Work Text:
The accident that started it all
That just happened.
In all honesty, now that Juna had time to double-take and reconsider everything that she just had done… In a hindsight, it was, one hundred percent, her own goddamn fault for transforming out of her magical form on the corner like that.
She thought she was out of everyone’s sight, okay? Usually, nobody would’ve been there after the whole place had been evacuated when the monsters from the Demon World attack the area, at least for the next two or three hours or so.
But this time, this guy just HAD to be there, probably trying to help the magical girls fighting the monsters, or was just trying to double check for elderly or kids who didn’t manage to escape in time, or might just be there to loot the empty place… Whatever it was, that wasn’t the problem for Juna.
What the big problem was that, she knew the guy – Probably impossible to not to, considering this guy was Kurt Vander, one of the most popular student in her school. The guy that seemed to won the genetic lottery by virtually being as handsome as any supermodel, as well as the brain of a genius considering the fact that the news that he got multiple scholarships to pay his entire schooling years was widespread around the Thors High already.
The worst part of it? It was easily that he definitely KNEW her as well. Despite never talking with each other that much, they were freaking classmate.
“…Crawford…?”
Yep.
He DID recognize her.
Oh, she screwed up. Big time. Cue Juna’s one remaining brain cell trying to find any excuse, any form of salvation that she could think of… Which ended up as none because, well, she was Juna and she was never good at this thing called as ‘thinking’.
“Oh, um, h-hi-! It was nice talking to you, b-but I really need to go to, uh, you know, having idol meeting! Talktoyoulaterciao!!”
Thus, flabbergasted as hell, she did the only thing that she could think of.
Run like hell.
…
That evening, Juna didn’t do anything much except immediately head into the bed to curl and bury her face inside of her favorite pillow. Oh, Aidios, how should she even tell Alisa about this!? She would be soooo mad at her! Or worst case scenario, her identity as a magical girl would be made as public knowledge around the school, or even all over the internet!
A good person
Though she couldn’t say that she slept well considering the what-if scenarios that kept replaying inside of her head, the next morning still arrived and here Juna was, arriving unusually early for the class. So far, she was just thankful that the worst case scenario didn’t happen: she had not seen any news about magical girls in either the morning newspaper or the social media. Didn’t know how why, but it was a delightful news regardless.
Which mean she could just go make a straight beeline towards a certain spot of the school.
Thankfully, Kurt had always been famous for his diligence around the academy (hence the crazy numbers of scholarships that he was awarded with) and his contribution towards the school’s kendo club was one of them and thus made it easy for Juna to find him.
He was actually there, unsurprisingly. Sitting in the middle of the room, seiza-style.
You know, she knew that the story about Kurt Vander being a model student had always been there, but she always thought that it was exaggerated to a fault… But after today, seeing with her own eyes, that he indeed had arrived in the school’s dojo at half past six in the morning, when the homeroom was still due in one and half hour, to just meditate in the said room with no one else in sight, she was now officially a believer of the said story.
And to be frank, the timing couldn’t be any more perfect for Juna. Nobody else was around.
Almost immediately, Juna took off her shoes – a custom that even she knew she had to do in the dojo, and went straight to Kurt’s side.
“H-Hey…” she whispered out at him. “Can… I speak to you for a bit…?”
Kurt Vander didn’t respond.
Well, not immediately, at least. Because he was, for what it was worth, meditating (though Juna really didn’t know why people do that kind of thing herself). It was not until thirty seconds later that he opened his eyes to finally stare back at her.
And that morning was the first time their eyes officially met each other. Strong, cool azure eyes of his staring straight towards her radiant emerald ones. It was like a magical moment…
…That unfortunately didn’t last too long, as Kurt’s eyes gradually moved around to study her entire fidgeting expression.
“…Crawford,” Kurt finally replied with his voice. “Can I help you with something?”
Juna, surprisingly, couldn’t return his question instantly considering how dumbfounded she was with what happened yesterday. So once again, the pink haired opted to go with her gut instinct and instead of saying anything, she…
…Performed a dogeza.
“A-About yesterday! C-can you please not say a word to anyone, please? Please please please pretty please!? I’ll do anything!”
…
…Alright Juna Crawford, even for someone with low standard like her, that was pretty dumb. Bad choice of words, and even worse choice of action. But who could blame her for that? She was at her wits end because who in the world would not take advantage of knowing the whole fiasco of magical-
“…I understand.”
-girls and demons- Wait what? Juna instinctively raised her head to stare back at Kurt Vander again, blinking her eyes in utter confusion.
“…Eh?”
“I mean what I said,” Kurt continued his words. “In the first place, I don’t see why I should even speak of it publicly. That was supposed to be your secret identity, wasn’t it?”
…Alright, she definitely didn’t think that he would reply like that.
“Umm…” Juna rolled her eyes. “…I mean, it’s a long story but…”
“…In that case, please do not explain any further,” he immediately cut her off. “If it’s a secret that I’m not supposed to know, then keep it unknown from me, Crawford.”
…
Now that she got the front row seat to take a closer look at Kurt Vander, Juna could understand already why this dude was so popular with girls –and probably even the guys- in the school; the way he was behaving, the tone that he was using to speak, everything just exuded the aura of an ikemen on its purest form. Cool, dazzling, and mesmerizing… To the point that Juna could only stare at him in admiration and amazement.
…Wow.
That was easy…?
Until everything finally dawned and Juna’s state of mind returned normally due to the positive answer of Kurt’s. In which she immediately beamed and, almost improperly so, went to Kurt’s side and grabbed his shoulders.
“REALLY-!?” her voice suddenly hit out the top of her lung, her eyes shining bright. “You really mean that!? For real?”
Now it was Kurt’s turn to (almost) stumble back and blink in utter confusion at her 180s.
“That’s… what I would like to try to do, I suppose…”
“Yes, yes, yes!” Juna, seemingly unaware of Kurt’s confusion, pulled her arms again to pat her own chests with one hand while the other arm was punching the air happily like she just won a lottery or what not. “Oh, thank god, I didn’t know that you’re such an agreeable person! Now I wouldn’t trouble senior Alisa-!”
“…I know that it’s just a spur of the moment but you do realize that’s not really the best choice of words to say in front of me, don’t you?”
Realizing the advice from him, Juna immediately made a ‘Whoops’ and clamped her own mouth with her hand again to prevent any further bad words from slipping out.
Finally able to let out a sigh of total relief, Juna felt her shoulders getting very light. She was even about to leave the dojo when she finally realized that she hadn’t filled her end of the bargain, which made her stop in her track.
“Oh, um, Vander…” Juna asked again as she tried to regain her composure back. “Tell me, is there anything I can do for you? I’ll do anything in exchange for this…”
Kurt calmly fixed the hem of his hakama that were made slightly messy after Juna’s sudden outburst earlier as he studied Juna’s determined figure again.
…Anything?
Juna, unfortunately, didn’t seem to understand how much that kind of deal was worth.
Kurt wouldn’t sugarcoat it – This Juna Crawford girl was definitely attractive, despite how barely they talked to each other. Hell, Kurt could even confidently say that she was prettier than ninety percent of other female students that he could name. Now she just said that she would do anything? Boy, were he be someone else, or even just be someone with a slightly more worldly interest, Juna would be in the world of nightmare and horror. The amount of weird, and god forbid, perverted request that they would ask from her would be plain unthinkable and borderline disturbing.
The blue haired youth just let out a sigh at that crazy thought. “Next time, try not to offer something like that, Crawford. It could be the death of you in the worst case scenario.”
“…You don’t know how important this is to me, Vander,” Juna replied almost immediately. “Even my everything wouldn’t even enough to cover it all.”
Kurt wanted to say something to that, but in the end decided to not to. Indeed, she was right. He only knew her identity, but he didn’t know the weight of responsibility of being a magical girl to fend off the, apparently, demons? Really, he wasn’t exactly a believer of such thing but he was in no way an ignorant fool – the amount of inhumane destructions that kept getting shown in daily news was the living proof of that something incomprehensible to average Joes like him did exist nowadays.
To be brutally honest, that was also the reason why he entered the crime scene again yesterday. He wanted to –
“…I see.”
–No, it was not something that he should concern himself with now.
A silence befell upon them. Until Juna decided to break the ice again, clearly feeling uncomfortable by both the silence and his reaction.
“So, um, anything…?”
Kurt seemed to be lost in thoughts for a while. However, in reality, he was trying to string a good sentence that would not hurt both of them: Something that Kurt would be comfortable with as well as something that Juna would accept.
In the end though, he could only come up with this.
“…Let’s just forget it ever happened. You did nothing and I saw nothing. Now please leave the dojo so I can continue my meditation.”
“…”
Obviously, the answer wasn’t to Juna’s liking. Nobody wanted to owe anyone anything if they could afford it, but this wasn’t the conclusion that she wanted.
“…Leave now,” Kurt continued, forcing a low growl. “before I change my mind.”
…It was definitely a disappointing ending for the discussion, but knowing that Kurt wanted to cut the conversation at that point, Juna, though still feeling guilty for not giving him anything back in exchange, decided to comply and got back on her feet to leave the kendo club’s dojo.
She however, didn’t leave the room immediately. Not until she decide to bluntly voice her judgment on him.
“You know,” she turned her head only barely, but still enough to let him see her wide smile over her shoulder. “you’re actually a good person, Vander. Thanks, I will never forget this.”
It was unclear whether Kurt didn’t see her change of expression or whether he just refused to show any reaction to that, but his next word was still absurdly calm in tone. “…Close the door.”
“Alrighty, see you in class.”
With that, Juna Crawford picked up her shoes and left the dojo as she closed the door politely.
…
…Kurt sighed, and smiled to himself as her last words kept repeating inside of his mind: ‘you’re actually a good person.’
“What a weird girl.”
Unspoken Observations
Even though he basically told her off to let her keep her secret, Juna couldn’t help but end up observing him in the class for the reminder of the day. Well, her seating arrangement was pretty far from Kurt’s with hers positioned way back on the side of the entrance door while his was on the side of the window, so it was rather easy for her to steal a glance or two without him noticing.
She never noticed it before but Kurt was, for the lack of better way to explain it, flexible. He was popular indeed, but surprisingly, he almost never started a conversation and he only replied when someone was talking with him. His reply would almost always… satisfactory, from what Juna was seeing? His conversation partner would leave him alone with a smile or laughter whenever they finished their chit-chats. But when he got nobody else that wanted to talk with him, he would just sit there wordlessly, shifting his attention towards the scenery outside of the window. Did something in the sky caught his attention or something? Juna couldn’t tell.
The only other thing that she could tell that he was... definitely living up to his tale as being as handsome as a supermodel. Sure that compared to some other people, especially the other male students, that Kurt wasn’t as big-built as them – he was more on the slender end, but his face definitely made up for his title. His hair was just naturally straight and clean, his eyebrows were slanted in perfect angle, and those eyes. Those goddamn eyes. They were freaking hypnotizing and beautiful. To the point that if Juna herself got locked in a staring competition with him for longer than five minutes, she was damn sure that she would be charmed by the radiance and how pretty they were.
…Kinda unfair, Juna also would like to admit. He won the genetic lottery so hard that he straight up looked like a protagonist of a shoujo manga, down to his cool and brooding attitude.
But speaking of which though…
…Was he always such a loner?
Well, that was a charm point on its own, she suppose? It was not her place to comment on how he wanted to present himself.
Considering it was the recess period, rather than spending her time figuring out Kurt, Juna knew that she should just report to her seniors about the demons that she fought yesterday, so she just jet out of the room to get to the 3rd year floor to talk with Alisa and the others.
…
Unbeknownst to her, the moment she left the classroom, Kurt’s attention went straight to her leaving figure. He, too, was secretly trying to figure out things about her, in his own way.
A small talk over shopping list
“…Vander?”
“…Well met, Crawford.”
It was almost funny that they keep encountering each other in different place despite it being the same freaking day. She thought that they had talked enough for, Juna’d give and take, the whole semester, earlier in the dojo, but now even with the school out and the sun was sinking down out of sight, they encountered each other again in the random convenience store here.
“Sis, who’s this? You know him?”
Though Kurt had to admit that it had a pretty different feeling right now compared to the previous encounters, considering there were two other people tailing Juna as she pushed the shopping cart around.
“He’s so pretty…”
“Oh, I know! It’s your boyfriend, right?”
Two… overly curious gremlins, if Kurt might stamp them in advance. But considering they happen to possess the same hair color as Juna’s, it was probably safe to say that they were her younger siblings.
“…Ken, Nana…” Juna sighed in response of their claims. “Look, can you two grab me three bottles of milk from the other aisles? You can grab two toys while at it.”
“Really, yay!”
“Thanks, sis! Let’s go, Nana!”
The two then cheerily made their way out of their sights. Their big sister made sure that they weren’t in vicinity before addressing Kurt again.
“Sorry for that,” Juna apologized, chuckling awkwardly. “They just love to make scenarios inside of their heads.”
Hearing her response, Kurt couldn’t help but smile back secretly. “Don’t worry about it. We all did the same at their ages.”
“Probably, yeah.”
With the short talk ending with that reply, Kurt then turned his attention towards the certain shelf on the side, specifically the instant food one.
As Juna seemingly didn’t want to move from her position as she was waiting for her siblings, Kurt knew that he needed to keep the conversation going over there. Thus, he made sure that nobody was around to listen first before he finally question it out. “No magical girl business tonight?”
Juna almost jolted up in total bewilderment before her brain registered the hard fact again that Kurt indeed knew her secret identity. She looked around before she nudged down closer to him, to make sure that the conversation would be only between the two of them.
“I thought you said to forget it earlier-!”
“…My bad, then disregard that question…”
Well, Juna couldn’t blame him for being curious. It was not something that you could just forget in one day.
“…Sigh,” for no particular reason, Juna decided to just humor the question. “None, but it’s for the best anyway. The less we got those abominations around, the better.”
Oh, Kurt definitely agreed with that. He nodded instantly. “I suppose that’s correct. It’s tiring, if I were allowed to guess?”
“Tiring… Kinda, I guess?” Juna rolled her eyes, not disagreeing with Kurt’s claim. “But if any, it’s… scary sometimes.”
“…Scary?”
“Yeah, of course it is! Those are not something that you tend to see every day, y’know?”
To what came out as a sudden surprise to Juna, Kurt’s next word was not something she had expected.
“Did you not feel any kind of accomplishment after defeating them?”
Juna blinked her eyes. Once. Twice.
“…Accomplishment?”
…
As his own words dawned on him, Kurt let out a gasp as his face turned pale, probably from the underlying meaning that he accidentally slipped out even though Juna couldn’t make its meaning out.
Kurt warily turned his head towards Juna’s direction who returned it with a rather cute, inquisitive headtilt. As their eyes met again, the color of Kurt’s face was drained out almost completely for some reason. His lips parted away only to close tight again, repeatedly, trying to form a word that he wanted to say as a form to escape the conversation…
“We’re back!”
“Here are the milks, sis!”
…It was the reappearance of Ken and Nana that finally made Kurt able to swallow the lump of his throat. Seemingly embarrassed for whatever he had just said, he immediately grabbed a random bento box before he turned on his heel towards the other direction.
“…Please forget that. I spoke out of turn. I shall take my leave now.”
“…Huh-? Vander, wait-“
He didn’t listen. He just continued with his own business, totally refusing to address the previous conversation.
As she curiously watched Kurt walking the other way, Juna could finally come into a conclusion.
They were the same.
Though the secrets themselves were definitely different compared to hers, he was definitely shouldering some kind of stuff that he couldn’t tell to anyone else.
First names
“—Wait, there’s someone here- Huh, Vander?”
It was not until four days later that they encountered each other again outside of their classroom. Specifically, on the school’s rooftop. A place that should be locked for the students, but they both knew their way to bypass in one way or another.
“…Crawford?” Kurt answered as he digested the riceball that served as his lunch for the day. “What are you doing here?”
“I could say the same to you! Geez, I thought I was the only one who knew the way…”
“…Knew the what?”
“The way to the rooftop! You know, hopping through the unlocked window there-!”
Juna casually pointed to the side of the roof’s entrance and urged Kurt to see what she was indicating. Indeed, there were two pair of windows that were big enough for a person or two to slip out.
To the surprise of no one, Kurt let out a sigh. Furthermore, as if he was trying to very casually mocking her, Kurt just grabbed the keychain with a big ‘ROOFTOP’ label from his blazer’s pocket and tossed it straight towards Juna, who gracefully grabbed it like she was receiving a ball pass. The pink haired girl blinked as she studied the thing that she received before mouthing a big ‘Wha-‘, although before she could even say it out loud, Kurt interjected and answered it for her.
“The faculty gave a spare key to me,” Kurt answered with a matter-of-fact tone. “I just asked them for it.”
“How-?” Juna choked on her words. Oh, right. How did she forget what kind of a big deal this dude was? Right, he was the golden goose of their school year. His existence itself probably brought a lot of potential female students to the school. Of course the school faculty would have given him some special treatment. In the end, Juna could only let out an ironic scoff. “Right, I forgot. You’re that special, aren’t you?”
“That’s very rich,” Kurt replied back in a jiffy, casually opening the canned coffee that he got with him. “coming from a girl with a very special power to transform into-“
Alright, that snarky response immediately forced Juna to make a dissatisfied pout. “Alright, alright-! Stop that! Ugh, I was just joking, you know. That was a cheap shot, Vander.”
“…I was joking too, for your information,” Kurt sighed in response. “In any case, what do you need? I believe you aren’t supposed to be here.”
“I, uh… was thinking of having lunch in here, actually…” Juna trailed off, indicating the lunchbox that she got in her hands. “But I’ll just go somewhere else if-“
“No, it’s alright,” Kurt once again interjected before she could let out her excuse. “Feel free to sit anywhere. I am about to be done with mine anyway.”
…
…Well, if he was offering, she shouldn’t reject it…?
“Then please excuse me~ Time to dig in~”
As she sat right just beside him, Kurt couldn’t help but steal a glance at her lunchbox that she promptly opened soon after.
Well, to say that it was mouthwatering would be a total understatement. Despite the shape and the size of the box, the food was arranged really beautifully and the smell was just like something straight out of a Michelin star restaurant. It was like a witchcraft in its purest form on how did Juna even manage to create such a thing, moreover fitting them nicely into the lunchbox.
If he were to say that he didn’t want a piece of two of that, Kurt would be blatantly lying, honestly. Hell, if he wasn’t actively trying to keep it down, he’d be damn sure that his stomach would growl loudly. He was actually thankful that that Crawford didn’t seem to notice that he had been staring for a while and she was delightfully savoring every last bite instead.
So in attempt to not to let her food entice him any further, he opted to just stare at the other direction. Perhaps emptying his mind once again to reach the calm state of mind while at it-
“That’s all you’re having for lunch?”
-At least until he heard the girly voice from his side that brought his attention back to her. As he turned his eyes back at Juna’s direction, he noticed that she was evaluating the wrappings of riceball on his side and the can that he got in his hand. He blinked curiously before he swiftly answered.
“Yeah, they’re sufficient enough-“
“No, they’re not!”
Kurt was almost taken aback by the sudden outburst from Juna. Yet before he could even act any further, the pink haired teen continued her words to the point that he got no space to interrupt her.
“Geez, really now?” Putting her bento box aside, Juna then put her hands on her hips, clearly discontent with what she was looking at. “We’re like at, what, our growing age? And if those are all you’re consuming for lunch, Vander, you’re going to have a hard time. Don’t you also have kendo club after school as well? They won’t suffice. At all!”
…
Wow.
What a busybody.
Or at least that was what Kurt would say out loud if he were a ruder man. Granted, people call him straight-laced, but he was in no way that obscene of an individual to say it blatantly on her face.
Meanwhile, Juna still unaware of what Kurt was thinking, let out a groan and decided that this was the fastest thing to rectify the situation. She grabbed her half-empty bento box back, grabbed a mouthful of side dish from it with her chopstick and then-
“Open your mouth.”
“…Pardon me?”
“I said,” Juna insisted, her dish-filled chopstick basically right in front of Kurt’s face already. “Open your mouth, I’m feeding you.”
Fortunately, Juna’s mind was full-on set on making sure that Kurt was taking care of himself, else Kurt would be REALLY uncomfortable with her noticing his current expression: twisted with the weirdest mixture of discomfort, embarrassment, and confusion in the most inconceivable way, his cheeks burning madly.
Kurt tried to pull his face back from it, but Juna just pushed her chopstick further onto it.
He then attempted to turn his face aside, but Juna apparently guessed it already as she easily moved the chopstick’s position so it was still in front of his mouth.
He even tried to make a run for it, but before he could even move the muscles on his legs… Again, Juna had guessed it and her other arm immediately grabbed onto his shoulder to keep him from walking away.
“…Crawford, drop it.”
“Nuh-uh, I insist. Eat it. It’s for your own good.”
…
There was truly no way out, huh?
…In the chess’ term, he was basically check-mated over here. In the end, Kurt could only swallow the lump of embarrassment in his throat and comply with her request as he chomped on the food that she offered, prompting Juna to also form a big, victorious grin.
“…It’s delicious.” Kurt nervously claimed out despite everything.
“Of course it is,” Juna proudly puffed her chest. “I always give it my all when cooking my own food. Here, eat the rest by yourself.”
While he would definitely admit that Juna’s apparently homemade dish was top tier, there was zero shred of doubt that Kurt was not comfortable with her request. “I can’t possibly do that.”
“Oh you totally can,” she ordered again, in a matter-of-fact tone. “Unless you want me to feed you again, then I’m happy to do that again.”
Kurt could feel the embarrassment was begging to rise up to his face again, though after he let out a defeated sigh soon after, his face’s color remain normal. “…But what about you?”
“Eeeh, it’s fine. I was planning to grab a crepe around the station with Musse after school. Go on, just dig in.”
“…In that case, then you have my deepest gratitude.”
Certainly, he was still feeling unsuitable for this, but with the way Juna was speaking and acting, there was no other choice for him but to just accept her offer and enjoy what was now apparently his lunch. Boy, was it more delicious than anything that he ever tasted in his seventeen years of living…
As Kurt was slowly consuming the food, Juna was just bobbing her head left and right idly, humming some random tune that she could think of on the top of her head. That was prior to her finally deciding to ask some question again, though.
“So, uh, Vander…?”
“…Kurt, if you would,” he answered. “I’m not really comfortable with people addressing me by my family name, if I may add.”
…Was it just a whisper in the wind, or did Juna just see his mood slightly worsened by him mentioning his own family?
…No, it was not her place to intrude into his personal space. She shouldn’t pursue that topic further right now. Right now, this seemed to be the perfect reply for her to say to return the mood to neutral spot. “Only if you call me Juna in return.”
“Very well. Juna, then. What is it?”
“Your lunch,” Juna asked as she fixed strands of hair in her front bang. “You really just eat those things for lunch? Wait, if I recall correctly, you also got bento box back there in the convenience store when we stumbled upon each other?”
“Yes and yes,” he returned with an answer nonchalantly. “I’ve been doing that ever since high school.”
“…Ever since high school- Wait!? …FOR TWO YEARS!?”
“…I don’t believe there’s any need to shout but yes, you heard me right.”
The pink haired girl could only stare at the blue haired boy in pure disbelief.
“Ugh, are you for real-!? I can’t believe you-! You’re malnourishing, Kurt! You couldn’t ask your mother to pack you a lunch or something? ”
Finally finishing with the food, Kurt put the empty box aside, crossing his arms. “…If it’s any help, I live alone and away from my family.”
…Whoops.
…She had done it again.
She should’ve figured that out when his mood soured when he talked about his family earlier. Juna, you dumb oaf!
“I’m… sorry…” she turned her face away apologetically. “I didn’t know…”
“Think nothing of it, I don’t actively go and tell that to anyone as well,” Thankfully, Kurt didn’t seem to take any of it to heart. “Thanks for the food, Juna.”
“Oh, um… You’re welcome…”
As she received the empty lunchbox that she had lent him, her mind still couldn’t help but get bothered by it. In a hindsight, wasn’t it so goddamn impressive living alone while having your name on top of the school board as one of the smartest person in the generation? Not to mention also getting scholarship for extracurricular activities while at it? Now imagine what someone like Kurt could achieve if he actually got his family around in his vicinity to help him—
—Wait!
This was it!
“…Say, Kurt, you’re always here for lunchtime, right?”
“Hmm…? Yeah, I am,” he answered, looking a little confused from the sudden question. “Well, unless there are other urgent stuff like club meeting or such, but generally, I’d go here around this time. Why?”
Once again, Juna made a triumphant grin to herself. Damn, why did she never thought of this way, way earlier? Even her genius frightened herself sometimes.
“You see, I like this spot so can I join you here for lunch starting tomorrow? I’ll cook you your share of lunch, how about it?”
“…I have to refuse.”
…
…Alright, this was a certified ‘the risk she took was calculated, but damn was she bad at math’ moment. Now instead of looking like a genius (as self-proclaimed by Juna Crawford herself, who actually ranked around the bottom 50 last year), she legit looked like she was making a fool of herself.
“W-why!? Isn’t that a good offer?”
Despite looking somewhat amused by her reaction, Kurt just… facepalmed. “It is a good offer, indeed, but that is not what you would call a mutualistic symbiosis, Juna. I’d be the only one who got the good end of the stick with that offer. I am definitely not troubling you with that.”
Oh… so that was it was? Well, if he put it like that, he was indeed correct. But…
“That’s no trouble at all!” Juna, once again, insisted as she pouted back. “Look, in my family, I have always been the one to take care the household chores, so cooking for an extra person wouldn’t be that much especially with Ken often asking for extras. So, can you at least let me make lunch for you?”
“…Even so…”
“…Please, Kurt,” Juna said again, her voice now even lower in frequency. “You… actually keep this important secret of me being the Magical Courage with you. I owe you. A lot. Please let me do this…”
“…”
Kurt rolled his face to his side, giving it a deep consideration. Indeed, this way, it would be something that you would call as ‘mutualistic symbiosis’ now, but still…
He gave one final glance at Juna’s fidgeting figure and that sealed the deal.
She was being so genuine, and it pained him to burden her with another daily task especially when she already had the responsibility of protecting the town from demon attacks, but…
“…If you insist, I suppose I am in no place to stop you.”
Again, just like how it had been back in the dojo days ago, Juna’s face beamed up like she was a little kid who had just been given a shiny new toy.
(She was also absurdly cute like that, but Kurt couldn’t say it out loud.)
“Really!? Yay! Don’t worry, I’ll cook you the best lunches that you could only ever dreamt of, Kurt!”
As she, just like that time, made fist pumps, Kurt this time couldn’t help but let out a small laugh on his own. “I’ll be looking forward to them.”
That being said, however, he didn’t expect her incoming action: Juna scooted closer to him, extending her hand at him and specifically, offering her pinky finger.
“Pinky swear?”
…
Kurt just sighed. “What are we, elementary schoolers?”
Juna, on the other hand, still kept her grin intact. “Oh, Mr. Genius, believe me, I wanted to write a contract of it, complete with a big, purple stamp of approval to seal the deal but unfortunately, we’re not blessed with such equipment at this time and place!” Juna then poked him with the said pinky finger around his chest, playfully jabbing on it with it. “Pinky promise?”
That did it for Kurt, honestly. He didn’t expect her to be able to create his kind of joke: a dry, somewhat-tasteless humor. He let out a conceding sigh as he got his own pinky out himself, swiftly intertwining it with hers.
“Pinky promise.”
She was special, he was not
With the clock hit seven in the evening and nobody else in the dojo, Kurt decided that it was as good as time to conclude his evening training. Putting the two shinais back into their respective spots, he then grabbed his towel to go wash his face before heading to his small apartment for the day.
As he was staring against his own reflection on the wall of the washing spot however, he was painfully reminded again.
The bandage on his face that he then idly rubbed with his finger.
If he was living in the Meiji period or somewhere around that era, he would’ve proudly call that as a battle scar… Something that he could even boast as he walked around the next day.
But this bandaged scar was just… a mark of shame. An eternal reminder that he was, in fact, useless. Period.
“FUCK!”
In an uncontrollable anger, he curled a fist and punched the basin part of the sink in front of him.
Kurt Vander didn’t curse nor swear – It was his nature. Not in public, not in secret. Unless something really bothered him deep down to his roots. Something like… what had happened yesterday.
He gritted his teeth together in frustration as yesterday’s image came back to haunt him again.
“Ju…na…?”
As he weakly opened his eyes, he found himself waking up with aches and pain all over his body.
But what stung the most was not the injuries that he suffered, but it was… this…
“Oh thank god… Thank god… You’re alive…”
As he felt a single tear from Juna’s eyes dropped to his cheek, he finally got a look at everything.
He was laying on her lap, probably had been for a while, with her watching him over while he was presumably knocked out from the damage.
Truthfully, he couldn’t really make out of what had actually knocked him out.
“Don’t do that… Please don’t do that again…”
One drop of tear. Two drops of tear. Three drops of tear. Right onto his face.
“I thought… I thought I lost you…”
This was the only thing that he was pretty sure he would always remember:
Juna sobbing uncontrollably just right above him.
“I-if you had died there, Kurt… I… didn’t know what I…”
…Ah, he remembered now.
He was trying to protect her from a surprise attack of a demon.
Because he couldn’t think of anything else, he remember that he stood in the way between them…
…But that was also the last thing that he remembered.
He was probably sent flying, considering the sheer difference of strength between a demon and himself, a human? Probably hitting a tree or two due to the impact. Yep, sounds like a plausibility.
Unfortunately, Juna’s head burying itself on top of his head robbed him of ability to think further.
Her last sentence, however…
It definitely engraved itself deep inside of his heart.
“I can’t… We can’t…”
“Please… Do not get involved with me anymore… Please…”
It pained him so much. Not physically, but mentally.
No, not because of the stiff goodbye. It hurt him, but if it was only that, he could definitely take it like a man.
But it was simply because of the reason of the said goodbye: he was fucking useless.
When he tried to protect her yesterday, it was because he thought that way, had he been successfully protected her from the unnecessary attacks, he wouldn’t get to see her distressed face anymore. But boy, did it worked out perfectly in his favor.
He… only wanted to see Juna’s smile. Keep her smiling brightly, like she had always been. The cute, contagious smile which radiance would even put morning sunlight into shame.
But he not only ruined that, he also forced her to shed her tears and cry for him. Like a weak girl that she confessed that she had always said she didn’t want to be. Something that he promised her that would never happen while he was around her.
One job. One fucking job. And he failed it, hard.
Even today, it was obvious that she had deliberately evaded him. The lunch that she had promised him that she would give to him every day was put into his locker instead and when he had waited on the rooftop for the whole break session, she didn’t come there unlike every other day. Hell, even in the classroom while the class was in session, anytime he had tried to look at her, she obviously gave extra effort to NOT to look at his direction in reply.
Did he understand why she would do that? Yes, yes he did. One hundred percent.
Would he accept it? No, he would not. Not in million years.
“…Why?” again, in pure rage, Kurt smashed his fist again the surface of the sink. “Why am I so powerless…?”
How…
How could he even call himself a man when he couldn’t even protect a friend’s smile? No, calling her as a friend would not do her justice – she was more than a friend to him. She was a special figure in his life that he come to treasure more than anything, even more than his own family.
Which made it more painful than anything else that he ever felt in his life.
He was never a big prayer person but right now, he was a helpless sheep without any sort of salvation. This was the only thing that he could do.
“Please Aidios, or any gods who are listening to this up there…”
He looked at his own palms in disappointment, before clenching them in despair and anger.
Finally unable to hold it inside, for the first time since forever, Kurt Vander teared up upon his pathetic self.
“Give me power… to protect her...”
How was it so unfair?
Why was she the only one with special power to protect him and he couldn't do the same in return?
He didn't need all those scholarships nor good grades. Especially not when he was not in possession of something that he really needed instead. He wanted power or sort - something that an average Joe like him would never had. Something that he could rely on to not to be as hopeless as he currently was.
He just wanted to be there for Juna Crawford – a girl that he loved more than anything.
Or was that too much to ask?
…
‘Be careful what you wish for’, unfortunately, didn’t cross the mind of the desperate Kurt at the moment.
Because who listened to him was not a god. No, far from it, even. It was a masked figure who was sitting on a malevolent throne in the middle of… a place that no human had ever seen.
“Give me power… to protect her...”
As he watched Kurt’s forlorn wish from the crystal ball beside his seat, another phantom, ghastly figure, spoke to him in eerie manner. “Ghehehehe… My prince… This human… got potential…”
The white haired man only made a sinister smirk behind his mask. Unfortunately, the man who had been listening to Kurt’s rambling was widely known in the Demon World as its leader, Demon Prince Rean Osborne.
“Then let’s help a young man fulfill his dream, shall we?”