The Drowned & The Parched (Child! Jotakak)

Prologue

I'm scared. School is starting, and that means I have to be away from my family for a fourth of the day. What even is the point? I know all this already. I can just read books, right?
I can't even have a tutor since our family can't afford it.

I sigh in bed, doomed. It's like time speeds up whenever I want to stay somewhere in that exact moment. I barely got any sleep in, and my extra five minutes left to lay in bed passed like seconds. I dejectedly sighed and waited for my favorite moment in the morning eagerly. My family's the most important thing to me.

I hear soft thumps, this is it! The moment I truly love.

My mother gingerly opens the door to my room and I smile at her. She smiles back and walks closer, her soft footsteps gentle as a feather.
"Morning, mother."
"Good morning, Noriaki. Excited for today?" She asks, caressing my hair.
"I want to stay home." I replied.
"I'm sorry," My mother said in the same tone she uses when she comforts me. "I know you don't like this, but when we get more money, we'll get you a tutor."

Though I know we're drowned in debt, I still nodded and let myself be relieved, at least for a second, by that smile of hers. I'm simply thankful she's here by my side. She and my father are the only ones I need.

"Mother," I started. "I'll get ready for school today. I'll be strong." I added, though it's way easier said than done. However, if it made my mother relieved, I was more than happy to say it.

She nodded slightly in understanding, her cherry-colored hair cascading down to her chest flowing as she got up, I honestly bet I'd fall in love with her if she weren't my motherー Not to be weird, but just being honest.

As she left the room, I slowly got up, a creak emerging from my bed. It's like my bed is pulling me down, magnetizing me. Why does it have to be so hard? I sighed. The day'll probably be over quick, since I'm so used to this. Thoughts had filled my head, and before I knew it, I was in the bath.

Baths relax me, so I could think straight, which had me in relief. However, my relief was short-lived, and there it was again in the corner of my eye. That damned green man, the reason that I'm stuck in this daily living hell. I try to ignore him, but he only appears more and more. It's as if he were a ghost haunting me, but the most logical thing to believe is that it's only in my head. Yet, I still have my doubts as I talked to a psychiatrist, and I didn't have any disorders.

"Noriaki, you in there?" A voice, which I assumed to be my mother's, asked. 

"Yes, mother! I'm almost done!" I replied, hurrying up.

As I grabbed my towel, I slipped on the floor. Having accepted my fate, I close my eyes tightly and wait for an impact.
....
No pain.
I am confusion. What?

I slowly open my eyes and see the dreaded green man. Wait, he... Caught me...? His arms felt like human flesh, but his appearance said otherwise. Pretty shocking, but I can't be distracted. I went back to my day, standing up from the man's arms and drying myself off.

Yet again, everything went by in a flash, and now I'm holding my mother's hand, staring at the school. My hands grew sweatier by each second.

This is where I'll be for 6 hours or more daily now.