Chapter 1: Beginning

Disclaimer: I don't own Katawa Shoujo

-Kousuke-

-Yamaku High, Monday-

I stood at the gates of Yamaku High. Here, I would start my final year of education. I sighed and went through the gates.

-Compound-

My name is Yagami Kousuke, and my parents have enrolled me in this school because of my…condition. I have a strange illness that even doctors have no name for. At times, I will collapse into a coma-like state without any warning. Since the doctors had no name for it, I simply called it a 'standstill'. The first time it happened, my parents freaked. My heartbeat and breathing slowed to a point where they were almost unnoticeable. They thought I was dead, until I woke up a few minutes later.

-Class 3-3-

I walked into my newly assigned class, Class 3-3. I can't remember what kind of students go into 3-1, 3-2 is for visually-impaired students, while 3-4 is for students with serious physical disabilities, such as missing limbs. The remaining classes are for students who don't fit into the previously stated categories.

I'm quite early. There aren't many students here yet. A girl missing a hand is talking to a boy who is missing an ear. A pink-haired girl is signing to another girl who is wearing glasses. Either they are both mute and deaf, or one of them is the translator. There is also a girl with long, dark purple hair sitting in one of the back seats, reading a book. I look at the back. The window seat isn't taken. That's good. I go to the back and sit at the leftmost corner, next to the window. The long-haired girl, who is sitting in the desk to the right, jumped a little in shock as I sat down. Was she expecting me to introduce myself? Or did she not expect me at all? Well, I for one don't care about those kinds of things. I hate talking. It's a pain. In fact, I would prefer to not say a single word over the course of this whole year. Of course, that's impossible. Minutes pass, and she doesn't say anything either. That's good. She seems to prefer silence as well.

The time passes and the class fills up. Soon, the bell rings and the teacher shuffles into class. There is stubble on his chin and his hair is messy. He gives off the image of someone who doesn't care about his lifestyle at all. He introduces himself as Mutou-sensei and starts to take attendance. Let's see…there are 23 students in this class and two empty seats. One is in front of me and one is to the right of the girl to my right.

"Yagami Kousuke."

"Hai."

I give a short reply, and it's over, as there are no students whose family name starts with 'yo', 'yu' or anything that begins with 'r'. Then, Mutou-sensei starts teaching.

-Lunchtime-

The bell rings, and I grab my boxed lunch and head to the roof as soon as possible.

-Roof-

I sit by myself on the roof, eating my lunch. The roof is in quite a bad state. The floor has little pebbles on it and there are only a few benches here. I sit on the floor and eat my lunch. As far as I could remember, I have always eaten lunch on the roof at school. I like high places.

-Class 3-3, After lunch-

Back at class, the teacher assigns us to group work, with three to a group. Suddenly, the girl to my right gets up and leaves the class. There can only be seven groups, since seven times three is 21. I take out the work and start doing it on my own. I finish it without difficulty.

-Later-

Class ends. I pack up and leave immediately. At the back door, however, stands a blonde girl with a cane. As I walk out of the back door, she starts to say something.

"Um, excuse me, but is Hanako here?"

Hanako, Hanako, who was that again? I wasn't paying attention to attendance. Um…oh right, I think that was the girl beside me.

"No, she left earlier."

"Oh, ok then, thank you for your help."

She leaves, feeling the wall railings as she goes. I sigh and leave. Dealing with blind people isn't one of my strong points, because well…I don't like talking.

"Hmm?"

I stop in front of a billboard. On it were tacked various flyers for different clubs. Should I join one? I look at it until I find something interesting. I take down a flyer saying 'Light Music Club'. It says, 'If you are interested in joining, please take this flyer and see Ms. Yamanaka Shizuko.'. Well, I used to be in the Light Music Club at my old school, but I quit…for several reasons. Well, I guess I'll go look for Shizuko-sensei tomorrow. Now, I want to walk around a bit.

-Library-

I open a door next to a sign saying 'Library' and enter. It's not bad, really. There are almost no students here, and the atmosphere here is nice and quiet, just what I like. As I close the door, I hear a loud noise. I sounded like someone just hit their head on a hard surface.

"Ow…"

I watch as a young woman wearing glasses emerged from behind the counter while rubbing her head. Guess I was right. I walk over to her.

"Are you…the librarian?"

"Ah, yes! I'm Yuuko! Can I help you?"

"Let's see…do I need a card or anything like that to borrow books here?"

"Ah, no."

"Ok then, that's all, thanks."

I walk down an aisle, scanning the titles as I go. They have quite a good collection here. I pick out three books which are all from the same series and walk on. At the back, there is an area with a few beanbags. There is someone there. Hanako, was it? She is reading her book intently. Well, the beanbags seem comfortable, so I decide to take a seat in one of them. Hanako doesn't notice me until I sit down in one of the beanbags with a satisfying 'krsssh' sound. She jumps and gasps, like as though she didn't notice me before. She probably didn't. Without a word, I open Book 1 and start reading it. After feeling Hanako's nervous gaze on me for a few more seconds, she continues reading her book as well.

-One hour later-

My watch gives a short 'beep' as the clock hits 5. With a rustling sound, I get up from the beanbag. Hanako looked at me nervously. She seemed pretty calm during the past hour. It was like she had acknowledged my presence and accepted my silence. I did the same. With a small, almost invisible nod at her, I check out my books and leave.

-Street-

I walk down the hill, away from Yamaku. There are almost no students walking, since almost all of them live in the dorms. My house is in a quiet part of town, and it's a 30 minute walk from Yamaku. By this point, you might think that I hate being in the presence of others. Well, that is true, I sort of hate social interaction. But I don't really mind the company of quiet people, or at least, people who prefer silence to speech, like Hanako.

-Kousuke's House-

"Tadaima~"

"Nyaa~"

I look down to see a kitten with black fur, but white at the tips of her legs and tail. Ever since the beginning of this year, Azusa has been my only companion and true friend. Before that, all my friends had started to drift away from me. But from the first day I found her (which was the first day of this year), she has always been by my side.

"How are you?"

"Nya!"

"Good."

I went to my room. After taking a shower and changing into street clothes, I grabbed my keys, the books I borrowed, and left the room.

I pressed the buttons on my car keys and watched as my car unlocked. I opened the auto gate, reversed, closed the gate, and drove off.

-Road-

You are definitely wondering how old I am. Well, I turn 18 next month, so I'll get my license very soon. Yes, I know, I'm an underage driver. You see, during my 16th birthday, I asked my parents to teach me how to drive. They were appalled, but obliged, nonetheless. So, dad taught me how to drive in the mansion compound. Yes, mansion.

Let me explain more about myself. Up to the start of this year's spring break, I lived in my parent's mansion. My father is the CEO of a successful music instrument company while my mother is a professional violinist. They had a house built in Yamaku town as a little getaway, where we could escape from the hustle and bustle from the city. Since I started studying in Yamaku now, it has become my permanent residence. As for the car, dad decided it was necessary for me to be able to drive, or something like that.

-Hospital-

I parked the car and went into the hospital, carrying my books with me. I took my usual route, going into the elevator and emerging on the fifth floor. Then, I slowly walked down the corridor until I reached Room 525. I opened the door.

"…Tadaima."

Inside the room, a girl lay on the bed. She had long, black hair and her facial features were slightly similar to mine. This is my twin sister, Yagami Kousuki.

Kousuki laid motionlessly on the bed, her eyes closed, making no reaction as I sat in the chair next to her bed. An IV was plugged into her left wrist, and the heart monitor next to her beeped out a slow, but steady heartbeat. Let me explain. Kousuki has been in a coma for almost a year now. Last year, in June, I was about to get hit by a car when she pushed me out of the way and took my place. Our injuries weren't serious, but the problem was her coma. The doctors said that it was 'entirely up to her' on when she would wake up. Ever since then, I have been coming to see her, every single day without fail. Before moving, I could walk to the hospital easily, but now that I'm living in Yamaku, I have to drive to get there. Oh yeah, also, I think it was also around the same time I contracted my problem.

"How are you doing?"

Of course, I receive no answer.

"I started school at Yamaku today. It's quite a nice school. No one talked to me, but I prefer it that way. When you get better, let's attend it together."

That draws an end to our 'conversation'. I open my book and continue from where I left off.

-One hour later-

The sun was setting. The clock on the wall read 6.15 pm. I shut my book.

"I have to go home and cook dinner now, imouto. I'll be back tomorrow,"

I left the hospital and drove home.

Just to let you know, my car is a red Mazda RX8, courtesy of my parents.

-Kousuke's Home, 6.30 pm-

Back home, I set about making dinner. The rice was cooking, so I sliced myself some sake sashimi, fried some tamagoyaki, and shredded some cucumber. After I was done, I placed a smaller portion of whatever I was eating into Azusa's bowl, and started eating.

"Itadakimasu."

"Nyan."

-Kousuke's Room, 10pm-

I laid on my bed with the lights off. I thought back to today's events. Nothing much happened today. I hoped that I would stay that way. I shut my eyes and slowly drifted off to sleep…

Please review! There's much more to come! I'm typing the next chapter as I'm uploading this!