Chapter 1 - Something New

New year, new me. Mitsuri Kanroji thought. New school, new life. New everything. Oh crap. What had started as a motivational speech in her head was quickly spiraling into a full-blown panic attack. How was she to cope with a new everything? Just power through it, power through every obstacle. Yes, she simply had to keep thinking this way and not let her anxiety overtake her once again. Nobody knows you here, nobody even sees you, you'll be just fine.

A new life was exactly what she needed, or at least that was what she kept telling herself, hoping to one day actually believe it. Just take it one step at a time, it's fine, and no one is looking at you so stop feeling so freaking self-conscious. Why had she dyed her hair pink again? It had definitely felt like the best idea she had ever had at the time. Now... Well, tons of people had weird hair in college, she was not that special. So why did Mitsuri felt like such an outsider?

It was all in her head, it had to be. She walked through the gigantic doors that led to the new Faculty of Medicine, looked around and actually gaped. So many people, so many hallways, where was she even supposed to go? All her previously regained self-confidence seemed to literally pour out of her in waves and she felt more lost than she had ever felt in her life prior to that moment.

Think, just think, and breathe before you faint in front of everybody here! She took a huge breath through her nose and exhaled slowly through her mouth. She repeated the calming exercise until her breathing slowed down and her vision seemed to stop blackening on the edges.

This was her new life and she had just crossed the threshold of the building in which she would spend the better part of the next ten months, at the very least. She had stopped making long-term plans a few years back, they always proved to be unattainable. She now set small goals for herself, more reachable, that way she didn't have to be so disappointed if and when she actually failed. And she did, fail, a lot.

But maybe not this time, maybe here she would complete a full year of studies and even keep going for another one after that. She could only dream. And work, Mitsuri was not going to let her future be dictated by chance, she had her destiny in her own hands now, and only through sheer determination would she get to her goals.

People kept passing by all around her, they all seemed to know exactly where they were going. And she definitely didn't. And now she felt like she had been standing in the lobby of the building for way too long, people were going to notice a pink-haired weirdo frozen in place. So, she set herself in motion. She took out her phone and looked for the college's layout plan she had downloaded the day before. She twisted and turned her phone, hoping to see where she was supposed to stand on the map.

After a few seconds of desperate searching, she felt like she had a good guess on where she stood, and where she was headed. Just power through it, she kept chanting inside her head. Act like you know what you're doing, act like you know where you're going, and people will start to believe it. After walking for what felt like an eternity but was really just a few minutes, Mitsuri found herself in front of doors leading to a huge lecture hall, bigger than any she had been in the years before.

She had moved to a bigger city, registered herself in a bigger University than the one she had enrolled in when she had gotten out of high school and was now supposed to adapt to all these changes if she wanted to succeed. And she did. She really did, and she wasn't going to let demons from her past ruin her chances at a new, better life. So what if she didn't know anyone here, what if she felt her palms sweating and her fingers twitching at the idea of meeting new people ? New things were supposed to be scary at first… Right?

She tightened her hands on the straps of her shoulder bag containing her laptop for the lecture she was supposed to attend in… 10 minutes?! What the actual fuck had she been doing all this time? She had decided to come extra early so she wouldn't be late, and now she felt like she still had no idea where to go. Help, she needed to ask for help. Forget about the anxiety she felt at the mere idea of talking to other people, she had to overcome all of that if she wanted to get there on time.

She chanced a look around her in the massive hallway. Many groups of people were talking together, friends that were catching up after the summer break, chatting lively about their beach vacations and classes for the year to come. She clearly didn't feel ready to disturb any group conversations and instead started to look for quieter people, or maybe people who looked like her, scared and alone, that was.

After a few excruciating minutes spent looking for someone fitting that description, Mitsuri sighed in despair. Why did everyone seem to know exactly where to go except for her?! And then she spotted someone. They stood apart from the crowds, seemed to not be absorbed in conversations about summer trips and seemed to not be lost. Which was everything she needed, or almost, they definitely weren't shaking in stress like her, hands twitching and legs trembling like they had run a marathon to get there. Well then, they must be able to point me in the right direction for my lecture, Mitsuri thought.

She just had to keep her head high now, walk straight forward, ask one simple question and be done with it. That she could do, so she did. She took a few tentative steps towards her target, all the while mentally readying herself for the first social interaction she would have this year. She at least hoped it wouldn't be the last. Small goals indeed, she thought ironically.

"Erhm, excuse me?" she started when she got close enough to assume the person, the guy -she was now able to clarify that much - would be able to hear her.

He had been facing the other way when she talked, she expected him to turn around at the sound of her voice, but he didn't. He didn't even flinch, or appear to have heard her for all that mattered. Fuck, Mitsuri thought. But she was in it now and she felt she had to keep going if she wanted to get anywhere, she would not give up after one failure.

"Excuse me?" she said a little louder this time as she gently tapped his shoulder as to not frighten him. Or not too much at the very least. She was still a pink-haired girl sweating profusely at the idea of talking to anyone, and at that moment she had a feeling it was all he would see when he looked at her.

This time he definitely flinched when she touched him and swiveled around to face her with what looked like extraordinary speed. She immediately retracted her hand and took an extra step back so he wouldn't be cornered by everything that was her. Which was, in her mind, a lot.

"I'm so sorry to bother you but I think I'm lost, and I have to find this lecture hall in the next five minutes if I want to be on time and I have a terrible sense of direction so now I'm lost and I don't know where to go." She took a huge breath and God but she was tumbling through her words like a damn school girl and she so wanted to be done with this conversation as quick as possible. "I'm sorry for taking your time, if you could just maybe point me in the right direction?" she rushed on the following breath, "please!" she added right after.

All this time she had been looking anywhere but at him, feeling way too self-conscious to look him in the eyes, she finished her questions by looking at her feet, fruitlessly hoping, but knowing deep inside, that this was excruciatingly awkward.

"Huh…" he simply started saying. "What?" he then went on with.

Upon hearing his voice, which was so deep and smooth, Mitsuri's eyes went from her feet to his face of their own volition. Once their eyes met, her world felt like it tilted on its axis. She actually stumbled on precisely nothing at the sheer force of what she felt right in that moment. She gasped as she realized she was definitely going to end up on her ass, in front of everyone standing near, on her first day! Two hands shot out and gripped her forearms with enough strength to allow her to keep herself steady.

"Are you alright?" he asked, he seemed concerned, and more than a little dazed as he clutched her tightly. "Do you want to sit down?" he went on, and his voice was less smooth than before, throatier somehow.

"I … I uhm… No, I think I'm fine" Mitsuri struggled to say, she was definitely not fine. She had never seen eyes so beautiful before, she knew of heterochromia of course, but she had never met someone with eyes so distinctly different. One was golden, it looked like burning liquid gold, actually. And the other was some kind of blueish-green, teal? She wondered in the privacy of her own thoughts.

When it hit Mitsuri that she was standing there like a pathetic schoolgirl while being held upright by a stranger from whom she could not take her eyes off, she blushed furiously and tried to recover.

"Oh my God I'm so sorry!" she squealed, too loud! "I was very nervous, and I think I panicked a little and I must have tripped on something!" she went on, physically cringing the more and more she realized what a sight she must present.

"It's fine, don't worry. I caught you on time" his voice seemed to have gone back to its sweeter, deeper tone but his eyes were scanning her face, as if looking for something. "Sorry" he finally added, as he let go of her arms, "do you feel better now?"

"I'm ok, really! Thank you so much for catching me" Mitsuri breathed in a hurry, eyes never leaving his face, "Again! So sorry for literally landing on you like that". Oh but she was so fucking awkward, he was definitely going to think she was a weirdo.

Mitsuri glanced at her watch and physically deflated. "I'm gonna be late, damn it!" she exclaimed with passion. She chanced a look at the stranger's face and noticed he appeared to be wearing a mask covering his mouth and nose. I never should have interrupted this guy, she thought, he will probably send me on my way as quickly as possible now.

"Where were you headed?" he finally asked after what felt like the most awkward silence ever.

"Oh erm…" Mitsuri took out her phone and looked for the timetable she had been given for the first weeks of her term. "I'm looking for the lecture hall 3C, I think I'm close but I don't know where to go from here" she tried to explain without sounding like the complete idiot that she was.

And she needed to stop staring! But this guy's eyes seemed to pull her in like magnets, and there was nothing she could do to escape the deep, unidentified feeling that was awakening in her belly.

He blinked a few times as if trying to understand something before focusing back on her, "It's right here, you weren't lost, just look" as he pointed to a small sign hanging a short distance away above doors leading to a lecture hall. It spelled "3C".

Mitsuri's eyes followed his pointed finger and her jaw dropped upon reading the sign. "No way! I wasn't lost! This whole time I was in the right place! Now that is just brilliant" she clapped her hands and laughed out loud at that before turning to him with a winning smile. "Thank you so much! I won't even be late, that is so cool!" she exclaimed triumphantly.

"You don't have to thank me, you didn't need my assistance after all" he said as he kept looking at her, he was back to looking a little dazed.

"Yes, but you gave it anyway, that is so nice of you! Thank you!" Mitsuri had to mentally stop herself before she started jumping around like a lunatic. Now that she was where she was supposed to be, it seemed all her worries started floating away like nothing and it felt good.

"I'm headed there myself for the Microbiology class" he added.

"Oh really! You were the perfect person to bother, then." She answered, and her cheeks seemed to turn pink of their own accord. She had never been so affected by a random encounter before, and she didn't want this moment out of time to end, ever. "Do you study medicine as well?" she asked, just so she could keep him there a little longer.

"I uh, I study herpetology actually" he seemed almost shy of the admission, "but I have to attend certain classes here to fill my Curriculum."

"Oh wow! That's so great! Study of reptiles, right? You must be learning so many cool stuff!" she wondered aloud. And then she actually listened to herself and felt her embarrassment worsen, it that was even possible. She internally scolded herself. What the fuck am I even saying, talking like some stupid teenager, I need to act like an adult, like a woman.

He actually looked surprised of her outburst but quickly righted himself as he said "I like it a lot, it's a very broad and mostly untouched subject." He appeared to be looking for something to say as he looked around, but then they both noticed that there were almost no one left standing in the hallway. "I think we should head in, you're right, it looks bad to be late on the first day of term" he added with what she assumed was a tiny smile, hidden behind his mask.

Mitsuri looked around and quickly composed herself, "You're right" she said, "We should go". She barely took a step in the lecture hall's direction before turning back to him. She just had to look at his eyes once more. Once she did, it was like that same feeling all over again, she got sucked in a spiral that was sure to leave her breathless. "Thank you, again, for helping me out back there" she had to physically drag herself inside the room before he could say anything that would nail her in her spot again.

She got inside the huge lecture hall, there must have been more than two hundred people already seated. She tried to look casual as she walked down a few rows even though she felt anything but. She found herself a quiet spot not too far back and settled by herself, swiftly taking out her computer and getting ready for the lesson.

However, after only a few seconds, Mitsuri couldn't stop herself from trying to peak at the masked student who had so effortlessly rattled her entire world back in the hallway. Once again, her gaze was pulled to him like a magnet and she found him seated a bit farther back, in a quiet spot similar to hers. Of course, he caught her staring at him in seconds, their eyes locked but neither looked away for some time. Mitsuri could feel that same pressure building inside her entire body, a force that was pushing her to do something, anything.

So she looked away. She had to, otherwise… She didn't know. She couldn't even grasp why she was reacting so strongly to a guy she had barely even met much less actually talked to. Mitsuri forced herself to focus on what the professor was saying. This was her first day, she couldn't get distracted right away, especially not by boys for God's sake!

It took all her concentration and a few minutes for her to start actually paying attention and taking notes. All the while she could sense eyes on her. Were they his? She didn't dare turn around and find out. She just knew she'd get distracted and she'd have to pick herself up all over again. She kept her eyes on the professor and took the best notes she ever had, just to keep herself busy, just so she couldn't look for the most unsettling gaze she had ever crossed.

What the fuck had just happened to him? Obanai Iguro thought. He was not a man so easily rattled. He would even venture to say that very few things had the power to surprise him. And he was more than surprised. Astonished? No. Blown away? Yeah, that was more like it.

But an actual, fitting description of what he had felt when he had first laid eyes on her, was that the Earth must have stopped spinning on its axis under his feet. When he had felt gentle fingers prodding him, he had already been kind of surprised, more suspicious than anything else, though. People usually tended to avoid him, at all costs. He was rarely talked to by his peers at university and generally considered to be an antisocial weirdo that better be left alone.

When he had turned to find himself in conversation with the most heartbreakingly beautiful woman he had ever seen, he couldn't help the feeling that it was all a joke that someone was paying him. It had to be. Why would someone like her - a vision with all the confidence in the world that her beauty could get her anything, anyone, really - even think about entering in conversation why a guy like him?

And then she had swayed right in front of his eyes, her vision had clouded and it looked like she could barely take a breath, much less stand on her own. He couldn't even think about what he was doing, he caught her arms and it felt like he had to ground himself just as much as her. The contact had been searing and he couldn't remember for the life of him how he had gotten himself in this position.

How he managed to talk at all also came as a shock. Not that he recalled anything that came out of his mouth when all he could think about in that instant was to literally slam her against the wall and kiss the life out of those plush, rosy lips she kept biting as if in invitation.

Pathetic, he had thought then, as if he'd ever do that to her, as if he had ever done that before to any girl. It wasn't like she wanted him to kiss her anyway, and she certainly wouldn't once she saw the horror that was him hiding behind his mask. Which she wouldn't. Like, ever.

At the time, he was ready to do anything, say anything that would keep her close a bit longer. But she had seemed so happy at the mere idea of attending this class, and especially about getting there on time. He had to go against every instinct he had to just keep her here and instead summoned some stupid words like "We should head in", which he very much didn't want to. When she had turned around to leave, it had felt like a tear, something that was going against his nature, but he let it happen anyway.

"Thank you" she had finally said after giving him one last look, one last dazzling smile before going off with a spring in her step. He hadn't moved then, not for several moments which he spent contemplating what had been real in this encounter and what had to be a complete figment of his imagination. When he couldn't decide, he simply went inside the lecture hall, knowing that we wouldn't be able to listen to anything that the professor was going to say for the next two hours.

He sat down and got out his things, feigning interest for the teacher's words. She was sitting some rows below him and he couldn't stop his eyes from wandering in her direction every few seconds. It was like he expected her to disappear into thin air, like the vision she appeared to be back in the hallway. But she didn't. And she even turned on her seat, seeming not so subtly to scan the faces sitting behind her.

When their eyes met, his body clenched all over and she froze. They looked at each other for the briefest time, he was enthralled for sure, but what of her? She had to be looking at him in disgust, he thought, or maybe in scientific interest. Many people had that kind of scientifically curious look on their faces when he caught them staring, as if they wanted to dissect him until they found out what made him so weird.

Most of time, he only answered with an unflinching glare, daring them to keep staring. Which they didn't, they never seemed to hold his stare for more than two seconds before scrambling away. She didn't scramble though, she simply seemed to catch herself looking so intensely and turned back to the talking professor in a heartbeat.

She stopped turning around after that, she took a lot of notes all throughout the lecture, not missing a beat of what was being explained. He definitely didn't do that. He kept going back to staring at the back of her head, lost in his thoughts. What a weird start of the day, he concluded, what a weird start of the year, really.

And he hadn't asked her name. If that wasn't the nail in his proverbial coffin, he didn't know what was. All the chaos happening inside of him upon meeting her had thrown each and every coherent thought out the window and replaced them with a mess of astonishment, excitement, disbelief and uncontrollable lust for this stranger whose name he didn't even know. Oh but how the irony was hard to miss.

Obanai was now fighting a battle in the confines of his raging mind. What to do, what the fuck to do? The mere idea of never speaking to this woman sent a jolting pain through his whole being, it was out of the question. But Obanai Iguro had never, ever, entered a conversation with someone for social purposes, how was he to manage that? And grow a charming personality in the span of the remaining hour seemed a lost cause, charming he would never be, closed off and self-loathing he would most certainly always be.

Fuck but the odds were definitely against him on that one. As they had been in many prior instances of his life, which he tried - and failed - not to dwell too much on. He simply had to let go of his chains, the very chains his family had started building when he was an infant and he had involuntarily kept on strengthening as he grew up.

People started rising around him and Obanai realized the lecture was over. Not only had he spent the better part of its duration overthinking literally everything about his appearance and personality, but none of it had led to any form of positive conclusion on what the fuck he was supposed to do. He rose up as well and looked almost frantically around. Where was she? He had to get to her, and say what? He had no clue, but he couldn't stop thinking that this was important, that she was important.

Obanai stepped closer to the end of his row, hoping to catch a glimpse of pink hair in the crowd. He was craning his neck, trying to see past the heads of the people walking all around him when he felt the tiniest brush of fingers against his hand. His eyes flew down and collided with her own. His body seemed to freeze of its own accord and all he could do was stare into the most beautiful green eyes he had ever seen. They were simply luminous, just like the rest of her, shining with untainted joy.

"I feel like we should be friends" she just said, and she kept looking at him as if he wasn't the most repulsive thing she had ever met. "What's your name?" she went on, "sorry I didn't ask earlier, I was so stressed out about the class!".

"I… uuuh" he felt like the biggest idiot, not even able to believe what was happening to him in that moment. Then she started visibly cringing in front of him, her cheeks turned crimson red and he instantly knew she was about to run out of here. Don't let her go! His whole body got into action and he stepped in front of her before she had a chance to leave.

"It's Obanai" he just said, "Obanai Iguro". And he extended his hand for her to shake. "I would like to be your friend." he added for good measure even though he felt like crawling in a hole and die of embarrassment, why was he so fucking awkward all the time?

She stood unmoving for a few seconds before taking his hand and shaking it vigorously. "I'm so glad you said that!" she practically bounced with glee, "Thank you for agreeing to be my friend!" she went on excitedly. Her cheeks were still pink but she looked relieved, maybe he had not messed everything up just yet, Obanai thought.

"I'm Mitsuri Kanroji" she concluded with a bright smile "it's so nice to meet you Obanai!"

At that moment in time, Obanai felt like his life was about to take a turn, and he didn't know where it was gonna take him, where she was gonna take him, and for the life of him, he couldn't give a fuck just as long as she looked at him like that.