Sorry this chapter took so long to publish- I wrote most of it really fast, but then the rest of it just took ages; I've just been really busy, and I've spent most of my 'free time' when I wasn't doing 14 hr shifts either out or hungover or doing essays or making sure I don't starve to death by cooking food hahahaha..ahh.
This chapter is basically a flashback chapter to a year before the story begins, when the characters where in second year, and it sort of shows why they ended up in E class. It's pretty segmented, but I hope you can enjoy!
Thank you for all the reviews! They kept me writing- I'll reply to them all at the end!
Azumi Mitsugu stared at the clock behind her mother's head. It had been 20 minutes already, and she was still being lectured.
"I can't believe you threatened your classmate with a knife- you are lucky that you haven't been arrested!" Her mother said. Damn. Her mother was usually pretty laid back, but she didn't wasn't showing any signs of stopping her tirade of anger any time soon.
Mitsugu had attempted to keep a low profile when she had started middle school. But that was a hard thing to do when it was a place filled with so many arrogant, pretentious jerks who where just begging to be knocked down from their pedestal for the sake of entertainment. It was inevitable that she'd get into trouble.
In the first year, she targeted the student-council-president who repeatedly used to harass her about dress-code violations.
His name was Aki Tanaka and was considered the prince of third year.
He was a tough cookie to crack, at first. He had a wealthy, powerful family with a surprising lack of skeletons in their closet, good grades, and lots of supporters in the school. It didn't help that the principle's son himself, Gakushuu Asano, was one of them. At least, on the surface he was. But a little digging around however, revealed that Tanaka had a dark side; He was framing classmates he disliked for rule violations in order to get them into trouble and make himself look Mitsugu spread that around the school, Tanaka ended up dropping out, and she became notorious for finding out people's secrets.
She started selling information to people looking to get dirt on their enemies. Gakushuu Asano even approached her once looking for blackmail material on his own father. It was one of the few requests she couldn't complete. She didn't have any friends in school, people avoided her out of fear or that was fine with her. She'd rather observe humans from a distance than interact with them.
Half way through second year, Mitsugu got a new target. Her name was Kaho, and she managed to piss Mitsugu off by snitching on her for skipping PE. Kaho was probably just trying to impress the student council president Gakushuu Asano. Everyone could tell she was after him, even if she was dating one of his minion's, Seo; the virtuoso known as much for his bad temper as he was for his skills in English.
It didn't take long to get some dirt on Kaho; It turned out that she was cheating on Seo with two other boys. Once Mitsugu confronted Kaho with pictures as proof, the girl was furious. Mitsugu expected her to back down like many others had done, but instead she decided to do something unexpected.
She told Seo, except, in her version, Mitsugu was bribing her with 'photoshopped' pictures. Seo was enraged.
One day after class, Kaho and Seo confronted Mitsugu.
"I want you to delete those photoshopped images RIGHT NOW! Stop bullying my Kaho just because you're jealous of her!" Seo demanded. Mitsugu just leant back into her chair, smirking.
"I don't have anything photoshopped. Just real pictures- would you like to see?" Mitsugu taunted, the grin on her face growing wider. Kaho gasped.
"Seo! Are you just like- going to let me be spoke to like that!" Kaho cried out, all crocodile tears and histrionics. Yes, humans are interesting; Mitsugu liked to see them writhe.
"Yeah, don't talk to my girlfriend like that, you miserable little urchin! Seo hissed, spittle flying from his mouth. "If you won't delete it yourself then I'll take care of it!"
He made a grab for Mitsugu's phone, but she pulled it out of the way.
"That's not happening." She said with a half smile. Seo scowled and Kaho smirked.
"Oh yeah?" He growled. Both of them made a grab for the phone. Mitsugu could tell that they didn't think she was a threat, so she decided to teach them a lesson. She slipped her hand into her pocket and pulled out a knife, pointing it at them. Both of them yelped and jumped away.
"She's gone psycho! She's gonna kill us!" Kaho squealed as Seo practically pushed her out of the way to make his escape.
Mitsugu snickered. "Humans are so funny when they show their true colours."
But, at that moment, one of the teachers walked in and saw her brandishing the knife. To say she was in shit was an understatement; The Chairman was involved, they discussed expelling her, and even got the police involved to lecture her on 'knife crime'. It took a lot of pretending to be 'sorry' but Mitsugu eventually got her sentence down to a suspension and spending third year in E class. Really, the punishment could of been a lot worse. But apparently her mother still wasn't best pleased.
Akihiko Takahiro leaned back into his chair, laughing as one of his friend's told a joke. He was sat in his family's restaurant after closing time with a group of classmates. After spending the day helping out serving food he was spending the night relaxing.
"So- are any of you guys going to the fair next week, since it's in town and all?" Takahiro asked, as he bit into one of the snacks his mother had made for them. "I heard it's supposed to be a blast."
Instead of reacting enthusiastically like he expected, Takahiro's friends looked at him wearily.
"We have finals next week. No way we should slack off, right guys?" A serious-looking boy named Handa said sternly, the others nodded in agreement. "Your grades have been plummeting, if you don't watch your back you'll end up in E class."
"You're way too serious. You all need to learn to relax a little and just do what you feel like. It'll make you happier." Takahiro said with a friendly smile, shoving all worries he had about his performance in school to the back of his mind. Takahiro had always been laid back and charismatic, which made him good fun as a friend, but lacking as a student.
"Well you just watch your back- if you end up in E class, people won't want to be associated with you." Handa sniffed. Takahiro resisted the urge to roll his eyes.
"We're hanging out together, this is supposed to be fun- can't we talk about something less dour for once?" Takahiro said, picking up more snacks. "I know, let's play dares!"
A few of the girls blushed and giggled. Takahiro smiled. This was the life- just taking it easy and having fun.
"I think I'm cursed." Michio Mori groaned, as he stared at the sternly worded letter from the school condemning him to E class.
"What's wrong, Michio?" The eldest of his three younger sisters, Fuyuki asked, her green eyes wide with curiosity. She was eleven, and quite studious for her age. Mori patted down on the luxurious sofa in the space next to himself, indicating for her to sit down.
"Big brother's got in trouble at school for some stuff he didn't do." Mori explained patiently, with a fond smile he reserved only for his little sisters."I was in the wrong place at the wrong time I guess; Some security cameras were broken and a few other things while I was in the area, so they think I did it, and now I'm in trouble.
Fuyuki's mouth widened, aghast. "You're in trouble! That's awful! We have to set things right!" She declared. Mori gave a half smile.
"Mum and Dad are trying to set things right but so far it doesn't look like it's working." Mori explained. "But you know what, I don't mind if the school thinks I'm a delinquent."
Fuyuki looked at him, shocked. "Why not?"
"Because I know I'll always have you, our sisters and mother and father on my side!" Mori said, before messing up Fuyuki's hair.
"Stoop!" She squealed, giggling. "You're so silly, Michio!"
Mori laughed. "Come on. Let's go find Haruka and Natsume and do something fun so I'm not sitting around sulking."
"Right!" Fuyuki said, skipping off. Mori followed- He had three younger sisters, Fyuki, Haruka who was nine and Natsuki who was seven. He'd always done everything he could to be the best older brother to them. He really did feel lucky, that he had such a lovely family.
"I thought he was just weird, but apparently he's an idiot too."
"Seriously, he creeps me out. I can't believe they let someone like him into our school."
Echo tuned out the voices as he read through yet another failed science exam. He did average in his other subjects, but science was his downfall. That, and socialising; many of the elite kids of Kunigigaoka refused to interact with him, because his different appearance and uniform marked him as 'weird'. Echo told himself he didn't care about the opinion of snobs anyway, but being treated as a social pariah and living life as a loner wasn't easy.
Anger and loneliness bubbled underneath the surface.
"Aw man- looks like you're headed for E class soon." Natsuhiko Koyama snickered, adjusting his glasses. He was the best at science in the school (besides Gakushuu Asano of course- but he was the best at everything). Echo glared at him, but bit his tongue.
"I'm shocked they let a rodent like you in the school anyway." Seo goaded, stepping in front of Echo along with Koyama. "What's the matter- you mad?"
Other students sat by, enjoying watching Echo being made into a spectical. Echo clenched his fists and tried to remember those Spanish lullabies from his childhood to calm himself down.
"Still ignoring us?" Araki taunted. "Honestly, I mean this in the nicest way possible, but your kind of an eyesore. It's like having a rat in the class."
Snap!
That was it, Echo had enough! Without even thinking about it he launched forward and punched Araki and Seo. A shocked silence descended on the class. He hadn't even hit them that hard, but both of them looked scandalised.
Without waiting for the teacher's response, Echo stormed out. Well. After that debacle it was certainly E class for him. Oh well. At least he'd be away from these snobs.
"With this attitude of yours you'll both be headed for E class soon!" The teacher sniffed as he handed the two girls in detention both supplementary work to do.
Ayazi Koroniki rolled her ice blue eyes. This sucked. So what if she slacked off a little? Why did she have to waste her time doing a dumb detention? She would of ditched it if the teacher hadn't cornered her after class. She glanced at the other girl- Meiyu Celesi. She had gotten in trouble for daydreaming through a test- but by the looks of things she was daydreaming right now, gazing out of the window without a care in the world.
"I hope we're having beef hot pot tonight." Meiyu said randomly. Koroniki raised an eyebrow; Weirdo. It made her think of her parents waiting for her at home. She wished she was at home eating dinner with them instead of stuck here.
"I hope we're having stir fry." Koroniki replied after a pause as she started her work. Really, slacking was so much better than doing all this pointless algebra.
"You can do it, right?" Hitoshi demanded, his dark eyes narrowed. Arisu nodded, although the back of her mind was filled with all the other work she'd agreed to do; Other people's homework, tutoring, proof-reading, budgeting for clubs she wasn't even a part of. It was no wonder her grades had steadily been declining through the year. And yet. She couldn't refuse, she had to make people happy.
"Sure- I'll have your homework done by tomorrow so you can copy it up in your own handwriting!" Arisu said with a forced cheer- yes, even if it meant she'd be too exhausted to finish her own homework, she'd do all this work. And with a deceptively joyful smile on her face to boot.
"You're a real life saver." Hitoshi grinned, before walking away. He didn't much care if what he was doing was 'wrong', so long as he got to take the easy root everything was fine.
This morning was hectic, but mornings where always hectic when you had three sisters under the age of five, it was like having a litter of very loud, demanding puppies who loved pink and glitter. But still, Kazuma loved his sisters, even if they meant he was late to school almost every , who was three clung onto his leg like some kind of monkey as he attempted to gather up everyone's lunches'.
"I don't want to go to nursery!" She whined as Kazuma lugged her around. "I want to stay home and play!"
"You can play after nursery, now show me how grown up you are and go and put your shoes on." Kazuma said, sternly. Mizumi jumped up off his leg.
"I can do that all by myself." She declared, running off. Kazuma sighed, before shouting up the stairs.
"Kasai! Chikyua! Are you two ready yet?"
Chikyua, who was four appeared at the top of the stairs in her school uniform. "Kaz! Kasai is sick!" She said, looking worried. Kazuma sighed and made his way up the stairs towards the girl's shared room. Sure enough, Kasai his five year old sister was tucked up in bed looking pale and ill, he instantly felt a spike of worry. His parents were at work and it was too short notice to call a baby-sitter! Kazuma realised he would have to take a day off school again to look after his sister. And his attendance was already abysmal. Oh well. Family came first even if it meant E class.
"Mizumi, Chikyua; you two walk to school with one of the neighbour's kids. I need to look after Kasai." Kazuma said, Kasai smiled at him weakly. Being a big brother wasn't easy.
"You don't have to skip just because I'm doing it." Ikuya Fukuya said, turning towards Natsumi Chisato, who was sat next to him on the park bench. She smiled at him.
"Don't flatter yourself- I'm skipping because I don't want to dissect a frog in science. Plus I don't want to have too much exposure to our classmates. I think their attitudes may be more gross than dead fish." Chisato laughed, thinking of a few people in her class she couldn't stand; Ren Sakakibara, Leiko Izanami to name a few. Fukuya nodded. Although, she did feel a little guilty about skipping- she didn't want her grandparents to worry.
"Well, I can agree on that one." He nodded. "Besides. The teacher's already mad at me for dying my fringe red."
"Rebel." Chisato teased. Although, he wasn't anywhere as bad as she used to be back in her rebellious days; bullying, stealing, getting into street fights. She'd changed now though. She didn't want to be a menace to society anymore. She pushed thoughts of her past to the back of her mind.
"You're skipping too, aren't you?" Fukuya replied, giving a rare half-smile. "You're a rebel as well."
_.
Satoshi snickered to himself as the students lined up to buy lunch at the cafeteria. Finally, his plan was in motion. He felt like a super-villain as he watched his fellow students buy their lunches from his table right at the back. They had no idea what was coming.
The five virtuosos where the first to buy their lunch. For once, Asano was actually eating with them instead of just holing himself up in his office to work through lunch break. Perfect, Satoshi thought.
A few other students where sat down now, all of them with their tainted lunches. And people where starting to eat.
The reaction was almost instant- People started jumping up and screaming, turning bright red and fanning their mouths; Even the five virtuoso where jumping and squealing like cats on a hot tin roof (except for Asano, who just continued eating his lunch, looking confused- his lack of reaction was further proof he wasn't human).
Unable to stop himself, Satoshi burst out into a fit of laughter as pandemonium erupted before him in the lunch room- People where fighting each other to get to water fountains. It was hysterically seeing all these usually proud, prim and proper people go to pieces. Yes, sneaking ghost chilies into the cafeteria food had been his best plan yet; Better than filling the pool with jello, or hiding test papers in the ceiling wasn't his fault he was bored! Besides, having five older brothers really made you good at doing pranks, even if they where grown up business people like his parents now.
"Yu Satoshi! I assume this was your doing!" A voice full of thunder said to him. Satoshi looked up to see Asano standing above him, glaring. Satoshi did his best to look innocent.
"What a wild accusation, Asano-kun." Satoshi said, blinking. "Do you have any proof to back that up?"
"Don't worry. 'Witnesses' will be easy to produce." Asano said, as his classmates shouted and panicked behind him. Bastard, Satoshi thought, of course he has no problem creating fake witnesses I know nobody saw me. "You won't be able to avoid going to E class now."
Satoshi glared at him. Yep. He really was a bastard.
Yuki Hishiro couldn't move. She knew how important this test was; After bombing the mid-terms, getting an excellent score on this was the only way to avoid E class. And yet. Her vision blurred, she felt sick, her hands shook and the panic and fear inside her seemed to act as chains, only restricting her further.
Her parents where going to kill her.
She had worked so hard for this test, harder than she had ever worked before- worked non-stop without a break. But now when it came to performing she was a failure. She could already see the disappointed look in her eyes and hear their angry voices.
"Worthless!"
"What's the point if you can't even do a simple exam? We took you in and this is how you repay us?"
Hishiro felt her heart clench as the teacher called the end of the test. No- it couldn't be. She hadn't even managed to write her name! Ignoring the looks of classmates who noticed her blank test paper, Hishiro got up and bolted out.
What's wrong with me? I know the answers so why can't I do this!?
"Is dinner ready yet?"
"Hurry up Mahiro! I'm hungry!"
"I'm dying of starvation!"
"Just wait two seconds!" Mahiro Kaminari shouted back irritably at his brothers. God- they were demanding! And those three where the ones who sat around the house all day doing nothing while Mahiro was slaving away at school (okay so he skipped sometimes) so why couldn't one of his brothers make food for once? Of course, if he mentioned it to them they'd probably just punch him. He hated being the youngest.
Mahiro served the curry up on the plates. "It's ready! You three can stop whining now!" He called out, and like trained dogs his brothers bounded from the living room to the kitchen. All three of his brothers where NEETs; Not in Education, Employment or Training. Toranosuke was the oldest; He was tall and wiry with a sly grin and a mean streak. He dropped out of college and hadn't done anything since. He was 25 now, and in those seven years he'd basically just hung around the house. Ranmaru was the second oldest at 23, he was a big beefy man with more muscles than brain cells- he had dropped out in his first year of high school and never got a job. Kurosaki, the second youngest, at 20, hadn't even made it through middle school- He was the brother Mahiro argued with the most, he was whiny and sensitive and seemed to get annoyed at everything.
It was no wonder, Mahiro's Grandparents had paid for him to go to Kunnigigaoka to try and avoid him turning out like his brothers. Well, it wasn't going to well. Mahiro just didn't understand the classes and the teachers didn't have any patience for slow learners.
"So how was school today? You got home kinda early didn't you? Did you skip again?" Toranosuke taunted. Ranmaru snickered. "I might have to tell Dad."
"Then I'm telling Dad you were smoking weed in your room again!" Mahiro huffed, as he ate his food. He knew his behaviour at school would get him out in E class, but he was sure even if he tried he still couldn't get the grades so what was the point? Ranmaru laughed again.
"You do that you little turd, and I'll drown you in the bathtub!" Toranosuke threatened. Mahiro clenched his fist- he knew his brother wouldn't ever kill him, but he wasn't above scaring him by dunking him under the water (He knew that first hand)/
"Fine. Then nobody will make you food and you three lazy bums with starve to death." Mahiro shrugged. Ranmaru and Toranosuke both laughed. But Kurosaki was offended.
"Why did you bring me into this and call me lazy! I haven't even done anything! I hate this family!" Kurosaki shrieked, picking his food up and storming off to his room. Ranmaru and Toranosuke laughed harder at his histrionics. Mahiro rolled his eyes. Why was every family meal like this? Oh well, at least there hadn't been any physical fighting for once.
Leiko Izanami stared at the maths paper before her, the numbers and letters seemed to blend into one. Maybe she should of paid attention in class, because now she had no idea how to do her homework.
"Leiko- I have a some friends coming over later. Come and help me tidy up." Her mother said, walking into her room without knocking.
"Later. I'm doing my homework." Leiko replied without even looking at her. Her mother let out a derisive snort and walked over, looking and the maths sheet from over her daughter's shoulder.
"Darling- you are thirteen years old. If you still can't work out simple maths then it's time to give up." Her mother said in her 'caring-parent' tone. "I mean 17x6- really, you're still stuck on that? Why don't you just get that Arisu Tsukiko girl to do your homework like you used to?"
"Then I'll still fail the test, mother." Leiko said through gritted teeth. Weren't parents meant to encourage you not to cheat?
"Don't call me 'mother' it makes me feel old. Honey, you aren't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed. Even if you do your homework you're still going to fail." Her mother said with a sickeningly sweet tone. She sat down behind Leiko, running a manicured hand through her long dark hair. "Now why don't you just stick to what you're good at? One of my guests tonight is a lovely young man who's just got a job as a deputy executive. I think he'll like you."
"And how old is this 'young man'?" Leiko asked, raising an eyebrow. She was sure most parents wouldn't push their thirteen year old daughters to date a grown-man, but for her mother this was the norm.
"Twenty... Maybe a few years older than twenty." Her mother said flippantly as if the exact age didn't matter. "Just don't mess things up by mentioning your actual age. Keep it vague- Now stop wasting your time and help me set up!"
The thought of her mother pushing her to try and seduce some probably thirty year old guy made Leiko feel almost physically sick. But her mother was right- trying to do school work was pointless for her. She got up out of her chair, and pushed her homework to the side. "Okay then, mother of the year, I'll help you set up." Leiko said, putting as much distaste in her tone as she could muster.
"Fabulous!" Her mother cooed. "This is all for your own good, you know!"
"Trading porn magazines, stealing girl's clothes, attempting to hide cameras in the locker rooms, being caught almost... Fornicating with another pupil in an empty classroom- " the teacher, Mrs Mansuo read off a list. "Mr Ashiya, your record from the past two years shows you have no respect for woman-kind."
"Non! I have the greatest respect for women. I think they're all so beautiful! J'adore them all!" Pierre Ashiya exclaimed, his blue eyes wide. "Even you, with your face dyed with rage, are still exquisite, Sensei. I love how confident and domineering you are. I like women who can dominate me."
Mrs Mansuo looked as though she'd been spat on, a scowl grew on her face. She opened her mouth to shout, but instead, forced herself to calm down. "Well, you are clearly beyond help, so I won't even bother to reprimand you for that highly inappropriate comment, Mr Ashiya." Mansuo-Sensei said, her tone acidic. "It doesn't matter, you are already destined for E class because of your conduct. You will be kept at a safe distance from the nice, normal students at the main school."
Pierre just smiled at her. He knew he'd messed up, though, hugely. His impulsively had gotten him into trouble time and time again. Ah well. Even in E class, he'd be able to find beautiful girls.
"This is just impossible!" Santana Hiranaman cried out, looking at the black lines and squiggles on the page she just couldn't decipher. She had lived in Australia her whole life, she had only just got used to speaking Japanese, reading it was impossible, especially at the high level demanded at Kunugiaoka! There was no way a non-native like her could possible pass her exams. They only subjects she aced where Maths and English, everything else was just a blur to her; Kanji, Hiragana- It all just looked like scrawl to her!
Oh well- it looked as though she would be spending her third year in the notorious 'E class'. What a pain!
Yua Syaoran let out a sigh of relief as he pulled another weed out from the ground. He could literally feel the frustration and stress leave his body as he continued to tend to the patch of flowers at the edge of the forest. This was the life- Not cooped up in a prison-like classroom, surrounded by petty vulgar people who all only caed about their own egos and grades- That was suffocating. Syaoran would far rather be out here, with nature than any of his fellow humans (Although he used that term loosely).
They could send him to E class for skipping for all he cared! He would just skip that class too!
(A/N): Sorry this was so segmented! Kuroe Nightroad's creator, that characters will show up in the next chapter or so (Since I want to write him having a late entrance to E class, I didn't want to give too much away about him yet!) This chapter ended up being a lil repetitive, but I wanted to write a bit about the characters backgrounds, since I found them interesting when I was reading the forms.
What do people think will happen next chapter when the original story resumes? Plus do people have any ideas about pairings (Not saying they will happen, I just want to know people's thoughts on pairings, romantic, platonic, or even frenemies!)
Reviews:
Blue-Black Flames: Glad you liked the chapter and the humour (sorry there isn't much in this chapter!) Thank you for all the support!
Echo Shiona: Thank you for submitting Fade! I can't gaurentee I'll use him, but he's definitely an interesting concept (Probably wont add in the telapathy thing in though, at least not overtly! I don't really feel comfortable writing incest either) Thank you for all the support! Glad you feel so enthusiastic about the story! And don't worry I didn't think you were an ass, I'm happy you like my story so much!
Awayuki- Thank you for your review!
jenny77739- Thank you for the review! glad you liked the character interaction!
PrincessFairytale5- Glad you love the story! Hope you enjoy this chapter too!
Guest- Yup, Shit will be going down between Leiko and Mitsugu- I'm happy you liked how I characterized your characters.
Dr. Z- Thank you for your submission, I'll either put Kuroe in the next chapter or the one after!
xToxic-Kitty; Thanks for the input :)
Guest: I added Hiranaman into this chapter! Although its pretty short because I was tired, I hope you like!
