“You can tell already, but you were the ones who started the fight. This was justified self-defense so even if you tell the teachers it’s useless.”

“Don’t ever oppose again, stupid first years.”

Sneering at the two who had collapsed on the ground, the third years shrewdly picked up the money and the wallet. While the guy whom Fushimi had head-b.u.t.ted stuffed a tissue in his nose, he kicked Fushimi’s shoulder one more time merely as revenge and spit out saliva.

“d.a.m.n, how the h.e.l.l was that self-defense.” Out of vexation Yata hit the ground with his fist. When he ground his teeth, the wound in his mouth hurt immensely. He turned his face to Fushimi who was taking off his spit on gla.s.ses and rubbed them on the berm of the ground. On his face, which had an unhealthily white color, were painful red bruises.

“You okay? Fushimi.”

Wondering if they had unnecessarily become dirtied with sand, Fushimi put on his gla.s.ses again and faced Yata with a glaring expression.

“Hm? Fushimi Saruhiko, right? Or did I get the reading wrong?”

“…….why the h.e.l.l do you know that.”

It seemed like an angry aura rose from Fushimi’s slender shoulders. Yata quailed at why only calling Fushimi by his name had resulted in such a reaction.

“‘Why’ you ask, aren’t we in the same cla.s.s? I’m Yata. I sit in the same row as you.”

Although more than a month had pa.s.sed since the entrance ceremony, it seemed like Fushimi had not remembered Yata’s face. There was talk about moving to new seats in the second school term, however in their first term the seating order in the cla.s.s room was decided by their attendance number sequence. (1) Yata’s seat was in the first row close to the corridor, counted from the front it was the fifth seat. Fushimi’s was in the same row, the second seat counted from the front.

“Seemed like this was not the first time for you to get picked on by a group of that sort. Do you always get your money stolen? Don’t your parents know? If they’d know they would get angry, right, since it seemed like a fair amount. If something like this time should happen again, tell me. I’ll save you. Well, today we lost, but if my friends are also there, then——”

“Hah” laughed Fushimi scornfully. “If you want grat.i.tude, then ask somebody else.”

Fushimi said something unexpected that made Yata lose his speech and during that, Fushimi easily got the dirt off of his uniform and bag and started walking the way back. Yata didn’t really understand if something was wrong with Fushimi not having touched the purse taken by the third years, and with how he had removed the sand that had dirtied him although it had not been much.

Often there were times were he had at least once exchanged words with his cla.s.smates, but speaking of which, this was Yata’s first time talking with Fushimi. Yata had not known that Fushimi’s way of speaking was this blunt. Giving biting remarks while his voice seems emotionless was the kind of impression he gave off. Judging only by his looks, he was the quiet so-called honor student type. His physiques were fragile and thin, and his height not unusually tall. If the boys of their cla.s.s would be lined up according their height, Fushimi would be in the latter half (Well, Yata would be the one at the very front). He wore unfashionable black-framed gla.s.ses, and Yata would also describe his hairstyle as lame, as a whole Fushimi did not seem stylish. Because of these looks he had become the delinquents’ target. They did not match at all, the impression his looks gave and the voice that had been directed at the group from earlier.

“Wa- Wait a moment!”

While Yata ran back a few meters and picked up his bicycle, Fushimi completely ignored him and kept walking. Yata pedaled his bicycle while standing, caught up with Fushimi and started to slowly drive next to him.

“Hey, It’d be stupid to cry yourself to sleep, right? Should we retort? Because I’ll call my friends then.”

“Who is gonna cry himself to sleep.” Fushimi glared at him from the side. “I’ll get back at them. Defeat them several times as much as they did.”(2)

Pulling out his PDA, he turned to the screen and began to mutter to it, not Yata. Showing on the display was the app Yata too had just installed. Having found an interest they had in common at last, Yata got excited.

“Oh, you have that too, huh, Fushimi. I also just joined in.”

When he had just pulled out his PDA while keeping his balance through driving with one hand, the screen drew in his attention. He had seen them earlier too and now the unfamiliar notifications had increased even more. They seemed to be chat messages and looked like speech bubbles. The screen which had the size of his palm was almost fully covered because speech bubbles were lining up on it.

[Yata-kun, isn’t he annoying? That annoying hot headed guy, where does he always take his excitement from?[

[Why is he always so stuck up, even tho he’s a shortie, that guy?]

[Although he’s a shortie he yells a lot.]

[He yells so much because he’s an idiot.]

[Even tho it’s not like we did something very bad, he showed off when he took the blame for us and made us look like idiots.]

[What should we do? We told him about the group-messages, but wouldn’t it be annoying if Yata-kun’d join in?]

[Isn’t it okay if we just make an other group and tell him about it? We’ll talk about important things on here, and neglect the other one.]

[But isn’t it enough if we bear with and humor him?]

[Isn’t that awful? Poor Misaki-chan lol]

[Misaki-chan lol]

[Misaki-chan lol]

What the h.e.l.l was…..this…….?

Because he had been looking away while driving, the bicycle’s tire got stuck in a stone and fell sideways.

“Ouch!” He hit his knee so hard, the pain he felt made him forget the wounds the third years had inflicted. He clenched his teeth, but in the corner of his eyes tears appeared. When he opened his eyes slightly and looked for his PDA that had fallen to the ground, Fushimi had picked it up and looked at the screen nonchalantly.

“Ah” Yata jumped up hurriedly and took the PDA from Fushimi’s hand.

“S- Sorry, Sorry, I tripped. Ahaha, I’m lame, aren’t I. So, the talk was about returning but getting revenge…….” Seeming to slip out from the top of his head, an unusual high voice came out. Why am I laughing and covering it up? Even though it’s nothing to laugh about.

“Ah, they are bad mouthing you, huh.”

Fushimi did not only say something trivial like this, but also turned away his face.

Yata was not only disgruntled with Fushimi’s words lacking sympathy, he also snapped at him without thinking.

“I-is that all? Don’t you have something else, more, to say?”

“Something else?”

Fushimi tilted his head lightly, and replied with a straightforward expression as if he really did not understand.

“Should I mock you? Or is its pity you want? However, I am absolutely not interested in your business.”

Yata could not reply in anyway to Fushimi’s unapproachable words.

—————

(1) “attendance number sequence” a list with the students names with which the teacher checks if every student is there. The names are arranged by the table of Hiragana, starting with a, ha is in the 6th line, ya in the 8th. Fushimi belongs to the ha line (ha hi fu he ho), Yata to the ya line.

(2) it’s not specified in the original text. Fushimi might say “I’ll get back at them” or “We’ll get back at them”

—-

Little interesting trivia that gets lost when translating into English: 

Usually Yata and Fushimi address each other with おまえ (omae, “you”) which is a quite rude way to talk with somebody. However these two addressed each other most of the time like this, also when they got along. It’s a rough way of talking but fits their characters well and is not meant insulting (until Fushimi leaves, when it surely has an angry tone to it). In this first part where they just met each other however, Yata addresses Fushimi by his last name and Fushimi calls Yata あんた (anta, “you”). Although this is more polite, it shows that they are still not very close to each other. (I have seen several j.a.panese fans say that they were shocked at Fushimi’s anta, since it seemed so cold)

Fushimi and Yata both use ore (“I”), a rough-sounding first-person p.r.o.noun many males use. However Yata’s ore is written with Katakana (オレ) and Fushimi’s with Hiragana (おれ). Katakana give of a more harsh, rough feeling and Hiragana a more calm, mellow one. It fits quite well with their personalities, Yata’s fierceness and Fushimi’s quietness.