Katawa Shoujo Forums

Hello all, yet again.

Yes, it's another OC story. Please hold your collective groans. I know how you all feel about them.

Breaking the Sound Barrier follows the fate of Yuuto Miyamoto, an epileptic boy with temper issues, who gets sucked into the Student Council when Hisao doesn't.

[Yuuto.][Assbutt]

----
Act One - Shanghaied
Chapter 1: Bad Day
"Because everyday ought to be a bad day for you."
[One] [Two]
Chapter 2: Keepin' It Real
"When my time comes, I won’t be leaving this earth. And what I’ve done for people will determine my worth. "
[One] [Two]
Chapter 3: Seizure Boy
"You have to let it in, as much as it's upsetting to wake up with bruises you don't remember getting."
[One][Two][Three]
Chapter 4: Hey Bulldog
"What makes you think you're something special when you smile?"
[One][Two][Three]
Chapter 5: Hello, Goodnight
“That luck can change like that high tide. Bad things can soon turn out alright.”
[One] [Two]

One Shot: When Yuuto met Molly (And Miki too!)
[One] [Two]

Act Two - Tanabata
Chapter 1: The Ballad of Queen Bee and Baby Duck
"King Baby Duck sat alone on his throne. Every day went and alone he remained. Then came the Queen Bee and everything changed.”
[One][Two][Three]
Chapter 2: Little Round Mirrors
"See yourself reflected in one, there's a hole in the middle you can't seem to fill."
[One][Two]
Chapter 3: Bad Reputation
"You've got a bad reputation. That's the word out on the town."
[One][Two]
Chapter4: Moral of the Story
"Work! Till your arms fall off. Till your abs get hard and your bone’s all soft."
[One][Two]
Chapter 5: Bad Moon Rising
"I see the bad moon arising. I see trouble on the way."
[One][Two][Three]
Chapter 6: Paper Moon
"In the dark, in the dark, I dare to tell you."
[One][Two][Three]

One Shot: To Start A Fire [18+]
[One][Two]

Act Three - Castles
Chapter 1: Mighty
"You may feel small but you are mighty."
[One][Two][Three]
Chapter 2: No One Knows my Plan
"Why the dancing, shouting, why the shrieks of pain? The lovely music? Why the smell of burning autumn leaves?"
[One][Two]

Chapter One: Bad Day, Part One
“Because every day ought to be a bad day for you.”

I am pretty sure that using another human being as a wager is against the law. But Takamichi didn't know that. Or he did and chose to specifically ignore it. And apparently, Takamichi is absolutely terrible at board games. So, not only did he bet my membership in the music club, but he went ahead and lost so spectacularly that he set a world record in "most humiliating defeat". So I'm no longer part of the music club. No. I now belong to something else. Something horrible. Something I never had any intention of joining or talking to or being in the same room as for my entire stint at Yamaku.

And why would he need to bet someone's membership? Simple. Because he forgot to file some paperwork on the club's activities. For two months. And pretty much most of last year. Which means that Yamamoto, the president from last year, also neglected to do any of the paperwork. Morons have been in charge of the club for the last two years apparently. How could we let this happen? When the Student Council President was announced last year, Takamichi had to know how terrible it would be if we neglected our duties. And still, he did nothing!

So the entire club had to be punished. The entire music club had to know that it was a horrible, horrible mistake to neglect their duties for any reason. We were to be divided up for the next two weeks so that we could help any of the other clubs that were putting together a booth and struggling with it. Except for one of us.

One of us had to go work for the Student Council.

And just who got that honor?

Me. Yuuto Miyamoto.

And I’m only really in the stupid music club so that I can meet the stupid requirements for my stupid scholarship. So now I get to help put together a stupid festival instead of playing around on a piano for the next two weeks.

"Pain in the ass." I mutter to no one but myself. There's no one else on the stairway, after all. The school day has been out for almost an hour already. If anyone is still here, they're most likely caught up in their club duties or stuck in one of the classrooms. I've been taking the steps two at a time, hoping to get this day over with as soon as possible. That and I really, really don't like stairs. I need to get off them as soon as possible. This stupid box is too large for one person to hold comfortably and walk with properly. And it keeps rubbing against the six bandages on my arms that are hiding bruises from the last time I toppled out of my chair during an episode. All I need to do is have one of those here on the stairs and I can just tumble to my death amidst a giant messy pile of paper. But I’ll at least pick up on the warning signs before that happens. I’m not an idiot.

Yeah. The first thing I get to do is be a delivery boy. We have to play nice and compliant for now. Hopefully Takamichi's learned his lesson and we won’t have to do this shit ever again.

I take the last step and let out a sigh. I'm supposed to spend the next hour here. In a room. With the student council. With the Tyrant Queen of Yamaku. Going over the contents of this box. Just exactly what I wanted to do after school. Filling out more forms. Filling in incomplete forms that were sitting in the closet since last year. Correcting Takamichi's mistakes in the forms for this year. I'm sure there's more than I can count in this box. I take a second to shift it around in my arms before setting off down the hall. I have never been in the student council room. I never planned on being in the Student Council room. In fact, I have actively avoided even walking past it for the three years I've been here. And I would have continued that trend, if it weren't for Takamichi and these stupid papers. I shift the box again. It isn’t particularly heavy. It’s just big and annoying to carry.

Finally, I drop the box at my feet in front of the dreaded door. Do I knock? That would seem polite. I don't much feel like being polite. This sucks and I want them to know how much I hate everything that's happened in the last two days. I want them to know how displeased I am with this whole situation. But I just can't barge in here and start yelling. They're girls. I can't scream at two girls. But I can be as unhelpful and as unpleasant to be around as possible. That's the plan. Just make them hate me so they kick me out before the festival takes place. It shouldn't take longer than three days, I think.

And if it does, I'll just have to try harder.

I open the door and shove the box into the classroom with my foot.

The Student Council Room is one of the old unused classrooms. There's a few tables arranged into an open square so that everyone faces everyone else. There's a large, metal cabinet against the back wall.

Only one other person besides poor old Yuuto is in the room.

Their back is towards me as they study a map of the school grounds pinned up on the wall, but the short blue hair and girl's uniform are a dead give-away to her identity since only one other person would be here.

It’s the Student Council President herself. Shizune Hakamichi, my nemesis.

I let the door slam shut behind me instead of shutting it quietly. That should be a lovely announcement. Hi. I'm here. I'm angry. Deal with it.

Hakamichi doesn't turn around.

I cough into a fist.

Still nothing.

I cough louder.

What the hell? Is she deaf?

I blink a few times as that sinks in. Right. She is. How could I be so stupid?

I groan quietly before stooping and picking up the box again. My arms are not happy with this turn of events. Well, technically, not one bit of me is happy with the current turn of events. I'd much rather just be in the back of the music room with the rest of the music club. I lug the box across the room to the open square of tables, hoping that the girl at the front of the room might catch me out of the corner of her eye. As the box thumps down on the table, she finally turns around and spots me for the first time. She takes a step back, a little flushed at my sudden appearance. I imagine that might happen a lot. It's probably a lot easier for people to sneak up on you when you're deaf.

I stare at her and hold out my hand to the box. It's pointless to say anything. She can't hear me anyway.

Hakamichi looks down at the box and then back to me. She fixes her glasses before crossing the remaining distance between us. She doesn't seem to care about my presence as she picks up the first stapled stack of papers off the top of the box and looks it over. I take a step away, not wanting to stand directly next to her in case anyone walks in. She snaps her fingers, breaking the strange silence that had once dominated the room and slams the paper back into the box. I stop cringing from the sudden loud noise to see Hakamichi gesturing at me.

Her hands move through a series of poses very rapidly.

She doesn't actually expect me to understand, does she?

I stare at her for a few seconds before raising an eyebrow.

She repeats the motions, a bit more sharply. Is this the equivalent of a stern talking to? Does she think I'm responsible for the lack of work ethic in the club? I had nothing to do with any of this until today.

I shrug at her in response.

What do you expect me to do? I don't know what any of that means, Hakamichi.

The girl lets out a silent sigh and grabs a pen from one of the nearby tables. She flips over one of the forms from the box and begins writing on the paper. Seconds later, she turns the paper over to me, frowning.

You're late, Yuuto.

She knows my name? Takamichi must have mentioned it to her or something. I take great pride in staying under the Student Council’s radar.

Her handwriting is almost like printed text. It's inhumanly neat.

I give a tiny shrug before she pushes the pen into my hand. Okay. I guess we're going to have an annoying conversation.

Heavy Box. I scribble back.

My handwriting looks like a child's compared to her majestic masterpiece.

I place the pen down on the paper and pull the chair next to me out.

Hakamichi glares at me until the idea of sitting down simply vanishes from my mind. She could kill a man with a look like that. She very deliberately picks up the pen and takes her time to write a response. I shove the chair back into place before she finishes and turns the paper back to me.

That's no excuse! This sort of thing reflects poorly on how others see you! How do you expect to do well with student council work if you can't even show up on time for your first meeting?

I glance up at her.

Yeah. We aren't going to get along at all.

She stares at me, an eyebrow raised. She taps her finger against the paper repeatedly.

Does she want me to continue this conversation?

I scribble down a laconic reply.

I don't.

Chapter One: Bad Day, Part 2

I push the paper back to her and pull my chair out. Take that, you Tyrant. I take my seat just as the door behind us is thrown open. Both Hakamichi and I turn to the girl who strides into the room. One look at her bubblegum pink hair and silly grin is enough to know that I'll get along with her as well as I will with Hakamichi. She's going to be incredibly annoying, isn't she?

Her eyes land on me.

"Shicchan! Is this him?" Her hands move through various motions as she talks. Oh. Okay. She's Hakamichi's translator. That would make her Mikado? I think that's her name. Takamichi mentioned that she’s practically glued to the President’s backside. I've tried not to learn much about the student council since I planned on avoiding them all the time. All I know for sure is that these two girls are the entire student council.

Hakamichi fixes her glasses and nods. Mikado strides, bounces really, across the room and stops in front of me.

"Hi! I'm Misha! And I guess you already met Shicchan!"

I give her the tiniest fraction of a nod. A whisper of a nod. The idea of a nod.

Hakamichi sharply signs something to Mikado, causing the other girl to frown.

"Shicchan says you're not very nice, Yuuchan~." Her tone is almost teasing. Her voice is practically shaking the entire room. Why does someone talk that loud? What possible-

Wait. What did she call me?

I grimace.

Did she just call me “Yuuchan”?

"You're one of those people, aren't you?" I fix Mikado with a dead stare. I'm really not going to get along with her if she insists on calling me that.

"One of what?" She asks, that grin reappearing.

"That insists on giving people horrible cute nicknames. Like how you called Hakamichi "Shicchan" earlier." I point over at the Tyrant standing next to us with her arms crossed over her chest. Mikado walks around my chair to stand with Hakamichi in front of me. If anyone were to come in now, it would look like they were about to give me the lecture of a lifetime. The President would be the bad cop. Mikado would be the really annoying cop.

That's a thing, right?

"Wahaha~! I guess you're right, Yuuchan."

So she doesn't even pick up on how negative my statement was? Or is she just ignoring it? And she called me Yuuchan again!

She is just the worst kind of person.

"Well it's nice to meet you! I hope you're ready to work work work! Haha!"

Why does anyone need to speak at that volume?

And no. I'm not.

"So you're her voice box?" I point over to Hakamichi again.

Before Mikado can say anything, the other girl gives a few sharp gestures again, glaring at me. I glance over at Mikado again. Her fingers interlace with each other as she very pointedly looks at everything but me. Does she not want to translate that?

"What did she say?"

"Shicchan says it's not nice to point like that and that you should stop." Mikado frowns, scratching her cheek.

I turn my gaze back towards Hakamichi. There's that look again. Daggers. Eyes. Ugh. I point at her again.

"I'll stop if the Princess stops glaring at me like that."

Mikado's hands start moving the moment words travel out of my lips. Hakamichi watches them closely before fixing her glasses once more. Her hands move. Mikado nods.

"Shicchan will stop when you stop being so rude, Yuuchan~." Mikado trails off as more signing erupts from Hakamichi. While the Student Council President's expression never falters from an analytical stare as she sizes me up, Mikado's expression constantly changes from agreeable to a frown multiple times during the exchange.

"Shicchan wants you to go collect late class forms from one of the class representatives since we'll be busy with all the papers here- Wait, we're going to go through all of these right now, Shicchan?" Mikado frowns.

"I just sat down." I object. The last thing I want to do is be a damn errand boy for these two. And what is with this school and all the late paperwork? Don't we have teachers to make sure this sort of thing gets done?

Mikado translates. Hakamichi raises an eyebrow at me and replies.

"Your club lost the bet and now you have to pay for it. So Shicchan says you have to listen to her."

Hakamichi's eyes flash and she adds something else. That look. It's the crocodile staring down its dinner.

"Unless you want to make another bet~!"

I scowl. Another bet. She wants to play another game? Ha. I'd have to be some kind of moron to take her up on that offer. Right. Might as well get this over with.

"Ugh. No. I know how that ends. Fine, who am I looking for?"

Mikado's grin returns stronger than ever.

"Shicchan says you need to find the representative for class 3-2, Lilly Satou. She's been neglecting her class representative duties for too long now! We need you to let her know that the Student Council isn't going to stand for such laziness anymore."

I frown. I know Lilly Satou. She's the tall, blonde class rep for the blind class. Satou is just as lazy as Takamichi then. I would have never expected that. From what I know of Lilly, she's pretty self-composed and formal, polite about everything. I would have never thought her to be a lazy slacker with all that.

Hakamichi passes her interpreter a stack of papers. Mikado promptly hands them to me as the other girl starts signing again.

"Make sure that she fills these out. They're documents that should outline the measures that we'd be forced to take if she doesn't shape up! Make sure she fills them out, Yuuchan!"

Wait. They want me to do that right now? Why is it so important that Satou's class turn it in? They have others to worry about, don't they?

"You want me to go find Satou? Now?"

School's been out for a while now. I'm not going to just find her in a matter of minutes. The only way to find Satou now would be to prowl the entire school grounds or enter the girl's dormitory. And there's nothing I'd rather do less right now.

"You do know how long it'll take to track down one girl on this campus, right?"

Mikado and Hakamichi exchange a glance. The pink-haired air-head turns back to me, still wielding that goofy grin, and replies.

"You don't have to look for her all over campus! We know where she is, Yuuchan~!"

Right.

I stare at the two of them for an eternity. Neither seems to catch what I'm waiting for. Mikado just stares back, smiling. Hakamichi crosses her arms over her chest and stares back. Is she taunting me?

"Are you going to tell me where that is?"

"Nope! Wahaha!~"

I'm going to kill the both of them. My patience is wearing oh so very thin.

"And why not?"

"Because you were mean to Shicchan! So if you want to know where Satou is, you'll have to promise us that you'll be nicer from now on and not be such a jerk!" Mikado lets out in sing-song.

I stare at them again. It's the same exact scene we just had seconds ago.

"I'm being a jerk? You both abducted me from my club to work in student council! I have no reason to be nice to either of you! If it weren't for the fact that the music club would be disbanded if we hadn't listened to you-" I thrust a finger at Hakamichi. "- I wouldn't be here!"

Hakamichi finally seems to get how upset I am over this and signs back. Her knuckles audibly pop as she signs rapidly at Mikado. Her eyes never leave my own, as we have an intense death-glare off.

"Shicchan says that it's your own club's fault for not following the procedures set forward by the student council. Your Club President bet one of the members to keep the club running and we won. Everything was fair."

Fair? It was all fair?

Oh that is it.

"Fair? I had nothing to do with the paperwork!" I shout at Hakamichi. This is weird. She can't hear me. But I guess at least this way she gets that I'm shouting at her and not the bimbo.

More signing.

"That's no excuse, Yuuchan!~" Mikado lets out in sing-song again. It's an odd contrast to the anger floating between Hakamichi and me.

I slam my hands down on the table as I stand.

"Are you going to tell me where Satou is so I can get this over with or am I going to have to look for her by myself all fucking afternoon?" I'm amazed I managed to get that out with my jaw clenched this tight.

Mikado and Hakamichi turn to each other. Mikado slowly signs something to the tyrant. Eons pass in the blink of an eye and Hakamichi finally turns her head away as if to say "if you must". The other girl turns back to me, a small frown sitting on her face.

"Satou usually is in a small unused classroom on the second floor after school. She spends a lot of time there with her friend, Ikezawa."

That's too vague for my liking, but it's probably the best I'm going to get out of them. It would have been nice if they had just left the forms and instructions for them with Takamichi earlier. The music club meets on the second floor. I could have just done this on the way down here. I shove my chair back under the desk with unneeded force. Mikado takes a step back from me as I shove my hand into my pocket, the other clutching the stack of papers tightly, and storm out of the room. Mikado calls after me to come back when I'm done with Satou. I slam the door shut in response. Loud noises tend to let people know the amount of anger behind them, just in case they haven't picked up on that yet. It's their fault that I've been yanked so rudely from the club I chose to join when I started at Yamaku. I don't even have any background in any of this student council business from my old schools.

I let out one last groan of frustration before heading towards the stairwell. This is stupid. This is beyond stupid.

Next Chapter: Keepin' It Real

Previous Chapter: Bad Day

Chapter 2: Keepin’ it Real
“When my time comes, I won’t be leaving this earth. And what I’ve done for people will determine my worth.”

I stomp up the stairs, taking them two at a time. Alright. Just have to try all the unused classrooms on this floor until I find Satou. That shouldn't be too hard. There are only a handful of them. But they're kind of far apart from each other. I'd like it a lot more if they were just clumped together. Actually, I'd have preferred it if those two student council idiots had just told me what room she was in. But that isn't going to happen. If I'm going to be incredibly unhelpful, I guess I shouldn't expect much from them.

The first room is a bust. It's just empty, save for a few desks stacked against the wall. This must have been an old club room. I shake my head before closing the door again. Okay. The next one is... down the hall. And the last door on the left.

My feet drag against the floor as I head down the hall. This is stupid.

I open the next empty classroom door without knocking first.

"Hello." A girl's voice graces my ears.

I blink a few times at the scene in front of me. I've found Satou, alright. She's looking vaguely in my direction, a tea cup held up in both hands. I must have come in mid-sip. I had counted on their being another person in the room with her, but there's another girl, who's trying her best not to let me see her looking at me. She's holding a book, mostly in front of her face. I suddenly feel terrible. They must have been enjoying the peace and quiet of this little room. It looks like a sort of sanctuary. A place of peace and tranquility. And here I am, just barging into it and ruining what they must have taken ages to create.

That feeling passes in a matter of seconds. I have shit to do, after all.

"Hanako, is someone there?" Satou asks. Her voice almost makes me want to slick back my hair, tuck in my shirt and apologize for any rude behavior I’ve had in the last three years. Almost.

Oh. I'm just standing here, aren't I? Probably time to announce myself. The other girl, who must be Hanako Ikezawa then, opens her mouth.

"Y-Yes, Lilly. A boy."

"Sorry to intrude, Satou. I didn't know anyone was in here. My name is Yuuto Miyamoto." I call out, stepping into the room. I let the door swing shut behind me, even further destroying the quiet of the room. Something about Satou makes me want to be on my best behavior.

Satou's expression twists as I speak. Is she trying to place my voice to my name? She might know me. I don't know. We've spoke a few times before today, in passing. But they weren't exactly close together and I don't remember if I told her my name. That girl is still staring at me, like I've come into the room with a loaded gun. She ducks down behind her book as I give her a tiny bow of my head. Yes. I see you.

"Ah. Hello Yuuto. Is something wrong with Noriko?"

Something wrong with Noriko? What would be wrong with Watanabe? I mean besides the whole missing eye -Oh. Right. I guess she remembers that I’m in the music club. After all, I’ve always run into her in the past when I was with Noriko.

I give Satou a shake of my head. Then I remember how stupid that is.

"Uhm, no. This isn’t about the music club. Like I said, I'm sorry to intrude but I've been sent to find you."

Satou places her tea-cup down. She's confused. Hell, I'm confused as to why the hell I'm actually doing this. I could have just left the school building and rode my bike into town. It’s Monday. It’s pick up day from the convenience store. And I’m supposed to get a full box of that foam stuff they wrap around the shipments of egg cartons. I actually paid for this stuff too.

"What can I do for you?"

I lessen my death grip on the forms that those slavers, Hakamichi and Mikado, gave me. I have to smooth out a few wrinkles of fury in the paper. I finally notice the little bumps all over the budge report paper. They must be braille. Satou is blind, after all.

"I've been sent here by student council with some forms..."

Satou's expression noticeably darkens when I mention the student council.

"I see." She mutters. "I wasn't aware that there was a new member on the student council."

"No. I was..." I walk over to the table, searching for the right word. I pull out the seat next to the Ikezawa girl and sit. Lilly must have picked up on the sounds of me walking and pulling out the chair, as her face has followed me flawlessly across the room. I shuffle the papers into place before glancing up at Lilly. That other girl keeps glancing at me from her book.

Holy shit. Are those burn scars on her face? That’s awful.

"Ah. I was forced to join the student council due to an unfortunate turn of events. Look, I just want to get these papers filled out and then I can be out of your hair. Both of you.” I give the other girl a glance. She ducks behind her book. I think I might have made it obvious that her scars caught me by surprise.

"Oh, my apologies." Lilly holds a hand to her mouth. "This is Hanako."

Lilly holds a hand out to the girl sitting next to her. I give her a tiny nod of my head.

"H-Hello."

"Nice to meet you. Now, if we could get down to these forms?"

Lilly gives me a curt nod of her head. "If you insist."

I slide the papers across the desk in front of Lilly. She takes a sip of her tea. Then another.

Okay. I don't have all day. I have people waiting on me.

"Look, I'd really just appreciate it if we signed these and I could take them back to the crocodile that made me come here. I'm not even sure what she expects from you nor do I know what's in these forms. I don't really care either." There's a definite strain to my voice as I force it out of my throat. I give the other girl at the table a very forced smile. She looks like she’s about to cry.

I don't care if I'm being rude anymore. I just want to get this over with.

"So, Satou, if you wouldn't mind..." I thump my palm against the papers, letting her know that they're in front of her. Despite a slight look of annoyance, she quickly nods then slowly moves her fingertips across the papers in front of her. Ikezawa buries her face into her book again, thankfully. I don't have to squirm under her staring. And I don’t have to watch myself to make sure I don’t openly gawk at the scars that are pretty apparent now that I’m so close to her. So I keep my attention focused on the girl in front of me. It isn’t very hard. Despite lacking any desire to be here, Satou makes it very easy. After all, the girl is quite pleasing to the eyes. Her blonde hair really makes her stand out from the rest of the students here. Not to mention her height. Too bad she’s taller than me. I’m not really into that.

After a few minutes of silence, Satou pushes aside the bump-covered first stack before placing her fingertips against the other forms that Hakamichi had me bring up. Her expression darkens again as she drags her entire hand across the paper.

Those forms are bump-free. No braille on them. How does Hakamichi expect her to read those? Unless she left them like that so I'd have to stay here until Lilly was done.

That'd be pretty clever.

And it would also be incredibly cruel and unusual.

Sounds like Hakamichi then.

"She's being absolutely ridiculous." Satou mutters under her breath.

"Something I can help you with?" It’s an empty offer. I don’t want to help her with anything. I rest my chin on a fist, watching the girl across me. I've never seen Satou so openly agitated before. Then again, I haven't seen her much. I just know her. I’ve said “Hello” to her when we’ve bumped into each other before. But most of what I know about her is from hear-say. Noriko, the girl she brought up earlier, is part of the music club. Apparently, everyone looks up to her for some reason. She must be some sort of shining paragon or something. Yet she can’t keep up with her representative business? I guess she isn’t as great as I’ve been told.

Also, I really don’t want to help her.

"No. Nothing." Satou sighs quietly.

"Wonderful. Do you need a pen?" Come on. Just sign the stupid forms.

"Actually, I'm afraid I can't read these forms here by myself. Would you like to read them for me or could I take these and fill them out later tonight?" Satou ventures.

Haha. No. There's no way I could do that. That tyrant said I had to sit here and make sure she filled these out. Hakamichi probably means she wants me to bring them right back to her. She would probably explode if I just let Satou take these with her overnight.

Actually, she probably would have an aneurism if I just neglected her orders like that.

Hold on…

Chapter 2: Keepin' It Real - Part 2

That's not a bad idea.

"Sure. Why not?"

"Well you did point out that you wanted to take these back to the Student Council today."

That's a good point, Satou. However, you should shut up and just let this happen. I mean, you did suggest it after all.

"Look, let me worry about Hakamichi. I'm not exactly looking to be obedient to her every whim. I'll take the heat for this." I put on my cheesiest smile for the benefit of Ikezawa, who have has already returned to staring at me. Way to make me feel comfortable here. At least Satou couldn’t tell that I was staring at her. "I'll just explain that you're looking them over and I have other things to do. And really, I shouldn't be bothering you all with this so late in the day."

Besides I'm certainly not going to just sit here and read you all five pages of this crap so you can fill them out.

"Well, thank you very much, Yuuto." Satou gives me a tiny smile. I can’t help but feel good about that smile. Not only am I helping out someone who obviously ticks off Hakamichi, but hey… Satou is a looker. No horrible, tasteless pun intended.

I scoot my chair back and stand up.

"It's fine. I'm sorry to bother you two. Just bring them back to the student council room when you're done and uh... take your time."

I give both girls a hasty bow as I back away from the table. Oh this is brilliant.

"Enjoy the rest of your day."

And I leave them with that, letting the door swing shut behind me. Back to the student council room, I suppose.

I do hope that Satou doesn't take her time filling out those forms. I would absolutely detest making Princess Crocodile wait longer than she expects to.

I may have to work for the student council, but I'm going to take my sweet time doing things however I want to. I take the stairs two at a time again. I really do have something else to do today. I'd like to get this student council bullshit done with so I can get to that.

I slump my shoulder forward to swing my bag around so I can get my phone.

Except nothing swings forward.

I hiss loudly. Great. My bag is on the floor in the music club room. I forgot all about it in my struggle with the box of stupid paperwork for the club. How could I be so stupid as to forget that? It's got all my... Gaaaaaaah. I let out a long, exaggerated sigh to properly express my frustration. Right. Up again. I trudge up the flight of stairs, cursing under my breath with each step. I guess I should be glad that no one else is around. A kid swearing at no one while stomping around might get a few stares.

But at least I get to make Hakamichi and Mikado wait even longer for me to return.

A few minutes later, I'm pushing open the door to the music room. No one's here, of course. Only Takamichi and I stuck around after the quick meeting to discuss what would happen now and that I had to lug that box downstairs. And there is no way Takamichi would have stayed here after that.

It's just as quiet as the room that Satou and her friends were in. I hate it when this room is empty. Being tucked so far into the corner of the school and being so out of the way, it feels like something out of a horror film. Like I'm going to turn around and see the ghost of some former student there. Usually, we've got all six members of the club here. Well, I guess it's five now.

The music club room is one of the old unused classrooms, stuck all the way at the end of the hall. We would have taken one of the rooms out in the auxiliary buildings, but they were taken by the sports clubs already. We have an old electronic keyboard set up against one wall. All the other instruments actually belong to club members. We're not a very big club, so we don't get a lot of school funding nor do we generate a lot of our own. Takamichi's cello is leaning against the wall right next to the piano. All the desks are stacked against the other wall. We only really need the chairs anyway. The only desk that isn't stacked away is up at the front of the class, which we usually just use to put anything we don't want to leave on the floor. There's a waste-bin on the floor next to the desk.

Sure enough, my bag is sitting on the floor next to the waste-bin. It’s right where I left it when Takamichi started talking to me about taking the box down to the Student Council room.

I stoop down to pick it up.

“Hey Yuuto.”

I look up.

There’s a girl standing in the doorway. The white medical eyepatch is a dead giveaway to her identity. That, and I’ve spent the last three years around her in this club. She scratches her head through her short, chopped brown hair as I stand up properly again.

“Watanabe. Hi.”

“You left your bag here?” She points at the bag in my hands.

Uh. Yeah. That’s why I’m here to get it. I shake my head to clear any thoughts of mean remarks from it and slide the straps around my shoulders. I don’t feel like getting into anything with her, so I let the stupid question slide. Normally though, I’d jump at the chance to make a sarcastic remark. I like Watanabe. She’s cut from the same cloth as me. We could exchange blows for hours, but I’m too tired and actually pissed off to do that right now.

“Yeah. I sort of forgot it here after the paperwork thing with Takamichi.” I explain, finally looking up to meet her gaze. She instantly looks at the instruments on the opposite side of the room. Did she leave her flute here or something?

“Oh. Right. You’re working for the student council.” She turns away from me and looks down the hall.

“You come up here for something or just want to hang out in the empty room?”

Watanabe brandishes a thick black folder so that I can read Takamichi’s name scrawled over some masking tape on the front.

“I wrote out those songs that Masa wanted us to learn two weeks ago. I figure that it would be something for us all to sink our teeth into after the festival.” She slips into the room and shuts the door behind her.

I groan. I remember him bringing those up and saying he’d find all the parts for us to learn. She’s doing club stuff for that jerk too? Well, I guess it’s sort of understandable why she’d be doing things for him.

“If Takamichi wanted us to learn those stupid songs, why doesn’t he write them out himself? What does he have against paperwork?”

“I don’t know. And lay off him,” Watanabe’s voice sort of wavers as it comes out of her mouth. She stops next to me and shrugs. “He made one stupid mistake and now we’re all paying for it. I bet he feels terrible enough for it as is. He has to work with all the first year classes to make sure they're ready for the festival.”

I snort. “We’re all paying for it? It’s his mistake, Watanabe. He should be the one working for the student council. But no, he had to do that stupid hat drawing idea so that it was fair.” Besides, this was more like a long series of stupid mistakes that he kept repeating. Now it’s all caught up to him and instead of taking responsibility, he starts spouting about how it should be a chance for the club to help each other out and take care of business. And I know for sure that he doesn’t feel bad about it. He just keeps doing that stupid smile of his and apologizing out of his ass. All of it is completely fake, I know it. There’s no sense in Watanabe telling me any different. I’ve known the guy for almost three years now.

Watanabe tosses the folder onto the desk behind me. She bites her bottom lip. “Yeah. Fair. But…. Lay off him. We’re all working the punishment off.”

“You don’t have to defend him or do his every bidding just because you two are dating, Watanabe.”

She rolls her eyes, well eye, and shoves me with both hands. I don’t think it was totally playful.

“That’s not why I… Look, he said he was sorry alright? And… we all are, alright?” Watanabe crosses her arms over her chest and keeps failing to meet my gaze. What is the deal? She hasn’t been able to look me in the eye since she walked in.

Whatever. I know that this is a futile argument. She’s just going to take Takamichi’s side anyways. That’s what couples do.

“Why are you apologizing? It’s not like it was your idea to do the stupid hat thing.” I shove past her and pull the door open again.

“Yeah, but you get stuck doing all the hard work for the club all the time. And now you’re shouldering the worst of the punishment for us.” Noriko goes on.

“It’s not that big of a deal. I do stuff like this all the time for my family.” I reply with a shrug. Besides, I’m not the greatest piano player so I have to prove my worth to the club somehow, right?

“Not a big deal? You complain and gripe about all the stupid manual labor Takamichi asks you to do.” She crosses her arms over her chest and frowns at me.

Oh right. I do.

“Well, yeah. But that’s because it’s Takamichi and he’s an asshole. Why are you dating him again?”

Watanabe groans and smacks me on the forehead. She has to reach up to do it since she’s a lot shorter than I am.

“Don’t be such an ass, Yuuto.”

“Whatever. I’ll see you later, Watanabe.”

“Yeah. Later, Yuuto. And sorry again.” Watanabe gives me a little wave of her hand.

Is… Is that guilt that I hear? It’s the same voice that my idiot friend uses when one of her pranks pisses me off more than usual.

I don’t have time for this right now. I just grunt and shut the door behind me.

Right. Back to student council now. It’s Monday and I’m already late. I’ve just got to get this student council stuff out of the way and then I can go to town to pick up the empty foam packaging from the convenience store.

Hopefully they’re done with me for the day.

Next Chapter: Seizure Boy

Previous Chapter:Keepin' It Real

Chapter 3: Seizure Boy
“You have to let it in as much as it’s upsetting to wake up with bruises you don’t remember getting.”

I rotate my shoulder, clutching my other hand against it. Those two student council brutes have been keeping me pretty busy over the last week and a half. I haven’t even had time to do anything besides homework and whatever task they’ve assigned me. I get it why I’m doing so much work though. The school festival is tomorrow and everything seems to be not done yet. I haven’t had a chance to go get those forms from Satou yet. And Hakamichi laid into me about my “negligence” over that little incident three times already. I don’t think that I’m going to be getting to fixing that today either. I was told to finish these last few stalls while Hakamichi and Mikado finished some other student council business.

I think they’ve managed to rope some other poor sap into helping them out too. I don’t remember having all these materials brought down for us the other day. But they’ve been spending all their time with some new transfer student that was placed into their class. I’m hoping he decides to join student council. I know my indentured servitude officially ends on the day of the Festival, but I wouldn’t put it past Hakamichi to weasel a few more days or weeks or months of work out of me somehow. Probably through some sort of game. The one time we did all work on the stalls together, she made it a contest to see who could put together the most stalls correctly. And she won by a landslide.

I wipe my brow and drop the hammer in my hand to the ground. That’s it. This is the last stall and I’ve just finished hammering it together. That took enough time. I’m amazed that I didn’t have an episode today with all the stress and physical strain that the Student Council has been running me through. Not to mention that I’ve been doing this all in direct sunlight the whole time. I don’t do too well with routine physical labor. It tends to aggravate my condition and bring about an episode. Unfortunately, pretty much everything tends to aggravate my condition. And then there’s the thing that sometimes I just have an episode for no damn reason. It’s very exciting.

It’s ultimately more exciting because I’m behind the school and wouldn’t have any help if I did suddenly just drop. Thankfully I’ve got two friends to rely on for that. Unfortunately, they didn’t deem our friendship high enough to actually help me build any stalls. Not that I can blame them though. It’s a pretty shitty job.

I pull my headphones off and let them rest around my neck. It’s hot. It’s hot and I’ve been laboring under the sun for the last hour and a half. But it’s finally done and I can go check in with my “bosses” and be done with them for the rest of the day.

“You finally done, Yuuto?”

I turn to the girls sitting behind me. The only two people I can remotely call my friends anymore in this place.

One holds her bandaged stump up to her forehead in a mock salute. The other girl tugs on her twin braids before offering a can of orange soda to me.

“We went into town for you and got that bundle of cardboard tubes from the convenience store for you. I can’t believe you get all that stuff for free.” Molly remarks. “I get that it’s all trash, but it’s a lot of stuff. We put them in your room already.”

I take the few steps over to meet them on the bench before collapsing between them. She practically has to press the soda can against my neck before I remember that I had asked them to get me something to drink when they went to town. I give her a breathless thank you before popping the tab open on the can.

Miki and Molly both move out of the way as orange soda sprays out of the can and directly at my face and chest. I’m too tired to even move the can out of the way. I just let it soak me and possibly stain my uniform shirt orange for the rest of its sad pathetic life. Miki is already roaring with laughter on the ground. Molly, who is now wiping a few droplets of soda off her sleeve, looks like she’s drowning in guilt. She couldn’t move as quickly as Miki, since she’d have a hard time getting off the ground with those metal legs. She reaches into her bag and produces another can of soda.

“I’m sorry, Yuuto. Miki shook the can and said she’d…”

I hurl the half-empty can at Miki. It doesn’t even come anywhere close to her. Miki’s laughing just gets louder. She snorts halfway through it. I take the other soda can from Molly.

“She said she’d come up with something worse if I said anything.”

“Miki, I hate you.” I mutter. I can feel my face instantly start to get sticky. Ugh. And I have to go meet with Mikado and Hakamichi after this. Now I’ll have to go back to my room and shower and change before that. I’d love to say that this is the first time that Miki’s ever gotten me to fall for some stupid prank. But she’s pulled this kind of shit before.

“Oh get over it. It’s just some soda.” Miki scoffs as she shoves herself off the ground. She snorts again as I give her a death glare. A few droplets of soda fall from my bangs.

“Besides I thought you’d find a shower refreshing after working for so long.” Another snorting-laughter fit takes over Miki’s body as I contemplate chucking my other soda at her. Molly pulls my arm back down from over my head.

“Yuuto, that’ll actually hurt her.” Molly warns.

“If you’re trying to get me to not throw this, you’re off to a bad start.”

“Hey. At least you’re all done with your student council slavery in two days.” Miki stands up and begins dusting her butt off. “Did you put together all these stands?”

I pop open the can of soda, making sure to face it away from me this time, just to be safe. It doesn’t spray out like the last one. I let out a sigh of relief before taking a gulp from the can.

“Not all of them. Hakamichi and Mikado did over half of them together. But they’ve been sticking me out here on my own to put together the rest.” I take another sip from the can. “It sucks.”

Miki thuds the back of her hand against my chest. “You could do with a little manual labor, Yuuto. You’re not going to get any girls being a skeleton. You gotta be manly.”

“Miki I don’t think tha-“ Molly begins.

“You gotta get muscles sometime, assbutt.” Miki flexes her arms over her head and kisses each of her biceps. I just let out one of my trademark groans of frustration. Miki’s more annoying than funny sometimes.

She suddenly pokes the large bandage on my left cheek. I wince as she prods the tender bruise underneath.

“What’d you hit this on?”

“Bedside table last night. That really hurts, you know.”

“You’re lucky it didn’t slice your cheek open or something.” Molly points out. “You should move your bedside table a little so you don’t keep hitting it.

“I’ve been too tired when I get back to the room to move anything before you both show up. I don’t even have the strength to move a stupid bedside table. Student Council’s been riding my ass raw.” I take another gulp of soda.

“And when they aren’t making me slave under them, I have to play whatever game Hakamichi manages to pull out of her butt. And she keeps telling me that we’re betting on me having to work for them longer.” I sigh.

I haven’t won a single stupid board game against Hakamichi since I started working for them.

“But the festival is almost here! And you’ll be free to go back to the music club then.” Molly tries to cheer me up.

I nod slowly. That’s all that I have to keep me going now. The fact that after this all blows over, life can go back to the same monotonous pattern that it crawled along with. School day. Club work. Studying with Miki and Molly until curfew. Repeat process until Sunday, which is spent with Miki and Molly downtown. It’s pretty boring, but hey. A boring routine is better than slavery. The only thing that’s changed is that I went from tolerating Takamichi to outright despising him now. And I do plan on making that known. Or more obvious, I guess.

“Yeah. If Shizune doesn’t pull a Shizune and use some sort of power move to keep you in Student Council.” Miki thuds the back of her hand against my chest again. I hate that this is another common occurrence with my one-handed friend.

“Mikado and Hakamichi have been hounding that new guy in your class to join. He helped them make a bunch of these stalls. I think I shouldn’t have anything to worry about if he’s joining up.” I mean, I might have done all the stupid work they assigned me, but I haven’t been pleasant or anything like that. I take another sip of my soda. I just wish it was still cold.

Miki and Molly exchange a glance. More than a glance, really. It’s more of a worried look. In that it makes me incredibly worried.

“What do you two know that I don’t?” I mutter lowly.

Neither of them particularly looks forward to giving me any sort of bad news, so they often try to hide it even when I know that it’s coming. And when that instantly doesn’t work, they just try to hold out longer than the other one. Miki turns her attention to anywhere but me. There’s no use in trying to dig the information out of her once she’s set to ignore me. So I round on Molly, the weakest link. She immediately shrinks into herself, trying to hide. I place my hand on her shoulder.

“Molly.”

“I don’t know anything.” Molly immediately spits out.

“Molly.” I repeat.

“D-Don’t you want to change out of that sticky shirt, Yuuto?”

“Molly.” I repeat again.

“You have clean clothes, r-right?”

“Molly.” I hiss.

“Please, I think assbutt pretty much relies on you to get his laundry done, Molly.” Miki shoots into the conversation.

“Stop calling me assbutt!” And that’s only half true! I did my own laundry last month.

I immediately take advantage of Miki’s returned interest in our conversation to pull her into a headlock under my arm. She pushes away from me, but I hold on tightly. It’s difficult. Miki is a hell of a lot stronger than me. But, she’s only got one good arm. So it’s pretty much an even battle.

At least it is until she stops pushing away from me and starts beating me with both of her arms.

“W-When I was headed to class this morning, I stopped outside the door because I overheard Misha and that Satou girl arguing over the budget reports for the festival!” Molly cries out. She attempts to pull us apart.

I immediately drop Miki, who tumbles off the bench rather gracefully.

“And?” I motion with my hand for Molly to keep the story rolling.

“And Hisao was there. A-and Hisao sort of took Lilly’s side. And… and then in class neither Misha nor Shizune talked to Hisao. Well, I guess Misha didn’t.” Molly cringes, as though I’m going to hit her or something. Which is stupid. If I’m going to hit anyone it’s Miki.

Miki throws herself back onto the bench and wraps her arm around my neck.

“So I guess you’ll probably be stuck in Student Council for a while, ass-er- Yuuto.”

I groan quietly. That’s the last thing I need to hear. I thought this Hisao guy would be my way out of Hakamichi’s clutches. Those two have basically done nothing but talk about him when they were building stalls with me. And when I’ve been working on these things alone, they’ve been dragging him all around the damn school. To boot, it seems like it might all be my fault. I should have just stuck around until Satou finished those stupid reports.

“Great.”

That would explain why Hakamichi was so upset earlier when I went to see them after class. Mikado could barely keep up the translations with how fast the President was signing. And she had to keep stopping to ask what certain words Hakamichi used meant. Oh man, and the crackling coming from Hakamichi’s wrists. I guess I know what put the fire in her today. That also might explain why I had to build the last four stalls all by myself today.

Miki slips her arm off me and pats my back.

“Awww’h, cheer up Yuuto. Who knows? If you stick around maybe Madam President will give you access to her inner cabinet, if you know what I mean.” She gives me a playful wink to go with the lewd comment.

“Miki!” Molly gasps.

“No thank you. I’d sooner stick it in a meat grinder.” I mutter before standing. I give my arms a stretch over my head. Nothing to do now but go meet Hakamichi and Mikado one last time before I’m free. Hopefully Hakamichi’s calmed down and doesn’t go off on me for taking so long. I gulp down the rest of the soda and toss the empty can to Miki. She fails to catch it with one hand and it bounces off her forearm to Molly.

“I’ll see you guys later tonight then, alright?” Miki and Molly usually spend the last hour before curfew in my room, studying and listening to music I have taking up almost all of my laptop’s hard-drive. Molly typically has to get Miki and me to refocus on the school work every few minutes. I give them a little wave as I walk towards the school building. I stoop to pick up the hammer on my way.

“Okay!” Molly shouts at my back. You know, sometimes it kind of irks me how chipper she can be. Thankfully, she’s nowhere near as bad as Mikado. Still, I turn and nod at her, giving her my best attempt at a smile.

“Yuuto! You’re feeling alright, right?” Miki calls out.

I turn back around. Usually it’s Molly who’s asking that.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” I mean, I’m pretty beat. But I’ve been working out here for a while now. So that’s easily explained.

“Alright. Take it easy, assbutt.” Miki throws me a mock salute again.

I wish I still had the soda can to throw at her. I opt instead to roll my eyes and stalk off to the boy’s dormitory.

And these two are my friends.

Chapter 3: Seizure Boy - Part 2

I make a quick run back into the dormitory to wash the soda off and change into a cleaner uniform. Molly hasn’t forced me to do my laundry in the last few weeks, so it’s just a matter of which shirt isn’t on the floor or covered in the aftermath of one of Miki’s “pranks”. My room is pretty much a huge dirty clothing stockpile. The only two areas not dominated by filthy socks and boxers are my bed and my desk. While pretty gross, the clothing piles come in handy if I tumble out of bed in the middle of the night.

The whole thing takes ten minutes. Then I’m heading right out that door again, still carrying this stupid hammer, towards the school building and my oppressors. I’m supposed to meet them in the Student Council room to finish going over the last few stacks of budget reports. If we get that done, we should be ahead of schedule for the festival and I can be out of this servitude just a bit sooner. I manage to almost tumble down the stairs on my way out of the dormitory, managing to just catch the railing before seriously hurting myself. Seems I’m going to be clumsy today. Thankfully it didn’t happen when I was swinging that hammer earlier. Maybe it would be better to take it just a bit slower. After all, I have no problem with making Hakamichi and Mikado wait a few extra minutes. They might even be finished with the reports by then.

But knowing my luck, they’ll probably just be starting them.

As bad as the last week and a half has been toiling under Hakamichi’s iron fist, it hasn’t been as terrible as I thought it would be. They’ve left me to do a lot of the stuff on my own. Both Hakamichi and Mikado do make it a point to check on my progress, especially with the stall building, before vanishing again. The only thing that’s really bothered me is the fact that they’ve been gallivanting with that Hisao guy while I’m doing all this crap for them. And look at that! It backfired on them! He basically snuffed them for Satou. Not that I blame him. Satou is much easier and pleasant to deal with than those two.

The school is pretty much empty. The other students I do pass are going in the opposite direction as I am. They’re headed out the doors, off to do whatever they please for the rest of the afternoon. But not I. I have to go get permission from my masters.

Speaking of the Devil, I bump into Satou and her friend, Ikezawa, at the bottom of the stairwell. Not literally of course. I’m paying attention to where I’m going. Ikezawa instantly shrinks behind the tall blond as I wave. Right. Why do I keep doing that? I let my arm go limp against my side.

“Hey Satou. Ikezawa.”

The blonde girl stops in place and her face twists in concentration. She must be trying to place my voice again.

“H-Hello.” The shy girl manages to get out into Satou’s back.

“Yuuto?”

“Yeah.”

She gives me a soft smile. It would melt a man of lesser resolve. But like I said, I’m not into girls that are taller than I am.

“Hello. I hope you aren’t stopping me about the budget reports for the festival.”

I shake my head and groan. I’m a moron. I’ll have to learn to stop doing that eventually.

“No. Not at all. I heard about Hakamichi jumping down your throat about that this morning though.”

Lilly lets out a tiny sigh. Is that irritation I hear? I know that sound so very well. It’s the same sigh I give whenever Miki makes a bad joke or Hakamichi tries to get me to play some board game with her for my freedom.

“Yes. I’ve got the reports right here, as well as that silly contract that she wanted me to sign. I was just on my way to drop them off.”

Huh. Well, how lucky for you that I’m headed this way. Hakamichi might get off my case if it looks like I went out of my way to track Satou down and grab these from her.

“Well, hey, I’m headed to meet up with those two right now. I can take those off your hands, if you’d like.” I hold out my hand, knowing full well that Satou can’t see it. But hey, Ikezawa’s finally decided to step out from behind Satou and face me. She can see that I’m holding my hand out. I certainly hope she isn’t this shy around everyone and that it’s just this bad with me because I openly gawked at her burn scars the other day.

Satou’s smile returns in full. “That would be very kind of you, Yuuto.”

This smile manages to bring out fuzzy feelings in me. Hey. She’s a pretty girl. What guy doesn’t like a pretty girl smiling at them? And if she really does bother Hakamichi that much, it wouldn’t hurt to be on her good side.

Satou passes me the small stack of slightly crumpled papers. I guess I really did a number on them when I brought them up to her, didn’t I?

“Thank you again, Yuuto.”

I shrug. It’s for Ikezawa’s benefit, apparently. I never realized how much I rely on non-verbal communication before.

“It’s no problem. Enjoy the rest of your afternoon.”

“G-Goodbye.”

Ikezawa even manages a little bow before she and Satou take off in the opposite direction.

Right. Well, I suppose there’s nothing left to stop me from meeting with my “superiors”. The rest of the walk to the Student Council room is quiet. I guess Satou and Ikezawa were the last two students in the building. My right arm starts to tingle. Damn it. I guess swinging this stupid hammer really did a number on it. I rotate my arm shoulder over and over until the feeling returns in it. I push open the door to the student council room with my head hung low.

“Stalls are done.” I announce before looking up.

Hakamichi and Mikado both throw their arms up at my sudden arrival.

“SURPRISE!” Mikado shouts in the manner that I’ve become so accustomed to her always using.

There’s a pile of food between them. And it isn’t convenience store food or cafeteria food either. In fact it looks a lot like…

“Is that Takoyaki?” I ask, pointing to one of the dishes on the table they’re flanking.

Mikado nods enthusiastically. “Yep! The Student Council gets to try all the stall food before the festival to make sure that it’s good! And we thought that since you’ve been working on the stalls for the last few days, that we could use this to thank you for all your hard work!”

Hakamichi’s hands move.

“Even if you’ve been sort of a jerk. Haha!”

I place the hammer on one of the free tables. Well, that…

That’s probably the nicest thing anyone’s ever done for me before. It makes me feel kind of guilty for how rude I’ve been. Only sort of though. And only really for Mikado. At least she’s tried to be nice. Hakamichi’s just been a slave driver.

“What’re those?” Mikado points at the papers I’m clutching.

Huh? Oh. Right these.

“Uh, Molly told me that you had a discussion with Satou about how she hadn’t turned in the budget reports so I made sure to go get them for you.” I shake my head to clear the guilt from it and pass the papers over to Hakamichi. And the fact that I’m still feeling light-headed and fuzzy from that smile that Satou gave me. Ugh. I guess I’m a little weaker to the opposite sex than I thought. Damn her womanly ways.

The student council president looks over them quickly and places them on a table behind her. She turns to Mikado and starts signing slowly.

“Shicchan says that’s very responsible and very much unlike you, Yuuchan. She wants to know what you did so wrong that you would go out of your way to do something like this!”

I shrug. “Nothing. I just figured it’s my fault that you got into a fight with Satou over it.”

Hakamichi and Mikado have a silent conversation, hands flying. It leaves me completely out of the loop. I’m not dealing with that. Not when I’m about to die of starvation.

“You guys mind if I start eating then? I’m starving.” I point at the food between them.

“Huh? Oh! Sure thing! We were actually about to start eating without you, Yuuchan~!” Mikado beats me to the table and starts piling food onto an empty plate. At that rate, she’s going to take double helpings of everything on the table.

I practically have to sprint across half the room to even get a few pieces of Takoyaki. Mikado’s already started shoving them into her mouth. Hakamichi waits patiently for me to get out of the way until she starts picking out what she wants. But Mikado and I are probably going to end up fighting over the last of any of my favorite foods. I just have a feeling we will. We all take a seat around the food and dig in.

I’m about halfway done with my plate when Mikado lets out a little yelp and drops her chopsticks in the process.

“Yuuchan! Why’d you kick me?” She signs everything as she says it, so now even the deaf girl is in on the conversation. Hakamichi immediately shoots me a death glare.

“Whu?” I get out around a mouthful of fatty, fried goodness. I swallow everything. “I didn’t kick you.”

“Yes you did!” Mikado reaches down under the table and starts rubbing her leg. “Right in the shin! You’ve been batting your foot against my foot for the last few minutes and then you kicked me!”

I blink a few times. My leg jerks forward again, just missing Mikado’s other leg.

“Stop it!, Yuuchan!”

Oh no.

No no no. Not now.

Damn. I shouldn’t have chalked up my sudden weakness to being tired from working on stalls. And that fuzzy feeling in my head that won’t go away? That was stupid of me to think it was from feeling good about Satou smiling at me. I should have gone straight to the Nurse’s office. Then the pointless repetitive movement of my feet? I’m such an idiot. After dealing with these things on an almost daily basis for years, I’ve learned the pattern of how my seizures start and I just completely ignored them.

I push my plate away from me and attempt to shove myself up from the table. My leg buckles out under me and I slam back down into my seat. Not good.

Okay. I’m not going anywhere. And these two are about to see just why I’m here at Yamaku. I take a deep breath. My chest is already tightening. It’s difficult to explain just what the moments leading up to a grand mal seizure, because it’s just… a very difficult feeling to explain. And I’ve been dealing with my condition since I was seven. At least I can usually tell when one is about to start. You just feel really odd. It’s called an “Aura”. Most people, those into that spiritual crap, think it’s some sort of light that comes from everyone or something. For me, it’s usually a warning sign that I need to lay down because I’m about to have a seizure.

Once parts of my body start to go numb, it’s too late to really do anything.

I look up at the pink-haired girl glaring at me.

“Mikado, I need you to go get one of the nurses.” I say very quietly.

She changes her expression very quickly. There’s not a trace of her usual goofy smile on that face. Good. She knows how serious this situation is about to become. Even Hakamichi’s death glare has faded. She just looks confused.

“I’m about to have a seizure. Do not stick anything into my mouth if I start before you leave. Just run and get a nur-“

I trail off as I let out a very inhuman groan as all the air in my lungs is expelled. Mikado nearly topples out of her chair at the sudden noise that erupts from me. Hakamichi immediately stands up and-

Chapter 3: Seizure Boy Part 3

Where am I?

I wake up on the floor in a fetal position. My legs and arms are still jerking about every few seconds. My cheek trails through a pile of my own saliva. My lungs start to fill up with air again. I can’t control any of the movements my body is making, but I’m pretty much conscious now. At least I think I am.

Where am I? This isn’t my room or the music room. This is… no. Where’s Miki? Where’s Molly? I remember talking to them after working on the stalls for the festival after school and…

Hakamichi is on her knees next to me. She gingerly places a hand on my shoulder as I rock back and forth on the ground. Great. I should have told Hakamichi to go instead of Mikado. What am I supposed to do with the deaf girl once I can talk again? I wonder how long she’s been next to me. I don’t know what time it is, so I don’t know how long I’ve been out for.

Wait, after I finished the stalls, I came to the Student Council room. Right?

Eons pass before I have the strength to wrap my hand around Hakamichi’s wrist and push her hand off me. She immediately stiffens up. I roll over onto my back, still trying to breathe.

The door bursts open again and not just any nurse, but the head nurse, rushes in with Mikado in tow. He instantly crouches down at my side and begins checking on me. I guess Mikado freaked out and just went to the guy in charge. He hangs his head over mine, with his eyes fully open for possibly the first time since I’ve met him.

“Yuuto. Are you with us?”

I open my mouth but nothing comes out.

“Yuuto, if you’re with me I need you to give me the water sign. Can you do that?”

It takes a few seconds, but, with my arm shaking the entire time, I hold up two fingers to my mouth. The nurse turns to Mikado.

“He needs water, Misha. Can you do that for me?”

The nurse pushes me back onto my side. Mikado passes the nurse a bottle of water from the table. He uncaps it and puts it down on the ground.

“Okay. Yuuto, I need you to say something before I can give you any water. I need to make sure you’re fully awake, buddy. Okay?”

A low croaking noise comes out of my mouth. It in no way sounds like “Water”, which was what I meant to say.

“What was that?”

I close my eyes.

“W-Water.” It’s barely audible, but the Nurse nods and helps me sit up. He has to tilt the water bottle to my lips so I can drink. Some of it ends up on my shirt, but most makes it down my throat. My gaze travels from the Nurse’s now content face to Hakamichi. She still looks worried. I guess this might have been the first seizure she’s ever seen. I guess it was pretty good that she actually sat down with me instead of moving across the room. Mikado helps her friend off the floor and they just stand there watching the Nurse and me.

Twenty minutes later, I’m sitting up on my own. I deny any of the Nurse’s requests that he takes me back to my room by claiming that I’m doing fine now. I mean, I can hold the water bottle all on my own now. That should be enough to keep him happy. Then I have to point out over and over again that I’ve been dealing with this for a long time and that I just need to relax for a while. He gives me a nod and makes me promise to visit him in his office before class tomorrow, before pulling Mikado out of the room. I guess he’s going to explain to her what just happened.

My brain pounds against the inside of my skull and I regret eating all that fried goodness earlier. I’m probably going to hurl it all up later.

Halfway through another sip from the water bottle, Hakamichi joins me on the floor again. She’s clearly not trying to look at me as she points at my chest and then does a very simple gesture with both her hands. There’s no way that’s proper sign language. Is she trying to dumb it down for me?

Then I’m a moron, because I still don’t know what she’s trying to say. Hell, I’m still pretty blank on everything leading up the seizure I just had. I just stare blankly at her.

“I don’t know what that means.”

Hakamichi lets out a puff of air and pouts. I guess this is annoying. Without Misha here, I guess that we’re pretty much unable to communicate.

She immediately opens up Mikado’s bag and starts rummaging through it. I get that they’re friends and all, but that’s still an invasion of privacy, isn’t it? Too bad for Mikado that I can’t exactly tell her to stop, since she wouldn’t hear me anyway.

Hakamichi produces a pad of paper from her friend’s bag as well as a pen. She starts writing on it immediately and holds it out in front of me.

Are you okay?

Haha. She’s asking if I’m alright? Did she not just see everything that happened?

She tries to push the pen into my hand. I wrap my fingers around it but I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to write very legibly right now. A few seconds later I manage to barely scribble out a reply. I’m not sure what I’m really supposed to say, so I just thank her for staying with me.

Yes. Thank you for sitting with me.

My handwriting is even more terrible than that first time we communicated like this. She turns the notebook back around and reads my reply. At least I hope she can read it.

Hakamichi takes the pen back from me and twirls in between her fingers. Her face scrunches up in concentration. Is she trying to decide just what to say to someone who just fell to the floor and thrashed around as though on fire? If I hadn’t spent the last week and a half despising her, I might actually think it was cute.

She eventually holds the notebook out to me again.

Do you need anything else? That was a seizure wasn’t it?

Well, not even a bit of recognition that I thanked her, huh? I groan and lean back against the table leg. I don’t have the concentration to write notes back and forth right now. I’m still trying to remember how I got here.

Thankfully, I don’t have to continue it as Mikado strides back into the room. She wastes no time in plopping on the ground next to Hakamichi and me.

“Hey Yuuchan. Are you feeling better?” Oh. So now she knows how to whisper.

“Yes, Mikado. I’ll be alright in just a bit. I need to rest.” I close my eyes and let out a long, shuddering breath. I hate that these things get so dramatic around new people. Miki and Molly are still worried and concerned when I just up and have a seizure like that out of the blue, but they try their best to cheer me up afterwards. Hakamichi and Mikado are both just walking on eggshells around me.

“So, if the Nurse didn’t explain what happened to you, I just had a tonic-clonic seizure. They’re the ones you’ll read or hear about being really bad. They’re usually called Grand Mal Seizures.” I explain, opening my eyes again.

Neither Mikado or Hakamichi say anything. Mikado just signs it all over to her friend.

“I have epilepsy. I’ve had it since I was seven and I ignored a bunch of the warning signs and I’m an idiot for doing that.”

Both Mikado and Hakamichi start their best imitations of Miki by trying to look at everything that isn’t me.

“Can you tell Hakamichi to stop acting so concerned? It’s not like her and it’s scaring me.” I close my eyes again. A nap sounds wonderful right now.

…

“Wahaha~! Shicchan is just worried that our newest member of student council got hurt.”

I open my eyes again. “Hey. No. I’m not the newest member. My punishment is over as soon as that festival gets here.” My tone turns very bitter. Just because they’re starting to be nicer to me, doesn’t make us some sort of happy trio. I mean, it probably wouldn’t be that bad if I had to work with them for the rest of the year, I guess. Not if they kept doing things like surprise me with food like this. I don’t think we’ve ever done anything like that for the Music club.

Mikado and Hakamichi have another private conversation with their hands. I take another sip from my bottle of water.

“But Yuuchan, you wouldn’t want to leave us with all the work again, would you?”

I roll my head over to look at them. Mikado has on the best puppy dog eyes that I’ve ever seen. Hakamichi has actually gone back to that mildly amused smirk I saw when she was playing Risk against Takamichi.

…

I just realized how similar their last names are. And just how radically different they are.

“Look, I’d say it’s been a blast but you guys have been working me like a dog. And you both got to run around with that Hisao guy for the last few days. I think you can sucker someone else into working for you.” I explain.

I’d much rather go back to my normal boring life at this stupid school for the rest of the year.

Hakamichi crosses her arms over her chest again. I guess I’ve taken the wind out of her sails. Or maybe she’s just pissed that she was so concerned for me a few minutes ago and now I’m basically telling them both to go fuck themselves. Hey. Working for them brought on the events of the last half hour.

I grab the end of the table and slowly pull myself up. My legs seem to deal with the weight I put on them for now, but I need to get back to my room and lay down. And I really don’t want to stick around here and stew in awkward silence.

“So until the Festival, I’ll still work for the two of you, but can we keep it to light work?”

I don’t wait for a reply from either of them, before I start for the door.

“Thanks for the food, by the way.”

Hakamichi snaps her fingers and I turn to look at the Student Council again. The president signs something over to Mikado.

“Can you help us go over the last of the budget reports after school tomorrow, Yuuchan?”

I was sort of hoping “Light Work” would mean “No Work” for these two, but I guess that was just wishful thinking on my part. I let out one of my groans of begrudging acceptance

“Fiiiiiiiiine.”

Hakamichi and Mikado give each other a small smile.

Damn them.

Next Chapter:Hey Bulldog

Previous Chapter:Seizure Boy

Chapter 4: Hey Bulldog
“What makes you think you’re something special when you smile?”

The festival is splayed out all over the school grounds below me. It’s kind of cool that I can look out over it all and pick out which stalls I’ve built. There’s the big one that I nearly smashed my thumb building. It’s one of the class food stalls. And I’m a bit surprised at the amount of stalls covering the grounds. I know for a fact that the student council and I didn’t build that many stalls. There had to be some classes that handled their own booths. This festival is huge. It’s larger than the one the school held last year, by far.

Miki throws her arm around my shoulders. I almost forgot that she dragged me up here so we could look at the festival in its entire splendor. Which is fine. I’m trying to avoid Hakamichi and Mikado anyway. And I do sort of want to see the festival. I worked on it, after all.

“You lookin’ for something, assbutt?”

“Would you stop calling me that?” I slide out from under her arm. “And no. I’m not. I’m just looking at the festival.”

Miki lets out a low whistle as she surveys the grounds below us. “Yeah. It’s pretty impressive alright. You worked pretty hard to get this shindig going, didn’t you?”

I guess I sort of did. I mean, I built a fair amount of the stalls. But there’s a lot more that goes into this than just building stalls. There’s paperwork and order forms and- Ugh. I’m starting to think like Hakamichi. I think it’s better if I just try to enjoy my day of freedom from those two. I’m sure Miki and Molly will drag me around the festival once Molly’s done working for her class.

“Yeah, I did. So why don’t you go and enjoy it? You gonna let all my hard work go to waste?”

Miki shoves me into the fencing that keeps me from plummeting to my death. The fence rattles all the way down the edge of the school from my impact. I hope this thing is sturdy.

“Don’t be such an assbutt, assbutt. I’m just trying to avoid Molly so she can’t drag me into helping with the class stall.”

Ah, so we’re both up here for similar reasons then. I’m trying to avoid Hakamichi and Mikado. They haven’t exactly expressed any interest in spending time with me today, but I don’t much feel like chancing that. I’m sure they’d just use the time to try to rope me into working for them a bit longer. I sink down against the fence and rest my arms on my knees.

“So are you proud of your work?”

“Hey. I just don’t want it to go to waste. I spent two weeks helping those two throw this thing. I just want it to go well, you know?”

“Well, well, well… I never thought I’d see this side of you. You’re like a Momma bird letting her baby out of the nest for the first time, Yuuto.” Miki laughs.

“Oh shut up. I’m allowed to be proud of what I’ve done.”

“Yeah, but you never act like you are. Not even with those silly piano pieces you always play for us.”

“My music isn’t silly. It’s…”

“I know, I know. They’re deep and profound or whatever.” Miki groans. “I’ve heard it all before.”

“Well excuse me for trying to introduce you to some culture.” I grumble. And you should be honored. I don’t just play piano for anyone.

“You’ve been feeling alright these last couple of days, right? Like after your whole incident in front of Shizune and Misha?” Miki asks as she sits down next to me. It’s odd. Miki usually avoids talking about my seizures. I don’t think she’s comfortable with my disability. It is pretty discomforting to watch. Usually it’s Molly being the motherly one.

“Are you trying to make up for Molly not being here or something, Miki?” I ask, only half-teasing. It is odd for her to just ask about it out of the blue.

“Hey, can’t I be concerned about my friend’s health?” Miki shoves me again.

“Yeah. But if you keep pressing it, I’ll start thinking you want me to be your boyfriend or something.” I deliver that completely deadpan. I’m amazed that I can do it. And it’s not like I actually want to date Miki. I can barely put up with her as a friend sometimes.

She snorts. “As if I’d date an assbutt like you. You’ve got a better chance asking Molly out.”

“I thought she likes that painter guy from your class. The one with the stupid hat.”

“That doesn’t mean anything, assbutt.”

“Would you stop calling me an assbutt?”

“I’ll stop calling you assbutt when you stop being an assbutt.”

“I don’t even know what assbutt means.”

“It means what it means. It means you’re an assbutt.”

I sigh and tilt my head back against the fence. There’s no winning with Miki. She gives me a light shove again to get my attention. I turn my head to her.

“I gotta get going and find the track team captain. You cool?”

“Cooler than you.” I mutter. I wish she’d stop asking. That’s Molly’s job. Miki’s job is terrible comic relief to break up the monotony of my life.

“You could try for a million lifetimes and you’d never be as cool as my right butt cheek, Yuuto.” Miki uses me as leverage to shove herself up. She throws her hand up over her shoulder as she walks back towards the stairs. “You should hang out with Molly today. She can’t force you to help out with the class stall after all.”

“Sure.”

“Take it easy, assbutt. See you later.”

“See you later.”

I opt to sit here on the roof for a little while longer. The breeze up here is refreshing with how warm it’s been getting over the last few days. My bangs flick over the bridge of my nose. It’s nice to just be by myself for a little while. After my seizure in front of the Student Council, Miki and Molly have been alternating shifts on watching me during our off time. I’m sure that Miki’ll find Molly on her way to the track and tell her that I’m up here on the roof.

And as comforting as it is to have friends who are so concerned about my well-being, it’s getting pretty freaking annoying that Molly won’t even let me open a can of soda by myself now.

I push myself up, using the fence, and stretch. I don’t feel much like being babysat by Molly for about another hour or so. I just want to relax and maybe even try to enjoy the fruits of my labors. So I follow Miki’s lead and head off the roof. I figure that if I go wander around the grounds, avoiding Molly and Miki’s class booth, I should be good for at least half an hour. I don’t particularly like having to avoid both my friends and my tormentors from the Student Council, but such is the life I lead.

Chapter 4: Hey Bulldog Part 2
I guess I should check in with Takamichi about getting back into the Music club now that our punishment is over. My scholarship does demand that I be part of a club, after all. If it weren’t for that, I sure as hell wouldn’t be wasting my time in one. And while I’m not exactly happy or feeling great about going back to listening to that jackass, Music Club is at least familiar to me. I guess I could get everything back to normal.

I have to shove my way past a few couples on my way down the stairs. They must want to take advantage of the romantic view that the rooftop is going to offer. I don’t get what’s so romantic about the festival in the middle of the day. Maybe later tonight, when the lights are all going and they have the cover of darkness to be a little more intimate, it would make sense. But right now, everyone’s just going to be able to look up and see them making out against the fence.

As I’m about to push open the door to the Music Club room, when someone taps me on the shoulder. I turn around to find Watanabe. She doesn’t meet my gaze again. Something tells me I’m about to get some bad news. Miki and Molly get the same look when they have to tell me something they know is going to upset me.

“Hey. I was just looking for your assbutt boyfriend.”

“Assbutt?”

“Nevermind. I just want to talk about getting back into the club so that everything goes back to normal again.”

“Yeah. Look, about that… This has been eating me from the inside out over the last few days. I know that you and Takamichi have your differences, but you were right about one thing.”

“What? That you’re dating an ass?”

Watanabe sighs and closes her eye. “Look, as much as I would love to have one of our little… things right now, I’m trying to be serious Yuuto. So could you not do that right now?”

Watanabe wants to be completely serious?

This really is going to be bad news, isn’t it?

“Geez. Who died?”

“No one. Look, this is about the name drawing we did for the student council work. You were right. It wasn’t exactly fair.”

Not even a minute later, I shove open the door the music club room. Takamichi, leaning back in the chair behind the desk, looks up from his phone. I was sort of hoping that Watanabe would come into the room with me, but she took off as soon as she told me about how unfair the name drawing was. Takamichi stands and tucks his phone into his pocket before smiling at me.

“Yuuto! I was wondering when I’d see you again! How’d the student council work go?”

“How do you think it went?” I spit out. I know what my face looks like. And I’m glad to see that it’s actually melting that shit-eating grin off Takamichi for once.

“Hey man. Look, I’m sorry that you got picked for it but we did a random drawing.”

“Random?” I take the last few steps closer to him. Takamichi’s a few centimeters taller than me and he definitely has the weight advantage over me as well. But there’s one thing he totally doesn’t have.

I’m royally pissed off.

“Yeah. That was the only way to make it completely fair.”

“Fair?”

“Yeah.” He shoves his phone into his pocket and keeps grinning at me.

“What exactly about writing my name on every slip is random or fair?”

That smile of his falters for a second and he has to force it back. I can tell. He straightens his tie and tries to laugh it off.

“What are you talking about?”

“Watanabe told me,” I point at the door. “Right out there she told me that you told everyone to write my name down on their slips of paper so that I would get picked for the Student Council duty.”

“I most certainly did not.”

“Why would Watanabe lie about something like that? She’s your girlfriend!” I shove him with both arms, forcing him back.

“I don’t know, man! She’s a chick! They do crazy stuff all the time.”

“Oh god. Shut up, Takamichi.” I shove him one last time before I stalk out of the room.

“I’m quitting. I’m not coming back to the music club.”

I’m not even two steps out of the music room before that slimeball calls after me.

“Hold up! You can’t leave! Without you, the music club doesn’t have enough members to remain an official school recognized club!” He grabs my shoulder and spins me around.

“That’s not my problem.” I shove his hand off my shoulder.

“It’ll be your problem when you don’t have a club for your damn scholarship,” Takamichi shoves his finger into my chest. “And you can be sure I’ll make sure that if this club goes down that you go down with it.”

That fire wells up inside of me again and suddenly I’m holding Takamichi against the wall by his shirt.

“You got the whole club to throw me to the wolves! All because you couldn’t fill out a couple stupid forms? Why are you the president if you aren’t going to do all the work that comes along with it?”

Takamichi tries to grab me by the shirt as well but I stop him short by shoving him against the wall once again.

“Well, maybe… maybe if you weren’t such a moody dick all the time, we wouldn’t h-have all written your name down instead of ours.” He manages to stutter out. Oh, so it’s my fault? You think that’s going to calm me down, Takamichi? By blaming me? Because it sure as shit isn’t going to work. But keep trying, asshole.

“Fuck you, Takamichi. I thought you guys were my friends, but even Shiz- Hakamichi wouldn’t do something as low as that!” I shout, twisting my hands into his shirt.

Takamichi smiles, holding out his arms in that half-assed apology pose again. It kind of makes me want to vomit.

“Jeez, Yuuto. You suddenly care about those two girls? What gives? Are you the student council bulldog now?”

“Shut up. I’m not coming back to the music club. Not while you’re president. Give the reins to Watanabe. Maybe she can save your sinking ship.”

He finally manages to shove me off him. Takamichi straightens his shirt again and glares at me. Gah. Forget it. I’m not wasting my time here anymore. He’s garbage. He isn’t worth it.

I turn away from him. I should just go find Molly or Miki and try to avoid this guy for the rest of my life. I’m not going back to the Music club, that’s for sure. But I’ll concern myself with finding a new club for my scholarship tomorrow. I should just enjoy the rest of my day. I’m sure the other kids in the hall watching us are hoping that I’ll walk away already. They don’t exactly look comfortable now that Takamichi dragged our fight out into the hallway.

“Whatever, Yuuto. Just let the music club fall apart and side with those two bitches in student coun-“

Takamichi doesn’t finish his sentence because I wheel around and punch him.

Right in the face.

Takamichi’s probably never been punched before. He sort of just stands there, dazed, as blood starts to pour from his lip. It takes exactly ten seconds for him to place a hand to his mouth and realize that blood is pouring from it. The hall, which does have other occupants besides the two of us, goes deathly quiet.

“If you ever badmouth the student council like that again, Takamichi, I won’t just punch you. I will motherfucking kill you.”

And that’s when I finally walk away. The other students in the hall give me a wide berth as I storm past them.

Okay. I’ve thought about punching Takamichi for a long time. But where did that line about the student council come from? Maybe that jerk is sort of right. Maybe Hakamichi and Mikado really have gotten to me. Like I shouted at him, they did treat me a hell of a lot better he has. And I’ve been nothing but a jerk to them from day one.

Also, punching him felt incredible, but was probably the worst decision I've ever made.

I could get kicked out of school for this. I just made a death threat.

It’s only a matter of time before some other student tells some faculty member what they just saw and I get dragged off to see the Principal on the day of the festival of all days. So I had better act fast. I take the stairs down two at a time. The festival is packed so I’m really going to have to book it. I just hope that I get lucky and find them before some teacher finds me. I need to find a club for my scholarship and I think I know just what I’m going to have to do.

Chapter 4: Hey Bulldog - Part 3
I actually shove everyone out of my way as I wade through the crowded grounds. I don’t know how long it’ll take for news of my escapade to reach one of the teachers or whatever. But I need to talk to Hakamichi and Mikado before they find me. I’m trying to seem not desperate, but it’s pretty much defeated by the fact that I’m batting everyone away from me as I try to spot Mikado’s stupid pink hair. I don’t understand why it’s taking me so long to spot her. Sure, there’s a huge massive sea of people at the school today, but no one else in the school has that ridiculous of a hair color. And those drills. Don’t get me started on those drills. Plus, she whispers at a decibel that causes ears to bleed. I don’t think looking for Mikado would be as difficult as Where’s Waldo?

“Yuuto!”

Molly stops me from running past her class stall. She has two cans of soda tucked under one of her arms. I’m guessing one of them is for me. I try to wave her off. I don’t have the time to stop and talk right now.

“Miki said you were on the roof. I was just about to go see you. Where are you going?”

“I don’t know. I’m looking for the student council.” I turn away from her. I think I just saw Misha down that way. Or at least I saw something pink. That’s got to be her, right?

“What? Why?” Molly hands me one of the soda cans. “Here, I got this for you.”

“Thanks.” I take it and immediately forget about it. “Have you seen either Hakamichi or Mikado?”

“They stopped at our stall a little while ago. But other than that, no…” Molly trails off and grabs my arm. “Yuuto, your hand is bleeding.”

I pry my arm from her and check out my hand. Sure enough, I’ve broken the skin on two of my knuckles. I guess the adrenaline kind of just let me ignore the pain. But now that Molly’s pointed it out, they sting like a bitch.

“Oh. I must have split them on Takamichi’s teeth.”

“You what?”

“I don’t have time right now, Molly. I have to go. I’ll tell you about it later.”

Molly shouts something after me as I dash away. I don’t hear her over an announcement that rings out over the loudspeakers. Hell, I don’t even hear that. I’m focused. I need to find Mikado.

Maybe a little too focused.

I rush right past Hakamichi sitting by herself on a bench near the food stalls. It’s pretty embarrassing when I jog back and stop in front of her. After all, she did see me rush right past her. She looks pretty confused as I hunch over in front of her, trying to catch my breath. I hope she doesn’t think I’m about to have another seizure or something. I don’t need her to go find one of the nurses or anything and call attention to me.

“H-Hey.” I get out between heavy gasps. “Where’s Mikado?”

Hakamichi fiddles with her glasses before signing something very slowly to me. It’s that overly-simplified stuff she tried a few days ago after my seizure. I didn’t understand it then and I chalked that up to my brain being all fuzzy and scrambled after the Grand Mal. But now it’s apparent that I’m actually just that clueless to this stuff. This is like if I tried to get her to understand me by just talking louder.

“I don’t know what you’re trying to tell me.” I shake my head and shrug, hoping that Hakamichi will understand at least that.

Hakamichi hides her irritation and tries again. Too bad she doesn’t have her bag with her. She has to have a notebook in there in case her translator isn’t around. I would think she’d be that prepared. Even though she slows it down even further, I still don’t get what she’s trying to say. I guess that makes me pretty stupid in her eyes. Maybe I should have asked Mikado to show me at least a few simple gestures so I could half-stumble through this.

Damn it! Where the hell is-

“Yuuchan! We’ve been looking for you everywhere!”

Mikado bounds up to the bench with two plates of steaming hot takoyaki. I can still see the oil bubbling on their surfaces. She places them both on the bench next to Hakamichi. I guess we can’t really talk if she’s holding anything. My stomach rumbles in appreciation of the smells wafting around me now. I haven’t eaten anything today and that’s pretty stupid of me. That’s why I’m so worn out from that short run. I’m practically asking for another seizure.

“Yeah. Same here.” I shove myself upright and immediately drop into a deep bow.

“I’m sorry for how I’ve treated the two of you for the last two weeks. I’ve been a complete ass.”

…

“Wahaha~! Yuuchan! What’re you doing?” Mikado starts pounding her hand against my back, laughing. I wince from the volume and the sudden, sharp physical contact. I push Mikado’s arm away as I stand straight again.

Hakamichi looks completely shocked. But just as soon as it appeared, she composes herself and starts fiddling with her glasses again. Mikado plops down on the bench next to her friend and beams up at me. She and Hakamichi start their own private conversation up, dropping me right out of the whole thing.

This is really annoying already.

“Listen, I don’t have much time because I punched Takamichi in the face and I’m pretty sure I broke one of his teeth but-”

“Yuuchan! You punched someone?” Mikado turns away from Hakamichi. Her hands still move and it isn’t long before even the President is looking at me in the same completely shocked expression her friend has.

“Yeah. But he deserved it. And that’s not the point.” I sweep my hand to the side to totally dismiss that part of the conversation.

“But you-“

“Not important, Mikado. Listen. I was wondering if you both still wanted me to be part of the student council.”

Mikado’s hands stop moving about halfway through my sentence. Hakamichi frantically glances between Mikado and I before repeatedly jabbing Mikado in the shoulder with a finger. I guess she didn’t finish translating everything for me. Reality seems to snap right back into place for the pink-haired girl and she finishes signing my question.

Hakamichi’s eyes seem to flash. I’ve seen that look before. It’s the same one she gets when we start playing some stupid board game. In grand, dramatic gestures she relays something to Mikado.

The other girl immediately starts laughing again.

“WAHAHA! Shicchan says that you can’t avoid punishment for punching someone by joining the student council.” Mikado actually slaps her knee. I didn’t think anyone actually did that.

“That’s not why I’m asking to join. The music club is a bunch of assholes and to make a long story short, you two have treated me better in the last two weeks than they have for almost three years now. And I figured you two really could use the help since you scared that one guy from your class off.” I don’t know why I almost spill my guts out to two girls I barely know, but it lifts some of the pressure off my chest.

“And also I sort of need to be part of a club for my scholarship, so you’d be doing me a huge favor and I wouldn’t get kicked out of the school.”

Mikado and Hakamichi are both giving me incredibly blank looks. It seems like years pass before Mikado actually starts translating this all over to the President. I don’t have time for this. Who knows when I’m going to be dragged off to the Principal’s office? It takes twice as long for us to hold a conversation just because I can’t do this stupid hand stuff like Mikado.

“Okay. This is really annoying. Mikado, can you just teach me sign language so I can just talk to Hakamichi directly?” I complain.

There are those incredibly blank looks again.

And then both of the girls break out into smiles. Mikado has her usual, wide enthusiastic grin plastered on while Hakamichi’s is little and pretty cute for her. The only thing that really throws me off is that her smile is paired with that challenging look. That spark of excitement behind her eyes is what scares me.

Oh no.

“What did I just do to myself?”

“Wahaha! Yuuchan, you’re really serious about joining student council now, aren’t you?” Mikado jumps up from the bench and throws her arms up above her head. “But okay! Okay okay okay! We can both teach you sign language! Shicchan was right when she said that you’d come around eventually! It’s a good thing we already signed you up on the first day!”

Wait. They signed me up for Student Council already?

Whaaaaaaaaaaat?

“You knew I’d join?” I round on Hakamichi. How the… Why?

Hakamichi slowly signs something over to Mikado. The other girl starts giggling immediately.

“Shicchan had a hunch! And it paid off, didn’t it, Yuuchan?”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“Nope!” Mikado throws her hands over her head. “But I’m so happy that Yuuchan finally decided to be part of Student Council!”

Yes. Please shout and draw attention to us.

“Ugh. That’s… So you’re okay with me joining then?”

Mikado and Hakamichi start their own private talk again. I should have asked her to teach me something about sign language earlier. I might have at least been able to pick up on something in their exchanges. Hakamichi finally turns to me and starts sharply signing at me.

“You can really join Student Council if you promise to stop being a jerk.”

Okay. Fine. I can do that.

“Sure. I think I already planned on doing that, but whatever.”

“And you have to stop calling us by our last names. It’s Shicchan and Misha~.”

Hahaha.

“I’m not calling her Shicchan.” I point at the President. “But I can stop using your last names if it’s that important to you, Mika- Misha.”

Misha’s grin grows even wider as Shizune nods once. Heck, even Shizune's smiling. And it isn't that playful smirk she usually has when we play some stupid board game.

“Welcome to Student Council, Yuuchan!”

A hand on my shoulder pulls me out of the conversation. It belongs to an old, tired looking woman. It’s my homeroom teacher, Yoshinaga. By the look on her face, I think my free time at the festival has drawn to a close.

“Miyamoto. We need to have a talk. Right now.”

“Yeah. I know.” I sigh and give both Shizune and Misha a little wave.

“I’ll see you two later, alright?”

Yoshinaga gently guides me away from the Student Council.

“The Principal wants a word with you before he decides your punishment.” She tells me, before clucking her tongue against the roof of her mouth. “Really, Miyamoto. Assaulting another student?”

Even though I’m probably about to receive the worst punishment of my academic career, with the possibility of putting my scholarship to Yamaku in jeopardy, I’m smiling.

“I always really wanted to punch Takamichi, Sensei. He just gave me a reason to today.” I admit.

“Miyamoto!” She hisses.

I laugh. I laugh harder than I’ve laughed in a long time.

“Stop laughing, boy! This is serious!” My teacher scolds me. “Don’t you know what you’ve done?”

“Yeah. It’s been a pretty eventful day.” I wipe a tear from my eye.

Next Chapter:Hello, Goodnight

Part 4 Removed.

Will probably be reworked into a in-between for Act 1 and Act 2.

Not sure if I should like or dislike the incessantly flippant attitude of your OC...

...But I like it anyways. The main thing that was a little irksome was how short and extraneous the fourth part of the fourth chapter felt (though that might just be me). Otherwise, it's a good story, and I'm awaiting the next chapter detailing assbutt's Yuuchan's Yuuto's stay at Yamaku.

Holy moly! That's a lot of story for one post. Not that I'm criticizing; I'm guilty of the same thing once upon a time. Lucky for you it's very good.

Honestly there's not much criticism I can offer up. Your writing is solid, your characterizations are well done, even if your Miki does seem like an alternate-universe version of Faye from Questionable Content (assbutt, anyone?). Literally the only thing that caught my eye a few times is a small nitpicky grammar thing that I wouldn't be saying if I found anything else to comment on.

“H-Hey.” I get out between heavy gasps. “Where’s Mikado?”

That period after "H-Hey" should be a comma. If the sentence continues after the speaker is finished, it's always a comma. Even if it's the end of a sentence.

So yeah that showed up a few times throughout the course of my read-through. It's not worth going back and fixing because it's so tiny, but hey, why not throw it out there?

I'll be subbing this topic, for sure. Keep up the good work!

Interesting. Another one to keep my eye on...
EDIT: also looking forward to your Molly. I don't think I've seen a story where she gets much more than a name-drop.