What it means to be human?

The sound of an alarm ringing made me slowly open up my eyes. The slight shine of the sun's rays shining through my room made me open my eyes a bit more.

"It's too early..." 

I immediately turned off the alarm and covered the top of my head once more to get some more time to rest, but immediately as I was starting to fall back asleep, the sudden sound of my door opening made me heave a sigh.

"It's morning, brother"

"..."

The simple act of pretending to be asleep was the best course of action for me. I couldn't let her know that I was already awake.

"I know that you're awake"

"How does she know that?"

I continued acting as if i was asleep and at times, I would force out a snore on my end to make it even more believable and just when I thought I had managed to fool her, both my covers and blankets were pulled away from me.

"If you don't get up this moment, you won't get breakfast"

"Can you not be so mean to your brother this early in the morning?"

"I have to, because if I don't, you won't be able to make it for your first day of the new school year"

"It's just a simple introduction and what not. It's not something important"

"But if you don't go, you won't have the opportunity to meet new people and create a bond with them"

"... I'll be down in a bit"

"Ok, hurry up"

"Yeah, yeah"

Once my little sister, Miyashita Ayame left the room, I slowly pushed myself out of bed, stifled out a yawn and looked over at my uniform that was hanging over my chair.

"Bonds... huh? If only she knew... That such things aren't really real"

Once I had changed into my school uniform, I made my way downstairs and noticed that she had already prepared everything and that it had already been placed on the table for us to simply eat.

"Thank you for the food"

"Did you wash your hands?"

"In the bathroom"

"Thank you"

Without skipping a beat, I picked up a relatively big piece of the food and gently placed it into my mouth.

"How is it, brother?"

"It's as good as always"

"Really? That's great to hear"

We continued making small talk all the while having our meal and as we were reaching the end of it, she glanced over at the clock and then back at me "Shouldn't you be going soon?"

"Yeah, but I should be able to make it even if I don't leave now"

"Once you finish, you'd better get going"

"I know. There's no need to tell me twice"

"Sometimes I do have to do that, you're somewhat forgetful"

"I'm forgetful of the things that I simply don't care about"

"Yeah, yeah"

She dismissed my words with a simple wave of her hand and as soon as I finished with my food, she took the plates, washed hem and picked up her things "Let's get going"

"Yeah"

Upon exiting the house, the sun's rays were more than enough to make me want to head back inside and hide beneath my bedsheets, but just knowing that Ayame was with me impeded me from doing so at all.

As we both made our way down the street, I could see students not just from my school, but also my sister's school walking alongside their friends and small groups of students.

"What about your friends, Ayame?"

"I told them that I would meet up with them at the front of the school"

"I see"

We continued walking down the street and upon arriving at the section near her school, she suddenly started walking off and stopped in place for a bit "Bye, brother!"

"Take care"

With that, she bumped into her friends and the four of them headed off into the school with smiles on their faces.

"I'm glad that she has friends to be around with and ones that she can trust..."

A sigh escaped my mouth and as I made my way towards my own school, the sudden increase of students made me simply observe them.

"People really are fake... Fake smiles, fake stories, fake personalities, fake friendships"

I continued down the road and when I arrived at the school, the ceremony was already taking place, but seeing as how I didn't really need to be there, I simply decided to skip out on it and make my way towards the school board to find out my class for the school year.

"Class 2-A..."

With that in mind, I started making my way towards the classroom and with every step I took, the sound would resonate, and it would be heard even louder because of how silent the hallways were.

"If only they could be this empty every single day..."

Upon arriving at the classroom, I glanced at each one of the empty seats and searched for the best one. As I examined each one of them, there was only one seat I could consider the best one.

"The one at the very back and next to the window... That way I can doze off from how nice the wind feels and at the same time, the people at the very front can serve as a cover for me to sleep"

I quickly took the empty seat and simply heaved a sigh of relief accompanied by a sudden urge of simply skipping out on the entire first day of school.

"But if I do that... She'd find out and most likely scold me for doing so"

Seeing as how there was nothing else, I could do in the matter, I simply decided to stick through it and get by the day without causing any trouble for myself.

After around 30 minutes or so passed, the sound of the door opening caught my attention. Students started flooding the classroom and without skipping a beat, the sound of them talking to one another flooded my ears.

"It's cool that we get to chill in the same class again"
"Yeah, I know"
"Let's do something once we get out of school"

"..."

"There's this cute store that I found the other day, we should go"
"Totally"
"You can count me in"

Just from those two conversations alone, i had already noticed the one thing that made humans fake.

"First of all, one of you guys isn't happy about the fact that you're in the same class as that guy since the both of you clashed at one point and things got heated. With the girls, the last one inviting herself to the outing was more than enough to get the first one to make a sour expression"

"Why can't people just be themselves and be liked by people who see them for who they are?"

"Alright everyone, get to your seats"

Everyone did as they were told and when our teacher, Yoshida Mitsuru stepped towards the podium, she glanced around the room almost as if she were looking for something and upon her gaze landing on me, she let out a small smile of sorts.

I returned the smile with a simple nod and looked the other way "She really has her eye on me..."

She turned back over to the rest of the class and without giving a warning of sorts, a single question popped out from her mouth.

"What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word 'Human'?"

That question alone was more than enough to get quite a few curious gazes, some of them were confused about the question, but for me, I could understand what she was trying to do.

"Does anyone have an answer?"

She glanced around the room almost as if she was waiting for an answer from anyone, but in my eyes, it was obvious for who she was waiting for.

"I guess I'll take the bait"

I slowly lifted my hand and almost on cue, she pointed over at me and called out to me "Makoto?"

"The word 'Human' is simply the name given to the species of Homo-Sapiens that has grown and evolved throughout the years to grow into what it is today, in the present"

"Correct, but that's not the answer that I'm looking for"

"Then... What would it be?"

"Of course, in a definition point of view, that would be the correct answer, but what I'm looking for is... What does the word 'Human' mean to you?"

"... Is any answer acceptable?"

"It is your own definition, so it cannot be wrong"

"Then..." I could feel everyone's gazes on me and that alone was more than enough to make me want to sit down and become one with the background once more "For me, the word 'Human' is simply a virus that both creates life and takes the life of its own species without a care in the world"

"Can you elaborate on it more?"

"If a person were to fall and hit the ground, we help them out, but at the same time, deep down, we feel the urge to laugh and criticize them for what happened. Human's simply wear a mask that covers up their thoughts and at one point... That mask will either fall off revealing the truth or become one with the person and will never be taken off regardless of how much they don't want it"

"Interesting..."

She simply gave me those words and glanced to the other side of the room "Katsumi?"

"I don't agree with everything that Makoto said"

I looked over to the girl in question and sighed "Of course, I knew that this was going to happen"

"Why is that?"

"Sure, there are those who laugh at someone falling, but I believe that with some hard work and education, a person can change who they are from deep in their core and become even better people"

"For my definition of 'Human', I'd have to say that being human is having the will to want to become better and at the same time, the desire to want to change others for the right reasons and create an even future for themselves and others"

"Thank you, Katsumi, Makoto. Those were two very distinct answers, but at the same time, very interesting"

With that, Katsumi sat back down on her chair and paid close attention to the words that Miss Mitsuru was saying. But for me, that wasn't the case, I found myself staring at Katsumi for a whole minute and in that span of time, a single thought crossed my mind.

"We really are polar opposites... I'm glad that I don't get to interact with her" 

The answer I had given was only a portion of what I really wanted to say. There were plenty other things I wanted to say. Such as the fact that people simply followed the rules of society, pushed others aside for their own sense of enjoyment, they'd take advantage of others for their own personal gain, they'd use multiple personas to fit in and some wouldn't even be able to be themselves because of the fear of being pushed aside.

In conclusion.... Humans are scum. Humans are rotten. Humans are Sin's incarnates. -By Miyashita Makoto.