Chapter 28: Mashu Kyrielight: 1-1
"Why are you here for Kyrielight-san?"
Mashu Kyrielight was hoping he wouldn't ask this particular question. But unfortunately since Shizuka Hiratsuka-sensei was taking her time reporting back to the guidance counseling room, it seemed Hachiman Hikigaya-senpai had taken up the mantle of a wannabe counselor.
For a second she wondered whether she should answer truthfully. But she felt really embarrassed in telling him her reason to be here. She didn't know him all that well, after all. He might make fun of her or worse, start leering at her. If she had it her own way she would leave right about now, but the blonde haired woman who had a striking resemblance to Saber, had taken a seat next to the door. She had no way out, unless she resorted to brute force, and she didn't want to resort to that particular method.
"You don't have to tell me, if you don't want to." Hikigaya-senpai added after she kept quiet for a little bit. "I was just trying to make conversation. You see, Evergarden-san isn't very talkative."
"I have nothing to talk about." Violet Evergarden said.
Hikigaya-senpai smirked. "Now that's something, I know to be untrue." He didn't point any fingers, but there was a small note of accusation in his voice. "Everyone has something they want to talk about. They just don't want to talk about it in the presence of other people. I respect that." He gave a nod towards Mashu. "Privacy is a thing after all."
"Then what's the point of guidance counseling, senpai." Mashu Kyrielight couldn't help but ask. "I mean aren't we too old for this kind of thing." Too old, she felt odd saying those words.
"I don't know what to say." Hikigaya-senpai added with a shrug. "This is not my first time in this room. I have been here before." Mashu could see a bit of conflict in his eyes. It lasted only about a second though before being replaced by resolve. "Back in my first year, on the very first day of my university life I got into a horrible accident."
Mashu Kyrielight felt something in her chest tighten. Human life was so fragile. She sometimes forgot about it in the grand scale of things, how they could die, how they could be killed, so easily, so uneventfully, sometimes because of an accident.
"What happened?" Mashu Kyrielight asked.
"It was your usual car accident." He chuckled darkly. "I tried to save a woman and her dog from coming into harm's way. I literally threw them out of the way of the car in the nick of time, but for some reason my stupid self froze, like a deer caught in the headlights, even though it was morning and boom!" There was the same dark chuckle once more. She was starting to hate that sound. "Well, I don't know what type of sound a body makes when it hits the front of a speeding car, but to my ears it did feel rather loud. But I had other things on my mind. Like, is this the end? Am I going to make it?"
"Stop!" Mashu Kyrielight felt her voice waver. "Why are you telling me this? What's the point?"
"I'm just speaking out loud. That's what most counseling is." Hikigaya-senpai added.
"And Hiratsuka-sensei is really good at it." Mashu asked.
"Well, I wouldn't be coming here if she didn't have a good ear for listening." Hikigaya-senpai added snootily. "It was her car that hit me, you know."
"What?" Mashu Kyrielight didn't know what to think. "Hiratsuka-sensei hit you with her car!"
"For some reason, when you say it like that, I get the image of a Giant Hiratsuka-sensei, rampaging around the streets like a Hulk and hitting me in the face with a literal car. I don't know why. It wasn't like that." He added quickly. "I mean it was her car but she wasn't the one driving it."
Mashu Kyrielight was curious. "Doesn't she know how to drive? Does she have a driver?"
Hikigaya-senpai snorted. "Hiratsuka-sensei has a 2005 Aston Martin V8 Vantage." He said it like that answered her question. It didn't if she was being honest. Perhaps, he had seen the look of confusion on her face because he went on to elaborate. "Okay, so maybe I'm not really telling this story all that well. But you have to understand I came to learn about the details of what happened on a much later date."
Mashu Kyrielight was now invested in the story. "How late?"
"On my second year, when I-" He looked embarrassed for some reason and blushed, trying to hide his face by looking away to the side. Mashu Kyrielight wouldn't tell anyone that she found this a little bit cute. "Wow, I forgot how talking about yourself can be kinda embarrassing, especially when you get to the parts which doesn't really paint you in a flattering light."
"What do you mean?" Mashu Kyrielight also realized that Hikigaya-senpai was in his second year, so that meant whatever new information he learnt, he must have learnt it recently over the course of the past few months.
"On my second year, that is to say, this year, I learned that Hiratsuka-sensei owned a 2005 Aston Martin V8 Vantage. The exact same car which hit me, which left me hospitalized for three weeks with a fractured leg. But I wasn't bitter about it. Accidents happen all the time. People die, some don't, I didn't. I should count my blessings and move on. But, there was a part of me, which felt angry." Hikigaya-senpai let out a world weary sigh. Mashu felt like this was not the first time her was recounting this tale. Perhaps, he thinks about it a lot when he is all alone. Or perhaps he has some people he could talk to. He was talking to her at the moment. It counts.
"You had a right to be angry." Mashu Kyrielight said. "You could have died."
"I wasn't angry about that." Hikigaya-senpai added with a shake of his head. "After the accident, after the three weeks spent in the hospital, when it finally came time to return back to the land of the living," he had some difficulty saying the words before finally relenting. "I felt vulnerable, afraid, weak. I had to use a walking stick for Godsake!" he added spitefully. "But on my very first day back, I found myself in this room and there was Shizuka Hiratsuka-sensei, the guidance counselor, sitting there, empathizing with me, not sympathizing. It made a world of difference. Even to this day, I feel grateful for her intervention. If she hadn't taken the initiative to talk to me, I don't know what could have happened." He smiled ruefully. "I'm not an easy person to get along with. You should ask my roommates."
"Hiratsuka-sensei seems to be a wonderful person." Mashu Kyrielight added with a smile.
"I thought so to." Hikigaya-senpai said. However a second later his face twisted into a sad, melancholic frown. "But when I learned it was her car which ran me over, I didn't think she was a wonderful person. I wouldn't even repeat the thoughts I had about her in such a pleasant company. Needless to say, I made a mistake."
Mashu Kyrielight felt horrified. "What did you do?"
"You have to understand," Hikigaya-senpai, said in a placating manner. "When I came to that particular discovery, that it was her car that hit me, I felt betrayed. Till that moment, I felt Hiratsuka-sensei had been helping me cope, helping me deal with the aftermath of the accident, making sure I could acclimatize myself back to my own life and move on from that incident. We talked a lot during our first year. We formed a bond. I thought it was because she cared for me. But then, I thought, whether all of it was a lie."
"You didn't!" Mashu Kyrielight said.
"I did. After all, it explained everything. She did what she did, not because she cared for me, not really, but it was because she felt guilty. It was her car that hit me. She felt responsible. God!" He shook his head. "How wrong could I have been?"
"What happened next?" Mashu Kyrielight was intrigued.
"I had my first experience with alcohol. I wouldn't recommend it." He said with a sigh. "One night, I drank and in my drunken stupor, I threw a rock at her car. It cracked the windshield." He gave a dark chuckle. "And you know the stupidest thing. I just stood there, admiring my handiwork. It was like I wanted to get caught. It was like I wanted to end this image I had of her in my mind, this perfect image and I wanted to tear it down."
Mashu Kyrielight didn't want to know what happened next. She feared the worst. "Did you get caught?"
"Yeah. By the owner of the car, nonetheless," He breathed heavily. "Hiratsuka-sensei looked beautiful that night. It was a full moon. I remember it all too well. She had gone out for a late night stroll to clear her head. She does it some time. We never talk about it much, but I guess she is human. She has her own set of problems. But rather selfishly, all we do is talk about mine. I feel like such a brat. I felt like such a brat, back then too. And she…" he trailed off.
Mashu Kyrielight couldn't handle it. "What did she do?"
"I gave him a cigarette." Mashu Kyrielight hadn't noticed her walk in. Hachiman was right. Shizuka Hiratsuka was a beautiful woman. "And I told him to bring it the next morning to the counseling room." There was a fond smile playing on her lips. Hachiman blushed at the sight of it. "And in the counseling session, I let him get everything off his chest and let me tell you," She poked him twice in the back. "This guy can talk and talk and talk, endlessly when he wants to."
"I don't think you need to tell, Kyrielight-san that, sensei. She already knows." Hikigaya-senpai said, playfully. "By the way, you are late."
Shizuka Hiratsuka crossed her arms over her breasts. Mashu Kyrielight noticed they were on the larger side, not unlike hers. "Sorry, I was late. I'm afraid I got lost on the path of life."
There was silence, complete silence for a few seconds.
"Hiratsuka-sensei, you are first to handle Mashu Kyrielight's session." Violet Evergarden spoke up, unapologetically.
Hiratsuka-sensei blushed. "Thank you Violet."
Hikigaya-senpai snickered. "That line was so lame."
Hiratsuka-sensei smacked him on the head. "Watch it mister. If you don't behave, I could have a joint counseling session. It would be like those Alcoholics Anonymous meetings."
"And you would know about that, wouldn't you – Ow! Don't put me in a headlock. I can feel your breast-"
"Actually, I would like it if this was a joint counseling session!" Mashu Kyrielight spoke up. Then she looked at the others in the room. "Unless, that is not okay, I mean."
"Of course not." Hikigaya-senpai said. He had removed his head from being squashed. "It only seems fair. After all, I have told you my story. It only seems fair that you tell me yours."
Mashu Kyrielight smiled. "I would like that."
Sometime later, when they had become more than mere acquaintances who spoke up comfortably in a rather unorthodox session, Mashu Kyrielight would come to know that Shizuka Hiratsuka cleared the misunderstanding which led to Hachiman Hikigaya-senpai wrecking her car.
No, it was not guilt which made her look after his well being, though she didn't deny there was a part of it during the initial stage. But she nurtured the bond with him because she really cared about him and saw him more than the rotten dead fish eyed loner, the persona he liked to portray for others.
Mashu also learned that as compensation for breaking the window of her car and casting doubt on the cherished relationship between them, Hiratsuka-sensei strong-armed Hachiman Hikigaya-senpai into joining the Service club.
"Service club, what kinda place is that?"
Hachiman Hikigaya shook his head. "A mental asylum. You would fit just right in." He said jovially. "Drop by sometimes. I would like to know more as to why people call you the eggplant-kohai."
Mashu Kyrielight blushed. "I told you not to speak about it, senpai!"
A/N: I don't know why, but this turned out more of a Hachiman x Hiratsuka chapter. Well, that's the appeal of sensei. Also, as you can see, this story will be a bit different from the canon. The events do take place, but it's a bit different. Hope you like it for what it is.
Now here are the options for the next chapter (I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner):
Option 1: Miku Nakano
Option 2: Nino Nakano.
Option 3: Itsuki Nakano.
Option 4: Ichika Nakano.
Option 5: Yotsuba Nakano.
Please pick any of the above options or suggest a character in the review.
You can also send a voter list.
Hope everyone enjoyed reading this chapter.
Leave lots and lots of reviews, follow and fave.
Won't betray your dreams.