I'm Not a Hero Anymore

Chapter 1 Life... Encounter. Cont. 3

The warm glow of the morning sun embraces me and the brisk wind caresses my cheeks making me feel refreshed.

I feel a stretch coming on.

"Aaaah… Oh yea."

The morning feels calm. The birds happily chirp. People are up heading for work and the students to school, exchanging pleasantries as they head for their respective institutions.

"Good morning."

There's the shop around the corner. The owner, an old widow is opening up. She's such a friendly person.

"Morning. Have a nice day at school you two."

"We will. Thank you." Replied Orino giving a slight bow.

"Sure thing. Thanks" I also bow to her.

There's that stray cat that had been around the neighbourhood a week now walking on the wall. It's real cute. I really wish I could take it home.

The bald man with the scary face is in his suit with his briefcase on his way to work.

"Hey, watch it." I almost bumped into him looking at the school of kids walking by,

"Sorry!" I apologized with a bow.

"Watch where you're going next time."

All these years he hasn't changed one bit—except for losing his hair.

"Sure will… Have a nice day at work. Oh and good morning."

The kids in the neighbourhood walking in a group heading off to school. I can't say anything about them than being adorable.

"Good morning." They greet. All I could do was smile at them.

I remember doing the same when I was a kid. My cute little sister, Orino's hand in mine as we made it to kindergarten.

I see the occasional cars passing by and hear the honking of others in the distance, already polluting the calm morning with their sounds.

Couples locked in arms going for a morning stroll.

…

The school is just about twenty minutes walk from home, so we were still pretty early. Orino was in a bad mood and didn't even say a word.

"So what you're not going to going to talk to me… I keep telling you It was an accident… This happens any other day and yet you never learn. It's totally your fault… Oh come on… Do we really have to do this every time. If not don't do that anymore… It's either you use the bathroom downstairs or just get up earlier. Better yet lock the door when you're in there."

Looking at her countenance I gave up and decided not to speak anymore and walked a tad faster chasing after her to the school all the while thinking about the report this morning…

…

When we got to class…

Since people like us roam in packs I was greeted by the friends. Including me, us four losers are known as the 'residence perverts'. There is no day that Rei, Mizuno and Tsukamoto wouldn't use to talk about such stuff. And here I am not even taking my seats and their are talking about the new releases of Hentai videos and Magazines.

"Yo Rin, you got the latest release on 'boob wars'?"

"Yea. My dad got it for me yesterday on his way back, including a new batch of latest release. Was up late night storing them in my mind." I pull my seat back.

"What the hell is your dad teaching you?"

"Seriously dude! Let's trade. Got the ones you requested for your dad."

Mizuno who has his face so close to me in excitement said breathing so hard that I can see steam coming out of his nose.

"Nice!"

Orino enters the class—we had splitted up at the lockers—as I took my seat placing my bag on the desk. She is just a year younger than me and as I said she has this sought of tough girl attitude. Compared to me she's pretty smart, and can you believe it we are literally in the same class. Me, her elder brother in the same class with her, my little sister. I don't even know how this came to be. What did I do to deserve this?

"Woah look she's here."

"Yea. Pretty as ever."

"Check out her bod? I just want to hug her forever!"

"Yea… Definitely… my dream babe."

"What I'd do to get into that skirt."

"I wish I was her brother, I'd dote on her every single minute."

I hear the whispers among the boys. I get the fact they are trying to compliment her but seriously, those lustful comments!?

[I'm right here for crying out loud. Her big brother is right here and you're talking about his little sister like that. Have you no shame?]

The girls on the other hand, a few surround her keeping her busy with small talks.

Since it's still early the students are about, so I'm sure no one will pay attention to us. Right now the boys are hurdled around me eagerly waiting for me to take the goods out. Doing so I hear the students who realized what's going on, even though we spoke in low voices…

"Look over there, the residence perverts are at it again."

"Just ignore them."

"Be sure to stay away from them else you'll catch pervert."

"Do they not have manners?"

"With everything that's going on they still have time to behave like this."

"I don't know how Orino-san ended up with a brother like him."

I am glad about one thing though, how my mates see me doesn't affect how they treat Orino. Unlike me, Orino is on the popular side since she is very athletic and has good grades. And also among the guys, for just shooting up in a short time and looking as "cute" as she is now. She's is the ideal student and catch.

"RIn what's up with the graze on your cheek."

"Obviously, it happened today too."

Tsukamoto said pushing up his glasses with a finger.

"Yea."

"I'm so jealous of you. You get to live with with such a cutie for a sister. I can only imagine the nasty things you do to her."

Rei says tearfully.

"She's my sister! Don't get any wrong ideas!"

"So which is it?"

"…Pink."

I sighed, a little hesitant to say.

"Pay up guys. I was right!"

Rei declares to the others.

This has been going on quite a while now. Specifically when they found out about Orino's behaviour when I came to school one time with a clearly visible bruise. They thought I had been mugged but I clarified and now they bet over the type of cloths she has on when I accidentally bump into her. Not only that, they also do that for where exactly I get hit. And for that particular one even I have my money on it.

"So who got it right on my face this time?"

I asked.

"I did."

Mizuno replies.

So we each pay him 2000 yen.

"Food's covered for the week."

Mizuno says whiles fist bumping Rei.

"Yea!"

"So like you guys watch the news? What do you think about it?"

"Yea totally did."

We nodded with Rei replying.

"Caught it this morning. A wild animal is far fetched, a rabid dog could come close but the psychopath is a sure thing. He could have just rubbed the animal DNA to throw the police off his back."

"What about pic about of that creature?"

"Totally photoshoped."

"Yep!"

"…Yea, I guess so"

Their voices trailed off as I was plunged in thought.

It could be but why can't I shake this feeling off? Am I overthinking it? That thing didn't look like, no just by looking at it it didn't feel like any computerized image. Looking into it's eyes I had goosebumps on my skin. That thing looked to alive to be a digital image. As I was thinking that when I hear…

…Brzzzzzzzz….

The school bell rings, snapping me back.

"Hey, class is about to begin."

An Idle student declares. Well, he is the assistant class rep.

"Let's do the transfer after school."

"Sure."

The three of them head for their seats along with the other students waiting for the teacher. And it didn't take long for the teacher to enter.

"Sit you maggots. Time for a surprise test."

The tough one as always. He's well built and has a poker face.

"Seriously!"

"Yes!!"

"Not again."

"No one told me there'd be a test."

"I'm so pumped for this."

"But I didn't get to study yesterday, let a lone enough sleep. I had so much to do."

Every student with their reaction.

"You should no this by now. Surprise tests can pop out anytime. So be sure to hit your books. Now shut it and get ready!"

Yep, pretty much the same. He's been slamming us with surprise tests here and there so much that it's not really that much of a surprise for me… But I am so not prepared for this. I'm sweating buckets here. I didn't get enough sleep and didn't open a single book. To top it all, my grades aren't that good. Just like I said I'm just an average student…

I see, I'm not the only one sweating… Mizumo and the other two also are. The four of us are the same. Not for all of us though. Rei, has good grades but totally hates test that pop out of the blue. And with the way he's sweating today it must be because he didn't get to study at all.

This is BS! The usual thing we do is to let Rei answer his questions while we three tackle the ones we are familiar with. The remaining ones he'd pass a paper to us and we'd copy off it. But if he hadn't prepared… we are so dead…

The test begun and it was hell tough. But we tried through with the same process we went after the familiar and easy questions while letting Rei do the rest. But since he wasn't prepared he only answered the ones which he was familiar with as well and handed those answers to us.

Wait are we the only ones struggling here. It seems we are the only one finding it the questions difficult, every other person aside from the for of us a quite relaxed—only a couple of them seem nervous.

"Just so you know this will be graded and added to your total grades. So do well!!"