{About twenty years ago}

[Playtime hour in a Japanese kindergarten somewhere]

The place where it all began, where the entire story starts when it comes to my life. I don't remember its specifics, but I do remember it being a morning in the cold winter. For some reason, that day at school, I wasn't really feeling that great, but as it's custom, I had to go anyway.

The school playground was lively like always, with kids running around playing their dumb games while others read books near a tree, but no one else caught my attention more than the single girl staring into the void as her pen stroked her notebook paper once in a while.

The little pale girl was wearing the usual school uniform, but for some reason, she looked cuter than any of the others, including me. She looked like she was a natural beauty in our class but, for some reason, never socialized with everybody else.

I remember always seeing that lonely girl writing stuff in her notebook whenever she finished staring out of the window, completely ignoring the teacher most of the day. The same almost always happened at playtime outside, and for some reason, that caught my attention; I felt curious and wanted to know why she was always so cold, so reserved, and so shy.

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I've never been a social person myself, but I was the one who made the first move that fateful day that would spark the beginning of one of my longest friendships ever. I remember slowly walking toward the lonely girl while she was sketching something without even noticing me coming at her when suddenly I was next to her.

I still remember the little girl's shameful look and her red face once she noticed me staring into her notebook with her bizarre sketch and writing near it. "Don't look!" She screamed as she quickly closed her notebook and hid it in her arms.

As to what I said back to her, it was something along the lines of awkward silence and disbelief at what I had seen, or in other words, I totally froze and didn't know how to handle that much talking from someone else.

"Hello? May I help you?" Asked the cute girl while hugging her notebook, still ashamed for some reason, and I just stood there not knowing what to say other than a short "I'm sorry!"

The little girl then simply said, "It's okay, I'll be going now." And for some reason, I answered with the name I managed to read on that drawing of hers: "Toshiro." Following that awkward call, the little girl went out, running away faster than the wind.

As to what they were drawing and who the little girl was, it would sooner or later turn out to be Aoi Nakamura. She was the most extravagant little thing I could ever become friends with; you could say she was like me but with actual imagination and a talent for things.

This little drawing still cracks a little smile on me every time I see it. 'Toshiro, the righteous dumb Oni!'