Chapter 2 ~A man who believes the Golden Bird~

This morning before class started, Kazuto barged into the crowded classroom and yelled, “Golden Bird IS REAL!” There was silence for a moment before the crowd continued on with their chats. There were some people from the crowd who were talking about him behind his back. He did not give up, even though not much people can hear him.

He took a deep breath as he stand on top of a desk.

“Everyone, listen to me right now. I, Kazuto, am going to fulfill my father’s greatest dream by finding the Mysterious city, the Golden Bird, and on top of that…”

“Quiet babbling, nobody wants to hear your stupid ‘childish’ story,” said Mike.

“It’s NOT childish!” he replied.

“Then… what is it?”

“It’s real!” he continued.

“Yeah right, like we believe in things such as the, ‘Golden Bird’”

Everyone started to chuckle.

“Hey, since you believe in such things, why don’t you… go back to elementary school,” said Nick. “I’m sure they well be happy to hear your stupid story.”

Kazuto started to cry.

“Oooh, hey… look what you did, you made him cry again.”

“I- I- I will differently show you that the Golden Bird is REAL!” and then he ran off.

“Golden Bird, he said,” said Nick.

“What’s on your mind?” said Mike, curiously.

“Not much, just wondering if I have this golden bird, will I be rich?”

“Oooh… I see what you are up to,” said Mike.

“Exactly” he smiled.

During lunch period, Kazuto stopped in front of his locker, taking out and putting things in and talking to himself at the same time.

“Why can’t they understand me more? I mean, what did I ever do to them before? All I was trying is to share my feelings to…”

At this moment he felt someone has put their hand on his head. Just when he closed his locker, the person behind him slammed Kazuto’s head against the locker as it went inward. He then fell on the ground, his forehead was bleeding, he can barely see the person’s face but he had a feeling that this person could be Nick, the school bully that always picked on him.

“Hey, where is my lunch?” said Nick as he lightly kicked Kazuto’s head.

“Aw, you made him bleed,” said Mike and laughed as others tagged along.

Kazuto started to fall unconscious. His blood was all over the ground, spreading from his forehead.

“Guys, this doesn’t look so good. Let’s take a hike before we get trouble,” said Gin.

“Haha, that’s play with him a little longer,” said Nick, stepped on Kazuto’s stomach.

Meanwhile, Tony and Max walked by. They were about to go to the cafeteria. Both of them stopped when they saw Nick’s gang surrounded Kazuto’s locker, they had a feeling that something wasn’t right.

“Hey, Nick. This is enough, let’s get the heck out of here,” said Gin.

“Why? Do you feel pity on him?” said Nick.

Gin’s mouth opened but there was no answer.

Nick stood up, stared straight at Gin’s eyes. When he was about to do something Mike yelled.

“Nick, the Black Wolfs are walking this way!”

“What?” he said as he looked behind him. “Holy s**t, those two guys again.”

Tony and Max had their eyes on them and both were holding a bat behind their shoulder.

“Guys, let’s retreat this time,” said Nick, and then he ran off. He then stopped and turned to the Black Wolfs. “We’ll let you off this time but not next time,” he then turned back and ran.

Tony and Max looked down and saw Kazuto was lying on the ground. He was half naked and there were some mocking words written on his body. He was still bleeding. They took Kazuto to the nurse office immediately.

There were three people standing in front of Kazuto. He could barely see their faces. One of the three people had white hair and hazel eyes. The man stepped forward.

“Where is the book?”

Kazuto do not know what he meant. “What book?”

“The magic book… you have to get that book before they do...” said the man as his words started to disappear.

Kazuto can see the man’s mouth moving but he couldn’t hear him. He then heard another voice.

“Kazuto… Kazuto… Kazuto…”

Finally, He woke up.

“Kazuto, jeez… you finally woke up,” said Jessica. “Max and Tony found you beaten up. They brought you to the nurse office. I was so worried when they told me in class; I just had to come to check up on you.”

Kazuto eyes were on Jessica for a long moment until he had a sudden shock. He jumped out of bed, “JESSICA!” as he rolled himself off of the bed.

“Huh? Am I really that surprising?” asked Jessica, poking her head out at the edge of the bed.

Kazuto stood up. “W-w-what are you doing here?” he then, slowly backed away from her.

“I just said, I came to check if you are okay,” she said.

When he leaned against the front door, the door suddenly opened as someone walked in. It was Tony and Max.

“Hey there, how’s your forehead?” said Tony.

Kazuto felt his forehead with his hand.

“Aren’t you suppose to be in bed?” said Max, grabbed Kazuto and threw him back on his bed.

Kazuto laid down in his bed. As soon as he sees Jessica sit down next to him he shifted away from her.

“What- what’s wrong?” asked Jessica.

“N-nothing,” he replied.

Tony and Max looked at each other at the same time smirking, both of them know something and they wanted to make Kazuto embarrassed in front of Jessica.

“Oh, Max give me a hand,” Tony said.

Max turned back before walking out and said “From the looks of it, you and Jessica are going to have a ‘secret conversation’.” He then left as Tony followed behind.

“Secret conversation,” repeated Max. “Get it?” smiled and Tony slammed the door closed.

Kazuto glanced at Jessica with a blush on his face. Max and Tony stood outside, leaning with their ears against the door, listening.

“Kazuto,” said Jessica with a lowered voice.

“Huh?” Kazuto turned to her.

“I made lunch for you,” she said, handing over a bento (lunch box) that had been wrapped with pretty colored blanket.

“You’re very thoughtful,” he said, smiled.

As soon as he opened the bento, he had a bad feeling about Jessica’s cooking. The smell was okay but who knew what the taste could be poisonous. From the looks of things, it has tea-egg in slices, fried and burnt rice, and ginger ice-cream with noodles on top, and carrots had been cut in a shape of hearts.

This looks disgusting, thought Kazuto.

“Try it,” said Jessica, hand over a pair of pink chopsticks.

Kazuto cleared his throat, took a bite of the ginger ice-cream with noodles. Jessica asked, “How is it? Is it good?”

Kazuto did not say anything. His face turned purple, he covered his mouth with his hands and rushed out into the hall, ran towards the restroom. At the same time, Max and Tony were waiting for Kazuto at the restroom. Kazuto barged in and ran to the toilet. He puked everything out.

“Didn’t go so well, did it?” said Max, sitting on the sink, laughing.

“Her cooking is bad, right?” said Tony, leaning against a wall, laughing as well.

“No, s**t,” said Kazuto, stood up.

“Hey Max, I don’t have Math next period with Jessica. Could you tell her to meet us at the front door after school?” Kazuto asked.

“Sure, no problem,” said Max.

After school, they all gathered at the front door in a circle.

“Guys, I have an idea and this idea can be our greatest adventure,” said Kazuto.

“Just tell us what this is about.” demanded Tony.

“We are going to find the Golden bird in the Spirit Forest and accomplish my father’s dream,” said Kazuto.

There was a silence for a long moment.

“Did you say the Golden Bird?” asked Jessica. “Kazuto you got to stop watching those anime.”

“It’s not anime,” said Kazuto.

“Spirit Forest?” asked Max. “You got to be kidding me.”

“No, it’s real… I think. Look, guys. The Golden Bird is not a bird, it’s a city and it’s in the Spirit Forest,” explained Kazuto with more details.

“How the hell are we going to the Spirit Forest?” asked Tony.

“I have a code to open the gate. Guys, are you interested?” asked Kazuto.

“That is enough, I’m going home,” sighed Jessica, and left.

Max and Tony stared at Kazuto for a second, then they shook their heads and left. I guess they don’t believe me after all, since it has been so long, ten years to be exact. Huh. He thought.

On his way home, he was wondering why nobody believes him. Suddenly he heard a man scream as he ran by and there was another man chasing after him. Kazuto wanted to know why, so he followed them. He poked his head out, and saw the man’s face who was being chased. He killed one of the world leaders, Kisima. The man with a pure-white katana (Japanese samurai sword) sliced off the man on the ground begging for mercy.

Kazuto was shocked. As soon as the man with the katana turned to him, Kazuto hid behind a wall. Holy s**t… he saw me! Oh my god, that man is going to kill me, he thought. He inched his body out, poked his head out again, realized the trace of blood was gone and the man with the katana too.

“Was that my imagination?” Kazuto whispered to himself. He took a deep breath.

“Then again, I think I saw that man in my dream before… Could this be real? Or does it have something to do with the Golden Bird city?”

The man with the katana was watching over Kazuto on top of a traffic light pole, he smiled.