Niou lay in his bed, dreading practice that's forty-five minutes away. He rolled over and groaned that it was five-fifteen, and cursed Sanada for convincing Yukimura to make practice begin at six in the morning. He looked at his phone and skimmed through the endless group message of the team, which he almost never participated in. He yawned as he stood up, and opened the curtain.
"It should be illegal for people to practice when the stars are still out." He complained and changed in to his practice clothes. He looked across the street and remembered every detail of the previous day. That was Megumi's house, and she was probably asleep right now. While most people would wonder how they never knew they were neighbors, it made sense with his practice schedule. But it was still a mystery how he had never seen her before, period. He didn't even notice her on the roof until the very last minute, and he couldn't be more relieved that he saw her at the right moment. He sort of felt guilty for pressuring her, and actually telling her to jump. But her reaction to that was priceless. Either way, he would have stopped her in the end, but the way she clung on to him made him sneer every time he thought about it. He stepped out of his house, looking forward to the rest of the day. He couldn't wait to get more out of the girl who wants to die.
"Niou-senpai, good morning!" a bunch of over-achieving freshman boys called out to him as he reached the courts. He gave slight nods to each of them, not wanting to waste any energy. It wasn't even game season, and Sanada was killing them.
"Hey, Niou, you're actually ten minutes early. That's new." Marui said. He raised his eyebrows, not looking at him. He tilted his head, stretching to try to wake up.
"Niou-kun, are you alright?" Yagyuu asked.
"You're in student council, Yagyuu. Who's Okada Megumi?" he asked, staring off in to space. He adjusted his glasses and thought for a while.
"I'm sorry, that name does not ring a bell. Is she in any of our classes?"
"No, she's a second year. I'd ask Akaya, but as always, he'll be late. Whatever, I'm gonna go confuse people." He said and walked away.
"He's acting a bit odd today. Did something happen?" Yagyuu asked Marui. He shrugged, and didn't have a chance to talk anymore once practice began.
Niou was practicing with a wall when Akaya showed up, breathless after his fifty laps. He walked to the water fountain and splashed his face with cold water to cool down. Out of nowhere, Niou grew the urge to annoy him, so he tossed a tennis ball to his head. He whipped his head around, eyes close to turning bloodshot.
"What the hell was that for!?" he yelled. Niou laughed and shook his head.
"I just wanted to. Don't worry, you're nothing special." He went back to practicing. Akaya almost growled, and turned around.
"Wait, practice with me for once." Niou invited. Akaya paused, wondering if he was plotting anything.
"No, I'm not plotting a single thing. Now come practice with everyone's favorite senpai." He said forcefully.
"Fine." He grumbled and walked over. Niou handed him a spare racket, but Akaya hesitated.
"It's not going to shock you, idiot." He said and threw it to him. Akaya glared at him when he grabbed it. They hit tennis balls at the wall in silence for a while, not knowing what to talk about. Niou was enjoying the confusion Akaya had on his face, and Akaya just wanted to know what he wanted out of him. He shut his eyes and drew a breath.
"Yes, I cheated on the last math quiz! Can you just stop taunting me!?" he breathed heavily. There was sweat pouring out of his forehead, and Niou could've sworn he was near tears. He burst out laughing.
"Where the hell did that come from!? I didn't even know you had a quiz."
"What." Akaya stood still, realizing he had made the biggest mistake of his life. He turned around and started to walk away, but Niou grabbed his collar.
"Not so fast, kid." He smirked. Akaya hung his head, waiting for the worst black mail possible. And he thought he'd gotten that the week before. There was no limit to Niou, and he kept having to learn the hard way.
"What do you want, senpai? Take the blame for a prank made on Sanada-fukubuchou again?"
"Nah, it's pretty boring when you're not given credit for pranks. I'll use this information for another time." He let him go. Akaya relaxed his shoulders, happy he could forget this incident for the rest of this day, at least.
"Okada Megumi. Is she in any of your classes?" Niou asked without thought.
"Huh? Okada? Megumi? I don't know anyone with those two names combined. Why?"
"Really? Even in different classes and grades, you don't know her?"
"Nope. Why do you need to know?" Akaya said, thinking that he was plotting another prank on a girl that's fallen for him.
"Are you sure? She's this tall-ish, brown hair to her neck, a bit wavy, kind of snappy attitude." Niou tried to describe her.
"You just described the average Japanese high school female, except she doesn't have bangs."
"Oh she has those, just side swept, not to the front like the average person."
"Wait, if you know her more than I most likely do, why are you asking me? She's your friend." Akaya asked. Niou didn't know how to explain the entire situation.
"She showed up at my roof and I just wanted to know if she's going to take over it with her friends or something." A simple lie flowed. It was his God-given talent, and he used it to his full advantage.
"Oh. Well, I guess I'll ask if I figure out who she is."
"No, don't do that." Niou said, thinking she would get extremely confused and just get angry. Even though he loved the face she made when she was both of those emotions.
"Just tell me or Bunta. And by the way," Niou darkly glared in Akaya's eyes, "I never ever asked you about this." He said and left him standing there, terrified of what would happen to him if he spoke a word about what just happened.
Bunta tapped Niou's shoulder as they headed out of the club room. Niou didn't understand how energized he could be at times, especially when they both had a test right after this.
"What?" he mumbled.
"What's with you today? You seem really annoyed. Like when a girl won't stop confessing to you." Bunta asked as they walked to class.
"Really? Well, that's not what I'm annoyed about." He rolled his eyes.
"Then what's annoying you?"
"Not telling you. Hey, tell Takahashi that I might be a second late and that he's stupid for me." Niou said as he walked another direction.
"Uh, no to the second part, but why are you going downstairs? That's the second year level."
"I know. Don't worry about it."
Niou braced himself for a big crowd. He loved screwing over girls that liked him, but not girls in a younger grade. He never believed they were worthy of his tedious pranks and illusions. But he did know that there were plenty of second year fan-girls and even fan-boys that would freak out if he even made eye-contact with one of them. But the only person he was searching for was Megumi. He kept denying that he was attracted to her, since he hated sappy, fate themed love stories, but he just wanted to know where she was. It was pretty much proven that she is invisible to everyone here, especially if Yagyuu had no idea who she was. He claimed he knew everyone in the school, but apparently, she was a different story.
"Oh my god, it's Niou-senpai!" he heard a girl shriek. And not even a second after, a stampede of young girls came up to him and created a crowd. Now, unlike Marui and Yagyuu and even Yukimura in these situations, rather than being nice and talking to everyone, he just passed by them, even pushing aside a few people.
"He just touched me. Oh gosh, I think he's into me!" he heard every single girl exclaim. He rolled his eyes and turned to all of them.
"No. I don't like any of you." He said. Another shriek by all of them, and some possibly close to passing out. He rolled his eyes and tried to brush off his annoyance. Megumi wasn't anywhere in the halls, and he didn't dare ask any of those girls because, for one, they would get high off of his breath after speaking, and two, it would risk her life if they believed he was even slightly interested in a girl that's not them.
'Well, if it gets her killed, would she appreciate me?' he thought. He stopped moving, realizing how fucked up he sounded. But he still gave a small laugh under his breath. He shook his head, realizing he was losing focus. He turned to look in Akaya's class and he saw him talking to another guy at his desk. Then he saw Megumi. Sitting and looking through her phone, seeming to block out the rest of the world. But then again, no one was talking to her either. He let out a breath, annoyed at Akaya for not even knowing the name of the girl who sat right next to him, and most likely got the math answers off of. He rolled his eyes and walked in.
"Hey, Akaya! Where were you this morning? We didn't see you at practice."
"Huh!? Niou-senpai? What are you doing here?" Akaya said, scared of what was happening.
"I just came to ask why you didn't come to practice today." Niou said with a serious face. He stood by Megumi and rested his arm on her head.
"What do you mean I wasn't at practice? I was there with you!" Akaya shouted. Megumi hadn't even flinched.
"Uhh, no you weren't. Sanada just needs to know why you weren't there to figure out how many laps to give you after school today." He slid his arm around her neck, and she hadn't even turned to look at him. And even more surprisingly, no one was questioning him either.
"Senpai! I was right there, standing next to you, when you asked about something Megumi or whatever, and you threatened my life with a bunch of stuff!" Akaya yelled. Finally, Niou felt Megumi's head turn, and they made eye contact for the first time since the day before. She looked utterly confused, and he just raised his eyebrows at her.
"Akaya. You're dreaming." Niou said in Akaya's voice.
"Wha…" Akaya stood there, his brain almost melting in frustration. Niou turned to Megumi and let his arm go.
"Hey, Megumi. Tell me how Akaya acts the rest of the day." He smirked.
"Okay. Uh, you should go, Masa, you're going to start attracting attention to this general area." She said.
"Woah, you're still gonna call me Masa with absolutely no honorifics?" He patted her head. She shrugged and went back to looking at her phone. He gave a small laugh.
"I'll see you at lunch, Megumi. And do me a favor, if Akaya asks when he came in class today, try your best to convince him that he's dreaming." He said with his face close to hers. She put her finger to his forehead and slightly pushed him away.
"I'll do as much as I can. And I don't remember agreeing to eat lunch with you." She said as the bell rang. He lightly tugged her hair as a form of payback.
"You don't really have a choice. See you in a bit, Megumi." He swiftly left the classroom, not letting her argue with him. His way back was nice and relaxing since no one was in the hall. He debated about even going back to class, but he remembered that he had a test. He wasn't a fan of chemistry too much, but it was easy for him to do. It was just too irritating to complete everything. But what was even more irritating was the lecture he was receiving for being late. He was just daydreaming and not listening to anything the teacher was saying. It was all just stupid background noise to him anyway. When he realized he was done, he bowed and went to his seat.
"What the hell were you doing? And why do you have that yellow lunch box?" Bunta whispered behind him.
"Hmm?"
"Whatever. But hey, during lunch, help me with my math homework. I'm confused on the last problem."
"Ehhhhhh nope, can't." he looked at him up-side down. Marui frowned.
"Why? You're good at math."
"I'm eating lunch with a friend. And if Akaya asks, he was never at practice this morning." He sat back up. He smiled out the window, happy that he was able to steal Megumi's lunch without her noticing. Marui was confused, but that was the usual feeling when you're a friend of Niou Masaharu.
The clock had the reflection of every student's eyes as it was only a minute until lunch. Marui yawned, Megumi was panicking about her lunch in silence, Akaya's brain was in pain, and Niou was simply leaning on his chair, waiting for the ring to silence the teachers. He threw a piece of paper across the room and made it in the trash can. This language teacher had already given up on scolding him, even though it was only the third week of school. He smiled to her, and she gave a heavy sigh and left the room right as the bell rang.
"Niou, can you just give me your homework sheet?" Marui asked immediately.
"Yeah, don't tell Sanada." He said and got up.
"Thanks, man. But who's this new friend? You never eat with other people." He swallowed his gum.
"Oh, she agreed to meet you tomorrow. We can be the three best friends." Niou sarcastically. Marui glared at him for making fun of him.
"I'm kidding, but yeah, you should meet her. She's funny." He said and left the classroom. Rather than going to Megumi's classroom, he went straight to the same roof, believing that she would know where to go. He opened the door, and felt the breeze. He loved it. He loosened one of his buttons on his shirt and walked toward the edge. The ground was a lot farther than he thought, and he shuddered, knowing that Megumi was close to stepping off from it.
"Masa! What the fuck!?" He heard Megumi shout right behind him. He grew a smile and turned to her.
"Hmm~?" he hummed and tossed her lunch in the air. Her eyes grew, and she tensed her shoulders.
"I knew it! You better not drop it, I'll push you off." She threatened.
"How will you push me if you didn't even have the guts to jump off yourself yesterday?" he leaned toward her. She drew her head back and grabbed her lunch from his hands.
"You're a fucking jerk, you know that?" she said and headed to the door. Niou slammed it shut before she had a chance to reach the handle.
"I prefer being called a trickster." He sneered and sat right in front of the door.
"So you were serious about me not having a choice of where to eat lunch?" she complained.
"Yup. So sit, and chill. Don't waste these thirty-minutes." He leaned back. Megumi, not having anything else to do, listened to his suggestions. She opened her lunch and started eating.
"So, how was Akaya?" Niou brought up, extremely curious about how he was in class.
"Oh, that guy? He talked to me for the first time in my life, it was weird."
"Yeah? What'd he say?" he reached for a piece of chicken. She ate it before he could take it.
"He asked if he was dreaming. I might've made things worse." She shrugged.
"What? How did you do that?" he leaned a little closer to her. For a second, her face turned red.
"Well, he asked me if we were in real life. But I told him that he was in another world and that the school was a school for people with magic powers." She said as she ate her last bite.
"Damn you eat fast. But, what!? How did he take that?"
"Oh it was hilarious. He believed everything, from how the teacher is actually planning to destroy the world, to how my power is invisibility." She laughed. Niou had to give a small chuckle to that. He was glad that she at least was able to carry a happy emotion.
"But hey, I seriously had no idea how invisible you really are. Like, no one even acknowledged you." He said, not caring about how harsh that might've sounded. But it made her laugh again.
"Yeah, it really is like a super power. But I almost lost it when you showed up." She scoffed at him.
"Well, I'm sorry about that." He patted her head. She rolled her eyes.
"Whatever. As long as I'm still non-existent to everyone else, I'm fine." She sighed.
"Oh, that's gonna change. You're meeting Yagyuu and Bunta tomorrow." He told her.
"No I'm not. You can't do that to me." She said with a denying face.
"Oh, trust me, I can." He smiled and ran his hand through his hair. He saw her turn red again and he smiled to himself.
'You're way too much fun to let go of.' He thought and patted her head again, despite her annoyed looks.
