Chapter 4 - The First Day of Classes Part 2

“I–I think I have a lead on who the robot is…”

“What do you mean by a lead?” I asked.

“What do you think, moron?” Ohka said.

“I mean, is this worth my time, or are you just joking around?” I asked. “’Cause based off your behavior, Suzuki, you don’t take anything serious outside of class.”

“Hey—” Ohka started.

“Yes,” Rin said, cutting her off. “I’m serious when I say this. I think I have a lead on who the robot is.”

I turned back toward the booth. Subaru looked like she was giving me the death stare, while Ohka was looking away from me, clearly pissed off. I set my tray back on the table as I retook my seat.

“So what is this lead?” I asked coldly.

“It has to do with our classroom, Class 1-A,” she said.

“Why are we wasting our time with him?” Ohka asked, annoyed.

“Because I trust him,” Rin said, shooting Ohka a glare. “Plus, do you have anyone else we could talk to about this?”

“Why do you hate me so much?” I asked. “Is it because I don’t belong here since I’m foreign? Is that it!?” I screamed.

“Yes, it’s because you don’t belong here. Your parents aren’t rich, and you’re foreign,” Ohka said. “You took the spot of someone Japanese that could’ve had your spot at this school.”

“And how the hell do you know I don’t come from rich parents?” I asked her.

“Look who we’re sitting in the same booth as,” Ohka said, looking at Rin. “Her dad knows everything. He told her not to talk to you.”

“So that’s it, you're just a stuck up prick that only cares about wealth.”

“Look none of that matters right now”

“Why the hell would that piece of shi—” I started, but Rin cut me off.

“Look, that doesn’t matter right now,” she said again.

That’s when I started to break. “Don’t interrupt me,” I said, slamming my fist into the table “and what do you mean that doesn’t matter!?Why would your dad ever say tha—”

“Look, calm down, Joshua,” Rin said, cutting me off again.

“Shut up! Why are you even talking to me,” I said, standing up on the outside of the booth, “after your piece-of-shit dad told you not to!? I didn’t ask to come here—I had to. There was no other option!” A tear started sliding down my face.

“What the hell is this guy on about? You’re making a scene, dipshit,” Ohka muttered.

I looked around to see half the cafeteria staring at me as I fell apart. “Maybe he was right…” I mumbled under my breath—just loud enough for Rin to hear, but no one else. “I’m an out-of-control beast from another country who got here off pure chance.”

“Joshua, that’s not—” Rin began.

“I didn’t even want to come here,” I said, barely holding it together. “You don’t need to know why. But the reason I’m here is because of my own hard work—not money like you and your friend. So just stay out of my way.” I stormed off. The eyes of almost everyone was on me as I walked away from them.

Maybe if I had listened to Rin that day, things would’ve been different. I’m not really sure. Maybe we would’ve figured it all out a day earlier. Either way, it all happened in the worst way I could’ve imagined.

—

The rest of the day went on normally, as if nothing was wrong. I went to all of my classes and then went to get something to eat at the convenience store near my dorm.

I was deciding what I wanted to eat. Maybe something small like some noodles, or maybe some orange chicken. That’s when I heard it—

“Hey, is that the guy from today at lunch?” a girl whispered to her friend, almost not even trying to be quiet.

“Yeah, he screamed at the principal’s daughter,” the other girl said.

I knew word traveled fast, but it hadn’t even been five hours since it happened, and everybody already knew that the foreigner was someone you shouldn’t talk to.

“What a weirdo.”

It had only been a day, and I had already made a bad name for myself. This was exactly what I didn’t want. Maybe if I had just not tried to make friends in the first place, everything would’ve been fine.

I thought maybe all of this would affect Rin too, since her reputation was being the principal’s daughter.

I quickly checked out with my orange chicken and chocolate milk and headed back to my dorm room, where I would have a little bit of time to myself to think everything through. I assumed Toma wouldn’t be back until later due to practice.

I made it back to the room, but not before a few more people shot glances at me as I walked by. Japan was just like home—everyone judging you at all times, not caring who you are or what you did. That was what I hated most about home, and I was foolish to think I could outrun it by moving to a new country where no one knew my backstory.

Who knows, maybe all of this would blow over. People my age move on so fast it isn’t even funny. With all of social media, it seems like everything that’s considered cool can switch overnight because of one little accident or mishap.

I set my dinner on my desk and turned on my computer to start working on homework. I had a short window where I could probably just read and not have to talk to Toma today. All I had to do was finish my homework before he got back.

“Hey Joshua, you okay, man?” Toma asked as he stood in the doorway.

I looked back, putting on a fake smile. “Yeah, I’m fine. Why do you ask?”

Toma walked into the room slowly, holding his phone. “Well… this is why.” He showed me his phone as it played a video from today—me blowing up at Rin. “Do you want to keep lying to me, or do you actually want to talk about this as friends?”

“You wouldn’t understand why I had to do what I did,” I said.

“Even then, let me try to understand,” Toma pleaded. “I may never have empathy, but I can try to show sympathy. Just help me understand.”

“Rin first said she had something to tell me.”

“What did she have to tell you?”

“It was a lead to who the robot is. She said it had something to do with my class.”

“So did you listen?”

“I tried to, I swear, but—”

“Why didn’t you listen!? You could’ve maybe figured it out!”

“Because I know she hadn’t figured it out. If she had, she would’ve gone running off to Daddy.”

“So then what was it?”

“There’s no way to know for sure, but I have an idea.” I took a drink of my chocolate milk. “I think it has to do with our homeroom teacher.”

“Dr. Aizawa? What does this have to do with her?”

“It’s pretty simple, actually. She’s the most advanced teacher for the first years. So why not have the most experienced teacher be in the same class as the robot?”

“Wait… so you’re telling me the robot is in your class?”

“Yeah, which means she may have come to the same conclusion. That’s why it’s so important.”

“So then why did you snap at her?”

“She was told not to talk to me by her father. Something to do with me being foreign and poor.”

“So they were just being racist? That piece of shit.”

“Not quite, actually. She didn’t think it—or at least I don’t think she did. Either way, her friend who was there pushed me over the edge. She kept taunting me until I snapped.”

“Yeah, about that… When I watched the video, you said that you ‘never asked to come here’ and that you ‘had no choice.’ So what’s that about?”

“Look, Toma… I can’t tell you about that. I’m not comfortable talking about it, I’ll tell you when I need to but until then I won’t. You don’t want to know what I’ve been through”

“Alright I’ll take your word for it” he said “If you don’t listen to me anymore, just know this: I think you were right about everything with lunch today. You had good reason to snap. My only question is— and this may be off-topic—but is there anything else she could’ve wanted to say besides the teacher?” Toma asked. “I mean, are there any other possibilities?”

“I’ve been trying to think about that myself, but I haven’t come up with much. But there has been one thing that has been gnawing at the back of my head since yesterday.”

“And what’s that?” Toma asked as he leaned slightly forward toward me.

Toma sat in his chair next to mine as I said, “Well… it was the wording of the speech the principal gave yesterday. He used strange language when telling us about the challenge. He said, ‘And now I’d like for all of you, and I do mean all of you, to accept this challenge.’”

“Wait, I think I know what you’re getting at. Why would he make it so exaggerated? We already knew that he wanted us to participate, so why say it twice?”

“Yesterday I didn’t question it. I mean, not everyone was on board with the idea, so it may have been a way to get more people to participate.”

“So I’m guessing you found some new meaning for it?”

“Yeah, I did. And it’s more frightening than I would’ve ever thought. And this MUST stay between us, because if this is right, we might have a big problem on our hands.”

“Alright, I’m listening.”

I leaned in slightly before saying what was to come next. “What if the robot doesn’t know they are a robot? I know it sounds crazy, and there are still so many gaps to fill if it’s true, but I think that’s why he exaggerated that we should ALL compete in this.”

“If that is true, then what will happen when the person figures it out? It could be an all-out disaster.”

“That's exactly why I said we have to keep this between us. If this gets out, it could get really, really bad very quickly. If we find more people that we think are trustworthy, then we can tell them this.”

“I understand and I think you’re right. While yes, there are gaps in this, I think you’re correct in saying that. Like, for instance, how can they keep it running for a long period of time?”

“That I thought was simple by saying solar panels or something, but that wouldn’t be possible. Not only would the person realize they are the robot, but the people around them would notice as well.”

“Then they must come at night. There is no other time during the day that they wouldn’t be seen missing,” Toma blurted out loudly.

We both paused to look around to make sure we weren’t heard.

I began to talk at a lower volume. “Or they have the person sleepwalk back to the lab or something to recharge.”

“Either way, those are the only real options they could have without making it blatantly obvious.”

“Now, I don’t want to sound crazy, but I could be the robot, and so could you, so I want us to be able to clear each other right here, right now.”

“Yeah, being a robot isn’t the greatest thing to have on my mind for long, so what do you suggest?”

“It’s easy. We put lead in the door, and if it breaks, then we know one of us is the robot.”

“Alright, but what about the window? We’re on the bottom floor, so that is an option.”

“Mmm… I got it. We could set up a camera as well. We have both of our phones recording, and we look over the footage. If neither of us gets up in the night and leaves, then we’re both cleared.”

“That’s actually a great plan, Toma.”

“Thanks, Josh. Wait—can I call you Josh?”

“Sure. I’ve never been called it, but I wouldn’t mind it.”

“Sweet so Josh it is”

“I know we are changing topics like crazy, but do you have any homework tonight? All I have is some geography work.”

“Same here. Besides Dr. Aizawa’s class, everything was smooth sailing today.”

“Do you want to work on it together?”

“Sure. It’s only a few questions, so it shouldn’t take too long.”

I leaned into my backpack and brought out the handout she gave us at the end of class. It was pretty simple—just stuff about the geography of the Americas. Nothing too hard.

“Now, I could just give you all the answers to the American ones, or you could just figure it out on your own.”

“Aren’t you guys notoriously bad at geography in America?”

“Yeah, but I’m the one in a million since I have a functional frontal lobe that can process basic geography.”

“Alright, then what is the capital of the United States?” he said proudly.

“Easy—Washington, D.C. Give me something at least a little harder.”

“Alright then. What is the main animal that digs and lives mostly in the Great Plains?”

“That would be the prairie dog,” I said. “Alright, now it’s my turn. An ancient lake once took up most of this state on the West Coast, and it’s obvious on satellite imaging.”

“Ooo, ooo, I know this one! It’s California. That whole big gap in the middle of the state used to be a lake.”

“Ding, ding, ding—correct.”

We continued finishing the problems on the worksheet until it was about time for bed. I had a lot of fun doing that game style with Toma, and I hoped we could do it again. We both set up our cameras to record, and Toma placed the strip of lead in our door.

“One last thing before we go to bed,” Toma said as he laid down. “I think it would be best if you stayed in the room with me until we go to school, so no morning run.”

“I understand, and I think that’s a great plan. Plus, now that I think about it, it’s probably best if we do this for at least a week,” I suggested. “They might have battery backups, so it could probably run for longer than a day without needing to recharge. So we should continue doing this.”

Toma looked over at me and said, “I couldn’t agree more, buddy.”

I put my AirPods in and started my music. “See you in the morning, man.”

“Same to you,” he said as I laid my head back and slowly drifted to sleep.