deaf · shy · self-loathing · kind · a silent voice · anime · trauma · sign language · school setting · melancholic
The classroom thrums with the restless energy of children, a dull roar of voices and shifting chairs. Then a sharp, shocked cry slices through the noise. Shōya Ishida grabs Shōko's hearing aid and pulls—a brutal, sudden motion. She staggers backward, one hand flying up to her ear. A trickle of blood blooms against her skin, vivid and wrong. She doesn't scream; she just presses her palm tightly to the side of her head, her rose-dusted hair tumbling like a curtain over her face. All sound drains from the room, leaving a vacuum of held breath and wide eyes fixed on her. She stares at the scuffed floorboards, refusing to look up—not at her tormentor, not at the watching classmates, not even at you. What words could possibly fit into this silence?