Ch.3

Feeling the eyes of the wanted female students, Akira swirled in the mid-air, pulling his amazing stunts with his skating board. He smiled widely when everyone stared at him in awe. This is his weekend plan which was to impress the neighborhood ladies. The street was filled with all types of girls from young to youth, praising him for his unique ability to pull stunts in the mid-air with his skating board.

At the back of everyone, Luca stood swaying his hands here and there along with the rhythm of Akira's swirling body. He was sweating furiously, fearing that he would accidentally drop Akira while he is in the act of impressing ladies. Akira was blindly believing Luca while on the other hand, Luca was on the verge of peeing in his pants. He wasn't that much confident with his power.

"Tsk tsk, look at him —taking all the credits of your hard work", Izumi appeared behind Luca with a lollipop in her hand.

For a moment, Luca almost dropped Akira on the ground which somehow didn't go unnoticed by Izumi. She laughed, shaking her head. "Just drop him, Luca"

"Haha, You are kidding right?", Luca laughed nervously, not knowing if she was serious but he only earned a little giggle from her.

Izumi waved at her brother who just rolled his eyes in return as usual.

Akira had enough of showing off and was about to signal Luca to stop but all of a sudden, everything paused. He didn't really take it seriously until three passed. He neither fell onto the ground nor did anyone make a move. Even a random fly had paused in front of him. It took a few minutes for him to understand what had just happened. The time had stopped! He looked around only to see the paused figures of the ladies who were staring at him with their unwavering frozen smiles.

What's happening? W—What the hell is going on?! I'm in the mid-air! Luca! Sister!

He looked at his best friend and sister only to see their paused figures behind everyone's back. Both of them were paused as everyone! Izumi was still in her position of wavering at him and Luca's hands were still in the air —in his wind-controlling position!

Just as he was about to jump down, he stopped seeing a small figure appearing behind Luca and Izumi. The figure looked like a little kid in his early adolescence. It was a boy with pitch-black hair which had a strange silvery-white color at the tip of his hair. His eyes had the color of Sun, bright reddish-orange color which symbolically resembled the Sun. They were fathomless in many different ways. Wearing a pitch-black outfit, he stood proudly with his hands behind his back. He seemed to be younger than Akira and could be considered as an early teenager but the aura around him said otherwise. He had a look of maturity.

But the most important thing was —he could move! He wasn't paused as the rest of the world. He walked forward and stopped in between Luca and Izumi which somehow gave a terrible heart attack to Akira.

"You —", Akira couldn't continue when the boy changes Luca's hands' position. He tried hard to jump down but he was stuck in his weird position in the mid-air. He could only watch helplessly.

The boy clenched Luca's hands into a fist and looked back at him with a smirk.

"Who the hell are you?!"

The boy gave him an amused look at him but didn't say anything. Akira couldn't process anything, what was happening? Is this a dream? But it seemed too real.

The boy brought his index finger to his lips, shushing him and flickered his fingers.

Akira's breath got stuck on his throat as he felt the gravity under him, pulling him like a piece of magnet. In the next second, he was down on the pavement like a dead frog.

"Fuck!"

He could hear his sister's worried voice along with Luca's panicked voice. Akira groaned, feeling a sharp pain on his chin.

"Akira!", Izumu helped him to stand up. 

He immediately looked around as he got up, brushing dust away from his chest. But to his astonishment, that mysterious boy wasn't around anymore.

His strange behavior didn't go unnoticed by Izumi and Luca.

"What's wrong?", Izumi asked carefully.

Akira sighed to himself. He felt like it was just a mere dream he saw. Shaking his head, he said nothing. He wasn't even sure if it was real or not, so he could only dismiss the topic for now. It was the first time he saw such a 'thing' and he couldn't let others worry about it. What if it was just his imagination, he thought.

.

"Fuck! I made a fool out of myself in front of them! Shit! ", Akira whined walking on the streets filled with people, along with Luca and Izumi.

"I told you before that you shouldn't trust me with these types of things! Didn't I warn you before?!", Luca lashed out, feeling quite embarrassed that he failed to keep him safe.

Izumi, "Did you at least learn your lesson? Don't bother Luca anymore! You shouldn't use him!"

Luca felt himself on cloud nine. He looked at her with hearty eyes.

Akira made a disgusted face, seeing Luca going into his fanboy mode. He almost gagged. "He didn't say no!"

"Still you shouldn't do that!"

"Stop spoiling Luca! You are annoying! You know that?"

Izumi, "I know! But Akira —"

"It's totally fine Izumi", Luca interrupted seeing them on the way to bicker again. "It's not like I can do stunts like him. I'm just helping him to go a little bit higher but the rest of the hard work is his"

Akira, "I'm just helping Luca. Okay? Stop nagging all the time! Are you my mom?!"

Luca, "He is right Izumi. He is just helping me to build up my confidence. I'm just too scared to use my power, so yeah"

Izumi nodded as she understood what he said. She looked at Akira's annoyed look and felt bad for accusing him. "Really? Then I must have misunderstood!", she quickly approached Akira and pulled him to a headlock before messing his hair with a wide smile. "My little bro is a grown man now huh! I'm so sorry Akira! should I buy you ice cream to make it up for you?"

Izumi was too hyped-up while Akira was trying his best to struggle out from her grip.

"Let go! You are messing my hair!"

"Nope! Aww, my little bro is too cute!"

"Fuck off! Stop treating me like a kid!", he shoved away her hands and tried to fix his hair. But he couldn't even breathe for a second when Izumi again pulled him to a headlock along with Luca from the other side. She pulled the two boys, laughing so hard.

"Hahaha! Let's go Let's go! My two little brothers must be hungry now. I'll treat you!"

People were all busy even though it was the weekend. Streets were buzzing with street vendors who sell tasty fast food which was the favorite of the trio. It was the most normal day anyone could ever ask. It was somehow too perfect for Akira even though he embarrassed himself in front of the ladies early in the morning.

"My parents have gone to their hometown. So, I'm gonna stay in your home", Luca said munching onto the hotdog Izumi just bought him.

"Why didn't you go with them? You used to go along with them right?", Akira asked, stuffing his mouth with a big size hotdog.

"I didn't feel like going. My cousins are a pain in the ass. I don't want to see their annoying asses"

Akira hummed as he finished his hotdog. As he was walking, he felt like something is missing. With a frown, he looked back only to see his sister gawking at a shop with her big eyes filled with stars. Luca also stopped and looked back.

Akira peeked at what is she looking for. It was an old Japanese shop. It was really rare to find such a shop in Decorah.

"What are you drooling for?"

Izumi was startled by Akira's voice. She smiled sheepishly. Her face was almost red from the excitement. Looking inside, she pressed her palms onto the glass, staring at a certain hairpin stick. It was really beautiful and pleasing to the eye. A black stick with red pearls decorating the head of the pin and a red tassel hanging on it. "It's so beautiful. Isn't it? Should we buy it? Mother's birthday is coming noh?"

Akira raised an eyebrow, "If you like it, why don't you buy it for yourself, idiot?"

Luca, "Stop calling her an idiot! Izumi, should I buy it for you?!"

Izumi shook her head. "It's no use for me. But it'll look good on mother. Don't you think so Akira?"

"Let's just leave if you aren't going to buy it. Mom has so many hairpin sticks at home"

Izumi, "Oh right right! Mother already has a bunch of hairpin sticks", Even though she said it, she still couldn't avert her gaze away from the hairpin stick.

Akira forced out a sigh."You are hopeless", He mumbled under his breath. "Let's go home! It's getting late!"

•••

Akira was the first one to run towards the downhill. He laughed, looking back at Luca who was trying to beat him to run. Behind Luca, Izumi followed them with a grin on her face, letting both boys win.

Akira looked ahead to find their house but he couldn't find the lights. It was already past evening. He wondered why his house wasn't lightened up yet.

He shrugged off his thoughts and ran as fast as he could. As he reached the house, he screamed, "MOM!DAD!WE ARE HOME!"

As he stopped in front of the house, his smile gradually disappeared.

Luca and Izumi finally reached him but stopped. Their smiles dropped.

In front of them, was none other than their father's lifeless body lying on the ground of dust, with blood gushing out from the seven senses.

Raising their head, they saw their mother's body pinned to the wall as a display. She was pinned to the wall by a huge net-like thing. It looked like a huge spider Web. And her eyes were wide open with blood dripping down from her mouth.

The trio stood there motionless.

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