Fates

Greek Numerals

"Nii ..."

"Nii-chan."

"NII-CHAN !!" Someone shouted that suddenly woke me up.

I suddenly raised my head because of that shout. I looked where those voices came from and I saw Mio standing in front of me.

"Wha-what happened ??" I panicked because of her sudden shout.

"Nii-chan, let's eat. I'm hungry." She said as she kept on pulling my hand to make me stand up.

"Ok, I'll prepare something to eat so go wash up already." I said as I stood up tiredly while stretching my body to make the pain go away.

*Ding Dong*

Our doorbell rang. Someone is outside. I gestured to Mio to see who had come and opened it.

"Who is that visiting us early in the morning?" I mumbled as I rubbed my eyes while yawning.

I checked on the time and rolled my eyes over and over to see the time clearly. I was so surprised to see the time.

"Crap! It's already 5:30 AM. We're going to be late." I mumbled as I rushed to the kitchen.

I quickly opened our refrigerator and looked inside. Take out everything that can be cooked and then prepare the stove. I forgot that we are now going to school.

"Nao nii-chan." I heard Mio's voice calling Nao in a happy tone.

"Where's Kio?" Nao asked.

I couldn't answer because I was busy preparing our food.

"Nii-chan is in the kitchen." Mio answered cheerfully.

Fortunately, Nao came to us before he went to school. As I'm going to open the stove, Nao suddenly grabbed my hand. I flinched and moved my hand away. He's great at sneaking out people.

"It's rude to bother others in this kind of circumstances." I said seriously.

"I already made some food for both of you." He said while showing me the paper bag he's holding.

Fortunately, Nao prepared our food including our school lunch. Nao is a good cook, he learned because he lives alone here while his mom and dad are abroad.

We ate breakfast, took a shower and got dressed. Then we left.

-------

We arrived at Mio's school just in time, everyone was entering one by one inside. I put her bag on her back that I had carried earlier. I bent down and arranged her hair and uniform. Nao handed over the lunch box he cooked for Mio.

"Be careful ok? We'll pick you up later." I said as I stood up.

"Have fun." Nao said.

She nodded and then smiled. She waved goodbye while walking past the gate. We also wave back to say goodbye.

Mio doesn't have too many worries or problems in terms of study or daily activities at school. Mio is a happy and friendly child. Easy to get along with, all the opposite of me. I'm just worried because our situation is different now, mom and dad are gone so I don't know what other children will do to her especially since bullying is still a trend in primary school.

We were about to leave Mio's school when I felt like someone was looking at me. I looked around and saw a girl staring at me while she was just standing on the other side of the gate.

"Why is she looking at me?" I whispered in my mind.

I also looked at her confused as we stared at each other from afar. As I watched her I noticed her face was fading and disappearing. I was going to blink when the creepy smile I saw in my dream suddenly showed in her face. When someone passed in front of me, she suddenly disappeared.

All I could do was shake my head and don't know if I will believe what I see.

"What was that? Why the heck did she appear here so suddenly?" I mumbled to myself.

"Whenever I see that faceless girl with a creepy smile my vision is back to having a clear vision, like I wasn't blind." I continued.

When I looked at her a while ago, time seemed to slow down around us as if we were in our own world while we're focusing on each other. Then when she suddenly disappeared my right eye came back to normal.

"Does she need something from me? Or is it the other way around?" I utter in my mind.

When I felt dizzy I immediately covered my right eye with a few forces and tried to prevent my sudden dizziness.

"Is this dizziness the side effects in my mind whenever I use my right eye?" I mumbled in my mind.

This is only my assumption since it happened twice while the other thing that happened was the sudden pain in my chest.

"Is it a side effect? Or consequences?" I suddenly thought to myself.

My mind came back when someone tapped me on the shoulder, it was Nao. I looked around and saw that everything was back to normal as the flow of time became normal as well.

"You, ok?" Nao asked as he saw me gazing at something in Mio's school.

"You didn't noticed anything strange?" I asked him if he saw anything.

"Nope, I only notice that we're going to be late." He said while showing me his watch.

"Holy crap." I mumbled as we ran as fast as we could to school.

We saw from a distance that the guard was closing the gate of the school we were attending which caused us to run even faster. As we approached the gate, I shouted loudly, causing the guard to be shocked, which in turn led to the delay in closing the gate, so we were able to enter.

"That was close." I said as I tried to chase my breath.

We were about to get closed by the school gate because if we had not reached we would've been absent that day. Closing the gate is a sign that no one can enter and if that happens that would be trouble. It will ruin our attendance record.

When we entered the school building, I quickly went to my locker while Nao was panting while standing at the entrance of the building.

"You're so slow Nao." I said to him,

"You know that my body is not for running." He said as he chased his breath.

After I changed my shoes, I immediately went to Nao's locker. We opened it and then we threw it at each other to exchange.

I motioned for Nao to speed up his movement so that we could reach our class. As I waited for Nao to change his shoes, I thought of a way. I took off my jacket and polo first, and only left my t-shirt on. I bent down and showed him my back saying to him to hop on which he in turn enjoyed so he immediately jumped behind me.

I gave him my bag, polo and jacket so that it wouldn't get wet and soaked in sweat. Good thing that I have great endurance.

I ran fast until we reached our classroom. We arrived. Nao immediately got off my back and then went inside. I bent down for a while as I chased my breath. Our bodies were gasping for breath and full of sweat, especially me. I got up and then Nao threw a t-shirt at me. He always has some change of clothes in his bag because he really doesn't like being soaked in sweat which is the opposite of me. We immediately changed our clothes. While changing I did not notice the girls looking at us. They were all blushing, then looked away. It was a bit embarrassing when you found out a lot of people were watching so I just hurried to get dressed.

The teacher entered the room, at the exact right time we got to our seats. He then started talking about the lessons.

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*RING*

The bell rang, signaling the end of class and lunch time, but I didn't pay attention to its ringing. All I could see was the beautiful view outside the window that I was watching.

As I stared at the sky at the window someone tapped me on the shoulder causing me to turn around to see who it was, its Nao. I followed his gaze and realized he was staring at my notebook. I saw something written on it, it was "ριʹ" & "ρεʹ". I was just surprised by what I saw because it looked familiar but I can't remember where I first saw it.

"What are you writing?" He curiously asked.

"I don't know either, maybe I have written it subconsciously." I answered, as I figured out what I just wrote.

"Hmm .." Nao answered while thinking.

"I just saw it the same time as you saw it." I responded.

"Are you really ok?" He asked worriedly.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I replied.

"Don't over do things." He said worriedly.

"Yes, Dad haha." I said jokingly.

"Kioshiiii !!" Someone shouted while running towards me, it's Hans. But then he suddenly stopped when he saw what was written on my notebook.

He immediately took the notebook to my desk and then he looked closely. While seemingly thinking and looking for the answer to what is written. Suddenly his face lit up saying "I figured it out".

"Hey, is this the homework for tomorrow? It looks so easy." He said, while shaking the notebook in front of us.

Nao and I looked at each other because of what he said and then we looked at him carefully. We were surprised when he probably knew these symbols. We know Hans is smart but he is not the same as Nao and I. We can answer things through stock knowledge like smart in nature while Hans is smart through effort like he needs to review it first and memorize things before he can answer . This means that he is reading ahead or studying things ahead again.

"You know these letters or symbols?" I curiously ask.

"Y-yeah, It's a Greek numeral, like you know roman numerals." He answered nervously.

"That's not fair, you're reading ahead again." Nao jokingly said.

Then we all laughed.

I felt excited because I finally got an answer. As far as I know this is a huge lead for now because this is the first clue I've got. I need to study it and research it right away because it might have a big connection to what is happening to me. All I need to remember is where I saw it.

While I was busy thinking about what I would do later because of what I found out now, someone came to my desk wearing a girl's uniform. I looked at her and saw Kishimoto-san.

"Umm .. A-ano Ishikawa-san, Sato sensei wants to talk to you." She said in a shy tone.

"Ah thanks Kishimoto-san." I replied with a smile on my face. Then she left and at the same time I stood up from my seat.

"Nao, just buy me something to eat. I'll just catch up with you guys at the canteen." I said as I walked outside the classroom.

When I came out of the classroom, I met Kishimoto-san carrying the textbooks we passed. I suddenly grabbed the textbooks from her which caused her to panic.

"Going to the teacher's office?" I asked.

"H-hai." She said while looking down.

I realized that she was always looking down, the same as a while ago when she talked to me. Is he shy or something? Or maybe nervous? Hmm .. I peeked at her face which caused her to be shocked and averted her gaze.

"No need to be shy or nervous, we're classmates, just act normal, since we're friends now." I said while smiling at her.

"Or maybe I did something wrong?" I said while recalling the things I've done.

"No-no, it's not that." She suddenly said as she looked at me.

"Are you alright? Your face is red." I worriedly said then she again looked away from me.

Suddenly her face turned red so I was confused. I didn't know what to do so I thought for a moment. When I remembered what I was doing to Mio every time I looked to see if she was sick I then thought of doing that to Kishimoto-san.

I slowly approached her. She backed away because I slowly approached her but later she stopped and she closed her eyes. I grabbed the back of her head and then pulled it closer to me so that our foreheads would touch each other so I could feel her temperature and find out if she had a fever.

But everything only got worse because her face was redder than before. Suddenly someone pulled my shoulder to keep me away from Kishimoto-san.

"Ishikawa right now is not the time for flirting." He said as he got a hold of me while squishing my head.

"S-sato s-sensei, I'm not doing anything. I'm innocent !!" I panicky said while trying to remove his hands to my head.

-------

After I helped Kishimoto-san, and heard Sato-sensei's accusations and Kishimoto-san's sudden explanation, I am now in front of Sato-sensei near her desk.

"Sato sensei, why did you call me here?" I ask like a kid.

"So how are you feeling now?" He asked, while looking at his class record without facing me.

"I'm fine dad, nothing to worry about." I jokingly replied.

He then squished my head again with his hands, then stopped. I touched my head as the pain subsided.

"I'm serious, everyone was worried about you after the accident. And I'm especially worried about Mio." He said in a serious tone.

I scratch my head before answering.

"We're fine, Yuu. I'm getting better day by day, I'm trying to cheer up Mio everyday to make her lively again. Everything is fine." I said with a forced smile to ease his worries.

"Anyways, Yu--." I didn't finish my sentence when Sato sensei smacked me in the head.

"Don't call me Yuu at school." He said.

"Gezz, alright Sato sensei. I already have the Student Council's calendar but it seems that when I'm gone they didn't do or plan anything." I said while rubbing my head that he just hit.

"Well, you're the President. They don't seem to think of anything because of what happened to you." He replied while fixing his stuff on his table.

"I see, I'll just work it out if I have some free time. Thank you Sato sensei." I thanked him.

Sato-sensei is also part of our family, he is the best friend and childhood friend of mom and also Mio's godfather. So basically Sato-sensei is like our uncle. I also think that mom's sudden disappearance is also hard for her, especially since there is nothing left but Mio and me.

-------

We got home safely. Nao will stay with us for now because he is worried about us. In fact, it is ok for him to live here since he is also the only one where he lives. And he told me not to worry about the food because he is the one who is going to cook for us.

We changed. We ate. We took a bath. And I tucked Mio to her bed. I went to my room and sat in front of the study table. Took out my notebook and wrote the things I found today.

[Notebook]

"ριʹ" & "ρεʹ" - A greek numeral

The meaning? - Unknown

Connections? - Unknown

Why Greek numerals? - Unknown

And why greek? - Unknown

About my eyes? - Unknown

About that dream and what's the connection of it to that creepy girl and to my eye? - Unknown

And that pain and dizziness, is it a side effect? Or consequences? - Unknown

There is a lot to think about in the things that happen to me after the accident. I don't yet know the reason for these so I need to seek and find out, but for now I need clues first. I need to do more research and look at everything that can connect to answer them.

Because after the accident everything was different. What was starting to happen was so strange and inexplicable, that I do not know if it was an effect of the things I suffered in the accident or for a deeper reason.

My only lead now is the Greek Numerals.