Hajime x Kuzuryuu
Title: Don't Follow Me
Summary: "Don't follow me or I'll kill you" she said before she left, leaving Hajime alone. However, as every second passes while he stands on the balcony of the reserve course building, something keeps telling him that he should follow her. In one world, he doesn't, in this one, he does.
Cannon AU.
"Talentless people have no right to be with my brother!" cried Natsumi. She dropped her head back onto her arms that were folded onto the railing, images of her brother and his bodyguard flashing through her mind.
"I want something to be proud of. Not to always look up to him." She continued with tears threatening to leave her eyes. "I want to be able to stand by his side! If they recognize me as the Ultimate Little Sister, I can finally be with my brother!" She squeezed out. With Natsumi in her current state, Hajime had to choose his words very carefully.
"But even still, as a sister, you can still be by his side. There's no saying that you can't be, after all, family is the most important thing." Hajime said carefully after a couple seconds of silence. He didn't know what possessed him to say those words given that Natsumi can just as easily kill him. However, it was very hard to just abandon her like this. Seeing that this might be one of his final moments, he mentally gave a quick prayer before continuing. Suddenly, Chiaki's words resonated in his mind: "There's more to life than just talent."
"I mean, what if your brother doesn't mind you not having a talent? In that case, wouldn't having a talent be irrelevant then?" Hajime continued.
"No! Of course not! You wouldn't understand!" Natsumi cried. "He's the head of the Kuzuryuu family! And on top of that, he's the Ultimate Yakuza! I'd soil his name if I stood next to him now!" She yelled.
Hajime waved an arm in front of him defensively. "E-Even still, talent isn't everything you know… talentless people can still do something.." He feebly threw out.
"To me it is." She snarled as she got up from resting on the railing and sending a death glare towards Hajime. "It's my only means of getting back with my brother." She whispered as she turned around and started walking.
"W-Wait!" Hajime cried before Natsumi whipped out a knife from her skirt.
"Don't follow me or I'll kill you." She threatened as she began to descend the staircase, leaving a paralyzed Hajime alone on the balcony of the reserve course building. He watched as she disappeared into the dark stairwell, and continued to stare at the shadows even after she had left his sights.
Seconds slowly turned into minutes since Natsumi had left him, with every passing moment adding more discomfort to his heart. He wasn't sure if Natsumi was going to do something reckless, or if she simply needed time alone, but that uncertainty was what's eating him up inside.
Hajime looked down at his open palm, a recent habit that reflected his distaste towards not having a talent "Talentless people can still do something….. do I really believe that?" He thought as his gaze returned to the empty stairwell "Nanami-san… what should I do?". The more he stared at it, the more there was the urge to follow her despite the threat. He couldn't deny that he now feels partly responsible for what had happened as he's now partly involved in Natsumi's little feud. "This… is going to be the death of me" He sighed as he slowly began walking towards the stairwell.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hajime quietly searched every floor and looked into every room, careful as to not disturb his target lest he finds her. The eerily quiet building made it seem like his footsteps were a hundred times more loud than usual. He had just gotten down to the third floor of the building before he heard some crashing and muffled voices from below. "Shit! I-Is this really happening?" He thought, thinking Natsumi had really gone and done something reckless. "What do I do now?"
As he considered his possible options, he quickly and quietly made his way down towards the second floor of the building. By the time he had left the stairwell and entered the hallway, the crashing and voices had ceased to exist. Hajime began to sweat, this entire hallway had 'dangerous' written on it. He felt as if he was playing a horror game, an empty hallway with plenty of doors for potential jump-scares and potential instant game-overs. Except right now, there'd be no respawning.
"Fuck! Why did I even get myself into this?" He thought as he stood at entrance to the stairwell. Hajime knew that the longer he stood there, the worse the situation could potentially become. "Arrgh! Fuck it! I've come this far!" He thought as he finally forced himself to walk into the hallway.
Hajime peeked into every classroom he passed, ready to barge in as soon as he saw something that didn't belong there. He hasn't thought as far as to figure what he was going to do after he was in the room, but he'd cross that bridge when he gets there. As he finished peeking into the fourth classroom in the hallway, he could hear some faint, but audible noise in the next room over; the music room.
He quietly crept next to the door and tried to peek inside of it, but from his vantage point, he couldn't see anything. Nevertheless, there was definitely someone inside given the small amount of noise coming from the room. "It's now or never…" He thought as he opened the door as quietly as he could.
Time seemed to slow down to a trickle as Hajime laid his eyes on the sight inside: Natsumi slumped against the wall unconscious and Sato had a flower vase raised above her head. Sato didn't notice Hajime's presence as her eyes were completely fixed on the unconscious body of Natsumi, but at the same time, Hajime couldn't bring himself to act. He felt paralyzed as he watched Sato with the vase above her head, ready to bring it down onto Natsumi at any point. "What the hell Hajime? Do something!" He thought as he hopelessly tried to force his body into action.
Before Hajime entered the room he would've been expecting Natsumi to be in Sato's position, and done with the act too, not the other way around. The last thing he would've expected was Natsumi to be the one unconscious, given that she's the daughter to a famous yakuza family. She did have a knife on her, and there could've been more concealed weapons too. Also, Sato didn't even seem like the kind of person to take things this far.
However, Hajime was snapped out of his trance when he noticed Sato finally took a deep breath. As he watched her exhale, he immediately understood what was going to happen, and before he could even process his next action, he acted. With a near ultimate-level speed, Hajime quickly unslung his bag from his shoulder and slung it towards Sato. As the bag flew threw the air however, a small sense of regret rose within Hajime's heart. "Well shit.. there goes my new phone.." He thought as he watched the bag fly towards his target.
The bag barreled into Sato's raised arms, causing the vase to drop to her side and producing a shriek of surprise from her. As the vase shattered next to her legs, she turned towards Hajime with a look that could compete for the ultimate angry student. With the door still open, Hajime managed to hear a couple cries and concerned voices from below. He only needed to stall for a little bit before he had help.
"Sato-san! What're you doing? A-Are you nuts?" He asked, immediately regretting the second part as he received another glare from her.
"I'm doing what needs to be done!" She shrieked, her mind in a state that's anything but normal. "It was either going to be me, Mahiru or her!"
Hajime winced a bit. "This was what it's about?" He thought.
"Despite what she says, I'm sure she wouldn't actually hurt anyone!" Hajime tried defending her.
"What do YOU know? You never knew her until a couple days ago! But I know what she's like. We've all went to the same school together. And she's been waiting all this time to do something! She tried to kill ME just now!" Sato screamed as she grabbed her hair. As soon as her outburst ended, her eyes suddenly faded out. "No, This ends now. I can end this" She bent down and picked up a large piece of the shattered pot.
*Snap*
"EEEEEEEEEEKK!"
"Wha-Wha-Wha-WHAAAAAT?"
"Holy shit! She's gone psycho!"
"S-Sato?"
Hajime turned around to the voices behind him. There were four girls standing by the doorway, each wearing a uniform that belonged to the Main Branch of Hope's Peak Academy. Of the four girls however, Hajime only recognized one, being the red head with a small bag to her side and holding an expensive looking camera. She nervously stepped forward, clearly rattled by the scene before her.
"W-What are you doing?" She asked.
"I'm protecting you!" Sato angrily replied. "Can't you see? After I'm done with her she won't be bothering us again!"
"T-That's not a solution!" She cried. "And think of her brother! He's never going to forgive you for that!"
"Then what am I supposed to do?" Sato pleaded, her eyes now filled with a despair Hajime had never seen before. "She's always had you in her eyes, and I've been trying to protect you all this time!" She wailed. As Sato kept going on, the red-head chanced a quick glance towards him. Hajime returned with a quick nod and slowly walked away from the red-head and towards Sato.
"You still shouldn't resort to murder Sato!"
"You wouldn't be saying that if YOU were the one murdered!"
Hajime continued to slowly creep closer along the windows, careful to not attract too much attention to himself as the red-head known as Mahiru and Sato continued their standoff. However, in the middle of one of Sato's rants, she turned herself to face the windows and noticed Hajime's new position, causing him to freeze in his tracks.
"What the—What do you think you're doing?" She screamed as her eyes now darted between himself and Mahiru. As she looked again however, she managed to make the connection. Sato angrily turned to face Mahiru, her sharp weapon still pointed at Hajime.
"Y-You would betray me? After all I've done for you?" She said in disbelief.
"N-No! That's not it!" Mahiru replied.
"Then what IS it?" Sato angrily demanded. "Every time I try to protect you, you protect her! Even when she's trying to hurt you!"
"Sato!" She pleaded.
"When are you going to realize she's never going to stop going after you?" Sato yelled.
"She's hasn't done anything to me yet! They're just empty threats!" The Mahiru reasoned.
"They won't be so empty when you get a bat to the head!" Sato cried. In the middle of her outburst, her eyes fell onto the still unconscious body of Natsumi laying right in front of her. Sato's expression turned into a wicked smile as it seemed like she had found an answer.
"Of course, she won't be coming after you if she's dead!" Sato said as she raised the broken shard of the vase above her head.
In the next moment, Hajime didn't know what he was doing. One second, he was about to watch Sato plunge the sharp ceramic into Natsumi's body, the next, he was flying through the air with his arms flailing in front of him, rapidly approaching Sato. At some point during all of this, he realized he had started screaming because she turned to look at him with a look of surprise. His scream, whatever it was that it began as, quickly changed to one of fear. As Sato turned to face him, so did her body, and the sharp piece of ceramic she held. It only got worse as she instinctively raised it to defend herself. While his mind was doing its best to process everything that was happening, it did manage to settle on one thought. "Fuck me." Hajime soon landed with a sharp pain in his abdomen and everything went black.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Ngggh…" Hajime groaned as brightness burned into his eyes. Although his eyes were barely open, he found himself staring at a white ceiling with unsurprisingly, white lights. As his brain slowly started up from his slumber, he noticed he was lying on a soft surface, with a blanket over him.
"I'm… on a bed?" He thought. Hajime tried to sit up but immediately regretted his choice as his abdomen burned with pain. "Owwww fuck!" He mentally cursed.
"Well, you're finally awake." A voice said, prompting Hajime to turn his head towards it. He soon found himself looking at another student from the main course, this time, a guy. He had short yellow hair and features of a baby face that made him look a lot younger than he is. His appearance looked oddly similar to someone he knew, but his mind was too tired to think.
"Y…You… are…?" Hajime started.
"Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu." He replied.
"Kuzuryuu…" Hajime repeated, trying to make the connection in his mind. "Kuzuryuu… oh. That Kuzuryuu. Fuck."
"Oh… so… are you here to finish the job?" Hajime carelessly asked.
"Wait, what the fuck? No!" Fuyuhiko said, completely unprepared for that question. He looked as if he wanted to explode for a second before taking a breath to calm himself down. "I may be a yakuza but I don't kill indiscriminately you stupid dumbass!"
"Stupid? Wait.. what happened?" Hajime asked.
"Ugh, the nurse says you've got a nasty stab wound on your abdomen, she was too busy freaking out to remember anything else though, meanwhile, pigtails says you jumped onto something sharp while screaming like an idiot." Fuyuhiko replied.
"I did?" Hajime thought for a second, the memories of him flying into the sharp piece of ceramic slowly coming back to him. "Oooh that." He said in realization, to which Fuyuhiko's hand shot up to his forehead.
"Holy fuck you really are an idiot." Fuyuhiko grumbled.
"Er, sorry…" Hajime weakly apologized. "By the way, what happened to Sato?"
As he asked the question, he noticed Fuyuhiko's usual angry looking expression turn even more angry. Fuyuhiko punched the wall, let his fist hang there for a second before speaking bitterly.
"I would've killed that bitch if it weren't for that redhead. She should be dead, but she's currently with the SHSL Therapist. According to their medical bullshit, Sato is being diagnosed with psychopathy."
"So… she's a psycho?" Hajime asked. Fuyuhiko simply crossed his arms as he seemed to have calmed down a bit after the explanation.
"I don't have all the details, but simply put. It's complicated. Bad childhood, emotional trauma, shit like that." Fuyuhiko gritted. It seemed like he somewhat understood her mentality, but at the same time, it still wasn't enough to forgive her.
At that moment, the door opened and a nurse with unevenly cut purple hair and bandages over different parts of her body came in with a tray of medical supplies. She seemed to notice serious atmosphere in the room from the previous topic of discussion, causing her face to pale.
"Eeep!" She squeaked. "I-Is this a bad time?"
"No! You can come in Mikan." Fuyuhiko said.
"Oh! I'm so s-sorry! I'll come back later!" She said and disappeared into the hallway.
"W-Wait! Mikan! Get in here! He's your patient!" Fuyuhiko angrily yelled.
"I-I-I'm s-sorry!" Came a distant reply followed by rushed footsteps.
Hajime watched as Mikan shakily re-entered the room with her tray of medical supplies. Now that he had got a better look at her, she was definitely one of the girls who were present at the time of the incident but he did not expect her out of all of them to be the nurse. Fuyuhiko noticed the look on Hajime's face, sighed and explained.
"This is Mikan Tsumiki, SHSL Nurse. She's… jumpy but her medical skills are ridiculously good." Fuyuhiko introduced. "By the way, is she awake yet?"
"N-Not yet, but s-she's in the clear for n-now." Mikan reported.
"Alright then. I'll leave you two alone." Fuyuhiko said as he picked up his jacket and left the room, leaving Hajime and Mikan awkwardly looking at each other.
"Soo… is it bad?" Hajime asked as the silence started to kill him.
"W-Well… you were lucky that S-Sato had let go of the weapon as you landed s-so it's just a simple stab, b-but it did cut deep so it's highly likely you'll have a scar. O-On another note… you also suffered a concussion but it's not that severe so you don't have to worry about it." Mikan explained in an oddly normal voice.
"Great." Hajime grumbled.
"I-I'm sorry!" Mikan cried. "H-Here, I'll get down and act like a turtle laying eggs!"
"WHAT? No! Wait! You didn't do anything wrong! It's fine!" Hajime cried out in panic.
"I-It is?" Mikan asked, tears streaming from her eyes.
"Yes! It's all good." Hajime said, relieved that she wasn't going to embarrass herself. Fuyuhiko wasn't joking about her being jumpy, and he also didn't want to know what that looked like. He began to feel sorry for her considering what must have happened to cause her to be like this, but his eyes fell onto the tray of medical supplies that had been set aside and curiosity took him over.
"By the way, are those for me?" Hajime asked as he examined the various bottles and syringes on the tray.
"O-Oh! T-Those are for a different patient, s-speaking of which I-I need to go i-if that's ok." Mikan said with a squeaky voice.
"Erm, yea. I'll be fine. You can go." Hajime said carefully but uncertain that his words sounded 'normal' enough to her. However, Mikan seems to be convinced, as she smiled at his words.
"A-Alright! I'll be leaving now!" She said in her scarily normal voice that Hajime would've never thought was possible. He let out a sigh and slouched back onto his bed after Mikan had left the room. It has been a long day, and Hajime would definitely enjoy some much-needed rest. He reached into his pocket to grab his phone, only to be confused when he found it empty. A slow groan escaped his chest as he remembered where it was, and the fact that it was likely not functioning anymore.
He looked down at his open palm again, an odd habit that he has grown attached to lately. "Talent isn't everything….. talentless people can do something…" Those words hung in his mind as he thought about whether he believed them. "Maybe… Maybe Nanami-san could be onto something here…" Hajime thought as he reminisced the conversations he shared with her. He let his hand drop to his side and stared at the lights on the ceiling.
As he squinted his eyes at the bright light, he heard the door click open again. In his awkward position of having one arm above the blanket that covered only up to his stomach, he quickly feigned sleep as the door swung open and closed itself. There seemed to be an eternity of silence, causing Hajime to become very uncomfortable as he struggled to remain still before a familiar voice spoke up.
"You really are a fucking idiot…" Natsumi spoke softly. Hajime started internally panicking as her footsteps came closer to the bed. Has she seen through his act? He started to picture all the different ways she would berate him once she got close enough but instead, was genuinely surprised when she simply tucked his exposed arm under the blanket and pulled it over him comfortably.
"I swear I would've killed you myself if that psycho bitch didn't kill you…." She continued in a soft voice. Hajime mentally retorted "Well, you have the perfect chance now…"
"Talent isn't everything huh? I guess I'll see you in class whenever… Hinata-kun." If Hajime wasn't surprised before, he was now as he felt the bed sink in and she wrapped an arm across his chest in a semi-hug. He instinctively held his breath in while his brain was being fried by trying to process the entire contrast of Natsumi's words and her usual personality. Hajime didn't dare to let his breath go until the door closed and a significant amount of time has passed since the sound of footsteps faded out.
After what seemed like an eternity, he finally sat up on his bed, his brain now returning to normal. "D-Did that just happen?" He thought, still wide eyed from the whole experience. Either Natsumi completely missed his open eyes as she left, or she noticed but didn't care enough to do something about it.
He looked down at his open palm again, the emptiness staring back at him. Hajime closed his eyes and began going through everything he's ever believed about talent. He grew up with the thought that he was useless without talent, something that eventually fostered into his admiration of Hope's Peak Academy. When offered the Kamukura project, he was almost certain that choosing to be a part of it would be the right decision for him. However, his recent times with Chiaki slowly eroded that belief away. Despite having a talent and practically guaranteed success, she said there was more to life than just being talented. Hajime figured she must have already made a lot of friends from the main course and yet, she chose to spend her time with him, a normal boring person.
"Talentless people can still do something" His own words repeated itself over and over in his head with every round becoming increasingly more convincing than the last. He slowly smiled. He did do something, and that something happened to change someone. Maybe Chiaki was onto something after all. "It doesn't make a difference whether or not you have talent. I mean, that isn't the end goal." Hajime reopened his eyes and was mildly amused when he saw that he no longer held an open palm, but a clenched fist.
For once, he was definitely looking forward to class tomorrow.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Congratulations for making it to the end of this story! I'll admit there was a lot of potential in this story to be expanded on, but with exams coming up, I can't overcome the urge to just "get it over with" so here it is!
This originally started out as something I wanted to do for Natsumi. Ever since that scene in DR3, I couldn't help but think that maybe if a couple things went differently, something may have actually worked out between the two. After seeing how Fuyuhiko can be a good person despite his personality, I thought the same could be said for her. Although, my OTP for hinata is still the SS-Koizumi.
Will there be more Hinata stuff with Natsumi or Class 77? Likely. It's just a matter of when... I'm a very slow writer (tbh, I probably spent 45 minutes at this screen typing this out)
Anyways, comments, kudos, criticism, hate, please let me know in reviews :)