Although she hasn't used this empty dorm since the start of their school year, it somehow remained tidy enough.
Peko can't find it in herself to lie down in her dorm room that night. Normally, she'd be staying in the young mistress' room, but since a few days ago, her liege had ushered her out to their once-shared dorm.
She didn't protest. If it's what her young mistress wanted, then she should oblige with it.
Now, she sat as comfortably as she could on this dorm's bed, untouched until recently.
It's been a few hours since she briefly spoke with Fuyuhiko, the person she served her whole life. Or, at least, that was the way things are supposed to be, until that terrible day came to their clan.
Years have passed since that incident, yet, she can't forget about it. She still clearly remembered her young master's empty eyes from that day; his body bent and wracked over, his helplessly clenched fists. She remembers how much he screamed even until his voice broke.
Shortly after several months went by shortly after the incident, the next thing everyone in the clan knew, he was gone. Not even a note was left behind.
No one noticed anything that might've tipped them off. No one knew where he could have gone to. Not even her, the person who grew up with him, was successful in tracking the heir down.
She remembers how much Natsumi, back before the young mistress became her new liege since, looked so much like her brother on that day when she checked on her outside their clan's house.
Years passed, and now, who would've thought that they'd end up crossing this way again?
Her first and foremost duty is to the new heir, and since he left the family those years ago, she shouldn't have any obligations towards him.
In that case, why is she still constantly thinking about him, and how he might be doing? What is wrong with her? She's a tool who's since been given a new master, but she can't stop thinking about her old one.
She thinks back on his words. She understood every last one of them.
"Don't let her push you around too much."
"You're still a person. You're so much more than just a tool."
She is no stranger to orders, and yet, she isn't sure what to make of these.
She looks back on her recent meeting with the young master—Fuyuhiko, she reminds herself, lest she slips up in front of him again—and vividly remembers his face and tone.
His face no longer has the same sharpness she once knew him to have. His tone is far mellower than she's used to, pleading even.
"Please."
"That's the only thing I'll ever ask from you again."
She may not fully comprehend his orders, but she knew that what he told her back then was a lie, whether he realized it or not.
Even if he hadn't meant it, she knew that what he told her wasn't the only thing he asked of her. There is one more order she received from him.
She remembers, in his own words, "There's someone else who needs you more than I do."
She knows whom he meant by that; the one person who's important not only to their clan, but to him as well. She knows how much his sister meant to him; she also knew that she'd never reach even half as close compared to her, but that's something she can live with.
If he never told her that, she'd remain over her dilemma far longer than necessary. She supposes that he might've known about that fact somehow.
His other order remains far clearer. She'd consider what he mentioned before, but this one felt more doable, and thus, a bigger priority.
A small part of her tells her she shouldn't let him out of her sight again, not since she already lost him once, but her more sensible mild told her that, if continuing her new duty in watching over his sister is what Fuyuhiko wants her to do, even if it meant going against looking after him, then who is she to question him?
One thing remains certain. Even if she wanted to question it too many times, she can't disobey an order like that, no matter how indirect it may be.
That's all a tool like her is good for.
Her dorm's locked. No one should be able to bust in. Perhaps Peko can, but she already ordered her to stay out; knowing her bodyguard, she won't even think to disobey a direct order from her.
For once, she doesn't mind the fact that the school's dorms are soundproof. It's not as if she needed that at this time.
It's been days since Natsumi had that brief talk with her so-called 'brother'. She hates using that word to describe him; it used to fit him, but now, he's hardly worthy of being thought of as that anymore.
She remembers the way that asshole looked at her. She remembers how much she wanted to throttle his neck over for having the balls to talk to her so calmly.
"Long time no see, Natsumi. It's great to see you doing so well."
The asshole dared to smile at her, just like nothing happened between them; she wanted to tear that smile off of his face right then and there if she could.
"Looks like Hope's Peak's treating you and Peko pretty good."
She starts chewing on her thumb's nail in frustration.
So what if he came crawling back after he abandoned everyone for years? Why should she care if he felt bad about it? Just because that bastard regretted it or would say 'I'm sorry', it doesn't mean it'd magically fix the years he's been gone. It's not like he's the one who suffered during those times.
She can't believe she shares the same blood with someone so stupid and selfish.
Her chest tightens and churns so much; if she didn't like how it felt back then, then she most definitely loathes this feeling even more right now.
'I don't want this.' Her eyes narrow some more. She gnashes her teeth.
She wants to tear something apart, she wants to scream, she wants to punch the walls until her knuckles bled dry, she wants to do something, anything, but this.
She doesn't want to remember.
For a second, she feels something wet hit her cheek. She wants to ignore it, she should ignore it; it felt too bothersome after a while. She quickly and, rather roughly, rubs the corner of her eyes with the back of her hand.
Even if no one else is here to see her like this, she can't stand this. She hates feeling all of this shit up so much.
Natsumi has already wasted enough of her tears. There's no point in shedding even more of them, now that she knows better than she did back then. Still, it's so stupid to think that she felt like this again ever since the start of her second semester.
Her grip on her pillow grows tighter. It feels so tempting to rip it with her fingers. She knows that she won't get in trouble if she did so; the school will replace it anyway. And yet, she doesn't.
She curses out against the person who caused all of this in the first place. A low growl comes out of her chaffed lips. "I wish I never have to see that spineless coward again."
'I hate him. I hate him so much.' That sentiment repetitively echoes in her mind.
She pretends there are no more tears pouring out of her eyes.
Another school day passes.
So far, nothing much happened to him during the first week of their second semester; aside from a handful of his classmates, plus Ms. Yukizome, mentioning a lot of things about their yearly exam at the end of the month. It's pretty mild, so he isn't sure if that even counted.
Either way, it's hard to be excited in his case. He knows all too well on how that kind of test works, and if he blunders in some way or another…
He can say goodbye to Hope's Peak Academy.
He didn't want to think about that for a while, and so, he purges out any remaining thoughts related to that; he'll worry about that when he gets there.
Speaking of getting there, Hajime hopes he arrived just in time. A certain teacher made them do a ton of stuff that morning; he might end up being off by at least a few minutes at most.
In any case, it felt like lunch break comes by a lot faster than how he's used to. Maybe it's because there's something he can look forward to this time around.
As expected, he sees two people sitting on the public bench.
"Hey." He greets them both with a wave.
"Hey there." Chiaki greets him back with a smile.
Fuyuhiko half raises a hand, cracking a lazy grin as he does so. "Yo."
His eyes wander over to his close friend; he feels relieved to see how bit by bit, Chiaki's hand is starting to look a lot better. It's still wrapped up in bandages, but he's sure that after some time, they'd come off soon.
The counselor takes a seat in between them. He takes out his blue handheld before either of the two even said a word to him. Chiaki takes hers out as well.
As soon as she passes the third console to Fuyuhiko, he politely pushes it away. "I think I'm going to sit out on this one, this time."
Undeterred, she just as politely pushes it back to his palm. "Come on," She insists, "You had fun yesterday, didn't you?"
"And let you two gang up on me today?" Fuyuhiko snorts. "Fat chance."
She tilts her head. "Huh? We haven't done that yet."
He heartily scoffs with a smile. "Yeah, but that doesn't mean you two won't do it."
"I don't think we're ever going to do that."
"Sure, because you've already got this guy," He jabs a thumb towards the Ultimate student. "As your virtual punching bag."
Hajime internally winces. 'Harsh. Too harsh.'
"You have a point."
'You didn't have to agree with him, you know.'
She adds, "But, since he isn't just lying down and taking it, I don't know if he'd count as a punching bag."
'Phrasing, please.' There's no other situation where he wanted to curl up somewhere more than this.
"That makes him a sparring dummy, then," Fuyuhiko concludes.
Though the weather's fair this time around, somehow, a bead of sweat manages to drop down his forehead. 'I don't know how that's supposed to be any better.'
Despite what he said, Fuyuhiko ended up giving in anyway. While Chiaki giddily starts their game up, the other boy shoots a glare towards Hajime, giving the kind of look that'd say, 'Go on. Say something about this. I fucking dare you.'
Because he's a sane man, he doesn't say anything about that. Right before he concentrates his attention on their current race, a thought flashed by in his mind. 'I think I felt some déjà vu a second ago. Wonder what's up with that?'
Their round goes off rather well, which is a big surprise, considering that the game they're playing had the reputation to destroy friendships. It's obvious who's in the lead, and in Hajime's case…
He isn't sure whether he should feel proud for Fuyuhiko or to feel bad for himself; it's one thing to get beaten by one person who's good at these games, it's another to get beaten by that same person and a newbie at the same time.
At the end of their gaming session, Hajime puts his console down on his lap. He ponders out loud somewhat, "So, two days from now is going to be Sunday, right?"
Chiaki perks up, having put away her console as well. She looks as if she's about to suggest something. "I think so. Maybe we can—"
"Nope," Fuyuhiko cuts her off with a shit-eating grin. He leans his body even more on the bench and he further reiterates his point with, "We're not going to an arcade." He's already returned the console he borrowed a moment ago.
"I…" She tries to protest. A childish pout forms on her face while she denies it. "I wasn't going to suggest that. I have more to my life than video games, you know." She crosses her arms in protest.
"Yeah." The other boy teasingly answers her back, "Sure you do." with a chuckle at the end.
Hajime hears her grumble something under her breath for a good second or so. He didn't add much to that delightful conversation, other than smiling a bit too wide while a droplet of sweat runs down the side of his head. God, the weather's acting pretty weird today.
Chiaki thinks for a moment, and then suggests, "The movies might be alright—"
Fuyuhiko shoots that proposal down as well, crossing his arms into a literal 'X' shape. "Nah. Out of the question."
"Huh, why not?"
He sighs, hand pawing over the back of his neck. He grumbles, "One of us is going to end up looking like the third wheel if we go to the movies."
'Wait, a third wheel?!' Hajime feels his face grow hot and red, completely realizing what the other boy's implying to them. 'You've got it all wrong!' As much as he wants to clear things up, he had a bad feeling that'd just cause more misunderstandings, and so, he kept those refutations in him. The last thing he wants is to go off like a bunch of bullets.
Chiaki doesn't help their situation get any better and she wonders out loud. "Why would there be a third wheel, though?" The completely innocent tone in her voice sells it out even more.
Fuyuhiko mirrors Hajime's reaction, sputtering over his words and muttering curses under his breath. If either of the two listened closely, they'd hear glimpses of "My God" and "No one's this motherfucking oblivious".
"If movies don't work, then what about the amusement park?"
"Same logic as the movies!"
Completely out of options, she asks Fuyuhiko in an exasperated tone, "Do you have any ideas for tomorrow, then?"
The other boy raises a finger, opens his mouth to say something, only to close it back. After glancing towards Hajime's direction, he simply shrugs. "Beats me. I'm not exactly familiar with the blocks around here anyways." He leans his back further on the bench, splaying his arms around. "And before you say it, I'm not a fan of aquariums."
Their discussion comes to a sudden halt for a good minute or so, until Hajime spoke up.
"A simple lunch out to somewhere inexpensive, and maybe some karaoke might do. If not that that, a simple stroll in the park should be okay too." He casually suggests. On the inside, he bemoans, 'I have no idea where I'm going with this either. I mean, that's all I've ever been to in plans like these.'
Fuyuhiko hums, and then he shrugs his shoulders. "Eh, we're out of other options, so I guess either of those sounds fine to me."
"Yeah, same," Chiaki affirms as well.
Well, there's that. At least they settled that debate once and for all, and just in time, too. The reserve course's lunch bell rings.
As all three of them stand up from the bench, Fuyuhiko asks, "So, where do you guys want to meet?"
"We'll plan about it later." Chiaki supplies, putting her bag over her shoulder. "Right now, I don't think our teacher will be happy if we come back even a minute late."
The other boy scowls. "Honestly, fuck that son of a bitch."
Since he only knows bits and pieces about how their classes work, he can only imagine just how bad their homeroom teacher might be.
Hajime sees them hurry off back to their classes; he figures he should do the same, but before that, he waves a hand to them. "See you two on Sunday, then."
Though they're already far, they wave back at him.
Back to business once more, Fuyuhiko can guess. The rest of the day, well, he isn't sure if he can use the word 'smoothly' to describe it, but it did pass by with less pain than it'd usually do.
Of course, that is, until they've got saddled in these cleaning duties again. Again, it wasn't a pain in the ass like it was days ago, now that he got the hang of it somehow.
Until their slimy teacher opened his big mouth.
For some reason he has no idea of, the homeroom teacher thought that he and Nanami, and only them, deserved a few extra more minutes (and by that, he actually meant thirty whole minutes) to clean this sorry excuse of a classroom. He doesn't know why that'd be needed, but then again, this is their homeroom teacher he's talking about; a frustrated middle-aged man who may or may not have been a lowly salaryman before becoming a teacher in this hellhole.
So now, it's just the two of them in here.
"Yippee." He says that in the flattest tone he can muster while he grabs a wet cloth. He proceeds to go and rub the already-sparkling windows clean with as much enthusiasm as he has for the reserve course. If he could half-ass this thing, he definitely would out of spite. That said, he isn't spiteful enough to drag the one decent classmate he has into that shit.
As soon as he's done with wiping a particularly dusty set of glass off, he hears his classmate call out to him.
"Fuyuhiko?"
Momentarily pausing from wiping the windows, he turns his head around to make eye contact with her. "Yeah?" He raises a brow while slightly cocking his head.
The floors around her didn't look as bad it'd been ago, but it's not exactly squeaky clean either. His classmate looks like she got distracted from mopping the floor moments ago.
She turns quiet for a while, face scrunched up in deep thought, almost like she's trying to consider a thing or two. After that's passed, she asks him, "What made you think of enrolling in the reserve course?"
He grunts; he should've known that a question like that would squeeze into him one day. If his fingers weren't preoccupied with these dusty windows, he might've scratched the back of his head.
"To be honest with you, it's a little too sensitive for me." He admits; he glances at her for a second and, after some brief consideration, adds, "But you know what, I guess there's no harm if I answer that," He turns his head towards her. "Of course, you've got to tell me your reason for coming over here too."
She considers it for a moment before nodding. "Deal."
After he takes a deep breath, he starts it off with, "It sounds insane, but honestly, I wasn't planning to stay here for too long." He shrugs his shoulders. "I mean, it's not like I've got the cash to last this semester, let alone the entire school year."
Nanami interjects, "But isn't your family well-off, since, you know?" She shifts in place, as if she's fully aware of how uncomfortable the topic was.
He chuckles bitterly. "I'm not exactly part of the family anymore."
"Oh." She winces rather hard at hearing that. "Sorry."
He shakes it off. "Don't be. It's not that much of a big deal to me anyway." He turns away, wiping the last bits of dust off the glass. "I've already come to terms with it and all that."
"Then, did those guys…" The question she said out loud suddenly trails off and she grimaces. "Never mind. Please forget about that." She motions him to go on.
'Those guys, huh?' He has a pretty good hunch about what she's about to tell him right there before she cut herself off. He might sound like a paranoid nutcase to some, but, in case if those miserable old geezers managed to squeeze their wrinkled, grimy ears within these walls, he chooses not to bring that uncomfortable subject back; better for them to be safe than to be sorry.
He continues, "Anyways, the only reason why I bothered to drop in this time is because…" He breathes in, and then he breathes out; he reminds himself not to break down. "Well, since there's a free slot and I got a chance, I figured it might as well be a good time to see how my sister and my childhood friend are doing in Hope's Peak. I haven't seen them in years."
"You must really care about them so much." His classmate muses.
He exhales. "I sure do. Now that I've managed to snag myself a spot in here, that's when I knew Natsumi—" 'And Peko,' his mind somberly adds—"Doesn't need me anymore. She earned her right to be the clan's next in line and her title as the Ultimate Yakuza."
"My sister's a little rough around the edges," He fondly shakes his head with a soft laugh. "But she isn't so bad once you get to know her." His nostalgic expression then turns solemn as the reality around them hits him. "Or at least, that's how I remembered her to be like back then. I'm such a crappy brother, aren't I?" A solemn sigh passes through his lips.
Nanami stays silent, wisely choosing not to say anything in regards to that
The quiet goes on for a few more seconds. Fuyuhiko almost let out a yelp once he felt something rub on his back; it didn't make him uncomfortable—it was rather soothing, actually—it's just that he didn't expect that. He turns around, only to be greeted with Nanami standing a bit closer to him, the mop still in her other hand and all, and a free hand that's raised in front of her by a fair amount of inches. She has a rather sheepish look on her face, and she immediately steps back from him by a meter.
He puts two and two together; he feels his cheeks go from pink to red at that. His gaze drops to the floor and he mumbles out, "Thanks. I guess I needed that."
Once he regains his composure, he turns to her with a stern look. "Alright, now that I've told you my story, you better tell me yours."
"Hm, that's fair." She takes a deep breath to prepare herself. Her eyes had a wistful look to them as she recalls, "You might have a hard time believing this, but, I didn't actually want to go here either. I thought that I'd end up in a more conventional high school, and, well, next thing I knew, I came home to my parents telling me they've already signed me up here."
'Oh, so her parents are one of 'those' kinds of people.' He cringes in sympathy.
He hears her continue, "The first month here was rough. I considered dropping out right then at some point, but," A small smile, one that's easy to miss, is on her face as she says, "It isn't so bad now, though."
He has a good feeling about why that may be. While his hands go back to wiping the windows with a cloth, he maintains eye contact as he asks her, "There's one thing I don't understand about your story, though."
"Go on." She permits him while she absentmindedly continues her mopping.
"If you didn't want to be here in the first place, then why did you agree with them anyway? Why the hell are you still sticking around if it makes you so miserable? I mean, sure, Hinata's a good guy to be around with, but I don't think that meeting him is enough to make up for all the crappy stuff that's been going on here."
He briefly wonders if it's just him; he swears he heard her breath hitch for a moment there.
Nanami's grip on the mop she held loosens a bit. "In my whole life, all I ever did was nodding my head off and go along with the flow of things without any questions. I never had any second thoughts about the way things worked back then, but…"
After that short pause, she continues, "I can't let myself be a burden anymore. I…" She stops herself for a second there, before she shakes her head and says, "I just want to be somebody whom everyone can truly rely on. Even if it's true that the reserve course upsets me, I can't let that go. Do you get what I mean?" In the last part, she turns to him with a soulful look on her face.
His face softens as he nods. "In some way, I can see where you're coming from." He puts the used pieces of cloth away, knowing that he'd have to clean them later. "Then again, we're still in the reserve course. It doesn't matter where we came from before this; nobody's going to bat an eye at us."
"That's true, but," Deep-seated frustration seeps through her voice as she softly but firmly declares, "I don't want to be useless."
"That makes the two of us, then." He mutely replies to her.
The rest of their clean-up duties go off without much trouble, but at the same time, the air around them didn't carry the same mood as it did before they had that talk.
The extra thirty minutes passed, and now, time for him to head back to that place again, he guesses. It's too early for him to say, but personally, it feels like his first week here didn't go as bad as he thought it'd be; it could've easily been a lot worse.
Nanami offered to walk him home when their time was up, but he gently turned her offer down. She looked a bit disappointed, but other than that, didn't try to convince him otherwise. They bid each other their goodbyes after that.
He passes by the reserve course campus' gates, grimly noticing that he's the only one left there. Thanks to the extra thirty-minute workload their bastard of a teacher unloaded on them, the sky's about to get dark real soon; that gave him extra incentive to make it back immediately, unless if he wants to end up getting stranded somehow.
While he passes by the main campus' gates, he stops himself from walking any further. He turns around; he sees a familiar shade of green hair right there, and once he takes note of that person's uniform, he wonders if he saw that person before.
If Fuyuhiko had the power of hindsight and looks back on what he did, he has no idea what the hell got into him. He should've hurried back to the place he's staying in, maybe even drop himself off to bed as soon as possible while he's' at it.
Then again, it's hard for him to ignore something like this; his blood ran cold as soon as he sees what's in her hand.
He keeps telling himself that maybe he should've walked away slowly and if he can, get some help while he can. The other part of him argues that by the time he does that, that suspicious student will already be gone.
It isn't in his business whatsoever to butt himself in, but here he is. He unflinchingly walks toward the reserve course student's direction and demands, "What the hell are you going to do with that?"
The student yelps. She turns around; in that split second, Fuyuhiko recognizes that student's face. If he remembered correctly, she's Sato, his classmate who had that confrontation with his sister a few days ago. Upon noticing him, she then stammers over her words while trying to explain herself. "I-It's not what it looks like, I swear!" The girl's grip on the baseball bat tightens even further. "I was…I was just going to—"
He immediately decides right then and there he isn't going to hear any of it. "You know what, give me that." He scowls and steps forward, reaching out for the baseball bat.
As soon as his classmate steps back quicker than he thought he would, something in him surges. He darkly wonders if his gut feeling from earlier is just him being stupid and paranoid, but with the way his classmate acts so suspiciously…well, obviously it's not helping her case.
She rapidly shakes her head. "I'm sorry, but, would you mind if you…" She momentarily pauses, as if thinking over her words, and then excuses herself with, "Maybe leave me be for a while?"
Those words ended up being the final nail to click all of the pieces into place.
"Yeah," He keeps his eyes on her. His stance remains neutral to the untrained eye; in reality, he is steadying himself up in preparation for whatever might come next. "I don't think so." He steps forward, getting dangerously closer to her.
"Kuzuryu," The unsure tone that was in her voice a moment ago is gone. "It's none of your business. Don't make me ask this again, so please, leave me be right now." She steps back, her grip tightening to the point of making her knuckles white.
He doesn't waste his time by retorting back. He closes her in at least half a meter away.
Sato's body grows increasingly tense in each distance he covers.
In less than a second, his hand shoots forward and barely, just barely, manages to grab the top of the baseball bat. He sees her stagger for a moment; he takes advantage of it and his other hand quickly joins in.
He feels her pull back to try and dislodge his grip on it somehow. He grunts, amping his efforts up to keep his hands in place. "Are you out of your goddamn mind?!" He almost yells.
She shouts, almost like she's on the verge of breaking down. "I don't want you to get hurt, so please, let go of this right now!"
They continue their struggle. Neither of them was willing to give in. Fuyuhiko's stance widens; because he's holding the wider top of the baseball bat, he didn't have the upper hand as he usually would've had. He's aware he's already pushing much of his luck around.
After a few more moments of mutual struggling, one of them feels their grip slowly slip away. Sato screams. Time seems to slow down.
One of them swings in a blind panic. More screams ring out in their ears. One of them swings once again, and again, and again, and again.
And again, until a loud crack fills their ears.
A faint thud follows after.
Brief and eerie silence fills in their ears.
Rapid, uneven footsteps scurry out.
The skies turn darker that evening.
A/N: Sorry for the chapter delay. In order to make up for that, the next chapter should come around next week; after that, it's back to the fic's regular schedule.
Also, yes, I decided to change the fic's format from past tense to present tense. I know it's sudden, but I thought that using present tense would help in making things more consistent and hopefully flow better as a whole. Maybe.