Chapter Text
The corridors were crowded, annoyingly so. Well, until you strode down them and they parted.
You know that you yourself have never done anything to warrant this sort of reaction, but Yuuri has. And that's you, Yuuri. But you weren't originally Yuuri.
Like anyone does when they're bored, you turned to trashy romance one day. It went viral online, a book called "Twisted Lovers." Marketed as a dark academia, romantic fantasy with multiple love interests and a mystery, it caught your attention for the fact that the end gets told to you at the beginning.
Yuuri Kuroshi dies, stabbed by their own hands atop the spires of Night Raven Academy to save the very school that hated them. And while that's all fine and dandy for a mystery, it was the execution of said concept that royally pissed you off.
Starting with the protagonist themself, Yuuri. They were arrogant, blunt, extremely meddling, petty, and unusually dim-witted for being the protag of a mystery novel. The only reason anything ever got solved was because their shitty personality was somehow enough to get the help of all the smartest guys in school. And that last name... Come on, Kuroshi? Like Kuro as in 'black' and Shi as in 'death'? Way to pander to weeb audiences. And way to destroy the standard for gender neutral protagonists before it could even be set.
And the love interests? Ouugghh, the love interests. You only needed to look at every anime boy ever made to find the blueprints for these guys. You've got the tsundere in Riddle Rosehearts, the bad boy in Leona Kingscholar, the nerd in Azul Ashengrotto, the ray of sunshine in Kalim Al-Asim, the popular boy in Vil Schoenheit, the gamer in Idia Shroud, and finally the mysterious school prince in Malleus Draconia.
Now, listen, it's not like you hate these archetypes. When done correctly, they can produce some very interesting characters. But that's the thing, it has to be done well.
Riddle came off as more hateful than shy, Leona was a complete asshole, Azul was uninterested in anything besides results, Kalim couldn't commit because his priorities were too everywhere, Vil was definitely more into his male best friend than he was Yuuri, Idia was just plain pathetic, and all of Malleus' lines combined couldn't fill up a singular double spaced page.
And dark academia? The only thing dark academia was the name of the god forsaken University and its stupid headmaster who wore a freaking crow plague mask around campus. Which was just how it was because literally NO ONE brought any attention to it at ALL throughout the ENTIRE BOOK. Not a SINGLE SOUL asked why he dressed like that, not even Yuuri.
The plot was half baked, all the side characters were barely fleshed out, the setting was confusing as all hell to follow, the timeline was even worse to keep track of.
Everything that could've possibly made this novel revolutionary was swallowed up by poor characterization and narrative only to be shat back out for the readers to pick through.
To make matters worse, IT DIDN'T EVEN FINISH. THERE WERE TWO MORE BOOKS SET TO BE RELEASED. YOU WOULD NEED TO BUY AND READ TWO MORE HORRIBLY WRITTEN, UNTHOUGHTFUL, LONG-WINDED, REGURGITATED PIECES OF SLOP BEFORE YOU COULD KNOW WHY YUURI KILLED THEMSELF.
Which is to say, you hated this book. And now you're in it, as Yuuri Kuroshi.
Sick joke, universe. Nobody was laughing.
But whether you were laughing, crying, barfing, prancing, shitting, pissing, or all of the above was irrelevant. Because you were Yuuri Kuroshi and you were going to die. You were the mid-semester transfer student who was rumored to have killed a boy at their last institute.
And somehow, everyone knew about this. Everyone except you, the supposed perpetrator.
Because it was a shitty romance novel, the story never revealed how or why Yuuri Kuroshi was accused of these things. Just that they were rumors that spread and that's all you needed to know.
You needed to figure out what you did and fast. Otherwise, you wouldn't be swimming in a sea of problems, you'd be drowning in them.
Which was where your meta-knowledge came into play. There was only one gossipmonger who knew next to everything about everyone in this school.
Night Raven Academy was a private boarding school for the specially chosen young adult, whether it be for nefarious reasons or otherwise. The very hallways themselves were enough to make Edgar Allan Poe's settings seem like cottage core. Not one window was without stain glass nor room without moody candlelight. The ceilings were high, the student's egos higher, and the amount of funding pumped in from wealthy alums even higher still.
You strode through it like you owned the place. It didn't matter who looked at you fearfully or not. Who eyed you down challengingly or not. Who took unwarranted photos of you or not.
All that mattered was finding a mop of red hair.
"Cater Diamond."
You'd think a gunshot went off from the way every voice fell silent. Your footfalls the only sound left as you advanced on the junior.
"I need you."
"H-Huh?" Cater Diamond was clearly warring with himself as he stood frozen mid step. A war to either book it or pull out a camera. "M-Me?"
"Are you named Cater Diamond, or are you a clone I have to kill to get to the real one?"
Not a single soul breathed.
"That was a joke, by the way."
Someone exhaled sharply, but it could've also been the wind. Tough crowd.
"Y... Yeah, that's me." Cater eventually gathered himself. "What did you need...?"
"The scoop, in the general sense."
"Oh... kay..."
"You seem confused."
"No—! Uh, no no. Just, wondering why you came to me is all."
"Don't be modest." You shrug one of your backpacks straps off and try to ignore how more than a couple people flinch. "You've got a blog going, don't you? About stuff in school."
Phones were under heavy restrictions at Night Raven, only school approved laptops were allowed for frequent access to the internet. It was awkward—standing in a hallway as you were—but you searched up his forum, turning your screen around for him to see.
"I'll make this short, I'd like to be your source."
So many things flashed behind his eyes; good, bad, exciting, haunting, confusing, maybe even slightly triggering. You cut him off before he could begin to process even a second of it.
"In exchange, tell me all you know about this place."
Now you shut up, letting him stew in that information. Waiting for him to figure out how his tongue was supposed to work again.
"And... And that's it?"
"And that's it," you shut your laptop with finality. "... Of course, I have the right to remain silent and all that. As well as hold off on telling you information until I'm ready to. But I will do my best to be completely truthful when the time comes."
You're starting to hear more shuffling from behind you. Seems the rest of the student body has started exiting danger mode and is either trying to get a closer look or get as far away as possible. It's mainly the former, unfortunately.
But you're not especially concerned with that at the moment. Right now, your eyes were locked on the man with the red diamond painted onto the peak of his cheekbone, fidgeting in place, his bottom lip held captive between his teeth.
"Alright," he mutters, then seems to steel himself. "Okay, you got a deal, Transfer."
"Perfect," you hold out a hand. He startles just the slightest before remembering his manners, reaching out to take it. His hands were smoother and more real than you could have ever imagined them to be. "Shall we finalize our deal in blood?"
He yanks back his hand. You try not to let your lips quirk with your amusement but from the sounds of the rest of your audience, that was a failed effort.
Somewhere over your left shoulder, you hear a man groan. Then the thump of a body hitting the floor, fainted.