New chapter, here we come!
The story continues to develop, as Omiko and Takaharu get a taste of what it means to be in charge of a club at Honnōji Academy!
Honestly, I have no idea how long this story will be, but I do hope you readers are enjoying it.
- KILL AVANT KILL -
EPISODE 2: KEEP YOURSELF ALIVE
To Takaharu Fukoroda, the day couldn't be any worse. He resisted the urge to sigh in aggravation, instead focusing himself on Sanageyama and the Athletics clubs meeting only moments from starting. It seemed that his attempts to fight hardest for a Goku Uniform were only resulting in disappointing failure, and all the while the fickle thing called life seemed to enjoy throwing more unpleasant obstacles in his way.
To start, he shared his homeroom with a girl he could only describe as a blond, twin-tailed shark. Her sharp teeth were intimidating and bad enough as it was, but to top it all of, she had a highly repulsive attitude as well. A very unpleasant combination in Takaharu's eyes.
Not only that, but this very same girl, this Omiko Hakodate, had actually upstaged him completely in rush to the clubrooms, having arrived at the Athletics clubroom right before him through dishonorable methods. As a self-professed boxer, Takaharu could only see this as an embarrassment and precursor to his utter downfall.
It had taken all his will for Takaharu to resist challenging Omiko to battle minutes before this meeting was supposed to start. Instead, he decided to stay seated, and try his best to focus his thoughts on more productive subjects for the time being.
One minute later, and the tune of almost a dozen No-Stars nearly bashing the door down with their fighting, and the prospective club leaders were in attendance. The late ones were motley bunch, and as such Sanageyama didn't expect all that much from them. He was far more interested in the like of Omiko and Takaharu, with his eye on Omiko in particular.
This fact was quite obvious to Omiko herself, and she felt just a little bit uncomfortable every time she so much as thought the Elite Four's gaze was on her.
"So everyone's here, it looks like." Sanageyama announced, clearly happy with the turnout. "I trust the battle to make it here wasn't too boring?"
As expected, he got no response, at least not one directly pertaining to his question.
Takaharu's hand shot up.
"Something you'd like to ask?" the Elite Four Member questioned.
In response, the boxer stood up as straight as a plank, declaring his words with fervor.
"Sempai! I'd like to begin by requesting permission that I be allowed to start my own Boxing Club! I can assure you here and now that I will strive to make it nothing less than excellent!"
Once again, Takaharu's enthusiasm seemed only to get on Omiko's nerves.
"Hey!" she complained, "I got here first, so I should have the right to my tennis club first! That's what Satsuki-sama said! Those are the rules!"
Too impressed with Takaharu's fervor, Sanageyama made a point to lean down on Omiko's desk, staring right into her telescopic eye as he spoke to her.
"You know, as much as rules are important in any sport, I'll have you know that applying them to every aspect of your life will inevitably lead to your downfall. Satsuki-sama is coming from a sincere place of honor, but sometimes, your enemies will not be so respectful. You must be prepared for that before anything else." he explained, an aura of power around him that everyone in the clubroom felt. Omiko could only look back into his eyes and gulp in a mixture of fear and awe.
Next to her, Takaharu made a small smile, mentally giving himself a high five for being so punctual at the right time.
"I...I understand, Sanageyama-sempai." Omiko replied, putting her head down in respect.
Satisfied with getting his point through, Sanageyama turned to front of the class, now addressing them all as one. "Clubs. That's what we're here for. And by the end of this hour, each of you will have an athletic club to call your own."
"Be warned, however." he reminded them, "Just because you have a club, doesn't mean that you're guaranteed a One-Star Goku Uniform. It takes more than just being a club president. You must run a successful club, and with a successful club comes responsibility, leadership, and as some of you have already shown, punctuality."
Takaharu felt all the more confident when he realized Sanageyama was talking about him. Suddenly, his luck was getting better. In contrast, Omiko felt like sinking into her seat and disappearing forever.
But things were not always as they seemed. Keen in the art of observation, Sanageyama changed gears in a heart beat when he noticed Omiko's sudden disinterest.
"But...there a rules in place for a reason, and I will acknowledge that you were the first arrival, Hakodate. And so, I will grant you your right to start a Tennis Club."
Upon hearing this, Omiko smiled in delight, before making sure to glare right at Takaharu so as best to rub her victory in. The boxer could only glare back, until his attention was switched as Sanageyama addressed him next.
"To the second arrival, Fukoroda, I grant you the right to start a Boxing Club."
Takaharu stood proud once again in response. "I will make you proud in my efforts, Sanageyama-sempai!"
The Elite Four member nodded. "I know you will."
One by one, Sanageyama addressed each person in the room, granting them all the right to start their own clubs. Once his rounds were finished, he made a point to raise voice as he began to address the most important point of this meeting.
"Let it be known," Sanageyama continued, "That I expect only the best from all your clubs. You are the sole responsible person for the club you choose to lead: which means club membership, club expenses, equipment collection, and other associated duties are all completely your responsibility. I will stress that only those who are able to please Gamagoori in their club's management will have even a snowball's chance in obtaining a One-Star Uniform. And that is just one many elements that must be conquered for one to even dream of being a One-Star."
"The rewards are great for those who strive for Satsuki-sama's vision of excellence." he reassured them, as two long bamboo swords emerged from his wrists , seemingly out of thin air. He spun them around in a complicated maneuver, amazing Omiko, Takaharu, and the rest of the One-Stars with his display.
Sanageyama smiled as he saw the looks on their face.
"Trust me when I say: A Goku Uniform will change your life here in more ways than one."
The next two hours seemed to drag on endlessly, and both Omiko and Takaharu found themselves wondering if a Goku Uniform was really worth the terrible torture they suddenly found themselves subjected to.
In a huge space outside, the two of them sat on wide desks, accompanied all around by other No-Stars who had managed to make it to the club-rooms and put their club ideas into place. But with that honor came a terrible price, one that Sanageyama has only alluded to but not emphasized as much as he should have.
With a tall pile of paper next to her, Omiko wrote furiously on one of many sheets that were required for her Tennis Club's official registration. She had been filling out form after form for the last two hours, and it seemed that there was no end to the amount of writing required of her. Just next to her, Takaharu seemed to faring no better, though at some level he was trying his best to outspeed her efforts.
At the forefront of these working No-Stars was none other than the imposing, eight-foot tall figure of Ira Gamagoori. Like a stalwart bull, he watched dutifully and with his usual criticizing gaze. It was bad enough to have him watching as such a threatening overseer, but that wasn't even the worst of it.
As Omiko had seen earlier, one student had been attempting to write so quickly that their pencil had snapped in half. As they searched for a new one, Gamagoori quickly noticed the disturbance they were creating. A bout of angry words from Gamagoori and a violent crash later, and that student was seeing stars and now in his own personal hole in the wall, sent flying far below the Academy and into the slums.
"Remember!" Gamagoori declared, very serious with his words, "I expect FINE PRINT! But no finer than Satsuki-Sama herself, or there will be a painful price to pay!"
Omiko could only hold in a groan, knowing that this torture was necessary for her club to become a reality, but also knowing that Gamagoori would hear her annoyed groan and most likely make her start over. And that was if he was being nice about it.
A half-hour passed, and finally most of the students were finished with the required paper-work. A few were carried off to the infirmary, their dislocated finger joints showing the suffering that had undergone attempting to finish their paperwork. The survivors waited dutifully, and in fear, as Gamagoori inspected each and every one of their forms. With the eyesight of a hawk, the Disciplinary Committee Chair looked for every misuse of grammar, every spelling mistake and every example of poor handwriting.
"YOU!" he pointed at one unlucky No-Star, as the crowd around him split to fully reveal him to Gamagoori. The Elite Four member showed everyone the one sheet this No-Star had filled out like it was some forbidden book, pointing at one word in particular.
"YOU MISPELLED SATSUKI-SAMA'S NAME! THERE IS NO C IN HER NAME! UNACCEPTABLE!" Gamagoori roared, and the No-Star in question got on his knees in panic and fear.
But he barely had time to even so much as beg for forgiveness, before Gamagoori let loose the heavy barbed vines from his Two-Star Uniform, hitting the No-Star with the force of a mach-truck and sending him rocketing away over the horizon.
"Let that be a lesson to you all." Gamagoori stated to all the terrified No-Stars. "Those who second-guess the alphabetical structure of Satsuki Kiryuin's name will be severely punished."
With that, Gamagoori was silent as he continued to survey the rest of the club registration forms.
All seemed well as he continued, until he suddenly stopped as his eyes focused on one paper in particular. Takaharu became fidgety all of sudden, as a bead of sweat came down his brow once he realized it was one of his papers that Gamagoori had stopped to look at it.
"FUKORODA! TAKAHARU FUKORADA!" Gamagoori shouted, and as expected, the crowd split to reveal Takaharu. Even Omiko skidded her desk to the side just a bit, hoping that if the boy was hit, she wouldn't be caught in the crossfire.
But despite Gamagoori's terrifying presence, Takaharu tried his best to remain unafraid.
"H-Here, Gamagoori-sempai! I am sorry for whatever error I made! Deeply, utterly sorry!" he said apologetically, his voice cracking slightly as he tried to hold back his fear.
But Gamagoori did not proceed to hit him as Omiko had expected, and instead lowered his voice as he addressed Takaharu is earnest.
"You can calm yourself. I was just noticing your work, Fukoroda. I can truly see the boxer's hand in this beautiful script. Very impressive." the Disciplinary Committee Chair complimented, leaving Takaharu speechless as Omiko fumed in shock and surprise beside him.
"Let me see that!" she commanded, taking the paper without thinking right from Gamagoori's hand. Most of No-Stars gasped as she made her death wish, but surprisingly, Gamagoori simply allowed her take it.
Perhaps it was because he knew what would happen when she did. As Omiko turned it towards her, a blast of vibrant yellow light blinded her as she gazed upon the sheer beauty of Takaharu's perfect writing.
"Agh, it's...it's too much!" she admitted, her eyes almost burning before she finally threw the paper aside onto the floor, where Gamagoori delicately picked it up a moment later.
The Elite Four member shook the dust off from the paper, but surprisingly kept his patience despite Omiko's indignation.
"You could learn something from this boy, Hakodate. I noticed that your r's in particular were sloppy. One can only wonder how good your tennis hand could really be if you cannot write a simple r correctly." he told the twin-tailed girl quite matter-a-factly, leaving her to grumble in annoyance at being called out.
"Sanageyama was right to expect much from you, Fukoroda. Continue to impress me, and I'll make sure you have a One-Star Uniform." he told the young boxer, who simply smiled as he stood up again, holding back fierce but happy tears.
"Yes, Gamagoori-sempai! Thank you for your kind words!" Takaharu replied with gratitude.
Meanwhile Omiko just gritted her teeth. She couldn't believe that all of Takaharu's sucking up to Ira Gamagoori was actually working. She glared at the boxer in his triumph, her telescropic eye-piece focusing in on him.
She was so focused, in fact, that she failed to notice how much pressure she was putting on the pencil in her hand. There was a loud snap as it broke into two pieces, which fell right to her feet.
Gamagoori craned his neck up away from the papers upon hearing the noise with his sensitive ears. The moment he saw the pencil pieces on the floor, his eyes almost bulged.
Omiko made a nervous grin, shaking in panic as his shadow covered her and her desk completely. Gamagoori than proceeded to bellowed so loud, it would no doubt make a rogue elephant cry.
"HAKODATEEEE!"
From the moment she stepped inside the Athletics clubroom as the very first person to arrive, Omiko Hakodate was sure that this day would be perfect.
Now, as she began the long walk home to the No-Star slums, she was beginning to think this day was no longer going so well.
It didn't help that the club registration process took so long, and that Omiko wouldn't even have a chance to see any prospective members for her club until tomorrow. And things were only made worse by the fact that Omiko had been forced to stay an extra hour to clean up the Athletics club-room, as punishment for breaking her pencil and interrupting Gamagoori's train of thought.
At least that was probably a light punishment compared to what Gamagoori had been known to dish out, she thought.
With a conflicted look on her face, the twin-tailed tennis prodigy simply sighed as she slowly made her way down the hill towards her home.
It was bad enough that No-Stars had such bad living accommodations, stuck in the slums down below, forced to ride an air-trolley up to class.
Truth be told, It was only a sudden desire to be alone that made Omiko take the walk in the first place. The last thing she wanted to hear was the yammering of other No-Stars interrupting her personal thoughts.
But the fates seemed to have a different plan for on this day. She didn't hear his foot-falls at first, but Omiko certainly felt the heavy impact of his boxing right hand on her back as he touched her.
Surprised out of her wits, the blonde snarled in surprise before turning around to see none other that Takaharu, a smile on his face as he greeted her.
"Hakodate-san! I didn't know you walked home this way."
Omiko simply grimaced at his strangely sunny smile. "Ugh, what are you doing here? Haven't you been enough of a nuisance for one day?"
That seemed to be enough to wipe the smile off of Takaharu's face. He stood sullen as Omiko continued walking, clearly not wanting anything to do with him.
But the boxer was not ready to give up, and he ran right after, at least as quick as his short legs could carry him.
"Hey, hey! We're not in class anymore. You don't have to be such a shar-"
Realizing exactly what he was about to say, the boxer proceeded to punch himself in the mouth in order to stop himself from finishing that last word.
Unfortunately for him, his reflexes weren't fast enough, and Omiko's ear drums were faster. The twin-tailed blonde got right up in his face, baring her teeth in her anger.
"What was that? What were you going to say?" she pressed him, just hoping to hear that dreaded s-word so that she had the excuse she needed to slap Takaharu silly.
The boy seemed unable to respond at first, but after a few seconds, he uncovered his mouth and let out a sigh.
"Nothing. Just forget I said anything." he remarked, putting his head down as he realized his efforts to be nice were simply in vain.
Omiko simply crossed her arms, not finished with him just yet.
"What is it with you?" she asked, clearly annoyed. "I mean, what do you want me to say? I get it. You beat me today. But if you think for even a second that it's going to happen again, then let me tell you s-"
Takaharu was waved his arms like an umpire as he interrupted her. "Will you let me breathe? I swear, talking to you is as exhausting as an afternoon of strength training!"
"Then why are you talking to me?" she questioned, rudeness overflowing from her voice. "Why don't you go back to punching those dead animals you boxers love practicing on so much?"
Takaharu seemed unable to handle any more of it, and thus his emotions got the better of him.
"BECAUSE! I'M! TRYING! TO! BE! NICE!" he shouted. His voice exploded with the same power and fighting spirit that he showed when declaring his boxing technique, and a red aura of pure fighting spirit seemed to form around him.
Surprisingly Omiko completely, Takaharu's vocal power was so overwhelming that he managed to cause her hair to blow back from the force.
When he was all said and done, Omiko was left speechless, and Takaharu just stood motionless in front of her.
Finally, the boxer sighed.
"I thought that because we were outside Honnōji Academy, we could at least pretend we weren't always at each other's throats. I know how much you care about the Tennis Club, Hakodate-san. You care about it just as much as I care about the Boxing Club." he admitted with sincerity. It became quickly obvious that Omiko didn't have the heart to throw a snide comment at him in response.
In fact, Omiko was so taken aback by his sudden sincerity, that she felt her cheeks flushing hot pink. Unable to fully control herself, the girl pulled down her cap and turned away as she sort of muttered a response.
"Well, uh, I guess...I guess you have a point. You should just say stuff like that up front, you know." she seemed to demand, and luckily, Takaharu seemed to lighten up in response.
He then proceeded to ask her a question no one had ever asked before.
"Do you live far from here, Hakodate-san? I could walk with you every once in awhile. If Tennis Club and Boxing Club get out at the same time, that is." he suggested, much to the twin-tailed girl's surprise.
She almost choked on her words, before somehow regaining her composure.
"I'm just...just down this alley. I'm at complex 4567."
Takaharu's face lit up again at the coincidence. "Really? I'm at 4569. We're almost right next to each other."
Omiko simply grumbled before looking away again. "Yeah, I guess so."
What was his deal, she wondered. The fact that he was being nice seemed to annoy her much more than when he was being competitive, but for some reason, Omiko couldn't just tell him to go away. It was the worst kind of torture, having her being nice to him. Omiko was sure that it was some plot to mess with her when she least expected it.
"It sure will be nice when we finally get to One-Stars. We'll have Goku Uniforms, and they'll give us a really nice apartments." Takaharu commented next to Omiko, as they walked along towards her numbered living space.
"That'll be the day..." she replied, her voice trailing off at the end as she imagined the possibilities.
She'd be a One-Star soon enough. She knew it as a fact.
Omiko looked back at Takaharu, and noted the pleasant expression on his face.
Now the real question was: would he be a One-Star as well? Truth be told, as long as she was one first, then it wouldn't really matter if he earned the uniform or not.
But one thing was for sure. If he stood in her way, nice or not, then he would be swept aside like an incoming tennis ball.
It didn't matter that he was acting like her friend.
It didn't matter that the very thought of having a friend made her feel warm inside.
And it certainly didn't matter that up until this point, Omiko had never really had friends.
What mattered most to her was that One-Star Uniform, and no one, Takaharu included, was going to stop her from that lofty goal.
Even if he was turning out to be her first friend. Just the thought made Omiko feel warm and fuzzy inside.
It was a new feeling for her, but it was not so bad.
So what did you guys think? Looks like things are heating up in more ways then one. Stay tuned, and be sure to review!