Yasu Keiko just stood at the front door, her hand on the knob. She wasn't

even looking at it. She just...stared. Stared past the doorway, out into the

world to which she just didn't belong. She sighed heavily and looked back for a

moment at her only sanctuary. Her lonely apartment in the middle of Tokyo,

Japan. Now, the apartment was not shabby in the least; in fact, it was

extremely large and well-furnished. But this roominess only led to Yasu feeling

even more lonely. She was constantly being left there alone, for her parents

were famous astrophysicists, who were basically never home, travelling the

world. She was a very brilliant child, going to Tokyo University at the young

age of sixteen. This thought brought her back to the cruel people out there that

just wouldn't let her be who she was. The thoughts came rushing back all at

once. "Babies don't belong here!" "Shouldn't your mommy have left you at the

daycare center?" "Geek!" "Nerd!" "Bookworm!" A tear slowly trickled down

her cheek, but she quickly wiped it away. She had to deal with it, overcome it,

so as not let the bullies see her being weak, no matter how much she really

was.

Yasu finally turned the doorknob, stepping out into the brisk March air and

wrapped her scarf around her neck more tightly to block out the cold. Shuffling

down the sidewalk, she kept her head down as countless people brusquely

pushed their way past her without so much as an apology. Yasu didn't mind,

though. She was used to it. She enjoyed the fact that she didn't have to put up

with it for long, because her apartment was only a couple blocks from the

university. She quickly made her way to the front gate, and stepped inside.


She barely made it a few feet forward when a gang of tough guys surrounded

her, blocking off any way of escape. "Haha, look. It's the baby..." one

overly-sized brute sneered. "Yeah...the RICH baby..." another chuckled

maliciously. She cowered, her head hanging, biting her nail. "Wh-what do you

guys w-want?" she mumbled. The leader of the group reached out and roughly

pushed her on the shoulder, yelling, "You know what we want. Now pay up!"

Yasu nearly fell over, but instead bumped into one of the bullies. He pushed her

off of him, knocking her into another, who, in turn, pushed her to one other

guy. This one pushed her to the ground, hard. Yasu landed in the dirt, scraping

her knees, her glasses off-kilter. "Ow..." she whimpered. "No use actin'

pathetic, you little worm, just give us your money," the leader snarled. Yasu

fixed her glasses and kept looking at the ground. "I-I don't ha-have any..." she

squeaked. The gang advanced on her menacingly, and she shrunk further into a

ball on the ground. The leader was pissed, gritting his teeth. "You lying little

bitch." Yasu saw him raise his fist and feebly raised her arm to protect herself,

squeezing her eyes shut, waiting for the blow to hit.