PRE-NOTES: TWEWY and MSN goodness up for a second serving. Hope my recipe won't blow up in my face. Bwahahaha.
Format goes as three scene breakers for next POV or scene, one scene breaker for flash back, "" for dialogue, ''thoughts.
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Neku, who had finally cleaned off the chalk and pulled off the ridiculous suction arrow, stood by the desk behind Shizuna.
"Class", Shizuna began. "This is your new homeroom and english teacher, Neku Sakuraba. Treat him well", the blonde gestured to the emo-teen.
Neku wasn't particularly listening as he was feeling some pretty wierd vibes. "Neku-sensei? Neku-sensei?", Shizuna called neku again.
"Ah wha-?", Neku looked around quickly. "What'd I miss?", he said quickly.
The class erupted into laughter and Neku almost felt like getting shot again, almost since he already had been shot once and he wanted to wait till it was absolutely necessary before he'd let a piece of lead get stuck in him again. Shizuna gestured and called for his attention. She gestured to the class and explained, "Introduce yourself sensei".
Shizuna stepped aside while Neku stepped up. Neku scratched his head unsure of what to say, "Uh, my name is Neku Sakuraba, you all can call me Neku-"
"No honorific?", a short pink-haired girl with her hair tied into two buns, which reminded Neku of the various lolicons running about Shibuya, asked rather loudly.
"Um no", Neku answered unsurely.
"Yay!", she celebrated with her seatmate which nearly caused Neku to drop dead into a faint. It was bad enough there were lolicon girls running around in this class but twins!? God must seriously be playing with his head.
"Anyway", Neku continued a bit unbalanced but still going on. "I'm not particularly fond of people but my mentor told me that meeting with various people would help me with this so here I am. I haven't used my english much so please forgive me if it's a bit rusty-", once again Neku found himself cut-off.
"But you're pretty much the same age as us!", a girl with orange hair in twin tails tied with bells that reached her hips protested.
"It seems my employment agency didn't exactly find it all that problematic when I referred this problem to him.", this time he employed his emoness at max with the whole bangs covering the eyes bit. Well that was that. "Anyway", Neku continued, "I came here with the intention of helping out a friend" 'and saving my own skin' "and I am new to this teacher business so please go easy on me".
"Oh please stop being so modest sensei", a blonde student who resembled Shizuna quite a bit sans the glasses and with differing eye color. Neku raised an eyebrow. "I believe we were told you had a masteral level knowledge on english and literature.", she cleared it up.
"Mou iinchou is sucking up again", the orange haired girl with twin-tails grumbled off to the side.
"What did you say!?", the blonde student lunged at the orange-haired girl.
"Yay! 100 on Iinchou!"
"200 on Asuna"
Neku ignored all this and a single line of thought was going through his head. 'That guy is so dead. It's redundant but that's just how many times I'll kill him'. What the hell was he telling these people? Masteral degree in english and literature? What was he? A genius that learned all that at the not-so-tender-age of fifteen and had time to spend playing around in middle school, hanging out around the streets, being dead and fighting for the very existence of a district of the nation's capital? Hell no! He did not achieve masteral degree in languages and literature. Now a more immediate issue besides the forgery of his resume was at hand.
"Sensei?", Shizuna stood beside him.
"Yes ma'am?", he asked her quite deadpannly.
"Stop them if you would.", she gestured to the meelee the small catfight had turned into.
"Let them have their fun", was all Neku said as he turned around and began to write on the blackboard. he was gonna need time to figure out the first lesson and be coherent enough so he could teach it efficiently.
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After ten minutes the class had settled down after Neku blackmailed each of the students that he'd spill their most darkest secrets, after a couple of demonstrations they listened. Damn, mind reading was sweet.
"God, it seems from your current performance, most of you are not up to par with the lesson.", Neku sighed setting down the binder of lesson plans from Joshua. He had received a subject outline from the office and was expected to teach at least the things on the list. He had cross-referenced this with Joshua's and found that Joshua's was more appropriate. "For now I'll have to drop the school's lesson plan and put up with my own" 'Joshua's but they don't know that', Neku read through the binder.
"We'll have to build up on your basics and fluency. I'm going to teach you words and sentence structures. I'll try to squeeze in literature and you should write to me every class on your thoughts and feelings about anything that catches your interest. Don't worry I'll keep everything I don't already know from you and already do know from you confidential to others.", it seemed Joshua knew that most of this class had very little affinity for english, especially the orange haired one with bells.
"What!? Why are we suppossed to write you letters?", protested the one Neku had just mentally singled-out.
"Because your english sucks and writing a letter will help you have a grasp of grammar and increase your vocabulary as you search for words to convey your thoughts", Neku explained.
"Sensei is right, we must write letters, after all practice makes perfect. Right sensei?", the blonde Iinchou spoke almost immediately after him.
'Suck up', Neku and the bell girl thought simulaneously. It was then both flinched and thought, "Wha-?", in perfect sync.
'What the heck? I let my guard down a bit and now I'm unconsciously scanning. Wait now that I think a bout it I think I heard the one I accidentally scanned react, does that mean I imprinted? But that's impossible, I'd need my phone and a meme to do that. Unles...", Neku checked the player pin he had. It was then he remembered Joshua's letter which explained it had a couple features added on. 'Don't tell me', Neku face palmed. 'It powers up my scanning abilities and allows me to imprint without celphones or memes.', Neku summed up.
Ring!
"Well class, that about sums up our current lecture. This first class was actually less of an introduction to the subject but more of a diagnostic to see how much I need to work on so see ya", Neku walked out of the classroom before them, completely ignorng the traditional opening and closing ceremonies of a class.
If there was one thing Neku had to thank Joshua for, it would be including a script in what to say in the lesson plan in case he was at a loss for words.
Back in the classroom the girl with bells tying up her hair thought, 'I could've sworn that voice was the new teacher's'.
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Neku was currently sitting on the steps of one of the many fountains in the school. He took out his copy of the class roster to look through the people he was teaching. "Asuna Kagurazaka, seat 8, art club. Not much I can tell with this, One thing's for sure, that girl doesn't like me", Neku remembered all the glaring she was giving him since he first step foot into that classroom till he stepped out. "Wonder what she's sore about?", he tossed the idea about in his head to see if any hypothesis would turn out right. In other words he had no idea. "Bah whatever, I don't care", Neku scratched his head leaning against his left hand at his side. It was then he saw a girl, with blue, indigo hair that covered half her face, struggling with a huge stack of books. "Hey isn't that...", Neku struggled with his memory a bit. After a few seconds recognition set in, "seat 27, Miyazaki Nodoka".
It was at the moment of Neku's epiphany that Nodoka's footing decided to get lost. "Crap", was all that came out of Neku's mouth as he quickly donned his headphones and turned up the volume in one fluid motion with his left hand, filling his senses with nothing but pop'n rock that always helped him concentrate. His other hand wasn't idle at the time as it reached into one of his pockets and grabbed one of the pins that he knew so well. He knew them so well he could tell them apart by the soul they emitted. He grabbed Sexy D and focused a bit on holding the girl in mid-air.
It worked and the girl was floating and unconscious. In a split second, Neku had propelled himself to the girl's location, several meters away, using the pin's power. He did a baseball slide under the girl and caught her after releasing the pin's effects.
Neku sighed as he cradled the girl roughly in his arms, "Guess I've still got a bit left in me". He examined her face to see if she showed signs of discomfort. There were none so Neku looked up to find a suitable place to set her down and pick-up the books. When he looked up though his eyes met up with heterochrome ones of blue and green. Neku saw the face the eyes came with and paled, "Crap". It just wasn't his day.
Three seconds later he found himself smashed against a wall. "I knew there was something wierd about you", the orange-haired girl narrowed her eyes at him.
Neku read her lips and frowned. 'And suddenly grabbing someone and pinning them against a wall is normal?', Neku thought sarcastically.
Asuna's expression went dead for a moment and Neku wondered what was wrong with her. 'Unless...' "Crap", Neku said the second time in the span of two minutes. 'I subconsciously imprinted someone again', Neku worked up a cold sweat.
The orange-haired girl glared at him and he looked away. "It was you wasn't it?", she interrogated him.
"It was me what?", he asked innocently enough.
"You were the voice I heard in my head during class", she accused.
'Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap. She knows', the cold sweat that beaded Neku's temples had now become steady trickles. "I don't know what you're talking about", Neku denied.
Asuna watched him carefully and then something clicked in her head. Voices in her head and keeping Nodoka afloat. "You're psychic ain't you?", she asked him rather calmly.
Neku tensed. 'Why couldn't you be smart in class instead of here', he thought.
"Whaaaat?", Asuna growled.
'Dammit! I did it again. Joshua you are so dead if I survive this', Neku mentally added another mark to how many times he'd kill the snooty kid. "Fine, you found out so what?", Neku challenged her.
"I can tell people", she threatened. Neku didn't look impressed. "And you'd be put in a lab and studied and put on display like a side show circus", Asuna was floundering.
"And if I don't display any of my abilities during the time these things are going on, who do you think will take the blame?", Neku cocked an eyebrow at her.
It took Asuna a bit to process this before she paled and began sweating bullets herself.
"Look, this ain't blackmail material so you better just give it up.", Neku slapped her hands away from his collar. He straightened himself and his outfit before he spoke sinisterly, "and besides, if I did have psychic powers. What do you think would happen to you right about now after what you did to me?".
Asuna processed this as well before looking at him like he was some bomb that was about to blow.
"Preciseley", Neku walked towards her. "now how do I deal with you?", he walked around her nervous form. As he circled Asuna, he reached a point where he could see Nodoka sit up. "She's awake", Neku faced Nodoka's direction.
"Honya-chan are you ok?", Asuna ran towards the quiet girl when Neku mentioned her coming to. She forgot everything that they were talking about at that moment.
"U-um yes", the librarian stuttered as she looked about to survey her surroundings and get an idea of what happened.
"You okay?", Neku approached.
Now Miyazaki Nodoka was a bit known for her cute, shy and timid behaviour. It was also not quite a secret that she had a certain fear of men which made people think if she had some sort of trauma regarding them. The answer is no, she's just really really really really really really shy. It came as no surprise though that she'd be afraid of the more aggressive looking ones and Neku looked about as aggressive as the next backstreet-graffiti-artist-loving-foremerly-dead-boy.
Neku furrowed his brows when he suddenly felt the same wierd vibes he felt earlier that morning.
Nodoka saw this and grew even more frightened since he looked a bit angry. Asuna saw this and asked him, "What's your problem? Stop glaring at honya-chan".
"Shh", Neku held a finger to his lips and extended his senses to scan the area. To the two girls, he just looked like he quieted them down cause his favorite part of a song was coming up, seeing as he still had his headphones on. Neku looked for any sign of the wierd vibe. To his shock, the wierd vibe came from his own student, Nodoka, and a tatoo like object was flying about her and feeding off of her thoughts.
'What the hell are noise doing outside of UG Shibuya?', Neku wondered. He got pass the noise possessing her and read her thoughts.
'Neku-sensei looks scary. I know boys frighten me but Neku-sensei really looks mean.'
Neku couldn't help but frown at that which added another line to Nodoka's thoughts.
'He looks even scarier when frowning'.
Neku was tempted to cancel the scan and perform a face-palm had he not detected more noise. There were at least three more and it wouldn't be pretty if they decided to appear in the RG which was pretty likely considering they were chump noises.
"We have to get out of here", he lent a hand to the frightened Nodoka.
"Wha-? Oh just let me get my books", Nodoka got up on her own but Neku forceully took her hand in his.
"We'll come back for the books later. Right now, we run.", Neku told them, dragging Nodoka but stopped short when his hand that was around Nodoka's was tugged back.
"Why?", Asuna looked at him skeptically. Sure, she had seen their new teacher keep a person afloat in the air with nothing but the power of his thoughts, propel himself into an inhuman jump the same way and repeatedly speak to her with telepathy. Still, didn't she have the right to be skeptical? She had planted her feet firmly on the ground and took Nodoka's other hand. "We're not moving till you tell us what's going on", she stated just as firmly as her stand.
"We don't have the time", Neku ground out.
"W-wha?", Nodoka was officially confused, so much that she stopped being frightened of Neku for a bit which threw the noise into a confused frenzy seeing as their food of sorts had disappeared.
"Crap" 'Okay that line's getting lame', Neku covered the girls protectively when four black tatoos emerged. Three of them were outlined in red and appeared from thin air while the other one was outlined in gold and emerged from Nodoka.
"Kyaa!", Nodoka screamed as a claw came out of the gold outlined tatoo and grabbed her by her shirt.
"Oh no you don't!", Neku grabbed just as tightly onto Nodoka's leg.
"What the hell is happening?", Asuna screamed as she helped Neku pull Nodoka away from the claw.
"It's the noise", Neku grunted with exertion as he fought against the inhuman strength that the claw was putting out.
Neku looked around and saw the three other noise symbols were closing in. "Oh snap!", he put all his strength into pulling Nodoka away. In a morbid wierd twist of fate, Nodoka's shirt ripped from being pulled on too hard and Neku's hand slipped out of surprise and he ended up pulling on her socks which came off quite easily along with her shoes. She was sucked into the noise symbol, leaving Neku and Asuna alone with four noise symbols itching to feed on them.
Asuna looked on with shock at what had just happened. Nodoka had just been gobbled up by a monster. She idly noticed someone tackle her as another noise swooped in on her.
"Get it together!", Neku screamed at her as he dragged them both for a safe place.
It was a few seconds after completely registering what happened that Asuna stopped and caused Neku to falter in his run. "Wait! We have to go back for honya-chan!", she told him.
"She's gone", Neku told her without looking back.
Asuna was shocked he'd say that. "No she's not. She wasn't eaten by those things. A claw dragged her in so she must still be okay", she screamed her reasoning at him.
"At least for now", Neku muttered.
She spun him around and grabbed him by the shoulders to face her and said, "Let's save her then!". The orange-haired girl's expression shone full of hope as opposed to the boy's unreadable one.
"And how do you propose we do that", he asked her rather heatedly.
Asuna thought that he was dumb and answered with just as much anger, "You have your freaky powers. Go and save her with those!".
"I can't!", Neku knocked her arms away from his. "I can't", Neku repeated more quietly. "If only Shiki, Joshua or Beat were here.", Neku fell to his knees. "I swore I'd never want to see anyone erased ever again", remembering everyone he encountered in the UG. Neku punched the pavement with all his might, almost splitting his knuckles, "And now, in the RG, it happened and I couldn't do anything to stop it".
Asuna was shocked at the display to say the least. To think that this emo-looking guy really had something to be emo about. Every word he spoke held the pain and frustration that he felt and anyone who heard could almost feel his pain.
"If only I had a partner.", Neku ground out.
Asuna heard this and didn't think twice when she said, "What about me?".
"What?", Neku looked up to her.
"I can be your partner", Asuna knelt down to face him.
"But-"
"I don't care, as long as we save Honya-chan", Asuna interrupted before Neku could protest.
Neku looked down and thought it over for a moment and looked back up. "Fine", he agreed, "But on one condition".
"What?", Asuna asked him seriously.
"Trust me", was all Neku said before he touched Asuna's hand and light engulfed them.
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POST-NOTES: So many rewrites this chapter required. Yes indeedy. I might have to rewrite this recipe yet again if my customers find it unappetizing. Next chapter promises a full course fight and exotic explanations.