At a fine morning in Kuoh Academy, one Hyoudou Issei was currently running leisurely.
"Get back here you pervert!"
"Hyoudou you lech!"
Okay, so not exactly leisurely. Hyoudou's breath was ragged as he dragged his feet across the field in exhaustion. Running around the school building for the last twenty minutes without break finally took its toll on his body.
"Finally you stopped, huh?" the leader of the band of girls who chased him, Murayama spoke to him also in a ragged breath. Huh? Wasn't she a kendo-ka? How come she couldn't maintain her breath? "Where are you hiding your two friends?"
"That's the thing, Murayama. I haven't seen them today. Have you?" Issei asked back.
"Don't screw with me! You three usually hang out together! And by hanging out I mean peeping at us changing!" Murayama swung his wooden sword, causing Issei to hold his breath in anticipation of unimaginable pain.
"Kyaa! I'm sorry Murayama but I truly haven't seen them! Maybe as you talk to me here they were laughing while checking on other girls!"
Murayama thrust the wooden sword to Issei's stomach with full power and Issei keeled in pain.
"Then I'll let the others look for them while I beat you up until you want to celibate yourself!"
"Gyaaa!" Screams of pain and suffering were heard amongst the morning air of Kuoh Academy. The other students had gotten used to the usual cops and pervs game between the girls and the perverted trio. However, today the scream sounded quieter than usual.
After putting all kind of bruises on Issei's body, Murayama sighed. "I don't understand why you always chose to do this, Hyoudou."
Issei sat down and also sighed. "I don't understand why you always beat me up, Murayama."
A tick mark appeared on Murayama's head. "That's obvious, isn't it?! You always peeped on us! Of course, I'm going to beat you up!"
Rubbing his left arm that sported blue bruises, Issei winced as he registered the pain. Ouch, bandaging it will be a bitch. "Thanks for the answer, Murayama."
"Are you some kind of masochist?"
"Hell no! That kind of fetishistic play is Matsuda's! I just want to see boobs!"
Murayama swung her wooden sword once again and Issei closed his eyes, bracing for the incoming pain. But after fifteen seconds, he didn't feel any new pain or smacking sound. Hesitantly, Issei opened his eyes to find Murayama talking with the other girls. He let out a breath of relief and walked towards the infirmary to bandage all the bruises. God, with all the bandage, he would appear like a zombie.
Just as he took the second step, Issei felt death loomed behind him. Without looking back, Issei ran.
"What did I do this time?!"
"Since you're alone we're going to beat you three times to substitute for your friends!"
"That doesn't even make sense! They weren't with me!"
In the end, Issei went to the infirmary with three times more bruises than normal. The nurse who standby in the infirmary just shook her head after seeing his body. She gave him the bandages and went back to her job.
This was usual for him, the nurse obviously didn't approve of his behavior. Usually, Motohama, Matsuda, and Issei bandaged each other. Boy if the three of them were handsome and popular, many kinds of rumors would arise from such activities. Luckily or unluckily, the three of them were the most unpopular boys at Kuoh Academy.
But lately, Matsuda and Motohama seemed to stop regularly peeping on girls. He didn't know why, and when Issei approached one of them, they brushed him off. That actually kind of hurt, actually. To disregard their friends just like that. Obviously, they took him for granted.
As Issei entered his classroom, he noted that his two friends weren't in their seat. Once quick scan found none of them nor their bags in class. Maybe they skipped class? Wow, he might be an open pervert and proud of it but skipping class was just not cool. Your parents paid the school to teach you things but if you weren't there, then your parents just wasted their money. Kuoh Academy was a prestigious school and the tuition fee wasn't cheap.
Silently Issei wondered if he had to tell both his friends' parents that their son skipped school. He didn't want to betray their friendship like that, but they did it first by ditching him, so it was fair, right? Issei shook his head. That was another matter. First thing first he needed to know where the hell his friends were.
From behind the door, the teacher came and Issei put the matter on the back of his mind.
School ended, and Issei walked around the city alone. Usually, he would hang out after school together with Motohama and Matsuda but since both didn't come to school Issei thought he would walk around alone since a fine sunny day like this shouldn't be wasted.
He went to the arcade first, but as soon as Issei put the coins into the arcade machine, he didn't feel like playing it. He ended up giving the credits to some elementary school kids. Playing alone without a friend was kind of lonely. Dammit, why did they ditch him alone without any explanation? After leaving the arcade, Issei stumbled upon the front door of karaoke place. But even he knew karaoke without any friends was just sad, so he stopped his feet from entering the place and walked away.
"Damn. I don't know what to do."
Issei went to the vending machine near a park and bought a can of soda. He opened it and was greeted with a burst of the sweet liquid on his face. His emotion rising, Issei threw the can of soda angrily. He wasted one hundred yen goddammit! How the hell a soda that just came out of the vending machine had enough shake to burst?!
"Ouch!" a shout of pain came from the direction of the soda can he had just thrown.
"Ah, sorry, I didn't mean to…" Whatever Issei wanted to say died after seeing the figure in front of him. Beautiful. That was the only thing that can describe the girl in front of him. Well, he supposed a 'very' can be inserted before the word.
"Mumumumu, it hurts." Teary-eyed, the beauty in front of groaned in pain as she rubbed her aching head.
"A-Ah! I'm very sorry!" Issei bowed to the beautiful girl in front of him. "I did not mean to hit you!"
"Huh?" The girl blinked. "O-Oh, it's okay, it's okay. I thought for sure it was my bad luck..." an aura of depression came and engulfed them.
"Um, Miss, are you okay?" suffocated by the depressed aura, Issei managed to get a sentence out.
"Y-Yes! I'm okay! Nothing's wrong! All is well!"
Even though she said that the aura of depression never left. Now Issei felt bad because he made her even more depressed than before.
"Do you want me to treat you to a drink, miss...?"
"Y-Yulia, my name is Yulia. A-And if you want to, you can..."
Now, the situation became even more awkward. "I'm Hyoudou Issei," Issei declared to the timid beauty despite the awkwardness. He then hurriedly went to the vending machine and put another 100 yen to buy a canned orange juice.
"Here," Issei gave Yulia the canned orange juice.
"Thank you, you're a nice guy."
Issei gestured Yulia to sat on the bench. "What are you doing here all alone, Yulia-san?"
Said girl just sighed depressingly. "I am running away, I guess... My brothers did something that I cannot tolerate, and I just want to go out."
"I... don't know what to say because I never experienced having a brother," Issei started. He then smiled, "But I'm sure they still care for you despite doing whatever they were doing. That's what I believe."
"How do you know that? You don't know anything about me," Yulia looked at Issei with an adorable glare that made Issei's heart soar.
"Even so, I believe siblings care for each other," was his short reply. "If you don't mind, you can tell me what they did."
Yulia just looked at him strangely. She then sighed in exasperation. "Fine, I'll tell you. Our entire family had a competition. We were given the chance to craft an item, and the best item will win. Each of us only gets one chance to craft it, but my brothers sabotaged my chance and left me with this fishing rod. Lame fishing rod. I was angry at them. I also wanted to win, why wouldn't they give me the chance? Why would they sabotage me like that?!"
At this point Yulia shouted at Issei, venting her suppressed anger. Anger at her brothers. Anger at the situation. Anger at her own weakness. She was angry.
"Why do you want to win?" Issei asked Yulia. "Is the prize worth much?"
"Well, the prize worth so much, however, I do not aim for the prize. I aim for the recognition that I win. I can win. I am one of the youngest in my family. If I win, that would shake the whole family."
Issei nodded to himself after hearing Yulia's explanation. "I see, I see. That's a worthy goal in itself. Wanting to be recognized, and not be set aside just because you're one of the youngest."
"Thank you," she smiled at him.
"I think your brother did that because he was afraid he would lose to you. That means you're good enough to win."
Yulia's face brightened a little as Issei said that. Then, it immediately went into another frown.
"Even so, I cannot win it like this now..." Yulia muttered as she brought up the fishing rod. It looks weird to Issei, as it has no reel.
"Um, Yulia-san, what kind of fishing rod is that?"
Yulia blinked. "Huh? What do you mean? It's just a normal fishing rod."
"It's definitely not a normal fishing rod! What kind of fishing rod has no reel?! Isn't that just a pole?!"
Yulia looked down at the 'fishing rod' that she carried. "Really?"
"Let me take a look," Issei stretched his arm towards Yulia, who immediately gave the 'fishing rod' to him without any resistance. He then observed the fishing rod more clearly. It has no reel as he saw before. The overall length was about two meters, give or take and just like other fishing rods, the tip is thinner than the bottom part, but there was a bladed part on the tip, as Issei found out by accidentally nicking his thumb. Issei also flexed the rod, testing its elasticity, and found out that it was similar to the one owned by his father. When he looked at the bottom part, he found several buttons, three to be exact. A triangle button on the top, a circle button on the middle, and a reverse triangle button on the bottom.
Huh? Issei thought. What were these buttons for? In curiosity, he pressed the triangle one.
Immediately fishing line came out of the tip at high speed.
Issei fell into silence. If his guess was correct then the reverse triangle one was for pulling the line. But wait. Let's try pressing the triangle button for a minute at least, Issei nodded to himself and did so.
An unending line came out of the tip at high speed.
"Infinite line?" Issei asked Yulia. "How is this possible? And that force to push the line out at high speed, how to achieve that? Is there any motor inside the rod?" He pressed the pull button and the line came back inside the rod at high speed.
"I don't know... As I said the one who made that are my brothers."
Issei went back to marvel at the miraculous item. A fishing rod with an unending line? "Yulia-san, this is in no way, a lame item as you said before. This is awesome!"
"Yeah, but it cannot win."
"What component is being judged by your family?" Issei asked Yulia because frankly if he were to be the judge, he would be amazed by this fishing rod.
"Well... that is..."
"Might." A new voice entered the conversation between Issei and Yulia. It was a voice that Issei didn't recognize, but Yulia seemed to recognize the voice because she gasped in shock at hearing it.
"Big Brother... what are you doing here?"
"Suddenly went missing like that, with your item no less. Of course, I'm worried," A handsome guy with facial features not unlike Yulia approached them. "Now come on, little sister. Let's go back home."
Before Yulia began to speak, she was cut by Issei's words.
"Oi oi, are you the one making fun of your little sister? You should be ashamed of yourself."
The handsome guy narrowed his eyes. "Excuse me. Who are you? What do you mean by making fun of my precious little sister?"
Issei shrugged. "That's what I get from her story, at least."
"You know nothing, boy. I suggest you stay out of this," the handsome man then focused on Yulia. "Little sister, let's go back home. Your other brothers are waiting for you. Throwing tantrum like this is not like you at all."
Yulia wanted to say something to her brother, but Issei once again beat her into it.
"Do you even know why she threw a tantrum?"
She shot Issei a half-hearted glare because she was angry, but only half-hearted because Issei somehow captured the essence of what she wanted to reply with.
"Is it important? Now, come on, Yulia."
"It's important you self-centered bastard!" Issei shouted, frightening Yulia a little bit.
"I'm sorry," the handsome man narrowed his eyes, "what do you mean by self-centered?"
"I mean, you actually shrugged of any of my questions about Yulia-san and then you forced your view by asking Yulia to come back. Without any effort to understand her. Without any effort to acknowledge your wrongdoings. What other things I can say other than self-centered?!"
Issei glared angrily at the handsome blonde man who was the brother of the girl behind him.
Yulia's mouth opened in surprise. The boy in front of her...
"You sabotaged her only chance to prove herself to her family. Is that something you can feel proud as a brother? I may not know how it feels to have a little sister, but doing something like that is unforgivable!"
"We did that to protect her you ignorant fool," the handsome man said with a sigh. "Prove yourself to our family? This isn't just a game. Your life is at stake, little sister. I... we created it to protect you, little sister. If the others know that your item is... something as weak as that fishing rod, then nobody would target you. Just last week, honored elder brother had to fight against several people because he made a powerful item."
Yulia gasped. Honored elder brother... so all this time...
"That's right, little sister. Let's go back home. Everybody is worried about you."
"Protect her? Ha! Don't make me laugh. That's just a front. You guys were just afraid of her. She actually has a potential to win, that's why you guys sabotaged her," Issei spoke out with a laugh.
"Why do you insist on demonizing our family? That's just a naive thought formed out of spite. If we all see the good inside our heart, then you already know the answer."
"Sorry, but this sinner's black heart is too dark to see the good inside yours," Issei said with a smirk.
At this words, the handsome man looked disapprovingly at his little sister. "You choose someone like him?" he shook his head. "Then again, I can't say that you choose the worst because mine is similar. However, little sister. You definitely can choose a better one. With someone like him, you wouldn't win even if you have the best item."
Yulia blushed at her brother words, "I-I haven't chosen anyone yet. Issei-san is just a conversation partner."
"Even so, you can have a better conversation partner."
That was a critical blow for Issei's heart.
"Oi! Listen you control freak of a brother. Yulia-san can have a conversation with anyone she wants to!"
"I am patient, boy. So please refrain from taking parts in this conversation because I am currently talking with my little sister."
"Yulia-san! If you want to come back, at least be proud of this fishing rod. Even if this is sabotaged by jealous siblings, I'm sure you can surprise everybody!" Issei said with a big grin on his face.
"Issei-san..." the boy continued to have faith in her. She was honestly touched.
"Why are you so persistent? We're doing this for our precious little sister."
He even continued to antagonize her brother.
"Yeah maybe you think so, but what about your other siblings? I don't think so. One of them must have that thought."
Was leaving him the best course of action? Logically, yes. Issei was just a normal boy. Uninvolved with her.
But...
"Big brother," Yulia spoke up to her brother for the first time. "I've decided. I want to partner with Hyoudou Issei."
Her eyes held a conviction as she stared at the bright blue eyes of her big brother.
"I see... Then you won't mind if I let my partner face him now?"
"What?"
The handsome man clapped twice. "Come here."
Suddenly a figure of a normal human boy appeared out of thin air. "You called, boss?"
It was a voice that was familiar to Issei. "Matsuda?! What are you...?"
"Ise?" Matsuda's eyes looked in surprise before it turned into a grim acceptance. "I see... I want to say something like 'it's nice to see you here' but I'd be lying, Ise. I hope you won't be angry with me afterward."
Still not understanding anything, Issei looked at Yulia for an explanation.
This was it. She did it. She involved a normal boy into something out of his league. Was she happy? Truthfully, she wasn't happy because Hyoudou Issei was actually a nice guy. But a corner of her heart felt happy that she chose Issei as her partner. Would she regret it? She didn't know. One thing she knew, she would be happy whatever the outcome of this encounter was.
"Issei-san. I'm sorry to dump you suddenly into this."
Yulia pointed at the standing form of Matsuda, and Issei felt dread.
"You have to fight him."