A Tekken Story: Through the Years - Volume I
New Friends
Chapter Summary: Finally, everyone is off Akira’s back about her new
attitude, until her ex-best friends decide to confront her…
you steal, be prepared to suffer. Chapter Warnings:
Swearing.Notes: Can’t believe I’ve written and uploaded two
chapters. I started chapter 15 yesterday and got most of it done, so I finished
it off and wrote the whole of chapter 16 today. In all fairness, they’re both
pretty short chapters.Extra Notes: I’m quite glad I didn’t mesh these last few chapters
together; I think it works better with a period of time occurring between each
chapter.
Chapter 17 – “Basement”/”Said” will be up soon!
ATekken Story: Through the Years
He who throws away a friend is as bad as he who throws away his
life
Sophocles
Chapter 16 –New Friends
I spent the rest of my days alone
and dependent on me. I continued to go to school, but I would spend break and
lunch-time on my own. I continued with my job at the café, but I would avoid most
people and talking to them as much as could. Not that anyone else was trying to
avoid me as well.
I avoided staying at home for too
long as well. As soon as I got home from school or my shift, I would withdraw to
my bedroom or make plans and go out with Nanaya and
the others. Most the time we would hang out at the mall or at
the amusement arcade, messing around and having fun, inflicting fear into other
people without so much as uttering a word.
It was most entertaining.
Me and Mom had stopping to eachother entirely while
Hana would flinch every single time I came into her view.
I didn’t feel guilty. I don’t regret anything I’ve done.
I didn’t care. I didn’t about
anything – my grades, my attitude, my health – I just wanted a good time, enjoy
life.
And this is how I’m doing it. Screw everyone else.
It was the end to another tediousweek. The only thing that had kept me sane during school-time was the fact that
I had plans to meet up with Nanaya, Lulu, Hiryu and Shiki to have another shopping spree at the mall
(my third trip within a week). I quickly dressed into my leisure clothes (a
black-and-white skull patterned jumpsuit, my leather jacket and my Dr. Martens) and applied a touch of make-up (thick black
eyeliner with matching black lipstick) before stashing my belongings into my
locker (I wasn’t gonna anything until Monday, when I came back to school) and
heading out to meet Nanaya and the others, who were
waiting for me by the gate.
The only thing I didn’t count on
my old group of friends.
“Hey, Akira!” a voice called out
as I came within the reach of the gates and my friends.
I knew the voice. I knew that I
shouldn’t turn around. But I did.
Ryo, Sakura, Jin, Ichigo, Satomi,
Tae and Shin were clustered together in the middle of the courtyard, between the
gates and the school building.
I sighed and tossed my hair over
my shoulder,” What do you want?”
Ryo advanced forward, away from
the others but nearer to me, his customary cool and calm exterior gone without
a trace, only to be replaced by a concerned-but-livid countenance.
“What the hell are you doing?” he
hissed, glowering.
“What does it look like I’m
doing?” I leered,” I’m meeting with my friends,”
“But, we’re your friends too!”
Satomi cried, her voice trembling from being close to tears.
I shook my head and closed my
eyes, smirking all the same,” You’re wrong. You’re not my friends,”
“What the hell is wrong with you?”
Sakura yelled, her hands squeezed into fists,” You’re not yourself anymore!”
“Akira, you have to see sense!
Look at what you’re doing to yourself! Look at what you’re doing to us!” Satmoi’s tone intensified a pitch.
“I did see sense,” I opened my
eyes to lock them with Ryo’s again,” But, let me ask you a question. Why do you
insist on harassing me?”
Ryo’s irritated frown loosened to
a more baffling frown,” B-Because we care about you, that’s why,”
I waggled my finger like I was
telling off a child,” Incorrect. You’re harassing me because I’m doing
something that goes against your wishes; therefore you take it as being selfish
behaviour. So, you want me to revert back to my old ways for your selfish
needs, right?”
“It isn’t like that, Akira, and
you know it,” Tae’s scowl wasn’t far off Ryo’s.
“Oh, but it is. You claim that I’m
the one being selfish and that you care about me, but you don’t – you’re
the ones being selfish,”
“What’s wrong with you?” Shin
asked, confounded in disbelief,” What happened to the sweet, thoughtful,
academic girl I made friends with not too long ago?”
“That sweet, thoughtful, academic
girl’s gone, so here I am instead,”
“You really don’t care, do you?”
Jin looked at me as if he understood me, but at the same time, like he was upset
with me.
“At last, we’re getting
somewhere!”
“So, that’s it? We’re going to
end it just like that?”
“I’m afraid so, Sakura-chan, but
it’s been a blast,”
“Stop screwing around!” Ichigo bawled.
“I’m not screwing around. I’m
just doing what I should have done a long time ago,”
“So…that’s it, huh?” Ryo lifted
his arms out, shining tears collecting in the corners of his eyes,” You’re just
going to throw away everything…and everyone. Your family,
your friends, me…us?”
I sniggered loud enough for them
to hear,” It would seem so,”
“I can’t believe you…,” he casted
his eyes away to the ground,” I can’t believe you’re doing this,”
“Get used to it,”
“Hey, Akira, let’s get a move on!”
Nanaya barked, the other
growing tense behind him.
“Them…,” Ryo’s
voice trembled,” They’re your new friends?”
“You could say that,”
“Why? Why them,
and not us?”
I peered at him inquisitively,” ‘Why’,
you ask? Because…they don’t demand their own selfish needs from me,”
“You…,” A sparkling tear seeped
down Ryo’s cheek.
“What’s wrong? Jealous?
Hmph,” I crossed my arms over my chest as an idea ticked
in my brain,” Oh, I see it now. You’re jealous because I’m hanging out with two
other guys, right?”
Ryo grated his teeth together. I
was right.
“You’re worried I might develop
feelings for one of them, right. Ha, I understand then. How about I ease your
mind for you?”
“W-What do you mean?” Ryo
sniffed.
“I mean that, to stop troubling your
mind, I’ll end what you call ‘our relationship’. Will that make you feel
better?”
He gulped, his eyes full, the
flow of his tears oozing down his cheeks,” Huh?”
“I’ll say it in words you’ll
understand: It’s over,”
I threw them all one last,
lingering look,” I suggest you all stay away from me from now on,”
I rotated and strode away,
relieved that I could forget everything that had just happened as I socialised
with my friends.