The chill wind felt nice along Natsu’s face, in stark contrast to the heat his body was giving off. Laying next to him, in the grass, were two other students from an opposing school, knocked out and covered in their own blood. Damn Nisha High idiots.. I wasn’t even looking for a fight today, he thought to himself, getting further heated.

Looking down at himself to assess the damage, he noticed the blood on his knuckles. That in itself was fine, nothing that some water and bandages couldn’t fix, but the blood covering his white uniform was an issue. Natsu tried to avoid fighting in his school uniform, despite skipping most days, as he still had to go back home in a presentable manner. Last time he had come home with a torn uniform, his dad hadn’t been.. too happy.

“Well, guess I’ll have to go get another pair from class” he said out loud to no one. Getting back up, his muscles throbbing all the way, he stretched and took his shirt off. He wrapped it around his wasit and opened his arms wide, allowing the wind to cool his sweat filled body further. As he closed his eyes and tried to calm his adrenaline down a bit, he heard some shuffling near him.

“You really are a Demon..” One of the two guys woke up and said in a disgusted tone, “Wake up, we gotta go!”. He helped his friend up and they both took off, as quick as their injured bodies could take them. What a bunch of idiots.., Natsu thought to himself. He found it annoying that everyone else seemed to initiate all his fights and they had the nerve to call him a demon for winning. Oh well.

He figured that he had spent enough time resting and began his walk toward his school. It wasn’t really a long trek there, but still he was anxious of having to go through the main streets of his small town to get there. Everyone in the town seemed disgusted and frightened at his mere existence, as if he was just a plague walking. Sure enough, as soon as he walked past a few stallfronts, the dirty looks began. The murmured whispers. I don’t give a damn what they think, he tried to convince himself.

———

The gates of Hatsuka High stood forebodingly in front of Natsu. Someone long ago must have thought they were designing a castle, Natsu thought, because the heavy brick wall surrounding the school and imposing metal bars at the front barely resembled that of a school. What a waste of material. His arms wrapped behind his shoulders, he walked in, hoping to go right in and out. One good thing about being a frightening existence to others was being able to avoid being directly harrassed about his actions.

Taking his first steps into the building, he suddenly froze. Halfway through the year, they had changed classrooms, and he had only been to class once. Try as he might, he could not remember his class number.

“Yo. Natsu, third year, what’s my class number?” He abrubtly turned and asked the front desk woman.

“Why are you not wearing a sh-” She quickly recognized him and stuttered, “Uh- let me check.” Her fingers typed nervously. “It looks like 3B, Ms. Yama’s class” she meekly responded. Natsu gave a nod, to her averting gaze. A few steps in, he turned back around, realizing that the hall-opposite staircases lead to different parts of unconnected upper levels. “Left or right?”

“To the left..” she replied. He thanked her and continued to the left stairs.

Natsu’s footsteps rang in his ears loudly in the empty hallways. Each step, each reverberating echo, reminded him of why he hated places like this so much. It made him feel so exposed. The walls were littered with reminders of the potential everyone else’s future held. The echos and silence that people who were sure of themselves and their place in the world had no problem being in; all they did was make Natsu crave the mindlessness that his lifestlye provided him. Every step soured his mood further.

It wasn’t long before he stood in front of the windowless door to his classroom, being right around the stairwell of the 3rd floor. Natsu wasn’t used to feeling conscious timidness, but for a second he was scared to open the door. The feeling soon subsided and he swung the door open, more forecful than he was meaning to, causing the door to slam against the wall. Everyone inside immediately got silent and turned their eyes toward the door; toward Natsu.

“Who-” Ms. Yama began to utter before seeing Natsu and becoming quiet herself.

“Yo. Just grabbing my spare uniform.” Natsu said flatly, and walked toward his desk, where he had kept another shirt anticapating this very moment.

Not a word was uttered while he went toward his desk. Soon, a few whispers were heard from some of the further students. Natsu didn’t have to hear the words to know what they were saying and thinking. Yeah, yeah. You’re scared. You’re so much more elite than me, we get it. Natsu reached inside his desk, finding what he was looking for. Just then, he saw a shadow approaching him from the corner of his eye. His reflexes caused him to turn his entire body in mere milliseconds and get into a fighting stance, ready for whatever was coming. What he saw was Nina, the class president and someone he knew to be completely serious.

“What are you doing?” She asked coldly. Natsu burrowed his brow in surprise at the straightforward question.

“Grabbing my uniform. Like I said.”

“Great.” She said sarcastically, “But why are you interrupting class?”

“Sorry.” Natsu said flatly.

“Why are you never in class? Why do you have blood on you? And more importantly, why are you shirtless?” Her voice slowly got louder, but her intonation stayed cold. The rapid-fire questions made Natsu laugh.

“Why do you think I’m here to get my clothes?” Natsu prodded her.

“Ms. Yama, I’m taking Natsu to the counseling room, Is that okay?” She ignored him and turned toward their teacher.
“y-yeah feel free too. Are you okay with that Natsu?” Ms. Yama looked scared. Like everyone else, Natsu thought.

“He doesn’t have a choice, Ms. Yama.” Nina said, before dragging him toward the hallway and toward the counseling room at the end of the hall. Natsu knew he didn’t have to follow her, he felt how delicate her arms felt and knew he could pull away rather easily, but something inside him told him to just follow her. What the hell else do I have to do today anyway?

Before long they were in the counseling room that consisted of, mainly, a table and two chairs at the center of the room. Nina pushed Natsu down into one of the chairs and sat down in front of him. Her eyes looked over him, before something seemed to register and she turned away quickly while blushing.

“Put. Your. Shirt. On!” She, uncharacteristically, yelled at him.

“Oh, right” Natsu replied, quickly throwing his uniform on, “Got any bandages for my knuckles? Would hate to get blood on this one too.” Nina walked over to a corner of the room, and sat back down with a first aid kit. She pulled out some bandages and rolled them toward Natsu. He wrapped his hands and knuckles tightly, the red slowly painting the bright white of the bandages. “Thanks.”

“You need to start coming to class!” She yelled, while leaning forward over the table. The sudden volume change caused Natsu to widen his eyes and sit back in surprise. “You’re going to fail if you don’t, I don’t even know why you haven’t already!” She continued, “And not only is that bad for you but it’ll reflect badly on me as the class president!” Ahh, that’s why the sudden interest.

“Nah, it’s a bother” Natsu condensed his thoughts into a simple message, “If you’re so worried about the class average, I can just drop out.” Nina suddenly got up and smack his head, freezing Natsu for a second.

“Are you an idiot? That’s no good, you need to come to class or I’ll come get you every day, understand?”

“Are you not scared?” Natsu asked, perplexed, though a bit intrigued.

“Why? You’ve never done anything to me”

“I literally walked into your perfect classroom shirtless and covered in blood. I’m known as The Demon,” He tried explaining, a bit dumbfounded at her reaction.

“Nothings perfect..” A small glint of sadness in her eyes appeared, “And I know. I’m worried but I know your reputation so I’m not looking to get in your personal life.”

“You’re worried.. about me?”

“I’m worried for everyone under my care, in my class, yes.” Her cold tone was slowly coming back after that outburst. “Listen, I need to go back to class. I’ll let you leave if you were planning to, but you’re coming to class tomorrow, understood?”

“And if I don’t?”

“I will come get you” She pushed her glasses up and shot Natsu a frightening stare, before getting up and leaving Natsu alone in the room. Well damn. Guess I might placate her for a bit. Even he didn’t know why he agreed to it; it’s not like he was physically frightened of her. Still, he thought, I can’t say much to that innocent seriousness.

Natsu stood up, pushed the chair back into the table, and walked back out to the hallway. Seeing a trashcan in the corner near the stairwell, he went over to it and threw his bloody shirt in. I really need a cigarette right now. He reached into his pant pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. Stopping himself before he lit it, he realized it would probably upset Nina if he set off a fire alarm or something right now, and so he continued walking down the stairs toward the exit.

The second his foot was outside the first floor door, he lit the cigarette and took a drag. Damn, I needed that. He stood still for a second and thought about the whole scene that had just happened. He had no answers to why he had gone along with her demands, or why he had felt almost vulnerable asking her if she was scared, but he thought the best course of action would be to ignore it for now.

The pain from the fight from before had started creeping in, and so he chose to sit on the ground, laying against the school building. Sitting there looking up at the sky, for the first time in a long time, he felt a tinge of excitement. Breathing in another drag, he thought to himself:

Guess I’ll be coming to school tomorrow.

NEXT CHAPTER: https://thetechseekers.com/2024/04/07/the-delinquent-and-the-model-student-chapter-2-natsus-night/