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You know this city, not so far away? Down there is a street called No. 6. There, on that street, is a place where it’s fun to come. It’s right next to that restaurant called Hetalian Foods. It’s a bar, it’s called Shinya’s Bar. The owner’s name is Hiiragi Shinya. He always stands by the counter. By the door, you will usually see a woman named Awashima Seri. She is the one to kick you out if you are causing trouble. Sometimes she won’t be there though. In those cases, you’ll see Heiwajima Shizuo there instead. He is crazy strong but hates violence. Somewhere in the bar, usually in the background, you’ll find a young man named Max Alors. He always has a broom in his hand. He always seems to be working on cleaning the place, and it is needed. If you go behind the counter, you’ll find a door, behind that, you’ll find a hallway. If you follow that, you will reach a kitchen with the chef, Nanase Haruka, in a bathtub on wheels. This is pushed around by his friend, Matsuoka Rin.
In this bar, many strange costumers come by. You might know a few of them, and usually, a lot of crazy stuff happens.
Shinya was arranging some of the bottles on the shelves. He had just received a new delivery earlier today and therefore he was getting the new bottles in place on the shelves. It wasn’t easy. Usually the stuff he got variated a bit with the bottles and he had to make everything fit. He didn’t keep a very tight order of things, except that he sorted the liquids after what they were, if it was vodka or juice or wine. These things were kept separately. Also things of the same brand were kept close by each other.
“How long does that even take?” Max asked. He had been watching Shinya putting the bottles in order for a while by now. He hadn’t even been sweeping the floor for all this time.
“Just another minute,” Shinya said while placing a bottle of Asti on one of the top shelves.
“You should probably hurry a bit,” Max said. “A kid is standing outside the door, waiting to be let in.”
“Oh?” Shinya turned his head briefly to look at the door, and indeed, outside was a kid. He stood and looked to be patiently waiting. He seemed to be staring at the bar as if he really wanted to go in or something like that.
“Okay,” Shinya said. “I’ll hurry.” He went and grabbed the last few bottles and put them in place on the shelves before he turned towards Shizuo, who was standing by the door. “Just let him in, Shizuo,” he said.
Shizuo opened the door and waved at the kid, gesturing for him to get inside.
The kid just kept on standing and staring at the bar as if he was in love with it. He didn’t even seem to notice Shizuo’s signals at first. But after around five minutes or so, he started to become aware of it and he looked at the door with a wondering gaze. He seemed to be considering something.
Shinya noticed this and came over to the door. “Just come on in,” he said. “No need to be shy.” He smiled at the kid who continued to stare. His gaze turned from a thoughtful look to a disgusted one, once he looked at Shinya.
“I’m not shy,” he said before he stepped inside the bar.
As the kid got closer, Shinya took note of how odd his appearance was. His clothing was completely symmetrical. He was dressed in only black and white. There were a lot of fine details on his clothes and Shinya was surprised to see that what the boy was wearing was symmetrical on both sides without a single mistake. No bottom was missing, no little skull that had ever taken damage. The only thing that stood oddly out was the three, thick, white stripes on the left half of his head, completely messing up the otherwise perfect symmetry of his black hair.
“Welcome,” Shinya said, slightly hesitantly. “Would you like something to drink, I have this drink with cola, redbull and some other really good stuff,” he explained.
The boy only offered him one glance before he looked around at the bar. “No thanks,” he said. “I didn’t come here for drinks.”
“Then what did you come here for?” Shinya asked.
“I only stopped by the building because of its perfect symmetrical outside,” the boy said before he caught sight of the shelves with all the bottles on them. An expression of horror appeared on his face as he stared wide-eyed at the shelves.
“Who in the world caused that disaster?” he asked.
“Eh…?” Shinya got a questioning look on his face as he wondered what the kid meant by ‘disaster’. In his opinion, there was nothing close to a disaster in this room. Not as far as he knew anyways.
The kid didn’t respond. He just walked over behind the counter with a determined expression on his face. He stood by the shelves and studied them carefully until he seemed to have decided on what to do. He then started arranging the bottles in a quick pace. Shinya could do nothing but watch as the kid moved his hands quickly.
Shinya could only watch in horror as the order he had just placed the bottles in were placed in a new order entirely, an order that he had no clue of how to figure out, at least not at first.
“What’s he doing?” Shinya asked Max, who was also watching as the kid was arranging the bottles.
“I think he is placing them in a symmetrical order,” Max answered.
He was right. As he said it, Shinya could see it as well. A system of symmetry was starting to appear on the shelves. Only five minutes later it was complete. The kid stepped back to look at it. Now a proud look was on his face.
“There,” he said. “Nice and beautiful.”
“But the order is ruined,” Shinya commented, crossing his arms.
The boy turned around. “It is perfect,” he stated, and then looked at the rest of the bar. “However, this place…” he trailed off and then he started moving, placing chairs and tables around as the bar looked as symmetrical as possible. It was starting to occur to Shinya what was up with this boy and why he was acting like this. Now the problem was how to stop him from acting this way and try to make everything look symmetrical.
“Hey, kid,” Shinya said. “What’s your name?”
The kid turned to look at Shinya. He was silent for a bit before he answered. “Just call me Kid.”
“I’m asking your name,” Shinya said.
The boy sighed. “My name is Death The Kid, but everyone calls me Kid, so stick with that,” he said.
Shinya rolled his eyes, but couldn’t keep the amused smile from appearing on his lips. “Weird name for a weird kid I suppose,” he muttered to himself.
Max, who had been able to hear it, chuckled. For once, he actually agreed with his boss about something.
“Hey, Kid, you have an obsession with symmetry, right?” Shinya asked.
Kid, who had turned away to place a chair on the floor, looked over at Shinya once again. “I find symmetry extremely beautiful, yes,” he said.
“I think that’s what they call and OCD,” Max mumbled as only Shinya could hear.
“If that’s the case, how come you are completely symmetrical except for the three white stripes in your hair?” Shinya asked.
Kid blinked once, then he threw himself on the floor and started crying miserably. He knocked on the floor as he did so.
“You are absolutely right!” he cried. “I’m a disgust to this world! I’m asymmetrical garbage! I don’t even deserve to live!” he cried and continued to say this and similar things as he did so.
“What did I do wrong?” Shinya asked, looking from Max to Shizuo and to Kid on the floor.
“Pointed out his only flaw,” Max said.
“His only?” Shinya asked “I’d say he has plenty.”
Without warning Shizuo walked up to Kid and knelt down in front of him. He awkwardly placed a hand on Kid’s shoulder in an attempt to cheer him up.
“Stop crying,” he simply said in lack of anything better.
Kid looked up to reveal that even his tears were flowing in a way that made his face look symmetrical. He met Shizuo’s eyes and really did seem to be cheered up at first. This became even more obvious as a smile broke out on his face.
“You…” Kid’s voice was almost only a whisper as he spoke to Shizuo. “You are almost perfectly symmetrical,” he said while letting his eyes trail up and down Shizuo’s clothes and up to his hair. This caused him to frown. “Your hair is a little off though…” Kid said before he sat up and started arranging Shizuo’s hair, trying to make it look as symmetrical as possible.
Shizuo sat still for a little while, attempting to tolerate Kid’s sudden actions, but this self-control only lasted for about half a minute before he snapped. He took the cigarette out of his mouth and bend it between his fingers, causing Max and Shinya to take a step back, as it seemed they were trying to become part of the wall.
Shizuo lifted Kid up by the shirt and went towards the door, holding him like that. He opened the door, and before anyone could stop him, he had sent Kid flying out the bar and slammed the door after him.
“That’s one way to get rid of him I suppose,” Shinya said. He had really been longing for the moment when someone would kick this kid out. He then walked back behind the counter and took a look at the bottles on the shelves. “We’re closed again,” he said. “Seems I have to put all of these back in order…”
Max sighed. “Then I’m going home,” he said.
Shizuo nodded. “Me too.”
Shinya turned. “Hold on, you’re leaving?” he asked.
“There’s no way you’ll be able to open the bar again today,” Max said as he took his broom and went out the door with Shizuo in toe.
Shinya sighed as they left. Now this thing would only become even more boring than if the two had been there. While feeling a slight irritation towards the symmetry-freak, Kid, Shinya slowly started putting the bottles back in the right order.