Chapter 3:

Shuchi'in Private Academy, a prestigious school originally meant for the aristocracy of Japan, is today used for the education of the children of the modern-day nobility known as the wealthy elite who will go on to become Japan's future leaders!

Standing at the top of such a prestigious school was none other than the Student Body Council. Filled with only the best and brightest, the goal of such a group was to guide the young minds of the school.

For those familiar with the current iteration of the student council, political intrigue was the standard within the room as the two leaders of the school Kaguya Shinomiya and Miyuki Shirogane attempted to win each other's hearts. However, at this time their psychological warfare had not yet begun, and instead, the two of them were watching the new students come in.

What kind of thoughts was going through the minds of the new President Miyuki Shirogane?

Were they anxious one filled with how he was going to bear the standard of such a prestigious position, especially due to the fact that he was the first unclean to do so?

Or was his brilliant mind calculating how to mold his fellow classmates to be contributing members of society?

"Oh my god, why is this aiguillette so heavy!"

No, his thoughts were very much mundane.

"If this keeps up, I'm going to lose feeling in my shoulders!"

"Is everything ok President?" Kaguya asked as she looked up at Shirogane.

"Everything's fine." Shirogane lied, "Just thinking about the momentous task we have for this year."

"Hopefully you should be up to the task," Kaguya replied before she turned away, "You should be fine though, after all, you were the one to beat me in the elections."

"I'm glad you have such high expectations," Shirogane replied back stoically, "How is the task of filling the rest of the student council been going."

"We've gotten the auditor and general affairs roles filled," Kaguya replied, "Thankfully the previous student council president asked some of our seniors to stay on to help with the transition."

Shirogane smiled, thankful to his helpful senior. He could never repay the previous president for all that he had done for him.

"Though there is a problem," Kaguya said as she looked at a clipboard.

"And that is?" Shirogane asked as he tilted his head.

"Ryuju doesn't want to come back."

Shirogane almost collapsed as he heard that, thankfully he kept his composure.

"Oh is that so," Shirogane muttered nonchalantly, on the inside, however, he was panicking.

"She was invited to be the president of the astronomy club," Kaguya replied with the same energy, "So it looks like we need a new treasurer, are there any students you would like to invite?"

Shirogane began to think of candidates.

Sadly, he didn't have anyone too close to him that immediately came to mind.

Even though he was able to win the hearts of the student body enough to make them elect him, there wasn't really anyone else he was particularly close to.

"Are there any people in our grade you think would be a good fit?" Shirogane asked as he tried to think of a replacement.

"Sadly no," Kaguya replied shaking her head, "Perhaps we could get a first year to take the role?"

Shirogane put a hand on his chin, that wasn't actually a bad idea, there was already precedent for first years to be a part of the Student council as evidenced by him, Kaguya, and Ryuju last year, in addition, getting someone from that grade would give them representation within that age group.

"That's an excellent idea," He said, "What candidates would you recommend?"

"I have a couple, but I believe you should be the one to decide who fills the role," Kaguya replied in a calm voice, "I've already suggested bringing in Fujiwara, and like I've said before the auditor and General affairs officer roles have been filled due to the request of our previous president, I believe it would be prudent that you bring in your own choice, as you are the president it is important that you have your own voice within the student council."

Shirogane grimaced inside, she was right, the problem was that he didn't really know any of the first years as most of them came through their feeder school. He really didn't know any of his juniors…actually, that was a lie, he did know one.

"What about Yu Ishigami?" Shirogane asked as he suggested the one first year he did know.

"…the boy who got suspended?" Kaguya asked tilting her head.

"Yup," Shirogane replied proud of himself, "We've already done a background check on him and he has a good heart, and by the looks of it had really solid grades before he got suspended, plus isn't he the son of a toy company owner I'm sure he'd have a good idea of financials."

"He certainly has the qualifications," Kaguya muttered as she looked over her clipboard, "but don't we have the incident that got him suspended to worry about?"

"Shinomiya I thought we already did our research and came to the conclusion, that the incident wasn't his fault, in addition, Ogino has already moved schools so we don't need to worry about any drama involving that."

"President, while you are correct that we in the student council know that he has no fault with what happened, the student body as a whole still does not know the truth."

"I mean it's been a long time, and rumors come and go I'm sure people would've forgotten about it now right?"

"…You'd be surprised at the things people would remember President."

Yu Ishigami watched as trash fell from his locker, most of it filled with notes scribbled "die creep," he then attempted to look around trying to see if the culprit was still there but instead all he was met with was looks of scorn and contempt.

Putting his head down, he grabbed his lunchbox thankful that whoever did this had left his food untouched. He then began to search the school yard searching for a place to eat.

He had no one really to eat with, so there wasn't any place that he knew he could go to.

Eventually finding a quiet spot in the courtyard and away from everyone's gazes.

Ishigami then grabbed his headphone and turned them on. There wasn't really anything he particularly wanted to listen to right now but with his super senses, he could hear everyone's conversation right now.

Most of them involved him.

Opening his lunchbox, he gave a quick thanks for the food before digging in.

His first day back had not …. exactly lived up to expectation.

There was no cute childhood friend who'd wake him up saying, "wake up you dolt, you're going to be late for your first day of high school", no close friend eager to meet him at the front of the school eager to talk about their new lives and being a new person, or even a random classmate that would just approach you and asking, "How was your vacation?".

Instead, his day had been filled with what had just happened earlier, his classmates giving him cold stares and muttering under their breaths about how much of a creep he was.

He had lost count of how many times he would leave his desk only to find it a mess.

Whoever made the phrase "men never remember, but women never forget," Had hit the nail right on the head.

And he was the enemy of all women.

Never mind what he did was not his fault.

Ishigami slammed a fist into the wall in frustration, a loud crack being made as he did so.

Uh-oh, he had put a little bit too much into it.

Looking around in a panic he then breathed a sigh of relief that no one had caught him doing that.
No, he shouldn't be mad at people.

They were only acting from what they knew and if the rumors were true then he'd surely would deserve everything that's happened to him.

He couldn't blame them for not knowing the truth as it was his own choice that no one found out.

…Why did he not allow people to find out?

It wasn't like he had any special feelings for Ootomo, and the girl hated his guts so whatever he was doing was entirely thankless.

So why was he enduring all this?

"Hey, your skirt is 2 cm too short!" a familiar voice suddenly cried out, "And you no loitering around the fountain!"

Ishigami looked up broken from the stupor of his thoughts and took off his headphones, a familiar sight once again filled his eyes.

If there was one thing that was consistent it was Iino being a constant stick in the mud for rules.

He had seen her earlier because they were in the same class but he didn't bother making contact with her.

At her side as always was Osaragi, and it looked like the two joined the disciplinarian committee at Shuichi'in though that came to no surprise to him.

Iino right now was attempting to lecture seniors at this moment, and Ishigami couldn't help but smile inside.

That was Iino all right it didn't matter who it was, be it a classmate, senior, or even a teacher if she saw someone breaking the rules, she would do something about it no matter how scared she was.

And she looked very scared at that moment. Despite her bluster, even Iino would have some nervousness about trying to correct her seniors especially since it was probably her first time doing so, it also didn't help a crowd was also starting to form.

Now that he had superpowers, he could literally hear how hard her heart was pumping and was able to tell how scared the poor girl was.

Deciding to help out he rummaged through his backpack pulled out his switch set the volume to maximum and started up his copy of Breath of the Wild.

"What the! Who is playing video games at this moment!" Iino said as she heard the music, turning around and searching the courtyard until she found the source.

"You!" She screamed walking towards him, her heartbeat now back to normal, "Section 5 subsection B specifically states no Video Games on-Ishigami?" She said stopping as she reached him.

"Yo Iino," He said with a wave once she reached him, "Osaragi," he said as he acknowledged the other girl as she caught up.

An awkward silence filled the air as the last time the two had talked was when Iino asked him if he actually did what he did and he brushed her off.

"…You know you're not surprised to bring consoles to school Ishigami," Iino said breaking the ice, "it's in the rulebook."

"Well, I did not read it so I wouldn't have known," Ishigami said putting his console away and standing up.

Iino sighed as she put a hand on her head, "You're supposed to read it before the school year, and besides you know many times I lectured you dur-" She then paused as she looked Ishigami over up and down, "…Did you grow taller?"

Ishigami was surprised the girl had even noticed, she was the first one to mention it since Ren did last week.

"I hit a growth spurt these past few months," Ishigami lied he then decided to tease the girl, "Unlike you it seems," he said with a condescending smile.

That set her off as she then began to pound his chest with her small hands, "You Jerk I've grown at least 3 cm!"

"Wow, a whole 3 cm!" Ishigami mocked, "Keep that up and you'll soon be playing for the—"

Ishigami was about to say the Japanese woman's volleyball team before his senses warned him about an incoming object, causing him lightly push Iino away.

"You jerk why did you-" she screamed before a bucket of water splashed all over Ishigami.

Ishigami looked up now drenched, attempting to find the culprit.

It was girls from his class who were close to Ootomo.

"Hey!" Iino screamed as the girls ducked out of there, "Identify yourself! That was clear assault!"

"Are you ok?" Osaragi asked as Ishigami attempted to dry himself.

"I'm fine," He nodded back.

"Those no good grr, I'll catch them later," Iino turned around angry as she then looked over Ishigami, concern written over her face, "And thanks for pushing me out of the way... do you happen to have any spare clothes?"

Ishigami nodded his head sideways, "Nope but that's fine I'll just go home," He said, as he picked up his backpack.

"You can't just go home, I'm sure there are spare clothes somewhere." Iino pointed out.

"You may be right but…" He then turned towards Iino, "I really don't want to be here anymore… and clearly no one wants me here either," He then left, with Iino and Osaragi staring at him from a distance. staring at him in silence.

Ishigami was tired.

He was tired of the looks people were giving him.

He was tired of hearing what people were saying about him.

Only one thought was circulating through his head.

"Why am I doing this?"

Why was he enduring all this hate and vitriol when he could easily resolve it.

That feeling about wanting to tell the truth once again filled his chest.

"I want to tell my side, I want it all to stop," He thought to himself as he continued to trudge his way home.

He thought that he had made peace with his decision when the student body president told him that his efforts weren't in vain.

But at this moment all he could think of was how stupid he was being and cursing his own stubbornness.

Why was he not making things easier on himself?

Was it sunk-cost mentality in that he's made it this far and he can't quit now?

Or was it he did actually have feelings for Ootomo and this was some screwed-up way that would somehow win her heart.

Or was it his crappy sense of justice that he copied?

He was sick of trying to be a hero.

Why was he trying to act like a knight when he was more fit to be a jester?

Negative thoughts continued to cloud his thoughts as he made his way home and opened the door.

"Yu, what are you doing home?" his mom asked as he opened the door, "School doesn't end for a while."

"I didn't want to be at school anymore," Ishigami said as he avoided his mother's face.

"You, stupid, ungrateful kid!" A loud voice interrupted before his mom could inquire more.

Ishigami looked at the sight of his father standing on the stairs, a furious look on his face.

"You were already lucky enough to be able to go to high school after what you did, but now you pull this stunt!" He yelled as he came rumbling the stairs.

"Why do you always have to cause trouble?" He asked as he got in Ishigami's face.

Ishigami didn't answer, instead, he looked at the floor.

"You have been an absolute embarrassment to me these last few months!" He continued to yell, "I can't even look at my employees because of the shame you brought on the family!"

An ugly feeling started to form in Ishigami's stomach just itching to get out.

"Look at me when I'm talking to you!" His Dad yelled as he grabbed Ishigami by the shoulders.

"Calm down honey," his mom interjected as she put herself between the two, "We can work this out without yelling."

"Do not baby him!" the man said as he turned his attention towards his wife, "He's not a child anymore, yet he has yet to learn responsibility!"

"Responsibility?" Ishigami muttered angrily catching the two's attention, "You want to talk to me about responsibility? Why don't you two take some responsibility as a parent for once!" He said raising his voice.

He couldn't hold it back anymore he had enough.

"You dare-"

"I dare!" Ishigami interrupted, "Not once have you acted like a dad," he then looked his dad straight in the eye, "Whenever anything happens you always assume it's my fault, and never once have you asked why!" He then angrily pointed to his clothes to show their state, "Take a look at me, Dad, I'm back from school but I'm covered head to toe in water! Why do you think that's the case and here's a hint it's not because it's raining outside!"

His dad looked him up and down his eyes widening realizing what happened.

"You don't care about me at all, all you care about is me making you look good," Ishigami continued as a torrid of his feelings were unleashed "You always would complain about everything I did, saying it's not good enough Ren did it better at my age, all you care about is me making you look good!"

"Yu calm down," His mother interrupted, "I know you're angry right now, but if you calm down, we can work this out."

"Like you have room to talk!" Ishigami said as he turned to his mother, "you guys think I'm some sort of violent monster, who does what he wants for no reason!"

"That's not true Yu!" She cried back tears in her eyes, "I-we love you and would never think of you that way."

"Oh yeah!" Ishigami said his voice growing louder, "Then why didn't you look at me nevertheless talk to me at all these last few months?!" He asked, "Why did it take Ren coming back to finally get the courage to talk to me again."

His mother looked down in shame with no answer.

"I messed up I admit it! I could've handled what I did better" Ishigami said as he looked at both of his parents, "But do you know how alone I've felt these past few months?" He looked at both parents who were avoiding his gaze, "Do you know how much it hurts to have your own parents not only not believe you, but not even listen to my side of the story!"

"I've needed you these past few months and neither of you wasn't there! So don't talk to me about responsibility!"

He then ran up to his room shutting and locking the door.

He felt so angry right now, he wanted to forget everything at this moment, grabbing his switch and putting on his headphones he started to game hoping he could clear his mind.

After an hour of gaming, he heard a loud knock on his door.

"Go away," Ishigami said as he continued to play his game "I don't want to talk right now."

"Yu, it's me, we need to talk."

Ishigami took off his headphones and opened the door.

"What do you want Ren?"

"Mom called me at work…she wanted me to talk to you."

"Of course, she did, because she's too afraid of doing it herself," Ishigami muttered underneath his breath.

"Yu, I don't care how angry you are, you don't talk about Mom like that," Ren said as firmly as he looked at Ishigami with serious eyes.

"Don't tell me you're on their side as well," Ishigami scowled, "Are you here to berate me for my mistakes as well?"

"Yu I'm not here to berate you, I'm here to listen, that's what Mom said you wanted right? Someone to listen."

"Listen what do you want to listen to!" Ishigami said as shrugged, "Do you want to listen to me rant about a scumbag who can get a cute girlfriend but still cheat on her just because he can?" He bitterly asked.

"Or do you want to listen to the fact said scumbag could tell a lie and get away with it because he's good-looking and sociable?" He said as he began to pace around the room.

"Or do you want to listen to the fact that people so easily believe what said and decide to take justice for it, trashing my desk and my locker, spreading rumors about me, and drenching me in water!" he said while throwing his hands in the air.

"Or is it the fact that I'm dumb not to tell the truth about what happened because I wanted to protect the smile of a girl who A. I don't even like and B. hates my guts because I was trying to do the right thing because I decided to copy your screwed-up sense of justice!" he finished as he turned to his brother breathing heavily.

A heavy silence filled the air before his brother spoke.

"Is that what you are angry about Yu?" his brother asked, "Is it because you did the right thing, but it didn't work in your favor?"

Ren's question pierced Ishigami as had no idea how to answer it.

"That…that's not it…" Ishigami hesitantly answered while looking away, "I tried to be a hero like you doing the right thing helping people because I can, but all I was rewarded with was scorn and hatred because I'm not good eno-"

"Yu, you don't get it, I don't do the things I do to get rewarded for it," he interrupted before Ishigami could finish his sentence, and then Ren continued his point with the most serious face Ishigami had seen in a while, "it's not about being good enough or being the hero. It's about earnestly wanting to help."

Ishigami was about to argue that he knew that before Ren interrupted him.

"Do you know how lucky we are?" He asked rhetorically, "We are a wealthy family who can afford all sorts of things that most people never could learn things that some people would do anything to learn, and we've gotten experiences that some people can only dream about, with how blessed we blessed we are do you think it's right that we do nothing and sit on our laurels in comfort?"

"Don't give me the there are children starving in Africa' speech," Ishigami muttered rolling his eyes.

"That's not the point," Ren sighed before looking Ishigami in the eye and putting his hand on his shoulder, "With great power comes great responsibility," He said firmly as he tightened his grip, Ishigami felt his brother's eyes bore through his soul, "We have been blessed with gifts and with talent, and it is our duty to use these gifts to help people."

"Maybe you have gifts and talent," Ishigami muttered sadly as he brushed his brother's hand off him, "I'm just the talentless younger brother…a failure that you pity and know will never be as good as you."

He then shut the door before, Ren could answer back, a hurt expression on his face.

Going back to his game, he tried to once again calm down and forget everything, but he couldn't, he needed to do something else.

Right now, he just wanted to swing away and forget everything.

Ishigami looked down from the Skytree at the bustling city around him. Tokyo really was truly beautiful.

Being here allowed him to clear his thoughts and be introspective. What he did was a mistake, he shouldn't have blown up to his family today. He could've handled it better.

While his dad could go kick rocks, instead of blowing up he should've tried to calmly explain what happened, and if he really wanted his parents to know the truth he would've just straight up told them instead of waiting for them to ask.

The events of the day had just gotten to him and like a dam bursting everything he had been feeling for the past few months burst out.

"Hah," he laughed at himself, he thought everything would be different now that he had super powers but, in the end, everything was the same.

He didn't change at all he was still stuck in the past just because he got super powers it didn't make him any more different or a hero.

He was still just ole creepy Yu Ishigami.

Sighing Ishigami went to grab his backpack pulling out his phone.

"Woah!" he said as he looked at his phone.

He had a million missed calls and a similar amount of voice messages.

They were all from Ren.

Ishigami opened up the first one and began to listen.

"Yu where are you?" his brother asked over the phone, "I went up to your room for dinner and you were gone, please call me back when you can.

Ishigami then moved on to the next message

"Yu, it's getting late and you still have responded back, please call me back soon."

Ishigami clicked the next one.

"Answer the phone Yu, if you don't respond back, I am going to personally find you and drag your butt back home you hear me?"

Ishigami winced as he moved on.

"I'm looking for you right now Yu and I don't care if you want your space, there is something you need to hear from me."

Ishigami tapped again to the next voicemail.

"Yu, I know you're angry but even if you don't want to talk right now, so just…just let me know that you're all right…please?"

Just as Ishigami was about to listen to the last message a new voice message popped up.

"Yu, I don't know if you've been listening to my voice mails, but if you have, I really did mean what I said in the last one, so please ju-" A loud noise suddenly interrupted his brother and he could hear a loud swerve and crash, a couple of seconds later Ishigami could hear panic voices in the background…none of them belonging to Ren.

Ishigami panicked and he quickly called his brother back, hoping desperately that he would answer it and say that there was a little incident but everything was all right.

There was no answer.

"No", he horridly thought to himself as he jumped from the Sky Tree swinging around desperately searching for his brother.

He looked high and low for Ren, people were pointing him out, but he didn't care.

He just needed to find Ren.

Swinging around for a bit longer, he was eventually able to make out a crowd of people gathering around what looked like an accident.

Dropping down the street, he ran through the crowd pushing people out of the way till he reached the forefront of the crowd.

They were gathering at the site of a brutal car crash.

Pieces of car were everywhere as the vehicle itself was in flames.

His heart dropped as he recognized the car that had crashed and the unconscious person that was still in the car.

He began to run towards it.

"Hey, what are you doing kid?" someone in the crowd said as he tried to grab the boy.

Ishigami shrugged him off yelling, "That's my brother!"

He then ran towards the wrecked car, ripped the door off, and gently took his brother out of the car.

"Ren, Ren!" He yelled as he laid his brother down, he looked at his hands, they were covered in blood.

Looking over his brother's body he could see red seeping throughout his clothes.

"Oh god!" He thought to himself, "Somebody help!" he screamed as he looked at the crowd, "He's dying, he needs help!"

"Someone called an ambulance," one of the bystanders said, "they should be here soon!"

An ambulance was coming, he just needed to keep Ren alive till then.

"Come on, Ren you could do this," He whispered as he attempted to pressurize the wounds, "You can do this Ren, you're invincible you can make it, you always do."

He could feel Ren suddenly stir as he slowly opened his eyes.

"Yu," he then weakly asked, "Is that you?"

"It's me, Ren, it's me," Ishigami said as he held his brother by the head, "Everything's going to be fine, help is on the way."

"Remind me to add car crashes to things that I never want to experience again," His brother feebly joked, "I'll put it right above, eating gas station sushi in the US, and below writing a thesis."

"I will," Ishigami said as he forced a smile and tried to hold back his tears, "I will make sure you add that to the list, and you can add more to the list later, just stay with me!" He begged.

"I'm just…I'm just glad you are ok," he said as he reached out and cupped Ishigami's cheek, "that you are safe."

Ishigami grabbed his hand with both his hands, tears in his eyes.

"I…I feel so tired, now that I know you're re ok I think…I think I can rest now," Ren said as he closed his eyes letting his hand drop.

Ishigami could feel his brother go limp on him.

"Wake up," he said as he shook his brother, "Wake up Ren!" He screamed, "We need that ambulance" he screamed towards the bystanders, "where is it!?"

"Please wake up!" He screamed as he turned his attention back to his brother, "I'm sorry for being such a little shit earlier, just stay with me!" he begged his head.

There was no answer as his brother remained motionless.

Ishigami continued to plead for his brother to wake up as he held him in his arms, the sound of ambulances approaching slowly in the distance.

Today, Yu Ishigami…loses