Two shadows fell in a small, dimly lit room. One was that of a young man with long black hair. He had spread himself out on a couch. The other was of a young man with brown shoulder length hair pulled back from his face, sitting on a different couch. Although there was a small table between the two couches, the two men were not facing each other directly, rather they were sitting slightly diagonal from each other, nursing their glasses of wine.
Don’t you think it’s kind of a joke that smoking makes you look manly?” my friend Kaname asked, peeking at me sideways. “Who looks manly?” I asked, tearing my eyes away from the video clip playing on the computer and glancing back at her. It was Saturday afternoon and we were at my apartment. The remains of last nights drinking session were strewn about the place. It was as if you couldn’t take a single step without tripping over one of the empty beer cans and chip packets that lined the floor of my tiny one room abode.
The dark was soon approaching. He had only made a small stop on his way home from school, but everything around Naoki was quickly melting into darkness. The wind had gotten more and more icy as the night had approached. Chills crept from his legs to his heart and he grew stiff with cold. He adjusted the front of his coat and ran towards his apartment building. A warm meal, made by his mother, would be waiting for him when he walked in the door.
It was around the time that I had finally set out on my first adventure that I met them. I thought I knew it all. I would listen to the wisdom of travelers, remember their stories as songs, perform them at taverns and thought myself to be just as experienced. And then I met them. They saved me, her and her friends. I was the kind of guy who knew how to play the “Song of Robbery” without ever having been robbed myself. I really knew nothing. Nothing at all. Not of the sky, not of the mountains. Not of the trees, not of the wind, not of the birds. I knew nothing of the heart nor of love and pain. Not of living with friends. Not of traveling alone. I knew nothing of what the future held