Chapter Text
It had started off as a completely normal day.
Such a normal day in fact, that she had started it in a somewhat happy mood. Even as her brother passed by her without saying a word, it hadn’t even really bothered her that much. She had stepped through her Family Compound’s doors, felt that crisp morning breeze in the air, and felt rejuvenated.
She had even gotten out her assignments from the day before to go over them on the drive to school. Correcting a few mistakes she had within her Foreign Language and Math assignments. The fact that there were so few is an honestly golden achievement for her.
Natsumi felt pretty good, all things considered.
That good mood carried with her into her home room. Even that bitch Sato’s annoying nagging when she entered didn’t bring down her mood. Natsumi had confidently walked to her seat near the back, and was ready to start the day. Perhaps this new wind was an omen of opportunity for her.
Most of her reserve course classmates also sat silently at their desks, with of course the exception of Sato and her little posse. The three of them were perched near the window, with Sato staring creepily over where the main course campus could be seen. She looked to be practically salivating, and as Natsumi looked at the direction she was looking had to hold back the revulsion.
Mahiru Koizumi was sitting at a bench and was talking with her brother. That red-haired bitch was pointing her camera towards her obviously frowning brother. Is she an idiot? You don’t take pictures of Yakuza, especially not the heir, that’s basically grounds for at least a beating. The only time it’s allowed is during official events. The amount of threats alone that can come from this girl’s actions is already giving her a headache.
Ah, her good mood is all ruined now.
Frowning, Natsumi turned away from the scene outside the window, as well as from Sato’s weird… whatever she had going on over there , and instead turned to face her desk.
She idly skimmed her fingers over the rough surface, accumulated likely from numerous years of past students roughly putting pen and pencil to paper. Sometimes she wonders where past reserve course students end up in life. If they thrive and prosper in their chosen fields, or if they become a soulless drone in some office.
Looking at her own classmates, she honestly can’t see any of them standing out. All that truly happens within these classes are endless teaching and studying, No one really has a personality.
Lost in her thoughts as she was, she almost didn’t notice the sound of the chair beside her scooting back. Almost. Years of always paying attention to the inflection and sound of the adults around her within her tumultuous childhood actually pay off in the most useless of ways.
Still she turns towards the almost late classmate of hers with a sharp grin.
“Hey bitch.” She almost laughs at the resulting groan of annoyance directed at her.
After getting past Hajime’s weird people pleaser attitude, he was a petty little shit when he wanted to be. His attitude is refreshing in contrast to the rest of their classmates' outright hatred or fear whenever they have to speak or interact with her.
She stretches out her arms in front of her, laying across her desk and sighs. She kind of wants to close her eyes for just a moment before she has to truly pay attention to class, but she can’t. One of these asshole classmates around her will no doubt snitch about her ‘slacking off’, and then she’ll receive a demerit.
She feels a slight shove at her shoulder that came from Hajime’s direction, ”Look alive.”
She heeds his warning and immediately sits straight up. Just in time too, as the teacher comes through the door not a moment later. Every other student within the classroom, sitting up at attention.
—
Lunch break couldn’t come fast enough.
As soon as the teacher left for her own break, she stood up from her seat to allow her body to fully stretch out.
It was a bit embarrassing to admit, but she still didn’t really have anyone to eat with this far into the school year. Not that she actually wants to get cushy with the reserve course losers. But… having someone to talk to wouldn’t be horrible. Now that she thought about it, she had just the guy for the job as well!
She turned on her heel with a sharp movement, ready to demand Hajime’s presence for the day, before she stopped short at the sight of him.
Ugh, gross . He was staring out the window at the main course building.
“Don’t be a loser Hajime, you’re already friendless, you don’t want to be a total disgrace.” Ah, maybe that was a bit harsh, but honestly he needs it. Only creeps and losers like Sato pant over the sight of the main course building.
“Though, I guess we’re both in the same boat regarding friendlessness…”
Most of the students had already left the classroom, with the exception of Sato who was staring out the window near the front of the class, who Natsumi tries her best to block out from existence.
“Probably because you need to work on your people skills.” This time she does allow herself a quick bark of laughter at his words. Perhaps he’s thinking back on her introduction to class. She kinds of wants to cringe away at the words she said, but…
“I still meant every word, after all I’ll be the Ultimate…” ah, a wave of hopelessness came over her. The Ultimate Little Sister? Who was she kidding, her brother hadn’t even looked at her this morning. She’s basically become a stranger to her own twin.
“... Little Sister? Right? I’m, uh, rooting for you I guess. I’ve read up on the maximum students per main course class, and there isn’t one. A maximum I mean,” Hajime is stumbling all over his words now, and Natsumi rolls her eyes as he continues to ramble about the statistics and history of past clauses in the school history.
She takes a seat atop her desk. She supposes they’ve actually had this conversation a few times now. Always started the same, but this time he’s actually encouraging her. It’s nice, for all the nothing it actually does.
But… “Ehh? There’s no limit? Those Committee assholes should just let me in already! I,” she hesitates, but just rushes through it, “I’d do anything to get it after all!” She says it with a grin on her face. A way for her to show confidence to others. It must be working on herself as well, because just saying the words fills her with a second wind. Maybe this day isn’t becoming a total bust after all!
Just as she’s about to finally invite Hajime out to get some actual lunch, and not that pathetic little bread he has, she’s cut off by the appearance of Sato.
Natsumi’s actually a little surprised that she was able to come up to them without notice in the first place. Her face is an ugly shade of red, as she basically spits out her words. Face screwed up like she smelt something bad. Sato’s manicured hand slams onto Hajime’s desk.
Natsumi has to lean back a little in order to not get hit by the flying spittle, “You better not be planning anything!” Ugh, what a creep.
“Oh!” She puts on a falsely cheery voice, ”Sato! What do you mean? Wait! Were you eavesdropping? Again. God, why can’t you just be a little normal. Something is seriously not right with you.” This gets the girl to at least back up a little, but she doesn’t go away.
“Just answer my question!” Natsumi rolls her eyes, “You better not be doing anything weird again!”
Rich coming from that bitch.
“Huh, you two know each other, Natsumi?” Oh yeah, Hajime. Fuck, Sato making her look bad, like always.
She elects to ignore Sato’s existence for a minute to answer him
“Yeah, we were in the same photography club at my last school. Not that I stuck around for long, the whole vibe was weird. All worshippy towards one of the members. Gave me the creeps.”
Her words seem to have struck a cord within Sato, as the bitch grabbed her arm and forcefully turned Natsumi’s body towards her. “Hey! What the hell!” Hajime stands up as soon as he sees Sato’s actions as well, but he’s slightly blocked from getting any closer by the desk and chairs. “Woah, get off of her!”
“You better not do anything to Mahiru! I won’t let you!”
She jerks her arm away from Sato’s grip, and pushes her back. Fuck , she grabs her arm. It’s throbbing in pain from how tightly Sato had her bitch hands on her. Actually, she looks at where she was grabbed, that might bruise.
“Cool your fucking ass, bitch. I’m not gonna do anything. News flash, not everyone thinks about that bitch or is out to get her. You’re lucky that I’m not bleeding, because if I was I’d make you pay. Nobody touches me like that!”
“Hey!” This day is just getting worse isn’t it?
In comes one Mahiru Koizumi. She rushes over and stands by Sato’s side, glaring over at Natsumi as though it’s her fault Sato’s being such a freak.
She scoffs at the high horse Koizumi was on. Because obviously her friend/little follower is in the right and can never do anything wrong. Now everyone watching and looking in after hearing Sato’s commotion are gonna take Sato’s side. All because a main course student is standing by her.
The frustration is eating at her and she decides to let it out a little on the red head.
“What’s a main course student doing here in the first place, huh? What? You gonna hold your place above everyone else here?” She turns her gaze away from Koizumi and towards Sato and her smug little grin, though it’s starting to twist at her words. She can’t help the vindictive grin that starts to spread on her own lips as she says her next words, “Or did you decide to dirty yourself a little to make yourself all the more virtuous .”
She doesn’t actually care all that much about what Koizumi does or who she talks to, but if it pisses off Sato? She'd tear that bitch to shreds.
Unfortunately, instead of getting Sato to run off in tears, all it does is get her to start yapping and making threats. She had to give it to her a little, threatening to tattle on her to her brother. As though he’d reprimand her or something. When she scoffs at that, Sato goes on to say she’d tell the school Committee.
“...After all, you’d have been scouted if you actually had any talent. I bet the school is just itching to get rid of a delinquent like you-!” And, well, that’s just a little too far.
“Just try it bitch! I’ll fucking kill you!” She feels Hajime’s hand landing on her non-hurting arm, pulling her back slightly from where she had travelled to get up right into Sato’s stupid fucking face. She lets him pull her back the rest of the way.
The two bitches finally run off.
“What are you all looking at? Fuck off!” She tells the rest of the students who were loitering around. She stays standing right beside Hajime until everyone else has left.
When the last student leaves the two alone, Natsumi sighs a breath of relief and collapses onto her chair. She grips the front of her head and closes her eyes slightly as she feels a migraine coming on.
“...You good?”
She groans at his question and keeps her eyes closed, “...no. Sato’s just- ugh, the bitch is always there! Always trying to get me kicked out from someplace because she can’t stand the sight of me in any kind of vicinity to that red-haired bitch,” She finally opens her eyes and gestures angrily to just everything.
“You know, I hadn’t even known Koizumi was an Ultimate until Sato announced it, and in the same breath as her saying that Koizumi was ‘hers’ too. That bitch is delusional, and Koizumi is basically encouraging her fucked up behaviour.”
When she had been in her middle school’s photography club, she had actually been a friend of Koizumi’s. Then everyone just started getting really weird whenever they saw one of Koizumi’s photos. Made her out to be some second-coming of a messiah. Sure her photos were pretty good, but only really aesthetically. Pretty but no substance. Beautiful landscapes and colors but really that’s all that stood out to her. When she told her as much after being presented with a photo of herself, the girl cried then ran off after calling her an idiot for whatever reason.
She had burned that photo. After all, she had explicitly told all the club members that she didn’t want her picture taken. She did it as a kindness, and never told anyone else about it.
Then Sato joined the club halfway in the final year of middle school. She was all over Koizumi, hovering behind her shoulder. Clinging onto her arm. Then one day Sato just flipped, called her a waste of space and started getting the other club members to start excluding her.
Natsumi obviously got the message. Besides, the club was no longer fun, so instead of spending her afternoons there, she spent them at the arcade. Then Sato and Koizumi started showing up there, and Sato accused her of being a stalker. Which, what the fuck?
She explained all of this to Hajime, if only to have someone who’d understand, and well…
“She needs serious help.”
“Right!?” She started laughing, it felt good to get that off her chest.
The two of them spent the rest of lunch just talking in the classroom, and Natsumi was even able to steal a bit of his bread to eat.
—
She waved goodbye to Hajime as he left the front entrance doors. Making her way over to her shoe locker, she opened it and was surprised to reveal a letter fluttering down.
No way, is this a confession?
She picks the letter up from the floor and opens it. Reading the contents quickly.
Can you meet with me in the piano music room?
I have something I really want to tell you.
As soon as possible, I’ll be waiting.
A bit unromantic but whatever. She takes a look at the clock and decides she has the time to quickly reject the guy before going home.
Making her way to the music room, she wonders who this guy will be. Who in this school actually has time for romance other than the ultimates? Obviously none of them would be confessing to her, so maybe this mystery guy is slacking off and is about to be expelled. This is his last day, and he wants to confess to someone he’ll likely never see again?
She laughs a bit to herself as she opens the door to the music room, taking a few steps in as she speaks out loud.
“Hey so, I’m sorry to say this but I’m just not in- ugh!” She chokes on her words. Literally. As two hands wrap around her neck. The body weight of the person currently choking her out bears down on her, knocking her to the floor. This unfortunately brings even more force down onto her throat.
She thrashes wildly, trying to buck off whoever the fuck is doing this. She scratches at the hands around her, and is finally able to dislodge away from her attacker. She kicks behind her, hearing a pained grunt, and starts to crawl away.
A hand grabs her ankle and is able to bring her back down from where she was getting back up, so she flips over to finally get a look at who's attacking her and nail them in the face.
She gets a look alright, and who else is it but mother fucking Sato!
She tries to yell in anger, but all that comes out is a croak, her throat aching.
“Dammit! Quit struggling!” Sato starts pinning down Natsumi’s flailing limbs with her body and starts crawling back up to wrap her hands around her throat.
She feels lightheaded…
As soon as her limbs stop struggling, she feels her head being lifted up.
“I- I have to make sure you don’t hurt her. You were always so close… No more, you’ll finally get the hint and leave, hehe…” With that she felt a rushing feeling as her head was shoved down. A sharp pain exploding from the back of her head. Again and again. Over and over. Sato kept slamming her head against the hardwood floor.
After what feels like forever, it finally stops.
Darkness.
—
A pounding sensation beat against the back of her head. Her mouth dry like cotton had been stuffed into her mouth and absorbed every bit of fucking moisture there. Trying to open her eyes proved futile as they were sealed shut by something dry.
If she was someone pathetic she’d cry, but she’s motherfucking Kuzuryu Natsumi, she’s better than that.
For the next few however long she sat slumped over, she briefly heard voices approaching from a distance, and allowed herself a brief moment of relief. That was of course before they started walking away, moving past her position, and in frustration Natsumi wanted to scream. I’m here. Find me.
As the voices faded away, Natsumi could finally admit to herself that she felt hopeless. Here she is, bleeding out and woozy, and having to rely on others who likely won’t even notice her until it’s too late and she’d be dead and cold.
When she survives this Natsumi is going to wring that bitch Sato’s neck for trying to do her in.
If she survives this.
… Natsumi doesn’t know if she’ll even be able to move her legs right now.
.
.
As the minutes passed, a sound of the class door opening caught Natsumi by surprise. Gathering as much moisture and strength as she could she called out, “... hey…”
Apparently the noise was enough to alert the other person of where she was if the cut off scream was anything. She was about to try to say more before there were hands on her shoulders.
“Holy shit, Natsumi!?” huh, it’s Hajime, “Fuck you’re bleeding a lot. Damn it, of all the days to lose my phone. Shit… shit, okay, uh, do you want me to carry you out? Or should I just try to find someone? I saw one of the security guards outside, though he did beat me up so…. Are you even supposed to move someone injured? Natsumi nod if you want me to carry you, I can do that.”
Natsumi wanted to laugh, she was so fucking happy. Her kind-of friend found her, she’s going to be okay. “... weak bitch.”
“Natsumi! Despite how I look, I am actually fairly strong.” True, the school uniform hides the muscles, she’d know since they hide hers. Thankfully Hinata took her reply as a go ahead, and he picked her up carefully. God she was thankful from finally being out of that position, everything aches. “Holy- you’ve got blood in your eyes, you probably can’t even open them with how crusted they are huh? Sorry, I can't wipe them for you,” Hajime started to carefully speed walk, hopefully out of the school and somewhere with a working phone. “I’ll get you to the Nurse’s office, I’m fairly certain they have a phone there, I’ll call an ambulance for you, you’re gonna be fine.” Read her fucking mind.
Natsumi kind of wanted to hit him. She also wanted to roll her eyes but that would be kind of pointless if he couldn’t even see it happening. She was already feeling her limbs starting to fill with energy. Something hopeful making its way to settle into her chest. Damn that’s so sappy, she’d never say that out loud.
Before long, with fucking Hajime yapping about who knows what (sue her she’s dealing with a hella concussion), they probably made it to the nurse’s office, which was thankfully occupied.
“Oh, what seems to be the problem?” What the fuck?
“We need the hospital! Now! Do you have your phone, or can we use the office one?” Thank fuck for Hajime, who apparently has more sense than the fucking adult staff. He set her down on one of the cots in the room before presumably making his way to a phone to get some actual fucking help.
Before she could speak up to tell off the fucking staff, a thump and small yell interupted her. “Shit! What are you doing?” fuck what she wouldn’t give to open her eyes, “... stop that!”
“I’m afraid I can’t Hajime Hinata. In fact this is great! You two were both observed as the most promising concerning the project! The only reason why Miss Kuzuryu wasn’t completely regarded as an option was because of her prominent visibility as a young miss of the Yakuza.” Natsumi starts trying to move her limbs in a semblance of a struggle.
“You’re not making any sense.”
“This is a great opportunity for both you and Miss Kuzuryu! You both want Talent, do you not?”
That makes Natsumi pause. Talent. Something she’s dreamed of, something that will make her brother notice her care. Something she’d do anything to achieve.
“You both would do anything to achieve it right? If young Kuzuryu says yes we can immediately put her in the program as well, if a bit different from what we’ll be doing for you Hinata. After all we have the facilities to help treat her injuries here, no need for a hospital. We can also immediately bring you in for the project now Hinata, you wouldn’t need to wait a single day longer. After all, you already signed the agreement form.”
Every single one of her dreams would come true.
Ever since she came to Hope’s Peak, she’s come to a realization. Society thrives on its obsession of Talent. Talent, even the most mundane puts you at a higher pedestal than all around you. Talent is what made that bitch Sato so fucking insecure. Talent is ingrained into every beating heart of Japan. It’s what finally made their parents acknowledge Fuyuhiko as the heir. Talent is something she needs. Talent is what will finally allow her to go to school with her brother. Talent is everything.
“Talent will give you everything you ever wanted, all you need to do is say yes.”
And in what would one day be forgotten, is a decision that both saves and destroys Natsumi Kuzuryu.
“Yes, anything.”