UnCanny

School Really Sucks!

His brown shoes tapped softly against the hallway tiles, his soft tapping being drowned out by the constant chatter and tapping of other people's feet as they too walked down the hallway.

His tanned hands gripped his backpack straps weakly, not feeling energetic at all.

"Hey Shinji" A few people greeted him as he walked by them in the hallway. He gave them a simple nod and a small smile in return, not really feeling motivated to start up a conversation.

"Hi Shinji" a student greeted and he gave her a small smile in return. Looking up at the person who was the class president, a purple hair girl by the name of Sei Kumo. She had pale skin and was quite skinny, having purple eyes to match her hair.

"Hey Sei, how are you doing today?" he asked, only smiling a little at her.

When he tried to smile too wide, his lip would flare up and start to hurt. The logical answer would be to not smile at all then, if that were the case, but Shinji was different. He was a smile-r. It wasn't in his nature not too, everyone within the Marshall household was a smile-r.

So despite his cut and stitched lip, bruised cheek, black eye and cut skin, He still smiled at people.

Shinji had been released from the hospital a week ago, leaving with no extreme injuries like a broken leg of arm. Instead all he had were bruises, scrapes and cuts. Not to say that they didn't hurt like a b*tch though, it was just to say that he had gotten off pretty well considering the circumstances. Four high powered teens beating on you and all you walk away with is some cuts and bruises, that's a pretty good break.

After being released from the hospital, he started attending school again and found out that Arbeya was missing. Mrs Marshall, Shinji's mother, tried to ask the school about his whereabouts but got the same answer every time. That they simply didn't know where he was. Which only served to make her feel even more terrible, first her son ends up in hospital and then the person she saw as her third son goes missing.

The school claimed that they had done a thorough search for the boy back at Bubblegum Fountain, searching the whole forest for him and coming up empty.

So after awhile of searching and coming up with nothing, they decided to leave camp and inform the authorities that he was missing.

After informing law enforcement that one Arbeya Meiwa had gone missing, they began to conduct a search of Bubblegum Foutain campsite. Quickly ruling off the possibility of him being at the top of Bubblegum Mountain. Seeing as they found his bloody hand print on the side of a tree, they guessed that he was injured. Meaning that there was no way he could have climbed the mountain while wounded, why would he anyway? What would he serve to gain from climbing a mountain for no apparent reason. The camp counselors ruled out the idea of someone else finding him since they said that no one other than them lived in those woods.

The police is search continued on, they began searching the perimeter of the camp, trying to see if the boy had simply wandered out of the forest and off of the campgrounds.

The school tried to call Arbeya's mother, who was back in America, but she wouldn't answer the phone. They couldn't reach her for some odd reason, chalking it up to technical difficulties they tried to call someone else. So they tried to call his older brother, Tré Meiwa, who was the only legitimate family the boy had in the country. But that lead nowhere as well. Every time they tried to call, Iron Claw offices would pick and tell them that Tré was out on a mission and wouldn't be back for quite some time.

His older sister was a dead end as well, not that they could actually contact her. Her contact details weren't listed on his student registration form, and with his father passed away, their was just no way to get in contact with his family. Leaving police and the school stumped on as to what their next move would be. All they could do was keep searching and hope that either his brother or mother picked up the phone.

As for Takamura, he got released from hospital at the same time Shinji did. After being released from hospital, Takamura seemed to have a busted jaw and a few missing teeth.

After he was released, he seemed to become more timid and reserved. Not really talking to his friends or the members of his gang. Not that he could talk with his busted jaw, but he still began to keep to himself. Changing his ways after being put in his place. Even apologizing to Shinji for what he had done, and the tanned male managed to forgive him.

The whole school was still buzzing with excitement though, even though the incident happened 2 weeks earlier, people were still talking about it. Some making rumors about Arbeya's whereabouts that seemed to only fan the flames of confusion circulating around about where he was. Some said he went back to America, some said that he was still at camp wondering the grounds.

Shinji sat in class behind his desk with a bored and distant expression, not really interested in the Japanese history lesson the teacher was trying to give them. He watched as everyone else flipped to the page the teacher told them to flip and sighed, lazily flipping to that page himself.

His skin becoming blue in colour and his black hair growing longer, becoming a dark blue color. A single horn, much like a unicorns, sprouting out of the center of his forehead. His ability gave away what emotion he was feeling, indicating that he was upset. Upset that the person he considered to be his best friend was now missing and off somewhere, probably hurt from what the police had gathered. Shiro, Shinji's younger brother, missed Arbeya as well. The whole Marshall household missed him. Arbeya had arrived in Japan for this foreign exchange program about a year ago, and throughout the past year, the Marshall's and Arbeya had gotten really close. Without him around, there was an awkward void in the Marshall household.

"Alright so what can you guys tell me about the myth of the Four God Brothers?" The teacher asked and a few students raised their hands. Pointing out one student, the teacher gestured for them to speak. "Well the Four God Brothers were said to have been born of one God named Nobu, who was the Supreme Diety at that time. It is said that these brothers were all extremely blessed and would rule over the entirety of existence as we know it--" The student got cut off as the door to the classroom got slid open.

Shinji's ears perked up at the soft thud the wooden door made once it collided with it's wooden frame.

Turning to face the door, his, and everyone else's mouths went agape. Shinji took in his appearance, the hazel nut brown skin tone, the bright orange eyes, the well cut fade with slight waves at the top. No doubt about it, it was Arbeya Meiwa. In his full school uniform, his bag slung over his shoulder as well as a lazy gaze adorning his features.

Walking inside the classroom, he yawned lightly. It was then that everyone noticed the light bags under his eyes. Showing that boy didn't get much sleep, but still seemed completely fine and uninjured. Unlike what the cops had deduced.

"A-Arbeya! is that you?" the teacher asked as if he was staring at a ghost, and no one could blame him. Nobody could really believe what they were seeing. First he disappears without a word, leaving behind a bloody hand print and nothing else to track him, being gone for a whole 2 weeks, rumors about him start floating around, and then he just appears in front of everyone like nothing had happened.

His orange eyes drifted to look around the classroom to see a lot of awestruck gazes.

Arbeya soon found himself locking eyes with two people he wasn't exactly fond of at the moment.

Haru began to squirm in her seat under his harsh gaze and Takamura simply looked away. Not wanting to look Arbeya in the eyes after what had happened.

"You need to go inform the principal that your back and about where you've been!" The teacher exclaimed with excitement. Pure relief washing over him at the sight of his student being safe and unharmed.

"I mean alright but I don't see why" Arbeya said in a nonchalant tone, clearly not understanding the weight of the situation.

Dumping his bag on the floor in the front of the class, he stuffed his hands in his brown pants pockets and began to walk out of the room. His blazer getting pushed back a little by his hands being in his pockets.

Disappearing as the door closed behind him.

UN☆C~A◇N~☆NY

He chewed on his sandwich slowly, tasting all of the different flavors and feeling the textures in his mouth. Feeling the soft crunch of the lettuce in between his teeth he-- "Alright why do you keep staring at me?" Arbeya asked and placed the half eaten sandwich down inside the plastic container with the rest of them.

Shinji stared at Arbeya in awe as the boy ate his lunch. Everyone did. Random students stole glances at him while they ate their food, immediately looking away once Arbeya's head so much as turned slightly in their direction.

"I mean can you blame me, you went Danny Phantom for 2 weeks. You went ghost dude, and now you suddenly show up out of nowhere like this. Hell yeah I'm gonna stare at you" Shinji said and gave the African American male a light glare.

Arbeya scoffed at Shinji before reaching for his sandwich again. Biting into the soft fluffy substance, he once again got sucked into a world of textures and flavors. Ratatouille never lied, food is amazing.

"Where were you anyway?" Shinji asked and Arbeya looked at the boy out of the corner of his eye.

"On top of the mountain" he said and got back to his food. "Really, the police said you wouldn't be able to make it to top while being injured. So they crossed out that possibility. Everyone thinks that you were the one that took out those 2 horned bear in the forest, was that you?" Asked Shinji.

"No, well I took out one but someone else took out the other one" He replied and Shinji marvelled at Arbeya. The boy said it like defeating a horned bear was an easy task, despite the countless amounts of people that have appeared in hospital from horned bear attacks.

A set of feet tapped next to Arbeya's desk, they were soft and light. Arbeya immediately knew that it was a girl, no male would have had such light footsteps. Turning his head, he came face to face with someone who wasn't exactly his favourite person right now.

"Can we talk?" she asked softly so only the two boys in front of her could hear her.

His bright orange eyes seemed to hover over in her direction, seeing her caramel skin tone, blonde hair and brown eyes.

He sighed and stood, turning in her direction to face her. Haru looked up at him, not really making eye contact with him.

"Let's go" was all he said and began to walk out of the classroom. Everyone watched the altercation in front of them with curious gazes, watching the two of them walk out of the classroom and into the hallway.

A few minutes passed and Arbeya and Haru found themselves on the school rooftop. From the rooftop of the school, you could see the cities buildings. The city was slightly cyberpunk themed with a Japanese edge to it. Having large cherry blossom trees and old Japanese style homes, having a healthy blend of new age and old age.

It wasn't uncommon to see people wearing kimonos and yukatas in the street, though most just wore common everyday clothing.

Arbeya heard the rustling of the fence on the rooftop and turned to see Haru leaning against it. Her hands placed behind her and on her lower back while her head faced down.

"You wanna say something..." Arbeya spoke, making Haru's head snap up in his direction.

"Yeah, I do. I wanted to say that...that...that I'm sorry..." she said and Arbeya raised a brow in her direction. "Don't look at me like that, I'm sorry for what I did back at camp 2 weeks ago. It was wrong and I know that okay, so, I'm sorry" She said and the two stood in silence for a second. Arbeya held a stoic look on his face, not allowing Haru to figure out what he was thinking.

Till his lips parted and he asked "Sorry for which part? The trying to distract me part or the lying to me about just wanting to hang out?".

"I'm sorry for all of it" "What exactly were you trying to accomplish anyway, if you had distracted me. Then what? what was your end game?" He asked, staring at her face to try to gauge her reaction.

"I was only meant to distract you, that's all that Takamura told me to do. He never told me what he'd do once you were out of the picture, but if I had to guess, I'd say that he was probably gonna beat up Shinji then hide him. Then he was probably still gonna throw you into the river, but you've gotta believe me when I say that I didn't know about any of that. All he told me to do was distract you, once I failed I told him that it didn't work. He said it was fine though, it was only the next morning when you showed up bloody and beaten that I realized what had happened. I'm so sorry, I already apologized to Shinji and so did Takamura. The only one left to apologize to was you" She said, sighing after her apology. She stared at his features, trying to see past the calm demeanor he had.

His eyes seemed bored and disinterested, his lips pursed in a straight line and the rest of his features were still.

Till the corners of his lips began to stretch upward and form an upside down arch on his face. Haru stared at the smile in surprise, what could he have been smiling at.

"Alright then, I forgive you. It's water under the bridge now. Besides, even if I was mad at you I wouldn't be able to do anything about it. It's not like I can just beat you up like I did Takamura" He said and shrugged it off.

His wide toothy grin reassuring Haru that she was forgiven.

"Thank you for believing me" She said and Arbeya nodded.

"Now let's go inside and eat, I'm still hungry" He said and Haru giggled. "Just like that, you really want to eat lunch with me?" she asked and he turned to face her.

"Of course, friends always eat together" he said and she felt a warm smile grace her lips from him calling her his friend.

"Touching moment, are you two gonna start dating now?" a deep voice came from next to the two.

Arbeya's eyes turned in alarm to face the unknown voice. Up on top of the metal fence sat a man in a full green suit of armor, his red cape flowing in the wind that hurled on by. His dark blade sticking out of the back of his armor and the small piece of red crimson hair that stuck up on the top of his armor seemed to flow with his cape.

"Arbeya Meiwa yes? I've come for your soul. please hand it over nicely" The man said and stuck out his armored hand. The armor on his hand forming claws and clinking as it moved around.

"Haru, get behind me" The boy said simply and removed his school blazer, throwing it to the wind with a smirk. The girl quickly shifted behind Arbeya and stared at the green armor man in alarm.

"I haven't even back to school for a full day yet and I'm already getting into a fight, but whatever. Let's go!" He said as an excited gleam shined in those orange eyes of his. Taking up a fighting stance with the happiest grin anyone could ever see.