Chapter Text
It is springtime. Cherry blossoms blow gently in the wind and the beautiful, bright morning sunlight fills the streets as the city awakens to life.
A week has passed and I am running late. Again. No surprise there, really. What does surprise me, though, are the two figures standing at the school gate. As I near the gate, one of them calls me over.
“Ah, Nakajima-kun, perfect timing.” I would think it was a sarcastic remark if I did not recognize Fukuzawa-sensei's voice. This man never jokes. Ever. “Come here,” he orders and I get a really bad feeling.
The other person is a short boy. He wears a uniform from a different school, a red blazer, purple tie, white dress shirt and green pants. He is also sporting a black choker and a hat. As foreign as all of that is, it's not the first thing I notice. My attention is caught by his striking red hair framing his face and falling just past his left shoulder.
“He is a new transfer student. Since you're in the Student Council, can you show him around?” Fukuzawa-sensei asks, but I figure I do not really have a choice.
New students would normally be shown around by the Student Council President, but anyone who knew Edogawa-san also knew that he would never do such a thing. In that case, it should be done by the Secretary, but Dazai-san is probably hanging somewhere again. This makes me realize that there are exactly three competent members in the Council, and that is me, Kenji-kun and Yosano-san. What kind of organization have I gotten myself into?! I sigh and give Fukuzawa-sensei a weak smile.
“Yes, of course,” I nod politely. My first class is Japanese with him anyway, so at least I won't have to explain my absence to another teacher. He hands me two hall passes.
“Thank you.” He goes to the school building and I am left with the new student.
“I'm Nakajima Atsushi from the Student Council. It's nice to meet you,” I speak up hesitantly, but he continues glaring at the sakura in front of the school. I follow his gaze and notice the dark figure hanging from the tree. Well, so much for a good first impression. Thank you, Dazai-san.
“Naka'ara Chuuya,” he says finally. I notice the strong accent. Is he a foreigner?
“Um... I will show you to the locker room first so that you can put away your...” I look at his hands. He is holding his schedule and a locker key in one hand and a black helmet and a bunch of leather clothes in the other. No schoolbag. “...stuff. And then I will show you around, okay?” He gives me an absent nod and when I start walking towards the entrance, he follows. He glances once more at Dazai-san when we pass him, but I notice that he does not look surprised or scared. His glare is murderous, filled with such a huge amount of hatred that I am the one who is scared.
He catches me staring. “This is... um...” I decide to play clueless. “This is normal. Please ignore him, he's not dead. Let's go, the locker room is right here.” He throws one last glare at Dazai-san, as if he wanted to stab him with his eyes, and then nods.
We change shoes and I lead him through the hallways, showing him everything he should know: classrooms, restrooms, clubrooms, nurse's office, secretariate.
“You're in class 2-M, right?”
He is a strange one. His elegant and proud posture reminds me of Ozaki-sensei, but he ruins the impression of dignity with the permanent scowl he wears on his face. He also never speaks. The only thing he said to me was his name earlier, and since then, he is just nodding along or ignoring me completely. No matter how hard I try to start a conversation, he does not say a word. He is more focused on scanning the building with his piercing blue eyes as if he tried to imprint it into his memory. He seems very cautious and on edge.
Maybe he just feels the weird vibes of this place? I shake my head. No, there is no way he could know. This school looks completely normal on the outside, despite how strange the people in it are. Maybe it's so normal it's suspicious? Admittedly, a student hanging from a tree at the entrance does not make a school look good.
Trying to fill the silence, I ramble on and on about everything I know about the school. Which is not much, seeing I have only been there for a week, but fortunately the doors are labelled so I can improvise for a bit.
“...Try not to injure yourself while you're here. The nurse, Yosano-san, does very painful treatments. At least, that's what everyone says...”
When we walk outside, Dazai-san is not there anymore. As soon as Nakahara-san notices, he seems to relax. There is even a small smile on his face when I show him our large gym. Perhaps I misjudged him? He is probably a nice person, only quiet and shy. That is a pleasant change compared to the majority of students here. Maybe we could be friends, I just have to earn his trust.
“Do you like sports?” I ask as we leave the gym because I noticed the pleased look on his face when he saw it.
“Martial arts,” he replies after a short moment of hesitation.
“That's cool! This school has a judo club, did you know? Ozaki-sensei teaches it. I wanted to join too, because my little sister goes to kendo class and it would be weird if she was stronger than me, wouldn't it? But then Kunikida-sensei threate- um, I mean, convinced me to join the Student Council. But anyway, if you just ask Ozaki-sensei, I'm sure she'll be happy to have you!”
I am not sure if I'm imagining this or not, but his expression seems a little bit friendlier than before.
On our way back to the school building, a calico cat crosses our path. It has patches of orange, dark brown and white fur and brown eyes. I immediately recognize it from stories I heard from Kenji-kun.
“Ah, this is one of the seven mysteries of our school, Souseki-chan.” The cat brushes against my leg and purrs, and I smile before I continue. “She appears and disappears, and is only friendly with a few students. It is said that when she likes you, you are very special.”
Nakahara-san crouches to pet it, and the cat climbs into his lap, curls up and starts purring very loudly. That pretty much confirms my suspicions about him being a good person. When he tries to stand up to continue our journey, she climbs up his chest and he flinches as her claws dig into his skin. He cradles her body the same way babies are carried and she settles there comfortably.
He gives me a look that is asking for help.
“Just keep it there, I guess. No one will mind,” I shrug. “I think it will be the opposite, actually. Everyone in your new class will immediately think you're cool when they see Souseki-chan. Speaking about your class, what class are they having right now? I should get you to your classroom before the first period is over, these hall passes can only do that much.”
He offers me his hip so that I can pull his schedule out of his pocket. I unfold the piece of paper and search.
“Science with Mori-sensei? Okay, this way.” He seems slightly unnerved, so I try and comfort him. “You don't have to be nervous, Mori is pretty chill. Although he's the principal, he does not care very much about teaching us. He usually just gives us worksheets and makes us study from textbooks. I heard that when a student catches his eye, he gets way more passionate, but that doesn't occur often.” He looks somewhat better when we arrive at one of the school labs.
I knock on the door and when I hear Mori-sensei's permission to enter, I open it.
“H-hello,” I stutter, since everyone in the classroom is glaring at me, “I have brought you a new transfer student, um,” I push Nakahara-san in front myself, “this is Nakahara Chuuya. Um, so... bye.” I retreat as soon as possible and shut the door. What was that all about? The tension in that classroom could be cut with a knife. I have no idea why would class 2-M which I never met glare at me so fiercely. I feel kind of bad for abandoning Nakahara-san like that, but my instincts were telling me to get out of there.
“Here are some worksheets, fill them out. I need to take care of something,” I hear Mori-sensei say and realize he is standing just behind the door. He sounds shocked. I hide behind a corner so that he thinks I already left. Honestly, I should be leaving for my own Japanese class, but I am frozen for some reason. Was it fear? Probably, yes. I am terrified. The glares of those students freaked me out already, and now I could get into trouble for eavesdropping on the principal.
Mori-sensei bolts out of the classroom and heads to his office. My curiosity overpowers my fear and I quietly follow him.
“What's the new student's name?” He asks as soon as he enters the secretariate. The entrance to his office is there.
“Nakahara Chuuya,” answers a voice I assume must belong to Mori-san, the principal's secretary.
“Mark him. He is a strong one.”
“Oh?”
“Also, that one who came to 1-A late is in the Student Council. I'm not very interested in that one, obviously, but did you mark him already?”
“You mean Nakajima Atsushi?”
“I guess.”
“Rintarou, I can be many things, but stupid isn't one of them. Of course he's marked if Yukichi-chan chose him.”
My eyes widen. Mark us? What for? I have so many questions and no answers. However, instead of thinking, I decide I have heard enough and run at maximum speed to my classroom so that no one finds out I eavesdropped on the principal. Something weird is going on in this school. And I want to find out what, considering it involves both me and my new soon-to-be friend.
—
At the end of morning class, Kunikida-sensei pulls a stack of papers out of his bag and hands them out to his students.
“Please write down your plans for what do you want to do after you graduate from our high school on this form and give it to me. During this week I will call each of you individually into my office to discuss your choice.”
An annoyed groan of the students of 3-A echoes through the classroom.
Akiko grabs her pen with blood-coloured ink and writes in her almost unreadable handwriting: "study medicine, become a surgeon, cut people open for a living"
Ranpo puts his novel aside, leaving one finger in between the pages to mark where he finished reading. He writes "I'm already world's best detective, that's enough" and continues reading.
Osamu chews at the end of his pencil. He has no idea what to write. He hopes to be dead by the end of the school year, but the probability of that happening is very low. His guardian will probably want him to work in that trading company of his, but there is no way Osamu would do that. There is a lot of boring things in this world, but the economy is by far the worst.
Class ends and everyone gives their papers to Kunikida-sensei.
“Yosano, black or blue ink! Red is used for corrections!” he scolds as he spots the usual red ink on Akiko's form.
“But you aren't going to correct this, are you?” Ranpo smiles at the tired teacher mischievously, grabs his best friend's hand and drags her out of the classroom.
Osamu quickly writes one thing that comes to his mind and hands his paper in last. Kunikida-sensei looks at it and frowns.
“Dazai! How many times do I have to tell you? Use a pen, not a pencil!”
“Yeah, yeah,” Osamu waves him off and is about to leave the classroom with his drinking bottle in hand to have lunch and electrocute himself in the lab, but Kunikida-sensei blocks his way.
“Not so fast. What is this crap? Are you mocking me?” He points at Osamu's paper, where there is "I want to be dead" scribbled in pencil over the whole page.
“Not at all, Kunikida-sensei~” Osamu smiles sweetly. “being dead is everyone's goal after all. Death is the peak of life! Each and every one of us is going to die someday, I just want to achieve that goal a bit earlier than others!”
“This isn't funny! You see, your future is very important to you, and if you don't...”
Out of the corner of his eye, Osamu sees a person dressed in a familiar uniform walk by behind the ranting Kunikida-sensei. He would not care if he did not recognize the way their hips sway as they walk.
“...Dazai? Dazai! Are you listening to me?”
“Of course, Kunikida-sensei,” he replies automatically, but his eyes are glued to that person, who freezes and turns when they hear Osamu's name.
“As I was saying.......” Kunikida-sensei's voice sounds as if it was coming from far away. Osamu wants to look away, but his amber eyes are drowning in the ocean of the blue ones. He is completely taken aback. His heart picks up speed. This is a situation he couldn't have by no means predicted.
'No way. This must be a dream. He cannot be here. He should not be here. He lives his nice normal life in Tokyo. He can finally be happy and grace the world with his beautiful smile since I'm not there to ruin his life anymore. Leave! Ignore me! Go away! I don't deserve to be in your presence, you god-like being. I caused you way too much suffering. Hate me. Detest me. But most importantly, avoid me. Please.'
—
Chuuya frowns the same way he did a few weeks ago. When he saw a news report about this school on TV and noticed Dazai in it, he decided to change schools immediately. His family lived in Yokohama anyway, there was no reason for him to stay on that snobby school in Tokyo.
Why did he follow Dazai here? To get his revenge. He singlehandedly ruined Chuuya's entire life and Chuuya wasn't the kind of person who would let it go easily.
He turns around and sees Dazai getting scolded by a teacher. How typical of him. Yet, he cannot look away. Their eyes lock and he notices some actual emotions in the ones that used to look like a dead fish's: surprise and an incredible amount of pain. He wants to laugh at that.
Did he hurt Dazai? No, he did not. But he will, soon. He wants his revenge, albeit a small one. After all the pain and humiliation Dazai put him through two years ago, he is going to make sure he drags him through hell. He just needs to wait for a good opportunity.
—
Kenji-kun and I sit in our usual place in the schoolyard. He opens his delicious-looking bento full of vegetables, grabs his chopsticks and starts shoving it into his mouth. My bento is significantly smaller, but I am glad that I get to eat lunch at all, so I enjoy it nonetheless.
Our peaceful routine is interrupted by Edogawa-san and Yosano-san, who sit down next to us. They usually eat their lunch at their own spot in a different part of the schoolyard, so I wonder what is the reason for this change.
“Osamu-san's gonna be a bit late,” Yosano-san announces, “he got caught up with Kunikida-sensei again.”
“What happened?” Kenji-kun asks through a mouthful of cucumber.
“I think it has something to do with the forms about our future career we were supposed to fill out.”
“Why does Kunikida-sensei hate Dazai-san so much anyway?” I voice a question that has already been on my mind for a few days.
“Kunikida likes rules and Osamu-san likes to break them,” Yosano-san shrugs.
“I don't think so,” Edogawa-san waves his chopsticks. “Kunikida's problem isn't that Osamu goes against the rules. He hates that he always gets away with it.”
“Dazai-san indeed does whatever he wants... but how come he never gets punished? He hangs in the schoolyard all night!” I wonder.
“No idea.” Yosano-san's voice falls into a low whisper. “We don't know him that well either. He only transferred to class A this year, he was in class M before.”
The way she says it indicates that it is somehow an important fact, but I do not know in which way.
“Class M people do things differently. Who knows what-”
“Hello, Dazai-san!”
Kenji-kun's enthusiastic greeting interrupts Edogawa-san who pouts, but Dazai-san does not answer. He stands next to us and leans his back on a tree. His mind is elsewhere, his eyes are looking into the distance. He absent-mindedly sips some brownish liquid from his (pink?) drinking bottle.
I decide that this is the right time to ask, but I don't know how to formulate my question. I don't want to sound like I don't want our senpais to sit with us, I'm just curious why.
“Yosano-san, Edogawa-san, did you need something from us?” Kenji-kun asks suddenly. Edogawa-san smiles.
“You deduced that correctly, Kenji-kun. You're starting to get better at this,” Edogawa-san praises. “I must be such an amazing role model! You're still nowhere near my level though. But I guess you can have one of these as a reward.” He offers Kenji-kun his takeout box of Chicken McNuggets but then closes it right afterwards. “Or not. Get your reward from Akiko's bento.”
“Never mind that,” Yosano-san puts her bento out of reach of Kenji-kun's greedy fingers. “I need someone who isn't me go to the Judo Club and tell them that they are going to get fewer funds next month.”
“I could do that, I wanted to visit them anyway,” I volunteer. “Why will they get less money? In case they asked...”
“Well even though judo is supposed to be a gentle martial art, they get injured a lot. And I am kind of running out of painkillers and bandages in the nurse's office, so I am going to buy new ones from their funds,” she explains.
“That's fair,” I agree. “But the bandage shortage could have a completely different reason. Isn't that right, Dazai-san?” I joke but receive no response. I get scared that I insulted Dazai-san, but when I look at him, I realize that is not the case. “Dazai-san?”
His face looks relaxed, there is even a small smile. I follow his gaze and find out what caught his attention.
Nakahara-san is sitting on a bench quite far away from others. He is holding a bento with one hand. In the other, he has a fork with a piece of meat that he is trying to get out of reach of Souseki-chan, who is seated on his lap.
“Who's that?” Yosano-san asks, apparently noticing the same thing I did.
“Nakahara Chuuya-san, second year. He just transferred here,” I give them my information.
“Dazai-san seems to be enamoured by the new boy. This is exactly how a cow and a bull would look at each other before they-” I interrupt Kenji-kun's statement with my hand.
“I think they know each other. Nakahara-san glared at Dazai-san as if he hated him when we walked by the sakura at the entrance,” I realize and everybody immediately catches on.
“Maybe they're rivals?” Yosano-san guesses.
“What if they're exes?”
“Or childhood friends?”
“You do realize I can hear you, right?” Dazai-san gives us his typical smile and we all shut up. Except for Kenji-kun, who is as bold as ever.
“So? Do you know him?”
“Yes. We were classmates in our first year of high school, in Tokyo. As for our relationship...” Dazai-san looks into his bottle and twirls the liquid inside. “We're mortal enemies.”
“You don't look at him that way, though,” Yosano-san doubts. Something unidentifiable flashes over Dazai-san's face and he takes a significantly bigger swig from his bottle.
“No, we hate each other. We fought all the time.” His voice is filled with sorrow.
“You said you were classmates, but aren't you one year higher?” Edogawa-san questions.
“He may be short and quiet, but don't be fooled. He's a violent delinquent. He got suspended for it so often that he had to repeat a year.” Dazai-san's tone does not sound like a warning at all. But then he gets serious as he sighs and quietly says: “I wish he stayed in Tokyo.”
For a moment, our group just watches Nakahara-san eat. His movements are so graceful, he does not look like a delinquent at all. If I had to guess, I would think he is a dancer. I know he did mention he was a martial artist, but I just can't imagine him doing anything violent. He would fit better behind a blank canvas with a brush in hand rather than into a wild brawl in the grass.
“Hey, Osamu-san, can I have a drink from you? I forgot my drinking bottle in the classroom,” Yosano-san reaches for Dazai-san's bottle, but he grabs it before she can.
“No.”
“Why not? I'm just thirsty!” She protests.
“What is in that bottle, Osamu-kun?” Edogawa-san asks suspiciously. Before he could get an answer, Kenji-kun pries the bottle out of Dazai-san's fingers and sniffs it.
“It's alcohol!” He gasps and hands it to Yosano-san, who turns away in disgust.
“Dazai-san, you can't drink alcohol at school!” I warn him.
To add to my dismay, Dazai-san locks his eyes with mine and drinks what was left in the bottle all at once.
“I'll need it to deal with Chibi over there,” he waves his hand in Nakahara-san's direction. “See? He's drinking too.”
“He has a glass of wine in his bento,” Edogawa-san confirms after he puts his glasses on. And truly, Nakahara-san is holding a glass with a red liquid now. He seems to be thoroughly enjoying it, compared to Dazai-san, who looks as if whatever he was drinking were some hard-to-swallow pills.
“There is a difference between wine and whiskey, Osamu-san,” Yosano-san comments.
“There is also a difference between a glass and a bottle,” Edogawa-san adds.
“Whatever,” Dazai-san waves them off, “Leave me alone.”
The atmosphere is starting to get uncomfortable. Fortunately, I'm not the only one who feels it.
“Atsushi-san, we should go,” Kenji-kun grabs my upper arm and I get up, grateful for his sunny smile that dissolves some of the tension. “We need to change into our gym clothes, you know Ozaki-sensei doesn't like it when we're late.”
“Yeah, you're right. See you in the afternoon, guys!” I give the trio a quick wave and run off with Kenji-kun.
“That was... not nice,” he concludes once we enter the school building. I couldn't have said it better.
“I hope they won't get in a fight. That could get really bad really fast,” I worry. My mind helpfully supplies me with images of what a war between Edogawa-san and Dazai-san would look like. Yes. Really bad.
“I'm more worried about Dazai-san. He looked so upset... Isn't this that kind of situation when city people go to therapy or something like that?”
I think he might be on to something.
“I don't think Dazai-san would willingly visit a therapist,” I shake my head. “Still, we should at least tell a teacher.”
“I would go to Kunikida-sensei. He asked you to spy on Dazai-san anyway, didn't he?”
“Oh, right.” I forgot about that. “He doesn't feel like the kind of person I'd ask for help though. He's always so angry, and I think he hates me.”
“That's because he thinks you're one of Dazai-san's followers. Otherwise, he is a really strict, organized and reliable person.” His usually bright smile makes a return. “You've seen that in math class, right? When Dazai-san isn't involved, he's a good guy.”
I think back to how Kunikida-sensei acts in math class, and realize I might have been too harsh on him. But hey, first impressions are important, and his wasn't the best. I decide that for once, I can try and trust Kenji-kun's opinion, even though he sees good in everybody.
“Okay, I'll believe you,” I smile. “What's the deal with those-” I paint air quotes with my fingers “-followers Dazai-san supposedly has anyway? I've never noticed anything like that.”
“I'm not so sure myself,” Kenji-kun shrugs. “I've only heard stories from Yosano-san. It happened last year when Dazai-san entered this school. He was in 2-M. And you know how he is really smart and basically immortal, right? Well, it made a huge impression on his classmates and his kouhais in 1-M. He was called the Demon Prodigy of Class M, and everyone either respected or feared him. And obviously, he had many followers, who worshipped him like some kind of god. Yosano-san said that class M was always full of mean people, but Dazai-san's influence made it a hundred times worse.”
It was really hard for me to believe this story. Sure, Dazai-san was mysterious, but he didn't seem... evil. To me, at least. To be honest, I would be more scared of Akutagawa than Dazai-san.
“But he isn't like that anymore, right? What happened? Why did he transfer to another class?”
“No one knows. Rumour has it that he just came to Fukuzawa-sensei and asked to be transferred, and Fukuzawa agreed, but I think that's only because he knew he'll have Kunikida-sensei as his homeroom teacher. Fukuzawa is quite busy as the vice-principal, so he relies on Kunikida-sensei with all the important things, like supervising the Armed Student Council, which they immediately made Dazai-san part of to have him under control.”
“And what about his followers?”
“They stopped all of a sudden. This is only an assumption, but it was Edogawa-san who said it so it's probably correct. He thinks that Kunikida-sensei tortured the fanatic Dazai stans with math drills until they understood that they have to keep their distance. They still admire Dazai-san, but they want to avoid Kunikida.”
“Oh. I see. And Kunikida is afraid I'm one of those?”
“It seems so. You don't have to worry about it though! I will testify that you're no Dazai stan in case he wanted to give you extra homework!”
This statement makes me laugh in relief.
“I'm counting on you, Kenji-kun. Thank you.”