Hello wonderful readers! Here is the third chapter of Raimon's Samurai Remastered!

Chapter 3:

Is.. is this what death feels like?

Groaning, I slowly pushed myself up from the squishy surface I was lying on. Looking around groggily, it looked like I was in the nurse's office, if the cot was any indication. Plus the smell of antiseptic was quite strong. My nose cringed from disgust. I absolutely hated that smell... probably from the multiple times I've been admitted into hospitals. The stray thought shook loose a memory and I quickly remembered the events leading me to my present situation.

"Ah! He's awake!"

Looking up, I saw Kazemaru, Gouenji and Endou enter the room. Gouenji quietly reminded Endou to use his indoor voice, especially in the nurse's room. Kazemaru walked over to check up on me. I assured him that I was fine now, and started to push myself up, but he pushed me back down; not convinced of my wellness at all. I mean, I wouldn't be either if I saw someone pass out from eating purple rice, but I've eaten worse… much worse. I will never forget the Chicken-Tuna Pâté incident.

"You sure?" Gouenji piped up, "You've been out all afternoon recess and I think they were getting ready to call for an ambulance and your parents." Oh, that's not too bad... Last time, I was knocked unconscious for a couple of days. I'm about to tell them as such, but the sliding door opened loudly. A man in a white lab coat walked in, noticed that I was awake, and rushed over to check on me.. He checked my head, took my temperature and asked me how I was feeling.

"I'm fine." I assured the nurse, but like Kazemaru-kun, he wasn't convinced and mentioned that he was going to call my parents to pick me up. "Truly, I'm fine. This isn't the first time I've been knocked unconscious by someone's cooking," I plead. "Please? They'll feel horrible if they knew their cooking did this." The nurse looked conflicted before agreeing to not call my parents, but only if I promised to come back to his office if I felt ill at any time and allow him to call them. Quickly I agreed and he let me go back to class with the others. That was close.

On the way to class, with the boys bumping into me all the way down the hallway, I happened to look out the window and saw a small building. It looked pretty old and a little dilapidated to be honest… Such an old little building. I was just about to ask my classmates what it was for, but we were already outside the door to the science lab. Hopefully I would remember to ask them later.

Back in class, We finished the science lesson from earlier before heading to our last period of the day. Unfortunately for me, I didn't share math with Kazemaru or Gouenji… but I did share it with Endou. The boy and I head down the hall to 2-E for our lesson. To my surprise, we shared the class with Handa and Someoka! Sitting in the open seat next to the pink-haired boy, with Handa in front of me and Endou to my left, I pulled my high school level geometry textbook out (the only book I was given by Suzuki-sensei this morning).

She seemed excited to learn that I excel in most subjects, including math, and then expressed her disappointment that I couldn't skip grades. According to her, the School Chairman tried to convince the Board of Education to allow me to be with the third years instead of with the second years, but the board members were adamant that I was to stay with my age group. Instead, he convinced them to let me take high school level mathematics… as long as I assisted Buma-sensei with the students who needed extra help.

Which seemed like a benefit for the both of us. Within the first ten minutes of class, Endou was groaning about the new formula they were learning while Someoka glared at the blackboard, as if he was trying to scare the chalk numbers away. Only Handa was quietly working, scratching his head every few minutes with the end of his pencil.

"Someoka, stop glaring at the board. All you need to do is find the value of x." I whispered to the boy before turning my attention to the brunette on my left. "Endou, you almost had it! Let's start from the beginning okay? We'll do it together!" Someoka grumbled, but begrudgingly went back to his worksheet and Endou scooted over to make room for me to sit next to him.

Buma-sensei definitely needed help with these guys!

Later, Classroom 2-A:

School was finally over and my first day at school was officially under my belt... Math was a little tiresome, as Endou, Someoka and Handa watched me like hawks all period. I hadn't noticed till halfway through the lesson, as I was focused on my own studies, and only got them to stop when they were doing their worksheets… since I was bouncing between Someoka and Endou, helping them with the problems. It was nice of them to care about my well-being, but not at the expense of their education! And, it was not like I was going to collapse again. Probably.

With a sigh, I packed my notebooks, pencil case and a few books into my bag. Sliding it and my sword case over my shoulders, criss-crossing the straps against my chest and headed to the opened door. However, I ended up walking into someone and fumbled a few steps back. A hand wrapped around my wrist to help steady me. "Sorry Masamune-kun… I wasn't watching where I was going." They apologized once I wasn't in danger of falling down. Looking up, I saw that the person I bumped into was Kazemaru-kun, holding a broom and dustpan. He must be on cleaning duty today–something Endou had explained to me during one of our breaks between classes. "Are you already going home Masamune-kun?" He asked, eyes traveling down to my bookbag.

"Mm, I told my parents I'd go home when school ended," I responded. "We recently moved into our new place, so we have some shopping to do." Not only did we have to pick up groceries, since takeout wasn't a sufficient diet, but I needed furniture and clothes as well. Living on the Masamune compound, we weren't allowed to wear "street" clothes, only the uniforms we wore during training. It was fine for the most part, since I spent most of my time training and learning while there, but now I didn't have clothes to wear on a regular basis. And it would probably look weird to wear my training uniform in public. It would also probably be a little embarrassing for me.

"Sounds fun," He said, before smirking playfully, "Perhaps you should pick out a couple of cookbooks while you're out?"

I had to slap my hand to my mouth to keep myself from snorting, but a few chuckles broke through. "Kazemaru-kun, that's so mean," I managed to say through my laughter. "But I might be able to sneak a couple into the basket." We were both laughing by then, but were interrupted by a small cough. I looked over Kazemaru's shoulder to see two boys looking at us. Well, to be honest, they were mostly staring at me.

"Can I help you with something?" I asked, moving to allow Kazemaru to get into the classroom. He squeezed by me a bit but chose to stand close by instead of leaving me alone with these guys. Hopefully, that doesn't mean a fight was going to break out.

Looking the two boys over, I noted that one had long black hair, while the other had short pink hair, and both of them had cases similar to my own. They were probably part of the kendo club. "I'm Marui," the boy with black hair introduced himself. "And that's Sakurai." He pointed with his thumb towards the boy with pink hair while he was making the introduction. "We're part of the kendo club."

I had to stop myself from responding sarcastically, since their kendo cases make it obvious. Though... Why are they here? It doesn't seem like they are here to try and befriend me. I glanced over to Kazemaru to see if he had a clue, but he seemed to be as confused as I was. So, I waited for them to continue.

"We're here to recruit you for the kendo club." Sakurai said, holding out a badly designed flyer. 'JOIN THE KENDO CLUB TODAY' was at the top of the flyer in hastily written red letters and an even worse drawing of a stick figure with a... bamboo sword? At the bottom, in barely legible letters, was someone's name and class. The name was too illegible, but the person was from 2-C… perhaps the captain of the kendo team?

I stared at the flier for a few seconds, a million thoughts running through my head, and then I–being a relatively smart person–dumbly responded "Um, why are you trying to recruit me? You don't even know if I'm good at kendo?" Despite being from that family, I wasn't well-known in the kendo community. I'd only ever entered one kendo competition in my life and that was roughly five years ago. I won the competition, but I still don't know what was going on at the time. Since then, Grandfather trained me in kendo, but I would rather do anything other than that.

"Isn't..."

"Isn't your father Masamune Date?" Marui asked abruptly, cutting Sakurai off. Dumbly, I nodded and wondered how he knew that because I hadn't mentioned who my father was at all today… were these guys stalking me?! Shifting slightly, I place myself in front of Kazemaru-kun, just in case Marui and Sakurai were actually dangerous.

"He's a kendo master!" Sakurai shouted, causing our remaining classmates to stare. "He was so popular when he went here! So it became big news when it was rumored that his son was going to attend Raimon!"

Oh, they weren't stalkers then. Just… very enthusiastic fans of my father's. Which wasn't bad, except I could see where this was heading and I wanted to cut his train of thought off at the station! They were assuming that because my father was good at kendo, then I would be good at it. Which was true, but I had no desire for everyone to know how good I actually was. And learning kendo was expected of most members of my family anyways. Especially of those learning the way of the sword, so it wasn't a big deal.

My thoughts come to a complete stop when Kazemaru-kun clears his throat "Uhh… sorry," he interrupted, "What does that have to do with anything?" I almost forgot that he was standing next to me. He had been silent so far… and probably very confused. Along with our other classmates, who were still staring at us.

"Because if he's Masamune Date's son, that means he's from that Masamune family." Marui tried to explain, "And they are known for their martial art prowess." Of course the kendo guys were gonna catch on. Hopefully the other martial art clubs don't figure it out and try to get me to join their clubs. That was the biggest reason I tried to hide who my family was! I need to get out of here.

"Nope. Sorry. Can't even swing a sword," I said, shrugging at the two boys. "I'm more of a war fan kinda guy. You know… theater. music. Dancing." Which wasn't a complete lie.

"Wha? But…" Marui stuttered, pointing to the case on my back. Crap… I forgot about that.

"Don't know what you're talking about." I muttered, slowly backing up. Turning to Kazemaru-kun, I gave him a small wave and said. "Anyways, I have to go now. See ya later pretty boy!" Before anyone could respond, I dashed towards the window and jumped through it. Which, in hindsight, was a stupid idea. However, my monkey brain thought that jumping out of a window was the fastest way to get out of an awkward situation. Thankfully, martial arts training included a segment on falling from heights!

As I was falling, I placed my feet together so that when I made contact with the ground I'd be able to "crumble" to one side and roll to my other. It's the kind of training most militaries in the world use during parachute training and it is super effective, although I'll probably have some bruising later. That was fine with me though as I heal quicker than most.

"Masamune-kun!" Kazemaru shouted from above. I looked up to see him staring at me in shock and worry, "What the hell were you thinking!?"

"Don't worry Kazemaru-kun!" I shouted back, laughing a little from the adrenaline. "I've trained to be able to do that, so I'm fine!" He looked less worried, but I probably shouldn't do that again. Especially with my bags… I had been lucky they hadn't gotten in my way! "Anyway, I'll see you tomorrow!" I shouted, waving as I ran away. He waved back and I think he was laughing a little bit. That was a good sign.

Once I was far enough away, I slowed down to a trot and looked around me to take in the scenery. This really was a pretty town and the townspeople seemed quite nice too. Hopefully, I would have more time to explore during the upcoming weekend. Perhaps one of my classmates would be able to show me around? Maybe Kazemaru? He seemed pretty… nice.

Before too long, I was back at the apartment the family owned. It was a nice three bedroom unit with plenty of room for a family of three. I mean, they weren't my first "family" but perhaps we could grow to be as close to each other as I was with my family at Sun Garden?

Lost in thought, I walked up to the door, opened it, and–after a half second–immediately closed it. There was a semi-naked woman in my house. While she was probably just a client from the company Mother works for, a fashion design company or something like that, I was still somewhat taken aback about walking in on a half naked woman! I felt awful for walking in on her.

Though, that means Father was probably hiding out in his room or something and I would rather follow his example than make a woman uncomfortable by walking in on her in a state of undress (again). After sending Mother a text that I was going to take a walk with Dai-chan and explore the surrounding area till she was done with work.

This time, I cracked open the door and blindly fumbled for the leash hanging from the wall to the right. When it was found, I quietly called for my dog and, in no time, my Shikoku Ken was squeezing through the opening, wagging his tail happily. He waited patiently for me to clip the leash to his collar before pulling me down the road.

After a while we arrived at a cool-looking bridge, with the town symbol–a lightning bolt–on it. It's really nice. Even Dai-chan seemed impressed.

Or he's just fascinated by the new smells.

As I was admiring the bridge, someone shouted my name loudly. Startled, I looked down toward the bank of the nearby river, straining my eyes. In the distance, I could see a soccer field with a few people playing. Near the goal was Endou, who was running towards me–he must have been the one to call out to me. At a slower pace, I walk down the hill towards the boy.

"Hey, Endou." I greeted as we neared each other. There were other people on the field as well and, much like myself, walked up to us at a slow pace. Kazemaru, Gouenji and the second years I had met at lunch were here as well as the girl with brunette hair from my homeroom (who had asked about my sword case). There were also a couple of people I didn't know. Dai-chan barked happily and spun in a circle, a thing he does when excited.

"I thought you were going shopping?" Kazemaru asked me once he got closer to me. After explaining that my mother was still working and that Dai-chan and I were taking a quick walk, Kazemaru nodded and peered down. "So this is Dai-chan!" Kazemaru said, crouching down to my dog's level, who was patiently waiting to be pat. Kazemaru seemed quite relieved to see him… why? Is Kazemaru afraid of dogs? That couldn't be right… otherwise he wouldn't kneel down to Dai-chan's level.

"It is indeed! You guys can pet him if you like… He's very friendly" I told them, stressing the last words in case someone was afraid of dogs, and soon Dai-chan was getting smothered in attention. Just like he deserved. As I was watching them pet my dog, there was a tap on my shoulder. It was Endou.

"Masamune, you play soccer right?" The boy asked, an excited gleam in his eyes and I nodded nervously before reminding him about this morning. The boy smiled widely and began to shake uncontrollably. Was that possible? He was practically vibrating from his excitement. It kind of reminded me of Dai-chan.

"Will you shoot some at me?" He asked, holding a soccer ball in his gloved hands, and that's when I noticed his goalkeeper uniform. How'd I miss that? Brushing that thought away, I readily agreed to his request. I did miss playing after all. Endou shouted, eager to get started and ran towards the goal with the rest of us close behind him. Kazemaru-kun offered to watch Dai-chan for me, and I jogged over to the penalty mark.

"Bring it!" Endou yelled, getting into position. Shaking my head at his eagerness, I gave him a thumbs up before taking a deep breath. The earthy scent of the field filled my lungs… I still couldn't believe it has been five years since I last stood on a soccer field. Taking a couple of steps back, I charged at the ball and kicked it to the Goalkeeper's left. Endou dove for the ball, but it passed him easily. That doesn't dissuade him and he shouted for me to kick again. And again. And again. How much stamina does this guy have!?

After what felt like the thousandth ball, Endou finally seemed to tire out and slowly walked over to me. "Amazing Masamune!" He shouted upon regaining his breath "The ball was so fast!" The others murmured in agreement from the sidelines and I felt my face grow hot from the attention. It has been a while since I've gotten praise like that. "What positions do you play? Endou continued, that excited sparkle gleaming in his eyes once more.

"Well.. umm…" I stammered, unsure how to answer. I only played for fun–so I had never been on an official team–but sometimes the other kids didn't want to play so I would fill in for them. "I guess I can play anywhere," I told him, looking down in embarrassment and hoped that it didn't sound like I was bragging, "I have a couple of hissatsu techniques for each position as well..." After a moment of silence, I risked peeking up at Endou, only to see him shaking so much that I was afraid he was going to vibrate out of his skin…

"Amazing Masamune, simply amazing!" He exclaimed, eyes shining. My lips twitch upwards. Endou must think everything was amazing… it was rare for me to meet someone so positive. While Endou was complimenting me, the others walked over to us and attempted to settle him down. Which seemed like a difficult thing to do. I've only known Endou for a day and he seemed like he was never calm… or quiet… or still.

Kazemaru-kun, who gave up trying to calm Endou, stood next to me instead. "So Masamune-kun, have you decided on a club to join yet?" He asked and I shook my head. It had only been a couple of hours since school ended and I didn't really know what clubs Raimon offered besides soccer, kendo, sumo wrestling and archery. The last three were definitely a 'no' as I don't want my entire life to revolve around martial arts…

"As you know, I was asked by the kendo club earlier," I said, a snicker escaping from my mouth, "And I refused them." Kazemaru laughed at that, probably remembering my unique way of escaping the situation.

"But… isn't that a case for kendo on your back?" Someoka asked, confused. "Marui and Sakurai carry similar cases." The others seemed to be in the same boat. Did no one mention it to him? I thought it would have spread around the school by now because how many thirteen year olds carry a sword with them?

"It's a katana," I explained for the second time today and pulled my beloved blade out of the carrying case, letting it rest against my palms. "It's name is Kaminari*." The pure black sheath gleamed in the afternoon sun, accenting the plum colored family crest and the kanji carved upon the glossy surface.

The first-years and some of the second-years took a step back despite the sword never leaving it's sheath. Except Gouenji and Kazemaru, who actually stepped forward to examine the sword. "I thought you were joking this morning, but you were actually carrying this around?" Gouenji asked, "Is that even allowed?" I guess my explanation was on the vague side this morning… But how else was I supposed to explain it? I didn't think anyone would ask me about my case because it wasn't that unusual!

"He has special permission." Someone behind me spoke. Turning around, I saw a girl with reddish-brown hair and an air around her that screamed 'rich' even though she was wearing our school's uniform. She seemed kind of familiar. "In fact, my father gave him permission," She continued, "And if the chairman gives permission, then it's fine."

There was only one person that I knew who talked like that: Raimon Natsumi, the only daughter of Raimon Jr. High's Chairman. And a childhood friend, of sorts. Could I call her a childhood friend? I mean, I've only known her for a couple of years and the only reason we met was because our parents went to school together. According to Father, they keep in touch regularly.

"You know it's my family's right to carry our weapons around," I reminded her, "So I don't require your permission Natsumi." Ahh, my tone might be a little too harsh, but it was irritating that she was acting all high and mighty about this.

"Having the Chairman's permission helps though." She retorted smugly and I couldn't argue with her logic. But I wanted to. We always tended to argue when we met up. Heck, the first time we met, we got into an argument about sweets. Sweets of all things! She tried to tell me that dark chocolate with chilli was the superior sweet. The second time we met, we got into another argument about whether dogs were better than cats. That one ended better. We actually agreed that both animals were amazing.

I probably shouldn't fight with her this time. Our mutual classmates don't need to see us squabble. Suddenly, I feel someone get closer to me. And felt the warm, wet breath of something panting next to my hand. I glanced down and saw Dai-chan sitting next to me, tail wagging slowly as he stared at Natsumi. Kazemaru-kun had walked over as well, though his fist was white from how tight he's holding Dai-chan's leash. Crap, was he upset with how I was speaking to Natsumi? Or that I hadn't taken my dog back? I hoped not, but before I could ask, he spoke up.

"You two know each other?" Kazemaru inquired, his voice sounding tense. Why did he seem worried about us knowing each other? I glanced at my other classmates to see if their body-language was the same as Kazemaru-kun's. The second years looked curious about my relationship with Natsumi while the first years, who were hiding behind Someoka, flitted their attention between her and myself. Ah, we probably scared them with our glaring.

"Our parents went to school together," I explained, turning my attention back to Kazemaru-kun, "So we're kind of friends?" I finished hesitantly. At least I assumed Natsumi was my friend, and she wasn't voicing any disapproval either. Kazemaru-kun visibly relaxed at my admission, seemingly less nervous now. Which was great, but why was he so nervous before? Did he… like Natsumi? As soon as that thought passed through my head, I felt an uncomfortable pressure build up in my gut. I didn't like that feeling.

But… why was I feeling that way?

Thank you for reading. Please don't hesitate to leave a review about anything, whether its a question or maybe there is something you really like!

Notes:

Kaminari*: I chose the kanji 雷 (thunder) for Ren's blade. The name in the original fic was Lightning, but was changed in this remake.