"Happy Birthday!"

 

Toshi had planned on just spending his birthday alone with his family. In his previous life he never really celebrated birthdays, so they didn't hold a great deal of significance to him. However, word got out that he had his birthday coming up and that he'd had a rough few days. While the details of Takara's attack didn't get out, people did hear that he'd apparently was depressed because of his old life at the previous school. Toshi's friends started going around telling people how upset he was at discovering what a jerk he used to be, so they wanted people to show him how much they liked the current Toshi.

 

That resulted in the pile of cards, small gifts, and food that appeared on his desk when he got to class.

 

Ruri was sitting at his desk as he walked in. Everyone cheered and clapped as he walked in. Ruri stood up and clapped as well. Toshi looked around, bewildered as he walked to his desk. He just stared as Ruri grinned at him, "Been watching it to make sure nothing happens to it." She offered him a box, "You might want this to pack everything up." Toshi looked around at everyone, then back at the pile and swallowed to keep his emotions under control, "I don't understand." Ruri laughed a bit, "Toshi, people like you. They heard that you got some bad news and everyone wanted to cheer you up." She gestured, "It might have gone a bit overboard." He covered his mouth and nodded as he stared at the pile. He looked up, squeaked, cleared his throat then spoke while still sounding choked up, "Thank you." He looked around, "Thank you, everyone one I..." He coughed then was quiet for a bit.

 

People just nodded. A few people gave him pats on the shoulder. Ruri kept standing there, "You okay?" Toshi cleared his throat again, "I had no idea." She nodded, "Yeah. It's part of your charm." Toshi looked confused. Ruri slowly shook her head a little, "You're nice to everyone, always willing to help out..." She stepped in closer to speak in a lower tone, "People are worried what's gonna happen when your sister leaves and people like the fact her brother will be around to keep Naora in line." She winked, "It doesn't hurt you're easy on the eyes." Toshi burst out laughing for a second then nodded, "I hope that's not the only reason, but..." He eyed the stack of cards, "Boy, I got a lot of thank you cards to fill out."

 

Ruri hit him lightly in the shoulder, "It's also how you're a lovable goofball. " She rolled a hand in the air, "And since your sister will be leaving at the end of the year, I think more than a few girls want to have a shot at you once she's no longer got you on lockdown." Toshi  furrowed his eyebrows as he picked a card at random and opened it, "I... didn't think of that." She shrugged, "More than a few girls asked me what your preferences were. Hope you don't mind I told them what you liked."

 

Toshi opened up the card, then immediately closed it. He went white as a ghost, "Ruri... when you told them what I liked, did you mention ALL my preferences?" She looked at him, starting to get a little worried at his tone of voice, "Well... just the basics." He handed her the card. She opened it up and looked. She raised an eyebrow, "That's... odd." Toshi leaned in to whisper to her, "That's a picture of a girl!" Ruri looked up, "Yeah. It's a selfie. I assume she wants you to know who gave it to you." Toshi's eyes grew wider as he stared in disbelief.

 

"She's TOPLESS."

 

---

 

Apparently when people asked Ruri what Toshi liked in a girl, she mentioned that he seemed to like breasts. In this world, women exposing their breasts is no big deal. Breast feeding in public happens all the time. Women don't run around totally naked because, well, it's more comfortable to wear a bra then not, but they also don't care if they get exposed either. So when the girls learned that Toshi apparently likes breasts, they figured, hey, why not send him a picture of what I got?

 

Can't hurt, might help.

 

This resulted in Toshi getting about a dozen shots of girls without shirts on, and another dozen completely topless. Most just made funny faces, and there were a few group shots, you could only say two or three actually tried to be sexy about it. This resulted in Toshi having pictures of just about half the girls in his class. Pictures that were, as far as people of this world were concerned, a maybe LITTLE bit on the risky side, but nothing that extreme.

 

Toshi, on the other hand, felt like he just got a box full of child pornography.

 

Which is to say, his internal moral compass was basically just spinning rapidly and all he could do was sit there and sweat. He wanted to burn all the pictures. Or rather, he wanted tell everyone he burned all the pictures then keep them hidden in his mattress. In his head he couldn't resolve the conflict, so for the moment, he'd kick the can down the road and tell everyone he'd like to open the letters at home where he can keep everything organized and doesn't have to worry about forgetting to send someone a thank you card.

 

---

 

"Happy Birthday!"

 

He was having lunch at his sister's table for a change. She insisted he come by so he made sure to go sit there. She had gone through the effort of buy him a birthday cake that was kept in the kitchen area until Toshi came out for lunch. He was presented with a cake that had two burning candles on it: A big old '16'. He'd met his sister's friends before but had not really sat down and ate lunch with them. Hinako insisted. Toshi got the impression it was about more than just sharing the cake. As the conversation rolled on, it became apparent that Hinako was thinking about the future, specifically the one where she wasn't going to be here to watch over Toshi. Half of Hinako's friends were graduating with her, but three of her friends were not. Toshi was a bit slow on the draw, but not that slow.

 

His sister was trying to set him up with a girlfriend.

 

Madoka was the second in command and most likely to take over for Hinako. Voted MVP her first year on the Roshi Senior High School baseball team, she took them to the finals, placing second in Tokyo. Apparently there is no 'softball' in this world, only mixed teams. There are boys who play as well as girls, but sports in general is seen as a 'girly' activity and as such boys who might excel at it tend to avoid the game. Madoka was a fanatic and the first mistake Toshi made was acting like he liked baseball. Don't get the wrong idea, Toshi likes baseball as much as the next guy, but Madoka had that overwhelming personality that absolutely dominates a conversation. Once she gots talking, she just couldn't stop, especially if it was about her favorite topic, baseball.

 

"Sure. Sounds like fun."

 

Madoka paused and looked at Toshi, "Huh?" Toshi had finished his cake a while ago and was just sitting there listening to the conversations going around the table. If anything, it was much more comfortable than sitting at his usual table. He looked back at her, "Practice with you?" She looked at him, a little confused. Toshi looked around, "You just asked me if I wanted to go to one of your practices with you?" She blinked and looked around, "Well, yeah, but... wait. You want to watch?" Toshi squinted a little, "No... play. Honestly, haven't played in a long time, so I'll be a little rusty."

 

Hinako looked at Toshi, "Uhh... you... never played baseball." Toshi looked at his sister, "Seriously?" She nodded, "Not... that I know of." Toshi looked around at the table then shrugged, "Weird. I feel like I have. Maybe I'm just remembering things wrong again." Hinako nodded, "Yeah. I think so." He shrugged again, "Eh. I like trying new things. Could be interesting. Who knows? Might be a natural." The table burst out laughing for a second. Abi bumped shoulders with him, "I like you! Yer crazy." Toshi frowned, "What's the joke?" Madoka raised an eyebrow, "You really don't have the build for it." Abi nodded, "Yeah. You might do good on the tennis team. You look light on your feet. Tennis is less about power and more about skill." She paused, "You should come by sometime. It's fun."

 

Toshi narrowed his eyes briefly, then deployed his well honed 'Phony Grin Of Steel' (tm), "Sure thing." Madoka nodded, "Eh, we have practice tomorrow. Come by after school and hang out a bit." Toshi nodded, ~Oh. My. God. My sister has no idea what I like in a girl. What the hell? Guys didn't talk down to girls this much in my old world... did they?~ The conversation dragged on and on, but it wasn't totally unpleasant. Eventually lunch ended and Toshi returned to class.

 

---

 

"So... what'd you think?"

 

Toshi was leaving school, heading out front along with everyone else. Hinako had slid up behind him and was talking to Toshi while leaning on his backpack and draping herself over his shoulder. Toshi looked sideways at his sister, "Think about what?" She hit him softly on the shoulder as she straightened up, "My friends. Half of us are graduating, so I wanted you to meet the ones who were staying. You seemed to like Madoka." Toshi shrugged, "She's okay." Hinako kept walking along, "Now, I know Mieko didn't say much, but she's sort of the quiet type. Takes a while to get her to open up around new people."

 

Toshi thought back and remembered one girl who sat on the far side of the table, ate in silence, and and never looked up, "The one across from me?" Hinako nodded, "I think she likes you." Toshi stumbled for half a step at that, ~Oh my god, could you be a little more heavy handed?~ Toshi nodded and tried to pretend to be interested, "Oh?" Hinako nodded, "Yeah. you know those martial artists types. They don't like to talk much." Toshi nodded, "Yeah."

 

Hinako eyed her brother for a bit, "Eh... look. I've been... a bit over protective the past few months." Toshi stopped dead and looked at her, "You don't say." Hinako rolled her eyes, "Yes. I admit it. Can you at least let me be sorry?" Toshi took a deep breath and resumed walking, "Sure. You can be sorry. I assume you are mentioning your friends because you approve of them?" She went quiet for a few steps, "I'm that obvious?" Toshi nodded as he pushed open the exit to leave the school, "You are that obvious." Hinako walked along side her brother, "I just want to make sure someone I trust is looking out for you." Toshi let out an exasperated sigh, "I get it, but you don't have to worry so much. It's not like I'm in constant peril."

 

As the words left his mouth, everything seemed to fade away as his ears filled with a static buzz. He felt a very familiar itching sensation start to build in his teeth. He looked around, but nobody else seemed to be experiencing what he was. It wasn't only buzzing, however. He heard a distant sound of someone walking. As he stood at the top of the steps, he looked about until he saw the only set of feet walking away that matched up with the sound.

 

It was Naora. She was leaving the school grounds, flanked by her two minions. They had just cleared the steps and were walking along side a short retaining wall that had the grassy lawn behind it. Nobody else was around them. Then Toshi heard another sound in isolation that cut through the buzz. The sound of a car engine turning on.

 

Hinako was trying to get his attention, but Toshi waved her off as he looked around from his elevated position. He saw a car with tinted windows that was parked on the side of the street start up its headlights in time with the engine noise. Toshi's eyes jumped from the car to Naora and back several times as he tried to figure out what was going on. Toshi's eyes went wide when he saw the car start to roll down its window and begin to accelerate. 

 

Toshi broke into a sprint.

 

---

 

Toshi had seen enough movies to know a drive by when he saw one.

 

What was boggling him was why he was getting the same feeling as when he tried to pick up that leaf. This clearly was something that was 'supposed' to happen, but Toshi wasn't the type to worry about the cosmic significance of his actions. A girl was about to get shot. He was going to save her. That's just how Toshi did things. It felt like he was running through syrup, but he realized that he wasn't just going slower. Everything was going slower. He thought about shouting out to her, but it occurred to him that she wouldn't be able to do anything on her own. Besides, between the buzzing in his ears and how sluggish he felt, he doubted he could have formed a coherent sentence, much less shout a warning.

 

Someone in front of Toshi stumbled and fell directly into his path.

 

The person looked rather surprised as he started to fall backwards. He began to pinwheel his arms for balance. There was no reason for his fall. He just abruptly lost his balance in a way that would block Toshi's path. The itching in his teeth reached a maddening pitch. It was going to take precious seconds to dance around the boy, seconds that Toshi didn't have. He also saw several other kids between him and Naora, ~How many of them are going to block my path?~ Hinako was shouting something behind him, but Toshi couldn't make it out. It sounded like she was a video playing at quarter speed.

 

Toshi turned slightly, took a short hop to step up onto the nearby railing, then leaped onto the retaining wall. He continued running along on top so he could bypass the crowd. As he closed in on Naora and her friends, he saw the car out of the corner of his eye. Everything was moving funny, as if a graphics card was choking while trying to render. He could see a glint of gunmetal in the car's open window. He leaned into his sprint, pumping his legs as hard as he could. He started to lose traction as each step seemed to knock loose another brick from the top of the wall. He was right next to the three when he saw an arm holding a pistol start to swing out of the car and take aim. Toshi leapt and spread his arms wide. The buzzing sound was deafening. The itch was making his teeth rattle in his head. He saw Naora turn and spot the car. Everything froze. 

 

Naora closed her eyes.

 

Toshi narrowed his own and focused on Naora. Toshi concentrated on that feeling he had right before he dislodged the leaf. Suddenly everything returned to normal speed. Toshi clotheslined both of Naora's friends with his arms outstretched and the three plowed into the back of Naora like an avalanche. All four went down to the ground just as the assassin started firing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's when Toshi took two bullets in the back.