Shiho, the girl next door

Time slipped quietly into March of Cosmic Era 65. The internal climate system of the Heliopolis Space Colony simulated the pleasant temperatures of early spring, and the air carried a hint of freshness deliberately added by the circulation system to evoke thawing earth. The trees lining the streets sprouted tender green buds. Though genetically engineered, they still brought a little life to this world of metal. Mei Hock had grown thoroughly accustomed to his new life with the Hawke Family, and traveling to and from school with Luna and Meirin had become part of his daily routine. Yet this seemingly peaceful school district was no ivory tower untouched by conflict. The subtle tension between Coordinators and Naturals stirred from time to time like an underwater current.

One Thursday afternoon, the dismissal bell rang like a bugle of liberation, and students poured through the school gates like floodwater through an opened sluice, their chatter instantly filling the entire block. As usual, Akira walked half a step ahead of Luna and Meirin, seemingly observing the surging crowd and passing vehicles casually. His ACCORD ability remained in its lowest-power passive warning mode, an invisible, precise sensory net continuously scanning everything within a fifteen-meter radius. Unusual concentrations of energy, excessively fast movements, and hostile gazes all became streams of data for assessing potential risks. Just then, a girl's stifled sobs, mingled with boys' rough rebukes and malicious laughter, cut through the crowd's noise and struck directly at Akira's vigilance. ACCORD classified the danger level as "low," but the malice of the bullying made him frown slightly.

As though guided, his gaze instantly locked onto the entrance of a dim, secluded alley just behind and to one side of the school gates, often used by students as a shortcut. Three boys, noticeably taller and more heavily built than others their age and wearing upper-year uniforms, stood in a semicircle around a girl. Her back was to Akira. She had a slender figure, narrow shoulders, and rare short hair as blue as the deep sea, striking even in the dim light. Her uniform skirt was stained, and she clutched several textbooks to her chest, their covers torn and curled at the edges. Her head hung low, and her shoulders trembled as she fought to suppress her crying, yet her back remained stubbornly straight, revealing a resilience that refused to yield.

"Get back to PLANT! Coordinator freak!"

"You're an eyesore! They never should've let your kind into our school!"

"What are you crying for? Just looking at you pisses me off!"

The piercing insults struck the alley walls like cold stones and reached Akira's ears just as clearly. Luna Maria spotted the scene at almost the same moment. The red-haired girl's temper, every bit as fiery as her hair, ignited instantly, and her sense of justice flared. Before Akira could react, she charged forward like an enraged young lioness defending her territory, darting between the three boys and the blue-haired girl. She spread her arms, shielding the girl with her own still-childish body, her green eyes wide as she shouted, "What do you think you're doing? Three boys picking on one girl-have you no shame?"

The three boys startled at Luna's sudden appearance. But once they saw that she was only a younger girl a full head shorter than them, the fat boy leading them went from momentary surprise to a contemptuous sneer. He reached out to shove her aside. "Where'd this little brat come from? Mind your own busi-"

Before he could finish saying "business," a stronger hand with sharply defined knuckles clamped around his wrist in midair! Somehow, Akira had slipped silently between them like a ghost, placing himself precisely in front of Luna and the bullied blue-haired girl, shielding both behind his body. He had not activated the SEED Factor. Relying solely on ACCORD's extraordinary predictive abilities and the physical conditioning he had built through more than half a year of relentless exercise, he locked his fingers like an iron clamp around the nerve near the end of the boy's ulna.

"Aagh!" A sharp, tingling pain shot from the fat boy's wrist through his entire arm, leaving half his body powerless. He cried out involuntarily, his face instantly turning pale. Horrified, he stared at the black-haired boy before him. Akira looked a little younger than them and had a leaner build, but his dark brown eyes held none of the panic or anger expected of a boy his age. There was only a chilling calm, as though he were looking at a lifeless object and assessing its threat level.

"Apologize to my sister and this girl." Akira did not raise his voice, but its cold, unquestionable authority swept through the alley like an icy current. His stance seemed casual, yet his feet were slightly apart and his center of gravity steady, neatly blocking the best angles from which the other two boys might rush in to flank him. In his mind, ACCORD was simulating their next three or four possible reactions and the most efficient ways to subdue them at millisecond speed.

The restrained boy grimaced in pain, cold sweat seeping from his temples. He still wanted to act tough, but when he met Akira's unwavering gaze, which seemed capable of seeing through everything, an inexplicable chill rose from deep inside him. He swallowed the curse on the tip of his tongue. "S-sorry! L-let go!" he pleaded through clenched teeth, his voice laced with pain and a trace of fear.

Akira's gaze swept coolly toward the other two. Completely cowed by the sudden reversal and the indescribable air of calm he radiated, as though he had survived battles to the death, they instinctively stepped back half a pace. They exchanged a glance and mumbled quiet apologies, then moved forward to support their nearly limp companion. They scrambled out of the alley without looking back, so thoroughly humiliated that they even forgot to throw out a parting threat to save face.

With the danger over, ACCORD's passive warning level returned to normal. Only then did Akira unclench his hand and turn toward the girls he had shielded. Luna was still angrily shaking her little fist in the direction the fleeing boys had vanished, but then she turned to the blue-haired girl with concern. "Are you okay? They didn't hit you, did they?"

At last, the blue-haired girl raised her head. Her eyes were wet, and crystalline tears still clung to her long blue lashes, but her gaze held far more astonishment than fear, along with a lingering trace of stubbornness. She stared blankly at Akira, the black-haired boy who had appeared out of nowhere and instantly resolved the crisis in a way she could not begin to understand. He seemed about her age, perhaps a little older, yet his composure, far beyond his years, and his precise, efficient actions completely overturned her understanding of what someone her age could do. The instant her gaze met his calm, unruffled eyes, her heart inexplicably raced for several uncontrollable beats.

"Th-thank you." The girl's voice was a little hoarse and nasal from crying. She sniffed softly, trying to steady it. "My name is Shiho. Shiho Hahnenfuss."

"I'm Mei Hock. These are my sisters, Luna Maria and Meirin," Akira introduced them simply, his tone returning to its usual gentleness. His ACCORD ability had already automatically recorded her key traits: Shiho Hahnenfuss, a typical Coordinator surname, living nearby, tentatively assessed as outwardly quiet but inwardly resilient. This was not her first encounter with such bullying, and she had clearly been targeted for being a Coordinator.

"Hahnenfuss?" Luna Maria immediately remembered something, and a warm smile lit up her face. She stepped forward and took Shiho's hand. "Are you the Hanafis who just moved into the building next door? That's great! We live right beside you! I'm Lunamaria Hawke, but you can call me Luna! This is my big brother Akira, and my little sister Meirin!" She raced through the introductions like a little whirlwind.

Meirin shyly peeked out from behind Akira, her large green eyes studying Shiho with curiosity, and added quietly, "I... I'm Meirin."

Shiho looked at Luna, whose warmth was like a little sun, then at the shy but friendly Meirin. Finally, her gaze passed over Akira again, his expression calm yet reassuring. Her tightly wound emotions at last began to ease, and a little color returned to her pale face. She gave a faint, slightly embarrassed smile. "Yes... we just moved in last week. I... hope we'll get along." Her eyes inadvertently swept over Akira once more, carrying a deep curiosity that was barely perceptible.

And so, through this act of standing up for someone, as coincidental as it was inevitable, the Hawke Family and the Hanafis, two neighboring Coordinator households, quickly became close. Shiho Hahnenfuss, the blue-haired girl with a quiet, delicate appearance and an unyielding resilience beneath it, naturally joined Akira, Luna, and Meirin's little group on their journeys to and from school, becoming its regular fourth member.

From that day onward, three figures became four along the tree-lined road to school. Akira usually walked at the front or slightly off to one side, seemingly casual but in truth like a silent scout, his keen senses watching for danger ahead. Luna was always the liveliest, chattering like a happy little bird about amusing incidents in class, cartoons she had recently watched, or newly displayed goods in shop windows along the road. Meirin followed quietly, occasionally laughing at her sister's antics and adding a few soft words. Shiho mostly walked in silence with a faint smile, listening to Luna's cheerful chatter, but now and then her thoughtful gaze would settle almost imperceptibly on Akira's straight, slightly slender back.

Shiho was a girl of few words, but she was exceptionally observant and meticulous. She soon discovered that although Akira kept his school performance in the "good" rather than "outstanding" range, he knew far more than he let on. Once, when Luna complained that the energy transfer formulas explained in physics class were incomprehensible, Akira casually explained them using principles of dynamics and conservation of energy. His reasoning was clear and his wording concise, and Luna understood at once. Another time, Shiho was preparing an extracurricular research report on the structural features of early space colonies, such as the Junius series, and ran into a problem involving the energy efficiency of early gravity simulation systems. When Akira happened to see it, he pointed out a slight error in a figure in one of her publicly available references and briefly explained the limitations of material mechanics and energy allocation at the time. His explanation made complex ideas accessible and was rigorously logical, displaying a depth of knowledge and insight far beyond an ordinary middle school student.

What drew Shiho's attention even more was Akira's composure, utterly at odds with his age, and the sharp gaze he occasionally revealed for an instant-such as when he had dealt with the bullies-as though he could anticipate events and take control of the situation. That peculiar air of mystery drew her like a magnet. Beyond her initial gratitude, it stirred an indescribable and ever-growing admiration and desire to understand him.

One day after school, Erica had picked up Luna and Meirin early to buy uniforms for the new term, leaving only Akira and Shiho to walk home side by side. The setting sun stretched their shadows long. After hesitating for a long time, Shiho finally gathered her courage and asked softly, her voice brushing across the quiet street like a feather, "Akira... that day... how were you... so good? You subdued all three of them in an instant. They were so much bigger than you."

Akira had expected this question. Keeping his pace and his calm gaze forward, he gave the half-true answer he had prepared long ago. "Back where I used to live, I learned a few simple self-defense moves from an old veteran nearby. Mostly, I caught them by surprise. They weren't prepared, and they knew they were in the wrong." He deliberately downplayed the complexity of the techniques and the actual strength he had displayed.

"Oh," Shiho said, without pressing further, but a clear flicker of disbelief passed through her deep blue eyes. She knew perfectly well that it had been far more than "a few self-defense moves." It had been an incredibly precise display of judgment and control, unleashed in a split second, requiring extraordinary composure and physical coordination that no ordinary boy could possess.

From that moment on, Shiho seemed to have quietly made up her mind about something. She began studying harder, especially in subjects Akira might excel at, such as mathematics, physics, and basic engineering, and her reading began to extend beyond her textbooks. She also started making a more deliberate effort to improve her fitness. Each morning before school, while Akira did his regular stretches and basic conditioning on his balcony, he would notice Shiho beginning her own morning exercises on the balcony next door. Her movements were still somewhat awkward and stiff, but her expression was intensely focused as she strove to perform each one correctly, the morning light casting a soft glow over her short blue-violet hair. It was as though she were working quietly and steadfastly to close some invisible distance between herself and Akira.

Occasionally, when the two of them reached the school gates first and waited for the others, Shiho would take a lunch box wrapped in a clean square cloth from her schoolbag and say softly, "Um... my mother made lots of rolled omelet and fried chicken today... Akira... would you like some? I... can't finish it all myself." The lunch was often clearly a carefully prepared portion for two, with a very well-balanced selection of food.

Akira could clearly sense the quietly growing, gentle affection and the firm determination to walk beside him. He accepted the lunch and thanked her, without bringing those unspoken feelings into the open. In this world full of uncertainty and hidden dangers, the pure, persistent kindness of the girl next door was one of the sources of warmth he needed to cherish carefully. He looked at Shiho and gave her a gentle, grateful smile. "Thank you, Shiho. It looks delicious."

Shiho's cheeks instantly flushed red like ripe apples. She quickly lowered her head and pretended to adjust her schoolbag straps, but she could not keep the corners of her mouth from curving into a lovely, sweet smile. "Y-you're welcome," she replied softly.

The shadow of Blue Cosmos still haunted certain corners of the Space Colony like a ghost. Discriminatory graffiti targeting Coordinator families and sporadic verbal confrontations had not disappeared. But with Akira there, and Shiho newly among them, their little group of four seemed to have drawn together into something more resilient.