Chapter Text
This is Megumi Fushiguro, if you're reading this right now my advice is to close this book right now and pretend it doesn't exist. Sorry, my husband just scolded me for that idea, just pretend you didn't read this part.
My name is Megumi Fushiguro and I am a half-blood and I am writing this book so that if you, like me, were lost and very confused when two people appeared flying on a pegasus, your friend took off his pants and appeared with goat legs… He just scolded me again for getting ahead of myself, I am not a good writer, it was his idea, by the way.
Let's start again.
This is Megumi Fushiguro and I am a half-blood, or you can call it a demigod too. Yes, we still exist, and we are scattered out there, lost and alone. Many are scared and afraid, but I hope these words reach you and that if you are one of us, worry, there is someone watching you, us or them. It is a dangerous life, and I recommend that if you recognize yourself in these pages, immediately look for your satyr on duty, because it is a matter of time before they find you, don't say I didn't warn you.
My story begins at a school dance, more specifically during the preparation for the school dance. In my defense, I am terrible at decorations, so when my older sister Tsumiki scolded me for the 10th time for putting the balloons in the wrong place, I simply gave up and ran downstairs. Tall heights and I don't get along very well, but that's a story for later.
My sister looks at me with those expressive eyes, gentle and intimidating at the same time, and I can't suppress the knot in my stomach for disappointing her again, this was the ball she had waited for for a long time.
It's just been me and Tsumiki for as long as I can remember. Us and our strange benefactor. From what our benefactor tells us, our parents died in a car accident when I was 7 and Tsumiki was 9, with no close relatives or siblings with another in the will and our guardianship fell to him. Some people receive clothes, shoes or special things from special moments, our benefactor received two starving children with no memory of their own parents, I can't blame him for not wanting us around. Since then, my sister and I have been moving from school to school, never staying in the same place for more than a year, traveling all over Japan. We currently find ourselves at Harrow International School Appi, a boarding school for wealthy students based on the British model, the best our wealthy benefactor can afford, of course. Extracurricular activities, golf, mountain biking, the best of the elite, located among the mountains of Appi Kogen, Iwate. I don't need to explain how out of place Tsumiki and I feel.
Children of politicians, businessmen and everything else you can imagine looked at us as if we were the school's newest pet. Tsumiki, of course, had charmed everyone after a week with her charismatic manner, her sweet speech, and her immeasurable kindness, I on the other hand had made only one friend who was the target of bullying as much as I was. Incredible. Inumaki Toge, the mute student with leg problems and a scholarship student who entered with us at the beginning of the year, of course he had become my friend. As time went by, and after finding out that we were paying students, many of them tried to befriend me, which only made me even more sick of this place, I hate boot lickers. So, besides my sister, Inumaki is the only one who hangs out with me, maybe because he can't talk and that made me feel more comfortable around him, or maybe because he always seems to know when I'm in danger. Like the moment when Tsumiki put her hands on her waist and he approached her, calling her attention to ask for her signature for something and I quickly left without her noticing my presence.
Walking through the hallways, I came face to face with Tadashi Yan and his gang of followers. He blew the bangs of his dark, silky hair out of his eyes as he gestured with his delicate wrist, highlighting the gold watch and silver ring with his family symbol on his right hand. The blue school uniform seemed to stand out much more on him than it could ever do on me. His mindless followers nodded their heads in agreement to whatever nonsense came out of his mouth. My stomach churned and I felt like throwing up. I rolled my eyes and turned away, preferring to return to Tsumiki's wrath than face the damn idiot.
“Hey! Is that you Fushiguro?” Tadashi’s sickeningly melodious voice rings out behind me and I clench my fists.
I continue walking back to the gymnasium when I feel a hand on my arm, twisting me around forcefully, and I come face to face with his dark eyes shining with amusement. His expensive perfume burns my nose, and I suppress the urge to yank my arm away in retaliation. I can see through my peripheral vision his rich friends surrounding me in a circle. Not that it would be much help, I could easily take them down, but the principal was hanging by a thread with me.
Yaga had been very kind to me and Tsumiki, more than I expected he could be in a school like that, but I had burned his patience candle throughout the year. Fights, bad grades, expulsions from class. ADHD and Dyslexia are no excuse for bad behavior, Fushiguro he had said, but always with a look that he understood me. I didn't want to be bad behaved; the last thing I wanted to do was expel Tsumiki from here considering that it was the first time I had seen her truly happy in a long time, but she seemed stronger than me. The constant feeling of being watched made me dizzy and restless, the nightmares made me scared, and Tadashi Yan's damned provocations burned my patience fuse. One more and you're out. I couldn't waver, so I swallowed my anger and put on my best bored expression.
It's for Tsumiki, I thought. Control yourself for her.
“What are you and your little dogs doing in the hallway? Yaga said everyone should help with the Sixth Form dance, it would be a shame if someone reported you.” I said in an amused tone. However, the smile on Tadashi's face seemed to double in size, which made my mood sour.
“But you’re here too, Fushiguro, and unlike you, I’m not hanging by a thread with the principal. It would be a shame if we reported it, don’t you think?” What would poor Tsumiki think of being expelled on the day of her long-awaited prom because of her delinquent brother?” his sickening voice sang close to my ears as his left hand held my shoulder firmly. I gritted my teeth and felt the blood run cold down my spine.
“You’re not going to rat me out, Tadashi, and you’re going to leave Tsumiki out of this. She’s not the one you want,” I replied, mentally counting how Director Yaga had taught me. Tadashi came closer, placing his chin on my right shoulder, and my breath hitched. I wanted to run; I wanted to push him away and punch him in his snobbish nose.
“And why wouldn’t I do that? What do I get in return?” he whispered slyly, making the blood rush to my fists. I wouldn’t make a deal with him, no way.
Before I knew it, Tadashi was sprawled on his ass and his friends were shouting in outrage.
“Fushiguro pushed him!” “That savage, let’s tell the principal!” “This is what happens when they let people like him and his sister in here!”
I blinked my eyes back to my senses and an angry expression took over my face.
“I didn’t push him!”, I said without much conviction in my voice. I was sure I didn’t, but who knows, maybe I wish I had. I closed my fists in a fighting position. Well, if it was a fight they wanted I wasn’t going to avoid it, it wasn’t my fault anyway and the cameras could show it.
Tadashi glares at me from the floor and stands up, taking off his blue uniform jacket and pulling on his tie. I made a joking expression. He certainly wouldn't intimidate me with this not-so-convincing demonstration, especially when wearing that shirt one size too small. For someone so well-born, it was to be expected that he would wear well-groomed clothes and not a tight shirt that showed off his muscles, which he didn't have, by any means. I was much lighter and shorter than him and could wipe the floor with his stuck-up face without breaking a sweat.
I raised my fists and prepared myself. Then a pink-haired boy came into the hallway. He ran past me and Tadashi, tripping and turning right. We were all confused.
“What the hell?” Tadashi began and was interrupted by a loud crash. I glared at him, and we ran towards the pink-haired boy who was holding a baseball bat and looking up. He turned towards us and smiled.
He turned towards us and gave an awkward smile.
“Hey guys. I’m from Mosquitoes, Bugs and CIA, an insecticide company, and I was hired by the school to eliminate a nest of wasps that they have here,” he said, not convincing me or Tadashi at all, who crossed her arms over her ample breasts, raising an eyebrow in disbelief.
“With a baseball bat? The service at this place must be getting worse, I'll have to call my dad for sure" he said in a superior tone that made me feel disgusted.
The situation was certainly weird, he looked too young to be an exterminator unless he was an intern and the bat in his hand seemed to change shape making my spine shiver. I'd always had strange visions, one-eyed men, horses with wings and once I saw a man who was half horse from the waist down, but I never told anyone, or it would have been a straight ticket to the psychiatrist. This situation made me remember all of that and the back of my neck tingled. Whatever the boy was hunting was not something common, I was sure of it.
Then another taller, much stronger, black-haired boy jumped from the ceiling and landed on the floor with a loud thud. He definitely had muscles to show off in a tight tank top and sweatpants. He smiled brightly and I immediately liked him a bit, he seemed like a nice guy.
"Now don't underestimate us! My brother and I are the best exterminators in the region, we eliminate any type of pest in a short time" he said patting the pink-haired boy on the back who smiled as if it were an inside joke.
“I’m Aoi Todo by the way and this is my brother Yuuji Itadori” Todo said with a bright smile. I felt their eyes fixed on me for a second longer and tilted my head in confusion.
The other boy, Yuuji, also looked at me and gave a smile that reminded me a lot of a pitying expression, the same one I saw whenever I was expelled from a school and Tsumiki told me that everything would be fine. I didn’t like that kind of smile at all. I turned around leaving the three behind.
As I walked down the hallway with firm steps, something inside me stirred. The same feeling I had in my dreams, as if something big was about to happen. Shaking my head and clearing my thoughts, I headed back to the gym where Tsumiki smiled and twirled with Inumaki, the fury long forgotten. I couldn't help but let a fond smile take over my face. That was why I endured and would endure Tadashi and everything else that came my way, for my sister, my family and the only one I had.
“Aren't you excited, Toge? We're finally in Senior Form Six! It'll be a new year with new and good things about to happen," she said as she spun Inumaki around, who didn't seem all that excited, but I spared myself from commenting.
“Tsumiki, you’re suffocating him, let him breathe a little,” she said, pulling Toge away from her arms. Tsumiki looked at me gratefully. Tsumiki, on the other hand, seemed to remember who was upset with me and narrowed her eyes at me. I hid behind Inumaki who looked at me offended, better him than me.
“Megumi, where did you go? You should be helping with the organization. It’s not enough that Tadashi and his henchmen have run away,” Tsumiki exclaimed in frustration, and shame invaded me again.
“I tried ‘Miki you know, but after the hundredth time with you looking at me like you were going to hit me, I just gave up”, I cringed with an apologetic smile and Tsumiki sighed.
“Sorry if I’m being a bit of a bully, but I’m so excited! It’s the first time we haven’t been expelled in a year and I’m still starting high school, it’s something to celebrate”, she said with her eyes shining with excitement and I let it be better not to tell her that I had almost started a fight in the hallway.
Toge blinked, looking around, and lowered his head to excuse himself. He walked quickly through the gym and Tsumiki looked at me for an explanation, even though I was as confused as she was. I shrugged. The day was so weird that Inumaki was the least of it, really. Tsumiki turned to the poster, and I could see the crease between her eyebrows. Sometimes I almost forgot that she was dyslexic too.
While I was the troublemaker, my sister was every teacher's dream. Well-behaved, kind, and studious, Tsumiki was the leader of her class and would win honors medals at the prom for being an exemplary student. I always thought she had a much easier time learning than I did until one day I woke up in the middle of the night with insomnia and went to her room. Her lights were on, and she was crying as she bent over a notebook. She was studying. I never made a point of hiding the things I didn't like, but she didn't. My sister swallowed all her bitterness and hid it behind a bright smile. While I cried after being expelled from yet another school, Tsumiki stroked my hair, smiling gently, saying that it wasn't a problem and that we could find another one next year. That's why that dance couldn't go wrong. For once, my sister deserved a little happiness, and I would do everything possible and impossible to make that happen. I wouldn't be another chore for her tonight.
I patted her shoulder and drew her attention away from the banner, making her look at me.
“You better get ready, right? Or you’ll stay here and be late, everyone else has already left,” I said, raising my eyebrows.
Tsumiki looked around and paled. She grabbed my hand and dragged me out the door. I smiled as she talked about everything, she still had to do to get ready. It was going to be a great night.