Chapter Text
He dropped off the last remaining boxes into his apartment. It seems like his parents didn’t have time to find another relative for him to live with, and had instead bought him an apartment close enough for him to get to the train station and head off to his new school. It didn’t surprise him that his parents decided to just leave him a note that the landlord gave him once he arrived there. The note was telling him that the first month of the apartment has been paid, and he doesn’t need to worry for the next 3 months when he’s there. But after those 3 months, he’ll have to start paying the apartment rent himself. It’s nothing new, to Souji. His parents were just too busy to take care of him.
He’s have about two days before he has to start school. ‘Might as well start unpacking now,” Souji thought to himself, ‘after I’ll explore the area so I won’t end up getting lost.” It’s not his first time living in Tokyo, but he’s too used to the close-knit town Inaba, it’ll take some time for him to settle down again.
Souji looks around the room and see’s the clutter of boxes surrounding the small, but cozy apartment. He let out a sigh, ‘It’ll take a while for me to finish unpacking, and I’ll start exploring tomorrow.’
***
Tokyo is as noisy and clumped together just as he had remembered it. He didn’t miss this, nor did he miss the morning rush when everyone is gathered together in the train. Before he began living in Inaba, he didn’t mind being clumped together with people, it was something that happened regularly in Tokyo. But staying a whole year in a countryside setting has made him rather unused to the closeness and lack of personal space.
Once the doors had opened, Souji gripped his school bag, and starting walking up the stairs. Looking down on his phone, he followed the directions to head over to Shujin Academy.
‘A fresh start, with no friends,’ It left a rather hollow feeling in Souji. But he took a deep breath and continued onwards.
***
“So, you’re the new transfer student,” a rather big man in a gold suit said to Souji. He nodded in reply, he wasn’t much of a talker, especially when he doesn’t know anyone around him.
“Welcome to Shujin Academy, the person on my right is the Student Council President, Makoto Niijima. If you have any questions, go to her.” The principal said.
“Nice to meet you,” the girl on the principle right greeted. She had short dark brown hair, and had a rather apathetic stare.
“Likewise,” Souji replied.
“Make sure you don’t bring any trouble into the school,” the principal warned, “the school's reputation will not be ruined by something you caused.” Souji nodded, it wasn’t like he brings trouble, it was more like trouble followed him.
“If you understand, you can go to the facility and meet your homeroom teacher.” The principal told Souji and that was the end of the meeting.
As Souji left the room, he felt a sense of forbidding. The same feeling he got when he first entered Inaba. ‘Must be my imagination,’ he thought while shaking his head, ‘and besides, my journey is already over. There’s nothing to worry about.’
He headed towards the facility office and opened the door. There were a couple of teachers in the room, most of them were either grading test, or talking to other teachers.
“Ah, over here,” someone from the corner of the room called out. Souji headed over there, and saw a female teacher. She had curly hair and was dressed a little casual for a teacher. She didn’t seem all that intimidating.
“You’re the new student, Seta Souji, a third year. I’ll be giving you your schedule, your homeroom teacher isn’t here today, so she asked me to give this to you.” She handed Souji a piece of paper which told him his room number and his homeroom teacher.
“Thank you,” Souji said as he nodded his head. She waved her hand towards him.
“Your welcome. Welcome and I hope you enjoy your school year here. Also, try not to do anything reckless. It’s your last year in highschool, so try to make the best of it.” She told him, and Souji let out a sound of acknowledgement.
“That’s all, I’ll see you around Seta-san.”
***
A week in and Souji was already used to his new school. Well, almost. The volleyball teacher gives him these vibes, and he tries to avoid him as much as possible. He was planning to join a sports club, but when he saw how all the volleyball members were beaten up, he decided not take any chances. He couldn’t do anything to stop whatever the volleyball coach was doing, and it made him feel useless. Souji wanted to stand up the teacher and tell him off, but he felt something stop him. He forced himself to not interfere, because something will cause a change. He knows it. So he just watches in disgust.
Souji doesn’t really have friends either, instead when it’s a break time, he talks to his friends in Inaba. He told them about the situation that was going around, and Naoto told him to not do anything.
“Sempai, usually the police will end up finding evidence. You can’t do anything,” Naoto told him.
“I know, but it pisses me off,” Souji replied and he heard sounds of agreement coming from the other side.
Nothing new has happened, and he settled down quietly. But one day when he was studying in the library, he heard students whispering.
“There’s a new transfer student coming,” a girl whispered.
“Yeah, but have you heard? He has a criminal record,” another girl replied scandalized.
“Yeah, yeah! How scary. How can our school accept someone like that?” the first girl replied.
“Who knows, I heard he’s coming tomorrow,” the second girl responded.
“Two transfer students in the same week, it’s weird…”
Souji ended up tuning them out, rumors were just rumors. He remembered how he told off King Moron off on the first day of school last year. There were little rumors of him being a delinquent. So he paid no mind to it.
***
“Hey, I heard the transfer student didn’t arrive till the last period.”
“Really? Was he planning to ditch?!”
“And he was with Sakamoto too. I’m not all that surprised, Sakamoto is a troublemaker…”
“So that means the transfer student is a delinquent!”
Murmurs were filling the room and it was hard for Souji to concentrate on the book he was reading. He sighed and closed his book. He looked up, and saw that there were only 2 minutes left before the last period of the day started.
He laid his head on the desk, ‘if only time flew by faster,’
***
Three days passed, silently and unexciting like. The classes weren’t all that hard, but it might be because Souji studies on his free time, or is working at his part time job. It was still the morning and then suddenly someone was screaming.
“She’s going to jump!”
Everyone started leaving the classroom with shock and horror. They continue to watch and ignore the teacher telling them to stay inside.
The girl fell and everyone started screaming. Souji heard another girl running and yelling “Shiho!”
Souji started to run outside too, wanting to see if the girl was alright.
The paramedics were around, and it seems like the girl didn’t die, she was still conscious, a girl with blond hair, Tamaki Ann was crying.
“Alright! Everyone get back to class!” The principal yelled, trying to gain control, “Teachers get your students back into the classrooms!”
Souji stood there, his hand clenched together. He remembers that girl, she was part of the volleyball team. ‘Kamoshida…’ Souji thought.
***
When Souji was reading in the library, he noticed the transfer student. He looked like he was studying, and it reminded Souji on how he was when he was in Inaba, always trying to study so he could help his friends when they needed the help.
‘He’s not that bad of a person, I wonder why everyone claims he’s a delinquent.’
***
Souji hasn’t told his friends in Inaba about the situation that had occurred, where Suzui Shiho tried to commit suicide. He feels like he should tell them when he has more evidence on what’s going on. So he stays quiet about when they ask if anything has happened. It’s not like he talks to them all the time, they’re busy also. And most of them are either in a club or hanging out together to really talk to him. He’s not lonely (he’s lying).
So it’s not strange for him to suddenly go up to the new student and decide to help him study.
It started off like this:
Souji was in the library as usual, but suddenly the chair in front of him moved and the transfer student was there. He pulled out a book and began to study. This is normal for Souji since he see’s some student study in the library, but something was telling him to help the transfer student. Souji didn’t know why, but he decided why not?
“Hey,” Souji greeted, and the transfer student looked up,”sorry to interrupt, but if you like, I can help you study.”
The new student looked at him before slowly nodding his head.
“Thank you,” he replied and Souji decided to help him out.
As some time passed on, he figured out that the transfer student was pretty smart. He absorbed things pretty quickly and before Souji noticed, an hour passed.
“Thanks for the help, I’m Kurusu Akira,” Kurusu introduced himself and he held his hand out. Souji stopped packing his things and held out his hand.
“I’m Seta Souji. Nice to meet you, if you need help, you can find me in the library.” Souji replied, and that was the end of it. Souji heard a small voice saying, “Hey that guy was pretty nice,” coming from Kurusu. It wasn’t his voice, but Souji wasn’t sure on who it was. He didn’t think too hard of it, and instead continue packing.
***
The day Kamoshida decided to confess his guilt was a rather unsuspecting day for Souji. They were all asked to gather in the gym, and suddenly Kamoshida started to break down. Telling everyone how he thought of the school as his own castle and that he sexually harassed the female volleyball players.
The police came to school that day, and suddenly reporters were asking everyone questions. Souji avoided them at all cost, it would be troublesome to be asked questions.
***
“Sempai, your school is Shujin Academy right?” Naoto asked when Souji called his friends when he got home.
“Yeah,” Souji replied.
“It seems like the teacher you were concerned about ended up getting caught in the end,” Naoto said, nodding her head. There was a relieved smile on her face.
“Yeah, I’m glad he got caught. But it’s strange..” Souji said, his eyebrows furrowing together.
“What do’ya mean partner?” Yosuke asked, he pushed himself to get into the camera.
“Well, it was rather abrupt, but there’s a rumor going around about Phantom Thieves or something like that.” Souji said.
“Hmm,” Naoto hummed, “Well, until something abrupt happens again, we can’t really do anything. But if something strange happens, try to avoid it Sempai, you tend to gather trouble everywhere you go.”
Souji scratched the back of his neck; it wasn’t his fault that trouble seems to follow him around.
“I’ll try to avoid,” Souji promised.
“Sempai!” Rise’s familiar voice entered, “How’s school life going? Made any friends?”
Souji thought about Kurusu, and slowly nodded, “Not really friends, but more like a study buddy.”
“Still counts as a friend to me,” Chie’s cheery voice replied.
“I guess,” Souji said slowly smiling,” I made a friend.”