Work Text:
Crows x Worst
Hanaki Guriko x Kurosawa Kazumitsu (Kurosar)
Suzuran, 28th Generation, Year 2
— Toaru City, Japan —
"Kurosar, just how many bandanas do you have anyway?" The pointless question rang out on a gloomy morning on the rooftop of the second-year building, where Kurosar had come up to smoke. Actually, calling it "skipping class" would be more accurate.
"Huh?" Kurosar furrowed his brow, turning toward the source of the voice asking him this. It was another second-year who had just come through the rooftop door.
It was Guriko.
Kurosar couldn't help but roll his eyes. This was a question people asked him constantly. He didn't know if they were genuinely curious or just had nothing else to talk about.
"I have a lot," he answered briefly before turning his attention back to the cigarette in his hand rather than the troublesome Guriko, who was now standing next to him uninvited.
"I've noticed you never wear the same one twice," Guriko said, ignoring his dismissive attitude. "So you must have a huge pile of them at home, right? You just buy whichever pattern you like? Something like that?"
"None of your business," he brushed off the topic without care, wondering about his fate today—why did he have to engage in this pointless conversation with Guriko first thing in the morning?
Besides, he didn't even change his bandana every day. He wore them repeatedly, but no one noticed.
He just wanted to smoke peacefully by himself...
"I'm thinking of buying gifts for the girls for White Day, but I can't figure out what to get," Guriko shrugged, revealing his reasoning. "Then I thought maybe buying handkerchiefs or scarves would be good, so I came to ask someone who might know shops that sell this kind of stuff. That's all."
Ah, so that's why he suddenly came looking for him here...
Kurosar turned back to his cigarette, furrowing his brow, his eyes fixed on the smoke drifting out and the view of Toarushi ahead.
"Don't ignore me!!" Guriko protested when he saw Kurosar go quiet and act like he wasn't interested.
"You're so loud. I'm thinking. Be quiet for a second!!" Kurosar raised his voice back. "If it's patterns guys buy, I definitely know. But I'm not sure if girls would like them!!"
"Oh... I see..." Guriko finally shut up.
"There's a shop in the shopping district. They sell all kinds, both men's and women's styles. Not too expensive. But it's a bit hidden, on the third alley, not on the main street. Go check it out."
"Oh wow!! I really asked the right person!!" Guriko got visibly excited, having solved the problem of finding gifts for all his girlfriends—a mandatory flight mission.
"How many do you need to buy anyway?" Kurosar turned to meet Guriko's eyes. "How many girlfriends do you have?"
Watching Guriko count on his fingers right in front of him made him feel irritated.
"I need to buy 8," Guriko grinned proudly. Kurosar rolled his eyes at the answer.
"Be careful. If your little train wreck happens, I’ll be the first to say you had it coming." Kurosar spoke what he'd been thinking since he first learned what kind of person Guriko was when it came to women. Until now, the disaster he'd been hoping for still hadn't happened.
"What are you saying, Kurosar!! I have love to give to every girl in the world," Guriko rambled on, making a heart shape with his hands. Kurosar wrinkled his nose at what he received. "I even have some left over for you," he added, pinching his fingers together to show how little it was.
"I don't want love from you, Guriko." After responding, Kurosar turned his face away, returning his attention to the cigarette in his hand once more.
—------
If he were to answer Guriko's question about how many bandanas he actually had, honestly, he couldn't remember.
Too many to remember. That was the truth.
It started when he began collecting them himself back in junior high. Like collecting anything as a hobby—at first there were just a few pieces, but over time it had grown to so many he'd stopped counting.
When they'd piled up enough to gather dust in the corner of his room, his younger brother Toshi asked him why he didn't try actually using them. After all, he'd bought so many.
So he grew his hair long and started wearing them as headbands regularly from his first year of high school onward. (Though washing that entire pile to get them clean and ready to use wasn't exactly fun.)
The bandana became his trademark at Suzuran from then on.
Which caused a bit of a problem.
Ever since Guriko defeated Zetton-san and became the strongest guy at Suzuran, the guy had to deal with punks lining up wanting to test their skills against him. An inescapable fate.
The same went for Kurosar. Even though he'd lost to Guriko and held the position of second strongest at Suzuran, he still encountered people looking for trouble just the same.
His appearance was unique in the school. The guy with the headband. That was it. So he was very easy to spot.
Actually, he didn't have a problem with people picking fights. However many came, he could stomp them back every time. But encountering them so frequently got annoying—didn't these guys have anything better to do with their days than look for fights?
Sometimes he wondered: if one day he came to school without wearing a bandana, would any of these punks even recognize him?
Though they'd probably recognize him by the long scar on his left cheek. It was just that the bandana was more eye-catching, that's all.
—------
Guriko coming to thank him later about how much his girlfriends loved the White Day gifts from the shop he recommended didn't make Kurosar feel even the slightest bit happy for the guy.
This shameless bastard... God will punish him one day. Just wait and see.
The topic of Guriko's girlfriends was always a source of envy among Suzuran students. One reason was because Suzuran was an all-boys school, and each student was, well, you know—scary-looking, delinquent behavior. No girl dared approach them. Almost the entire school was hopelessly single and couldn't get girlfriends.
The other reason: if anyone happened to hit on—no, even just casually talk to one of Guriko's girlfriends, they'd definitely get the Demon King charging at them and beating them to a pulp in a rage.
What a problem child for Suzuran.
Plus, being near Guriko only created more problems. He himself had sometimes been targeted by people looking for Guriko, but mostly he handled it all on his own. The skills of those punks who wanted to measure their strength but didn't have much brains weren't much of a match for him anyway.
After all, he was the second strongest of his year, right after Guriko.
—------
Ever since stepping through Suzuran's gates, there was only one thing on his mind:
Prove that he was the strongest.
The First-Year War was a long-standing Suzuran tradition, held to determine who was the strongest of each generation. Some years it was an all-out brawl. Other years it was one-on-one fights until the final winner emerged.
Everyone who entered Suzuran knew this well.
For Kurosar, he needed to seize victory to prove his skills to the utmost, and as a stepping stone toward fighting Hideyoshi-san, an upperclassman who came from Kyoka High School with him.
The one who couldn't become number one in the First-Year War and was defeated by the Space Dinosaur Zetton, the current strongest person at Suzuran.
Kurosar knew well how skilled Hideyoshi-san was. That such a person would lose, that there was someone even better—it was something he truly couldn't imagine.
Suzuran really was a place full of the incomprehensible.
Guriko was one of them.
—------
When news broke that Zetton-san had been defeated by some first-year kid from who knows where, it was like a terrible joke that wasn't funny on April Fools' Day.
Besides everyone's shock at what happened, news of this defeat spread throughout the school—no, throughout all of Toarushi—in the blink of an eye.
It was funny how everyone who participated in the First-Year War suddenly agreed on one thing, even though yesterday they'd been trying to kill each other: they wanted to deal with Guriko and teach him a lesson once and for all. Let people know just how skilled this guy who suddenly appeared at Suzuran really was.
Kurosar was furious. The word "furious" probably wasn't enough to describe all the feelings exploding in his heart.
He did everything he could—things he never thought he'd do. Starting with stopping Hideyoshi-san, who was enraged because that guy had defeated Zetton-san. Guriko was a first-year, so it should be the responsibility of fellow first-years to deal with him.
He even went as far as drawing a knife to threaten his own upperclassman when the other party seemed like he wouldn't listen to his request.
Everyone there agreed to let him handle Guriko himself. He grabbed a baseball bat along with all the other first-years who had participated in the First-Year War and went looking for Guriko, who was standing there casually talking on the phone with a girl without a care in the world.
Kurosar seized the opportunity when he got close to snatch the guy's phone. For a player like this, his phone must be something irreplaceable.
If he didn't want trouble, he'd be the one to light the fire himself.
The moment Kurosar smashed the phone in his hand until it was destroyed beyond repair became the starting point of the legend of Suzuran's Demon King, Guriko.
As for what happened after that... well, everyone knows.
—------
He regained consciousness when it felt like someone was shaking him and calling his name over and over.
Even though his entire body ached, and he didn't understand why his own body felt so heavy, Kurosar forced his eyes open.
Tokio, bruised from head to toe, appeared before him. The guy looked somewhat relieved to see him awake. Then he shifted his focus to waking up Butcher, who was lying collapsed not far from him.
Then reality became clear before his eyes. All the first-years who had come together were lying exhausted on the ground.
No sign of Guriko anywhere.
Kurosar had lost.
—------
What surprised even Kurosar himself was that he didn't feel as resentful about losing to Guriko as he had thought he would.
Was he disappointed? Yes, disappointed. But it wasn't the kind that gnawed at his soul.
The winner of the First-Year War, Generation 28, was Guriko. Everything that day was crystal clear and unanimous.
After it was all over, everyone scattered to do what they wanted within Suzuran's gates. Butcher formed his own gang. Tokio became the right-hand man of Gunji's gang. As for Guriko... from what he knew, the guy spent all day talking on the phone with girls.
As for him, he remained alone. He didn't brood over anyone the way he used to before.
It should stay that way.
—------
"Hey!! Kurosar"
A voice called from behind. He wrinkled his nose and furrowed his brow in annoyance. He didn't know why Guriko always liked to pop up and bother him. About anything. From first year until now in second year.
"What? Guriko?" He stared at Suzuran's number one problem child, who came strutting toward him with a big grin.
This didn't seem like it would be good...
"You free this Saturday?" Guriko fired off the question the moment he saw his face.
"Nope," he answered back without hesitation, even though in reality he had no plans to do anything on Saturday.
Guriko seemed to see through his dismissive answer meant to brush him off.
"Come on!! Kurosar, don't be like this!!" Guriko protested unhappily with his attitude. "I'm inviting you to hang out with me and Emi-chan. The thing is, I'm worried her friend who's coming along will be lonely, so I went through the trouble of asking you to go on a double date with us!!"
"No. Pass," Kurosar refused immediately and tried to walk away from there, but Guriko blocked his path no matter which way he tried. He took a heavy sigh at the guy's persistent habit until he got what he wanted.
"Why don't you ask someone else? Tokio or Butcher would work. You know I've never agreed to anything with you," Kurosar countered, not understanding Guriko's thinking at all. Why would he ask an unsociable guy like himself to go on a double date?
"But you know how everyone at our school is!! Think about Emi-chan's friend's feelings!!" Guriko pointed at him, casually stating the sad truth about every male Suzuran student except himself. "But still, you're not that bad, Kurosar. Your face is passable. You're not as cool as me, but I don't think she'd be scared of you compared to other guys."
Kurosar rolled his eyes, not sure what to feel about this half-compliment from Guriko about his appearance.
"I'm not going," Kurosar stood firm on his original statement. "Whether you go alone or ask someone else is up to you." Then he quickly removed himself from the spot, ignoring Guriko standing there looking disgruntled.
—------
The funniest part of this entire story was that on Saturday, he happened to have an errand to run in the exact shopping district where Guriko had invited him.
Mainly, it was just a chore — his mother had sent him out to buy things. Normally, she would’ve asked Toshi, his younger brother, who was much easier to deal with, but since Toshi had gone out with friends since morning, the next available target was him.
As he walked toward the store where he needed to buy things, he only hoped he wouldn't run into Guriko and whoever that guy had brought along.
He wasn't ready to deal with another headache right now.
The street was crowded as expected for a weekend. Families out sightseeing, groups of friends having fun together, or couples on dates.
For Kurosar, who preferred being alone, he didn't mind being surrounded by the kind of happy atmosphere where everyone around him seemed content.
Suddenly, commotion erupted at the corner ahead. It was a woman's voice shouting something. He couldn't make out the words, but just from hearing it, he could tell she was very angry.
Before he could even finish the thought...
His first instinct was to escape from whatever trouble was happening up ahead and get far away. He had his own errand to run and shouldn't waste time on something that had nothing to do with him.
But just seconds after he decided to head in a different direction, a familiar voice rang out.
"Wait, Emi-chan!! Miyu-chan!! I can explain!!" It was the low, desperate shout of a man in panic and confusion.
Curly hair. A mustache. Dark sunglasses.
It was Guriko.
—------
If he had to guess the whole situation from a distance, it looked like Emi's friend who happened to show up today was apparently another girl Guriko had been secretly dating.
There were few things that could cause Guriko this much trouble.
One part of Kurosar was grateful to himself for not foolishly going on a double date as Guriko had invited him to. Otherwise, right now he'd be stuck witnessing this messy love triangle situation that he couldn't swallow or spit out.
Another part of him felt a small pang of disappointment—he missed out on seeing Guriko's downfall the way he'd hoped for.
Oh well. The whole school would know about this soon enough. The misfortune of Suzuran's problem child was always a topic everyone loved.
"Smack!!" The sound of something hard striking something echoed out, drawing Kurosar's attention back to the commotion.
One of the girls hit Guriko's head hard with the edge of her bag several times, then ran away crying.
The other girl thrust her hand forward and slapped him across the face so hard his head turned, then stomped away indignantly.
It wasn't the spectacular downfall he'd imagined.
As for Guriko, he looked dazed trying to figure out what had just happened to him. He looked left and right searching for his girlfriends who'd vanished into the crowd, one hand touching his cheek that had just been hit, now turning red.
At the same time, thick red liquid began trickling from his curly head.
Kurosar's eyes widened. This was the first time he'd ever seen Guriko actually injured to the point of bleeding.
Without knowing what inspired him—even though Kurosar usually avoided getting involved in trouble—he suddenly found himself standing right in front of Guriko, who was staring at him in disbelief, wondering what he was seeing.
"Come on," Kurosar said briefly before turning his back and walking away from the crowd.
Without even looking back, he knew Guriko's footsteps were following behind him.
—------
When they found a quiet spot to check the wound, blood was already covering Guriko's face. It had even dripped down onto the shirt he was wearing at the moment.
Yet Guriko just stood there quietly, as if waiting to see what Kurosar would do next, or perhaps he was still dazed from the recent events.
Finally, Kurosar couldn't take Guriko's complete obliviousness anymore. He yanked off his own bandana and wiped the blood from Guriko's face without caring whether the guy would be in more pain or not.
Guriko startled. This was apparently the first time he'd seen Kurosar like this too.
"Ow!! Easy, Kurosar!! That hurts!! Can't you see?" Guriko, who seemed to have regained some sense, immediately furrowed his brow and complained at him.
Kurosar rolled his eyes hard. Earlier, when both girls were hitting and bag-swinging him, the guy didn't make a sound. Now he was whining just because Kurosar was wiping blood off his face.
Though his mouth said that, Guriko still stood quietly and let him wipe his face.
"So why are you here, Kurosar? You said you weren't free on Saturday?" That wasn't enough—the guy smirked and stared at him with knowing eyes, even pointing out that Kurosar had brushed him off earlier in the week.
Damn it... I shouldn't have helped him.
"You really are something... I wouldn't call it sympathy exactly, but I guess it serves you right," Kurosar muttered back while wiping his hand to check if he'd cleaned it properly. No more blood flowing. It must have stopped. He then looked at his own bandana, now soaked with Guriko's blood, not particularly pleased.
It wasn't his favorite bandana, but in this condition, he'd have to throw it away anyway.
Kurosar sighed softly. Every time he got involved with Guriko, it only caused him trouble.
Yet he still didn't understand himself—why had he helped this guy today?
Kurosar turned back to look at the source of all this trouble with irritation, both at Guriko and at himself. But then he had to pause.
"..." Guriko was staring back at him with an expression he'd never seen before. It looked like he was trying to think through and analyze something in his head.
Which Kurosar didn't like at all.
"Kurosar," the person in front of him opened his mouth to speak. Though the blood smears were all gone now, the red mark from the slap still remained on his cheek. "You're a good person, aren't you?"
Kurosar pursed his lips. This guy was spouting nonsense again.
"I'm serious!!" Sensing he was about to look annoyed, Guriko hurried to speak again, afraid he'd get irritated—which he was. "You even gave something you wear all the time to wipe my blood. I'm really grateful!!"
Kurosar glanced at the troublemaker in front of him before making a decision.
"If you're really grateful, then wash it clean for me. Or if you can't, just buy me a new one. Thanks," Kurosar handed the heavily soiled bandana to Guriko, recalling the White Day gifts this guy had bought for all his girlfriends that turned out to be well-received. "Why don't you try buying one I'd like as well?"
He flashed a smile at Guriko and walked out without another word.
—------
The next Monday, incredibly, he had become the center of attention at Suzuran. And all because he did practically nothing—
He'd just come to school without his bandana.
Kinji was the first to see him at the school entrance and looked like he'd seen a ghost. His reaction was so over-the-top that Kurosar wondered if it really warranted that much of a response.
Then there was Tokio, who happened to pass him in the hallway with raised eyebrows and a look of surprise. Butcher was rubbing his eyes repeatedly to make sure his vision wasn't playing tricks on him.
But there were surprisingly positive reactions too. Hana stared at him from a distance with eyes wide as saucers, then rushed over excitedly asking if he'd changed his look.
He smiled slightly and simply answered that he'd lent it to someone and was waiting to get it back.
—------
"Hey!! You came all bare, didn't wear a bandana at all!!" A voice rang out from behind Kurosar during lunch break, as he walked out to grab something to eat from the shop inside Suzuran.
Kurosar turned around. There weren't many people in this school who dared to chat casually with him.
"Haven't gotten used to it yet, huh? What made you decide not to wear one today?" Masa-san leaned in to scrutinize the unfamiliar look of his junior from junior high at Kyoka, just like him. And as expected, Hideyoshi-san walked up behind him.
Kurosar couldn't help but think—was it really that strange just to come to school without it?
"Nothing really. Just got tired of it," Kurosar answered evasively, hoping the person in front of him would be satisfied with his response.
Which wasn't likely to happen.
“Did you get dumped or something!? Is that why you can’t be bothered to dress up? What do you think, Hideyoshi!?” Masa-san grinned, clearly amused, turning to his friend for support.
"Nope. That's Kurosar, not Guriko," Hideyoshi-san replied simply, making Masa's face sour when his best friend refused to go along with him.
"Come on, no fun at all, you guys. I was looking forward to having something interesting before graduation," the short-haired guy complained irritably.
Kurosar silently argued that a missing bandana wasn’t really all that interesting.
"Speaking of interesting, I heard Guriko got absolutely wrecked!" Masa-san grinned and turned back to him again. "Heard he got slapped and bag-swung by his girlfriends at once. The whole street saw it!! It's all over Suzuran!! Is that true?"
"If it is, then he deserved it," Hideyoshi-san said with a slight shake of his head.
Kurosar was quiet for a moment before nodding slightly. "Yeah, it's true," he answered, but didn't say more than what everyone already knew, keeping the events that followed to himself.
Masa's lips twisted in satisfaction. "Crazy, right? Really want to see how he's doing now. God must've finally answered our prayers and broken his bones," he said before draping an arm around his friend's neck, smiling happily. "Right, Hideyoshi!!"
"He never gets tired of this, does he?" Hideyoshi-san smiled at the corner of his mouth, exasperated with his troublesome junior's behavior.
—------
In the end, he didn't see even a shadow of Guriko all day.
Which made sense. The guy rarely came to school in the first place. He came when he felt like it, a person with no sense of routine or discipline.
The moment the dismissal bell rang, Kurosar did what every other Suzuran student did—he got up from his classroom and headed straight home. It wasn't like he had anything else to do anyway.
As he walked, he passed through the street leading to the shopping district. When he thought back to what happened on Saturday, he couldn't help but wonder where Guriko had gone. But if he had to guess, the guy was probably busy trying to smooth things over with all his girlfriends.
Guriko was standing at the corner of the street.
Kurosar flinched slightly, startled to see something he hadn’t expected. Guriko looked perfectly fine—no signs of injury. Given what he’d been through, Kuroza might’ve expected worse. The guy was wearing black sunglasses, but from experience, Kuroza could tell he was in a foul mood.
"Kurosar," Guriko called his name, which meant he'd been planning to ambush him here all along.
"What?" He turned toward the person in front of him, furrowing his brow. He didn't understand what business Guriko could possibly have with him.
"Come with me for a bit," Guriko said, acting entirely on his own whim before grabbing Kurosar's wrist and dragging him to walk along with him. Kurosar's eyes widened at this unexpected move.
"Wait!! Where are we going?!" Part of him wanted to shake the guy's hand off, but Guriko had a firm grip on his wrist and wouldn't let go easily.
“You know where,” Guriko replied — though it did absolutely nothing to clear up Kuroza’s confusion.
—------
The two of them stood in front of the shop that Kurosar himself had recommended to Guriko to buy White Day gifts for his girlfriends.
"So what? You came to buy something to appease your girlfriends?" Kurosar turned to ask Guriko, who looked like he had a stern expression, his brow furrowed even more deeply. It was as if his heart had been stabbed.
"Nope. Not anymore. Both Emi-chan and Miyu-chan already broke up with me. Happy now?" Guriko sighed heavily before scratching his curly head in frustration before turning toward Kurosar. "I came here because of you!!"
"Me?" Kurosar was starting to understand the situation roughly—why Guriko was in such a bad mood had a source.
"Kurosar, you have like hundreds of bandanas, right? How am I supposed to guess what pattern you'd like?!" Guriko burst out loudly. "I tried, okay? I really did. My head almost exploded thinking about it, but I concluded that it'd be better to just let you pick yourself and I'd pay. Done. Everyone's happy. Except me, who just got dumped by two girls at once."
Kurosar's lips curved into a slight smile. No matter what, this guy always found a way to get himself out of trouble.
"Fine, Guriko. You've already said it," Kurosar turned to meet the guy's eyes, his expression serious. "If I'm going to pick, there's nothing stopping me from choosing the most expensive one in the shop, right?" He didn't wait for Guriko to answer, stepping into the store immediately.
"Hey!! Kurosar, wait a second!!" Guriko's voice rang out in protest as he hurried after the long-haired guy, realizing too late that he'd made a mistake.
—------
"Oh? Kurosar-san, you're wearing a bandana again today?" Hana greeted him as they passed each other on the way to the vending machine the next day.
"Yeah, the person who borrowed it gave it back," Kurosar smiled slightly at the corner of his mouth as he answered the junior in front of him.
"I've never seen you wear this one before," Hana leaned in closer to look at it in his personal space, which Kurosar didn't mind. If it were anyone else, he would've pushed them away.
This allowed Hana to see the fabric details and the embroidery on it more clearly. Then he turned to ask him with innocent, sincere eyes as was his nature. "Can I ask something? Is this your favorite one?"
Kurosar raised his eyebrow in surprise at Hana's question. "Why would you think that?"
"I can feel it, you know. Don't think I'm weird!!" Hana smiled widely while giving an explanation that didn't really help Kurosar understand this junior's thought process any better. "Class is starting soon, so I'll go ahead!!" After saying that, Hana waved goodbye to him before running out of sight.
Kurosar stared at the empty space where Hana had been standing, then smiled and shook his head slightly before walking away. "Weird guy."
—------
The End