Chapter Text
Maybe you could've had at least a semi-normal first day of school if it weren't for Shun Kaidou. If you had taken a different route to school, maybe you wouldn't have made his unfortunate acquaintance. Or, if your parents hadn't made you move to Hidari Wakibara at all, you would have never even heard the words “Dark Reunion” or “Jet Black Wings.”
Of course, that’s not how today happened, even if you wished that's how it was. What was that theory again? That the universe has a predetermined path, and free will isn't real? Well, it sure feels like that when life is determined to screw you over at any given moment.
You aren't exactly sure why your parents decided to move to this town of all places, though you're pretty sure they mentioned something about a good job opportunity here. They already had pretty decent jobs that they were happy with though, so you're a bit confused about the sudden career change.
Actually, it's probably because your old school blew up.
That makes a lot more sense.
But that doesn't matter, not right now, because it's your first day of school and you've already made the worst impression of your life. It’s worse than when you cried in front of everyone in kindergarten, or when you pissed yourself in the second grade. This day you will never live down in your entire life, because now everyone thinks you're a roleplayer.
Not the kind of roleplay you do anonymously over Amino, or over a table top game of DnD with your friends, but the constant kind, the delusional kind. Everyone thinks that you're a goddamn chuunibyou, and you're thinking that maybe you should just jump off the school roof.
Okay, you might be a little overdramatic, but who hasn't felt like their world is going to end at some point in their life? You feel it all the time, you're practically a robot that produces cringe at incredible speeds. At your last school you were the weird kid in your class because everyone there knew you from middle school, a time that you pray will one day be erased from your memory because it was just awful.
You lost a lot of friends during the explosion, not that they died, or that you had that many to begin with, but everyone just kind of assumed you were the one who blew up the school. You didn’t.
This was supposed to be a fresh start, a way to throw away the past and finally be the popular kid like you've always wanted to be, or at least a normal kid and not a freak. You had been so ready too! You had taken a long shower, made sure your hair was perfect, you even washed your uniform three times to make sure it smelled like fresh linen.
Everything had been carefully calculated, from the time you would leave home and the route you would take to the time you were supposed to arrive at school. The only thing you hadn't thought of was someone else's intervention, and that’s what ruined it for you once again.
You hadn't planned for any long delay, considering you didn't live that far from the school, but you still left pretty early, so you would at least have some time to wander the halls before class starts. And so, with nervous anticipation in your guts and a backpack full of school supplies, you left the house and began your journey to PK Academy.
Things were going really well for you, suspiciously well at this point. You wondered if you forgot something before you left home, but you felt pretty clean and your backpack felt heavy enough. Maybe your awful first day streak was finally over, maybe things wouldn't go to hell when you just want to make friends. You were so on time with your plan you even considered taking a detour, you didn't though, because you were convinced that everything would keep going well if you kept following your schedule.
At some point during your walk, you even felt confident, determined that absolutely nothing would prevent you from having a good school year.
Then you watched a car barrel down the street, seconds away from hitting some poor kid.
Now, you aren't a hero, it would be laughable to even think of yourself as one with how much of a coward you are, but in that moment you weren't thinking much. All you saw was his PK Academy uniform, and a chance to make a new friend, so you ran into the street after him.
What the fuck were you thinking? You can't stop a damn car, and yet you still jumped in front of this boy with your arms out, prepared to take two tons of metal straight to the stomach. That wouldn't have even done much to save him, as he was still very much in the fatal collision path.
But somehow, in an impossible scenario that seemed almost out of a movie, the car swerved to the side at the last moment and crashed straight into a wall. You couldn't tell if your heart had stopped entirely or was beating so fast you couldn't comprehend it. For a second, you thought about checking to see if you were even still alive, but you knew better than that. Despite having done the stupidest thing you've ever done in your entire life, you were okay. Your bones were intact, your skin wasn't damaged, there wasn't a scratch on you.
You quickly turned around to look at the boy you tried to defend, having almost forgotten about his presence despite him being the one you ran out for in the first place. His wide red eyes almost took your breath away as they met yours, though the air might've already left you when you jumped in front of that car. Forcing your lungs to fill with oxygen once more, you spoke. “Are you alright?”
He just stared at you for a moment, probably still in shock from his near death experience, that’s alright though, if you hadn't been running on adrenaline right now you probably would have collapsed already. But when he finally talked, he ran a hand through his light blue hair and smiled obnoxiously, like he didn't scream at a pitch only cats can hear just a second ago. “Perfectly fine, mortal. Nothing can hurt the Jet Black Wings after all.”
What.
“That car was obviously sent by an agent of the Dark Reunion. Such a feeble attempt to take me out almost makes me want to laugh.” Even though you had never looked more confused in your entire life, the boy just kept talking as if you'd understand, even though these clearly important things to him mean absolutely nothing to you.
The “Jet Black Wings,” as you’re pretty sure he called himself earlier, set his hand on your shoulder. His hair fell in front of one of his eyes, as if even gravity was attempting to make him seem mysterious. “I appreciate you helping me though, jumping in front of a car like that was very heroic of you.”
“Uhh… You— You're welcome, I guess…?” What were you even supposed to say to this? What was he saying?? It was going through one ear and out the other at this point. Also, it's not you that stopped the car from hitting him, the driver probably swerved just in time or something like that.
“Please, don't be so modest.” The boy whose name you still didn't know, and didn't really want to know now, took his hand away from you and crossed his arms, and your eyes wandered down to the strange red bandages wrapped around his hands. “I sense potential in you, like my master once sensed in me. Obviously it's not as powerful as my own, but with practice, you might be able to be my sidekick one day.”
You hoped you'd never talk to this guy after today. Your head was starting to hurt.
Before you could say anything again, he seemed to notice someone behind you, and he waved at them. “Oh, hey there Saiki! You'll never believe what just happened.” He walked over to his friend and began to dramatically recount the events of a few moments ago, though you feel like the crashed car right next to you three was proof enough of the incident. Saiki, as you remembered the weird boy said, looks entirely neutral to the fact that his friend almost died. And honestly, he's kind of real for that.
Looking at the property damage next to you, and the weirdos in front of you, you realized that maybe you should start taking that detour to school sooner rather than later. As you stepped backwards to leave, your shoe made a noise against the pavement, alerting the blue-haired boy of your attempt to leave. “Where are you going? School is that way.”
You didn't think you had the heart to tell this boy that you would rather have gotten hit by that car than walk with him to school, especially as he'd done nothing but compliment(?) you this whole time. Using your remaining brain power, you came up with the perfect excuse. “Sorry, I just remembered I forgot some of my books at home. You go on without me.”
This excuse seemed to work, as he nodded his head and smiled at you. “Alright then, be safe out there! The Jet Black Wings can't always be around to protect you from Dark Reunion spies.” You didn't mention the fact that you were the one that just tried to protect him, because you wanted this conversation to end. Finally, the boy turned around and realized that his friend Saiki had already started walking ahead of him, and he ran to catch up. Thank god.
After you passed that true test of patience, you began to walk back in the direction of your house. You weren't actually going to go home, you just wanted to make it seem like you were to the two boys. They would never know otherwise, and you still had some time before school actually started. Also your entire body was shaking from almost getting hit by a car, and you wouldn't go to class on the verge of a breakdown.
While you walked home, you passed a gorilla wearing a PK Academy uniform. Weird.
***
Admittedly, you did make it to class later than you wanted to, but you were still on time. It's just as you said, nothing was going to ruin your first day of school, even a near death experience and a weird boy you probably wouldn't see anytime soon. You were still a bit nervous though, even as you talked to your new teacher outside the classroom you could feel your guts twist in fear.
There's no backing out of this though, so you just need to breathe. In and out, slowly, as your teacher stepped inside the classroom. You hid a bit behind the door as she announced your arrival, like being anonymous for a few seconds longer would quell your nerves. “Everyone, please be seated. I'm going to introduce our new transfer student.”
Well, you couldn't run now. That would probably make an even worse impression than anything you could do in there, unless you spend the rest of the school year putting on the façade of a rule breaker, but breaking the rules is just so much work. “I can do this,” you muttered under your breath to no one but yourself. “It'll be okay.”
You stepped into the classroom, trying to seem nonchalant even though your knees were weak and your palms were sweaty. Right now you were just glad you hadn't thrown up yet. The first thing your eyes locked onto when you entered the room was the FUCKING GORILLA FROM EARLIER???
Now that you were looking at it better, you realized that it was not a gorilla, but a very unfortunate student. At least there was proof you wouldn't be the ugliest in class. Maybe you shouldn't think about your fellow students like this, but at least there's no one that can hear you.
Having forced yourself to look away from such a train wreck of a face, you gave your new classmates a small smile and grabbed the piece of chalk your teacher was extending towards you to write your name on the board. “It's nice to meet you all, my name is—”
“You!!” Huh.
Since you had turned yourself away from the class to write, you were startled by the sudden yell, and even more startled when you heard their hands slam on the desk in front of them. Your head whipped around to see who the hell was yelling at you when you just got here and…
Oh god fucking dammit.
Blue hair, red eyes, weird ass bandages, it was the boy you had tried to save earlier. There was no doubt about it, even his pink-haired friend (whose name you forgot, but you never thought you would have to memorize it) was sitting directly in front of him. Also no one else would wear their uniform like that, wide open with an undershirt that looks like he threw it in a paper shredder. Seriously, what is his deal?
He pointed at you accusingly, as if you've ever done anything wrong in front of him. “You're the one who saved me from the Dark Reunion earlier!” That was a car, actually. Not whatever this “Dark Reunion” is, and you still didn't save him. But this was bringing a lot more attention to you than you would've liked.
“Oh. Um, hi again...” You waved politely at him, because you were still confused and didn't want to be rude to him. Not out loud, at least.
Once again, you turned around to write your name on the board. But the boy wasn't done speaking apparently, because he continued to talk even as you dragged your chalk around the blackboard carefully. “This can't just be a coincidence. You came here for a reason, didn't you?”
Before you could explain to him that the “reason” of your sudden transfer is that there is a giant mass of rubble where your school used to be, he just kept talking like he didn't know how to stop. “It must've been to meet me, but are you an enemy… Or a friend?” He stared at you, and you realized that you get to speak now.
None of the responses you thought of were ones you could say, because you still aren't just gonna hurt someone's feelings, even if they're weird. This guy might've had something up with his brain that you didn't know about, after all. “I don't… I don't think I'm an enemy.”
The boy finally put his bandaged hand down, trusting your word. You thought maybe someone would explain this to you later, and they'd thank you for being patient and give you a medal of honor or something. “Right, I assumed so, but the business isn't a very friendly one, y'know? You can never be too careful.”
All you did to respond to that was a weak nod, desperately trying to ignore the weird stares you were getting. You told yourself that they were just looking at you like that because they didn't expect you to catch on so quickly to whatever this guy's mental state is. That's it. Totally.
Thankfully, for your own mental state, the teacher interrupted before he could say anything else. “Kaidou, that's enough. Please let the new student finish introducing themself before you ask any more questions.” At her words, he quickly sat back down, though he still looked at you intently.
You managed to finish your introduction, even with your heart racing and a subtle shake in your voice. Every time you made eye contact with a classmate, you wondered if jumping out the window would successfully kill you or not. And then when the questioning came, you braced yourself for anything. Fortunately for you, there was only one simple question, and unfortunately for you, the answer was stupid as hell.
“Why did you transfer schools?” Some random side character asked, and you were able to respond pretty easily.
“Oh, my last school blew up.” A brief moment of silence made you realize that this was not a regular answer. They definitely all thought that you're making this shit up, even though it was all over the news back in your hometown.
Kaidou looked like he believed you, but it's probably not for the right reasons. He might blame it on Dark Reunion like he did with the car from earlier.
No one else asked any more questions, and you doubt they'll ever talk to you again with the looks they give you when you're walking to your seat. The only empty one is unfortunately right behind the roleplayer who ended up making everyone think you shared his mindset.
You hope this school blows up too.