Hey all! Here is chapter 2 of Raimon's Samurai Remastered! I figured I would update earlier than expected since Chapter 1 was on the shorter side. Please Enjoy!

Chapter 2:

After 20 minutes of self-study–or silent reading in my case–first period, Japanese Literature, went by as quickly. My new classmates spent most of the class period whispering about me I think, based on the snippets of words I heard here and there. Many questioned my sword, while the boy with the orange headband kept bothering his seatmate about soccer. I, on the other hand, tried not to stare at the boy next to me. This was made harder by the fact I had to scoot closer to share his textbook as I hadn't been assigned mine yet. The next class of the day was Social Studies with Nakamura-sensei, where, much to my happiness and chagrin, I sat by Kazemaru-kun once more since we didn't have to switch classrooms. Third period was Music in the next building, where Ito-sensei placed me with the other baritones after a quick voice demonstration by me. That was the first time I'd ever sung, but thankfully I knew how to read sheet music! Fourth period science came and went with Inuoka-sensei. Kazemaru-kun was in that class with me as well. Thankfully, since I didn't know where the lab was!

After period 4, the bell chimed for lunch and the feeling of dread welled up in my stomach. Not because it was my first day or because I didn't have anyone to eat with. No, the reason was much worse than that. Earlier that morning, my mother wanted to make a bento for me, a commemoration of my first school day, and my father offered to help her. Now, I already knew that Father was a horrendous cook—burnt rice, under-cooked chicken, charred vegetables and at times, the food would come to life. The first time I ate his food, I ended up in the hospital for a couple of days with a severe case of food poisoning, salmonella I think, from under-cooked poultry. The days in the hospital were a blur of sweating, heaving stomach, crampy bowels and profuse vomiting. I don't know about my mother since she hadn't tried cooking for us yet. We have been subsisting on take-out since last week because of this. I hadn't had the heart to decline when they looked so excited to do something for me.

"Masamune-kun?" Someone tentatively called my name from beside me. I looked up to see Kazemaru-kun standing next to me, bento in hand. "Would you like to eat lunch with us?" He moved to the side so I could see the orange headband boy and the platinum blond boy waiting at the door. I nodded quickly because, one, eating alone sucks and two, this was a chance to make some friends. That, and some of the girls in class are looking at me a little too closely. It was a little uncomfortable to have that kind of laser attention on me.

Kazemaru grinned "I hope you don't mind if we eat with some other second years." I shook my head, expressed my gratitude, and grabbed my own bento from my school bag. Kazemaru-kun and I fell into step with the other two. The boy with the orange headband, who introduced himself as Endou Mamoru, greeted me excitedly and introduced his other friend. The platinum haired boy, now known as Gouenji Shuuya, nodded to me silently. He must be the cool boy type I thought to myself.

The three boys led me to the rooftop, where there were a few other groups milling around. I spotted a few of my other classmates and waved to them when we made eye-contact. Endou hooked arms with me and dragged me over to a group of five other boys… or was it six? There seemed to be another presence, but I couldn't see anyone. Oh, well; It didn't matter.

"Everyone!" Endou shouted, getting the attention of the group, "Meet our new classmate!" The five boys turned to stare at me and I gave them a shaky smile back. It was kind of awkward, having them stare at me. Is that normal? I should just introduce myself. Being homeschooled really messed with my social skills and my awareness of what to do in most social settings.

"Hi, I'm Masamune Ren." I said, giving them a little wave with my free hand. A few of the boys smiled back at me. However, one guy, a boy with pink hair, stare turned into a full-on glare, which I found incredibly rude! I glared back at the boy, who seemed to be taken-aback. Don't dish out what you can't take! I thought to myself a little aggressively.

"You already know us," Endou said, ignoring that little exchange between the boy and I, "So I'll introduce everyone else!" He pointed to the guy who glared at me first, "That's Someoka."

"Handa." He pointed to a brunette boy. Handa waved and muttered a greeting.

"Max." He pointed to a boy wearing a hat that resembled a cat and sitting next to Handa. Max lounged against the fence and winked at me. That was kind of weird.

"Megane." He pointed to a glasses-wearing boy, reading manga. He glanced at me before going back to his book. Endou awkwardly chuckled and turned to the next boy.

"That's Domon." He said, pointing to a lanky boy with blue hair, who waved in greeting.

"And here's Kageno… Huh?" Endou spun around, "Where is Kageno?" The other's shrugged their shoulders and shook their heads.

However, a shiver ran up my spine. I felt a presence hovering behind me and my body moved instinctively. Before the others could react, I spun around and brought my leg up to strike. Thankfully, I stopped before my foot could make contact with the unknown person's head. It was a guy with long purple hair, covering his eyes. He had a very weak presence. This was probably Kageno. The poor guy was standing in shock and his lips trembled as he noticed my foot near his temple. That could've ended pretty badly.

"Ah, sorry about that." I apologized, coughing lightly and slowly lowered my leg. I felt a little bad, considering the other boy could have gotten hurt, but he should know better than to sneak up on someone! Although, thinking about it, my first reaction shouldn't be to attack. I needed to break that habit soon or I could lose these potential friends.

"Ah, Kageno!" Endou shouted, ignoring that I almost injured his friend, "Meet Masamune!" Kageno, still startled, waved at me and slowly walked over to sit with Max and Handa, muttering about "not being seen" whatever that meant. "Now, let's eat!" Endou shouted once more, sitting down next to Gouenji, who must have sat down at some point during that whole debacle.

I took a seat between Kazemaru and Someoka, the latter still glaring daggers at me. I stuck my tongue out in return. Everyone started to eat and chat while I just stared at my own unopened bento box. Did I really want to risk it? Max looked over, noticing me fiddle with the box and asked me if I was going to eat or just keep fiddling with my lunch.

"I'm… a little scared." I answered honestly, playing with the cloth the box was wrapped in. The group looked at me with confusion on their faces. Clearly, they didn't understand my hesitancy or the dread that was quietly humming through my system.

"Why?" Someoka asked, eyeing the bento warily, "Is your mom a bad cook or somethin'?"

"Maybe?" I answered hesitantly. "Father is a bad cook and he helped Mother make my lunch." I bravely opened my bento to take a look at it. There didn't seem to be any moving parts or eyeballs in the food, but…

"I don't think that should be purple." Max said, pointing to something that looked similar to rice, but was purple and smelled like… grape soda? I nudge the rice with my chopsticks. It wasn't moving or screaming. Besides the smell, it looked edible. That was good… right?

"What the heck is that?" Someoka asked, pointing to something green… and moving. I spoke too soon. Father must have made that. Someoka scooted away when the substance moved towards him. It might be sentient.

"Would it be unethical to eat something that might be alive?" I muttered, poking the green thing. It curled around a chopstick almost lovingly. I probably shouldn't eat this.

"Masamune-kun, I don't think you should eat that…" Kazemaru trailed off, eyeing my lunch warily, "I can share some of mine, if you want." He showed me his nice and normal looking bento. It looked so much better than my own.

And while that sounded best, I would feel bad since Mother and Father worked really hard on this and more than likely would ask me how it tasted. But, on the other hand, I liked living. "I'll eat one bite of the rice," I decided, "If I don't die, I'll finish eating and if I do die, tell Dai-chan that I love him." Probably a little too dramatic and I should probably tell them that Dai-chan was my dog, but I was already taking a bite of the purple rice. My classmates looked at me in horror.

The rice was crunchy and tasted just like grape soda. Wait, was that a splash of oyster sauce in there? With a hint of turmeric? That was an odd combination. Why was my mouth going numb?

"Are you okay?" Kazemaru asked me, eyeing my face in concern. I managed to nod before I started seeing black spots. That was, not good. All I heard next was someone shouting to get the school nurse and then…

Nothing.

Thank You! Remember, you can also read this on Ao3 if you prefer that site! The user name on that site is Lykanna and there should be a link in my profile.