Burnt to Ashes - Kenichi Todoroki

A Sunrise Away

Kenichi's POV:

Today marks the day before the annual Toronto Sports Festival.

And everything was already getting a whole lot worse.

The paranoia was tearing me apart. I slept with my door closed and locked, my lights on, my eyes bloodshot open. I didn't know what could come out, I didn't want to know. In fact, I dreaded it.

My dad said I was acting strange and brought up the mental hospital again. But after what happened last time, I don't think I'd even be able to be near a mental hospital, especially not enrolled in it.

However, after winning yesterday's training, I was beginning to think Sasha liked me. That maybe we could be friends, despite what I did to her. But I didn't even remember the win. All I remember was the eyes on me, the silence, the loneliness. Everything but a win to me.

"I heard it'd just be a rest day," Ryker ran up to me as I approached the school. "I guess we need it for the sports festival. We have been training vigorously, after all."

"I'm still going to train, anyways," I muttered.

"You always overwork yourself," he scolded. "One day, Kenichi. For me?"

I cringed at Ryker's words. He sounded a lot like Shinju. The last thing I wanted was to rest, not when I had so much on the line to prepare for. But Ryker's eyes were pleading, so I caved.

"Fine," I said. "But I'm not sure what I'll do if I'm not training."

"Do some stretches, recharge–" he paused as soon as he looked at my face. "Have you been staying up all night again?"

"Not willingly!" I defended myself. "It's because of all this... all these weird things happening to me! You're telling me you can sleep?"

Ryker took a few moments to answer. "Sort of," he admitted, "I guess I kinda see where you're coming from but... listen, you're going to go to sleep early tonight. No matter what all this paranoia is doing to you, you're going to sleep and be ready for tomorrow, okay? I know how much you want to win, but if you're unstable..."

"I've won unstable before," I said.

"And where did that get you?" Ryker shot back. When I didn't answer, he said, "Exactly. Two hospitals. Nothing's going to hurt you, Kenichi, you're the strongest guy I know. Whatever the Shirokages are doing to mess with your head is holding you back. Maybe they know you're going to win and they're trying to stop you."

Ryker did have a point.

After the long normal classes, Ryker was right; today was a rest day. It seemed as if all my classmates were doing relaxing activities that they liked. Coda was crocheting, Maxwell was painting figurines, and Sasha was... reading. A cookbook, to be exact.

Seeing everyone doing something they liked, I slumped down in my seat. What did I like to do?

"Hey, Kenichi!" Kingo ran up to me. "You should play chess with me, I'm really good."

"I don't even know how to play chess," I muttered.

"Well, I could teach you," he said. "You're just sitting here doing nothing. Did you forget?"

I did forget, but that wasn't the only reason.

"I don't know what I like to do," I admitted. "Everything that I did was just things Shinju liked. I don't want to do anything that reminds me of him, and I don't have my own developed interests. It's too late to find something."

"I just got into chess a couple weeks ago," Kingo pointed out. "It's not too late to find something you like and to become good at it. Just come play chess with me, maybe you'll like that."