The 9 Millimeter Kiss - Chapter 55: Chapter 55

"Yuki-chan, hurry."
"Uncle Shin...."
"Get out of the car. Look for help. It's okay. You'll be okay."
"Papa..."
"We'll be okay. Hurry... be careful."
"Shin!"
"It's okay. It'll be okay. Look at me."
"I'm scared..."
"I know. I know but you'll be okay. We'll be okay."
"What about Papa?"
"He-- He's okay. You're a good boy, right?"
"Y-yeah..."
"Then you're going to get out of the car. Stay on the side and ask for help. Okay?"
"But--"
"Can you be our little hero, Yuki-chan?"
"...okay."
"Good. Good. Now hurry."
The slash of cold water forced him awake with a gasp.
"Wake up you stupid boy!"
The sound of a bucket being tossed aside made him involuntarily flinch. Lightly coughing out water from his mouth.
"Sorry--"
"Save it! Your chores are doubled for a week, no dinner. Hurry up already boy!"
Yuki quickly scampered up, "Yes, ma'am."
It had been more than a month.
"We tried waking you." a whisper from another kid, the oldest of them there.
Yuki only nodded in thanks.
His Papa hadn't had any relatives or even distant relatives, not any they could trace back to anyway. Yuki knew he was dead. He wasn't sure about Uncle Shin but with the way his family threw him dirty glances at him upon meeting, it was certain Yuki wouldn't be taken in by them.
Not even the family from his maternal side would take him in. Mori-san had let it slip out families of such status wouldn't dare take in anyone who didn't have a quirk.
Yuki didn't know much about his mother, having passed away when he was only a couple months old. Doctors listing out his potential medical illness he could develop later in life.
He didn't know anyone. He didn't have any friends or relatives.
He was alone.
"I know you're only staying for a couple days but how old are you?" a girl asked.
Yuki was currently staying at a temporary home before he would be officially assigned a foster place somewhere else.
"Five..."
The girl's eyes lit up, "I'm turning 6 soon." she whispered.
"When's your birthday?"
Yuki continued to clean, shrugging "It passed already."
"Oh. That's too bad. Happy late birthday then."
"Thank--"
"Why do I hear talking!" the thunderous voice spoke.
The two quickly turned their heads down to their work.
"He was such a nuisance. Caused trouble for me and all the other kids!"
Yuki clenched onto a bag which held the few belongings he was allowed to take with him.
Clothes. A photo of the three. A book...
He was told once he was of age he would be able to reclaim everything. But a part of him wondered if that was a lie. A lie to instill hope into returning to the property he grew up in and which his Papa owned and left him with everything in his will.
His family lawyer had passed. So who knows...
"Make sure they're able to handle another troublemaker. He's a sneaky little rat."
"I'll make note of it. Have a nice day."
He wasn't allowed to see them one last time. The way the doctors face showed nothing but pity and sympathy was enough to get him to stop asking.
"--you'll be starting late but it's better now than never."
Yuki snapped out of his daze. He'd been looking out the window and up into the cloudy winter sky.
"Starting what?"
An annoyed click came from the social worker, "School. Pay attention will you? Your records say you never attended school so you'll probably be behind."
"Oh. School." Uncle Shin had wanted him to go to school.
"You know how to read right?"
"Yeah."
"Really? Do you know how to write?"
"Yes."
"Good. Maybe you won't do as terrible."
Yuki didn't reply. Only turning to look back out the window.
It felt like eternity since he'd had a warm meal.
The stale bread in his hands was enough to make him lose his appetite.
"Are you going to eat that or not?" another boy asked.
Yuki silently handed it over.
"Thanks, not doing you any favors though."
It didn't matter, it felt like he could go days without eating and he'd still wouldn't get hungry.
There were nights he couldn't sleep. Finding it too cold with only one measly bed sheet. He kept quiet and his head down the majority of the time. Cleaning and doing as he was told.
The places he'd been too so far weren't as kind. Younger kids warning him of the 'rules.'
He'd learned quickly to never step out of line. But sometimes, he didn't do anything and a punishment would come his way.
Yuki had noticed there were more boys than there were girls. More quirkless and those of the lesser kind of quirks he'd once indirectly insulted.
"--try to make this place last. We can't alway have you transferred because of your bad behavior!" a social worker spat out.
"I'm sorry." Yuki mumbled.
"Sorry doesn't cut it here kid!"
Yuki's hands instinctively went to claw at his shoulders. The faint stinging of the numerous scratches he'd given himself.
He'd lost track of where he was. Yuki would ask how many prefectures he's been in but he was scared to ask.
His once constant pestering for answers, now gone.
"We're here." the social worker announced, putting the car into park. "They're relatively new to the system. So behave." they warned.
Yuki mindlessly nodded. Unbuckling himself and dragging along his small bag out the car with him.
They were... okay.
It was a family of four. A dad, a mom, a daughter and a son. It was by far the best place he'd been sent to. He was the only one there. They fed him. He did the chores. They gave him a small room to himself, which was more like a storage closet but it was enough to get comfortable with. They didn't talk to him. Only when they wanted something cleaned or to get something for them.
"You start school soon, I heard?" the father told him.
"Yes, sir." Yuki politely spoke, not daring to look at him above the chin. He'd learn that the hard way from someone else.
"I guess we'll have to buy your uniform." He sighed, clearly bored.
A small spark of joy ignited from Yuki's chest.
"Yes-- Thank you, sir." he quickly corrected himself.
Yuki looked down at the paper again.
He could read but...
"It's so messy." he mumbled at the directions.
He was in a small town and somehow managed to get lost.
"Hey!" someone shouted.
Yuki looked up to see a girl with the same uniform waving at him.
He looked behind him to check if they'd call for someone else.
"I'm waving at you, silly!" she giggled.
Yuki turned back to her, pointing at himself.
"Me?"
"Yeah! You're headed the wrong way!" she told him.
Yuki looked down at the paper then back at the girl.
"Hurry! Or we'll be late!" she grinned.
Trusting in the strange girl, he rushed to meet up with her. The two, running towards the school grounds before the bell rang.
Yuki was in room 1-C. He'd lost the strange girl in the crowd of parents and children bidding farewell to each other.
He was new to the school and joining for the last couple of weeks of the school year was certainly going to make him stand out.
"Everyone! We have a new student joining us today!" the teachers announced.
Yuki clutched onto the worn out backpack he was 'gifted' by the family he was staying with.
"Why don't you introduce yourself?"
Yuki glanced around the class before speaking, "My name is Satori Yuki, it's nice to meet you."
"What's your quirk!" a boy shouted excitedly.
"Now, now. You can ask him questions during break time. There's a seat in the back next to Okamoto, can you raise your hand please?"
A hand in the far right back shot upwards.
It was the strange girl.
Once class started it was immediate the strange girl began to whisper to him.
"I'm Okamoto Mai. But you can call me Mai."
"Yuki." the grey-eyed boy nodded.
"You don't talk much do you?"
Yuki didn't reply. Taking out his work book as the teacher had instructed.
"Do you have a quir--"
"Okamoto-san! Please pay attention or we'll have to call in your parents again!"
"Sorry, Sensei!" Mai half-heartedly apologized.
Yuki had been able to dodge answering what his 'quirk' was in the past by simply walking away. But school seemed to be different.
"Oi! New kid! What's your quirk?!"
"Yeah! Tell us!"
"What is it?"
"Is it flashy?"
"Do you want to be a hero too?"
"Where are you from?"
"Where do you live?"
Overwhelmed with the questioning Yuki remained quiet until they finally stopped asking, now waiting for a reply.
"I'm-- I was homeschooled before..."
"What about your quirk?!"
"It's not that impor--"
"What is it!"
Yuki flinched at the aggressiveness of his peers.
His Papa has warned him of disclosing his quirkless status but at this point it seemed kind of inevitable.
"I'm quirkless."
Yuki couldn't help but feel like a disappointment in that moment.
The excitement and curiosity of his new classmates turning disinterested.
Simply walking away from his table, a few throwing him a look he'd come to recognize via his Papa.
"Are you really quirkless?" Mai asked.
Yuki turned to look at her. She was eating a simple sandwich with a packet of fruit snacks.
"...yeah."
"Aren't you going to eat?" she asked.
Yuki set his hands onto his lap and looked down in shame. "I didn't bring lunch."
"Do you want half?"
"Huh?"
"Half. You can have half of it." she told him as she attempted to pull her sandwich apart.
"W- why?"
Mai smiled successfully, holding it out to him.
"Us quirkless have to stick together!" she grinned.
Thus his first friend came to be. And it was the best sandwich he'd had in a while.
"So you're a foster kid?" Mai asked as she repeatedly stabbed the mud.
Yuki simply watched the mud. It'd rained in the morning.
"Yeah."
"Wow. How are people taking care of you?" she asked, beginning her dig.
"They're... there."
"I see." she nodded. A worm wiggling out into the open.
"My mom's also just there. Too busy with her 'boyfriend.' He's probably cheating on her too. The other three did the same."
Yuki snapped his head to her in shock. She'd dropped that so casually.
"See! This is what the weak do when they don't have quirks!" a voice taunted from behind them.
The two turned around to look at, what Mai had once described to him as, 'the fattest of pigs' from the class.
"Oh look, it's the piglet talking." Mai huffed, seemingly disappointed.
Yuki didn't know if to agree verbally or with a nod.
"Shut up! At least I'm not at the bottom of the class. Stupid weakling!"
"Yeah. You're down to the negatives where your shits at." Mai quickly retorted.
Yuki covered his mouth to hide a smile.
"You got something to laugh at?!" he was asking Yuki this time.
Yuki dropped his smile and shook his head.
"That's what I thought!"
"Yuki-kun~ You have to be honest. Tell him it's the little bitch screaming that makes you laugh!"
"Who's screaming?" the boy smirked.
A wicked grin plastered onto her face. "YOU ARE!"
The worm she'd dug was flicked onto the boy's face.
Yuki hadn't heard a boy scream in such a high pitch as he did that day.
They were connected to the hip. Meeting up to go to school and then heading to the park after school. Mostly for Mai to look for bugs. By the next school year they were lucky to be in the same class again. Yuki had practically been tackled to the floor by Mai in glee, he was stuck with her for the next year.
"Mai, your wrist is bruised." Yuki quietly pointed out one afternoon.
"Oh!" She quickly pulled down her sleeve. "I accidentally fell on it. It'll be fine."
Yuki frowned but didn't push it.
He'd slowly noticed how none of the girls ever invited her to play with them. Yuki took a guess at her fascination with insects was the reason.
"Boo!" Mai grinned holding up a beetle to his face.
Yuki only frowned. "You're getting dirt on my homework."
"Nerd~" she whined, not having gotten the reaction she was looking for.
"You're not scared of bugs?" she asked him, setting the beetle onto a tree trunk.
They frequently hid in the small woods the park was next to. According to Mai there was a haunted cottage nearby and no kid was brave enough to venture near it as much as they did.
It was a nice place they found peace to themselves.
"Not really. I was taught to just leave them alone. Unless they get inside the house." Yuki simply told her.
"Eh..." Mai slowly laid over his homework. "Ne, can you do my homework?"
"No."
"Can I copy then?"
"I can teach--"
"No~ Yuki-chan~"
"Chan?"
"Yea. Let me copy."
"No."
"I'll bring you onigiri tomorrow."
"3 and it's a deal."