Disclaimer: I'd like to say that if i owned Gate 7, it wouldn't be on hiatus, but look at how long it's been since i last posted a G7 fic.


School life was . . . difficult for Masamune. He got good grades – Kojyuuroh wouldn't let him slack off in that department – but he simply could not get along with the other kids.

Maybe it was because he was a great general, the legendary Masamune Date, and they were just random grade-schoolers. He could hardly be blamed for declaring himself to be their superior. He was. After all, would they be able to control a powerful oni like Kurikara? Any of them? He thought not.

He got in trouble for fighting a lot.

It had gotten a little better when he moved from Tokyo to Kyoto, but that was only because his new classmates didn't know him yet. They started looking at him funny pretty quickly once he proudly declared himself a sixth-grader while attending a fifth-grade class.

Most kids wrote him off as a weirdo. A few of the bigger boys tried to pick a fight with him, but he sure showed them.

Kojyuuroh never let him hear the end of it, but Masamune was adamant. It Wasn't His Fault. Schoolkids were just stupid. He couldn't be blamed for fighting with them.

Kojyuuroh tried to get him to make friends. Masamune never listened to his "reasons" as to why he should pay attention to his classmates. They were invalid anyway, and easily countered with "I'll have a friend there if Hana decides to go." He just knew Hana would look adorable in his school's uniform.

But Masamune didn't really want Hana to attend his school. Hana was part of a different world, the world that made him special. The other kids couldn't understand it, and he didn't want them even to know anything about it.

Besides, if Hana went to school, every student and probably half the teachers would get crushes. It was bad enough having just Tachibana and that other loser as possible Love Rivals.

So instead he headed over to the ura-shichiken after classes let out to spend as much time with Hana as possible – without the mundanity of school. Tachibana might gripe, but he knew Hana was happy to see him. There was nothing like throwing himself across the low table at the ura-shichiken after a long day and having Hana comfort him.

"I hate school!" he groaned.

"Poor Masamune." Hana crouched next to him. "Is it bad?"

"Yeah!" Masamune exclaimed. "It's the worst! 'Cause i don't get to see you, Hana!"

Hana patted his head. "Do your best."

And with that, his motivation came flooding back. He would do his best. If putting up with his dumb classmates was what it took to live in Kyoto where he could see Hana all the time, he'd do it. He'd do whatever it took.

After all, it was only a matter of time before he took the country. And when he ruled, with Hana by his side, he could do what he wanted, and to hell with everyone else.


A/N: I realized i've been neglecting Gate 7 (like everyone else, apparently), so i had to write something. I'd forgotten what an arrogant little berk Maa-kun is, but he sure is fun to write.

This is actually my 50th post on this site, and my 50th completed fic. I'd kind of wanted the milestone to be something a little more impressive than a half-assed drabble that's been sitting in my WIPs for like four years, but . . . I NEEDED TO FINISH SOMETHING. And this was finishable – so finishable i'm surprised it took me so long. I blame the EF.