Chapter 15: Emotional Baggage

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❄️Got sick for a couple of days, still am actually; a combination of an intense headache and diarrhea. Ugh. I'm never going to the beach again on a cold day. But I won't regret eating those burgers!

[❄️❄️❄️]

'How...?'

"Please have mercy!" Kanoya loudly proclaimed as he prostrated towards Zenkichi, his entire body trembling. His eyes wide in fear, sweat continuously running down his face.

"No." That one simple word, said with

"Please!"

'How could this have happened?!' He inwardly screamed, tears swelling up in his eyes.

They were at the rooftop of the main school building, the entire area completely empty except for Zenkichi and Kanoya. It was the perfect place for the latter to convince the former for help in his plan on bringing down the demon student council president, Medaka Kurokami.

He was convinced that since Zenkichi refused to be part of the student council and even avoided Medaka Kurokami, then it might've meant that they had a fall out with their relationship. And from what he had heard from a trustworthy source, their feelings for the other had reached the point of hatred.

Still Kanoya was prepared for Zenkichi to not help him, probably because of lingering feelings for the demon girl or because it wasn't right, so he had the entire rooftop deserted and with a dozen of his like-minded schoolmates to hide in the shadows to ambush the latter to "coerce" him into helping him.

And he was disappointed to hear that Zenkichi rejected him, and had no choice but to do it the hard way.

Oh, but the outcome was extremely different to what Kanoya had expected to happen; he saw a familiar scene he thought he wasn't going to see once more.

It was like a nightmare. Numerous unconscious students laid on the ground; their uniforms were torn and they had several gashes and bruises all across their bodies; the cuts weren't deep but blood kept rolling out and the bruises were only starting to swell. Moreover, with the iron pipes, wooden and metal bats, and shinais besides them; it was like a gang war had occurred.

And standing in the middle of it all, with Kanoya kneeling down for mercy, was Zenkichi with an indifferent expression and a katana in hand – the blade dangerously close to Kanoya's face.

'I should've known, I shouldn't have underestimated someone who had been together with Kurokami for almost all their life!' he greatly regretted his decision to come to this demon for help.

Also, why does it feel like he's more terrifying than Kurokami?!

Zenkichi looked at him with a cold gaze, not saying a word. Kanoya could feel his heart pounding in his chest, his fear increasing with every passing second.

"Please, Zenkichi, I beg of you," Kanoya pleaded, his voice shaking. "I'll do anything, just please spare me!"

Zenkichi finally spoke, his voice low and dangerous. "Anything? You're willing to do anything?"

Kanoya nodded frantically, his eyes wide with fear.

"Then don't ever fucking bother me or anyone else in this school," Zenkichi said, his voice still cold and emotionless. "If I ever see you do this shit again, I won't hesitate to use this sword and leave a permanent scar on your body."

Kanoya nodded quickly, scrambling to his feet and running away as fast as he could. Zenkichi watched him go, his expression still cold and emotionless.

He let out a sigh and stored the sword back into his inventory, together with the other stuff he got for the last couple of weeks.

During the time he spent in those martial arts clubs, he'd get his desired skill of martial art within one to three days; and whenever he didn't get it, he'd received the most random stuff like brooms, gloves, bags, money, etc. But some of the weirdest things he'd get were a couple of katanas, various guns and even a hand grenade.

Who the fuck brings guns and a grenade to school property?! This is Japan for Christ's sakes! They are one of the most gun controlled country in the world! When Zenkichi got the gun, he immediately thought the guy or girl bringing it to school was planning to do a shoot out and decided to try to find bastard who had the original and take him out before he does anything stupid. Unexpectedly however, he wasn't able to find anyone in the building who was hiding a gun nor was there a shootout on that day.

Zenkichi guessed that his ability had took it from someone when they had got into a certain proximity of the building or was in the building while carrying the gun in the brief moment he used his ability.

It was concerning but he'll deal with it when the time comes, well, not him personally but he was gonna call the cops on them. He wasn't someone with a hero complex; who thinks to themselves that they're the only ones who can deal with a situation relating to a crime.

Zenkichi shook his head and took a look around and scratched the back of his head. '...Yeah, I'm not going to carry these guys to the infirmary.' Should he just leave them here or wait for one of them to wake up?

It was quite laughable on how easy it was to take them down, heck, it would've ended sooner if he used his hands instead of a katana. But he wanted to instill fear into the bastards to let them know that he wouldn't hesitate to cut them down if they tried this shit again, and that he wanted to use the katana; it wasn't everyday he could use it against people after all.

"That was so savage of you Hitoyoshi-kun." Suddenly, Shiranui came out of the door of the stairway with closed eyes and a carefree grin whilst munching on a bag of chips. "Though they deserved it for ambushing my dear friend~ I wonder, how much does this count now?"

Zenkichi clicked his tongue and slightly shook his head. "Kanoya is the ninth person trying to take down Medaka-chan in the last couple weeks since she became the president."

"Eh~" Shiranui hummed with a monotone as she continued on munching her chips. "Not a lot, not so little, but I'm still surprised. I get that there are some people unhappy with Kurokami taking the position of student president, because we're people or humans; we'd get upset out of the most strangest things for some reason, but she has a whopping 98% votes of the entire school body! She's so charismatic that even I voted for her."

She crunched on her last chip before crushing her plastic bag and throwing it into the trash can. "I guess that goes to show that even though they voted for her, it doesn't mean they all like her."

"Then why vote her at all?"

Shiranui raised an eyebrow, she had a 'are you serious' expression and explained. "Well then, would you rather have a big, threatening thug as the student council president? Or a hot, big breasted, goddess?"

"The hot big breasted goddess, for sure." Zenkichi replied without any hesitation.

Shiranui motioned her hands to say 'well there you have it', and took out a piece of paper from god knows where. "Oh, and here's your bucket list. I picked it up back at the cafeteria when you got called here by Kanoya. Though I don't need any words of gratitude, I'll settle for a dozen or so happy meals~"

Zenkichi chuckled and took the piece of paper back. "Thanks but I'm not that generous. Would you settle for a dozen ramen instead?"

"...Each bowl of ramen being different?"

"Yup."

"Deal!"

They both shared a laugh together.

Shiranui hummed and tilted her inquisitively at Zenkichi. "Hey, Hitoyoshi-kun. You said you did all the clubs related to martial arts but I saw that you didn't do the Judo club yet, why's that?"

"Oh that?" Zenkichi groaned and rubbed his temple, looking annoyed. "I really was planning on going to that club when I heard that an old... 'acquaintance' of mine was a member there. Frankly, I don't like the guy and I won't hesitate to knock him out."

Shiranui was taken aback. "Woah. I never knew you'd hate someone that much."

Zenkichi denied the claim, and said. "I don't hate him, I just don't like the guy. To be honest, I have only hated a couple of guys in my entire life." A couple of people flashed across his mind, both from his past life and in his current one.

"Hmm, interesting. I'd like to know more but I don't want to pry into whatever emotional baggage you're hiding. Still, let's bring the question to here." Shiranui changed the subject and began looking at the injured students. "Why are you trying to protect Medaka, especially right now? I thought you didn't like her anymore."

"I didn't–Hey! I saw you opened your eyes! Listen up buddy, I don't have all day to help everyone of you to the infirmary. So get the fuck up and patch yourselves up!" Briefly kicking at someone who had faked being asleep, Zenkichi turned and walked towards Shiranui, mumbling under his breath, "Stupid fuckers."

He let out a sigh and stopped in front of Shiranui, his large frame towering over her. "I didn't say that I don't like her anymore. I've been with her since we were kids, and I loved her for almost my entire life. Getting rid of this feeling of mine for her isn't going to be like some sort of feeling someone has for a game; they get interested in it for days, weeks, months; they'd even invested a lot of their time and money for it but in the end, when another new, exciting and attractive game comes along, they'd go for it: spending the same amount of time and effort, even more, than their previous game."

"...Why go for a game analog? Do you seriously think that a person's feelings for another could match the same as one would feel for a game?"

He shrugged. "Life's a game, no matter how much someone says otherwise. And you're right, my feelings for Medaka couldn't be the same I'd feel for a game."

Zenkichi bitterly smiled and shook his head. "No. My love for her isn't so fickle."

"But then why would you stay away from her, after so long?" Shiranui frowned, her expression serious.

There was a moment of silence permeating between the two as Zenkichi opened his mouth and didn't say a word, before looking away and walked past Shiranui who had a worried expression.

"Hitoyoshi-kun..."

"People change Shiranui, no matter how or why, but people always change." Zenkichi muttered aloud with a melancholic expression before entering the stairway.

Shiranui stared at the back of Zenkichi as he descended down the flight of stairs and let out a sigh.

"I said I didn't want to pry into whatever emotional baggage you have and then, this...hayst. I hope he doesn't forget that he owes me some ramen."