He dragged himself out of a room. While he walked on, he wondered if he should start running, but other than that, he didn't speed his pace up. Running would get him out of there faster, but if he did that before he was even outside, his footsteps might wake them up. Maybe if they start noticing something, then he'd hightail out of there as soon as he can.

He got out there without any trouble. It's not as dark as it should be; there were some lights outside. He figured it'd have to do. If he was fast, he'd be long gone before they noticed anything.

That was when something hit his ears.

"Get back here!"

He almost stopped himself from going forward in shock. An ordinary and weak person would've given in to that instinct. He knew he was weaker than that, and so, he started to run.

"No, wait!"

He didn't look back. No matter how loud that voice was, he refused to turn his head around even for a bit; because he knew that if he did, he would come running back to that side instead. He mustn't give in. He knew everyone deserved better than him.

"Don't leave me!"

He kept running and running. Rows and rows of streetlights passed by him. Not a single person was outside. He kept himself moving until eventually, the surroundings grew almost unfamiliar with different landmarks; he was sure he's at least several meters away from home now, but for some reason, that voice kept ringing in his ears, almost as if they're still close by.

He couldn't take any chances. He forced himself to rush faster. Things were better this way, he convinced himself.

The voice cried out one last time. It was as clear as it had cracked at the same time.

"Big brother!"

Fuyuhiko's eyes shoot open. He sits himself up on the bed. His mind goes back to what he'd been dreaming about moments ago; he remembers bits and pieces, but other than that, he can't find much related to it.

He groans.

Just as he's about to plop himself down and get back to sleep, he feels something wet drip over the side of his cheek. It bothered him a bit, and so, he rubs that corner with a finger.

'Huh,' Something came over him while he proceeds to rub over the side of his eye with the back of his hand. 'Why was I crying?'

He mulls over that for a few moments. He decides not to press on that matter any further than he should; he represses those memories in him once more. Now that he's officially been up for more than a minute, he's no longer in the mood to get back with more shut-eye. Fuyuhiko lets out a yawn and then looked over the time on his phone.

It took everything in him to not flip out. He has thirty minutes more before class started.

"Shit." He curses, hurrying off of the bed. He then scrambles over to try and make himself decent somehow in what little time he had left.

After he's done hurrying and snapping his uniform on himself, he finds himself outside. He got his breakfast done and over with before rushing himself out of there; a single slice of plain bread didn't take much time anyway, and there's no way he's bringing it out with him, unless if he wants people to stare at him weirdly.

The reserve course campus isn't that far off, and if he forces himself to care a bit more, he'd be there with at least ten minutes more to spare. But because he didn't care about it that much, he'd at least have two free minutes instead.

Meh, that sounds good enough to him. There isn't anything else to do there anyway, except for waiting, waiting, and waiting.

It's probably just him, but, running out like this felt familiar in a way. He grimaced, immediately deciding that he didn't like that.

Some of the details were lost on him over time, but the heavy guilt remained there.

As he roughly estimated earlier, he did end up making to class with less than two minutes left.

Everyone else already has their asses down inside; even their teacher has already positioned himself behind his desk right in front of everyone. No one said anything to him, and it doesn't help that no one was moving or fidgeting that much in their spots.

It gives him the creeps.

He gets himself seated at the front; since he was a late transferee, he didn't have nany options on where he'd sit his ass down.

'Eh.' He inwardly shrugs to himself. 'Not like that mattered. Should count myself lucky I even managed to snag a spot here in the first place.'

The teacher then asked them to go and open up their textbooks or something like that. Fuyuhiko could care any less about the exact words that the underpaid, middle-aged man spouted out, but he still did as he was told anyway. He might as well play along for now.

While their teacher droned on and on and fed them with the same old bullshit as yesterday (seriously, why couldn't a famous and oh-so 'prestigious' school like Hope's Peak hire better ones?), he tries to fight back a yawn that was starting to form within. He briefly considers giving in to that instead because pissing the teacher off would be a riot, but he's not going to risk something as stupid as that, even if it'd lighten things up a bit in this miserable hellhole of a place.

It's only been more than a day since he started coming here, but in short, this place sucked so much. The teachers felt more like middle-aged salarymen stuck as babysitters and his peers whined and complained about the same things every goddamned time.

'Well, boo fucking hoo, so what if you never make it to the main course? Life sucks like that. You better start sucking it up.' He mentally snaps at their recent bitching and moaning—oh sorry, he meant 'valid discussions' once.

Overall, the experience here is a joke. A sad excuse of a joke, but still a joke nonetheless.

Seriously, it's almost like everything in here was pointless in more ways than one. Maybe it didn't even matter whether they'd somehow manage to graduate here or not.

Normal school hours are already painful enough, but the lifeless droning of their teacher dragged those hours down to even longer and more painful periods. He had no idea something like that was possible until now.

Then again, when he thinks about it, his inward rants about the reserve course didn't sound so different from his classmates' constant bitching and moaning. But then again, compared to that, at least he has the decency to keep it all to himself.

Things dragged on for too long before the bell rings for lunch.

Their teacher snaps the textbook he was holding shut, and after a minute or so of deliberation, permits them to take their break.

It might be just him, but he swears that the bastard felt smug about that. He must be delighted, to know that this is one of the few times when he's got real power over them. Fuyuhiko briefly entertains a possible way to wipe that slimy bastard's smugness off of him.

As usual, everyone else quickly went for the door and left to go...off to somewhere he'd give less of a shit about. Pretty soon, even their teacher left.

Now it's just him, and maybe one more classmate.

He stretches his arms a bit, before turning over to his side to look at a certain classmate he spoke with before. He sees her pack her things up and is on her way to go somewhere too.

His classmate barely reaches for the door's handle before he calls out to her, "Hey."

That classmate turned her head around and looked over him. He couldn't read her exact expression, but he had a feeling she's thinking that this already happened before.

She didn't say anything to him but keeps her eyes on him, wordlessly letting him know that she's willing to hear him out first.

"So, uh," He begins, "Your hand's doing better now, isn't it?"

His classmate looks dumbfounded for around a millisecond or so. Despite that, she wordlessly brings her bandaged hand up to his view anyway. Her expression remains neutral for now.

At one glance over his classmate's hand, he won't be lying when says he felt relieved. The hand doesn't look like it was just clumsily covered up in bandages, the same ones that were both too loose and too tight in some ways after the person who worked with that called it a day, anymore. It's also a good thing it didn't turn out to be serious enough; that is, serious enough to warrant putting a cast over it.

His classmate proceeds to lower her hand back at her side.

Moving on from that topic, he then tells her, "Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you this, you know, the way you caught that punch was alright, but you could've done that stuff better."

He hears her huff. His classmate turns her eyes away from him and says in reply, "You don't say."

It doesn't take a genius to read the room. "Oh shit, I," His fingers scratch the back of his head while he takes those words back, "I didn't mean it that way."

"It's fine." is what she immediately replies with. She even waves it off as if it wasn't a big deal.

"I swear, I seriously didn't mean to put it that way." His hands gesture around somewhat. He clears his throat; he's fully aware of how awkward this was all starting to become. "So, getting away from that real quick, would you mind if I'll give you a tip or two?"

"Go on."

He lets out an exhale in relief. "Okay, so," He begins, "Instead of trying to catch a punch like you're imitating a baseball catcher, maybe you should try grabbing them by the wrist next time?" While he's suggesting that, he raises a hand up and then uses his other hand to hold his wrist as a demonstration of some sort.

"The wrist?" The suggestion makes her perk up a bit in interest.

He nods in affirmation. "Yeah. Grabbing their wrist won't only keep you from breaking your hand while catching their punch; it'll also help you pin them down and get you one step ahead if you need to." To emphasize that, he tugs on his wrist a bit. He flashes her a smirk.

Her eyes squint at the slight demonstration he showed her. She nods slowly. "Oh, I see." She turns her back from again. Her hand grips on the door's handle. "Thanks for that advice. I'll try to keep that in mind."

The door shutting is the last sound he heard.

As she left, there is one fact he glossed over. As soon as it hit him square in the face, it nearly made him double over in realization. He palms over the side of his face. A frown goes over his face while he mulls that over.

It'll be rude if he says it out loud, but it's true; he might've forgotten her name. He racks over his brain, trying to remember it somehow. 'What was it again? Namiki? Nanashima? Nakano? Nagato?' While he made sure it wasn't obvious to her, he grimaces towards himself. 'None of them sounds even close, don't they?'

He'll have to check his classmates' names over again later.

The next day came in the same way it did. And then, the next thing he knew, a face he's starting to get acquainted with real quickly came forward to him as soon as everyone else left for the lunch period.

"Hey, if you don't mind me asking, do you want to join me and my friend for lunch today?" His classmate, the same one whose name he kept forgetting for some weird reason, asks him.

'Woah, woah.' He mentally backtracks just a little bit, thinking over what his classmate just said to him, 'Where the hell did that come from?'

Okay, sure, he's not exactly on awful terms with this classmate of his, but they weren't exactly buddies either; this is the kind of situation isn't what he was expecting to start his lunch off with at all. He didn't get enough time to mentally prepare for this, god-damn it!

It seems like she's starting to read the room better. "I'm…" Her voice is a bit clearer compared to how it usually was. She pauses, as if trying to think of a way to articulate her words better, and then continues, "I'm going to meet up with a friend today, and, would you mind joining in? I thought that…" She momentarily looks away from him for a second or so. "Uh, I don't know if you're alright with being left out here by yourself, I think."

Okay…this is the first time someone willingly talked to him upfront without shaking in their voice. He isn't sure whether to be somewhat impressed or to be very, very baffled. Those sets of words pretty much summed up the way he thought about this particular classmate.

Her voice snaps him out of those thoughts. His attention went back to his classmate, who's starting to look upset now. 'Fuck.' His mind scrambles up ways for him to try and deflect this somehow.

It turned out he didn't need to. His classmate ended up doing it for him.

She bows her head low. "Sorry, I must've been bothering you. I should leave now." She faces away from him; her steps clatter on the smooth floor, going further and further away from him by each second.

While he watches her leave, he thought back on what his classmate asked him. She asked him, "Do you want to join me and my friend for lunch today?" just moments ago; he knew the gist of what she's asking, he's not that dense of an idiot.

Now that he reflected on it better, he thinks to himself, 'Eh, what else do I have to lose? Bah, at least I'd get something else to do other than sitting this shit around.'

Before his classmate got too far from his seat, he replies rather lately with, "Hm, sure. Why the hell not."

Almost immediately after he said that, his classmate stops, before slowly turning around to face him with a completely disbelieving look. "Really?"

He shrugs his shoulders at her. "I mean, it's not like I've got anything else to do here." On the inside, he can't help but feel a bit annoyed. 'Come on, I've already answered your question, so why does it look like you're not buying it for a second? Do you think I'm the kind of guy who fucks around just because?'

Upon hearing her mumble a quiet "Uh…Thanks.", he figures that's his cue to get himself up.

Just like that, the two of them walk out of their class to get to…somewhere, he can guess. Actually, no, he can't exactly guess where they're going at this point. It's kinda funny; even though they've met up a few times now, he still can't remember his classmate's name. He's so lucky she hadn't picked up on that.

Out of nowhere, he hears his classmate blurt out, "I know that it's a bit too sudden…"

'Believe me, it is.' Fuyuhiko mentally snarks but otherwise, doesn't interrupt her.

"But, I'm really glad you agreed to come along." She says to him. Her tone sounds a lot more relaxed than it usually was.

"It's not a problem." He stretches his arms for a while, before letting them fold and relax behind his head. He glances at her, asking, "So, you've got a special hangout spot or some shit like that?"

She shakes her head. A small, almost playful smile slowly makes its way up to her face. "Not really. It's just right there." Her index finger points over to a spot somewhere outside their building. On that spot, is a rather ordinary fountain right behind an even more ordinary bench. "See?"

If it were just those two things, he might've not reacted as much. It would've been a bit underwhelming, but overall, it wouldn't be that much of a big deal.

It just so happens that there's a certain kind of person that sat by and waited on that bench. At the same time, he so conveniently remembered that his classmate mentioned a friend earlier.

He won't lie, he might've have choked back a bit; unless if this was some big misunderstanding or one hell of a prank, he saw the kind of person he'd least expect to come over, let alone be his classmate's friend. Right there on the public bench was the most ridiculously plain and average joe. He wouldn't have batted an eye over that if that same average joe wasn't wearing what's basically the Ultimates' uniform.

Adding to that, he might've also blink a few times after squinting a bit, just in case he was seeing things or there's a fuckload of dust in his eyes. 'Huh, never saw that coming. Then again, I never saw her whine about the Ultimates with everyone else, so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised.'

"Chiaki," The guy beholds a neutral look towards him. "Is he a friend of yours?"

He uses that as an opportunity to sneak a glance at his classmate. 'So that's her name.' He still doesn't know her family name, but at least that's one thing out of the way.

His classmate hums thoughtfully, and then replies with a shrug, "I don't know, but, he's nice enough." His classmate gestures a hand, introducing them both to each other. "Hajime, this is my classmate, Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu. Fuyuhiko, this is my friend, Hajime Hinata."

"Wait, Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu—" The guy sputters out before slamming a fist down his chest to try and calm himself down. He then clears his throat. "Oh, so that's the brother she talked about a few times."

Fuyuhiko has a good feeling that this guy was in the same class as his sister. Which, if he's reading the look on that guy's face correctly, wasn't a stranger to her attitude either; that much he can sympathize with.

He gets a closer look at Hinata, and he's less than impressed with the guy so far. Messy and spiky brownish hair, a face so plain and generic, and a fairly average build; if it weren't for the guy's green eyes and ridiculously long and straight antenna on his head, it'd be easy to lose track of him in a crowd.

"You know," He voices out, "For an Ultimate, he doesn't look exactly the part." He won't make it too obvious, but he smirked when he sees a red vein pop at the side of the Ultimate's head.

"Hey," She jabs him a bit in the rib with an elbow. "That's not very nice of you to say."

Hinata raises a hand. "It's fine, I get that a lot. It's not the first time I heard a joke like that."

"Yeah, that's what it was," Fuyuhiko says, a hand raised in case if he needs to deflect another jab.

Thankfully, he doesn't need to do that; the girl accepted her friend's words, and so, she mercifully decided not to subject him to more, rather literal, ribbing.

Both of them got themselves seated on the bench. Hinata is in the middle, so the two reserve course students occupy either side at the seat.

Fuyuhiko sees them whip out two gaming consoles, and so, he playfully muses out loud, "You don't happen to have a third console, don't you?"

She answers with a slight laugh, "Actually, I do." Without a second thought, she grabs something from her bag and then proceeds to hand over the third handheld to him, completely oblivious to his stupefied expression. "You can borrow it if you want to."

He politely pushes it back to her while shaking his head. "Nah, I'm good. I suck at these things anyway. I'm fine with just watching." That was an excuse for him not to get wrecked.

"How about just this once?" She presses on a bit more, gently but also more firmly, pushing it back to him.

In the end, he ended up having to take the third console in his hands. And so, basically, he pretty much watched those two go against each other in the game while he tried his best to survive somehow in the sidelines. As he expected, one of them was being beaten to a curb. He's kinda surprised that it's the Ultimate student who's losing, but then again, maybe he shouldn't have.

He's kinda thankful that they decided not to gang up on him, given that this kind of game was a free-for-all.

Fuyuhiko is starting to get lost in the two's banter, so without thinking much, he blurts, "Speaking of, don't the Ultimates have that test coming up this month?" He heard about that from his peers' daily gossip; considering the unholy amount of bullshit they tend to spew, however, he didn't believe much of the words they said.

"Oh, you mean that test? Yeah, it's coming this month." Hinata grunts, running a hand over his hair. "I already told Chiaki about it. Personally, it feels more like a glorified talent show than a test, to be honest. They've got the press and all of that junk with it."

"Sounds rough, buddy." Loads of heavy sarcasm drip down so much from his tone, it's as subtle as a rock to the face—scratch that, at least a dozen rocks to the face. He leans back on the bench with one arm that stretched over the side.

She doesn't seem to get the sarcasm, as she thoughtfully replies, "I can't even imagine all the pressure they'd feel during it, especially when the country is watching over you."

Hinata shakes his head, brushing it off with a semi-relaxed tone. "I haven't taken that exam yet, so I guess I shouldn't be the judge of that."

"Sure, whatever helps you sleep better tonight."

His pretty sudden gaming session with them proceed to go well, as far as he's concerned. He won't mind having another one.

Just like that, another day ended for him. As usual, classes sucked, his teachers sucked, most of his classmates sucked, and after class cleaning duties sucked so much.

'Eh, there is one thing that didn't suck.'

He lets himself relax a little upon remembering the brief meeting he had that lunch. Yeah, he can say that Natsumi's going to be in good hands, judging by the bits Hinata had mentioned about their class earlier.

Something rustles from a distance.

He doesn't stop himself from walking just yet; he only slows down just a bit.

Fuyuhiko has a good idea of who's following him. He knew that they haven't seen each other in years; it didn't change that there was something familiar about this. Bittersweet feelings of nostalgia stirs up in his chest as he faintly remembered the similar games he and a childhood friend played together.

He stops on his tracks and turns himself around.

Around the same time he did that, a voice he hasn't heard in a long time calls out to him, "Young master—"

He raises a hand to stop her. A soft, weak noise escapes him. "Peko, please. You know I'm not the clan's next in line anymore."

He has a feeling that his childhood friend should be with his sister right now, but he decides not to comment about that. For all he knew, his sister might've sent her, or maybe not; maybe Peko was here of her own choice. Maybe he didn't ask, because he knew he's too much of a selfish bastard.

"But—"

He interrupts, telling her in a rather flippant tone, "Don't worry about me, I can take care of myself now. Besides, I know that there's someone else who needs you more than I do. " Whether his childhood friend would take that as a hint to leave him alone or not is up to her.

Peko speaks in protest, "I…" Her composure, which is often kept in check behind a calm and stoic face, is unusually tense.

He directs a solemn look towards her. He simply shakes his head.

Any more insistence dies down in her throat. "U…Understood." She bows her head.

Despite her reply, he could see that she didn't truly accept it. He faces away from her; there's a part of him that told him he should leave right then and there without kicking more of a fuss. He should've done that, but instead, he had to open his mouth, and he asks her in a mellower tone, "So, how's Natsumi been treating you?"

Peko has calmed herself again, as she replies to him in a neutral tone that unnerved him, "She has been accommodating."

"That's good to hear, I guess." He turns his head a bit towards her direction. "I know that I just said that I'm not the next in line anymore, so this is going to sound very hypocritical coming from me. But," He pauses himself; he thought over the next things he was about to say.

"Y—" She quickly stops herself, before proceeding to ask, "Is there something bothering you?"

A grimace forms on his face; in some twisted way, she'd be right about that. He shakes his head. "Look, I know it's your job now, but please. Don't let her push you around too much."

"I don't understand what you mean by that." is what she coolly replies to his request.

He breathes out, eyes closed as he argues, "You may be her bodyguard, but you're still a person. Again, I have no place to say this but still, you're so much more than just a tool." His features softens. "Please. That's the only thing I'll ever ask from you again."

Peko's face remains difficult to read.

Tense seconds tick by. He wonders to himself if he shouldn't have said anything from the start, if it meant sparing her this uncomfortable discussion. He always had a gut feeling about this, but he didn't truly realize how deep it was until he left.

Her lips twist for a split second before she answers, "I'll see what I can do." Her tone hasn't changed even as she answered that.

He has no idea what to make of that. Facing away from her for the last time, he waves a hand at her. "Well then, I guess I'll see you some other time." Something in him wondered whether he's lying to her or himself; he isn't sure if they'd even see each other again another time.

As he turns to leave, he doesn't hear her reply to that.

He knows one thing in himself. This isn't the kind of reunion his old friend deserves. Maybe it would've been better if he didn't let her see him again.

The boy's thoughts remained scrambled even as he walks on to…somewhere, he could say. It's not as if he can call the place he's staying in 'home' or anything like that. That makes him pause for a while; huh, he hasn't been at home for a long while now.

He palms over the back of his head. A groan comes out of him while he goes over to recollect his thoughts. It was good to see Peko again, and yet, there's a part of him that wondered if things would be less painful if he blew her off for her own good, instead of talking to her and pretending like he didn't leave them those years ago.

Acting as if nothing happened between these years at all.

He grits his teeth.

'I couldn't live with my failure from that day. And, so, like the coward I am, I ran. I thought that I was doing everyone a favor, that by getting rid of myself from them, at least they wouldn't have something so shameful stuck with them.'

'Hah, as if you can solve things so easily by running away. I'm so fucking stupid. A selfish piece of shit for thinking of that. What a sorry excuse of a brother and an awful childhood friend I am.'

If someone else knew of his story, he won't blame them if they started to laugh at him. He knew he'd deserve all of that and more. He might even join them in laughing at himself. There's no excuse to let them all down, especially the two most important people in his life.

'I've already fucked things up with them anyway.'

Speaking of laughs, it all sounds so goddamn hilarious when he thought about it; back then, so much of the family members thought that his sister would've been a lot more suitable as the next person to lead them instead of someone as weak and soft as him, and he ended up proving them right that day. Someone like him would only drive them to ruin.

They don't need a spineless failure like him. Now that he's out of the picture, he's sure that the clan is in much better hands.

There is one thing he can say truly say. Even if he hadn't seen her since a day ago, even if he hadn't personally seen through her progress, he'd say without any shame in his voice that he's so proud of his sister.

She sure showed them all that day. Now, no one would doubt her qualifications as the clan's next in line ever again.

Fuyuhiko forces himself to smile a bit. His sister proved herself, and now she got everything she deserved and more. That's all that mattered to him.

He keeps walking on with fists clenched. He keeps his strained smile on. He pretends that the wet lines that dripped at the side of his cheeks aren't there.

Even if did sting a bit, he came to accept two simple facts some time ago.

Natsumi, the proud Ultimate Yakuza whom he once remembered as his cute little sister, didn't need him anymore.

Peko, his dearest friend and the person he trusted more than several times in his life, didn't deserve to be abandoned; especially not from someone like him.

They deserve so much better than what he did.

A/N: Whew, this chapter is another one of the tougher ones I've put out so far. I'm not sure if I got into Fuyuhiko's head right, so maybe I'll go back to this at some point.