A Single Act of Bravery [Solo]

With a long groan, Fuyuhiko reached out and slammed his hand against the alarm clock in an attempt to silence it. When the machined ceased its screaming, he continued to lay in bed, burying his face into the pillow and pulling his blanket up to shield his eyes from the sunlight which managed to trickle into the room through the slits in the blinds. After trying to catch a few more minutes of sleep and discovering that he was too cognizant to succeed, he reluctantly pulled off the blanket and sat up in bed. Before standing, he lifted his hands to his face and used his thumbs to wipe the sleep of his eyes, but he misjudged the distance and incidentally poked himself in the eye. With a gasp of surprise and a quiet, quite whimper, Fuyuhiko turned his hands around and cupped the right side of his face, applying a small amount of pressure to the closed lid as he stood up.

Without a word, he retracted his hands and made his way over to the closet where he fetched the school uniform. The high school wasn't very strict with the dress code, but he chose to abide by the rules laid out in the student handbook to avoid any repercussions in the future. He slipped on the outfit without complaint, grabbed his hoodie from off the foot of his bed, and opened the bedroom door to finish getting ready, but as soon as he took a step through the doorway, his foot collided with the frame and another silent cry escaped from the young boy's lips. Trembling slightly, Fuyuhiko crouched down and examined his stubbed toe between shaky hands. It didn't look like any real damage had been done. That's good. Still hurt like hell, though.

He took a few minutes to compose himself before standing up again and continue onward. His day wasn't starting off well and things only worsened when the toilet clogged, he burned himself on the toaster, and his backpack ripped. "I think the gods hate me," Fuyuhiko thought to himself as he stepped outside and proceeded to lock the door behind him. Things only went from bad to worse when he noticed the state of his bike, still leaning up against the front of the house where he had left it but with its tires deflated. They didn't appear to be tampered with; the most logical solution was that he had hit a rock or nail on his way home yesterday and simply didn't notice the hole until now. "You've got to be kidding me," he huffed under his breath.

He glanced down at his phone briefly, only long enough to realize that he didn't have enough time to repair the tires right now. With an accusatory point of his finger, Fuyuhiko silently cursed his bicycle before turning and jogging down the road. All he needed was just a little luck to get to school on time. Luck and some determination. He couldn't afford to be tardy on top of struggling with grades. Everything would be alright, he told himself. He could made it, he just had to push himself even more. As he lowered his head and extended his strides in an attempt to replicate the way he had seen professional track stars run. Whether or not he was successful remained to be seen.

...This was terrible. His lungs ached and the late-summer heat clung to his body with such a ferocity that he couldn't stop his body from sweating gallons. He did his best to try and push himself, but he just wasn't the athletic type. Whoever did this type of stuff for fun was a masochist. With a few exaggerated pants, Fuyuhiko stumbled and slowed his pace to a walk then to a clumsy saunter. He continued down the road, gasping for breath while he pressed his right hand against his left rib-cage, feeling a burning hot sensation deep inside his body. Was it possible for lungs to explode from working out too much? It certainly felt possible. He tried time and time again to resume his sprint down the road, but each time he had to stop and rest longer than he had before.

As he stumbled up the hill and the school came into view, a faint smile spread out across Fuyuhiko's face. The morning bell rang, ushering all students into their classrooms, but that didn't bother him any. He slowed, taking this moment of victory to catch his breath. He was beaming with pride at his ability to run from home to school before the first class officially began. However, that joy was immediately replaced when he noticed Kouji and Chia talking just outside of the front gate. No, not talking. They weren't exactly having a civil discussion. Their voices were raised, though not loud enough to hear what they were saying. There was a lot of hand movements and stiff shoulders.

Fuyuhiko knew virtually nothing about his classmates, save for the rumors that were unavoidable. Kouji was a thick-headed brute who had been expelled from a bunch of school in the past because of his tendency to start fights. Heck, some of those same rumors said he had been arrested and his parents were members of the yukaza. Whether or not any of these claims were founded in truth mattered little to Fuyuhiko. He kept his nose out of trouble and avoided gossip circles whenever possible. That wasn't his scene. From the exchange between Kouji and Chia, Fuyuhiko assumed the two were in a relationship, but that was only speculation and he had no proof either way.

Kouji glanced over, locked eyes with him, and spat, "What're you looking at, idiot?"

Still, Fuyuhiko tried to stay out of it. No need to cause problems when there weren't any. "Nothing," he rebutted with a subtle shake of his head.

"That's right," Kouji huffed, "Keep walking, loser." Fuyuhiko lifted a hand and gave a slight wave, acknowledging the teen's commands. And yet, as Kouji turn his attention back to Chia, something tightened in Fuyuhiko's chest and he stopped walking. He could've walked right through the front gate, gone to his locker, then gotten to class with a few minutes to spare. He never got involved in these sorts of things before, and he had no idea what sort of relationship Kouji and Chia had prior to this very moment. Even now, he had no idea what they were arguing about.

Regardless, something stopped him dead in his tracks. Maybe it was Kouji's name-calling and annoying sense of superiority, maybe it was the fact that Fuyuhiko had a bad morning and was looking for an excuse to get out his frustrations, or maybe it was the way Kouji reached around and grabbed Chia's rear-end. The young lady slapped her hands against Kouji's chest, but he was a monster in comparison to her. Large and looming. He didn't like her fighting back, and he retaliated by grabbed her wrists and yanking her closer. Fuyuhiko tried to tear his eyes from the scene, but couldn't. He should ignore it and get to class. He should report what he was seeing to a teacher. He should...

"Let me go! Stop!" Chia cried, followed immediately by a yip of pain as Kouji slapped her against the face. What the hell was this guy's problem? Hadn't he ever heard not to hit a lady?

"Hey!" Fuyuhiko shouted, instantly regretting his decision as the assaulter turned around and once against locked eyes with him. "You... Um... Stop being an ass..?" Great job, Fuyuhiko. That was said with the confidence of ant.

"What's you just say to me, Matsuura?" Kouji snarled, keeping his hands on Chia.

Just walk away. Apologize and walk away. This isn't your battle to fight. "You heard me!" No! Kouji released his grip on Chia and stormed over to Fuyuhiko, his hands balled into fists and his face red. So the rumor about his explosive temper was true. A timid, frail half-smile graced Fuyuhiko's face as he shrugged. "Maybe we can talk ab-AHHH!" The calloused knuckles of Kouji Amano struck Fuyuhiko on the right temple, instantly grounding the unprepared teenager. Ears ringings and vision blurry, Fuyuhiko tried to get up but was immediately floored again by another fist to the face, in the same place as last time.

Kouji managed to get in a third punch before Fuyuhiko instinctively lifted his arms up to protect his face from receiving a further beating. However, in doing so, he left the rest of his body vulnerable. A sharp kick to the throat, to the ribs, to the chest. Everything was already sore from the jog to school, but now everything hurt that much more. One solid kick to the stomach caused Fuyuhiko to lurk and get sick, spewing his breakfast all over his arm and Kouji's nice new shoes. Who knew how long it took for Kouji to be pulled off of Fuyuhiko; probably only a few minutes, but to him it felt like an eternity. He'd never been hit before. It was a real wake-up call. He hadn't even managed to get a single counter attack in before he was immobilized.

With the help of a few teachers, Fuyuhiko was escorted to the nurse's office where his injuries were tended to. As he was being examined, he was told that Chia -- the young lady who Kouji had been making a move on -- was the one who reported the assault to school staff. Fuyuhiko's intervention had allowed her to escape and get help. He wasn't sure what to make of that, but he was glad she was alright, at least. Overall, Fuyuhiko had minor injuries: two cuts on the right side of his mouth, a black eye, external bruising on his arms and stomach, and potentially some internally bruising. The nurse gave him some ice and suggested he rest for a while, but he was determined to go to class anyway. There was no doubt that his parents would get a phone call regarding the fight he was a part of, so the least he could do was still get an education. Then they couldn't be too furious at him, right?

If only that were the truth. That evening, upon returning how, Fuyuhiko found both of his parents waiting for him. They were home early and who knew how long they had been waiting for their son to get back from school. "Fuyuhiko!" his father's booming voice echoed through the halls. With a slow and steady exhale, Fuyuhiko made his way to the kitchen where his parents were and stood in the doorway.

"Yes, sir?" Fuyuhiko said, glancing at his mother then at his father with his one good eye. The look on their faces were hard to read. It was like they wanted to be angry, like they wanted to scold him for fighting with someone, but were too grief-stricken by their son's injuries to voice their complaints.

It was his mother who eventually broke the silence. "We heard you stood up to a bully to protect your classmate," she said with a sad smile.

"That was a very foolish thing to do," Fuyuhiko's dad added hurriedly, as though he needed to make sure that there would be some kind of moral mix into whatever his wife was about to say.

"It as very brave too," Fuyuhiko's mother said.

"Okay," Fuyuhiko replied. There wasn't anything he could say to them. He couldn't tell them that he was scared out of his mind and wanted to run away like a coward, or how he couldn't get in a single punch and vomited all over himself like an infant. To him, there was nothing brave or courageous about his confrontation with Kouji.

"Do you know why your father and I became doctors?" his mother asked. Fuyuhiko had a number of guesses, but he opted to stay silent and let them tell him anyway. "We wanted to help people. And that's what you were doing today too, in your own way. You're a good kid, Fuyuhiko." A soft smile passed over his lips.

"But maybe don't resort to violence next time," his father said, and the moment of gratitude was gone.

Eventually, he rolled over and reached into his pocket to pull out his phone, only to find a strange device in its place. It was green and pink and unlike anything he had ever seen before. It almost reminded him of a stopwatch, though it was larger than average stopwatches, and didn't react to him when he pressed the buttons. Whatever it was, it appeared to be dead. Fuyuhiko sat up and turned the machine over in his hands, examining the back for a battery pack or charge plug of some sort, but he came up empty. What was this thing? It was a real mystery.