Disclaimer: "Rent a Girlfriend" belongs to Reiji Miyajima.
TW: Lots of physical violence, and bullying involving children in this chapter. Please proceed with caution.
Chapter 1: Turning Point
Kazuya Kinoshita: Male, age 11, brown eyes, black hair, cheery and outgoing personality.
Kazuya was your usual 11 year-old. Always energetic, curious about everything, and caused trouble at times.
His days were always the same. School was uneventful, but he had fun. He had caring parents and an incredible grandmother (his words), but he would spend the most time with his friends at school.
Kazuya had a small circle, but he never stood out among them. He quite liked just being able to tag along on their 'adventures', no matter how crazy they may be at times.
Among his group of friends, he was particularly close to a boy named Kibe Yoshiaki, who was a friend to him since kindergarten.
He would follow the others around and do what they do (or at least try to), subconsciously afraid that he would be rejected and left alone if they didn't act like them, something Kibe called Kazuya out for, but he refuses to acknowledge it, much to his friend's worry.
Kazuya may not realize it, but Kibe clearly does — Kazuya cannot tell the difference between fake and real friends.
Sometimes, Kazuya's friends would bully a random student, and he would join them whenever he could, although not being harsh like the others as he never felt it was right. This behavior was never left unnoticed by his friends, however.
One day, Kibe couldn't come to school, for reasons Kazuya didn't know. He apparently called in sick, but he felt something was wrong. Perhaps it was too sudden, because Kibe was always a good kid, and a healthy one at that, so it should be rare for him to get sick on such short notice. He was fine the day before too, but when he brought it up with his 'friends', they brushed it off as an unlucky day for him, which Kazuya innocently believed.
When Kazuya turned to leave for his classes, he failed to notice the growing smirk on their faces.
During lunch break, his friends told him to go with them somewhere, something that usually doesn't happen, because Kazuya was always the one who invites himself into their activities. The boy failed to realize the absurdness of the situation, but rather saw it as them being more open to him; it made him happy, if anything.
So Kazuya followed them, as usual. He trailed them to another part of the school. Eventually, they led him to an empty classroom where a girl sat, crying.
Her hair was a nice shade of pink. Through the tears, Kazuya could see her beautiful, red eyes. She kept rubbing them in an attempt to stop the tears from flowing, but the pain inflicted on her only made them worse.
Kazuya was about to rush to her aid, but his 'friends' stopped him from doing so. When he turned around with a confused expression, he saw a small pile of rocks being handed to him. Before he could ask, the boy who was holding them up spoke while pointing to the weeping girl.
"Throw 'em."
Sumi Shinomiya: Female, age 9, red eyes, pink hair, shy and timid personality.
Sumi was always the odd one out. She couldn't properly make friends because of how shy she was. Every time she tries to talk to someone, she would stumble her words and make the other person lose interest.
Given her personality, she would always get bullied for it. It started as playful teasing, but over time, it evolved into something much worse. Sumi would get berated for her way of speaking, and worst of all, she can't do anything about it.
She would try to report to the teachers about it, but Sumi would stumble her words even more when she tried to. Although the adults were clueless, the bullies that witnessed her futile attempts at ratting them out weren't. As a result, she would get hurt even more — both physically and mentally.
Sumi's parents were on bad terms, so she never got the chance to even bring it up with them, and she doesn't have any friends — real nor fake — to rely on.
Her life in school wasn't pleasant at all, and Sumi couldn't do anything about it.
One time, Sumi heard rumors of a group of kids going around and bullying people. She resolved to try and avoid them, whoever they may be, but alas, she bumped into them the very next day.
She didn't get out unscathed.
After the group left the empty classroom, ordering the pinkette to stay or they'll find her the next day to do something much worse, Sumi looked around the rocks scattered across the floor. As she glanced over each one, she could remember the pain each of them felt like as they hit her skin and left various wounds all over her.
She was in a classroom in an area in the school not frequently visited, so no one was around to help nor see her in this helpless state. With no one in sight, for now, she cried without hesitation, tears falling down as her voice reached volumes she never spoke before. Her wounds still hurt, and blood trickled down her face. She couldn't leave, at least not until they came back, probably to re-open her wounds once they've healed. With those things in mind, she kept crying… and crying…
Until footsteps approached the door.
Sumi looked up to see the group from before, with a new set of rocks in one of their hands as she shivered from the sight, and a new person following closely behind.
For a moment, the new stranger stared at her, with a look different from the other bullies. For a moment, Sumi hoped he was different. Her tears kept uncontrollably flowing, but kept her gaze on him, in hopes to see something— no, anything that would help her get out of this situation.
The boy stepped forward, walking towards her and she felt hope rising, until he was stopped by the others.
When the handful of rocks were handed to the boy, all her hope felt crushed.
"Throw 'em." One of the bullies said to Kazuya as he pointed to Sumi, who sat there with a betrayed look.
"W-What?" Kazuya gave a confused look.
"You wanted to be one of us, didn't you?" The other boy answered with a question of his own. "I— no, we saw how you always stand back whenever we do somethin' like this. C'mon, dude. I thought you were part of our group."
He forced the handful of rocks onto Kazuya's hand. "It's time you proved yourself to be one of us." The others cheered behind him.
"I…" He stared at the rocks in his hand, then to the pinkette sitting, still bleeding from an earlier beating.
"Hurry it up, Kinoshita."
Kazuya once again looked at Sumi, who had tears forming in her eyes once again, and it felt like the world slowed around him. He gazed into those beautiful, red eyes and felt a dreadful emotion when he saw how the rest of her face was messed up, covered in a mix of blood and tears.
Kazuya felt his heart sink at the thought of opening more wounds — to give her another reason to cry.
Kazuya couldn't stand it.
He dropped the rocks on the floor and turned his back to the girl, while spreading his arms in a defensive stance, protecting Sumi from who he once considered his friends.
"I won't let you hurt her."
Sumi's eyes widened in disbelief.
The leader of the group, Yamamoto, looked at him with a sad look before sighing, and chuckling as he picked up the rocks Kazuya had dropped just now.
"You really don't belong with us if you're this soft, Kinoshita." He said as he raised his hand and slapped it across Kazuya's face, while the group laughed behind Yamamoto.
"You really are a weakling, just like her," he glanced at Sumi, who was still shaking. "And just like that boy you always hung around with."
"Shibe? What does he have to do with this?!" Kazuya snarled.
"Oh boy, and I thought getting rid of him would remove that stupid voice out of your head. Guess I needed to break more than just an arm for him to shut up for good." Yamamoto smirked.
Kazuya gritted his teeth. "S-So it was you, the reason he was absent today! I knew something was wrong, but you told me—"
"You always followed us around like a dog, Kinoshita. You'd believe every word we'd say, just so you could fit in."
"Why you—"
Another slap hit Kazuya across his face again. Sumi yelped at the sound, and tried to stand up to help only for her legs to fail her and Sumi fell to the ground. Kazuya immediately rushed to her side and wrapped an arm protectively around her.
Yamamoto scoffed and raised his other hand, where a sharp rock was being held.
"Now then, this was for wasting my time. You won't get out of this with just a slap to the face, Kinoshita." he began to swing his hand, and Kazuya could only close his eyes and wait for it to be over with.
"KAZUYA!" a voice shouted from the outside, followed by several footsteps.
Yamamoto immediately stopped and grit his teeth. "Damn it, how?!"
Shibe reached the doorway to the empty classroom, his arm in a cast but the rest of him was brimming with energy. Teachers followed closely behind him.
"Mr. Yamamoto, what is the meaning of this?!" A male teacher boomed.
"H-How—"
Shibe interrupted him. "You made the mistake of using the same classroom you used to beat me up." He raised his right arm — the one in a cast — to show Yamamoto's work.
The other members of Yamamoto's group tried to run, but Yamamoto himself held them by the uniform with a furious look. "You're not leaving me here!" he yelled, while the others struggled to escape his grip.
"Enough!" the principal, having just arrived at the scene, yelled as he too, walked into the classroom. "Mr. Yamamoto, and the rest of you, in my office! Your parents would like a word." he turned to Shibe. "Get Mr. Kinoshita and Ms. Shinomiya to the infirmary." He looked at his broken arm. "Ask some teachers to help you."
"Thanks, principal." Shibe bowed before walking over to where Kazuya was, who was still hugging a crying Sumi like she was a stuffed animal.
"Shi… be…?" Kazuya raised his head to see his friend — with his arm in a cast — looking down at him and helping him up.
Tiredly, Kazuya stood up with Shibe's help and smiled sheepishly at his friend.
"I'm… sorry, Shibe. You were right about them, and I was wrong, so—" Shibe quickly interrupted him.
"Bah, don't beat yourself up about it. You'd probably had enough of those today." He chuckled, then he looked at the pink-haired girl who was weeping into Kazuya's shoulder and now the one holding onto him like a stuffed animal.
"So, you have a way with the girls?"
AN: And that was Chapter 1 of "Sakura Petals"! I hope this caught your interest.
Now let me make something clear: I'm not abandoning my Date a Live fanfics. I'm just trying to deal with burnout by writing another story, from another franchise. Plus, I love this pairing, it sucks that it was overlooked because of Chizuru :(
The next chapter will be up soon, because it was supposed to be part of this chapter, but it was too long so I had to split it into two.
Now, what of Sumi's changed surname (Shinomiya) instead of the canon (Sakurasawa) one? Well, that will be explained in the next chapter. Sumi will be a Sakurasawa for the rest of the story though, don't worry.
(P.S: After watching A Silent Voice, I just saw Shoko in child Sumi that I had the idea of writing her like this, but I do apologize to the people who didn't like it.)