Where is my Mind? - A Kenji One-Shot

[Capn-Cold]

This one comes from a weird little thought process. See, I get a lot of my prompts for writing through listening to music. Verse pops up, I get an idea, then I store both for later. For whatever reason, this is one of the ideas that popped up in my head. It's about what's going on inside strange little Kenji's head. I'm hoping I got some of the ideas I wanted into writing, but I also hope it's not too heavy handed. And I am optimistic on the fact that I've improved the grammar slights but I suppose a fresh pair of eyes will see better than me. If I've missed a single wrong tense in the 8000 times I've read this over I may perish.

Anyhow, enjoy.

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The day starts like every other morning I’ve spent in this school has: Disappointingly early. I scramble awake to the sound of… Well nothing exactly, but there might’ve been something there worth scrambling awake for. The room is dark, and I take a second to grin with approval at the fact that my blackout blinds have been so effective. Not an inch of light inside.

At least, I’m pretty sure there’s not.

Thus begins the daily ritual of trying to recall where exactly on the bedside table I've put my glasses the night before. For a moment, the thought passes my mind that they might have been stolen away in the night, to blind me from my purpose, and -

Nope, there they are on the table. Crisis averted.

I take a moment to dust them off lightly before I put them on and peer down towards the clock unceremoniously pointed towards my bed. It dawns on me that the red-lit numbers are suspiciously dark today. My hands reach over to it, flipping it over and checking the back. Well, no one has stolen the batteries. Which means they have died. And these were my last ones. Which means that I have to go into town to get more at some point.

I let out a sigh of despair as I place the alarm back down and flick on the lights. Nothing can ever be easy, can it? How am I meant to work out whether or not it is late enough that I can just pretend the school-system doesn’t exist now? My eyes flicker relatively close to the blinds, then I shake that idea off as quickly as it has come to my head. No Kenji, you’re smarter than that. That’s what they want you to do.

They’ve been a thorn in my side since I got here! Those feminist bitches and their… their… agenda. I don’t know the specifics of the plan, besides the whole ‘mass enslavement and elimination of all men’, but I am sure of one thing; they are here, in this school, keeping an eye on me. I've had plenty of encounters throughout the year, of course. I know them when I see them.

It is so blatant, too! When I saw that blonde one for the first time, I knew something was up. Always acting so regal and confident and in control. Trying to get in my head all the time, with those placating comments and those offhand remarks about socialising more. I know what she was trying! Trying to push me into the mob, was she? To get me swimming with the fishes? To… To idiom me to death? Oh, I know her game! No way am I letting her close, not while I have my two good eyes.

And then there is her little… womanservant! The quiet one who always slinks about like she has something to hide from. Hell, I even tried to talk to her once, to get her to open up since she’s totally obviously scared of something, and I figured she might be, you know, a prisoner of war. But no, she flips out and runs off! Probably to tell the queen bee that I am onto them.

And what about that Student Council hag? She doesn’t even pretend to be anything other than in charge! She is so confident that she doesn’t even speak, just gets her lackey to spout out all her commands. It makes me uneasy, that's what it does. No way she isn’t up to something, and there is no way it is something good. I even tried to join the council, to… to get in the know, and… change them from the inside out. But no way that worked. She just waved her hands at me until I gave up and left. So much for that endeavour.

And then there is her of course. The she-witch that drained me of all my energy. She is nothing but wicked and tricksy, pretending to be so nice to me. I still can’t believe how long she deceived me, telling me that she loved me and… That I was… It doesn’t matter. I got away in time. I learned the truth and made sure she’d never find me again.

Gosh, since when does it rain indoors?

My thoughts are harshly disrupted by unceremonious sounds of knocking from the door, and a tired sounding voice follows.

“Hello, is anyone home?”

I skulk over, removing the evidence of the impromptu rain that, suspiciously, only fell on my face. Did someone do something to my glasses overnight? It does seem likely. I move over carefully, undoing all the locks before opening the door and peering outside cautiously.

“Who is it?”

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It is too bright this early in the morning. That is the conclusion I have come to, through the number of weeks I've spent without blackout blinds. It is, in fact, way too bright for its own good. Suspicious. Worst is the grating noise of the alarm, loudly informing me that it is, in fact, seven in the morning. Seven! What type of person in their right mind would ever wake up at seven?

Someone who hates themselves, that's for sure.

Grumbling all the while I stumble out of bed, taking the time to grab my glasses off the counter while standing up. As it turns out, things are a lot easier to find when you put them in the same place all the time and don’t have them surrounded by mess or just throw them somewhere. Who knew? It was a revelation that came at a good time, too, because the mess was making it a little hard to find anything. But now it is… Well, clean enough. Who is gonna tell me it isn’t?

I grab a shirt that is relatively close to being hung up, giving it a careful sniff before chucking it on, repeating the process with the rest of the uniform. It is nothing but an absolute pain to have to be up this early, only to also then have to wake up and get changed. That was the class-reps idea, though. Apparently, doing things one thing at a time and not worrying about how far you’d end up making it helps a lot for people with my problem. Now, I dunno what my problem actually is, and she certainly hasn’t told me, but I figure it’s not going to hurt. There’s… no way they get anything from me seeing them more, so it’s a win-win anyway.

I still decide to skip out on a shower today. I don’t wanna push my energy that far out of whack if I am gonna be walking to class on time. I mean, one thing is asking enough. But two things? Sheesh, that’d be way too much. Anyway, that would be prime grade blackmail material. Showers are so easy to bug that it is unbelievable. Who knows if I’d notice in time before they have dirt on me? No way am I gonna get up to that when I am this tired. Grumbling I unlock the locks on the door and step out, locking it behind me. I pause, though, as I peer across the hall.

I stifle a wide grin and settle on a slightly smaller grin. There he is! Comrade-In-Arms. Man, I can’t remember when I last had a comrade-in-arms to rely on. I think the last time was…

Huh. Maybe there hasn’t been a last time.

Not that it matters, though. I have been doing fine without a… friend. It just makes the… distribution of combat strategies a lot easier when the information is split between two. Yeah. Still, I peer over, settling on an age-old strategy of conversation.

“Oh hey, sup man?”

Never fails.

[Mirage_GSM]

Hello and welcome to the forums!
First - or rather second considering the welcome - and most importantly tenses are nothing to perish over.
That said there are in fact numerous sentences and paragraphs where you slip from present into past tense or use past perfect where present perfect would belong.
Also, at some points Kenji switches from referring to himself as "I" to "he" - not sure if that is by accident or supposed to be Kenji's general weirdness.
If you want me to I can PM you a cleaned up version.

Overall I think it's a nice short Kenji piece. I've always found that it's not that much different writing a scene with Kenji in it and writing one from his perspective, because it doesn't seem he has much of a filter, so all of the crazy is flowing out of his mouth anyway.

[Capn-Cold]

at some points Kenji switches from referring to himself as "I" to "he"

Sorry can't hear you I will now be perishing.

S i g h. I was pretty sure I'd caught them all, too, but now I absolutely see them. I could chalk it up to Kenji being Kenji and not me being a fool but that would be dishonest. Even if it would be much easier to do that.

I'd be happy with getting a cleaned up version if you're good with that, but I certainly wouldn't wanna push you to it or anything if its any bother baha.

I've always found that it's not that much different writing a scene with Kenji in it and writing one from his perspective, because it doesn't seem he has much of a filter

Oh for sure. Part of the problem in trying to present an internal dialogue and more of an 'insight' into Kenji was... Uh, writing it in a way that doesn't detract from the insanity. I think I did that decently enough, but it's was something that I think held the narrative back a lil. Oh well, things to learn.

Thanks for the commentary anyhow! Always a nice thing to get haha

[Oddball]

It was a nice fun little Kenji romp.

The part about trying to remember where you put your glasses hits home too.