Chapter 1: Going To School Like Normal

            A teenage boy with fiery red hair gathered up his homework that laid sprawled out on the desk in his bedroom, he stopped to inspect a page that was singed in the top right corner. “Ah shoot,” He muttered to himself. “Hopefully Saito-sensei won’t mind.” He put it in the bag with the rest of his homework. Before leaving his room, he smiled at the photo on his desk of himself a few years ago, his mother, with the same red hair as him, and his father with whom he shared a single purple eye with, his other eye was orange like his mother’s.

The boy made his way  to the dinner table where his father had prepared two slices of toast for him. The boy sat with his father. “Thanks for making breakfast, dad.”

“No problem, son. I had the bread out and this was the best way to make sure you ate.” The father then took a bite of his own toast as his son began to eat. “Oh, your mother is going to be late coming home tonight, she needs to get that project at work done, so we will have to eat supper without her.”

The boy swallowed his toast before speaking. “Ah, I see. Well, hopefully she gets it done soon, she has been stressing over it for some time now.”

“Agreed. She has been losing sleep, hopefully she doesn’t make herself sick.” The father nodded.

His son finished his toast and washed it down with his glass of water on the table. “I’m going to head off now. I’ll see you tonight.” He stood up and headed towards the door.

“Alright then.” His father suddenly remembered something. “Oh Kosuke! No more rough housing with Shingo-kun and Kanako-chan on school grounds! If the school contacts me again about you misbehaving, you’ll be grounded!”

“I won’t dad! I’ve learned my lesson from your lecture last night, I’ll be on my best behavior!” He called out to reassure his father.

Kosuke exited his apartment, he headed to the bottom floor where a boy around the same age as him and a younger girl were leaving their apartment. The boy had brown hair, as did his sister, but hers were lighter, they also both had blue eyes that were different shades. “Kosuke-kun!” The boy waved. “Hey, you’re the first one out today.”

“Yeah, you didn’t have to come get me today, Shingo-kun.” Kosuke gave him a little punch on the arm.

“Good morning, Matsuoka-san.” The little girl gave a subtle bow.

“Uh,” Kosuke looked to his friend, “is Emiko-chan alright or was she replaced with an alien?” He asked.

Emiko was the one to answer. “You were being casual with Shingo, so I decided to be formal.” She began walk off like nothing had happened.

“Oh, okay, she’s fine.” Kosuke sighed. The teens began to follow Emiko.

“So, Kosuke-kun, did your parents get a call from the school yesterday?” Shingo asked.

“Oh yeah! Heh, I’m surprised you didn’t hear my dad yelling at me.” Kosuke rubbed the back of his head as he half laughed. “How did your parents take it?”

Shingo stared at the ground as he answered. “Mom was playing with the spoon again, her words were quiet, but clear. ‘This is your one warning.’ That’s all she said to me.” Shingo murmured.

“Oo-kay, so we better keep on our teachers’ good side, otherwise I might be attending your funeral.” Kosuke suddenly smacked Shingo’s shoulder. “Yo, I wonder how Kana-kun’s parents took the news.”

Shingo touched his chin as he thought. “It’s hard to say, my theory is that they were more mad that she got caught then that she was fighting.”

“Do you still think that her dad is part of the yakuza?” Kosuke snorted.

“Do you still want to be 'emperor of the world’?” Shingo mocked his best friend. “And I swear he has a tattoo on his arm, that’s why he is always wearing long sleeves!” Shingo almost yelled.

“I want a tattoo. When I’m older, of course.” Emiko blurted out.

“You are not allowed.” Shingo growled.

“When I’m an adult, I can do what I want.” Emiko cooed. “I want to be feared.” She declared.

Kosuke shrugged. “Ah, but you won’t be respected, and you’ll be banned from the train and hot springs, but hey, if you want to live the hard life, be my guest.”

“Hmm, I should probably reconsider.” Emiko pondered as the group crossed the street. “Oh well, maybe things will change in the next ten years.”

Kosuke made an overly exaggerated bow. “Farewell Muto-san, may we meet again.”

Emiko mimicked him. “May you have a pleasant day Matsuoka-san.” She then waved to Shingo. “See you tonight big bro!” She ran off towards her own school as the teens headed in the opposite direction.

The rest of the walk for Kosuke and Shingo was uneventful. They arrived at school and entered their classroom. Shingo scanned the classroom. “Hey, did you see Kanako-kun in the hall?” He asked Kosuke.

“No. It’s weird that she isn’t here before us.” Kosuke scratched his chin.

Both boys felt a shiver run up their spines as they heard a growl from behind them. “How dare you!” Slowly, the boys turned around to see a sliver haired girl seething with anger. Her amber eye was locked on Kosuke and her turquoise eye was locked on Shingo.

“Uh, Kana-kun, you’re doing the eye thing again.” Kosuke took a step back.

“Don’t care, you, you two got here before me.” She stomped forward as the boys backed further into the classroom.

“Does it matter, we are all here before school starts, we will be marked as present at the same time.” Shingo tried to reason with her.

Kanako narrowed her eyes. “Are you trying to get in my head?” She pointed at his face.

“Keep it down!” One of their classmates called out. “We are trying to hear the news.

“Hm? The news?” Kosuke uttered as he, Shingo and Kanako made it over to the desk where most of their other classmates were gathered.

A girl who frequently got in trouble had brought her phone to school. She was showing the class live news. The reporter to continued to speak grimly. “I would once again like to warn anyone who has a robot from Zushitsu Tech Company should disconnect it from the internet and power it down immediately. In the past hour we have had reports of over one thousand attacks, one of which is the Zushitsu Tech Company’s headquarters which is currently ablaze.”

“Hold up, wasn’t that the company that donated robots to the school?” Shingo openly asked.

The whole class became tense. “Block the doors!” Someone shouted. Kanako ran to the lower doors, slamming them shut as Shingo and another boy carried some desks over to barricade them.

Kosuke went to close the upper doors, but one of the school’s robots had come. Kosuke could hear screams from other classrooms. He pushed on the doors to close, but the robot had a hand on each door, keeping them open. They were evenly matched, Kosuke was smarter though. He opened his mouth, a bright glow came from inside has the heat rose, he spat a fireball right in the robot’s face. While it was stunned, Kosuke knocked it down and held his hand which was now aflame over it’s face, slowly melting it. When he destroyed it enough that it was no longer functional, he ran back in the classroom, slamming the doors shut. Students hurriedly barricaded that set of doors.

“Hey everyone!” The girl with the phone pointed to it. “Th-there are demons now.” The class watched in horror as a scene unfolded on the screen, demons emerging from portals, attacking people without discrimination. “Rumor has it that the robots are working for the demons, but nothings been confirmed.” She added. The scene then was cut off by an error message from the news station.

“We are sitting ducks in here.” A boy stated.

Another boy who was looking out the window then yelled to the class. “Demons are coming!”

“Everyone out the windows!” Kosuke ordered. “Stay low!”

The students rushed to the windows; they quietly climbed out, swiftly heading over to the wall near the gate. Shingo helped a shorter girl reach the window as another student helped her to ground outside. Shingo turned to Kanako and Kosuke. “We need to go, I think they are fighting out there, Ken-san seems to be getting, uh, very passionate.”

Kanako snapped her head to Kosuke. “You got to fight the bot, you go first.”

“As long as your right behind me.” Kosuke nodded, he and Shingo climbed out of the windows, Kanako quickly followed. When they made it to the wall, some of their classmates were already gone. “Where did everyone go?” Kosuke asked those who were still left.

The short girl answered him. “I think some were going to see if they could catch a train out of town, the others went home, which is what I’m going to do.” She then slid past Kosuke, Shingo and Kanako, running out of the partially open gate. Some of the other students murmured in agreement and followed, splitting into various directions when they left school grounds.

A loud thump came from the school. The teens could see blood splatter on the window of the classroom next to theirs. Kosuke took control. “We need to stay together. We are going to Shingo-kun and mine’s building. Kana-kun, you can call your parents from there.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Kanako agreed. “Dad is out of town anyway and mom was on her way to work. Your guys’ place is closer anyway.” The teens left their school’s grounds before getting caught.