Transition

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[Takachi's theme: 911 by Teddy Swims]

  The only place I really felt comfortable being in was inside my own head

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  The only place I really felt comfortable being in was inside my own head. My imagination ran wild, my thoughts were going thousands of miles per second, and I could think of absolutely anything without anyone else knowing. So, whenever I discovered manga, I instantly fell in love since I could experience these stories that were so beautifully drawn out while imagining myself as the main character going on all these quests and journeys.

  Mentally, I was wild and all over the place while sometimes being completely calm and silent. On the outside, however, the only expressions I seemed to show was either irritation or boredom. Anything else took too much work, or I didn't feel like expressing it. In my earlier years of school, my....'oddness'- as I liked to call it- had been discovered. It was then that I also realized I wasn't like the other children, and they noticed the same thing.

  As I got older, I was pretty much ignored and written off as just a background lump of flesh that occupied a certain amount of space. I didn't mind it though, it meant that I could be left alone. The only hard part about growing up was the classes I had to attend to correct my behavioral and psychological issues. They at first had assumed my 'problem' was a mental illness type of issue and put me on a series of medications until they finally discovered that I was actually quite healthy in every aspect of the term.

  That was when the classes started and when I began to stop using physical ticks or cues to express emotions. It wasn't that I was cutting myself off from the outside world, it was just me developing another personality that didn't allow my oddness to show. Over the years, it became easier to control and hardly anyone could tell that there was something off about me.

  But then again, nothing is ever completely fixed- there's always something still left behind. There were certain things that could trigger my hidden personality to surface, though it rarely ever happened, and I could easily live with that. I honestly had no problem with who I was, but my oddness made others fairly uncomfortable or weirded out, so they tended to disregard me on a daily basis.

  I, on the other hand, was either too busy reading or dazing off to even care. Most of the kids I went to high school with had also gone to elementary with me and they all remembered well how I used to be back then. They found great relief in my current personality....most of the time, but my unwillingness to do anything got in their way from time to time.

  By the time I was in my third year of high school, I was sent off to apparently live with a cousin of mine back in Miyagi while my parents went on a vacation cruise they had won in a raffle with their jobs. They'd be traveling to many parts of the world, leaving me in Miyagi for quite some time until they'd come back.

  Though, now that I was actually with my cousin, I wondered if I'd really return to them when they got home. I had met him once before when I was a kid and he was in high school, and he was pretty cool back then. But now....now he was the personification of cool- to me, anyway. So far, I didn't even know if his personality had changed, but he just looked like someone I could get along with, even though I wasn't sure since I was just standing there and looking at him.

  His hair was a lot longer than it used to be, bleached and pushed back by a headband while a surprised look was on the face that hadn't really changed over time. He had been reading the newspaper while smoking a cigarette as he sat behind the counter in the little corner store, but the second he saw me he seemed to immediately recognize me. Putting down the paper, he narrowed his eyes as if trying to make sure I was who he thought I was until he confirmed it by spotting the nametag on my luggage.

  "Takachi?" His voice was slightly deeper than I remembered, and I noticed the shiny, little rings adorning one of his ears. I gave the slightest of nods, and he was on his feet, grinning while throwing his arms up into the air. "Takachi!" His voice was louder, and I just blankly stared at him. "The last time I saw you, you were only this big!" He held a hand to about mid-thigh while putting out the cigarette. "How have you been, Cuz?" I was a little surprised by the fact that he was actually excited to see me. Only grandpa had ever been happy to see me....

  "....Meh." I lazily replied, and he nodded, crossing his arms as if he knew exactly what I wanted to say.

  "Were you told about what's happening this weekend?" He then asked, receiving another slight nod from me as he seemed to calm down. "Good. Tomorrow I'll show you the team at morning practice, and one of them can show you around the school. That sound okay?" Barely shrugging, I didn't really ask what he was talking about since I had already been informed that my older cousin had become a coach to the male volleyball team at Karasuno.

  "Keishin...." I mumbled, looking right at him as he raised a brow. His questioning look was answered by the loud growl coming from my stomach and he just looked at me.

  "Pfff...." The bleached-blond then burst into laughter before fetching me some food. He had a pile of meat buns and sat me down behind the counter with him, stuffing my luggage back there until closing time when we could leave the store. He picked the paper back up and had a small smile as he began to ask me a few questions here and there, only getting grunts and hums as replies.

  I was right, Keishin was pretty cool. He didn't seem unnerved by me in the least bit and took my sound replies as if they were full sentences. I couldn't remember if he did that when we were younger, but he was doing it now and I was pondering on how he was able to do it.

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