Chapter 42 - Hallway Conflict
It was said that Class 4 of PK Academy's 3rd year is the perfection of standard normal distribution.
There was an equal number of males and females, with the appropriate number of sigmas for those outside traditional definitions.
When averaged, the characteristics of the students, be it their height, their weight, PE-related skills, Class 4 was the absolute average, representation of all high schoolers in the country.
The usualness of Class 5 was often called boring, dull, uninteresting.
To Satou, the so very typical of Class 4 neither satisfied nor displeased him.
It was not to say that Satou was indifferent to it all. The question of whether he found school interesting was as passing of a thought as noticing that there was a cloud in the sky. The expectation was for everyone to go through school, college, or vocational school, then work. The expected progression was as simple as eating. Use a utensil to pick up the food, put it in the mouth and chew, then swallow. A person simply did not think about that. There were already enough activities in life, like his friends, his homework, Hii-chan, to contemplate the alternatives.
When Saiki Kusuo joined Class 4, Satou did not think too much of that either. Sure, Saiki was a transfer from the overly whacked-out character catastrophe that was Class 1, but Saiki was probably the most normal (i.e. uninteresting) kid from Class 1. It was like the gods want to make Class 4 even more normal.
So Satou was blissfully unaware of some of the oddity about their new classmate.
First of all, Saiki Kusuo appeared to be a champion at skipping school. No one saw the kid since roll call during the last period of the last day of Finals. That was last week. The chatter around class was that he hadn't been at school prior to the Finals either.
Still, not the weirdest thing, since PK Academy had teenage idols, reformed delinquents, and shut-in before. These more unusual students all somehow graduated. Besides, full attendance of the entire student body, even in a school as small as PK Academy, wasn't normal and someone HAD to skip school.
Secondly, Saiki Kusuo seemed to be a pretty well-liked kid from Class 1. Every day, there would be one student or another from Class 1 who invariably drift to Class 4, asking for Saiki. It could get pretty disruptive since the school idiot and the school rumored delinquent would come by asking. Normal people generally stay away from those social pariahs. Satou did not mind, though, since the school goddess, Teruhashi, also came by pretty often.
Not that Satou was dissing Hii-chan. It was just that there was an alluring element about Teruhashi that no men seemed capable of resisting.
Third, Saiki Kusuo seemed to have done really well on the Finals. Enough for Tanihara from Class 2 to come stomping in, grumbling and demanding to see the pink-haired student.
Not that Satou paid much attention to scores. Satou knew that he ranked somewhere in the middle, like 90-ish. Normal kids knew it was silly to look at the rankings board and get worked up over it. It was not like his parents were going to reward him or punish him for normal grades. Unusual results, like making the top ten percent or the lowest ten percent might earn him some cash or docked allowance, respectively. But Satou was not all that motivated to do all the extra study that entailed nor was he stupid enough to rank near dead last. His extracurricular activities, like a baseball game and the occasional neighborhood cleanup, would have to round out his college application.
Nothing was going to change Satou's expected life trajectory and that suited Satou just fine.
That was why when Satou's unexpected met up with Saiki on the last day of school was so surprising.
It was a little bit before the last break period.
Satou had asked for a hall pass so he could use the bathroom during class. Normally, he would've waited until the break period to go, but Satou had a couple of last-day strawberry milk drink challenges with his friends.
With Suzumiya watching, Satou had to make a good effort.
Luckily, the challenge was only with Satou's friends from class, and not the baseball team, so Satou barely won, at the sacrifice of his bladder, which was now his current predicament.
On the way to the bathroom, Satou saw Saiki walking down the opposite way.
Saiki looked different.
Saiki was not wearing his signature hairpins, at least it looked like that. There seemed to be something hiding in the touseled pink locks, if Satou paid a little more attention, but Satou was too distracted by the lack of glasses.
Oh Wow.
Satou now understood why Saiki always wore those green lenses.
Saiki's eyes were a shade of piercing magenta purple that Satou had never seen before. Without the protective veneer of glasses, Saiki's glowering gaze, framed by that magenta-pink-colored eyebrows, seemed capable of freezing people and shattering their souls.
And without those green lenses to grab people's attention to the rest of Saiki's features, to persuade people that Saiki was one of those quiet, unobtrusive nerds, Satou noticed how strangely pale Saiki was. Added to the rather deep-pink coloring, so deep that they're almost the color of freshly spilled blood. With that added ring about a pointing finger, a typically unusual fashion choice for a male, Satou was reminded most distinctively of a common belief of a ghost masquerading as a human.
Saiki's native appearance was handsomely striking and menacing at the same time.
How in the world did this guy ever make friends? And be such a popular kid of Class 1
Saiki was also carrying his school bag, an indication that he just made it to school.
That was interesting, since there was only last period left, before their last blissful summer vacation.
Saiki was also walking very slowly down the hall, reading a blue notebook, toward the corner that Satou was about to turn at. Whatever it was must've grabbed so much of his attention that he stopped at the last second before being accosted by another student.
It was a male student from Class 2, someone who had been held behind for a year. Due to that one-year age difference, he towered above many other students, above Saiki. The Class 2 male student reminded Satou of Kongo Tsuyoshi who had graduated last year, back when Kongo was still a delinquent and would randomly beat up his underclassmen for money, entertainment, or whatever else.
It looked like Kongo forgot an evil twin on his way out of PK Academy.
Without looking up from his notebook, Saiki said, "Leave me alone, Ozawa Tesho."
The male student from Class 2, Ozawa grinned. It seemed like Ozawa's reputation had preceded him to the point that even the kid who barely came to school knew of him. The fact was interesting. Presently, he flexed his muscles a bit, enjoying the fact Saiki was far shorter and rather scrawny. "Can't do that. Someone paid me very well to rough you up."
"Oh. I doubt you can do that," said Saiki, turning slightly, looking like he was going to walk around Ozawa, still absorbed by the content of the notebook in his hand.
Satou found himself just watching from a corner of the hallway, struggling between his urgency to use the bathroom and watching the event go down. Curiosity gnawed at him hard.
Was Satou about to see one of his new classmates get beat down? Was Satou about to witness the typical 'give-me-your-lunch-money' trope? And if it was, would Satou interfere? Or would Satou run the other direction since it's none of his business?
Watch. Yes. Just Watch.
Satou hid in a blind corner, watching.
"Hey, you!" yelled Ozawa at Saiki. "Look alive!"
With that warning, Ozawa snatched the blue notebook that Saiki was reading and holding it just slightly above Saiki's head. Being far taller, Ozawa fully expected to see the pink-haired student to bunny hop around Ozawa, futilely trying to retrieve the notebook while Ozawa would lift the notebook just out of reach and chuckle.
However, Saiki was in reach of the elbow of Ozawa's offending limb that was holding the blue-cover notebook. Saiki grabbed hold of the elbow.
Such action amused Ozawa. Was this kid going to hang off of his elbow like a monkey? Hilarious!
Saiki pulled the arm down and plucked the blue bluebook out of Ozawa's fingers with a free hand.
Ozawa, watched this, realizing in shock that this skinny, all boney pink-haired student was overpowering a physically much larger, more muscular person. Even more so, this emaciated kid appeared to be far heavier than Ozawa, if this kid was able to pull down an arm.
In a panic, Ozawa opened his mouth for a curse and readied the other arm for a punch.
Still holding Ozawa's elbow, Saiki squeezed.
There was a nasty wet crunch sound as the bones, joints, muscles, and skin where Saiki held Ozawa's elbow were smushed together.
Instantly, Ozawa's eyes nearly bugged out. His knees weakened. His mouth opened to scream.
For Satou, who was watching from probably 20 steps away, blinked.
Back at the confrontation, Ozawa only groaned painfully as he bit down the instinctive urge to throw up from the shooting pain up his arm and into his gut.
Saiki let go.
Immediately Ozawa took a couple of steps back. He grabbed hold of the upper arm of the injured elbow with his other arm.
The lower arm of the crushed elbow was flaccid and swayed uselessly like a long sack of flesh attached only by sinew.
For a moment, Saiki quickly inspected the blue notebook, seemingly checking for damage before holding it to his chest, relieved.
Though in agony, Ozawa glared at Saiki in half anger, half fear. Ozawa opened his mouth again, summoning all his bravado, the behaviors, and words that he learned to get him what he wanted. Ozawa was about to shriek and pronounce future pain and revenge.
Ozawa was able to spat out "You little-"
"Silence," said Saiki quietly.
Without delay, no sound came out of Ozawa.
There were about a few seconds of a stall as Ozawa attempted, unsuccessfully, to utter one sound. He grabbed at his throat frantically, eyes rolling around, mouth agape, trying and failing to make a sound as terror slowly overtake him.
Satou, who was watching from his corner, was having a hard time mentally catching up. It was like watching TV, where he knew better than to believe what he was seeing.
Did Satou just see one of the most normal kids at PK Academy easily crushed the arm of one of the biggest kids at school? Near nearly make the same kid shit his pants?
Saiki now walked toward Ozawa, for which Ozawa stepped back until his back was against a wall.
Ozawa's head hit the wall as he could not back up anymore.
When did the center of Saiki's eyes glow an unearthly white?
"I am so angry," said Saiki, his face expressionless, "I could turn you into a smear." Saiki raised a pointing finger, the same one with that fancy-looking ring, and placed it against Ozawa's forehead.
And pressed.
Ozawa's mouth was opened wide in a soundless scream. His eyes had rolled up, showing only white, as he twitched like he was convulsing from a seizure.
Satou had to gasp audibly as he pressed held a hand to his mouth.
Oh. Shit.
Satou's gasp had alerted Saiki of Satou's presence!
Glowy-eyed Saiki was now looking at Satou!
Satou spun around and ran off as if a lion was chasing him.
Satou had to go find a teacher! The school guard! Or Mr. Matzusaki!
There was a monster at their school! Disguised as a human, all this time! That deep pink hair and purple eyes should've tipped everyone off!
Why was the hallway empty!?
Satou dared to glance back.
Where the hell did Saiki get that TV Tokyo's mascot, the Nanana paraphernalia the size of a crowbar?
Was Saiki floating?
Satou closed his eyes as he mentally calculated that Saiki was about to overtake him. There was a sharp sting to his head and his mind went completely blank.
Suddenly, Satou was in the bathroom, before a sink and looking at a mirror. He stood there for nearly 5 seconds, spacing out before blinking.
-What was I doing?- thought Satou and he checked around himself.
The bathroom was empty. The fluorescent light was white. There was a faint smell of cigarettes from whichever delinquent who decided to smoke in one of the bathroom stalls. He distinctively recalled using the urinal and pressing the button for flushing.
Satou rubbed his neck. He felt like something had bitten him on the back of the neck.
A mosquito, maybe? Damn. It was summertime, and it's been raining quite a bit recently. Maybe the school needs to up the mosquito spray schedule? The worse places were the locker areas and the hallways by the stairs.
Why was Satou's heart racing so quickly? He did not recall drinking anything caffeinated during lunch, or between break periods. It wasn't gym period. Satou only remembered walking down the hallway and now, he was somehow in the bathroom.
Satou looked at his watch, noticing the time.
Crap! It was almost bell time for the last break period. He was going to get into trouble if he did not make it back to class before the last bell!
But first. Gotta take a leak.
Satou ended up running back to the classroom and made it just before the bell rang for the break period.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Satou leaned back in his school desk chair, ignoring the questioning stare from the teacher who was leaving the classroom to go to the next. Satou just needed to peacefully make it through the last break and last class period and sweet sweet summer break would start.
Satou did not have many plans. He would probably hang out with friends and go on some dates with Hii-chan. There was a lot of manga that he planned on catching up on. The most serious plan he had so far was baseball camp. Oh. And do his summer homework.
Satou gazed mournfully at the contents of his school bag. It was full of homework books and essay sheets.
The teachers sure liked to torture students by keeping the summer homework assignments a secret until the very last day of school. The homework load had to be twice the usual load than the summer break from the second year. Satou promised himself that he would do a little bit of it every single day. It was probably a promise that Satou would inevitably break, like he did every summer before.
That was alright, though, since Satou has a trusty friend named Abe who would no doubt let Saotu copy homework answers.
Speaking of Abe, the eyeglasses-wearing, buckteeth, thinnish young man who was one of Satou's closest friends, came sauntering by.
"Hey, Satou-kun," called Abe, "Check out who finally came to school." Abe surreptitiously jabbed a thumb toward the window seat in the last row to show Saiki.
Saiki was sitting in his seat, his posture stiff. He gazed down at a closed blue notebook, his left finger gently traced the edges of the cover, looking a little lost in thought.
"Mr. Number 1 finally showed up," said Abe in a conspirational voice. "Too bad it's too late to take advantage of his finals ranking and queue up the summer dates. There's a bunch of girls and even guys were asking after him."
Satou listened to the gossip mutely, occasionally nodded to appear like he was listening. As much as Satou enjoyed gossip, he was far too weirded out by how his heart was racing and his palm was sweaty, like he was feeling afraid.
Of what though?
Saiki?
But Saiki looked so normal and harmless.
Suddenly there was a generalized commotion outside the classroom. It grew louder and louder before the sliding door to the classroom was pulled open with a bang.
It was the school idiot, Nendou Riki, and his fellow known accomplices from Class 1: the feared delinquent Kuboyasu Aren and the recently-not-so-chunni-but-still-creepy Kaidou Shun.
Satou and his friend Abe physically shied away from the hulking Nendou and his entourage.
Well, more like the smaller kid, Kaidou's, entourage. That was natural, Satou supposed, since Kaidou looked like the smartest of the three and was seen to be the one who chattered the most and lead the group.
Loud as always, Nendou cried, "Aibou!" The shameless gorilla, generally hated, gang member-looking Nendou rushed over and wasted no time in bending over and hugging the pink-haired young man. "Oh, I miss you, Aibou!"
The people around Saiki and Nendou all sweatdropped at the scene.
For one, Nendou was a generally disliked kid due to his yakuza-ish appearance, with his body the size of a gorilla and a tuff of mohawk hair deliberately dyed yellow. He was also as dumb as a brick, a trait that automatically cut off half of the school population from even considering him as a friend.
Then Saiki sat there, allowing the ogre of a man to hug him, seemingly unmoved by the bear hug and the developing snot that was dripping from Nendou's nose, endangering Saiki's shirt.
"Hey Saiki, where you've been, man?" asked the purple-haired delinquent Kuboyasu casually."We've been worried." Before waiting for Saiki to answer, Kuboyasu continued, "You look good though, without the glasses. Are you trying to impress a certain someone?" There was a suggestiveness to Kuboyasu's tone.
That seemed to be too many questions at once and Saiki only sat there, looking slightly dumb, with Nendou's arms wrapped around Saiki, Nendou still semi-sobbing from happiness.
"I'm going to go get Hairo and the girls," said Kuboyasu. "Nendou. Can you go get Hairo? I think he's at the faculty's office, touching up final plans for summer camp."
"NooOoo," cried Nendou, hugging Saiki even harder. "I haven't seen Aibou since forever. I want to hold Aibou for a while longer."
The term of endearment and blatant declaration of such close touching caused the students who loitered in Class 2 during the break to whisper conspiratorially among each other.
The smartest kid and the dumbest kid in the third year together? Preposterous!
Kuboyasu, that heartless punk who was probably had the actual strength of a gorilla grabbed Nendou's by the cuff of the shirt. "Come on, Riki," said Kuboyasu, using the Nendou's given name to force the ogre-sized man to bow to Kuboyasu's will.
It seemed like Kuboyasu had a lot of practice in the subtle art of making people do what he wanted.
"Shun, you stay put and make sure Saiki doesn't run away," said Kuboyasu before dragging an unwilling Nendou out the door. "And get him to commit to August 16th."
"Aibou, we're going for ramen after school!" was Nendou's last, trailing words. "We're going to make you come!"
-Take the creepy chunni kid with you!- Satou begged in his mind as he watched the exchange. Class 4 did not need the drama and the gossip, not before the very last period before summer break!
Kaidou looked rather somber as he delicately approached Saiki. "Hey Saiki," said Kaidou as he placed a hand on the pink-haired young man's shoulder. "You alright?"
Still sitting stiffly in his seat, Saiki said, "No."
Kaidou gave an oddly sympathetic look. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"No."
Kaidou swallowed, like he was nervous but not sure how to proceed at the same time. He did not seemed to want to let whatever it was go. "You know, I've been thinking about it since my mom told me. I kept on thinking about that night when we were at that gyudon place, Sukiya, and I'm so sorry that your ..."
"-Don't," Saiki cut in. He took the blue notebook on his desk and hastily stuffed it in his blue school bag. "You can talk about anything but that."
Kaidou looked hurt. "But why? Saiki? He's your older brother! Surely you-"
"It's a fact that has been nothing but problematic," stated Saiki, his normally expressionless face took on a taint of irritation. "It's been so disastrous that I lost my temper earlier."
At that, Saiki tilted his head slightly, looking in Satou's direction.
Satou immediately looked away, feeling the urge to urinate again.
That did not make much sense, since Satou just went to the bathroom.
Satou rubbed the back of his neck again. Why was his neck so sore? And his head so fuzzy? Like he wasn't supposed to listen in on a couple of most gossiped students around the school.
The buzzing of a cellphone dragged Satou's attention to his own to-do list.
Shit, Satou better go talk to Hii-chan in Class 2 before school was out. He wanted to make sure that Hii-chan was available for dates and more stuff. Hii-chan was supposed to come to see him, but Hii-chan had a habit of being tardy to everything. So Satou usually made a point to escort her to places, to help her get to places on time, places like school and chemistry lab.
Despite all the homework, the last summer of the traditional K-12 schooling was bound to be fabulous.
Without more thought to the sedated mood between Saiki and the chunni kid from Class 1, Satou went about his day.
Today was simply just like any other day.
