Extra chapter for reaching 150 Power Stones.
...
3rd of June.
The final bell of the school day had rung, a jarring, metallic sound that signaled a rush for freedom.
But for Haruya, it was the beginning of an important task.
His mind, with its perfect memory and heightened perception, wasn't on the lessons of the day.
It was focused, as it had been for weeks, on the subtle shifts in the rhythm of the classroom, specifically on one person: Shouya Ishida.
Ishida was a walking contradiction.
Before, he had been a tornado of reckless energy and loud mischief, the class ringleader.
Now, he was a ghost, a boy who moved with the weight of a few weeks of regret, someone who seemed to want nothing more than to disappear entirely.
His presence was so quiet, so muted, that it was easy for the other students to forget he was even there.
Or maybe they choose to ignore that he was there.
But Haruya, with his unique perception, noticed every detail.
He noticed the way Ishida's eyes would follow Shouko Nishimiya across the room with a silent, heavy guilt.
Saw the way he would flinch whenever anyone spoke his name.
The X's he had mentally placed on every face in the room, a self-inflicted prison he'd built in the past few weeks.
"Sumeragi, you coming?" Yuma Sudo, along with the rest of Haruya's group, turned around and noticed Haruya, who still hadn't prepared to leave.
Haruya shook his head, "You guys go first. I have to go do something else."
"Okay, see you tomorrow, Haruya-kun." Nagisa and the others waved at him before leaving.
Nishimiya, who was the last one to go out, seemed to notice someone in the corner of her eye, thinking about the possibility of what Haruya might do.
She looked at Haruya with a worried look in her eyes.
Haruya, sensing her gaze, gave her a consoling smile before signing to her.
"It's not what you think."
Seeing his sign gestures, Nishimiya exhaled a breath of relief and spoke lightly, "Bye-bye, Haruya-kun."
"Shouko-chan, you coming?" Seeing that Shouko wasn't following behind, Tamao came back and popped her head back into the classroom.
"Coming!" Nishimiya followed her out, not before sending one last goodbye wave to Haruya.
As the last students scurried out of the classroom, Haruya saw Ishida grab his bag and make his familiar move, trying to slip out the door before anyone could notice.
But today, Haruya wouldn't let him.
He stood in the doorway like a calm, immovable presence.
"Ishida," Haruya said, his voice quiet but firm. "Do you have a minute?"
Ishida froze.
His hand, still on the door handle, trembled slightly as if an electric current had just passed through it.
He slowly turned, his face was covered in a mask of nervousness, but his eyes were wide with a familiar mix of surprise and a little bit of fear.
"C-can I help you with anything, Sumeragi-san?" he said, his voice held a low tone, a bit strained and raspy. "I-I'm not looking for a fight."
"Neither am I," Haruya replied, his golden eyes continued to lock with the boy in front of him. "I just want to talk." He gestured to a quiet corner of the classroom, near the back window, away from the last stragglers leaving.
Ishida hesitated, his eyes darting from Haruya's calm face to the now-empty hallway.
Every instinct in his body screamed at him to run, to bolt for the door and never look back.
It was an impossible situation.
Although the boy had rescued him previously, he had still been trying to avoid him for weeks, but now he was here, and it was the last thing he had ever wanted.
He reluctantly walked over to the corner, his shoulders hunched, his gaze fixed on the floor.
"You've been watching her," Haruya said simply without any trace of judgment.
Ishida flinched.
He remained silent, but the tension in his body was a clear answer.
He knew, with a certainty that chilled him to the bone, that Haruya wasn't just talking about the past.
He was talking about the present.
Nervously, Ishida stammered. "I-I don't like her or anything like that, I just—" But before he could even finish, Haruya had cut him off.
"You want to talk to her," Haruya continued, his voice loud and clear. "To apologize."
Ishida's head snapped up, his eyes filled with a nervous energy that bordered on panic. "How do you know that?" he stammered with a desperate tone. "Are you guys just talking about me behind my back?"
Haruya shrugged. "No. I just see things. I've seen the way you look at her. It's not like the way you look at anyone else." He paused, a thoughtful look on his face. "At least, I don't think you even look at anyone else anymore."
Ever since the last incident that involved Ishida, he was no longer the same child he once was.
His life and personality had turned around, for better or for worse.
Ishida scoffed, a bitter laugh escaping his lips. "What do you know about it? It's not a big deal, okay? I'm not some monster, I just… did something bad." The words came out with a self-loathing tone so profound it triggered Haruya's empathy.
"Everyone makes mistakes," Haruya said, his voice firm. "And everyone has guilt. It's what you do about it that matters."
"What am I supposed to do?" Ishida shot back, a desperate edge to his voice. "I've tried everything. I've tried to forget, I've tried to move on. I even tried to learn how to sign, just so I could apologize to Nishimiya."
"She can speak and hear a bit, you know." Haruya mused.
Ishida's voice broke; the pain in his voice made Haruya flinch a little. "But every time I get close, I just... I can't do it. I can't face her. Not after what I did."
Haruya raised his eyebrows a little.
Wasn't this guy being too dramatic?
Of course, bullying is no laughing matter.
Especially when it was directed towards Haruya's friend.
But all Ishida had truly done at the end of the day was mock Nishimiya's speech, which instantly resulted in Haruya teaching him a lesson.
By then, he had already gotten the punishment he deserved, with it multiplying even more, making Ishida's life spiral downwards.
Even Haruya felt a bit pity for him.
Although they had never seen eye to eye before, he knew that letting him drown in sorrow while he watched on the sidelines as a bystander was not something he could do.
After their confrontation in the principal's office in the past, he had seen how Ishida's mother treated him.
He was not met with scolding like most parents would do to their kids, but a gentle embrace.
How does such a loving mother ever get a rowdy kid like Ishida?
From that moment, his opinion of Ishida rose a little.
Not because of Ishida himself, but because of his mother, who reminded him a bit of his own mother.
Perhaps Ishida had become like that due to outsider influence only?
But this was not the time to think about it.
Looking at the depressed kid in front of him, he fell into thought for a while.
Maybe because he had lost most of his old life, that even his own self-esteem was gone?
Perhaps that would explain the overly dramatic self-wallowing.
But this might be a chance to get him to talk.
Haruya remained silent for a long moment, allowing Ishida's emotional outburst to ebb.
He didn't offer empty platitudes or easy answers.
He just listened.
When Ishida's heaving breaths had quieted, Haruya spoke.
"You're not doing it for her," he said.
Ishida looked up, confused.
Haruya continued, "You're doing it for yourself. To feel better. To get rid of the guilt."
Ishida's defiant expression crumbled.
He looked down at his hands, his fingers twisting into a tight knot. "Is that so wrong?" he whispered, his voice small and defeated. "Just to be able to live with myself?"
"???"
Haruya felt like he and Ishida were no longer on the same wavelength.
Realizing how dramatic one could be after an incident like this, he silently swore not to follow in the boy's footsteps.
For now, however, he could only take matters into his own hands.
...
A/N: I'll be putting in the dates from now on, so people are aware of how much time has passed since then. Feels a bit better than timeskips, saying like "a week/month has passed" or whatever. The current year is 2016, btw. It will not include major real-world events, so just take it as a reference.
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