Hello ladies and gentlemen, it's been a while since last time huh? With a bit of luck, you still aren't bored of my crazy ideas.
Today I bring you another chapter of this whacky story, this one is EXTREMELY long, the longest of the three in fact. You see, one of you wanted to see the reaction of the two classes to the strange couple and I, being the nice guy I am, decided to make that wish come true…I regretted it immediately.
Who knew that writing the unique reactions of 30 characters was that hard? Someone with a bit of foresight and a functional brain that's who.
But let's stop crying, the chapter is done and I think it came out pretty well, so I hope you guys enjoy it.
Buuuut before that I have to give my thanks to Wesst1 for giving me a shout out to this fic in the last chapter of "Everyday Life with Ultimate Girls". Thanks a bunch and hope you enjoy your break, you deserve it.
In the meantime, you can check, "The Conquering Hope: Monochromatic Path" a fic made by Putain de Plagieur with the help of Wesst1.
One last thing, I'm gonna add a basic timeline of the chapters (the most left ones being the closest to the start of the story) so you guys can place things in perspective. Maybe you find that some events of the chapters conflict with some others or don't make too much sense, there is an explanation to it…a wizard did it.
My beta-readers for this chapter had been TheLadyRedHeart and BlueBoxy.
Timeline
1-3-2
Hope's Peak Academy was a place full of strange and bizarre people with even more questionable practices. Even so, they still did normal high-school stuff; one of them being that every class should pick a class representative. It wasn't a demanding job, the only things they did were helping the teacher deliver some documents, informing the class about events, and trying to keep them out of trouble; that last part was easier said than done.
Today the atmosphere in class 78th was as any other day; that meant chaotic and very loud because everyone was doing their own thing.
Mondo and Taka were having a "Manliness test" in the form of arm wrestling, both with red faces and grunting while Chihiro watched the show spellbound.
Byakuya and Kyoko were having a nice and quiet game of chess, if not for the fact that Toko was mumbling to herself and biting her thumb with fury while watching them.
Hifumi looked like he was texting someone on his phone and being quite giddy while doing so.
Hina and Sakura were having a friendly scuffle; for some reason, the swimmer was determined to put a cat-shaped hair clip in her best friend's air but the martial artist was blocking every attempt that the tanned girl made.
Celeste was polishing her strange metal finger claw item that she definitely didn't buy at Warm Subject, no matter how many times Leon swears that he saw her in the shop.
Talking about everyone's punching bag, he was holding a hand mirror in front of his face intending to make his goatee 'just right'.
Unlike him, Sayaka was doing something with meaning. The pop sensation was working on the lyrics of a new song for her Idol group, several crumpled papers on top of her normally clean desk.
The class troublemaker, Junko Enoshima, was bored out of her mind, feet on top of her desk while balancing herself in the chair, her big sister Mukuro diligently working on the homework assigned to them.
Hiro was…does anyone actually care what he is doing? Anyway, he was unpacking a new set of Tarot cards that the seller assured belonged to a hundred-year-old vampire that lived in Egypt. The clairvoyant didn't even think about why a vampire would be in Egypt.
Makoto Naegi, the last class member of the group, was standing by the door, talking to someone from the 77th class in a happy manner.
"So yeah, Chiaki asked me to bring you these because she is helping fix a wall in our class." The student said as she raised a stack of papers in her hands.
"Were you involved in the destruction of that wall?"
"...M-maybe just a little." The young girl laughed a little while looking away.
"I see…" Makoto deadpanned and took the papers in his own hands. "You should go back and help them." The boy reprimanded the girl, but with a kind tone that made him sound like a dad.
"Yeah…we are totally gonna have lunch later right?"
The luckster let out a sigh, but it wasn't one of annoyance or resignation if the smile on his face was anything to go by. "Of course, I wouldn't miss it for the world."
"Great! See you later then!"
The shorter boy had to stand on his toes a little, and the girl had to bend her knees, but even if it was a little bit of an awkward position, it was worth it when their lips met each other. It was a short peck on the lips so Makoto and Akane parted away quickly and went to their respective classes. The representative of class 78 walked to the teacher's desk to leave the papers.
"For a school that rarely does exams and in which attending class is optional, the teachers sure get a lot of paperwork…"
Mumbling to himself, Makoto made his way through the silent class… "Wait a second, something isn't right...it's quiet, too quie-"
Makoto's cliche line was interrupted by a flurry of voices and people chaotically coming his way. He covered his face in fear of getting attacked for some reason but the only thing that hit him was a chaos of voices and questions that he couldn't understand.
"G-guys chill! I don't understand what you are saying, what's wrong?"
"Traitor! You are a traitor to our brotherhood!" Leon rambled, a few tears threatening to spill from his eyes.
"What?"
"I must say that this is a surprise, though in hindsight it was clear." The detective muttered to herself, a gloved hand in her chin and an expression of deep concentration on her pale face.
"That's not an answer…"
"Holy shit I was right! 30% accuracy baby!" For his part, Hiro was just laughing like a mad man, and close to him, Celeste looked…displeased.
"ENOUGH!" Makoto's hand slammed against the teacher's desk with maybe too much force by how the boy bit his lower lip for a second, but it was effective to bring silence to the loud room. "You will start to make sense now! What is this all about?"
No one talked for a full minute, maybe because they were intimidated by the sudden burst of assertiveness that Makoto displayed, or because they really didn't know where to start. Finally, a soft and meek voice broke the silence.
"Why didn't you tell us that you have a girlfriend, Makoto?" The tiny programmer asked with curiosity and a tad of hurt on his face.
The ahoge boy blinked once, then twice. "What are they talking about? I told them when…oh…" Never, he actually didn't tell his friends about the blooming relationship between Akane and him...well ain't that something?
"You forgot, didn't you?" It was a question but the lavender-haired detective already knew the answer, the same went for the rest of the class when Makoto gave a sheepish smile and scratched his cheek like he does when he is nervous.
"I suspected as much after all Makoto lies tend to be...rather horrible." At first, Celeste thought for a nice way to put it but the gothic lolita deemed that it wasn't worth the effort.
"C'mon I'm not that bad at lying."
"In fact, I would say that he couldn't even deceive a little kid with those pathetic lies of his." Even with her fake smile in place not even the Queen of Liars could mask that she was pissed as hell.
"Don't mind her dude, she is just mad because I actually won our bet hahaha!" The laugh of the local clairvoyant was cut short when Celeste's metal claw found a cozy place for itself between his lungs. Hiro's face going the same color as her attacker's.
The Luckster's eyebrows arched in disbelief, Celestia Ludenberg held with pride her title of Ultimate Gambler defending it with claws and teeth if necessary, so for someone to win a bet against her was pretty hard to believe. If we add that, it was Yasuhiro who bested her then it was just preposterous, his scummy friend picked up those doubts and tried to defend his claim.
"N-No dude cough I'm serious for real! See the other day a prediction came to me man."
"Ah yes, one of your predictions…" It took all of Makoto's will to not roll his eyes at that. Yasuhiro's talent was, like all of his persona, sketchy at best for it only worked 30% of the time, so the older student decided that it was a good idea to try his chances against a master gambler. Well, in the end, they could not laugh or insult him for he actually pulled through with a correct prediction, this picked the ahoge teen's interest, after all, it seemed like it was one related to him. "So what was the prediction?"
The supernova straightened his back and rubbed his hairy chin with pride. "I saw it with absolute clarity! You were acting all lovey-dovey with an amazon warrior!"
Makoto opened his mouth to tell him of stupid that was, then he closed it because technically Hiro was right. He opened his mouth again to argue the idea of Akane being a wild amazon warrior, and then he closed it again because Celestia already told him that his lies were really bad. The teen also pushed the image of his girlfriend wearing a tribal outfit to the depths of his mind...for later.
"Anyway, I'm not even a tad faced by this, since this bet didn't count." Hands placed under the chin in an attempt to look cute and innocent of the gambler.
The older teen glanced at her with his semi-permanent expression of confusion. "Huh? But I totally won, so why?"
"Because I said so." Those words were so natural and devoid of emotion that it was clearly the end of the conversation.
"That's not a reason!" Then again Hiro was an idiot.
"IF I SAY THAT IT DOESN'T COUNT THAT'S ALL THE REASON YOU NEED, YOU STUPID SEA URCHIN!"
It was hard to get used to those flips on Celeste's personality, one moment she was this calm and manipulative girl and the other she dropped the mask, becoming this banshee of rage. By now, everyone knew better than to intervene when she was like this, the best course of action is to leave the poor sod at her mercy. At that moment someone pulled Makoto away from that mess of a conversation.
"So you two are an item?" Mondo wondered out loud crossing his muscular arms over his similar muscular chest. "I don't want to be rude but you are so...and she is so...you know?"
"You truly have a way with words Mondo." Makoto deadpanned, but he did know what he meant, it was something that everyone thinks at least once while being in a relationship.
"Y-you are o-one to talk." Intervened the familiar stuttering voice of Toko Fukawa, usually, when she entered a conversation it was just to drop some insult to one of the parties or even both. "B-before criticizing others why don't you get a d-date first?"
"What did you say!?" The biker roared with so much strength that even his pompadour bounced around, Toko squirming behind her 'Master' who didn't appreciate the proximity with the literary girl.
"Keep your calm, Bro" The steady hand of Ishimaru met the biker's shoulder. "I'm sure soon enough you will find someone to spend the rest of your life with!" The teen with the thickest eyebrows reassured in his booming voice.
"You...you think so Bro?"
"I know so Bro"
"Bro…"
"Bro…"
They keep staring into each other's eyes in a comfortable silence like Bros do. Sensing that the danger passed the gloomy girl left her hiding spot, which he was glad for, and turned to the focus of the class attention with a shaky smile.
"S-so that's your t-type huh? What, did you got r-rejected by the idiot swimmer so y-you tried with the older version?"
"H-hey I didn't reject him." Aoi Asahina jumped into the fray, a light blush on her cheeks. "Also Akane and I are totally different characters!" The tanned, athletic, curvaceous, brunette girl that loves food said about the tanned, athletic, curvaceous, brunette girl that loves food, from the other class.
"We know Hina, don't worry yourself." Her best friend Sakura managed to calm the donut lover with a kind smile. "And we also are happy for you Makoto, finding someone to love is quite the fortunate thing." She kept her friendly smile but one could see a few hints of sadness and yearning on it, no doubt that the martial artist was remembering some bittersweet memories.
"Yeah, don't listen to the downers, you two look really cute together." This time was the turn to his old friend Sayaka to give her two cents. "I'm a little hurt though, here I was thinking that we were old friends." She pouted with practiced skill, Makoto just chuckled a little already knowing the antics of the idol.
"Is not really such a surprise, after all, Mr. Naegi has a lot of the qualities of the protagonists in the series harem." The connoisseur of anime Hifumi Yamada was one of the last few to chip in, however, the spiky-haired teen wasn't sure if what he said was a compliment. After all, Hifumi always said that those characters were bland and devoid of personality.
Luckily, not all of his classmates were on his back trying to pry for information. Leon was muttering something under his breath in a corner, a threatening aura around him. From her part, Kyoko had her pale chin against a pair of gloved fingers as a sign of deep concentration, wondering if her detective senses were dull for not noticing something like this.
"You commoners find entertainment in the most vulgar things." The class was missing the rude comments of Byakuya Togami, well they weren't really 'missing' them, more like 'expecting', after all, everyone had to know what the Ultimate Heir thought about anything, or at least that was what the blonde believed. "I must say, I expected you to have better taste." He said with an arrogant smirk on his punchable face. "But I guess that a dimwitted woman suits you well enough."
"Hey, guys did I ever tell you that one time when Byakuya dressed as a woman?" Makoto shared with the rest of his classmates, the smile on his face unnaturally sweet.
In an instant the whole class started to laugh at different volumes, except Toko who had some drool streaming down her mouth, eyes glazed and mind busy in her fantasies. The Ultimate Affluent Progeny blushed so hard that one could think that every single blood vessel in his face erupted at once. Stomping his way closer to the Luckster, Byakuya whispered in a tone between rage and embarrassment.
"You promised not to tell anyone about that."
"And you promised not to be an ass." He turned around, that unsettling smile still in place. "But I guess we both failed, next time we will do better...right?"
If Byakuya didn't know Makoto so well, he could swear the luckster just threatened him but surely it was just his imagination...cleaning some sweat from his forehead the tall teen sat back down on his chair. The creepiness of the ahoge boy was dispersed when he felt someone tugging at his hoodie, turning his hazel eyes to the source Makoto saw that it was Chihiro.
"And how did you two meet each other?" The question was full of curiosity and wonder, the respect that the even shorter boy felt for Makoto increased tenfold after such revelation.
He took a moment to respond, his expression changing into a soft smile that always surfaced when remembering such fond memories. "Well, it's quite the story, see I was…"
Close to the groups were the last two members of the class, the twins that didn't look alike, Junko and Mukuro.
"Well, dye my hair red and call me Ryoko because I for sure didn't see this shit coming" The fashionista actually spoke with genuine surprise, which was pretty rare for her to be. "Hey, hey Muku, doesn't that girl have super bad taste?... Mukuro?"
The soldier was just staring at space, frozen like she wasn't breathing, the mechanical pencil in her hand was bent and broken. After a few slow blinks, the raven-haired teen's mind started working again.
"Huh?... S-sorry did you say something?" She let the pen fall on her desk, smashed and mangled, kinda like her heart right now.
"...Are you okay?" Junko didn't need to ask that question, the answer was clear for someone with talents like hers but something compelled the blonde to voice it anyway.
"Y-yeah just... a bit surprised, that's all" The poor girl swallowed with some effort, face a bit more pale than usual as she glanced at the boy talking with a smile on his face. "He seems happy...that's good"
"Hmmm." The only response of the big sister was a low hum.
"And that's the whole story, sorry if it wasn't too dramat-ouch!" The hoodie wearer got interrupted by a smack to the back of the head delivered by Junko. "What the…what was that for Junko?"
"You were too happy." Was her response along with a shrug of her shoulders, bored expression in place.
As usual, the fashionista made no sense in her words or actions, every time both of them interacted with each other the boy was usually the one with a headache, so he decided to just let this one go.
The booming voice of the glorified hall monitor drew everyone's attention to himself even if he was only talking to one person in particular. "Yes! Finding someone to share your feelings and dreams is a beautiful thing but remember to never neglect your studies!" His laugh was as loud as his normal way of speaking. "Of course I don't have to remind you that both of you are still in high school so you won't be doing any lascivious activities, right?"
"Of course not! We wouldn't do anything like that in school!"
Now more calm, Celeste was silently giggling to herself with a hand on her mouth. Makoto was really bad at lying.
Turning back the clock a few minutes we saw the farewell of the two lovers but this time from another point of view. The point of view of a loud girl with a lot of metal on her face and even more energy on her body, proof of it was how she was trembling in place, like some kind of...vibrating device, for how excited she was.
"Ibuki has discovered a huge scoop!"
/-/
The classroom 77-B was quite the mess, desks were toppled over, dust was on the floor and it was hard to ignore a massive hole in the wall, but at least now the class had a lot of natural light so it wasn't all bad. Sadly the school regulations had these silly rules against structural weaknesses so the students were forced to clean their own mess, not all of them were happy about it of course.
"Ugh, why do I have to help clean? It's all because of those two muscle-bound idiots." That whine came from the class bully Hiyoko Saionji that, for all her complaints, was just moving dust from side to side with a broom, not helping at all.
"HAHAHAHAHA my apologies! Sometimes I let my team manager's spirit run wild!" Said one of the culprits of the whole incident, although, for the way Nekomaru was laughing and smiling, it was hard to know if he was actually sorry.
The rest of the group just groaned and kept on working boarding up the hole or cleaning the place, Kazuichi trembled a bit when he saw Nekomaru nailing one of the wooden planks using only a finger. Work was going at a pretty good pace so they should finish it before lunchtime, or that would be the case if an interruption in the form of Ibuki Mioda didn't just kick the door open. The list of things to repair got a bit longer.
"Guys, holy guitars! Ibuki has big news! Almost as big as the love of guys for thighs!" The random intruder randomly declared, hopping closer to the group, her foot hurt.
"Hmmm, ~ must be something very big then and speaking of big things I-" Luckily for the sanity of all the people in the room Ibuki stopped the walking innuendo that was Teruteru.
"No time for inappropriate comments! Ibuki has to spill the beans before Akane gets here!"
"Why?" Said idly the above-mentioned girl, she was trying to do the same as Nekomaru and nail the planks with her fingers but it was a tad hard and had to settle by using the palm of her hand, still a fairly impressive feat
"Well, it's because... Whaaaaaaaaaat? Akane is already here? How can this be possible, did you use a secret passage to get here before Ibuki?"
It was that...or maybe the fact that the rocker girl was so excited about this new piece of gossip that she literally got lost in the school that she has been living for more than a year, resorting to kicking open the door of every classroom until Ibuki found the correct one. In any case, she would soon be serving some nice time in detention for that.
"Hey walking seizure, if you are done not making any sense maybe you can tell us those 'big news' of yours." The small yakuza was already losing his even smaller patience.
"Oh? Yeah yeah, Ibuki almost forgot from the shock." The girl straightened her posture and cleared her talented throat, trying to give all of this an air of importance. "Is weird because Akane is here but, what Ibuki saw was…"
"..."
"..."
"...TELL US ALREADY!"
"Jeez just trying to give it a bit of dramatism, baby gangsta." She pouted but that only made her look even cuter. "But fine, I saw Akane and Makoto kiss, on the lips!"
"...Who?"
Their reaction, or lack of it, wasn't strange after all they barely knew the guy. The only interactions they had were a few polite words of courtesy when they bumped into the halls and the boy wasn't that remarkable in appearance anyway. Still, Ibuki wasn't happy with it, she wanted gasps, surprise, drama! Instead, she got confused faces, she won't stand for this.
"Ugh~ you know, small, always wears a hoodie even in summer, has an ahoge, kinda like Hajime but cute!"
"I take offense to that." Hajime was actually there wielding a hammer and a frown. He wasn't truly a member of the class or even an Ultimate for that matter. Hajime Hinata was what the school called a 'Reserve Course' student, well actually the high-ups called them 'suckers with money' but they were happier not knowing that. Now however he was offended by Ibuki's words. "I'm also cute…"
After a few seconds of contemplation, some of their faces lit up with the image of that person's face. One of them, however, felt a tad hurt for being kept in the dark about such a relationship, she bent over a bit to put her hands on her knees and spoke to Akane who was still sitting on the ground like this had nothing to do with her.
Sonia's voice was soft but with a tad of concern mixed in it. "Dear friend Akane, why didn't you tell us about such a wondrous event? I thought that girls' friends shared that kind of thing to deepen their bonds of friendship and girliness." Those ideas came from her 'investigations' of Japanese drama and anime.
Akane raised an eyebrow, her friend had a tendency to use strange words while talking but the wild girl understood well enough. "Well, you guys didn't ask." And there it was, the oldest answer in the book and no one could argue about it, with a puzzled look she scratched the back of her ear. "You aren't angry or anything, right? Mahiru knew about it but didn't say anything either."
Several pairs of multi-colored eyes landed in the above-mentioned girl, some with curiosity, others with an inquisitive glance but after a second all of them changed into a look of worry. A minute ago Mahiru was her usual self chastising the boys for tiny or silly mistakes, maybe she was a bit tough on them but only because the redhead knew that they could do better. Now however she looked very tired, like a rush of very tiring and annoying memories resurfaced from the depths of her mind.
"Sorry guys...It wasn't my place to talk about it." That was a blatant lie, of course, she simply didn't want to remember such a traumatic event but Mahiru had to keep her mature image.
Everyone ate that lie like it was one of Hanamura dishes and their attention was once more fixated on the tanned girl of the 77-B class, which was yawning like she wasn't part of the conversation. Most of them weren't even that big on gossip but still, this was a topic too juicy to let go of... besides, they were sick of working on that demolished wall.
The first one to talk about it was the mini-Yakuza leader. "You know I actually know who he is now." The two short teens met a few weeks ago, Fuyuhiko's sweet tooth was acting up today, and had a craving for some sweets. The problem was that Yakuza members had an image to maintain and that goes double for him, and his face must have shown his distress as an underclassman walked up to him with a bag of Karintō in hand. That underclassman was, of course, Makoto Naegi that a few minutes ago won a bag of sweets in a weird lottery event at the cafeteria, it was one of the lower prizes but just what the suit-clad student needed right now. The brunette kindly offered it the sweet treat to him and he accepted, right after a quick threat about if the luckster told someone about this his body would be found in the trunk of an abandoned car. Makoto took it fairly well, being surrounded by Ultimates all the time made him somewhat numb to danger. "Must say, I didn't expect the boy to have such cojones, to be with someone like you."
"Maybe you should take notes…" A soft feminine voice muttered, not enough to be heard clearly.
"Huh? Did you say something Peko?"
"Nothing young mas-Fuyuhiko." That was close, the swordswoman almost spilled out the secret relationship between the girl and her master. Just a slip of the tongue, like those words earlier. Peko was a serious and level-headed girl, she definitely wasn't envious of Akane for scoring a small boyfriend in only a few months when she tried for years without success...that would be crazy…
"Tsk, are we sure that this is not some kind of convoluted joke? Who is gonna date such a tomboy with a skull full of meat?" She had an evil smirk while saying those hurtful words but it was nothing new for the traditional dancer.
"Hiyoko! Don't say such mean things." The mom of the group was quick to intervene, pulling the ear of the kimono wearer.
While Hiyoko was yelping in pain Akane got up, she stretched a bit before speaking with a half-smile. "Eh, I don't mind. She is saying those things because no one has really loved her before."
Because of the way the dancer clutched the left side of her chest and how she had such a pained expression on her young face a few of the teens thought that she was having a heart attack. It wasn't such a thing but Akane's words sure pierced Hyoko's heart like the spear Gungnir, the fact that the tone of the gymnast was free of any ill intention just made them even more painful. She was so distracted by it that she even forgot to bully her favorite victim when the shy girl had the nerve of correcting her.
"B-besides the human skull is always full of meat because of the b-brain." Mikan closed her eyes waiting for an insult that never came, opening them she decided to speak again. "I'm r-really happy for you Akane...ah~ if only I could find someone that could forgive me...I wouldn't let them go...ever…" The aura around the nurse got a lot more dark and heavy than usual but no one saw it thanks to the loud cheer of the famous rock girl.
"Yeah yeah! Mikan is super right! Mega right! When you find that special someone you have to jump them before someone else takes them. Like this!" With that as her only warning, Ibuki leaped onto the back of Byakuya Togami, or at least someone who was very similar to him if one were to ignore his elevated body weight.
"Why can't you behave like a person your age?" The Impostor grunted those words because of the added weight, strangely enough, he made no attempt to fend off the girl that was posing as the most extravagant backpack in the world. "I couldn't care less about the romantic escapades of a couple of plebeians...that being said, I wish you well to both of you." The boy was certainly a copy of the Ultimate Affluent Progeny in looks, mannerisms, and even voice but his inherent kindness shone through the façade.
The blonde princess was next to interject, sparks of pure excitement in her royal eyes. "Indubitably! The infinite power of love can defeat anything, even the differences in social status!"
A surprised gasp came from the Ultimate Mechanic that was looking at the royal girl with reverence. "D-Do you believe that Miss Sonia?"
"Of course." She said with a smile...before interlocking arms with Gundam Tanaka; Sonia's eyes didn't leave Souda's as he joined Hiyoko in her 'Feels induced heart attack'.
"Hmph, human emotions are a mystery for such a high-level demon as myself. I guess that you have to find comfort in such trivial things when your lifespan is so short." The Breeder was trying really hard to sound cool but it was hard for him as his place face was now beet red thanks to the Princess's proximity.
The class representative of this class, Chiaki Nanami, was uncharacteristically focused on Akane. Even as the Ultimate Gamer, there was a genre that, no matter how hard she practiced, the gamer girl always ended up on the 'Game Over' screen. Sure, she could just search for a walkthrough on the internet, but that would be an insult to her gamer pride! However, asking a friend for tips is totally fine. She would have to ask Akane to a private gaming session one of these days as the tanned girl was, obviously, a romance expert.
"Makoto Naegi...I wasn't aware of an athlete with that name but he must be quite amazing and strong!" The team manager said in the loud and intense voice that made the windows of the place tremble dangerously.
"He is amazing!...but a bit of a wimp…" She said with a frown, her arms crossed under her chest. A second later an idea flashed in her head and the girl smiled. "You should train him old man, that way he can be buff and strong!"
"HAHAHAHAHA don't worry, once I'm done with him, even you will have problems keeping up with him!" Of course, he will have to get Makoto's permission first, but they were just too excited at the prospect of a new member of the 'muscle club', his future full of muscle cramps and soreness.
"Mhm~ love is such a sweet and delectable plate but is nothing more than a warm starter, as things got hotter and spicy you got to the juicy first plate and then-urgh!" The body of Teruteru fell to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut, Mahiru delivered such a precise chop to the base of his neck that it would've left even Sakura impressed.
"Jeez~ you guys, I can't leave you alone for one second before something crazy happens." The redhead let out a tired sigh and rubbed the bridge of her nose with two fingers. "You guys are making me give up on dating just by proxy."
"That's a shame, you would be a great girlfriend." It took Hajime five seconds to realize what he just said, with pink dusted cheeks he turned to see her. "Ah, I don't mean...w-well I still think so but…"
By this point Mahiru's face was as red as her hair, eyes darting from side to side not really knowing where to look. "J-Jeez~ what are you, s-stupid? Watch what you say, i-idiot!"
"S-sorry…"
The atmosphere in the room was light and cheerful, for the most part, the group of friends chatting happily and celebrating her friend's happiness. All but one of them, they just were looking without saying anything...thinking.
/-/
It was here! The favorite time that gluttons and students who were sick of classes shared, Lunch Time! Teachers and students alike were trying to secure a spot in the cafeteria to eat the delicious food of the Ultimate Cook, or Chef as he likes to say. However, the ones who made their own food or procured it by other methods usually relaxed in the benches close to the fountain. Makoto was now in one of them, enjoying the gentle breeze as he waited for Akane to appear.
"Strange, she is never late for lunch...maybe she is still busy with that wall." The hoodie wearer muttered to himself, a bit anxious even when he had no motives for it. Until a shadow loomed over his body and got him out of his thoughts, looking over it Makoto saw another student. Strangely, the pale teen was kinda similar to him in appearance but with a complexion that made him look a bit unhealthy, but one thing was clear...he had excellent taste in hoodies.
"Hope that I don't bother you but, would you mind if I sat with you for a bit?" The teen with cloud-like hair gave Makoto a serene smile.
It was a bit strange, after all, there were free benches around. "Sure, sit down." Makoto scooted a bit to let space for the older teen. "I'm sure that he is just a bit extravagant."
"Thank you." He sat down to the ahoge teen side, a smile still on his lips. "You must be really kind for tolerating the presence of such lowly garbage like me!"
"I made a huge mistake." The brunette thought, a new record of regret. "I… wouldn't say that…"
"My apologies didn't even give you my name. I'm Nagito Komaeda, the Ultimate Lucky Student from class 77-B." Again he was smiling, in fact, Nagito didn't stop smiling from the first moment Makoto saw him, it was kinda creepy.
"It's a pleasure Nagito." Makoto already knew about him from Akane, except that she called him Weird Hope Guy when referring to him. At first, he thought that his girlfriend was just being bad with names again but he had to admit, it was an accurate name. "My name is-"
"Makoto Naegi, right? I actually know a bit about you from my classmate...like the fact that you are dating Akane Owari."
"O-oh, did she told her class?" Makoto scratched the back of his head like he used to do when he was nervous. In his mind, he looked like the one keeping it a secret because he was embarrassed or something, which is not true of course. "Hehehe we are, ah it is a bit embarrassi-"
"How arrogant of you."
"Huh?"
The air suddenly felt very heavy, like when the music stops to a halt on a movie or a videogame. When the younger Lucky student turned to see Nagito he already was giving him an apologetic expression, hands in front of his body in a surrender fashion. "Apologies, that came out really wrong. Allow me to explain myself." Before Makoto could say anything, Nagito got closer, uncomfortably so.
"You see, in this world, there are two types of people: The talented and the talentless, from the two groups it's a no-brainer who is the superior one. Those with talents are the ones who bring hope into this world, being able to perform feats that the masses without talent can only dream of. Ultimates are Hope itself!"
Makoto could only listen with bewilderment on his face; he just wanted to have a nice lunch with the girl he loved and now this weird boy was giving a monologue about his wrapped vision of the world. Just his luck, and talking about luck…
"There is, however, the case of the Ultimate Lucky students...sure they have a 'talent' but you will agree that they aren't really Ultimates right?" The totally mentally stable boy gave the other luckster another apologetic smile. "I'm not saying that I think of me as superior, on the contrary, someone as worthless as myself is at the bottom of the barrel...at least I'm still better than those people that bought their way into the school."
The ahoge boy didn't need to be a genius to know who Nagito was referring to or how his fists clenched while talking about the reserve course, it was perplexing for Makoto how someone could hate others just for the way they were born.
"Sure, I get admiring the Ultimates but even if they invite you to hangout you should know your place and politely decline, that damn Haji-...sorry, I started to ramble."
"What do you mean 'started'?"
"My point was that…" Nagito got even closer which Makoto didn't know was possible and certainly wished that it wasn't. "Do you actually think that she and you are on the same level? You must have thought that she would be much better with someone other than an unremarkable person with only luck as a strong point…"
Again, silence. A heavy and murky silence that seemingly froze both of the luckster in place. Makoto had his gaze down and Nagito couldn't see his face, just waiting to get his response. Finally, Makoto spoke. "You are right...I thought of it…"
"Ah, I'm glad that we see each other eye to e-"
"That's why I won't give up" Makoto lifted his head, eyes locking onto Nagito's. "If I felt that I'm not good enough, then I just need to work to be better...to become someone worthy of being loved."
Nagito's eyes were slightly wider. "You make it sound so easy, but if people could change just by willing it, the world wouldn't be the way it is."
"That may be so...but I truly believe that you can do amazing things if you never give up on yourself."
Maybe it was a trick of the light or the imagination of his damaged brain but, for a second, Nagito saw something shimmering in the brunette's eyes. "Could it be…"
"Besides I think you said that me being with Akane was arrogant of me but if I were to break up with her without talking to her or even taking her feelings into consideration like I know what is best for her, well that would be truly arrogant." Makoto was quite calm and composed for someone in his position, all things considered.
And so the third silence of the day fell upon them once more, this one was more freaky, as for the first time Nagito wasn't smiling anymore. His eyes were trying to look into the depths of this boy's soul before any of the two could say anything more, the pale luckster was forced to stand up when someone yanked him by his hoodie.
"Are you being creepy again?" It was the girl of the moment; Akane was lifting the teen with only a hand, his feet hovering above the ground like a doll's. With a smile, she turned to her boyfriend. "Heya! Sorry for being late but that wall took a while to get done."
"Don't worry about it, just glad that you made it." He finally let himself relax, secretly glad for the breathing room that the girl provided.
She turned the floating luckster around so they could talk face to face. "I came running here, so how were you here before me?"
"Well, you see...I was in charge of cleaning so...I left when my...part was done…" He had some trouble breathing thanks to the neck of the shirt pressing against his throat, nothing to worry about.
"Hmmm." Akane frowned at his explanation, not sure if it was fair of him to do what he did. Pointing at Nagito with her free hand she asked Makoto. "Was he bothering you? He does that a lot."
Makoto was reminded earlier of how lacking he was in the lying department, so instead he did the next best thing, deflect. "We were just talking but you should let him go, pretty sure that you are choking him."
A simple 'Oops' was the only apology the choked man got, with a soft cough his hand went to rub the slightly red neck. "Think I saw my old dog for a moment…" Nagito mumbled under his breath, relaxed expression back in place and he turned around to leave. "Sorry for bothering you, will be going now."
"Hey, Nagito." The luckster of class 78 spoke to him. "Don't wanna sound like a smartass or anything but...you were wrong about two more things."
He stopped walking but didn't turn around, his voice still calm and friendly. "Those things being?"
"You call yourself trash or worthless, but I bet that the only one thinking that is you. At least I know that you aren't."
Nagito still was facing away from the couple, making it impossible to know what kind of face he was making. "And the other one?"
"You said that my only strong point was luck, actually I have another one, you see…" Makoto's smile was full of confidence when he spoke. "I'm more gung-ho than other people." Yeah, that definitely sounded way cooler in his head…
Again the white-haired teen didn't move a muscle for a while before starting to walk away, this time at least he said goodbye. "Enjoy your meal."
They just watched the lonely boy, walking, hand in his pockets. One could only imagine what kind of warped thoughts are swimming in such a strange mind. "Nha, he is just weird, anyway let's eat already!"
This girl truly knew what were the important things in life, scooting closer to the boy she pulled several lunch boxes from her bag. The luckster chuckled at the exaggerated amount. "It is good to see that your appetite wasn't affected by that punishment."
She finished the first box before Makoto could even notice, grinning she pointed at the two that the boy had in his lap. "Look who's talking, eating two of those now?" Akane was teasing him but there was no malice in her tone after all the wild girl was always worried about how 'little' he ate so she was glad to see Makoto eating more.
They laughed together, talking about small stuff like the reaction of their classmates at the 'secret' of the lovers' relationship. The empty boxes rested at the bench's side while the couple was resting and enjoying the silence, a bit of pink found its way into Akane's cheeks when the boy's hand gave hers a squeeze. Smiling she squeezed back.
Another peaceful day in Hope's Academy.
Omake:
A girl was browsing the shelves of the store Warm Subject, she had black hair in a pixie bob cut. Wearing a black tracksuit and sunglasses to hide her appearance. Her name was Taeko Yasuhiro, better known as Celestia Ludenberg, although if she were to be discovered in such a store, the gambling girl would pretty much prefer to be known which such a plain name. Not like anyone could recognize her with such a flawless disguise.
"Celeste? Is that you?"
"Shit."
She turned around to see Leon looking at her with curiosity that gave way to an honest smile. The baseball star was next to her in a second.
"It is you! Almost don't recognize you with that get up" He laughed, not reading the mood between the two. "I knew you were a regular here, with those weird accessories of yours."
How did she want to slap the fake ginger in the face for making fun of her fashion sense like that, but that would be blowing her cover and that was just not feasible. Breathing deeply she spoke in a normal tone, ditching her fake accent. "Sorry but you must be mistaking me with someone that, without a doubt, had an excellent taste in clothes and accessories."
"What's with the voice? Are you sick or something? Hey hey, this means that those weird hair drills are fake right?"
She was trembling with restrained fury and murderous intent. "I told you…you got the wrong person…"
Leon clearly wasn't blessed with the vital skill of sensing danger so he kept blabbing away. "This is hilarious, wait till I tell everyone about this. Mondo owns me a lot of money no-"
The girl that definitely wasn't Celeste, yanked down the boy by his goatee. Crimson eyes glaring a hole into his skull with intensity. "Listen to me you wannabe punk, you never saw me here. If you think to tell someone, you will be dropped to D rank at such speed that your lungs will burst because of the pressure change!"
The poor boy didn't understand half of what she said but was too scared to ask. Weakly he nodded in response and his ass hit the floor when the girl let go of him. Not bothering to look back, Taeko walked out of the store.
"...why are all the chicks in my class crazy?"
And that's a wrap!
God that was loooooooong, still with me? If you are, thank you for taking the time to read my stories, it means a lot to me that people are enjoying what I write.
I hope that you enjoy my lame jokes and references (Yes, Warm Subject is a reference to Hot Topic).
Don't know what the next chapter will be about but it will be shorter than this one… I hope.
Thanks for all your favs, follows, and reviews. I'll try to answer all of them.
See you next time!