Chapter Text
"Mr. Kuitgawa?"
The sun has started to set beneath the horizon. Kuitgawa had never once enjoyed English, so he was most prone to take very long naps, completely toning out every sound that comes from the outside world with his sleep. He sat near the window side, having his head down resting in his forearms on the flat surface of his desk with strands of his hair covering his face completely, until the voice calling out his last name had peaked into his ears.
The senior snapped a eye open to the living world, his eye meeting the elder woman's kind hearted ones, contrasting with his own, "Mmhgh...?" He let out a small tired groan.
"Class has been over ten minutes ago." His teacher said, havin' tapped on his shoulder earlier in attempt to awake the exhausted student, "All the other students have left by now."
Her words were soft spoken, and the boy had no reasons to ignore them. He slowly raised his body up from his slouched position, covering his mouth with a hand to conceal a yawn escaping, before turning his head to see the outside. "...Asashi?" She spoke again, this time with his first name. Asashi only responded with a small hum as he stood up from his chair and started but slowly to pack up his stuff, dead set on ignoring the older figure.
The woman's expression shifted into displeasure as her lips dropped into a frown, "Mr. Kuitgawa, you know it is quite rude to ignore your elders." She reminded him.
Asashi paused for a moment, rolling his eyes. He turned around with a neutral expression, "You just told me yourself that I'm the last student remaining here, so I might as well leave as soon as possible to get out of your hair then." The senior insisted before shifting his attention back to packing up the remains. 'My parents are going to kill me after this...'
Despite his rude remark, he thought that his teacher would take the hint and leave him be, but to much his horror, as a kind woman her presence remained in the classroom, leaving a much more awkward silentness.
It only got worse the moment Asashi took a hold of his flute strap on the ground. Somehow, a strand of his hair was caught in the ends of the strap metalling that a slight tug of his hair made him let out a loud whine of pain. He wanted to shut his mouth close to stop the noise from escaping, but his other hand held his phone(Which was in dire need of fixing after a fight he had been in a few weeks ago.). Perhaps he should start tying or even cut his long hair to prevent any future problems.
Asashi jerked his head around, startling the shorter teacher. "I'm leaving now." He said as he didn't wait for his teacher to say a response back, pushing her side when walking past. Asashi had full intentions to escape this school since the beginning of the first classes.
"Just a moment, Mr. Kuitgawa."
A groan escaped the younger boy's mouth, "What do you want now?" Asashi asked bluntly, looking over his shoulders without making a effort in turning his body to face the elder woman.
The teacher's eyebrows furrowed, "Do not speak with me in such a tone, young man." She reprimanded, placing both of her hands on the opposing sides of her hips. "Even if it's the last day before the holiday, I expect all my students to talk with a preferred kinder voice."
Asashi frowned, "I've always talked like this to you."
"Hmm, and you have indeed," The lady's agreed, "But maybe you should start talking more kindly. It'd be nice to have a proper impression to the youngin's as a senior."
"None of your students speak kindly," Asashi hissed out, fully turning his body around to face the lady, "Every single day I'm in your class, there's always going to be one girl or gal who talks all over you despite your countless warnings against them. If I were to show myself to the younger students, I doubt they'll get better from me." It was true. For the past four years the guy was in, there was nothing that the teachers could do to stop the troublesome students who caused nothing but mischief or bullying the heck out of others. This lead for Asashi to believe that staying away from the drama would help avoid it, and he was particularly right for some of it. He waved a hand out dismissively, "I ain't no damn role model for any kids."
"Yet you are still one of my most proud students out of everyone I've taught so far." She remarked, her lips twitched into a small grin.
Asashi was taken back.
She marched up to the slightly taller student, "In…case you weren’t listening — I have plans on retirement and moving away after the school year’s over.” Asashi blinked, this was the first he had heard of this, but he had been sleeping earlier, so it didn’t take a genius to realize why he wasn’t aware. “I had wished to tell you this a week ago, but your parents weren’t home and I had no idea where your whereabouts were.”
The other let out a small scoff, “Of course my parents weren’t home.” Asashi mumbled, crossing his arms despite the stuff he was holding, “They’re never home.” Asashi wasn’t going to mention that he was out for a search for unusual and potential poisonous plants.
A small dejected expression formed on the lady’s face, “I…see.” She mumbled, “It’s unfortunate that you live under the roof with them.”
Asashi and his teacher had lived in the same small town for a long time, the main reason why they knew each other was specifically due to being neighbors. If his teacher had never offered to babysit him along with his aunt when he was merely a child, god forbid what type of person Asashi would’ve become.
He’s already bad enough.
“Where are you moving too?” Asashi asked.
A genuine smile appeared on her face, “I’m moving back to the USA, with my sister there. We haven’t seen each other for thirty years, and I believe I have been long due for a reunion.”
Asashi didn’t say anything back, yet his body tensed uncomfortably, which led the woman to shoot him a sympathetic look, “I’m sorry for not telling you this a while ago, but —” The boy raised a hand up, shutting her completely.
“Don’t be.” Asashi insisted, “You never had any reasons to tell me stuff from your personal life.” He had never asked for stories from the others. It had only given him slight discomfort being told things from other people for his own reasons. “We had a nice run in life, and things have to move on anyways. I’m used to it.”
The lady frowned, but didn’t pry into his words, “I supposed we’ll stay in contact, hopefully?”
Asashi internally frowns. He hasn’t tended on keeping anyone's contacts the moment he finished high school. “We’ll see, we’ll see.” Asashi repeated twice before making his way to the front door.
“Are you walking home by yourself?” She asked.
Asashi took one last look over his shoulder, “Probably. I missed the last bus by now, and my house isn’t that far from school anyways.” He said.
“Would you rather go home with me instead?” She suggested.
While it was a nice offer, Asashi just shook his head, “I have my GPS on my phone, and I know my way around the place. I can take my chances.”
“...” Her lips tightened, "...Alright then.. I’ll see you back in the neighborhood then.”
Asashi never said anything back since he left the classroom, leaving the elderly woman to her own thoughts.
Asashi never reached his neighborhood, and had full intentions to not too. He didn’t want to deal with his already terrible parents, but he had a bad feeling about what would happen the moment he got caught. He made a slight detour on the road and started to approach a caution tape, far from the school but not near his home. He took a quick swift inspection on the warning signs on the road before grabbing a hold of the railing to hop over the fence.
In the bright morning, the forest provides no harm, but now that the sun has halfway set in the background, who knows what the area would bring now. Patches of the grass had rock solid ice that used to be fluffy snow before. He had to be careful on where he walked unless he brings himself to a minor accident.
His phone flashlight was the only thing that illuminated the area he walked into. Upon a further walk down the forest with no path, he stumbled upon a small pond with a run down dock nearby.
When he was in middle school, an elderly man used to live in this area.
It is unfortunate that the man is no longer in the living world.
Asashi paid no attention to the creaking beneath his feet, taking a slow step at a time on the wooden dock. He sat on the very far edge of the dock, having his legs fall down but not enough to touch the tainted water under him.
Some thoughts circled constantly in his mind, to which he slapped his mind out of his, "Calm down...it's only another five measy months you can handle..." He mumbled to himself.
He spent the next couple of minutes just watching the sun fall down beneath the horizon.
Even though there was nothing but silence, he felt pity towards the man who had taught him many things, but now that he was gone, that pity has slowly vanished away.
"Mrow?"
Asashi blinked, looking over his shoulder to see a black small cat staring a hole into his back.
He knew better than to not touch the kitty, with the amount of ticks and fleas one stray can hold onto. So he made the decision to ignore the whines of the stray.
The creaking of the dock made it difficult to ignore the existence of the cat, as the little creature made its way up to the human. Asashi had been eyeing the water in the pond before the stray cat had suddenly rubbed their little body against his side.
“...Feisty, aren’t you?” Asashi mumbled. While most of his school stuff was resting in his bag on the other side of the doc, he had been holding onto his flute case this whole time. He and the cat didn’t make any other effort in moving away, until Asashi decided to bring the cat away from the pond.
He quietly stood up from the edge of the dock without scaring the kitty away, before taking a stride back to the land. Surprisingly, the kitty started to follow him…
…Until the sounds of galloping could be heard.
It wasn’t the medieval times anymore, and where he lived doesn’t have any horses nearby. “Huh?” Asashi turned his head towards the direction of where the galloping could be heard, only to notice the trees moving from the fast paste wind.
What lied and headed towards him was a carriage being pulled by two of the strangest horses he'd ever seen before.
Asashi instinctively made a step back the moment the horses made a complete stop right in front of him, raising up their legs…
Before everything turned black.
Ah, my dear esteemed benefactor…
My proud, beautiful flower of evil.
You are truly the fairest one of all.
O magic mirror, thy wisdom I entreat…
Reveal unto me the visage I seek…
Prologue: Welcome to the Villain World.