Hoshi's POV
Once the last class for the day was over, me and Bokuto get our things and went to our lockers to change into our outdoor shoes. We were always walking home from school together since the day we met. After that, we left the school and walked home together. Bokuto doesn't want to take off his face mask at all, but I let it be that way whatever he wants.
As we trekked our way back home, we passed by the diversity of our hometown Nara City: different ethnic and religious groups coexisting together with little to no prejudice to each other. According to the history of this city, the city saw the first wave of foreign immigrants in the 1980s, but the real event happened in the early 2010s, when this city, and Nara Prefecture as a whole, suffered from low birth rates, mass immigration of young people to big cities like Tokyo, high suicide rates, and an aging population, plus 100,000 (at least from the 2010s) cases of hikikomori. As a result, the city and prefecture government opened its doors to foreign immigration, a controversial thing our country was still debating to this day. But for Nara, it is a desperate measure. Lots of people from countries like the Philippines, Brazil, Spain, Greece, Indonesia, Myanmar, Vietnam, and Turkey immigrated to our prefecture and built lives and communities in its borders. Some married locals and have half-Japanese children with them. Plus, starting in 2011, the prefecture economy and city economy was revitalized thanks to some foreign companies, especially Jollibee of the Philippines and various foreign brands from Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines, Australia, Brazil, Spain, and Greece establishing operations here and provided jobs for both natives and foreigners alike. Nowadays, some of the branches and divisions of these foreign firms became independent firms that still operate to this day. Some even expanded to other places like Osaka City (homeland of my late mother's relatives), Tokyo, and Aomori City.
As a result, 45 percent of Nara City's population and 38 percent of Nara Prefecture as a whole was composed of the immigrant population that became long-term and permanent residents and their half-Japanese children. In fact, in our school, half of the students are either non-Japanese or half-Japanese kids.
Also, Nara City was a home to Singaporean Foochow and Henghua peoples, which had a small presence.
I listened to a Foochow folk song sometimes.
Along the way home, Bokuto shared with me some happenings outside of school. One of them is a rumored fight at an alleyway in the city. I was surprised because I rarely heard any of that. "Is that so?"
Bokuto then nodded. "Yes, and according to some people, the person who started the fight has an open knight helmet and blades attached to his hands, and his clothes are like those you see in movies about medieval Europe."
Although he said he was not interested in movies about medieval Europe, it was the first time he ever said that without being interested.
So, I just said in response, "I see then."
"And it seems that he was searching for someone," returned Bokuto.
"Someone, eh?" I replied while brushing one of my eyebrows with my dark blue and white handkerchief.
"Yes."
"Okay, I'll watch out for that person then."
"Yes, you should."
Later, at an intersection, I parted ways with my friend, before going home to my house, which was located a few houses away from that intersection. Once I got home, I took off my shoes and went to my usual after-school, afternoon routine, which consisted of watching TV, listening to music, and journaling about my day. I always do my homework at night after dinner. I never attended a cram school because I had no intentions of going to a high-ranking university. I set my current goal to attend within here in Nara City after high school. But I had no idea what course I wanted to take after high school. Also fun fact: Nara Prefecture had one of Japan's lowest cram school attendance rates, and the number of cram schools are numbered 1,000 only, and most of them also catered to the diverse languages of the students.
But, at 6:56 p.m., I was walking to the kitchen to get a glass of water. It will be the 3rd glass of water I have drunk since coming home from school. But then, as I went through to get a glass from the table, I suddenly slipped over something, causing me to fall to the floor with a loud thud.
Oh, no, Kuro just got triggered by it.
So, as Kuro, I get up and see what thing that makes me trip over.
It was a piece of cloth, which is used to wipe the dining table.
I got a bit annoyed. "Ugh, we're so careless."
And then, I heard someone gasping. I then looked at the living room, only to see that Mariya, our, or rather, Hoshi's older sister, had come home.
"Oh, hey, onee-san," I greeted. "Welcome back home."
She then ran to me and helped me stand up. "Are you okay?"
"Yes, I'm fine." I stand up. "We're so careless about putting stuff around."
"You should be careful next time," Mariya said to us as she checked for any injury. "Kuro would be triggered."
"I got triggered by it." "Oh, okay. Hoshi-kun, be careful next time, okay?"
I then reverted back to being Hoshi. "Okay, onee-san."
Later after that, Mariya cooked a Japanese omelette with grounded pork and potatoes and rice for dinner, while I took a nice warm bath. By 7:24 p.m., after I changed in my clean indoor clothes, we eat that meal, which was delicious as usual. Ate was very good at cooking and house cleaning, and I was used to being alone at home since she started working as a nurse after graduating from medical school. The rest night was spent on my evening routine, which consisted of brushing my teeth, doing homework, reading some pages of some books (plus a dictionary on Vietnamese), and journaling.