Chapter 12: Chapter 12
None of Gakushuu's classmates ended up informing Gakuhou of Gakushuu's sudden lack of judgement mid storm which had put his life in danger.
He told his father Mori had tripped and he had slipped and almost fallen over but he caught himself with his hands.
It was the truth even if he didn't explain the exact circumstances. His father didn't have much time to grill him when he was off fending off a few worried parents after the incident.
Gakushuu smoothly slid back to his normal routine of competitions, lessons and random way study material he found. He found himself studying architecture on more than one occasion, and gained a better understanding that maybe the mansion hadn't been as bad as he had been thinking. But it hadn't protected them against storms that generally happened in mountains, even if it hadn't happened on that specific one in a while.
Mostly though, he talked to his classmates, managed to meet with a few of them when their schedules matched, asked Ren and Araki to get more information on the man who got them out of the mountain and enjoyed a day in the old campus, dressed in clothes that made him look more feminine- a slight widening of his hips, a bit more space near his chest.
He looked older when he dressed up as a girl. Something about his vibe fit with someone that registered as older.
Gakushuu didn't mind it.
He liked it, in fact. It suited him well.
He went for another international sports event this time, he didn't have Ren to distract him and he ended up making friends with Kevin, a football star from America. He met up with Kevin's friends group who seemed to meet up every time there was an international sports event for youth.
He spoke three of their native languages, which he actually managed to improve in the short time he had with them. But they all knew English, so it was relieving that there wasn't any communication problem otherwise.
He explored the foreign country, found that Kevin was terrible at bargaining and that he knew all the best restaurants in a 5 kilometer radius.
And soon the second semester started and their newest problem by the name Tomoya Seo arrived.
Hinata quivered in front of her cousin.
The first thing Seo did when he transferred was go directly to Hinata, a grin on his face.
He didn't look malicious, simply like he was greeting an old friend. It made Hinata's words echo in Gakushuu's head. But turned out, he didn't need to personally make a move at all.
Kimiko stood up from her own seat at the back.
"So, transfer student. How about you take a seat there until your rank comes in?" She bared her teeth, and stepped in front of Hinata.
Seo booked at the seat directly under the air conditioner, and scowled. He looked back at the teacher.
"Go to your seat, Seo. We'll start classes soon," the teacher agreed, already aware that designated seats were thrown out the window the moment the class became friends.
People could change seats, as long as it was mutually acknowledged. In this class, Seo had no friends.
Seo didn't cause much trouble at first. He talked about himself all the time, got upset when he didn't get attention and like almost everyone in school at one point, developed a one sided rivalry with Gakushuu.
Hinata's friends kept Seo out of her sights and they almost managed to somehow stay in the same class.
But then. The other new student in their class started becoming disturbing.
Natsuhiko Koyama was tall . And he kept following Gakushuu. He remembered helping him out with bullies once, but surely that was no reason to stalk Gakushuu?
Not to mention, his hygiene was atrocious. If Koyama could stop stalking Gakushuu, he would be very willing to point him towards a good salon and dentist. But as it was, his few neutral feelings were rapidly descending to 'what the fuck' and 'crush his head in'.
Gakushuu wouldn't normally resort to violence first, but Koyama was bad at stalking. Not only was he bad at it, he ran away from Gakushuu the moment he called him out, but also made people hesitate to approach him.
He left Koyama wrangling to Ren, and maybe Araki, if he felt like it. Sometimes he wasn't sure if Araki would sit back and watch his misery or if he would actually play the supportive friend he had been going for. He supposed becoming friends with someone who had clear ways of dealing with friends, enemies and acquaintances had its own vices.
Even with the two new annoyances, second semester wasn't nearly as hectic as the first had been, and exciting things aside, they were setting up a routine for themselves.
Gakushuu finally had the leeway to start looking at the student council of their school. The roles were neatly divided, and tasks for a school year were divided by their roles.
Of course the president had to preside over all judgements being taken and had the most power over both the council and enough to manipulate many things in their favor.
There was politics everywhere.
Of course, Gakushuu knew how to play politics better than any 15 year old but, it was the thought that counted.
As a first year, Gakushuu wasn't allowed on the council. As a second, his only restriction would be from the president position. Third year, he could easily become president with no clear rivals.
("Student council president sounds like a lot of work," Akabane said. Gakushuu agreed, but at the same time-
"It's fun," he smirked, with surprisingly good humor.
"You have a weird sense of fun," Akabane complained, finding a more comfortable slump in spot #4 of Kunugigaoka.
"I'm not the one who goes around fighting any willing body," he retorted.
"Well said, future president. Make sure to give a rousing speech that I'll completely miss."
"You're a menace to society," he laughed.)
Seo got isolated in class.
He was angry, and frustrated. But he was also lonely. He had no idea what he had done to receive such a cold treatment from his own classmates.
He cracked in 10 days, but he didn't even know why he was being treated like that. Gakushuu felt a little bad-
Actually, no. He was pretty satisfied by it. He felt pretty good about making the guy feel miserable in what would have been a place he could have shone.
He studied well, he was arrogant and quite rude as well, but the job of breaking him seemed to be going well. Hinata seemed slightly uncomfortable seeing him starting to look down in class but everyone kept her distracted.
Using her high ranking as an excuse Amami and Kimiko joined together and convinced a few others to study with her. Gakushuu nudged a few from class B to join them and Hinata was thoroughly distracted with making new friends.
Gakushuu just watched Seo break down.
Araki switched from team Tomoya handling to Seo's, saying how it was more interesting. Gakushuu thought Araki was one of the few smart enough to see what was going on, even if he had never seen it before.
He silently gave him the go ahead and even the teacher started to completely avoid Seo's existence.
Gakushuu appreciated Araki's initiative. Then they watched Seo act out outside class. He complained a few times to teachers, and the same privilege given to him got applied to them and he got reprimanded.
Well, it was bound to happen.
Asano Gakushuu was now a name that was going around as one of the most academically popular students in Japan. His constant presence in the competitions was noted, especially in the academic ones, due to his father.
But honestly, the reason he was as famous as he was, was because of his face.
He couldn't count the number of times Ren, Hinata and even Mori had laughed in his face for the things going around in the internet about him.
Someone had made a video of him walking into a room into something internet famous. Gakushuu appreciated the effort, but he was still thinking about what the internet was drinking.
After a few weeks, Gakushuu inducted Seo in with Chika's group of friends. They went out and ate sushi, talked about each other and left amicably with a slightly more obvious warning of 'don't fuck with class A again'.
Hinata and Seo talked with the eyes of the whole class set on them the day after, and Gakushuu smiled at the other boy when he glanced at him.
"The hidden mastermind," Ayaka whispered loudly, and then giggled. Kazuki smacked his hand on her face in response and they started bickering.
Seo spent the day trying to sneak looks at Gakushuu, mostly ending up with Gakushuu looking back at him and smiling placidly.
"Is he a mind reader?" He asked Chika and the other boy almost smirked, uncharacteristically.
"Not as far as I can tell," he replied. Seo shot Gakushuu another look and barely half a second later he turned and gave him a chilling smile that made Seo snap his face away.
That was creepy as fuck.
But Seo couldn't even call him creepy aloud because the class was almost fanatic about the other boy for some reason.
That was fucking weird.
"I heard you got into a fight again, Akabane," Gakushuu teased with a smirk. "Really getting that rank's worth, aren't you?"
Akabane grinned back, his sharp teeth on display and Gakushuu felt like an animal was barely stopping itself from pouncing on him.
"Might as well," he replied, looking like a cat that caught the canary.
Gakushuu hummed under his breath in response, his eyes sharp.
Preparations for the sports festival start and Gakushuu kept an eye on the Student Council.
As a first year, Gakushuu, the class representative and Anaya, the vice representative, didn't have many responsibilities, but they were called in once before the sports festival and asked to submit the list of participants for each event.
Gakushuu automatically disqualified Koyama, who kept sending him pitiful looks, and wasn't integrated into class well enough (he sent a 'work harder' look to Ren and received the emotive version of a crying emoji).
Aside from him, he put the class through a variety of practices to select people by ability. Hinata outright refused to take part in the relay and he sent her to the 100 meter dash instead.
There was a slight argument among the boys that seemed to have gotten resolved in the locker room itself, and a meek Seo ended up not taking part in anything due to his lack of athletic ability. Chika was put in the relay, with a replacement ready in case he ate something bad right before the day again.
Gakushuu took part in relay, the marathon- that everyone could take part in- with Mori and Satsuki, and in the 1000 meter dash.
It was the most he could take part in and the class took the rest, not complaining as much as last time, thankfully.
There was a random class event that would take place at the end of the day and this year it was an obstacle course with assigned roles for 5 chosen members of a class.
Gakushuu picked himself and decided to pick the rest by volunteer.
But he didn't put much focus on his class for the event. The Student Council was far more busy and he finally decided who to approach.
The Vice President was an important and yet almost an honorary position. And to reflect that, the Vice President was a boy who felt far too threatening to look that meek.
Gakushuu's first encounter had him prepare for everything but the moment the Vice President laid eyes on him, he burst into laughter.
"That's pretty good," the boy said, something light and threatening in his eyes and Gakushuu's heart skipped a beat. He wondered if he was in love or in front of a predator he wasn't sure how to deal with.
Then the moment passed and Gakushuu smiled politely.
"Thank you," he said, getting a vague feeling that the boy was looking through him.
"I'll nominate you as Vice President next year. That's what you wanted, right? So do your best, yeah~" the boy slid his fingers together and his smile widened. Gakushuu didn't drop his smile, didn't sharpen his smile like he was tempted to. The boy was tempting him to drop his mask in front of other students he trusted but Gakushuu didn't, so he wouldn't.
"I'll use the opportunity well," he said instead, looking right at the other boy's eyes. There was something unsettling but beautiful about the flickers of gray streaks he could see in it.
"Hmm," the boy hummed looking over Gakushuu. "You are pretty."
Gakushuu choked.
"You shouldn't tease him. He's still young, Itadori," a girl giggled cutely, covering her mouth to hide the smile.
"Right. Baby murder children," Itadori, the Vice President, sighed mournfully. Then he grinned at Gakushuu.
"But you seem quite aware, hmm?"
Gakushuu narrowed his eyes in response. He would not acknowledge either his sexuality or anyone coming onto him.
"My apologies," he smiled, a threat slipping out, "I have no idea what you're talking about."
The boy started laughing.
"Well, this is good too. Then, work hard next year, junior." Itadori gave him a mocking wave and Gakushuu was embarrassed to admit he ended up flushing at the gesture, before he left.
All of his preparations were useless. He had been about to ask for the treasurer position, but if he was getting Vice President instead, so he wouldn't complain.
Much.
"Why is there a picture of Asano Gakushuu blushing, secretly spreading around the students?"
"It's cause he's cute and he's the Principal's son."
They show the picture to their friend.
"... okay. He's cute."
"Pfft. Don't tell me you're getting a crush!"
"Shut up! It's none of your business."
"I think your chances with that boy just went down the drain with that send," the pretty girl sitting beside Itadori commented, painting her nails.
-x-
Itadori snickered.
-x-
Gakuhou put his hands on his face in exasperation.
-x-
So did Ren.
-x-
Araki laughed.
-x-
Karma found the picture, frowned, then forced a smirk.
-x-
He saved the picture.
-x-
Gakushuu ignored everything.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Siera_Knightwalker
Siera_Knightwalker Main Characters:
Gakushuu
Ren, bestie of the year (snarky unimpressed)
Tadashi Morisuke, self declared eternal rival
Hinata, extro crier
Anaya, stoic babe
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone