The Dream Shifter

Chapter 134

"Sorry I got my party invitation a little late!" Yuki smirked darkly as he started towards the five boys. He took his time in walking towards the five boys letting the presence speak for itself. It made all of their minds turn wild with fears and ideas of what might happen. They had just seen their leader totally utterly defeated in a single attack. Knowing that had happened was more than enough to paralyze them all in their step.

Yuki knew that he did not have to do much of anything with this type of opponent. He might have been past his fighting days, but street gangs were a very simple bunch for him to deal with. The need for powers was not required. Striking down the head and adding a little fear always had put what seemed imbalanced firmly in his corner. 'This is almost boring…'

The grin on his face grew a little more painting panels of imagery in the boys' minds as what Yuki might be thinking. In the last few steps Yuki broke into a full sprint taking down two boys with loud punch to their stomachs. Hearing their companions knocked down was enough to break the others out of their paralysis and try to surround him from behind to rescue their unconscious friends. Yuki tilted his head a little hearing their footsteps closing as expected. He took his left foot up spinning behind himself to smash his dirty sneakers through the cheeks of the three remaining boys. The boys dropped to the ground sharply out cold.

A small sigh came from Yuki with a job well done. "You're safe now!" he declared proudly before he turned away moving towards one of the boys. Yuki began to lift the teenager up like he was about to carry him when he stopped. He looked back over to the person that he had just rescued and blinked. The distance covered between them was in an instant putting Yuki, hauling the boy with him, staring face to face with Haruo. "Hey! You're that guy from the ninja girl's place!"

Yuki stared on longer trying to remember his name (actually went to rescue someone without checking to see who it was that he was rescuing). Unfortunately, even looking closer at him did not seem make it the name come to him. When he pulled away Yuki's features changed suddenly as it seemed that the name was finally coming to him. "You're…really quiet!"

Haruo nearly fell over listening to how absentminded Yuki was being in front of him. It was not as though he expected him to remember him after only one visit. 'Still as carefree and clueless appearing as the last time.' He straightened back up easily ignoring the previous taking blows. There was a more pressing matter for him. "Why'd you do that?"

By the time that Haruo had actually begun speaking Yuki was already out of sight as were a couple of the boys that had only been visible by the flattened grass that they were pushing down. The quiet words were not enough for Yuki to hear and Haruo looked around quickly trying to find where Yuki had gone. He found Yuki behind him walking towards a property wall of a house with a boy in tow over his shoulder. 'What's going on? He's speaking to me one second and then doing something else…' Haruo followed Yuki out of curiosity when he picked up the next boy.

He watched Yuki drop the kid gently down propped up against the wall. Once Yuki went back he could see that there were three others from the small band lined up together all unconscious. Haruo looked back at Yuki seeing him lifting up the next one only becoming more confused by Yuki. He was treating them carefully and helping out those that he had just knocked unconscious. 'Why's he helping them? He just mercilessly wiped them out a minute ago looking like he was enjoying it and yet now he's showing them kindness…kindness that they never would show… What's with him?'

Haruo had to keep watching just to see what was going to happen next. Nothing that Yuki was doing seemed to match up with what he saw from a moment before. There were no words between them while Yuki finished his work. "Why?" Haruo had to know now that Yuki was no longer distracted.

Yuki turned his head a little looking a bit surprised to see Haruo next to him. "Huh?" said Yuki genuinely confused by what Haruo was asking him.

"Why did you help them?"

"Oh!" Once the question was made clear to Yuki he stared up into the sky for a moment. He pulled his head back down to look at Haruo directly. Yuki had a smile on his face as he spoke. "Because they're people too! They might be bad guys, but that shouldn't mean that they should be treated poorly just because they're sleeping."

It appeared to be an honest answer and oddly naïve for Haruo to hear. "But they'll want revenge on you when they wake up."

"Then I guess we should be somewhere else when they wake up!" Yuki said cheerfully as he ran around behind Haruo swiftly. He started pushing on Haruo to encourage him to move despite his own uncertainty and confusion.

Haruo tried to look back at Yuki while he was being pushed along to protest, but all he saw when he looked back was the same pleasant expression as before. It was enough to make Haruo decide to walk on his own letting Yuki join him on his right. 'Because they're people?' The response from Yuki echoed in Haruo head as he thought about it. There was an undeniable fact in what he said, but Haruo was still having trouble accepting it. 'It's true I guess, but nothing is that simply defined… How can he treat it as such?' He could not stop thinking it over repeatedly. Where he was became lost to him.

"Haruo!" Yuki shouted so loudly it was difficult to actually determine the emotions attached.

Determined or not, it was enough to rudely break Haruo out of his internal trance. The surprise shock drawn from it was nearly enough to knock him over if he had a frailer frame. 'What's wrong now?' Haruo focused on Yuki having gathered his senses back after them being blown to the four winds a moment before. There were no words that he had to say, just a stare that clearly wanted an answer.

Yuki looked back over at Haruo picking up on Haruo demand. "I just remembered that your name was Haruo! It's been bugging me since I saw you. I was so relieved that I finally figured it out!"

A twitch developed momentarily in Haruo's eye as he heard the empty excuse. 'He yelled that loud just because he remembered my name?' Haruo corrected his expression. It was becoming tiring for him to be around Yuki with his excitable personality. 'Empty frivolities…this is why I prefer to be alone…' He held his tongue trying to enjoy the scarce moments of silence.

After Haruo had been too quiet for too long (determined solely on a metric by Yuki) Yuki jumped in front of Haruo planning on getting his attention. "You're a pretty strong looking guy, Haruo! How come you were letting them beat you up like that? I bet with those muscles you could lay them out flat easily!"

'You wouldn't understand…' Persistence was Yuki's only useful talent against Haruo. He was continuing to stare at him despite not returning an answer. Haruo had hoped that Yuki would just give up like those before him at done. Maintained silence would eventually give him the peace he desired, that was what he had learned. However, silence was not working on Yuki as he only seemed to be getting further in his face the longer that he held out. Therewere few people that could so easily break through into Haruo making him show emotions against his will and Yuki's ability was starting to annoy him. "Why did you stop them?" Haruo finally replied back.

Another question was not what Yuki was expecting, but rather than demanding an answer to his own he moved with the flow of the conversation. "Do I need a reason? I did it because I wanted to help someone in a problem. That's what people do. When you can't do it alone there are others to support you!" There was no thinking from Yuki as it easily came from his heart.

Haruo had nothing to say back to him and even his mind was blank for a moment. Such a selfless answer was not what he was expecting to hear. Yet it was not the reason that had Haruo empty. It was because they were familiar to him.

'Do I need a reason? I did it because I wanted to help someone in a problem. That's what people do. When you can't do it alone there are others to support you.' They might have been Yuki's words, but it was not his voice echoing in Haruo's mind now. There was someone else that he knew that had told him the same thing a long time ago. He never expected to hear them once more.

The longer that the words hung in his mind the further back he was sent through his mind. He returned to a time when he was just entering middle school and alone. It was a common life for him that he had known for as long as he could remember. Being alone was something that he had chosen for himself, it was preferred over what he had dealt with before.

For him middle school was a crowded and noisy place that was even worse than what he had left. However, it was only a brief time in the day that he had to endure so it still ended up being better. 'Middle school was supposed to be the start of my new life. That was what I had decided on doing when I left. I wasn't going to turn back and return to that, but I was too young to know what to do. That didn't stop me though. I was determined to do it alone and prove them all wrong…'

Haruo, age twelve, sat in his homeroom class. It had only been a week since the school year had begun. Spring was still very strong in the air as most of the young students talked with each other before class began. Haruo kept to himself and would have gone mostly unnoticed if it had not been for the fact that he generally looked to have come from a trash dumpster.

He was on his own for the first time so he was not able to do many of things that were considered standard maintenance. The school had only given him a single uniform due to how he had entered leaving him to make do with some hand-me downs that he had got. Their size was too large for him leaving it to hang poorly on him. Between the appearance and developing smell none of the other students wanted anything with him while openly mocking him in groups.

"Did you hear where he came from?" one boy said within earshot of him to the group. He ended up whispering it passing on the info to the rest.

A girl pulled back a little in surprise. "No wonder. They must all live in a landfill!"

"We should get a little further away. I think I'm starting to smell him from here again."

"Shouldn't be surprised being a welfare case!"

"Yeah!"

The door to the class slid open immediately silencing everyone. The small group that had formed quickly dispersed back to their seats. Mr. Asanuma, the homeroom teacher, set his notebooks on the desk before looking out into the children. He scanned the room making a mental note on the state of the room before speaking. In the back corner he could see Haruo sitting alone looking attentive, but totally isolated from the rest of the class by several desk spaces. Haruo's desk was even further away today than it was before. No doubt it was the early arriving students doing it and Haruo would simply accept it without fighting or challenging. Mr. Asanuma narrowed grimly as he held speaking to the class further.

Eventually, the class began and the day passed on fairly smoothly. When the end of the day came and the students were starting to leave Mr. Asanuma appeared outside of Haruo's class waiting, leaning against the wall. As he waited he could hear Haruo's classmates picking on him again while never hearing Haruo say a word. Mr. Asanuma had had enough listening to them not wanting to see one of his students being abused. "Afternoon, students!" he announced clearly in a loud voice that made all of the students jump a little in surprise. "All packed up now?" He looked down over a couple of the boys.

Some of the easily swayed boys had already hurried away and the girls followed. The last couple of stubborn boys turned to look at their homeroom teacher glaring back at him surprisingly defiant. "Yoneda needs to leave. He doesn't belong here, teacher!"

"That's not for you to decide," Mr. Asanuma said calmly, "Everyone has a right to an education no matter their appearance."

"But he smells bad!" the other boy snapped back while pointing a finger over at Haruo.

"And I bet you do as well after playing hard," Mr. Asanuma teased. "You should be going on along."