To the End of Our Days
azumi kazuki
hijiri
He doesn't quite know what to feel, when Sakura Mikan takes her final steps out of the Academy. He doesn't know if he should feel joy for her, for finding some sort of escape from the world of Alices, or if he should feel sad for her, for losing whatever recollection of the years in the Academy that played a crucial part in shaping her.
Neither did he quite know what to feel about his new mission.
Masachika Shiki, the acting MSP, had offered him the some sort of a chance to repent, and atone for his hand in Azumi Yuka's demise. It was a curious offer, one that let him out of the cage of an Academy, away from the world of Alices, at the cost of using his Alice.
He'd accepted immediately, his mixed feelings and inner turmoil fuelling his desire to set his wrongs right. It could take five, ten, years, Shiki had warned, perhaps even more.
He was willing to do it - anything, anything that could put his heart at ease. Anything to know that he had not killed a woman who fought for justice and not feel remorse. Anything and everything to have a proper night's sleep again.
Memories of the explosion had kept him up at night, tossing, turning, never quite managing a full night's sleep without cries of anguish and chain combustions haunting him. He wondered how those in the Dangerous Ability Class managed to do it, torture, assassinations, fights and whatnot without so much batting an eye, and continuing to do so, mission after mission after mission. There was a sort of bravery, courage, to be able to face the same kind of stuff those nightmarish thriller movies were made of.
It was the sort of courage he would never be able to attain. He was weak, after all. A Somatic Alice that had no clear harmful ability… Who was he to compare to the others, who could conjure flame, cut air, or physically harm the people they had to deal with? Perhaps his lack of bravery was lost with the package that held whatever physical fitness he would have had, were he of a different Alice class.
Gaze settling on his target, he wondered if she misses her mother. They looked so much alike, auburn hair framing delicate yet strong faces. He had not really known Yuka, but somehow, he felt proud of Mikan, for being as strong as her mother. Their compassion had been unwavering, to the very end. Yuka, for saving Narumi instead of herself, and Mikan, metaphorically killing herself for the Alician societies' safety.
She would never be the same, after all of this. Nor would he, for that matter, but he was proud to have known the original Mikan, who cared for the people around her without hesitation, without fail. It was something he hoped to learn from this mission.
Shiki had been unexpectedly loose in regards to the mission, instructing him to act on his instinct. For once, without a clear guideline as to how he was to carry the operation out, he was completely left to his own devices…
And that brought Hijiri to the issue of how he was to watch over Sakura Mikan. Was he going to masquerade as a classmate? A friend? A fellow after-school club member? A neighbour? His options were endless, yet he didn't even know where to start.
Remaining male would pose quite a problem to his guarding of her, though, as it would appear strange for a boy to constantly hang around Mikan without seeming to be a stalker or pervert of any sort.
"What am I going to do with you…" he sighed, before falling into a restless sleep as the car continued slowly through the country.
"Good morning, class. Today we have yet another transfer student."
He had decided to fake a transfer into the school after Mikan did.
Taking a deep breath, he entered the classroom under his minor disguise.
He bowed. "My name is Azumi Kazuki. Please teach me well."
His eyes filled with regret as he caught Mikan's gaze, his sudden sullenness inciting curious looks from his new classmates.
They brushed it off, though, as homesickness and unfamiliarity. Some of the girls had decided that it would be their duty to make sure the charming new transfer student got along well with the class. Or, to be exact, them.
The teacher sighed, acknowledging that she would have more work to do, with another student's worth of assignments added to the sky-high pile of worksheets. "Ah, there's an empty seat next to Sakura-san. Please take a seat next to her, then, Azumi-san."
He complied, happy that he had had the luck to be placed next to Mikan - it would make his job much easier, and he'd be able to eavesdrop on the conversations she had with the other students and ensure that her friends had no ulterior motive in hanging out with her. Of course, he could not deny that he did have an ulterior motive in wanting to befriend her new clueless self, but that, he felt, was irrelevant.
Classes passed without much issue, for he had learned all the material years ago. He did quickly realise, however, that Mikan was a lot less cheery than before. She did have friends, yes, but she didn't quite seem to exude the usual energy she had.
He took lunch alone, fending off the other curious students as he contemplated his next step. How was he going to watch over Mikan? It would seem rather unnatural if he brazenly forced himself into her social circle, after all, nor did he have any intention of covertly stalking Mikan.
His thoughts were met with a timely interruption from the target herself, "I, um excuse me, Kazuki-kun. My name's Sakura Mikan - you can call me Mikan. Have I met you somewhere? You do feel awfully familiar..."
His head snapped up, and for a moment, he felt a slight weakening of his Alice and a flash of recognition through her eyes. She had subtly nullified his Alice...?! But it couldn't be - her Alice had disappeared, hadn't it? She had been deemed Aliceless, hadn't she? But how?
Suddenly remembering to reply, he spat out a half-arsed reply, "A-ah, hello, Sakura-san..."
She frowned a little, a tad confused by his strange lapses in attention, but brushed it off as transfer-student syndrome.
"Oh, you look like you've not left the classroom at all, today. Let me show you around! Best get you familiar with the school," she said, beckoning him to follow her.
He grinned internally. Perhaps this mission wouldn't be too hard, after all.
"Hurry up, Kazuki-kun! Lunch won't last forever!"
A/N: Just a note - Goshima's minor obsession with Mikan and Yuka would not be due to love or lust or any of that, but rather due to his remorse and guilt from killing an innocent, and from killing a mother in front of her child.