The Burning Torch

[pchwang]

A bright orb streaked across the dark night sky above Planet New Tokyo. Like a comet, the orb left a glowing trail - an ephemeral tail of light that cut the blanket of night, slowly melting away its owner cruised onward. The orb was not a comet, however. Far smaller, it cut through the atmosphere of the planet, causing the volatile Hydrogen and Oxygen atoms to react around it, forming a glorious, hyperion glow around it. It zipped through the thin clouds that yielded to it like a katana through butter, forming whorls of white wisps as it flew through the sky.

To an untrained eye, this was perhaps a ship that had attempted to land on New Tokyo without using the docking rings. But to those who knew...

A young boy sitting at a elongated table in a New Tokyo Lower Secondary school stared into the space before him, oblivious of the food before him or the drink in his hand. Slowly, a smile formed across his features as he mouthed a name to himself. The boy grinned, ignorant to the four figures that approached him from behind.

Shou Watanabe was shaken from his reverie as a hand descended on his shoulder and clasped forcefully. Shou's immediate reaction was to drop the carton of juice in his hand, which ungracefully descended upon his small portion of chicken teriyaki and rice.

"Huh?" Shou exclaimed, surprised. He quickly wiped the grin that had crept between his cheeks off his face as he debated whether he should turn left or right to face the owner of the hand. But the hand decided that Shou was taking far too much time deliberating, and made the decision for him. In one swift, rough, movement, the hand jerked Shou Watanabe's thin frame one hundred-eighty degrees counter-clockwise, a motion that almost knocked the frail boy out of his seat.

"...uh...what...w...w...what do you...want?" asked Shou.

In all honesty, the owner of the hand who had spun young Shou Watanabe around had no idea. Facing a mild case of "bully's block," Kenji eyed the pitiful sight before him. Like a wolf sizing up its prey, Kenji drew his icy gray eyes from Shou's lunch tray to the boy himself. Dressed in a worn, plaid gakuran that was far too large for his small, unimposing figure, Shou looked out of place from the rest of the children in the room - all dressed in neat, figure fitting tops with stiff standing collars, blouses, pants, and skirts. But the feature that really caused Shou to stand out were the thick, heavy, dark rimmed glasses that sat onto his nose, effectively obscuring half his face.

Kenji Sato smiled. Extending his arm past Shou, he picked up the thin foam dish that sat on the thin boy's tray.

"Teriyaki chicken?" asked Kenji. "This must be the best food you've ever tasted in your life, farmer-boy."

Kenji chuckled, and the three boys behind him followed suit. "You know, this is really a waste of that precious money your parents worked so hard to make. You weren't even enjoying the food..."

"That food is free, the school gives...," began Shou.

"DON'T interrupt me!" Kenji suddenly had become furious. Surprised by the harsh retaliation, Shou cringed.

"Do you know what the name of this school is?" asked Kenji, continuing. "Do you?"

Shou opened his mouth, but Kenji did not give him a chance to reply. "This school is the Sato Institute for Higher Learning. This is my father's school. So, this entire time, all you were doing was wasting the precious money that my father has put towards your education in the form of a scholarship."

"But I earned that scholarship," replied Shou, summoning up some courage. "My grades..."

"Your grades mean NOTHING," hissed Kenji, inching closer to Shou's face. "With a few words, I could destroy you... your dreams... your father's dreams."

The last statement caught Shou off guard as a thousand different thoughts raced through his mind. The scholarship that he had worked so hard to attain, that his father pushed him so hard to get. The things that his parents had planned for him. An esteemed Professor of Argonomics at Todai...

"See? He's daydreaming again." Kenji's acerbic voice cut Shou's imaginations into shreds. "You know what I think? I think he's thinking of Torch-sama again."

By now, a small group of others had gathered around Shou and his tormentors in a loose circle, most pretending not to notice, yet drawn to the spectacle by the unbridled curiosity of youth. But at the mention of Torch-sama, the entire crowd burst into snide chuckles and laughter.

"Fwhooosh!" one boy exclaimed.

"Torch-sama! Save your little friend Shou!"

"I'm Torch-sama! I light myself on fire and save people!"

"Enough!" Kenji's voice boomed over the rest of the ruckus. "If you spent more time studying than making up stories about... Torch-sama, Watanabe, maybe, just maybe you'd be able to keep that scholarship and save your daddy from getting one of those 'aneurysms' that mommy got because your grades were so low..."

It was impossible to see the tears that were welling in Shou's eyes because of the large, thick, glasses that covered them, but from the boy's posture, it was clear that he was crying. His misery brought an inverse reaction to Kenji and his cohort, who began to jeer with glee.

"Torch-sama is real...," muttered Shou, feeling streaks of warmth run down his face.

Kenji stopped laughing and leaned closer. "What did you say, farmer-boy?"

"Torch-sama," began Shou, "...is real."

"You want to repeat that?" asked Kenji, smiling wickedly. "I don't think the entire cafeteria could hear."

"TORCH-SAMA IS REAL!" screamed Shou, standing so suddenly that Kenji drew back in surprise.

Brow furrowed, Kenji stepped forward and shoved Shou back down on his seat. "You, farmer, don't belong in this..."

"Neither do you."

All heads in the room turned to see the voice who had spoken to challenge the dominant figure in the room. It was an upper-secondary school student - a girl - who towered over most of those in the room.

"This may be your father's school, Kenji Sato, but that does not place you above its rules and principles," continued the older girl. "I wonder what your father would think of you if the President of the Student Review Board were to inform him that his own son was shaming the school's tenet of 'Mutual Respect.'"

Kenji was speechless.

"Not too well," continued the older girl. "So I suggest you leave that boy alone and go do whatever it is you do besides bully others."

With a quick jerk of his head, Kenji motioned his cronies to move with him. He approached the older girl, and despite the fact that she stood nearly half a head taller than him, Kenji stared at Shou's savior in the eye.

"One day," said Kenji. "I will be taller than you."

"I patiently await it," she replied.

Kenji motioned his friends to move, and the group moved to leave the cafeteria. Approaching a sobbing Shou slowly, the older girl sat down, and offered him the carton of juice that he had dropped on his food after cleaning it with a napkin. Shou took the carton and sipped.

"What's your name?" the older girl asked. "I'm Akira Nakamura."

Shou did not look up. "I'm... Shou. Shou Watanabe?"

Akira smiled, and gripped Shou on his shoulder. Only this was not a menacing, fierce grip, but one of warmth and comfort.

Slowly the pain shriveled and returned to its dark corner.

Torch-sama soared through the cool New Tokyo air in his modified exo-suit, hovering in mid-air. With the eyes of an eagle, he looked across the landscape. It was a quiet night.

But it was about to grow louder.

Much louder.

---

[7:42:05 PM][6:51:36 PM] Igor (Smokey): btw terry
[6:51:48 PM] Terrance Cooper: Ye?
[6:52:00 PM] Igor (Smokey): nothin
[6:52:03 PM] Igor (Smokey): just sayin btw
[6:52:05 PM] Terrance Cooper: <_<

Johnny_Haas: you shot anti criuse speed rockets!!!
Johnny_Haas: but why????
Johnny_Haas: ??
Johnny_Haas: why you shoot criuse speed rockets?