CHAPTER 16:
WELCOME TO ANOTHER CHAPTER!
Thank you for reading A Not So Ordinary Life of a Background Character!
Disclaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn
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Natsumi's hips hurt. Same for her butt, for that matter.
Cavallone-sempai was entirely too enthusiastic in making sure he fulfilled Tsuna's expectations. So suffer, Natsumi must.
She sat in her classes with nothing to look forward to this afternoon but detention. The tutoring sessions had ended last week, sadly.
Natsumi immediately gathered her belongings, said her goodbyes to the girls before failing to keep Hibari-sensei in her sight on their way to his faculty room. Not only were his steps longer than hers, but it was also faster.
It was a funny sight, though.
Not Hibari-sensei, but how the students and even some faculty reacted to his very presence.
It was like watching a shark ambling through a school of sardines. As soon as Hibari-sensei was near, everyone else in the hallway would immediately plaster themselves on the walls. But as soon as he had passed, they would return to their previous place and resume walking like nothing happened.
It was a shame Natsumi couldn't tail Hibari-sensei fast enough. She wouldn't need to navigate through other bodies that way. It was a pain to do so, especially now. As aforementioned, Natsumi's lower back was killing her. Thus, she's not as nimble as she should be.
By the time Natsumi had arrived in front of Hibari-sensei's door, it was already closed. She took a deep breath then knocked on the door thrice. She waited for a response for her to come in.
Before realizing she wouldn't hear said response since the room was (probably) soundproofed.
Was it?
Natsumi tried to think back as to why she thought the room was soundproof.
Oh right, it was because she couldn't hear the fight between Hibari-sensei, Hibari-sempai, and Vongola-sensei.
So now, does she knock again or quietly wait for the door to open?
Natsumi raised a fist to knock again when the door opened. Eyes wide open, she slowly looked up and saw the History teacher looking down at her with an expressionless face.
"I have detention," Natsumi blurted out.
Hibari-sensei's face morphed into a look that somehow conveyed 'Yes, you stupid girl, I was the one who issued the detention after all,' word-for-word.
The sophomore shrank into herself with a sheepish expression.
The History teacher snorted before opening the door wider. He then turned and went to his desk. Natsumi took that as an invitation to come in and closed the door behind her.
Thankfully, this time Hibari-sensei have something for her to do instead of making her stand awkwardly for half an hour.
Natsumi was tasked to grade the surprise quiz they had that afternoon using the answer key given to her. Based on the number of papers, it wasn't just her class that got surprised.
Unsurprisingly, the Genius Trio, a.k.a Gokudera-kun, Vongola Xanxus-san, and Belphegor-san, got all twenty questions correct for 100%. Hana-chan got 90%, and Kyoko-chan got 85%. Tsuna-chan and Cozart-san got 60%, making Natsumi wince in sympathy.
The female Emiya continued checking the papers until she finished the last one, much to her bewilderment.
Where's Natsumi's paper?!
Did she lose it? Did she forget to pass it? Did it go missing?
"Uhm, sensei?" Natsumi called out, "My paper's not here?"
"It's here." Hibari-sensei pulled a piece of paper among the stacks on his table. "I'll grade it."
Makes sense. Natsumi shouldn't grade her own quiz. "Then I'm done with these, sensei." She then presented the stack of graded quizzes to the teacher.
So that's…fifteen minutes. Just 1 hour and 15 minutes more to go.
(Spoiler: it was an awkward 1 hour and 15 minutes of silence before an even more awkward 30 minutes of Natsumi practically being escorted back to her home's gate.)
Lunchbreak that Thursday and a (louder than usual) commotion happened in front of their classroom. Many of the "normal" students took one look at Tsuna-chan's fanboys and began to file out to linger in the floor's washrooms, including Natsumi.
Honestly, the female Emiya didn't want to leave poor Tsuna-chan trying (and failing) to break up the fight, but no one but the fluffy-haired brunette would be spared from injuries once weapons come out of their respective hammerspace.
So yeah, Natsumi would rather not spend more time in the hospital this trimester, thank you.
Natsumi was walking briskly towards the nearest female washroom when she swore she heard someone calling her name. She paused and tilted her head.
There! She heard it again!
The straight-haired brunette looked around and saw…
"Chrome-chan?" Natsumi called out in surprise.
"Emiya-sempai," the girl greeted back.
"May I help you with something?" the sophomore asked.
The girl paused, hesitating for a moment, before bowing her head and replying, "Actually, may I ask Emiya-sempai for help this afternoon? We are supposed to have a quiz tomorrow, and I wanted to go through some sample problems."
"Of course," Natsumi immediately agreed but then remembered something, "If you don't mind waiting for a few minutes so I could excuse myself from Hibari-sensei."
Chrome-chan blinked and tilted her head to the side (OMG sparkles! So adowable!) then asked, "Hibari-sensei?"
Natsumi smiled sheepishly and replied, "Actually, I have detention, but he let me tutor in the library for the two weeks I was there."
"Oh," the first-year student reacted, "That was nice of Hibari-sensei."
It was Natsumi's turn to blink at that. "Huh," the sophomore couldn't help but grin, "It is, isn't it? Well, see you later, then? I kinda have to go to the washroom."
"Right! Of course! I'm sorry for bothering you, Emiya-sempai," the younger girl apologized with a bow.
Natsumi immediately waved her hands in front of her, "No need to apologize. Actually, I think we should leave."
Chrome looked up and asked, "Me too?"
"Yes, I just saw Yamamoto-kun challenge Superbi-sempai. Come on," Natsumi answered with some urgency in her voice. She didn't wait for a reply and dragged the first-year student with her.
After all, once one fight breaks out, the rest would follow suit.
Hibari-sensei just gave her one long look before nodding his head. Natsumi immediately thanked him and rushed back to the library. Without running, of course, because that would be suicide when Hibari-sempai was patrolling nearby.
When Natsumi arrived, though, there seemed to be more first years than she anticipated. To be fair, she was only expecting one.
The tutoring session ended up more like a mini-class when most of Chrome-chan's classmates turned up as well. Natsumi found them a corner with a whiteboard and enough floor space that the firsties could sit in a relatively orderly manner. That particular spot doesn't carry her voice towards the librarian much, so confidently, Natsumi demonstrated a couple of sample problems in a louder volume to make sure her mini-class could hear her.
The sophomore tried her best to help all of them. Most didn't need a lot of assistance, and she merely looked over their work. There were some she needed to guide a bit more and emphasize certain steps to. Nonetheless, she gave them all a set of problems she copied from one of the older versions of a workbook before getting "escorted" by a scowling Hibari-sempai.
Hopefully, that was enough for them to survive their quiz tomorrow.
"What?" Natsumi asked in disbelief.
The orphanage matron gave her an exasperated sigh, "Natsumi, it was three Sundays, not two."
"But…but…there was last Sunday when I hang out with my friends and the Sunday before that when I rested," the high school student counted.
"And the Sunday before that when you had your school trip," the matron pointed out.
Natsumi was dumbstruck, "Oh…right." And then horror dawned on her, "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! I didn't…oh my gosh, I don't know how to count!"
No wonder the children were so upset with her! This is the first time she'd been gone for three straight weeks. Usually, it was at most two during unprecedented circumstances like her getting sick (or hospitalized).
The matron sighed in exasperation before gently pulling Natsumi along, "Come on, let's apologize to them. Leave the explanation to me."
"Thank you, Madoka-san," Natsumi replied in relief. At least, she has Madoka-san in her corner.
Or not. Madoka-san was not on her side. If the matron was, Natsumi wouldn't be here sitting with Rin-chan while the four-year-old taught her how to count to three using colored building blocks.
"This yellow is one, and then this blue is two, and then this red is three, got it?" Rin-chan instructed in a slightly bossy tone.
"Got it," Natsumi answered with a forced smile.
Rin-chan huffed and then pointed at the blocks, "Then count, just by yourshelf–" clears throat "–yourself this time."
"Alright. One." Natsumi tapped the yellow block. "Two." The blue block. "Three." Lastly, the red block.
"Good," Rin-chan praised, "Repeat it again and again until I say so, and then maybe I'll add the orange and green block so you can count to five."
"I'd like that. Thank you for being patient with me, Rin-chan," Natsumi replied, trying to hide her amusement.
Rin-chan huffed again in response, but Natsumi could see the little girl blushing a bit, making her grin.
At least she had been forgiven.
…even if it meant the older kids are now laughing at her instead of glaring at her.
"The five seniors have finished their 'punishment' last week," Hibari-sensei told Natsumi.
The sophomore could only blink back in response. Natsumi had just finished grading another surprise quiz and was resigned to wait out the detention in stifling silence when the History teacher spoke.
"Ah," Natsumi reacted.
Hibari-sensei stopped scribbling just to give her a look.
"I mean, uhm–" Natsumi cleared her throat, "I mean, uhm, I see."
A raised eyebrow.
Natsumi blushed red in embarrassment, "I mean…they've, uhm, finished their punishment already…'cause it's been six weeks…good for them?"
The deep judgmental stare she received kept Natsumi up that night.
"Mou, you are d*mn lucky the poll's winner is the sister anyway," Editor-san said through the phone.
Natsumi has a self-satisfied smile on her face, "Yes, very lucky."
The two ignored the fact that even if another character won, Natsumi would have rallied for what she wanted anyway.
"Mou, if you have time to be so smug about it, you should be sending the outline of what you planned for the book and the drafts for the first ten chapters."
"Wait, wait, ten chapters?! But–but you only usually ask for five! I only prepared five!"
"Mou, then start drafting the next five then."
The call ended before Natsumi could even get a syllable of protest in.
She groaned. And it was nearing midterms too! Editor-san is too heartless!
It'll be sleepless nights again for the next week.
Natsumi could only recover from that h*llish week by sleeping Sunday away. She could only hope the children could forgive her absence once again.
Although Natsumi was thankful she wasn't partnered with one of Tsuna's fanboys, why does it have to be Kuroda Ren?
"We don't have to put too much effort into it. Hinata-sensei'll give us a passing grade anyways," Kuroda said as he slumped into Natsumi's desk.
Natsumi felt her face morph into a forced smile, "I'm sorry, but I need more than a passing grade. I'm maintaining a scholarship after all."
Kuroda smirked up at her in victory, "Then you put effort into our project since you need a good grade. I'm not gonna do much."
She really wants to punch him in the face.
Unfortunately, there's not really much Natsumi could do about a partner that refuses to do anything she asks him to do. In the end, she had resigned herself into doing most of the work.
Fortunately, the project was finished on time. Natsumi could only give it a bitter smile when it finally landed on the teacher's desk.
At least Hinata-sensei graded the project 98%.
Natsumi was practically bouncing around her house when the phone finally rang.
"Tatsu-nii!" she greeted.
"Happy Birthday Natsumi!" her brother greeted back.
"Thank you!" she practically yelled back in excitement.
It was June 21* today, her 17th birthday. Madoka-san organized a small party at the orphanage for her today, and that was enough for her. Natsumi might have neglected to mention it to her friends. She just…wasn't in the mood to celebrate anything since her brother wasn't physically here. The party with the kids was already a compromise since it made the children happy.
"My gift for you should be inside the second drawer, unopened. Unless, of course, you got too excited and opened it already ahead of time."
Natsumi huffed at that, "I didn't! I waited patiently."
"Uh-huh."
"I might have…searched for it in advance, though. It's already in my hand," Natsumi confessed sheepishly.
"Called it."
"But I didn't open it!"
"I guess I can't do anything about it anymore."
"I said I didn't open it!" Natsumi shouted in denial, now a bit miffed.
"Okay, okay. You didn't open it! Now, when will you open it?"
"Wait, let me–" Natsumi set the phone on speaker "–there, my hands are free. I'm gonna open it now." She carefully unwrapped the present.
The box was only 4 inches in length, 2 inches wide, and 1 inch tall, wrapped in light blue paper and a dark blue ribbon. Natsumi opened the box, and inside was a resin-wood necklace. She gasped.
"I know. I know. It's just something cheap but–"
"It's my favorite color!" Natsumi practically cooed. And it was. The resin was a beautiful shade of cyan (the same shade as Kikyo's hair, actually), and the wood was light.
"Yeah…I bought it from a stall in Beijing."
"It's beautiful! Thank you, Tatsu-nii! I'll send pictures with me wearing it in your e-mail."
"Okay," Tatsuya's voice sounded a bit choked.
"Tatsuya?" she called out, concerned.
"I'm–" there was a sniff "–I'm sorry, Natsu. It's just that-It's just that I can't get you anything more than some cheap trinket, and it's your birthday–"
"Tatsu-nii."
"–and I feel awful already 'cause I can't be there and–"
"Tatsu-nii!"
"–I'm supposed to take care of you, but I'm here doing my dream job while you're there alone and–"
"TATSUYA!" Natsumi yelled. It came out louder than she intended, but at least her brother isn't rambling anymore. The female Emiya took a deep breath before speaking, "Look, Tatsu-nii, I've told you countless times before, I was the one who encouraged you to pursue wildlife photography. We had a long talk about this, remember? We had a fight, too, and may I remind you that I was the one arguing for you to take the apprenticeship. You didn't leave until you were sure I could live on my own. Remember all the how-to's you insisted you teach me yourself when I told you I could just Youtube them instead?"
Another sniff from the other end of the line, "Yeah…I remember but–"
"No buts!" Natsumi cut him off.
"Sorry. It's just that…I feel awful, okay?"
"You should be!" Natsumi huffed. "You're bringing up heavy topics and crying on my birthday."
Tatsuya let out a wet laugh, but it was a laugh. "Then it's my turn to remind you that on my twelfth birthday, a bratty little Natsu wailed about how the party wasn't about her."
"I was five!"
"And a brat."
Natsumi sputtered at that.
The conversation after that was a light one.
The younger children gave Natsumi a bouquet of flowers while the older ones pitched in and bought her a stainless steel chain necklace with the kanji for summer as a charm.
Getting two necklaces, she solved the dilemma by removing the resin-wood pendant from the string that served as the "necklace" and putting it with the kanji charm.
When she went home that day, refusing to take any leftovers with her, Natsumi immediately googled how to prolong the lives of cut flowers as she unearthed a vase from the attic.
Natsumi should have expected this, yet she went to bed that night looking forward to a good night's sleep.
BANG!
Natsumi woke up with a scream.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATSUMI!" Byakuran screamed at the top of his lungs…right at Natsumi's ear.
"BYAKURAN!" Natsumi screeched right back, making the albino cackle.
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Replying to a review from Mystic Moon Flower: unfortunately, our poor Natsumi would only have a supporting character halo (if that exists) at best.
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*June 21 is Summer Solstice, basically where Natsumi's name came from. Also, this is June of 2020 (in a world where there's no COVID-19, how lucky) so June 21 is a Sunday.
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There's no strikethrough? Or am I missing something? The comment about Kikyo's hair color was supposed to be in strikethrough but...
Ah, can't have everything, I guess.
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END OF CHAPTER!