บท 68: SS4: The Bad Friend
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Aoki Takaya, 7 years old. The youngest son of the Aoki theatre group and a member of Sacred Forest Academy's 2nd grade S class. Because of his family, he was trained as soon as he could speak in the ways of the family business. His siblings were growing whereas he had the talent to play the roles that they no longer could.
The Aoki family was well known for their skills in training individuals the ways of theatre which in turn can be considered as the advanced version of acting because it was always live. Takaya had been trained in their arts from the ground up he didn't have the change to learn much of anything else.
Despite this, he really didn't hate the family business all that much. His parents here strict but they were kind people when it didn't come to teaching or training. He grew up pretty well but the downside of being in the acting business was that he needed to understand things that weren't supposed to be learned by children his age.
Because of a certain part that required him to be a child with the body of a certain teenage detective, he was taught the ways of being and reacting like a boy of that age should. Although it may have been just a role to most people, that specific series and character had affected Takaya more than everyone thought it did.
Since he is a member of S class, he wasn't really required to attend any classes unless he wanted to. What the envious students didn't know however, was that they had stricter requirements for staying in such a special class. Takaya had to attend class a few times to get the materials that he needed to study for but he didn't need to stay in the school afterwards.
This was when he encountered a girl who immediately caught his eye. If he could name one thing that reminded him of when he first saw this grey-haired girl was that she was like a sword; emotionless, sharp, solitary. Of all the students that were scared or acted differently when they saw him, this girl merely passed by him as if she was passing by air.
"Excuse me…" he tried talking to her and he made sure to let her see the badge on his chest.
"…" the girl didn't even bat an eyelid and continued on her way to enter a classroom.
"2-B huh…." What an interesting person.
He was even more intrigued once he asked around about the girl. No one had ever heard her voice before and she would religiously do things the same way everyday like it was some sort discipline. This was the first time that he couldn't emulate a person despite all of his training.
When he asked his parents about it, they said that it was going to be a challenge if he really wanted to do it but it was too early for him. This made him either observe or try to interact with the girl whenever he had the time to go to school. He was unsuccessful every time he tried getting a response from her that didn't involve communicating with her head.
This lasted until a certain day where he also met a boy that was sitting on the girl's seat one day. He was a transfer student from the looks of it so he turned him away to make room for his subject. The boy was happy to oblige but aside from being polite, he didn't seem that intimidated by him at all like the other students in their class.
It later turned out that this mysterious transfer student had gained what he had been trying so hard to do. He was able to communicate well with Shiroyuki Tomoyo, the girl who he had been trying to befriend since he met. The mysterious boy intrigued him and Takaya felt a sense of camaraderie for some reason.
When he looked the boy up, he was amazed at what he found out. He had the right and the privilege to become a member of S class but he decided to try and hide his identity for the sake of interacting with his peers. He finally understood why this boy made him feel like they were like-minded. Both of them didn't think like the people of their peers.
At least that was what he thought. Takaya still needed to prove it before he tried getting along with this person more. He was a bit prickly and a little hard to communicate with but it was much easier to communicate with him than trying to make the person her personally dubbed as 'robot girl' speak or even react to him.
"Hey Kouzuki, are you good with foreign languages?" Takaya decided to take a gamble and try.
"What do you need to know?" Kazuya put down one of the books he was reading. It was another books about business.
"What does it mean when it says 'Click here for free bewbies'?" he tried to look as innocent as he could but kept his eye on his friend.
"Wha-?! What the hell have you been looking up?" Kazuya was of course startled. Being asked something like this by this child out of the blue almost gave him a heart attack.
"Ehehe… I was just joking" he was an expert at reading expressions so Takaya knew that Kazuya indeed knew the answer. He was able to confirm his suspicion and found a comrade.
"Seriously…" he tried to shrug off his surprise.
"Do you know what 'NTR' stands for?" he followed up with another one which made his friend almost fall of the chair. Takaya was actually impressed that Kazuya knew something that took him a while to understand the concept of.
"What the hell have you been looking up!?" he got a bit angry and pulled Takaya's collar.
"Ehehe… sorry, I was just testing to see if you knew these kinds of things. It's kinda lonely having a bunch of knowledge of interest but have nonone in my agegroup that understands you know?" Takaya began to tell him about why and how he knew about such things. He even confessed about his plans to test him.
"Seriously… what kind of roles are you playing to be learning these kinds of things" Kazuya shook his head. "I now have a clear picture on why you look and treat people like they are nothing. I thought it was because of your status but it turns out that you were raised to learn about things you shouldn't"
"What's your excuse then?" He was actually curious about this. He didn't expect Kazuya to pass his first test but he did, with flying colors too.
"Experience" Kazuya grinned. It was his time to test and fool around with his Takaya for revenge.
"You…" Takaya was stunned. He froze in place and the way he looked on this friend of his totally changed. "Teach me your ways oh master…" he let his acting skills shine and acted like an old servant should. He got on the ground and kneeled in front of Kazuya.
"(What an idiot)" Kazuya sighed. He actually didn't expect to meet someone like this but a bad friend is indeed better than a good friend who only plays the part. He knocked him on the head "I don't want to take away that privilege from your teacher or whoever is teaching you these things. Do ask them if you want to learn" he ended the conversation and walked away.
This was the day that the two stopped being careful around each other. Thankfully, Kazuya didn't disappoint and even showed signs of being extremely talented in the world of acting. This person was exactly what he had been looking for. A peer that was neither family or a student of their family.
Thanks to his friendship with Kazuya, Shiroyuki Tomoyo started to accept his presence around. He may not have been with them as much as he wanted but he came to school more often now. He would always try and convince Kazuya to meet his parents so that he could brag about the talent he found by himself but he would brutally get rejected every time.
It wasn't until a certain time before the winter tournament that Kazuya approached him to grant the wish he so desperately wanted. The conditions may have been a little harsh but it wasn't anything that he couldn't grant with his position. Takaya believed that he could convince Kazuya to drop his other conditions once he was able to experience the same things he did.
Things were going well for him and he even got some time off his busy schedule to support his two friends. Reality however, always knew how to throw a curveball right into one's expectations. Kazuya, who gained his admiration after striking such a finishing pose like a mighty general after a stunning victory, turned out to have been more like the standing death Benkei did in the famous battle against Yoritomo.
A video that was spread not too long after the incident shed light to what happened immediately. It was at this moment that Takaya understood Kazuya's intentions for seeking his help in learning how to act. Everything had been for his mother and family. He wanted them to be relieved of their worries in his own way.
He now changed the whole plan he had for Kazuya's learning process. Takaya respected his intentions and was happy to help him for his noble endeavor. Unfortunately, Kazuya was still in critical condition so no visitors were allowed to see him but Takaya was relieved to have found out that his friend had survived the ordeal.
He returned home and immediately talked to his parents about what had happened. To his surprise, they were already aware of it because it was the talk of the country. They felt sorry for their son's friend and knew what he was going to say to them.
"Mom… dad… I know it should be difficult to ask but…" Takaya found it hard to ask them of this because he understood better than anyone how their family ran business.
"You don't need to worry about it Takaya. We will stop accepting people that are from the Kurogane Conglomerate's agencies. Your mother and I already discussed the matter and after seeing what happened to your friend, we both shared the same opinion" his father placed a hand on his shoulder to reassure him.
"Your father is right. The Kuroganes always had a bad reputation for being ruthless in business but we didn't expect it to be this bad. Besides, your friend really has amazing potential like you said. He was able to act so naturally and was able to set up everything despite his situation" his mother added.
They saw what happened like a play and explained it to their son. Not only had Kazuya remained calm in the situation, he was even able to extract as much information as possible to let everyone know what sort of people were really behind this. No one could deny how clever and brave he was to have been able to pull such a thing off at his age.
"Just based on this performance alone, he is more than qualified to stand in stage already" his mother was truly impressed by Kazuya.
"Then that means…" Takaya turned to his father for confirmation.
"Yes. We accept all the conditions he mentioned. You may start teaching him however you like on your free time"
Takaya was overjoyed to not only get the approval of his parents but also having them recognize the potential he saw in his friend. This was all that he needed to immediately let him learn the tricks of his trade.
However, he had to wait until Kazuya was stable enough to be transferred back to their region. Even after he had been transferred, Takaya still had to go through a lot to get permission to see his friend. Stockton International truly had gone through a lot of trouble just to ensure that no threat would be able to touch this friend of his.
"I feel bad for you Kazuya" seeing that they were alone in the room, Takaya didn't even try to act polite towards this friend of his.
"It's not that bad. It gives me a lot of time alone and I actually prefer that"
"Really? How are you looking up free bewbies then? Does this place have access?" Takaya mischievously smiled at his friend who couldn't get up to hit him this time.
"You better take advantage of it while you can" Kazuya narrowed his eyes. "I'll make sure and get you back for every stupid thing that comes out of your mouth" he smiled menacingly which made Takaya feel chills.
He was glad to see that his friend hadn't changed a bit after going through that ordeal. He was afraid that his person would be like some of the parts he played and would be afraid of going out into the world anymore. He really was as tough as Takaya had thought or even more.
"So what did you come here for? I imagine it's about the deal we had?"
"Yeah… My parents agreed and even praised me for my evaluation of you after they saw the… video that was spread around online" he hesitated a bit but Kazuya's expression hadnt changed so he just continued after feeling relieved.
"Well I won't be able to do anything unless you begin the lessons here"
"That actually won't be a problem but…" he stopped to look Kazuya in the eye.
"But what?" This guy had rarely been serious so Kazuya was a bit intrigued.
"I've decided to change the lessons a little bit. I first want you to learn how to act like a child properly" This was the decision Takaya had made personally.
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All the Side Stories were supposed to be set on Volume 1 but of course inkstone... ugh... Well... since I've tested that the chapter numbers don't reset anyway and I released the previous chapter was put on Volume 2, I'll leave it alone til they improve inkstone (if ever that really happens)
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