They entered in a single line. The first to enter was Tomas Estévez. I knew him from back in primary school. He was always smiling, always wanting to help others. In brief, he was a genuine nice guy. The only problem I had with him was that he always followed the majority. If most people said that the sky was green, he would believe it. In my case, everyone said that I was a rapist and a delinquent, so you can guess what he was thinking.

The second to come in was Malcolm Blake, the second rank in our grade. He was five feet three of lanky teenager. He was a geek poster child. He wore glasses. His clothes were clean and tucked in his pants. He hated me. Contrary to the others, it wasn't because of the “incident” but because I was beat him in the grade ranking. Our cohabitation was going to be awesome, I could feel it.

The third person was the one that would cause me the most problem. Jacob Clarke was my ex-best friend and biggest plague of my life. He was one of the firsts to turn against me when “it” happened. He bullied me. I even ended in the hospital because of him. It had been an accident but this would have never happened if he wasn't bullying me. I hadn't seen him since the school ceremony two years ago when he tried to talk to me.

The last one was … I didn't know who it was. I'd never seen him before. But he looked to be friends with Jacob. So I should stay as far away from him as I could. They all stood together in front of the headmaster's desk.

“Mr Estévez, Mr Blake, Mr Clarke, Mr Bergson. Please sit down.” They waited for him to continue. “I would like to speak to you about a matter of great importance. Most of you must have heard about the incident involving Mr Akira Kirihara and Miss Claire Barlow. Five years ago, Mr Kirihara sexually assaulted Miss Barlow. Since then, he has been barely coming to school. It was decided that this year this situation couldn't keep going on.”

“What does it have to do with us?”, Malcolm asked with a deep frown.

“I plan to integrate Mr Kirihara back to school. First, He'll interact with a select group of students so that when he'll come back to school, he'll have a group of friends to fall back on if the bullying he was victim of start again.”

“So I assume we are the chosen ones. But why us?” Tomas asked.

“Not only are you the best students academically speaking but you are also popular among the other students. I want a snowball effect to set in. When the others see all of you together, talking to Mr Kirihara, being his friends, their opinions of him will change and the bullying will stop and he'll be able to come to school like any other student.”

I didn't like his plan. It felt forced and there was no way that we'd become friends. At the least, two of them already hated me. It was doomed.

“There will be compensations. You'll have the same treatment as Mr Kirihara. That is to say, you will study at home, you'll only have to come to school for the exams. You can pass your days doing whatever you want, it could be studying, training or even like Mr Kirihara playing all day long.” He delivered this speech with a warm and convincing smile. He looked like a salesman trying to sell his junk.

“Okay.” Jacob agreed way too fast. What was he planning? I looked at him with suspicion.

“After consideration, Mr Clarke, you can leave. We'll find someone else to replace you.”

“No way. I want to participate.”

“Your fast agreement is too suspicious. I don't want anything to interfere with the plan.”

“I just want to help him. He paid enough for what happened.”

“Your feelings seems to come from a good place,” he said sarcastically, “but to err on the side of safety, I will ask you to leave. Don't you agree, Mr Kirihara?”

They all followed his gaze and for the first time they saw that I was there. Jacob blanched and in the next second, he turned a deep shade of red. I spared him a glance and then, I resumed staring a hole in the headmaster's head.

“Aw! Are you still pouting?” I didn't deign to give an answer.

The others turned back to look at the headmaster, surprised. They had never heard him talk like that and those words didn't suit his looks at all. It also served to put on their mind that that man and I were on friendly terms, which wasn't true. I crossed my arms in front of me and started tapping my foot on the carpet in a sign of annoyance. It wasn't really impressive, but who cared? Not him by the looks of it. He was smiling from ear to ear.

That man just loved messing with people. It wouldn't be in my best interest to interact more with this person. However, I didn't know how to hurry things up so that I never see him again.

“Akira.” Jacob said my name. I looked at him briefly before going back to stare at the headmaster. “Akira.” He called my name again.

“Mr Kirihara, I think Mr Clarke wants to talk to you.” There was no need to be an engineer to see that I was ignoring him.“Mr Clarke, I think Mr Kirihara doesn't want to talk to you. “, he goaded again. “Mr Kirihara, you should let go of the past. Mr Clarke is a bully but he has some nice points too.” Jacob whipped his head around. He was indignant. “Mr Clarke, you are a nice boy. I'm sure you never meant to hurt Mr Kirihara.” And he kept going. Could anyone just hit him? A punch would be great. I'd even accept a slap. “So can the two of you be friends? Give each other a big hug to seal your new friendship.”

The three other people in the room kept silent during his speech. They might have been too busy looking back and forth between the three of us to say anything. Jacob was biting his lips and turning an even deeper shade of red. I was getting worried, no one could be that red and not fall over. I didn't want to be the one to pick him up.

I sighed deeply. “So they're the ones?” I didn't wait for his answer before addressing them, “Congratulations! You're going to live with me. So when you're done gaping, you can come home. He'll tell you how to get there 'cause I need to go hang myself. Bye!” My tone let out the deep enthusiasm I felt.

I knew that I would regret blowing off that meeting but right now I didn't care. I was exhausted and it was only a quarter past nine. Back to my place, I tried to sleep but my thoughts kept going in circle. After a while tossing in bed, I decided to log back in the game.

I appeared in the training center. Since I gained the touch skill, I trained daily on a dummy in one of the back rooms. I was curious to know about what was the deal with this room. I swore that there wasn't even a speck of dust anywhere in the training center. I didn't know how the training master did it. I mean the town was near a desert and the wind was always blowing. There was no way anyone normal could keep this place so clean in these conditions and leave out a filthy room.

I tried looking for this room's secret everywhere I could think of. There wasn't any hidden door nor anything else suspicious for that matter. There was just a dummy and a rack of weapons. I still couldn't talk to anyone as no one could see me. I was basically destined to bottle up my curiosity and take it out on the dummy.

As I got to learn, physically I never felt tired. As long as I willed it I could get going. Unfortunately, that didn't mean much. I never felt tired but I had barely any strength. I didn't know that was possible. It took me hours just to move a dagger a few millimeters. I thanked everything that was holy that no one could see me because I felt ridiculous. I was bend over trying to pick up a dagger and I couldn't because it weighed like a ton of bricks.

As I didn't tire, I kept on trying, getting more and more desperate. When I finally was able to pick it up, I tried to move with it and it fell to the ground. And I had to start everything all over again. And that was when I got stubborn and decided that I would learn to handle weapons even if took me all eternity.

Thankfully, it didn't take me that long as I gained more and more strength points. But I did take to abuse the dummy. And it looked like it was going to make me pay.

As I appeared in the room, I immediately saw that something was wrong, I mean it was hard not to. The dummy was glowing and moving right at me with a sword in his hand. As he slashed at me, I dodged lightly by moving back. I wasn't keen on fighting so I tried to leave but I couldn't.

Two pop-up messages appeared in front of me.

*Ding*

You have received a quest!

The Dummy's revenge

After receiving countless hits from you, the dummy is seeking revenge.

Requirements: training in the Special Room, hit the dummy 1000 times

Reward: Unknown

The Special Room has become a dungeon

You can't leave until all enemies are vanquished

With no options, I held a sword and got ready to fight. I believed I could win. How could I lose against a dummy? It was a lot harder than I thought. My sword flew out of my hand with his first hit.

In the next second, a deep pain blossomed in my chest. With a violent move, the dummy removed his sword from where he pierced me. I put my hand over the hole he made and looked at my health bar at the far left side of my vision. It was still full. I thought that I was safe because as a spirit no one should be able to touch me. At that moment, I understood that there were exceptions to this rule and the dummy was one of them.

Taking advantage of my inattention, he lunged at me wanting to impale me again. I dodged by throwing myself backwards with all the strength I had. A sickening sound was heard as I met the wall. My back hurt so much that I got stunned for a few seconds. When I regained my senses, I saw his sword a few inches from me, aiming for my head.

I threw myself on the side. I floated as fast as I could to get back my sword. Holding it with two hands, I parried his next hit with difficulty. With the next attack both my arms became numb. The sword dropped on the floor. I could only see in horror as his sword cut right through my right arm. It stunned me. He took advantage of the situation and pierced my heart. I felt sick. The pain was beyond what I could bear and I fell into unconsciousness.

I woke up with the dummy standing right above me. My arm was back on my body. In desperation I floated to the weapons and took a dagger. I had a choice then: either I get in close combat with the dummy from hell or I throw the dagger at him. I threw it. I kept on throwing weapons and dodging his attacks for all I was worth.

*Ding*

You have vanquished the dummy!

After hours pursuing you, the dummy thinks you're too annoying to keep fighting so he gives up.

Rewards: Agility +15

Strength +10

“Huh?”

I looked dumbfounded as the dummy stopped mid-swing and went to take back its vigil in the center of the room. I didn't get what happened. I didn't question things too much though. I went to check the door and saw that I could get out. I went through the door and waiting behind it was the training master.

“Hello! You're my new student, aren't you?”, he asked with an evil smile on his face.

I didn't answer as I didn't think he was talking to me. I went to go past him. He stopped me by taking my ear and pulling on it.

“Ow! Stop it!”

“It's not nice to ignore me to my face.”

“You can see me?”

“I can touch you too, if you hadn't noticed yet.”

“But...But how? And please, stop abusing my ear.” He gave my ear a little shake before finally releasing it. From my experience with the dummy, I got that infinite health and vitality got nothing to do with pain. If I got hit, I wouldn't get the damage but I'd get the pain that went along with it.

“And why shouldn't I see you?”

“I'm dead! Normal people don't see dead people.”

“You're not dead.”

“I'm dead, I tell you. I was there when it happened. I died and came back to haunt the town.” He violently hit the back of my head.

“You're not dead.” I looked at him indignantly, his hand was still raised.

“I'm not dead.” It was best to agree with the violent guy.

“I'm not violent.”

“I never said you were.” My lie got me another hit on the back of my head. I should get rid of my habit to speak my thoughts out loud.

“So why am I your new student?” I tied to change the topic.

“Because I decided.” He didn't say more. He grabbed my arm and dragged me with him.

“Where are you taking me? I can float on my own, you know?”

“I know you can float on your own and I'm taking you to where you are going to train.”

“And where it is? We were at the training center if you hadn't noticed.”

“You'll see.”

He kept on dragging me for a while. We finally arrived at a decrepit mansion. With the hand that wasn't holding me, he knocked loudly on the door. With a screech, the door opened. A woman was behind it. She let us enter. The training master then led me to a huge room at the back of the building.

“You'll train here from now on. You'll sleep in the room there and you absolutely and I mean you won't like the consequences if you disobey, must not leave this place. There are wards to make sure that you can't go through the walls.”

“But...”

“No words. I told, you obey. Now go rest, your training starts next week at 6.”

He left me alone in the room. Now that I had time to think about it. Did I really want to be taught by that violent guy? On an other hand, it could be my only chance to understand what happened to me and be able to learn some skills. For the time being, I'd stay and see. I went into the room where he said I could sleep and logged out.

Back in real life, I went into the kitchen to make myself something to eat. I was mincing vegetable when someone knocked. Warily, I went to open the door and I saw in the lobby a lot of guys carrying boxes. I had seen them before. They were students. I really wanted to close the door in their face. It was petty but so tempting.

I let the door open and went back near the stove to prepare my meal. I looked at them out of the corner of my eyes. There were at least twenty guys. All of them with boxes in their hands. I wanted to laugh at them but it would give away that I was looking. They were glancing around taking everything in. I heard them muttering among themselves. They were all about how gorgeous the place was.

They kept standing near the couch. Four of them made their way toward me. It was Tomas, Blake, Jacob and that Bergson guy.

“Hey, could you show us where our rooms are, please?”, Tomas asked.

I looked squarely at him with a bored expression and pointed my finger upwards behind him. “The room just in front of the stairs is mine.”

“The stairs?”

“The stairs.”

The living room and the kitchen were in a single room that take the whole ground floor. The plants were as much for decoration than for dividing the place in such a way that from the entrance of the penthouse, it was nearly impossible to see the stairs. From where they were, it looked like the penthouse was three times smaller than it actually was.

“Behind you, on the right, there's the stairs.”

All the guys went out of my sight in the other part of the room which led to the veranda and to the stairs. I heard their

exclamations and comments about the place. I didn't really want them here but it was pleasant to hear that my place was gorgeous.

I took as much time as I could in the kitchen. Half an hour later, most of the guys left laughing and congratulating my new housemates. None of them said a word to me. They went even so far as to pretend I wasn't there. It didn't bother me but it seemed to bother the others.

“Sorry about that. They should have at least said “hello” ” Bergson said. I should really found what was his first name.

I shrugged uninterested. They all took a stool, sat and stared at me.

“So how long have you lived here?” Malcolm asked out of the blue.

“Two years.”

“ Wow. It's a really gorgeous place. You lived here alone?”

“Yeah.”

I knew that my short answers complicated the pursuit of the conversation. They made the first step being civil with me, I guessed I should try to make an effort. We were going to live together after all.

“So where's the fifth guy?”

“What fifth guy?”

“The fifth guy who'll live here. Five guys are supposed to move in, there are four of you so where's the fifth guy?

They looked at each other to see if one of them had heard about this guy. None of them knew anything about it.

A knock sounded on the door, again. I didn't move from where I was. Malcolm, after guessing that I wasn't about to open the door, went to do it himself. And surprise, there stood the new plague of my life, the headmaster. He had a bag on his shoulder.

“Oh hell no! You said students will live here!” I shouldn't have believe anything he said

“Happy to see you too Mr. Kirihara and too bad, I changed my mind. I'll be living with you.”

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