Edited by absolem 3

"Time to introduce the new transfer student!" Satoru cheerfully shouted. "Everyone, get fired up!"

His class was small that year. He only had three students.

The first was Panda, a mutated Cursed Corpse created by the principal. Panda was naturally calm and upbeat, and would usually go along with Satoru's antics without missing a beat.

The second was Toge Inumaki, a boy from the Inumaki clan who inherited the rare and powerful Cursed Speech technique. He was a slim boy with pale blonde hair and purple-colored eyes. That year he chose to wear a muffler to cover the lower half of his face. The boy was still getting used to limiting his speech since his power had grown enough that all action words would trigger it. By covering the lower half of his face, he was reminding himself to not speak without pulling the muffler down.

Last, and certainly loudest, was Maki Zen'in. An athletic teenage girl with long black hair and golden eyes. Despite being born from one of the three major clans, Maki was not a Sorcerer and had to rely on specially created glasses to see Cursed Spirits, and her raw talent in martial arts.

Similar to Tōji Zen'in, years ago.

"Come on now," Satoru continued. "Put on smiles for the guy, yeah?"

"He didn't even smile in his picture, seems like a dreary guy," Maki muttered, dismissive. "I'm not getting excited over such a downer."

Satoru smiled. He had snapped the picture of Yūta to register the boy with the society. Unfortunately for Yūta, Satoru took the picture after eating the last sweet roll. Satoru had to crop out the part where Yūta was flipping him off.

"What a shame," said Satoru, not at all meaning it. "Come on in~"

Yūta entered the classroom and at once the three students reacted with violence. Maki leaped off her desk, pulling out her spear. Toge yanked his muffler down, prepared to cast a curse. Panda hopped over his desk, bunching up his fists to follow-up on Maki's attack.

Maki stabbed her spear straight at him. Yūta didn't bat an eye. He tilted his head as the tip of the spear dug into the chalkboard behind him and coolly looked her in the eyes. "Is this some kind of pointless initiation to see if the new kid is strong enough to join? Don't bother. I'll wipe the floor with you if you try."

Maki scoffed. "Hah. Great. Delusional and cursed. This is a place to eradicate Cursed Spirits, yet you've got one in your shadows."

"Kurai is mine," said Yūta, his eyes narrowed. "Don't concern yourself with him. Remove your weapon. I will not ask again."

Satoru clapped his hands once. "Let's not have a pissing contest in class, okay? Everyone step back and I'll continue with the introductions."

For a tense few seconds no one moved, but then Maki pulled her spear out of the wall and stepped back. Toge and Panda followed suit, with Toge tugging his muffler back up and Panda taking a relaxed stance.

"This is Yūta Suzuran," said Satoru. "Kurai is a Cursed Spirit he's raised and is bonded to him."

"Raised?" Maki warily asked. "I thought the only way to bind a Cursed Spirit was to kill it first."

"Evidently not," Satoru said without missing a beat. "Yūta, this here is Maki Zen'in—"

Zen'in? Like uncle? Is she related to him? Yūta pondered.

"—Toge Inumaki, and Panda. Maki is a Cursed Weapons user, she wields special armaments that can exorcise curses. Toge is a Cursed Speech user, and Panda is Panda."

"Kombu," greeted Toge.

"Kombu?" Yūta repeated, curious.

"He's a Cursed Speech user, so he has to limit his vocabulary," explained Satoru.

"Do you know JSL?" Yūta signed.

"Yes, I'm learning ISP," Toge replied. Yūta could feel the surprise in his movements.

"Is there any language you don't know?" Satoru idly asked Yūta.

"I only know twenty-three," said Yūta. "So, yes, there are many I don't know."

Maki raised an eyebrow at that. "Why'd you learn so many?"

"My mother would flip between languages a lot while I was growing up," Yūta explained. "It became something of a hobby for me to find new ones while in middle school. I want to find one she hasn't learned."

Maki tilted her head. "How many does she know?"

"More than twenty-three."

"Wiiiiiith introductions out of the way," Satoru sang, "let's move on to training. This afternoon you'll pair up. Toge and Panda, you're one pair. Maki and Yūta, you'll be the other.

"Ugh," went Maki. Yūta refrained from rolling his eyes.

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ

Yūta

They were taken to an elementary school. Yūta could feel how it exuded Cursed Energy. It was prominent enough to be noticeable even without him trying to sense it, but not overwhelming.

"Two kiddos were abducted by a curse here," Satoru started to explain. "Places that have a lot of memories tend to be a hot-bed of curses. Schools, hospitals, graveyards… You two are to exorcise the curse and save the children. If they're dead, recover the bodies." Satoru held up two fingers as he cast the Curtain.

Darkness dripped down around them, covering the entire school.

As soon as the Curtain closed down, Satoru left and the hidden Curses revealed themselves.

Yūta shoved his hands in his pant's pockets. He glanced at Maki. "Do you need a babysitter?"

"I don't want to hear that from a rookie," she sneered.

""Kay," he said, tugging on his connection with Kurai. Large black, feathery wings erupted from his back and he took to the sky. He left her behind, preferring an aerial view.

Missing kids, huh? Probably can't destroy the property, though, Yūta thought.

Yūta hugged his legs to his chest. He "sat" in the air, watching Maki make short work of the weaker spirits. He didn't need to flap his wings–their mere presence allowed him to hover–so they stayed still behind him.

She doesn't have much, if any, spiritual energy. To the thing that took the kids, she probably looks like a bigger kid to eat. She'll make easy bait.

Ideally, she could handle the situation entirely on her own. None of his classmates were interesting, and in terms of strength, the only one Yūta had met that could be a threat was Satoru. He understood they were all technically "first-years" but he disliked the idea of being so ahead of them.

If the power discrepancy was too great, then…

Jealousy.

It happened a lot with Yūta.

When he was younger, he did his best to excel in class, and make a lot of friends. He consistently scored well on his exams, and went out of his way to be kind to others. He would bring in extra food, stay late to help others study, and cover up for some of his classmates' mistakes when teachers were around.

Being too good, however, didn't do him any good.

They would praise him to his face, and sneer at him when his back was turned. It was the same in every class, in every year.

So he stopped being nice.

If you're only going to take advantage of me, why bother?

Yūta wasn't enough of a saint to let himself be rolled over. He wasn't raised that way.

Mama and Tōji taught him to fight for himself—so that was what he would do. He would not be anyone's pawn, he would not bow to any he did not find worthy, and he would not tolerate disrespect toward him and his family.

Maki and the other students already had a mark against them when they tried to intimidate him because of Kurai. If she was too weak on top of that… Yūta didn't have high hopes for the class.

There was an explosion from the school, a gigantic Cursed Spirit with a mouth wider than a semi-truck emerged from within. Dozens of arms squirmed and wiggled from it, its bulbous eyes wide as it made a loud gulp sound.

Eaten already, huh…?

Yūta disdainfully looked down at the Cursed Spirit. He could feel Kurai's disgust mirror his own. He sighed loudly, stretching out one hand. Blue electricity crackled around his finger tips. Sparks jumped off his hand as light condensed into a jagged bolt of lightning.

It's barely worth one bolt.

Yūta flung it down. The lightning bolt pierced the Cursed Spirit in one go, moving so rapidly that the thunder that followed behind it was delayed by a solid two seconds.

The Cursed Spirit became enveloped in lightning until it exploded into a mess of sparks.

Yūta flapped his wings, blowing the sparks and debris away to reveal a disgruntled Maki at the bottom with two school boys. Her golden eyes were wide with disbelief. She gaped up at Yūta. He flew down, delicately landing in front of her. In a bored voice, he drawled, "I thought you didn't need a babysitter."

Maki flushed in anger and glowered. "Shut up. Let's get these kids out of here."

"Mm-hmm."

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ

The training session was concluded. Yūta decided to take a walk around the school to familiarize himself with the environment. He'd give the classes a solid week before he decided to forgo them entirely. One bad session shouldn't be the dealbreaker.

Seven bad sessions and obnoxious classmates would be the dealbreaker.

Yūta ignored any glances tossed his way as he wandered the halls. It was a large premise, heavily based on Japanese temples. He liked the sense of nature it conveyed, as if it was maintained by druids or something similar. There was a freshness in the air that couldn't be found in the city.

"Ah, there he is!"

"Oi, Suzuran!"

Yūta paused on the path, turning to the voices. For reasons he couldn't guess, Panda, Maki, and Toge were rushing over to him. He turned to face them, keeping his hands in his pockets and his expression flat.

"Um… here," said Maki. She held out a carton of milk. Toge was also holding out a pack of onigiri, and Panda held out a box of alfort chocolates.

Yūta wordlessly accepted the food, raising an eyebrow as a silent question.

"Regardless of your trashy ego… you did save my life. So, thanks," she mumbled.

"Salmon roe," said Toge as he signed, "Thank you."

"And welcome to class, by the way," Panda added. "There's not many of us, so we gotta stick together, right?"

Huh…

"... I guess so." Yūta smiled briefly. "So, what's Gojō like as a teacher?"

Their expressions soured. Maki bit out, "Annoying."

"Unpredictable in a bad way," Toge signed.

"Pretty selfish," Panda commented. "Seems more interested in having fun than anything."

"I got that impression," agreed Yūta.

"How'd you meet him?" Maki asked.

"He kidnapped me to seduce my mom."

"WHAT? / SALMON ROE?!"

Yūta grinned. He was gonna have fun re-telling that story.

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ

Bonus:

Tōji looked down at his phone when he heard a familiar ding. He was in Zermatt Switzerland, attending some posh food festival. Lilly asked him to secure an assortment of cured food and wine there, since he planned to travel throughout Switzerland.

He opened his phone to find Lilly had sent him a picture.

Lilly: [a picture has been uploaded]

Tōji opened the picture.

It was a maid outfit.

Lilly: Yes? :)?

Tōji: No.

Lilly: Yes? :)?

Tōji: I will stab you.

Lilly: Hopefully through the heart since you already shattered it. Might as well deal the finishing blow.

Tōji: Will do.

Tōji chuckled quietly to himself.

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ

Short chapter is short 'cause it'll flow better.

Answer: I want to be kidnapped to the Pokémon-verse.

Question: Who would you want to be kidnapped by? Who would you hate to be kidnapped by?

Reviews are love!