7: Problems, and more problems

[HARU'S POINT OF VIEW]

Two weeks had passed since the attack that had utterly demoralized the entire city had occurred. Today was also finally the day that the classes resumed. The incident had hit our school like a sledgehammer financially, and so they had to suspend school activities for two weeks, and even though I felt a little shitty by my way of thinking, I couldn't help but treat it as a short vacation. Though devastating, things such as that weren't particularly uncommon. Humanity had dealt with casualties caused by monster attacks for centuries after all..

And just as I had expected, the reason why Sentinels had not been able to arrive on time during the attack at our school was because several monsters had also attacked on other locations near our school a few minutes prior. That made me think that the incident wasn't mere coincidence but a full-blown coordinated attack.

As always, I entered the school early. With my bag on my shoulder, I walked along the campus towards my classroom. And even though it took a while, I noticed that something was off. I felt the countless gazes all around me. I thought I was imagining things—no. I prayed that it was just in my imagination but alas, almost everyone that I passed by sneakily stared at me as I walked past them. And when I tried to look at them, they quickly averted their gaze.

One conclusion came to mind, and I wasn't too fond of what it was.

Watanabe... what did you do...

I entered the classroom and a few people were already there. The chairs and desks were already arranged and the usual friend groups that I used to see before were still together chattering early in the morning. I guess we were fortunate enough to not be among the fallen ones— apart from Kazuki.

But then everything turned quiet as soon as I stepped in. I stopped my tracks when all eyes turned in my direction with expressions I couldn't dare to look at. I froze. Why? Was I scared? Had they found out my secret? Did Watanabe really do it?

"Takahashi-san." the voice of a female classmate reached my ears as I heard her footsteps draw closer. Perhaps it was her tone or voice, but I felt at ease enough to look at her. It was the class representative.

"Itoshi-san." I half-finished my words when I saw the rest of my classmates walking up to me. Weirdly enough, I felt my world spinning as an unpleasant feeling grew in my stomach. I would have given up all of my life savings just for someone to take me away from that situation.

'They found out.'

"How are you doing?" one of them suddenly asked.

"Are you okay?"

I blinked a few times before someone else spoke right after.

"We know losing Shinohara-kun was painful. We're here for you."

"You blocked that metal back then right? You really saved us."

"You were really cool when you fought that monster!"

"Yeah! We never knew you were that badass!"

I confusedly looked at them one by one, trying to let their words sink in. "H-Huh?" I muttered, still musing what this was about.

"Everyone in our school already knows that you've saved Ueda Nozomi! That's totally cool!!!" A classmate exclaimed.

Upon realizing that the conclusion I had at first was completely off the mark, a sigh of relief escaped my lips. "Kazuki initiated to do it." was my short reply. "But thank you for worrying about me. I appreciate it."

"Yeah..." they answered sincerely. "Shinohara-san is a real hero."

A male classmate who could barely contain the excitement barged into the conversation. "We were on the edge of our seats the entire fight! You're usually really quiet and didn't show much of your ability, so what you did back there was a surprise!"

"Give him some space, guys! You're-"

"Do you wanna be friends?"

"Yeah, let's hang out sometime, Takahashi-kun!"

"Maybe we can train together."

I forced a smile out as non-stop words rang through my ears. As annoying as it was, I would pick this any day than them finding out about my secret.

I noticed them shutting up as I opened my mouth to speak. "Well, uh. If I wasn't too lucky that day, we might have had a completely different outcome."

"Yeah." someone replied.

"In any case, we're really glad you didn't die." a classmate remarked with a chuckle.

With that, the confrontation—or at least that was what I considered it to be— came to an end. I sat at my desk by the window like I usually did while we waited for our teacher to arrive. Though if I were to bring up what changed, it would be Kazuki's loud voice early in the morning that was now gone. He was the only one who tolerated someone like me after all.

A few more moments later, the room was filled with students. Class 1-C was finally complete. We were expecting our teacher to enter through the door but instead, the principal had shown up.

Everyone followed the middle aged man with their eyes as he walked to the front of the class. He then stood there, spreading his gaze to the students to see if he got their full attention. "Class 1-C, am I right? Well uh... good morning." he spoke with a formal tone. Several reasons came to mind as to why the principal had shown up in our classroom. One of them was to give condolences to all the classes in the school for what had happened, and another one was to announce something—perhaps some changes with respect to the defense quality of our school. But the real reason was one that I had never expected—nor wished for. "I am sorry to announce this, but Suzuki-sensei, your homeroom teacher has formally resigned from the position."

Gasps and murmurs filled the room as soon as the news escaped the principal's lips.

"Seriously?"

"Why?"

"You must be kidding!"

"THAT Suzuki-sensei?"

The principal opened his mouth once again. "Even we don't know the full story. Perhaps it was related to the attack two weeks ago. It could be that he wants to move to a safer place. In any case, I want you to respect his decision." he stated before looking over and gesturing us towards the door. "And so, I am here to introduce you to your new homeroom teacher." he said as a familiar woman walked through the entrance into the room. "Please welcome, Watanabe Ichika, I hope you'll get along well."

The moment I heard her name, I instantly knew how much bullshit was there in the story. Suzuki-sensei must be dead already by now.

Watanabe walked into the room and then stood beside the principal. "Nice to meet you, everyone." she spoke softly. "My name is Watanabe Ichika. Let's all get along."

Two weeks ago, she had managed to avoid being confronted by me that night. Yet, there she was, standing in front of me. Whatever she was planning, I had to get to the bottom of this.

After some introductions, she explained the mundane details about her being our homeroom teacher but she didn't mention anything about me nor the ability that defeated the monster being hers. The whole morning period had gone by peacefully and now, it was time for lunch. Some students preferred to eat their homemade lunch at their desk around some friends. Living alone in my apartment, I had no time nor the interest to make my own lunch, and so to the cafeteria I'd always gone to. I'll just have to try to talk to her some other time but for now, all I wanted was peace.

Packing my things inside my bag, I prepared to leave the room. There were still short glances from my classmates but they were mostly smiling respectfully to me which was fine, I thought. My actions during that incident had actually caused the stir around the campus, giving my name quite the prominence. Well, that should die out soon enough like any other trend on the internet.

The one thing that I had hoped for was for that unwanted fame to not cause me trouble, but it seemed that it was not my lucky day. As I turned around the corner just a few steps from the door, I saw three guys standing on the hallway. At the middle, a familiar one crossed his arms as he watched me exit the classroom. Staring at him, I thought long and hard, trying to remember where I had seen him.

Before I could do so, he already opened his mouth. "Takahashi Haruto." he spoke. "That's you, right?"

My brain had half-given-up on trying to remember him but I guess I could just do it along the conversation. "Yes, that's me." I replied, not breaking eye contact. "How can I help you?"

He stepped closer until he was mere a couple of feet away from me before pointing his finger at my face. And then he answered. "Fight me."

I blinked twice before I could speak. "Huh?"

"I'm challenging you to a 1v1. Are you up or not?"

"Hold on, I think you should introduce yourself first."

Before he could respond, I was finally able to remember where I had heard that arrogant voice and hateful eyes. "You're really tryna piss me off aren't you?" he said.

"No, I really didn't know who you are but I remember now." I said, he chuckled.

He lightly, though, disrespectfully patted me on the right cheek as he grinned madly. "Then you must already know how fucked you are right now, huh?"

Serizawa Osamu. He was one of the most feared in the campus. I heard that he was supposed to be a part of the Saito club but got outclassed completely by the current members. His ability "Sonic speed" was indeed strong in its own right, but compared to Ueda and Saito, he was nothing but a runner. Not only were they faster than him, he also didn't have anything to offer apart from his speed.

"Can I refuse?" I asked.

"Hell no."