“Hi there, can I help you?” A lady behind the counter asked, her words rather loud and slow.
Ken thought it was a rather odd way of speaking, but he moved to the counter and spoke up, “Hey, today is my first day of school, I was told to co here first. The na is Ken Takagi.” He replied.
“Ah…” The woman looked a bit shocked for a mont before her deanor changed.
She began accessing the computer and typing a few tis before grabbing sothing from under the desk. The woman placed a few items on the counter which included a class schedule and a locker number.
“Mr. Jason will be your horoom teacher, he should be here at any mont.” She said, her earlier loud and slow accent seemingly disappearing.
Before Ken could guess why, a man walked in the door sporting a salt and pepper beard that reached his chest. It was well kept, a sign that he cared for it deeply.
His hair was thinning on the top, though it was not easily seen. Only because Ken was a head taller than the man could he tell.
“Mr. Jason, could you please escort this new student to your horoom?” The lady asked politely.
The man took one glance at him and let out a small sigh. “Another foreign exchange student?” He asked, as if he had plenty of experience with them before.
Ken frowned, “I’m actually a citizen Mr. Jason” he replied, not hiding the annoyance in his tone.
Mr. Jason almost jumped in fright. He could have sworn the guy was Japanese or Chinese, just from his mannerisms.
It seed that Ken’s polite stance had given him away as soone foreign. Since Japanese people were taught to defer to those older than them, it had sunk into his everyday deanor without realizing.
“Ah, my bad.” He said, running his fingers through his beard. “Let’s go, I’ll take you to your locker and introduce you to the class.”
With that, he quickly changed the subject, hoping to move past it.
Ken didn’t make it difficult for him, following him into the halls. Like on many movies he’d seen, he was eventually greeted by a large hallway with lockers on either end, seemingly never ending.
Eventually he was able to locate his locker and got it opened. Thankfully it was empty, so he put a few things in like his helt and other belongings.
But just before he was about to close the locker, he heard a noise go off in his head.
*DING*
Ken froze, his body not moving an inch. Suddenly, a window appeared in front of him with text appearing as if it was just being typed.
POPULATING USER INTERFACE…
UPDATING USER STATS…
UPDATING MISSIONS…
MAJOR LEAGUE SYSTEM UI BOOTED
SYSTEM HAS SUCCESSFULLY UPGRADED TO LEVEL 5
A rising sense of excitent paired with relief filled his body, as his wide eyes read the information in front of him.
‘No way… Wasn’t it ant to be tomorrow?’ He thought, but he quickly disregarded it.
If he had ti to think, Ken would have realized that Japan is a day ahead of Austin, which ant that the 18 month ti fra had already elapsed.
“Ken? What’s wrong?” Mr. Jason’s concerned voice ca from the other side of the open locker door, questioning him.
“Ah… Sorry, I thought I forgot sothing.” Ken replied hastily.
As much as his burning curiosity willed for it, he had no ti to look at the newly upgraded system. However, just the fact that it had returned eased a lot of his worries.
It had been so long that he wasn’t even sure if the system would ever return. Part of him was worried that it no longer existed, which all seed ridiculous now.
He let out a smile before closing the locker and turning to his horoom teacher. “Sorry, ready to go now.” Ken stated.
However, Mr. Jason was looking at him as if he was a freak. He rubbed his eyes a couple of tis, just to make sure that he wasn’t seeing things.
“Is everything okay?” Ken asked, feeling a little odd.
“Erm… Sure. Let’s go.” He said finally, turning around and leading Ken to the class.
RING
A god awful ringing sound entered Ken’s ears, causing him to turn up his face. He tracked it to a bell sitting on the wall.
At the sound of the bell, everyone quickly scattered, making their way to their classrooms like frantic bees.
They arrived at a room near the end of the hall a few monts later.
“Wait here.” He said, opening the door into the classroom. Ken blinked a few tis, his nervousness only now starting to kick in.
Now that he thought about it, he didn’t know anyone here. Would people like him? Or would they just see him as a foreigner and disregard him.
While there was bullying in Japan, it always seed ta in comparison to so of the western movies he’d watched.
Ken heard the teacher speaking to the class, telling them to sit down.
“We have a transfer student joining our class today, I expect you all to be kind and considerate. Ken, co in please.”
Hearing his na, Ken took a deep breath and entered. What greeted him were almost 30 pairs of eyes staring at him, their curious gazes judging him.
He walked over to Mr. Jason and faced the class, feeling rather awkward.
“Introduce yourself.” The teacher said.
Ken nodded, rembering what his mother had said. He needed to make a good first impression.
“I’m Ken Takagi. I moved here with my family from Japan last month… I love playing baseball and going for runs. I hope we can work well together.” He said, bowing slightly towards the class.
His introduction was t with stark silence, causing his nerves to teeter on the edge. He looked up, only to see everyone’s gaze transfixed on him.
‘W—What the hell is happening?’ He cried inwardly.
Reviews
All reviews (0)