[center][h1][color=black]T[/color]OTSUKA [color=black]R[/color]YUSEI
[color=black]戸[/color]塚 [color=black]竜[/color]星[/h1][/center]
[hr][right][color=gray]April 7th, 20pickafuckingyearhero
8:45am[/color][/right][hr]

[indent]There was scarcely better weather to demonstrate Ryusei's ambivalence towards the coming day—the entire sky was covered in a thick layer of clouds, threatening to pour all over the town of Utsubyo at any moment. Everything about the little municipality seemed to be choked with an unmistakably dour feeling. Perhaps it was a simple projection of his circumstances, although in the few days he had been in town, he couldn't remember spotting the sun even once. The perpetual overcast just worked to worsen his already poor situation; things had been terse around his new home as the existing order found itself torn asunder in favor of a new arrival. His grandfather, to his credit, had worked hard for most of his life, so the traditional abode up in the hills of the Sakuraba neighborhood was certainly leagues better than most of the other homes the youth biked passed on his way into town. He had stayed there plenty a summer as a boy, back when his grandmother was still alive, and had a nice enough time. His grandparents always had time for him, and made sure to make him feel welcome. Maybe it was her absence that made things feel so chilly. Maybe grandpa just didn't know how to welcome him after living alone for so long.

The circumstances just felt... strange. Like they didn't belong. Like [i]he[/i] didn't belong.

By the time he acknowledged that thought [i]was[/i] certainly a projection, Ryusei's destination had finally come within viewing distance. Utsubyo High wasn't anything to be impressed by, certainly not compared to his previous school, but the sight of it certainly beat ruminating over his exile to gods-forsaken Kyushu, or how he had come to miss that empty apartment way back in Kobe already. Finding a place to lock his bike up was mercifully easy, and it certainly needed to be, because his morning left him in no mood to ask any of the students or faculty milling about the courtyard how to do so. Not that his intentions to slip under their radars would do him any good. He had always stuck out like a sore thumb—he was a hulking, angry looking thug of a transfer student, and his usual, resting grimace almost certainly looked worse with his mood darkened.

But it didn't matter. He just had to make it through the first day. Ignore the stares. Ignore the whispers. Don't think about their asinine theories. Shoo them off when the dumb ones come up to ask. Just get through the day. That mantra carried him through the opening ceremony, as the administrators prattled on, and through the halls as his fellow students rushed to find their homerooms and settle in for some brief morning chatter.

Antisocial as he tended to be, he had little enough interest in that. Homeroom would bring some respite, hopefully, and if he was lucky, he could spend the majority of the introductory session gazing out the window. More lamentation to brighten up his spirit. Unfortunately, the annoyingly proactive teacher arrived in short order not much longer after he had settled himself into the second seat from the back. Of course, introductions were necessary. How quaint. The only solace he found in the request was that there seemed to be another unfortunate soul who was folded into the current year. One who must have been having a much better day than he. He almost felt his gaze sharpen as she carelessly bounced her way to the front of the classroom and introduced herself with such vigor. If they expected that much from him, they were sure to be disappointed.

With a sigh, the delinquent pushed himself up out of his chair, carefully maneuvering his way to the front of the classroom on the heels of his fellow transfer. A stick of pearly white chalk found its way between his long fingers, and he scratched a rough set of kanji onto the board beside Shimizu's.

[color=c0c0c0]"Name's Totsuka Ryusei. I like sports, and not being here in front of you all, if I'm honest,"[/color] He gingerly set the chalk back where it had been, turning to the teacher, [color=c0c0c0]"So if that's all?"[/color]

It wasn't much of a question; he had already decided that was all he had to say on the matter, and soon made his way back to his desk, wiping the residue of the talc-like powder from between his digits as he did.

[i][color=c0c0c0]"God, I need a smoke today."[/color][/i][/indent]