Friday night. The end of the work week, when people are heading home to loosen their ties, kick off their shoes, and relax. For one man, however, this particular night was anything but relaxing.

“Ah!!! Crap! I’m gonna be late!”

A man of average height, casually dressed in jeans and a hoodie that seemed one size too big, hurried through the night. His movements were bordering on inhuman as he hastened through the hallways of the apartment building, footsteps echoing off the walls.

Good thing no one is around tonight… he couldn’t help but think.

He slows to turn a corner and stops in front of a door on the other side. After taking a second to catch his breath, he sweeps his unkempt black hair back into a more presentable fashion and pulls open the door. There are two men and two women sitting around a kotatsu inside. Each of them is sitting on a different side; the woman on the side facing the door looks up as he opens it. Her red hair bobs as her sea green eyes look towards him. Her smile widens as she calls out to him.

“Noboru! You’re late!”

After hearing her exclamation, the other three turned towards the door as well.

“Yo.” Noboru, the guy who just entered the room, raised his hand in a greeting.

“Noboru, Noboru, come sit by me!”

The red haired lady bounced up and down as she patted the floor next to her. However, someone else wasn’t going to let that pass. The guy to Noboru’s right spoke up.

“No way, Noboru’s gonna sit with me Akane, not you.”

The man smiled, it was an attractive smile. Perfectly accentuated by his chiseled jawline and hazel eyes, his blonde hair only adding to the package deal that was his face. The other man in the room, on the opposite end of the kotatsu from the one who just spoke, decided to chime in.

“Hey, uh, if you want I can just sit next to someone and you can have this side Noboru.”

The boy also smiled, but it was far different from the blonde’s. This smile was filled with anxiety, and was not matched with killer looks. That’s not to say that he was unattractive, in fact his well-kept brown hair suited his face rather well, but when compared to blonde, he was unremarkable.

The last person in the room, a girl who was sitting with her back to the door, merely looked backwards before moving over slightly and softly patting the ground next to her. She had long black hair with piercing blue eyes that was sharply contrasted by the dull look on her face. She tilted her head in an unspoken question, next to me? Noboru smiled at her, and moved to sit down.

“Don’t worry about getting up, Orochi, I’ll just sit next to Yuriko.” Noboru sat next to the black haired woman, Yuriko, while addressing Orochi, the brown haired man.

Akane curled her mouth into a pout. “How come it’s always Yuriko…” She said in mock anger.

“Oh come on Akane, he’s sat next to you everyday at school for three years, let him choose someone else. Although I have to say, I’m a little peeved he didn’t choose me.” The blond haired man spoke up seemingly in defense of Noboru, before turning on him at the end.

“Why would I sit next to a guy, Gorou, if you’re into that stuff you’ll have to use Orochi, cause that’s not for me.”

“U-umm, I’m also not into that, sorry Gorou…”

“W-wait, no, you’ve got it wrong! Don’t look at me like that, Orochi!”

Gorou then reached over and flicked Noboru on the head. “Ow, hey, what was that for? You want to go?” Laughing at Noboru’s overblown reaction, Gorou leans back into his seat once more. “That’s for calling me gay, and for being late, dumbass. If there’s no punishment you’ll never learn.” Hearing those words, Noboru grimaced. Seeing his expression, the other four let out chuckles, before Akane spoke up. “Well, now that Noboru is here, let the high school graduation party commence!” Akane brought her drink up to the center, and shortly after everyone followed suit.

‘””””Cheers!”””””

For the next two hours, the five friends laughed and played, causing enough of a ruckus that the neighbors pounded on the door. Deciding that that was a sign to start packing it up, the five quieted down and just relaxed for a moment, reminiscing on the past.

“Shit, it’s already been three years since we all met, huh?”

Gorou suddenly spoke up, his head leaned back, looking at the ceiling in thought. His memories naturally drifted back to the first day of his time in high school.

...

A younger, slightly smaller Gorou walked the halls of his new high school. Despite the excitement going through his body at the thought of new experiences, his face was quite grim. The reason for that was simple.

“I’m lost!”

Panicking, Gorou began looking for someone to help him, when suddenly someone called out to him.

“Hi hi! You lost? I can help! Where do you want to go?”

Gorou turned around to see a red haired beauty smiling at him, his cheeks naturally turned red, but he kept his composure...mostly.

“Y-yeah, I’m looking for room 110b. I’m a bit lost…”

When he said the room, the red haired girl’s smile widened.

“Really?! We’re in the same class! That’s so exciting. Oh oh, I’m Kawahara Akane by the way, just call me Akane, mkay?”

“S-sure.” Gorou was confused by her cheerful, carefree attitude. First name basis already, this girl is crazy. “Uh, I’m Uyehara Gorou, nice to meet you.”

“Yup! Nice to meet you too, Gorou. Now then follow me, let’s get to class.”

The two of them walked off together, and in a short while they arrived at the classroom. Everyone’s assigned seats were already projected on the board in the front of the class, so they both took a look.

“Hey hey, we sit really close together! Isn’t that great!”

“Y-yeah, it is.” Gorou just couldn’t get used to Akane’s peppy attitude.

“Oh, look there’s someone who sits by us here already. Let’s go introduce ourselves!”

Dragging Gorou along with her, Akane walked up to the boy sitting at his desk. He had attention focused on his phone so he didn’t see the two approach.

“Hey hey!” At Akane’s loud greeting, the boy jolted in his seat before quickly looking upwards. Akane chuckled slightly at his reaction before smiling brightly at him.

“U-um, c-can I help you?” The boy nervously asked, it seemed he was not too good at upholding a conversation.

“I’m going to be sitting by you so I want to be friends! I’m Kawahara Akane, but just call me Akane, mkay?” As she spoke she pulled Gorou into the conversation, both literally and figuratively. “This is Gorou, he's also sitting by you!”

Stumbling slightly after being pulled, Gorou straightened himself before turning to the boy. “Uh, yeah. I’m Uyehara Gorou, I’ll be sitting right behind you. Nice to meet you.”

“Y-yeah, um, I’m Takemoto Orochi. Nice to meet both of you too, Kawahara, Uyehara.” Akane suddenly frowned.

“No no, not Kawahara, Akane, A-K-A-N-E, mkay?”

“A-ah, b-but we just met, so first name is-”

“Nope, don’t care, I’m calling you Orochi, and you’re calling me Akane, mkay?”

“O-okay.” Cowed by Akane’s intensity, Orochi ended up agreeing. Satisfied, Akane took her seat, causing Gorou to follow suit. Akane sat next to Orochi, while Gorou was behind him.

“Wow, looks like we have some cheery neighbors.”

“Yeah.”

Two new voices drew the three’s attention. Standing there was a guy and a girl. The guy had fairly long dark hair and a nice face, his uniform was slightly baggy around his figure but he still looked good. The girl had long black hair and bright blue eyes, but to contrast her beautiful looks, her uniform was sloppy. Her jacket was unbuttoned and her necktie untied.

“Oh oh, are you guys sitting near here?”

“Yep, I’m Tobe Noboru, I sit here.” He pointed to the empty seat next to Akane.

“Kaba Yuriko, I’m here.” Yuriko pointed to the seat behind Akane. Akane smiled brightly at them.

“I’m Kawahara Akane, but you can call me Akane. Nice to meet you Yuriko, Noboru!”

“Nice to meet you too.”

“Yep.”

Noboru and Yuriko didn’t seem at all flustered by Akane’s over familiar attitude. Akane turned around in her seat then reached over to the now sitting Yuriko, before starting to fix her uniform. Yuriko just tilted her head and let her do as she pleased.

“There, much better. Now your uniform is as pretty as you!” Akane smiled cheerfully as she said that. Yuriko gave a small smile as well before turning to Noboru.

“Does it look good?” She asked.

Noboru smiled, “Yep, looks good. Good job, Akane.”

Noboru’s praise only caused Akane to smile wider. “Oh oh, these two are Orochi and Gorou. They sit near us too.” Akane introduced the two boys suddenly, gesturing to each as she did so.

Gorou was the first to speak up. “Yeah, I’m Uyehara Gorou, nice to meet you.”

Orochi followed suit, but when he looked at Yuriko his cheeks flushed slightly. “I-I’m Takemoto Orochi, nice to meet you.” He turned his eyes downward, not making eye contact as he introduced himself.

“Nice to meet you too, Gorou, Orochi.” Noboru decided to use their first names as that’s what Akane was using.

“Yep.” Yuriko just gave her usual reply.

“Let’s have a fun year!” Akane said.

...

“All of us except Noboru and Yuriko, yeah. Honestly, I didn’t like you guys at first.”

At Orochi’s unexpected words Akane and Gorou both looked at him in shock, meanwhile Noboru and Yuriko gave each other a small smile. Well, except for one, I hated all of you. But I should probably keep that to myself.

“I mean, how could I, you guys were so annoying and you just happened to be in the desks around me. You all know I’m more of an introvert than any of you.”

…

It was two weeks into the school year and Orochi was fed up. The reason for his anger was the four people that sat around him. If the school was like a normal one where they changed classrooms for each class it would have been fine, he would only have to deal with them for one class period a day, however this school had a different system, instead of the students moving around, it was the teachers that went to different classrooms to teach. Since the curriculum is the same for every student, they all have to take the same classes, so the school devised this system to make things more efficient. Finally, he decided to speak up. He turned to Akane, the girl right next to him, and opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by her.

“Hey Orochi, why are you so quiet? We’re friends right, I want to talk with you more.” Akane looked at him with sad, questioning eyes. Seeing her look like that, his anger died down. He looked at the only person in the group that he didn’t think was annoying, Yuriko. Honestly, from the day he met her, Orochi was in love with Yuriko. She was beautiful and smart, but quiet and sloppy, all of which appealed to Orochi greatly, however his problem was the person sitting on the other side of Akane, namely, Noboru.

On the second day of school, Akane had asked why they always came to school together, and Noboru had said it was because they were childhood friends that are neighbors. Orochi realized he stood no chance against Noboru when it came to Yuriko when he saw them interact, so he tried to bury his feelings down.

“To be honest, I don’t really like being loud like you guys do…” Orochi responded to Akane in a way that hinted at them being too loud for him, but Akane didn’t seem to pick up on it.

“Hm? But Yuriko is quiet too, and she still at least listens? Why not do that?”

“A-ah, yeah, I guess.” Orochi awkwardly scratched his head.

Gorou suddenly spoke up. “Hey, Akane, don’t pressure him. Look, Orochi, you don’t have to follow this idiot’s whims if you don’t want to, but it is true that I at least want to be your friend, so maybe talk with us every once in a while?” Noboru nodded in agreement.

“A-ah, um, well, uh-”

As he stuttered, searching for the right words, Yuriko tilted her head.

“You don’t want to?”

Orochi couldn’t refuse when Yuriko was the one asking.

“Okay.”

...

Gorou and Akane both looked away, awkwardly scratching their necks. “W-well us being loud was a good thing, because it got you to start talking eventually.”

“Yeah, I spoke up to try to get you guys to quiet down, but not only did it not work, you guys dragged me into your conversations!” Orochi spoke with mock anger, but the half smile on his face betrayed his true feelings.

“To be honest, I’m just glad I made friends aside from Yuriko, I mean I spent all of middle school with only her as a friend, can you imagine it?” Noboru, with a cheeky smile on his face, decided to take a jab at Yuriko. “Well you being childhood friends and neighbors means you can’t help but be friends, huh?” Suddenly Orochi arched his eyebrows in confusion. “Speaking of, how come Yuriko was here on time but you weren’t? I’d have thought you two would come together.”

“Ah, that’s because I had martial arts practice before this.” Noboru explained. “Then I had to run home and shower before running here. Honestly it’s a miracle I wasn’t later than I was.” Yuriko then spoke up. “What was it today? Kendo?” Noboru shook his head. “No, today was just hand-to-hand.” Yuriko nodded, but she seemed to be the only one following along.

“Woah, woah. I knew Noboru did martial arts, but different types, I mean are you doing kendo and karate or something?” Gorou spoke up for the others in the group who were trying to figure out what was going on. Noboru scratched his head, “Ah, well, not quite. I practice a style that kind of encompasses everything, so the hand-to-hand of many Chinese and Japanese martial arts, as well as the basics of combat with almost any weapon you can think of.” The eyes of the others popped out of their heads as he spoke, unable to believe what he just said, and for some reason Yuriko puffed up her chest slightly, which didn’t go unnoticed by Orochi.

“How long have you been practicing?”

“Ummm?” Noboru brought his hand to his chin in thought. “Since I was a child, honestly I can’t remember a time where I wasn’t practicing.” His answer caused their already bulged eyes to burst out even further.

“So then, what weapon are you best with?”

“Probably the dual shortswords, I have the most practice with those by a long shot.”

“Dual shortswords… That’s so cool. Wait, that’s totally why you chose those, huh?”

Noboru smiled before nodding his head. When he was starting out and was given a choice for his first weapon, he believed the dual shortswords to be the coolest option, and he still does. Suddenly Gorou looked at his phone. “Crap, it’s eleven o’clock, I gotta go. Let’s do this again soon, alright?” As he got up, Akane and Orochi rose too. “Let’s all go together then, my mom’s probably expecting me back soon too.” Akane quickly hugged Yuriko. “I’m gonna miss you!” Yuriko rolled her eyes, “Just text me when you get home if you’re so lonely.”

Orochi turned to Noboru, “Hey, teach me some of that martial arts next time, eh?” Noboru chuckled in response. “If you want to get your ass beat then I’m all for it.” Akane picked that moment to rush in and hug Noboru. “Woah, Akane, a little warning next time would be nice, you almost knocked me over.”

“Teehee, next time just let yourself fall.” Akane didn’t pull back from the hug at all as she spoke, but Noboru, who was already used to Akane’s antics, wasn’t flustered in the slightest. He opened his mouth to respond, but saw something in the corner of his eye. Below his four friends, glowing circles with various markings appeared.

“What the f-!” Before he could finish his sentence a bright light overtook the room and, once it faded, there was nobody left inside.