Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Uh, um, H-hashibira-kun . . .”

Inosuke lifts his head from his arms, where he’s attempting to nap. It’s a lull between lessons, and while he’s highly tempted to make a run for it as soon as the teacher leaves the room, he remembers the Big Boss’s words and stays put, begrudgingly. Now there’s a girl talking to him, hands behind her back as she fidgets nervously, and Inosuke stares at her blankly.

“What do you want?” he asks, wanting to get back to sleep before the next teacher arrives and makes him stay awake.

“Hashibira-kun, y-you . . . you’re very beautiful and really strong . . . I-I like you a lot,” the girl says, eyes on the floor. She has a blue ribbon in her hair, but that’s all that stands out to Inosuke. He likes blue.

“Eh? Well, of course you do! I’m awesome!” he says with a grin, his chest feeling full of the warmth that always comes when he’s being praised. He likes that feeling.

“Um, yes, so that’s why . . . I came to ask . . .” the girl continues before pulling her hands out from behind her back. She holds out a box toward him as she bows deeply. “Please accept my feelings!”

Inosuke takes the box dubiously, opening it to check the contents. It’s chocolate, which he loves, so that makes him happy. The confession, however, doesn’t.

He gets these about once a week, it seems. In the beginning, when Big Boss first challenged him to go to school, Inosuke wore his motorcycle helmet and growled at anyone who got too close to him. It worked for a while, but then the teachers started making him take off his helmet while he was in the classroom. As soon as he did that, people seemed to think they could approach him more often. Boys and girls his own age especially. It started with leaving notes and chocolate in his locker. He always ate the chocolate and threw away the notes, but they kept coming.

Then, as he entered his second year, they grew bolder, coming to him directly with their feelings. Inosuke doesn’t get it. He never says yes, so why do they keep asking? He doesn’t want a damn girlfriend or boyfriend (though the girls approach him more than the guys). He doesn’t even want to be in this damn school to begin with! His one goal in life is to become the Big Boss of his own gang, one that will rival and defeat the Twelve Moons and their leader, making him the strongest boss in Tokyo.

He can’t do that if he’s stuck in school or with a clingy significant other that will only hold him back.

Looking down at the chocolate in his hands, he picks one out and sniffs it before taking a bite. Damn! It’s really good! He eats half the box before realizing that the girl is still standing there, watching him.

“What?” he asks with his cheeks full.

“Well, um, does this mean you accept?” she asks, a hopeful lilt to her voice.

“Hah?! No! Go away.” Inosuke hunches down to eat more of the chocolate, wanting to make sure it’s all gone before a teacher arrives and takes it away from him.

“But . . . you’re eating my chocolate.”

“You gave it to me!”

“As a confession!”

“So, I can’t eat them if I don’t accept?! That’s lame. You gave them to me, so they’re mine now. I can eat them if I want to!”

The girl’s eyes fill with tears. Inosuke tries not to let that bother him. Really, she shouldn’t have expected anything else. He doesn’t even know her name. Is she even in his class? He’s pretty sure he’s never seen her before in his life. Do people always confess to others without knowing them? If she knew him, she’d know he doesn’t want a girlfriend and wouldn’t have confessed in the first place.

She should be grateful he’s even eating her chocolates. He could’ve thrown them away. He’s doing her a favor by eating them. Because that’s the kind of great guy that he is. Also, they’re really good.

“You have such a pretty face, but you’re really very mean, Hashibira-kun!” the girl says, hands balled into fists.

Inosuke blinks. Mean? He’s mean? He isn’t mean. He’s fantastic. When he becomes a Big Boss, he’ll be the most benevolent and amazing boss ever. People will praise his strength and generosity for miles around. They’ll worship him. They’ll thank him for eating their chocolate, dammit.

“I’m not—”

He doesn’t get the words out. The next teacher enters, and the girl scurries away to her seat. Oh. So, she is in his class. Huh.

“Inosuke, did you make Aya-chan cry?”

The soft voice of his seatmate draws his attention. Inosuke frowns at the boy next to him. He’s watching him with gentle reddish-brown eyes, a tiny wrinkle marring his forehead between his eyebrows. The scar above his left eye looks darker than usual, which is weird. Actually, everything about this kid is weird. He’s quiet, so Inosuke doesn’t notice him most of the time, except when he’s not, and then Inosuke can’t ignore him at all. He’s loud when he scolds someone for something or other, and now it seems like he’s going to scold Inosuke.

“I didn’t make her cry! She started crying on her own!” Inosuke insists, shoving the last of the chocolate in his mouth.

The kid (what’s his name again? Kentarou? Tontarou?) purses his lips. “You should apologize.”

“Hah?! Why? She should know better than to confess to me! I never say yes to confessions!”

“Even so, you hurt her by rejecting her. You should still apologize and thank her for the chocolate. Especially because you ate it anyway.” Tontarou gives the empty box a pointed look.

Inosuke crumples it in his fist. “You wanna go? I’ll fight you right now.”

Tontarou shakes his head. “I don’t want to fight. I just want you to apologize to Aya-chan.”

“You—”

“Hashibira, Kamado, class is about to start. Please settle down,” the teacher at the front of the room gives them both a look.

Kamado turns to face forward, hands folded on his desk, but he sends Inosuke a pointed side-glance. He throws the crumpled box at Kamado’s head, thinking that’ll teach him, but Kamado snatches it out of the air before it makes contact.

Whoa.

How did he do that? He wasn’t even looking! Inosuke watches, dumbfounded, as Kamado carefully uncrumples the box, smoothing out the edges as best he can. Inosuke frowns. What’s this guy’s deal? He isn’t even friends with the girl, as far as Inosuke knows. At least, he’s never seen the two of them together. Why does he care so much?

Unsettled, Inosuke turns away, staring out the window and wishing he was out there instead of stuck in this hell hole. He slumps forward over his desk, arms outstretched, chin on the light wood.

“HAH? SCHOOL? What the hell are you talking about?” Inosuke crosses his arms over his chest, even as he sits upright in his seat indignantly.

The man in front of him doesn’t even turn around to acknowledge him. “If you want to become the best, you can’t just have strength. You need intellect, as well. You are a very stupid child, Inosuke. At your current level of skill, you will never be able to outsmart me.”

“I won’t need to! I’ll just beat you up! I’ll beat you all up! You’ll all lose to me, and that’ll make me the Big Boss,” Inosuke insists hotly.

“Oh? And what makes you so sure that I’ll come at you physically in the future? There are ways to move in the shadows, manipulating things and people to do my bidding. You won’t be able to reach me to . . . ‘beat me up.’”

“I reached you now! I’m right here!”

“Mm, and how did that work out for you?”

Inosuke doesn’t want to answer that, the sting of his loss still pricking his chest.

The man turns just slightly, regarding Inosuke with eyes cold as ice. It makes a shiver run down his spine. He hates this man; he really does. But if he so much as lifts a finger, there will be multiple gang members on top of him. That’s how he got into this mess in the first place. He came charging in here and immediately got attacked from every angle. Try as he might, he can’t fight them all off. Not yet, anyway.

“Go to school, Inosuke, if you think you can manage it. Then, perhaps, one day, you will be able to defeat me.”

“I’m sorry about Inosuke-kun,” the kid, Kamodo, Marado, whatever, hands the girl with the blue hair ribbon the crumpled box with a bow. He did his best to smooth it out, but it’s obvious that it’s fucked up. Still, the girl smiles as she takes the box, bowing in return.

“Thank you, Kamado-kun,” she says softly.

“You’re really cute, and really sweet, so I’m sure you’ll find a guy that will like you back one day,” Kamado continues with a smile. “Don’t give up, okay?”

The girl nods quickly. “Yes! Thank you, again.”

Inosuke watches the exchange from his seat, absently doodling in his notebook with his pen. He’s put his helmet back on, so he’s observing everything through the blue tint of his visor. Even so, he doesn’t miss the kind smile Kamado gives the girl, or the exasperated look he shoots in Inosuke’s direction. He simply raises his middle finger.

“Even if you don’t like them back, you can still be kind to them. It takes a lot of courage to confess to someone,” Kamado says, as he sits back down in the desk beside Inosuke.

Inosuke only grunts. He has a point about the courage thing, but Inosuke doesn’t want to admit that he does. He hears a soft snap and looks down to see that his pen has broken in half in his fist, ink splattering everywhere. Frowning, he tosses the pieces aside. Opening the desk drawer, he doesn’t see another pen. He shuts it with a soft growl before glancing over at Kamado’s desk. He has three pens, one blue, one green, one black.

Inosuke reaches for the blue one.

“What are you doing?” Kamado asks, covering the pens with his hand warily.

“Mine’s broke,” Inosuke grunts, trying to wiggle his fingers under Kamado’s hand.

“So ask for it! Don’t just take it!” Kamado brushes his hand away.

Inosuke ignores him, darting faster with his hand. Again, Kamado blocks him. What’s up with this guy’s reflexes? They’re amazing. Inosuke moves swiftly, but Kamado’s hand is there again. And again. And again.

Their arms are a blur of movement, but no matter how quickly Inosuke’s hand strikes, Kamado’s there to counter him. A slow grin creeps across Inosuke’s face beneath the helmet, as his heart pounds rapidly against his chest. This guy! Inosuke’s never met another student that can keep up with him, which takes almost all the fun out of beating them in pretty much every sport and activity.

But now, this is a challenge. Determined to win, Inosuke leaps out of his seat, crashing into Kamado and knocking them both onto the floor. The students around them stand, moving out of the way, as the two of them roll and grapple each other.

“HAHAHAHA YOU’RE STRONG!” Inosuke crows, as Kamado manages to get on top of him.

“Stop fighting! We’re in a classroom!” he yells back, trying to pin him down.

“I’LL NEVER SURRENDER!” Inosuke twists his legs up and around Kamado’s waist, flipping him off of him. He jumps to his feet then, darting forward with his fist raised.

Kamado dodges out of the way. “All this for a pen?!”

“This is a battle, now! Fight me! Let’s see who’s really the strongest!” Inosuke roars, chasing him around the room, knocking other students out of his way. “Come back here and fight me!”

“No!” Kamado exclaims, vaulting over a desk and sliding under another. His athleticism is truly a sight to behold. But nobody can out-maneuver Inosuke, and his incredible flexibility!

His hands smack against the top of a desk, as he front-flips over it, landing on top of Kamado, knocking them both to the ground. Kamado twists around in his grasp, slippery as a fish, and grabs his helmet with both hands. He yanks it off Inosuke, and for a moment Inosuke’s vision is blocked by his hair fluttering in front of it.

A flash of pain erupts across his forehead. Everything goes white and then black.

When Inosuke comes to, he’s lying on a bed in the nurse’s office. He’s been here plenty of times before, so he recognizes it immediately. His sits up, but his head throbs so painfully, he falls back on his elbow with a grimace. Reaching up, he touches the bandage on his forehead gingerly. What happened? Did that guy headbutt him?

“Are you okay?”

Inosuke whips his head around (too quick, ow) to see Kamado staring at him from a seat across the room.

“I’m fine! What did you do to me? Was that a headbutt?”

Kamado smiles sheepishly, scratching the side of his cheek with one finger. “Ah, yeah. I’m sorry. I didn’t really know how else to get you to calm down.”

“Your head is like a rock!” Inosuke stares at him, wondering how he can get his head to be that hard or if it’s something you gotta be born with.

Kamado rubs his palms on his thighs before moving to stand. “I should get back to class. I just wanted to make sure you were okay.” He turns toward the door before pausing. “Oh! And I wanted to give you this.” He turns back around, approaching the bed before holding out a pen, the blue one Inosuke wanted before. “Here. You can have this. If you asked, I would’ve given it to you. You didn’t have to try and steal it.”

Inosuke takes the pen slowly, not sure what to say to that. He’s never been given anything in his life. Everything he has, he had to either steal or fight for. Swallowing hard, Inosuke lifts the pen, twirling it in the air.

“What do you want for it?”

“Nothing.” Kamado smiles, a bright, kind smile that makes his eyes squint shut. “It’s yours! I’ll see you in class, Inosuke-kun.” With a small wave, Kamado leaves.

Inosuke stares after him, a strange warm feeling seeping into his chest. It’s kind of like the feeling he gets when someone praises him, but different, somehow.

What just happened?