Modern society banishes all thoughts of boredom. One is supposed to be entertained at all times. It demands that we are; if someone is without a thing to do, then there should be an easy way out, a segueway to instant gratification.

When there is no fulfillment, boredom follows. Trailing boredom is frustration. What followed frustration? Why, the ever-present need to find the way out of this loop. It was the birth of criminal tendencies in today's world, one Austrian psychoanalyst had said many years ago.

And it was precisely this problem that Edge grappled with on an early Wednesday morning, under the roof of Gan's family's house and a blanket of stars and sky.

Damn, it's so boring in here, Edge finally realized. There is absolutely nothing to do in here-

Except for waking up Gan or leaving the room, but those are stupid. Getting caught here isn't appealing. He shuddered to think of what Gan would do to him if he woke up. His mind concocted the image of himself smashed into the wall, punching in a very large hole, the result of Gan flinging him into it. That is not a good thing, he thought, cringing.

Edge had once, twice, however many times, tried to get some rest, but that too was a bust. His mind raced for some reason which he couldn't understand.

The bare room provided no amusement, either. He ended up searching every single square inch of the premises, but it yielded no results. Save for that long scratch that recently appeared on Gan's dresser, thanks to one of Edge's knives. But that only lasted moments until the doldrums set in again. Even his knives failed to interest him.

Gan needs to get something to do in here. Anything. How can he stand living here?!

Suddenly, Edge stopped pacing the floor and remembered how he could.

Because he's never here! Dammit, I'm losing my mind...

Tick-tock. Tick-tock. The mindless tedium of the clock only served to add to the boredom, in its own special way.

His eyes quickly darted about the room, then rested on the one object which could provide some form of entertainment.

The television.

Wonder what'd be on at this hour...

Sliding down onto the floor, he clicked it on with a press of a button.

Apparently, the program that was on now happened to be a really cheesy, badly-drawn anime; it was also apparently in a middle of a fight scene.

"You are EVIL!" a shrill female voice shouted.

"Bwahahaha! Now that I have the Corndog of Omnipotence in my possession, I shall be... INVINCIBLE!!!!!" a male voice retorted.

"No *way* in *Heaven* are *you* getting *omnipotence* you *evil* *BAKA*! NAGASAKIIIIIIIIIIII!" The girl blasted the villain with some kind of stereotypical energy attack!

"Ha, you forget that I am INVINCIBLE!" He then found himself being attacked by another character for no real reason. "AAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

"MY MIGHTY FUCK-FUCK POWER IS MORE THAN A MATCH FOR YOUR OMNIPOTENCE!" the new character - a sexy yet somehow evil woman - cried.

"FOOL! We shall meet again!" He then flew off, again with no reasoning behind it, as the corndog - corndog? - clattered to the ground.

A muffled grunt signaled Gan awakening. He glanced at the clock and sighed as Edge looked away from the television to regard him. "Edge, you're still awake? It's four in the morning!"

"Couldn't sleep." He shrugged.

Gan then noticed the television. "Wow, my favorite show's on!"

"...You like this crap?" Edge said, sighing. It figures...

"Whew! That was so close, Marget-chan!" the girl breathed.

"That it was. I was so *scared* for you. Say..." She then stooped over to pick up the corndog, and the camera swerved to provide an ample shot of her assets. "Does *this* remind you of something?"

"Oh, *yes*, Marget-chan!" the girl chirped.

"Shall we?" She winked seductively.

"*HAI*!"

Marget-chan - chan? - approached the girl slowly and...

"The hell?" Edge felt thoroughly lost at this sudden turn of events.

A grimace easily came to Gan's face. "I don't remember this part..."

"Must be the late night, uncensored porno version..."

"Is it safe to look now?"

"Yes," came the reply.

Gan reluctantly removed his hands from his eyes and gaped at the television screen. "Noooooo!" He immediately turned to Edge. Anything to get away from that, he assumed Gan was doing.

Edge threw his head back and laughed. "You're too gullible."

"Edge, that was evil!"

"So?" He returned his companion's angered glare with a cocky grin.

"You're evil!"

"So?"

"How could you inflict that on me?!"

"Without too much trouble." Edge looked back at the television. "Y'know, I think I'm actually getting used to this."

"How could you?! Ki, Marget, how could they do that?!"

"Gan, there's something in this world called 'statutory rape'. That's how."

Gan clapped his hands back over his eyes and mumbled, "You're lucky that program's still on, or I'd pummel you to pieces."

This only resulted in Edge laughing again. "Heh... Oh, it's over. I'm not lying this time."

Gan's apparently infallible trust of Edge did not betray him this time as he lowered his hands once again; the accursed show was indeed finished. "Whew... Edge, remind me never to listen to you again."

"Whatever." He hit the power button on the television, and it dimmed with a flicker. "So... You really like this?" he said, indicating the television with a wave of his hand.

"Used to. They took off my favorite characters for some reason."

Favorite characters? Gan has an opinion? Edge blinked at the startling revelation. "Why?"

"I dunno. They were the most popular characters on the show, but they almost never got any screen time. It was always that stupid girl who was the star of the show..."

"Oh." Edge found himself at a total loss for words. A few moments of silence ticked by before this passed. "So... Now what?"

"So... Don't we have class tomorrow?"

"Uh, yeah... I'm gonna try to get some sleep now..."

Both settled into serviceable sleeping positions, Gan on the bed and Edge on the hard floor; only Gan drifted off to sleep soon after. The other was left to stare at the ceiling for an hour.

How can he fall asleep so damn fast? was his last thought until he too gave in to exhaustion and followed suit.

Simply put, it hadn't been a very good beginning to a day.

Great, Edge thought, bleary-eyed with his gaze stuck to the sidewalk, struggling to keep his head up. I get to be late. With a headache. Oddly, Edge himself apparently did not want to wake up this morning, as opposed to Gan, who, while not happy about it, was not as angry as Edge. Gan woke up earlier, at about ten minutes after nine; this was also ten minutes after the first hour began, so needless to say, they were quite tardy. When he tried to wake up Edge, though, his first reaction was to smack the offending awakener on the head. This resulted in a retaliation, and a painful one at that. He rubbed his head from the memory.

As much as his eyes hurt, his surroundings could not have made things any better. The neighborhood surrounding Gedo was not appealing to look at; wedged tightly between a construction site and a steel plant, a less attractive locale would be hard to imagine. He blindly followed Gan, who had no impending troubles with his vision.

And lo, the promised land stood before them. Promise of what? Who knew. Silly metaphors.

The promised land, gah, Gedo, he forced into his mind, found itself trapped not only by the surrounding zones, but also a concrete wall that would take a wrecking ball to knock down. Or some serious explosives, if one were more inclined to think in that direction. No barbed wire, though; the wall itself was enough of an imposing obstacle, a massive behemoth with no footholds available. Yet still people disrespected The Wall, as the graffiti sprayed carefully, hastily, whatever way, indicated.

Edge disrespected The Wall. He mocked it, laughed at its overt egoism. It thought it could control him; maybe it did, but it could never break him. He even went so far as to take to spraypainting a few kanji on it himself, though that was hardly his forte.

The school protected by The Wall - Edge saw it now as they neared the open entrance - garnered no admiration from its students, either. Gray, gray, gray building, good and dreary and easy on the eyes. The lack of bright shiny colors was a great help, save for the sparse graffiti, but that was nearly unnoticeable. Bright shiny colors, like the ones emitted by that cursed ball of light on this beautiful, beautiful morning, were bad. Painful, stinging to the eyes. Yes, his thoughts meandered and rambled, and he frankly did not give a damn.

As they both headed into the bleak building of doom, Edge now felt quite fortunate that Gan and himself both had the same class for first hour - some class on Japanese history. He wasn't sure if he could find a room on his own in the state he was in; more accurately, he wasn't sure if he could find the correct room. Scattered sorts of generic stuff cluttered the halls in their full generic glory; they managed to weave through it and eventually reached their class and as Gan opened the door to it the first words they heard were-

"-and that is the meaning of life."

"Ohhhh." The students nodded their agreement.

What? I missed that? Dammit, today of all days...

Then the realization that he had probably hallucinated that dawned upon him. Even in his state of mind, he was able to grasp the idea that teachers don't teach their students the meaning of life in a history class.

Slowly, Gan led him to the back of the class. A hush fell over the students and the teacher - a woman - until they found their seats. Then she resumed talking.

And talking.

And talking.

There were movies about classes like this. Movies where the rebel low-class students found themselves intrigued by their teacher and learned well. This was not one of those movies, nor did it resemble it. Edge managed to stifle a yawn as he pretended to look mildly interested. Were they laughing at him, in their private hearts? He hoped so, in a way. In a way, yes he hoped so. Was he repeating himself? Yes, but again, it didn't matter.

Look at him, Edge growled in his own mind as his eyes met one of those fucking freshmen bastards who thought they owned the world, seated right next to him. He didn't own the world here. Daigo did. Edge wanted to stab him right here, to watch the knife slip into his flesh and through his ribcage and into soft palpable organs. His aura was overconfident and unearned; he didn't like it. But Daigo'd be pissed if he found out. Stabbing someone for, as he recognized now, no real reason... Oh, that's just asking for it. Edge felt no strong obligation to follow the Soubanchou's standards; it was okay to bend the rules every now and then - what Daigo didn't know wouldn't hurt him - for whatever reason, but killing a classmate? In the middle of class? Only the stupid push their limits that far, and Edge felt quite confident that he wasn't stupid.

Then the boy snickered. What the hell is he laughing at?! Reaching into his pocket, he drew a knife and used it to spear the boy's desk. The boy's laughter ceased as Edge gave him The Eye. The Eye was the look of intimidation. My way or the highway, so to speak.

The bell rang its call, and the students all left in a rush, for the most part. His thoughts of homicide ceased at this, and he pulled the knife out with a jerk, concealing it once again.

Speaking of Daigo...

I need to get him his money. With Gan, of course. He'll be happy about that, I bet. Or at least not disappointed.

What's the first opportunity to give it to him? After school. He sighed. That's a long time... I want to leave...

But he knew he couldn't. He still had a job to complete. After he stood up, he assured himself that the money was in his pocket by touching it, then wearily headed out the door and to his next class.

I can't be like this in front of Daigo. Maybe I can get some sleep in the next class.

Best put on my happy face...