"Thanks for coming in early." Kawakami greeted him with a faint smile on her face. "I don't know why, but I was worried you might ditch school."
"Huh? Why would I ditch school?" Ren asked, tilting his head slightly to try to make himself look as innocent as possible. "Miss Kawakami, I hope I'm not being rude, is it because of my criminal record?"
The question made his teacher grimace a little, yet before she could answer Ren continued.
"I know it's hard to believe, but it's all just a big misunderstanding. I'm not really someone that likes to get in trouble. I know it's probably hard to believe it, but well…. There was a drunk man harassing a girl on my way back from the library. I tried to step in to separate them, but then the man tripped and fell to the ground. And the next thing I knew, he had called the police and had me arrested for assault."
"What?" Kawakami asked, her eyes widening slightly. "Is that true?"
Ren answered her with a nod, doing his best to give a slightly uncomfortable expression as he looked away.
"Yeah, and well… Here I am now." He answered her with a sigh.
Kawakami let out a sigh as she brought her hands to her face for a second before standing up.
"I see… I'm sorry." She finally spoke as she stood up. "I had a feeling you were a good kid. You've been nothing but respectful to me this whole time. I should have known better than to listen to school rumors."
"School rumors?" Ren asked again, even if he'd already heard it from Takamaki.
"Ah…" She began, looking somewhat embarrassed before sighing once more. "Yes… it seems someone managed to find your transfer records and leak them. So the students here have been talking about you. But don't worry, I'll try my best to dissuade any of the rumors if I hear any students talking about them."
The school bell rang then, interrupting them and causing his teacher to give him a bright smile.
"Alright, follow me. It's time for your first class."
Following Kawakami through the school hallways, Ren entered into a classroom filled with students, who greeted him with a wave of muttering. Really, he'd wished they'd been more subtle, but he could hear the word delinquent being thrown around. Hell, he even heard a few students whispering about how he'd apparently killed a cat and eaten it raw to prove a point.
Ren had to hold back his smile as he heard the countless other ridiculous rumors being thrown around.
His teacher, however, must have taken him looking away to hide his smile as him feeling uncomfortable, because she slammed her desk with surprising force, causing all of the students to freeze and go quiet to look at her.
"Alright everyone, that's enough!" She said firmly. "This is our new transfer student. And, unlike all of the stupid rumors going around, he isn't a bad person. If I hear any of you talking about those rumors, then you can join me after school for detention, ok?
Her words caused the students to exchange glances between each other for a few seconds before finally turning to look at Ren with curious eyes. Something Ren took as his cue to speak.
"Hello everyone." He said with a bright smile, adjusting his hair and glasses. Glasses that he actually didn't need, something the real Ren Amamiya had bought to look less intimidating.
Giving them a small bow, Ren let out an awkward chuckle before continuing.
"My name is Ren Amamiya. I am not used to living in such a big city, so please watch over me. I hope I can make a lot of friends during my time here."
For a second, the entire class simply stared at him in confusion. Some were even glancing back and forth between each other to make sure they'd heard him right.
"Good." Kawakami praised him with a soft smile. "Your seat will be the one over there by the window. Don't hesitate to raise your hands if you have any questions."
Giving her a nod, Ren began to walk across the classroom.
Really, he'd thought it would be exhausting to have to play at being a goody two shoes. But seeing just how weirdly everyone was looking at him made it worth it. Though it would probably lose some of its appeal once the school lost the "delinquent" perception they had of him.
As he reached his seat, he noticed the one other student he had spoken to, Ann. So he gave her a friendly smile and a wave, one she returned as he sat down on his seat. Then he dozed off, trying his best to look like he was paying attention to whatever lesson Kawakami was giving.
Clearly, something big was meant to happen soon, since otherwise, why would Igor have called him to the Velvet Room so quickly? Or maybe he was overthinking it? He had no real idea what kind of play he was supposed to put on. So perhaps that was something he could start with.
Kamoshida was the only other person he'd met who appeared to have any sort of significance. At least if that strange mask he'd seen meant anything. From their brief interaction, he appeared to have a strange relationship with Takamaki. One in which she looked extremely uncomfortable.
She was afraid of Kamoshida.
It really can't be as simple as Kamoshida being a creep onto his students, right? That seemed a bit cliche. No, he couldn't mark off the possibility for a stupid reason like that. The best next move would be to look into the volleyball team. If Kamoshida was their coach, then that meant that they would probably have the most exposure to him.
Then, before he knew it, the bell rang one final time, signifying the end of the day. The students all looked somewhat hesitant, but slowly they'd begun to surround him to try to ask him questions. Questions he answered with the best smile he could as he slowly began to slip away from them until he finally saw the one other person that had caught his eye in the class.
A kid with a downcast expression covered in bruises.
"Hey there! Nice to meet you!" Ren greeted him with a friendly smile. "I'm sorry to ask, but I noticed you look hurt. Are you ok?"
The boy's eyes widened at the question, but he quickly shook his head as he averted his eyes.
"Ah, I'm fine, don't worry. I wasn't paying attention during practice and accidentally crashed into another student…I'm just a bit clumsy." He answered, taking a few steps back. "Sorry, I uh… I'm late for something." He added before quickly walking away.
Ren couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the interaction. But still, just the way he'd answered was enough of a clue.
So… was he supposed to play the hero?
Maybe things were really as simple as he thought. But even then, it felt wrong. He'd only spent a day in school, and he'd already figured out what the problem was? Was it really that obvious? It couldn't be, right?
Still, he kept at it. Searching the school and keeping an eye out for anything that stood out to him. Yet, the more he saw, the more annoyed he began to feel. Every single person who appeared to be wearing a sports uniform and was preparing to go to the school's gym had some sort of bruises on them. Bruises that looked a bit too intentional.
However, all of them looked too scared to talk.
In the end, it wasn't until he stumbled upon a girl with a bruise above her eye that he finally stopped wandering the school. She was sitting on a bench, her eyes almost lifeless as she looked at the floor. Her body was even trembling slightly as she clenched her fists against her legs.
In the end, that's when Ren finally lost his patience. Because that wasn't the look of someone who was simply getting beat up.
He bought two sodas from a nearby vending machine before approaching her and sitting next to her.
"Here." He offered her one of the two as he opened the other one.
"What?" The girl asked, grabbing the soda by instinct as she looked at him with some confusion.
"You look like you need it." He answered, waiting for a moment before continuing. "Are you ok?"
"Me?" She asked, grimacing slightly as she shook her head. "I'm ok… yeah… oh, and thanks."
He'd half expected her to open it, but instead, she brought the cold soda up to her forehead to soothe the bruise. She looked so out of it that she didn't even realize what she had done.
"Yeah, I don't get it." Ren muttered to himself as he looked up to the sky.
Maybe it was stupid. Maybe it was selfish. Maybe it even was childish. But at this moment, Ren was feeling extremely frustrated.
He had woken up in a new place. Some supernatural god had come and chosen him specifically to entertain him, or something like it. He'd been given this fantastical mission, and for the opening he had to deal with… an abusive teacher?
No, not just an abusive teacher. An abusive teacher so bad at being subtle that it had taken him all of five minutes to discover his "big bad secret." It was actually incredibly annoying to him, because who the hell did he think he was?
"You don't get it?" The girl next to him asked.
"Why the hell is everyone acting like Suguru Kamoshida is the scariest man in the world? He's just a retired volleyball player isn't he? If everyone just reported him, what the hell is he going to do? He has literally antagonized a good portion of this school against him. And he didn't even bother to hide it."
"What?" The girl asked, looking completely dumbfounded.
Yeah, perhaps it wasn't the best thing to do to suddenly lose it. But the more he spoke, the more annoyed Ren got.
"He's a dude who had his fifteen minutes of fame, and now he's using it to act like Shujin Academy is his castle. I can't be the only one that thinks this is ridiculous, right?"
The girl next to him was frozen in place as she heard him, probably trying to figure out how she should react. It was only then that Ren finally realized just how much he'd actually spilled and began to regret it.
Really, he'd done the best he could to keep a lid on it. No, not just today, but since the very moment he'd opened his eyes on that train. He'd been told he had to entertain a god, and he'd built this amazing mystery in his head, a grand story about the role he was meant to play.
Only to find out that his grand, mythical mission in this world wasn't something like "slaying a dragon." No, it was reporting a gym teacher to the police.
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