Kori enveloped himself in that sight as he calmly walked around. He figured that he could take it a bit easy since the job already was finished and everything was wrapped up.

A couple of meters behind him followed Biharu, who walked a bit more reservedly. He didn't take in the recognizable sight as Kori did, instead, he looked around frantically in fright of a bad man with bad intentions. Despite being apart of the company he was a part of, he was scared and wary of danger like any normal citizen.

But he was especially scared of unknown danger, a danger that could strike at any moment without his knowledge or preparation.

He was fine with 'normal' danger, as long as he could visibly perceive the threat and make a judgment on how to proceed with the situation. Kori, on the contrary, was completely fine with such odds and was instead welcoming of it.

Kori had always been that sort of person.

Well, not always, ever since he was 12 years old;

When an event reshaped his ident.i.ty, gave birth to a new hobby and killed off a part of his soul.

…

The average table bordered the left wall of the kitchen and pointed towards the right door that led to a living room.

Sitting by the table on average chairs was a slim young boy with a well taken care of middle school uniform and a proper bowl cut slicing through his eyebrows in a parallel line, an older middle-aged woman with chestnut brown hair and a wrinkled but still curious smile, and another middle-aged woman, but a bit younger, who had a dark-red ap.r.o.n and pitch-black hair.

The brown-haired started talking

"So, how is it with Kori? Has he gotten better with 'that' since last time I was here?"

Kori stared at the woman with irritated eyes, telling her 'You know I'm right here...', but she didn't notice as she was looking at the black-haired woman in front of her.

Yumino, known to Kori as 'mom', smiled as she went up to check on the vegetables cooking in the pot. She answered

"Well, he's still barely sc.r.a.ping by in school and gets small fits of rage sometimes. But generally, I would say that he's on a path to betterment."

The brown-haired lady known as Akas.h.i.+, a woman who lived in the area and was a close friend of the Hanesawa's, turned to Kori, who sat to her right, and patted him on the head as she said

"Isn't that good? I hope that your successes will continue"

Kori smiled faintly as he replied

"Hmm!"

He then stood up from his chair and said to his mother

"I'll go to my room and play games, will you be okay mom?"

Yumino turned around briefly and said

"Yes, go ahead."

Kori then chased off in a hurry, through the door to the south that led to the hallway and up the stairs.

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Akas.h.i.+ locked her eyes onto Kori as he disappeared from her view, she then said

"What a strange boy, he's always so nice and well-mannered but isn't good at studying and gets mad because of it."

Yumino responded

"Yes, I think he inherited that last part from me."

Akas.h.i.+ slowly started walking towards the exit and said

"Well, I should get going then. Your husband should be home soon, right?"

Yumino just nodded as she hurried with the cooking.

Akas.h.i.+ took her last farewells and left the house, leaving two people with good spirits to do what they were doing.

In Kori's room, which was an above-average sized room filled with action toys and posters from shonen anime, Kori sat on his bed and stared at the roof. He thought

-That d.a.m.n Takas.h.i.+! He hid my shoes again, and he and his yes-men picked on me after cla.s.s again. What should I do about it? Hmm…

I should probably talk to Dad about it and get some help. Oh yeah, we have that talk with the teacher about my performance so far this year. I'll talk to him about it then I guess. -

Kori felt satisfied that he had come to a conclusion as to what he was going to do, so he ran up to his PX4 and started playing as soon as he could, he didn't want to waste time thinking about bothersome stuff like bullies or school. He simply wanted to utilize the free time he had to do what he thought was fun.

,,,

After an hour or two, Hyoru Hanesawa arrived at his residence and entered the door with tired arms. He sloppily stumbled into the hallway with his back hunched over from a long day of work, at last he was home and could relax all he wanted.

But at that moment he remembered that he had to attend a performance review with Kori later, which he sighed at slightly. But he didn't mind it too much, doing that would be a lot more pleasant than work would've been, and he got to spend a little time with his son: A rare commodity in his everyday life.

While walking through the hallway, he announced his arrival with a

"I'm home!"

The response was in the form of two voices that in unison welcomed him home

"Welcome home!"

Upon walking into the kitchen, and noticing Kori setting the table, he sat down in his usual spot and smiled brightly. Kori finished his duty and calmly sat down at his usual seat, which was the seat diagonally from Hyoru's.

Only the sound of frying vegetables remained in the room when they had seated themselves. This didn't mean that the two were on bad terms, it was just that they had a closeness that was inexplicable to outsiders. They didn't talk too much to each other or spent too much time together, but they still had a weird bond that tied them together.

Because of this closeness, they didn't really feel the need to start a conversation every time they met.

To balance this out, Yumino, who had a normal bond with the son and father, was usually the one to start conversations.

Yumino brought the food to the table and after some words of grat.i.tude, they dug into the food. A genuine smile was brought onto Hyoru as he swallowed the piping hot contents of the hot pot.

The dish was a perfect counter for the rather harsh and cold winter weather that plagued them every day.

Yumino opened up a conversation

"So, how was work today?"

Hyoru indulged himself in pleasure for a couple of seconds before he answered

"Like usual but a bit tougher I suppose, our junior Matsuda messed up a big chunk of code and we had to patch it up----------"

Kori stopped focusing on the words that were leaving Hyoru's mouth, instead he gazed at the bright smile of his own father. He thought

- I want to be like Dad.

I was at his workplace once, so I understand the insane working conditions he has to go through. But he always comes home with a bright smile and a youthful amount of enthusiasm.

Even though he works so hard, he has the strength to be happy.-

Kori inspected his Dad's face a bit further and saw the heavy bags under his eyes and wrinkles that age brings with it. He could also notice a couple of grey hairs in his dad's predominantly black hair.

The dinner flew by with multiple bites of pleasure and a few bites that were too hot to handle.

After the dinner, it was time to depart for school and his dad figured that he might as well go in the suit that he hadn't changed out of yet.

Kori and Hyora slowly walked towards the car and sat down.

While driving through the town, the darkness made Kori tired and bored.

He looked out of the window towards the people walking by, wondering what they were doing and where they were going.

The lights illuminating sharply from the streets pa.s.sed by the car fast as it drove with a hypnotizing rhythm. After driving alongside the docks, where Kori laid notice to a statue of a fisherman proudly displaying his catch, they took a jarring turn to the right which surprised Kori because it broke the peaceful rhythm. But the rhythm was soon restored as the car continued towards the school ahead.

Kori took a look at the high school he would most likely go to when he got older, Rohyama Academy.

He fantasized towards a time when he finally was good at studying and living a peaceful, but enjoyable school life with interesting friends. But his endearing wishes for future endeavors were disrupted as they pulled up to the entrance of his current school, and the current life he lived washed back into his conscious. With the reminder of reality came a similar wave of anxiety.

Now during the talk that was to come, Kori had decided to ask for some kind of help regarding his problem with the bullies.

With that decided, Kori now marched nervously alongside his father, who grabbed his shoulder and smiled at him.

A part of that anxiety disappeared just at that action hit him, and he now walked inside of the school building towards the destination they had set up.