Kireme No Nai

Kami

          When my father said I was being transferred, I immediately thought of a bad high school movie. Like where the new student struggles with finding her identity or some bullshit. You could say I wasn't excited in the first place, but once my friends told me about American school systems, I got a sense of curiosity. Unlike my poorly taught homeschool and my teacher who was just my friend's mom, apparently there's a whole curriculum I'm missing out on. Now, I'm not saying I'm excited to learn. Frankly it sounds like someone handing you stress on a platter. And yet, sounded like a great distraction.
          You see my dad isn't transferring jobs to America or seeking a new life or something. My dad isn't even coming with me. I'm going over to some small town in California to assassinate the head of a gang. They're called the Shifters, hence their ability to change bodies or shape shift. Now, as rumor has it, most of the gang killings associated with them are located in West Lake, or normally known as Nishiko. The town apparently has Japanese roots, but from what I've seen so far, this town is crawling with white people. So you could say I look out of place.
          I was sent here on Tuesday last week, July 7. School started a week ago, but I was registered yesterday and had to show up today for confirmation. But as I was walking up to the unfortunate building called West Lake High, I immediately regretted going with this decision.
          The pavement was cracked under my feet, and the rain puddles reflected not only my mood but a sky the color of a poorly drawn night sky. It was hot and sticky, and the trees looked as if they were calling out for help. The coast to the ocean was full of trash, and the lake here was smaller than I thought it would be, considering the whole town is named after it. And the building its self wasn't exactly the glimmering high school campus from American books. More of less, there was more trash than students I saw, and the ones that I did were skipping class and getting high. I mean, I am coming in during the middle of home room, half an hour later than I should be to school. When I walked in, the lady at the front desk eyed me under her glasses.
          "Guest forms are over here if you want to drop something off to an older sibling," she said, reaching for a stack of poorly arranged papers.
          "Actually... I'm a new student," I said. she raised her eyebrows.
          "Well excuse my mistake honey, you don't look a day over thirteen."
          I screamed internally. I'm a Junior.

          The whole school was really open, and yet the hallways were tight and narrow. The walls were white, and the tiles were white. Each separate area had Windows on the outside and light brown doors on the inside of the hallways leading to each miserable classroom. Despite the clean look they were going for, there was a grungy feeling that made the whole area seem more ominous. The corners of each hallway were dusty and dark, and some of the lights flickered. The sky outside was creeping through the windows, telling me this was a bad idea. But it was what I had to do.

          I creaked open the door to our classroom and saw a teacher wearing a flannel standing at the desk. He had a beard and looked two days hungover, with bags under his eyes. The people sitting in the desks looked worse. It was like everyone in this school was dead inside. Looks like I had something in common with them.
          "Oh yeah here's the new kid you guys were talking about," the teacher said, lazily presenting me. The class didn't respond visually. "You should introduce yourself."
          "My name is Kami..." I said, eyeing him.
          He grinned. "Now tell us more...."
          "I'm... from Japan...."
          He made the hand signal to keep going.
          "What else am I supposed to say?"
          "Shout out questions!" the teacher suddenly yelled. I looked at him in disbelief. And then kids started shouting.
          "If you're from Japan then where's your accent!!!!?" someone yelled.
          "English was my first language jackass."
          "Coke or Pepsi????!!!"
          "Neither they're mediocre sodas."
          "What's your favorite color???"
          "Probably maroon..."
          "Favorite singer???!!!"
          "You guys can stop now," the teacher said, cutting me short. "Hey Cami-"
          "Kami."
          "Whatever, you can just take the seat over there in the back," he said, pointing by the window.
          I took a seat and sighed.

          I guess I didn't clarify. I wasn't just sent here as some random high school girl to kill people. My dad is one of the rulers of Hell, which sounds strange because of how nice he is, and my mother is a spirit of the earth. They were never married, no, things just kind of 'happened' between them at a club. Or as my dad called it, "strangers with benefits." At the time, I guess he didn't know that demons and Sprits should not conceive a child or get together in anyway, with the fear of creating a monster lingering. But instead, my careless drunk parents didn't bother an introduction before they hopped into bed together. And then of course, I was born. On that day, people tell me there was chaos. Like, people were terrified of such a powerful being existing. People wouldn't even go near the hospital until a few weeks after I was born. And yet there were some that would still visit me. "Well I mean, I did fuck up on that night," my dad told me, at the tender age of four, "But now I have a pretty daughter so..."
          And things weren't that great afterwards. my dad had me begin martial arts practicing, making use of my powers. Of course I was placed with other elite spirits, but they weren't anything special. They just had better parents than a lot of us spirits here and better powers. I grew up in a really small town in the Kanto region of Japan, near the mountains. They would say out village was haunted, but truth be told we were just supernatural creatures. Now, all spirits didn't live here, only the top ranked ones. The rest were scattered around the world, or in unforeseen spirit realms. I, fortunately, had access to both the spirit realms and the demon realms. Though they say I am cursed, it must be a pretty good curse to grant me what I have. I am able to manipulate time and fire, and be able to see auras. Which is practically useless until I am able to be in a place where bright red eyes are acceptable. Even though time manipulation sounds like a lazy power, I found out how to use it to my advantage. Slowing down or stopping time completely helps me run faster, or escape quickly. Or when I am jumping off a high place, I can slow down time and my body to lighten the fall. But, with sick powers comes having slow healing. Spirits are usually not immortal. So, therefore, their wounds have to be able to heal before they die. Some heal quickly. Others like mine, heal only 3x quicker than a normal human. My friend Akira, hers heal at least 16x faster. Which is impressive, despite how she isn't in quite as dire situations as I usually find myself in. Being part demon comes with actually having an alter personality, or an inner voice telling me what to do. I mean, I do have the highest kill count out of my elite group. It also gets me into situations where I'm doing something incredibly risky, or say something incredibly risky. You could say that that is truly my 'curse'. But all this time, all my training, everything I have worked for, comes down to me sitting at a hot desk on a cloudy day learning Math. I had to change classrooms and now we have an old teacher with skin like old fruit. Her classroom smelled like old fruit too.

          At lunch, some girls whom I didn't know invited me to sit with them. There were only three of them, one with orange hair and a squeaky voice, one with braces and hair cut like a boy, and another with long brown hair tied into a high bun. They dragged me outside, and brushed some leftover soda cans off of a table.
          "Is it different here?" the one with the squeaky voice asked.
          "Yeah. There's a lot of trash here. And not only the people."
          They laughed.
          "You look so out of place, you're really pretty," the one with short hair said. I smiled.
          "Yeah and your outfit is really cute."
          "Thanks... I mean I just moved in it's hard to get situated. I live in a Condo a few blocks away from the main city," I told them.
          They looked much more interested than I expected someone to be. I mean, I don't find myself very interesting.
          But luckily, gossiping about someone else took the interest factor away from me.
          "Ugh Cameron's so pretty," the redhead complained.
          "No she isn't," said the one with boy hair, eyeing a tall blonde girl.
          "She looks generic to me," I claimed.
          "See? She does. You only think she's pretty because of her boyfriend."
          The redhead giggled.
          "It doesn't count because he's so mean! It like takes away all of his hotness factor," the one with boy hair said. Hotness factor? What is that?
          "But you have to admit he is good looking," the redhead sneered.
          "Yeah he is. But I'd go for Parker instead he's nicer."
          "Who are we talking about?" I asked. They giggled.
          "This guy..."
          The laughter didn't stop.
          "He's really popular but also kinda a dick..." they said.
          "Then he's not worth my time," I said.
          They raised their eyebrows in shock.
          "No ones said that about him," the one with red hair said. One of her bushy eyebrows was raised.
          "Then I'll fight him."