Toma Hisoka POV
The school days here have been pretty peaceful since the midterm. However, there was recently an incident with Sudou that might come to light, since we didn't recieve our points today.
Lets start from the very beginning.
Flashback
It had been very crowded in the library, so Shizuko and I decided to stroll around the school. That gave me the idea of heading towards the special building, which neither of us have gone to before. We were currently walking by a hallway right now.
"So then, what are we looking for here?" Shizuko asked.
"Nothing really. I just wanted to get my bearings in this building, since we haven't been here yet."
This place was a breath of fresh air from all the crowded areas in the school. Probably the first place we've been that didn't have any people during the day. An occasion like this is so rare I longed to savor the quiet, but alas fate had other plans as I started hearing voices.
"What'd you say punk!?"
An irritated voice could be heard across the hall. It sounded like our classmates Sudou.
I motioned for Shizuko to stay quiet, then she nodded along with it. We hid around a corner, near enough from earshot, but far enough to not notice us.
"You heard me you monkey, you don't even deserve the spot."
"Heh, guess the two of ya' are just jealous. Maybe you think that you'll never get a spot."
"You son of a..."
We could see from here that one of the other three people with Sudou started to charge at him. Before I could pull out my phone to record, someone bumped into me from behind.
"Oof!"
I caught whoever it was that bumped into me and saw her face.
"Sakura-san?" Shizuko muttered.
"E-Eh? You're classmates aren't you?" Sakura Airi asked.
"Hush down first, we'll talk about this later." I said.
"W-What's going on?"
I looked back at the scene, and the fight was almost over. I couldn't get a video now, all I could do was take a picture, which I did. I then heard two other cameras taking pictures, indicating that both Shizuko and Sakura took one as well.
"Sakura-san, you should get out of here." Shizuko said.
"H-Huh? W-What for?"
"Sudou will most likely keep defending himself. You took a picture which is evidence, but we don't want you getting involved in something you don't want to."
"E-Eh? What I don't w-want to?"
"You must've been here by coincidence like us right? If so then you could treat it as such and pretend this never happened. We'll handle it, now go."
Sakura gave me the impression of someone who didn't want to get into a bad incident like this, so I gave her some advice. Just from her face alone, I could tell she has a scared and cowardly nature.
She took my advice and quietly ran the way we came from, disappearing from view.
"Well that settles her, now for Sudou."
We looked back to where he was, and the other students were gone. It was just Sudou there, panting and struggling for breath. Sizuko and I ran up to him so that we could clarify the situation.
"Sudou, why are you out here in the special building?"
"Huh? Oh hey there Toma...and Toma."
"Sigh...What happened, you seem out of breath."
"Those Class C guys called me her because of something from my club, but they just tried to beat me up so I defended myself." He seemed pretty calm despite just fighting awhile ago.
"Do you know of the consequences to this Sudou-kun?" Shizuko asked.
"Consequences? The hell are you sayin'?"
"Those guys could say what happened here to the school, then file a complaint. Did you know about that?"
"What!? But it was self defense!"
"It won't look like that to the school. So since we're in the same class, we'll suffer the consequences for it. Even our classmates will see you as the guilty party. What'll you do then?"
"Then help me! If the class sees me as the guilty one they'll see me as a damn outcast!"
"Sigh..."
I looked to Shizuko to see what she thought of it.
"I don't see why not."
"Fine we'll help. We'll need you to keep your mouth shut though alright? Don't say anything like it was self defense or whatever, because they'll see it as an admission of your guilt."
"R-Right. Thanks in advance Toma...and Toma."
"Niisan we need to get people to work on that." Shizuko said.
"That's true."
It really is hard to distinguish between us when you don't use honorifics.
Flashback end
Sudou picked up his bag then left with Chabashira-sensei. If Ayanokouji was involved in this, what did he do? How did the hot headed Sudou become someone hit with regret so hard?
"Everyone, can I have your attention? I want to believe in my classmates. Who wants to go with me later to look for witnesses?"
"I will. I know Sudou-kun can be hot headed at times, but I want to believe he's innocent here!" Kushida said, standing up.
At least she isn't trying to be more reserved. Well I did tell to keep acting as she has been the whole time before we confronted her.
"Same here!" Ike obliged himself.
"Yeah! I bet those Class C dudes staged Ken up!" Yamauchi joined in too.
Before anyone could say anything else, our first teacher showed up.
__________________________________
"You aren't coming?" Ayanokouji asked as I packed up my bag.
"No, I already know who the witness is, but I don't want to use her." I answered.
"I see. I'll help them out because I was asked to, but I hope you'll be the one to fix all this."
Ayanokouji left the room with Kushida, Ike and Yamauchi. I on the other hand, was going to the cafeteria with Shizuko to eat lunch. I didn't have anymore ingredients to make myself a bento, so I have to buy my lunch there, and buy more ingredients later in the supermarket.
"What do we do with Sudou-kun?" Shizuko asked.
"We'll head back to the special building after school ends. For now, let's go eat."
Shizuko nodded and we arrived at the cafeteria. I told her to head for a table while I ordered myself a meal. I exchanged my ticket for the meal I chose, which was a vegetarian combo, one I really needed since most of my ingredients last time was meat.
"Hey hey, how's it going old man?"
Someone grabbed my shoulder from behind, calling me an old man.
"Old man huh? What makes you say that?"
"You're a year older than most of the first-year student body right? That's evidence enough to me, kukuku."
I know that laugh. I turned around to face the magenta haired boy I met on that day when we looked at the class totals.
"Ryuuen."
"You remember me? Good, good."
I ignored him then continued to walk to Shizuko's table. She already had her bento out, but looked confused when she saw me with Ryuuen.
"Why are you with another person niisan?"
"Don't mind him, he was just tagging along."
"Don't cast me out so nonchalantly, don't you wanna be friends?"
"What are you planning Ryuuen?" I said while getting ready to eat.
"Simple really. You and this little turd over here have been very interesting and I wanted to see for myself."
I suppose he was referring to the recent stalkers that have been following us. Matsushita even confirmed it for me that those people were from Class C.
"What is interesting about us that you want to find out?"
"Aside the fact that you were placed in the same class, you two are no ordinary students."
"We're just trying to survive Ryuuen, that's all we think about."
"Survival eh? Not 'trying to stay away from expulsion' or 'trying to reach Class A', but survival? Now you've peeked my interest even more."
I can see it now, and with Shizuko's look in her eyes, she saw it too. There were Class C students in tables around us, no wonder Ryuuen was alone, because he actually wasn't.
"I have no intention of revealing our past, so keep your hands to yourself if you please."
"Oh I don't care about what happened to you in the past, I care about what you've done at present."
He wrapped his arm around my back.
"What do you say to keeping your hands to yourself as well huh?"
Now I'm getting the vibe that he knew we were spying on what happened with Sudou at the special building.
"You're efforts are pointless. What you've done is fraud Ryuuen, and the truth needs to be layed out."
Shizuko and I quickly finished our meals then got and started leaving.
"Don't expect us to stay out of it, we'll protect our classmates, you can count on that."
"Heh, well worth a try. You better put on a good show or I might just take you out myself."
"You don't need to think about us, think of what you're class will lose if this incident turns to our favor."
I left him with those words, then went to go back to our classroom.
______________________________________
Toma Shizuko POV
It was the next day. Yesterday during Japanese History, Chabashira-sensei told us that on Thursday would be the day of Sudou-kun's hearing. Niisan and I decided to visit the scene of the altercation again to find out more of what we didn't see last time.
"At the very least its really hot in here. Its obvious they picked this place out, not just randomly come here." Niisan said.
"There are no cameras here." I said.
"...Now that you mentioned it, yeah, not a single one."
Niisan went back to the hallway to look for cameras but to no avail.
"This really is a plan by Ryuuen." He said after coming back.
"We could use that fact to our advantage."
"You could be right, then again Ryuuen isn't a fool."
Sounds like he also realized that Ryuuen-kun isn't all brawn. His tactics were underhanded, but effective. With this particular case, it looked like he was trying to test how far the school go with punishments to aggressive acts.
"Should we leave it to the class or should we intervene?" I asked.
"We definitely need to intervene, but that would be playing right into Ryuuen's trap."
"So what should we really do?"
"We'll intervene but we won't." He said.
That got me confused.
"We will but we won't?" I asked.
"We have classmates don't we? They'll be the decoys, or I should mean that we can pin the credit on them, and I know just who to use."
"So you want to give them all the credit?"
"Ryuuen expects us to help, so we'll do it discretely. Also I don't want the class to see us as public figures just yet."
We already are though, just by existing. People give us curious looks almost everyday whenever we're together in public.
Before we could talk any longer, niisan made that one look on his face. Someone was watching us.
"Who's there?" He said.
He was looking towards the hallway, where a shadow could be seen moving behind a wall.
"I guess I'll come to you instead."
Niisan walked over to the corner and caught someone that was about to run. I went over to them to see who it was.
"What an interesting crew. What are you doing with them Ayanokouji?"
It was a group of three people. Ayanokouji-kun, Ichinose-san and Kanzaki-kun. It truly was an interesting crew.
"Hey Toma-kun! Sorry we were just looking around the area." Ichinose-san said.
"The fact that Ayanokouji is here means you weren't just 'looking around'."
"I did say they'd know almost immediately." Ayanokouji-kun said.
"Ehehe I guess we have no choice. I already proposed this to Ayanokouji-kun and your classmates earlier, but we wanna help."
"Help?"
"Yes, Ichinose-san believes that this shouldn't be happening in the first place." Kanzaki-kun said.
"I think Sudou-kun is innocent. I've seen him around and he isn't that bad a guy to suddenly attack other students out of nowhere." Ichinose-san said.
Niisan looked like he was thinking of why Ichinose-san would do such a thing. However, both of us really don't understand what kindness means.
"I don't really..."
Ayanokouji-kun grabbed niisan's shoulder and whispered in his ear. His tensed body became relaxed as he closed his eyes, probably in understanding what Ayanokouji-kun said.
"If you say so then. I'll need a more detailed explanation later." Niisan said.
"Sure thing." Ayanokouji-kun said.
Niisan walked up to Ichinose-san and stretched out his arm.
"You want an alliance with Class D yes? I look forward to working with you."
Ichinose-san took his hand with a smile.
"Glad to have you on board! Hirata-kun and Kushida-san already agreed to our alliance, so your approval seals the deal."
Niisan once again looked confused, then turned to Kanzaki-kun.
"The other classes saw the three of you as the main leaders of your class."
"I see."
So much for laying low.
While niisan rubbed his forehead, Ayanokouji-kun looked like he saw a new hope of some sort, then again we haven't told him everything. The only thing niisan told him is that we know who the witness is.
As for that said witness, we should probably ask Matsushita-san to keep an eye on her.
"Have you found anything?" Niisan asked the Class B students.
"Not really, but based on what we got from this anonymous person..."
Ichinose-san tapped through her phone then showed it to us. It was a message indicating that whoever it was, they were a witness. I immediately knew that this was Sakura-san that sent it.
"Interesting, so the witness wants to help without showing themselves huh? That'd make them an incredibly shy person or someone that just doesn't want to get directly involved."
"Yeah, though we did pay them for giving us information, they don't wanna show themselves."
I don't think we need to directly reach out to Sakura-san. However, we need to keep a serious eye on her. Besides, there are still two days before the hearing, add the extra time on the day of the hearing itself which is set during the afternoon and we have plenty of time.
"We know that its a classmate of ours, so we'll handle the witness." Niisan said, throwing out a hint.
"Really? In that case its all in your hands!"
"Does Class B intend to participate in the actual hearing?" I asked.
"Oh no, as much as we wanted to help, we can't intervene in the actual hearing. We can only help by finding evidence." Kanzaki-kun answered.
"I see, then that is enough. We can handle the rest ourselves." I said.
"Don't forget we'll keep informing you of new evidence. The situation has been posted onto the school forum, so we can expect some more help from people." Ichinose-san said.
That'd certainly be helpful for us. If its on the school forum then there are a lot of people likely to give us information about the fight. We already where and when it happened, as well as who started it, but they aren't going to believe us since Sudou-kun is such a violent guy.
Because of his reputation, we're having a hard time. If he were seen as a bit gentler, then maybe we'd have a better chance. Ryuuen-kun really chose the perfect target, we need to commend him for that if nothing else.
"Oh, look at the time. We should head back for today." Niisan said.
"Now that you mentioned it, it is getting late. Let's go back to the dorms Kanzaki-kun. Wanna come with us guys?" Ichinose-san asked.
"No thanks, we have a few class affairs we need to talk about with Ayanokouji, we'll leave after you."
"Very well then, best of luck on your quest to find evidence." Kanzaki-kun said, walking away with Ichinose-san.
"Now that they're gone, details."
"Right."
We started walking while Ayanokouji-kun filled us in.
Ichinose-san coincidentally found Ayanokouji-kun's search party during lunch. She offered her help, then had a talk with Hirata-kun afterwards. He apparently said to ask niisan for confirmation so that our alliance would be sealed, this incident would be our first cooperative operation.
"At any rate, we'll keep a close eye on the witness. I can guess that you might already know."
"Actually I don't. You said it was a classmate. Who is it?"
"Who knows? Horikita can tell you that, I noticed she realized who it was during Kushida's speech."
"Fair."
These two have some sort of mutual trust relationship that I can't put my finger on. Then again, they talk to each other a lot whenever I'm with Matsushita-san and the other girls. While they continued to talk about things I couldn't understand, I just tuned them out the rest of the way back.
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Ayanokouji POV
"What is this about?" I asked.
I was currently sitting in front of Toma Hisoka. We were inside his room, without his little sister.
"I have a little request if you don't mind." Toma-kun said.
"And that is?"
He took a sip of his tea and put the cup back on the table, then he looked me in the eye.
"According to my source, you threw away your emotions a long time ago, or should I say you decided they were unnecessary just so you could survive."
"...So you know?"
"Of what exactly?"
"Of that place."
His eyes didn't waver at all, he was dead serious.
"Somewhat. I did a little digging and thanks to the new info I got, you were from the same place my mother worked at."
I should've expected this. He's smart and unlike Horikita, is aware of the people around him, way too aware.
"I assume this source is trustworthy then. Yeah, I was at the place your mother worked at. What name did they go by?"
"In the letter I received eight years ago, they called themselves the WR Corporation. Paid us to keep quiet of her death, I still don't know why though."
They don't know the exact reason, only that it was an accident? But why would that man make an exception of these two? Toma-sensei's death allowed for them to speak the truth about that place, so why not ruin their lives as well?
Unless he's been keeping an eye on them this whole time, and decided against taking down the kids of a former trusted employee.
"Ayanokouji, what is the WR Corporation?"
"...You wouldn't want to know."
"Sigh...I figured as much since that's exactly what they said to me."
Whoever is this source of his is, they're definitely on school grounds, but I haven't kept a very close eye on them as of late so I don't exactly know who he's interacted with.
"Then do you know the exact details of how mother went down? Or have heard of it?" He asked again.
"Not the exact details, all I heard was that there was an accident in the laboratory, then she died of some sort of poisoning."
I can't tell him the truth, I simply can't. Toma-sensei was gunned down, not poisoned. I could tell him that sure, but then he'll hold a grudge towards the "WR Corporation" then would seek revenge on the wrong people, specifically that man.
It'd be sending him to his doom, which I promised not to do because of my debt to Toma-sensei. Even without my obligation to not get these two in danger, I wouldn't waste such a fine specimen of a human being. He's a year older than me but still a teenager, and yet he acts like an adult. Its proof that he forced himself to change so that he can survive, like me.
A guy like Toma Hisoka shouldn't be disposed of so easily, which is one of the flaws in that place. Just because they don't meet one deadline or complete one challenge, they are quickly disposed of. There isn't really any flexibility, which deprives them of getting more results like with me. If he were trained in that place, the people there might throw away a diamond into the garbage dumps.
"For my request, I'd like you to keep Shizuko out of your control."
"Define keeping her out of my control."
"I don't want you using her, by that I mean forcing her to do stuff. Sure you can give her suggestions and advice, but I don't want you forcing her to be a part of your plans, you'll have to convince her, and I mean convince not blackmail."
"I can see where this is heading, you're trying to protect her from me."
"That's exactly what I'm doing. If you really did throw away your emotions, then that would mean you won't have much empathy, which also means you won't care about how other people feel."
There's no more hiding it then.
"You're right, I don't care about how you people feel. But don't get me wrong, I do genuinely want to help you as payment to your mother. You doing this is proof that you'd be useful."
I stood up then offered him my hand. He stood up as well, but made no move to take it.
"You wouldn't keep promises either, or should I say you'd stretch the rules of your promises. Say you promised to keep us from getting expelled, it'd mean that you can do whatever you want to us, such as leave us to our business and only intervene when our expulsion is on the line."
Very perceptive of him. Then again he is incredibly pessimistic.
"Impressive way of thinking about it. Yes, it would mean something like that, but I'm not that horrible."
After all, a good retainer follows a good ruler.
"Then what does it mean for us?"
"You placed conditions remember? Like at least having a small income of points so that you could live normally and getting help in issues that involved your acquaintances. By saying those things, I was obligated to those things too. I suppose you wouldn't take advantage of that right?"
"You're right, I'm a pretty contempt guy, so you don't have to worry about me taking advantage of it."
He finally took up his hand then shook mine.
"I do have to make sure of one thing."
I squeezed his hand, applying a bit of force each second. Toma-kun's face didn't seem to change though.
"That's starting to hurt you know?"
"Exactly the point."
I continued to apply force, until Toma-kun used his other hand to make mine lose its hold. When that failed, he kicked me away, to which I simply let go then jumped back.
"You didn't hesitate." I commented.
"You wouldn't stop what you were doing, so I had to. Also why did you do that anyway? This is a horrible place to fight."
"Don't worry, I'll steer clear of your things."
I dashed then did a roundhouse kick, barely missing his table. Toma-kun jumped away, landed, then used the force of the landing to jump back and throw a jab. I blocked it, then used my other hand to throw a totally straight punch, but he met it with the same attack. We were now locked in a stalemate, eyes met with darkness.
"That's a pretty cruel look in your eyes." Toma-kun said.
"I could say the exact same thing to you."
I broke the lock, which made him stagger back. Before he could regain his balance, I crouched down then made a low sweep, to which he just jumped and smashed the ground with his fists, where I was previously.
"That was quite the loud thud you made with that attack." I said.
I dashed towards him again, starting an onslaught of punches and kicks. This whole time, he'd just been blocking or dodging, only counter-attacking when necessary. Overall, he hasn't really hit me yet. Once he lands a clean hit on me, I'll stop.
This guy is very clearly trained in martial arts. I can see bits of Taekwondo and Karate in his fighting style. Its still pretty unique though, or should I say rare, for him to make combo attacks of such high effectiveness.
Before I knew it, he managed to kick my knee, forcing me to twist away, move around him, then make a pincer move on his back, making him fall to the ground.
"Ack! Dammit!"
He turned himself around then stretched his hand, but I simply caught it.
"Not bad, you managed to get a clean hit in."
"What was the purpose of this anyway?"
"To make sure you actually knew your way around a fight."
I forcibly got him up instead of offering my hand.
"You're not half bad for someone who taught himself out of necessity."
"I still think I'm an amateur at most."
"Say what you want but I can just see it in your moves. The way you combine attacks is pretty good, and the way you dodge then come up with either attack is good too."
"Well my fighting style is more on defense. Mt technique is a normal defensive counter type that some martial artists use."
"More on that later, now I'm fully confident in you. I won't tell you about the WR Corporation since you're safer not knowing about it, but I'll rethink the conditions of our deal then go from there."
"As for affairs with the class?"
"I'll help in the way I want to help."
Toma Hisoka is now someone that I can really put my trust in. When we first made the deal I admit I was still a bit reluctant, but now I wasn't. This truly was going to be a mutual benefit for me and him. I can't wait for what we'll be able to do as a team.
Him and his sister Toma Shizuko are worth protecting. They know what their faults are, but despite those faults, they press on to survive, doing whatever they can to do so. They're rather unique, or should I say rare to see as people at least based on everyone I've seen in this school. In fact I don't know what normal was supposed to be.
"Then I can trust you a bit more now, however with what I said about Shizuko-"
"I won't do anything to her, you have my word. In return, let her find out about this side of me by herself."
"Believe me Ayanokouji, it won't take her long."
I'm sure it won't.