Shape of a Miracle EP 1 - The Pied Player

Frozen Water

Shoko Nishimiya stepped out into the quiet middle school courtyard and was met with the chilly autumn air. Goosebumps enveloped her bare arms and legs as the regret of not changing into her winter school outfit that morning sunk in. In front of her was a fountain. Normally it would be overrun with an assortment of energetic middle schoolers eating their lunch, but on this particular day, it was completely deserted.

She took a deep breath of the unwelcomingly cold air and continued on the stony pathway to the almost frozen-over fountain. Every step she made her shoes would squash onto the shrivelled wet leaves that covered the ground beneath her. She reached the fountain and sat on its frozen edge. Leaning back, she exhaled, finally letting all the air escape her lungs as she took it all in. She had never gotten the opportunity to sit on the designated "popular kid" spot before, so she had never seen the courtyard from this angle. She quickly understood why it was so well liked, you could theoretically see the comings and goings of everyone.

But today, no one was coming.

She triumphantly opened her bag, taking out and opening her boxed lunch, ready to have one of the most exciting lunches in her life.

Then out of nowhere, a boy came running past her and tripped over her knee, barely managing to avoid face-planting into the cobblestone path. It was a boy from her class, the very same boy she assumed those girls were talking about. She jumped right onto the pavement and gave him her hand.

He flashed her a familiar vicious look before getting himself back to his feet and leaving the courtyard. For a moment she sat there in silence. All around her were the windows to almost every classroom in the school, and every single one of them had at least one pair of eyes on her. Slowly, her head turned to the white sky above. Looming over her, a bunch of third year students peered over the railing on the roof, completely transfixed at the blundering student below them.

She took a deep breath. She needed to leave. She shot to her feet, never minding the headrush and dizzily picked up her bag, ready to head straight to the toilets to eat her lunch in one of the stalls.

Barely putting one foot in front of the other, she stumbled back. She had forgotten to pick up her lunch box. Floundering back to the fountain, she was met with bits of splattered sushi floating in its water. Her lunch had fallen in the fountain when the boy bumped into her.

This was a good thing. She deserved this. This is what she gets for being so daring as to sit in the popular spot. Then her attention was drawn to a window just above her, in it sat the four girls she was watching before as well as the boy. She watched in horror as their cheerful spirit shattered before her, as they all worryingly grouped around the boy with a now freshly grazed elbow.

Shoko grasped the side of her skirt. She ruined everything.

She thrusted her hands through the reeds and into the icy water of the fountain. She had to at least clean up her mess.

Why did it come to this?

Her fingers grasped the water, desperate to find some remnants of her destroyed lunch.

Why can't she do anything right?

She pulled up her empty lunchbox then plunged her arms back into the water.

She didn't need to be normal. She didn't need to have friends. She just wanted everyone to be happy,

Scraping the sides, she drudged up whatever she could find.

Why can't she stop taking away other people's happiness?

She drudged up all sorts of gunky moss, rotting frogs and missing jewellery, drenching the surface of the once beautiful fountain.

Why is destruction the only thing she brings?

She sat there, both arms half submerged in the frozen water. A part of her wanted to stay like that. Maybe if she became as cold as the water, she would no longer feel it. She would become numb to it. Yet her arms only ached in response to the icy liquid around it, so she quickly let herself depart from the fountain.

In her palms was a handful of mud she had scooped up from the bottom of the fountain. She barely registered a light shimmering from a dirty ring in the sludge. Rubbing off the dirt she saw a neon green paw print, etched on the side of it.

Then the ring started glowing.

Beams of green light started to burst out of the clunky ring, spinning into ribbon-like rays that slowly formed the shape of an orb, eventually transforming into what could only be described as a tiny floating creature that somewhat resembled a cat.

Shoko blinked.

Huh?