Life Will Change

Chapter 3: Welcome to Tokyo

Begin!

~Normal POV

4/09 - Saturday

It wasn't at all surprising to Akira when he'd seen the aftermath of his arrest. The court date had been a sham from the start. Upon seeing what they were up against, the lawyer had practically handed the case to the prosecution. The drunk man from that night hadn't even shown up in person; he sent someone in his place. That wasn't much of a shock either; Akira remembered his opponent had wanted to keep his identity in this matter hidden.

What was a shock to Akira was his sentence. He wasn't expecting to be let off so easily. As a first offender, and a minor, his punishment was rather simple: a year long probation, living in Tokyo, and going to a new school called Shujin Academy. If he could behave himself until next March, he'd be acquitted of all charges, and his life could return to some semblance of normal.

This hadn't seemed that bad in hindsight. It was far more lenient than he anticipated. But he had been warned quite clearly; "Cause any more trouble and you'll go straight to juvenile detention, kid." And so Akira had spent the previous night packing up his belongings for his exile. Perhaps exile was a strong word, but it was certainly how it felt.

On top of the probation, the other aspects of his situation were what truly hurt him. The news of his arrest had spread like Hellfire. He had been expelled from his hometown's high school. His friends had ostracized him entirely; they didn't believe he was innocent and had ignored his side of the story. He was, of course, also fired from his part time job. (That one wasn't too big a deal, it's not like he'd be able to continue working there while living in the city anyway.) But the real clincher was how his own parents were hesitant to believe him.

From his perspective, it seemed his family didn't believe or disbelieve him. They had heard both sides of the story of course; when they'd been called into the police station that night to learn about their son's arrest. But it didn't look like they believed either story entirely. They hadn't shown any explicit anger towards their son, but they also never specified believing him outright. But the court decision was final, and they had been incapable of stopping it. Mr. and Mrs. Kurusu simply had to hope that Akira would be safe and stay out of more trouble in Tokyo.

Thankfully, it didn't seem they'd completely given up on him, or else they wouldn't have given him helpful advice about city life before his departure this morning. He'd been given a meager amount of money to get him started. (He made a mental note to search for a new job the first chance he had.) The lawsuit had taken a toll on his parents. This only added to how guilty Akira felt... His larger belongings, such as the rest of his clothes, other supplies, and his books had been sent ahead of him to his new guardian. (He considered not taking his entire bookshelf, but he reasoned that it'd be better to have them for downtime. And he was likely to have a lot of it.) As for his luggage on the train ride, he had his bag filled with a spare change of clothes, a few other small necessities, and the book he'd purchased on the night of the arrest.

Akira had opted to wear his new school uniform on his trip. It made him stand out less around the other passengers, giving him much needed privacy, and it might send a studious impression to his new guardian. It consisted of a white, long-sleeved shirt, covered by a black blazer with red buttons, and black and red plaid pants. There was a patch on the breast pocket in the shape of the Shujin crest. On the fold on his blazer was a small badge with a number 2 on it, to indicate what year he was in. He didn't find the uniform to be half bad actually. It was rather comfortable, and it gave him a sense of normalcy to be in a school uniform again.

At the moment, Akira was sitting on the train waiting for his stop. He'd already reached the city and had transferred onto the subway to get to his new neighborhood, Yongen-Jaya. Honestly, he already found Tokyo to be unpleasant. Everywhere was so crowded, and people bustled about quickly, and didn't care for personal space as he had been bumped into several times just before boarding the train. He'd been told city-life was like this. He hardly understood how anyone could stand it, but perhaps he'd get used to it fast.