My Dirty Little Secret

Secret Eighty-Five: Nagisa Shiota

The light blue-haired boy stood in front of the door to his home, he stared at the handle, his hand hovering over it. He experienced the same inner battle each day, coming home from his school. He lived in a neighborhood where everyone around him went to someplace prestigious, whether it be Black Hearts Academy or Kunugigaoka, whereas he was in the worst place possible. 

On the outside, it seemed to be fancy and someplace amazing, but really it wasn't. On all of the records and papers it would be 'Kunugigaoka High School' however Nagisa knew the truth. He was in the E-Class. 'Ass Class' is what the other students called it. The people who just barely passed this school's requirements, were placed in the worst ranking. They were the ones to be bullied and mistreated. 

He was in the worst of the worst classes, being bullied by the ones supposed to be bullied. To make it worse, he had to come home every night to his mother. He didn't hate her, he knew she was sick, but even though he knew that...it didn't make it any easier. 

Finding his resolve, Nagisa opened the door and plastered on that fake smile of his. He took of his shoes and sat down at the table, waiting for his mother to do the normal routine. She would smile at him, ask him how his day went. She would take out her brush, her makeup, everything, and dress him up like a doll. 

You see, Nagisa was supposed to be a girl, the doctors had told his mother the wrong thing. Such things happen, sometimes things are just seen wrong in the ultrasound, things change. His mother had gotten her hopes up for a girl, created this delusion with herself that Nagisa actually was a girl. She would refer to him with the feminine pronouns. She would always ask him when he'd bring a boy home to introduce to her. Nagisa had become used to it, used to the fact that she would never see him for who he was. He sighed, sitting quietly, answering only when spoken to, waiting for this misery to be over, so he could do his homework. 

The only sanctuary that Nagisa had in this house, was his room. That was the only place his mother didn't apply her weird rules to. Nagisa only had to do everything she said, only had to keep her satisfied for a few minutes of every day. It was easier when she had taken her medicine, then her 'bad days' weren't so frequent. Sometimes though, she wouldn't take it because she was in a good mood, those were the worst times for him.

It was even more depressing when his father came home, super late from working all day. He never came to Nagisa's defense, never attempted to correct the mistake. He too, was scared of her, or at least it seemed. Nagisa understood that he just didn't want to cause trouble when his work day was already so draining.

"Mother?" Nagisa spoke.

"Yes my darling daughter," she smiled happily, continuing to brush his hair.

"May I please go out for a bit? I forgot to pick up more band-aids on my way home," he asked. He'd gotten beaten up in lunch again and needed more bandages and disinfectant. They hadn't hurt him in any place that would be visible, or they'd have gotten in trouble. 

"Yes, you may," she said. Nagisa stood up and left the house. He sighed a breath of relief, glad that it had gone over so well. Sometimes she wouldn't allow it. Nagisa walked the few blocks to the nearest store. There were a few of these places around, he was just lucky this one was so close. The only downside was, people from school also enjoyed to go here as well.

"Hey, it's Nagisa!" one of his classmates said. Nagisa jumped, guess it wasn't his lucky day...he contemplated whether he should ignore them and just walk into the store, or confront them and get hurt for the second time today. Realizing he couldn't run from the situation, Nagisa turned around to face them.

"H-hello," he said.

"We were just talking about you!" another classmate spoke, "wondering why you have this long hair. Do you want to be a girl or something? Should we get you a girl's uniform?" they snickered. Nagisa looked at the ground, all humans must be the same. So ignorant of what was the truth and what wasn't. He wasn't weak, Nagisa could give them a piece of his mind, but what good would that do? They would just get more people next time to attack him.

"I am a boy," he muttered. 

"What was that?" the first one said, "did you hear that? I think Nagisa tried to tell us something, why don't you speak up?"

"I am a boy," Nagisa repeated looking up at them, speaking a bit louder.

"I don't believe it!" the second one gasped, mocking shock, "I think we should check to verify," the two of them grabbed a hold of Nagisa. His eyes widened, unsure of what to do exactly, multiple escape plans filled his mind but none of them seemed very effective. 

A whistle came from behind the two guys, a stranger appeared smiling, "would ya look at that," he said, "you're doing this all wrong ya see," the boy pulled out a knife and grabbed the hair of one of the people holding Nagisa, he pulled the head back and placed the knife under his neck, "I can't feel your bloodlust at all. Perhaps you just don't know how to bully someone the right way...should I teach you?"

The guy that wasn't in the stranger's grasp quickly let go of Nagisa and ran away, leaving his 'friend' behind to suffer alone.

"N-no I-i'm okay," it was clear he didn't know what to say for this stranger to let him go.

"No? Aw," the stranger frowned, "I was really looking forward to it," he smiled, giving the male a light scratch, just enough to cause a bit of blood to trickle down his neck. He let the guy go and watched as he scrambled to run after his friend.

"T-thank you?" Nagisa said, unsure of if he was better or worse than the other two. He didn't say anything in response to Nagisa's awkward gratitude, instead he stared at Nagisa for a long period of time, contemplating something. Grabbing Nagisa's hand, he dragged Nagisa into the store and made a purchase. Nagisa stood there, confused, while the stranger did something to his hair.

"If you don't like your long hair, and apparently can't cut it for some strange reason," the stranger said, "might as well just put it up like this," he took a step back and nodded, proud of whatever he had done. Nagisa brought his hand up to his hair, to try and feel what it was he did.

"Pigtails?" he said.

"Pigtails," the stranger confirmed. Nagisa smiled at this red-headed stranger, his mother would never allow him to wear his hair like this, but he could always carry the hair ties in his pocket till he left home.

"Thank you," Nagisa said for the second time. Honestly, he was mad at himself for never thinking of this before...