Hello all! To those who remember the author LennieCommy(or LennyCommie, I can never remember how I spelled it), he is me! The reason I seemingly vanished off the face of the earth is because my account got stolen a couple months(eight months now iirc) ago. I hadn't really felt any motivation to continue writing after that, and it kind of killed my ability to try.

But it's not all doom and gloom! I have returned, happier than ever and ready to write! I will admit, I will not be continuing my old stories, as those were the old me. Instead I bring you this, my latest and greatest work!

I also had some moments of growth and came to some realizations about my writing, and hopefully this story will reflect those. To a new life!

Cheers!

"Hey there, what's your name?"

Kaito smiled his best smile as he greeted one of his many new classmates. It was his first day at Kuoh Academy, and he was extremely nervous. Sure, he'd been to schools once or twice before finally coming to high school, but this was his first time at an initiation ceremony. The number of people was frankly staggering.

"Oh, I'm Toryō Kaito, but you can call me Kaito." He replied. His hand reached out in greeting, and the other person gladly shook it.

"My name's Kiba Yuuto, it's nice to meet you Kaito-san."

"Just Kaito, please."

Kiba (Or was it Yuuto? Kaito was still trying to figure it out) raised an eyebrow with a small smile, but otherwise made no outward note of the fact that Kaito was already insisting on a first-name basis.

"Very well then, Kaito. It's nice to meet one of my new classmates."

"It's nice to meet you too." Kaito replied. The noise of everyone else introducing themselves to various people around him made it a little difficult to focus on Kiba, but Kaito did his best anyways to ensure that a conversation could be held if Kiba wanted to.

"How long have you been here?" he ventured.

"Oh, not terribly long, only a few years now."

"That's a few years more than me."

Kiba hummed and gave Kaito a warm smile.

"We all have to start somewhere," he replied. "Nobody was comfortable with a new home on their first day."

'Ain't that the truth.' Kaito thought. He knew his circumstances here were far from ideal, but at the same time he couldn't really blame anything for it. He just wanted to fit in.

"While I'd love to get to know you better," Kiba continued. "We're about to start, so I think it'd be best if we quieted down."

Kaito looked up to a large stage where there was a podium set up with a large microphone, and as someone approached it the various mutterings in the room quieted down to allow them to speak. Except for one small conversation he heard.

"Damn she's hot!"

"I know right? Man she's easily a top-ten here that I've seen so far."

"Man, your eyes must be broken, have you seen some of the girls just one year above us?"

Kaito's gaze snapped toward the direction of the conversation, curious and a little concerned that this kind of talk was being exercised so publicly. A troupe of three boys were sitting a little bit away, and clearly the women sitting around them were made incredibly uncomfortable by the conversation.

Kiba apparently heard it too, as he shook his head in disappointment with an annoyed smirk. Before either he or Kiba could say anything though, the person who Kaito now saw was a woman on stage, began their speech.

"Ladies and gentlemen of Kuoh Academy, welcome to your first year of high school." A smattering of mutters and half-hearted cheers came from the crowd, something Kaito couldn't really identify with. He was ecstatic that he'd gotten in! Why weren't they?

"I am Nakayama Moriko and the current Student Council President. It is both my pleasure and honor to welcome you all as up-and-coming students of this prestigious academy."

The speech continued for about five minutes, most of it just listing reasons about why everyone there was so lucky to enter Kuoh Academy instead of a different school. Kaito couldn't have agreed more. The other options he'd had available for schooling hadn't been particularly enticing.

Several more people, all adults, stood up on the stage and gave their own welcoming speeches. It finally ended up coming around to the headmaster of the school

"And with that said, I would once again like to welcome you all to your next four years at Kuoh Academy. For the time being, please find a senior that can guide you to your classrooms."

This was it. The moment he found out who he'd likely be spending his next three years of school with. He'd been handed a piece of paper upon his entrance to the school with the sign "1-B", so he began looking for a second or third year with a sign or some form of identification of that nature.

Eventually, he found a young lady(she was still older than him), holding a large paper sign that said "1-B" on it. He, and a large portion of the people who'd been sitting around him, got up and made their way towards her. He silently thanked whoever was watching that Kiba got up as well.

"Looks like we're in the same class." Kaito near-yelled over the rising din in the large gym. "Here's to a good three years, yeah?"

"Indeed. I hope we are able to get along as well as we have today."

Kaito couldn't be sure, but he thought he saw something sparkling in Kiba's eyes as he said that.

"Oh. My. God." Kaito heard one of the women approaching 1-B with them whisper. Kiba flinched for a moment as she said it. "They're so hot!"

Before Kaito could formulate a response or figure out who she was even talking about, he was interrupted from his thoughts by the group leader.

"Greetings everyone, I am Souna Shitori, the vice president of the student council. If you follow me, I will bring you to your classroom."

"Thank you." Kaito replied with a small bow. There was a small cacophony of shrieks as he did, causing him to flinch from the volume. Thankfully that was the only incident of its kind, and most of the shrieking and giggling quieted down with a single, somewhat menacing glare from Souna.

He liked her already.

She turned on her heel and began walking away, everyone who'd approached her following dutifully. It was a noisy affair as everyone in class 1-B was beginning to form friendships already, though Kaito and Kiba remained next to each other and silent as stones.

"Damn handsome." Kaito managed to catch one of his classmates growling. His heart fell into his stomach when he turned around to see none other than the same three boys from earlier who'd been holding the demeaning conversation.

"Wonderful," he grumbled under his breath. "I just managed to get those three as well."

"I'm sorry, did you say something?" Kiba noted from beside him.

"Ah, no." Kaito replied. "Just some personal musings was all, nothing of note."

The rest of the walk to the classroom was thankfully uneventful, with most people in the group beginning to stick to their own pseudo-cliques, trying their best to find who was worth their time. Kaito rather enjoyed the companionable silence between himself and Kiba.

Unfortunately it was not to last forever, as they soon arrived at their classroom. Upon entering the classroom, everything turned into a madhouse. People were scrambling to see if they could get the best seat next to their friends, or doing whatever they could to ensure that they, annoyingly, were able to sit next to Kiba or Kaito himself.

Thankfully Kaito was able to snag a seat next to Kiba, as he seemed to be the only one who was not obsessed with who was the most popular here.

"This will be your classroom for the duration of the year, and I hope you are all able to get along well with your classmates." Souna interrupted the various conversations from behind the podium at the front of the room. "While you wait for your first instructor to arrive, please ensure that you have all your necessary class materials. Here at Kuoh we hold a standard of excellence, and it would not do for you all to tarnish that on your first day."

There were mutters of agreement or dissatisfaction among his classmates, though everyone still retrieved their materials. From there it was mostly quiet conversations as Souna left the room, everyone feeling thoroughly scolded by the vice president.

"Talk about a jerk." Kaito caught. "I can already tell she's gonna be a major roadblock for us." He could not help turning his gaze to see none other than those three again. Did they have nothing to do but complain and perv over the girls in their class?

"Are you alright Kaito?" Kiba voiced from next to him, dragging his focus away from the other boys.

"Oh, yeah I'm fine. Just…trying to wrap my head around all the new stuff today."

A gentle smile crossed his features, his eyes full of understanding. "Well, don't you worry, I get that feeling. Give it a couple days and that'll pass. You just need some time."

"You're telling me. I feel like everyone's staring at me every spare second they get."

Kiba chuckled good-naturedly, though there was also a slightly sadistic glint to the smirk he took on as he did.

"Yeah, you'll get used to that one too. I don't mean to sound shallow, but both you and I do unfortunately suffer from a rather dangerous case of handsomeness."

"First I've heard of it." Before the conversation could continue though, the door opened and class 1-B's first teacher of what was to be a hopefully exciting school year entered the room.

"Greetings everyone! My name is-"

Kaito was probably going to pluck his own eyes out with a spoon.

It was near to the beginning of the lunch hour and he had yet to actually learn a single thing. Everything was just more and more of the same, with teachers introducing themselves and trying to ensure that everyone in the class liked them by having 'fun activities' for them to do. It always revolved around their particular subject matter, but it still was mind-numbing and felt like a waste of time to him.

Though every school was likely to be this way, Kaito was still wondering how he managed to talk himself into thinking this was in any way a good idea.

"And that is how you ensure that, no matter what, you will always remember everything I'm going to be teaching you for this history class. Now, I'm going to be handing out a quick pop quiz to see how much of those memorization techniques you actually learned!" His instructor cut through the fog of his mind.

Thankfully, he'd been paying just barely enough attention in the class to understand the gist of what they'd been talking about. General studying practices that were conducive to focusing and wise practices and habits that were prone to better academic performance.

When the test landed on his desk and he began, he was able to complete it in a matter of short minutes, at which point he was stuck waiting for class to get out.

'Can this go any slower? I feel like I've been here for years, and it hasn't even been four hours.'

He was stuck tapping his finger lightly on his thigh, thankfully not causing enough ambient noise for anyone besides himself to pick it up. This continued for some time, with him occasionally glancing around the room to sate the boredom that came from staring at a completed test for too long.

Finally, however, the bell rang.

"Oh thank God." Kaito mumbled. He looked to his side to see Kiba's face scrunched in concentration. "How'd it go?" he asked.

"Not too terribly." Kiba replied. "The first tests of the year are usually like this, and from what I've heard that teacher is actually pretty nice."

"What you've heard? You know some of the upperclassmen?"

"I've known a few of them for years, and they'll usually tell me a thing or two about some of the teachers. Never too much for me to not come to my own conclusions though."

It was yet another reminder that he was absolutely an alien here at this school, and he had a lot of work to do if he wanted to fit in.

"That must be nice. Knowing what kind of class to expect going into the year."

A light chuckle filled the air between them as Kiba smiled gently. "It certainly is nice to have foreknowledge, but those upperclasswomen can certainly be handfuls."

"I'll say." Kaito heard one of the three perverts mutter. If he were capable of it, he probably would've popped a vein right then and there. It took everything he had to not whirl on them with fury in his eyes.

He could see that Kiba was having similar issues, though his reaction was more along the lines of disappointment than anger.

"You get used to it." Kiba sighed.

"I hope I do." Kaito grumbled. "Let's go get some lunch."

An eyebrow rose in response, a smirk replacing the disappointment. "Do you even know the way to the cafeteria?"

Kaito felt a blush rise to his cheeks.

"No." he mumbled.

"Don't worry, I'll lead the way. It's not actually that far from here."

True to his word, the cafeteria hadn't been much of a walk from their classroom. As far as classrooms went, Kaito could say that he got the cream of the crop. Close to the fields, cafeteria, and many different student amenities, classroom 1-B was almost the best class in the school.

Aside from three particularly annoying classmates, Kaito couldn't have been happier with his placement.

"So, tell me about yourself." Kiba began as they sat at a table for lunch. "You weren't exactly full of details during your class introduction." Kaito scratched the back of his neck.

"Well, there's really not much to tell."

"Right, I suppose most people would think that. But I really am curious about my newest friend. Pardon my prying, but you don't look Japanese, yet you have a Japanese name."

"Ah. That." Kiba's eyes widened quickly and his hands rose in apology.

"Oh! Please don't feel obligated to tell me if it's not something you want to talk about."

"No, it's fine," Kaito replied with a shrug of his shoulders. "I just wasn't expecting to get asked about it this quickly. My biological dad was a deadbeat, he disappeared when he found out my mom was pregnant."

"I…see." Kiba's eyes were filled with…understanding? "I'm sorry that happened."

"Again, it's fine. I'm not angry about it. Anyways, my mom ended up falling in love with a Japanese man before I was born, but he died before I was born. She gave me a Japanese name to honor him."

"I see. Your mother is an incredibly strong woman to have been able to handle all that when she was still pregnant with you."

"You don't have to tell me twice." Kaito picked at his plate, a salad with freshly grilled lemon chicken. "I live with the woman."

Kiba once again chuckled good naturedly. "I suppose you'd know her the best. I really do apologize for bringing up some bad memories." Kaito smiled in return.

"Not bad memories. Just ones I don't usually talk about. How about you? What makes your clock tick?"

"That's…ominous." Kiba gave a faux shudder. "If I didn't know any better I'd think you were trying to manipulate me."

"I couldn't manipulate my way out of a paper bag." Kaito stabbed a piece of his salad to emphasize his point. Kiba's eyes narrowed, though he smiled at the same time.

"That's exactly what a master manipulator would say."

"Hey, just because it's the truth doesn't mean you have to believe it." Kaito chuckled in reply.

"Well, it seems that some of our absolutely adorable juniors are getting along fabulously." A sudden voice came from behind him. He spun in his seat to see-

Wow.

"Oh, hello Rias. Akeno." Kiba answered from behind him. "I thought you didn't have this lunch period."

"It seems luck is on our side this year." The other woman replied. A dazzling mane of blood red hair cascaded down her shoulders, doing a marvelous job of framing her gorgeous figure. "Apologies for interrupting what seemed to be a fine conversation, but Akeno and I couldn't help but come over and see who your new friend was, Kiba."

"Speaking of whom, I sincerely apologize for ignoring you like that." The woman, Rias, seemed to scold herself. "I am Rias Gremory, it's a pleasure to meet you….?"

Oh, yeah. He had a job to do. Standing from his place at the table, he reached out a hand in greeting. He tried not to notice how much he absolutely towered over her. Rias thankfully took his hand in greeting, smiling brilliantly.

"It's a pleasure, Rias." Kaito shook her hand. "My name is Toryo Kaito, but you can just call me Kaito."

"Ara, so familiar already." The other woman, Akeno if Rias' words were to be believed, said. Kaito turned to greet her as well.

And his brain promptly short-circuited.

She was quite a bit shorter than him as well, shorter than Rias even, with brilliantly reflective black hair pulled back into an exceptionally long ponytail. A pair of deeply violent eyes gazed into his, though they were slightly scrunched due to a playful smirk displayed across her lips.

He hadn't thought about it until now, but the school uniforms were very conservative, with knee length skirts and thankfully loose shirts, though not quite as loose as he'd like in Akeno's case.

"Uh…." he droned. Despite her unnaturally gorgeous appearance he found himself unable to look away from her eyes, drawn into them like a boat in a vortex. "...Hi."

"Hello." Her brows waggled suggestively. "I must say that this has to be the most flattering greeting I've received all day." She remarked as her hand rose in greeting.

And then reality came crashing back down on him.

"Oh my god I am SO sorry!" Kaito fell into a deep bow, his posture rigid. As he rose from the bow he quickly took her hand and shook it nervously. "My name's Kaito-wait you already know that-it's nice to meet you!"

"It's nice to meet you as well, Kaito. I'm glad to see that you're getting along so well with Kiba."

The first thing Kaito noted as she took his hand was how unbelievably soft her skin was, yet at the same time how strong her grip was. It wasn't painful, but it was very firm and assertive.

'Kill me now.' he groaned internally.

"Well, he's thankfully not hard to get along with."

Akeno released his hand with a continued smile. "I'd imagine not, but he seems to have so much trouble."

"I'm right here, Akeno." Kaito heard Kiba grumble from behind him. Akeno giggled, a small tittering noise that felt like silk in his ears.

"Yes you most certainly are, my adorable little junior." she teased.

"Alright Akeno, let's not overwhelm him." Rias interrupted. "Before we completely comandeer your conversation, I'll bid you goodbye for now, and enjoy the rest of your first day. Besides, Akeno and I have some preparations to make."

"I'll see you later~" Akeno fluttered her fingers as she followed Rias' departure, once again flashing Kaito a playful smirk.

As they receded into the cafeteria, Kaito collapsed into his seat across from Kiba, his face ablaze with embarrassment.

"Don't take it too hard, Kaito." Kiba comforted. "You actually reacted pretty tamely when it comes to those two, and Akeno especially. She loves to tease."

Instead of responding, Kaito took to staring holes into the table. He quickly cut that action off by covering his face with his hands, barely containing a scream of humiliation.

"Yeah." he groaned. "I got that."

"Welcome to P.E. everyone!" the teacher grunted loudly. She was a powerfully built woman who stood almost as tall as Kaito himself, who was six-foot-four. "Now you all don't have your uniforms yet, so we won't be doing any exercise. Next class though I expect you all to have them ready and waiting, because we're starting the term with basketball!"

There were some groans and some celebrations amongst his classmates, though Kaito himself was among the former. P.E. was far and away his most dreaded class, and basketball was easily on his top five least favorite sports to play. To be fair, he wasn't a huge fan of sports to begin with, but that was another matter entirely.

"So what are we doing today then?" he heard one of his classmates pipe up. Everyone turned to look at the owner of the voice.

"What's your name?" the teacher asked immediately.

"Uh, Katase, ma'am." the girl replied. Kaito noticed her hands were shaking.

"Great. Katase, come up here." the teacher gestured to the area next to herself. The dutiful student followed directions, though she was also wearing an atomic blush. She quickly had a basketball pushed into her hands, and there were murmurs and a few chuckles from those in the crowd who felt lucky enough to not have been singled out.

"Who just laughed?!" the teacher suddenly barked. The class went dead silent, everyone looking anywhere but the teacher save for Kaito and Kiba. "Who's the wise guy that thinks it's funny to laugh at Katase for being brave enough to ask a question? I didn't see any of you doing it."

"That's what I thought." she grunted. "Now, Katase, you ever dribbled a basketball before?"

"No." was the quick reply.

"Great, then we'll start from zero. Everyone, go grab a basketball from the basket over there," she gestured to a large container full of the objects in question. "Then find a partner and start bouncing the basketballs. I'll be coming around to tell you what to do."

Well, at the very least Kaito was able to take solace in the fact that this teacher didn't tolerate nonsense and he wouldn't be deified in class by them.

As he grabbed a basketball, before he could manage to get to Kiba someone, Murayama, if he remembered her class introduction correctly, managed to partner up with him first.

"Dammit." Kaito grumbled. He was now without the only friend he'd made in class, and was now stuck trying to find a different partner for dribbling practice.

People were quickly snatched up for partners, and soon he was the only one left without a partner.

'Damn these odd class numbers.'

"You three! I said partners! Not groups!" the teacher thundered. Kaito turned miserably to see that she was talking to none other than the three boys who couldn't keep their fantasies to themselves. They groaned, and one of them was quickly kicked out in favor of the other two being allowed to continue talking lecherously to each other. The excluded friend walked over to Kaito with a glare on his face.

"Damn traitors." he grumbled. "Some friends you are." Kaito approached with a small smile, hoping against hope that maybe he might be able to foster a good relationship with him despite knowing what he talked about in his spare time.

"Partner activities, am I right?" Kaito opened. Issei looked at him with bewilderment for a moment, but quickly recovered.

"Yeah. Like, what if you've got more than one friend you want to talk to?"

"Yeah, I get that. My name's Toryo Kaito, but you can just call me Kaito." he offered a hand in greeting, as he had so many times today already.

"Well if we're doing first names, I'm Hyoudou Issei, but just call me Issei." the other young man replied, firmly shaking Kaito's hand.

"Nice to meet you Issei."

They both began to bounce the basketballs up and down, the action falling into normalcy quite quickly for Kaito. It was relatively light, and it was very easy to bounce.

"You play basketball?" Issei asked as he nearly missed the return bounce of his own ball. "Because that looks like second nature for you." Kaito muttered a curse, though thankfully Issei didn't hear it.

"Not competitively, I just play it on occasion. Something I learned to do overseas."

"Oh, you're foreign?"

"Yup."

"Wow, that's cool." Issei replied, focusing on Kaito's smooth and easy actions while attempting to replicate them.

"Yeah."

They fell into silence, both of them simply doing as they were told by the teacher. However, Kaito noticed that once Issei got the hang of his coordination, his eyes began to wander. It was not hard to follow his gaze, and he quickly realized that his partner was staring unabashedly at the women in their class.

"Hey Issei." he began, hoping to draw his focus elsewhere.

"Huh? What's up?" Issei's gaze snapped back to Kaito, though the sudden change in focus caused his rhythm to be disrupted and he lost control of his basketball. After quickly retrieving it, he returned to Kaito's side. "Sorry about that, what's up?"

"Oh, just wondering what you were staring at is all."

Issei was as silent as Kaito predicted he would be.

The rest of the class went off without a hitch, with Kaito and Issei spending the class in relative silence save for a few short exchanges here and there, mostly small talk. Kaito was frustrated but not surprised by his counterpart's constant staring and did his best to ignore it.

The trip home was a lonely one. He didn't live with anyone besides his mother, and she didn't exactly have a phone, so he spent the entire trip in silence. A strong wind had kicked up, and it howled quite magnificently in his ears.

Frankly, it hadn't been too awful for a first day of school, though he had remarkably little to judge by in terms of first days of school.

Maybe he had a few classmates that weren't the best of people, but that was what school was all about! Finding your problems and improving on them.

Hopefully he'd find some way to fix his own problems.

No endnote this time really. Nothing to talk about. Except for maybe the fact that I'M BACK! Make sure to leave a review, and I hope to see you all soon in the next chapter!

Special thanks to G1Splicer and Harrier Jump Jet for their help with this! More special thanks to Curse of Whimsy and Purple Pigeon too!

Oh yeah, also come to this server if you wanna talk to everyone who I get all of my absolutely incredible support from.

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