Time’s passage for Haruo had little meaning to him than it did for others. It was just another day to roll on through the path that he sat upon. He could see a long poorly managed tunnel ahead of him as he just sat in the grass on the bend of the road of his teenage years. The distance that he had traveled seemed fairly far, but now he simply sat. The tunnel wasn’t something that scared him away; in fact he had no problem taking it.

It was just that he had no interest in seeing what was on the other end of the tunnel. All he could see was a sheet of white no bigger than his thumb when he looked down at it. Nothing was visible and when he couldn’t see what it was it gave him no motivation to find out. He knew the area around him well enough that it got him by on what he needed.

The tunnel that faced him remained at his side waiting for him. At first it tried to call him, but he ignored the summons. It had given up on making an attempt. Now it just existed as it always had with its arms perpetually open in a silent invitation. An invitation that it wasn't certain would ever be accepted.

Chapter 75 – Spent Days of Youth

Haruo had a fairly poor concept of days, which was only held together by the fact of school giving him an anchor point. However, since his school had been damaged during the strange events that surrounded the student Yuki all of that had been thrown off. There was no school for him to attend so he wasn't aware of the exact day any longer. The best he had was that it had been about a week since he stopped going to school.

In his case, it was also a week since he no longer had a home. While no one in the school knew it, Haruo made use of the school for his shelter every night since he had started high school about two months ago. He wasn’t certain how long he would be able to keep it up, but so long as he had shelter that was all that mattered for him. There was a way in for him after he finished his part time job that no one else seemed to know. It certainly helped that he didn’t know anyone at school making it easy to avoid any questions. The school had some concerns about his address, but with the help he received he was able to keep them unaware of his actual living conditions.

The nights outside weren't as bad as he expected they might be for being in the late spring time. He wasn’t sure if it was the changes that had occurred or just unusual weather, but it had been warmer than normal at night. There seemed to be very little temperature drop at all making it easy for him to just lie in the grass.

Any of the monsters that roamed around seemed to ignore him. He wasn’t sure why they were leaving him alone. It hadn't bothered him for long though as it meant that he had less to worry about. The new environment was enough of a problem to adjust to for him. Everything still seemed to be the same, but his senses felt off in a way that he couldn’t fully explain. He didn't let it be too much of a focus for him. Life still continued as it had and he could simply wait.

The morning routine for him remained the same regardless of the changes. He didn’t have the advantage of the school facilities any longer, but he made do with whatever that he had available. It started with a jog to the nearest open convenience store. His part time job gave him enough money to get food, though nothing too fancy for him. He kept things simple with a bottle of milk and fruit. After the light breakfast he continued his jogging until he made it around the neighborhood several times.

Haruo felt warmed up enough to begin his normal exercises. While he had a fairly large muscular body, which didn’t seem to require a great amount of effort to achieve, Haruo still felt that he should maintain his workout. It seemed especially important in the current days with the danger that lurked around the town.

During his morning exercises a few birds flew in perching themselves on his back while he was doing pushups. ‘Hmm…they’re still unchanged as well…’ They hopped along his back lightly chirping as Haruo made no interruption in his activities. A couple more small birds joined them playing around Haruo not fearing his presence. Even when he changed his position suddenly for a different exercise nothing he did would startle them. Eventually, the birds played themselves out and flew away to their nests.

Haruo pulled himself back up at the end of his routine exhaling a long breath. ‘I guess it’s about time that they opened…’ He stood up and started to jog once more, however this time he wasn’t sticking to the neighborhood. The path went out of the line of houses to a small stretch of shops sandwiched in together breaking up the pattern of homes.

Most of the shops were two story makes, all being family owned with their own homes above the store itself. The little area functioned as the local strip for the residences providing a small restaurant, clothing store, bathhouse, dry cleaners, laundromat and a convenience store that was closer to a grocery store if not for the size.

The first stop was the dry cleaners for Haruo. A wood slate at the top of the door announced his arrival to the family business. Behind the counter was a young woman with a white cloth wrapped around the top of her head keeping back her hair. In the distance, an elderly man and woman worked with clothes that had been dropped off.

The black haired woman leaned forward into the counter towards Haruo with her apron folding a little on the wood surface. “Welcome back! Come to pick up your clothes?” Haruo gave her a short nod before she turned back into the racks of clothes. The store looked a little sparse from the decrease in customers. She quickly came back carrying one hanger in her hand with Monou High School’s uniform under the plastic.

Haruo accepted the hanger and handed over the money as though it had become a ritual for him. “Thank you.”

“You’re still wanting us to hold on to the rest of your clothes even though they are cleaned?” asked the woman while she finished ringing up the bill. All she received was a silent nod from Haruo. “Well alright! We don’t normally act as our customer’s closet, but since we know you so well it’s alright.”

Since the school was no longer available to him he couldn’t keep his uniforms with him. It left him with the only option of leaving it with the cleaners until he needed them. It did mean that he had to make daily visits, but without any other clothes to wear and no way to clean them himself it was the only option he had left.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

The new uniform draped over his back as he left and walked a little further down the line of stores. He came to the bathhouse silently leaving the regular fee on the counter. A middle-aged woman came out from the woman’s bath as Haruo was making his way in. “Hey, Haruo! All done exercising for the morning?” She picked up the coins that he left as Haruo disappeared into the men’s bath.

It was near the school and so he had become accustomed to using it even with the school closed. During the morning hours there weren’t nearly as many people usually, but he seemed to notice a large crowd the last few days. He had come to the conclusion that with the strange events in the city people needed a place to reveal stress.

A relaxing bath later, Haruo left the bathhouse in the fresh uniform and returned back to the cleaners. It had been going on for a week so they had accepted his new pattern. The chaos in the city had a lot of people changing and they just took it as something in his life had become difficult. They didn’t inquire too deeply.

Haruo finished his morning work and decided to sit down in the restaurant at the corner of the strip. He ordered another small meal to finish out his breakfast that would keep him full for most of the day, depending on his activity. The part time job made him fortunate enough that he could maintain a modest lifestyle covering meals out all the time. Cooking wasn't something he was very good at and there were no opportunities to make use of the school. He tried to keep his existence to a minimum. As a high student paying for all of his own living expenses it left him with very little every month, but he didn't have anything else to spend money on. So it wasn’t something that really bothered him deeply.

His breakfast finished and noon slowly arriving Haruo went out into the adjacent neighborhoods with little direction in mind. Every so often he would stop and allow the animals to visit him. A little of the food that he saved from his meal, for such an occasion, would be fed to them. He knew that they didn't need much from him since they were making do on their own, but it was a bit of a habit he couldn't really break. Once they went back to their own routines Haruo continued his walking.

The lack of school had made him lose some of his focus. He had become very bored wandering the city, yet there was little else for him to do. Often he ended up at his job very early waiting for something to happen or allowing him to pick up a few extra hours. Haruo knew that he still had a long time to wait until he could even think about trying to go to work.

In the distance, he heard loud noises that made him curious. ‘…it’s coming from that same area again…’ He had been hearing strange sounds the last few days, but much further away than it had been today. It was partially because he had been staying away from the school. When he came closer he realized that it was the school where all of the noise had been coming from. ‘Construction?’

Still up a street but with a clear enough view of his school, Haruo could see several large machines working on the high school. The thing that confused him more was that he had never seen a couple of the machines. He was fairly certain that they were completely impossible. Haruo would have gone forward to investigate more, but noticed the very large pool of students around the grounds working on small tasks. ‘What’s going on? Are they fixing the school? A group of students?’ The sight surprised him the more that he stared. He wasn’t sure why they were all trying to work together.

Haruo turned away from the school and started to walk back. ‘It has nothing to do with me… I’ll just walk somewhere else…’ Unfortunately, his path was suddenly blocked before he even made it out. A line of six dirty and worn down high school age boys stood in his way. The peaceful neighborhood was a stranger to the dark figures that stared on. ‘This isn’t their turf…what are they doing here?’

A boy taller than the others in the middle stepped forward. His black hair was cut very short and spiked up with the ends bleached a little making it look brown to tan. If they were students it was unclear as they wore blue jeans and jackets with a few small chains or spikes accessorizing their otherwise falling apart wardrobe. “Yo boys, looky whose we’ve run in ta!” There was a low cackle and snickering from his sides as they all recognized Haruo immediately. “It’s Yoneda! I’ve been missin’ our daily warm-ups!”

Haruo slid his foot back watching the situation developing. ‘Takaoka’s band… He’s pretty far from his gang’s territory… Thought they’d have enough trouble with the new situation in town, but I guess they’ve already adapted…’ For him this was certainly not their first meeting or even second. Their history went back to junior high school as Takaoka’s friends regularly picked fights with Haruo. While Haruo wouldn't just let them hit him, eventually he would become trapped with no choice other than to take the blows. It was something that he had become used to dealing with, but preferred to avoid it when he could. Unfortunately, Takaoka had a certain interest in finding and causing pain to Haruo.

Takaoka signaled to his friends starting to spread out and move in. It was typical of Takaoka not to make the first move, but wait until Haruo had been cornered. He was the strongest and most skilled in his band of street thugs. “Let’s mark our new territory in Yoneda’s blood guys!” That seemed to get them excited as the five boys started flexing their hands readying for the fight.

Haruo stepped back again and checked his rear. There was no one behind him, but the school was nearby. He knew that he had to keep the fight away from the school. He watched the two boys on the end of the line go after him first. They were out of sync with each other striking a few seconds apart. The first boy came fist raised going for Haruo’s head. Haruo ducked down, stepping past the first boy so that he could dodge the second flying through with his leg. The opening round was his for the moment. The third charged in frustration with the failure of the first two. He went to try to tackle Haruo, but failed to even touch his uniform as Haruo side stepped him.

The remaining boys stalked in a little on Haruo before joining together for a quick flurry of swings. Haruo backed away from their poorly executed tactic, but was caught by one of the recovered boys from before. He took a narrow sweep from the boy’s shoe leaving only a little stinging across his skin. There was no time to think about the close call as two more came in trying to close the circle around him. Haruo was familiar with the strategy and saw it before they were able to start. He leapt back out of the three boys as the two others joined in. Thinking that he had made it safely, he took a calm landing. A sharp strike to his cheek buried into him and knocked him down to the ground leaving him staggered.

“Ya gettin’ soft without yer daily beatens?” Takaoka mocked staring down at Haruo in the grass street. He tried to follow up quickly, but Haruo rolled out of the way of a slammed down foot.

Haruo got back up on his feet and backed away a little from the school. Watching the boys resume their stalking, Haruo brushed the back of his hand over the sore spot on his face checking for blood. There was none. ‘There’s something a little different about them today… They seem a little more organized and faster… It’s harder to avoid getting hit…’ Haruo kept his breathing even monitoring the movements as they came closer to him.

The longer he stared at them the more he developed an unsettled feeling. It felt like the air itself turned black from their menacing presence. He had seen the look in their eyes before, but never with the intensity that he had before. It was like they were starved. Haruo saw the next round of attacks coming at him even faster than before. He narrowly dodged an arm and leg only to be grabbed from behind by one of the boys. Another boy took advantage of his trapped state running him down with a series of punches. Laughter from the rest of the band erupted with Haruo captured.

Takaoka stepped forward once the boy had finished his work on Haruo. He had a wicked smirk across his face. His index finger stroked the side of his jaw as his mind turned over one twisted thought after another. “What’s wrong Yoneda? Yer so weak!” He rammed his fist into Haruo’s stomach, accenting his words at the end. Haruo coughed from the impact, receiving a short round of bemused laughter. Takaoka gave up a few more punches into the Haruo punching bag before he let up and gave his buddies a chance.

Haruo struggled trying to break free, but otherwise remained in taking whatever they gave him, never letting out anything more than a cough. He knew that they would eventually grow tired of beating him up and leave. It was just a matter of waiting it out. Escape seemed impossible today. The ravaging looks were oppressive.

“Keep it up boys! He’s still got that look in his eyes!” Takaoka continued to smirk at his entertainment, finding Haruo’s face to always be very enjoyable to watch. He crossed his arms waiting for the moment that he savored. “I’m not hearin’ anythin’ break—“ Takaoka’s words were suddenly cut off as two feet were planted in his face, knocking him over into the grass.

“Boss?!” a couple of the boys said, turning when they heard a very painful crack. The others looked back as a long shadow cast blanketed the figure in darkness. Burning eyes were the only thing that they could see as they started to tremble a little.

The figure stepped forward cracking his knuckles. “Sorry I got my party invitation a little late!” Yuki smirked darkly as he started towards the five boys.