Chapter Text
Whateverthefuckitscalled Academy. There was nothing remarkable about it. It had a handful of decent extracurricular programs, but that aside it was like any other secondary school in a town this size. No, the reason 12-year-old Kusuke Saiki chose this place was not for its academics nor its activities but for the hour-long train ride. It was too loud for Kusuo to read his thoughts on the train, and that would allow just enough sleep to get him through the day.
Well, that was the plan anyway. Everything should have gone smoothly; school was school and home was hell, but of course life had a twisted sense of humor.
“Have you seen the new freshman?” A gaggle of schoolgirls were irritatingly whispering amongst themselves.
“I have! He’s sooo hot.”
“The bluenette right? God, he’s dreamy.”
“He’s like an idol!”
“I wanna marry him so bad.”
Kusuke rolled his eyes, opting to ignore them. Monkeys always screeched and chattered after all.
*Crash*
Kusuke crashed into a fleshy wall, gracelessly losing his balance and in the process greeting the floor with an even less impressive thud. If he was being honest with himself he didn’t even try to brace his fall.
“Are you alright?” A blinding light filled his retinas. From all around him the boy could hear the awe-struck gasps of the crowd.
“Oh. My. God. It’s him.”
“The cute freshman? Let me see!”
“Ahh! He’s even cuter up close!”
So this was the attractive first-year everyone was going on about. Interesting, he could use that to his advantage. The light leaned forward, extending a glowing hand. “Here, let me help you.” Oh, so he was that type.
Kusuke slapped the new school idol’s hand away with a vindictive sneer. “Sorry, I don’t play with glowing monkeys. Radiation poisoning is a bitch so I’m going to have to decline.”
.
For a moment no one breathed.
Two social classes were interacting in the wild. The lower rung had snapped at the heels of a higher life form. What would happen? Who would win? What transpired from this interaction would set the stage for the social structure for the rest of the year. The masses stared intently. Whatever transpired now would burn itself into the memories of all parties present for years to come.
.
Makoto Teruhashi gaped at the pathetic mess before him in a mixture of shock and abject horror. This, this – DROWNED RAT DARED to talk to him like that?
The idol grit his teeth. 'Don’t loose your cool, Makoto. People are watching.' Yeah, he could deal with this little shit later. Man, he knows what he did, too. Cocky bastard looks so proud of himself. 'Focus, what’s the best way to salvage this situation? What would Kokomi do?'
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” He was really cranking up the charm for this one – but it couldn’t be helped. The man who was going to marry Kokomi had to be worthy of her – and that meant keeping up appearances with the masses at all costs.
“As if I would be scared of something like you.”
'Can’t you see I’m trying to save face here!?' Despite his internal screaming, the boy managed to ground himself (on the outside at least). “Oh, that’s a relief. Here-“
The bluenette yanked his scruffy blonde counterpart off the ground with more force than was necessary but damn he was pissed.
“I’ll see you around then?” He hissed through his teeth.
The blonde smiled wider, “Looking forward to it.”
Crisis averted. A few girls were screaming, at least two guys nodded in acknowledgement as he walked past. He did good. All was right in the world again. Kokomi would be proud.
Makoto Teruhashi was pissed. The day had gotten off to a good start other than the incident this morning, and for all intents and purposes everyone seemed to think he took the high ground in that situation. He didn’t really care all that much how they felt about him, except that they all universally agreed he was worthy to be in his sister’s presence above all others. But something about this morning still irked him. Maybe it was how callous the boy had been. Maybe it was the fact that Makoto was superior to him in every regard but for some reason the realization that the little rat in the hallway looked down on him made his blood boil.
He had to straighten him out. Show that rat the way the social hierarchy worked. Yes, the first day of school was a sensitive time, some of the social outcasts still didn’t know their place yet. He should …enlighten him. He was nice after all. Anyone worthy of his sister had to be. The poor boy was just confused. Maybe he came from a small little town where everybody knew everybody, and he thought the big city would be the same. Or maybe he thought middle school would be a fresh start where he could leave his life as a loser behind. He was delusional, surely. And he, Makoto Teruhashi would help him, because he was just that nice of a guy.
Makoto Terushashi, age 12. Birthday March 4, Blood type A, 154 cm tall and approximately 46kg as of his most recent physical. He was involved in the drama club in years previous and this year as well. He came from a well-off family with parents in the business of buying and selling expensive but often tasteless artifacts. Known for his good looks and charm, athletic with decently high grades, usually ranking in the top 10 percent of his class but occasionally dropping a few ranks for brief periods of time, usually just after the holidays - particularly the months of February and March. Kusuke stared at the limited articles on his screen containing information about the boy. Apparently, he was overshadowed by a younger sibling of his own, a “cute” little 10-year-old by the name of Kokomi Teruhashi. Huh, same age as Kusuo. She was a star in her own right, dominating almost every article containing the surname Teruhashi thereby hindering his search considerably. That aside, he seemed fairly normal. Boring too, sadly.
Of course Kusuke knew the idol planned on confronting him today. He was that type after all. Why else would he google the boy and hack the school’s records? He wanted to have as much intel on his opponent as possible before the game began, but it seemed there was nothing to get excited about. Might as well get this over with.
The blonde positioned himself against a wall near the shoe lockers, making sure that he was out of the direct line of sight of his peers and any cameras in the area, just in case Teruhashi was a thorough kind of guy. And sure enough, just as most of the students had already left and Kusuke was starting to get impatient the glowing light showed up.
“It’s about time. Don’t you know it’s rude to keep a girl waiting?”
Teruhashi paused mid-stride, seemingly caught off guard. “Wait, you’re a girl?”
Kusuke blinked. Twice. “It’s banter, sweetheart.”
“Oh.”
'Is it actually possible to be this stupid?' Surely this was a level of brain activity lower than monkeys. A bird maybe. This was bird-brain level reasoning. See a seed, eat it. That was what he had to work with. This endeavor might prove to be more painful than he initially thought.
“You had something to say to me, right?” Might as well help the poor soul along, he wouldn’t get there on his own.
The little gears in Teruhashi’s tiny bird brain started turning. “Yeah, I did have something to say to you.”
Marvelous. Let’s get on with it then.
Teruhashi afforded a glance around, then sauntered over to where Kusuke stood. Oh boy here it comes. The idol stood before him, placing an arm on the wall near his head like in a bad rom-com. 'Is he trying to be seductive or intimidating?' “Let’s get something straight. I’m in a whole different social class than you, rat. But since I’m such a nice guy I’ll let you in on a little secret. Keep your head down and maybe your life won’t be hell. Got it?” Is this seriously the best he can do? Kusuke wondered. Did he try to intimidate everyone he didn’t like this way? Surely that wasn’t very effective. Then again, monkeys would believe almost anything so maybe it did work on the masses.
“Got it!” Kusuke chirped. Okay, so maybe he could have a little fun with this doorknob. “Although,” he could practically feel the tension radiating off the glowing mass. “I hear that Hell is nice this time of year.”
“Are you fucking with me!?” Teruhashi slammed the wall with his fist. Oh, this was starting to get good.
“Harder, daddy.”
Teruhashi threw himself away from the wall like it was on fire. “What the hell is your problem?!”
“Oh nothing, I just love aggressive men.” Kusuke made sure to drop his voice to a more sultry tone to freak him out even more.
“That’s fucking disgusting!”
Kusuke shifted his arms to hug himself and moaned for effect. The other boy fled the premises not long after. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.
Kusuke: 2/Teruhashi: 0
And so life went on.
Kusuke continued to be as awful as humanly possible and Teruhashi avoided him like the plague, as did most of the school, even the teachers. When he wasn’t doing schoolwork, he was busy with research for Kusuo’s power-limiters. When his brother suggested it, he had to admit it seemed a bit unorthodox. But he longer he thought about it the more obvious the truth became. With these he could win. If Kusuo couldn’t use his full powers he might have a chance. Nothing else worked after all. He was running out of options and stamina. How much longer could he carry on like this? Constantly on edge in case someone was picking at his brain, never able to accomplish anything without being overshadowed by his brilliant younger brother. Surely, he’d go crazy if this didn’t work. He was nearing the end of his rope as it was. Taking out his aggression on the kids at school wasn’t doing it for him like it used to either. This simply had to work.
'I can’t believe the nerve of that rat!' Makoto monologued angrily to himself. He was obsessing a bit, sure but come on! He was the hottest most popular guy in school, and it was only the first week! Surely that meant something! Right? Right? He could jump ship. It wasn’t too late in the year to transfer. Then he wouldn’t have to think about that stupid kid or his stupid face at all! But then he thought of his darling Kokomi and immediately stomped out the idea. She hand-picked this place herself after all. At first he’d been devastated at the idea of being in different schools. Surely an exception could be made so they could be together. They were soul mates! But Kokomi had been so kind. He could still remember the day he enrolled.
He sat at the dining room table, laptop open, staring blankly at the options. Nothing could possibly matter. His precious little sister wasn’t going to be there so what was the point. Why did middle school have to be in a building separate from the elementary school? Was there even a god? Then, as if by divine intervention she was there, placing a pamphlet on the table beside him. “How about this one?”
Makoto shifted to look at the pamphlet. “Whateverthefuckitscalled Academy. That’s over two hours away!”
“Yes, but they have a strong acting program, better than anything you’ll find here.” She assured him. Then the nail in the coffin. “I just want to make sure you go to a good school, big brother.” She gave him the big doe eyes. How could he say no to that? And thus Makoto enthusiastically applied to Whateverthefuckitscalled Academy.
That’s right, if Kokomi could be brave for his sake he could be brave for her! He could do this! It was just one year.
Two full months passed before the two boys interacted again. Aside from the occasional flirtatious/vindictive smirk (Kusuke) or annoyed glare (Makoto) that is. But that stuff is boring so let’s just get on with it hmm?
//Don’t break the fourth wall it’s expensive.//
But I wasn’t-
Fine.
Where was I? Ah yes, the first time the two forces interacted outside of the initial instance was brought about by an outside force, that is to say, a teacher. Her full name is Tohru Koboyashi, but all of the students here call her Miss K because she’ll slap anyone who doesn’t call her that. She’s nice enough but she’s totally irresponsible. You know the type, someone who pushes all of their duties off on newer teachers and students who actually have their shit together. It boggles the mind how she is still employed here, but it’s not like the other teachers do much either.
Anyway, she doesn’t really do much but she is the faculty advisor of the acting club, which I am currently visiting because of…extracurricular activities.
“You’re the one who did this, right?” Miss K glared down at me with her arms crossed. I didn’t say anything, (it was totally me). She sighed heavily. “Listen, kid. I don’t want to be the bad guy here but you did destroy a lot of work with your little prank.” Ok fair.
“Oh, but I didn’t mean anything by it. I wasn’t really trying to hurt anyone.” Apparently the extremely lazy are immune to my powers of persuasion.
“I don’t really care, kid. You need to clean this up. Just, do whatever you gotta do? Got me? All of you,” she addressed the acting club students. “Go home. Except Teruhashi.”
“What? Why me?”
Poor Teruhashi didn’t even get to defend himself. “Because I said so. And also because you’re rich and it pisses me off. Just – I don’t know, make sure he doesn’t break anything else, or something? I don’t really care, kid.” Then she left. The pinnacle of adulthood right there.
The other kids muttered their apologies as they escaped one by one. Kusuke couldn’t blame them. This mess was going to be a pain to clean up. Any person in their right mind wouldn’t want to help out.
I can’t believe I got stuck doing this grunt work! Makoto whined to himself. Life was so unfair! And he was stuck working with this guy of all people. Ugh. The bluenette continued to sulk, glaring across the room at the blonde, who was collecting pieces of soggy cardboard and dropping them in a pile at the center of the room. Why should he have to help this asshole? He was the one who dropped buckets of water from the rafters. And it was while they were doing the dress rehearsal, too. So of course he was soaked. Soaked and irritated. Just looking at that guy was pissing him off.
“Hey.”
The blonde ignored him.
Makoto dropped the scraps of costumes that had ended up scattered all across the stage. “Hey! I’m talking to you, asshole.”
Still no answer.
Makoto jumped down from the stage and marched right up to the perpetrator, grabbing his shoulder. “Hey!” He spun the other boy around to face him. “That was a really shitty thing to do.”
“Hmm? Was it?” He didn’t seem the least bit sorry.
“Was it? Was – are you kidding me?! You DESTROYED two months worth of work! Costumes, sets, we have to start over!”
“Oh that,” the rat waved a hand dismissively. “It’s fine. I’m sure you guys can fix everything on time.”
“It’s not fine!” Makoto felt like his head was going to explode. “We have to start over!”
“Not exactly, only approximately 67 percent of the production materials sustained damage so –”
“Don’t use math to talk back to me!” Makoto was shouting now, much to the amusement of the guy he was pissed off at. “Point is – you broke a lot of stuff and you’re not even sorry!”
“Aww, but I apologized and everything,” the blonde responded with an airy smile.
“It doesn’t count if you didn’t mean it!”
“Sorry, sorry. I’ll get it all done I promise.”
“Screw you.” Makoto slapped the cardboard out of his hands in a mix of defeat and anger. He wasn’t getting through to this guy. No point in sticking around. “I’m going home.” He slammed the door behind him on his way out.
The next day Makoto returned to the club per usual, only to find some kind of commotion going on. Did that little shit do something else? Of course he did. Damn him!
“Oh, Teruhashi, there you are.” Miss K waved him over when she saw him. Oh no, he was totally screwed. He stormed out last night without cleaning up at all. He was totally getting slapped for this. He braced for impact.
“These are lovely. Did you stay up all night?”
Say what now?
“You’re really amazing Teruhashi,” one of the girls agreed. “This is even better than what we had before. Did you really get it all done last night?”
What is even happening right now?
Makoto searched the area frantically. This wasn’t right. Everyone was smiling at him. The room wasn’t trashed. There weren’t piles of cardboard and broken dreams everywhere. In fact, the stage was decorated in lively, colorful set pieces. Some of the other students were wearing their costumes. It was like it never even happened.
“Well, I’m not complaining.” Miss K slapped him on the back, nearly knocking him over. “Let’s practice kids! You have 15 minutes to get ready for rehearsal. Do – whatever you gotta do.”
Makoto scrambled to find his costume. Like the others, it was neatly constructed and even folded up nicely near the base of the stage. There was a yellow sticky note placed on top of the outfit. ‘lol, sorry for breaking your toys. I hope I fixed everything up ok? Anyway, break a leg or whatever the saying is. <3 ‘ A little smiley face and heart were drawn at the bottom of the note. Makoto ripped it in half. 'Fucking. Fuck! Little bastard is mocking me! You want to play that way? Fine. I’ll play. Let’s fucking go!'
Kusuke: 3/Teruhashi: 0
Makoto began researching the little prankster extensively after that. He googled him. He followed him home. He asked around at school. People did love to talk after all. He found a lot of useful information too. And a lot of dirt. His name was Saiki Kusuke, he lives about an hour away in a small little no-where town with both parents and a little brother who was the same age as Kokomi. A cool detail he noticed was that neither of them looked like their parents. Especially not the little guy. Pink hair? That was pretty rare, and nobody in that house had hair like that. Also, he didn’t seem to like his big brother very much. The kid looked kinda dead to the world, actually. And he kept glaring at the trees and bushes he was hiding behind like he could see him or something. Creepy.
But it didn’t matter. Makoto was sure that this kid was the key to getting to Saiki. Err, Kusuke? The one he went to school with. Whatever! Anyway, a week after the water bombing incident, he confronted Saiki in the halls.
“So, how’s that little brother of yours?”
A visible reaction. The rat froze, a look of genuine horror flashed across his face before defaulting back to an unamused neutral.
“What are you going on about? I’m an only child.”
“Aha!” Makoto shouted victoriously. An outright lie! He defiantly hit the nail on the head. “Oh, you know. You’re little brother. What was his name, Kusuo?” The idol continued smugly. This was just too great! Finally, he could rub something in this smug asshole’s face instead of the other way around. He continued. “Cute little guy, looks nothing like you I’m afraid. He’s in the same grade as Kokomi – ”
On his end, Kusuke was shocked. Caught utterly off guard. How could he have missed this? Teruhashi was supposed to be stupid. A baboon. How could he have – unless that was the point? He was faking being dumb so Kusuke would let his guard down? How deep did this go? Kusuke hadn’t been paying him much mind. He’d only been taking out his frustration on the acting club by random chance. It wasn’t a targeted assault, he was just bored, but was Teruhashi planning something this entire time?
Don’t give him so much credit, Kusuke. He’s showing you his cards right now. It could be a bluff.
Teruhashi continued listing off information about where he lived and even little details like Kusuo’s affinity for sweets and that his dad wore red glasses. There was no way that was a bluff. He had either seen that in person, that or he payed someone off for information. Was this Teruhashi’s true power? How long had he been stalking them? How did neither he nor Kusuo notice?
Of course! It makes perfect sense. Teruhashi was hot. He was popular. Someone like him had hoards of mindless drones willing to do his bidding. He only needed to ask and people would tell him everything they knew. They’d ask their friends. And he, the social outcast, was kept out of the loop by the flames of their unanimous hatred.
Said most popular guy in school laughed condescendingly, reveling in his shallow victory. “Oh my, what’s wrong? You seem pale. I do hope you’re feeling alright.”
Damn! How could I be so foolish? Kusuke glowered, this was starting to look bad, The idol had him backed into a corner. If he keeps snooping around he’ll find out about Kusuo’s powers and it’s game over for sure. But he won the battle not the war, I can still bounce back from this. But I have to be careful. Teruhashi had the potential to be a legitimate threat. He had to increase security, find his weakness. Counter him before he even got off the ground. Game on!
Kusuke: 3/Teruhashi: 1
And so it began.
Makoto’s pettiness reached a new high. He talked shit, he tried to trip Kusuke in the halls. He even resorted to Mean-Girls tactics. He poured milk on his lunch, left a fake love-letter in his locker, threw out his outside shoes. But each time Kusuke retaliated. The blonde genius responded to each attack with even more firepower. Any attempt to trip him resulted in being de-pantsed in the hall. When Makoto poured milk on his lunch Kusuke laced his with wasabi. The fake love-letter was met with a particularly brutal fake break-up text from Kokomi, he seriously thought he was about to die right there. The shoes incident resulted in Makoto finding shaving cream in his inside shoes the next day. He just couldn’t best him. But he wasn’t about to give up! He just…decided to switch tactics is all. Yeah, more discreet methods would work out better. He just had to think of something.
Kusuke: 23/Teruhashi: 1
On Kusuke’s end he soon lost interest in the idol. He seemed to have no other talent beyond stalking people and collecting information. Not a bad skill to have, but altogether useless after Kusuke installed a new security system at home. There was nothing to be done about the gossip, but his classmates couldn’t tell Teruhashi anything that he didn’t already know, which was how it should be. When he wasn’t shooting down the bluenette’s attempts to pick a fight, or releasing cockroaches into the vents because it was hilarious and what else was he supposed to do with them? He was busy adding the finishing touches to Kusuo’s power limiters. He had all the parts now. He could give them to Kusuo tomorrow if he wanted. Maybe he would. What was the worst that could happen? It wasn’t as if he had anything left to lose anyway.
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Author’s note: Ahh that’s the end of the chapter! It was scary to post this I’m not gonna lie. I don’t know if that was the best place to end it but it was so long-winded at this point I just had to cut it off. Tune in next time for the next big plot development and thank you so much for reading. <3
Concrit is appreciated, I’ll be adding more chapters later. Plz be kind to me. Any suggestions are welcome.
Also, I wanted to point out that Makoto’s Height and weight were calculated by averages of 12-year-old boys in Japan. I made him a little on the tall side and average in the weight department since he’s supposed to be hot and stuff. Kusuke is a little shorter than him and more on the skinny side since he looked pretty disheveled in the scene where he left the country. Like holy shit kid eat a sandwich, take a shower and a nap, get some fresh air. Take care of yourself baby, mama worries.
Also Also, fear not about Miss K being a major character. She’s a plot device, plain and simple. She will continue to be present in this fic, but only when the situation requires an adult/teacher or if the plot needs a little push to get going again.
Also Also Also, this is my first time posting. I have written fan-fiction for years but never have I ever been brave enough to share it with the world. So, yeah.