A.N. (11/2/21) - Slightly longer than usual, enjoy!
DNAngel (5) - Transfer Student
"What's wrong with him?"
"I'm not so sure why myself."
"What?"
"This may be an unfortunate side effect."
"Well, fix it. I can't have him killing himself now that I've got my hands on him."
Nagi heard the voices, but he couldn't tell who was speaking. One of them had to be the Commissioner, but who was the other? It didn't sound like it was the younger Hiwatari.
Opening his eyes, he was barely able to make out the form of an unfamiliar blond man looming over him as Nagi laid down in a small bed. The elder Hiwatari was lingering in the background, watching the two of them from his corner of the room.
Then something strange happened. The blond man placed a palm on top of Nagi's chest before muttering something under his breath. A soft glow began to emit from his hands before Nagi suddenly felt something wash through his body, causing him to feel relief as his fever began to subside. His body seemed to vibrate as energy coursed through it.
The euphoria caused by the man soon faded as Nagi's vision suddenly cleared. Taking a good look at who was nursing him, Nagi's eyes widened as recognition filled his mind.
"I don't think it's quite the proper time to introduce ourselves yet." A cruel smile appeared on the man's face. "My apologies, but I believe that it would be best if you forget this ever happened."
His mind began to fog up at that moment, and Nagi's eyes rolled back as drowsiness overcame him. Within seconds, he fell asleep.
}-{
Meanwhile, within the depths of his mind.
A soft glow slowly appeared from the darkness, and the form of a blue feather revealed itself. The dim light emitting from it illuminated the atmosphere and continued to brighten as time passed.
Even though he was asleep, Nagi could tell that he was dreaming.
—H̶e̵l̷p̴.̴
A voice called out to him, but it sounded muffled. As if someone was trying to speak underwater. Nagi tried to figure out where it was coming from, but the scenery began to change as his dream shifted.
He was in a snowy landscape, an endless expanse of pure white snow. Nagi looked around his surroundings as he took in everything.
A distance in front of him, two figures were fighting. One was a menacing figure, with chains rattling across its body as it flew across the battlefield. The other was a lithe and petite woman, who danced gracefully through the air as she dodged attack after attack. Both struck at each other, attacking with the intent to kill, and every time they did so, the winds howled, the sky darkened, and the snow fell harder until it slowly turned to hail.
Nagi didn't know why, but he knew he had to stop them. There was some primal instinct of his telling him that if they continued to fight each other, their entire surroundings would be destroyed.
He yelled. "Stop it! Stop fighting!"
Surprisingly, one turned to answer him. "—This doesn't concern you, Leech Child!"
It was a skeleton, Nagi realized. Two large black wings connected to its back, and a large sword was swinging through the air while connected to a chain on the end of its pommel. At first, he didn't register what the skeleton just called him. Leech Child? What was that supposed to mean?
The other figure turned to face him as well, and Nagi saw her face turn to a pleading look.
—Please, help!
It was the same voice as before. Only this time, it wasn't muffled. And Nagi could hear the raw emotion in her voice as she requested for him to help her.
Before he could say anything, the skeleton spoke once more. "—Don't interfere in matters beyond you, this is between the two of us."
The ground suddenly shook, and the snow split beneath Nagi, causing him to fall into the depths below. His vision darkened as the crevice began to close, and he felt himself getting buried alive.
}-{
He opened his eyes.
Hiwatari, the younger one, was sitting near the corner of his bed on a wooden chair reading a book. There was nobody else in the room, and the boy looked up as he heard Nagi stir awake.
"It looks like you're all better now," Hiwatari said, closing the book.
"What happened?" Nagi asked.
"You were sick. It seems that you got a fever, so I brought some medicine for you to take. From the looks of it, it seems that you're on the road to recovery."
"I remember seeing your father…" Nagi tried to think through the fogginess of his mind. "There was another man."
"A what?" Hiwatari gave Nagi a bemused smile. "Perhaps you're mixing up a particular dream with reality. Other than the two of us, nobody else has entered this room."
For some reason, there was a sort of hypnotic quality to Hiwatari's voice. Nagi found himself nodding along in agreement at the other boy's words. He was right. There wasn't anyone else, the two of them were alone.
—Ẃ̷̡̤̐r̸̛͓͈ō̸̭̎n̴̘̼̎g̵̙̉́.
"How long was I out?"
"Several hours, it's already night." Hiwatari stood up and made his way to the door. "I'll get started on dinner. I hope you're alright with chicken noodle soup, it's better to play it safe."
He glanced back at Nagi one last time before nodding and exiting the room.
}-{
It wasn't long before the weekend quickly passed, and Nagi left the Grande Station as he made his way to his new school. Taking a shortcut through the park, he passed by the central attraction. The windmill erected above the central fountain slowly spun, and Nagi glanced briefly at it as he passed by.
—H̴͓̱̑̇ȩ̶̪̅l̴͚̂p̵̗͠.̴
Nagi found himself standing in front of the gates to his new school. Having the same name as the district, Azumano Middle School was a prestigious school with quite a long local history.
The facility used to cater towards the upper-elite before slowly changing to accept admissions of students who came from middle-class families. While the focus on the elite was gone, the school itself still had several children from affluent families attending, and its dignitaries spent great sums of wealth to support the school.
From what he saw, the building had an archaic architectural design multiple stories high. A large clocktower overshadowed the main building from one of the corners. Even from a distance, Nagi could tell that great care was put in the cleanliness and maintenance of the buildings and courtyards. Compared to the wooden structures of his old school, Nagi's eyes widened as he took in the sheer extravagance of his new school.
Nagi reached towards his collar and anxiously adjusted it, his nervousness easily apparent to anyone who took notice of him. Because of the circumstances that brought him here, Nagi was somewhat concerned about the reception he might get from meeting his new classmates. He was assured by Hiwatari that his record wouldn't be spread beyond several members of the staff. As far as anyone was concerned, Nagi was just an unusual late transfer student starting his new school life in the middle of the school year.
I look just like a regular middle schooler, right? he questioned himself. People won't think I'm some criminal who broke into secure places, right? Thank god this uniform doesn't use dark colors. If I looked even more like a delinquent than usual, I doubt that my classmates would think favorably of me.
That was important to him. A person's first impression was important to socialize with others, despite what most thought. Nagi wasn't one to subscribe to the idea that one shouldn't judge by a book's cover. Even if looks aren't everything, how one presented themselves was.
This was a lesson that was pounded into him ever since he was little, as someone who transferred through multiple schools throughout his life.
"But first," Nagi sighed. "I have to find my class… where's Hiwatari when you need him?"
What was he supposed to do? Should he just follow someone that looked like they knew where they were going? No, that would only work with a person like Hiwatari, someone Nagi knew for sure would be in his class. Too bad the other boy left earlier that morning to do some business for his job or something.
"Happy thoughts, Nagi. Just keep thinking happy thoughts," he told himself. "Just find someone nice to talk to and ask them for directions to the faculty office. Don't make this any harder than it should be."
Easier said than done. If social anxiety could be easily argued by logic, the world would only consist of extroverts. Sadly, the reality was most humans often acted on illogical decisions and reasons. Or at least, that was his excuse for why nobody liked him in his last school.
After all, it wasn't just because of a sense of justice that Nagi decided to run away from Inaba to do something stupid like commit a crime. Truthfully, the real reason was that he was fed up with how everything in his life was going wrong and the idea of doing some good in his life appealed to him. Really, it was his impulsiveness that drove him to his current situation.
Ugh, just thinking about it almost made him dizzy.
"Hey, did you hear? I heard that our school is getting another new transfer student."
"What? This late into the school year?"
Before his eyes, Nagi watched as two female students walked by him while conversing with each other. Hearing what they just said, it wasn't hard to guess that they were talking about him.
"Wasn't Mio Hio also a late addition?"
"But she joined at the beginning of the year."
Both turned around the corner and left, leaving Nagi alone once again. Too late, he was unable to ask them for directions before they were already gone.
Walking around aimlessly, he passed by another student and called out to them. "Excuse me!"
It was a girl, and she turned around after hearing his voice. "Yes?"
"Do you know which way to the faculty office is?"
She blinked. "Of course, do you want me to take you there?"
"If you're offering, please."
The two set off together, and Nagi took a glance at the person he was following. She was pretty, with long brown hair and a pink ribbon tied behind her back. Seeing her, Nagi realized that she looked familiar for some reason. And only after hearing her name, did he realize who she was.
"My name is Risa Harada. Are you a transfer student?"
"Nagi Kujikawa. I've recently moved here and I was luckily able to get accepted here despite my late enrollment."
There was no doubt now, she was another main character like Hiwatari.
Before long, they found themselves standing outside two doors with a sign on top stating that this was their destination.
"I have to get to class now. Good luck, Kujikawa-san."
"Oh, thank you." Nagi smiled. "I'll be fine from here on out."
She returned the smile, before turning around and walking away. Watching her leave, Nagi realized that if he was going to be in Hiwatari's class, then that meant that Risa would also be his classmate as well.
"And that means I'm going to be in the same class as everyone else," he bemoaned.
Sighing to himself, he opened the doors and began to deal with the various procedures of being a new transfer student.
}-{
And now, he stood in front of his classroom.
Nagi went through this song and dance many times before. Frequently transferring schools in the past, he knew that making a good first impression was important to how he would be treated by his classmates. But in this case, it was even more important than usual.
This was it, this was where everything was going to change for Nagi for the foreseeable future.
"Hey, is there something wrong?"
Hearing a voice coming from behind him, Nagi turned around and found himself facing a boy his age giving him a curious look. The other boy glanced briefly towards his hair, before looking back to his face and tilting his head.
"I don't recognize you… so I'm guessing you must be the new transfer student!"
"That's right."
The boy grinned, before holding out his hand in a handshake. "Name's Takeshi Saehara. Nice to meet ya."
Grabbing the other boy's hand, he smiled. "Nagi Kujikawa."
"So how come you're transferring in so late?"
"Unexpected circumstances," Nagi replied. "I'm living away from my family for the year, and things ended up with me moving here to live."
He was being vague about the details, and it seemed that Saehara caught on to the fact that Nagi wasn't going to clarify. Still, the curiosity in the other boy's gaze didn't fade.
It wasn't like his record was public knowledge, or at least not to the extent where just anyone would know about it. As far as Nagi knew, his record was supposed to be expunged once he completed his probation according to Officer Kurosawa. So keeping quiet about it was technically allowed.
"Heh, so you're going for the 'mysterious transfer student' kinda thing. That's cool, the others are gonna love it. Everyone gets excited whenever something new happens."
Nagi sighed. "I just want to get through the school year without trouble. I'm not exactly looking forward to being the new hot topic."
"Eh, give it a few weeks and they'll forget all about you." He wrapped an arm around Nagi's shoulder. "Until then, you can stick with me. And under the tutelage of Master Saehara, I'll show you the ropes around here until you settle in."
He couldn't help it, he smirked. "Master Saehara? And what exactly are you a master of?"
"Of the way of life, obviously." Saehara nodded sagely. "My worldly experience far surpasses those of my equal. It is my role to teach those less experienced than me the ways of life and to guide them into unlocking their true potentials."
"So what manga did you steal that line from?"
"Actually, it was a televis-" He shook his head. "Wait, that's not the point. What I'm trying to say is that things are going to get busy over the next few weeks. So I'm telling you that you can ask me for anything if you ever need it."
"Busy?"
"Don't you know?" Saehara removed himself from Nagi and turned to stare at him. "The school's culture festival is going to start soon. We haven't even decided what our class theme is going to be yet, so everyone's going to be busy getting ready for that."
Nagi thought about it and realized that what Saehara said made sense. It was usually between late October and November when most school festivals were held. Although Inaba usually started a bit earlier, which was why Nagi didn't consider it until now.
"Guess I came at a bad time."
"Maybe not," Saehara said with a shrug. "Who knows, you might end up getting close to the class if you take advantage of this opportunity."
That was a nice thought. Since Nagi transferred so late into his grade, most of his classmates probably already formed their own relationships and friendships. An event like this would help break the ice between him and others.
"Sounds great," Nagi said. "Guess this means I should give my all once the festival comes."
"That's the spirit," Saehara said. "And since I'm most likely going to be the event manager, I'll try to reserve you a good role for whatever we have in store."
For some reason, instead of feeling reassured at his words, Nagi felt a chill run down his spine. As if he made and accepted a deal in which he was going to end up regretting later on in the future.
Shivering to himself, he followed behind Saehara as they entered the classroom.
The classroom was full of commotion since homeroom had yet to start. His new classmates filled the room talking and chatting with each other as they waited for the teacher to arrive. Nagi saw several people who stood out already, with two of them already someone he's met already.
Risa's eyes widened as she caught sight of him, and he gave a nervous wave in return. On the opposite side of the room, he saw Hiwatari take a glance in his direction before smirking and going back to the book he was reading. Seated at a back was an unfamiliar girl, who stood out to him for the simple fact that she was the only person in the room who wasn't wearing a school uniform. Strangely, she smiled and waved in his direction when he caught sight of her, confusing him since Nagi was pretty sure he hasn't met her before.
"Hey, Daisuke!" Saehara called out to someone. "Get over here and meet our newest classmate."
Nagi found himself looking at a certain red-haired student who looked up in response to Saehara's loud voice. The law of protagonists always having an eye-catching hair color or style seemed to apply to this world as well if Daisuke's appearance was any indication.
Daisuke Niwa, the protagonist of the DNAngel series.
"Oh, good morning." Daisuke stood up and gave a polite bow in Nagi's direction. "It's nice to meet you."
The other half of the phantom thief Dark.
"It's nice to meet you as well," Nagi's smile was strained. "I can't wait to get along with everyone in our class."
This wasn't exactly what he had in mind when he found out that he was forced to move here. If his memories were any indication, then things were going to grow complicated soon. Plus, with the fact that this world seemed to be an amalgamation of two separate series, there were bound to be other hidden factors that Nagi wouldn't know.
Truly, this year was going to be troublesome.
This chapter was a bit of a struggle to write. I feel that the sudden shift in mood makes it a bit jarring, and it was difficult trying to work around it.
Well, at least Nagi's getting established in the DNAngel universe. And it seems that there's something going on with him as well, beyond the normal side effects of the Dark Hour.