
"C;mon, outside. Recess time."
"But..." Shin said in a slightly frightend voice, clutching his lunchbox to his chest.
"It's the rules, unless you have a pass, everybody goes outside for recess, and becides, you look like you could use some sun."
"But I---"
"Listen kid, you're in 7th grade and afraid of a little fresh air? C'mon..." The lunch lady began gently pushing the white haired boy outside.
Shin bit his lip, eyeing the playgound nervously. 'I should have stayed home...' he though, unconciously clutching his lunch box closer. This was the first day he had gone to school when Kosei had been absent. Slowly he began walking towards the corner of the feild, where a rock with a flat top rested in the sun. Sitting down on it he gave a sigh and pulled out his sketchpad and pencil. Flipping open to a fresh page, he began to draw.
"Hey, freakboy."
Shin froze.
There was a smug chuckle. "Where's yer bitch of a sister eh?" the bully smirked, roughtly elbowing the smaller boy in the arm.
Shin winced, holding his arm. "She-- she's home sick..." he said softly, trying to keep his voice from tembling.
"Too bad for you, eh?" another bully smirked, joining his friend.
Shin paled, eyes frightened.
"Hey, what ya got there?" the frist bully snatched away the drawing pad.
"Don't--" Shin began reaching for it, but was roughly pushed back agaist the rock.
"Hmm... Crap, crap, worse crap," the bully ripped out a page with each judgement.
"Please, those--"
"Hey, this a party?" a third boy asked, approching.
"Yeah, we're just about to beat the crap outta Freak-o, wanna help?"
Shin swolled hard and tried to get away.
"Hey, where are you going?"
Shin gave a cry as he was yanked back by his hair.
"Nice," the larger boy said aprazingly, looking at his fist of the white hair. "Makes a good handle, ya think?"
"Betcha we could hang him from it and use him for batting practice."
The trio laughed.
"So, Freak-o, any last requests before we pound ya into the ground?"
Shin opened his mouth, but was punched in the gut before he could form words.
"Didn't think so."
Shin gave a pained cry and tried to sheild himself as he was attacked. He was passed back and forth around the circle, receiving blows and insults from each before being roughly shoved to the next. "S-s--stop! Please!" he begged, eyes overflowing with tears.
As for an answer, he was slammed full force into the corner of the rock. He gave a choked scream as intence pain flooded him, and he felt something in his back snap though the skin.
"Shit dude!" came a paniced exclamation as Shin's lower body went limp and he fell to the ground, eyes closing.
"Shit, man, get the nurse! I think you fuckin' killed him!"
That was the last thing Shin heard before he lost conciousness.
'SHIIIIIIIIIIIIT,' Aralu thought, watching the frail boy fall. 'You!' she called to one of the small shadows near her. 'Go get the Kagegami.'
As it disappeared, she crouched next to Shin, becoming partially physical to tend to him mildly. She passed her hand over his back to assess the damage and winced, cutting his life force away from the wrecked body and anchoring it to his head.
"Don't worry," she whispered, half aloud, "Kajiro will get here and you'll be better. We won't let you die." She stroked his hair, stopping as she realized that there was activity going on inside his head. "No," she whispered, incredulous. "You can't dream now, you'll go insane."
She took a deep breath and entered his head, pushing him into a sleep deeper than dreams and creating a dream catcher around him. When she returned to the outside world, Kajiro was next to Shin's body.
'Kajiro! You can do something, right?'
'I am able to seal his bone stucture back to it's previous condition, but I cannot do anything to repare the damage done to his nervous system or digestive system.' The Shadow said as he sunk an extention of himself into the wound. A few moments later, he restracted it. 'I have done what I can.'
Aralu winced. 'I'm no healer...' she said, placing her hands over his body and extending her influence into him. Putting all of her will into it, she made his body retie all of its systems together and repair the nerves.