It had been two months since Hachiman's first fight as the Ninja and a lot has happened since then. For one, Hachiman learned new things about the Ninja Suit thanks to the Ninja Nomicon; for example, Hachiman learned that inside the Ninja Suit's scarf and belt held ninja tools and weapons that he could access as long as he reached his hand in either clothing piece and think of which weapon he wanted. He also learned that in order to perform certain actions while using the Ninja Suit, he actually had to believe that he could do those actions, which made him think his powers were pretty shounen.
Additionally, during his first two months of school, Hachiman fought more robots; every robot he fought were designed to look like werewolves and they had chainsaws on their left arms instead of hands. They were pretty fast and agile but Hachiman was always able to defeat them relatively easily. Strangely enough, none of the students were turned into monsters during this time period, which Hachiman was grateful for but found it weird at the same time; from what he had heard around the school, students turned into monsters very often, so for there to be no monster attacks for a long period of time was pretty uncommon.
Trying to balance his high school work and his career as the Ninja had always left Hachiman exhausted, so more often than not, once the school day ended, Hachiman would go home and sleep until six, wake up to do his homework, eat dinner, and shower, and then he would go back to sleep until it was time to go to school again in the morning. He would continue to do this for two months until the last Thursday of June, when his schedule was tampered with.
It had been the end of the school day and Hachiman was ready to go home to sleep, until Saika tapped him on his shoulder to ask him a favor.
"Hey Hachiman, I got extra tickets for the first basketball game of the school year from a friend of mine that's on the basketball team, would you like to come with me?," Saika asked.
Hachiman was about to politely refuse and tell Saika that he wanted to stay home and sleep, but once he saw the pleading look on Saika's face, he didn't have the heart to tell him no.
"Yeah, sure, what time do you want to meet up?," Hachiman asked, mentally berating himself for not being able to deny Saika's request.
Saika smiled brightly once he heard Hachiman's answer, "Let's meet up in front of the school at five, okay?"
"Alright, I'll see you at five," Hachiman agreed as he started to make his way out of the classroom.
Before he could step out of the classroom, Saika grabbed onto his shoulder to stop him from leaving.
"Uh, Hachiman, can I maybe walk you to the station?," Saika asked nervously, blushing slightly.
Once again, Hachiman could not seem to refuse Saika's request as he wordlessly nodded his head. Saika smiled happily before grabbing onto Hachiman's hand and dragging him out of the classroom. 'I may have lost my afternoon of sleeping, but if it makes Totsuka happy, then I guess it's kind of worth it,' Hachiman mentally admitted to himself as he made his way out of the school with Saika dragging him along.
'This is no longer worth it,' Hachiman thought to himself annoyed while he was watching the basketball game from the bleachers. The reason for his annoyance was because of something that Saika failed to mention when they were making plans; Saika had invited Yoshiteru to the game as well, prior to inviting Hachiman, so while Saika sat to the right of Hachiman, Yoshiteru sat to the left of him.
"Hahaha, yes, go my fellow schoolmates and continue to prevail against our rivals!," Yoshiteru shouted at his school's team, causing some of the people sitting near him to stare at him weirdly.
"You do realize our team is losing, right?," Hachiman asked.
Yoshiteru blushed slightly in embarrassment, "W-Why, of course I know that, I'm just using my ability to see into the future to watch the game."
"First of all, you don't have any psychic abilities, and second of all, we are losing by fifty points and we only have five minutes until the game ends, so there is no possible way that we can win," Hachiman pointed out, causing Yoshiteru to deflate.
Saika softly punched Hachiman's arm before giving him an annoyed look, "Come on Hachiman, you don't need to be so hard on Zaimokuza," he scolded.
"Uh, right, sorry Zaimokuza," Hachiman apologized half-heartedly.
"Hahaha, that's quite alright my brother in arms; at least your verbal attacks are not as bad as the marching bands'," Yoshiteru pardoned his friend.
"Wait, the school's marching band makes fun of you?," Hachiman asked in confusion.
Sobu High's marching band were infamous for their inability to carry tune, this was mostly due to the band instructor's lack of enthusiasm for his job. Anyone that was a part of the marching band were considered very low on the school's social ladder, so if anyone on the marching band bullied someone, people considered the person being bullied the lowest on the school's social ladder.
"Indeed, those heathens always insult me," Yoshiteru admitted. "They do not seem to like that I have superhuman abilities that far surpass their feeble ability to play an instrument."
"They think it's ridiculous that you think that you have supernatural abilities so they make fun of you for it, don't they?," Hachiman asked bluntly.
"That is exactly what I said, yes," Yoshiteru answered, either not getting or pretending not to get what Hachiman was implying.
"That's so mean," Saika interjected. "Just because you, uh, have a lot of confidence in your abilities, doesn't mean they should bully you for that."
"Especially since they should know how it feels like to be picked on considering that everyone is throwing their refreshments at them," Hachiman added.
The three friends turned their attention to the marching band, who were sitting a few bleachers above them to the right, and surely enough, popcorn, candy, and soda kept flying in their direction.
"For a high school that is supposed to accept the most advanced students, it sure feels like a lot of the students who were accepted are idiots," Hachiman pointed out.
Just as they were about to turn their attention back to the game, they suddenly heard a loud chiming sound that wouldn't stop. They turned their attention to a blonde, buck toothed marching band member who had made that chiming sound with the triangle that he was playing. Suddenly, the band instructor snatched the triangle out of his hand before glaring at him.
"Bucky, there's no triangle solo in this song, or any song for that matter; this entire game you've done nothing but showboat, and I hate showboaters! You're benched until further notice!" the band instructor exclaimed.
"But sir, the triangle is my life, ask anyone, no one loves the triangle more than I do! Please, please don't bench me!," Bucky pleaded.
"Put your triangle beater in my hand son," the band instructor ordered, ignoring Bucky's pleas.
Bucky gave the triangle beater to the band instructor before he pulled out another beater from his pocket.
"You can take my beater, but you'll never take my backup beater!," he yelled before he ran away, crying.
After Bucky left the gymnasium, one of the band members who was playing the trombone decided to make a "wah-wah" sound with his trombone, causing everyone in the marching band to laugh at Bucky's misfortune. After this, Hachiman, Saika, and Yoshiteru turned back around and started to talk amongst themselves.
"You see what I mean, those band members are cruel; they just laughed at one of their own member's misfortune," Yoshiteru pointed out.
"Yeah, that was way too harsh, I can't believe that they would make fun of another member of their band because he got benched," Saika agreed.
"Not only that, but they nicknamed him Bucky just because of his teeth; What a superficial and harsh thing to make fun of him for," Hachiman added. "You're right Zaimokuza, the marching band is cruel."
"I just hope that he'll be okay," Saika wished, referring to Bucky.
"You're overexaggerating my friend, what's the worst that could happen to him?," Yoshiteru asked rhetorically.
Underneath the center of the school lived the Sorcerer, the most powerful enemy that the Ninja has ever faced. The Sorcerer stood chained to a pillar, on the pillar was a stool so that he could sit on and a cauldron filled with water that he used his magic on so that he could see certain things from the outside world. Suddenly, the Sorcerer started to smell the air before smacking his lips together as if he had just tasted something.
"Misery, with subtle notes of humiliation, and a hint of flop sweat," the Sorcerer muttered before smiling sinisterly. "Whoever this person is, they will do nicely."
He began conjuring up mystical green gas before sending it up some pipes. The green gas ended up inside one of the boy's bathrooms where Bucky was crouched down on the floor with his triangle beater in hand, crying. Unbeknownst to him, the smog started to encircle his entire body before going inside his beater, turning it green in the process. Bucky suddenly feels a surge of power before he stands up; his arms start to become longer and more developed, his body becomes larger, his skin starts to turn purple, and his eyes become pure yellow. He looks at himself in the mirror to see that he had become a big, muscular, purple amphibian-like monster before smiling evilly to himself.
"They'll pay, everyone on the marching band will pay for humiliating me!," Bucky yelled before crashing through the wall of the bathroom and making his way down the hall.
Inside the marching band's bandroom, the marching band started to put their instruments away as their bandleader complimented them.
"Good game tonight team, you played some strong D; your B-flats and A minor sevens weren't bad either," the instructor quipped.
The trombone player who humiliated Bucky once again made a "wah-wah" sound with his trombone due to his instructor's bad pun.
"Cool it with the trombone jokes!," the band instructor demanded.
Suddenly, Bucky in his monster form crashed through the door of the bandroom, roaring at his fellow bandmates and his band instructor. Everyone started shaking and screaming in fear of being attacked by Bucky.
Outside a different boy's bathroom from the one Bucky was in were Hachiman and Yoshiteru as they waited for Saika to get out. Suddenly, the door to the bathroom opened up and Saika walked out of it before turning his attention to his friends.
"Thanks for waiting outside for me guys, I appreciate it," Saika thanked his friends.
"No problem Totsuka, it's not like we waited long," Hachiman admitted.
"I concur with Hachiman, it is quite alright my brother in arms," Yoshiteru agreed. "Now come, let us all go home."
Before they started to head out the door, an idea came to Saika, "Hey, how about we all have a sleepover at my house?," he suggested.
"A sleepover at your house?," Hachiman repeated with an eyebrow raised in confusion. "Why do you want to have a sleepover?"
"Um, well, you see, we've hardly gotten to hang out with one another for the past two months," Saika pointed out. "Since my house is within walking distance of the school, I thought that sleeping over at my house would be a perfect chance to hang out with you guys."
Once Saika saw the unsure looks on his friends' faces, he started to get nervous, "You don't have to of course, it was just a suggestion," he quickly added. "Just a dumb suggestion," he said that last part a little more quiet and sad.
Not liking the sad look in Saika's eyes, Hachiman decided that if it made Saika happy, he would push past his discomfort and agree to his friend's request.
"I think that's a good idea, let's do it," Hachiman accepted.
"Really, you'll come?," Saika asked excitedly.
"Of course, I got nothing better to do, so, why not?," Hachiman admitted.
"I too have nothing else to do, so I do not mind sleeping over your house, my friend," Yoshiteru admitted as well.
"Alright, you guys go to your house and get spare clothes while I-," before Saika could finish, the three of them noticed red flashes coming from Hachiman's pants pocket.
Hachiman quickly pulled out his Ninja mask from his pocket, which was what was flashing red in Hachiman's pocket. The red lines from the Ninja mask flashed three times, stopped, and then started flashing three times again.
"Why's your Ninja mask doing that?," Yoshiteru asked.
"Your guess is as good as mine, this has never happened before," Hachiman admitted.
Suddenly, a loud roar came from all the way across the school, followed by loud yelling and screaming.
"Something tells me the mask is flashing red to let you know that it's time for you to transform into the Ninja," Yoshiteru commented.
Hachiman looked at Yoshiteru with a deadpan expression on his face, as if to tell him, "are you kidding?"
"Really, I wonder what gave you that idea?," Hachiman asked sarcastically.
Hachiman quickly put the Ninja mask over his face before black and red fabric emerged from the back of his mask and wrapped around him, transforming him into the Ninja. After the transformation was complete, he quickly ran towards the direction of where the roaring and shouting was coming from.
"I'll text you my address so that you can come over once you're done!," Saika called out to the Ninja before the Ninja gave him a thumbs up while he was running.
Bucky was destroying every instrument he could find in the bandroom before he grabbed and held up a piano, about to throw it at his bandmates and his band instructor. Before he had a chance to throw the piano, a red cloud of smoke had appeared in front of him before disappearing, revealing the Ninja. The members of the marching band as well as the band instructor all started cheering for the Ninja.
"Put the piano down," the Ninja commanded.
Bucky then roars at the Ninja before dropping the piano on top of him, luckily for the Ninja, however, he was able to catch it and throw it across the room before he could be crushed by the huge instrument.
"I probably should have expected that you would try to do that," the Ninja admitted.
Bucky began picking up instruments and started throwing them towards the Ninja; however, the Ninja was able to catch all of the instruments that were thrown in his direction before putting them down gently. Bucky roared in anger before grabbing two clarinets to use as weapons, which confused the Ninja.
"What the hell, why use plastic instruments when he could just try and attack me with his fists?," he muttered to himself. "Whatever, if he's going to fight with a nonlethal weapon, then I should do the same."
The Ninja quickly looked around the room for something that he could use as a nonlethal weapon before he spotted someone with two cowbells in their hand. 'What kind of marching band uses cowbells as instruments? Hell, what kind of marching band uses a triangle as an instrument?,' he thought to himself. 'You know what, doesn't matter, what does matter is trying to take down Bucky before he hurts anyone.'
"Hey, you with the cowbells, hand your cowbells over to me," the Ninja commanded.
The band member who played the cowbells threw his bells towards the Ninja, as they flew towards the Ninja, he caught them before they could hit him. Once they were in hand, The Ninja started spinning them around his fingers as he glared at Bucky who glared right back at him. The Ninja jumped towards Bucky before delivering a mid-air swing kick to his face, causing Bucky to stumble backwards a little. Once the Ninja was back on the ground, he charged towards Bucky and tried to hit him across the face with one of his bells, but Bucky blocked the attack with one of his clarinets.
The Ninja exchanged blows with his cowbells against Bucky's clarinets until one of the blows caused the Ninja to slide backwards. The Ninja quickly recovered before he once again charged towards Bucky, only this time, once he got close enough to Bucky's face, he leaped towards him and smacked both sides of Bucky's head with the cowbells, causing Bucky to get a bit disorientated. Once the Ninja got back on the ground, he pointed one of his cowbells towards Bucky and stared at him.
"Alright, I got a question for you; what is going on with you, I thought marching band members loved instruments, so why are you destroying all the instruments in the bandroom?," the Ninja asked.
"If I can't play triangle in the band, then no one will get to play their instruments either!" Bucky yelled.
The Ninja looked over at the band instructor with an unimpressed look in his eyes, causing the instructor to look nervous.
"B-But I have a no showboating policy, and he was showboating, everyone saw!," he pointed out nervously.
Before the Ninja could retort, Bucky began pushing a shelf holding band instruments towards a marching band member holding cymbals. He started to shutter, causing him to slightly hit the cymbals together as the shelf began to fall, but before it could completely fall on top of him, the Ninja dashed over to him and held the shelf. The Ninja carefully pushed the shelf up until it stood back up. The Ninja sighed in relief due to being able to save his schoolmate in time. Bucky once again roared loudly before crashing through a wall that led outside. The Ninja looked around and saw that the bandroom was severely damaged with a lot of cracks and holes in the floor and the walls. He turned his attention to the marching band members and the band instructor and scanned them for injuries.
"Is everyone okay, any injuries?," he asked, concerned for their health.
Everyone at once told the Ninja that they were okay, much to the Ninja's relief; he would have no idea what he would do if anyone had gotten injured while he was on duty.
"Alright, that's good," the Ninja proclaimed. "You guys should move all your untouched instruments and equipment to another room." He turned his attention to the hole that Bucky left behind and glared at it hard. "I'm going to go chase after Bucky," he stated before jumping through the hole in the wall and trying to find Bucky.
It was eleven in the evening, and Saika and Yoshiteru were getting ready to go to bed until they heard the doorbell ringing. Saika went downstairs and walked over to the door and opened it, revealing an exhausted Hachiman leaning against the doorframe outside with a bag around his arm, breathing heavily.
"Oh my goodness, Hachiman, are you okay?," Saika asked, concerned for his friend. "Where were you, what happened?"
Hachiman's breathing started to slow down before he started to breathe regularly; he then stopped leaning against Saika's doorframe and turned his attention to Saika.
"It turns out that Bucky turned into a monster, trashed the bandroom, and wanted to attack everyone in the marching band," Hachiman began explaining. "I was able to protect everyone in the room, but Bucky ended up escaping. Do you mind letting me in so that I can sit down and finish the story; I've been running around all night and I haven't had a chance to rest since transforming."
Saika quickly moved out of the way of the door and gestured to Hachiman to come in.
"Of course, come in and relax, you must be exhausted; would you like something to drink?," Saika asked politely.
"Do you have MAXX Coffee?," Hachiman asked.
"Uh, I don't think so, the only thing that I can offer is water, juice, and milk," Saika admitted.
Hachiman was slightly disappointed, but got over it quickly before taking off his shoes and setting them down near the door and walking inside.
"I'll take some water, thank you," he decided.
Saika quickly made his way to the kitchen as Hachiman walked over to Saika's couch and plopped down. Hachiman set his bag down near his feet before hanging his head back, happy he was able to finally relax. Suddenly, Yoshiteru came down from Saika's room and walked over to Hachiman with concern.
"Hachiman, my comrade, are you okay, where have you been?," Yoshiteru asked.
"Sit down and wait until Totsuka comes back and then I'll tell you," Hachiman told him.
Yoshiteru complied as he began to sit down right next to Hachiman. Suddenly, Saika came back with a tall glass of water before handing it over to Hachiman who chugged it quickly before breathing a sigh of relief.
"Thanks for that, I really needed it," Hachiman praised. "Are your parents awake Totsuka? "
"No, they both work late, they don't come home until the morning," Saika revealed.
"Alright, that's good, that means that I can tell you guys what happened without worrying about exposing myself," Hachiman pointed out. "Now as I was saying, Bucky turned into a monster, trashed the bandroom, and was going to attack the marching band, but luckily, I was able to protect them. Unfortunately, Bucky escaped, so I ended up looking for him for hours until I realized that it was getting late, so I would have to track Bucky another day. I was going to use a smoke bomb to teleport home but then I realized that I left my bike back at school, and since it was within walking distance I decided to just transform back, run and get my bike, and bike home to get my stuff for the sleepover. Once I got my things, I biked over here, and that's how my night went."
Saika was saddened by what Hachiman said, "Poor guy, first he got kicked off of the marching band, and now he got turned into a monster, this must be a horrible night for him."
"Yeah, I feel a bit guilty for not being able to find him, but running around the prefecture trying to find him isn't really practical," Hachiman admitted.
"I do not understand how he was able to escape from you; you're the Ninja, shouldn't you have been able to track him down?," Yoshiteru pondered.
"Bucky was pretty fast as a monster, faster than I am in the Ninja suit, so I wasn't able to catch up with him," Hachiman explained in annoyance, glaring at Yoshiteru. "Also, I've been the Ninja for two months, the only thing I know how to do with the suit is pull out tools from my scarf and belt and how to fight using the suit, that's all."
Seeing that he upset his friend, Yoshiteru put his hand on Hachiman's shoulder to comfort him.
"I apologize my friend, I know that you are doing your best as the Ninja and that you are still learning, I did not mean to offend you," Yoshiteru apologized.
"It's fine, just get your hand off my shoulder, it's making me feel uncomfortable," Hachiman commanded.
Yoshiteru complied with his friend's request and took his hand off his shoulder.
"So, what are you going to do Hachiman?," Saika asked. "How are you going to find Bucky and change him back?"
"I honestly have no idea," Hachiman admitted. He then unzipped his back and reached for something inside. "However, I do know where I might get a clue as to how to beat him."
He pulled out the Ninja Nomicon out of his bag and held it close to him, causing Saika and Yoshiteru to stare at it in confusion.
"Uh, Hachiman my comrade, may I ask what book that is?," Yoshiteru asked.
"It's the Ninja Nomicon, an 800 year old book of ninja wisdom," Hachiman explained. "And hopefully, the solution to this week's predicament."
Alright, hey guys, Phoenix here, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter of "My Job As A First Year Ninja Is Weird, As Expected." Once again, I'm breaking up one big chapter into multiple chapters, so the next chapter will conclude the adventure that this chapter started. Next chapter will be called, "D'Stank Him Bro." Make sure to review and give me your honest criticisms, hope you enjoyed, and until next time, later!