𝚃𝙴𝙴𝙽𝙰𝙶𝙴 𝙳𝙸𝚁𝚃𝙱𝙰𝙶 ,, high&low

chapter one | give yourself a try

one

give yourself a try

If there was one thing I hadn't missed while I was in Okinawa, it was the S.W.O.R.D district.

I spent my life avoiding S.W.O.R.D at all costs.

Even if our house was a few blocks away from the infamous Oya High. My parents always told me to stay clear, and I was glad to do just that.

See, my family are islanders. My parents are originally from Okinawa, and I was born there. Until kindergarten rolled around and we moved back to mainland Japan. We'd go back every summer, and I told myself that I was going to stay there permanently one day.

As soon as I graduated from a certain hell, I moved back to Okinawa and took on odd jobs while I tired to figure out what I want to do. I got a degree on the island, then I enrolled in a constructional engineering program that brought me right back to S.W.O.R.D.

And that is where all of my problems started.

I inhaled the smell of the breakfast stir-fry as I cracked an egg open over top of it.

"Noboru!" I shouted "Breakfast!"

I tossed around the stir fry a few times before pouring it onto a plate and leaving it on a kitchen island.

Culinary school had always been my end goal, even my parents agreed it was worth it, but we never had the money.

"You look a little too dressed up to be going to Oya High." Noboru mused, hobbling into the kitchen. Last summer, before he rented the basement form my parents he had been hit by a car after leaving the Iemura Group. He was in a coma for weeks and still hadn't fully regained the ability to walk.

This was the world S.W.O.R.D was in, and we just had to adapt and deal with it.

"Are you sure you don't want to switch floors? I don't mind taking the basement if it's easier on your leg."

"Midori, it's fine. You already do laundry and make food, you don't have to give up your part of the house."

I shook my head, hastily shoving some stir fry in my mouth as I dug around in a drawer for my day planner "Do you need me to take you to physio? I can call the teacher at Oya and tell him I'll be late-"

Noboru laughed "Midori, stop. Yamato is going to drive me."

"Okay." I exhaled, smoothing out the cable knit long sleeve I was wearing. "I'm sorry, I'm so new to this whole landlord thing."

After everything bad that could have possibly happened with the S.W.O.R.D District happened, my parents took off for Europe, which meant that paying bills, taking care of the house and anything else that they would have done for Noboru was now my job.

And I was pretty bad at it.

"It's fine. Just focus on getting to Oya in time. God, be careful there. They're a bunch of fucking wack jobs."