Manjoume slept restlessly that night. No dreams, no nothin. In fact, he had barely even slept. He had been awake when Shou and Kenzan had come creeping to the room, dragging their feet. They hadn't said anything to each other in his presence, even though he had been "asleep", to them, as if they were afraid he'd hear them. He had been awake when Shou had first gotten up, too, and felt oddly hurt when the small boy didn't try to wake him up.
He lay there for a while after Shou left, scowling at the wall. What the hell? They were still being weird? Even after a full night had passed? He felt so angry. What was wrong with crushing on, well, himself anyway? Was it really that big enough of a deal that it made everyone turn the other way when they saw Judai?
A hand gently shook Manjoume's shoulder. Manjoume turned over to see Kenzan, who was looking at him with a serious gaze. "What?"
"We're gonna be late," Kenzan said, his serious expression turning to a friendlier one - one Manjoume was used to seeing on the dino-dude's face. It made Manjoume feel a little less angry. Kenzan was truly an angel.
"Right," Manjoume muttered, getting up out of bed. He ran a hand over his bedhead and looked at Kenzan questioningly as the Ra Yellow student pulled on his bracelet things. "Kenzan, can I ask you something?"
"What's up, Aniki?"
"Is liking Manjoume that bad?"
Kenzan sputtered and messed up pulling on his bracelet so bad that he hit himself in the face with it. What a klutz. After regaining his composure, he frowned, shrugging as nonchalantly as he could. "I mean, I guess it's kinda...uh, not that you're weird or anything…"
Manjoume scowled. "Whatever."
"S-sorry, Aniki!" Kenzan exclaimed, but Manjoume was already outtie. He changed into the Osiris Red uniform like a sim and peaced out, leaving Kenzan to blubber on about whatever by himself. The Manjoume Thunder didn't have to listen about how weird it was to like him!
It made him feel a lil self conscious as he walked on his own to the cafeteria for breakfast though. When he entered, people looked at him, but not nearly as many as last night. Though he normally LOVED having all the attention on himself, this time he felt a little angry about it. He wanted to yell at them to buzz off, but knew better.
He felt a little disappointed when he didn't see Judai there, but also a little relieved. He could only imagine the hot goss that would emerge if he sat with him. Or didn't sit with him. Either way, he would have been screwed if Judai actually was there. Luckily he wasn't, so he went to sit with Shou, who had taken a seat at their regular table.
When he approached after getting his food, Shou was nearly finished his breakfast already. "Good morning," Manjoume said through clenched teeth. He might as well be polite, even though the guy nearly let him be LATE!
Shou looked up at him briefly and looked back down at his tray. "Hey, aniki…"
Manjoume decided being polite was too old fashioned and let his tray fall to the table with a clatter. "Eating by yourself, huh, shortie? Were you in too much of a rush to sit here all alone to bother waking me up this morning?"
The smaller boy looked horrified. "I-I tried waking you up-"
"Don't lie to me," Manjoume snapped, sliding into his seat beside Shou and starting to eat his breakfast. Even though he was angry, he wasn't going to let the twerp interfere with his eating habits. "I was awake all morning, I know you left without waking me."
Shou didn't respond to that. He looked pretty upset at being called out by the one, the only, aniki, though. It gave Manjoume a weird satisfaction. Ha, he thought. Take that.
As he chowed down on breakfast, Shou seemed to get more comfortable with Manjoume's presence, and even started talking to him when Kenzan came. It made Manjoume pretty happy, tbh. He felt happy for the stupid idiot (Judai) for having such understanding friends.
But just as things were getting good, they got bad again. With a slam of the door, Judai entered the cafeteria. Everyone held their breath as they looked at him, and then Manjoume. Shou trembled beside Manjoume and Kenzan looked like he was gonna go full dino.
Everyone's eyes followed Judai as he strode over to Manjoume's table without any hesitation. Judai had a sour expression, which made Manjoume angry. Was this idiot still mad at him for yesterday? AKA for NOTHING? Because it was Judai's fault that he didn't accept the girl's proposal, not his-
Unless he had heard the rumors that he was in love with Manjoume. Baseless, of course, but it must be annoying to hear that you love someone when you can't even defend yourself!
Manjoume wasn't sure he felt like hearing Judai reprimand him, so he looked down at his food and continued eating, ignoring Judai as he approached.
"Judai," Judai said flatly, looking around at everyone. "I need you to come with me."
"No," Manjoume said (after swallowing his food - he wasn't a total slob like SOME ppl). "Can't you see I'm eating?"
"It's important," Judai insisted.
"More important than this delicious toast?" Manjoume asked, raising his eyebrows. "I don't think so."
Judai reached across the table and grabbed the hand that was holding the delicious toast. Manjoume was stunned long enough to allow himself to be dragged by the wrist up from his seat and halfway across the cafeteria before realizing what had transpired. He looked behind him and, when he saw a sad Shou getting consoled by a comforting Kenzan, he scowled, allowing himself to be dragged along to talk about whatever with Judai.
When they left the cafeteria, Manjoume snatched his hand away from Judai. "Judai, what the hell do you think you're doing? You can't just do that-"
"Your brothers are coming to visit," Judai interrupted, crossing his arms.
Manjoume's annoyance dissipated to FEAR. "T-they are?! I had no idea they were coming to visit anytime soon!"
"Well, they are," Judai said. He sounded pretty irritated. It was unusual to hear the guy so...unhappy. It made Manjoume a LITTLE guilty for yesterday. But just a little. Okay maybe not at all, Judai deserved it. "I don't know what to do, Manjoume! I don't know how to talk to your brothers."
Manjoume was secretly happy that it wasn't him who was going to be visiting his brothers. Though they were his brothers, they were assholes, tbh. He sniffed, crossing his arms and shrugging. "Well, I don't know, Judai," he said, deciding that he would take after his brothers and be a little asshole himself. "Maybe if we could somehow switch back through the power of love I'd be able to deal with them myself…"
Judai did not take that well. "Do you really want me to date someone I've never spoken to before? What if you don't like her when we switch back? Then what? C'mon Manjoume."
"I don't care!" Manjoume yelled, throwing his arms in the air dramatically. "I don't care, I'd deal with it when it happened!"
"You're so inconsiderate of other people's feelings," Judai spat.
"At least I'm not an idiot who wants to stay in someone else's body for the EONS it'll take you to find true love!" Manjoume yelled back.
"You don't understand love."
"You don't understand OUR SITUATION," Manjoume finally exploded, glaring at Judai. Jeez, what a goddamn idiot.
Judai gave him a glance-over with a bitter expression. "Fine, I'll deal with your brothers by myself."
Manjoume watched him as he walked away, stewing in his anger. God, why didn't Judai realize that it didn't matter whether or not he really LIKED that girl? If she liked him, that would be fine, wouldn't it? That's true love. Being loved. He stood there for a few more seconds before storming back into the cafeteria. Shou and Kenzan were standing at the door, looking more sympathetic than they had in the past day or two.
"Aniki," Shou cried, catching Manjoume in a hug. "Manjoume's so cruel!"
"What-" Manjoume began, but then was encased in a hug from Kenzan as well.
"He really doesn't understand true love, does he?" Kenzan said sadly, patting Manjoume's back for...comfort? Manjoume had no idea what they were talking about, obviously not realizing that they had been kinda listening, but not really. They heard parts of their argument, but not all of it. Whatta bunch of noobs. "Rejecting you like that...really gets me angry, Aniki. How could he?"
"Yeah, sure," Manjoume blankly answered, pushing them away. "Anyway, back to that delicious toast."
When he'd finished his delicious toast, he went to class. Judai was not there, which made him worried. Judai was a notorious slacker, sure, but he'd been pretty awake this morning. There was no reason he'd skip class if he was awake.
When Chronos had finished his lecture, Manjoume made his way down to the front of the lecture hall.
"Chronos," he said, once everyone was gone. "Have you seen Judai?"
"Signore Manjoume was excused from classes this morning to have brunch with his brothers," Chronos said, brushing him off. "Now go, get out of my sight. Get to your next class. I don't want to hear a word of you being late for the rest of your classes."
It seemed like Chronos had guessed exactly what Manjoume would do next, but that wasn't going to stop him. Of COURSE he was going to skip his class and go right over to where Judai and his brothers were! He was now OFFICIALLY panicking. He'd known his brothers were visiting soon, sure, but he hadn't thought it would be THAT soon. He hadn't even had time to prepare. He flew out of Chronos's class like a bat out of hell and straight to where he thought his brothers would be. As he expected, the were in the lounge that guests of the academia were usually invited to. He peeked in the tiny window on the door, and ducked out of sight before either of his brothers caught a glimpse of him. Unfortunately, he hadn't managed to evade Judai's sights - he saw the other frown at him briefly before he'd ducked down.
Quiet as a mouse, he opened the door a tiny crack, just enough to hear the conversation that was going on behind it.
"Is something wrong, lil bro?" Chosaku said. The sickeningly sweet tone he spoke in made Manjoume want to puke. It was so, so, so obviously forced.
"Oh, I'm fine," Judai said, flippantly. Manjoume was glad that that he'd managed to start eavesdropping at the start of this meeting, because Judai conveniently asked, "So, uh… is there like, a reason for this visit?"
"Do we need a reason to visit our darling little brother?" Shoji said. Manjoume almost wretched. "We just thought- well, it's been so long since we saw you, and we didn't exactly say goodbye to each other on the best of terms. We'd like to apologise to you, Jun."
"Jun?" Judai said stupidly.
"It's… your name, little brother," Chosaku prompted.
"Oh. Oh right, of course. Yes." The atmosphere in the room seemed to sour for a moment, but then Judai was talking again, and back to his annoying peppy tone at that. "But that's… that's awesome!"
No, it wasn't awesome, Manjoume thought, but Judai was a little too gullible to realise that his brothers were trying to trick him. There really was no way around it - it was obvious they wanted something, but what…?
"We're glad you think so," Shoji said, and even through his sugar sweet act, the surprise he felt at "Manjoume" being so naive was obvious. "We've been cruel to you in the past, Jun, we realise that. And what's worse, we tried to take advantage of you! We tried to use you to further our own selves… and that's just not right. We are so, so sorry."
"That's amazing!" Judai gushed. "Really, that's so cool that you came here to apologise to Maa….me. Of course I forgive you!"
"Wonderful!" Shoji said. "Now that we're past the apologies and we're one big happy family again, onto a completely unrelated matter… since we're still your legal guardians, this came to us. We wanted to deliver it to you while we were here."
Manjoume peeked in the window again, and luckily Judai was too absorbed in what they'd given him to notice him. He was opening an… envelope? What was it with him getting letters JUST as Judai had took up habitatin his body?
"What is it, little brother?" Chosaku said, in a tone that told Manjoume they'd already steamed the letter open and then resealed it and knew EXACTLY what was inside.
"It's… it's an invitation from Monthly Duel!," Judai said. At the mention of the HIT DUELLING MAGAZINE's title, Manjoume's eyes widened. What did they want with him…? "They want Manjoume… Manjoume Thunder to come along for an interview."
"That's incredible!" Both brothers gushed at once, as though they'd rehearse it.
"Really, though, we should have known it would happen someday," Chosaku said, smugly.
"Yes. After all, you are our incredibly talented little brother," Shoji added, equally as smugly.
"This is crazy- and it's so soon!" Judai said, "I need to get ready- what the hell? What do I say? What do I WEAR?"
Manjoume grit his teeth. This was HIS opportunity, and Judai was going to steal it away from him! As though he needed another reason to hate the guy… but his annoyance was redirected to his brothers when he heard them say, "Oh, there's no need to worry, little brother. We'll be more than happy to help, of course."
So this was their plan. They'd disown him for losing in a few duels, but as soon as people started paying attention to him again, they were clamouring for a piece of the spotlight. Surely Judai had to realise how pathetically money hungry they were-
"Wow, thanks! You guys, I'm gonna cry!"
Okay, enough was enough. Manjoume stood up and practically kicked the door to the lounge down, and all of a sudden all eyes in the room were on him.
"Oh," Chosaku said, "If it isn't Jun's little friend. What's your name again? Juhai?"
The condescending tone with which he spoke pissed him off to no end, and he expected Judai to defend him - especially since it was him they thought they were mocking - but his slacker classmate just said, clearly uncomfortable with his presence, "Judai, what are you doing here?"
What am I doing here? Manjoume wanted to scream. I'm here because you're about to make a deal with the devil, metaphorically speaking, a deal with the devilS, literally speaking.
Instead he just smiled tightly, and tried to sound as composed as he could as he said, "I'm sorry, I couldn't help overhearing. It's really amazing that you got into Monthly Duel!, Manjoume. Congratulations."
"Thanks," Judai said.
"But they're USING you!" Manjoume was, thankfully, able to keep his voice at a normal speaking volume, but he doubted he would for long. "Isn't that obvious? Don't you think it's suspicious that they want to come back into your life as soon as you get this amazing opportunity? They're LEECHES. Tell them no! You can do the interview yourself!"
"Well, that's not very nice," Chosaku said.
Judai seemed to take a moment to process the information, and for a second, Manjoume thought he had gotten through to him. But then Judai stood, and Chosaku and Shoji joined him, as if to outnumber Manjoume.
"I don't remember asking for your opinion, Judai," Judai said coolly. He began to walk towards the door, Manjoume's brothers following him. "Maybe you'd have trouble forgiving them after what they did, but I don't. I believe in people. I'm not like you." He cast a glance over his shoulder. "Now my brothers and I are going for lunch. Try not to ruin my day anymore."
He slammed the door behind them. Damn, Manjoume thought, Judai could pull off a good impression of him when he was pissed off - but that wasn't what was important right now! He needed to stop his brothers before they filled Judai's head with MORE lies, and ruined his one chance at stardom!
"Tenjouin-kun, Tenjouin-kun!"
Asuka was in the library when Manjoume found her. She looked none too pleased when he interrupted her reading, and shushed him when he shouted on her, but he liked to think that she'd do that to ANYONE who cut in on her study time. His beloved was studious and a bit of a nerd, but that was part of why he loved her.
"What is it?" She hissed under her breath, glancing around the room. Fortunately, there were only a few people studying there beside her, and they seemed to be undisturbed by their talking. Even so, she stood up from where she was working. "Come on, let's talk outside. I need a break anyway."
When they were outside and Manjoume had explained the situation to her, she did not seem impressed with his reason for dragging her out. She frowned as she worked over the situation in her head, then said, "So let me get this straight - your brothers came to visit with the news that you'd gotten an interview in some magazine, and now you're mad because Judai is potentially getting to do it instead of you?"
"Yes- I mean, no! I'm not mad because Judai is getting to do it." Although he was. "I'm pissed off because he can't see that they're just trying to use him… me… they're bottom feeders of the highest order, Asuka! There's no way they came and apologised out of the good of their hearts - it's because they want to capitalize on this in some way, I know it."
Asuka sighed, massaging her temples. "And what evidence do you have to support this?"
"Besides knowing them for every year of my life?" Manjoume said, and she gave him a look that clearly said that would not suffice. He sighed, before admitting, "Okay, I don't have any proof… but I know it's true."
"Well, Judai isn't going to believe you without any actual proof," Asuka said. "Especially after you got everyone at the Academia thinking he's some kind of creep."
"God! For someone who claims to be all happy and accepting, he sure isn't ready to forgive me in a hurry."
"He would if you were sorry." Asuka raised her eyebrows. "Are you sorry?"
"...Anyway," Manjoume said, deciding not to dwell on that fact for too long. "I need to prove to him that they're only doing this for the money, or the fame, or whatever."
"Okay. So get some proof."
"Tenjouin-kun! You're a genius!" Manjoume said, clapping his hands together. "I should FOLLOW them on their stupid lunch date and wait for them to say something incriminating that that stupid idiot wouldn't notice, and then call them out on it."
"Uh, no, that's not what I was suggesting you do at all," Asuka said, but it was too late. Manjoume seemed dead set on doing this. She sighed, and mentally consigned herself to going along with this stupid scheme. At least that way she could keep an eye on his and Judai's situation…
Pretty much the only place two sophisticated, money grubbing adults like Chosaku and Shoji could go for lunch on the island where Duel Academia was located was the cafeteria that the teachers used. It had been classed up a lil for the visit of the Manjoume bros and their lunching there, but it was still a cafeteria - and thankfully, that meant there were enough people eating there that Asuka and Manjoume could sneak in unnoticed.
But it would be weird for two students to sneak into a teacher's cafeteria, much less sit and chill while they waited for another party to slip up in their attempt to take advantage of their lil bro. That was why they'd dressed up as Chronos and Napoleon, knowing that Chronos had a class to teach, and Napoleon only ate the finest French cuisine that Tome made for him personally in the vice principal's office.
Their disguises weren't good, admittedly, but everyone seemed too distracted by their grub to notice these weird closet cosplays of Chronos and Napoleon. Manjoume wished that he'd been able to convince Asuka to disguise themselves as a couple (maybe he could even hold her hand!) but Asuka had quickly shut that idea down. Besides, she pointed out, there was only one female member of staff at the Academia besides the canteen staff, and she was permanently stationed in the nurse's office.
"I can hardly hear them," he grumbled as he strained to listen in on the conversation over the sound of the cafeteria.
"Then be quiet," Asuka hissed, hiding behind her menu. He didn't understand why. Even in an ugly wig and purple lipstick, she looked fetching.
His brothers were busy trying to work out a deal with Judai. They said all sorts of sketchy things, like how they wanted to put his money from the interview into a trust fund, and that of course they'd run an ad for the Manjoume business along with the article, oh, and if Judai could give them a lil name drop, that'd be swell - but nothing that sounded outright selfish… or wouldn't to Judai's ears, anyway. They were framing all of their demands so reasonably, peppering them with so many compliments, that Manjoume was sure even Asuka was starting to believe them.
Judai, true to form, was agreeing with everything that they told him and guzzling food like the worlds fattiest fatty. His brothers had already finished their meal and were waiting their plates to be taken away, but Judai was chowin down on the BIGGEST MEAL MANJOUME HAD EVER SEEN, obviously enjoying the better quality food they served here.
Shoji checked his watch. "Well, I wish we could stay with you for longer, little brother," he said, "But we have to dash. Our helicopter's picking us up in half an hour, and we don't want to be in a rush."
Manjoume clenched his fists under the table. They would not get away without proving they were full of shit!
"Yeah," Chosaku said, standing up. Shit! They were getting away! "See you around, lil bro."
He ruffled Judai's hair as he passed, deflating some of the spikes a lil, and Judai managed a "bye" even with his mouth full of food - disgustingggg - and Manjoume watched, full of dismay, as the two left. Judai continued to eat, and as Manjoume watched him he felt himself grow angrier and angrier.
As Judai started on a fresh plate of curry, Manjoume leapt out of his chair.
"You IDIOT!" he yelled. "Can't you see that everything they said to you was so damn SHADY?"
"Vice principal Napoleon?" Judai said, almost choking on some of his food as the short fat man yelled at him. "Wh-what?"
Manjoume tore off his EXPERT DISGUISE (it wasn't actually that expert tbh, Judai's just kinda a dummy) to reveal that it wasn't a short fat man, but him, Manjoume!
"Manjoume!" Judai said, slamming his fork down and standing up. "What the hell? Did you follow me? Have you been here the whole time?!"
He was gathering a lot of attention. Asuka stood, taking off HER disguise as she did so. "Judai… calm down-"
"Asuka? You too? Don't tell me you believe him!" He glared at Manjoume, then untucked the napkin from his collar and tossed it to the ground. It wasn't as dramatic as he wanted it to be, because it was made of paper and just kinda fluttered downwards softly, but still. He turned to leave, "Look, just leave me alone!"
Manjoume moved to grab his arm, and Judai turned to glare at him. He shook his hand off, and said, "Look, I don't know what your problem is! What is your deal? Why can't you understand that not everything is about you!" He tugged his coat back on, and said, "Now if you don't mind, I'm going to say goodbye to MY brothers."
With that, he left, and Asuka and Manjoume were soon rushed out by staff members who were wondering wtf these students were doing in here, and why were these clothes and wigs all over the floor?
Once they were out, Asuka took her glove off to wipe the lipstick off on the back of her hand, and said, "Look, Manjoume, maybe you should just drop this."
"No way," he said, shaking his head. He'd caught a glimpse of Judai heading in the direction of the helipad his brothers would probably use to get off the island, and he was after him in a flash.
He was slightly winded by the time he caught up to him, just outside the building that served as a waiting room for the helipad and a communications tower for the entire island. When he was within arms length, he grabbed the back of his coat and yanked Judai back - they landed in a heap just behind the building, and Manjoume groaned as he heard the helicopter land a hundred yards or so away - if his brothers got on it, he'd be out of chances to prove that they were GIANT PIECES OF SHIT!
"Manjoume?! What the-" Judai began, but Manjoume shushed him and clamped his hand over his mouth. If someone found them like this, a big pile of limbs and lots of hair, he didn't want to think what kind of NEW rumours would start.
He was glad he'd quieted him down, because the door around the corner from them opened (audibly. that's how they knew. they couldn't see it and manjoume's bros couldn't see them) and they heard SLICK EXPENSIVE SHOES on concrete as his brothers stepped out.
"When did our little brother become such an idiot?" He heard Chosaku laugh.
Shoji sounded concerned as he said, "Quiet."
"Please. He's still cramming his face with food back there, and with how gullible he's become, it's not like he'd believe anyone else who overheard."
Oh, brother. If only you knew, Manjoume smirked, and glanced back to Judai. The other looked shocked, which gave Manjoume some satisfaction, but not nearly as much as he'd expected it to.
"I still don't think it's a good idea to be talking about it."
"Well I do! It's hilarious! He honestly believed that we were going to put his money in a trust fund that doesn't even exist?!"
Judai looked like he'd been punched in the stomach. As his brothers voices and footsteps faded, Manjoume let his hand fall away from his mouth, but he still didn't try to talk. Concerned that he'd somehow traumatised him, he said, "Hey, don't take it personally. They're assholes."
Judai didn't seem convinced, and he remained quiet. Manjoume pulled him up and they walked back to the red dorm together.
When they got to his room, Judai sat on the edge of the bed, looking at his hands that he clasped in his lap. Manjoume sat at the desk that Judai did absolutely zero school work at and watched him.
"I feel so stupid," Judai said finally. "I must look like an idiot."
"It's okay," Manjoume said, a little awkwardly. He wasn't used to comforting anyone, least of all Judai. "You look like an idiot every day. What difference is it that it happened to happen this afternoon?"
"I really trusted them," Judai said, as though he hadn't even been listening. What an asshole! Not listening to Manjoume was what had got them into this mess in the first place! "I know it's stupid, but they were being so nice- I kept thinking how lucky you were to have brothers that cared about you."
Manjoume sat there, awkwardly.
"I mean, I know you won't care, but my family was never around that much. I was really enjoying getting some brotherly attention for once. It felt nice, you know?"
Okay, this was starting to piss Manjoume off.
"No, I'm to blame too," he said stiffly. He didn't WANT to apologise, but if it was the only way to shut Judai the hell up and get him to stop moping, he would. "If I had tried to explain things to you calmly, maybe this wouldn't have happened. It was my fault that you got taken along for the ride. They're my brothers, so you shouldn't be feeling like shit because of them."
Judai smiled weakly. And then that broke into a full on grin.
"Thanks for apologising," he said. "So… we're friends, right?"
"Sure," Manjoume said, shrugging. "We're friends."
"Oh, Manjoume!" Judai yelled, "C'mere, ya big lug!"
He crossed the tiny distance between his bed and the desk and wrapped his arms around Manjoume's shoulders in a bear hug, tuggin his head right into the centre of his chest. Manjoume grabbed his hips and tried to force him away, but he clung on for dear life, ruffling his brown bushy hair and grinning. Finally Manjoume resigned himself to waiting the hug out, and it was just as he'd stopped struggling, his head resting against Judai's chest, that they heard the door open.
"A-aniki?!"
