Hey guys, NightFall here with the first actual chapter of my new story, and I have to say that finally being able to give one of my stories a Japanese title fills me so much power that I feel like I could actually make this a legitimate anime, but then again, you all say that about my other stories. I think what makes me most excited about this story is how fast the OC spots filled up for this story, which, if my counting is right, a little less than eight hours. That could be for a number of reasons, like say, the fact I only was accepting eleven characters, my characters don't require as much as other forms, and they're easier to fill out faster, or just the fact that a lot of people like my ideas. I would like to say that when I'm writing these stories that I don't like to write simple ideas where it's just the situation, and has no plot devices right from the beginning. When they have them, it's easier to write out, and it makes the story more fun for you guys, hopefully. You've heard enough of me, so let's begin. Enjoy.
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN POKÉMON, BECAUSE IF I DID, GHOSTS AND DRAGONS WOULDN'T BE WEAK TO THEMSELVES.
Chapter 1: The Truth in the Lie
Have you ever felt like you had to lie for someone else in order to keep them from getting in trouble? Many people would call this an honorable gesture on your part, if not incredibly risky for the one that's been lied to. On the other hand, have you ever lied to keep yourself from getting in trouble? For any person, they would never see the act of lying for your own benefit would be the coward's way out. But why? People don't really ever understand how many double standards we create just because a few people decided that it would be the case. Lying in any sense is never the right thing to do, and while it may not seem that way at the time, the one you were to lie for will eventually come to thank you, if not find this to be a betrayal of your friendship. The choice to lie for someone else is never an easy one to make, but when you know it is wrong, it becomes all the harder to lie in good conscience when somebody makes the request of you. It is often thought that people lie for themselves because it's just easier to do something that would be between only you and yourself, but is that really true?
Sitting in the center of a large room, the back of the chair sitting high above his head, Natsu sat with his head angled down, and his hands gripping onto his pant legs. There was nobody in the room with him, only his Lampent floating above him, simply staring down at his trainer with a concerned look that would go away as soon as it turned to face some of the other features in the room. Lining the walls of the room were pictures of men and women, all with a stern expression on their face, most of the men suffering from male pattern baldness. A small chuckle appeared in his eyes as Lampent looked back down at his trainer, but found that he was still staring at the floor, his feet clutching onto the frame of the chair.
"Hey, Lampent," he started. "Do you think this was a bad idea?" he asked, the ghost and fire type staring down at him with a more indifferent expression. "This school has already been in session for a week, and I don't have any transfer papers," he explained, Lampent not reacting to anything, just allowing the young trainer to speak. "They wouldn't just let some random kid who came in off the street into this place like that, would they?" he asked, obviously counting his pokémon before they were hatched. "Why did I have to listen to Jii-chan's advised?" he asked, Lampent about to place on of its arms on the young boy's shoulder, but quickly jumped at the sound of a door suddenly opening.
Natsu reacted out of shock at the sound, and shut his eyes out of fear at the sound of the door slamming shut as four people walked around him, and stopped at the broad desk in front of him. Natsu kept his head low as looked up at the three people still standing, all staring down at him with similar stern looks matching the ones shown on the pictures lining the room, something which did not go unnoticed by Lampent who did a quick comparison of the two groups.
As the large armchair behind the desk turned around, Natsu was almost afraid to look up at the woman who sat with her legs propped up on the arm rest. Natsu looked up only slightly to see the woman as a young, much more laid back person as opposed to the ones around her, standing at about five foot ten or eleven. Her hair was a flaming crimson, rolling off her head, and reaching down to her waist, over her shoulders, falling over her chest. Her eyes were of a bright expression, and a similar blue color to Natsu's, and beamed down at the young boy who couldn't do anything to help himself look at them directly. For her age, the woman was fairly developed in her body type, to the point of being called, in some ways, overdeveloped. She was wearing a basic leisure suit of a lavender color, and then held out her hand for a file folder that one of three other people was holding.
"So, your name is Natsu Kohashigawa?" she asked, Natsu making a small nod, determined not to raise his head to her. "Well, Natsu-kun, we've been debating about whether or not you should be allowed to come to school here," she explained, which only meant to Natsu that some of them didn't want him here. "And we've decided to accept your transfer," she said, Natsu' looking up at her surprised.
"R-Really?" he asked, still embarrassed to look at the woman directly.
"Mm-hm," the woman said plainly, not finding anything special about what this would mean to Natsu. "You'll be living on campus here in the ghost element dorm, seeing as you told us about your other pokémon. It's probably one of the older dorms on this campus, so don't be surprised by some of the stories you hear, okay?" she asked as Natsu stood up slowly, and gave her a low bow, the woman behind the desk giggling at how Natsu was acting.
"T-Thank you," Natsu said, still not raising himself from his bow, not noticing the woman walking up to him, until he felt her hand on top of his head. "U-Um, what are you doing?" he asked, not raising his head, until the woman brought it up, and tilted his head up to face her, feeling her warm hand against his cheek.
"A small reward for making it in," she said, winking slightly as she pressed her lips to his forehead, Natsu's face erupting into a deep red color with a small puff of smoke coming out from the top. "You could also call it a charm for protection," she said, looking back down at him, and seeing him in the state he was currently in. "You can leave now," she said, not even seeing him for a second longer as he ran out of the room, his face still painted red.
As soon as he was gone, Lampent floated by towards the door, bowing to the others, who returned the favor, as he closed the door behind him. The second the door closed, the woman burst out laughing, almost falling to the ground in reaction to Natsu's reaction to what she did. Holding her gut as she walked back to her chair, she practically fell into it, still chuckling softly as she could still see Natsu's face in her mind's eye.
"He's cute," she said for the others to hear. "He'll be fun to play with while he's here, just to see how much he freaks out. Ironic seeing as he's the one with the ghosts," she said, the other members of the school board not as laid back as her. "Oh, come on, you spoiled sports, even you have to admit that seeing him freak out when I kissed him was hilarious."
"Are you sure it was wise to allow that boy in, though?" one of the three asked, the woman looking at them from the same position she sat in, her legs crossing over one another. "A boy with self esteem that low will not help our standing in the grand scheme of things."
"Not unless his being here helps to raise it up," the woman said, the other three suddenly impressed with her reasoning to allow Natsu in. "It's going to be easier to just view this as a child we have to pay more attention to, and if all goes well, this could turn into something really good for both the school, and for that kid. Besides, I want to see how much flirting he can really take before he explodes," she said, giggling with a wide smile on her face, all three of the men and women in her presence slightly concerned for the boy's sanity.
Outside of the main school building, Lampent slowly floated around the entirety of the perimeter of the building, eventually finding Natsu at the far end of the fourth wall, his head facing the bricks, Lampent flying as fast as it could to him. Seeing him thrust his head back and forward, Lampent stopped, and shot out a small fireball at the young trainer, shutting its eyes, hoping to not having to watch his trainer get hit by its attack. Fractions of a second before Natsu's face impacted with the brick wall, the fireball shot in front of him, making him instantly recoil, as he fell to the ground out of shock.
Turning his head to see where the attack originated from, Natsu wasn't surprised to see Lampent floating towards him with a stern expression on its face, much like a parent scolding its child. Natsu crossed his legs together, and just sat, facing where he was about to hit his head against, and moved his fingers over his forehead, still able to the small sensation that the woman left behind. With the thought coming back to his mind, Natsu's face immediately went back to red, and another small puff of smoke appeared out of the top of his head, surprising Lampent who saw his trainer passed out on the ground. Lampent's eyes were still surprised by what happened, and it almost seemed to be afraid to approach the boy for fear of what would happen, until he heard an easy breath coming from him, to show he was simply passed out.
Looking as though it were sighing out of relief, Lampent reached down, and clicked the release for Natsu's other pokéball, Golett emerging from the white light, and turning around to see the current position he was in. Sighing as it turned to face Lampent; it looked as though it were asking a question, Lampent simply nodding as an answer, a definite understanding coming from the two ghost types. Golett reached behind him, and hoisted him onto its shoulder, letting one of his arms fall in front of him. Golett looked up at Lampent who motioned for a direction away from the main building, the small golem following after the lamp, Natsu still asleep from his fall.
With Lampent leading the way for Golett, both ghost types suddenly stopped, left looking at what was probably the dorm slated for ghost type trainers. From what Lampent remembered the woman saying, it was an old dorm, but that word didn't do it enough justice; it wasn't just old, it was, in the eyes of any ghost type, beautiful. His eyes sparkling at the sight of the run down building, Lampent showed off a short shudder of ecstasy as it slowly floated to the door, motioning for Golett to open.
On the outside, the dorm seemed to be more of an old oriental style hotel, the curved style of the roof, the tiling, the sliding of the door to enter, and even the style of the carpentry involved seemed to remind both of the ghost types of the hotels they used to stay in with their trainer. Lampent, expecting to find a very gloomy atmosphere on the inside of the building, quickly flew inside without a second though after Golett slid the door open, but within seconds, his expression dropped with only one thing on his mind, "definite paradigm shift upon entering."
The inside of the dorm was definitely, for the eyes of any other, an improvement on the outside; every part of the furniture had been carefully refurnished, the welcome mat, per se, beneath Golett's feet was comprised of polished stone tiles, and a small rise was seen from where it stood to the actual floor, indicating to both ghost types that Natsu was going to have to take off his shoes upon entering. Helping Natsu ease his shoes off, Lampent did its best to place them evenly in the walkway, and place on a pair of slippers in the corner where he placed Natsu's sneakers,
Still disappointed by the scenery, Lampent helped Golett place Natsu on one of the sofas, the two ghost types looking throughout the interior of the dorm, seeing if anybody else actually lived there, seeing as there wasn't anybody walking about. With Golett staying with Natsu, Lampent floated through the interior of the dorm, quickly gliding up the stairs to check for any signs of somebody to help watch their trainer.
Quickly returning to the lobby, Lampent returned with no signs of anyone following, Golett shrugging its broad shoulders as it pressed the return button on his pokéball, becoming engulfed in the red light, shortly disappearing into the capsule shortly after. Hearing the closing of the lath in his pokéball, Natsu slowly stirred in his sleep, and opened his eyes, still slightly disoriented by the fact he suddenly fainted in the way he did. As he looked around at the interior of the dorm, he gave a similar expression of discomfort as Lampent did, but it probably had more to do with the fact he was far out of his element when it came to staying in a place like this with other people. Aside from that, the aesthetics weren't actually that bad. As he stood up, and stretched out his back, he didn't bother asking how he got here, already having a good idea from how his pokéball just closed.
"Find anyone else?" Natsu asked his companion, the fire type shaking its body negatively. "Okay," he said, walking towards the door that led outside, slipping off his current footwear, and reaching for his other shoes.
As he did, Lampent suddenly sprang into action, quickly gliding in front of the door to keep Natsu from moving any further, confusing the young trainer as he simply looked at him with that ever present dazed look in his eyes. Lampent, having stopped Natsu from venturing outside, turned around to face the doorway, as though he were waiting for something to happen. Natsu looked at his pokémon, wondering what he was waiting for, and within seconds of turning back to face the door with his pokémon, it slid open, with both Natsu and the person on the other side of the door surprised to see each other.
By comparison, the man was much older than Natsu, indicating to him that he wasn't by any means a student, but a teacher by the look of it. He stood at a very tall six foot three, towering over Natsu even if he was standing up, a broad build in his shoulders giving him a strong appearance. He was probably in his early to late thirties as opposed to the other teacher he had met, the headmaster, who was probably no older than twenty five. His eyes were a light green color showing through completely, as opposed to Natsu's whose were hidden slightly by his bangs. The man's hair was a black color, just beginning to show signs of graying, and cut short, so it barely went down his face. By comparison from the headmaster and this man didn't care about his appearance from his stubble beard, probably having not shaved for several weeks, and his clothes were definitely not in the best condition; a ruffled up sports jacket in his hand with the sleeves of his dress shirt rolled up, the ends of his slacks covered in mud along with the entirety of his shoes.
"Can I help you, jou-chan?" he asked, the indication of Natsu's gender making his head sink a bit lower. "Ah," he said, looking up at the Lampent floating above Natsu. "You must be my lodger. That headmistress of ours just told me about you probably about fifteen minutes ago," he said, just now noticing Natsu's expression. "Something wrong, jou-chan?" he asked, the comment about his appearance, almost acting as an arrow piercing his heart.
"I-I'm a boy," he said, the man tilting his body over, until his head was practically upside down, trying to look into Natsu's eyes.
"I don't know," the man said, walking into the dorm, and throwing his jacket on the couch as he passed by it. "You have a pretty cute face," he said, the continued, of what Natsu thought was, pestering of his physical appearance continuing to pierce him over and over. "In fact, I'd go as far as to say you're probably one of the prettiest sophomore girls I've seen since I came here ten years ago, and I've seen my fair share of pretty faces."
"Lampent," Natsu said, not facing his pokémon or the man, but the ghost pokémon placing itself adjacent to the large man. "Flame Burst," he said quietly, the man looking at Natsu with disbelief, hearing his voice go down by at least two octaves.
Before Lampent could make the attack, the man ran past the ghost type, making it blink several times out of confusion, slowly turning around to find the man holding Natsu by his shoulders, shifting his body to study every part of his face, determined to find some way to prove he was a boy. A small twitch appeared in Lampent's eye as the man turned him around, and placed a hand on his back, tilting him over. Before reaching down towards his feet, the man was met by a sudden blast of fire that flew past him, the expression of Lampent as though it were breathing heavily out of frustration.
"Look, but don't touch, right?" he asked, Lampent nodding as Natsu tried to stand, but the embarrassment from what happened was definitely affecting him. "So, you're the new resident of my dorm, huh?" the man asked, extending his hand to Natsu who had just taken a seat directly in front of him on one of the touch facing couches. "Name's Koichi Yamada," he said, gesturing towards his hand as Natsu slowly took it, and hesitantly shook it. "Well, this is gonna be fun," he said, standing up as he looked around the dorm. "All this time I spent fixing this place, and now I finally get a student to live in it with me. Too bad it had to be a trap," he said, the last part being spoken under his breath, but definitely audible to Lampent who already had an attack prepared.
"W-What do you mean?" Natsu asked, Koichi turning back to him, figuring that the meaning behind his words were implied.
"You're the only one living in this dorm as a student," Koichi explained, the information taking some time to process through Natsu's brain. "Is that gonna be a problem?" he asked suddenly looking down at Natsu, to see his face a bit more gentler, and less of the depressed look he had on since Koichi appeared in the dorm. "I'm gonna take that as a no," he said, answering for Natsu who looked around the dorm with fascination at the thought of being able to live alone away from people…with one exception.
"So, it's really going to just be me in here?" he asked, Koichi slightly confused at how excited he sounded.
"Yeah, but I wouldn't get too comfortable about the idea," he answered, Natsu suddenly freezing as he turned to look at the teacher, who had the same look that most people did when they were beginning to think of a fiendish plot. "See, I've been manager of this dorm for the past ten years, and back then, there wasn't a girl who wouldn't brave the graveyard to come to this dorm, for the sole reason of being close to me. But as the reputation of ghosts began to fall, so did the number of students coming into this dorm, and I've been trying to think of some way to fix that. And I think I've just found the perfect hook to get people coming back to my dorm, and it's about five foot three inches," he said, Natsu pointing at himself with a questioning look. "Exactly."
Natsu didn't stick around for too long, appearing to disappear from the room, but was quickly caught from behind by a single grab from Koichi, whose strength easily brought Natsu to his knees. Both turned around to face each other, Koichi's face decorated by a wide evil grin, his eyes simply glowing a spectral color leaving Natsu with the most terrified look on his face, forcing him down into a fetal position.
"That only works when you're trying to get away from a bully in elementary school, kid," he said, picking Natsu up with the single, Lampent following after what looked like a hunter bringing in the kill after a simple outing. "I would worry about what I'm going to do to you as much as I would about what others are gonna do," he said, Natsu suddenly freezing at the idea, several different possible outcomes beginning to form in his head.
Up the stairs of the dorm building, where all of the rooms were placed, Natsu found each side of the one hall lined with at least seven rooms apiece and one at the end of the hall he figured was Kochi's room. Walking towards the room at the end of the hall, Koichi used his foot to grip onto the grip in the side of the door sliding it open, and throwing Natsu onto the floor, and walking it, leaving Lampent on the outside, resulting it the ghost type to run into the door directly upon its closing.
"Now, my young friend," Koichi started, looking down at Natsu who has already retreated to the corner of the dimly lit room. "You are making this very difficult, you know, kid," he said gripping onto his foot, and pulling him back into the center of the room. "Now, as I saying," he began, instantly hearing a quiet scampering back to one of the corners, allowing a small twitch to appear in his eye as he looked all around the different corners for Natsu. "This'll be easier if you just give up. I won't be any easier on you if you don't comply," he said, Lampent obviously drawing the wrong conclusions from the syntax as it burst through the wood made into the doors. "Oh, this ain't gonna end well for me, is it?" he asked, Lampent letting out a hollow chuckle as it began to burn its own body before letting out a large Heat Wave attack, leaving the rest up to interpretation as to what happened.
Back in the lobby, Natsu was left sitting on the same couch, and Koichi sitting back in the one he sat in earlier, but covered in bandages from head to toe in various places. Lampent looked at him with a mischievous look, and a definite chuckle in its voice. Natsu, on the other hand, wasn't looking at Koichi who was probably incapable of movement, so stared straight on at the young boy, and was instead taking a more apparent interest in the carpet, gripping onto his pant legs.
"So obviously if Lampent gets the wrong idea, somebody gets it in the end?" Koichi asked, Natsu cringing out of embarrassment for his pokémon's actions, instantly falling to the ground, and bringing his face down to the ground in an apologetic stance. "Apparently it's obvious who wears the pants in this outfit," he said, Lampent showing off a small twitch in its eye out of annoyance. "I'll make a note of that for future reference when I bring up this plan again," he said, pulling out a small notepad, but finding it burned to cinders within seconds. "Touchy."
"I-I'm sorry," Natsu said still holding his head down even while sitting back up on the couch. "Lampent has always been a bit much for me, but I think it's only because he wants to protect me."
"You only think?" Koichi asked, Natsu looking up slightly from where he sat. "He might as well be saying outright if he could speak. 'Come near this trainer, and you will face certain doom at my flame,'" he said, Lampent's eyes showing definite consideration about the idea. "Anyway, I just want you to help me advertise the dorm. I wanted to know what you think, and not what Lampent thought of the idea, but now that doesn't seem to be possible."
"Why do you want me to advertise for the dorm?" Natsu asked.
"Because a kid like you would draw in the girls like that," Koichi explained, snapping his fingers to estimate the time it would take. "Either that, or you'll be kidnapped within the first fifteen minutes, and appear a week later with rope burns, with either a smile or a traumatized look," he said, looking down, finding both Natsu and Lampent gone, and already heading for the door. "It was a joke!" Koichi said running back after them.
"So, are we all in agreement that because you have burned more than once, you should help me with the dorm advertisement?" Koichi asked, an annoyed look on his face, covered in more bandages, Lampent's body steaming from using more fire energy, and Natsu still extremely embarrassed for how his pokémon was acting. "Because something like this would be considered grounds for immediate expulsion," he said, Natsu cringing slightly at how loud Koichi was speaking. "If the other teachers actually paid any attention to me," he said quickly, pressing his index fingers together.
"Huh?" Natsu asked.
"It's nothing," Koichi said. "Anyway, we should probably discuss this over a bath," he said, picking Natsu up by the arm. "Another way to advertise this dorm is that it has the largest bathhouse on campus, BOOYAH!" he said, Lampent about to follow after them, but then began to realize where they were going.
Sitting outside of a large door reading bath, both Lampent and Golett stood, seemingly, watch as they listened to the movement of water on the inside, the sudden pinging of hollow bamboo rods against the rocks as the water they accumulated was released. After the sound finished echoing through the bathhouse, both ghost pokémon, weak to water by nature let out depressed sigh, not being able to protect Natsu from whatever it was that Koichi was going to do.
Inside the bath, Koichi stretched out his large arms out to the sides as he looked all around him, finding Natsu off in the corner, still washing his body. Sitting on one of the stools, Natsu, looked back at Koichi who waved to him, making him turn back around to focus on what he was doing. Scoffing slightly at how he was acting, Koichi turned back to look at the rock formation behind him, and then over at the rest of the scenery trying to find some way to get some conversation going, but from how Natsu was acting already, that wasn't shaping out to be too easy.
"So, where you from, kid?" he asked, Natsu not responding, as he put a towel to his back, and began rubbing it across his entire backside. "You want some help with that?" he asked, Natsu turning around slightly embarrassed by the notion. "Maybe not," Koichi said, thinking of what Lampent would do to him, water or no water. "Why don't I just tell you my plan?" he asked, Natsu not showing any objection to that idea. "So, tomorrow when you transfer into my class, I'm thinking that you'll become an instant hit with some of the other students, and they'll just flock to you," he said, noticing a tighter grip in how Natsu was holding his tower as he walked into the bath. "And then you just start inviting them to the dorm, and you show them how much better it is than a whole lot of the other dorms around here. I've been working on this place for the past four years, and I'd like to see it have some more people coming, even if just to hang out. What do you say?"
"But that's i-impossible for me," Natsu replied. "I-I c-can't talk to people like that," he said bluntly as he kept staring at his own reflection in the water.
"Tell you what, then, why don't I tell the people in my class you're lonely, and then they come to you?" Koichi asked, Natsu still shaking his head. "At this rate, it might just be easier to pass you off as a girl, and have the guys in my class just come to the dorm with some boxes of candy," he said, Natsu looking up at him with a worried expression on his face. "Well, you got the figure for it, not to mention the hair product, geez, what does your family make you wash with?"
Natsu didn't answer; he was more concerned with the fact that, except for his toddler years, this was the first time he had shared a bath with anyone, related or otherwise. As he stayed curled up, his knees up near his nose, Natsu kept the bottom of his face submerged in the water, as he kept looking at his reflection, Koichi still confused by everything about his new student. As he focused his eyes on just his face, Koichi found that everything about him was feminine, but he already had the evidence from being in the bath together that he was male.
Seeing the water drip from the loose strands of hair, Koichi couldn't help but try to reach out, to see if it was even real which didn't go unnoticed by Natsu. Reacting out of sheer instinct, Natsu thrust through his foot through the water, instantly connecting with Koichi, feeling only the cloth of the towel, opening his eyes to see the teacher floating with his face in the water, small bubbles appearing where he was trying to breath, apparently destroyed physical, and psychologically.
As he rose out of the water with a near demonic face, Natsu couldn't help but try to find some way to apologize, flailing his arms in all different directions, trying to force the words out of his mouth, but found that Koichi was more dead than angry. Cringing slightly at the now ever present pain in his nether regions, Koichi slowly rose out of the bath, and walked, his legs spread wide apart as he waddled across the bath floor. The journey from where he started, from in the bath, and from where he was hoping to make it to, the door leading to the dressing rooms before the bath was the most difficult thirty five feet that Koichi had ever walked, making Natsu lift up the corners of his mouth.
At the sound of the door closing, Natsu let out a large sigh, and sunk further into the water, soaking up to his eyes in the warm water counting on his fingers from one to ten. After completing one series to ten, Natsu started again, eventually going through ten different rotations from one to ten. After reaching the hundredth mark, he sunk down into the water completely, and resurfaced seconds later, his hair completely straight, parting around his eyes. Standing up from the water, Natsu made his way out of the bathhouse, and quickly got dressed into a plain white t-shirt and a pair of red and blue flannel pants before walking out, finding Koichi sprawled out on the ground, twitching, while holding his crotch in pain.
"Did I overdo it?" Natsu asked both of his pokémon, who nodded in agreement as all three made their way out of hallway, and towards the rooms on the other side of the dorm, hoping to find which one was slated for them, which probably was asking for too much, seeing as Koichi hadn't been back long enough to set one aside for him.
The next morning, Koichi woke up on the ground outside of the bathhouse, still only dressed in his towel, but with a blanket draped over his body, and a pillow underneath his head. About to drift back to sleep in the comfort from the pillow, he suddenly realized where he was sleeping, quickly lifting up his head and looking from side to side with a serious look on his face. Walking around the dorm while sticking as close to the walls as close as he could, as though he were acting as an espionage agent, he stuck his head out around the corner into the lobby, finding a small figure lying on of the two couches in the lobby with the Lampent above him also sleeping.
Slowly walking towards the sleeping form of Natsu, Koichi looked down at his peaceful face, as he gripped onto the ends of his blanket, a small smile on his face, finally finding a small amount of comfort. Koichi, despite still having a problem with the fire and ghost type sleeping at his feet, looked down at Natsu as he was his own child, placing a hand on his head, and ruffling his hair while he still slept.
"I knew you weren't a bad kid," he said, standing up, walking back towards his own room to change into his work attire. "So this is what it's like being a single person's guardian," he said, button up his dress shirt, and straightening the wrinkles in his coat. "You don't get this kind of feeling when you're taking care of a whole bunch of kids at the same time, right, guys?" he asked in the interior of his room, two ghostly presences appearing in the room, the first a large bulbous blue pokémon with a large white moustache, and the other having the basic design of a mummy case. "Maybe we should hold off making him advertise for the dorm, and just let him enjoy himself for a while," he said, running an electric razor over his face. "What do you think, Cofagrigus, Jellicent?" he asked, both ghost pokémon giving him a positive look, giving him a feeling of finally make a good decision for someone. "Better give him the good news."
Walking to the school with his position still hunched over, whether by his own tired nature, the fact he was still half asleep, or by the bag he carried in one of his hands, Natsu looked up at Koichi, noticing that he seemed to be in higher spirits than yesterday, but that may have to do with the fact that he hadn't suffered any burns at the hands of Lampent yet…emphasis on the yet. As they reached the main school grounds, Natsu began to stick closer to Koichi out of fear seeing as everybody he was able to see was definitely older, or at least older looking, and much stronger than him no matter what way you look at him.
"Don't sweat it, kid," Koichi said, patting Natsu on the back as they both entered the school building, the boy with the Lampent already receiving several stares from the rest of the student body he already passed. "So, the way this'll work is I'll let everyone know about your transferring into the class, I'll call you in, and then you introduce yourself to them, and that's it," Koichi explained, as the two reached the class he probably acted as homeroom teacher for.
Shifting his neck from side to side, he slid open the door as the rest of his class quickly stood up, bowed to him, and all let out a greeting at the same time in a young sounding chorus. The look in Koichi's eyes at getting the respect he felt he deserved filled him with a pride for himself that was definitely not apparent when he and Natsu were together. As he opened a file folder with every student's name, he began to go through the attendance, Natsu watching him through a small crack in the door, finding him to be much more competent than he made himself out to be from what he saw yesterday.
"Okay, for homeroom, there's really nothing except for the fact we're getting a transfer student," Koichi said quietly, the students suddenly turning to him with their undivided attention focused on him at the sound of that last word. "Oh, so now you listen to me for once."
"Say what?" one of the students asked as Koichi let out a large sigh, and prepared himself for how the news would be taken by members of a species who reacted at the smallest change.
"We're getting a transfer student," he said aloud, bracing himself for the oncoming delight from every student, but instead was met by a chorus of awkward silence. "This is obviously not one of those anime shows. Normally, transfer students are talk of the whole school."
"It's hardly transferring in when we've only been in school for a week," the same student said. "If anything, he's more of a later arrival, unless he just got accepted like yesterday," he said, the other students chuckling along with him, but suddenly began watching Koichi as he attempted to avoid the question altogether. "You're serious. Somebody actually managed to convince that flirt of a headmistress into the school," he said, Natsu already being reminded of the kiss he received yesterday, a puff of smoke appearing out of his head as he fell to the ground, Lampent quickly dropping down to the ground to his aid.
"Alright, Ryuzaki-kun," Koichi said to the student. "If you're done being a smart-alek, there are some things I need to warn you about when you meet him," he explained, many of the female students giggling over the thought of a male transfer student. "He's not very social, so don't be surprised if he comes off as distant, it's just because he's not used to being around a lot of people, and another thing, he's not exactly what some of you are probably imagining when I say the silent type," he said, confusing most of the students, although, if that first student was any indication that probably wasn't too hard. "You know, it'll probably make more sense if you just meet him. You can come in now, Kohashigawa-kun!" he shouted from where he stood, Natsu finally recuperating from his fainting spell, and walking into the room.
His head was angled down, most likely so nobody could see it very well, and from what everyone could see, some were confused as to why their teacher was referring to him as a boy. With Lampent following after him, many of the male students had become more enthralled by his partner pokémon than with the trainer instead. Being handed a piece of chalk, Natsu quickly wrote his name on the board, and turned to the other students in the class, his head still angled down.
"M-My n-name is N-Natsu K-Kohashigawa," he said, introducing him, unable to keep the stutter out of his voice. "Due to the wishes of my friend, I have transferred in here. P-Please look after me!" he said quickly, bowing quickly, making less than a ninety degree with his body posture.
From within the class, several of the students began chuckling over his introduction, and how blunt the last part was, the rest of the class joining in as Natsu could only perceive it as laughter directed only at him. As he shuddered out of fear, Natsu looked up at the sight of Koichi giving him a thumbs-up, showing him that everyone was satisfied with his introduction. As he lifted up his head, to look at the rest of the class, his hair lifted out of his eyes, and his face was exposed to the rest of the class, all of who quickly piped down at the sight of his fairly effeminate appearance.
"Wow," one of the students said, making a small rectangle with her index fingers and thumbs, as though making a picture frame to stare at him through. "He's pretty cute," she said, several of the other students of her gender agreeing as they did the same thing with their hands.
"Not just 'pretty' cute," another said. "He's really cute," she said as the male students in the class covered their ears, Natsu not understanding their reactions until he heard a giant squeal from the class, the entirety of the female students looking at him with longing eyes, some replacing their pupils with small hearts, and some looking as though they were ready to jump at him.
"W-Why is this happening?" Natsu asked, trying to back away as far as he could from the class, but quickly finding himself up against the wall. "Please, just leave me alone," he pleaded in his head, hearing a clapping from Koichi's direction, calming all of the other students down.
"Okay, you can have your chance to meet him later," he said. "For now, we do need to get started with class. Natsu-kun, you can take that seat directly behind Ryuzaki-kun, hopefully he'll be easier to make friends with."
"I doubt it," Natsu said to himself as we walked towards the boy sitting on the window side of the room, one seat from the back of the class. As he walked up to the boy, he made a short bow as the boy just gave a smile and a passive wave as Natsu took his seat behind him.
"Judai Ryuzaki," the boy said, holding out his hand, Natsu hesitantly shaking it. "Nice to meet 'cha, Natsu-kun," he said, making Natsu feel slightly more at ease.
When comparing Natsu to Judai, one could find next to no similarities other than their gender and age, and even then that's sketchy at best. Judai, just based on his overall seated posture, could have easily stood at five foot seven with a build similar to Koichi's, muscular, strong, and with the overconfident look to match. Judai's hair was a midnight black color, spiking at the ends above his dark green eyes. Had it not been for the fact the two had different last names, Natsu could've sworn he and Koichi were related. Judai's body was of a natural skin tan, meaning he definitely spent more time outside than Natsu, and what intrigued the boy even more, was that lining his knuckles, Judai had a series of marks and scars. Like Natsu, his wardrobe was fairly simple, a white t-shirt underneath a short sleeved green button up shirt, a pair of blue jeans, and a pair of green shoes with red lace.
"N-Nice to meet y-you too," Natsu said, Judai finding his stuttering to be slightly amusing.
"Boy, if ya were born in the right time period, you coulda easily been one of those guys usin' that clickin' machine for, what ya say, Morse code," he said jokingly, Natsu letting out a small smile at the fun he could easily tell was be poked at him, but for the first time, he knew it was all in fun. "Knowin' Yamada-sensei, the class will get out earlier so we can get to know ya better," he said, Natsu suddenly freezing in fear at the current spot he was in…up against the wall where there was nowhere to run.
"Well, now that Natsu-kun has been settled, we'll get started," Koichi said, turning around towards the chalkboard, erasing the name Natsu wrote, holding a small textbook in his left hand. "If you'll please open your books to page seventy five, that's where we'll be beginning," he said, Natsu finding that he was left without a book to use. "You just look off with someone for now, okay, Natsu-kun?" he asked as Natsu nodded, instantly seeing Judai turn around with his book open, but was instantly cut off by the girl sitting directly adjacent to him, her book pushed towards the separation between the two.
"You can look off of mine, Nacchan," she said playfully, poking his cheek as he instantly backed as close as he to the wall. "Aw, are you afraid of me? I won't bite."
"Don't bet on it," Judai said quietly, receiving a glare from the girl and a worried expression from Natsu. "Oh, come on, even ya can tell it was justa joke," he said, looking back forward as Natsu was, more or less, left at her mercy, considering if she had any by this point, given Judai's constant patronizing.
For the rest of class, Natsu was left trying to resist retreating back to the wall, the girl next to him unable to keep herself from reaching out and grabbing his hand with a gentle smile on her face. By this point, Natsu wasn't sure if would be better if Koichi had ended the class right then and there so that he could just have this exercise in torture done with, or if he should've just toughed it out seeing as after class he would have to become the center of attention of all the students. Looking up at the clock above the door, Natsu found that if Koichi was going to end the class early it would have to be by this time, or it would lead right into the next class.
"Well, I think that this is a good stopping point," Koichi said, many of the students letting out a relieved sigh, Natsu, on the other hand, making a sharp inhale as the grip on his hand became increasingly tighter. "I think we'll leave the rest of class today so you all can get acquainted with our new friend. I'll see you later, Natsu-kun," he said, walking towards the door, sliding it shut behind him, and hearing the mass crowd flocking to Natsu. "My apologies, my boy," he said to himself with tears flowing out of his eyes, but looking towards the heavens. "But a boy like you wouldn't have lasted any long with that girl cutting off circulation to your hand," he said, placing an arm over his eyes, and quickly walking away.
Back in the class, it seemed that the majority of students interested in Natsu, who sat with his head facing the desk, and his hands almost trying to tear off his kneecaps, were female, with Judai being the only male student anywhere near them. Bombarded with questions of all kinds, Natsu's face continued to grow redder by the second as he tried to back away from the group but was instantly caught from behind by another girl.
"Thought you could run away?" she asked in a breathy tone down his neck. "You're just so cute," she said, wrapping her arms around him as tightly as she could.
"Careful ya don't squeeze the air outa him," Judai said from his desk, many of the girls turning to glare at him as the one before did.
"We're not going to hurt him," she said, looking down to find him gone. "Where'd he go?" she asked, Judai turning around to find that he had indeed found a way to escape.
As both Judai and the group previously around Natsu looked around in all directions, Judai couldn't help but let out a small chuckle as he could Natsu already by one of the two doors leading to the hallway, turning away, trying to find some way to turn attention away where he was. Natsu silently thanked Judai for keeping quiet, and quickly bolted out of the door, one of the girls noticing the slam, and put two and two together fairly quickly. As they all seemed to bolt towards the door, the group slowly approached it, reaching out to make sure that it wasn't booby trapped. Figuring it safe enough, the entire group went out into the hall, but suddenly heard the door slam behind them, making them all turn around to find nothing but the Lampent that followed Natsu around.
"Do you think he's angry?" one of them asked, a small flame appearing in front of it as they all moved back. "He's angry!" they all shouted, running away at the same time from the ghost pokémon, who seemed to be having the time of his life as it chased them down.
Back in the classroom, Natsu was left panting behind the door, holding the handle as he turned back to the class, returning to his seat. Judai, with an impressed smile on his face, watched as Natsu took his seat, letting out a depressed sigh, looking up at Judai. The two sat in silence, suddenly losing their serious natures, and both bursting out into laughter, Natsu including, his laughter being weak and small in voice, but definitely there.
"Man, that right there, that was priceless," Judai said, giving Natsu a thumbs up as the latter let off a small smile. "When ya ran back in here, I thought, 'He had this planned from the start,' and sure 'nough, here ya are with those girls running from a Lampent that's wound tighter than a clock."
"T-Thank you," he said, slowly bowing his head as they both heard a knock on the window next to them, finding Lampent outside of it, wanting to come back in. "And thank you, Lampent," he said, letting his pokémon in through the window, the ghost pokémon taken its place attached to the ceiling.
"That's a good friend you got there," Judai said, looking up at where Lampent was now resting. "Hard to find somethin' like that nowadays. How long you had him?"
"C-Close to seven years," Natsu answered, Judai looking impressed by the length of time the two had been together as partners. "A f-friend helped me catch him, and w-we've been together ever since."
"I take it that by the fact ya got him hangin' out of the ball means that you're the dorm head?" Judai asked, Natsu looking up at him confused. "Guess ya didn't know. Here, the school's got seventeen dorms, one for each element, and each one picks a kid to be their top battler for this big battle all around campus. Seein' as your pokémon is ghost, then you're the ghost head. Only the heads of dorms are allowed to have their pokémon out of the ball. And I know ya can't be from the fire dorm, 'cause that'd be yours truly," he said, pointing up towards the ceiling, another pokémon sleeping up directly above Judai, a few feet from Lampent.
Sleeping in a small hammock attached to the ceiling, the small pokémon left with its tail extending from the end of the hammock, its elbows sticking out the sides from behind its head. A small snoring sound could be heard from where it slept, and as the snot bubble extending from its nose popped, looked down, and fell down onto Judai's shoulder, who seemed completely unfazed by the sudden drop onto him. The fire and fighting type, a Monferno, gave off a similar feeling as its trainer did.
"So, Monferno, this is our competition, what d'ya think?" he asked, Monferno jumping from his shoulder, and onto Natsu's desk, the latter retreating back slightly at the sudden movement towards him. Monferno made a sudden fake towards Natsu who instantly flinched, but opened his eyes only to find that Monferno had jumped back up to his perch in the hammock with a disdained look in its eye. "He don't think you're gonna be much in the competition department."
"I-I figured," he said, the next teacher coming in for class, but finding half of the students gone, and surprised to find it was only the female half.
After the next two classes, the class returned to its normal state, the girls now looking at Natsu fairly cautiously, knowing full well what Lampent was capable of doing to any of them should they step some kind of line. By the time the bell rang for the third class to end, though, that fear had left, and things were back to the way they started out this morning, especially so when several of the students reached down into their bags for a boxed lunch. Within seconds of grabbing his own lunch, several of the female students flocked to him, knocking Judai over in the process as Natsu was once again surrounded.
"Want to eat lunch with us?" one of them asked, Natsu trying to avoid answering at all costs as he tried to retreat to the side, but finding another girl directly in that position, giving him no option for movement. "If you don't say anything, we'll just take you anyway," she said as two of them grabbed him under his arms, and ran out with him before the others even knew what happened. "Hey! That's cheating!"
"Instead of just givin' off empty accusations, it might be better to just go after 'em," Judai suggested as the group ran out of the class in hot pursuit, Lampent still asleep and oblivious to what was going on. "This ain't gonna end well for the little dude, I can tell ya that much," Judai said to himself as he looked out the window, not exactly too excited by what he saw approaching the school.
"Here you go, say, 'Aah,'" one of the two girls said, offering Natsu part of her food, cupping her hand underneath her chopsticks, the latter much too embarrassed by the notion. "Come on, don't be so mean, say, 'Aah," she said again, Natsu swallowing his pride as he opened his mouth, letting out a small moaning sound as he did, allowing the food to enter his mouth. "Aww, you're just too cute," she said, wrapping her arms around him as Natsu could barely handle anymore, turning around to find the second girl with him wanted to do the same thing.
"Please, let this stop!" he shouted in his mind, turning his head away, only for the girl who had just fed him to turn it back to face the food.
"Say, 'Aah,'" the second girl said tauntingly as Natsu was left with no alternative but to take the food into his mouth. "That's a good boy," she said petting his hair, the two noticing small tears in the corners of his eyes. "Are we scaring you?" she asked mockingly, receiving an actual nod from the boy as both were left chuckling, but instantly stopped as they saw several of the teachers running by towards the front gate along with Judai leading the way.
"I'm pretty sure I saw him goin' for the front gate," he said as the headmistress followed directly after him, several other teachers, and Koichi being the last to pass by Natsu who noticed the three.
"You three better get inside," he said. "Judai said he saw somebody trying to get into the school. We don't want anybody hurt should he be able to get inside, unlikely as it may be. Those biker dudes can be pretty rough," he said, the two girls nodding, quickly packing their lunches with them, and running towards the school building with Natsu in tow.
The identity of the intruder's stereotype made Natsu turn suspicious instead, as the three entered the school, the two girls eventually let go of his hand, walking back to the classroom, talking amongst themselves about what kind of person would try to break into the school. As they turned back around to pose the question to Natsu, they instead found him to be gone, and nowhere to be seen. Figuring he made a wrong turn, the two went back to class, unaware that Natsu was instead, just behind the corner, darting off to the nearest isolated area.
"I came here to keep his secret," Natsu said to himself, reaching into his bag, having taken it with him ever where he went. "But now it seems like his legacy must live on," he said, fishing a large piece of long black cloth from his bag, quickly wrapping it around his body. "And so it shall," he finished, his face disappearing behind the shadow of his cloak, the only thing visible being a small smile that too disappeared into the darkness of the shroud.
Reaching the main gate, Judai, the headmistress, the other teachers and Koichi were all met by the sight of a man matching the biker stereotype perfectly; ripped leather jacket, tattoos on his arms, large beard, bald head, torn jeans, and overall disgusting demeanor. Before Judai, his Monferno perched on his shoulder, could walk any further forward, the headmistress stopped him, walking towards the biker from behind the gate, draping her arms through the bars, staring at the biker with a fairly gentle smile.
"Excuse me, sir, but this is a closed campus, if you wish to visit your child, you'll have to call in ahead of time," she said, the man on the motorcycle simply chuckling sinisterly. "And if you have any intention of coming in here to harm any of our students, I, Asuka Saruwatari, will not hesitate to send you back to the abyss that you dragged your butt out of."
"Humph, you think yourself strong enough to challenge me?" the biker asked. "I have battled with the likes of champions, and held my own, there is none out there who can best me in your school, and that includes stuck up teachers," he said, every teacher barely able to contain their anger. "I wish to challenge the man named Reaper to a battle, and I know he sits within these walls, acting as though he were a student. Bring him to me, and I will leave your precious school alone."
"If Reaper really does sit with us then there ain't no way in heaven or hell that we'd let a scuzzbag like you have him," Judai said, a confident smile appearing on his face. "If he's a student like the rest of us, I will personally protect him."
"Ha!" the man shouted. "The Reaper is too proud to accept the help of a lowly human like you, and you all know it. Reaper is on a level that no mortal man can obtain," he explained, Judai's own anger about to get the better of him. "He can defeat some of the strongest dark type trainers in the world with unevolved ghost pokémon. He has conquered the world of underground battling where the pokémon battle until the trainer wishes to give up."
"We would never allow a person who battles so barbarically into this school!" one of the teacher shouted, incredibly offended by the mere mention of underground battling, seeing as it was an illegal practice.
"And yet, you allowed him into your school without knowing," the biker said tauntingly. "Just give him to me, and this will all be over."
"Like I said…" Judai started, suddenly hearing a sudden gust of wind blowing to the side, the biker turning to face it directly with a look of ecstasy in his eye.
"You want to face me again?" a darkened figure asked, nothing of his body visible, except for the fact that his height was definitely unexpected. "Then you will have your battle under the promise that it is a one on one battle, standard rules applying."
"It'll be less fun, but I accept those terms," the biker said, recognizing the figure Reaper boasted immediately. "Be prepared to accept what truly happens when you face off against the likes of me. Houndoom, let's show 'em!" he shouted, throwing a dark colored pokéball, releasing a black colored canine pokémon, decorated in demonic features.
"Golett, time for battle," Reaper said, flipping his cloak outward, allowing the ground and ghost type to show through, making Koichi look at it with a surprised eye. "You have the first move," Reaper said, beginning to back away from his pokémon.
"And so it shall be the last," the biker said confidently as the spectators, both in class, and at the gate, watched the tension rising in the battle. "Houndoom, Crunch, now!" he shouted as the dark type's fangs began to grow in a shaded light, charging at Golett who kept its same stance, its arms at its sides.
"Golett," Reaper began as Houndoom began reaching closer and closer to the smaller pokémon. "Defend in five seconds," he commanded, Golett nodding as it slowly raised one of its arms in defense, taking almost the full five seconds, Houndoom making a quick jump into the air, and diving down to take a literal bite out of Golett. "Now!" he shouted, Golett's body becoming hard as iron, almost exactly when Houndoom bit down on it, if not seconds before. "Mega Punch," he commanded calmly, Houndoom still biting down on Golett's left arm as it reached around with its right one, its fist now shining a spectral white.
With the connection made by the punch, Houndoom flew across the road, landing almost directly up against the wall surrounding the school. The biker looked back at Reaper who made no effort to move at all from where he stood, Golett still stuck in its position from the punch, slowly bringing itself back to a ready position.
"Iron Defense to make his pokémon more durable," Asuka began to explained, Koichi and Judai turning to face her. "Therefore he could lure it into attack him, and then using a punching attack while his Golett has the Iron Fist ability; Reaper-sama truly is amazing."
"Sama?" both Koichi and Judai questioned in their minds as Houndoom stood up, having recuperated for the attack, and already making another assault on Golett.
"Fire Fang!" the biker shouted, Houndoom making another dive towards Reaper's pokémon, this time it's fangs engulfed in flames as it brought itself down towards the same arm it had attacked earlier.
"Strong as it may be, I cannot afford to let Golett be injured in the same place," Reaper said before snapping his fingers from within his cloak. "Golett, Dynamic Punch!" he shouted, Golett thrusting its fist back, allowing the power to swell inside of it, and focusing all of it into his fist. "Remember how to attack with it," Reaper said, Golett nodding as it closed its eyes. "Do not fight against the power, or it will fight you, and then the attack will never work. The power is your ally, but will quickly becoming your destroyer. Do not attack until my mark," he instructed, Houndoom seeming to move in slow motion as it came down on the ghost type.
"Ha! That attack only hits fifty percent of the time!" the biker yelled tauntingly as nobody else seemed to be sharing in his amusement, but instead were all looking at the attack exchange about to unfold. "You honestly believe that you can use a move that like!?" he asked, Reaper seeming to look up as Houndoom was now inches from Golett.
"I do," he answered plainly. "Give yourself to the power, Golett!" he shouted, Golett relaxing its stance, the power becoming too much to contain for the small homunculus to hold through brute strength alone.
Its arm, had it not been attached, would have fallen off from the quick circular motion it made from the attack, making a full three hundred sixty degree turn before its punch was now completely parallel to Houndoom. With the punch connection, Golett managed to carry Houndoom with it as it spun around once more, launching the dark and fire type towards the wall, this time making the connection with the stone. Fainting almost instantly, the biker looked at the small Golett surprised by the power it had exuded in that one shot. Falling to his knees, the biker looked up at Reaper with a small chuckle as the shaded trainer walked towards him.
"You really do have the power to defeat anyone with even unevolved pokémon," he said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "But at least give me the pleasure of…" he said, reaching for the top of his hood. "…Learning who you are!" he shouted triumphantly, about to rip off the cloak from Reaper's face, but not before feeling a sharp burn of pain against his gut, much like he did from the last time he had tried to battle the mysterious trainer.
As he fell to the ground, the biker made way for the identity of his attacker to be made clear. Instead of being attacked again by Golett with a punch to the gut, the blow was delivered from the fist of the Monferno originally on Judai's shoulder. Reaper turned his non-existent face to face Judai who gave off a cocky smile as he was leaning up against the gate.
"I always thought ya were a pompous battler with no real morals, ya know," Judai said. "But now I see you're more of a man than most people could ever hope to be. That's why I protected yer secret. We all got 'em, and we all wanna protect 'em. Just know that one of these days, it'd gonna be me that takes off the mask ya hide behind."
"I look forward to the day," Reaper said, returning Golett to its ball, and quickly disappearing into the wind.
Later in the afternoon approaching the evening, after having the rest of classes cancelled for the day given what had happened, Natsu was left walking by himself towards the ghost dorm, Lampent following after him, many of the other students still fawning over his looks as he passed by them, eventually reaching the old hotel. As he walked in, he was quickly met by Koichi in the entrance, tapping his foot expectantly as he tried to look away. He tried walking past him, but was quickly caught by four ghostly hands from Koichi's Cofagrigus, and forced to look back at his teacher.
"So, have a good day after I left?" he asked, Natsu nodding promptly. "Aside from the fact that you were almost ganged up on by a couple of girls, it was pretty good, right?" he asked, Natsu still nodding in agreement. "Hey, did you hear that somebody tried to break into the school thinking that we actually had the mysterious masked battler Reaper in our doors?" he continued asked, as though interrogating Natsu, who tried to look away. "How can it be that you, a kid you probably can't even look a regular person in the eye, is the infamous Reaper?" he asked, Natsu continuing to struggle against Cofagrigus' arms. "Answer me, Natsu!" he shouted.
"Leave me alone!" Natsu shouted at the top of his lungs, surprising both Cofagrigus and Koichi both enough to break out of the ghost type's grip, and run towards the upstairs rooms, quickly locking himself into the first one he could find. Already knowing that Koichi was by the door, he held his head in between his hands Lampent looking down at his trainer with definite pity. "Everything hear is so scary!" he shouted, tears coming down his face. "All those girls hanging around me, everyone is so much bigger and stronger, people who don't think I'm a boy, and then people who keep coming to Reaper for a battle! I hate my life!" he continued. "I don't want Reaper to be in my body, and I don't want people looking at me when they know he's finally in this body! I don't want to be part of your plan to get this dorm more popular, I don't want to be part of this dorm competition, and I don't want to be Reaper!"
Koichi was silent, all he could hear now was the sobbing coming from where Natsu was sitting in his room. He tried reaching for the door, but then just kept thinking about the terrified look in the boy's eyes, and instead just sat by it, knowing that he would be able to still talk to him.
"I'm sorry," he started, hearing the crying begin to subside from inside. "Maybe I was pushing too much on you when I wanted to get more people into this dorm. You and I both have very different ideas as to what it means to be alone. I find it to be a curse, and you see it as a blessing," he said, Natsu still rolled into a small ball on the floor. "I've been alone for four years in this dorm. The teachers all call me a fool for keeping it up, and I'm always the one nobody wants to be around and I hate it. You've probably been alone for much longer than that, and you've come to see it as your security."
There was no reply from the other side, Natsu's breath could still be heard, coughing from his shouting and crying, and a small sniffling sound form his nose. Koichi nodded in understanding as he looked away from the door again, waiting for some kind of reply from the young student.
"S-Six years," he heard Natsu say. "I've been on my own for six years. My parents sent me away on a training journey, and I haven't been home since. People never look at me seriously, they don't see me normally, and they just don't understand anything about me."
"I can see where you're coming from," Koichi said. "Tell you what, for the first few weeks why don't you just get used to things one day at a time? That way nothing is happening to you so fast. We'll find a way to keep trainers from coming to you to challenge Reaper, and we'll put my plans on the back burner for a while, okay?" he asked, hearing a sniffling sound from Natsu.
"…Sure," he said, hearing Koichi walk away from the door. "Thank you, Koichi-sensei," he said, saying his name for the first time since coming here.
"You're welcome," Koichi said in his head. "Reaper-sama," he said, remembering the confident sound in Natsu's voice as it had gone down nearly two octaves. As he walked through the rest of his dorm, he began to think about the kind of year he was shaping up to having with the boy who was afraid of everything, but could conquer it all.
Character Appearances:
Natsu Kohashigawa: Lampent & Golett. NightFall00
Judai Ryuzaki: Monferno, other Pokémon TBA. Jexo
Notes:
Names for people in Japan: So, I wanted the character to have primarily Japanese names seeing as it's my major in college. So really, people in Japan have their given name and family name, and usually these can be written in kanji, which is the more complicated symbolized writing adapted from Chinese based symbols. A person's name, when writing in kanji, if they're known, can easily be translated. For instance, Natsu's name is based on a single character read as "Natsu" meaning "Summer." His family name is "Kohashigawa" which can be written with "small," "bridge," and "river." Other characters and their names would be the headmistress "Asuka" which is written with "bright," "day," and "incense." Koichi, which can be spelled a number of ways would be, in this version, "light," and "one." And, as of this chapter, Judai, which can also be written a few ways, but mostly translates from a combination of "ten," and "generation," otherwise translated to "teenager." I'd get into their last names, but there's only so much I can talk about.
Japanese Names aside from given: So, in the chapter you heard a few other names being given for people like "Jii-chan," and "jou-chan," and these are both examples of very common names you hear on the street when you're walking through Japan. Jii-chan is adapted from "Ojii" which is the name given to a grandfather. In Japan, you don't just call people old man, or something like that, and you refer to them by the name without the "O" sound at the beginning. It's a culture thing; in the same way an man old than you, but not yet middle aged would be called "nii-san," a girl would be "nee-san," middle aged man "ji-san," middle aged woman, "ba-san," older woman "baa-san." Japan is a close community, and in many cases you refer to just about everyone by the name of a family members (you can look these up anywhere online if you want the actual translations for each one. Other names you might've heard, based on this chapter were "jou-chan," shortened from "Ojou," meaning princess, and anyone that referred to Natsu as "kid," you have probably said "bozu," which is how you normally refer to a child younger than you who's male aside from the honorific "-kun."
Nickname (Nacchan): So, when the one girl shared her textbook, which is the normal thing to do in Japan for a new student, she called him "Nacchan," and this is more for my newer readers, because I have talked about this before. Something that should be known about Japanese is that there is no single consonant sound aside from "n," and everything else is attacked to a vowel. Nicknames in Japanese are easiest to make up, however, when the person has the letter "tsu" in their name. In order to make a single consonant sound, which would really just add the next sound to the follow letter, you make a small "tsu" letter in front of the next one. So for example, you got the word "shakai" which is social studies, and then you add a small "tsu" before the "ka" and you get "shakkai" which is a rented house. It's easy to do this with names that have "tsu" so you can elongated the sound of the honorific, which is normal "-chan." Some ones you may know are "Secchan," from the name Setsuna, "Nacchan," from Natsu, "Tacchan" from Tatsu, etc.
Judai's Dialect: Hopefully you noticed a bit of twang in Judai's voice, giving him more of a southern-ish kind of feel to him, and that really has to do with the idea that he speaks in a Kansai dialect, which is basically the equivalent to an American country or southern accent. Obviously, it's harder to translate into English, and any manga that has tried, has normally given the Romanized version of the Kansai dialect or "Osaka-ben" that bit of southern feel. Like in America, people with this accent are often seen as country folk, not very well versed in city ways, and people who walk around with the Kansai dialect aren't viewed very highly when they go to places like Tokyo, because they stick out like sore thumb. Best known example of a character who speaks notably in a Kansai dialect would be Hattori Heiji from Detective Conan. Not only does he speak in Osaka-ben, but it becomes a running gag that people think he's also a foreigner because of how strangely he speak…doesn't end well.
So, there you are, the first chapter, and I have to say that that's the fastest I've ever written a chapter for another story, so you can bet that this one is gonna stick around. Hopefully for the unveiling of the other generation six pokémon, that should be good. Something that I messed up on while I was writing the title for this story on my profile was that I called it "Himitsu wa doko ni demo," which means "Secrets are everywhere," but I wrote, because I was gonna call it "Mondai wa doko ni demo," "Problem are everywhere," so please disregard the idea of calling it problems because it's secrets. So, I was only able to get one of the OCs submitted to me introduced, but hopefully by the next chapter, I can get more in there, that way everybody can remember them when they see this story come up, and think, "Yeah, I know which character he's talking about." Hopefully you've all enjoyed this little, or not so little, chapter of Natsu's life. Until we meet again, ja nee.