's structure was one we've seen many times before, they changed ideas within the structure to make the smaller parts more unique. Like how even though it follows the hero's journey, they have to combine the 'meeting of the mentor' with 'crossing the threshold', so like... meeting with his mentor immediately forces him to leave behind everyone he knows and loves.
"Yeah sure," continued the boy with long hair, "but when you decide that you want to make a story within a very well-defined, maybe even redundant, genre, you can't just add story elements that individually break conventions without actually taking the framework of the narrative in any new or interesting direction."

The two students continued their conversation as they walked closer to the tree. Eventually, the conversation seemed to slow down as they both made it under the shade of the branches, and the two students split paths to talk to their friends.
The boy with long hair sat down next to Tommy as he continued to strum a melody on his guitar.
"Hey Rio, check out this tune," Tommy said to the boy with long hair, changing his playing into a gentle melody with more delicate fingerpicking. Shiro quietly listened as Rio sat down before clapping his hands.
"Nice man. How long did it take for you to get it down," Rio asked as he sat down on the grass, placing down his case next to him.
"Your turn. Show me what you practiced last week," replied Tommy as he paused playing. Rio pulled his case in front of him before opening the latches and swinging one side off to reveal a shiny, violin electric bass. Rio picked it up and started playing a more open, flowing melody, descending before smoothly changing to a higher energy as it went into a chorus.
"Nice..." repeated Tommy as he started snapping his fingers, "that's a nice sound. I love the energy it has!"
"Yeah!" said Rio as he stopped playing to high-five Tommy.
"We still got a bit till we need 'ta head back, you wanna practice something?" asked Tommy as he picked up his guitar again. 

"Yeah, sure," replied Rio as he picked up his bass again, "I've been trying to learn how to play this one song for a gig the band has. We can try that."
As Tommy and Rio started to play the simple and catchy rock and roll melody, Shirou listened intently. It felt easy to follow, yet it had the type of energy that made it fun to listen to. As Rio and Tommy started practicing the lyrics to the song, Shirou started to think about how Tommy and Rio, who seemed so different, were able to connect through their love of music. It reminded him of how he had never found such a connection between something like that with anyone. Hell, most of his friends around him became his friends partly out of necessity rather than any shared interest. But then again, he was still lucky to have found friends given his lack of passion for anything. Sometimes he wished that he could care about something as much as his friends did. Whether that be, music like Tommy and Rio or anime like Jun.

While listening to the two play, Shirou turned his attention to the others under the tree. The girl in the cardigan had sat down next to Ichika and Jun and had started talking while Tommy and Rio were playing music. 
"You hafta speak up sometimes Kiyo," Ichika said to the girl in the cardigan, "Not everyone is gonna give you space to speak like us. You gotta make sure people know you're there when you're talking. Just make sure people don't look at you like how everyone looks at Jun when he opens his mouth."
At the mention of his name, Jun straightened up, "Yeah, umm. You gotta speak up Kiyo. I'm sure a lot of people would be interested in what you have to say. Heck, I remember when we first had a real conversation and I thought you were really insightful, even with the occasional stammering."
Kiyo laughed at what Jun had said, "Well, you were pretty intimidating to talk to. Not that you were scary or anything, but I was worried I wouldn't be able to match your energy."
Jun looked slightly confused, "I'm not that much higher energy than you, am i?" He turned to Shirou and Ichika, asking both of them as well.
"Uh, duh. Have you tried listening to yourself talk? answered Ichika, "Cus it feels like a workout for my brain just trying to keep up with your energy during a conversation. Frankly, I don't know how Shirou manages to hang out with you the whole day and keep up." The others turned to Shirou, waiting for what he was gonna say.
"Nah, it's not that bad. I mostly tune him out half the time," Shirou joked. They all started snickering at his joke, even Jun. 
"Hey, though. Don't forget about your own shortcomings Shirou," interjected Ichika, "We don't Kiyo to go around being as rude as you are to most other people. Honestly, you can still be pretty insensitive sometimes."
Kiyo chuckled to herself at Ichika's comment, "Yes. I remember when I first tried to talk to you and I was so embarrassed. You then asked me if I was trying to guilt you into donating money or something and I become so angry at the insinuation that I forgot that I to be nervous."
Everyone laughed after Kiyo finished recounting her memory.
"I guess something good can come out of Shirou not reading the atmosphere after all," Jun said as he pulled in Shirou with his arm around his shoulder. As the group continued to laugh and talk, Shirou thought about himself and them. How even though he could not care to read any kind of social atmosphere, he had still found a group of friends who found him good company none the less. For a moment, Shirou let himself forget about everything else and just existed within the conversation they were all having, backdropped to the music Tommy and Rio were practicing. That was the reason why he loved talking to his friends; it allowed him to forget about the more mundane parts of life and his looming future. It was nice to have a comforting environment where he could be seen and in the moment. A part of something more than just him.

As their conversation slowed down, the music playing also stopped. Their next classes would start soon, and they had to go their separate ways again.

As they all stood up to go back to their classes, Kiyo turned to Rio and asked, "By the way, what was your rating for the movie?"
Rio turned back for a second before shrugging, "Three stars out of five."
Kiyo gave a small laugh, "Given how much you were talking about it's flaws, I thought it would be a lot lower."
"Nah man," replied Rio, "It was enjoyable. I liked it."
Rio and Kiyo continued their conversation as they walked away from the group. Ichika ran off shortly afterwards to get changed before her gym class, but not before giving Jun a pat on the back.
Tommy turned towards Shirou and gave him a pat on the shoulder, "Stay out of trouble. Try not to be like me."
"Don't worry. I barely stand out anyway," joked Shirou as he started to walk towards his classroom with Jun.
Tommy chuckled as he started to move in the opposite direction before he yelled, "No one is that invisible, Shirou. Remember that before you hurt someone else's feelings again."
Shirou smiled at him before turning away and returning to class with Jun. Yeah right, he thought to himself. What other word is there to describe someone like him besides invisible? But as the thought crossed his mind, he felt Jun put his arm around his shoulder. He turned to face Jun, who gave him a big, goofy grin. He didn't know why, but Shirou let out a little laugh. Maybe it didn't matter if he was invisible to people, because at least he wasn't to his friends. Walking back to class with Jun, he thought to himself, at least they would always be there for him.