Beyond Critical - Chapter 3.1 (Patreon)

One might think, that after their first real encounter with someone from the supernatural side of the world and being involved in their first ever supernatural fight, one would be rather shook up and have to take some time to themselves to calm down and come to terms with things.

Kaito found, that wasn't really the case for him.

As he left the alley way behind and the unconscious form of a 'king' slumped in the trash like a chump, he felt pretty calm.

And pretty good actually.

It was nobody important in the grand scheme of things he rumbled with, and he wasn't connected with any proper faction, and didn't know who Kaito even was really.

So he felt pretty assured in the fact that, there was a relatively low chance of this coming back to bite him in the ass.

He doubted that bald moron could even put two and two together after all to find out the school his uniform belonged to.

He seemed dumb like that.

'Still, how do I go about using this?' Kaito mused to himself, inspecting the white magatama he'd taken from Cao Huan held between his fingers.

He couldn't really sense anything coming from it. He couldn't exactly sense magic, though he could feel his own. But even then, it wasn't magic that the baldy skinhead was using. It was pure ki.

More of an energy source that youkai tended to use over any other, as far as he was are of. The only non youkai he knew of that used it, without help from youkai themselves or anything, was Sairaorg Bael.

Who managed it through sheer ludicrously intense training.

That would have to be his backup plan though, while he very much respected the grind to attain it, he'd prefer a short cut since he was kind of short on time all things considered.

Assuming things went to crap.

'Should I just wear it on my ear?' Kaito wondered. Maybe if he did, he could get a feel for the energy coming from it flowing into his body. And once he did, he could learn how to harness his own and be done with the stupid bead.

Well, he could try it out he supposed. But it would have to wait until he got out of school and found some professional place to pierce his ear. If he did it himself, he'd probably end up getting an infection or something.

And while he could recover way faster than normal, an infection would still suck.

Either way, Kaito was forced to stow away the white magatama as he approached the school gate of Kuoh.

And found a commotion going on.

It was Murayama, at the front of the gate, making a bit of a ruckus, "But kaichou! What if Evander-kun gets hurt by that thug, isn't it your job to make sure the students are ok-"

She was cut off, "No, that is not my job, nor the job of any of the student council," Sona 'Shitori', third year and student council president denied her flatly, not an ounce of emotion in her voice and seemingly rather disinterested, "I have sent Saji off to call the police to deal with it, if Evander-san wants to involve himself with delinquents, that is his choice and has nothing to do with this school, now off to class with you, the bell will ring soon."

Wow, he could feel the love.

Not.

"No need for that," Kaito cut in as he approached, causing both girls to turn to him, Murayama's face practically lighting up, "Like I told you, I'd deal with him, he wasn't anything special."

"Thank god." Murayama breathed a sigh of relief, clutching her chest. At her side, the student council president turned away for a moment.

Rather quickly.

Not so quick Kaito didn't see the grimace that appeared on her face and the way she visibly bit her lip though.

He was tempted to praise God aloud himself, mess with her a bit more. Give her a nice good and proper pounding headache.

Okay, if he was being honest. He didn't like her. Even before he got the memories of his other self, she was such a hard ass. He'd lost count on how many times she'd lectured him on his duties as the football team captain and scolded him for the tiniest thing he submitted to her that had to do with his club activities.

"You're not hurt are you?" Murayama asked in concern, "He kicked you really hard."

"Eh, I get banged about harder during my club duties, don't worry about it," Kaito waved her off, "I should be asking if you're okay, he didn't do anything to you before I turned up did he?"

Honestly, he'd seen a few people that saw it and just continued on. Full grown men at that.

A typical Japanese quality to be honest. Either too cowardly to do anything, or just so self absorbed that they didn't see it as their problem.

"No, he didn't thankfully, thanks to you." she gave him a grateful, pretty smile.

Well, he wasn't going to turn down a pretty older girl being grateful to him, and one that already seemed to have a positive opinion of him in the first place.

Before he could respond and keep the conversation going though, there was a cough and Sona turned back around, a pinched expression on her face, "While this is all very good, your bag if you please Evander-san," she more or less demanded, holding her hand out. Kaito rolled his eyes, but pulled his backpack off and handed it to her, allowing her to check it for any 'banned' materials, "Also Evander-san, I believe I've warned you before, but picking fights is not tolerated by this institution."

"You mean when I was gonna beat the crap out of those perverted morons?" Kaito raised an eyebrow at her. A few girls had been in the football club when he took over this year.

That ended when Issei Hyoudou and his two stupid buddies drilled a hole into their club building, specifically, a peephole into the female changing rooms. And they quit after being perved on by them.

And then he got into trouble for chasing them down and preparing to beat the shit out of them.

A strike on his record for violent behaviour in fact. Which was a mark against his future prospects and he was warned about a possible suspension and revoking of his scholarship if he was violent like that with other students again.

He didn't simply dislike Issei Hyoudou from the memories he gained of his other self after all. Though, they definitely fanned the flames.

"Yes," Sona didn't even flinch at his reply, "I've overlooked this kind of thing with you before, I won't do it a second time if you bring violence to these school grounds."

Funny how the student council president was not so subtly telling him she would expel him, as if she was the real authority behind things.

Not very subtle now was she?

But then, from what he knew of her true self, despite fitting the 'smart glasses girl' archetype, she was really pretty stupid to be honest and basically thought chess was the be all and end all and based even her battle strategies on it.

"Funny how that doesn't apply to your boytoy though," Kaito couldn't resist pointing out, "He was a real proper delinquent always getting into fights all the time, but you let him off and even recruited him for your little council, but God forbid I try to punish a little group of sex pests and help a school mate being harassed by someone."

Sona's eye twitched behind her classes and her body went ramrod straight for a moment, "…Saji saw the error of his ways with proper correction, you on the other hand, always give me lip," she bit out, before thrusting his bag into his hands after finishing what she was doing, "You pass the inspection, get to class."

"Whatever you say, kaichou." Kaito smirked at her, hoisting his bag over his shoulder and walking through the gate.

He probably shouldn't have done that. It may bite him in the ass later, but, he'd never liked her, and his other self…had a real problem with authority figures.

So they just clicked when it came to her.

"I really don't get Shitori-kaichou sometimes," Murayama sighed, taking spot beside him and giving him a bright smile, "Still, thanks again Evander-kun, you were really cool back there." she complimented him, before standing on her tip toes and pressing a chaste kiss against his cheek.

And then rushing off, cheeks blazing.

Kaito paused in his steps, watching her go, absently reaching up to rub his cheek, "Well, not what I'd want most, but not a bad reward either." he chuckled to himself.

He resumed walking, a whistle on his lip, 'One things for sure though, if I do end up having to choose between the pair, I ain't choosing that speccy bitch.' he snorted to himself.

                                                    ____________________

As was typical of a Japanese school, even one as up there as Kuoh Academy was, gossip tended to spread like wildfire.

By time the bell rang signalling for the lunch break, it had already made the rounds that Kaito was a delinquent involved in a gang war who were fighting over Murayama.

Quite a few of his clubmates had hesitantly approached him to…literally bow and scrape to him, as if he was some up and coming oyabun. Literally just simpering towards him so they didn't become possible targets to bully since he was a 'delinquent' and that was what they did apparently.

So, when lunch came about, Kaito grabbed his bento of leftovers from his dinner last night, and made his way up to the roof.

Because that was obviously where cool, badass delinquents like him should go. So he could recline lazily and watch menacingly over the academy searching for prime targets to bully.

But in actuality, he just wanted some peace from the worried glances he kept getting and really tended to usually eat his desk while browsing the internet on his phone.

"People are so stupid." Kaito couldn't help but comment to himself as he leaned against the railing atop the school roof and picked at his lunch.

It would die down quickly in a week or two most likely, but it was still annoying.

It was more frustrating now actually, that he had the memories of also going to a much more fun and relaxing school in Scotland from the memories he gained of his other self.

That guy literally got suspended over twenty times in his first few years at that school without getting expelled. And he did a lot of real delinquent shit, like picking fights, kicking doors off of their hinges, destroying school property, calling his music teacher a fucking jew and threatening to stab him, mass amounts of truancy and even full on school gang wars with other schools.

'Oh wait, not that guy, that was me in the end wasn't it?' Kaito couldn't help but chuckle to himself. It was a bit weird to him sometimes, that he was actually now a fusion between two different people from two different worlds.

He missed Scotland.

Which was ironic because he'd technically never even set foot in the land of his deadbeat dad.

The sound of the door leading to the roof opening intruded upon his quiet alone time, and Kaito almost found himself rolling his eyes in annoyance.

Until he saw who stepped out.

It was a mini-person.

Well, not really, but it was a classmate of his. A very short girl, all of four feet and eight inches tall, with bob-styled silver hair and extra long bangs that came down covering her eyes from view.

Though he knew from experience that she had rather striking deep blue eyes.

She would have looked more like a kid just beginning middle school with her height. If not for one simple thing.

The massive breasts she had stretching out her school shirt, which were abundantly more pronounced when wearing her school uniform due to the simple fact that, someone designed the female uniform of Kuoh in a fashion reminiscent of a corset.

Yanagi Uzaki, the youngest daughter of Fujio Uzaki. And the one who'd actually recommended him to his gym a few months ago.

As soon as she closed the door behind her, she 'gasped' and clutched at her chest, "Oh no, it's the big delinquent-kun everyone is whispering about," she 'fretted', "Please don't beat me up and rob me delinquent-kun!" she 'pleaded'.

Kaito rolled his eyes, "Stop that."

"But delinquent-sama, what if you assault me because I'm so cute if I don't show you the proper respect?" Yanagi couldn't contain her toothy grin as she teased him.

As always, she had a real fun time taking the piss.

And then she started laughing, unable to contain her amusement, "They really do think you're gonna start beating people up and stealing their lunch money down there you know," she told him, clutching her stomach, "Like before I came up, you know Gojou-san right? The guy with glasses that sits at the front of our class, he was full on worrying you were going to dip his head in a toilet bowl because he called you a gaijin once, it was great."

"I'll dip your head in a toilet bow." Kaito snorted, flicking a bit of rice at her with his chop sticks.

"Oh, so scary~" she grinned wider at him and made her way over, "Do you want my lunch money? Sorry to disappoint, but I don't bring any, I make my own lunch. Maybe my panties?"

"Do I look like Hyoudou to you?" Kaito gave her a dry look.

Who incidentally, was the reason he became friends with Yanagi in the first place. His only friend at this place really. She was one of the members of the football club initially before quitting.

One of the girls that clown and his buddies tried to peep on. She made him lunch once as thanks for chasing them off and since then, more or less, just kept talking to him.

"Nah, you're not a shrimp," Yanagi shrugged, "Though, I've caught you eyeing a few girls now and then, something you want to admit? Has he lured you into the perverted side of the force? Just letting you know, you might be a total himbo, but even you won't be able to get a girlfriend if you go that route with him."

If his gaze got any dryer, his eyeballs would shrivel up like prunes, "I'm not a himbo," he denied, "In case you've forgotten, I'm pretty much one of the top in our year when it comes to grades."

Sure, he used his Twice Critical when studying so he could process and memorize information twice as fast and as efficiently as he usually would, but who cared.

"Just cuz you're a smarty pants doesn't mean you're not a himbo," Yanagi shrugged, "Also, I do indeed know well, after all, I'm the top of our year in grades remember? Your name is always beneath mine." her grin turned smug.

"That's just because I work on my body as well as my mind, unlike you nowadays, when was the last time you exercised?" he fired back.

"Yesterday, I went on a small jog," Yanagi smugly replied, crossing her arms under her mountainous breasts and pushing them up all the more. It took a lot of willpower not to stare at her rack, "I only do it a few times a week though, it's hard to jog when my boobs bounce everywhere, I totally curse myself for wanting big boobs when I was younger, I was so naive back then."

Her smug grin widened and she pushed them up with her arms, and he lost the battle within and instinctively took a glance at them. They were amazing, as always, "Then again, if my boobs weren't so huge, Hyoudou might not have tried to perv on us at the club and we might never have been friends," she mused, before making a blatantly false gasp, "Now that I think about it, it's really Hyoudou's efforts that made us friends. If not for him, you'd be a total loner himbo. Maybe you should thank him and become friends with him as well?"

"Are you trying to make me up-chuck my lunch?" Kaito gagged in disgust and shook his head, "Or are you just trying to turn me into some pervert? You've been weirdly insistent on me assaulting you or stealing your panties the last few minutes."

"A little enthusiasm doesn't hurt every now and then y'know," she answered vaguely, with a shrug, "Which reminds me, dad said you hit an all new record at the gym last night or something, asked me to invite you around for dinner tonight if you want."

"…How did this discussion at all remind you of that?" Kaito found himself asking, completely lost.

"Eh, Hyoudou is a sad loser who'll probably never get a girlfriend and you're a muscle head, just like my brother will probably be a sad lonely loser that can never get a girlfriend and my dad is a muscle head," Yanagi replied with 'flawless logic', "So you wanna come or not? I got a new game the other day that's best for Co-op, and you can even help me out with my sister, Hana-chan apparently has some boyfriend she's all tight lipped about and won't let us meet, maybe she'll spill to you?"

Kaito was having a serious hard time wrapping his head around that logic. He had no idea why her sister Hana would talk to him about her relationship status, he'd only met the girl a few times and had all of two conversations with her.

Also, he was insulted she compared him to Fujio. He liked the guy, but he was a bit of a nutcase.

….Tempting though. While he did want to see about looking into getting his ear pierced to wear the magatama and get a feel for ki.

But-

Free food was free food, and not only Yanagi, but her older sister and especially her mother were amazing cooks. And he was not only poor, but merely a passable cook at best.

And actually, now that he thought about it.

If he remembered right, didn't Yanagi's older sister have her ears pierced as well? He could vaguely remember her wearing hoops in her ear lobes when he met her.

She could probably point him towards a good place to get his ear pierced cleanly.

And after eating a good home cooked and filling meal, he could always head to the gym. He kept a lot of extra clothing and such in his Sacred Gear anyway so he didn't even need to stop at his house.

And the Uzaki household was closer to the gym than his own apartment.

"Sure, I'm up for it." Kaito agreed, it was really a win, win…win, all around for him.

"Awesome," Yanagi pumped her fist, "I'm sure you'll love it, I'll even make sure mom makes something with plenty of protein for your muscly taste buds!"

"If you ever make it back," Kaito snorted, "What if I being the clearly evil delinquent I am decide to take you up on that offer and assault you and you never get home again?"

Yanagi's grin almost split her face and she brought her hand up to push her bangs up, showing off her glittering blue eyes, full of mischief, "That's just a risk I'll have to take to keep the innocent students of this school safe from your evil lustful ways." she shot back cheekily.