The Blinded Gem

Chapter 1 - Ashia Keiji- Onyx

"Class, we have a new student. Please introduce yourself, Shirane," the teacher said as a girl with dark, brown hair, porcelain skin, a knee-length tee adorned with cherry blossoms, a long pony tail at her back, and the most surprising feature, her eyes completely covered with bandages entered the room. "Hello, my name is Sei Shirane, it is a pleasure to meet all of you. Please take care of me since as you can see, I am blind," the girl, or Sei, introduced and bowed gracefully. Her introduction, revelation of her bandages, and her sincere, innocent smile left everyone in shock, as if an angel had entered the room instead of a blind, timid girl. The boys looked like they were going to faint of the cuteness overload, like some of the girls, but with some looking in envy. The only boy who wasn't interested was Keiji Ashia, also known as the perfection freak of class 1A. Instead of thinking about how cute Sei was, he thought about different equations, science, math and in the back of his mind, he was thinking how could a stupid, blind girl could ever make it in to this school. "Ok Shirane, you can sit next to Ashia over there. Ashia, please guide Shirane to the seat next to yours." 'Wow, the teacher commands ME to help a dumb blind girl? He must be insane! Well, fine. I'll do it because I don't want anything bad on my permanent record.' Keiji thought, then went up to Sei, took her by the arm, and quickly brought her to her new desk. "Ah! Thank you very much, Ashia-san!" Sei thanked Keiji and sat in her new seat. 'Great,' Keiji thought, 'now a DISABLED is sitting next to me! God, is this some kind of game?!' Out of the corner of his eye, Keiji saw Sei just smiling happily, as if she was thinking about something cute, and not paying attention to the teacher's lecture at all. 'God, how can you be so happy, you ignoramus? And how are you able to get into a school? You must be lower than a moron, maybe down to a retard, a mental retard! What should I do to get rid of her? Bully her? Or convince the other girls to bully her? Yes! The second one should be best! So, how do I-' Keiji's thoughts were suddenly interrupted when there was a message on the overhead. "Keiji Ashia, please report to the principal's office this instant." Keiji's eyes widened in suprise, shock, pride and fear. The principal wants to talk with him! Was he in trouble? Or was he going to advance to a higher grade, since he is, the top student on campus. "Ashia, you can go now," the teacher informed him, snapping him out of his daze. Keiji then excused himself, and walked through the long corridor to the principal's headquarters. He knocked lightly on the mahogany door, and the principal allowed him to enter. "So, Keiji-kun, do you know why I have called you here?" The principal's back was turned, showing only the behind of his giant, swivel chair. His voice sounded gentle and kind, but had a serious, you-listen-to-me-or-else tone that everyone is both relieved and scared of. Keiji tried to control the excitement in his voice to sound monotone and emotionless. "No, sir. I'm afraid not." "Alright then, so do you know Sei Shirane?" Ugh, that girl again. Why does the principal want to talk about her? Keiji tried to fight the urge of telling his true thoughts of her to the principal, but just replied with a straight face, "Yes, she is in my class." The principal then turned to look at Keiji. The teenager knew this was serious business. He knew the principal would only show his face if it was a very serious talk. "I want you to take care of her." Those words that left the principal's mouth were just enough to shoot him down to depression. Keiji gulped, and said the 3-letter word that would later on change his life. "Why?" The principal then replied, "Because of 2 reasons. I will tell you them if you will keep these reasons a secret." The tension in the room has grown from 80% to 99.9%. The teen then briefly nodded, and the principal continued. "Sei Shirane, is the smartest person in the entire world with an IQ of 562, and is the heir of the most famous learning facility of all time, including the college you wanted to go to, Komatsuzaki Academy. The look on Keiji's face was the look of pure shock and horror. Only one word was able to leave his lips. "What?"