"Lavender."
"Or is it jasmine?"
"There's probably a dash of rose."
Inosuke was walking in an empty corridor, his hands in his pockets. He wasted his time by jumping from one wing to another, just finding reasons to do something else other than going to class.
He was ditching the English class.
One thing he liked about Kimetsu High was the fact that all the students were obedient and subservient to the rules. Aside from lunch and in-between classes, none of them were to be seen in the halls.
At times, he would hear the clicking of heels and quickly hid behind doors. He had quick reflexes and his legs were strong, so he didn't find it a problem to run away.
The teachers would sometimes stop and look around, but he was good at hiding. None of them suspected that he was loitering during class hours.
It wasn't because he hated studying, even though he abhorred waking up to school.
Aoi was probably using another fragrance today and he couldn't stand smelling her all day. Since his seat was right in front of her, he found himself zoning off, thinking about her perfume multiple times.
Shinazugawa-sensei actually threw a book onto Inosuke's face when he was lost in his thoughts.
Well, Inosuke daydreamed about holding Aoi's hand and smelling the scent on her soft skin. He must've looked like a complete idiot. It was Maths class for God's sake. The worst class.
"But Aoi prefers rose over those flowers," he muttered, debating with himself. Then, he shook his head and walked over the janitor's closet.
He remembered that one moment where Aoi and Inosuke had hid inside the room, only the two of them together. She seemed to be fine, but his heart was thumping like a maniac. Even after months of being official, he still wouldn't function properly whenever she was too near.
It was probably because he didn't expect her to pull him into a room. A small, shrouded space, away from people.
It gave him ideas that he wasn't proud of.
"What the heck am I thinking about?!" he shouted and jumped over a window, landing on the other side of the hall. There was no way he would be going to class anytime soon. Education be damned.
The hallways were silent. Even the wind was scared to make any sounds. Inosuke could only hear his own breathing as he tapped his feet quietly. One wrong move and he would get punished.
As he passed by a door, a sudden hand appeared and dragged him to his left. His hair was snatched, a sharp pain jutting out of his scalp. He tried to unclasp the hand away from his blue-tipped hair, but the man was strong.
"Fucking let me go!" Inosuke screamed and attempted a kick.
The man ungripped and tossed him aside. Inosuke managed to balance his body and avoided a fall, but the pain stayed. He could've sworn he saw rainbows when the man pulled his hair.
Before he could react to the teacher standing before him, he pushed Inosuke to the wall and placed his hand on his throat, choking him lightly.
"Who are you and what are you doing here, not in class?" the teacher asked. He wasn't one of the teachers that were teaching him. He had never saw a teacher with red eyes before. He had an aura that sent shivers down Inosuke's spine.
He seemed worse than Shinazugawa-sensei, which screamed danger.
Not wanting to lose to his fear, he croaked, "None of what I'm doing is your business."
"When you're in this school, everything you do is my business, you rude brat. Now, let me ask the question again. This time, you better answer properly," he exhorted, bringing his red eyes closer to intimidate Inosuke. "What are you doing here?"
Inosuke was uncomfortable. His hand was pushing into his neck and his eyes seemed to bury Inosuke's vision into a swirl of confusion. Biting his tongue, he retorted, "Like I said, it's none of your business."
"You wretched student."
The teacher let him go and Inosuke retched. He spitted and suddenly felt blessed for being able to breathe. He didn't know that he was holding his breath when the teacher threatened him.
He coughed as his hands rested against his knees before having the energy to speak again.
The teacher walked over to him, his silhouette looming against Inosuke's bent body.
"No students are brave enough to defy me. Who do you think you are, delinquent? Do you think I don't know about these brats that the sickly principal brought in?"
Inosuke tilted his head up, gaining to courage to look into his eyes. Just as his sight moved up, he managed to see his nametag. Inosuke didn't deny that he was really bad at names. He still called Tanjiro and Zenitsu with his own modified nicknames. The only names that he remembered were Aoi's and his mother's.
Muzan Kibutsuji
For some reason, he had heard that name before. He just couldn't recall who had said it to him. After trying to guess and failing, he decided that Kibutsuji-sensei was probably a teacher, given him mentioning Principal Ubuyashiki.
Interesting. Even his appearance seemed similar.
The word sickly made Inosuke think that he held grudges against the kind principal.
"If you're doing your job, of course you know about us," he sarcastically replied as he took a few steps back. Kibutsuji-sensei seemed to watch him like a dart target.
The teacher replaced the steps by sauntering closer to him. Each of his steps seemed violent despite being mundane and normal. "You have the audacity to cross me. It's not going to look good on your student profile."
Inosuke finally gathered enough energy and courage to stand right back up. He studied the teacher's profile closely. He had unnaturally white pale-skin that seemed way more unhealthy in comparison to Principal Ubuyashiki. His thin eyebrows were slanted and crooked.
Funnily, his clothes were quite extravagant. He was wearing a while fedora that seemed like the same colour of his skin. It was no wonder that the teacher's appearance seemed similar to his bad memory.
Kibutsuji-sensei was the real-life modern Michael Jackson!
Finding more sarcastic comments to give, Inosuke remarked, "Well, if it makes you feel better, I listen to Thriller and Smooth Criminal."
"Damn you to hell."
He didn't have any time to react before the teacher lifted his leg and swung Inosuke across the room. He was too surprised that his stomach felt like it was being disemboweled. If he was stubborn and had eaten the food Aoi prepared to him earlier, he would've certainly threw up.
Inosuke propped himself up using one elbow and saw his hair falling over his face.
The teacher put his foot on Inosuke's face. "What's your name?"
"Why is it important?" Inosuke protested.
Kibutsuji-sensei pushed his heel onto Inosuke's left cheek and he howled in pain. He succumbed and pasted his other cheek onto the marble-tiled floor.
"I asked, what's your name?!" Kibutsuji-sensei emphasized, gritting his teeth.
"It's Inosuke!"
"Your surname. I don't need to know your insignificant first name," Kibutsuji-sensei rectified, applying more pressure into his step.
"I go by my first name."
He changed his heel from Inosuke's cheek to his forehead. The exchange of pressure between his shoe and Inosuke's skull was excruciating. He bit his lip in agony.
"Your. Surname." He pronounced the two words one by one.
"Inosuke Hashibira. That's my full name," Inosuke surrendered. He badly wanted to stand up and kick Kibutsuji-sensei in the face, but the direct contact to his head was blinding Inosuke's vision. His senses were focused upon the pain of his forehead.
Feeling satisfied, he stepped away and waited for Inosuke to regain himself. A few minutes passed and Inosuke stood up, rubbing his swollen forehead. Once he looked at the teacher's face, Kibutsuji-sensei seemed amused.
"It can't be that you're related to Yugo Hashibira, don't you, brat?"
Inosuke's heart clenched. It had been years since he had heard that blasphemous name. His resentment towards his father rested deep inside himself and Inosuke didn't want the beast in him to emerge.
Plus, Kibutsuji-sensei's smirk was throwing him off. Inosuke and his mother had made sure that their residence was concealed through the help of Uncle Douma. The fact that the house was owned by him shaded Kotoha's existence from Inosuke's violent father.
"I've never heard that name before," Inosuke lied.
"Really?" Kibutsuji-sensei asked. He didn't have a sarcastic look on his face, just a cold smile that seemed to scare Inosuke away. He continued, "That's odd. Hashibira is not a common surname."
"Thank you for the irrelevant information."
"We shall find out if you're telling the truth, brat," Kibutsuji-sensei retracted before dragging Inosuke back to his class. Without even asking, the teacher knew which class he belonged to. He suspiciously seemed to hold a certain interest to Inosuke.
That creeped him out.
Honestly, Inosuke couldn't understand why Kibutsuji-sensei beat him without asking for an explanation. Because he was too used to any form of beating, he didn't care.
The pale-skinned teacher flung the door open and threw Inosuke into the class, causing Kanroji-sensei to stand up in abrupt. She was about to help Inosuke before she realized that the counselor brought Inosuke in.
"Kanroji-sensei, you ought to be sensible enough to notice that your student is missing from your class," he hissed.
"That doesn't matter since you've brought him back, right? Always out to hunt for troubles! That's so like you!" Kanroji-sensei chirped. She always had this positive aura around her and rumours were that she admired all the teachers equally.
Kibutsuji-sensei flicked his eyes away from the English teacher. She might've worn revealing clothes that revealed her chest, but the whole class suspected that Kibutsuji-sensei harbored pure hatred towards her.
"Do not cause more trouble. I'll be watching you," he warned for the last time.
As he stepped out, Kanroji-sensei chittered, "Always grateful for your help, Kibutsuji- sensei!"
Kibutsuji-sensei slammed the door and the whole class exhaled. Kanroji-sensei, who seemed happy and bright, fell onto her chair. "God, that man give me the creeps. I thought my heart was going to give out."
Her students laughed. Kanroji-sensei was that nice of a teacher.
Tanjiro handed a bottle of mineral bottle to the English teacher. "My mom believes that water can help to calm a worrisome heart."
Kanroji-sensei smiled, touched with the kindness of his student. She took the bottle away from his hand, thanked Tanjiro and drank the water.
Inosuke moved to his seat. As he placed his hands behind his head, he felt a kick on his chair. Pretending to be annoyed, Inosuke grunted and turned his head around.
Written on her notebook, Aoi was asking him a question.
Pulling out a pen from his bag, Inosuke scrabbled his answer onto his small eraser. He threw the eraser onto the floor, pretending as if he accidentally dropped and let it roll towards Aoi.
The blue-eyed girl picked the eraser up as none was watching her. She read the messy handwriting and whispered his answer, "Just getting some air."
Aoi sighed. It suspiciously sounded like Inosuke was hiding something from her, but she didn't have any opportunity to ask yet.
"Before I dismiss you all for lunch, I'm going to brief your upcoming assignment, mmkay?" Kanroji-sensei remarked and all the students nodded, except for Inosuke and Zenitsu, who sighed in irritation.
Ignoring the two of them, she continued, "I want you to work in groups of five. Do you want me to choose or you prefer to choose your group mates yourself?"
Murmurs began to float around, but none of the students were willing to stand up and voice their opinion. Aoi stood up. "I personally think that you should group us, Kanroji-sensei. You know your students well and I think you'll be able to pit us into groups with students who balance each other."
She squealed in excitement. "Aoi-chan, wise as always! Alright! I'll group you all for you!"
Surprisingly, she grouped Tanjiro, Zenitsu, Inosuke, Kanao and Aoi together. Aoi understood that Kanao and her were the mentors for these newly admitted students, but she would need to brace herself.
Inosuke was worried too. It'll be harder for us to work together and still pretend as if we hate each other.
"This assignment is easy. I just want each group to choose a movie that has been adapted from a book. For now, that's all you have to do. Once you've chosen your movie, you should ask for my approval. Only then I'll brief you about what you have to do," Kanroji-sensei continued.
Tanjiro queried politely, "Are we allowed to choose movies in any language?"
"No, only English movies."
"Aww, why not?" Zenitsu spoke up. He had to admit that English wasn't his strongest point and he wasn't sure if he could do this assignment.
"Because this is English class, Zenitsu-san."
Zenitsu slumped on his chair and pouted. Well, at least he was grouped with his friends and he had two girls with him. If he was feeling insecure, he just needed to remember that he would be among these beautiful girls.
To release the tension, Aoi gave her opinion out loud. "This assignment seems interesting and educational. I like it."
Kanroji-sensei beamed, taking Aoi's words as a compliment. "Of course! I shall assign genres to each groups to make sure there's variations too!"
Aoi tensed in her seat. She had this gut feeling that they were going to get romance. She knew fate would always go through her way and mess with her. If they had gotten romance, it would be weirder to do this assignment with Inosuke.
Zenistu wanted romance though. It was something he was good at.
"Tanjiro's group," Kanroji-sensei called, also assigning a leader. "Horror."
"Fuck yeah!" Inosuke stood up and threw a fist in the air.
"Why though? We could've done a lot of things with romance," Zenitsu complained and sunk lower in his seat, unable to cheer himself up.
Remember Zenitsu, you have Kanao and Aoi around you during this assignment.
Inosuke walked up to him and slammed his desk. "Horror movies are full of stupid protagonists who can't seem to put their ass down after hearing something weird. Can't blame them though. It sounds like something I'd do."
"Yeah, because you're stupid and you hate thinking."
Inosuke grabbed Zenitsu's collars. "What did you just say?!"
Aoi apologized to Kanroji-sensei and asked for her permission. She scolded the two boys, "Quit it, you two. You need to remember that this assignment shall affect our grade. It isn't just about personal interest."
Inosuke stuck out his tongue, "I got that, miss goody-two-shoes."
Later after school hours, they all went to the library together. Aoi went to the counter and handed three student cards to rent a discussion room. The pretty lady, Koyuki, smiled at Aoi and gave her a key.
Koyuki and another guy named Hakuji, who preferred to be called Akaza, were the librarians. They were waiting for their applications to be approved from the universities of their choice, so they used their time to get some money.
Both of them were quiet and private. Their personalities were suitable for working in the library.
Aoi unlocked the respective discussion room and realized that there were only four chairs inside. One of them ought to take a chair from outside and bring it inside. It certainly wasn't her because she was the first one into the room.
Before she could even plop her butt onto one chair, Zenitsu raced to the one beside her. Aoi didn't really care if she had to be honest. She just wanted to get the job done.
All of a sudden, Inosuke appeared between them and squished himself into the middle between Aoi and Zenitsu. He didn't even sit. He only pushed Zenitsu's chair further away from Aoi.
Grunting and annoyed, Zenitsu shouted, "What the heck do you think you're doing?! You're acting like you're jealous of me being close to Aoi-san!"
Aoi blushed, but she managed to calm herself before voicing out. "No. Just no."
Inosuke kicked Zenitsu off the chair and sat on it instead. Tanjiro, who was sitting beside Kanao, offered his chair to Zenitsu and walked out to drag another one inside. Kanao watched as Tanjiro walked out, disappointed with the fact that he wasn't going to be sitting beside her.
Settling down, Tanjiro began, "I think what we can do today is choose a movie first. If we haven't watched it, at least we can try watching the movie at home."
Surprisingly, without Inosuke and Aoi realizing, they knew a lot about horror movies. As they discussed about the horror stories they could choose, they'd forgotten that they liked to watch horror movies together during the weekend.
"I guess one of the most famous horror novels would be Dracula by Bram Stoker. It was the age of gothic literature," Aoi remarked.
Inosuke nodded. "That makes sense. I think there are a lot of Dracula movies out there. My personal favourite is Nosferatu. It's a silent movie, so it scared the shit out of me."
Aoi pursed her lips, thinking. "But it's a little mainstream, don't you think? Another vampire fiction is Carmilla. I personally think it's interesting."
"Yeah, watched the two movie adaptations. Quite bland. I wasn't scared at all," Inosuke answered, put his feet on the table and sighed. "If we take something more contemporary, what about Corpse Bride?"
"That isn't adapted from the book and I doubt the genre is actually horror," Aoi replied and pushed his feet down, scrunching her nose in the moment.
"That green worm that lives inside her freaks me out though. It's definitely horror in my eyes."
"You're just a scaredy-cat."
"Shut up, Aoko."
Tanjiro, Kanao and Zenitsu tried coming up with more ideas, but they couldn't. Zenitsu was a fan of romance and shonen movies, Kanao preferred books and Tanjiro mostly watched cartoons with her siblings.
To fit in their interest, Aoi finally got a suggestion. "Hmm, what about Coraline? It's contemporary and family-friendly. The novel was published in 2002."
"Is this the one with buttons for eyes?" Inosuke queried.
"Yup, that's the one."
"Fuck that movie. I couldn't sleep for days thinking there were other copies of me living in the walls and wanting to eat me," Inosuke complained, tacitly agreeing to the suggestion.
"That's why it's a movie, Hashibira-kun."
"The bedlam is the evilest thing to ever exist."
Out of the blue, Zenitsu cough, feeling like he was being left out.
Inosuke and Aoi snapped to him and asked unanimously, "What?!"
"You guys are completely in sync that it scares me," Zenitsu commented.
Inosuke wasn't sure what to say, so he blurted, "Seems like we have one thing in common now."
"That's disgusting," Aoi said.
"Well you—"
Before Inosuke had the chance to hurl multiple curse words to Aoi, Tanjiro exclaimed in excitement and break the tension from exploding.
"I agree with Coraline. I watched it with my siblings. Although I didn't get to enjoy the movie as my siblings clung to me, I agree that it's good to use it for our assignment," Tanjiro told them. He turned to Kanao and asked, "What do you think, Kanao?"
The problem was that, Tanjiro was way too close. "I-I also think it's a good choice. Thank you for asking me."
Kanao began to blush, but she remembered Shinobu's advice to not catch feelings for boys. She didn't even know why she felt flustered, so she slapped herself.
"Whoa, Kanao! Are you okay?" Tanjiro was genuinely concerned.
Her cheek was red. "N-nothing. I'm just a little sleepy."
"You shouldn't sleep late, Kanao. It's bad for your health. Do me a favour and try sleeping early tonight, okay?"
There was an inkling in Aoi that Kanao had a crush on Tanjiro. She watched how Kanao was behaving these past few days and it was suspicious. Kimetsu High students weren't supposed to be like this.
Making them all focused again, Aoi suggested, "Well, now that we've decided, we should try searching for the book. This library should have at least seven copies of Coraline. I've heard that Akaza-san is a big fan of Neil Gaiman."
"I have the DVD. Y'all can borrow the movie from me," Inosuke agreed as he stood up, followed by the others.
They flocked the computer in the middle of the library. Kanao sat down on the chair and held the mouse. After typing 'coraline' in the search bar, it appeared that the library has twelve copies of the book, surprisingly.
"H234," Aoi read the catalogue out loud. "I'll look for the books. You guys can try searching for any film analysis books. I think she's gonna ask us to compare between the book and the film. Kanao knows how to get the books based on the serial numbers."
"Sure. Leave it to me," Kanao replied.
As Aoi left, Inosuke began to feel bored. He noticed it multiple times that Kanao accidentally clicked on the wrong letters when Tanjiro talked to her, but he pretended not to notice. Zenitsu was smelling Kanao's hair.
Inosuke had weird friends, didn't he?
Not wanting to watch the disgusting commotion anymore, he took a deep breath, clutched his belly and exclaimed, "Ouch, ouch. Fuck!"
"What's wrong?!" Tanjiro asked out of concern, putting a finger to his lips. Koyuki watched them as they were loud.
"My stomach! It hurts! What did that freaking cook put in the food?!"
"She has a name, Inosuke! And it's Hinatsuru-san!" Zenitsu scolded. He didn't like it when people disrespect the cafeteria ladies. He added, "Just go to the toilet. Don't forget that you're a guy, by the way!"
Inosuke stood up and ran to the exit. "Fuck this—Oh it's coming out! Shit!"
As everyone's attention turned to their books again, Inosuke took a turn and fought his way to a number of shelves to find Aoi. He didn't know how to wade through the library, but her strong perfume was traceable.
Inosuke stopped by a pair of shelved labeled H.
Aoi was standing on her toes, struggling to reach for books on the top of one shelf. Her tongue jutted out as she tried to grab them.
Inosuke sighed. Those books could fall and land on her face. He muttered, "You should've asked me to help you, you know."
She was shocked and fell back on her feet. "Hey! Go back to the others. They'll see us."
He ignored her worry and walked closer to Aoi. Inosuke remarked, "They're not going to see us. We're at the farthest corner."
Inosuke glanced at his left and right. "Why do they put the horror books here anyway? Are they trying to mess with us?"
His height wasn't really that different from Aoi, but he still had an advantage. Climbing the shelf, he grabbed five copies of Coraline and jumped off.
"Inosuke! What would you do if the shelf falls onto you?!" Aoi nagged and took the books from his hands, her tone ragged with worry.
"Just jump off before it falls and prop it up with your body," he nonchalantly replied.
Of course, Inosuke's body was different from hers. He was strong, bold and brave. He wasn't fake. He was true.
"Must be nice to be born with extreme brute strength and reflexes, huh? Wish I'm as strong as you," Aoi said as her eyes stared in the air.
"Aoi—"
His gentle voice shocked Aoi out of her reverie. Only then she had the time to really peer into his face. Slowly, her hand found its way to Inosuke's forehead. He didn't touch him, but simply hovered over the bruise.
A part of his forehead was badly bruised and there was a squared mark in the middle of it.
"Why didn't I notice this before? What happened to you when you were ditching?" Aoi asked, her lips parted.
"I slipped and hit a wall," he lied and tried to push her hand away.
"You can't lie to me. No such mark will appear after hitting a flat surface. Who did this to you? Is it Kaigaku?" Aoi pressed. She touched the bruise and Inosuke flinched in pain.
"I hit a wall. There's probably a nail jutting out or something."
"Inosuke, you're lying. Wait—your throat too?" Her eyes flew to his throat and she saw another mark near to his collarbone.
"I got this one from—"
She shook her head and stopped him. "No. You're not gonna lie to me. You shall explain to me back home. Come to my room. I'll bring some ice for you."
Aoi began to walk away, but Inosuke grabbed her shoulder. He muttered, "Aoi, you don't have to worry about me."
"I want to worry about you."
Tanjiro and Zenitsu believed him when he lied, but not Aoi. She was too smart.
She couldn't stand the people in this school. Kaigaku tried to pick a fight with Inosuke and no one blamed him. Perhaps he was a good student, but Inosuke was innocent. She hated that she was powerless in the school. She wanted to speak up and defend him!
She was going to find out who did this. Aoi vowed to collect evidence each time Inosuke was bullied to file a solid report.
Aoi had no idea that a teacher did this to Inosuke. Kibutsuji-sensei had a temper and he knew when to attack without anybody watching.
Inosuke still went out to the toilet and splashed water onto his shirt. He had to convince his friends that he really needed to go. When he walked out of the male loo, he noticed that a familiar figure was standing by the door.
It was Kibutsuji-sensei. The counselor didn't say anything when Inosuke passed by him, but he seemed like someone who knew too much already.
You have reached the end of this chapter. Thank you for reading and do not forget to vote!