Toru Hagakure was bored. It was a deep, existential boredom that came from being the only person in the room who literally didn't exist to the naked eye.
The teacher droned on about subjects Toru could barely comprehend, and her classmates, distracted by their own lives, ignored her presence entirely unless she spoke up every five minutes just to remind them she was there.
The atmosphere shifted when the teacher cleared her throat, a sharp sound that cut through the midday lethargy. "I think this is a good time to say this, but we are having a transfer student join us for the semester."
The room perked up instantly. Even Toru sat a little straighter in her empty uniform. 'A new classmate? Is it a boy? I wonder if he's handsome?'
A few moments later
The door opened with a slow, agonizing creak. A boy stepped inside, and Toru's breath hitched. He was tall for his age, carrying himself with a strange mixture of athletic grace and weary hesitation.
He had messy, ash-grey hair and eyes the color of burning rubies—startlingly pretty, yet deep with a kind of hidden weight. What truly caught her attention, however, was his skin. His fingers were a muted grey, webbed with fine, spider-like cracks that looked like weathered stone.
"Alright, introduce yourself," the teacher prompted.
"Hello. I'm Kyso Stelzer." The boy offered a nervous, lopsided smile that felt heartbreakingly sincere. "Um... I hope we can all be friends."
The response was absolute silence.
Toru watched, invisible and aching, as the rest of the class collectively turned away. No one spoke. No one waved. Some even pulled their desks an inch further away as if his "cracked" skin might be contagious. The spark in Kyso's red eyes dimmed, flickering like a dying candle, as he awkwardly shuffled toward a lone seat in the back.
Later, in the cafeteria, the scene was even worse. Kyso sat in the furthest corner of the room, a literal island in a sea of crowded tables. People didn't just ignore him; they actively avoided his line of sight.
'Are they seriously isolating him?' Toru huffed, her invisible brow furrowing. 'He looks so nice!'
She didn't hesitate. She marched across the linoleum floor, but before she could even open her mouth, Kyso's head snapped up. He looked directly at the space where her face should be, startling her into a halt.
"Hi! Stelzer-kun," she chirped, recovering quickly. "That's a unique name! I'm Hagakure Toru. I'm invisible, as you can see... or can't see!"
She chuckled at her own joke and slid into the chair beside him without waiting for an invitation. "You look so cool! What's your Quirk?"
Kyso hesitated, his grey, cracked fingers twitching against the table. "My Quirk is Entropy," he whispered, waiting for the flinch that always followed. "I... I break down energy and matter."
He braced himself for her to run. Instead, the empty air in front of him erupted.
"THAT'S SO COOL!!!"
—
One Week Later
The routine of Kyso's life had changed.
He woke up early, the weight of his "broken" skin feeling just a little lighter.
He brushed his teeth, greeted Mikhail and Sora with a genuine smile, and hurried to the bus stop.
As he stepped onto the bus, he didn't have to look for a seat. An obnoxious, joyful yell echoed from the back.
"Kyso!! Over here!"
He followed the voice, finding a floating school uniform waving frantically. As he sat down beside Hagakure, he felt the curious stares of the other passengers, but for once, he didn't care. Over the past week, she had been insistent, loud, and utterly relentless in proclaiming herself his friend. She was his first, and his best. But as the bus rattled along, the old doubt crept back in.
"Toru," he spoke up. Her invisible ears seemed to perk up as she turned her sleeves toward him.
"Why do you want to be my friend?" he asked, his voice low. "I'm... I'm a lot to handle. People are scared of what I am."
The uniform didn't flinch. If anything, she leaned closer, her invisible presence warm and unwavering.
"Because I want to," she replied simply, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "And because I think you're really awesome."
——
Any thoughts on the chapter? And should I do an explanation on his quirk and limitations?