Somehow, I have written a lot less even though I've also had a lot less workdays after holidays. If this chapter is a mess, then it's entirely on me procrastinating and losing the flow, but hopefully it still works well. Happy new decade!
It was an odd feeling, knowing what seat was his inside Class 2-A while at the same time not recognizing any of the people who greeted him as he entered the door. Luckily, Kenichi was also in the same class along with Lala and Sairenji, and he had allowed them to explain the situation to the people he assumed to be those he was friends with.
He still didn't really recall anything about Sairenji from the few times he'd interacted with her that remained in his memory, but having another familiar face besides just his best friend in the same class was comforting, and knowing that they were on friendly terms was good, though the circumstances of how that had happened confused him. Why did they become friends over someone they didn't know vandalizing the school gardens?
Class wouldn't start until the teacher got there, so he leaned back in his seat, sighing and looking up at the ceiling. It was good that he hadn't lost the academic progress he'd made, so he wouldn't be completely lost, but he still felt a little jumpy at the friendliness of people like Sawada and Momioka, who had been among the first to greet him when he came into the room. Apparently, he was acquainted with them, but they hadn't explained why and Kenichi had only made an innuendo, so that hadn't been helpful.
Kotegawa was another person he was confused by. The class president, who initially seemed worried about him before realizing he was physically doing just fine, and proceeded to pretend to ignore him, though he could still feel her staring at him from the side. What was her problem?
He turned his gaze to the side as Kenichi sat down next to him, the boy waving his hand as he sighed exasperatedly. "You could help out, you know. I don't know everyone in class either, and I don't have the natural charm you do."
Rito laughed, sitting up and crossing his arms on his desk to face sideways towards his friend. "I might have missed years, but I don't think that's true. Seems to me that it's just that everyone else is nice, other than that Kotegawa-san."
Kenichi sighed, shaking his head. "She bullies everyone she's got her eyes on, don't take it too seriously. You've been one of her targets ever since she met you."
"Hmm? How can I be popular and a delinquent at the same time?" the boy asked, confused, and Kenichi groaned, reaching to rest a hand on the side of his head.
"Dude, you have amnesia, you're not stupid. Her obsession with targeting you's one of her defining features, she's obviously-" He cut himself off as the door to the classroom opened.
It was a good thing Lala had explained who Tearju was, or Rito would have been confused by the sight of the former scientist walking into the room, followed closely behind by the girl Rito recognized as Eve, dressed in a school uniform and looking around hesitantly at the class while the woman smiled, proceeding to ram her shin into her desk on her way to stand in front of the blackboard and tumble to the ground, Rito and several classmates sweatdropping at the sight, but no one moved to help her, including Eve, who simply watched as she groaned and reached a hand to grab her desk and pull herself back to a standing position, adjusting her glasses back in position as she coughed into her fist.
How often has this happened? Nobody's surprised at all...
"N-Now then…" Tearju said, laughing off the tumble before waving to Eve. "For certain reasons, we will be having a transfer from the first-year class. Some of you have met my daughter, others haven't, so this is-"
"Yami!" Lala shouted, and Rito turned to look at her as the princess pushed her hands to her desk, standing up and staring at the girl. "You're back?!"
Yami? Isn't her name Eve? Though 'Yami' does sound more like a nickname, I can't imagine anyone actually being named Darkness.
"Yes, Lala, I am." the girl replied, folding her hands together in front of her and lowering her head in a bow, looking down at the ground as she let her long hair frame her face. "To all of you, I have apologized for the last time I went wild, and for doing so again, I can only do the same."
"Last time was different!" Kotegawa shouted, standing as Lala looked in her direction. "Luckily, no one was hurt then, but now, you nearly killed two people. You can't just apologize and continue on with the same things you always do!"
"Bold stuff coming from you. Where's the justice for all the innocent guys you accuse of minor rule breaking?" Momioka asked, crossing her arms as Kotegawa turned to her, her teeth gritted together.
"This and that are different! Yami-san is a legitimate assassin, and we've just known her long enough that we've forgotten that! If she wanted to, then it wouldn't just be two people." She turned her gaze to Rito, who blinked. "You know, don't you, Yuuki-kun? You've seen what Darkness does, she has no control!"
The boy blinked, before shaking his head, raising his hands defensively and looking between the irate tsundere and Eve, who hadn't moved from her continuous bow. "I don't remember anything that happened, I have no idea who was to blame. But Ya-Eve doesn't seem to me like someone who would hurt people because she wants to."
"You don't remember…?" Kotegawa asked, before growling, pointing her index finger at the girl. "She's spent the last nearly two years physically assaulting you and other people she doesn't like, you call that something she doesn't want to do?"
Tearju, who was patting the subject's back, had her other hand balled to a fist, and she was about to intervene when Kenichi groaned, and he raised his hand before slapping it hard on his desk, ignoring the pain from the motion as he glared at her. "You don't have any right to say what Yami-chan wants, Kokegaka." he spat in a surprisingly venomous tone, unusual enough that even Lala, who was still standing, had to sit down and stare at him as Kotegawa's mouth closed, eyes practically bulging as she looked at him. "And saying she'll just attack anyone is a flat out lie. The only people she'll threaten are perverted idiots like me, and Rito's the only person I've ever seen her actually attack outside Darkness. And before you start yelling about that, have you never noticed that she won't actually hurt him intentionally? No matter how long she spends chasing him down, he always leaves with just a bandage or less!"
Rito moved his hands in the air to calm his friend down, laughing hesitantly to try and get his attention. "Hey, we're in class, calm down, Kenichi…"
"So, what, you think we should intentionally let a dangerous person who's already shown her teeth go to class with everyone after being so uninterested in school before now?! Attempted murder isn't a joke, it's a serious crime!" Kotegawa responded, and the two were about to go into another round of berating before Eve herself shouted, a wordless noise that drowned out what they were about to say and forced the class's attention on her as she stood straight, opening and closing her hands to help monitor her stress at the accusations being thrown about her.
"I won't say that I'm innocent, and I'm not asking anyone to trust me. Even this transfer, it wasn't my request, it was because Tear has to observe me to make sure I don't lose myself again. It's too late to say I've changed, but I do fully intend to remake myself from now on. I want to let myself be investigated, I want to go to school and make real friends, and…" She inhaled deeply, closing her eyes and calming her tensed muscles and nervous shaking. "I want to be human. I won't say that it makes up for what happened, or that I'm any better a person now than I was, but I no longer wish to use my Trance at all. In no circumstances, whether provoked or not, will I be anything but human."
She looked around the class, who had gone quiet at the polite tone she spoke in, seemingly unbothered by the shouting earlier, and Rito sighed, reaching over to tap on Kenichi's shoulder and get the boy's attention.
"I don't really know what's going on, but you shouldn't get involved in people's business like that. I talked to Eve before, she seemed like she was genuinely worried about me. I thought she was just a friend at first, but this means she was the reason I was in the hospital, wasn't she? Nana too?"
The boy glared in Kotegawa's direction as the girl sat down again, crossing her arms and huffing, before he turned to face Rito. "It looked like you recognized her, but who's Eve?" Before Rito could answer, Kenichi narrowed his eyes, and in an instant, it was like the rage form before melted away, leaving him with his usual optimistic demeanor. "Oh, I see. Seriously, I wish you could share me some of that luck of yours!"
Eve walked forward, guided by Tearju as she moved down the aisle between the two boys, and smiled at Rito, ignoring the looks she got from the people around her as she set her hand on the empty seat behind him. "Is it alright if I sit here, Rito?"
"Um, sure." he replied, bewildered by the sudden change in her mood. "It'll be nice having a familiar face, even if you're apparently the person who I'm supposed to be worried about? I don't know, I'd rather just trust you."
"Trust me or don't, I've laid bare what I want. I want to make friends normally, and I want to stay yours." She gave another bow, lighter than the one before. "Please, take care of me, Rito."
He nodded, turning to watch as she sat down before humming as he noticed his vision being blocked, looking up to find Lala leaning forward, sticking a hand forward in front of the blonde, who looked between her hand and face as the princess grinned. "If Yami-chan's going to be human now, then should I still call you that?"
Eve frowned, glancing at Rito, who didn't answer, knowing he didn't have the context necessary to understand the interaction. This was something between people who knew each other, not for him to intervene in.
"I…I will still be Yami." she finally responded. "However, Rito." she made eye contact with the boy, not blinking as she nodded. "I want you to continue calling me Eve. I admit, I lied about simply being a friend, but it is true that we aren't particularly close. That said, 'Yami' is a pseudonym. I would rather you use my real name."
Rito was about to respond before Kotegawa scoffed, crossing her arms and leaning stiffly in her seat. "What are you doing, being so familiar with someone you tried to kill?"
"I did not try to kill him, he stepped into a fight already taking place." she responded, without a hint of hesitation as she accepted Lala's hand, though she was clearly still uncomfortable with the contact as she quickly broke it off.
Kotegawa scoffed, crossing her arms and glaring dangerously Eve's way. "Yeah, right! After everything you've done, I wouldn't be surprised if you were just trying to worm your way into backstabbing him again! I'm not gonna believe you for a second."
The princess standing up straight again and moving to wrap her arm around Rito's shoulder, her tail moving to wrap around his collar. It seemed as though Kotegawa's words had touched her in some way, and she instinctively moved into a protective position, even if she didn't realize it.
However, after a few moments of silence, she spoke: "I trust you. But, it's not because you weren't at fault, or because Nana asked me not to blame you, it's because you saved his life."
Kenichi laughed, leaning back in his chair to look at the two girls. "Yeah, I'll say the same. It takes guts to swallow your pride and talk to Mikan-chan again after that long silence, and I heard you did something crazy risky to make sure he'd live. I don't care what that Kotegawa says, you are not Darkness. Darkness did something wrong, but you were the one who stepped in to save my best friend."
Rito hummed at the statement as Kotegawa angrily stomped out of the room, much to the dismay of Tearju, who seemed to have lost control of the situation before it began. That again. What did she do that was so special? It must be something pretty big if everyone's praising her, including dad.
The girl took a moment, before a small smile formed on her face as she nodded. "Yes, I fully intend to right all of my wrongs."
"Good, I- no, we believe in you. Good luck, Yami-chan!"